Bavaria

Hi Fambily, I hope you are all well. So good to hear from Jess and Cam. Yes, both of you need to work on your family members. Chelsea, silly girl for admitting that you read the blog everyday, it is time we hear from you too. Jess, I'm sorry you were sick and I'm sorry laying in bed is so uncomfortable. I can't sleep at all those last few months, when I lay on my side all of my extra weight makes my hips just ache. I love Tony's calling, I think we'll have to have that for Ellyn. I had my feelings hurt for her a little bit yesterday in nursery, even though it was a dumb reason. The regular nursery leader wasn't there (she was a special ed teacher and the two of us have discussed how to keep Ellyn involved) and when I walked in to get her all of the kids were doing ring around the rosies with the teacher and Ellyn was sitting on the floor with this smile on her face watching them. I know that the teacher didn't know that Elly LOVES ring around the rosies or that all she had to do was take her hand and she would join. Sadie was so cute she grabbed Ellyn's hand and mine and we did ring around the rosies next to them.

I was in our ward in a stake capacity yesterday-yes by the way we were made a ward yesterday- I was in Primary the entire time and I just about died. Sadie is hillarious and a little bit loud as well. But she answers all the questions and sings with gusto. She added "cha, cha, cha" to the end of the birthday song and when Jane was the spotlight child she called out "It's my Janie" after only two of the clues. There were countless other little things she did that had me laughing and a bit concerned. She did pretty well but we need to work on not shouting out the answers. Our friend Dave makes fun of me because he says everytime I try to discipline Sadie I'm laughing. It's not entirely true, but sometimes yes.

We had ten inches of snow last week in one night by the way and school was only delayed two hours. Jane and Sadie showed me just how tough they were last week, playing outside for hours in the snow. Sadie collided with a sled and cut her chin and her nose and they still didn't even come in till I went out to get them. We have a fabulous hill across the street and they really had alot of fun. Last night it rained and so now our winter wonderland is almost completely gone.

Saturday I went to a R.S. conf for our stake. Four of us from our ward sang "More Holines Give Me" with the second verse being a german solo by a young woman-newly 18- in our ward. I had to sing soprano because no one else could consistently reach a high C- whatever, not my favorite. Any way, a member of the stake presidency was there and asked if we would sing it in ward conf. the next day. So as we are going up to the podium Gina-the yw-turns to me and says "Please sing the second verse with me, please, I can't do it here by myself." What am I supposed to say to that as we are about to sing, so luckily Mike and I have been able to figure out pronunciation of german words- for the most part and I sang with her. Nothing like a little last minute singing in German to get your heart going.


Okay, I have to go now. Sorry this has been so rambling, very poor writing, and fairly boring. I'm sick and achy today and very tired. Ellyn has a Dr. appt. today which I am not going to miss however. I am really hoping they have some ideas about what we can do with her sleep schedule. Last night was totally typical-still not asleep at 10:30, awake screaming at 3:00am, and back to sleep for an hour from 6:30-7:30. Sometimes she'll fall asleep at about nine and then she's up at 1:00 and awake until four. It is killing us. Really, this writing is killing me, I can't seem to put a normal sentence together. I'm blaming it on illness.

I love you all. Love, Brooke

ColoradoBennett

We had more snow yesterday, so we loaded the kids, snowshoes, and Sierra's snowboard into the sled and headed for the golf course. Sierra is a natural. No fear. Kaia, on the other hand, got pretty nervous on the tiny hill we were sledding down. She had a good time wearing the little snowshoes we have.

It's been way too long...

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. Not having internet at home is hard and I haven't been at mom and dad's a lot lately because Tony hasn't been working nights.

Anywho, not too darn much has been happening. Work for me, work and school for Ton. I only have 6 weeks left. I am freaking out I am so excited. We started painting the nursery last week. We are doing pink and chocolate brown stripes. Hopefully it will turn out okay. We bought an adorable crib and I have decided I am going to make the bedding...hopefully that will turn out okay too.

Tony and I have been teaching primary together, the 11 year olds, but I was just called as a beehive advisor. I am way excited. Tony just got a new calling too, he is in charge of watching a little girl with cerebral palsy during primary. He trys to get her to stay in class or sharing time as long as possible and then just follows her around when she wants to leave. She can walk fairly well, she doesn't talk but she has her own little signs she uses. I guess she likes guys so that is why they chose Tony. He is excited, "I got put on easy street. It's like primary without having to teach a lesson," direct quote from Ton. Hopefully it will go okay for him.

