Birthdays ahead

I noticed the day after Christmas that the holiday was quickly discarded by some in the community. Little things like people taking down their lights (?) and the radio station that started playing non-stop Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving back to everyday programming. What happened to enjoying the Christmas holiday until New Years? We still turn the lights on and play the Christmas music, but we are looking ahead to birthdays in our house. Dave's birthday is the 29th. We plan on going out on a dinner/movie date with friends since it's been a long time.

Toby's big #5 birthday is the end of January. Since the baby is coming in between now and then I was trying to put together plans last night for his party. I asked Toby if he were going to have a party for his birthday who would he want to come? This is what followed:

Toby: Mmmmmmmmm. Breven and Jackson!
Mom: They won't be able to come, buddy. They live too far away.
T: Mmmmm- Gramma Grace........and Gramma Evie................Milo............... and Niah.
*pause*
T: Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Jetfire.
M: Oh yeah?
T: and Sam!
M: What about Ben and Brett?
T: Oh yeah, they should come too!
*pause* while playing the GameBoy
T: Oh, I know. Jessie and Logan too.
(Jessie leans over on the couch and says, thanks Toby)
T: Walks over to me at the chair and says, "Two more and that's it. President Hinckley and..................Breven and Jackson.
M: You said them already.
T: Okay, everybody else that I like. Like Baby Jesus and Heavenly Father..........................and Daddy.......................and you Mom.................and Great-Grandma.
*Toby goes back to the couch for a couple minutes then walks back over to me at the computer chair*
T: One more thing Mom. He leaned over and gave me a smooch on the cheek.


I think he is excited about the prospect of a big party for his birthday.

Merry Christmas! 2 days late.............

I haven't checked email or sat down at the computer for days. It's been nice. We worked our tails off last weekend attending Christmas concerts, church, finishing up food and gift shopping, cleaning the house for family to come over and hosting both families for Christmas. After all that I'm tired. Dave took the kids to Grandparents yesterday and I slept for almost 4 hours. It felt so good after staying up past 2 AM the two nights before.

Our Christmas recap:
Sunday
The kids did a live nativity at church and sang a couple songs for the congregation
I accompanied the choir for several songs and did okay playing the organ, which I was dreading
I sang O, Holy Night in Relief Society and bombed one part as I was distracted by a strong contraction
Came home and ate lunch and took a quick nap
Dinner at Gram's and then off to sing at the Stake Christmas Concert at church
Home to crash with Dave on the couch and wonder why I said yes to sing so much at 9 months pregnant- my tummy muscles are working overtime keeping this baby in and singing too.

Christmas Eve
Cleaned
Did 9 loads of laundry
Cleaned some more
Dave went out early to get 2 last minute gifts and toiletries
Baked rolls, sugar cookies and made garlic mashed potatoes for dinner
Dan, Lauren and Kristy arrived and helped set the table/play with our chillies
Waited for Mom and Dad and Tom and the turkey to arrive
Ate a wonderful meal with my side of the fam- we fit all 11 of us in our tiny apartment thanks to my cool new table from IKEA with both leaves installed
Exchanged gifts, ate dessert, decorated cookies for Santa and played with the chillies
Kids put out stockings, got jammied up and said goodnight to all
Family left and Dave and I stayed up until 2 AM wrapping presents and cleaning up

Christmas Day
Contrary to our hope of sleeping in a little, the chillies woke up early at 7 AM
We had put up a sheet in front of the living room so they couldn't go in until we were up
Got up to find all 3 chillies peeking through the sheet, "MOM, DAD! Santa filled our stockings!"-so cute
Daddy made everyone peppermint tea and we opened gifts together
Denise and Arnold came over to get Arnold's new guitar we were hiding for Denise. She put a guitar pick in a ring box as his Christmas present that said, "Will you serenade me?" then sent him to our house
Showered, dressed and made breakfast; french toast casserole (thanks Denise!), sausage, bacon, eggs, fruit
All the Bennett's came over for an impromptu gift exchange (and breakfast) at our house- it was so nice to not have to pack up kids and gifts this year. Everyone came to us.
Party adjourned to Denise and Arnold's apartment 3 doors down to play their new Wii
Chilled out as a family at home until dinner at Gram's house at 4 PM
Both sides of the family ate, exchanged gifts, played games and talked until 8ish

