February 28th!

We all know how parents "bless" their kids by saying "I hope you have a kid just like you!". Well, BOTH my parents must have EACH said that to me X 100, but honestly, I don't remember being this "adventurous". Ben called and said he had a meeting so he wasn't going to be home as early as he usually is. So I got Peyton up and fed her then sat down to feed Bentley. Well, she was helping me by carrying an empty baggy to the garbage, but she never came back up. Just as soon as Bentley got done eating, I headed down to the kitchen to see what she was up to when I heard something drop on the floor. This is what I found.

She'd slipped on the first spilled spot of syrup, fell, and made the second spill spot, not to mention it splattered a little on her face. She must have gotten it in her eye a bit because it became a little red. I told her don't move as I ran to get my camera. I know, I know, but you can't blog it right if you take the pictures afterwards.
And this is how she froze while I was taking pictures! I honestly think she thinks she's helping when she does this stuff, but on the positive note, the floor got mopped again a little ahead of schedule!

February 27th!

Peyter bug likes to play in her swing. If she thinks we're going to put Bentley in it, she runs and swings a few times first because she know's she won't get to for a while. So we buckled her in, set up the recliner so she was sitting, not laying, and she had a good ol' time:)

February 26th!

Petyon was born to be a big sister! She is so good to Bentley. Here she is laying by (on) him, holding his hand and she was talking to him. And if you look next to him on his right, she had started his glow seahorse that plays music and layed it next to him, which she does all the time.

She is such a funny kid. Since I stepped on the tooth pick, I've been favoring the ball of my left foot when I walk. It hurts the worse when I walk across the wood floor in our kitchen. Well, I was walking through the kitchen, limping, and she thought she needed to do it too! She came limping right behind me, grinning and giggling all the while.

February 25th!

We've had a cat that has recently adopted us. She/he's full grown and just showed up on the porch hungry one day. We live in a feild so we have problems with mice so cats are nice to have around. She's isn't exatcally friendly, since she hisses at you if you move too quickly and get to close. But we feed her just enough to keep her around to get rid of the mice. Well, we had some roast that was about to go bad so Ben decided to feed it to our dogs and the cat. If you look really closely a little bit to the right of where Ben's walking to, you can see the white blur that is the cat running for all she's worth. He didn't walk slow enough for her comfort:)
Peyton loves strawberry's! Which doesn't suprise me since strawberries were the main thing I craved when I was pregnant with her. I ate so many then.....and she eats them now!
I thought a few deviled eggs sounded good so I made me up some and decided to share with her. She loves scrambled eggs so I figured it was a no brainer.

She was not impressed! She sat there with her mouth open like that crying until we helped her get the eggs out of her mouth. I felt bad for her, but it was also quite humorous. She's such a character.

And to finish off the day, we sat down to a "movie night". The Friday night's we have Chris, we pick a movie and watch it before bed. This time it was "Racing Stripes", my pick:) I love my kids and had a great time!

Chatty Bentley!

Bentley gets chatty about once a day when he'll just goo for a few minutes. Well, getting him to do it with a camera there to catch it is rare....until today. I figured out that it's the 'bing' sound of when the video starts recording that triggers him to stop making noises. Well, I silenced my phone and he didn't even know I was videoing. He's so cute!

February 24th!

Peyton and Bentley are going to be the best of friends, just like her and Chris are, once Bentley can do more then just lay there. She loves to hold him. She loses intrest before he does, but it'll come:) Interesting how the one that isn't supposed to know what a camera is, is looking at it, and the one I'm telling to look at the camera, is looking out the window over my shoulder:D

February 23rd!

Today was a good day, for the most part. My kids woke up in a good mood. Had breakfast burrito's for breakfast. The kids naps came and they went down easily enough. So Ben and I sat down with a bowl of popcorn to enjoy the Biggest Loser together. Just as I was going to go and get Peyton up from her nap, I stubbed the "palm" of my foot (for lack of a better word) with a toothpick that Peyton had accidently dropped on the carpet. It even bled, OUCH! So I limped the rest of the day. But life must go on. It was a pretty nice afternoon outside so around 5:30, we went out and cooked hamburgers on the grill. It has always been to cold so Bentley has never been outside outside of his car seat.....until today:) His Aunt Hailie and Uncle Derek made him this cute hat with his name on it for Christmas and he finally got to wear it when it would actually fulfill it's purpose.
He may not look happy, but he enjoyed himself. Even cried when we went in the house to eat. He did have to get used to the brightness of the sun.
While Ben cooked, he and Chris were playing with Chris's paintball gun. They are a little cock gun, non-toxic paint balls that he got from Kenny & Kristie's family for Christmas. Chris stood out in the yard and Ben would try and shoot him! The paint balls flew slow enough though that if it was going to hit him, Chris would jump out of the way. They still had fun and the hamburgers were really good!

