The Benson Boys

The Benson Boys
A glimpse into the lives of our three boys (one big guy and two little guys)

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Christmas Train on NYE


The little boys have REALLY been into trains lately, so it wasn't surprising when they just sat and stared in wonder at Mitchell's Christmas Train, that was given to him by Aunt Jeanine when he was a baby. I'm not sure how many times they watched it go around and around and around... well, not that many actually before Grant started causing some trouble in trainland, but it was still pretty impressive that he sat for a little while anyway :)

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Christmas Eve

I can't believe how slow I have been with posting pictures from our long Christmas weekend. Truth be told, I am most speedy about posting when I am excited about the pictures... and I am feeling like I really dropped the ball with pictures this year over Christmas. I was taking pictures all weekend, but yet, when I got home and reviewed them I couldn't believe what I had missed!

We started out our weekend on the Wednesday before Christmas when we made the trek up to Hibbing. We had planned to leave on Thursday but bumped it up a day because of the snow storm that was inevitably coming our way. We still got stuck with some lousy driving conditions, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it would have been had we waited. After a quick stop in the metro to meet Mitchell's mom (as he was headed to WI with her for the weekend). We all said our goodbye's to Mitchell, and we were on our way. The trip up with the littles ones was OKAY, not so great, no so bad. We were on the road for well over 4 hours and arrived in Hibbing about 11:15pm, but yet Joel did not miss a beat or even consider a nap during the entire drive... REALLY!?!. I have a feeling the DVD player we got for Christmas will come in handy next trip.

We spent the next few days hunkered down at my parents house (besides a side trip to church and Grandma and Grandpa Kokotovich's on Christmas) with my parents, my sister, my brother and his girlfriend of 3 years, Jenn. It was the first time in a LONG time that I had spent more than a half a day or so, really, with everyone and I really enjoyed the quality time with my brother, sister and Jenn. As far as Joel and Grant... they certainly had no complaints about the endless 24-7 love and attention they were getting. There are definite perks to being the first children among my family members... :)

Here are few pics from Christmas Eve, which was at my parents house... like I said, beware the lack of good pictures, as I really didn't get the pictures I would have liked.

I made several attempts for this picture of the boys with the great grandparents and this is about as good as it got:) That is probably why I never even made another attempt to get one with Grandma Rose and George...

My two lovely grandmothers



Grandma Rose and Georgie

Aunt Connie and her kiddos, Jim and Elizabeth

My funny sister, cracking everyone up doing a Grandpa Mike impression, walking with his cane, while wearing his jacket and hat :)

Christmas Eve dinner. Jeff and I stuck with the 2 monkeys at the small table ... (rightfully so since they are our children and all :) Plus, I wouldn't want to give anyone else the job of making sure spaghetti and meatballs didn't get thrown across the living room onto the white carpet...

Stair-jumping into daddy's arms. Fun stuff.

Christmas Day

Grant, making SURE that Santa drank all the milk.
Cool pants, Jeff :)
Yes, the boys are taking rides in Grandpa's walker:) It is always a favorite at Grandma and Grandpa's house.


My cousin's daughter Jaelyn


Grandma and Grandma, helping Grant feed Jaelyn's new doll. Such a sensitive one he is...


The Rest of the Weekend

We didn't have anything planned the rest of the weekend up North. Joel had a chance to build his first snowman ever with Grandpa in all the fresh sticky snow.I think it turned out quite cute! Way to go Grandpa. I have to laugh because when I came outside to take the picture of Joel and Grandpa and the completed snowman, Joel had no intention of cooperating for the picture. I was surprised he took me seriously when it was became obvious I was not going to give up until I got a picture of Grandpa, Joel and the snowman. I believe it went something like this... "Joel Anthony Benson, you get over here this INSTANT and stand by the snowman with Papa!"... "One... Two...", and there you go, cute picture below :)




Jeff, with lots to do on Saturday, his third full day in Hibbing :)

More snow... not as much as in the metro though, surprisingly.


Sunday, December 20, 2009

Saturday


Jeff and Mitchell took the boys sledding on the side of our house for the first time this year. Joel LOVED it (as you can see) and screamed the whole way down every time. Grant did not love it so much (as you can see)... looks like it may be another year before Grant is ready to enjoy the outdoor, snowy fun.