Dave and I both enjoyed our family Christmas. I know the kids have had a great week and LOVED having their Daddy home for 5 days straight. It still seemed like the holiday snuck up on me. I wanted to plan more service opportunities with the kids and I just didn't take the time. It's one thing I want to be better at next Christmas and through the year.

what's sleep anymore

You know that feeling when you wake up from a wonderful nights sleep? Your body feels relaxed and warm under the covers and your eyes gently roll open into consciousness. One big body stretch and a deep breath in and out later and your ready to conquer whatever comes your way. Yeah, I don't remember the last time I slept like that. Lately my routine is go to bed only to wake up less than two hours later with throbbing hips and sore ligaments, since this 9-month pregnant body can't sleep on its back. If the aching body parts don't get me up the incessant need to pee does- at least twice a night. I feel like a giant marshmallow with the amount of pillows it takes surrounding my body to get comfortable enough to sleep. Sadly, our big leather couch is more conducive to a good nights sleep right now so I end up out in the living room every night. Most nights I skip my bed entirely. Thankfully, hubby understands, but I mis him. I'm there now except with my feet resting on the couch while I sit in the chair nearby.

It wasn't my body that woke me up at 4:45 AM this morning. Something possessed Logan to wake up and demand that Toby give him his Batman blanket that was keeping him snuggly warm in dreamland. Logan sleeps under Toby on a trundle bed and he reached right up, screamed bloody murder about his blanket and commenced a tug-of-war with said blanket. Poor sleepy-eyed Toby didn't know what hit him. And now I can't get back to sleep no matter how warm and comfy the couch is tonight.

So, considering my alarm goes off in 24 minutes, I think I'll get up and hem those dress pants for Toby that never got done.

Sweet dreams to you. Somebody needs to be dreaming of sugar plums at this time of year..............

Here comes Santa.....

We attended our ward Christmas party last night with the kids. After dinner there was a program followed by a visit from Santa. Let's just say we knew Santa very well this year. Jessie, after being too shy to see Santa at Christmas in the Park, did sit on Santa's lap this time. When she came down with her goodie bag from Santa I asked her how it went. She said, "Good! Santa sounded like Grandpa Dave." Dad said, "Hmmmm. I thought I saw Grandpa Dave eating ham back there at the table." They didn't bring it up again, thankfully. On our way home that night we drove around the church parking lot because the kids wanted to see if they could see the reindeer up on the roof. Jessie and Toby decided that Santa and his reindeer move so fast that no one saw them leave.

Christmas in the Park

Found this on youtube in my short travels online today. Pretty cool how this video and Amy Grant's version of Breath of Heaven go together so well. I thought of my brother who loves this song.

We went to Christmas in the Park in San Jose last night for Family Night.
Ate dinner at Dan and Lauren's
Parked in the parking garage in San Jose and bundled everyone up in hats, scarves and mittens
Walked down to see the lights and Santa
Kids shed said hats, scarves and mittens because it was a warm, clear night
Toby and Logan waited in line with Mom/Dad/Grandpa/Grandma to see Santa
Both boys talked Santa's ear off about wanting a Scorpinoc that transforms into a scorpion, an Optimus Prime that transforms into a truck (Toby) and a naughty Dark Vader (Logan)
Jessie chickened out on seeing Santa again this year- not sure what her thing with Santa is
She told Lauren she didn't want to see Santa because she was shy
Walked down to the food tents and ordered hot chocolate for everyone- thanks Dad & Mom!

