Christmas part one

Merry Christmas! We hope that yours was just as good as ours! We have been so very blessed this year. Andrew finished his 17 credit semester with straight A's, Bennett is learning new words nearly daily, Zoë sleeps through the night, and I lost all the weight I gained with Zoë. And those are just a few of the miracles we've experienced this holiday season. We've got more pictures and videos, but we'll post those later.

The stack of presents Santa left for our good boy

The rest of the stockings

My parents found a special Night Before Christmas book that records your voice so Bennett and Zoë could hear them reading. Its light activated, which is why I keep turning the book towards the light. Here's a partial clip. It cut short because the camera got too full.

Zoë's Newborn Pictures

Just some of our favorite images from her photo session almost a month ago. There are a few of Bennett just because he kept trying to get in the way of camera, he loves getting his picture taken too. ;)

Pictures taken by Jackie Carter, be sure to check out her website jacklyncarterphotography.blogspot.com

Bennett the Birthday Boy

Its hard to believe that two years have gone by already. Our baby #1 had grown into such a big boy. Bennett has changed so much, he's gone from a quiet baby content to stay still, to running around and always on the go!

A homemade 2-layer lemon cake with sprinkles

Birthday cake and song

Photography Preview

A friend of mine is working on her photography portfolio and wanted to take some pictures of Zoë. Here's a sneak peek, more to come at a later time.

Special Thanks to the Flamms

Front and back of baby blanket

Bennett's new shirt

This thank you posting should have been posted a few weeks ago. A good friend of mine sent us a great package with things for all of us: a baby blanket and burp cloth she made for Zoë, a t-shirt for Bennett, and fancy caramel-center chocolate for Andrew and I. So thank you Flamm Family for thinking of all of us!

The update you've all been waiting for...

First Family Picture

Warming up to Zoë

My Mom with her favorite Idahoan grand kids ;)

First day in the NICU and the first time I got to really see her

One of our visits, poor girl has an IV in her head

Bennett unsure what to make of his sister

Zoë Caitlin Hayes was born Nov 5th, at 8am weighing 9lbs 4oz and 19 inches long. She weighed more than Bennett, so it looks like getting a C-Section turned out to be a great idea after all! She was in the NICU for abt 5 days because she struggled regulating her blood sugar. It was hard coming home without her, but turned out to be a bit of a blessing. I was able to rest better in the hospital, and Bennett had time getting used to me being home again before we introduced the baby. Despite his first picture with her, Bennett does like his new sister. He likes to hand her the pacifier or burp cloth, even if she doesn't need them. It's very sweet.

The Cutest Scarecrow in Boise

Finding a costume for boys isn't very much fun. There doesn't seem to be a lot of options. The choices just seem to be a little limited and narrowed down to 3 genres: Hero/Villain, Animals, or
Occupational (like a doctor or astronaut). So when Grandma Hayes mentioned a Scarecrow costume she had made for Uncle Brett, I was very excited. It sounded original and very cute.

It did take Bennett some time to get used to the costume, he found the straw in the sleeves restrictive and was a little spooked by the hood. But he soon came to love wearing it. I was surprised that he wore it for the entire ward Halloween party. Last year he found his last costume too warm so it only lasted for about a 1/2 hour. The party this year was pretty fun, with lots of yummy treats, carnival-like games, and music. Bennett had a lot of fun on the dance floor. When they had a line dance, he was right up front in line and busting a move. It was terribly funny! It never ceases to amaze me just how grown-up he's getting.

Autumn Update

Wow, I didn't realize just how long its been since our last update. A lot has happened since then. During the Labor Day weekend, we thought I was going into preterm labor. I was having very strong contractions, but thankfully they were able to stop them and I was sent home. Bennett has learned how to drink from a cup, and can say the following words: Dada, Daddy, Mama, Yeah, Whoa, No, Oh no, Uh-oh, and still babbles endlessly. He's been a little terrible-twosy, but not too bad.

Baby #2 is growing pretty fast and getting a little on the big side, so a C-Section has been scheduled for the first part of November. At my appointment yesterday, I've already dilated to about a 2 1/2 so the doctor thinks she might come earlier. Its hard to tell though, there's no way of knowing I'll keep dilating at that pace or not. So we'll just wait and see. She sure gives the nurses a bit of trouble. Ever since she first got checked for her heartbeat, she gives them a literal run-around. Its like she hates being tracked? All they can catch are glimpses of a heart beat as she moves all around. So maybe its a sign that she'll be a big mover, which would be interesting.

