Our Life is Bliss

The Latest News

2012-01-13T20:12:00.000-05:00

Disney World!

2012-01-04T07:38:00.023-05:00

So, this post will be mostly pictures . . . hope you don't mind! Last November we were able to go to Disney World!! Some of Ben's family flew to Florida and we drove. The drive was actually really good, surprisingly! I was shocked at how well the kids did. We only had to stop once for a gas/potty break during the whole 8.5 hour drive. I guess that's not true. We did stop at Daytona Beach for a little while and then drove the rest of the way to Disney World. We rented a house so that we could all be in the same place and to save money. That worked out well too! Aside from being with family and just being in Disney World, my favorite things about the trip were. . .

Simon wanting to stop at every single store to look at pins to buy.

Nolan loving his Puffle pins and Puffle stuffed toys.

Bella yelling "THIS IS MY FAVWIT PAHT!!!!" on most of the rides

and spending 99% of her money on "suckahs." (NOT an exaggeration)

Malia seeing "Tidder" and "Wahder" (Tigger and water)

and loving her "Pa and Tai" (Grandpa and Kai).

Enough chit chat. Here are some pictures. Okay, maybe a lot of pictures. :)

In no particular order. . .

I want to go back! :)

An Angry Birds Birthday

2011-12-30T13:49:00.007-05:00

My sweet Nolan turned six in November. I really do hate that my kids get bigger. (sigh)
I had been promising Nolan a birthday party when he was in kindergarten and had friends that he plays with rather than just sees at preschool. So, when the time came I asked him what kind of birthday party he wanted and without hesitation he told me "Angry Birds!"
I had NO clue what to do for an angry birds party.
However, with the help of Pinterest and my creative genius, (eh hem) this is what we did. . .

Nolan's invitation

Nolan's playable cake

Life-size Angry Birds game: (this was so so so fun!) I painted the balls and we made a makeshift slingshot. The kids loved it!

Pig Pinata

Mini Angry Birds game: I made each of the kids these little pom-pom birds and pigs. They built up the cups and then flicked the birds at the pigs. They got to take their mini game home. It's not the best picture, but will have to do. :)

I also made each of the kids a mini pinata filled with candy and toys.

Not to toot my own horn. . .but it was a pretty darn cool party! Nolan was happy and that's all that mattered. I'm glad he could finally have a "real" birthday party. I just hope he doesn't expect the same level of creativity from me next year. . .cause it's not happening! :)

Conversation on a Train

2011-12-27T10:11:00.002-05:00

Over the next few days I'm going to attempt to get caught up on the last two months of activities. Tons of stuff happened. . .and I just haven't had time to sit and post about it!

First of all. . .I had to share what happened last week on the train. I took all the kids to meet Ben at work and go to lunch. On the way home we got on the train and it was totally full. I was standing with Malia and Bella and for the last half of the trip Simon and Nolan were sitting two rows away from where we were standing. A lady sitting across from the boys started talking to them. She asked them what they wanted for Christmas and if they had been good so Santa could come. Then out of nowhere Nolan decides to share some information with the lady. . .

Nolan: "Did you know all of my underwear is ripped?!"

Me: "Nolan!"

Nolan: "Well, it is! All my underwear is ripped."

At this point. . .everyone that could hear was chuckling

Me: "All of your underwear is not ripped."

Nolan: "Yes they are! There's a hole in the front and I can see my private parts! They are all ripped!"

And now. . .everyone is laughing out loud.

Me: (totally embarrassed) "They aren't ripped, Nolan. That is just how they're made."

Nolan: "Well, they are ripped, I guess so. I can see my private parts."

Me: "Well, I don't think everyone wants to hear about your ripped underwear."

I didn't think it was very funny at the time, but I think it's totally hilarious now. Nolan just tells whoever is around whatever is on his mind at the time. At that moment, he was thinking about his ripped underwear. And why wouldn't you tell some random woman how all your underwear are ripped?

Mud Princess

2011-10-14T15:08:00.005-04:00

It has been raining a lot here over the last few days. In between the down pours, I thought I'd go outside and do some weeding (. . .yay.) Malia was kind enough to help out. . .only. . .she didn't pull weeds. She just grabbed handfuls of mud and relocated it. She also found a little puddle to play in. Then she thought it was fun to walk around and see all the little mud footprints that were left behind.
This is what she looked like when we were done. . .

Her poor boots!

Swingin'

2011-10-03T19:23:00.007-04:00

Today Nolan got to bring home Cocoa the monkey from his Kindergarten class. He really really wanted to go take some pictures with him and Cocoa, so we went across our backyard and across the street to the swings. Here are a few pictures we took. I'm counting the few of Bella and Malia as part of their 4 year/18 month pictures. . .I'll be taking more. :)
I'm loving the ginormous tree for the background.

I must say. . .I do have some pretty cute kids!

Summer 2011

2011-09-15T16:37:00.015-04:00

I wish I could say that we had a super fun, exciting summer this year. . .but I just can't. There were a few highlights. . .but mainly it was pretty lame. I will take you through our summer with whatever pictures I have. If I don't have pictures of it. . .it couldn't have been very important!

Father's day was lovely. We tried to let Ben relax and enjoy his day.

Do you remember the breakfast that Simon made me for Mother's Day? (oatmeal, rice crispy treat, string cheese, an apple and ice milk) Lucky Ben, he got breakfast in bed too! This time, Simon made oatmeal (once again he probably made that first, as it was nice and cold. . .ha ha!) and then put some cars marshmallows and some animal crackers on the plate as well. Such a good boy. :)

My mom came to visit us in July. That was so great! I love having my mom around. I miss her a ton. I would post lots of pictures, but we took them on her camera, and I haven't gotten them from her yet. I did take a few from our 4th of July firework show.

I love this random picture of Malia. She is getting so big. She starts nursery in two weeks! SO excited. . .and NO it's not time for another baby for crying out loud!
Bella turned four! Can you believe it?! She wanted a pink and purple cake. . .and this was the best I could muster that day. It has kind of a cool marbled look. . .that you can't really see in the picture too well.

I just realized that I never took any four year pictures of Bella. Yikes! I need to get on that. We sure do love our Mae Mae (that's what she likes to be called now. . .and she reminds us all the time. . ."Don't you mean 'go to your room, Mae Mae'" that one's my favorite. It makes me very happy when she says it or this one. . ."Daddy, it's Mae Mae, remember?" or "Don't you mean,'I love you Mae Mae?'" Those are a little more tolerable) She has TONS of energy and is so funny. She's our little tomboy princess. Love her. . .HATE that she's already four!

Malia and I went to Utah for a few days! That was awesome! My best friend, Leona flew us out for her daughter Addi's birthday luau. I loved spending time with Leona and family and our family loved spending time with Sweet Malia. . .and me. . .but mostly Malia. :) All of those pictures are also on other cameras, which are currently in Utah. These are the few that I have. . .

Simon started second grade, and Nolan started kindergarten! Here are a few pictures of their first day.

Nolan doesn't like waking up in the morning. . .at all. If I have to wake him up before he's ready, he will literally roll over and go back to sleep. I have never heard of an almost six year old doing that. What can I say? Nolan marches to the beat of his own drum. When I went in to get him up for school (at 6:00 in the stinking morning) he popped right up and asked me what took me so long. I don't know how long he was waiting for me to come get him, but he was up and ready to go that morning. Oh, P.S. He has gone back to his old ways. . .it takes me ten minutes to get him up and going now. Grr.

This is the girls walking down the hall after taking Nolan to his class. I think it's a cute picture. Malia loves to hold hands with her siblings. And they all love that she loves it. :)

They do a staggered entry for kindergartners, so I took Nolan on his official first day. . .which was really only part of a day. Then, on what I call his first day, he got to ride the bus. He told me when he got home that it "was my best day ever!" I asked him why and he said "Because I got to ride the bus to school, and then it brought me home too!" Nolan is loving school. He is reading really well. We read Bob Books every day. He's pretty excited to learn to read like Simon does. Two weeks into school, he has had three notes come home for talking. I am not even a little bit surprised. I think we will get many, many notes from his teachers until he graduates. Here are the pictures of him on his first day taking the bus to school. . .

Simon continues to love and do well at school. Ben asked him a few weeks ago how many hours are in two weeks. In his head, he multiplied 7 by 24. Then multiplied that answer (no, I don't know what it is. . .I can't even do that in my head) by two. We were at the dinner table at the time and Benasked him if he learned multiplication at school. Simon said that his teacher told him they might start learning it at the end of this year. Then Ben asked him where he learned it and Simon said that I taught him. HA! Ben and I looked at each other and laughed. . .out loud. We all know I didn't teach him anything to do with math. Simon insists on it though. I guess I'm a better mom than I thought! :) Here's my cute boys at the bus stop.

Bella Mae started preschool. . .sigh. That sigh was half sigh of relief, half sigh of sadness. Relief because that girl wears me out. She has WAY too much energy and she is WAY too much of a drama queen. Sadness because I will miss my little girl. She has been my buddy. We chat all the time and play games. She's my little ball of sunshine! I love her to death and I'm going to miss her craziness. :( Malia even misses her. Every day when she wakes up from her nap she walks around the house saying "B-la. . .B-la." When I ask her if she wants to go get Bella from school she gets a big smile on her face and nods her head. Love it!

On Bella's first day, we took pictures and went up to her classroom. There is a little boy in her class who is in our ward. His mom didn't have her camera, so I was taking some pictures of him. Bella looked up from her table, saw me, and said "MOM! Get out of here!" I laughed with everyone else. . .then cried and cried when I got to the car. At least she is comfortable and happy there. That's a good thing. She is still loving it too. I asked her teacher how she was doing one day. She told me that Bella had a hard time following directions. No kidding. I'm hoping she learns how to do that at school because I was certainly not able to teach her that trick. She has made some improvement in the last two weeks. . .there's hope!

I'm including this next picture just because I think it's cute. :) And really, who wouldn't?

And this one because it's funny. This is how I find Simon playing his NintendoDS. . .frequently. He just can't sit still and play it. Who knows why he wants to be upside down. Silly kid.

So. That is our Summer in a nutshell. I was looking back at my first posts and was realizing how much I love to see things that I have forgotten about. I plan to post more often. I want to remember the little things that happen while all of the kids are growing up. . .not just the first few. We'll see how it goes. :)

Bella's Spring Dance Concert

2011-06-09T09:41:00.001-04:00

Nolan's Preschool Graduation

2011-06-08T22:31:00.001-04:00

May Happenings

2011-05-31T13:47:00.006-04:00

Simon and Nolan started taking piano lessons this month. They are loving it. They do a pretty good job too! I'll see what I can do about getting some video of them playing on here.

We had some friends come stay on our porch. It was really fun to watch these birds get bigger and bigger and hear them chirp away when there was food around. That poor mom would bring them food all day. As they got bigger there were two birds bringing the babies their endless meals. I took a few pictures from inside our office. And, if you can believe it, Bella would sit still for quite a while so she could catch a glimpse of the mommy feeding her babies. She was fascinated. It was nice of those birds to provide some entertainment for Bella.

Nolan graduated from preschool on Thursday (sigh). The preschool did a fun little program and then had a carnival-like place set up outside. They had a bounce house, a train, a merry-go-round, games where you could win prizes and lots of food. He was disappointed when he learned that he didn't get to start kindergarten the next day.

Last Saturday, I was at the temple for a sealing of some friends of ours. Ben was home with the kids and Bella found the scissors. . .Every salon was closed Saturday night and Monday for the holiday, so we went today to get it fixed. Her hair was long enough to donate it to Locks of Love. She got a little certificate and they took her picture to put on the wall. She was pretty excited. Here are the before and after pictures.

Doesn't she look so cute?!

Ben and I have been married for nine years today! Guess what we are going to do. . .
Take the kids to Chili's.
I know, sad right? We were going to go out to dinner and had a babysitter lined up. However Malia has a pretty bad cold and I didn't want to get the sitter sick. So instead. . .we'll get everyone at Chili's sick. :) Besides, kids eat free today! With their 2 for $20, we can feed our whole family for about $30. Can't go wrong with that.
Happy anniversary to us. . .Ha! So pathetic. :)

Star Spangled Banner

2011-05-24T20:34:00.002-04:00

This is too cute. It's my sweet Nolan singing The Star Spangled Banner (listen closely to the words he says). . .and Simon trying to steal the spotlight.

A Few Random Things. . .

2011-05-09T12:16:00.008-04:00

I thought I'd post a few random things from the last month or so.

Simon has been playing soccer this Spring. Thankfully, for Ben's sake as well as my own (because now I don't have to hear Ben whining about Simon's skill level), Simon is a ton better! He actually goes for the ball instead of following in the back of the pack. His new love is being goalie.

This is what Bella does when she doesn't get her way. . .and she looks like this a lot. :)

I found this little fella in our laundry room. Nolan wanted to keep it as a pet, but I told him he needed to take it outside. . .he'd be happier there. :) When Nolan didn't come back, I went to check on him. I found him sitting on our porch with his new buddy.

We went to this great place for the ward camp out. We only stayed for an evening to let the kids play and have s'mores. . .but they had a great time! I definitely want to go back there again.
Nolan, Simon and Bella played in the lake, and used their water bottles to catch tadpoles. Malia was fascinated by the little frog Ben found. The poor froggie got a little squished. . .I'm sure he was happy to get away from Malia's tiny pincers.

Last but not least. . .for Mother's Day, Simon woke up early and made me breakfast in bed! He's such a cute boy. He made me oatmeal (which I'm sure he made before he got anything else), got me milk with ice, an apple, string cheese and a rice crispy treat. He gave me a pink cup and green plate and bowl because he knew those were my favorite colors. It was his idea to do breakfast in bed. He said he wanted me to have the best Mother's Day ever. Ben told him to wait until 7:00 to bring it to me. . .but as you can see from the clock, I think he got a little excited.
Here is this year's Mother's Day picture. It's not the greatest, but it's the best we can do after church, before nap time, and with four kids who hate getting their picture taken. As you can see, they aren't interested in smiling or looking at the camera. I do love these kids! With breakfast in bed, a three hour nap, dinner and dessert at a good friends house, and me not changing any diapers. . .this was the best Mother's day ever. :)

Malia Walking

2011-04-19T11:37:00.008-04:00

I was super worried that Malia would start walking while she is with Ben in Utah. I wasn't very happy about it either. Lucky for me, she took her first steps yesterday! I'm convinced that it's because she wants her mom to be happy. :) This video is the second time she walked. . .after trying to get her to do it again for well over an hour. The little stinker! See it Here.

Simon's Bubble Trick

2011-04-19T11:19:00.005-04:00

Simon learned this trick at school. Who knew you could do that with a little soap and water? See it Here.

Super Fast

2011-04-15T13:15:00.005-04:00

I'm sitting outside on a blanket with Malia. We're watching the kids ride their bikes. . .LOVING the fantastic weather! Anyway . . . Isabella made up a cheer. This is how it goes. . .

Bella: Who is supa fast and not so slow?
Mom: Bella! Bella!

Repeated a gazillion times.

Beaches, Bikes & Birthdays

2011-03-29T21:07:00.006-04:00

Here are some pictures from our latest trip to Myrtle Beach. Ben was supposed to be running the marathon, however, he hurt his leg in January and wasn't able to run. We had the hotel room booked already, so we decided to go anyway! It was a little depressing that Ben couldn't run the race after training so hard, for so long. (The last run he did was 18 miles) But we did have a good time. I do miss the mountains. . . a ton. . .but I could see myself being a beach girl. I really enjoy the ocean. . .almost as much as the mountains.
The first picture is Malia in the car eating chicken nuggets on the way there. She was so happy to have those nuggets! I love how she scrunches up her little nose when she's super happy.