Weekend plans

Dave has been riding his bike to work a lot lately. Yesterday, the rain was threatening to ruin his ride in to work in the morning, but he went anyway. I always worry about him riding in the heavy traffic around here during the crazy morning commute. Since he didn't get done seeing patients until late and it was pouring rain, we drove to pick him up. The chiropractic adjustments on his tables at work were a good incentive too. My pregnant body feels so good after the hips and joints are in line. The kids like going to Daddy's office to get adjustments and play with these cubes he inherited from the previous owner.
Anyway, on the way home Toby said out of the blue, "I want to watch Frosty the Snowman!" I remembered seeing it on the TV schedule for tonight. We made plans to have a family movie night to watch it and that is all I'm hearing about today. "Mom, how much longer until Dad gets home so we can watch Frosty the Snowman? Mom, when are we going to watch Frosty the Snowman?" At this point, Frosty better deliver the performance of his life or the kids are going to revolt!
We are laying low today. Logan is sick (and SUPER GRUMPY) and I have tons to do around the house. Today is totally a hermit day. I don't feel like answering the phone and I hope no one (especially tenants) knocks on the door today. Except family of course. They are always welcome and don't care if I don't have make-up on and am working in sweatpants. :)

The rest of the weekend is full. We will probably go to the Farmer's Market tomorrow morning, I have a baby shower to attend, we will finish decorating the house for Christmas and there's always the mundane Saturday chores to get out of the way. Hopefully, we can get some shopping done as well. Both sides of our family drew names this year for Christmas gifts. It will be nice to get the gift shopping done quickly and with less expense to our budget. Sunday is always a day to look forward to. We will go to church in the morning, Dave will feed the kids and put them down for quiet time while I stay at church to play for Ward Choir practice, then a wonderful Sunday afternoon nap if I'm lucky and dinner at Gram's house. Our weekend even stretches to Monday because Dave doesn't work. Hopefully, we can put a dent in the list of to-do's around the house in preparation for the baby.

TGIF!!

Pregnancy hormones give me THE STRANGEST, most-disturbing, scary, crazy dreams that I have ever had. I have woken up every night this last week by a dream that was so disturbing in various ways that I had to get up and stay awake for awhile. Mixed with the fact that I can no longer sleep on our bed comfortably and it has been an interesting couple weeks. My poor husband has been sleeping by himself a lot because the couch is more comfortable in this big belly stage. I slept on the couch last night and my hips and ligaments weren't sore at all this morning. The day is going much better. I am counting down the days before baby comes out and I can sleep again- oh wait. I won't be sleeping then either. Oh well. At least my body will be out of this clumsy stage.

The days are speeding by lately. I realized we have about 6 weeks before a new baby will be in our house and it is suddenly scary. There is so much I want to do before baby gets here- before I'm really sleep deprived.

All of the local Bennett family drove up to Folsom last Saturday for Uncle Howard's 80th birthday. We drove up for 2 hours, stayed at the party for 3 hours and then drove home. It was a great day though. On the way home we stopped at Cattleman's for dinner to celebrate Aunt Lita's birthday. Toby is our resident rib man. After eating all he could of the two huge ribs on his plate the server came by to take his plate away. He said, "No I want to save the bones and take them home for when I get a dog." We got a glimpse into Toby's brain to further prove that a 4 year-olds concept of time is a little off. All the kids have been asking when we can get a dog. The answer is always when we move and have our own house. Apparently, Toby thinks that day is coming soon. I wish.

Kids say the darnedest things.

