Look how tall

The boys love to compare themselves to the penguins at the aquarium. I'll make a habit of taking a shot of them next to the penguin to see how tall they're growing.

NEW PICTURES!

My good friend and awesome photographer Emily Loveland took our semi-annual pictures of the boys in May. We went to Red Butte Gardens- which has the cutest little children's garden. I'll be honest, Andrew was non-cooperative and moody, but you wouldn't know. Benson just wanted to play- which was great to catch him in his everyday action. I love having these pictures. I look back at pictures past and CANNOT believe how much they've changed and grown. It's hard to believe that I'll ever look back at these pictures and think, 'oh, they were so little', but I know I will. I cherish both of them at this age!

One of my favorites of Andrew. He just looks so precious and innocent.

"Where are your eyes?"

His aim is a lot better now, but at first we got a squint and a

two finger point in the general direction.

"Shhhhhhh. Sleeping."

Love his little dimples that are getting deeper all the time.

Don't mind the waterbottle. Andrew was really done with picture time.

" ooooooooo!"

One of my very favorites.

He just looks like such a little man.

I could kiss his cheeks all day long. Some days I do.

Another favorite- He loves to Zrooom anything, but especially this tractor.

Jenn's Graduation

Hooray for Jennifer!

Smoothie King

Grandma Jones gave us a Blendtec for Christmas this year of which we are very fortunate to have. This is the uber blender you may have seen from the sensational Will It Blend video's.

The picture above is from it's first use.
As a result of having such an amazing appliance I'm all about smoothies now.

It's so great to throw a bunch of all natural ingredients in and voile! out comes deliciousness.

Erica and the boys are willing benefactors.

As it is with anything going down in the kitchen, Andrew has to assist.

Recipe: In order of listing, quantity depends on your desired serving

An Orange or OJ (not from concentrate)

Some Yogurt (orange or strawberry, 1/2 Yoplait cup)

Strawberries (you can even leave the stems!)

Bananna (to taste -lots of you may think they're slimy but they're a superfood so don't be shy)

Ice

Alternate Ingredients (to taste):

Handful of blueberries, grapes, raspberries, kiwi, peaches. You get the idea, whatever comes in it's own wrapper like the remaining pulp and juice from morning grapefruit

Margarita mix

Vanilla Ice cream

Cholocate

Satisfy your inner Van Gogh here and be creative. If it's all natural, it will blend to create something delicious. Only advice is to have the right proportion of liquid to start.

I want comments on your creations.

Little Fish

Erica made her usual rounds at the Library and picked an armful of books for this week. One of the books she got was "Hooray for Fish" by Lucy Cousins.

This book has become an instant classic in our house. If Andrew sees it, he demands to read it. We quit counting the times per day it gets read. He is so present when reading the book. He searches for little fish first, points him out and then points out the other fish on the page as you read them aloud. The crux of the book is when little fish finds the fish who is the best, and loves him above all the rest. Momma fish and little fish kiss kiss. Andrew reaches down to the page and gives kiss to them. So sweet. We may have to buy this book...

Bodily Functions

Bodily functions are the official sponsor of this weekend. Warning, explicit descriptions may follow, read at your own risk.
Thursday afternoon I went up to the Joneses to put together the new furniture for their renovated master suite. I walk through the front door to find Andrew screaming his head off standing in the doorway with puke all down the front of his body. Erica was covered in the same puke. Erica, Jennifer and Evan were in chaos scrambling to assess the damage and prioritize what needed to be cleaned up first. Evan and Jennifer were laughing while Erica was saying, "If I would have told you this story you wouldn't have believed me- or at least you would have thought I was exxagerating, but since you've been a witness, you know why I don't always answer my phone." There was a stream of puke from one end of the room to the other. The event that happened only 10 seconds before I walked in the door had caught everyone off guard. We know he's a big eater, but didn't realize quite literally how much he could hold. Solid performance from such a small stomach.

During the cleanup Andrew continued a trail of vomit to the garage door which earned him a well deserved trip to the bathroom tub and a bath. Andrew has always wanted to finish strong so he made sure to puke up whatever was remaining in the car ride home (3 more x's).
Now I can add the skill to disassemble a Recarro car seat to my resume. Yeah!

Friday went pretty well in the morning and then about noon Benson decided to get into the act and started up the puke machine. In the following 13.5 hours he puked a magical 9 times amassing some serious damage, but mainly staying in the quarantine zone of the bathroom floor, which is where he spent most of his day- by his own choice. At least by sick kid #2 we've got that figured out!
The most memorable moments of Benson's puking were his ability to give just enough warning for Erica or myself to run to his rescue and aim the airborne vomit into the direction of a nearby sink or toilet. That seconds of warning is invaluable.

Erica was feeling some deep compassion because he had not eaten anything all day (since it just came back up) and after the third attempt convinced me to let her feed him some watermelon- which he loves. He gobbled it down like the starving child that he was. Benson did very well with it but sure enough... thirty minutes had elapsed and boom goes the dynamite.
We finally felt comfortable putting him in his bed with a bucket and instructed him that when he woke up he would feel better. We watched an episode of Raymond and I went to check on Benson. He didn't even tell me or cry during the bout, but I looked and there was a nice present of watermelon remains for me in his bucket! (it's 1:30am @ this point) Greatest kid ever I tell you. He truly is so precious when he's sick. He doesn't complain or cry. The worst was watching him dry heave and in between barfs say "this hurts me mama" or "yucky!" and then after say, "I'm feeling better, I just need more energy." or "I'll get better soon."

There are other gifts of sick kids- there are two ends, and let's just say that both kids were keeping Erica and I busy, not just with them, but with the 6 loads of laundry! So judging by the scores tally, Benson got the worst of it and mom and dad earned the extra hours of sleep this morning that they stole last night.