Da na na na na na na na Da na na na na na na na- BATMAN!!!!

I bet you have no idea what Sawyer is obsessed with right now.

Oh yes!!!!

Lucky me!! I got to cut it up!! He did good!!!

Yesterday, while doing Cole's hair for school (this isn't regular-just once in a while when his hair completely out of control bed head) I could tell he was thinking about something, and then he said, "mom, I miss my cousins in WA. When are we going to see them again?" I dunno, Cole. ):

And then later that morning in the car, Dayne tells me, "Mom, I miss Grandma and Pa." And then after a short,quiet moment (Dayne's not quiet for long) she says, "And Hazel misses me, mom. She does!"

"Oh, Dayners..I'm sure she does!"

Dayne's slowly been figuring out this whole 'Cole's in school and I'm not' thing. She still tells me more than once a day that she doesn't have any friends and needs someone to play with (is June not good enough?!). I become that playmate all too often. Today I got Cole's beloved magnet rocks out and told her she could play with them at the table while I did my never ending job of cleaning the kitchen. I didn't take Dayne long to figure out that the magnet rocks become wonderful earings, a crown, and the perfect necklace for a princess. She walked around the kitchen with her hands clasped together in a saint like fashion saying, "I look wonderful, I AM wonderful", followed with, "Do I look beautiful, Mom?", and "I am beautiful, mom". And she was so polite!! "May I please have my crown back, mom?" (after insisting I wear it). And, "Oh, thank you so much for my crown." We should play princess more. (; After the exchanging of the crown, I became "the prince" and we turned music on and danced. And our 'date' will be later this evening. Dayne just watched 'Princess Diaries' for the first time. Can you tell?

We are hiding our VHS's (yes, we still own them) for some time in Cole's room since we don't have a bookcase at the moment and they're stacked up against the wall in the family room. June strolls in there at least a million times a day and grabs a movie at the bottom of the stack, causing ALL the other movies to fall to the ground in a scattered mess, and then brings the said movie to me, and with her extremely high voice (no, she didn't take after Dayne) demands that I put it in. Once in a while I do, but many times I do not since I don't think watching 10 movies a day is the best thing for her. I say this because I've noticed the more movies she watches, the grumpier she becomes when she has to do something BESIDES watch a movie. Of course, Geof. thinks I'm crazy and should just stick her in front of the t.v. whenever she wants, but I think he might be coming around to my way of thinking. Not one of our kids throws fits like June (I KNOW!! That's hard to believe, right?!). They last a good 30 minutes sometimes! Geof. took her to one of his appointments today (an empty house, don't worry) and said he had to drive with one knee (yes, I'm admitting this) so he could plug his ears. It's THAT piercing, I tell ya! Wait, most of the WA Bennetts already know..

So, that's a recap of what's up, right? We miss you all!!

My Adam

I've always just said I love Adam just 'cause I love him. Like this POEM. This past week he kept doing these great things and I kept saying, "Geez I love this guy." I have a friend, Lauren, who was due on Oct. 3rd with her 3rd baby. Adam called me one day and asked if I thought he should go mow Lauren's lawn (her husband, Ryan, is an underwater welder and is gone for months at a time). She was so grateful. Last Saturday night we were at her house playing "Guitar Hero 5" and her water broke. We were with a few other friends and we all set into action cleaning and organizing her house so things would be in order when she got home from the hospital. Lauren's husband was out of state at the time and couldn't fly home until the next day. Lucky for them her labor went very slowly. The next day Adam volunteered to pick up Ryan from the airport. Before leaving I noticed Adam working on something in the kitchen. When I asked, he said he was putting together a sack dinner for Ryan because he knew he would need it. Ryan's plane arrived a half hour early and Adam rushed out to pick him up. Then he rushed him to the hospital and their baby boy, Titus, was born ten minutes later. Lauren had been waiting to push until Ryan got there. Lauren called me and kept expressing her heartfelt gratitude to Adam for his effort in making sure Ryan got to see his son born (and for all his other help). Isn't that sweet?! I think I'll go kiss him right now.

Thanks!