Also squeezed in some Christmas tree frosting. You bake cake into the ice cream cone and flip them over and decorate them... they weren't all that good, but it was stll a cute project.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Friday Night Family Christmas

(click photos once to enlarge)...
Yes, I do know this is my THIRD post today! I admit, I get a little carried away with blogging when I have lots of fun pictures. Luckily, I decided to collage most of them, so you don't have to scroll through dozens of pictures! And yes, although this is my third post today, I am only through Friday night... Friday evening we gave the kids their gifts from us and Jeff and I exchanged as well. Mitchell will be leaving for WI Christmas on Wednesday, so we decided to celebrate as a family this weekend, so they can have a little time to enjoy their gifts before we leave for Hibbing and Wisconsin.




Joel's favorite gift was the Polar Express train set, that goes along with all their Thomas track and trains. You can see Jeff was getting maybe a little too much "help" setting it up. Both Joel and Grant played with the trains ALL day today. They truly cannot get enough. Fighting wasn't as bad as I expected, even though the "zoo cars" Grant got for Christmas are a favorite of BOTH Joel and Grant. Joel was good about giving the zoo cars to Grant when he wanted to play with them, but the SECOND that Grant turned his back, Joel would attach those zoo cars to his train again, then seconds later Grant would decide he wasn't done with them and repeat "my train" "my train" "my train", until we told Joel to give them back again... you get the picture, then repeat that about 2 dozen times throughout the day.




Mitchell's fav was probably this NBA game for his PSP that Jeff found for $10! Score!




Grant's favorite was probably those zoo cars, or his stuffed mouse that goes with the "When you take a mouse to a movie" book, but he also got this Discovery Toys zip track, which has been a hit with both Joel and Grant so far. The cars are motorized and appear to eat batteries, but I have to say it is entertaining to watch the cars chase each other around the colorful track :)

Attemped...

Auto-timer family photo...
Okay, getting worse, let's give up, who says everyone needs to be looking at the camera anyway!?...

Show and Tell

Yesterday was show and tell day at daycare. The assignment was to bring something related to Christmas. Grant chose to bring a little stuffed reindeer and a jingle ball. Joel chose to bring his largest wrapped present from underneath the tree...

When we discouraged that, he settled on a much smaller wrapped present below, but still insisted on bringing an wrapped present for show and tell... not terribly exciting for the other kids, and we explained and explained that we couldn't opent it, but he would get to open it later that night when we celebrated our little family Christmas. So, he was off to daycare with an wrapped present for show and tell...
I've always that thought that Joel had a fair amount of patience for his age, but I was still pretty impressed when the present he has with him all day and held in his lap for th 10 minute ride to and from daycare, only had the few minor tears and damages when he brought it home at the end of the day.

And yes, he finally did get to open the present last night at our family Christmas (I will post more pics from that soon), so you can see what was in this beloved present above.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Another Year, Another Lead Role

Mitchell was once again a lead in the church Christmas program and showed off his acting skills once again. This year he played the role of "Pastor Ted", the new Senior Pastor. Even after missing the auditions, apparently they had a part in mind for him anyway:) He really does do a great job, no doubt about it. I think we may be watching him quite a few more times throughout his junior high and high school years.

No singing in his part this year, but more acting...

Remember last year, he had a solo... click here

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

How I found Grant today...


Whether I am (or am not) a big dog lover, I couldn't resist grabbing my camera today when I found Grant (and his friends... and a book) all nestled in with Billy on Billy's bed. At least someone is giving Billy some love :)

Monday, December 14, 2009

Santa and the Holiday Train

Each year, the Canadian Pacific Railroad "Holiday Train" comes through Buffalo and puts on a little show. One of the cars of the train is actually open on one side and there is a band that plays Christmas music in it. This was our first year checking it out... it was fun (in hindsight mostly), and I think we learned a few things too, for future years. #1. We will not be going in the future unless its a few degrees warmer than 5 degrees, with a below zero wind chill #2. You should park your car on the side of the tracks you plan on standing on so that when you are freezing to death and kids are crying and you need to make a quick exit, you can actually GET to your car, and lastly #3. If Jeff meets us there after work again, he will probably want to bring somthing other than his dress shoes for his feet, as it is very possible you will later be tromping through deep snow carrying someone :)





One thing I was happy about... I had my camera with me and both the little guys sat on Santa's lap (and we got to warm up, THANK GOD). Neither one of them said a word, but I was shocked they were even willing to go near him.