Happy 3rd birthday Dayne!!

It's past midnight here, so that means Dayne is now officially 3. I think for girls that means it's all uphill from here right? Terrible two's are over? No, we've been lucky to have such a sweet, funny, somewhat sensitive girl. (: Dayne definately does things here own way (showing up and weighing in at 10 lbs. 5 oz., she took her sweeet time). Geof. and I are learning quite a bit from this little one. Sadly, I just started figuring out that I probably shouldn't try to raise Dayne the same way I've raised Cole. They're soo different. Dayne loves to be held, read to, talked to, etc. She's not as active as Cole and I feel that I've tried pushing that more than I should. And now that I've tried holding her more, singing to her, reading to her..., things have been so much better between us. I love my funny little girl. Happy birthday Dayners!

p.s.

I found Cole at the piano like this...so cute! Here he is holding June so she won't fall off.













And then Dayne slides in, in nothing but her underwear (very common around here). My kids love music. I'm so happy about that.


We flew from SL to Chicago today and look who surprised us there to help me out?? Yes, my close to perfect husband. I LOVE you Geof. It was so nice having him there since I missed the flight I was supposed to take and ended up hanging around in Chicago an extra 2 hrs.

VA

So I'm already feeling pretty guilty for all of you we DIDN'T see on our visit our to Utah. I'm sorry! Dayne and I were pretty sick for the first 3 days (Dayne's UTI came back and I had strep), and so we pretty much just hung out at the Beecher's house and tried to keep visits to minimal since it's soo hard to try to be all over the place while traveling. It was so nice and relaxing that the Beechers allowed us to take up their whole basement, all to ourselves..., especially feeling as yucky as we did. Geof. showed up the day after we did and jumped right in with the kids and really took care of me. SUCH a good man!





Since it already been a week since we'd seen Geof., we decided to have some alone family time. We went to Lehi pool one morning, and then up to Bridal veil falls. You can't tell from the pic, but Cole climbed right up those rocks to the falls...and FAST! Geof. had to scramble up after him to make sure nothing happened.
















An attempted family pic.

Thank you Aunt LeAnne...

I have this "thing" for getting the mail.

I always have.

Growing up I was the one to run out to the mail box, in the Provo house it was more of a race between me and Elly to get to our little mail box on the side of the house, and now I have this cute little hole in my wall where my mail is delivered right to me.  I can be sitting in my living room and reach over to get the mail.  I love it.

Our little mail slot sometimes makes it difficult to fit larger items in so I normally check outside just in case something big is on the porch. 

I check the mail constantly.  Our mail lady doesn't come until about 5 but I check a few times before that just in case and sometimes I check a few times after I pick it up, you know, just in case...I know...cuckoo (I guess that's the OCD talking).

Most of the time it is junk mail or bills but occasionally I get something personal which is so exciting.

So Saturday I did the normal check the slot, check the porch and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a lovely white package addressed to Miss Indie Marie.

We tore into that sucker like it was our job and this is what we found...

My mom's sister LeAnne made Ind this beautiful quilt.

All I could do was cry.

It is just gorgeous and I kept thinking about how if my grandma were still alive she would be doing this same thing.

I have a special place in my heart for handmade items.  They take so much thought, effort and time.  I know from experience what goes in to making a quilt.  My sweet Aunt is making these quilts for all of her grandchildren and all 3 of her sisters grandchildren.  There are 19 of us kids so you can imagine how many grandchildren that is...I think there are 22 so far and half of my cousins haven't had kids yet.  What a big job LeAnne.

We truly love it.  Thank you, thank you for such a wonderful gift.

I am stealing them for two weeks...

I am super excited! Grandma and I am pretty sure Meagan are coming tomorrow! We are leaving for Frankfurt today. We do not want to wake up at three in the morning and that is why we are leaving today. I love the video of Chloe. It is hilarious.