Last Thursday and Friday I had the flu or something. I was in bed literally all day on Thursday. Tony left in the morning and came home at about 5 and I was still there. I barely ate anything all day, so you know I am sick if I can't eat. I got a little taste of what bed rest would be like and it wasn't pretty. I couldn't lay on my back or stomach and it hurt to lay on one side for too long so it was a long day. I hope things continue to go okay because bed rest would be a nightmare.

It is funny because just in the last few weeks I have been less comfortable. I have a hard time sleeping and I am achy when I wake up and I have been having back pain just on one side during the day. It is weird but a part of it all I suppose.

Adam congrats on the new calling. The YM are going to miss you I am sure. The igloo pictures rocked. Maybe one day you could teach us how to make one. Your driveway story reminds me of my driveway. It has snowed twice and I refuse to shovel and Tony hasn't had time so our driveway is an icy death trap. It is north facing so the sun can't melt it either. Too bad neither of our cars are 4 wheel drive.

Mindi, I wonder if Sierra picked up the whole sneeze into the elbow thing from my mom she is the queen of it. That is adorable...she is just very aware of germs.

Meags, good job on the trail run. Your b-day story was amazing. I should tell Tony to read it for some pointers.

Jordan and Michelle's b-days are May 21st or 24th, something like that. Sorry, not much help.

I am pumped that American Idol started up again. We had a AI premiere party with the fam. I seriously love that show.

Well I guess that is all. I will try and write more often and I will try and get my sisters and mom to write too.

Love you all,

Jess

Birthday

Michelle's birthday is very easy to remember. She and Jordan have the same birthday. I said it was easy but I don't even know the date?! At least I know when Jordan's is coming up we will be celebrating both. Interesting to note as well that they got engaged on their birthday's! Jordan should get on here sometime too and tell their story. They are awesome!!!

my birthday story

yes brind's girl is the same julia gulia, who i believe now is not just a friend, but nothing too serious.  (for now)

darla i swear i wrote about my fabulous birthday, but i can't find it anywhere.  so i will tell you, it was most magical.  linda came and picked up the kids and i got to chill at home for about an hour.  then cory came home and told me to put on something nice, not too nice, but he knows how i like to dress up and don't get to very often.  he would not however tell me where we were going.  we ended up the the Christmas tree festival in portland, which is like my favorite thing and it's only one weekend and it just happened to be my birthday weekend.   so we walked around looking at all the trees for as long as we wanted without chasing, carrying, or nagging any small children.  then when we were done with that he said that is where the plans ended and now we could eat where ever i wanted.  we both agreed on black angus, because we love to pig out!! and it's super yummy.  (and i feel skinny when i go there, because everyone walking out weighs about 250.)  now beyond taking me to my two favorite places cory was being his most charming self.  and you all know how wonderful that can be.  so we get done eating and we go get in the truck and look at the hotel adjacent to the restaurant and agree that it would be so nice if we could just stay in town and not have to go out to amboy to get the kids tonight.  but cory has made it very clear for over a month that a hotel was not in the budget and we would try for our anniversary or something, so i didn't even push it.  then he says lets just go see how much it would be.  i reminded him that his mom had saturday school and it was a miracle that she was watching the kids for a few hours.  he said he was going to at least ask, so he got out of the truck so i wouldn't "hear him gravel".  he jumps back in the car and says it's a go.  dave will watch the kids while she runs down to the school in the morning.  so now i expect that we will go over to the shilo inn that is right there, but cor insists that we go down to the new hilton the nicest hotel in the area.  well i wasn't going to argue.  we pulled up in front of it and cory ran in to check out the prices.  about 5 minutes later he comes out and says that the lady was really cool and could give a nice discount, but it was still a bit more than he was hoping for.  she had given him the key and said we could just check it out and see what we thought.  i of course was thinking yes, because i am a spoiled brat, but i was trying to be practical and just say we would have a look.  so we go up to the top floor and when you get out of the elevator your looking out into ester short park and their fabulous Christmas tree.  we walk down the hall and cory opens the door into a room that is lit with candles, has nora jones playing and a bottle of something chilling with two goblets.  my first thought was oh crap we are in some one else's room, then i thought wow what a selling job they're doing, but then i see one of my sweaters hanging across a chair.  holy, how on earth did he manage it.  we was only in there for 5 minutes and he didn't have anything with him.  he is good.  he had had the whole thing planned for like a month, he even had reservation at the restaurant he knew i would want to go to.  he had taken pjs and things for the kids to work so his dad could take them home with him, and he had gotten off work early and gone to the hotel and set everything he had even packed all my stuff.  the only thing he couldn't get was my running clothes so he told me to bring them with us because we would try to run or walk on the river front after we had dinner.  the room was beautiful and peaceful and perfect.  we had so much fun and he even took me running the next morning.  he was blown away that i didn't have a clue, but i really didn't have a clue.  i had even made plans to go running with brind, but he understood when i ditched him.  i can't even express how amazing it is to have someone know me and love me that much.  ok sorry for the way drawn out story, but you asked for it, well at least darla did. 

