Ben is 26

Ben turned 26 yesterday!  He sure is getting OLD!  This year for Ben's birthday I feel like everything we did was centered around really good food.  But who can complain about yummy, deliciously, amazingly, good food?  Not me!

We always seem to celebrate Ben's birthday for a couple of days, so to start of Ben's birthday we went out to dinner to Olive Garden.  Ben's grandparents were so nice and sent him a gift card and who can say no to Olive Garden's yummy all you can eat soup, salad, and breadsticks.  I may have eaten way too much and felt a little sick afterwards {but in the moment that last breakstick was definitely worth it}.

Saturday morning the kids were up nice and early so we opened Ben's presents.  Ben is one of the HARDEST people on the face of the planet to buy a gift for.  Usually when I ask him what he wants for his birthday we would tell me that he wanted me to write him a poem!!!  And he is totally serious.  Or he tells me that he just wants to spend quality time with me!  So this year I decided not to ask him what he wanted.

The first gift he received was some new cologne.  His second gift . . . well lets just say I fulfilled one of his wishes and he got to spend lots of quality time with me!  I gave him tickets to Mary Poppins {the Broadway musical}!

We got ready for the day and my sister Michelle and her husband Stephen came over to watch the kids.  Before heading to the matinee showing of Mary Poppins, we went to Ben's very most favorite burger joint, In-n-Out.  Ben got his typical double-double animal style burger and I enjoyed my cheeserburger {animal style of course}.  It was delicious!

Mary Poppins was wonderful!  I love going to musicals and I am so grateful I married a man who enjoys going to them too!  On our way home Ben asked me if I had to choose between Mary Poppins and Wicked which would I choose.  Wicked wins hands down but Mary Poppins was great too, it just doesn't compare to the amazingness of Wicked.

After spending lots of quality of with me, Ben and I headed home.  We picked up Chelle and Steve and the kiddos and headed out to dinner.  We ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen {YUM}.

After eating dinner I decided that I just need to take pizza with me to church.  Benson was an angel during dinner.  Seriously he didn't make a peep!  Why?  Because all he did was eat and eat and eat {I think he ate 3 slices of pizza}.  It's settled from now on I am taking a high chair and pizza with me to church!

And to finish off Ben's wonderful day of birth CPK let him choose which dessert he wanted FREE of charge!  He chose this delicious chocolate thing with ice cream!  It was GOOOOOD!

So it's settled I think spending quality time on your birthday with the people you love most is awesome {especially when it involves good food and a Broadway musical}!

Happy Birthday Ben!

My front door

As of yesterday I am officially in love with my front door again!  Yes you heard me correctly, I love my front door!

My sister Michelle came over yesterday to hang out with us.  We love having her so close and we love having Michelle time.  We decided to make a wreath for the front of our door.  So we loaded up the kids into Michelle's car and set out to Michaels.  We picked up our supplies while trying to entertain my very wild/hungry children {shopping trips are always fun with my kiddos}.

After lunch we put the kids down for naps and we started creating our masterpieces and just enjoyed some sister time.  There is nothing better than sitting on the ground, making wreaths, and chatting with your sister.

After about 30 minutes our wreaths were finished and my bare door could finally look beautiful again!  After I hung up my wreath I had to keep opening the front door just to take a peek at my cute wreath!

I love how it looks and it makes spring officially official!  Although I am afraid that spring in Dallas is going to be over in a few weeks, but at least my door is cute!

Lazy Days

Life without a car is different.  Our options are very limited to what we can do every day.  We have our little 700 square foot apartment to hang out in, we can go on walks, we can walk to the library/park, we can play outside, go over to our friends house, annnnd that's about it.  Some days it's monotonous and it can get boring for me {and the kids} really fast. 

Thankfully the weather has been beautiful the last little bit so we can spend most of the day outside.  We love hanging out on our deck and playing.  I love the deck because I can send the kids out there to play and it is a nice change of scenery.  The deck is a wonderful play place until Benson decides to start throwing things off the deck.  He throws anything from his sippy-cup, shoes, toys, and anything else he can get his hands on {the little bugger}.

We also play lots of pretend.  Last night we all had a pretend tea party.  Miss Reese was our lovely hostess.

The table was beautifully set and she made us the most wonderful tea and food you could ever ask for!

We ate and ate to our hearts content.  I think it is safe to say that this was the BEST tea party any of us have ever been to.  That little Reese sure does know how to throw a good party!

So I guess some days I am grateful that I don't have a car {I won't say it too loud because I desperately miss having a car}.  Not having a car has made me slow down a lot.  Before our car 2nd car broke down we were always running places/errands and now we get to really enjoy our 700 square foot apartment and our quality time together!  What could be better than that? 

{But I am still secretly looking forward to the day when we buy a second car}

Spring Break

Spring break . . . oh I am sad you are coming to an end!  This is our FIRST spring break as a married couple!  I know, BYU-Idaho is crazy for not having one.  So we took advantage of Ben's time off.  We all went to the dentist, Ben saw the eye doctor, and we got some work done on the car.  Oh yeah, Ben and I went to Six Flags {without the kids} it was AMAZING!!!

Wednesday morning my sister Michelle {who is incredible} came over and to watch the kids for a full 24 hours.  Ben and I took off and drove the whole 30 minutes to Arlington.  Right outside of the entrance to Six Flags there is a little cottage that they use as a Subway.