love jane

washington bennett in utah

i have just been catching up on the blog this morning and must say that i love, love, love our family. i don't think i can say it enough and i feel bad for all the dumb suckers out there that don't make the effort to stay close to their (or our) family, whatever the case may be.
the pictures of team ellyn were awesome! jess, i looked and there was nothing here in utah this year. i had fully intended to organize a team here if there was, but alas, utah was not with it this year.
mindi, i love all the pictures. i'm going to steal all of your children. and incase you don't read my comment on your squirell blog, i think i laughed for about 5 minutes off and on cuz i couldn't get past the mental image of you opening that garbage lid and screaming, ducking, flailing etc. it was great.
well the last week was very eventful. for us anyway. Geof. and Darla came into town. i haven't seen them since Brind's wedding so that was way fun. we hung out with them quite a bit. when they first got here i was getting over some kind of bug that i got on top of the morning sickness so i was a nightmare. i picked up darla and the kids from the airport in sweats, an in and out burger shirt and greasy hair. i was nasty. oh well, i looked better the next day to pick geof. up. dayne went with me. most of the drive went like this "turn on the mookus" "the what?" " the mookik" "oh okay" "i can't hear it" "i can't hear it" (turn it down slightly) "what?" "i can't hear it" "you're deaf". it was pretty funny. dayne is a doll and her voice is so dang funny.
wednesday was my first real doctors appointment. i got to hear the baby's heartbeat!! it was amazing! it's so fast! it just makes me happy to know for sure that i'm sick for a reason and that there really is a little life forming in my tummy. even cole seemed pretty impressed. ricky hacking was at the beechers when i showed up there after my appointment. he wasn't as impressed as cole. he had more of a grossed out look on his face. mostly because he can't believe that i'm even married.
saturday jason and i participated in a primary activity where the kids got to "travel to different countries". we were, of course, Finland. it was really fun. we got lingon berry juice from IKEA and a lady in the ward made pulla (finnish bread). i loved it, and ate about 7 pieces of pulla.

Our dance off!

Rub a dub dub, our three babes in a tub!

A long time gone...

I am so sorry I haven't posted on this blog in forever.  I haven't been great about posting on my own blog either.  I was getting way too obsessed with it and decided I needed to cool it.  

So let me begin by commenting on some blogs now that I am all caught up reading them...

Brooke,

I can't believe you went to Ellyn's MRI alone, you are so strong.  When they said one parent could go in to see Indie I went, but once I was in there I thought, "I probably should've had Tony do this."  She was groggy and cranky and hooked up to all the monitors which were beeping and making me nervous and I think she could sense that and it was making her nervous.  Tony deals with all of that better than me.  Again, you are amazing.

I will look into those BPA website.  I hate it though because I feel like nothing is safe anymore.  Everything is going to eventually do something bad to you.  I just want to move away to a compound with all of us where we grow our own food and teach our own kids and then we wouldn't have to deal with all of this crap.

The blog about the Porsche was great.  I also had the feeling that you were meant to be a little late.  I think about stuff like that all of the time.  If I am ever passing a crash I think, "Maybe it was a good thing I was late getting out the door."  I am not sure if that makes sense...it's late.

Jane,

I am so glad you are on the blog.  I can't believe you are going into Young Womens.  I am a beehive advisor and I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to have you in my class.  If only we didn't live half a world away.  Maybe when we live in the compound?!

LeAnne, 

I am currently debating wether to get a file cabinet or just keep using my little file folders.  I hate to deal with "papers" too.  And I could never just throw away a box either, what if there was something important inside.

I loved reading the blog about all of the stuff you did with the Beechers.  I told Ton that we really need to come up there.  He needs to experience all of those things.  He is going to apply for a school up there so if he gets an interview we are going to make a vacation out of it.   Yeah!!!

Mindi,

I read your blog about the ear thingy, it is called an otoscope.  We are looking in to getting one too, they are pricey but I think they could save a lot of money in the long run.

I was really sorry to hear about your friend Timber.  I was thinking about him about a week ago and then I read your blog that night and heard he had died.  That is really so sad.  And so sad for his big family too.  Was it for the best?  Was he pretty bad off even if he would have survived?  

Geof,

I loved the wheelies, I didn't even know they made them in adult sizes.

Meags,

I read your blog about being overwhelmed and I hear ya girl.  Sometimes I feel the same way.  I, too, have a hard time keeping up with all the new blogs, plus I am hooked on a bunch of others so I read about 35 but here is my trick.....Google Reader.....it is amazing.  It keeps track of all the blogs I read and lets me know when someone has made a new post.  That way I don't have to check a billion sites, I just check my reader.  If you click on that link it will take you to my friends blog where she explains how to set it up.  It is so easy and very worth it.  

Well now that I have made all of my comments I am tired and it is late.  I am going to be better about posting on this blog.  I promise.

I love you all.

Jess

ColoradoBennett

I think quilting is one of the most amazing forms of art. Purhaps it is because I cannot sew a straight line to save my life. Le Anne's quilt for Tristan arrived last night. It is a wonderful design with little cowboy fabric. This makes me especially happy because there are some great family history photos on my grandpa's side of cowboys that I would love to use to decorate Tristan's room. I'll just design all my kids' rooms around Grandma Dana's quilts. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
p.s. I'll never let my kids call you "the mean Grandma". I'm so sorry Sierra said that once. That was a cute letter you wrote to Tristan :), we'll keep it forever.

