Christmas 2008 - December 24th - 28th

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Snowy Saturday

The snow just keeps coming today. Today was really Joel's first time being knee deep in snow and definitely his first time sledding. Mitchell took him out to the side of our house where is a perfect toddler-sized slope. Meagan and Nora from across the street also came over to try out the hill. I took the video and pictures from through the screen actually (I was inside with Grant, Jeff wasn't home). So, if the pictures seem a little blurry, that's why... not to mention the snow falling. Joel and Nora both loved going down the hill, but the whole outdoor experience only lasted about 10 minutes or so. After a couple face-plants, Mitchell hauled him in screaming. However, as soon as I got all his wet snow gear off, I asked him if he had fun and without delay, he said "Yaaaa!". Thanks to big brother Mitchell for being such a good sport and strong enough to carry Joel up the hill in deep snow. I will also mention, at 21 weeks pregnant, Meagan was also holding her own carrying Nora through the snow. I was a little worried about her :)

Mitchell, I believe with a handful of snow headed for his mouth:) Way to teach your brother, Mitchell.

Yep, it's been about 10 minutes, and Joel is ready to come inside.

Long Winter Days

With the COLD weather, the days have recently become a bit longer around here. Sometimes it seems like more effort than it's worth to get everyone all bundled up to go to Target or the grocery store just to kill some time. Not to mention, neither Grant nor Joel enjoy getting their winter gear on and Grant has to be wrestled into his carseat (he has some pretty good back-arching maneuvers). So, we've been keeping ourselves a little busy with some new activities for Joel, like Playdoo, coloring, etc. Here are some photos from our day on Tuesday of this week.

Getting pretty serious about coloring here

And putting stickers on Grant's face, always a fun activity... (don't worry, they didn't have much stick left on them, so Grant was not harmed during this game.)

Picnik.com

So, I'm having way too much fun with this new photo editing website my cousin got me into (picnik.com). Plus, I love this picture of Grant. Gotta love his eyes and long lashes. (Notice his Aunt Kelly in the background, keeping a close watch over him)

Pocrnich Family Christmas

We celebrated with the Pocrnich clan this past weekend in Northfield, MN, hosted by Aunt Connie as usual, it was quite a feast!

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What a Joseph!

Today was Mitchell's big theatrical debut, as Joseph in the church Christmas program. He was great, and all his Grandparents were there to cheer him on, which he was very pleased with. Check out the clips below... The first clip is Mitchell's duet with Mary. It is just Joseph and Mary singing, and Mitchell is in his falsetto (sp?) voice, so their voices blend perfectly :)

Mitchell and his very own donkey, before the performance

The angel, speaking to Joseph, telling him he would be the father of Jesus

I could have used a more powerful flash, but this was about the best we could for a group picture.

Saturday December 6th

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Even More on the Move

Another milestone to post about :) So if I thought I had my hands full before... now I am really in trouble. I barely have control over Joel and now suddenly Grant is pulling on blinds and pulling on cords... wow, this has come way too fast. I feel like I need to clone myself in order to have control of these two little ones!

Duck Tub Time

This was Grant's second time in the "big boy ducky tub", as I call it. The first time, he was not enthused, but he started to get into experiencing the water this time.

Double Bath

These pics are actually from about a month ago, but I thought they were worth posting. This was Joel and Grant's first bath together... oooh. They both thought it was fun, as you can tell from the smiles. Just a few days ago, we tried it again, only Grant was in the "ducky" bathtub that you sit up in. That didn't go as well, I think because Joel wanted to sit in the ducky. I wonder what will happen when Grant is just right in the big tub with Joel... hmmm. Scary.

I just love this picture of Joel... :)

6 Months Old

The months just keep flying by... Grant is sooo close to crawling on all fours now, it won't be long before he is into everything. I was just thinking that I need to look through the toys around here to check for choking hazards, because this one puts EVERYthing in his mouth.

This was my own attempt at a professional 6 month photograph... lighting is never quite right indoors. You can see Grant's actual professional 6 month photos at the Flash Portraits website. Just type in "benson", click on "Katie Benson" and then enter password "grant". It wasn't the best picture day ever, but there are a handful that I think are really sweet.

On another note, for those of you that haven't heard, Mitchell tried out for the church christmas program and got the part of Joseph :) He has lots of practices at the church in the coming weeks and the program is at our church, on Sunday, December 14th, at the 10:30am service. I'm sure he would love to see in the audience if you can make it.