Is it any indicator of how old I am when my baby picture is in black and white? I do believe mom was standing behind the camera, under that tarp thing while holding that stick thing in the air. POOF! This birthday has been a hard one for some reason. Thirty wasn't as hard as I thought, but this sucks. However, everyone in my family did their best to make it a great day. Jess braved taking both her babies out to lunch with us at this horrible Peruvian place that Kev was convinced I would just love. At one point all three babies were freaking at the same time. Granted, Cashey was only freaking because he somehow got some fire-hot chile sauce in his mouth. I look over and he is screaming and drooling, trying to cram both of his hands in his mouth. It was great. Then Lydi took the girls mini golfing while mom and Jess watched Cash. Magical. We even went to ColdStone for dinner. What more could I ask for?
So the muzzle loader hunt opened today. Or as mom and I call it "Spend As Much Money As You Can And Make All Your Dreams Come True" week. I'll let you know tomorrow just how wild it gets tonight. Think chick flicks and pizza. That's right. Downright unruly.
Anyway thanks so much for all the texts and blogs. I love all of you guys.

Climbing the walls

How fitting is it that Sierra can now say "I broke my arm while climbing the walls"?

Happy Birthday!!!

Second time is the charm right? I need to do this more often and then it would go smoother! I do TRY to keep up with Joan so here is Alicia's and Jess' to come! We are very blessed to have Alicia in our family!!! Happy Birthday!!! Love Mom, Dad and Lyd

to my favorite birthday girl

today is such a special day it’s birthday time for you!  i’d really like to celebrate this birthday time with you…..so zipidy-a and hidy-ho there’s something i can do…. sing a song that we all know…..HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!! 

oh sweet alicia i hope you are having a terrific day!  this is seriously one of my favorite days of the year and it’s because it is all about YOU!  i wish i were there so we could go out and eat whatever we wanted and laugh until water came out my nose. 

you are the best and i love you!!!

 

meags

LOTOJA-She really makes us look bad...

Mid summer my Mom decided to do this: http://www.lotojaclassic.com/

The Thursday before the race I went with her to register (I was the widowed wife to an avid hunter, didn’t have much else to do). The line had died down quite a bit, only an hour wait. The buzz of “bikers” (who I usually swear at when they try to take over the road) was actually quite interesting to hear. Their enthusiastic adrenaline had clearly already clicked in. Everyone was asking things like:

“How many times have you done this?”

“Are you on a team or individual?”

“What leg do you have?”

At the registration table they filled out forms, wrote down emergency contacts, and last but not least…got their leg stamped (a requirement, rather than a wristband). She was ready to go!

On Saturday, September 12th my Mom loaded up her bike with her team and headed to Logan, Utah for the race. Logan (LO) to (JA) Jackson Hole. Some crazies do this individually, 206 miles! My Mom did this on a team of 5 women.

She took the second leg, which was rumored to be the most difficult portion of all. 46 miles uphill, sounds like a blast right? “I like hills” she kept saying all through her training. CRAZY! As usual, she ended up doing a better than fantastic job. Her total time was 3:06 and she was the 8th woman to finish in her segment. The first place girl was only 8 minutes ahead of her. It was such a great accomplishment, with only a few months of training. I think it motivated her quite a bit for next year. Great job Mom, we love you!!!

PS – I know this is late, but better now then never!

Her team mates. She is the oldest by 11 or so years.

Posted By: Chels

With the help of: Cort (I had to throw myself in there)

Typical Cole

Found these pics from our wedding that my parents snapped. We thought they were pretty funny. Could totally imagine Cole asking, "what's in the bag?"

Happy Birthday Ashley!!

Today is Ashley's 20th birthday! No longer a teenager! Ashley moved home and is going to school at Weber. She works at a Zion's Bank Branch right there in Ogden. She works 32 hours and goes to school full time. She ususally stays here during the week then sometimes goes down to Provo with her friends for the weekends but is home on Sunday to go to her singles ward. She loves to work out and finds time to do it about 4 times a week. Her life revolves around homework, spending time with her friends and writing Cole and receiving letters from him. He has been out 3 and 1/2 months. She lives week to week to receive those letters.

Ashley, like all my girls, works hard at what she wants. I've lately been going through all her pictures to make her DVD that I have done with all my girls. One of the things that I remember that was a real challenge for her, was her speech. A year before she went to kindergarten she was diagnosed with a lateral lisp. She began speech then. She went up until the sixth grade! At the end we hired private lessons for her because she no longer wanted to be excused from class to go and have her speech lessons. It was very hard for her to have Lindsey only have it for about one year and then she having to stay in it for 8 years! One day it just clicked and she finally got it! It was a long hard time for her. Now, sometimes, when she is with her friends and they are meeting some guys, and when they are not really interested in them, she will start talking with her lisp again. Now she can laugh at it.