Bavaria- TEAM ELLYN

My beautiful sister called a few months ago and told me that she and Pa thought the family should run/walk Sean's Run from Autism, a 5/10k taking place in Portland in behalf of our little Ellyn. So Meags organized it with both sides of the family and Saturday morning our amazing, wonderful family met together and ran/walked for Ellie. Cory made t-shirts for everyone and I have to say they are very stylish. So on the Stinchfield side Kenn, Adina, Buffy (baby Noah in-vitro), and Buffy's mom Terry participated. Barb had been planing to do it but after finally finding out that she had a stress fracture in her foot she was obviously out of the running (hehe). So she volunteered to run Adina's kids to all of their games so that Adina could run. On the Bennett side it was mom and dad, Brinders and Julia, Cory and Meagan and the four cutest nieces and nephews ever (in a tie with all the others of course) Jack, Bennett, Wil, and Hazey Mae. We had several first placers in their age group and a few seconds as well!

I can't begin to express how much I love our families. We are so, so blessed. They bring so much joy, happiness, and love into our lives. Thank you all so much. You are our very best friends and I think you are all amazing!
love, Brooke

For those few that don't read Cort's blog!!
Big News!
Joey and Chelsea are moving away.It’s going to be a really sad couple of days.We’re very happy for them to be with their boys,And know they will love having Dad & Ms. ChelseaBeing there for them after school days.What happens when we have Sunday dinners,Family parties, softball games, visits to each others houses,And even talking on MSN while at work?These things will be missed so very muchBut Chelsea’s right, it’s just a plane ride away.I am jealous that they will enjoy 80 degree weather Pretty much all year round while in Texas.I’ll be sad when I hear that a 3rd child is about to come out.I’ve always imagined I’d watch my nieces and nephews As much as possible.But we’ll come visit and so will you.Just promise me you’ll now BLOG TOO!I love you both so very much.You’ve shocked us allBut we understandAnd I speak for everyone When I say-we completely agree with your decisionAnd are so happy for all four of you.Things could be worse-we’ll all survive.

ColoradoBennett

This is my nemesis, Mr. Squirrel. He has two desires in life: to eat trash and scare the tar out of Mindi Bennett. This evil master mind has discovered a way to "kill two birds with one stone" so to speak.

He chewed a hole in our trash can lid so that he can access all our trash. Then when I walk out to the trash can and lift the lid, a screeching beast comes flying out. It happens 87% of the time and without fail I let out a bloodcurdling scream. I know the neighbors must wonder why I would scream each time I take out the trash. Curse that Mr. Squirrel.

ColoradoBennett

The kids and I were eating lunch in the backyard, talking about our blog. We were looking for a good name for Thursday blogs. We have FHE on Monday, self-portraits on Tuesday, "Treasure Wednesday" on Wednesday, but no name for Thursday. Sierra suggested a few silly names, one of which was "dog bowl Thursday" (which I will later show was a self-fulfilling prophecy). Kaia thought it should be "rag on your head Thursday" and the rest of the day she put or tied things to her head.


Thursday is also a day one of my Young Women comes over. Today she brought some math homework and we worked on problems like: "Negative six plus an unknown number divided by two equals five." Please post a comment if you know the answer, if we were wrong I still might have time to call her before she goes to school :). While I was helping this girl, lets call her Sally, with her homework I tried to tell her that if she would just commit to turning in every assignment for the rest of the school year she would succeed. I told her that the things she learns in 7th grade are not always going to be applicable through out her life, but learning to commit and follow through with assignments will. She looked at me blankly like I had just asked her to walk to the moon. Adam was trying to keep the kids happy while I helped Sally. Tristan really wanted Adam's truck keys and Adam finally caved. A few hours later, we realized that the keys were missing. We searched high and low. Through every trash can, under the couches, in the toy boxes, ect. After a few prayers, Adam went outside and started searching in the dark. He found the keys in the bottom of Max's dog bowl (see photo below). I found Tristan in Max's dog run earlier, making a dog food soup with the dry food and water. I guess he thought some truck keys would add just the right flair to his exotic dish.

bglife

        I

      heart

         the blog!

Bavaria

Hey Peeps,

I hope everyone is well. Ad, Geof, Min, and Darla that trip looked like so much fun. Those kids know how to groove. Well I need to be cleaning my kitchen but I am enjoying sitting here with Sawyer and Sadie and enjoying the breeze blowing in from our 55 degree day outside.