Alarming Fire Alarm

We are really liking our new apartment, the space is great and Bennett warmed up to it right away. There is a bit of a down side, but we were warned ahead of time by some friends of ours who live on a different floor. There are 2 alarms in this complex, one inside your apt and one for the general building located in the hallways. They're very sensitive too, open your door to air your apt out while cooking and it'll set them off. And they can't be turned off until the fire department comes to look into it. So we're careful to not to that.

We were awakened around 4am Sunday morning by the fire alarm. We're not talking about beeps, we're talking about the kind of fire alarms you hear in school buildings. I quickly ran around our apt thinking it was in our apt before noticing the alarms in the courtyard flashing instead of ours. We took Bennett into the bathroom because it blocked some of the noise. He was shaking pretty badly. We bundled up and headed out the door to get away from the noise. As we were heading for the stairs, we came across the firemen. They asked us some general questions but not too many because it was really obvious that their uniforms, masks, axes, and hatchets were really freaking Bennett out. So we took a little drive and waited across the road for about 2 hours til the alarm was turned off and the trucks left. Amazingly, Bennett was able to go back to sleep right away and spent most of the day resting on and off. What a little trooper.

Our Little Cookie Monster...and other pictures

After eating one cookie! As you can tell, he's been a bit moody. I'm just amazed he kept his onesie clean

Me with babies #1 and 2 (6 months along)

Really cute shots during bath time. I love the attitude of the last one especially!

Learning how to use the Spoon

We're in the process of teaching Bennett how to use a spoon. So here's a video of that. Its great because it shows his own unique style before starting to get it, as well as how talkative he is now. He doesn't say many words, but loves to babble on and on and on and on...while running laps around the apartment. He's sure to have a field day in our new place! We're trying to introduce the cup as well. I caught him drinking from a cup that I use to rinse his hair during bath time. Can't be more ready than that! But while drinking tub water is easy, its a little harder to grasp the concept outside the tub. Yesterday he looked at it (I only fill it a little), dumped it on his lap, gasped in surprise, and promptly pushed the cup away. For the rest of the day he rejected the cup. Kind of made me want to laugh, how he "blamed" the cup for the accident he intentionally caused! But that's a 20 month old for you, I suppose.

August Update

Bennett is nearly 20 months old now, and we've been reading the Book of Mormon Reader to him. For those of you who don't know what it is, its basically the Book of Mormon designed for little kids. There are pictures and the text is simplified so they can understand it. Its more designed for school-age children, but he loves it just the same.

Yesterday he got it out and I offered to read it to him. I just read him a short story and afterwards he folded his arms for a prayer. I was a little surprised, partly because we don't normally pray after reading, but more for the fact that he initiated it. We've been teaching him how to pray for a few months now. And normally the scenario goes: We say, "Fold your arms for prayer time." He folds his arms with a smile. During the prayer, we can hear him moving his hands around, then when we open our eyes, he not-so-quickly folds them again. Its funny how he thinks he's fooling us. But now it looks like he's going to be more cooperative during prayer time.

As for nursery, he's doing so much better! He cries when we leave or when I have to take him out to change him, but not when I have to leave for a few minutes. There are 3 other kids, so its pretty small, but plenty of toys for them all. Some of the kids are a year older and play mainly with their imagination. One offered Bennett a "waffle" that they had made and held it out for him. Bennett had no idea what was going on. So he's not at that stage yet, but I'm sure it'll be a blast when he does get there.

We're beginning to pack up, we move in less than 3 weeks to our new 2 bedroom apt. As excited as I am for Bennett having his own room, I think I'm going to miss having him sleep right next to us. But its really time for him to have his own room. Hopefully the packing goes well, that we'll get enough help to move (I'm sure as heck not lifting any boxes when I'm 6 months pregnant!), and that Bennett will transition well. Its really nice that our little girl isn't due for a few more months. It'd be too much for Bennett to have to adjust to the new place as well as a new sibling. Andrew will be starting his fall classes at the end of this month. He's excited to be back in school after a lazy summer. Time off is fun, but it can be pretty boring sometimes too.

The Name Game

I'm not sure what it is when it comes picking a name for your child. At first its a fun bonding experience for both parents, looking through the name book and sharing favorites. And with today's advanced sonograms, they usually know the gender beforehand so they have a few months to prepare. So you'd think it'd take the stress off. But, of course, it never does. For some reason, never usually matters what it is, the parents start to panic over the chosen name.