We went to Broadway on the Beach one night. If you've ever been to Disneyland, it's just like Downtown Disney. . .a whole bunch of stores and such. Anyway, we gave each of the kids $10 to spend. Nolan and Simon immediately found their favorite stuffed animal. Bella bought $10 worth of candy. . .and it was gone five minutes later. That girl has a serious sweet tooth!

We got the kids new bikes and helmets. They were thrilled to death! We got them on a Friday night. The next morning, Malia and I woke up at 8:00. . .the kids never sleep in that long. . .ever! I went to go see what they were doing and they were all outside riding their new bikes! Simon had helped Bella and Nolan get their helmets on, and they were having a grand time!

I had my 29th birthday. Ben surprised me and came home early to take us all out to Chili's. I was very glad I didn't have to cook! We also went to Target and Ben told the kids they could each have some money to buy mom a present.
Nolan said "I know what I'm going to get. . .a fishing pole!"
Ben replied, "I don't think mom will want a fishing pole, Nolan."
Nolan, in a very matter of fact sort of way, said "Well, I'm going to get it so she can share with me."
Love that boy! :)

Simon turned seven yesterday.
I can't believe my baby is seven! I tried to get a couple of good pictures of him. He was itching to play his new Pokemon game. . .so this is the best we could do. . .

Then, today Malia turned one! She was so happy today! I think she must have known it was her birthday. :) Here are some pictures that I took of her little party and a few that we took in the yard, just for kicks and giggles.

And I just think this is a cute picture of the sisters. . .

Explanation and Myrtle Beach

2011-02-27T21:45:00.003-05:00

So I decided to make my blog private for a few reasons. One of them is because Ben showed me how to get our HD videos on the computer. . .I'd like to put video on here occasionally and I'm not terribly comfortable with the videos of the kids being accessible to all the crazies in the world. Another reason is that a while ago, the people who lived in our house before us searched for us on the internet and found our blog. The lady read one of my posts that said how dirty the house was and how we had to do some major cleaning (and it was disgusting!) and got offended. She was worried that our neighbors would read our blog and think less of them. She also thought that we should have been grateful for getting new carpet yada yada yada. Anyway, among some other things, we decided it would be best to only allow our friends and family to view our blog. :)

Anyway, if you are interested, click here if you would like to see the video from our latest trip to Myrtle Beach. I will try to post some pictures soon. This is a sort of long video. . .but you should at least watch the end of it to see Malia on the beach. Trust me. . .it's worth it! :)

Going Private

2011-01-11T13:17:00.004-05:00

Our blog is going to go private in a few weeks. If you would like to continue reading the horribly infrequent updates, you can leave a comment with your email address. I have changed the settings so I have to approve any comments. That way, nobody will be able to see the email address you leave but me. :)

Family Pictures 2010

2010-11-17T21:54:00.002-05:00

Out of over 400 pictures taken. . .we got one good one. I guess that's all that matters, right? :)
The individual pictures of the kids weren't nearly as difficult! Thank goodness.

Simon

Nolan

Isabella

Malia

Our Little. . .Friend

2010-11-09T21:23:00.003-05:00

Here is our lovely visitor. It was living in the garage. . .yikes!
And after pictures. . .it got squished by a wonderfully big shoe.
I hope you enjoyed your stay little spider! :)

Part One

2010-09-17T12:46:00.010-04:00

I realize that I haven't been very good at blogging. Things keep happening and I think that I'll post about it. . .and then I remember that I haven't posted for a long time and I need to do the earlier events. . .then I put it off. . .and one more event gets added into the cue. So, I decided that instead of cleaning while the girls are napping, I'll get everyone caught up on our life. :) (Ben will be so happy. . .HA!) Here it goes. . .

Simon started first grade this year. He loves it. The only thing he has a hard time with is getting up early. He really, truly, begs me to get him to bed early. If he's not in bed at 7:00. . .even if it's two minutes later. . .her breaks down and worries about not getting enough sleep. The reason he sometimes doesn't get enough sleep is because he has to be at the bus stop at 6:52! That is sooooo early! We are getting used to it and he hasn't been complaining about lack of sleep lately. Here he is on his first day. . .

Simon also started soccer. That is his favorite thing to do. The only problem. . .he has practice until 7:30 on Tuesdays. . .that doesn't go over well. Poor Buddy. :) He has his first game this Saturday, so I'll try to be good and post some pictures.

Nolan started preschool! :( It makes me sad when the kids start school. That means they are growing up. . .I want them to stay little and tiny. Nolan loves school! I was worried he was going to hate it (since he hates going to class at church). On the first day I asked him how he liked it and he said "I like school, it was fun. . .except for the part where you have to sit on the carpet. They told us that we have to keep our mouth shut and be quiet. . .it's so stupid! I don't like that part." Since that first day, he has gotten a lot better about "keeping his mouth shut." His teachers tell me that he is really good! Yay Nolan! Here he is on his first day. . .

Isabella started dance class today. I think I was more excited for her than she was! It is so much fun to have a little girl in dance! She did an awesome job too! She did everything the teacher did, and actually listened!! They don't allow parents in the room, but they do have a video streamed into a waiting area. So, I got to watch her do her thing. I wish I could have taken more pictures and recorded some. . .but these will have to do.

Malia is growing like a weed! She is almost sitting up! She is such a good baby. Here's a few pictures from the last four months. . .

We had a super busy Summer. The best part was going to Utah! We had tons of fun. I'll let the following pictures tell part of the story. . .

I have a lot more pictures from Utah but they are on Ben's computer. I'll post those later. Right now, I'm holding Malia. . .and she's trying to grab the keyboard. . .such a helper! I'll post more on our Summer adventures soon!

My Sweet Malia

2010-08-04T13:07:00.003-04:00

We just get home from a month in Utah! I'll post more on that and the last four months another day (hopefully soon). For now, here is a picture of Malia that Katie took. Malia is getting so big so fast! I still need to look through the pictures that I have but I love love love this one. . .

Malia's Story

2010-04-22T12:22:00.011-04:00

I'm finally feeling like things are getting back to normal. We are getting into our routine. Thank heavens! Everyone who told me that having four kids is the same as having three obviously doesn't remember what it was like to go from three kids to four! It certainly isn't as easy as they made it seem like it would be. However, it does seem to be getting more manageable as I figure out Malia's routines and her personality. She is such a sweet baby. Simon, Nolan and Bella absolutely LOVE her.

Bella probably "loves" her a little too much. She won't leave Malia alone. Any opportunity Bella gets, she has to go give Malia kisses and loves. The other day I was in the office on the computer and Bella came marching in holding Malia with a huge smile on her face. She proudly said "I holding Balia mom!". . . Yikes! She always wants to hold Malia. It drives me crazy! Nolan wasn't too thrilled with her at first. He didn't want anything to do with her at the hospital. I had to bribe him to take a picture with him holding Malia. He is liking her more and more. He loves to look at her tiny fingers and toes. He says that he is tickling her. You can see the fascination in his eyes when he is looking at her. It's so cute. Simon has always loved her. He likes to hold her and "pet" her (that's rubbing her head).
Here are a few more pictures from the hospital. . .

And here is Malia when we came home from the hospital. She is so darn cute! :)

Ben's dad was able to come out here on the 29th, so he got to see Malia at the hospital. It was such a blessing to have him here. He was an incredible help with the kids. The poor guy, I'm not sure that's what he signed up for. He stayed with the kids, so Ben could stay with me. It was wonderful. Ben's mom came on Wednesday the 31st. They both stayed until Sunday. It was so much fun having them here. I know the kids would agree with me. I'm not sure how or why this happened, but I didn't take many pictures of them while they were here. Stupid. We do have this one. . .the only one. . .

My parents came here on April 7. that was another blessing. It was so nice to have both sets of parents here to help and play with the kids. Luckily, my mom had her camera with her so I have more pictures of our time with them. This picture was taken at the zoo. . .
We were also able to bless Malia while my parents were here. We decided to bless her a little earlier than we normally would have so that my dad could stand in the circle. I was glad that we could have some family here. I wish we could have had everyone here, but I guess that's what we get for living so far away! Here are some pictures of Malia in her blessing dress:

The pink blanket that Malia is on was made by her Tia (Ben's sister Angela). Don't you think it's so pretty? It's her first time crocheting something! Way to go Angela!
Well, I think that catches me up on Malia. I took her to the doctor for her two week visit and she weighed 9 lbs. 10 oz.! She certainly eats often enough to warrant that kind of weight gain. We sure do enjoy having her around. . .even if she is eating all of the time. :)

Malia Karen Bliss

2010-04-06T15:31:00.004-04:00

This picture was taken with the camera on my phone, so it's not that great, sorry! I'll post more pictures soon. . .better pictures. :) Anyway, here is our sweet angel!

Malia Karen Bliss
March 29, 2010
5:47 PM
7 lbs. 4 oz.
19.5 inches

Nolan's Poor Pets

2010-03-26T21:06:00.005-04:00

When I was putting the boys to bed last night, I noticed that there was water all over the top of their dresser. They each have a fish bowl with a beta fish. This was our conversation. . .

Me: "Why is there water all over the dresser? You can't keep moving your fish bowls around or your fish are going to die. . .(I look in Nolan's fish bowl) Nolan, your fish is dead again." (yes, that is his second dead fish. . .)

Simon: "That's because he likes to pick his fish up to play with him."

Me: "Nolan, you can't pick your fish up out of the water. Fish have to stay in the water or they can't breathe."

Nolan: "That's okay. I'll go get a new fish."

Me: "We aren't getting you another fish if you can't learn how to take care of them, and you don't have any money to buy a new fish."

Simon: "My fish isn't dead mom."

Nolan: "That's because you don't love your fish and you don't like to play with him."

. . .Poor fishy.

Blogging Blah's

2010-03-12T12:36:00.005-05:00

I haven't been much of a blogger lately. I am finding that there are a lot of things I'd like to get done before we have another baby, and when I'm not doing anything. . .I want to be doing just that, nothing. :) Blogging seems to get put on the back burner quite often. I'm not going to promise that I'll be better. . .because I know I won't. But I will give you a quick little update on what has been going on at the Bliss residence.

It has been the coldest Winter North Carolina has seen in 30 years! Ugh. We leave Utah to get away from the cold and snow. . .and this is what we get! It has been sooooo cold here. We also had a "huge" snow storm that closed down dang near everything. It was expected to snow on a Friday afternoon. . .so naturally, since they THOUGHT it might snow, they cancelled all of the church activities that the ward had planned for the weekend. It did end up snowing on Friday. . .this is a picture of our house after the unimaginable amount of snow. . .haha!
You can still see the grass! The kids loved playing in the snow. They only lasted for 30 minutes or so, because it was so dang cold.

They ended up canceling church on Sunday because of how far most people had to drive. School was canceled on Monday, and they had a delayed start on Tuesday due to the weather "situation." It all seemed a little extreme coming from a Utahn. To their credit. . .the roads were like ice. We could have gone ice skating in our driveway if we had the right equipment. :) They also don't have the snow plows and salt trucks etc. to deal with it all. I also don't think people know how to drive in the snow or on ice around here. But still, it was a little strange. I had never even heard of church being canceled.

We have a brand new church building too! We have gone from a 30 minute drive to church down to an 8 minute drive! Hallelujah! Sundays are still pretty long days around here, but it's a little more bearable with the church so much closer. It is still kind of strange to go to church every week. It is the exact same building as the new one we were in before we moved here. Our bishop even has the same office as our Utah bishop had. I keep thinking I should see people from our old ward when I walk in. I am disappointed every time though. It makes me sad.

The kids are growing like weeds, as I'm sure you can tell by the pictures of them on the sidebar. They sure are cute little stinkers!

Simon is doing amazing in school. He is super smart, loves to read and do math (got that from his dad). He is at the top of his class and loving it.

Nolan has been an angel lately. He is the funniest kid. I just love talking to him and hearing all of the funny things that he comes up with. He is thrilled to pieces to be going to preschool next year. It makes me sad to think that he is getting so big. We are working on getting him to stop sucking his fingers. So far, nothing is working.

Isabella is doing amazing at potty training. I consider her D-O-N-E done! She doesn't have to be reminded anymore, and she goes all by herself! The only diapers we use are the ones that she wears during naps and at night! Hooray for Bella! Hooray for me!!

Malia is still kicking away. I am being induced a little early to make sure there is a baby here when Ben's mom comes. So, I have about two weeks left! Hooray for me again! It seems odd to think that we will have four kids soon. I've been yelled at by a number of people because they haven't seen my big fat belly. . .so here you go. It's not the greatest picture in the world, but it will have to do. . .now stop whining!
I imagine my next post will be pictures of a sweet baby Malia! Maybe sometime soon I will get around to posting pictures of the rest of the rooms in our house that I've finished too. All in good time. :)

Dora the Angel Explorer!

2010-01-15T08:25:00.004-05:00

I love Dora. Other than her incredibly annoying, almost unbearable voice, she's an angel. First of all, she's a great babysitter when I need to get something done and don't want Bella's little helping hands. Bella will sit on the couch with a pillow and a blanket and not move if Dora is on. She'd sit there all day if I let her (it's awfully tempting sometimes). But most importantly, she is the reason Bella wants to wear "Dola Panies." And, since we don't pee on Dora panties we are on day two of potty training with only one accident, which was my fault. Thank heaven for Dora!

Wouldn't it be nice if Bella was out of diapers before Malia comes?? Here's hoping!

Back to Normal

2010-01-05T10:42:00.004-05:00

The end of December went by so fast! We had a great Christmas (for the most part). The best part was that Ben's Mom, Dad and Collin came to visit us! It was great to have them here. The kids loved playing with Collin and Bella didn't leave Grandpa alone for two seconds!
Ben and Trent went hunting and shot a deer, something they haven't done for a couple of years (shooting a deer that is). We went to see Princess and the Frog. Loved that movie...didn't love taking Bella to the theater. I also got to play Pinochle!! I love that game. It's one thing I miss quite a bit. Jeri Lynn helped me make another turkey dinner. We did it the same way I did for Thanksgiving. It turned out great! I'm definitely going to make my turkeys that way from now on. If you ask Collin our "Thanksgiving dinner" was his favorite part of the trip. I take that as quite the compliment, considering Collin is a bit of a picky eater. We went to Bass Pro Shops to see Santa, and we also spent a day at the Hall's farm.
One sad thing was that Collin was sick for the first part of his vacation. At one point he said
"Why do I have to be sick on the best day of my life?"
Trent also got sick. . .then I got sick. . .then Jeri Lynn got sick, then it was time to go home. :(
We were very sad when they had to leave. Bella woke up the next morning and wandered around the house calling for Grandpa. She started crying when I told her that Grandpa had to go home. She kept saying "No Grandpa go home, no plane, no airport" It was very cute, but also sad. Having them here was a great distraction from the sadness that I would have when I'd think about missing all of the holiday festivities in Utah. The other distraction was that on Christmas Eve Ben had to take me to the urgent care. That was fun. I was very sick, and not getting better. Come to find out I tested positive for strain A flu. They said it's likely I had the Swine flu, but they don't even test to see if it's Swine flu or not anymore. It's the same treatment either way. The reason it hit me so hard is because I'm pregnant. They told me a few different things I could take to help with the symptoms, but basically they said, suffer through it. That was fun too.
Ben got sick on Christmas so we sat around, like stumps, and let the kids play with their toys. They made an absolute mess of the house, but we didn't really care. We couldn't move. :)
It was actually pretty sad. I barely got any pictures of the kids on Christmas. We did let them open one gift on Christmas Eve. It was their new pajamas. I also made them take a picture in front of the tree. They are pretty cute kids!
Other than being sick, we really did have a great Christmas. We enjoyed getting Christmas cards from so many people, my mom sent me a care package a few weeks before with Cinnamon bears (I think it was a five or ten lb. bag from sam's club. . .and it's gone. . .I didn't really share either) and Arctic Circle's fry sauce (Yay!) among other things, and Ben also got me a Cricut!!

