Easter

We went and stayed at Grandma Stacey and Grandpa Jeff's house on Saturday night for Easter. The kids woke up to an Easter egg hunt that they really enjoyed. Benson definitely won for most eggs found, but the girls didn't seem to mind. They ate LOTS of candy and yummy cinnamon rolls and then we dyed a few eggs before we went to church. Grandma (with the help of Aunt Chelsea) bought the girls some adorable dresses complete with a hat for Grace which she LOVED. Mike was asked to sing a solo for Sacrament Meeting because someone got sick last minute and he did a great job. Although I'm not sure I will be able to talk him into going to Bartlesville for church again soon (just kidding). We completed the day with a delicious Easter dinner of ham and cheesy potatoes - yum! It's so fun to have family around to spend holidays with.

Checking out their Easter baskets and new Sunday shoes

Grace hunting for eggs

Sabrina dying her egg and eating some mini m&ms

Grace dying her eggs with the help of her ponies - one of those is actually Sabrina's, but Grace has officially taken it over because she has to have 2 of everything

What do you think he was about to do?

All dressed up in their new Easter outfits

When we first put them on the couch they all looked so serious and wouldn't smile, but then...

Grandpa started yelling at them "Look at me you kids!" and Ben and Grace started cracking up...Sabrina was too tired to care

Benson has been mimicking Grandpa's yelling all day...and then he and Grace crack up...what silly children!

It's always fun when Grandma comes

Last week we enjoyed a wonderful visit with Grandma Kathy and Uncle Stephen (Mike's mom and younger brother). They came bearing fun gifts and we had a full week of getting out and doing exciting things. The only drawback is that it was Spring Break, so everything was a lot busier than it normally would be, but we made the best of it.
Some of the fun things we got to do: went to the mall to play, we went to Incredible Pizza on the one really rainy day, Mike took a day off and we went to the Omniplex (children's museum) in Oklahoma City, and we went to Bartlesville one day. The kids also really enjoyed having extra people around to play with and give them lots of love and attention. Mike and I even got to go out on a date which was the highlight of my week. So thanks Grandma Kathy and Uncle Steve for the fun visit, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. And as is typical, we forgot to bring the camera out more than twice. This first batch of pictures is from the Omniplex.

Benson playing with the puppet theatre

Grace really enjoyed being able to draw on her face, she looked like she was trying to apply make-up

Grandma Kathy helping Sabrina and Grace enjoy the water table

Benson and Sabrina driving the big tractor

Grandma helping Grace and Sabrina on the teeter-toter

Benson trying the rope swing under the big tree house

Grandma helping Sabrina watch the model trains - this was Benson's favorite part...he could have watched them for hours

Benson on the train

The next time we brought out the camera was the day they left.

The kiddos with Grandma and Uncle Stephen

Grace and Uncle Stephen

Have I ever mentioned how easy it is to get a good shot of all 3 kids at the same time...piece of cake

Sabrina and Grace really enjoyed the Grandma slide and the Uncle Stephen slide

The fruits of my labor

So here is my first video attempt with my new software. It is a combination of pictures and video from Benson's 1st year. I am a beginner, so it's not perfect and I'll probably still be doing some tweaking. But it's a start. It is kind of long, so I'm not sure that even the grandparents can hang with the whole thing. It has taken me over a week to figure out how to post it on here...MAJOR FRUSTRATION. So without further ado, here it is.



P.S. Don't you just love the dual meaning of my title?

The ear infections that wouldn't die

That's right, Sabrina STILL has double ear infections. We gave her the last dose of Augmentin on Friday morning and by Friday night she was running a fever again! So we took her into the After Hours Clinic on Saturday morning and both ears are still infected. So the doctor gave us another prescription for Bactrim and we go back on the 25th to have them checked again. We are really hoping that this does the trick or I'm worried there could be tubes in her future. Either way we just want our poor baby to feel better. She has been sick more than she has been well so far this year!

Happy Birthday Benson!

Benson turned 4 years old yesterday!

We had lots of fun celebrating this weekend. On Friday we went to Bartlesville and had a party at the bowling alley complete with pizza and a smiley face cake. Benson loved knocking down all the pins and after each turn Grace would turn around and say, "I did it!" It was a great party! Mommy blew it and didn't have the camera batteries charged, so these pictures are off the video camera and not the best quality.

Grace bowling

Benson bowling

Benson and his smiley face cake (the face was made out of chocolate chips which the kids are SO addicted to thanks to Grandma Stacey)

Sabrina enjoying her piece of cake

This year was the first year that Benson was able to blow out all his candles without help! What a big boy!

And here is evidence that grandparents let grandkids do things that they would NEVER have let their own children do.

Yesterday we had plans to go to the zoo, but the weather was bad. Then we had plans to go to the aquarium, but we ended up having to take Sabrina to the doctor in the morning (more on that to come). So in the end we had lunch at McDonald's and all went to see the new movie "Horton Hears A Who." Then we came home and opened presents. Benson was so cute when he opened his presents, after each one he said, "It's just what I wanted!" He was so nice to let his sisters help him too.

