Monday, November 22, 2010

Bananas for Benjamin

We've been struggling so much with keeping Benjamin fed. He always still acts hungry after I nurse him and he'll cry for hours until I finally break down and give him a bottle of formula. I'm trying not to give him too many bottles because I know that the less time he spends nursing, the less milk I'll produce. It's a slippery slope. This evening we were almost out of formula and he was acting like he was still starving after nursing. I broke down and fed him a mashed banana. With Hannah I was so strict about what I fed her. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends nothing but breast milk for the first 6 months, but other sources say you can start solids at 4 months. He's still a week from 4 months, but I was desperate for a solution and he did a really good job. He hardly spit any out and he ate an entire banana!




He wasn't sure what he thought of it, but it got him to stop crying and he was much more content after he was finished eating




 Hannah took these last pictures...




I'm excited for Ben to be at this stage already. As we speak I have a ton of sweet potatoes (seasoned with rosemary and thyme) roasting in the oven waiting to be pureed and frozen. Lucky, lucky Ben.


Pre-Thanksgiving Weekend

Saturday morning Hannah got to go to her first Primary activity! She won't be in primary for another year, (all the kids who turn 3 next year will move up as a class in January 2012) but we were asked to help at the activity so she got to participate too. The kids and leaders acted out the story of the 10 lepers who Jesus healed, but only one went back to say thank you.

This is our leper family...





They're sad that they're lepers...


Afterward the children decorated "Gratitude Jars." They were supposed to write down things they were grateful for on strips of paper. I had a hard time helping her understand what gratitude is. I finally said, "What has Heavenly Father given you?" and she said, "Um...He gives me suckers?" So I wrote down suckers and called it good. 


She wasn't able to sit still the whole time, but it was still so fun to watch her sit with the big kids for a little bit.



Saturday afternoon we went home and made a turkey for our ward's annual Thanksgiving dinner. I need to make a turkey far more often. They're so delicious! We got there early to set up and it was raining a little on the way there. Then during the party I kept hearing people complain about the weather. I didn't know what they were talking about until we walked out at the end of the evening.




It was wet, heavy snow and Hannah thought it was great to rub all over her head.


The next morning we went outside to play for just a few minutes before church. The snow was so deep. With every step Hannah said, "I'm stuck!"


All the trees in our complex are missing branches since so much snow fell so quickly.


Ben enjoyed the snow as much as the rest of us.


He had to get a little cleaned up after someone tried to throw a snowball at Devan and missed.


Hannah sticking up for her Dad and brother.


Sunday evening Hannah and I were invited over to our wonderful neighbor Tauni's house to watch the Beauty and the Beast Christmas movie. She is so sweet with Hannah. More than anyone else, I love people who love my children! She and I had a great evening enjoying soup, sandwiches, and lots of girl talk!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Harry Potter

It was so awesome!


Harry opening night always makes me giddy. I can remember the first Harry Potter movie was so much fun getting dropped off at the theater by Alianna's mom. There was this feeling of freedom. Tonight was that same feeling of freedom except this time it was because I was out at 9:00 at night with no babies!



This was the first non-dollar-theater movie we've seen since the last Harry Potter came out. Did you know movie tickets cost $8.75 EACH these days?! I went back and forth, back and forth about going, but I just had to see it. And it was great!


It was an intense movie though. I felt like I was going to throw up the whole time from all the excitement.
 This shot is, "One...two...three... what did you think of Harry Potter?!"
*click*


UPDATE: Hannah loved eating the leftover popcorn for breakfast. We had such a busy day the next day that by the time I sat down to dinner that night I realized all I'd eaten for 24 hours was the movie popcorn.


Sunday, November 14, 2010

A little of this and a little of that...

I tend to put off blogging, not because I'm all that busy, but because I keep thinking something more exciting is going to happen. It never does. I have a feeling this is going to be another long, rambling chronicle of every detail of our last two weeks. Brace yourselves.


Devan had a day off week before last and we took a walk. I go on walks with the kids in the stroller a few times a week, but it's different when Devan's there. I'm more willing to go slow and enjoy the scenery.



We stopped on a little bridge where people always feed the ducks. As soon as we walked up they all gathered under the bridge, but we didn't have any food for them. Then a couple arrived to feed the ducks and they gave Hannah some bread. It was so much fun!



The guy dumped a couple half-full bags of chips into the water and the ducks went crazy. I don't really understand the concept of stale chips though. If a bag of chips enters my house it's gone in 24 hours, tops.