I love, Love, LOVE Subway so our 24 hour date was off to a great start.  Sweet onion chicken teriyaki sandwich, with chipotle and sweet onion sauce and tons of veggies!  Yummy, it hits the spot every single time!

After our mouth watering lunch, we walked about a mile and a half {not really, but it felt like it} to finally get to the front gate of Six Flags.  We got in line to ride the Texas Giant and there began our extremely long wait, 2 hours to be exact!  Yes you read right 2 hours!!!

Thankfully that two hour wait was definitely worth it!  This was the best roller coaster we went on.  It dropped straight down and I seriously came out of my seat {thank goodness for the bar}.  My eyes were watering the whole time and afterwards we just giggled.  It was a ton of fun and I wished we could have rode again, but I'm not sure my nerves could have handled it. 

The next ride we rode on was Titan!  We waited in line for about an hour.  Yes it was amazing but not as amazing as the Texas Giant.  The first hill on the Titan was GINORMOUS!!!  The whole time up I kept repeating to Ben "this was stupid, why did we decide to come on this ride?"  Thankfully I survived!

We rode one more ride after the Titan and unfortunately that was our last ride.  Spring break was a terrible time to go to Six Flags.  We waited in line for about 5 hours and spent at the most 2 minutes on roller coasters.  We had a blast but I don't think I will ever go to Six Flags over spring break again.

When we left Six Flags we were starved.  We went and got some dinner at California Pizza Kitchen!  Yum, I LOVE that place.  After that we headed to our hotel where we would spend a very relaxing night without any kids!!!  I think the part that we were most excited about was being able to sleep in {unfortunately I was up by 7 the next morning}.  

The best part about our hotel room was the jacuzzi!  It was wonderful to get to soak in after a long day of being on our feet.  It was seriously perfect.

What a wonderful 24 hours we had together.  I loved getting to spend so much time with just Ben {it doesn't happen very often}.  Yes of course I missed my kids and it was fun to see them in the morning but there is nothing better than spending some quality time with the man I love the most!

The Dentist

Little Miss Reese went to the dentist today for the very first time.  I was so nervous about taking her but at her 3 year old well check-up the doc told us it was time to take her in.  So we made the appointment.  I told her all about the dentist.  I told her that the dentist was a doctor for her teeth and that he checks our teeth to see if they are healthy and strong.  Reese thought that sounded fun so I told her she was going.  She was quite exited!

Well surprisingly Reese acted like a little pro today.  She sat and chatted it up with the hygienist and then held her mouth wide open just like a little alligator and let the hygienist count, brush, floss, and clean her teeth! 

I imagined Reese screaming/throwing a fit and refusing to open her mouth for anyone just because she didn't want someone poking around in her mouth.  Man oh mighty did this girl surprise me today!  My little girl is growing up!

Reese's Guinea Pig

It is a known fact in our home that Benson loves his sister Reese.  He adores his older sister and usually enjoys playing with her.  He wants to do whatever she is doing, except for when she wants him to be her guinea pig.

Since the beginning of Benson's life Reese has always been experimenting with Benson.  She loves to try new things on him and she loves to play dress-up with him.  I don't know that Benson necessarily loves to play dress-up with her but he indulges her for the most part.

The other day I saw Reese banging on Benson's back.  I asked her what she was doing and she said, "I'm playing my drum!"  Poor Benson.  He is a pretty good sport and will smile and laugh at whatever Reese is making him do at the time, whether it is being her drum or dressing him up like a princess.

But sometimes enough is enough!

It's not always fun to be Reese's guinea pig, just ask Benson!

My Stroller

This is my stroller.  

Isn't she a beut?  I feel like I should name her or something but I haven't become that attached to her yet.  All I know is she is ghetto!

This wonderful stroller is from the 90's!  Yes you heard me right the 90's.  My parents had 4 kids really close together.  We thought they were done.  It had been 5 1/2 years since my brother was born but then they surprised us by telling us that my mom was expecting a baby boy!  We were all ecstatic!  Jared came into our family and then a year and a half later my mom gave birth to a cute little girl, they named her Kaylee.  Well back in 1997 after Kaylee entered our family my parents bought this beautiful blue stroller.  It was used quite a bit, I remember taking it with us on our family vacation to Mt. Rushmore.

The stroller isn't in the picture but I remember pushing that beast of a thing all over the place on this vacation.

Anyways, right before we had Benson my called me and asked me if I wanted a double stroller, of course I did, so she sent it up to Idaho.  When it arrived I couldn't believe that my parents had held onto this thing for all these years.  My brother and sister are now 17 and 15, so it has been a LONG time since my parents have used that double stroller.

Well when the stroller arrived I was a little too proud/vain/embarrassed to use it.  I told Ben to get rid of it and that I would NEVER use it.  Well I am now thankful that my husband was wise and told me no.  I still don't use it that often but I am grateful for that beast of a stroller.

Sure it isn't the prettiest thing to look at.  Sure the wheels don't really turn and it skids when you go around corners.  Sure you have to really put your back into to get it going.  BUT it works and it was free, plus you get a really good workout in pushing that beast! Oh and my children LOVE going for rides in it, so I guess that's a good thing 

So if you see me pushing my ghetto stroller down the road I might duck and hide when I see you, but my kids will wave!