So, now that everything is calming down, everyone is feeling better (lucky for us none of the kids got the flu!), Simon is back in school, Ben is back to work, and the house is clean once again, everything is feeling a little less chaotic. Sigh. :) Only three more months until it all becomes chaos again and baby Malia comes! I can't wait!

Pop Goes the Birdie

2009-12-15T12:09:00.002-05:00

Remember how Nolan's green bird died a little while ago? And we got him a new bird, which he has no clue was a different bird? I went to go change the birds water and food and it was dead. Yes, dead. I mean, really? What are the chances?

I decided that I needed to just tell Nolan that his bird died, and that we would go exchange it for a new one (Lucky for us it died before we had it for 14 days). I didn't really want to have that conversation with him. I was worried that he would be sad and crying and I'd have to explain death to a four year old. Here is our conversation. . .

Me: "Nolan, come here for a minute. I need to talk to you about something."
Nolan: "What do you need to talk to me about mom?"
Me: "Well, last night when I went to change your birdies food and water, I saw that Sprite had died."
Nolan: "Oh." (pause pause pause) "Well, why did he die?"
Me: "Well our pets and all of the animals are just like people. Everyone will die sometime, your birdie just died last night."
Nolan: "Oh." (pause pause pause) "Sooooo, how did he die?"

. . .At this point, I was suspicious of the other bird killing the last two birds. I didn't share this with him though. :) . . .

Me: "I don't know how it died Sweet Heart."
(pause pause pause)
Nolan: "I know how it died."
Me: "You do?"
Nolan: "Yeah, it sang too much."
Me: "It sang too much?"
Nolan: "Yeah, ya know? Like the bird on Shrek. It sang too much and it just popped. I think my birdie sang to much and popped.
Me: "You could be right." (What do you say to that?!?)

To me, that was hilarious. We went to get the replacement bird and when we came back home and started putting it in the cage. Nolan noticed some of the last birds feathers on the floor and on the cage by the table. He says "See mom, I think those are the birdies feathers from when he popped."

Who knew a conversation about your kids pet dying could go so well?

Come to find out, the blue bird, Nimbus, had been keeping Sprite II from getting any food. Now we have two food dishes and two water dishes in their cage so we don't have another bird die.

Turkeys, Birds, and Babies

2009-12-06T19:35:00.004-05:00

I made my very first turkey this year! Aside from a minor (or maybe not so minor) break down, where I was sobbing to my mother. . .all went well!

We had quite a few people invite us over for Thanksgiving dinner, but Ben and I wanted to have our own dinner with just our little family. So, of course, I had to pick a somewhat complicated turkey recipe. I googled "the best turkey recipe" and Emeril's brined herb roasted recipe was at the top. I looked at the reviews and every single person who gave a review gave it five stars.

I had to put the turkey in the brine the day before Thanksgiving, to give it enough time to soak. Now, keep in mind that I haven't ever cooked a turkey. . .I haven't even watched anyone do it. It's always cooked when I get to the party! I opened the turkey to wash it off before putting it in the brine, and it didn't look right. There was a thing sticking out of it. A thing that I had never seen before, and that made the turkey look different from any cooked turkey I've ever seen. So, I called my mom to ask her about it, and during the conversation I had a little break down. I didn't really want to make the turkey at that moment, and I wanted to be in Utah for Thanksgiving. She calmed me down a little bit and told me to leave the turkey how it was and whatever it was that was sticking out of the turkey wouldn't hurt it. So I should just put it in my brine and let Ben help me with it when I got it ready to cook. And that's what I did (after calling Ben and crying to him and him calling his mom and telling her about it, and his mom calling me on skype to see the turkey. . .it was fun. . .). Anyway, this is my turkey in the brine.
The next day when I took it out, I showed Ben my deformed turkey and he told me it was the neck. They just hadn't cut it off like they usually do. Ben cut it off for me and it looked normal. :)

Here is my turkey all cooked. It turned out sooooo yummy! I would definitely recommend this recipe. Also a picture of our yummy dinner.

I never realized how much work it is to cook everything, and then clean it all up. There has always been multiple people sharing the work. It was still kind of fun to have our own dinner and start some new family traditions! I'm going to make this turkey again when Ben's mom and dad and Collin come (in 11 days)!
I also made the yummiest banana cream pie from scratch! My first pie ever! That was super yummy too!
In other news, one of Nolan's birds died. We have no clue how. Nolan hasn't even had them for three weeks! I told Ben he has to go buy him another one. Nolan would be so sad if he knew his birdie died. He just loves them. . .I'm going to have to think up a reason why the bird isn't in it's cage. . .hmm? I'm hoping it's okay to lie to your kids in this type of situation. . .because that's what I'm going to do. :)

And last but not least, and certainly the most important news is that I had my ultrasound and we found out that we are having a girl! Her name is going to Malia. . .I just can't think of a middle name that goes well with it. Any ideas? This is a picture of a picture. . .sorry it's not that great.

Nolan is Four!

2009-11-20T16:10:00.003-05:00

Our sweet Nolan turned four on Tuesday! We love our little Nolan so much. He is tons of fun to be around and makes Ben and I laugh and smile every day. He's also so very cute!
I kind of felt bad this year. Nolan thought that we were going to have a party where everyone he knows would come over and we would all sing happy birthday and he would get to open presents, "Like Simon and Bella got to do." Unfortunately that wasn't really possible. So, I tried to make his birthday a very very fun day for him.
First, Ben was helping clean the Columbia, SC temple, so Nolan, Bella and I tagged along. It takes about an hour and a half to get there. . .which is kind of a long trip, but while we were there, we walked around the temple (which is an incredibly small temple), visited Nephi's books across the street, and we went on a search for a McDonald's. We had to drive two and a half miles to get to one, but that's what Nolan wanted to do, so we did it! We spent a good amount of time playing on the play place and eating smoothies. They even gave Nolan a little book and pencil because it was his birthday.When we got home from the temple, Nolan and I baked his cake, he opened his presents that everyone sent to him, and then we went to dinner at Showmars. Nolan informed the waitress that it was his birthday, and she brought him a milkshake. He was thrilled!
Most of the presents were cards with money in them. Nolan has been wanting fish for a long time. . ."the kind that come to our house and that you don't eat." So, Ben and I thought it would be a fun birthday present if his family sent Nolan money instead of toys. Then he could use all the money to buy some fish. When we told Nolan our idea he was stoked! He could hardly wait until after dinner. My mom also got him some bakugan ball thingies that he loves. He wouldn't leave me alone until I opened them, and then was mad when I told him he couldn't take them to dinner. . .We went to the pet store and Nolan started picking out the fish that he wanted. Then Ben said "Nolan would you rather have a snake?" Um...no. No snakes. Mom nixed that idea. However, it did get the idea in Nolan's head that he could have a pet other than fish. He looked at dwarf hamsters and lizards but ended up with two birds. Lucky for us, birds are a lot less work than fish, so it worked out.
He got one green and yellow bird which he named Sprite, and one blue bird that he named Nimbus (Ben's mom thought of that one). He loves his little birds. He even helps change the water and give them their food. He watches them and talks to them, and they even talk back!I always thought birds were a mess, but they really aren't. They are actually pretty fun to have. They have to stay in the cage for the first week, to get used to their new home. We are also supposed to talk to them as much as possible so that they can get used to our voices. Next week, we will be able to let them out and hop around. Ben and I both learned how to clip their wings so they can't fly away. Nolan is excited to let them out. I'm kind of excited too. They really are cute little birds.
When we got home, we talked to Ben's parents and my mom on Skype, then had cake and superhero popsicles.
Aside from not having everyone over to celebrate with him, I think Nolan had a fun day. Happy Birthday sweet boy! We sure do love you. :)

My Buddy And Me

2009-11-03T14:33:00.003-05:00

We have always called Simon "Buddy." I'm not sure where it started, but he's always been Buddy. Not anymore. Today I called him Buddy (like always) and he told me "The name's Simon."
I'm sad that he grew out of that. . .he's not my Buddy anymore. :(

Our Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T22:42:00.005-04:00

We have always had family Halloween parties, dinners, and decorations to go to, until this year. So, I decided that I wanted to make it a fun Halloween for the kids. I must say, I was successful! On Thursday and Friday night and Saturday afternoon we had Halloween meals. My sister-in-law asked me if I had any good ideas for a Halloween dinner, so I went online and found some way cute ideas. . .

I called these sea monsters:

This one was my idea. We had "boo" sandwiches, mummy Cheetos and pumpkin shaped cheese
Then we had a pizza snake and eyeballs! Yummy!

On Friday night our neighborhood had a Halloween party. We went down to the clubhouse and the kids walked in a parade and got candy at the end, then we watched Monsters vs. Aliens outside. Yes, we watched it outside! It wasn't even cold! I don't remember ever having a Halloween that wasn't really cold. Such a nice change. We just sat on our blanket and had popcorn and drinks. The kids loved it.
As you can probably see, Bella dressed up as Tinker Bell. She loves anything Tinker Bell. She also gets mad at me when I take her costume off. Lucky for Ben (who hates spending money) Simon and Nolan decided (with no persuasion from parents I might add) that they wanted to be the same things they have been for three years now! Simon was Darth Vader and Nolan was Spiderman. Too bad next year the costumes won't fit them. . .and they will be so worn out that they probably won't work anyway! Poor Ben.

On Saturday, we had a block party for our little cul-de-sac. They had music and dinner and games for the kids. They also had a pinata, which was Simon's favorite part. My favorite part was that everyone brought their bowl of candy with them and when it was time to go trick-or-treating, we put them on a big table for the kids to walk around and grab from each bowl instead of going to each house. A few of the adults, that don't have little kids, stayed and monitored the amount of candy being picked up. That means I got to go trick-or-treating with the kids!

Bella had to be the cutest thing. She would walk up to the door with her pumpkin bucket and say "tick-teat". Everyone thought she was adorable so they would load her up with candy. Then Ben and I would say "What do you say Bella?" and she would say "Mo" (more). Then the people would give her more candy because they thought it was so cute. We would ask her again what she should say, and then she would say "tayou" (thank you) . She got way more candy than the boys. Simon and Nolan did even it out a little with the pinata. It rained quite a bit which didn't bother the kids at all and we all had a good time, even with the rain!

Simon wanted me to put a picture of their goodies:

. . .We only went down one street.

Curly-Q. . .Or Not.

2009-10-29T08:52:00.005-04:00

I decided that since Princess Bella has such long hair, I would try putting curlers in. Worst case scenario, her head would be a poof ball and we would just wash out the curls. Best case, she would look super cute with all of her curls.

It's funny, because I remember, quite well, when my mom would put curlers in my hair. I loved that my hair was so curly when I woke up and took them all out, but I hated everything else about it. I hated sitting there while she put them in, and I definitely hated sleeping in them. They aren't comfortable at all, no matter what the package might say. I say it's funny because here I am, subjecting my daughter to the same torture that I had to go through! Ha!

She was so good while I put them in. She just sat there looking in the mirror smiling at herself. Here she is with her curlers in. Don't you think she looks so sweet and angelic in this picture?

Well, you are wrong.

When Ben and I were on our way to bed, I thought I'd go in Bella's room and see if the curlers were staying in while she slept. This is what I found. . .the little stinker.Three curlers made it through the night. Three. I'm pretty sure the only reason they made it was because she couldn't reach the top of her head to take them out.

The plan was to post a cute before and after picture. However, since none of my plans typically work out (especially when Bella is involved) I guess I'll settle with a cute before picture and a not-so-cute after. . .Dang Kid.

And this picture just because I think it's so funny. . .

So Cute

2009-10-22T17:23:00.004-04:00

How could you not love these kids?!?

Our Little Chicken Nugget

2009-10-04T21:12:00.003-04:00

Apparantly we haven't had enough changes in our life lately. . .because we are going to have another. I'm pregnant! I'm due April 3.
Because of the last miscarriage, I really wanted to wait until I was past the 12 week milestone to tell everyone. We didn't even tell Simon or Nolan. We knew they would spill the beans! So, when we finally did tell Simon he immediately wanted to know if he's going to have a new brother or sister. I told him that we won't find out for a few weeks and we'll just have to wait.
Then he wanted to know what the baby's name would be. I told him that if it's a girl she will be named Malia, and we don't really have a name picked out for a boy. He proceeded to tell me that if it's a boy he will be called Chicken Nugget.
We find out what the gender is next month. If it is a boy, Simon will be so sad that we aren't naming him Chicken Nugget. . .but it sure is a good nickname. :)

. . .and yes, this time I am excited!

BBQ's and Not-So-Great Ideas

2009-09-27T18:25:00.007-04:00

There is a family in our ward, the Halls, that have adopted us. They are the nicest people, and our kids love them! They invited us over for dinner a while ago, and the kids just loved playing in their pool. Lucky for me the Halls have teenage boys who swam with the kids so I didn't have to get in a swimming suit! Other than Bella almost drowning and me almost jumping in the water fully dressed with my camera around my neck, it was really really fun! We roasted s'mores in their fire, and had a yummy BBQ dinner. They are just good people, and fun to be around.

Bella is in her toddler bed and she takes advantage (way to often) of the fact that she can get out whenever she wants. I am used to Simon and Nolan (and Bella when she was in a crib) taking 2-3 hour naps every day. Needless to say, I am entirely sick of her getting out of bed. She maybe takes a 30-45 min. nap now. For my sanity, that had to be fixed.
I was talking to my mom the other day, expressing my frustration, and I jokingly told her that I was so close to tying her door shut so that she can't get out. I never mentioned my idea to anyone else. I was a little hesitant to do that. If something were to happen, I didn't want to have to deal with untying a rope.
Last Sunday, we were all sick, and we all stayed home from church. Everyone needed a nap and Ben and I were all to aware of the fact that Bella wouldn't be taking a very good one. I was putting Bella in bed and Ben walked upstairs with a rope in his hands, ready to tie her door shut. To ease my concerns about an emergency we put a knife close by so we could just cut the rope. We had the best nap. . .a whole three hours! . . .and then I looked in Bella's room. . .

She had gotten out of her bed, and realized that she couldn't open her door, so she looked for other ways of entertaining herself. She pulled out every single toy and every item of clothing she owns. It was a mess. Not the greatest idea, but totally worth it.
I have since come across another idea. Ben is going to turn the door knobs around so that we can just lock her in from the outside. You just have to turn the knob to unlock it, so I think I will be a little more comfortable with that, I have resigned myself to the fact that her room will look like a bomb hit. . .and I'll get my two hours of quiet!! Problem solved.

I know! I know!....

2009-09-05T22:02:00.009-04:00

I'm horrible. Everyone keeps asking me to put pictures of our house on here, and I keep finding other things to do. . .but first things first. . .
My poor little Bella was sort of forgotten on her birthday this year. It just happened to be in the thick of the move. Luckily, we had a little party for her before we left. . .so I'm not a totally hopeless mother. . .right?! My sweet Bella turned two at the beginning of August. . .and really she's not all that sweet. ;) She is always into everything. She will climb up on the counters and get whatever she can reach. (She bit open all of the bananas and took a bite of each of them. She has spilled the sugar everywhere, and also opened the chocolate milk mix and spread it all over, and she's always getting into my makeup, among many many other things). She keeps me busy, to say the least. However, she is so darn cute and I just love her to pieces! My mom says that I was exactly the same way when I was little so I deserve her. . .I'm not sure that's fair.

Also, Simon started kindergarten this year! He is so excited to go to school every day. He gets to ride the bus and he acts like that's the best thing that has ever happened to him. They have all day kindergarten here, and he is loving it. I'll have to tell you all about his school in another post but just so you know how great it is, it is one of the top seven elementary schools in North Carolina. I love it! Nolan seems to be a little lost without his buddy to play with. He is always asking me when Simon will get home. I'm looking forward to having some one-on-one time with him though. I just love that sweet Nolan boy.

