Christmas Advent

This year we spent Christmas as our own home all alone.  We really did enjoy it.  However, being the first Christmas we did on our own we had no traditions that we do every year.  I was turned on to a great idea when I checked The Crafty Crow, which I hadn't done in a very long time.  A Christmas Book & Activity Advent sounded like a great idea to me so we tried it.  I didn't do all the books on the list because our library didn't have them (nor did prospector) but I was able to supplement with a few of the Christmas books we did have and some others that I was able to find at the library.  I was so excited to do this we invited friends over to join us on various nights and it was really lots of fun with more people (kids David's age).
Here are our favorite books from the list and the activity we did (or would do instead):

• Winter's Tale by Robert Sabuda - pop up cards
• Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin - paper snowflakes
• Night Tree by Eve Bunting - bird food garland
• The Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth - make pictures of gingerbread men or felt gingerbread men or  real gingerbread men
• The Christmas Humbugs by Colleen Monoroe - make little bugs
• Santa's Snow Cat by Sue Stainton - popsicle snowflakes
• The Baker's Dozen by Aaron Shepard - baking day
• I Like Winter by Lois Lenski - aluminum foil icicles
• The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg - play trains, decorate bells, watch the movie
• Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry - paper Christmas trees
• The Cajun Night Before Christmas - no activity (we own this one)

These are the books we added:

• Drummer Boy by Loren Long - make drums (we own this one)
• The Finest Christmas Tree by John & Ann Hassett - Christmas tree paintings

These are the Books we are adding for sure next year:

• Snow Angels by Andrew Glass - make angels (we own this one)
• Santa's Favorite Story by Hisako Aoki - still working on the activity (we own this one)
• Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell & Jason Cockcroft - nativity (we own this one)

These are other possibilities that we haven't tried yet but would be interested in checking out:

• Lights of Winter by Heather Conrad
• Ollie's Ski Trip by Elsa Beskow
• Buying Mittens by Nankichi Niimi
• The Christmas Hat by AJ Wood
• Christmas Cricket by Eve Bunting
• Who Was Born this Special Day by Eve Bunting
• The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck
• Wish to be a Christmas Tree by Colleen Monroe
• Bear Stays up for Christmas by Karma Wilson
• The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg
• The Angel Doll by Jerry Bledsoe
• The Mouse Before Christmas by Michael Garland

I think this will be a tradition that we will continue to tweak until we have just the right books/activities for us.  Of course until we own all the books we really like our list will be subject to change according to what is available at the library or we can borrow from friends.

Love, Actually

This is honestly one of my new favorite blogs!  Love, Actually is awesome!  I love the date ideas and how she goes about putting them together for as cheap as possible.  She is so creative and it's helped me to come up with some fun date ideas for Dustin and me in the coming year.  Even if you don't need to find cheap date ideas there are some really good ideas here and you should check it out!

As Promised...

Dustin's Christmas present.  I got him a Date of the Month Club membership.  (The idea came from Love, Actually)  I put mine in a notebook with page protectors.  With his Date of the Month Club membership Dustin gets:

Vacation packages
Exciting Dates each month
Romance Reward Tickets (he made the ticket for me)
Kisses to exchange for a real kiss

I had lots of fun putting this together.  Dustin was excited to get it and pick out the dates he wanted each month, he had 20 dates to choose from - he gets to keep 12 of them.

Honestly, Dustin and I haven't been very good about continuing to date because there just hasn't been money for it.  However, all of this can be done at home for free or very, very cheap.  I'm excited and hope that it gets us back in the habit of dating again.  Some can even be done after the kids are in bed so I don't have to worry about getting a babysitter.

I did have lots of fun putting this gift together.  I had TONS of fun teasing Dustin about my "secret project" and deciding what the include in my Date of the Month Club package.  I hope I have just as much fun planning the dates.  Thankfully Dustin chose pretty easy dates for the months of February, March and April, since we'll have a new little baby.

A Fox!

