Benjamin's baby Blessing

Here are pictures from Benjamin's Baby Blessing. It was done at our home, and both sets of grandparents were able to be there. Since it is not a saving ordinance or anything, it doesn't matter when you have it done. My dad said that he has seen a 2 year old be "Blessed." Yikes... so we knew that we needed to do it sooner than later. Benjamin did "fairly" well throughout it. Unfortunately he had been extremely fussy and a little sick that sunday--- but he pulled through it! It was a nice evening.

"I hope they call me on a Mission..."

Ummm... for lack of imagination, I decided to use that as a title for this post. Bare with me for a moment. I just have to brag about my cousin Mark: Elder Thibodeau. Mark is the first missionary to come from my family! He is serving the the Las Vegas, Nevada Mission.
Both my parents are converts to the church, and so we do not have the long pioneer history that some members of the church do. However, I have been so blessed to have such wonderful parents, who were dedicated in teaching and raising my sister in I in the church. That being said, Mark is the first missionary to come from our family! We can't tell you how proud of him we are. I have his high school picture up in our living room on our bookshelf for everyone to see. And, everyone who comes to visit us asks who this young man is, and I love to tell them. Before mark left on his mission, both my sister and I flew up to lethbridge Alberta for his farewell.I come from a small family, and growing up, my cousins Jackie and Mark lived fairly close. Most of my wonderful childhood memories included them! So, Mark is like a brother to me.
Mark has been out on his mission over a year now, and is working hard, and might i add, I think is having a lot of fun :)

He is the missionary with the blue tie.


I wish I could say that I have been a dutiful cousin, writing him every week, but I have not. I am more sporadic in my letters/packages, but In the new year I will try to be better. This year for his christmas package, I baked him canadian naniamo bars, and gave him a custom made--one-of-a-kind special edition "Elder Thibodeau" Christmas ornament. I am sorry, but I just had to post a picture of this little guy! Anyway, hopefully it will remind him of his mission when he comes home!

December is almost over???? Be Prepared for a lot of posts...

December has been a busy month for the weight house! On Dec 16th Robs parents flew in from Raymond Alberta Canada. They are staying until Jan 20th. The day they arrived, Nova and Hendro picked them up from the airport and Kiersta and Tara's family surprised his parents at our house for a little birthday party for robs mom. It was a fun little get together. We had a lot of things going on the past few weeks. Last Sunday (Dec 21st) My parents came into town to spend Christmas with us. That night Benjamin FINALLY has his baby blessing---- I know I know, it is kind of late, but we wanted everyone to be there, and it worked out fine. The grandpas had to entertain Benjamin while he was being blessed. Anyway, Benjamin was a lucky boy-- he was able to have both sets of grandparents around for this first christmas. The next couple of posts will be of all the events that have gone on the past few weeks!


Robs mom Surprise Birthday Get together the day they arrived:



Benjamin First time meeting Grandma Weight




Benjamin's cousins Stack piling grandpa. The kids were really excited to see grandpa weight!




Nice Picture of Benjamin and The Weight Grandparents

The Ward Christmas Party.. and the first Santa Encounter.

This year, preparing for christmas has been really exciting! Now that we have our own kid, robert and I are excited to create new traditions mixed in with the old. This year, Rob and I have created christmas ornaments, we are still in the process of making stockings, and together made a christmas advant calendar. It has been fun. Anyway, benjamin loves looking at the christmas tree. He still doesn't really mess with it, although his courage is mounting.

This is probably the first "Family" picture that we have had since Benjamin's been born... so enjoy :)






Last night our ward had its christmas party. It was WELL attended--- so attended that they did not have enough tables of everyone. Well, Benjamin got to sit on Santa's lap and here is the reaction:


Not to sure what to think


Hmmm.... whats behind the beard?

Content with the stranger.
1 second after this picture was taken, Benjamin Smiled. Benjamin's first encounter with the man in the red suit was not to traumatic. We will have to see what next years response will be...

Merry Christmas! Love the weights!

Happy Birthday Rob----

This year for robs birthday, I decided to take him to the Production of "A Christmas Carol" at the Alley Theatre. It was amazing. I don't think I have ever been to such a wonderful production--- dry Ice, excellent acting, and awesome seats. Then Later in the week, we had a family party with robs sisters and their families.