This was one of our last nice fall days. Last week it was so cold. Hannah asked to go to the park every single day. We tried twice and it was a failure both times. Too cold and wet and no fun for any of us. I have a feeling it's going to be a long, long winter.


Hannah pretending to be her dad. He's scary.


One night we put Hannah down in her bed and Ben was sleeping in our bed. We thought she'd fallen asleep right away, but when we went to bed, this is what we found. She'd snuck in, cuddled up to Ben and fallen asleep without waking Ben or alerting us that she was out of bed.


This was another night when Ben was supposed to be sleeping, but he was being very smiley and elf-like.


He was so cute that rather than be bothered I decided to get up and eat ice cream and give up on sleep.


One day Devan brought the chalk board out to teach some things to those of us who didn't take calculus. Hannah took the board over with her circles. I didn't know she could draw such good circles. You'll also notice the long Devan-shirt. She's been wearing them a lot lately. Last Sunday she had one on and it was a battle before church.
Mom: "Put on this dress!"
Hannah: "I'm already wearing a dress!!!"


This is the first day I know for sure Ben rolled over. I think it was last Thursday which means Ben was about 3 and a half months (15 weeks) old. I didn't see it, but I left him on his back and next thing I know he's on his stomach. There have been several times this weekend that I've walked in and he's gone stomach to back. No one has ever seen these roll-overs though. He's either very, very sneaky or very, very neglected.


On Friday we went to Hannah's friend Josh's birthday party at the aquarium. Devan was working and I realized I don't take these kids very many places by myself anymore. I was a little overwhelmed. We'll go to the park or the grocery store or the gym (you know, the necessities), but we tend to avoid crowded, confined spaces. The point is, we had a blast, but I didn't get many good pictures.

Hannah's favorite part was the sting ray you could touch.




We saw penguins. They weren't as big as this one, but probably the one to the left. They were awesome.



Benj is getting better at controlling his hands.



Last night Uncle Jordan and the cousins came over and the girl cousins decided to spend the night. They didn't have dresses with them for church so I couldn't resist doing some matching skirts.


I need to get myself some more little girls. So fun!


Tonight is Sunday and as usual I'm renewed and have big plans for next week. My biggest plan is to exercise more next week. I haven't lost a single pound since Ben was 6 weeks old. This is getting a little ridiculous.

Monday, November 8, 2010

An Evening with Dinosaurs

A week ago the Museum of Natural History on University of Utah campus was having their free day so we went for our family home evening. We had so much fun! It's free every first Monday of the month, but I've put off going because I was worried it would be insanely busy like the museums in Tacoma and Seattle are on their free days, but it was quite nice. I think I'll be brave enough to take the kids by myself next month if Devan can't make it.

This dinosaur talks to you if you put coins in his mouth. Hannah talked about the talking dinosaur for days.



This tipi has nothing on the Karshner Museum's tipi. Of course, not having to wait and wait for 3rd grade to go in does have its upside.





Gem stones. This was my favorite part of the mineralogy wing. I was only mildly interested in anything in that section.


Devan LOVED it though! He said it was his favorite part of the whole museum. I think he was a little offended when Hannah lost interest. I had to remind him that she's 2 (and that I'd lost interest long before she did). It makes me love him so much seeing him get excited over something as dull as rocks.


Hannah and Dad did a little mining.


And found this fine specimen.


One of my favorite parts was the bug area.


I don't remember what these things are called, but they're crazy. They have little legs and they scurry around on the bottom of the tank, but they also swim like fish. It was one of the coolest things I've seen in my life.


And this was a Giant African Millipede. Millipede!


This was our puppet show:

"I'm a bug!"
"No, I'm a bug!"
"No, I'm a bug!"
"I thought I was a bug..."
"No, I'm a bug"


Instant classic


Dad: "What do we do with Deer?"
Hannah: "We eat them!"
Click
Bleh!


This room was about Range Creek Canyon which had something to do with ranchers or something. I didn't get to read much because for some reason this is when Hannah went crazy. She was running all over the place and trying to get me to run with her. That's when I had to break it to Devan that when we go to museums we usually just find the fun kid stuff and leave the rest.



We found the best part very last when we were all worn out. I don't remember ever seeing real dinosaur fossils before and I was so excited when we stumbled upon them. We walked in the room and I gasped and said, "I've been waiting for this my whole life!" a little too loudly. I got some looks.



We could have spent more time, but here Hannah is on her second poop (in a cloth diaper) of the evening so we called it a night.