And now, I'll include some pictures of the house. Keep in mind, the rooms aren't totally done, but good enough to show everyone. I'll put a before and after of each room. Some of the rooms I haven't painted yet, so you'll have to see those later! For now, we'll start at the top. . .
The Boys Room:

I still need Ben to hang the other curtains, and the walls need something on them but I'm not sure what to do yet. . .any ideas?

Bella's Room:

I need to get her some curtains. If you ever think you want to do stripes in a room, don't! They look awesome, and I love them, but they were so much work. I'm very particular so that probably didn't help, but I don't think I'll do stripes like that ever again! Yes, that's her new big girl bed. Oh how I wish I had the crib back. . .and that she couldn't climb out of it! She can get out so easily now, and she does.

Master Bedroom:

I haven't painted this room yet. I really don't have any idea what color to use (again. . .any ideas?). I'm going to have to think about that for a while. I'm having a hard time finding a color that looks good with our bedding. This is my new bedroom furniture, and I wanted to show it off, hence the picture. I also got a new comforter set!

The Bonus/Game Room:

We aren't painting in here, and the boxes in the middle of the floor won't be there, they just haven't found a home yet. I love this room. It keeps me sane! If the kids aren't outside, they are playing in here.

Upstairs we also have another bathroom an extra bedroom, and there is a little room off of the bonus room. Those haven't been painted yet. Oh, and there is the master bathroom, and I haven't taken a picture of that either.

Downstairs we have. . .
The Kitchen:

This hasn't been painted yet. It will be an olive green color. It doesn't look bad now, so I thought I'd include the picture.

The Living Room:

This isn't totally done. I am still going to paint the other two walls a light brown. I do love the rusty color of that wall. This is also my new furniture! I can't tell you how excited I am to not have the futon in the living room anymore!

The Laundry Room:

I love all the counter space, and the nice deep sink! It's connected to the garage and also has a door to the back yard, so I guess it's a mud room too.

The Bathroom:

I don't have a before picture.

There is also a dining room, a guest bedroom and an office on the main level.

Then we have the backyard.
This is the view from the deck:

And this is the view from the play house:

I'll have to include a picture of the garage later. It's still a work in progress! So, there are the pictures that I have so far. All of the rooms aren't completely done. They all need curtains, and I still have things to hang on some of the walls, but they are good enough for now. I'll post more pictures as I finish the rooms. I'm completely sick of painting right now, so I imagine it won't be for at least a few more weeks! I will, however, try to be better at updating this blog, and checking out all of your blogs too! We really love it here, but we also really miss everyone in Utah. It's different here. But it's a good different Everyone, everywhere is so nice and it is so beautiful. However, they don't even have cinnamon bears, or salt water taffy. And the Subway's haven't even heard of a seafood sub! I mean, really?! I guess we'll have to load up when we come visit! :)

P.S. Here is my new haircut!

One week later. . .

2009-08-03T09:00:00.004-04:00

Well, it's been busy busy busy! We arrived here in North Carolina on July 26, and we haven't stopped working! It is so much fun to paint and decorate our new house, and yet very stressful. It sure looks nice when it's all put together though! We were so lucky to have Ben's mom come out and help us for a few days. She was a life saver! The kids were so happy to see her too. Now they call the room she was staying in Kai's (that's what they call her) room, and the bathroom is 'Kai's bathroom'. My mom will be coming this Friday to help out. I'm so excited! We are painting every room, so there's a lot of work to do! So far we love it here. I know it's only been a week, but it's been a good week. The kids love the big back yard, and go exploring often! We went to church yesterday (and had to drive 40 minutes to get there. . .yuck). Everyone was so kind and friendly. We really are having a great time! Sorry for the short little update. I don't have much time right now. I am going to take before and after pictures of the rooms, so I'll post those as I get them done. . .oh, and Ben bought me new furniture!! No more futon! Hooray!

The 4-1-1

2009-06-16T11:52:00.004-04:00

Last January Ben and I were driving home, and he asked me if I had ever thought about moving out of Utah. Coincidentally, I had been thinking that very thing at the same time he was.
To make a long story short, we decided that was something we wanted to do, and found out where Wells Fargo had offices. They had a small office in Charlotte. We prayed and fasted, and felt like that was where we should go. So, Ben sent a resume to the manager there, and told him of our interest to move.
Now, a year and a half later, Wells Fargo has bought Wachovia, which has a huge presence in Charlotte, making our move possible!

Ben was told of the job opening (doing the same thing he is doing now) at the beginning of May. Before Ben and the manager in Charlotte (Randy) discussed the position, Randy flew Ben and me to Charlotte to meet the team members, and show us around a little. It was so much fun. It was almost like they were trying to convince us to move. They really like Ben, and want him to come work for them. We knew we were making the right decision as soon as we got off the plane. Everyone that Ben will work with is so nice, and it is absolutely beautiful there! We both love it!

Ben accepted the job at the end of May, and last week Ben and I flew out there to find a house. That was stressful. We had the end of Wednesday, all day Thursday, and most of Friday to find one. I think we went to see 30-35 houses. The last house we saw, was the one we chose. . .why couldn't we have seen that one first!? Anyway, we sent them an offer on the house Friday night, and they had accepted it by Saturday afternoon, while we were still on the way home! Hooray! Here is our house:
I'll post more pictures when we are there, and I get some time! We are so excited!!

Side note: Simon had a game while we were in NC. The little stinker made four goals! It's way funny too, since Ben told him he could have $5 per goal. Haha! I made Ben give him the twenty bucks. His last game is tonight. I hope he makes more goals so that I can see. . .and so that Ben has to cough up more money! Simon was pretty thrilled when he got all of that money. :) He has earned almost enough to buy a Nintendo DS (we are too cheap. . .Simon has to earn the money and save up for it on his own). He's almost there!

Catch Up

2009-06-08T15:21:00.008-04:00

I know, I'm a total slacker. I've been busy. . .really I have.
So, about soccer . . . Nolan doesn't play anymore. We took him to one last game so I could record him playing. He kicked a goal and everything! As soon as he kicked the goal, he came walking off the field saying "I don't want to play soccer." We figured that if kicking a goal doesn't do it for him, nothing will. We decided not to fight him about it. He sure is a cute little stinker though!

Simon is still playing, and loves every minute of it. Ben really wants him to kick another goal, so he has upped the price payed for making a goal to five dollars. . .but Simon still hasn't made another one, even with the incentive. Two goals is good though, right!? . . .I think it is! Simon also graduated from Preschool! He's getting so big. He starts kindergarten next year! YIKES! It was fun to watch him sing all of the songs, and show some of the things they learned throughout the year. He did awesome on the little test they give the kids going to kindergarten the next year. His teacher said he was one of the smartest kids and he was at the top of his class!

Mother's Day was great! I just love being a mommy. There's nothing better.Ben had a birthday yesterday! He is 29. . .so old! It's actually quite strange to think that he is almost thirty. Anyway, we had dinner at his parents house. They cooked yummy steak and funeral potatoes per Ben's request. Yummy! Happy Birthday Babe!

Oh, and one minor thing that has kept us a little busy. Nothing major, we're just moving to North Carolina in July, that's all. :) We are so excited! . . .I'll explain later!

And just because I feel like she got left out of this post. Here is a funny picture of my princess. This is what she does when she doesn't get her way. If she were on the floor, she'd be rolling around and kicking her feet. She's an angel. :)

Nolan's Soccer game

2009-05-13T17:28:00.007-04:00

This is my sweet Nolan. . .

He hates playing soccer.
Well, I'm not sure hate totally describes what I mean.
He loathes it. We have to bribe him with McDonald's or candy to go play. Even then he barely gives it an attempt.

This is how a Saturday morning goes. . .
We wake up and say "Who wants to play soccer today?!?!"
Simon, jumping up and down says "Me! Me! Me!"
Nolan, still laying in bed with the blanket over his face mumbles "I don't want to play soccer."
So, we force him to get his uniform on, and make him put on his shin guards. The whole time he is saying. . .or screaming "I don't want to play soccer! I hate soccer."
After everyone is ready, we get them in the car and head for the fields.
Nolan, of course, is in the back making sure that we understand that he does not want to play soccer.
We get to the park, set up the chairs, spread out the blanket, and wait for the game to start.
When it is time for Nolan to go play, he refuses.
"What if Dad buys you McDonald's Nolan? Do you want McDonald's?"
"Yeah, I want McDonald's!"
"Okay, you have to go play soccer"
"I don't want to play soccer"
"Then no McDonald's."
"But I want McDonald's"
"Then go play soccer!"
We finally convince him to go play. The coach (who really is quite good with the kids) lets Nolan kick off.
Nolan kicks the ball, and then another kid kicks it. So sweet Nolan starts crying. . .

That dang kid stole the ball from him!
He thinks that he should just get to kick it around all by himself. He comes back over to the blanket, and through his little tears says "I don't want to play soccer."
Being the sweet aunt that she is, Angela takes Nolan back to the field and stays with him, trying to convince him to go play and try to kick the ball. She was fairly successful too!
While he was running around and trying to kick the ball, he was having fun. There was even a smile on his face at times!

However, this is what we saw the majority of the time. . .

Angela and Nolan just standing in the field, watching the other kids run around. I'm not sure why, but he doesn't like soccer.

I don't see much point in going to the games if all we do is fight him, and watch other kids play. We will try one more game this weekend. Hopefully he will play! If not, we donated money to the Taylorsville Rec Center! How nice of us.

Oh, and here are my cute boys. . .

They are both #8, just like their dad (and aunts) always was.

P.S. This was Nolan's second soccer game. The first one was the weekend that it was pouring rain. It was miserable and cold and, needless to say, I didn't want to ruin either of my cameras!

Fishing with Dad & Grandpa

2009-05-11T05:06:00.005-04:00

Ben and I have been feeling like our sweet Nolan has been getting lost in the shuffle. . .so, last Wednesday, Nolan got to have a little one-on-one time with Dad and Grandpa. They went fishing, and he had a great time! Ben took him to the store to pick out some treats and goodies to have on their trip. They slept over at Ben's parents house the night before, since they were waking up so early. They also went "warm" (worm) hunting Tuesday night. . .Nolan thought pulling those nasty worms out of the ground was the coolest thing. . .boys.

If that wasn't exciting enough, Wednesday morning they all woke up at early o'clock in the morning and went to catch fishies! Oh man, did he have a good time! He threw rocks in the lake, which I'm sure was great for the fishing, and Ben said that his favorite thing to do was walk around with the fishing net, and catch the fishies.

Ben also bought some crawdad traps. Nolan called them the little crabs. They cooked them up and had them for lunch. I don't think Nolan ate any, but he sure loves to tell you about those little things!

I'm glad he had a good time with his Daddy and Grandpa. He's been talking about going fishing every day since then! He's such a cute little guy.

On the News

2009-05-07T16:42:00.006-04:00

About a month ago, I got an email from my friend Shara, who works for KSL. She said they were looking for a young family, with cute kids, that would be willing to let a news crew come to their house and do a story about saving energy. So she suggested my family, since we fit the requirements so nicely! It aired this morning.
I'm not smart enough to figure out how you get the video on the blog, but you can watch it here if you are interested. :)

Bella + Outside = One Happy Girl!

2009-05-04T17:56:00.006-04:00

It doesn't matter if it's sunny or raining cats and dogs. Bella loves to be outside. Last week we were working in the yard, pulling weeds etc. Bella was having the best time, inspite of all the rain. Even at Nolan's soccer game (where it was miserable and pouring rain, so i didn't take my camera . . .I'll take pictures at the next game) she wouldn't sit with me under the umbrella. She had to be out and about, exploring, trying to run onto the soccer field. She sure is a cute little stinker, and she definitely has fun.

Here are some pictures of her a little while ago. She is trying to dress herself. Only, that's a shirt she's trying to put on as pants. . .silly girl.

Sell. . .Party of 3

2009-05-02T23:16:00.003-04:00

So, I met a new friend at a Relief Society activity the other day. Her name is Evonne Sell. She is totally funny, and her blog is so fun to read. Anyway, she is doing a few giveaways. You can enter, if you wish, here for a gift certificate to Texas Roadhouse, and/or here for a cute little camera. Even if you don't want to enter for the giveaways you could at least go read her blog here. Enjoy!

Simon's First Soccer Game

2009-04-18T12:43:00.007-04:00

Simon had his first soccer game today. It was so much fun. Being the proud momma that I am, I of course though he was the cutest kid on the field! He did a really great job kicking the ball and trying to steal it from the other team. He even made a goal! He was just thrilled to death.

It's kinda funny to watch them because there are five kids from each team running around in a big herd, trying to kick the ball. They don't have goalies, and they don't keep score. Most of the kids don't even know what direction they are supposed to be kicking the ball. It was absolutely hilarious! Buddy sure was a good little player though. He is so excited for his next game. And frankly, I think it's worth the $40 to let him play, just for the entertainment value!

Simon kicking his goal!:

After he made his goal:

His shoe kept falling off (at one point he was running around trying to kick the ball, while holding his shoe):

Simon and his buddy Callaway:

Simon and his other buddy Noah:

I love this picture:

Nolan starts soccer in a couple weeks. . .now that should be entertaining!

"My Toes is Buzzin'!"

2009-04-03T14:54:00.002-04:00

Nolan was playing upstairs on the computer yesterday, and he came running downstairs yelling, "MOM! MOMMY! My toes is buzzin'!"
So I said, "Your toes are what?"
"My TOES is BUZZIN'!"
"I don't know what your saying Nolan." ( I really couldn't understand him)
So he lifted his foot in my face and yelled "MY TOES, THEY'RE BUZZIN'!"
"Oh, you're foot is asleep?"
"NO, my toes is BUZZIN' mom!"

That's a pretty good description if you ask me. . . he's such a cute little Nolan.

Happy Birthday Simon!

2009-03-31T20:51:00.006-04:00

Our sweet Simon just turned five on Saturday! We let him have a friend birthday party this year. He was so excited. I told him he could invite five friends. . .and Nolan had to be one of them. :) So, he invited Nolan, Callaway and Noah who are neighbors, Collin his cousin, and Carter from preschool. (Bella stayed at my mom's house, thanks mom!)

They all met at our house, and as soon as everyone was there, we loaded them up and took them to Chuck E. Cheese.
They were all so excited and they were so good! They thought it was so cool to go play games with their "money." I think the favorite of all the boys was air hockey.

For Ben and I it was a living Hell. There were so many people there. You had to wait in line for a lot of the games. There is pretty much NO parent supervision, so there are kids butting in line, and playing a game ten times. Then there were adults who were playing the games, making the little kids wait in line. Hello? It was kind of pathetic.

Luckily for Ben and I, the boys didn't even notice, and they had a great time! Which, I guess, is all that matters! After the boys used all of their coins, and were filled up on pizza and soda, we went back to our house for cake, ice cream, and presents! Simon had a great birthday party! He is still thanking me for letting him have a friend party and go to Chuck E. Cheese.

We love our little Buddy so much. He is just the sweetest boy. You can't help buy fall in love with Simon when you meet him. He is so nice to everyone, and he is so incredibly smart. I'm kind of sad that he is getting so big. . . I can't believe we have a five year old!

50% Off Mary Kay

2009-03-26T13:51:00.013-04:00

I know that some of you already know this, but I also know there are people who read this blog, that don't get emails from me!

I have started selling Mary Kay again. I'm not trying to make any money, just trying to get the 50% off discount! I love their makeup. I just think it's fairly expensive.

Here are the rules:

1.You have to pay me for your order before I order it. If I don't have your money, I don't order your make up.

2. You pay taxes on the amount before the discount. So, if your order is $20 before taking 50% off, tax is figured on $20 ($1.37), but you only pay $10 for the product. so your total would be $11.37, does that make sense?

3. Shipping is paid by everyone ordering. It is usually $2 for each person, although sometimes it may be less. It all depends on how many people order. If you decide you need something and nobody else is ordering, you would pay the full shipping cost.