Toby's prayer tonight over the food went something like this:

"Dear Heavenly Father, thank thee for this day. Thank thee we could bless the food. Thank thee..........thank thee that Mom could push out a baby. Name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

What a difference a week makes. 10 days ago I was the biggest stress case. After just finishing the planning and execution of our ward Halloween party it was time to turn full attention to the annual Primary Program at church. (The Primary Presidency, of which I am the President, writes and presents with the children a 40 minute program for the entire congregation about the things we learned through the year) Over the past several months the members of my Presidency have had to bail on the Primary for various reasons. I totally understand, but it has been a frustrating extra responsibility to pick up the slack along with all that had been going on at home and work. It was a learning experience and I'm thankful for the opportunity I had to serve with them and be with the sweet kids. Notice the past tense there? I was released as Primary President the same day we did our program in church. The program went fine, even after all my stressing and bad dreams about it. We ran over time, which I was not pleased with, but everyone really loved the kids talks and songs. Jessie did great saying her part and singing all the songs. Not surprisingly, Toby provided some entertainment during his part. His teacher was helping the kids with their lines in case they forgot them and accidentally said Toby's line for another boy in his class. Toby gets up right after and says his line, "Jesus is my Savior and Redeemer!" but to the congregation it seemed like he just copied what his teacher just said. Then he jumps down off the riser in front of the pulpit and high-fives a member of the bishopric on the way back to his seat. I think he liked hearing the giggles from the congregation. Logan sat with Grandpa Bob & Grandma Evie since both Dave and I were up in the Primary program.

We passed out blank papers for members of the congregation to write a note to the kids. After the program, we had some snacks, played games and read the notes from members of the ward. It was an action packed last Sunday as President. Suddenly, I have a new perspective on my calling and lots of things I wished I would have done differently. I am sad that I won't get to spend each Sunday with the kids, but happy to pass the torch on to my mother-in-law. She will be an awesome President and leader for the kids! Dave is probably relieved that he won't have to be my sounding board for all things Primary anymore, or get the kids ready for church by himself.

My new calling is ward choir pianist. I'm excited to have the challenge of practicing and improving my piano skills. Hopefully, I can learn to get over my nerves of playing in front of people.

laying low

My body has finally succumbed to being sick. I have been fighting that yucky metal taste in the back of my throat for days and it is now a full-blown cold- green boogers and all (probably too much info huh). Being sick while pregnant is always a bigger deal than it should be. I'm super tired and more achy than the usual preggo aches and pains. So, I have been planted at the computer all morning looking at photos taken the last few weeks. I am surrounded by empty tea mugs, a plastic army, and a plethora of superheroes. The boys have been bringing in toys all morning and playing on my lap. It's been great.

Speaking of preggo- there's my 7 month belly and a rare feet sighting. I haven't been able to see them for awhile, but they are down there. Last night I was literally scared awake by this little acrobat bean inside. I was dozing off on the couch when all of the sudden baby started trying to punch a window through her current home. Then she tried to put an addition through her roof and seriously hurt a few ribs. You know that fight-or-flight response where your heart skips a few beats and starts racing? Yeah, she did that to me- first time in 4 pregnancies. I can tell this bean is growing fast now. I'm thankful all is well and she is healthy.
I had to sneak in one more Halloween photo. This was part of one of the games we had last minute planned for the ward Halloween party. The bottles weren't dry in time to use them though. :( Dave even got crafty and made the stencils for the ghost faces and painted them on.
I LOVE fall! The weather is finally starting to get chilly, the night air is full of the aroma of housewarming fires, and the colors around town are beautiful. I love baking pumpkin bread, making soups and chili, and peppermint tea to wind down at night. Hopefully, it will keep getting cooler instead of staying warm all winter.























In keeping with the fall colors, I played around with these photos of my awesome chillies enjoying a fall afternoon. I used a retro action in Photoshop. I think they're fun and totally different from what I usually like.

peter's posse

So here's the Halloween costumes. I wanted to get some pics in the daylight since we didn't get very good ones at the party 2 weeks ago. Has it already been that long? Time really is getting away from me. I talked the fam into putting them back on before my belly didn't fit in the dress anymore.