Where I am going with all of this is that we've decided to change our daughter's name. We still liked the first name, we just didn't feel that the middle name fit. Normally that wouldn't have been a problem, but we were planning on using a family name. So then I called that relative and explained so they wouldn't be shocked later at the official announcement. Thankfully the relative was very understanding, it could have been a lot worse. I feel really bad, because I had gotten their hopes up now only to break them. I can now see why some people don't bother to share names until the baby comes. So now we're doing the same thing. Zoe will still most likely be the name, but the middle name is secret until then, so stay tuned!

Shaffer Butte Camping Trip

We just came back from our Ward's camping trip. I was a little worried about how Bennett would handle this outing. This was his 3rd time camping, but he used to sleep inside his infant car seat before. We brought along his pack n' play and thankfully it did fit inside our tent. The start of the day was pretty rough. We had to drive to the top of a mountain just to get to the campsite, Bennett had missed his nap and wouldn't rest after we got everything set up. So we just listened to him scream for a while. But he went down very well when it was time for bed. Ironically I was the only one who didn't sleep well. It wasn't that anyone kept me up, I just was no longer tired for some reason. The following morning, the guys went paint balling with slingshots and the girls played Bocce Ball. Then the infamous Boise heat started getting to us so we broke camp. Enjoy the pictures!

The view from our campsite

Andrew -- armed and ready for paintball!

Bennett sleeping on the way home

Bright and sunny first thing in the morning

Chipmunk nibbling on a used marshmallow stick

Bennett and Bruno

Such a dirty face, very cute!

Our 4th of July

Our 4th of July was pretty fun. We tried some new dishes, some working out more than others. We tried a boneless ribs crock-pot recipe that turned out GREAT! I ate it and I don't really like meat much this pregnancy again. We also tried a turtle cheesecake that was a failure from beginning to end! While cooking it in the oven, some of the cooking grease escaped the pan and baked onto the bottom of the oven so we had to really scrub it afterward. Then part of the caramel crust hardened onto the pan so we really had to dig it out only to discover that it didn't bake all the through. So that part wasn't great.

We live right next to one of Boise's many parks and noticed a whole lot of traffic coming through our area so we suspected that was where the fireworks would be set off from. We just figured we'd wait and see how close it'd be. We had no idea just how close! It looked like they were being set off right behind our complex! We could practically feel the booms! Set off a few car alarms too, that's what those sirens are during the video. Amazingly, Bennett slept right through it all, we watched from outside our door. I doubt we'll ever have a better seat again!

Also we just found out that we were approved for our new apartment! We'll be moving around the middle of August, making our time here about a year. Hopefully we'll stay in this apt til Andrew graduates. It seems we never stay in one place for more than a year and a half. Not that I haven't loved our past places, but moving takes a lot of energy. Anyway, we're really excited about our new apt, its just what we wanted -- 2 bedroom with a washer and dryer and for only $10 more rent than we're currently paying! How lucky is that?!

We are doing well in general too, we're planning on attending the ward camping trip this weekend. It'll be an interesting challenge! Never camped with a toddler before. We're taking it easy this summer for the most part, and trying to stay cool. It gets pretty hot here, one day last week it was 102 degrees, in late afternoon! So needless to say we're running our air conditioning quite a bit!

Bennett is doing very well too, he's beginning to warm up to nursery. Last week when it was time to leave, he started to follow me, then turned around and ran back inside to play some more! That is definitely progress! His latest trick is bringing me my shoes, he's figured out we only wear them when we go outside. So after dinner sometimes, we take him to the park so he can run around. Its just too hot to do so during the day. Zoe is doing well too, she's been much more of a mover than Bennett was, we'll see if that holds true when she's born too. So that's our update!

Its a Girl!

Profile

What long legs!

Her ankles were crossed for this shot

In the middle of a yawn!

Kids say the darnest things

Andrew and I just got back from Rexburg recently and I'll post more on our fun adventures later. For now, I wanted to post one funny thing that happened. One of Andrew's aunts just had her 9th baby and brought her and the rest of the family to a big weenie roast. One of her little ones, abt 4 yrs old I think, was showing me some goats they have. I was crouching on my knees, pointing them out to Bennett, when she causally pointed at my stomach and said, "Your baby is showing." I agreed with her that it was. "My mom used to have one of those," she continued. "Now she just has a bubble." Oh too funny! I told her dad about it later, he found it funny. Didn't have the guts to tell the mom, just in case she didn't find it as funny.