February 22nd!

Easter of 2008, we got a TV. When we went into get it, Ben has a specific one in mind, but unfortunatly, they didn't make that particular kind anymore. So he had to settle for the BIGGEST one they had in the store. We have loved having this big of tv, since Ben is a huge sports fan and you practically feel like you're there when watch them on our TV. Well, last week, the lamp component went oout on it. So we called our warrenty company. They gave us 3 options: 1- we could go buy one at Wilson Bates in Orem for $250 2- we could have one overnighted from them with the lamp free, but pay $35 for the overnight schipping or, 3- wait 5-7 business days and they'd ship it free of charge. Well, we picked the later and....yay, it came today.It may not seem like that big of a deal to those people that don't watch alot of tv, but we're just so used to it, it was very missed while it was gone!

February 21st!

Today was a "go get Chris back" day! We met at Lagoon and were able to stop in Draper and catch Kyle as he was getting off work so we grabbed some lunch/dinner at Panda Express. You can't tell from this picture, but Peyton LOVES Uncle Kyle! She's just her daddy's girl when it comes to smiling for pictures.

Here big boy Bentley and daddy, in front of the panda's, stretching Bentley's legs so that he would be alright to endure the trip home!
Chris got a sore throat while he was at his dad's house so he's got a few days before he'll be over it. But he sure was glad to see Uncle Kyle too.
While Ben, Kyle, and I visited, Chris walked Peyton in laps around the restraunt. It was so dang cute they probably walked around 6 or 7 times:) They make a good brother/sister pair :D

February 20th!

This was the worst of the walls after I rubbed them down with fingernail polish. I painted over them, but the new paint and old paint are both white, one's now just whiter then the other so we may have to repaint the WHOLE wall.
Last evening, we were watching the All-Star game and Peyton found the old hat from the hospital we used to put on her as a baby to keep her head warm. She thought it was so funny!

It was dark in the room so I had to use my flash and this is Bentley's reaction to the flash! We had a fun-stay-at-home, catch-up-on-rest day:)

February 19th!

Today was eventful, to say the least. Ben works with a spanish guy that invited us to a dinner that his ward was putting on. It was all authentic mexican food so there's where we had dinner.
These are of Bentley and Peyton riding to dinner.
Here is Peyton having tamalies with Ben. She wasn't really interested in the food as much as she was in watching all the kids run around:)

But being the shy little girl that she is, she pretty much roamed between my chair, Ben's chair, and her own chair.

Here is Ben's friend, Fidel, helping his son, Adrian, into a sack for the sack race.

Here's Bentley and I after we'd finished our cinnomon roll!

When we got home, things started to get a little crazy. Our big TV up in our family room's lamp has burnt out and our new one is being shipped so in the mean time, if we have anything we want to watch, we now watch it downstairs. It also happens to help in the fact that when we put the kids down for naps, we can actually hear when they get up rather then having to us the monitors. Well, I was upstairs and Ben was down stairs and we both thought the other person had Peyton. Well, she happened to be right in the middle of us.....with a magic marker.

Here is her art work! She got in some trouble and had to help us try to clean it up.

It came off her and the tile floor alright, but the walls and her jacket are a different story. The only thing we could get to work to come close to taking it off the walls was fingernail polish remover, which also took off them paint in the process. So we'll be repainting it looks like.

As for her coat, not so much luck. NOTHING took it out. I've been trying differnt concoctions to try to get it to come off, no such luck. It is getting lighter, but it still very noticable.

While I was upstairs trying to get the stains out of the jacket, Ben was watching Bentley, and Peyton was somewhere in the middle again, trying to "help" clean up. So all my baby wipes got pulled out of their box.

The jacket may just end up going to the garbage. Which is so sad because this was her first time ever wearing it and she hadn't even grown into it:'(

Here's hoping tomorrow is a better day:)

February 18th!