I made all of our costumes for pretty cheap. Dave's Captain Hook coat was a great find at the thrift store for $5. I just had to alter it a little and add the gold trim. The kids costumes went together fairly quickly and I already had the fabric and pattern for my Wendy dress in my stash from working at the fabric store days. Jessie got a kick out of telling everyone I was pregnant Wendy. Very controversial, I know. Even better? "Captain Hook" is the father.

Toby doing his best Peter Pan crow!

Logan still tells random strangers that his Daddy is going to be Captain Hook for Halloween and he will be the "crocky-dile" that goes chomp-chomp to Daddy.Captain Hook and Wendy? Who knew. Notice the 7 month preggo belly. 10 weeks to go!

A little pumpkin carving fun last Monday night for family night. Uncle Tom, Kristy and Grandpa Bob (everyone else was out of town) came over for dinner and carving. We just bought a new kitchen table which was great to spread out on and have room for everyone.




The kids ALL jumped right into carving this year. Jessie, who was scared of touching the pumpkin guts last year, got right inside and cleaned hers out this time. Toby drew his jack face on a piece of paper before starting and his actual pumpkin turned out exactly like it. Pretty impressive for a 4-year-old. Logan, aka "the driller," shoved the carving knife in his pumpkin and drilled holes all over it. Uncle Tom has some serious carving skill. He enlarged this from one of those pattern books by hand-drawing it on a scratch paper. 30 minutes later my kids were staring at skeleton-jack saying, "Ooooooooo, spooky!"
Dave's creation; he calls it January 11th, 2008 or Delivery Day. He wouldn't let me see it at his far end of the table until he was done. Everyone who came to the doorstep wondered what the heck it was until they saw my tummy.

the great pumpkin cometh

We started a new family tradition this year for Halloween. This Halloween night the Great Pumpkin will make his appearance, Santa style, and trade the kids candy for a special surprise. Considering we racked up enough candy in less than an hour to give any adult a clogged artery, it will be a nice way to get the candy out of the house without complaints from the rug rats. They got to eat their fill tonight and save some of their favorites for later. The rest is going bye-bye. Dave dumped the loot on the living room floor after chillies were asleep and started sorting it to see what we wanted to keep. It instantly reminded me of trick-or-treating as a kid. Me and my brothers would come home and dump and sort the exact same way. Who can forget the trading and mandatory Dad tax too.

Jessie was excited about the Great Pumpkin idea. While trick-or-treating tonight she would stop every few houses and say, "This is going to be a lot of candy for the Great Pumpkin!" or "the Great Pumpkin will give us a big surprise for all this candy."

Trick-or-treating was a new experience for Logan and Toby this year because we went to a party on Halloween night last year. We drove up a few blocks to say hi to Grandpa Dave and walk around his neighborhood. After the first two houses we trick-or-treated at, Toby looked at me and said, "Mom, this is fun!" By the end of that block, Toby said, "Mom, this is lots more fun than a Halloween party!"

Logan was a trooper. He walked most the way, even when his little bag was loaded down with goodies. His modus operandi was hilarious. He would walk up to the door with Jessie and Toby and when the homeowner would come to the door he would step UP into the house and stretch his cute little hands up with his bag. We kept reminding him to stay down on the doorstep, but he didn't get it. As soon as the candy was dropped into his bag he would turn around, stop, and fish THAT piece out of his bag to show Mom or Dad. "Look Mom, that lady gave me a loddypop!" (lollipop) he said. After a quick reminder to say thankyou he would turn around and say thanks then be on his way to catch up with Jessie and Toby who rarely looked in their bag until we got home.

