The Latest

{Updated April 1, 2010}

This little princess is growing up faster than we expected! Where have the days gone?? She is crawling constantly and always grooves to the music when it comes on. She loves her brother and has smiles bigger than the moon. So far, I think she's our most stubborn child. But we'll keep her that way. :) It just proves she has some of her mommy in her. She's constantly cutting teeth, it seems, and is slowly warming up to the YMCA workers when Mom and Dad take a break and hit the weight room. She's a fan of water, tall grass, and crunchy leaves {yum!} but is still standoff-ish when it comes to most solid foods. What a fun little girl to have in our family!

Our little man is not so little anymore. He's really taking off with his talking and loves to tackle Dad, chase Dad, jump on Dad... basically anything with Dad. He still comes to Mom for hugs and reassurance. I love that. But the party starts when Dad comes home from work! Benson still loves animals and is getting into cars more. He does puzzles all by himself and really seems to enjoy the challenge! We've moved from 24 piece puzzles to 50+ so it's fun to watch him catch on. Some of his favorite things: presents and Cars treats. He's still a good eater and keeps asking me to buy broccoli, which I keep forgetting at the store. I think he really enjoys playing with other kids, but he has quite a bit to learn about playing with kids his age since playtime is a bit more "full contact" at home with all the tackling and wrestling that goes on. We love this kid so much and think he's so cool. Sounds weird, but it's true. We're just proud parents.

This is where I get to write about how wonderful I am. :) jk. I love being a mom. I'm realizing, through friends and others, that being a mom is the best job in the whole world. It's kind of weird that I enjoy working and doing projects, office stuff, etc, but I do! So it kind of is a sacrifice to stay at home and still find ways to feel fulfilled in those areas. That's when I'm grateful to have little business ideas or projects to work on! We recently bought a double jogger, which has restored my sanity {we share a car}. I love getting out with the kids when the weather is so beautiful. It gives me an excuse to work on my tan. :) My hobbies are still mostly the same-- cooking, shopping, reading, crafts, talking with friends, finding bargains, "researching" about EVERYTHING, dreaming about how I would decorate my house one day, and now my newest hobby is learning Photoshop. I just wish I could make dishes and laundry into a fun hobby...

This is where I get to brag about my husband being the greatest in all the world! And it would all be true. I've met my match. He loves sports and is sad, like me, that we don't have a DVR right now {or cable}. He's been working on getting his ACL back and had a lot of fun golfing with his brothers last month. From all I can tell, he really likes his job and the people he works with... and they like him, too. He keeps life fun for us by bringing home March Madness brackets and finding steals on the things we're looking to get {like the double jogger}. He's an entrepreneur at heart and is constantly finding things we can sell on Craigslist... plus he's pretty good at knowing when something is a really good deal that we could buy and then resell it to make a profit. :) He talks about owning his own business one day and I just hope he wants me to be right there with him running it! He was teaching in Elders Quorum at church until just recently when we got called to teach the eight year olds. One last thing about Allen... he loves to surprise me and spoils me way too much, probably, but I love it!