Jane has new beginnings tonight. Can you believe it? They are introducing her to the Young Women's program. She is so excited. She has been wanting to do the underneath part of her hair a dark red and she begged me to do it today so she was all dolled up for tonight. It is still wet right now so I will let you know how it turned out on a future blog. Okay- back from N.B. it is cute, I'm glad it isn't permanent. I love her natural hair color way too much.

Okay, for all moms, you have all heard about Canada banning baby products with BPA? It is in plastics and all can linings and many baby bottles and sippy cups and binkies have it too, Nalgene bottles included. It has been proven to cause neurological issues. The products won't be taken off the shelves in the U.S. until next year. So...there are a million sites to check to see if your baby stuff is BPA free. I would highly recommend it. Also, the only canned food company that does not use BPA is Eden Foods- that means all of your canned fruit, beans, tomatoes. I know that is something I will be thinking about as Sawyer starts into table foods. You can call me paranoid but there are reasons we have such an increase in Autism, food allergies, cancer, etc... and I think a great deal of that is caused by things being done to our food. Hey, just call me paranoid.

Jess, so sad to see Indie's little surgery day pics. I remember going in for an MRI with Ellyn. I went all by myself and I think it was the worst experience of my life thus far (except for the seizures). She had to fast and she was so hungry and they were late getting us in. Then afterward the sedation made her so cranky and disoriented. They told me it would be about 45 minutes and it was I think 3 hours. She was trying to rip the I.V. out of her arm. It was terrible.

On that happy note I will take my leave. Love you all.

These are the shoes Geof. wore to the temple

Kid Dance Off

Here is the Kid Dance Off that took place at our friend's, the Purcells, on Saturday night. Cole and Sierra danced for about 30 minutes straight.

My School Essay of a funny relative.

Funny Relative


Sarcastic, funny, cute. Those are the words that best describe my aunt Ellyn. She is one of the best aunts I have. I have many good aunts, but without doubt, she IS the funniest. What makes her the funniest? Who knows? It could be her sarcasm. WAIT. It is. There was a time at my grandma's house when my cousin asked what cheesy meant. Well since, I am obsessed with High School Musical, she told him High School Musical, just to bug me. (Get it?). So yes she is the funniest aunt I have and I love her for that.

ColoradoBennett

Aunt Jack, we hope your birthday yesterday was fantastic.

Here are a few pics from our visit with Geof. Darla and kids. We've had so much fun. Kaia and June-Bug.
In the midst of all the morning chaos, Darla whipped up this yummy breakfast for the grown-ups. I tried to get her in the picture, but she refused (that's why it is lop-sided).

Yippie! We got three babysitters and took a trip to the Temple and out to dinner on Friday night.

Saturday morning the guys took a two hour moutain bike trip to Golden. So when they got home, Darla and I (plus my friend Liesl) rushed out the door to go on our own adventure. We ended up eating lunch at the Red Rocks Amptheater then taking a hike.

Happy Birthday Auntie Jack!!!

You know I am the most disorganized person on the planet right? I hope you had a fabulous birthday! We all love you dearly around here. You are tied with a few select others as my favorite person on earth. Love you! The Stinchfield Clan

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Jack! I hope you have a great day. We are having a lot of birthdays!

love,
Jane

bglife

it has been centuries since i have written anything besides picture captions.  i find the blog a little overwhelming at this point in my life.  in fact there are few things that i don't find overwhelming.  to be honest right now i can not think of anything that is not overwhelming.  not that there is much going on in our lives right now.  just the same everyday hussle and bussel that really get me going.  benny is getting ready for her spring show so she has ballet 3 days a week, jack has tekwondo 3 days a week and they both have school 5 days a week (that really puts a kink in things).  then there is scouts, and cory working 2 too many jobs (one is ok, three can get to me, but i am grateful that he is willing to do so much to take care of us.)  we also have soccer and social obligation, which we try to keep to a minimum and all the other stuff in between.  i know i am a whiner, but you know how you will be going along hunky dory then all of the sudden BOOM! everything goes to pot?  however i just got done talking with rose about her ex husband and i am reminded how blessed i am.  some people's lives really are depressing, and i do not have one of those lives.

jack, because he just turned nine, got to move into my scouting group and we are both so excited.  he could not be sweeter if he tried.  everyone who called and wrote for his birthday, thank you!  it made me cry!  he truly is the perfect oldest child and grand son.  we have the two best examples of loving and including when it comes to jackson and janie! 