I almost forgot- we even met the wicked witch while trick-or-treating. She lives on Bradley Street in Fremont and she is not afraid to drop the G#$ D@*$ bomb in front of innocent little kids. We made the mistake of letting our little ones walk up to the wicked witch's door in back of a group of older kids. The lady opens her door and immediately starts yelling at the older kids in front to get out of her flower bed. The dumb kids didn't move so she got even more belligerent. By the time all the older kids were leaving, Dave was left standing at her door with our sweet chillies while she continued to yell down her sidewalk. I walked up by then and she was still yelling at Dave about dumb parents not keeping their kids in line when in fact our kids and Dave were waiting patiently on her stupid walkway. We should have refused her dumb candy and made her apologize to our kids who were clueless as to what was going on. Toby summed it up best as they walked away, "Why did she do that, Dad? Why was that lady doing that?" Good question Toby. She shouldn't have been handing out candy at all. Yet another experience that teaches me that trying to be Christlike and turn the other cheek does NOT mean letting ignorant people walk all over me, or my sweet kids.

Here's a few pics from our ward Halloween party at church last Saturday. I think it was a success. There were a few things that went wrong and stuff I would have changed, but I'm always hard on myself, being 'in charge' and all. A HUGE thank you to all who volunteered to help with the food, decorations, preparations, set-up and clean-up. Jen and Sami- the food was awesome! Thanks for volunteering to take that big assignment. We had a salad bar, nachos, and potluck soup bar. People brought an amazing variety of soups; chili, chicken noodle, chowders, even jambalaya. Perfect for a cool fall evening.


We also had a ghoulish dessert contest which was so much fun. These are Denise's pumpkin with cream cheese frosting Mummy's. They were delicious and dairy-free which is a bonus for our family. Dad Bennett and Sam made rice crispy mummies that won a prize.


We had 2 bounce houses, a pinata, games, a costume parade/contest and trick-or-treating for the kids to round out the rest of the night. Dave and Tom made a sweet pirate plank and foam weapons for the Pirate Plank Duel that everyone LOVED. Thanks Denise for the idea. We didn't even get to the other little games we prepared for the kids because they all wanted to duel and time went by so fast.












































As you can see, we were the clan from Peter Pan this year. Almost every year since Jessie was born we do a family theme for costumes. It's tons of fun and everyone looks forward to what we will come up with every year. This year, the Hansen's in our ward took the challenge to beat us for the best dressed family. They looked awesome! All the boys dressed like Elvis, complete with wigs and polyester jumpsuits, and the girls wore pink poodle skirts and cat-eye glasses. We both had fun with the friendly competition the week before the party, and even our little kids kept the costumes a secret. The contest judges graciously called it a tie and we both had to get on stage and do a mini-show as our characters. Me and the kids went across the stage singing 'Following the Leader' while Captain Hook chased us and Coop the Crocodile ran after him. The audience got a kick out of that. I didn't get a good family picture which is a bummer after all the work I put into the costumes. I might try to talk the fam into dressing up during daylight to get a couple shots.



Mom & Dad Bennett and Sam rockin' the Star Wars theme together.














Aunt Denise had a dual-purpose costume. With us she was Tiger Lily and with cowboy hubby she was his Indian. Thanks again Denise for all your help. We rock!

What's shakin'?

WE WERE! Last night we had a 5.6 magnitude earthquake in San Jose that sent us rolling. Dave was just taking his shirt off to get in the shower. I was folding clothes on the couch. Coop and Toby were with me in the living room watching the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Jessie was gone at the church for Roadshow practice. Suddenly the ceiling started shaking and I figured our upstairs neighbors were doing something crazy up there. When the shaking got louder, the windows started vibrating, and my feet were moving I knew it was an earthquake. I scooped up Coop and joined Dave in the doorway. Toby was too scared of Max (our scared parrot who flew down to the floor) to get off the computer chair and come to us. Just then the quake stopped, but Dave and I both felt like we were still moving for a good minute or two. It is such a strange feeling to have the ground moving underneath you. We went outside for a minute in case there was another quake, and the pool water was a mini wave pool.

We haven't felt an earthquake that large in this area for a long time. Dave lived here for the big one in '89 but this was my first quake over 4.0. I really hope and pray we don't have a big one while we live in these old apartments. I'm not sure how they would hold up.