cam it was so good to hear from you and please get your wife on here i miss more than my luggage.  as for my youngest siblings they just suck. 

mindi thank you for the birthdays especially yoko ono i was really wondering about that one.  you are too funny! 

darla let us know what is going on as soon as you know isn't it like tomorrow? 

adam congrats on the new calling, that should be fun??

brooke you called, but i haven't been able to call you back but my home number is the same as it was, cor just got me a new hard drive or something.

love to all.......me  

ps they just posted the results from the run i did and i ran it in 3:12 which put me 25 out of 86 overall and 5 out of 28 women.

February Birthdays

11th Tony Smith
14th Ellynn Stinchfield
18th Yoko Ono
22nd Adam Bennett
27th Bennett Allen

Did I miss any? I don't have Jordan's wife's birthday. Can you please find that out for me please, Cam?

Crabb's

Hello everyone -
Yes we are also still alive. Monica has a new computer but we have not yet had the internet hooked up at home. I did send her a text today and told her to get on here and blog. She really doesn't have an excuse anyway because she is at her mom's at least twice a week and can get on the internet there. I think you should all start harrassing Monica and all of the brothers. They really do have more interesting lives than mine.
All is good at our house. I am a wimp because this whole transition to 3 kids is really killing me. I have great kids and I still find my patience coming up short.
Monica has been busy with the kids and her voice lessons starting up again this year with a couple more students. That as well as trying to get ready for my little brothers wedding. It seems like there is always a shower or something to do.
We haven't done much of anything so far this new year since our whole family has literally been sick off and on since Christmas. Monica has been through 2 sinus infections. Harley has had a continuos cold and ear infection. Liza and I have had the cold and cough with flu symptoms. And poor little Beck has had a cough and reflux so he throws up everywhere. Jordan and Michelle have started calling him chuck. Luckily this last week we are all doing much better.
Joel is doing great. He started school on the 17th and he has been snowboarding a few times I think. They said it's like he never left the slopes, still throwing crazy tricks that I can't even imagine trying. He is really a spiritual giant and just being around him makes you want to do better.
Jan is getting everything ready to go and is really excited. I think he's at that stage that he's really trying to fit in spending as much time with his friends that are all leaving, his family and of course Carly when she's home from school.
AJ's life is also his family and his friends. He really is a great guy and we try and spend as much time as possible with him because he's so much fun.
Kel is still trying to keep up on the Simpsons and all sporting events. He's grown up a lot in the last few months and we love to have Kel whenever we can get him as well.
Well that is probably enough rambling for today. I should probably get back to work anyway. We haven't heard from Chelsea or the other girls, the Rigby girls, Brind and Ellyn and of course the Robbins family (I'm doing my best) for a long time. Where is everyone?

povo wife

Meags, I am still here. Just busy packing. Hopefully we'll actually be moving sometime soon. I can't type much right now until we know more. What I REALLY got on here about was to hear more about the bday surprise/date Cory planned for you. Your mom told me about it. Why didn't you post it?!! How INCREDIBLY romantic! Sorry if I spoiled some intimacy. If you don't want to write about it, I understand. I am jealous though. Mindi, your story was funny and I was thinking the same thing about Adam not EVER being released from YMs. But, lo and behold, I heard tonight that he was called as Elders Quorum Pres. I guess all is good with the youth and they need him to start working with the Priesthood. Way to go Adam! Alright. I'll post more later. Sorry this is so random. ~darla

bg life

lyd, i didn't know it was your birthday.  happy late birthday, but better late than never.  but if you don't read the blog anymore, then it would be never.  hopefully jess or your mom, who is one here every once in a while, will pass the word on. 