Yesterday was a regular every other Friday for us. Chris goes to his dad's house for the weekend every other Friday so we pick him up from school, drive to Lagoon, usually, they grab groceries in Payson and some dinner and head home. Yesterday was a little bit different, for we got to go through Provo, to Heber, then to Silver Creek Junction to meet. Here is Peyton and Chris watching Secratariate in the Suburban on the way there. We bring snacks and drinks and they keep themselves busy:)
After dropping Chris off, we'd gotten groceries and we stopped at Reed's Drive-in in Nephi for dinner. They have the yummiest burgers! Peyton, as you can tell, loves their shakes:)

Not a very clear picture, at all, but this was Bentley! He is such a good traveler. He stays quiet, unless he's hungry. He sleeps most of the time, but when he's not sleeping, he's still content to just sit and watch what's going on around him!

I am so blessed to have such a great family!

Chris's accidents!

Chris is 7 years old right now and such a big help around the house. He helps with Bentley and really likes to hold him. He is also really good at keeping Peyton busy so that Ben and I can get a break on occasion. He has had a rough few days though. Monday, February 14th, Chris had a box with all his Valentine's from school and was running to the house to show me when he got off the bus. Well, we have a row of rocks lining our driveway and he forgot to step over them and down he went and spilled all the Valentine's across the lawn. He was alright, not troubles. So on Wednesday, the wind was blowing so bad at our house. Ben and I are waiting for him to get home from school and he walks in crying. We asked what happened and he said the wind was blowing rocks at his face and they really stung so he was running to the house, blocking his face from the wind, and it happened to push him as he ran. Well, it pushed him right into the same line of rocks that got him two days earlier, but his time he scratched up his side(pic 2).

Well, yesterday, the 17th, we were getting ready for school and the bus had a substitute driver so she came 3 or 4 minutes early so we were scurrying to get him out of the house. Well, if you look at pic 1, you can see the sun glaring off some ice on our sidewalk. Yup, my poor boys bad luck struck again. He hit that ice patch just as he was starting to run out to the road. Out came his feet and down he went. I ran out barefooted to help him up and see if he was okay. He had broken his waffles in half and was crying. I wasn't sure what to do. The bus driver had seen us so I wasn't sure whether to take him back in the house or hustle him out to the bus. I paniced and sent him to the bus, having told him I was so sorry and asked if he was okay, he cried yeah. I wiped his cheeks and he WALKED to the end of the drive way and jogged to the bus, that was patiently waiting. I could hear the driver ask him if he was okay. When he got home, he was none worse for the wear. He was just fine, not scrap or nothing.He's a rezealant pup though. When he got home from school, I was doing dishes. Well, Peyton was in the sink next to me "helping". So Chris wanted to help too! Here he is giving himself a pedicure! I know, crazy. All he's doing is soaking his feet, but he likes it.

He got the jersey he's wearing from his Aunt Hailie and Uncle Derek for his 7th birthday! His favorite color is blue, so it's blue. Kevin Garnett is his favorite player(just like Ben) so his number is 5. And then it has his last name on it. He loves it! He is always happy and full of energy. He has an unconditional love for everyone! He is so smart and a very good reader. We love him very much!

Apparently my tub was dirty!

It's routine in our house to shut most of the doors when you come out or are done with them. Bedrooms, closets, BATHROOMS! Well, on occation, we forget. And my precious Peyton has a sixth sense for knowing if the doors been left open and also knows what to get into quickly, before she gets caught. Well, Chris and I accidently left his bathroom door open while we were cooking dinner last night. Pretty soon I hear a squeal so I went searching. I stepped over a now empty bottle of Comet (that was about 1/6 of the way full last time I used it) to see Peyton in the tub standing in an inch of Comet, with Comet powder on her shirt, her fore arms, and her shins. The squeal was because she couldn't get the water on to clean the tub! I managed to get the shirt off her without getting the residue in her eyes. I then had to wash off her, the tub net support that I use for Bentley's baths, and the tub. Well, might as well clean the tub while I'm at it so we scrubbed the tub, Peyton and I. Then she got that bath, that apparently she so desprately wanted.
She proves my point from yesterday that, she does indeed, LOVE to clean!
P.S. The mark on her arm is a temporary tatoo that her brother gave to her from his Valentine's from school! It's a "cute" butterfly!