BUSY

What a busy time of year this is! Since my last update Dave and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. It didn't hit me until I realized the big #10 is only a year away. Our time together is sailing by.

Two weekends ago we took the kids to the Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon Bay. I'm still mad at myself for not charging my camera battery the night before like I told myself to. The camera died on the drive over. It was probably better that way because we were so busy with keeping us all together and making sure the kids didn't break anything. After ditching the stroller at Marci's car and getting some food in the kids we had a good time. It was super crowded, hence the need to bail on the stroller. We saw some cool stuff, bought a Christmas present for the kids, and I spent some b-day $$ on cool wood jewelry. There is a huge pumpkin patch with hay maze that we were going to stop at on the way home, but the kids were all asleep by the time we passed it. Next year Dave and I will probably go to the Festival alone since it would be even harder with 4 kids. The plan is to spend the entire weekend by ourselves since it is the weekend of our 10th anniversary.

October is slipping away from me when I have so much to do this month. I am in charge of our church Halloween party this Saturday night and I'm starting to get nervous that everything won't be ready. Ever since we found out that baby #4 was on the way I have been on a mission to purge and simplify our home. Plans for a garage sale quickly formed as I started getting rid of a lot of stuff. So I picked the worst time ever, last weekend, to finally do the garage sale. It has sucked up a lot of the month sorting and getting ready.

The kids had mixed emotions about selling our stuff. Once me and Gramma Evie started sorting and pricing everything last Friday night Jessie wanted to go through all her toys and donate some things. She brought out a broken necklace and 25 cent popper toys that she wanted to sell for $1 each. Then, during the sale the next morning Jessie took back a stuffed bunny we had put out just as a little girl was looking at it to buy. Dave bought a rocking chair and ottoman at a garage sale a year ago that we don't have room for. It has been sitting in storage for months so we put it out to sell. Our funny J-bird got attached to it while we sat through a few slow times during the sale. She almost cried when she came back outside and found that I had sold it. I have to admit, for a split second I wished it didn't sell so she could keep rocking in it.

Logan was almost traumatized too. We put out our big, clunky octagon dining table to sell. Logan came out after Dave wheeled the table to the front lawn and pointed his finger back to our house saying, "Bring my table back!" Then after we explained we were selling it to buy a new table he said, "You NO sell our table!" So funny. That was his phrase of the day. Logan got his wish though. The table didn't sell, but I couldn't stand the thought of Dave dragging that beast back into the house. We left it out by the street. Hopefully someone will give it a new home.

Then there's silly Toby. Dave and I were basically running crazy from 7 AM to 10 AM. Unfortunately the kids had to fend for themselves in the house unless they wanted to come hang out with us. Toby did NOT want to come outside so Dave let him play RoboTech on the PlayStation. In the process he created a monster- Toby the video game freak. When Dave went in to turn it off after over an hour Toby would not stop asking to play more. The only thing that got him out to visit the daylight was a pair of headphones from a CD player that didn't sell. Toby climbed up on that octagon table and grooved to some tunes on Daddy's "music player"- as he calls it.

Even though Toby wasn't around for the garage sale it must have made an impression. The next day in church he blurts out at the end of Primary, "We had a garage sale yesterday!!" :) Lol! Our kids are funny!

30! No way!

20 minutes ago I entered the world on my Grandpa's birthday at 01:23 AM- in 1977. That math is correct. I turned 30 years old...... 20 minutes ago. I don't feel any older, but dang it if 30 doesn't SOUND old. I remember one specific conversation Dave and I had in his white mustang shortly after getting engaged. We talked about having our kids early and close together, so that we would be done by the time we were 30. Well, the 9 years since that conversation has flown by, and now I am 30 and pregnant with our 4th (and last) child. Crazy. The rest of my b-day was, unfortunately, disappointing. Dave had the day off but had to go into the office in the middle of the day. That kinda shot our plans to go out to lunch/shopping just the two of us because he got home way after lunch and the boys were tired. Instead I worked on church stuff while the boys (and Dave!) took a nap. Blah. I was trying really hard not to be a grump because the day just didn't go as planned. We went to the parents for family night/b-day party. Thanks everyone for the $moola$ and goodies. The new furniture I'm going to buy thanks you too. We left early, jammied the kids, and Aunt Denise watched them while Dave took me shopping. All in all, the day turned out okay...................but it still sucks to know I'm 30!