i was just wondering, mindi, since you are the most amazing person i know and the only one with all the birthdays if maybe you could post them so we would all have them.  don't worry i won't steel your thunder because i would never in a million years even attempt to send birthday cards.  i can't even manage to get them to my siblings.  i was cracking up at you story of the sneezing.  of course i had to try it the way kaia did so i could picture it.  i felt a little silly, but i could visualize it much better that way.  

cameron are you still alive?  and although it sounds like monnie got a new computer she must still not have the internet. 

adam if you keep doing these super cool activities they will never release you from ym's. 

brooke i can't wait for prague and jsut being near you, where ever that may be.  although we won't be there for another year or so. 

i guess darla doesn't have the internet any more and geof. must not either i really miss hearing from them.  they are both very busy, but hopefully things will slow down and even out for them soon enough.

jess how's the beebs coming along?

last night i got home from the gym hoping that all my kids would be asleep but of course they were not.  the boys were still wide awakes lying in their beds.  i told wil he really needed to go to sleep, he said, i'm working on it mom".

ok crazy hazy is at finest so i must be off............m e

Yes. And if they don't, they just don't know what they are missin'.

So, everyone wants an Adam?

Here is the igloo Adam built outside our church. He is very popular, everyone wants one. Happy Birthday yesterday, Lydia. How the heck are you anyway? No internet in the musical crystal world?

This Saturday Geof. flew out to play with us for a few hours (about 22, not near long enough). We took the youth up to Evergreen Lake and went ice skating. It was fun. Then we came home, ate "Big Mindi's", and watched The Illusionist. It was pretty good, kind of a "Romeo and Juilet" that works out in the end. Hope I didn't give it away for anyone. Jessica Biel is from Boulder, so I instantly like her. I was just reading an interview with her in a magazine and she seems to have lived the outdoorsie Boulder life I always dreamed of, but it is probably all a lie. Meags, I like to give a double blogger high five to the amazing trail runner that is thou. Congratulations. I'm still pluging in about 6 miles a week, and dreaming about one day being a cool as you. Is the "girl that is a friend" with Brind the same Julia Goulia that we met or a new one? All of our kids are sick with a cough. Too sick to go to school but not sick enough to be drained of energy. I don't know where she learned it, but Sierra is now coughing into her elbow. In the car today I saw her trying to teach Kaia this technique. First Kaia started coughing into her wrist. No no, that's not right. Then she lifted her wrist to her ear and coughed into her elbow from that direction. If you can picture it in your mind, you'll see why I thought it was so dang funny.

bg life

i only have about three seconds, but i thought i would drop a line.  cory is finally taking down our christmas tree and cursing me as he tries to unwind the 10 strand of lights i so carefully tangled around it.  we spent the weekend in seattle with dad so i could run my first trail race.  it was the coolest thing ever.  i told my friends here but they didn't seem to care much, so i will tell you guys cause i know you will care.  it was 17 miles the first 6 miles being all up hill and 99% of it was in snow.  every step i took i would slip 3 inches back down the mountain.  it was the funnest thing i have done in a long time.  the weather was perfect and i only fell once when i started to bonk.  but i ate something and and perked back up.  the down hill was sweet, but the there were places that the trail was so narrow there was hardly a place to put your foot.  there was a choice of doing one loop for 17 miles or 2 two for 34.  yeah a opted for the 17.  maybe next year i will try for more, but i found the race on tuesday and ran it on saturday so there wasn't any time to train.  it wasn't as hard as a marathon, but it took me 3:15 minutes to do it, so it was almost as long.  anyways it was great and thanks for listening to my story, because now i feel like i have some friends that care.  even if you don't i wont know unless you actually write back and say you don't care. well after the race we went to gilman village (a cool old place in issaquah) which was so quality i can't believe it.  they have the raddest toy store which we spent an hour and a half in and i think dad, cory and i had as much fun as the kids.  we met scott and dane stevenson for dinner with brind and a friend who is a girl that went to spend the weekend with the stevensons.  they are great!  we drove home at 2:30 sat. night because wil had an ear infection so neither of us were sleeping so might as well get home for church.  after church cor and i each had a meeting then dinner with our sunday dinner group and after that we went to great to be 8 with jackson.  i am pretty sure i am not old enough to have a boy getting baptized.  this is such a big year with that and cub scouts.  exciting!  love to all .......me

Bavaria

We finally have our modem working again. Wow, I realized how much I depend on the internet as my link to family and friends.