4. I will let everyone know a few weeks before I order, so you will have time to decide if you want something, and get me the money for your order.

If you would like to get this discount, let me know!

You can email me at tessa_bliss@yahoo.com

I will be ordering again in August

Coupons

2009-03-12T22:21:00.006-04:00

This will be my attempt to tell everyone how to use coupons. Keep in mind that I am a newbie in the coupon world. I do, however, think that everyone should learn to use them, because you save soooo much money!
First of all, the best way to get coupons is to subscribe to the Sunday newspaper. They say (they meaning the people who know more than me) that you should get one newspaper for every person in your home. I have two papers delivered to me, my neighbor lets me have theirs, and Ben's mom gives me her coupons. . .I guess I'm one short.
Second, I never buy anything that I wouldn't normally buy without a coupon. I don't just buy things because they are on sale. I buy things that I use and need. You do it how you wish. I know some people buy things just because you can get them for $.50, and then give them away. I'm not quite there yet. . .maybe someday.
Third, I think coupons take a little time. It doesn't take a lot of time, and it seems I am getting more efficient as I go, but it will take a few minutes to figure out what you are buying that week, and cut your coupons.

There are a few different packets of coupons that come in the Sunday paper. They are SmartSource (SS), Red Plum (RP) and Proctor & Gamble (P&G). (I think the Red Plum also comes in the mail sometimes, but I don't seem to get it...maybe I'm wrong...it's happened before).

When I get my coupon packets, I write the date that they came on the front. This makes it easier to find the packet you need later. I keep all of my SmartSource packets together in order by date. I do the same with the others as well. Some people organize them by the date they came. So, every coupon packet that comes on March 22 will be together. You don't cut any coupons out right now. You will cut a coupon out only when that item is on sale.
You can also print coupons from the Internet, but I'll get into that later.

So now we get to the more confusing part. . .

Step 1. Go to grocerysmarts.com and enter Utah's passport (g84csg) on the right hand side. (preferably in a different window so you can look at what I'm explaining)

Step 2. Pick a store.

Step 3. Look for the deals.

Here is a little piece from the Albertson's page. It doesn't look exactly like it does on the page, but for explanation purposes it should do just fine! It's color coded . . . :)

The deal: **Kellogg's promo: Save $10 instantly when you buy 10 participating products.** Sale price shown is BEFORE/AFTER purchase of 10. Must purchase 10 to get $1.50 price. Discount is 1.00 per item when you purchase 10.

*****
Kellogg's cereal 9-21.5 oz.
2.50/1.50
Kellogg’s Cereal, any flavor 10 oz. or larger .70/1 (4-5-09) RP-2/22
.80

So, the number of stars indicates the stock up scale. Five stars is a great deal, and a good time to stock up. . .two or three stars isn't such a great deal. I find myself only looking for the items that have four or five stars.

The next line (or next box over if you're looking at the website) is the item that is on sale. In this case, Kellogg's cereal.

The price before the coupon comes next. Kellogg's cereal is on sale for $2.50 if you buy 10 of the participating items, it costs $1.50.

Now, they tell you if/where there is a coupon. This line tells you that you can look in the Red Plum (RP) that came on Feb. 22 (2/22) and that the coupon is $.70 off one box (.70/1) The date shown is the date the coupon expires. Again, if it's in the Smart Source it would say SS and Proctor & Gamble says P&G. This is why it is so important to write the date that your coupon packets come. It makes it so much easier to find them. If there is no coupon for that item, it will say N/A in that box. Or, if there is a coupon available online it will give you a link to print it. You can typically print two coupons per computer.

This line tells you the price of the item after the promotion and the coupon (.80).

In this case, if you have the coupon, you could get a box of Kellogg's cereal for $.80! You can use one coupon per item purchased, so if you get five newspapers, you could get five boxes of cereal for $.80.

The coupons don't seem to expire for five or six months or so . . . I haven't been collecting coupons for that long, so none of mine are expired. When they begin to expire, I will just throw them away!

I'm hoping this post makes sense . . . If you have questions, feel free to ask. If I don't know the answer, I'll ask my friend Staci...she's the coupon expert! Good luck with your coupons!

"Waddis trick Mom!"

2009-03-04T16:39:00.006-05:00

Simon and Nolan are way to into figuring out new tricks.
This is Nolan's latest.
He thought it was pretty cool to put a bouncy ball in each of his cheeks.
He's such a goof ball. . .but so dang cute!

P.S. Explaining coupons isn't the easiest thing. . .but, when I have a little more time, it will be the subject of my next post. . .promise!

Cutting Coupons

2009-02-26T11:01:00.003-05:00

I've always heard of people going to the store and buying truck loads of stuff for a penny. I never really understood how, and I almost didn't believe them. However, I have recently learned how to use coupons in an effective way, thanks to a Relief Society activity and my friend Staci. I have to admit I was totally confused when I attended the coupon class, but after I got home and looked at everything they were talking about, I totally got it! Last week, I went to the store with my coupons in hand and bought the following:
10 boxes of Fruit Roll ups
4 cans of Progresso soup
2 bags of Chex mix
4 boxes of Chex cereal bars
2 bags of Albertson's potato chips
4 cans of Pillsbury refrigerator rolls
2 boxes of Toaster Strudels
4 Warm Delight microwave cakes
5 Pillsbury cake mixes and,
5 cans of Pillsbury frosting
Guess how much it all cost...$14! (and change) That equals out to be about $0.33 per item!
I planned it all out the night before I went, but I was so excited to go buy it all, that I couldn't sleep! I was up until 3:00 in the morning! It's really quite fun to get so much stuff for such a little price! I'm sure that wasn't the best that anyone has ever done with coupons, but I think it's great for a first timer! Coupons are definitely the way to go! Especially if you are trying to save money and cut back on the grocery bill!

The Price

2009-02-14T19:10:00.002-05:00

In her short 18 months of life, Bella has learned the price you pay for playing with two rowdy boys, here is her most recent...

She wasn't bothered by it for more than 30 seconds. She just went right back to playing!! It makes me wonder what I looked like, growing up with six of them...

Simon Can Read!

2009-01-29T14:21:00.005-05:00

Last summer, I borrowed some books from the library that would help Simon start reading. At the time, he wasn't ready for them, so I took them back.
Last December, he started to show more interest in reading, so I borrowed the books again. They are called Bob books. They are very simple books that introduce a few new letters/sounds with each book. We borrowed the first set, which has twelve books. I sat down with Simon, and the very first time he looked at the book he was able to read it! Like I said, they are very simple books, but he isn't even five, and he can read them! Since December, he has learned to read the first nine books.
I recorded this video of him today. He is reading the fifth and the ninth books. He is so smart, and he loves to learn. We are so proud of him for reading! He gets pretty proud of himself too. He would get a huge grin on his face when he would remember what the 'J' says. He tries to guess some of the words sometimes, without sounding the letters out, and occasionally he'll look at the picture on the page and try to guess what the words say. All in all, he is doing a great job. It's so fun to watch him grow and learn!

Baby Porter

2009-01-20T15:45:00.002-05:00

My sister, Tara, had her baby last week. He weighed 7 lbs. 14 oz. and was 20 in. long. When Simon was born he was the same weight, and one half inch longer. When I hold baby Porter, it is strange to think that Simon was almost that exact same size once...and now look at him!! Anyway, last Saturday I took some pictures of Porter. I think he is so cute! Enjoy!

P.S. Tara made the multi-colored blanket. Didn't she do a great job!?

December 2008

2008-12-29T22:49:00.006-05:00

This month is obviously the busiest month of the year for us. I typically like to have all of my shopping done before December, and if I'm lucky, before Thanksgiving. I don't love shopping anyway, but I hate it even more in December. This year, I was done with my Christmas shopping before we went to Disneyland! As a result, we were all able to enjoy Christmas!

We started by dipping chocolates for our neighbors. I'm not sure how long my mom has dipped chocolates at Christmas time, but it has been a while. I decided I would carry on the tradition in our home, because I love it, and they are yummy!

I tried to let Simon help...but I don't have that much patience. I'm a little bit of a perfectionist in some aspects of my life. Anything that will be seen by other people, has to look good. I'm vain, I know.

We also had a number of Christmas parties. We had one party with the Sessions (my mom's family), a Drummond party, Granny Bliss had her party (one of my favorite), Grandma Wright had one, and we had a Bliss party! I love getting together and seeing people that I don't get to see very often, and I love being around family.

On Christmas Eve, we have started a family tradition where we take turns having one great grandma sleep over. This year Grandma Bliss stayed with us. We always have hot cocoa and read a Christmas book before bed. This year, we read The Polar Express.

Simon and Nolan have loved reading that book since we got it. Anytime Simon would tell Santa what he wanted, or anytime anyone asked him what he wanted for Christmas he would say "a bell from Santa's sleigh."

We loved having Granny Great stay with us on Christmas Eve. It's a fun tradition that we all hope we get to do for a long time!

Christmas morning, as always, was really fun. Christmas is so different when you have kids. They are so much fun to watch. I've always gotten so excited for Christmas day. I still can't fall asleep the night before, and I wake up long before anyone else does. Ben wasn't too thrilled with me when I woke him up and all of the kids were still asleep! (we DID have to get to a party...so he really did have to wake up...)

Even though we all woke up early, we had a really good Christmas. And not to mention, the kids made out like bandits! All three of them got just what they wanted, and more than they could possibly need. I even had a bell in my decorations that I wasn't using, and that Simon has never seen, so I wrapped it up in a little box so that he could get a bell from Santa's sleigh. He loved it!

We are very blessed to have such wonderful families, who live so close, and with whom we can share the Christmas season.

Family Pictures

2008-12-19T12:32:00.009-05:00

These next two pictures give a pretty good inclination of how our family pictures went. As Ben would say, we were in the tenth level of Hell. It was pretty frustrating...

...but it wasn't that bad.

It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but in spite of all of the torture, we did get a good family picture!

We also got at least one half-way decent picture of each of the kids together and on their own.

Here are some pictures that I thought were funny...

This is Bella yelling at us because she didn't want to sit down and take pictures...she yelled at us the whole time.

She also would not stay sitting down. We would sit her on the little chair, and she would stand up immediately. I love Simon's face in this one...he looks so happy to be there.This is what Nolan did when we told him he could be done...And here is one of my two boys...

Simon and Nolan were absolute angels for the pictures. I had to bribe them, but that's not what matters! I got a good family picture with three little kids!! Hooray!

Our Disneyland Andventure

2008-12-09T13:23:00.025-05:00

I think that Disneyland is one of Ben's and my favorite places to go. It is always so clean and is run like a well oiled machine! My favorite part are the fireworks, and the "snow" that comes down after the firework show is over. It truly is the happiest place on earth! We have so much fun watching the kids faces light up and seeing them get so excited about everything they see, hear, and do! We could live there and be perfectly happy about it!
This year, was our second trip to Disneyland with all of Ben's family. We left at early o'clock in the morning on Friday the 21st. Lucky for us, the kids were very cooperative when we woke them up so early. They were pretty excited to get on a plane and go to Disneyland!

Ready to board the plane!
It was quite an interesting process trying to get three tired kids, four suitcases, one car seat, two booster seats a double stroller and two carry-on bags in the airport! Then we had to go through security (which meant taking those tired kids out of the stroller, taking off every one's shoes and jackets, removing the laptop and the portable DVD player from the carry-on, showing the one quart size bag of liquids, trying to fit the double stroller through the stupid tiny little hole to get x-rayed,herding the kids through the metal detector, and then trying to get everything back into it's respective bags, shoes and jackets back on and kids back in the stroller)!! ...At least we are safe while on the plane.

When we finally got on the plane, Mickey Mouse called all of the boys (Collin, Simon, Nolan and Bauer) to tell them to have fun on their vacation, and that he'll see them real soon. All of them loved it except for Collin. He wasn't too impressed. He looked at Kai (Ben's mom) and said "That's not really Mickey Mouse, it's just a recording." I guess he's a little too old for the call!

video of calls coming soon

When we got to California, we picked up our rental car, took our stuff to the hotel, got some yummy breakfast, and went to Wal-Mart for some snacks and drinks to have in the room. By then, the kids were so tired. They just needed a quick nap! I love this picture. I think they look so darn cute...

Tired babies

Saturday was our first day at Disneyland! We got to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Buzz Light Year. The kids loved the rides (all except the part where you wait in line). I also got Bella a little princess crown! She looked so dang cute.

Princess Bella

Ben asked me why I bought it. I told him that I bought it because she needed it. She's a princess, and princesses need a crown!!

Disneyland

On Sunday we went to church and just hung out at the hotel.

Monday was another Disneyland/California Adventure day! That meant more rides, wahoo!! We learned that day, that Nolan is 39.9999999 inches tall. You have to be 40 in. to ride on a lot of the big rides. We had the lovely Disneyland workers measure him each time we went on a ride. None of them would let him go on. One of them stuck a card, the same thickness as a credit card, between Nolan's head and the bar. Because there was that tiny itty bitty little space, he wouldn't let him go on Space Mountain. Jerk.

California Adventure

We also bought Nolan a new monkey. This time he wanted a blue one. The green one that Grandpa bought him two years ago is a mess. It has holes all over it, and is missing an eye. We figured he would like to get a newer, softer version. We were right.

Nolan and his monkey

One of the funniest things that I saw Bella do on the trip, was this...

Tantrums

She got so mad at something we did or didn't let her do, or something, so she started crying (one). That wasn't getting any one's attention, and all mom was doing was taking pictures of her, so she threw herself on the floor (two). While she was on the floor, she noticed that it had a strange pattern (three). She was so fascinated by the pattern of the tile on the floor that she forgot why she was throwing the fit in the first place (four)!

Tuesday was Universal Studios day. We decided that we should find some shoes for Nolan that made him a little bit taller. We put different shoes on him for Universal, and not one person checked his height. They didn't even give him a second look. I'm not sure how I feel about that...but he did get to go on a few of the rides. mostly, the kids liked meeting the characters. Grandpa and Kai got Simon a dinosaur toy set that Simon guarded for the rest of the trip. He still loves playing with it too.

Universal Studios

As you can see, Nolan wasn't too sure about Betelgeuse and Bella wasn't thrilled with Shrek or Curios George. And I just love this picture of Simon that I took....

Simon

Here's something strange...Universal Studios closes at 6:00! Does that seem early to anyone else? Anyway, when it closed, we went to dinner at Hard Rock. YUMMY!

Wednesday was another Disneyland/California Adventure day. Grandpa and Kai got Bella a little Belle dolly, which she loves. And Nolan got a "nake"(snake) He was really excited about the "nake." He kept walking around saying "Look at my nake! thhhhh thhh thhhh" (He has a little bit of a lisp...so his snake says "thhh" instead of "ssss")! We found Cars UNO and got it for Buddy. He loves to play that game. He was so excited that it was Cars. We also put Nolan in the taller shoes, and he got to go on the rides with no trouble. I'm glad he got to go on them, he loved it. Nolan was also crowned as prince of the merry-go-round. They give out one crown for each ride, and Nolan was picked! He thought it was the coolest thing.

Disneyland/Cal. Adventure

Thursday was Thanksgiving. We went to a restaurant for our Thanksgiving dinner...and it wasn't great. It was barely good. It made me miss being home for the yummy home-cooked dinners! :O(

Friday was more Disneyland and California Adventure! We walked around with Rae, Collin, Grandpa and Kai so we could go do the "boring" stuff. I thought it was fun though. Ben's mom had circled all of the things she wanted to see on her Disneyland map. She's so organized! We went on the Mark Twain Riverboat. Simon loved to look at the ducks. All of the boys liked to hang over the edge and look at the water. We also went to the Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island. That was a lot of fun. There were lots of things for Simon, Nolan and Collin to climb on. They loved the tree house, caves, and the ball of bones!

Disneyland

Bella's favorite ride was Small World. She loved to look at all the decorations. She was really cute too. She would bounce up and down, and dance to the music while pointing at everything. We went on that ride multiple times. All of us (in our little family) love Small World.