      

had to break up the monotony with some pictures of fishing with papa dave.  haze was there too but cor didn't get a picture of her before the camera went on the fritz. 

for wilohm's story before nap he chose a story about the nephites waiting for the sign of the birth of Christ.  when i explained that they were going to be burned if they believe in Jesus i asked if he would say he believed in Christ knowing he could die.  he said "i believe in Jesus and i know that he would save me."  he blows me away!

well i can't try to cover everything i have missed so i wont try.  love to all...............me

Bavaria

This is really quick. FIrst, loved AJ's song. The girls did too. I am very impressed. Secondly, Cameron, that talk was awesome and absolutely invaluable to my talk on Sunday. Auntie Jack, my computer now tells me (out loud) that you are on-line and it is always when I am having my nightly chats with Mike. I always want to pop on and tell you I love you, so I'm doing it now. Mindi, in case you didn't notice, I did add our blog to the list.

Everything is going well here. We got four inches of snow yesterday morning. But it did warm up to 50 degrees. I had to help teach a Primary Leadership meeting in Nurnberg last night. It went well and I drove up with two of my friends so that part was really fun. I had the last decision making meeting with Ellyn's school yesterday and we are going to go forward with trying to get our move approved. It is going to be a long and annoying process I am sure. We'll see how it goes.

I have to go wake up my sleeping children. I hope everyone has a great Friday!

Sorry

The top picture is the girls in California and the bottom one for those of you that don't know is how Lyd use to give Tuco drinks!!!

Hi

Kev and I are doing a DVD for Rigby's 60th Wedding Anniversary and I have been seeing a bunch of cute pictures and had to share some. I will try to get more on after I get this project over with! Love you all Aunt Jack

haven't figured out how to post a comment

it worked when cory was here and gave me the new "set up" but not since.

jessica the transformation was amazing!!!! i can organized anything, clean anything-----except paper. one thing that has helped is my filing cabinet. i grab a folder, label it and file it.  if by chance the thing ever fills up i will buy a new one or maybe i will go thru my files and get rid of something.

the other suggestion is one that andrew, one of adam's friends gave me. he said he had all his stuff in boxes. when there got to be too many boxes he would pick one up unopened, kind of shake it, think about it for a minute or 2 and if he could not remember what was in the box he figured it wasn't worth keeping and he would throw it away. i liked the idea, but i am afraid i would miss a real "treasure."

as far as clothes and things like that i have meagan or ellynn go thru my closet with me and tell me "i can't believe you are keeping this!" why doesn't brooke help with this process? because she is worse than i am and i do it to her.

bob and katie beecher came up to seatle yesterday. i drove up to meet them and ellery.  we had so much fun. they were coming from the tri-cities and so we met at bohems chocolates, went to gillman village for lunch at the boarding house. they have awesome homemade soups and sandwiches on their homemade bread. then we went into seatle;

pikes market, piroskies--yummy

beechers cheese factory across the street from the market

the wharf, a shared order of fish & chips at ivars & ye old curiosity shop

doc maynards underground tour and pioneer square

and then outstanding seats at safeco field in the 9th row behind home plate. it's fun to watch from there even if the mariners lose.

then back to bob and katies hotel for chicken foot (a game with dominoes) till 1:00am. the day had started at 5 am or 6 for all of us so we were tried, but it was so fun to play.

come up, we are good tour guides, life is good here in the n.w.

