Thursday, October 29, 2009

Three Little Witches

My in laws bought a house near us that has a super cute little shed in the backyard.  They are going to be renting the house out for a few years before they move in.  Since renters were going to be moving in soon I had to get over there and take a few (ok a LOT!) of pictures of the girls since the shed was the perfect Halloween background!
Here are a few favorites...




This little girl is getting so big TOO fast!  She is even walking and has been for a good month!  This was very shocking to us since Gracie was 16 months and Brynlee 13 months before they started walking...Lydia took her first steps at 9 months!!!!









Happy Halloween!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

2009 Bennion Family Christmas Name Draw

Okay all you Doug and Cindy Benniooonee's!  It's that time of year to find out who you drew for Christmas!  After getting permission from Mom, I took it upon myself to do the drawing.  So, drum roll please.....  the 2009 Bennion Christmas Gift Exchange will go as follows:


Giver-Receiver

Mom - Tanner
Dad - Brynlee
Chloe - Jenny
Camille - Jake

Kara - Lydia
Jason - Claire
Brianna - Mom
Emily - Derrik
Dallin - Chloe
Savannah - Kenna
Connor - Baby BOY Bennion

Krista - Savannah
Chase - Brianna
Tyler - Kara
Halle - Emily
Sophie - Gracie

Kenna - Camille
Jake - Jason
Gracie - Krista
Brynlee - Connor
Lydia - Tyler

Tanner - Halle
Jenny - Sophie
Baby BOY Bennion - Chase

Claire - Dallin
Derrik - Dad

So there you have it!  Let the ideas start flowing!  Remember the price limit, which I'm honestly not sure of but think it's between 0 and 10 dollars or something like that!  Please forgive me for any missed spelled (or wrong) names...I just heard through the grapevine about 5 minutes ago that Kara and Jason are going with Connor (So Cute!) but I'm not sure how they are spelling it...and Krista I never checked with you on how you are spelling Sophie (also So Cute!).  Leave a comment so I know everyone has gotten it.  Love you all!!!

Friday, October 2, 2009

Girls in the Hood


Well fall is officially here and the weather has officially changed.  I usually hate this part because all I can think about is the snow that is about to come and the confinement to the house that it will cause.  I'm trying to be better though and think positive, think about the good parts of a new season...like a cute new wardrobe for my girls! (okay so I really wish that said cute new wardrobe for ME, but unless I get a cute new body combined with a cute new budget that just isn't going to happen, oh well!)  Grandma Smith gave these outfits to the girls on each of there birthdays, and they were so excited to have a day cold enough that they could wear them.  They were obsessed with the hoods and kept chasing Lydia around to put her hood up. Brynlee kept saying, "Mom, it's like a hood!"  Yep Brynlee, it's Exactly like a Hood!!!  Thanks Grandma for the cute outfits!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Back to "School"


At the beginning of the month Gracie started her first year of real preschool (real because we have to pay for it!) She goes twice a week for 2 hours and LOVES it. I have a feeling she may be one of the more "spirited" kids in her class who has a difficult time focusing on doing her work but oh well it's preschool right...we'll worry about focusing in kindergarten!

group shot...best one I could get, nobody was in a picture taking mood!


I had to include a picture of Gracie's backpack. I looked forever for a backpack that wasn't as big as her body and couldn't find anything. So in an ambitious moment I decided I'd make one! Oh dear is all I have to say. I thought it would take me like an hour to do...and it should have...however, some how and I really don't even know how but it took more like 4 hours! And in my attempt to give her a backpack that wasn't so huge I made it way to small and nothing that she ever brings home from preschool fits inside of it! Oh well, I tried!

notice Brynlee's lack of backpack...the plan was to make her one too but after Gracie's I haven't had any more ambitious moments to actually attempt one for Brynlee!

The week after Gracie started preschool, Brynlee started joy school and thank heavens for that! She was lost without Gracie around. She was constantly asking when we were going to go pick her up. There are quite a few kids Brynlee's age that live near us so there are 8 kids in her class. It's a little crazy having 8 three year olds at my house, but the good news is that I only have to take a turn ever 8 weeks...totally worth it! I can't believe next year I'll have a real for real school age kid!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Brynlee is 3!

Well for anyone that actually looks at our blog I'm happy to report we are still alive! We've had a few computer problems coupled with busy life which made blogging fall down on the list of things to do. However, now I'm sad that I've gotten so far behind on documenting our oh so interesting lives {ha, ha}! So time to play catch up...starting with Brynlee's birthday!!!

Brynlee turned 3 on August 10th {yes over a month ago!} The above picture is of her cake that Grandma and Grandpa Smith suprised her with a couple of days before her birthday {the picture is suppose to be video but I can't ever get video to upload, any suggestions?} Boy did she LOVE this cake. Her and Gracie are still playing with the princesses!