I'm sure mom tried to call, but Adam's blog was the first time I heard about Papa Les. I know that the last few years have been filled with a great deal of pain for our family and in most ways he was already gone for us. But my mind is filled with so many wonderful memories of the man that was my grandpa for over two decades. I can only pray that he's up in Heaven apologizing to Grandma and realizing that he just wasn't quite in his right mind these past few years. I love the man that he was and I am hoping that there was just a little something wrong with his brain and that he loves us too. Wow, won't Heaven be exciting for us? We'll get to see how the whole Dale, Verl, Les, Grandma saga turned out.

Robbins family- CONGRATULATIONS!!! How great it feels to have a missionary home. Give Joel some hugs from me too. I'm so excited that Monie got a computer. Does this mean we will be hearing from her on the blog? I hope so.


Well I probably need to get going. I'm still in my pj's and it is almost 11. If any of you watched CNN today you will have heard about Germany's huge winds last night. Part of our fence is blown down and I spent the night awake with Ellyn. Everything was just so loud that she couldn't stay asleep. Her bedroom was on the side of the house that was getting hammered and once she was out of her norm she thought she should just stay awake and play. Amazing storm.

Jess, how much longer?

Darla, has Ellynn given you your Christmas present yet? You need to get it from her. Just a few more days for Geof. How's he doing?

Meags, I'm sorry about your school experience. Don't you love moments like that when your emotions get away from you? I'm glad you got to go to the condo- I'm a bit jealous. I HATE winter. Gray and rainy every day. All I want to do is curl up in a ball and hybernate- after eating enough to last me through the winter of course. By the way- did you hear about the bears that are waking up in the Russian zoos? It's so warm they think winter is over. Warm enough for them but not for me.

I love you all. Oh- one more thing- we went to Prague on Monday and it is amazing and I can't wait to take anyone that comes over- it's only two hours away.

Love, Brooke

Seattle Bennett Living in Colorado

So long time no write and that goes for more than just me, and its not because i have been busy although my schedule is getting tighter and tighter. Well Colo is still cold and the snow is still here, its been over a month of snow covered roads and I still have to put my truck in 4 wheel drive to back it in the driveway. My scout and I built an igloo at the church last wednesday, which was a big hit, and its still standing after a week so I guess the cold is still good for something. Just for all you igloo builders out there we built a 6' in less than hour, pretty impressive if I do say so myself. Tristan has been sick and is now getting over his little cold but its been a couple of long days and nights for Mindi I would have loved to stay home and take care of the kid Sunday durring the playoffs but I still can't lactate and all he wanted to do was eat. The girls are still the girls best of friends and worst of enemies, it just depends on how tired, bored, or hungry they are and believe it or not, unlike there mother its more boredom than hunger. For all those who just didn't want to say anything but were nervous about or stray pitbull we sent him to the shelter shortly after our Christmas vacation she was nice and sweet but to always defend owning a dog like that just was not going to suit me. I'm sure many of you are a G-Pa's memorial and I wish I could have gotten there he was a good Grandpa and over the years all the graduations and weddings and parties he made it to and not just for his kid's but Grandma's and Marva's I'm glad he is in a better place now.
Love
Adam

Bavaria

Hi Fam,

This is just to say that we are alive. Our modem broke and it was a four day weekend here and so Mike couldn't go in till yesterday and our new stuff won't be here until Friday. I'm at the library at story time right now and I have to go help Sadie on her craft project.