Disneyland

Saturday was the last day in Disneyland and California Adventure, so we went on the rides that the kids liked the best. Simon's favorites were Tower of Terror and "Jack" which is The Haunted Mansion. During the holiday season they have the Haunted Mansion decorated with The Nightmare Before Christmas stuff. Nolan's favorite rides were Big Thunder Mountain and Buzz Light Year. They all loved Pirates, so we made sure to go on that one more time. The only ride Simon didn't get to go on was Indiana Jones. He wasn't tall enough...he's about three inches too short. He was absolutely crushed when he had to sit out while all of the big people and Collin got to go on. Ben and I only went on that ride once. We didn't want to make Buddy sad again...poor guy.

A couple of days, when everyone was just hanging around the rooms, we went down to the pool. Simon LOVED to take a big breath, hold it, and stick his head under the water. He thought it was the coolest thing. He also, to my surprise, loved to do cannon balls into the water. Nolan liked to ride on Ben's back, and Bella didn't really like to be in the pool. She just walked around the outside of it smiling and laughing like she was getting away with something. All three of them did, however, like being in the hot tub. Or "the warm pool" as they called it.

Fun in the pool

Bauer was pretty scary by the water. A couple of times he just jumped in whether there was an adult near by or not. He jumped in the deep end and I almost jumped in after him, not realizing that I was holding my camera! Luckily, Rae said "I'll get him! I'll get him!" and she jumped in before I did! He was fearless!

On Sunday, we went to visit Del and Caylene (my brother and sister-in-law) and their two cute girls. It was good to see them! We only ever get to see them once a year. This time we got to see their new home! It was very cute. Caylene made some yummy chicken tacos and the kids played together. Brynn, their oldest, kept asking me to follow her around and take pictures of her. It was really cute.

Del and Caylene's home

After visiting them, we met everyone back at the hotel and went to the beach. I love the beach! We got there just in time to see the sunset. It was beautiful. They collected sea shells, and built sand castles. Simon thought it was cool to write his name in the sand. They were having a great time running around until Simon and Nolan found a sink hole type thing, and got soaking wet. They were cranky and cold from then on. Bella loved to run around and chase the birds. She also liked letting the waves come up on her for a little while...until she got knocked over by one. Then she was through. I took her to Kai and she got Bella wrapped up in some towels to keep warm. Bella wasn't too thrilled to be at the beach anymore. She was even less happy when we stripped her down and put her in the showers they have there! The boys hated the showers too. Needless to say, they were ready to go home. We were only at the beach for about an hour. Wimps.

At the Beach

On Monday, everyone except our family and Brian, Katie and Bauer left for the airport early in the morning. Ben took the boys down to the pool, while Bella took a nap and I packed up. We had to check out of the hotel by 1:00, so everything had to be in the car. We got lunch at Jack-in-the-Box, (my favorite fast food place in California) and took it back to the pool to eat. Then we met Brian, Katie and Bauer in Downtown Disney to walk around, kill some time, and do a little shopping! Then it was off to the airport! We were all sad to be leaving. Going home meant that vacation was over...sigh. However, it was nice to get home to our own beds. Even Simon wanted to sleep in his own room. We definitely had a great time though! Like I said, Ben and I love it at Disneyland. Now, I think our kids love it just as much as we do! Hopefully we get to go again soon! It really was a magical eleven days!!

Trent and Jeri Lynn, thanks for the awesome vacation!

Happy Belated Birthday Nolan!

2008-12-03T17:22:00.014-05:00

I'm horrible...I know. Nolan's birthday was three weeks ago, and I'm just getting to the blog post about our sweet little stinker.

I can't believe that he is three! I've said it before, but time just goes by so fast!
We had a little birthday party for him on the 18th. Nothing fancy, just cake and ice cream with the family. He helped me make his cake, and loved opening his presents! Thanks to everyone who came, and for all of the presents! We just love Nolan. He is (or can be) the sweetest little kid. He is so much fun to be around, and he says the funniest things.
Some of his favorite things right now are...

Food: Pizza or chicken nuggets
Treat: Fruit snacks
Stuffed animal: His green monkey and mickey mouse

Toy: Imaginext Jungle he got for his birthday
Color: Blue
Cartoon: Scooby Doo
Book: Green Eggs and Ham
Song: Any Tarzan song
Drink: Ratarade (gatorade)
We sure do love you Nolan!

Pictures and video of our Disneyland trip, coming soon!

Help!

2008-11-04T00:07:00.002-05:00

I'm having a little bit of a problem. We can't think of anything to get Nolan for his birthday! Does anyone have any ideas? Maybe something that your three year old has liked, or may like? I had a bunch of great ideas, and I gave them to other people. Now I have no ideas left. Any help would be great...

Halloween Fun

2008-10-26T23:06:00.010-04:00

I love Halloween! It is my second favorite holiday (Christmas is by far my very favorite). I love all the decorations, I loved dressing up when I was younger, and I especially love getting the kids dressed up. Oh, and getting candy isn't all that bad either! I love all of the parties and going trick-or-treating. I just love all of it! This year for Halloween, Simon wanted to be Darth Vader again.
That's what he was last year. However, I didn't complain, and I certainly didn't try to talk him out of it. That means less money we spend on costumes! (I think Ben is wearing off on me...I sound a lot like him)

We told Nolan that he could be Spiderman and he was thrilled to death about that. Ben and I were pretty happy about it too, since we already had that costume also. Bella was going to be a ballerina. I made her a cute little tutu, and I was going to buy a little leotard. However, I went to the salvation army with Jeri Lynn, Katie, and Angela, and they found the cutest little witch dress! It was only one dollar! So, Bella is now dressing up as a witch, and a very cute one if I do say so myself!

Since this weekend was the last before Halloween, it was quite busy for us!
On Saturday, we had the Drummond family Halloween party. It was loads of fun! We dipped apples in caramel and various toppings, played Halloween bingo, had a candy corn toss (Bella and Acelin were the biggest helpers...they just crawled over and kept putting the pieces that everyone missed into the cauldron), bobbed for apples (I got my apple out in the fastest time! and Simon and Nolan were the only little kids to try it!), had a cake walk, earned prizes for winning or in some cases just playing the games, and ate yummy food!

Saturday evening our ward had a Halloween party that was a chili cook-off. Ben took the kids to that activity. He said that it was really fun, and the kids loved it. They had tons of different foods/desserts, and fun activities for the kiddies. I wasn't able to attend, because I went to thriller with the in-laws! I love watching the amazing talent that those dancers have. The men especially were fantastic! I wish I had half of their talent. I think it's a fun little Halloween concert. It made me miss dancing!

Tonight we had the Bliss family Halloween party. Jeri Lynn always makes a very spooky dinner! We had worms in blood (spaghetti in spaghetti sauce) with eyeballs floating around, (meatballs with a little green pimento olive thing inside) bones (breadsticks), and a muddy little dessert (chocolate pudding with Oreo's crushed on top, and gummy worms sticking out). All of the kids got a pumpkin prize with all sorts of goodies in it. We took tons of pictures (big shocker right?) and some of us played a little bit of pinochle (love that game!).

It was a very fun and eventful weekend!

Trick or Treat

2008-10-26T22:44:00.003-04:00

My sister-in-law, Heather, has this on her blog, and I think it is so funny...and sadly, very true...

A Place For Everything

2008-10-21T11:30:00.001-04:00

Simon was coloring and watching a movie on his little DVD player, and I noticed that his ears were holding a couple of his crayons...I thought it was funny, so I took a quick picture. Since he figured out that the crayons stay there, he has been trying to find other things that his ears can hold! :O)

Climbing

2008-10-17T19:14:00.005-04:00

So, these pictures are pretty bad. I took them with my phone, but you get the idea. She, like her cousin, loves to climb...on anything.
The Piano...

The shelves...I have NO idea how she got up there...

The boys beds...

She made it to the top of the bunk beds. Dang kid, now I can't leave her to play in the boys room anymore!

The "Zoon"

2008-10-11T00:10:00.004-04:00

Every time we get in the car, Nolan says "Are we going to the Zoon mommy?" (that's the zoo) I'm not sure why he started asking that, but we finally decided to take the kids to see the animals. Nolan was so ecstatic when we told him where we were going.
This was Bella's first trip to the zoon. She loved seeing all of the animals. She pointed at all of them and got so excited.
Simon had to have a map of the zoo. Every time we go, he gets another one. Then he tells us which way we have to go. "First we go past the monkeys, then the elephants, and then we get to the bears. We have to go this way...then that way...then that way." I'm not really sure if he has just been to the zoo enough times that he knows it that well...or if he's actually reading the map. Probably the first one, but he sure does love those maps! He also had to climb on every statue.
It was such a nice day. There weren't very many people there, and the animals were up, moving around. It was perfect!

Walking

2008-10-02T23:33:00.003-04:00

Our little Bella has started walking..finally! She only takes a few steps here and there. Occasionally she will attempt walking across the room, but about half way through she gets fed up and starts to crawl. I video taped her walking...but we've lost the stuff to put video on the computer...I'll try to get Ben to figure it out...cause it's so dang cute. I just love it when they are all wobbly.
Princess Bella has also started to get quite the attitude. It's quite cute actually. (at least for now) If she doesn't get what she wants, or you take her away from something she isn't supposed to have, she yells at you "doe, doe" (no no) swinging her arms at you, as if to push you away. Or she has a little fit where she rolls around on the ground and pushes herself around on her belly...sort of like a snake, only she goes backwards. All the while, glancing up to make sure she is being watched. We just laugh at her little tantrums, she really does look so cute though. She's such a drama queen!...Such a girl.

Boys Will Be Boys

2008-10-02T23:19:00.003-04:00

I have a feeling that we may be dealing with some broken bones sooner than I might like. Today, while at the store, the boys got some balloons. While Nolan took a nap, his balloon waited for him at the top of the room by the ceiling. When he woke up he was so sad because he couldn't reach it. Simon, the thinker, said "Nolan, I have a great idea. I know how you can get your balloon. You just climb up to the top of my bed, and just jump off and when your going down down down down, you just catch it with your hand on your way down!! Then that's how you'll have your balloon. It's easy."
What a great idea. Let's send the three year old, who isn't afraid of anything...and will do anything big brother tells him to do, to jump off the top bunk. Notice how Simon didn't say he would do it...he's the thinker. Simon is always "daring" Nolan to do things, and Nolan acts with no reservations!
I smell trouble.

Cookies

2008-09-18T23:53:00.003-04:00

Today we made oreo cookies for a relief society activity I had. The boys were such good little helpers. I think it's fun to let them help cook and such...even if it makes a mess. Of course, the best part about making cookies with frosting...is licking the bowl. Especially when it is still full! Bella was a little mad that I wasn't letting her get in on the fun! I wasn't up for that much of a mess. Poor picked on little Bella...

First Day of Preschool

2008-09-04T11:54:00.005-04:00

Simon had his first day of preschool yesterday. He was so excited to go back with Miss Margene. On Monday, my mom and I took Simon to buy some new school clothes. He thought it was the coolest thing that he got to have new clothes and new shoes. He loved the shopping until we stopped shopping for him...then he wanted to go home.

Simon LOVES going to preschool. I asked him what he liked best and he said that he loves Miss Margene, and he likes all of his new friends. He says that he is also excited to learn all of his shapes and letters (even though he already knows them.) Ben and I love that he loves to learn. He really is so dang smart.

Simon went to preschool last year...but this year seems kind of different. I guess it's that he will be going to kindergarten next year...but he can't be that grown up yet! My little baby is getting so big!

I took a few pictures for his first day of school. For once he was actually happy to pose for me. Nolan wanted to take a picture too, and since he was willing, I thought, why not?! Here's the picture of my sweet Nolan...

Bella's First Words

2008-08-31T11:56:00.003-04:00

This post is quite a bit late...that seems to be how all of my posts are lately. About three weeks ago, Bella said her first words. I'm not really sure which came first, they were all said around the same time. She has always said "dadadadadada", to me...she was just making noise. Now she has started to say just "Dad" when she sees or wants Ben. She has also been saying "this" and "that". It's pretty cute, she points to things she wants and says "dat, dat" or "dis, dis." The other thing that I think she has started to say...but I'm not quite sure if she's really saying it or if it's just a coincidence yet, is "bu-ddy." The dang kid will say dad and buddy and I'm the one that fed her for the last year!! Doesn't she know that she's supposed to say MOM?! I think that maybe she already knows that she needs to get daddy wrapped around her finger now...so that she can beg him for things later. Ben just loves it when he hears her say "dad" with a huge smile on her face. She already has him hooked.

We thought we'd never get to say this...

2008-08-21T11:03:00.004-04:00

but Ben and I are thrilled to announce that Nolan is potty trained!!! He tells us when he needs to go to the bathroom, usually goes by himself, and doesn't need to be reminded. He even comes in from playing outside! One thing that I'm a little less thrilled about (pardon the potty talk) is the fact that he has learned how to pee standing up. He thinks it's the coolest thing in the world. (Aside from peeing on a tree while we were camping) He hasn't had an accident for over three weeks! He's such a good boy!

Drummond Camp out 2008

2008-08-18T14:29:00.004-04:00

Last week we went on the annual Drummond family camp out. We had so much fun. The kids loved being in the mountains and getting dirty. Simon's favorite thing was playing with his cousins Marshal and Keaton. They live in Wyoming, so we don't see them too often. I think Simon and Keaton played Uno pretty much the whole time. Nolan's favorite thing was being able to whip trees and dirt and rocks with his Indijones whip. He never put it down...not even for sleep. Bella LOVED to play in the dirt. She was so incredibly dirty by the end of each day...it was pretty disgusting. There was a little creek that ran through our camp, so the kids got to throw rocks in, and build dams. We painted rocks, played with playdoh, went fishing, played games, went on hikes, shot guns, saw deer and squirrels and hummingbirds and chipmunks but most importantly we made hobo dinners one night (yummy!) and made smores all the time! Smores are the greatest camping food ever. A raccoon got into a cooler, and took a whole bag of marshmallows. My brother, Armand, woke up to find marshmallows all over the place and scratch marks on the cooler. Good thing he didn't get to all of them! Another brother, Ryan, surprised my mom by showing up to camp. She was thrilled when she saw him. All of the little boys LOVED to play and wrestle with Ryan. The poor guy barely got a break from all of them! Ryan had his birthday while we were camping, so we drove down the canyon and got ice cream and milkshakes! Anyway, we had tons of fun. Unfortunately, Ben got sick and pretty much stayed in bed on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. He was a good sport to let us stay up in the mountains and let the kids continue to have a great time. He's a good daddy. All in all it was a good camping trip. Here are a few pictures...

Bella Turns ONE!

2008-08-06T13:17:00.003-04:00

I'm a few days late...sorry! Our pretty girl just turned one on Sunday! Saturday evening, we had a little party for her. We set up the pool in the back next to the rock wall, so the kids could jump off the rocks and into the pool. They had a great time! We had a BBQ with hamburgers and hot dogs, and just had a good time visiting and celebrating Bella. The best part of the evening was when Bella got her cake. I've always bought a little cake for the birthday boys/girl. Then they can dig in and get messy. Simon was sick for his first birthday party. He didn't want anything to do with his cake, so eventually we gave each of the cousins a spoon and let them go to town. Nolan was also sick for his party, and he needed a little persuasion and a good example from his big brother before he stuck his fingers in the cake. We let Simon help Nolan. Simon probably got more on him than Nolan did! Bella, however, didn't need any help at all. She was thrilled to death to be able to get all messy and have some yummy cake! We sure do love our little Bella. She is so dang cute, and she's the sweetest little girl ever. Thanks to all of the family who came, and thanks for all the gifts. Ben and I really do have wonderful families! Here are a few pictures from the party...