love you, aunt Le Anne

Awkward American Day

I thought I had out maneuvered "Awkward American Day." As you may recall, pretty much every time I go out into our German community I have awkward situations arise. Mostly dealing with trying to park and unload my giant American SUV. Jane and I went shopping in Amberg with Sawyer today, while the girls were in school. My Honda was in the shop getting the belt replaced so we took the BMW. All the way there I kept reminding myself to turn off the headlights when I parked. We got to Amberg, zipped into a little parking spot with plenty of room on either side, got out the umbrella, put on the front pack and went off to shop. It was pouring rain as we walked to the Markplatz, which was unfortunate because all the vendors were pulling their stuff inside and one of our missions had been to find a scarf with a German motif to send to Mike as a gift for his interpreter's fiance. I didn't want to duck in and out of shops in the pouring rain (note- it was not raining when we left) so we went on to the second part of our mission- a little trip to H&M. So Jane and I shopped, Sawyer was very good, we found a good sale on sweaters for the little girls for next school year, we checked out, and headed back to the car in plenty of time. Guess what!?! Yes, I had left the lights on and the battery was dead as a door nell. We had 10 extra minutes before we would need to leave for home and be back for Ellyn's little bus, I said a prayer, tried again, not even a click this time. All of the friends that I have their numbers memorized are out of town. That would be a total of three numbers. I said another prayer and got out of the car and looked around. A few cars down I saw a man opening his car door. I used my most handy German phrase and asked if he spoke English, he said a little. I asked if he had time to jump start my car. Of course this is not part of the English he knew- who would? I get out the jumper cables from the floor of the back seat (luckily they were still there from jumping the car when Mike got home) and gesture. He says okay and then we start looking around. I look over at his car and it is a porsche. There is one car between us and a blank spot across the street but there is also a driveway next to his car and a huge patch of cobblestone sidewalk in front of me. So... he did what I was thinking and pulled up onto the sidewalk. Did you know in a porsche the battery is right below the windshield in a little covered box, while the rest of that area is the trunk? After he pulled his car up the man got out his owner's manual. I didn't want to just take over so I let him do it until he told me to go start my car and he hadn't started his yet, then I made a teansy suggestion. Luckily it started right away and I will forever be indebted to the man with the porsche. So Jane and I were racing home, praying that we would get back in time. As we came around a bend in the road there was a policeman waving cars onto a side road (it was by our favorite German restaurant on the hill). Up ahead we could see police cars and a couple of ambulances. We took the little detour and made it home with minutes to spare. It made us wonder though, was it all supposed to happen that way? Were we protected from an accident or was it just me being a total airhead? The timing did really look just about right. Jane and I decided that we should say a little prayer thanking Heavenly Father either way.

VA

June and I met Geof. and the kids at the river trail this Saturday. The kids were happy to be with Geof., but as soon as I arrived the fighting began (what IS it about kids acting up for their moms??). June was happy as usual.
Cole LOVES wearing daddy's shirts to bed, especially when Dad's out of town. Dayne joined in the fun tonight as they tore up the couch.

ColoradoBennett

I know this is a long shot, but does anyone have the origional email that Brooke sent us to introduce us to the blog? How 'bout family photos from 2005-2006 (group shots to put on the cover of the blog book)?

Happy Late Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday a day late!!! Sorry I saw it on my palm on Saturday and thought that I needed to remember it for Sunday and then forgot! Sorry bud, I hope that you had a great day and I know that your wonderful parents made it a great one for you. I want you to know that the girls still talk about you and now they have decided that they should name their new baby brother Jackson just like you. It is so great to me that you are such a wonderful kid that your little cousins think so much of you to remember you and want to name their brother after you!!! I love you and once again sorry about this being late!!!! Love Aunt Jack

VA forgets...

Jackson!! I remembered last night after my kids were asleep that it was your birthday! I'm sorry we forgot to call, but I'm sure you're okay about that and your birthday was splendid! Cole and Dayne love you soo much and talk about you all the time. You're such a good big cousin and example to them! Thank you Jackson!
love, Geof., Darla, Cole, Dayne and Junie

HAPPY B-DAY!!!

Happy Birthday, buddy! I hope you have a great one. Sawyer says happy birthday too. He is screaming it. I love you.

AJ's Music

AJ and his friend Tyler have a new song and they've put it on Myspace.
Go to www.myspace.com/forceforreason to listen.

Happy Happy Birthday Jackson

Here is Jackson smiling because he knows that in 2.4 years it'll be his 9th birthday. Whoohooo. We hope you had a wonderful, wonderful birthday. We love you mucho.
Love, Adam, Mindi, Sierra, Kaia and Tristan

Happy Birthday Jackson!!!

We love you bud! Hope you have an awesome day! Could you maybe smile once in a while? Life can't be that bad!

Spring Break.

You would think that we are having an amazing spring break. We are not. Joanie, my mom says she loves the Brad and Rabbits story. Well anyway It has been rainy, we have had a few sunny days. But not exactly warm. Right now it is midnight and me and Sadie are watching Anne of Green Gables, (thanks for getting that for my mom, grandma, I love you). I love this movie. I biked onpost the other day with my friend to the library and I got this teens cook book and I made red beans and rice the night before last and tonight I made Roman Apple Coffee Cake. It was really good. I need to go to bed now. Love you all,

Jane

does everything we post go in the book?

because if so this is my chance to go on record--yes i do remember cutting joan's toenails. she has never let me forget it!!!