Love, me

long time no write, no computer, no phone, no life

life is starting to get back to normal, after a week of unwinding on the mountain as cory mentioned. i could live up there. skiing, snowshoeing and cross country skiing all winter, and hiking, kayaking, and mountain biking all summer, yum.

the day before brooke left and the day after i took the kids to school a couple of hours late. we had been up late and way too emotional. so the second day of bringing them late i am trying to explain why we are late and why jackson might not be his normal self to his school marm of a teacher while she is trying to make sure the kids get in line for lunch and other things that are apparently way more important than talking to me and of course all of the emotions that i have kept so carefully in check all come flooding to the surface. so i am holding wilohm and hazel walking quickly down the hall to keep up with a women half my height, but amazingly fast (even without her trekking poles that she uses when she walks to school) and i'm bawling. yet again i am reminded why i hated school so much.

darla i am so sorry you were left alone. not only by your husband but by your blog. it's just not right, but we all seem to be back now. apparently i am the last. except for those who haven't written yet. that doesn't really make sense does it.

there are so many funny things that i want to write, but i get on here and my mind goes blank. my new years resolution is to write down the cute things my kids say and do so i won't kick myself in the future. oh one thing i remember... the other day bennett goes out to cory and says, dad you have got to get in there, those kids are killing me! yes that is an exact phase i use daily. funny and scary all at the same time.

more later, blog on my sweet family....me

ps tell paula she looks hot in that picture!

pps jess i totally agree, just yesterday brind and i were quoting him as we were running and we saw a mailwoman, man. "excuse me sir, MA'AM"

Joel is HOME!!!

Hello family. We are sitting at Paula's house right now playing on Monica's new toy, a Macbook. She has been playing all night and it is definitly going to take us some time to get used to the different programs.
Well, Joel got home this afternoon and it is awesome having him home. When we were trying to decide where to eat lunch all he could say was "I haven't had Mexican in two years". Enough said.
Now we are hanging out with a full house of people flocking to see Elder Robbins. In all honesty he doesn't look any different to me. Now that he's home we'll make sure that he gets on the blog.
For those of you close we just want to make sure that you know that you are all expected at the homecoming this Sunday @ 2:50pm.

I have 6 words for you...

Brian Reagan is a comedic genius!!!


Leash, Kev, Ton and I went to see him last Saturday. It was brillant. I was laughing so hard I was crying. Tony asked if I was okay because he wasn't sure if I was laughing or crying there were so many tears...it was hilarious.

I haven't checked the blog since New Year's Eve and it looks like I missed a lot of drama. It looks like everything is worked out now and if this post works then I guess it is. I will write more later.

Love Jess

Povo wife

Mindi, I'm so glad you finally posted! I've been missing your blogs and especially your pics. I was thinking, when I saw the pics of the girls at church, "those dresses look so vintage. they're so cute". That's great that someone saved them for you. Anyway, I just got back from my cousin's house. Her husband served his mission in France and so he made some fabulous dessert crepes. Yes, I had four. I was really hesitant about going since Cole threw up last night and had some other pretty unsightly problems this morning, but after sitting in the house ALL day, we just had to get out. The kids didn't eat anything but really enjoyed the attention from all these newly married couples. Geof. and I are WAY past our prime here in Provo. Everyone we started out with is long gone and now the new batch of singles and newlywed cousins are taking our place. I'm sure it'll be bitter sweet to leave, but we're ready. Geof. takes his first exam tomorrow..his oral. He's been studying like a madman as you can imagine and is actually surprisingly confident that he'll do well. As you all know, Geof. ALWAYS thinks he'll flunk his tests and he always comes out on top...literally at the top of the class. So after the oral tomorrow, he'll have 10 days of sim testing which is kind of like sitting in a fake cockpit pretending you're flying one of their jets. Fun. He's SOO ready to be done, as are we. poor Cole tears up almost daily now thinking of his daddy. I'm just not the best wrestler I guess. We have been incredibly blessed however, and I'm just grateful to have a husband who loves and misses his family so much. He tells me about so many pilots who have families but who would rather get drunk with the "crew" instead. Yuck. Thank you for the gospel, and truth, and families. ~Darla

ColoradoBennett

This is a collage of our "Stock Show '07" trip. The stock show is a huge western event in Denver, with all sorts of rodeos, etc. Jay was entered into the "muttonbusting" competition (that's where they put a helmet on a bunch of 5-7 year old kids, put them on the back of a mad sheep, and let them run through the rodeo arena while 5,000 people laugh their heads off. He took second place, received a trophy taller that he is, and became somewhat of a celebrity. Kaia and Sierra really enjoyed looking at all the animals. On the way home Kaia said she wanted a big chicken to take home and she wanted to name it "Beefy". Adam and I laughed and laughed and now "Beefy the Chicken" is a big topic of conversation around our house.