So I realized looking through the front page of this old blog that an entire month went by without a peep from me. Here's an update for the entire month of August/early September as I remember it from my camera.

Mom Bennett has been threatening to have a Bennett Band Night in their back yard for at least a year. We finally did it in August. Denise and new hubby Arnold, Dave and I and some family friends all got together for dinner, swimming and jammin' on the instruments until dark. We brought our keyboard, dusted off Tori's drum set and mostly listened to the guys play their guitars. The kids had a great night playing and swimming with Uncle Sam and friends.



















The annual Bennett camping trip to Pinecrest was a little different this year. Mom and Dad Bennett were in Philadelphia that week and we missed them. We bought Gram's tent trailer so we could take it up for a long weekend while Uncle Mark and Aunt Lita were there. Denise & Arnold, Marci & Donovan, Dan & Lauren, Tori, and cousin Nicole came up too. Our kids LOVED having so many Aunts and Uncles there to play with.

Our Pinecrest Top Ten (in no particular order)
1. Jessie and Toby swinging in the hammock and playing frisbee with their new friends in the campsite next to us. Logan playing with trucks in the dirt
2. Uncle Arnold taking the kids on 'buffalo hunts' around Pinecrest
3. Good food and roasting smores EVERY NIGHT, YUM!
4. Jessie and Toby playing with Dan & Lauren's dog, Simon -taking him on walks
5. Naps in the hammock
6. Fishing on Uncle Mark's boat (even though we didn't catch anything except a beautiful sunset)
7. Playing a new game, Bohnanza, with all the big kids
8. Late night chats around the campfire while sipping Peppermint tea and watching the meteor shower
9. Taking showers at Lauren's cabin and watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie
10. Selling the tent trailer the day we got back! "dirt-camping" as the kids call it, is not a vacation with soon-to-be 4 young kids. We will rent a cabin and visit the dirt before doing that again any time soon.
Jessie's birthday was the end of August. She turned 7. I feel old.Jessie still loves ponies and arts & crafts. She is such a good help to me around the house and with her little brothers. Reading, which she didn't enjoy last year, has gotten easier and now she likes reading bedtime stories to the family. She is so excited for her new baby sister coming in January. J loves telling jokes she hears at school or reads on the juice boxes. She's got a quick wit and knack for sarcasm- the little pickle. Math and Spelling are her strongest school subjects, but her favorite are recess (of course) and art. Her new thing is Barbie, which Dave and I said would not enter our home in multiples, yet they are here. They are better than those awful Bratz dolls which Jessie wanted, so we feel the compromise was worth it. She received a lot of clothes for school. Thank you family and friends! It's great having a child whose birthday comes right before the start of school.

J asked for a star birthday cake. You can see my attempt below. It turned out more like a flower or big sun. Pretty much a disaster but it tasted good. Let's just say I learned it is a lot harder than I thought to frost an odd-shaped cake and make it look good. It was also very last minute.

We went mini-golfing the day before J's birthday with both sides of the family. Jessie said she had a great birthday!
We got a 'courtesy call' from J's principal a couple days before school started to let us know they placed her in a 1/2 grade combo class for the year. I was not happy about it since she is in 2nd grade. Obviously, some of the other Mom's had the same fears I did because we had an impromptu class meeting with the teacher, principal and those parents who were there after the first day of school. After that meeting I feel better about how the year will play out. It is a compliment to Jessie that they picked her as being an independent worker, good listener and all-around good student for that class.