In any case, the baby is DEFINITELY showing, and we'll be finding out the gender tomorrow! So exciting, it really makes it more real when you know. We've finally narrowed down the names for both genders, Jonas Aeddan or Zoe Rita. The later would be awesome because we'd be using my mom's name for the middle. The boy's name has no family ties, just sounds and looks spunky. ;)

Bennett's First Day in Nursery

There comes a time in every Mormon Mom's life where she can't wait for her child to attend Nursery. And after long last, it was finally Bennett's turn! It was so nice to be able to pick a seat in the room that I didn't have to "screen" for Bennett. Meaning that I wouldn't have to avoid seats in the aisle because it'd be harder to keep Bennett in line. He is past the stage of me being able to hold him in my life, and it isn't because he weighs about 25 lbs now. He just likes to move around and it isn't reasonable for me to expect him to sit still for 3 hours anyway.

He didn't last more than a half hour, which I can't say surprises me. He cries whenever I leave the apartment without him, he's just an attached kid. But what did surprise me, was just how scared the nursery worker looked, almost panicked. He's been teething lately and it appeared that it came on suddenly for now one of his cheeks was flaming red as well as his ear which had a little blood because he had been scratching it. I calmly told her it wasn't anything to worry about and I promptly got this "How could you not be worried about this?! You are the mother right?" kind of look. Granted, I would have done the same if our roles were switched. But we smoothed it over and he spent the day with me. I'd like to say he was good from then on, but he wasn't really. He was just in a tired and grumpy mood. But that's life and hopefully next Sunday, nursery will go more smoothly. But I'm pretty sure it'll take a few more tries before he stays for good.

Bennett Walking for Real?

Here's a little compilation video. Starts out with Bennett walking on his knees, then how he started really walking tonight. Then we just kept filming and talking while he kept practicing, so that's why its so long. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and that Bennett keeps walking.

Andrew's Top Ten Lists

TOP TEN THINGS ENGLISH MAJORS HATE

10. Y'all/Ain't. You can't just go inventing contractions whe'er you feel like it. (That was supposed to be "whenever" only I made it into a contraction-it was supposed to be sarcasm).

9. People who treat onomatopoeia words like they're verbs, i.e. "Stop that right now or I'm gonna whop you!", "Ouch, I bonged my head!", etc.

8. People who use the word "gonna" in print, like it's faster than saying "going to".

7. E-mails that have no punctuation or capitalization.

6. Math

5. People who say, "You're majoring in English? Cool! So I guess you're going to end up teaching!" After all, I don't say, "You're majoring in Computer Science? Wow! I guess you must be an antisocial geek with a fifth grade reading level!"

4. Text message speech. It's seriously annoying. I'm not kidding. An "lol" once in a while is OK, but as for the rest, let's just say it makes me srry th4t cell phns were evr m4de, k?

3. People who say things like, "I'd like to read more, but I just don't have the time." Right. And I'd like to breathe more, but I just don't have the time.

2. People who, when answering the phone, respond to inquiries for themselves by saying "This is me." So glad we cleared that up. Good to know that it's you and not somebody else.

1. People who give their children names with unnecessary apostrophes, e.g. C'ssandra, etc. I w'ant to k'ick these people in the r'ea'r'.

TOP TEN THINGS ENGLISH MAJORS LOVE

10. The smell that comes out of the pages of a brand new book the very first time it's opened.

9. Metaphor

8. British People. Where would we be without them? They invented the language!

7. Reading indoors in the middle of a thunderstorm.

6. Reading in the bathtub.

5. Reading.

4. Intelligent conversation about a great book.

3. E-mails where the sender took the time to spell check and include punctuation before hitting 'send'.

2. Letters. Handwritten and alphabetical.

1. Libraries.

Hope you liked my top ten lists!

Bennett learning to walk

For about a week or two Bennett has practicing walking. He practices a little, but never goes more than about 4-5 steps. But today he started taking some longer steps! We had a little game where he was "chasing" me, and here's part of it on video. Part way through he falls to one knee but picks himself back up and keeps going. And, of course, once the camera was off he did even more than what little was shown on video. But it seemed that he wore himself out after that and went back to walking on his knees. But its more progress! I always assumed once they learned to walk they'd never want to stop, but I guess its a more gradual process.

Bennett Laughing

This video is really cute because Bennett is laughing more and more. He's never been one to laugh. He used to just smile and pant. So its nice to hear him laugh now. What is also funny is how he tries to imitate the noise at the end. What a smart little guy! Unfortunately he tended to spray all over Andrew instead. Sorry about the cruddy lighting, our living room only has lights on one end of it. Its kind of weird that way.

Some more updates

This past Friday Bennett took his first few steps. He was standing up against the couch, looking over Andrew's shoulder, and then decided to move on. Once he had taken about 4-5 steps, he seemed to realize what he was doing and slowly sat down. The next day he walked to both of us and then decided he was done. So now when he does walk, its usually because he isn't thinking about it. He tends to walk mainly on his knees, we'd never heard of that before and apparently neither has anyone else we know. Its a little frustrating, but he'll walk eventually. There's no use getting hung up over a milestone.