On the day of her birthday I decided it would be fun to take her out for a birthday lunch. I wanted to take her to somewhere with a playplace so we headed to McDonalds. However, much to the girls disappointment {and my relief I have to admit} they had ripped out the entire germ infested playplace. Their disappointed wasn't anything some chicken nuggets and french fries couldn't cure {don't worry I got the apples too so I could be a good responsible mom, ha ha} Well just our luck when we walked into the "restaurant" it was a sea of asian people. I hadn't noticed the Giant tour bus in the neighboring parking lot. There was no way I was going to be able to convince my kids to leave so we stood in line trying to not be bothered by lack of personal space only to get our food and have no where to sit. I spotted some table outside and figured that was perfect. Of course I quickly realized why no one else went outside...it was HOT and oddly Bright! Brynlee kept saying "I need some sunglasses!" We sweated out our lunch and had lots of the asian visters laugh and point at us. I think they were amazed by Lydia's white, chubby bald cuteness...I know I am:) All in all it actually was a fun lunch. Lydia even tried her first french fry!



That night we decided to go to farm country at Thanksgiving Point so Brynlee could ride the ponies...she LOVES ponies!

Then since we had already had a cake with G'ma and G'pa Smith we decided to get a banana split and the fun ice cream shop there at Thanksgiving Point. I think this is going to be a new birthday tradition. The girls thought it was SO fun that we got such a big dish of ice cream. I was trying to get them to look at me and smile but I think they were afraid that we weren't really going to let them eat such a massive dish and that it was going to be taken away at any moment so they had better eat it while they could!

And eat it we did!! YUM!
Then all sugared up we headed home for presents...horse toys of many variety, a princess doll, some clothes and a scooter!
Happy Birthday Ninny!

Here are a few things I don't want to forget about Brynlee
*She has movements like a cartoon princess...always dancing and twirling around and moving her hands so gracefully. However, she's also a Klutz (sp?) so many times those twirls end with a fall, and the dancing puts her right into the wall or a piece of furniture.
*When she talks she really exaggerates her "L" letting her tongue come all the way out. She also has a lisp when she says her "S's" which I secretly hope she never loses because it's just so darn cute.
*She loves to snuggle. I remember when she was a baby she loved to rub her face on my skin. At church she would wrap her arms and legs around my leg and rub her cheek on my bare legs. She still loves to kind of rub her cheek on your face, arm or hand as she snuggles.
*She's a helper. She almost always does what I ask her to do if she thinks its being a helper (throwing away diapers, getting diapers, watching the baby ect.) unfortunately she doesn't view cleaning up toys as helping:)
*She loves talking on the phone. When Jake calls to say he is on his way home she ALWAYS has to chat with him and usually the entire time it takes him to get home.
*She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES horses and would love nothing more than to have a pony of her own to ride whenever she wants.

We Love you Brynlee and wouldn't change anything about you. Happy Birthday!

Friday, June 26, 2009

Wiped Out

Well the weather here has been quite rainy. I'm not complaining because I know we need it and it's nice that we aren't hearing about tons of fires, so for that I'm glad. However, it does make playing outside a bit difficult. So when a hot rain free day finally arrived we took advantage of it and pulled out the pool, which was in a little rougher shape than it had been in when we shoved it in the corner of the garage last fall. We attempted to patch up the holes, which didn't work as you can see by its sad deflated state, but the girls (with their cute little friend) could have cared less! I couldn't hold them back any longer and by 11 o'clock they were out splashing around, filling up bowls of water, dumping them out, "painting" the patio with water, and having the time of their lives. They stayed, and stayed and stayed out there which meant I stayed which meant the laundry inside grew yet another day! It was so nice though I didn't mind doing absolutely nothing but sitting in the sun desperately trying to add some color to my ghostly white legs (yes I did succeed they are now nice and RED!) By 4 o'clock I made them come in and put some clothes on and take a break from the pool. Well it wasn't very long after that I found this........
I thought they must be faking it, but oh no they were definitely asleep, there was no waking them! It cracks me up...doesn't it look like they just dropped right in the middle of playing and just zonked out!

Brynlee is my favorite. I'm pretty sure I can't sit like this let alone sleep like this! She didn't even bother to turn her head to the side...I should have taken a picture of the sweet carpet mark on her forehead when she woke up...it was good:)

Thursday, June 11, 2009

6 month stats


Weight: 17lbs 4oz 74%
Height: 26 in 58%
Head Circ.: 17.25 84%
Ha Ha how do you like those stats!! She's defineatley one of ours...short, plump with a Huge head (you know for all those brains of course!)

Well it's been 1/2 of a year since Lydia was born!!! I know I say this all the time but I really can't believe it's been that long. She has been such a joy to have in our family. Her accomplishments thus far include: eating "solid" food, rolling from your tummy to her back ( yes I know she should be rolling everywhere but just like my other two she has decided rolling is over rated!), sitting up, being the smileyest and giggleyest baby ever (which we love) and she even slept through the night last night!!!Yay!!!! We've also learned that Lydia LOVES music. We found this out awhile ago when the girls would "play" the piano Lydia would instantly stop crying. We now have a CD we take everywhere with us...without fail if she is upset and we play music she stops...its the greatest! Oddly enough I happened to look up what Lydia's name meant and would you believe it means musical!?! Crazy...wonder if she will be??


Don't you just want to bury yourself is those cheeks!! Okay maybe not but trust me they really are as kissable as you might think!!