This is a blurry picture of benjamin and his cousin Hendrix. Personally I think that the two of them look alike--- what do you all think?




At Robs party, we gave the kids their Christmas ornaments. Robert and I made these clothes pin ornaments for my sisters kids, and for robs sister's kids who live in Houston (compliments of Martha Stewart's website for the idea)They were a lot of fun to make--- check out the awesome elf--- that was robs creation! We think that the kids liked them. For my sister and her husband I made ( I am so proud) Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. I was pretty impressed needless to say.

Thanksgiving

Hey its almost christmas... we have been busy, but I thought that we would share our pictures! This year we had thanksgiving with Rob's Sister Kiersta. The food was divine---- yes divine. This was the first time that rob and I made a turkey-- actually really rob prepared it (with the guidance of kiersta). It was a fun learning experience. Benjamin LOVED turkey and stuffing. He couldn't get enough of it.



checkout the desserts

Puppets.

I can't express how much I love being a mom. It is the most fulfilling thing I have ever done in my life. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to spend every day with this little guy. I love our little family and cherish every moment we have together. It amazes me how much Benjamin learns each day, and how much he is growing up. I honestly try to cherish each memory-- even if it is as silly as benjamin and I crawling around chasing each other or as tender as him asleep in my arms after a long day.


Anyway--- Today I decided that Benjamin might enjoy the little finger puppet his Aunt Tammy sent him when he was born.. and well... see for yourself his reaction...

By the way-- thanks tammy for the puppets! They were an instant hit!


You really don't have to watch the video--- its more for the grandparents--- It kind of the typical Home video--- great Cinematography, thrilling action and cunning script. And Please excuse my wonderful deshuffled look--- it was at the end of a long busy day of errands.

Life....

Lately, life has been a little busy. Rob accepted a Job in the fall with a company that he interned this past summer with. We are excited about it and feel grateful that rob was given a couple of job opportunities to choose from. Anyway-- with that in mind, rob has been working super hard to finish his masters in time. He has been working Long days and very late nights. Tonight, in fact, I am making this post at 12:30 am, sitting in the lab with him at school, and benjamin sleeping in his car seat.
Since I haven't blogged for a while, I thought I would just post a few pictures. Nothing to significant has happened in our lives.... Benjamin is into EVERYTHInG- no longer is he content with his toys-- which are child proof. He is interested in anything and everything that is not his toys. Being his fathers son, I am trying to keep him away from anything to dangerous, especially trees--- I just don't want to make any ER runs-- poor robs mom. Benjamin is still sweet and happy, however, he is a very determined little kid, and nothing and no one will get in the way of what he wants. He is bound and determined little boy!

Benjamin Loves to look outside






He loves to play with balls!!! He will crawl around the house throwing the ball and running after.

The Stache

a week and a half ago , robs electric razor had some problems... what resulted was rob growing a full blown beard. Sick I know. I refused to kiss him. Anyway, rob finally shaved it... (after benjamin cried when rob tried to kiss him)... well almost all of it. He ran out of time before he had to go somewhere, and what resulted was the "stache". See for yourself...
what do you all think??

The little Frog Prince

When you are a child, Halloween is always exciting. You couldn't wait to get dressed up and get as much candy as possible. I remember inhaling my dinner (which was a normal thing for me as a kid) so we could get our snowsuits on, then get dressed up in our costume and hit the road. But over the years, I kind of became a boring grown-up and lost that childlike spirit of excitement. Example, my 3rd year at BYU. My roommates and I were hanging at home studying, when a knock came to our apartment.There stood 3 little children dressed up in their Halloween get-up trick or treating--- I almost died! We forgot that is was Halloween... and we didn't have any candy on hand. You should of seen the disappointment on the kids faces... it was pretty depressing. I felt so lame.
Well, this year, I was excited. I guess when you have a kid it becomes way more exiting. I couldn't wait to show off our little frog. Benjamin was just too cute. He was a little tired by the end, but we all had fun!














Ummm isn't Ronald McDonald scary??? He looks like death. Yeah... Surprisingly Benjamin didn't cry. Apparently He scared a lot of kids. He was handing out kid meal hamburger boxes with candy in them. Apparently that wasn't enough to win the kids over.