We've been doing well, Bennett is happy and healthy now that his cold has past. Andrew is getting closer to finals week so he's pretty busy. And I've broken my old record of not being sick while pregnant with 1 bout of morning sickness. We went to our first doctor appointment on the 15th. The new baby is happy and healthy, it was so awesome to see it moving around. Sadly we weren't given any pictures or video and hadn't thought to bring our camera along. But we'll remember when we get the next sonogram. This baby is due November 10th. I like the new doctor, he seemed as concerned as I was about not repeating my last delivery. While it wasn't too bad, it sounded like it could have been. So the doctor will compare the growth of this one to the last one and if it looks about the same, I'll have to be induced with a C-section. Better that than ripping the whole way with a too large baby! As for the gender, we are hoping for a girl this time round, but I'm sure Bennett wouldn't mind having a brother either.

Its been getting pretty hot in Boise, close to 60-70 degrees some days, but we still like to go out when its cool for the occasional picnic. There's a zoo nearby that we want to go to sometime, but we'll probably have to wait till school is out first.

Brett and Bennett

Brett made up this game where he gathers the eggs, dumps them, and scrambles them around. They had a lot of fun together!

Bennett Rocks On

Just a cute little video with a surprise ending!

Easter in Rexburg

We spent Spring Break with Andrew's family. It was lots of fun! Bennett quite enjoyed himself (once he got over his shyness) and Andrew and Lauren went on a date to Wingers! Yum! I loooove their Sticky Fingers! Also, we got to spend some time with our good friends the Siglers and played video games while eating pizza. Sorry to our other friends we didn't get a chance to see. We'll try to plan it better next time. And we got to see my brother Tom and met his awesome girlfriend. The only downside to our trip was the fact that it snowed about the whole time we were there. We weren't really prepared for it, so once we got home, Bennett promptly got a cold. And I'm not kidding, like he was sneezing a lot within hours of being home! Another fun thing was decorating eggs with the family and the Easter Bunny didn't forget Bennett thanks to the grandparents. ;)

Talk about the SHOCK of my life 0_0

The computer cord exploded. That's right, EXPLODED.

Here's how it happened. I was just plugging in the cord that was attached to a surge protector. It wasn't even plugged in all the way before a bright light (about the size of a 50 cent piece) and loud bang sounded. Of course I jumped backwards and dropped the cord. Once my heart started beating again, I examined the cord more closely. The cord was severed right after where it plugs into the surge protector. Just cut in half! So bizarre! We had maintenance come over because the electrical socket wouldn't work anymore. Turns out that the electrical tape on our old cord had slid out of place so the cables where exposed. Cost us $70 to get a new cord. So learn from our example, don't leave the wires exposed!

It could have been a lot worse. For one thing, I hadn't been hurt at all, just had some black residue on my fingers. But more importantly, the laptop wasn't connected to the cord at time of shock. I usually plug in the cord first and then attach it to the laptop. Not sure why I do that, but case it saved our laptop. We could afford a new cord but NOT a new laptop!

We're also heading to Rexburg during spring break. That should be lots of fun! We'll be sure to take lots of pictures. I bet Andrew's family will be so impressed with Bennett this time round. We were last there for Thanksgiving and he just learned how to crawl there. Now he crawls forward and sideways, pulls himself up to stand, scoots along furniture, and now gabs a TON!

Expecting #2

We just found out that we're expecting our 2nd baby. Or rather, we've suspected for a while but now know for sure ;) The gender and due date is still unknown, but will probably be in November which will make for a 2 yr gap which is nice.

Bennett is doing well, he has four teeth and I saw a fifth one poking through. He loves to smile and gabs endlessly. Andrew is doing well too in his classes. I'm doing well too, just a little nauseous from time to time, but I can still eat meat!

Bennett's getting there

Here's a video of Bennett at another mile stone. He loves to crawl, but he rarely scoots along furniture unless you already propped him against it. He got this toy for Christmas but didn't care for it because it moves. But I occasionally prop him against it just to see what he'll do. Yesterday he started walking with it! I just had to record it! Especially because Andrew was napping at the time. He has had a pretty rough week.

Bennett's Christmas Party Pictures

At long last we FINALLY got the pictures from our ward's Christmas Party! So proud he didn't cry :) Its truly a miracle because it was just at his bedtime and he's usually so faithful to it that he's a mess for a full hour before. We really got lucky!