in my defence;

i can't stand long gross toenails. it would probably be toward the top of my list of things that gross me out. my one visit to amish country was irreparably marred by a visit to one the farms and here was this amish man sitting there in his old fashioned suit looking all quaint and cool till i got to the bare feet and long gross toenails. yuck!!! 

i don't think i made them all bleed.

i didn't do it on purpose.

she really was old enough to cut her own toenails, but instead had chosen to let them grow to lengths worthy of a write up in the genis book of world records (or at least an honorable mention). i was just helping her out of what would be a horribly embarrassing moment should anyone else notice.

maybe you could sneak in line when mindi is doing all of her kid's nails--what's another 20? or geof. is in charge of all his kid's.

speaking of sleepovers--joani you are always cute--no matter what you wear (your toenails looked great!)

new subject: hazel on steriods! 

she may look cute--did you notice that she is definitely bulking up and can you make out the increased muscle definition? what you can't see--"the roid rage"  is killing us. this is professor umbridge and then some. she is about cute in her fish face and we are excited she is breathing better! sorry about little maddie. hope she is feeling better.

mindi, call when you want news--i would love to hear from you. joy school and bees look equally busy.

finished the 5th quilt. now one for the bennett family reunion and then on to the newest kev the 2nd or 3rd or 4th depending on where you start and who you start with. dayne, june, bec, tristan, and indie, they are coming.  chels i'll be blunt your boys are going to get a quilt to curl up and watch tv with but i want some hints as to colors, themes etc. i want them to like them.

love to all, aunt le anne

We are "The Sisters"

Just because I don't blog on a regular basis, I feel "all close" with everyone. But I must admit, it's very addicting and can't stop reading if someone posts something. That means I would get behind. Anyway, as far as your comment LeAnne, oh yes I do remember you living at home. You cut my toe nails so short they bled! You also took me on dates with you. I remember more of the times when you were first married. The time when we wallpapered. Back then I think you bought the wall-paper for about $1 a roll and our fingers went through it as we went to put it up. But we repaired it and it looked beautiful. We canned green beans and I would eat the whole bottle of them and get sick. Also the time you didn't dare take Brooke's temperature so I was the one that got to do it. I was 12 years old and doing a rectal temperature! I also got to watch all your kids when you and Ellery were out of town and I took them to Lagoon all day because the guy I was dating got us in free and all the kids got sun burned! More recent times is you sleeping with me when you came for Chelsea's wedding. How could you forget that? I had my occulsal guard in, my heating pad, because of the stress of everything, my back went out on me. The contraption that holds my foot flexed from too many years of teaching step. (I wonder why I'm not married!) Anyway good memories and they will continue. The next time I post I will talk about Paula and Jacki. My kids do know and always will know how much my sisters mean to me. I tell them, soon they will be calling each other, "The Sisters" also. I know that I could depend on any of you if I needed to. Don't you remember we're all going to be in the same rest home together?

By the way, if you have noticed I have figured out how make comments now, but I don't think my comments got posted when I wanted to thank everyone for their comments for my lesson! I used them all. I love you all and love reading about your lives. Love you!

P.S. Here's a little hint so you can blog a little faster. Check out Cortney and Rodger's blog. She has a typing test down on the right hand side. We could all practice. So far out of my family I'm the WINNER! Beat me!

ColoradoBennett

I can't sleep, so I'll tell you a story. When Sierra was a baby, I used to make a lot of bread. But with each following child, I had less and less desire to spend any time in the kitchen. Something clicked this weekend, and I'm back at it. Also, I love to experiment. It is my quest for the perfect sandwich loaf. Soft, not too crumbly, healthful and awfully delicious. We had friends over on Saturday evening between conference sessions. I wanted to make bread, so I started some dough after the morning session. I tossed in some experimental items like ground flax seeds and ground sunflower seeds. It was all working out so wonderfully until I decided to make a "quick" trip to Costco while the dough was rising. Everyone and their mother was at Costco and it took forever. By the time I got home, my beautiful dough had risen to the braking point and collapsed in on itself. Tragic. I tried to knead it and re-raise it, but it just didn't work out. But yesterday I decided to try again. I threw in a few new items for fun and it turned out really well. The bread on the right is a demonstration of how homemade bread shouldn't look.





Adam came home with three tiny bunnies yesterday. I'm pretty sure he thought I'd say "H---, NO!" But I fell in love with them and insisted we go to Pet's Mart right away to get supplies. The whole time we were in there he had a look on his face like, "I can't believe I'm spending money on these bunnies." Needless to say, the girls adore them. Adam kept telling them that we were only raising them to get big and fat so we can eat them. No one seemed traumatised by that statement, which worries me. Also, just so you know that Sierra's hair doesn't always look how it does in the picture above, I've posted the following. She is growing out her bangs and yesterday I was so proud of myself for being able to french braid them. This lasted little less than half an hour.