Joel continues to say more words everyday and usually surprises us each day with something... not ALWAYS something pleasant, but he always surprises us. It took almost 2 years, and it was a very long wait for me, but he is now calling me "mama" (he's been saying "daddy" nonstop for a couple months), which made the wait even longer. Little by little, his words are starting to come. Maybe it is the work with the speech therapist that has helped because he has really made lots of progress in the last couple of months.

I am still working on finding more bookkeeping jobs. It takes time, but there are lots of people keeping me in mind for the next time they give a referral and, at any time, I could get quite busy. I sent my first invoice in October, and received my first paycheck a couple days ago!

Also, Happy Birthday to Grandma Benson today!!!

Grant Scooting

There is nowhere Grant can't maneuver to these days, from one end of a room to the other, wherever the toy is, or Joel is, he can get there. Here is a little clip of his scooting skills from today.

Trick or Treat

Here are some Halloween (and preparation for Halloween) pics. A couple things to note... there is one picture from pumpkin carving night of Joel crying and Mitchell working on gutting his pumpkin, the look on Joel's face was his reaction every time he even LOOKED inside the pumpkin... he didn't even try touching it! He was scared of the "guts" of the pumpkin. However, he loved them when they were all done, cleaned up, and lit up. Also, Joel is a surgeon for Halloween (which I didn't think was a very fun or cute costume for a 2 year old), because he didn't want anything to do with any costumes. In fact, I brought a couple home that were much cuter, but I should have known it wasn't going to work out when he didn't allow them to even be next to him in the cart when we bought them. So, I put the scrubs of his costume on him when he got dressed on Halloween, so he just though they were his clothes for the day, and he finally allowed us to put the hat and stethescope on him after we bribed him with candy (good parenting technique in a pinch :)

It was Joel's first time trick or treating. He went with dad, Grant, Nora (the little girl across the street), and her parents. He did really well, but never stopped wanting to go inside of each and every house we went to. I suppose he didn't understand why we were knocking on all these doors and then leaving right away... Mitchell did his own thing for the first time this year. Him and 2 other friends went around the neighborhood and then ended up at a Halloween party a friend of his was having a couple blocks away. It was a fun one for him too.

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Apple Orchard

Joel had a great time at the Apple Orchard yesterday - it was one thing to the next the whole time. Mitchell was in WI this weekend and Grant was happy in his carseat the whole time, so it's pretty much just pictures of Joel having fun. Funny, the purpose of going there was actually to get pumpkins, but turns out they don't have pumpkins at this particular place. I'm still glad we went though - it's actually a very cute little orchard and very close to home. We still need pumpkins though.... hmmm, maybe Aunt Terri and Uncle Jon could spare of few of their FOURTEEN pumpkins :)

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Victory at the Dome for Buffalo (21-8)

Last weekend, Mitchell got the very exciting opportunity to play on a team with several other Buffalo 5th and 6th graders and play a game at the Metrodome against Blaine. Needless to say, this was VERY exciting for him and he had great time. And even better, they were victorious against a very skilled Blaine team. Way to go Buffalo!!

New Paci

So, I have to chuckle after rereading my last post, where I explain how Joel surprised us by giving up his paci so easily last week. Well, just when you think your toddler has decided something is okay (like no paci), they of course, change their mind. I have needed to update this blog, regarding the paci situation, for about a week now. Apparently, after Joel thought about it for about a day or so, he decided that it was NOT okay that we took paci away, but of course that was after his mom, clearly a first time mom, had already "broken" the real paci after Joel took ONE successful nap without it. Way to go, mom. That one nap, was the ONLY nap he took all week, and I will tell you it was NOT because of lack of effort on mine and Jeff's part. Each day I spent LOTS of time trying to urge him to take a nap. I tried everything... letting him cry, lullaby cd's, a new cool Thomas pillow for his crib, putting books and toys in his crib. After 4 days of Joel not napping, and eventually deciding he wasn't going to sleep at night either (he started getting up every couple of hours to scream at us), mom delivered a new paci to his crib at 2:30 in the morning. So, peace has been restored to our house and, for now, Joel's will to have his paci is stronger than our will to get rid of it, and we are OKAY with that :)