Peyton Ali

Peyton is getting so big! She is 22 month and getting more and more beautiful every day. She is full of character! When she says "thank you" it comes out "taint chew". "Please" is "Peas". "Chris" is "Riss". "Bentley" is "mom-mi-a"(not sure the reasoning on that one)."Shoes" and "juice" sound the same with "chush". She's pretty good with "mom" "dad" "cheese" "granma" and her favorite "bampa". A cell phone and head phones "Ello". She says alot more, it just in her 'I'm a cute kid' dialog and we're still working on interpruting it:)

She's a great sister! As a big sister, she get's diapers, throws the dirty one's away. She likes to put his blankets on him. She loves to kiss him whenever she feels like it. She will give him toys if he's playing on the ground or swinging in his swing. And if she see's that he's spit up and we haven't noticed, she'll grab a burp cloth and wipe it up. Her newest thing is she likes to come and sit on your lap and hold Bentley on her lap. She likes to put his binkie in his mouth for him if it falls out, even if he's asleep.

As a little sister, she likes to wrestle with Chris. If he's wrestling with me and Ben, she'll take Ben's side and get whoever he's getting. Chris and Peyton play downstairs all the time. He likes to tickle her and she loves to scream like he's so scary. She watches him, mesmorized, when he's goofing around or doing his cartwheels. She's already 3/4 as tall as him so she just thinks she's a big kid too:)

Peyton loves to clean! If she gets toys out, she loves for you to sing "clean u, clean up, everybody everywhere....". She'll clean the whole room if you keep singing the song(not that she knows where everything goes, and it's usually messier then when she started if you don't guide her, but she thinks it's "cleaning"). She also loves to push around my swiffer. She wants me to take her clothes off and put her in the sink next to where I'm doing dishes. She get's the little dust pan and broom out and will push stuff around on the floor with it. She get's her wash cloth in the bathtub and rubs it up and down the walls of the shower. She'll use her hand and brush crumbs away on the table when she's sitting there. She loves to grab the dirty laundry out of the dirty clothes baskets and put them in the washer when I'm starting a batch. She also likes to sit in front of the drier and "help" me put the wet laundry in. She also loves to "help" fold laundry(by taking the stuff I've already folded and moving it to another part of the basket and setting in down.) The only cleaning she doesn't like is the vaccum! She hates it! She runs away and because she doesn't like the loud noise. She doesn't like the blow dryier either. She loves to get in the shower with her daddy....every day! She likes her hair to be done and when it is, she likes me to put in a "cute"! A cute is anything that goes in her hair, a bow, a clip, or a flower. She loves outside, though it's hard to get out there much in this cold. She loves her stroller and walks. We also have a cart behind Ben's bike that she enjoys. She likes swimming. She is almost always happy! She is so much fun to have around and loves her family. She does everything to please those around her. And if she gets a high 5 or a pound it, she's thrilled:) We love her very much and wouldn't trade her for ANYTHING!

Vacation February 2011!

Ben doesn't get much time off work because of all the preporation it takes to get someone down here to work for him. So when he does, we take off to visit family. We hadn't had time off since the first week of November so it was time we took off again. Chris was spending time with his dad for the weekend and was really missed. Here is Peyton, Kierstley, and Grannie Annie cleaning up after making cinnomon rolls.
Aunt Michelle took baby duty of Bentley and Isabelle so that the parents could go shoot targets in the back yard. She could only stand and hold both of them for just a second because they are both getting so big.

Grannnie Annie, Keirstley, Bentley, Michelle, and Isabelle relaxing during the afternoon so that we were prepared for an evening of playing games;)

Hailie and Jocelynn playing with puzzles. Jocelynn is getting so big and so smart, she really liked doing the puzzle. After doing the 100 piece puzzle, she asked if they could do another one.

Peyton, Bentley, and Great Grandpa & Grandma Merrill. We don't always get a chance to go and visit the "Greats" while we're down there so we made a special effort to get there, if only for a few minutes, so that they could meet Bentley and to chat for a bit.

Bentley, Peyton, and Great Grandpa & Grandma Roseborough. It was sure a good to see the grandparents and visit. They were both suprized to have us show up at their doorsteps, but were more then grateful for the visit and getting to see the kiddos'!

Bentley and Isabelle are going to be good pals, but I'll be danged if I could get a picture that portraid that. It was either unfocused, one was crying, one was falling over so this is what I got and it'll have to do! Bentley is 2 months and Isabelle is 4 months:)

Rob and Kenny both had new had guns so we endured the wind the was howling outside to get a chance to have some target practice. Here's Rob shooting.

Here is Kenny, Rob, Derek, Ben, and Kristie. I got my turn, but shot the bottom off the milk jug so it wouldn't hold the dirt that was holding it from blowing away anymore. So we had to find a new target, but we all enjoyed the activity.

We love our family very much and sure love our visits. Hope to be able to do it again soon:)