Bavaria

Good morning everyone!!! I am too lazy to add my comments and post so my comments will be part of my post. Min, you should be able to copy and paste text at least. I do it all the time. I am with Meags and Joan and everybody else. I love sneaking a look at the other blogs every once in a while but I just don't have the time to check them all. They are beautiful and creative and they inspired me to start my own, which I did but haven't put the address on here yet. I want mine to be our family history. I have never had the time to sit down and scrapbook, too much time, mess, expense, thinking in advance, etc... So once I discovered they could be made into books I've started it as our family journal. I really don't expect anyone to read it but then I have it and it is also in cyber space so if our house burns down it will still exist. Hopefully my house won't burn down and technology explode all in one quick cataclysmic, end of the world type disaster.

I have loved this blog for three years now. It has ebbed and flowed, traveled some rocky roads, gained bloggers, unfortunately lost bloggers, but I think we can all agree that it has brought a closeness to our family that is irreplaceable. Poor aunt Jackie would have all of us Bennetts staying at her house every single time we came to visit because that would have been our comfort level. Yet I can't tell you how much fun I had with Monie and Cam and kids when we came through. Sadie still talks about her best friend who is her cousin who lives in Utah (she has a hard time remembering Harley's name). I don't think I would have ever felt comfortable enough to just call and ask to stay out of the blue but there was the invitation on the blog, you were all the cousins that I felt close to and in tune with. I feel like I know so much more about all of you, even my own siblings and their families. Realistically, we wouldn't have the time for the phone calls that would keep us all this close. I think what everyone has contributed to the blog over the years will be one of our greatest life's work. Does that sound cheesey or overdramatic? I really believe that. I'm not chastising anyone that has their own blog, you have all stayed really involved in this one, you know, I would hate to bring out the old Blog Nazi. I do worry that a book doesn't publish comments and then there are a few of you that we wouldn't get to have in there at all. I would just hate to see this one die or become less than it is. So that is where I stand or sit nursing Sawyer while I type, whatever.

Okay, moving on. Yesterday we got some sunshine. It was still cold but the girls got out on the trampoline and we went for a walk. Jane and her friend biked on post and went for ice cream and to the library. She checked out a "teen" cookbook and last night we made red beans and rice and cornbread (done almost completely by Jane) and carrot/coconut/pineapple salad (made with my incredibly speedy food processor that I got just for my Deceptively Delicious Cookbook that I haven't used yet). Elly loved the red beans and rice and they were dang spicy. I dished her up seconds and thirds and then she reached over to my plate. We also used our special flour and soy milk so she could eat the cornbread and she loved that as well. Sadie liked everything- sort of. I was making her eat her carrot salad and she did not want it. I said "Come on Sadie, this was one of my favorites when I was a little girl." She looked at me with this kind, understanding, I (as in Sadie) am the parent, you are the child kind of face and said, "Mom, we live different lives." She is such a stink.

The night was ruined however when Brother Gage from the ward called and asked me to give a talk on Sunday. I have a plan for Ellyn so it should all work out. I have already copied and pasted mom and Cameron's comments onto my notes (see how valuable the blog is?). Okay, that is all I have done thus far. Well I need to go get my family up, Spring Break or not, it's time, Daddy it's time. I will quickly post a picture of Ellyn drinking from the pitcher after dinner last night. I think she was still a bit thirsty. Oh, Hazey and Maddie I'm sorry you sweet babies can't breath! I hope you feel better.




Wait- a few more comments, Jess- I did read your blog yesterday trying to remember the two for Tuesday thing. Your house made me feel so much better. I swear I am working non-stop right now and I cannot get caught up (okay, not non-stop because I am trying to do fun things with my kids too, but you know what I mean). I teased MIke with the pregnancy thing too. It could only work now because he was just home but I stopped fairly quickly because he was worried about the baby and the IUD. He did believe me though and said I was a chump. The couple missionaries in our ward called that day and Elder Abersold asked if I had been fooled and I said no but that I had fooled Mike. He asked how and I told him that I told Mike we were going to have another kid. He told his daughter in an e-mail and she took a test over to her pregnant neighbor (his daughter already has 6 kids), I don't know what happened from there. Ad, the bees are awesome and I'm sorry, my phone died the other night. Okay, that is really the end. I love you all! BLOG ON!