Ashley and I have both agreed that we don't really get along. We can admit it and we laugh at it because we know it. But that doesn't stop us from anything. Yesterday morning we went on a run together. I'm so glad that I'm her Mom. I love you Ash!! I hope you have a good day.

Love, Mom

P.S. She just got flowers delivered from Cole! How sweet!

Trailer for sale or rent

Hey, I don't really have anything to say, but mom got her hands on an extra laptop and it is now my favorite thing. I check the blog all the time and I'm dying to hear from everyone. Thanks be to Mindi and Meags for writing after Brookie. P.S. Brooke you're a stone cold fox in that swimsuit.
Anyway, we're still kickin it in the trailer. It's pretty sweet. And by that I mean - it's not. Just kidding. It's kind of fun, in that it's like an extended vacation. I feel no obligation to make any meals out here, so it's like, wow, it's already dinner time? Ok, where should we go? Hence the size of my bottom. It's been the official summer of the "hot and ready." That darn Caesars sucks us in at least weekly.
Darla, Chloe knows how Cole feels. She is at least a head taller than everyone in the class and they are all pretty much babies to her too. Her teacher is a psycho and we say our prayers for her every night. And by her, I mean Mrs. Fletcher. The only reason I haven't gone over there and given her a display of my angry voice is I pretend that her daughter is in prison, her son is a cross dresser and her husband left her. That way I feel sorry for her instead of wanting to hurt her.
Well that was lame and Cashey just woke up. Talk to you later.

ColoradoBennett

We were at the river a few weeks ago and a lady just pulled out some face paints and invited kids over for FREE. It was awesome. Poor Tristan was the first boy to get his face painted so when asked what he wanted he said "butterfly" 'cause that is what his sisters said. Then some of his friends started getting spiders and spiderman masks.

Our little Ruby-schmoo-whoo (the most underphotographed baby in the family)

bglife

first day of school!  oh they are sooooo cute.  girls literally stopped and stared at jack as he walked into school.  it was so cute!   benny should be on the runway!  i wish i had the clothes she does (and look like that in them ahh to be 8).  and wil he is still my little surfer stud.  wow all hazel all the time.  scary!

n       

bglife

 

 

yes little pre brings lots of love!  and he was trained before we got  him so yay for that.  oh did i mention that he is an “outside cat”?  yes he looks like he spends a lot of time outside aye.  at least he is happy in the garage at night, while we are gone, to eat and to take care of his business. 

Happy Birthday (The rest of the pictures!)

Birthday Girl!!
I can always depend on Cortney helping me in the kitchen. I can always guarantee that Lindsey will be posing for each picture also! They had just got done playing basketball while waiting for dinner. Little Ike was a little sweat head! So cute!
Can you tell why Lindsey and Landon make such a great match! Cortney got to pick her favorite meal. It was swedish meatballs and vegetable casserole, rolls and fruit and of course yellow cake with chocolate frosting and SPRINKLES! (She loves sprinkles) and Rocky Road Ice Cream.

Opening her presents.

The soon to be #3 parents!

Keat had a loose tooth for over a week. Rodger is the one to see when you have anything like this. He enjoys picking at your face or pulling a tooth. He honestly worked with him for 45 minutes. Unfortunately it didn't happen. Isaac wanted me to get him on the computer because he said that they were going to be there forever because Keat wouldn't "man up" and get it over with! Pretty funny! The tooth was laying sideways when he left.

Hanging out!

Cute Rodger!

Happy Birthday Cort! We Love You!

September 14th! Happy Birthday Cortney!

Can you believe it, Cortney is 22 years old! This was taken last night. We had everyone over for her pre-birthday dinner. We had dinner then played pictionary. She is a big on games so we had all of the words be about her and what she likes to do. Some of them were: yard work, cooking, yoga, Rodger, teacher, yellow corner (this was a store that she was going to own when she grew up), Winnie the Pooh, cash register, (she bought a real one when she was like 12), socks, stretchy pants. The list could go on and on.