Follow the Prophet

Ok, I know its a little cheesy, but i had to take a picture of Benjamin during General Conference. I thought its to cute-- Anyway, Benjamin loved looking and "listening" to President Monson. Wasn't Conference the best? I am so grateful that we have a living prophet to guide us in these latter days. We truly are blessed.
What was your favorite message from this last conference?

Yes, we are still alive, but just surviving..

Benjamin at DIscovery Park, Houston. almost 8 months. Isn't he a cutie???


IN response to a question: Are we still alive? Yes we are... but just trying to survive. We have been so busy lately, that it’s been hard to keep up with everything, hence the lack of blogging for a month or so??? (Maybe two). Anyway--- here is a quick update. Sept 11th Robert and I self evacuated to Wichita KS to avoid IKE (it was a little stressful when we were heading out, because gas stations were closing because they were out of gas, and we were almost on empty... bad I know, but we finally found a place and filled up). We stayed a couple of days with my friend Susan Thurman. Then we drove all the way to my parents to Wichita (Which by-the way- they were having flash flooding in Wichita. My parent’s home was ok... but talk about a “bout” of natural disasters all at once). We stayed at my parents for about a week before returning back to Houston. We were waiting for power to be restored. Luckily, our apartment was still intact, and we had no water damage or damage to our personal property. (Although it seemed like all of our neighbors had work done for some kind of water damage). We don't complain and feel blessed that everything was ok). About a week after that, my friend Susan came to visit us from Fort wroth. We had a lot of fun with her and her two little boys. Benjamin loves Owen and parker. Parker is about 3 months older than Benjamin and they have lots of fun together.

After that everything seems like a blur. We have spent a lot of time with kiersta and her kids, busy with church, rob interviewing for jobs, rob was really sick for a couple of weeks (he’s feeling a lot better now) and then there are the nuisances of everyday life and trying to get back in the regular routine while playing catch-up. I honestly don't know where October went! I will try to be better at posting! Anyway, here are some pictures from the past months. I will have to continue my post about our trip to Canada later…
PS> Milestones update for Benjamin: He started crawling while we were in wichita, and the past week he is now pulling himself up on everything.... he learned that from watching parker and just mastered it this past week.


My parents, benjamin and I in wichita.


Benjamin Driving to Fort Worth Texas. The day we left Houston to avoid IKE. This picture was actually taken in a corporate Business parking lot outside of Fort Worth. Notice benjamin has no clothing on? we were trying to save gas by using no air conditioning. After about 3o mins we gave in and turned it on.



My friend Susan and Parker at Discovery Park, Houston TEXAS


The boys all loaded up in Susan's Car. We were headed out to a park in Houston.

calling all mums

Ok-- I need some help/advice (I guess I could ask my doctor, but I am to lazy to and well don't really want to make an appointment for something I know you all can answer for me). Benjamin is almost 7 months now, and a hungry, hungry little boy. Currently he is only eating veggies, fruit, rice cereal, a little bit of apple juice and cheerios. At most feedings he will eat a phase 3 jar of veggies or whatever I am feeding him. My question is this: can I start feeding him other kinds of food? If so, what kinds? When do I start giving him bread, chicken, meat, and yogurt, crackers - that kind of stuff? When do I start giving him the food that rob and I eat (obviously purred of course). I just feel like this boy needs more food, or more variety... but am I wrong. I would love anyone’s advice. thanks!javascript:void(0)

Updates, Updates and Binge Blogging.

I tell you! I am such a binge blogger- what can I say, except we have been busy, and a lot has happened. Heck, I was on vacation for a month, and we made a quick decision to move this last week. Its just been one of those months you know? Well, I have made some updates, and there will be more to come. I'll probably post some more tomorrow. Anyway-- enjoy.

Mr. Benjamin & Ms. Whitney

I was really excited to visit my sister and her family. First of all, I hadn't seen her since Christmas, and I was 7 1/2 months pregnant. I was excited for her to meet Mr. Benjamin for the first time. Secondly, I was excited to see her kids and Steve. And Thirdly to see their first house-- which by the way.. I think is awesome. We had a lot fun visiting even if it was only for a couple of days. We laughed, we ate good food (compliments to sarah) and watched the Olympics. To our dismay-- Canada hadn't won any medals-- yet!