ColoradoBennett

In the history of the blog have we had a picture of Pa on here? I don't think so. Here are a few pics of Adam building an igloo in our back yard. The last one is of the girls at church wearing dresses that were mine when I was their age.

ColoradoBennett

I have lots of excuses for not blogging lately. The file folder Zoombrowser that I keep all my digital photos in is suddenly not letting me in because it wants tobe updated. In the two minutes that I've had to sit down and try and figure it out, I couldn't. I'm still mad that my video camera software is so unuserfriendly and that I can't get it to burn a DVD or get it on the blog. Plus, every time I open up the computer Sierra is climbing on my back asking me if she can play computer games. I wish I never would have looked up nickjr.com while she was around. On a positive note, here is a picture of my happy babies. Kaia is climbing all over me, making typing too difficult. Plus, I need to get my Christmas stuff packed away before July arrives.

The absence of Meags...

Hey all. Meags is up enjoying the snow on Mt. Hood, but she wanted to let you all know that she loves you and isn't blogging because her computer puked on her about a week or two ago. Her compy should be ready to blog again tomorrow sometime, so expect to hear from her soon. Hope all is going well and recooperation from the crazy holidays is in full effect.
peace out diggity dawgs
-cor

Test

Hope that this works, if so great job!!! Love Aunt Jack

New Address

Okay, Cory could be publishing the same thing, but here goes. We now have a new gmail account for the family. It is our old username followed by: @gmail.com with our old password as our new password. That will let you publish under beecher fam. Now if you want to publish under your own name you need to sign in with Darla's info. go to my account or my profile-now I can't remember, click on settings, click on permissions, put in your own gmail address and it will send you an e-vite to your account and just follow the directions. I know some of you don't have gmail and that is why we have the family account. Also, we can do what I mentioned before without having to look up someone's specific e-mail address. I know there are quite a few I don't have. If you have any problems- hopefully you won't- call Cory because he obviously knows way more than I do. I'm an idiot. Now I am calling Darla to stop her worry, calling Cory to tell him I did it, and then going to bed at 10:00. Way past my current bed time.

Love, Brooke

Okay, now I'm an idiot. Cory what did you do?

Poor poor Darla

Okay, Darla and I have tried to get to the root of this problem and guess what- we're stuck. I'm going to verify with Mike when he wakes up but what I read was that currently there is no way to change the account sign in if it is a gmail account. Our plan had been to just use our user name and password as the new gmail- also that way we could send personal info like addresses etc...through a family e-mail BUT evidently it can't be done yet. After I verify with Mike I will write their HELP service and ask for a time estimate. So... you are all on the honor system that you will use Darla's e-mail address and the password ONLY to get into our blog to post and not to read the steamy e-mails that she and Geof have been sending back and forth whilst they are apart. If for some reason you don't have Darla's e-mail address you can contact Aunt Jack, Mindi, or Meags or me (good luck with that) or call Geof's cell because Darla has a new phone number- hence me not being able to get ahold of her for the past three days.

Let's not let this hinder our blogging. Now that the holidays are over there is no excuse, except maybe the millions of things you let slide during the holidays. Sorry for this little blip. Should eventually work out.

Moni and Cam, Jess and Tony, thank you for your Christmas cards and your adorable pictures. I am going to get them all up on my fridge as soon as the suitcase where they reside is unpacked! Actually it is my last suitcase and I put all the misc. in there as I was unpacking. I'm pretty excited about that.

We are still dealing with jet lag. We were fine on the way to Wa. but the trip back has killed us. I think the key is coming into someplace at night-that is what you should do- you are exhausted from travelling, you visit for a bit and then you sleep for several hours and you are normal. We came back home in the late morning, we were all exhausted and slept all afternoon and though I tried to get the girls to stay awake they kept falling asleep all evening and then we were all wide awake all night. Jane got ready for church at 6 am and by an hour before we were supposed to go everyone started crashing. So... today we are almost normal except that Ellyn fell asleep at 5 and Mike at 7 and Jane and Sadie at 7:30 and I'm the loner awake at 9:13. I think I'm good now, except that they will all be waking up at about 4 and I will be exhausted. Last night they all woke up at 3:00, the whole house was wide awake. Luckily they all have colds and so with a clear conscience I gave them each some Tylenol cold and read to them for about 45 minutes and then put them back to bed. It has worked to Mike's advantage though because the football games all start at 2 am here and so he has been wide awake for all of those. I think he and Ellyn will be sharing some football time tonight.