A Bit of a Change

2008-07-21T10:28:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, our ward boundaries were changed, and they split our ward. Also, Ben was made a high priest and set apart as the first councilor in the bishopric. My grandfather came to do the ordination, and gave a beautiful blessing. It will be interesting to see how everything works when a new ward is created. I know that Ben is excited about this new calling, and will do a great job. During sacrament meeting when they sustained the two new bishoprics, the stake president told the wives to say goodbye to their husbands, as they would be sitting up on the stand every week. I guess I shouldn't have joked around about being pregnant. I believe the joke is on me now, since child number four is on it's way! Church should be fun, don't you think? Ben and I really are excited. I'm a little nervous to have four kids age five and younger, but I think it will be good. Maybe we'll have a girl, and Bella can have a little sister to play with! I'm not joking this time, I'm due at the beginning of March!

Catching up

2008-06-29T16:35:00.011-04:00

We've been kind of busy lately! Last Saturday, my family had a BBQ because my brother Del and his family were in town from California. My dad made the BEST ribs, pulled pork, and smoked pork. They were so yummy! It was fun to get to see Del, Caylene, and their two cute girls.

That evening we went to Ben's 10 year high school reunion. He must be getting old...because ten years seems like a long time! He saw a lot of his old friends, and I got to hear some funny stories about him. I wasn't really looking forward to spending the evening with a bunch of people I don't know, talking about things for which I wasn't around, but it ended up being quite enjoyable! It makes me kind of excited for my ten year reunion!

On Thursday, Ben decided that we need to buy a Wii. So, we went to Sam's Club and picked one up. I have mixed feelings about this purchase. I really enjoy playing...and that's one of the problems. We bought Simon the Indiana Jones game...and I play it more than he does. I'm addicted!! It must go to show that I'm not very smart...I like the kid games so much better than the adult games. Perhaps it's because I feel like I'm doing a good job when I'm playing the kid games rather than the adult games! So, we all love playing the Wii. However, I don't want my children to be like one of those kids that spends ALL day sitting on their behinds, getting fat. The rule in our house (now that we have a backyard) is that they have to play outside while it's cool in the mornings...when it starts getting hot, they can come inside and watch TV or play games...and when it gets cool in the evening, they go back out. It's been just lovely.

I'm not really sure which day it was, but Bella's first teeth (not tooth) came through. She had both of her front teeth on the bottom come at the same time. She was pretty miserable a few days before they popped out, but she sure does look cute now! Beauty is pain...right?!

We noticed, a couple months ago, that Simon was having a hard time breathing while he was sleeping. He would snore really loud. (so loud that I shut his bedroom door, my bedroom door, and turned on a fan...in the winter...just so I couldn't hear him) He was also snoring during the day, when he would watch TV or whatever. Simon and I were taking a nap on my bed one day, and it was nerve-racking to watch him struggle for breath. He would even hold his breath at times. So, I called his doctor, took him in, and they looked at his throat. His tonsils were HUGE! His doctor sent us to a specialist, and after doing some tests, they decided that Simon had sleep apnea, and needed his tonsils removed.
So, Simon had surgery on Friday. He had a tonsillectomy and an adenoidectomy. His surgery was scheduled for the morning, and we were done around 11:30. We had to wake up pretty early, and Simon was up fairly late the night before...so he was very tired.
They took us to a little room, and he got a cute little hospital gown and comfy slippers to put on. After they gave him the drugs...he got pretty loopy. Ben asked him to count to 10. He said "one...two...three...four...uno dos trequaro cinco sesieto cinco ochnueve...dies." It was funny.
They brought a cute little wagon to take him for the surgery...and he was not happy about getting in it. It made me so sad to listen to him crying and wanting me...and watching him go down the hall. The surgery went well, and he is doing surprisingly well! He was up and around playing and eating jelly sandwiches that night. He has only had one little episode where he was crying because his throat hurt. It's been great. I was thinking it would be Hell for the next two weeks while he recovered. The poor thing doesn't quite understand why he can't have chips or chicken nuggets though. He asks for chips all day. (that's his favorite snack...chips and "dip-it")
The surgeon told me that his voice may change after the surgery. I was thinking it would be a slight change...but I was wrong. He sounds totally different! It's kind of sad...cause he doesn't sound like my buddy. It really is strange to hear this voice come out of him...that isn't "him". Angela came over to see him, and couldn't get over the difference. She kept asking him things so she could listen to his voice while he answered. She brought him Spider man popsicles, and he was thrilled. (Thanks Tia!) Lucky for us, no more snoring...during the night and during the day!

Friday evening, Matt, Angela, Matt's dad, Ben and I went to see Jerry Sienfeld! It was so funny.
I was crying half the time because I was laughing so hard. Even the opening act was pretty funny...a little crass at times, but most of it was funny. My mom watched the kids while we went to the show. We just stayed overnight at her house, so we wouldn't have to disturb the kiddies when we got home. Also, Ben went fishing with his friends on Saturday morning. I figured it would be easier to "deal" with Simon if I had a little help. Fortunately that wasn't needed!

Saturday marked the big day for us to be able to walk on our lawn in the back! YAHOO!!! We put the sprinklers on and the boys ran around in their little swimming suits. They had so much fun. I think they are as excited to have a place to play outside as I am!

Cute cute cute!

2008-06-20T13:53:00.003-04:00

I decided that I needed some updated pictures of my kids. So yesterday, we went to the Peace Gardens. Enjoy!

Hide and Seek

2008-06-13T10:33:00.004-04:00

I was cleaning up downstairs last night, and I heard Simon counting to 100. This certainly isn't a rare thing...he does it all the time. When I went by him to pick something up, I saw this...

Simon and Nolan were playing hide and seek. This is as far as Nolan got...and he thought he was hidden pretty well! He stayed under the blanket (with an occasional peek, to see if buddy was almost done) until buddy said "100, ready or not, here I come." As soon as Simon said those words, Nolan tore the blanket off of himself and said "Here I am!" Which was promptly followed by Buddy's whining voice, "Nolaaaan, that's not how you play!" It was pretty funny. Apparently, Nolan has a few things to learn about hide and seek.

Happy Birthday Ben!

2008-06-08T21:00:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was Ben's 28th birthday! We must have some serious problem with celebrating because Ben worked in the backyard all morning, and all afternoon...not much fun. We did get to go to a combined birthday party for him, my dad, and Acelin. We had yummy steaks, rolls, watermelon, and my mom's fantastic strawberry pie! Then, Ben left a little early to finish up his work! Poor guy.
At the risk of sounding repetitive, I love Ben. For all of you that know him, I'm sure you'd agree, He is an amazing person. He has such a stong testimony, and loves the gospel. He's always quick to help anyone, with anything. He is a fantastic father. He loves playing with his boys, and his little princess has him wrapped around her little finger! He is also an amazing husband. He is always doing something to make me happy. All around, he's just a great guy! Happy Birthday Babe!

Six Years

2008-06-04T23:51:00.005-04:00

Last Saturday, Ben and I celebrated...I guess celebrated isn't the best word...we had our sixth anniversary! Celebrated isn't the best word to use, because we really didn't do much celebrating. We were hard at work in our backyard in the morning, and we went to Baby Bauer's birthday party in the evening. Even without any kind of celebration, I'm perfectly happy with the way we spent our anniversary. It means I get a backyard soon! Happy anniversary to me!! I tried to surprise Ben with his nice new grill that I bought him. However, I've never once been able to surprise him with anything. He guessed his gift the night before. He's really quite mean...he knows it's hard for me to lie to him about anything, even trying to conceal a gift, and he uses it to his advantage!
Anyway, I really can't believe that it's been six years. It seems like we were just getting married not too long ago. I still remember every little detail about our wedding day...and that's saying something, for me! Now, six years later, we have three kids, one on the way, a dog, and a mortgage. My, oh my, how time flies!
I just love being married to Ben. He is such a great man. He works so hard to give his family everything that we need and want. I'm so grateful that we were sealed in the temple. Knowing that I get to be with him for eternity, brings me so much joy.
I have put a few "then and now" pictures in a slide show. Funny how you can change in six short years.
Oh, and I really was kidding about the 'one on the way' comment. Really.

Preschool Graduation

2008-05-22T13:03:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was Simon's preschool graduation. He will still go to preschool next year, but they have the graduation for everyone. It was really fun for me, because I went to Miss Margene's preschool when I was Simon's age. It's actually strange to think that I was there for preschool, and now my son is! Simon LOVED preschool. I think what he loved most of all was that he got to go with Collin. Anyway, they sang some songs, showed us how they know all of their letters, and the sounds they make. Then they went up to Miss Margene and got their diplomas.

Simon is so smart. He knows all of his letters, how to write them, and the sounds they make. He can also write his numbers 1-20. He can count to 40, and he knows how to write his first and last name! We are so blessed to have Simon in our family. We are so glad that he loves to learn, and loves to go to school. Let's hope he stays that way! He is such a sweet boy. We are so proud of him and we just love him to death! Here are a few pictures from the graduation...

Weekend Getaway

2008-05-19T15:03:00.003-04:00

On Friday, Ben took the day off work. Can you believe it? He actually took a day off!! It was fantastic. His friend Steve, from work, owns a cabin in Heber. So Steve's family and our family spent the night "camping" in their cabin. (which, might I add, is nicer than our home!) On Thursday night, Simon asked Ben if he would buy a tent for him and Nolan to sleep in while we were camping. Ben explained to him, that we were going to be inside, in a cabin. Simon thought for a second, and said, "Daddy, can we sleep in a tent in the cabin?" So, while we were at Walmart getting a few things for our trip, we bought a little tent for the boys. They were thrilled! We had so much fun. The boys LOVED to run around outside. And Bella loved the dirt. She was an absolute mess, but she sure had a great time! Steve and Shannon have three super cute kids. Their oldest, Aubrey, is ten, and she just loved to play with and hold Bella. She also took all of the kids around the cabin on the four wheelers. She is such a sweet girl. We drove the four wheelers down to a little lake/pond, where Ben caught some frogs and a salamander. There was also a cool swing that someone had set up. I couldn't believe it, but Simon even took a ride! I thought he would be too chicken. It went pretty high off the ground. All in all, it was a fun little weekend getaway with the family. We always love it when Ben takes time off work to hang out with us, and I just LOVE being in the mountains! Now I just need a cabin!

Mother's Day

2008-05-12T12:56:00.005-04:00

My Mother's Day this year came a little early. On Thursday, I went to a Relief Society activity, and Ben stayed with the kids. When I got home, the garage door was locked. I knocked, and I could hear Simon saying, "I want to open it...can I open it now?" He ran to the door, opened it, and immediately said, "Mom! Come find your presents!" There was Ben, coming up right behind him saying, "No Bud, don't say anything!" After a lot of pleading from Simon, Ben let Simon tell me where they were. He led me down to the basement, and straight to the toy box. He opened it up, reached in, grabbed the treat and said, "Mommy, can I have one of your treats?" How do you say no to that cute little stinker?

Simon just isn't very good at keeping things secret. At Christmas, I made the mistake of buying Ben a present with Simon. As soon as Ben came home from work, Simon said, "Come on Daddy, mommy hid your present upstairs!" If you don't want somebody to know about a present, you make sure that Simon knows nothing about it.

Mother's Day (yesterday) was great too! We went to church and had lunch with my mom, and had dinner with Ben's mom. Every year, Ben's mom has one picture taken of her and her kids, one with her, her children and their spouses, and one with her and the grandkids. I also took some pictures of Simon and Nolan, since I had my camera out! They turned out very well! I hope that all of the mother's had a great day!

Monkeys in a Cage

2008-05-05T22:31:00.005-04:00

This weekend, I'd have to say, was the best weekend...ever. We are trying to put our backyard together this year. We have a VERY small backyard, so it shouldn't be too bad. On Saturday, we spent the day raking up the truck loads of rocks. Luckily, we had most of Ben's family come over. I'm sure that they had as much fun as Ben and I did! While we were all outside, we turned on some music. Simon, Nolan and Bauer sat by the radio and danced away. Simon was just sitting there taping his toes, and every once in a while he would pretend he was playing a guitar. They were sooo cute. So, we raked up the rocks, and then Ben bought everybody Cafe Rio, YUMMY! We bought Timber (our dog) a little dog run to put on the side of the house, and when we got it set up, the boys had a fun time playing inside of it. Grandpa Bliss called them monkeys in a cage, and that is just what they were. They loved to climb up the sides. We all had a rip roarin' time! Anyway, thanks to everyone who came to help with the rocks! It would have taken Ben and I a week to do what we all did in one day! We really appreciate all of the help. We look forward to seeing everyone again next Saturday! (wink wink nudge nudge)

The Ben Face

2008-05-02T13:25:00.002-04:00

I just LOVE this picture. Doesn't Simon just look so grown up? This is what I like to call...the Ben face. Simon makes this face every time he is concentrating on something. I call it the "Ben face" because that's just what it is...the face that Ben makes when he's fixing something, cooking something, putting something together, or doing anything that requires thought and concentration. I love seeing little pieces of Ben and myself in our children. It's so funny to me, because we didn't teach them how to do things like us...they just do. I see it in their facial expressions, the way they talk, and even in the way they move their hands while they tell a story. This 'Ben face' is a classic example. I'm so grateful that Ben is such a great man and father, for his boys to look up to. If Simon and Nolan can turn out like their father, they will certainly be lucky.

Crawling

2008-05-01T14:19:00.005-04:00

Our pretty Bella started crawling three weeks ago! This is great because she can entertain herself. It's also bad, because she can get places on her own. She goes around finding the tiniest little pieces of anything left on the floor, and they go straight to her mouth. No more leaving her sitting on the floor playing! The poor thing has already crawled off my mom's bed, and has fallen down the stairs. I guess I'm a bad mom...letting her hurt herself. After a few days, she figured out that she can get where she wants pretty fast. It's pretty fun to watch her. She looks so darn cute. It's also very strange. It seems like she was just born last month! She has perfected her crawling skills since then...now she's trying to climb up stairs and stand up to tables...yikes! I will post a video of her crawling the day she figured it out...I have to wait until Ben can help me though. I'm not that computer savvy!

I am...an idiot.

2008-04-23T23:33:00.003-04:00

Okay, so in case some of you haven't heard the story before. When I was a senior in high school, my friend Charlotte and I were driving home one night. It was quite late...probably around one or two in the morning. We were in my brother's truck. We stopped to get gas, then went to my house. Charlotte got in her car and drove home. I went inside, told my mom I was home, and went to bed. The next morning, my brother Aaron came in my room and asked "Tessa, did you get gas last night?" I was a little annoyed because it was fairly early...earlier than I would have been waking up. Why would he come in my room, wake me up, and ask if I put gas in his truck...go look at the gas gauge! Come to find out...
I had driven away with the gas nozzle and hose from the gas station still in the truck. I had forgotten to take it out before I drove away, and didn't notice it hanging out of the truck on my way home. Aaron had gone out to go to work, and found a lovely little surprise. He still makes fun of me too. Charlotte insisted that I keep the nozzle and hose for a souvenir. I felt so embarrassed. I also knew that at gas stations, they keep recordings of people who fill their tanks. Holy crap, they have me on tape! I then became worried. Worried that the police would show up one day and arrest me (okay, maybe not THAT worried). So, I called the gas station to see what I needed to do, and they laughed at me...out loud.
Not only do they not look back on their videos, but apparently, people don't usually call the gas station because they are too humiliated. Tell me about it. They asked me to bring it back to them, so I did. Lucky for me, there wasn't anybody there but the person working behind the counter. As a result of my humiliation, I vowed that I would never again drive off with the nozzle still in my car. I know what you're thinking, 'how stupid can you get'...right? Well, I guess I can be pretty stupid. Today as I was on my way to the softball game, (which we won!) I stopped to get gas. I started pumping the gas and ran inside to get the boys some Bug Juice. When I came out, I had forgotten that the nozzle was still in the Suburban, and drove off. There is good and bad to this story. The good...I heard the popping sound that it makes when the hose detaches from the top. When I did this the first time, they said that people did this so much that they had to make it so that when some idiot drives off with it still in their car, it just detaches at the top of the hose, and gasoline doesn't squirt everywhere. SO, I didn't drive all over with a hose waving around on the side of the car...that's good. The bad...unlike last time, I don't think there could have been more people at the gas station. Every parking space was filled, every gas pump was filled with cars filling up their tanks, and there must have been twenty people inside. This time, I wasn't AS embarrassed, because I had gone through it all once before. I just figured that everyone would get a good laugh from my stupidity. So, I pulled into the one parking space that had just become empty, (the lady in the car that pulled out of that spot gave me a nice smile, like she felt bad for me...it made me feel a little better) got out, and proceeded to pull the nozzle and the very long hose inside. And wouldn't ya know...everyone started laughing. Just a little laugh, they were at least trying to be nice. Then I said, "The most embarrassing part is that I've done this once before." Then they all laughed at me out loud. The girl thanked me for bringing it back, and away I went...feeling like an idiot. I guess I'm glad I made some people smile. I'm sure they had a fun time telling people their story of the crazy lady driving off with the gas hose.