Anyway- Benjamin and his cousin Whitney LOVED each other. Whitney loved Benjamin, and played so well with him. She shared her toys, and played so carefully with him. At time, You would have thought that she was his mother. *Laughs* You just have to know Whitney.
One night, on the way to bed, Whitney was telling my sister that Benjamin needed to go to sleep as well. Being a baby, he is naturally on a different schedule than the rest of the kids. I was outside with Benjamin talking on the phone with Rob. (You have to realize that its late, but still very light outside because Fargo is so far north). Anyway, I hear this little voice from the bedroom window saying: "hi baby Benjamin." It was Whitney standing by the window. Later that night, Sarah informed me that Whitney told her that she was mad at Aunt Laura. When asked why, Whitney said, "Baby Benjamin should be in Bed, not outside playing." I died laughing. Such a cute little girl she is.

Here is a video I took of them playing together-- see how great she is with him? and how cute she really is.



Love this picture of Joshua. All I can say is what a cute kid. Check out the hair-- love it. Unfortunately, my camera was having problems. Sad. Well, I think Joshua liked Benjamin, periodically he would run over to him kiss him or pat him on the head. Cute.


Benjamin was such a GOOD baby on the trip-- he did not fuss once during our long drives (13-15 hr drives to give a concept of how long we drove each day). He was creative in entertaining himself. Here is a picture of his trick he learned on the trip.

Benjamin and Mommy's vacation. Just an intro

This past August, Benjamin and I took an extended vacation with my parents. The Extended trip included visiting my sister and her family in Fargo, North Dakota and to Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada to visit Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles and Cousins. Rob was not able to come with us this year because of his internship at BHP. We sure put a lot of miles on this trip-- but it was worth it.

Robert, Benjamin and I started our trip up to Wichita, KS, Aug 2nd, after I had to take my Texas State Certification tests. Umm, that’s a story in itself. What a terrible day. I was so sleep deprived, and to top it off I missed my first test, because on the test ticket. The test ticket had the testing address (but, they did not specify which University Houston location it was at). So I just typed the address that was on the test ticket and got directions on map-qwest right? So I showed up early, like they said to, and apparently the wrong testing location... (by the way, the testing centre was the same room number as the one on the ticket). Apparently I was not the only test taker who made this mistake, any by the time we found the right testing location, I was 10 mins late for the test, and I was unable to take the test. So the other girl and I are trying to fight for a refund, we are still fighting with the ETS testing people. It is ridiculous. Anyway- took my other 5-hour test in the afternoon, and felt so brain dead after it. javascript:void(0)I haven't taken a 5-hour test since BYU. Needless to say, I passed with flying colours, even though I had no clue what Texas education laws were-- but I'm not complaining.

After that fiasco, the only good thing about that day is that we were able to see my good teaching buddy from Lehi Jr. high, Susan Thurman and her family. We drove through Fort Worth on our way to Wichita KS and stayed the night. It was so fun to see Susan, and meet her new little guy, Parker.

The next day we drove up to Wichita, rob left the following day to return to Houston and then on Thursday my parents, Benjamin and I went to visit my sister in Fargo. We stayed with them for about two days before heading up to the motherland, beautiful Canada.


Daddy & Benjamin say goodbye at my parents house.

Benjamin doing his favorite thing-- taking a bath (at grandma gail's). Funny thing-- I would take baths in that same baby tub when I was a kid.

For grandparents amusement...

Here is a video of the first time Benjamin tries Rice Cereal.

Solid foods...

At Benjamin's last Doctors appointment (in july), he was in the 75% for height and head size, but he was in the 25% for weight. Now, lets be honest, his parents aren’t very big people...and his cousins on his daddy side usually fall into that percentile as well, so we really weren’t concerned. However, the doctor said that this kid was underweight. He told us that Benjamin was beyond ready for solids and that we should have started him on solids a long time ago (maybe that would explain why he was getting up every two hours to eat during the night). Everyone told us that 6month was the magic number for solids, so we saw no harm in waiting. Anyway, Benjamin loves, LOVES his solid food. Every time rob and I are munching on something, he lets us know that he thinks he needs some of it as well. Immediately after eating solids for two weeks he had no problems sitting up and pushing himself around. Poor kid must have been starving. After a month of being on solids, he is sleeping better, and he has mastered the art of eating. He is such a good baby, but when that boy is hungry, he means business. He just can't get it into his mouth fast enough.



Hungry Baby