Wednesday night (or was it Thursday?), nope it was Saturday night; I really have no idea which night it was.  We came home from doing some shopping to find a fox in our parking lot.  He had found a dead squirrel and didn't really care that we were there.  He stayed as we pulled into the parking space, as Dustin got out of the car to grab the camera from the house and even stayed put while Dustin took the pictures.  This fox must have been hungry or not willing to leave his meal.  David thought it was cool (Dustin and I did too) and I was able to see a fox closer that ever before.

Family Pictures 2009

Just before Thanksgiving we had our family pictures done.  A friend of mine, Rebecca Aycock, of RebeccaLynn Photography took them for us.  I wanted more of an urban feel this time so we headed to Old Town Fort Collins.  We spent an hour walking around in the alleys.

It was pretty cold and pretty early (for us anyway) but we got some great pictures and there weren't a lot of people around.

Rebecca did a great job capturing the character of our family and David.  These were great pictures and we love them!  We have been very lucky the photographers we have had - remember last year?  This year's are just as good.  Here's hoping that we can get just as lucky in Pocatello.

Now, here's my plug for Rebecca if you reside in or near Fort Collins - CONTACT her for your family pictures.  We had a great time, got awesome pictures and she's good with getting kids photographed.  She has two little ones herself and know that you gotta be fast to get their pictures done.

Thanks again Rebecca - we love them!

Christmas Gifts

It's always fun to get presents and it's supposed to be fun to give presents.....  I would dare say that giving gifts should be so exciting you just can't wait for that person to open the gift that you worked so hard to get.  I am currently in that situation.  Until now I had always picked gifts that I was happy to give to someone, I had thought about that person and what they would like to have, need or something that they would just love.  I always started our Christmas gift shopping early so that it could all be done before Thanksgiving (that way we could save on shipping by just dropping off gifts for which ever family was our year for Thanksgiving with them).  This year is a little different.  We have struggled alot - so much has happened and with Dustin being without a job for so long we just didn't have the money to do that kind of thing.

While none of our siblings or parents are getting gifts from us this year, Dustin and I have been working on ways to make sure that we can have a little something so that David can feel like he has a Christmas.

Well as I got to working on ways we can have a Christmas for David and reading blogs as I do sometimes I actually came across this blog that I absolutely LOVE!  I can't tell you too much about it because Dustin might peek - so you'll have to wait until after Christmas.  Anyway, this blog had this awesome idea for a gift for your spouse.  I must admit that when I first read through it I thought I would have to change alot of things about the gift to make it more appropriate for us.  After reading through the entire blog that the idea came from I found out I don't have to change too much.

Really all that I want to say is that I have this really awesome gift for Dustin.  I am so excited about it, I wish it were Christmas today (David does too, by the way) so that Dustin could open this gift.  I think he will really enjoy it.  I got everything done on it last night and I haven't spent a single penny on it that is until tomorrow when I run to the store to buy a bag of kisses, but that will be it the cost of this present will be what $3.99 at the most?!  I'm so excited about this gift, not just because it was super cheap but because I really think Dustin will LOVE it as much as I do.

**Be sure to check back after Christmas and I will make sure to post details about Dustin's gift and the website I got the idea from.  Don't be sad if it's not right away after Christmas and more after the New Year - we are trying to move at the same time, but I will post all about it.  I'll even let you know what Dustin thinks of it - or he can.

I have come up with a couple of gifts that I can make for David so he will have something to look forward to also.  I'm not as excited about his gifts but I still think that he will love them just as much as Dustin will love his.

My new goal for the remainder of my Christmases is to find the gift to give that I am so excited to give it I just can't wait for Christmas to get here!  I will have to be extra creative, thoughtful and attentive to be able to do this.  It's my new goal anyway.  Isn't that part of the Spirit of Christmas anyway, to give rather than receive?

**Now, please note I didn't write this post so that you would all feel sorry for us and our meager Christmas.  I just wanted to let you know how excited I am and even though our Christmas is small I'm still soooo excited for it!  I'm probably more excited for Christmas (the actual day) this year than I have been for a long, long time.