Nice and Warm

2008-04-18T00:59:00.001-04:00

Here is the picture of Simon, Nolan and Collin at the ball park. So cute.

Softball Season Begins

2008-04-17T16:42:00.004-04:00

Last night was the first game of the new softball season with the family co-ed team! Hooray! Actually, I have to be honest, I was dreading this day. Last year Nolan was so difficult at the games. I could hardly stand him! He was just old enough to want to do everything Collin and Simon were doing, but not old enough to be trusted to run off and play. And Frankly, Collin and Simon would never have kept an eye on him last year. I love to go watch the games, but that hasn't really happened in the past. I usually end up running around after kids making sure they stay within the given boundaries. This year, I was willing to try again. I'm not pregnant this time, maybe I'd have more patience.It was so cold last night at the game. Lucky for me Ben's mom doesn't do cold weather so she stayed home with Bauer and Bella, in the nice warm house. (Lucky for me because I didn't have to have Bella in the cold, not because Ben's mom wasn't there...let's get that straight) So, I had Collin, Simon, and Nolan. They were angels! Nolan was even good, if you can believe that! My two friends Shara and Amber came to play, and Shara's husband Nick came along to watch. Collin, Simon and Nolan LOVED Nick. He was so nice to play with them! They threw the ball to each other and rolled it along the bleachers. All three of them had a great time! Toward the end of the game, it was so cold. All the kids wanted to do was wrap up in blankets and get warm. Nick took a couple pictures of the boys in their blankets for me, but it's not letting me add them. I'll have to post them later! I'll put the schedule on here too, just in case anyone decides they want to come watch. Anyway, in true Bliss fashion, we won the game. In true Tessa fashion, I don't remember the score. It was 20-1 or something close to it. Could you expect anything less for the first game of the season? I'm actually looking forward to going to the games this year. They are really quite good! I also don't think Nolan will be such a minion of Satan this year. Nick, thanks for the help. You can come entertain the boys any time you want! Good luck team!!

Our brush with fame...sort of...

2008-04-14T16:42:00.006-04:00

Ben and I went to the jazz game on Saturday. (Go Jazz!) It was so much fun. Every once-in-a-while, Ben gets tickets to the Wells Fargo suite. They always have yummy food and the best warm apple pie a la mode. So good. We went with Brian, one of Ben's client's, and his wife, Kim. They were very nice.
A few minutes after we sat down, Ben turned to me and said "There's Thomas S. Monson". I looked over and sure enough, he was sitting about ten people away from us. It was so neat to be that close to a prophet. There was a piece of glass in between us because he was in the suite next door, but still!! I couldn't stop looking over at him. I wanted to go over to say "hi" and shake his hand, so bad. However, you're not supposed to go around and help yourself to different suites. I was okay with it because I have met him once before. Obviously, he wasn't the prophet when I met him though.
I used to work at Popcorn Cottage when I was in high school. President Monson comes in to get popcorn every year at Christmas time. He and the owner of Popcorn Cottage have some connection from a mission, I don't remember exactly what that connection was. Anyway, I saw him walk into the mall, and pointed him out to the girl I was working with. When we saw that he was coming to our store, we had a coin toss to see who got to help him. I have only won a coin toss once in my life, and this was the one time. Lucky me! He was so nice. I just love him. He always has a smile on his face, and is just a warm, kind man. The spirit is so strong around the general authorities. You can't help but smile when you see them.
A couple years ago, Ben and I were out buying some suits and shirts, and as we walked out to our car, Ben saw Henry B. Eyring and his wife walking toward the same store we were just in.
By the way, Eyring is Ben's favorite apostle. We got in our car, and Ben just sat there and looked at him. I told him that he should just go say hi. After debating whether or not to go back in, he finally built up enough courage and we went back, introduced ourselves and talked for a minute or two. It was strange, each time Ben and I have met or seen an apostle, it was like we were in awe...star stuck.
I'm not sure if I'll ever be that close to a prophet again. Ben said that he goes to about half of the home games. Hopefully we get to see him at another Jazz game. I have decided that if I do see him in the suite again, I will either toss all unwritten rules aside, not worry about being kosher, and go in to shake his hand, or I'll go outside and wait for him to come out! Forget about the game!!

Tagged...again

2008-04-01T16:29:00.004-04:00

I've been ABC tagged by Shara. This is about Tessa. You won't find Ben sitting down to fill out any of these things! Enjoy...

A - Attached or Single: Technically we aren't attached...we are our own separate individuals, but I'm married.
B - Best Friend: Ben
C - Cake or Pie: Definitely cheesecake.
D - Day of Choice: Saturday and Sunday because Ben doesn't have to go to work.
E - Essential Item: wipes (isn't that pathetic?)
F - Favorite Color: Green and maybe pink.
G - Gummy Bears or Worms: Well, I'm not a huge fan of either. If I had to pick one, then it would be gummy worms I guess. I'd much rather have sour patch watermelons.
H - Hometown: West Valley City, UT
I- Indulgence(s): Sushi (don't pass judgement, it really is quite good!)
J - January or July: They are both horrible...January is too cold and July is too hot!
K - Kids: Three, Simon is four, Nolan is two and Isabella is eight months.
L - Life is incomplete without: Ben and my babies
M - Marriage Date: May 31, 2002
N - Number of Siblings: 7-Craig, Armand, Aaron, Del, Ryan, Kyle, Tara
O - Oranges or Apples: oranges. Or apples if they are peeled and sliced.
P- Phobias or Fears: Spiders...however, I am getting used to them now that I have to be the one that kills them if they are in my house. I'm fine with them as long as I can't see them. I figure that if a spider comes out and lets me see it, it just commited suicide!
Q - Quote: I don't think I have a favorite quote, but I do like this one..."Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." -Albert Einstein
R- Ring size: Size 6?
S - Season: I like spring and fall
T- Tag 3 Friends: Katie, Rae, Angela.
U - Unknown fact about Me: I'm not sure that I have one...
V - Very favorite stores: Inkley's, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Kohls, Walmart
W - Worst Habit: Biting my nails and popping my knuckles
X - X-ray or Ultrasound: Well the only times I have had an ultrasound was when I've been pregnant, and that meant I would be having a baby soon...I'll pick that.
Y - Your Favorite Food: If it's homemade I like my dad's steak, biscuits and gravy. If it's a restaurant I like Olive Garden, Tepanyaki, Taiphoon, Famous Dave's...I guess I like all kinds of food. :)
Z - Zodiac: Pisces.

Simon's Fourth Birthday

2008-03-30T15:23:00.008-04:00

Well, I think Simon had a great birthday! The celebration lasted practically all weekend. On Friday, Grandpa and Lita came over and took all of us out to "North Carolina" (That's what Buddy calls Carl's Jr. I'm not really sure why) Then they took him home and he got to have a sleep over. On Saturday Ben took all of the grandparents, Simon, Nolan and myself to Tepanyaki. Simon and Nolan had a lot of fun. Besides the cool fire tricks and throwing eggs around, they make these cool little chopsticks that are easy for kids to use. They thought it was the coolest thing to be able to pick up their food with sticks!

Today, we went to our weekly dinner at Grandpa and Lita's house. I made some cupcakes and we had a little party. He sure was excited about all of the presents he received from everyone.
We are so blessed to have Simon in our family. He is such a sweet boy, and he is so smart. We just can't believe he's four! It doesn't seem like it's been that long. Happy Birthday Buddy! We love you!!

I got tagged!!

2008-03-29T00:53:00.002-04:00

How long have you been together? Does that include dating and a mission? With dating and a mission-nine years. We have been married for almost six years.
How long did you date? We dated for about ten months before his mission and five months after he came home.
How old is he? Ben is turning 28 soon!
Who eats more?...Candy? Tessa. Food? Ben.
Who said I Love You First? Ben
Who is taller? Ben at a whopping 5'10''
Who sings better? Tessa
Who is smarter? What a silly question for us...of course Ben is!
Who does the laundry? Tessa
Who does the dishes? Tessa, however, Ben did load the dishwasher the other day...without even being asked...I know you don't believe me, but really, he did!
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?...Looking at the bed or laying in the bed? looking at it-Tessa. So obviously, laying in it would be Ben
Who pays the bills? Ben makes the money to pay the bills, but Tessa writes the check.
Who mows the lawn? Ben mows our tiny little front yard. We are getting a back yard soon though! YAY!
Who cooks dinner? When we actually have a cooked meal, Tessa does.
Who is more stubborn? Hard to say...we are both pretty stubborn.
Who kissed who first? Ben kissed first.
Who asked who out? Ben kind of stole me away from his friend that I was dating.
Who proposed? Ben
Who is more sensitive? Tessa, definitely.
Who has more friends? I think we have the same friends...our friends from school that we still see and talk to are now friends with both of us.
Who has more siblings? Tessa with six older brothers and one younger sister.

I'm sure you will hate me...but I have to pass it on I guess. I tag Shara and Julianne!

Easter Festivities

2008-03-25T17:19:00.012-04:00

I'm a little late on the Easter report. Sorry about that! We had such a great Easter! On Saturday we went to Grandpa & Grandma Drummond's house for a party. We had a yummy turkey dinner and an easter egg hunt for all of the grandkids. Simon and Nolan just loved looking for the eggs! To keep things fair, each kid got ten eggs. Come to find out, when the hunt was over, we had to give a few of Simon's eggs to people who didn't find their ten. He got a little excited and just kept looking. They loved playing with their cousins. On Sunday the easter bunny came, we went to church, (which was great because Ben took Bella and I got to go to relief society for once!!) then we went to Grandpa Bliss and Kai's house. She made some yummy chicken for dinner, and then we had an easter egg hunt.
Each kid had their own color of eggs to find. Of course, Simon got green Rollie color (Why he calls it that is a long story) He wanted to pick up any egg that he found! It took a little while to sink in that he only got to find the green eggs. He also had to open every single egg when he found it, just to see what treat was inside. So cute.
Ben went around with Nolan. He kept saying "eeeeeegg, w-are you?" (where are you) He's such a cute little toad.As soon as he was done he sat down and started eating his chocolate bunny. In Nolan's world, that is the most important thing, candy.
Bella, of course, had the pink eggs. Tia took her to find her eggs. She didn't care what was inside of them, she just wanted to stick the egg in her mouth. She sure did have a good time with her tia. When the egg hunt was over, she just sat by herself on the grass with her basket, her eggs, and her little beany baby doll, happy as could be. She even got her chocolate bunny open, and man oh man was she loving life! Then some mean lady came and took it away before she could even get a good bite! Those darn moms.

Doesn't she look so pretty in her easter dress?! I love holidays. They are even more fun for me now that I have kids. I love being with family too. Ben and I are so lucky that we get along with, and love being around both sides of the family. I hope everyone had a great Easter!

Bittersweet Birthday

2008-03-17T16:09:00.005-04:00

My birthday was bittersweet this year. Sweet just because it was my birthday. We went to Ben's parents house for dinner, played pinochle and the wii and had a good time. Bitter because one of my best friends died yesterday. Tanya had been in the hospital since last Wednesday due to some complication of a disease she was battling. Yesterday, they took her off of life support and she left us. For the last five days all I have been able to think about is her family that she has left behind and the memories that I have of her. She moved into our neighborhood when I was in elementary. However, I don't recall her ever not being my friend. Shara, Amber, Tanya and myself were always together. Even after we would get in a fight, it wasn't long before we were calling each other to see if they wanted to play. We used to play tetherball in her yard, and make up dances in her living room. I read Shara's blog post about her and it was funny to me. Shara remembered Tanya's hairspray. It may seem silly to most of you, but I was just thinking on Saturday how I remember that same hairspray and how we all wanted it because Tanya had it. I remember sitting in her room listening to the song 'Don't go chasing waterfalls' by TLC. We had a HUGE crush on Jonathan Brandis and watched 'Ladybugs' over and over just to look at him. I will miss Tanya so much. I loved her and will always remember all the good times we had together. I am so grateful for the knowledge of the plan of salvation. To know that we can see Tanya again is a comforting thought with all of the sadness around us. I know that Tanya is with our Heavenly Father smiling at all of us. She is happy and doesn't have to fight with disease or worldly problems. My love and my prayers go out to her poor little family. I can't imagine what they must be going through. I have included a picture of Tanya. Please keep her family in your prayers. They need the strength that comes from our Heavenly Father as we pray for them.

Open For Business!

2008-03-06T17:20:00.004-05:00

It's official! I have started my business, Mirror Images! I have been working on the details, i.e getting flyers, figuring out pricing, etc., for almost a month now. I hope that I have it all worked out! Ben has been so good to help me. He's such a great guy. I will have a website sometime in the near future, but for now, I have started a blog so people can see some of my work. You can find the link in my list of family and friends. Please, take a look!

Family Pictures 2008

2008-02-09T14:23:00.001-05:00

Here are the pictures that I took this morning! My sister Tara came over and helped get the kids to look at the camera.(thank you!!) They were all such good little babies!

Knee Surgery

2008-02-01T23:21:00.001-05:00

Last summer while Ben was playing softball, he slid into second base and heard his knee make a popping sound. His knee hurt a little but he's not one to rush to the doctor. He decided to wait and see if it would heal on its own. Ben has never been lucky at anything. That's not an exaggeration. He always gets behind the people driving ten miles per hour UNDER the speed limit, he hits every stop light when it's red, he always picks the line that takes the longest, and he always buys the one product that is broken or has a vital piece missing from the box. That said, his knee never healed, and he went to see a doctor. Now we're here, Febuary 1, and he had to have an arthroscopic meniscectomy. (he tore his meniscus, it requires surgery) We had to be at the hospital this morning at 6:30. UGH! Thankfully Brian and Katie let Simon and Nolan sleep over. Surgery prep, the actual surgery, and the recovery time was only about two hours. That was a blessing because I don't think Bella could have handled much more. The funny thing was Ben while he was still drugged up from the anesthesia! He was telling really corny jokes, and he kept trying to get the nurse to let him stay at the hospital and sleep for three or four hours. I told him I wasn't staying that long, and he told me I could go shopping while he slept! Wahoo! My joy, however, was short lived. He quickly told me that I could have a budget of five bucks. Even when he's on drugs he has a tight grip on that wallet! Needless to say, the surgery went well. He will have to stay laying down for about three days. For him, that will be hard, but he is surviving.

Isabella - Six months old

2008-01-19T15:50:00.000-05:00

As some of you know, I (Tessa) have recently become interested in photography. Hopefully soon, I plan on starting a business. As of right now, I'm still practicing and learning! Lucky for me, I have a cute little girl to be my model. Here are the pictures of my latest photo shoot with Isabella. Let me know what you think!

Buddy

2008-01-17T15:10:00.000-05:00

Simon will be turning four in March! He's getting so grown up!