Benton!

Benton had a birthday on the 12th.  The day started with Mike taking him to get donuts while I was running.  He had so much fun opening all of his presents.  Then, we had our Primary Program practice in the morning.  After laying in bed for a LONG time, he finally took a nap before his party.  I took exactly 0 pictures, but my friend sent me one.  Benton wanted strawberry cupcakes.  I attempted to frost them like the top of a strawberry.

He wanted "everyone" to come to his party.  He invited the Palmers, Leybas, and Johnsons.

I finally took some pictures after everyone left while the boys jumped back in the pool.

Benton is a very sweet boy.  He's very empathetic and silly.  As an example, when I was taking to long talking to Stacey at preschool pick up, Benton found my Clinique makeup.  When I got to the car he gave me a big proud grin.  I was so sad to see what he did to my eye shadow that I said, "Oh, I am so sad; this makes me so sad" etc.  Without me even getting made, he started crying and saying he was sorry.  If he accidentally hurts Asher, he also starts crying until I make him feel better.

Benton-isms
"get-for" instead of forget.  Example: "Mom, did you get for my bagel?"

Speaking of which, the kid loves bagels with cream cheese.

"I want to take something with me."  Means he wants food to take with him when he goes down for a nap.  Right now it is half a bagel with cream cheese every day, not toasted.

"I don't love this."  I don't know if Benton ever says he doesn't like something, only that he doesn't love it.

"That's CRAZY!"  He says this a lot lately and very enthusiastically.

"Oops-side down" instead of upside down.

"Buh-Bye-You" instead of BYU. It would be so easy to correct him, but it's too cute.

"Yes Sir!"  When he is being cooperative, this is how he responds to me asking him to do something.

School Days

After our weather unit in preschool, we had a snowball fight with shaved ice from Scooptacular.

 Ethan is doing great this year.  E means exceeds; M is meets.  This is his progress report.

 Ethan LOVED his Fun Run again this year!

We appear to be 2 for 2 on teachers for Ethan. Here are some reasons his teacher this year has been great:


She encourages creativity and art (example: model of human body).


















She hosts a free Art Club on Fridays after school.

She emails regularly.

She lets me help in the classroom.

When I emailed a question about Ethan's homework, she called me that night to discuss.

There is a lot of positive reinforcement for behavior.

My favorite story so far:  Ethan has had to do story maps with his homework and they are encouraged to read at least a book a week and do a story map.  When he finished his first Captain Underpants this weekend, I told him he should do a story map and reminded him he would get 5 stickers at school (it says this on the wall).  We brainstormed more creative ways of doing it than just writing because I knew his teacher not only wouldn't mind, but would encourage it.  Ethan chose to write the parts and then cut and glue them onto colored paper where he could draw.  He spent 2-3 hours doing this, partially because he has become a perfectionist, partially because picking out main events is still hard, and partially because by the time he finishes one word, he often forgets what he was going to write next.  I was really proud of him for being diligent and finishing it.  On Monday when I picked him up he said, "I didn't get any stickers Mom."  Worried, I said, "Really?  Why not?" And he told me, "Because it was too awesome!  I got a blue ticket and a piece of candy and she showed it off to the class.  I have to do one of those again!"  I was so excited to see his work result in more enthusiasm for school.

The same day she "showed off" his "math sentence" and told the class that is what they are working towards.

Here is a video of Ethan explaining a project he did on Ireland.  He did more than the requirement (with my encouragement).  As a reward for going above and beyond, he got a box of Lucky Charms.  Leprechaun + Ethan's favorite cereal = perfect Irish reward!

September Here and There

I have to wake the boys up on almost a daily basis to pick up Ethan from school: sad!

 I organized a group to go to Wicked at Gammage.  If you get 15 or more people, you get a pretty good discount.  Stacey and I drove and sat together.  I'm so glad my life overlaps so much with this awesome lady!

Most of us that bought tickets went to dinner before hand.  We had to rush a little more than would have been nice, but it was a fun group.

 On one of our early release Wednesdays, we went to Makutu's Island with our Pogo Passes.

 Asher LOVED this little carousel.

 Both boys used their own money to go on the trampoline thing.  Benton let the guy bounce him pretty high.  Ethan, who instigated the whole thing, wouldn't let the guy bounce him high.  I would have talked it up beforehand, but I assumed going high was the whole reason he wanted to go, crazy kid.

 Ethan made a game board for him and Benton to play.

 BYU footbal has started.  The boys are very interested this year.  Ethan especially has been learning the rules.

 The first two games of the year had amazing endings.  We were at the Leybas' with a bunch of BYU fans for the miracle Hail Mary pass.  It was so fun to watch with everyone.

 For years, pretty much every morning the boys chase Mike down the street and wave and yell good bye until they can't see Mike anymore.

Then they race back.

 Poor Asher gets woken up constantly or misses naps to accommodate everyone else's schedules.  I wore him out to the point of him sleeping through me taking him out of the car, changing his diaper, and putting him to bed.  His eyes cracked open at the flash.

 Asher is a troublemaker these days.  He LOVES playing with the recycling.

 And he can open the bathroom door and turn on the tub, sometimes with himself inside.

He climbs up on the keyboard repeatedly, crying every time because he is stuck.

 He can also get up in the bathroom sink.

 I've even found him standing on the kitchen island with a donut skewered on a steak knife.

September had a lot of cool storms.

We are trying to enjoy every warm swimming day we have left.

 I made a little game for Asher to play at church.  He picks up little puff balls and puts them in the salad dressing container.  He was clapping for himself with huge cute smiles, but the smiles stopped when I pulled out the camera.

 On the first day of Fall, Benton was so disappointed that our leaves were still green.  We had been learning about seasons in preschool and he gets very into everything we are learning.  So, we made sugar cookie Fall leaves instead.

 Amazing how kids all love books, even when they are the third child and get much less reading time as infants than their older siblings...

 Asher loves doing his carseat buckle.  He gets mad if I do it.  I need to get him one of those buckle stuffed animals.

 He made his own game of putting empty yogurt cups from the recycling into clean cups he took out of the cupboard.