Too Smart

David is getting too smart for us and his own good.  We have recently entered the "why" phase of growing up.  Why? is incessantly the question that never gets a good enough answer.  One day after getting tired of answering the question Dustin decided to turn the question back on David to get him to think about it.  I will tell you that this tactic worked THREE times - that's it!  David caught on and now turns it back on us.  Here is an example:
Me:  David you need to clean up your toys.
David:  Why?
Me:  Because it's good to clean up your toys when you're done playing with them so they don't get broken.
David:  Why?
Me:  Why do you think you should clean them up?
David:  Why do you think you should clean them up?
We usually stop there because what else am I supposed to do?  I must say I have heard parents complain about this "why?" phase but I never really understood just how bad it could be.  At least he is learning something, right?

Preschool Pictures

These are David's pictures that he drew today at preschool.  The picture on the left is "Rudolf the Rednose Reindeer in a box that's snowing to hide from the monsters".  The picture on the right is "Daddy fat".

I thought the reindeer picture was cute because the head is David's foot and the antlers were his hands.  I also think it's funny that it is snowing inside the box and not outside.

David has been invited to preschool last week and this week.  There are some wonderful women in our ward that do a co-op preschool.  I'm grateful that he has been included since two of the girls are in his sunbeams class and he likes "his girls".  David has really enjoyed going and participating.  I have been grateful for the quiet time it has given me or time to run errands - today I went to do my blood glucose test (YUCK!) and other stuff.

Thanksgiving

I know this is a couple of weeks late - oh well.  We hosted our first Thanksgiving.  All of my family traveled from New Mexico, Utah and Idaho to spend Thanksgiving, that being said we celebrated on Friday instead of Thursday.

I really loved being able to use our fancy place mats and napkins.  They were a wedding gift that we have saved for special occasions.  David and I spent some time the week before making our napkin holders from toilet paper tubes.  We had so much fun making the napkin rings and setting the table.  I thought it all looked so nice.  The deep cranberry mats and napkins with the white plates (alternating square and round) and the blue water glasses.  I loved it!

We also brought out our champagne flutes for the sparking juice we had.  David immediately wanted to do toasts and we couldn't get everyone to the table fast enough.  We toasted multiple times throughout our dinner.

Our meal consisted of the usual suspects - turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, roles, cranberry sauce, and pies (pumpkin & apple).  Everyone worked together to get it all together and I'm glad because I don't bend over so well these days.  My favorite part was watching my parents do the dishes.

Since we celebrated on Friday we got the kitchen all cleaned up and we headed up to Estes Park for their  Light Parade.  This is a picture of David waving while sitting in Aunt Ashley's lap.  The parade was so fun to watch - especially with hot chocolate and cookies!  After finishing with the parade heading down the mountain back to Fort Collins we enjoyed our pies and began our 2nd Annual Benson Wii-lypmic games.

Apparently we only got pictures of two events on our camera.  We did ski jumping, boxing, cow racing, shooting, and tennis.  Cow racing is always the funniest event to watch because my mom is hilarious when playing the game.  The medals were better distributed this year compared to last but 3 of us didn't medal at all.  We all decided that we like having more days to play our wii-lympic games to practice do preliminaries and then the actual competitions.  Our opening ceremonies were fun and our medal ceremonies were fun too.

Matthew Alan

This is our little Matthew.

He will be joining our family sometime late February.
David is so excited to have a little brother.  We took him in to the ultrasound so we were all together.  The tech asked me what I thought we were having (by the way - I thought we were having a girl - I was wrong) and I asked Dustin.  Dustin just looked at me.  The tech then asked David what he thought we were having.  David's response was "A baby!"  After we all chuckled about it she asked David if it was a boy or girl and David excitedly exclaimed "A Boy!"  David was right.
For right now David calls his little brother BoJo BoJo.  We had to make sure he understood that this was not going to be the name of his brother.  David knows that it's okay to call him BoJo BoJo while he is still inside but once he comes out his name is Matthew.
This ultrasound went similar to David's.  Matthew would be still enough to find the picture the tech needed but would move just as the picture was being taken.  There were some pictures we were able to get right away but most of them had to be taken a couple of times.
We are so excited to have Matthew join our family.

