BENSON
- Wishes every school day was a snow day. This will be his first full week back to school since Christmas break with all the snow days and it has been a long one already.
- OBSESSED with Lego Star Wars! His knowledge of Star Wars ALMOST rivals his dad's, which is really saying something if you know Mike. Oh and he's also obsessed with the movie "Despicable Me."
- Would play his DS that he got for Christmas every second if we let him
- His 1st grade music program was this week. The theme was Folk Songs. His favorite songs were "Down By the Bay," "Skip to My Lou," and "Jump Jim Joe." He did a great job and had lots of fun.
- Lost another bottom tooth sometime in the last month, I've forgotten exactly when. That makes #5.
- FINALLY lost her front tooth that has been hanging on by a thread for a month (with the help of mom and dad). We also cut her hair off and added some layers right before Christmas and both of things mean that she looks so stinkin' old!
- Gets to go to preschool 4 days a week this semester. Her favorite part is the homework.
- She and Sabrina are in a dance class again this semester and are both so excited about it.
- Is really getting excited for Kindergarten in the Fall. She's so excited about learning to read and LOVES to play with her Tag she got for Christmas.
- Such a good helper lately, especially with Jillian. She loves to play with her and make her laugh.
- So excited to finally be going to preschool with Grace. She gets to go 2 days a week and loves it. She has recently learned how to write her name and she spends a great deal of time each week drawing pictures of our family that get more detailed all the time.
- Got a double stroller for Christmas and loves to fill it with babies. She usually has 4 that she's pushing around in it that are named Jillian, Spencer, Gilbert (a girl), and Elijah. She loves it when you ask her questions about them like "what do your babies like to eat?" or "what is their favorite color?" She has answers for each of them.
- Our trip to Oklahoma for New Year's was her dream come true (I may post pictures some day). All of the little cousins followed her around and did everything she said. They loved her and she loved them and it was adorable.
- Girl has an ATTITUDE. Her latest is saying "Really?" after every question. (Ex: Mom, you are making chicken for dinner? Really?) It's REALLY hard not to laugh.
- Wants you to know that she is getting so big and so old, but lately she has been taking a nap EVERY day. But don't worry she is still the GROUCHIEST child every morning when we wake her up even if she does get a nap.
- LOVES her Daddy. If we put her on the floor and Mike and I stand the same distance away from her, she will always run to him. When he's holding her and I reach for her, she always turns away from me and snuggles into him. She loves me when Mike's not home but when he is home, forget about it. She has started saying "Daddy!" when he gets home at night, so adorable.
- Finally figured out how to go down her slide on her own that she got for her birthday and loves to play on it. So cute! Still a crazy monkey climber though. Now she likes to climb up the stairs and stand on top of the slide with her hands outstretched like she's saying "Look, no hands!"
- Has started sleeping through the night again after 3 months of not! It's amazing how happy I am to see her in the morning when I haven't seen her all night.
- Got her 3rd tooth right after Christmas (top left). The 4th is getting close. By far our SLOWEST teether. I'm still hoping she gets like 8 at the same time so she gets caught up.
- Enjoyed her first Christmas that she was actually aware of. She loves her kitchen set and so do I because it fits so much better in her room.
- We tried taking her out in the snow. She was ok for a minute or two, but the limited mobility coupled with the cold resulted in a fit that only a nice warm bath could end.
MIKE
- Only has 3 semesters to go to complete his MBA! We can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, this is probably going to be his hardest semester. This is how he unwinds:
- Really enjoys his new job as a Store Manager with US Cellular, especially now that the holidays were over. Retail at Christmas time is rough, but we survived and now we know what to expect in the future. He has 2 stores both here in Manhattan. He is learning lots and loves the company culture.
- Likes to rub it in that Jilly loves him best. 1 out of 4 isn't that impressive though. Ha!
- Best husband and father around. Keeps things positive and upbeat around here.
Just kidding, this is him playing the Wii with Bryce and John. I think they were playing Just Dance 2 and dancing to a George Michael song, if I remember correctly.
- Loves me enough to take a day off and spend the whole day painting the kid's bathroom and completing several other items off my ever growing list of projects. I'll have to take pictures and post them, I was pretty happy with how it turned out.
- Tired and overwhelmed lots. But growing and learning lots too.
- About to kiss my 20's good-bye and I'm very happy about that. I love the place that we are at in life. I have Mike by my side, 4 beautiful kids to experience life with. I feel more comfortable with who I am than I have ever been. This last year has been such a challenge, but I can also see MY growth.
- My #1 goal is to continue to improve at ENJOYING THE PROCESS...which is a process :)