We had a wonderful trip. We have the best two families anyone could possibly have. I love you all so much. We are all about 5-10 lbs heavier and thus my New Year's Res that I vow never to make is eating healthier and excersizing more. Really, it isn't too hard, I had just gotten slack and indulgent. It's hard with so many holidays so close together, we just start at Halloween and let the sugar fest continue until New Years. I'm too old though, and I don't have the willpower if I really go out of control. It's funny to know that I'm writing this to a family of excersizing, healthy food obsessed, Beecher women and skinny Mindi and Darla of course. I am excited because upon returning to Bavaria I have discovered that our commissary has started carrying a whole new line of organic food. A few organic choices in just about every category. This is HUGE- I had given up on ever trying to eliminate all those healthy additives from my diet. Mostly because I'm too cheap to shop anywhere besides the commissary. But now, for a few dollars more a month I can have my cake and eat it too (if it is organic angel food that is).

Okay, I have to go to be now, it's nearly 9:30- YIKES!!!! I love you all.

Blog out- Brooke

hi

test

Test from Cory

Hi i'm posting this from meags' account. Should all be straightened out soon.
cheers.
-c

Okay. It's darla. I still have no idea how my gmail account and password were set up for the ENTIRE blog. Can anyone figure this out and change it? I'll give you my password though so you can all start bloggin: (erased by Cory on 01/08.. details to come).

povo wife

Mindi just called me and informed me that to be able to log on to the blog now, you have to use my gmail account. I don't really know how this happened and if anyone knows how, would be interested in changing it back to the old way so you're not all familiar with my gmail account and password (not that I don't trust you mindi). Let me know if you can't get on to the blog and hopefully we can fix something. Thanks! Darla

ColoradoBennetts

Apparently now that Google has taken over Blogger, only Darla has the password to blog. Call her for the secret information and lets get back to bloggin'.
I have more to blog, but Sierra is trying to type the letter s over and over while I type and I'm past the point of patience. I guess I'll go play Disney Bingo with her and try agian later.
sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

povo wife

Happy New Year!! Is it because most of you are together that you're not blogging?!! Was your New Years just wonderful? Geof. surprised us Friday night by flying in. Of course he was nervous about the whole thing, since he has so much studying to do. But then he realized that most (if not all) the guys would be getting drunk most of the weekend, so why not come out? It was great. We opted to stay home instead of going back to Logan and I'm so happy we did. We went to a really fun indoor pool on Friday in Lehi. It was great. However, when we first arrived I told Geof. I wanted to go in the hot tub because I never get to with the kids. So he stayed on the other side of the kiddie pool with the kids. While he was busy buckling Cole's life jacket, Dayne fell onto her face right beside him and couldn't get up. I noticed this right away and yelled for him to get her. And he didn't hear me. There were a ton of people so the place echoed like crazy. So I yelled louder. Still nothing. At this point I really started panicking because I knew I couldn't get there fast enough and he couldn't hear me. So I jump out of the hot tub and start screaming hysterically at the top of my lungs. Everyone (except for Geof.) heard me, even the stupid life guards who couldn't seem to figure out what I was seeing!! Geof. FINALLY responded and grabbed her. She seemed to be fine but I stood there feeling ridiculous and relieved at the same time. I didn't want to get back in the hot tub so I ran over to Geof. It was crazy. I felt pretty silly for the rest of the day, even though Geof. reassured me every other mom, "especiallyMeagan", would have reacted the same. That night we went and saw The Prestige. It was good but I was so sick and tired that all I wanted to do was crawl into my bed and sleep. I should be in my 2nd trimester and I will say the nausea has subsided a little, but not completely. yesterday we went to church which was so nice with Geof. by my side, and then we had a yummy dinner with our neighbors. We watched the NYC New Year's countdown and were in bed right after 10pm. Aren't we EXCITING?!! There you go. Geof. left this morning at 5 am to catch a flight. I sure hope he did. If I hear he was at the airport until late this evening, boy will I be irritated. (: Well. I gotta run. Life is better. Geof. and I have both settled with the idea of him being gone for 2 months and are doing MUCh better with it. Please blog each of you!! ~darla