Cort, I hope you have a great birthday. I've told this story a million times but when I got pregnant with you, I was nervous about having my second child. I thought, how could I love another child as much as I loved Chelsea! Well as we all know, it is very possible. Cortney, I would have to say was my most unique child. She was very particular with things when she was little and wanted things HER way. She is still this way today, but instead of demanding it (like she use to) she just works hard to make it happen. She is a very hard worker and loves being a wife and homemaker. (Sorry for saying homemaker Cort, but there was no other word to describe it!) She loves to plan and cook meals. She also loves to entertain. She is very thoughtful about everyone. She and Rodger will help or do anything for anyone. I hear that she does a fantastic job for not only her Dad at his office but other agents. She is a great sister and the most wonderful daughter anyone could ever have. A cute story about her, that happend lately, she was driving to work the other day and some guy kept driving up beside her and smiling at her and kept bugging her on her way into work. She said she finally just held up her left hand to show that she was all ready taken! We are all so lucky and blessed that we have her in our family! Love you Cort!

Our family dinner!

I had a bunch of other pictures that I thought were suppose to be on this but I don't know where they went to and because I had to call Cort to ask her how to even do this, I don't want to bother her again. I'll post them hopefully tomorrow.

P.S. Landon will be getting his call this Wednesay. We're pretty excited!

Steve Prefontaine

 

Funny eh?  Pre strikes again.  He is currently the highlight of our lives. 

Jane's Letter to Hazel.

Hi Hazel! How are you doing? I miss you! You are such a good cousin. I love it when we play together. I love You! I love you! I love you! See you soon, I think...

Luv,
Jane

hazel’s letter to jane

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Announcing...

VA, currently

The weather's cooled down (thank goodness) and we've got ants. I swear, one minute I'm washing dishes, look over at the counter, squish a few ants, rinse my fingers under the water, look over to the counter again, and 5 more ants are teetering (word?) along. Oh, what to do?! We also have roaches, which our landlord insists are "water bugs". I've never seen these huge disgusting things NEAR water.., but either way, I don't care-I want them OUT. I don't dare walk around when it's dark for fear that I'll step on one.
Cole started first grade (no pics this year, folks) and continues to have his love/hate relationship with school. He doesn't have any of his friends from kindergarten in his class. When I told him he'd make new friends soon, he said, "They're all baby kids, mom. I won't ever be friends with them.". Hm..what do you say to that? I tried to talk to him before school about finding the kid in class that seems the most lonely and being HIS friend. We'll see how that goes. My mom did instill that invaluable lesson in all of us; to look out for the underdog.
I started school on August 24th-ish, I believe. I'm just attending the local community college taking Math (on campus) and an Intro. to Early Childhood Development (online). So far I love my math class (how often do you hear that??) and wish my intro. to Early Education was easier and less time consuming. We'll see though..I'm sure over time it'll get easier. I'm always stressed out at the beginning.
Geof. passed his Appraisal Exam (I'm sure there's a better name for it) and did great (it's ONLY pass or fail, I believe). He said in the elevator there were some other guys about to take the same test and said it was their 2nd or 3rd time doing it. Good for Geof.! He always does well testing. Smarty pants. He's out on a bike ride by himself, right now. He's been AMAZING about watching the kids and giving me my breaks. I feel very blessed (does that sound cliche, or what??) to have him. He really does take care of me and my mental health. (;
We recently got our bikes in good repair and have been doing as much bike riding as Richmond allows (there's NO sidewalks here). Yes, we're the crazy family of 5 trying to cross the busy streets at 5pm rush hour traffic. Don't hit us! Cole's amazing and I really want to get him into some biking competitions, however they're all up in Northern VA and we only have one car and are limited (obviously) on how often we can use it.
Dayne and June are my little girls at home. It's especially nice to have Dayne to myself when June's taking naps. Those middle children definately feel some neglect (maybe not Geof. and Meagan/high maintenance children!). Dayne loves to read, eat, watch me do my make-up, get dressed, paint toe nails, follow me around the house asking me what I'm doing...you know, girl stuff. (;
June has the loudest voice imaginable. I'm constantly telling her to "hush!" We went to see "UP" as a family last week and I had to take her out repeatedly. She wasn't crying or mad, just excited about the movie. "Yook, Mommy, yook!!", as she points to all the different characters (dogs) in the movie. translation: "Look mommy, look!".
We love our June but wow, is she 2!
And here's some pics from our morning outing with the girls. We've been wanting to go to the Richmond Capital Building for some time now, just haven't found the time (or the guts to drag 3 kids along). So with Cole in school, we felt the girls would be more manageable and went. No surprise here, Geof. LOVED it. I liked it too. I sooo appreciate that there's so much to do and see in Richmond (and close by) that's FREE!! We were talking after we left about how bad we felt for now having brought Le Anne to see all the cool things we've seen when she's been out here. Soon, Le Anne (and Ellery??), soon!!!