Denver Museum of Nature & Science

Better late than never right?
November 6 - 14 was Denver Arts Week.  We only participated on November 7th because 11 of the Denver museums were FREE!  We drove down Saturday afternoon to Cherry Creek Shopping Center for free parking, ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and rode the FREE shuttle over to the museum.  David was really excited about riding the bus (he has been on a city bus riding kick - that's all he ever wants to do).  The museum of nature and science was a great pick for us.  We of course went to see the dinosaurs first - David loved it and would run from exhibit to exhibit.  We were also able to spend some time in the Space exhibit and we also visited the Gems & Minerals exhibit.
We learned a few things while at the museum.  First that the Denver Museum of Nature and Science is the fourth largest of it's kind in the nation.  Second, that David has a two exhibit attention span.  Third, free things means lots and lots of people.
If you ever get the chance to go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, I highly recommend it.  I wish we could have stayed there longer or that there hadn't been so many people so we had a little more space but I would love to go back.  That probably won't happen so everyone else needs to go for us.

Skippyjon Jones

Here is David in his Skippyjon Jones costume.  He loved this costume and had so much fun wearing.  After a while he was even telling people that his mom made his costume.

Snow Days

Wednesday it started to snow.

David made some new friends who were kind enough to play with him since my snow clothes don't fit so well these days.

Thursday still lots of snow on the ground - almost 2 feet.  I took David sledding at the park and he loved it!  Sledding is one of his new favorite winter activities.

Friday still snow on the ground but it's melting quickly.  I took David sledding again, he still loved it.

David Sledding Take 1

David Sledding Take 2

David Sledding Take 3

Stories from Home

On Monday Dustin and I met David and Sharon at Panera for lunch. Sharon told us this story about David....

At brunch David was looking around the restaurant and found something. He walked up to Grandma hiding something behind his back and told her he wanted to buy something. Grandma gave him a couple of dollars and and pointed out the waitress. David took his money and surprise to the lady and paid for it. When he got back to the table he gave Grandma the change and put the surprise in her purse.

At lunch Grandma handed the prize back to David who got a pen and proceeded to write in the card. Dustin helped him seal the card, and then David gave it back to Grandma.

Sharon thought the card was for me. David wanted to give something to his Grandma. The card was a congratulations on buying a home card. The picture on the front was a little white house with 2 bright orange birds at the door.

It was too cute to watch him give the card to his grandma and to hear the story about how he got the card.

Activities of Fall II

Pumpkin Patch

We have been out the the pumpkin patch twice now; once last week just David and I and then again today with Dustin. I forgot to take the camera today so all our pictures are from last week. The pumpkin patch is HUGE! We were able to get tons of pumpkins super cheap and we just had fun going. I would go back every week if I could spend the money there every week. We have gotten really cool pumpkins! I was able to get my cinderella pumpkin this year so I was really excited. I was also able to get one of those white pumpkins. We got some perfect for Mr. Potato Head pieces; Dustin even picked out some more today. If anyone comes to visit us, you will be greeted by our friendly pirate and Indian Jones pumpkins, they are just sitting at the door waiting to greet you.

Swimming Lessons

We enrolled David in swimming lessons, which he loves. We have completed one session of lesson and our new ones start on Tuesday. David is really progressing well and we are very proud of what he has learned in the water. Dustin and I no longer feel the need to hold on to him the whole time he's in the pool. We still keep him close but we can let me play on his own. He has learned how to hold his breath under water, proper arm strokes (in theory), we're working on floating front/back and we're working on blowing bubbles in the water. David practically had private lessons because the other kids in the class never showed up and only one other boy came occasionally. Despite all of his private tutoring we have enrolled him in the preschool one class again.

This is the video I got of part of one of his lessons.

Activities of Fall I

Harvest Farm Cornmaze - The first of many activities.

We spent one Friday and went the the cornmaze just north of us in Wellington. The maze was fun and David is very good as running through it correctly. We were able to enjoy the hay bale maze, the hay bale pyramid, the petting zoo, pig races, hay ride and corn kernel box.