Opening presents with the help of his sisters

Handy Benson with his new tool set - Ben loves to "fix" things

Daddy, Benson, and Grace putting together the marble maze

Some of the things we love most about Benson are:
-his AMAZING memory
-his snuggliness (is that a word?), especially in the morning
-his ability to learn new things quickly - he recently taught himself how to use the mouse and loves to play on the computer
-his helpfulness - he has recently learned to help with the trashes and the dishes, and he loves to do it (at least for now!)
Happy Birthday Benson!

Birthday Week

This week is birthday week at our house. My 27th birthday was Monday and Benson's 4th birthday is on Saturday. On Monday, the kids and I went and met Mike at the mall to eat lunch and play. Then Mike took the kids home and I got to do a little shopping and get my hair done. While I was out, Mike made dinner and dessert. I called to check on him after my hair appointment and he said, "These kids make it hard to get anything done." How profound. Anyways, I appreciated his efforts to give me a little break. We had a few people over that night to have dessert, which was fun. So it was a good birthday!
My "spare time" has been focused on figuring out my birthday present - Photoshop! I've been wanting to get into digital scrapbooking for a while, and now I have to the tools to do it. I don't have anything exciting to post yet, so stay tuned.
I don't have any pictures from my birthday to post, so I will leave you with a few of the funny things Benson has said lately.
Apparently (we heard this story second hand) on Sunday in Primary, whoever was teaching Sharing Time asked the kids what repentance was. Benson said, "when you stop being naughty."
Benson is always asking us how you say something in Spanish or telling us a Spanish word and then what it means. Last night he told Mike, "Violet is the Spanish word for purple."

Mom feels guilty and victorious - all in the same day

Long title, but very accurate description of my day yesterday. As I was looking through pictures tonight, I found this one and I'm feeling a fresh round of guilt.

Doesn't she look like she doesn't feel good? It's always the eyes that tell you. Poor baby.

So here's the story. Sabrina had an ear infection the end of January, actually her eardrum ruptured. So we did amoxicillin and ear drops and she did perk up quite a bit, but she never did make it back to normal. She also had a runny nose for the majority of the month of February. All month she has been waking up early, not eating well, being very clingy, just not herself. And I've been saying all month to Mike - I'm not sure the ear infection ever got better, maybe I should take her in to the doctor. And every time I would talk myself out of it because a)our copays are $30 and I hate to pay that much unless I'm SURE that there is a problem and b)I am TERRIFIED of taking all 3 kids to the doctor myself. So after Sabrina was up crying for hours on Monday night I decided enough is enough and made an appointment. Mike had an appointment at the same time, and my mom was dropping my dad off at the airport, so I was on my own. And it went fine. No major meltdowns, no fighting, no climbing on furniture, no playing with medical equipment in the exam room. So apparently I have been scared to death of nothing. Actually, I don't think that is true, I mostly credit the success of the appointment to our new pediatrician who is AWESOME. We were called back within 5 minutes of arriving, we waited for the doctor for maybe 10 minutes and they had books in the exam room that kept Ben and Grace busy, and we were out of there within 30 minutes which has to be a record. And Sabrina has double ear infections. The moral of this long story is that I need to buck up and do what needs to be done. So this is mostly just to help me remember that I can do hard things and they probably won't even be as bad as I think!

Woolaroc

The kids and I went to Bartlesville last Thursday and stayed over on Friday. The purpose of our trip was twofold, #1 so Mike could get a good night's sleep before the GMAT on Friday morning and #2 so that we could get together with one of my best friends from high school (Kimberly Morris Hancock) and her kids who were in town visiting her family.
On Thursday Kim and I got to go out to lunch at Monterrey's for old times sake (we went there a LOT in high school). The weather was beautiful on Friday, so we went to Woolaroc. I have many memories of going to Woolaroc as a little kid and my kids really seemed to enjoy it. We saw lots of animals including a CRAZY llama and some buffalo that were standing in the middle of the road eating grass preventing us from leaving. They have a little park there now that provided more entertaiment than we expected. Maybe because this was the first time that we have been able to play outside in FOREVER. And we couldn't forget the museum - we buzzed through it in about 15 minutes, it's not really a kid friendly museum. Anyways, it was a fun day and the best part of the trip was getting to see Kim and her boys! Thanks for hanging out with us Hancock's!

Grace riding a cow

Grace trying to feed the goats her fingers

Benson and Sabrina in front of a frontier Post Office

Grace loved the pretty dresses on the dolls

Benson's favorite part of the museum - the airplane

Here's a video of the crazy llama - I missed the height of it's craziness - the kids were really cracking up then, but you can get an idea.

Here is Grace saying her word of the day...buffalo...she called EVERYTHING in the museum a buffalo, and she was right probably 90% of the time.