Broken Paci

When I decided Sunday morning that Joel's afternoon nap would be the last with his paci, we all prepared ourselves for some major drama around bedtime that evening when we planned to tell Joel that his paci was "broken". After his bath, I handed him his teddy bear "Teddy" and of course, as always, he put out his little hand for his paci, as "Teddy and Paci" have always been a pair... he never had one without the other. So, I gave him his broken paci, explained it had broken and asked him if he thought we should throw it in the garbage. He loves throwing things in the garbage, so he quickly took paci over to the garbage and tossed it in, without a single complaint. So, I thought, well, that was fun, but the real drama is yet to come when we put him to bed with just Teddy and no paci. But... bedtime came and went and Joel didn't make a peep. We did have to show him the broken paci a couple more times, but not a single whine out of Joel about the situation, and this is kid who has thrown himself onto the ground when a puzzle piece doesn't fit quite right on the first try. I am still baffled that the loss of paci did not even warrant even a mild tantrum, or at least a little whining!

And perhaps the funniest part of this story is that, the paci in the picture below, is in fact, the real paci... but this one just "broke" today, for this picture, and I won't be showing Joel this one. The paci that broke on Sunday was a fake one that looked JUST like this, but was actually Grant's. I did NOT have the guts to cut the real paci on Sunday, because that's just how convinced I was that Joel may not go to bed or maybe even ever sleep again without his paci:) I just laugh now thinking about how much I pondered and thought about how and when to get rid of this thing, and then leave it to Joel to not even care.

5 Months Old

I always think it's fun to look back through the pictures and see if I think the boys look anything alike when they were the same age. Jeff even dug out a picture of Mitchell at 5 months to add to the mix. Usually I think they all look different, but I think I see some similarities in these three photos of the boys at 5 months... I'm just not sure...

Grant - 5 Months

Joel - 5 Months

Mitchell - 5 Months

Grant's Baptism

Here comes the baptismal water...

Godparents Uncle Jon and Aunt Terri

Grandma Rose and George came all the way from Hibbing for the special day (thank you)... somehow George must have been hiding during the pictures... hmm.

Cake made with love

A baptism kiss from cousin Jayna

Long day, with no time for a nap, left Joel (and Dad) all tired out.

Another reason Joel was so tired by the end of the day... he couldn't get enough of rough-housing with Uncle Mike all day long.

Grandpa and Grandma Move to Town (well,.. not really:)

As most of you probably already know, my parents recently bought a townhome in Buffalo. No, they are not moving, but I'm sure my mom wouldn't mind :) They love coming to visit, but our lack of a spare bedroom (or bed), was making for tight quarters in the Benson house. So far, the new place has been great for everyone... the kids get another fun place to go, Jeff and I get date nights, and Gpa and Gma get more time with the kids. It's win, win, for all.

All the pictures below were taken my my mom, with her camera... I just took them off her camera so I could blog!

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Helper

Just when I think Joel is not paying any attention to me or what I am doing, I find him with a swiffer duster, attempting to clean the wood blinds... which I had been doing earlier in the day while he was playing with his toys. It's amazing how much toddlers pick up from watching us do

anything and everything.

Football Season

Mitchell seems to be enjoying this first year of tackle football. He's pretty tough too, as he has only had one injury, while most kids on the team seem to have had several. He plays QB, as you can see in the picture below where he is grabbing the snap (I have no idea if that's how you say it, so I'll probably get laughed at for that one.), but... there he is. Unfortunately, he was only in a few plays in this game before a leg injury, but he'll be back on the field this weekend, so hopefully I'll get some great pictures of him throwing some spectacular passes.

Jeff is enjoying coaching with Vince and Kyle again this year. This is their 3rd year coaching football together. They take their jobs as coaches quite seriously. I tease Jeff that they actually think they are the coaches of the Vikings, for how dedicated they are, but in all seriousnous, the parents of the kids love them and they are really good at working with the kids.

Mitchell, hobbling off the field after a leg injury (luckily, it was not serious and he is doing fine)

When my parents aren't in town, we get a babysitter for Grant on Saturday mornings, so just Joel and I get to go to the games. I think it's much better this way :) Grandpa John was actually at this game with us, but the pictures of him didn't turn out.

This turf around the field is really bumpy and sticky... I bet Joel tripped and fell about a dozen times during the game, but this didn't stop him from continuing to run on it, of course.