preschool!

 Okay, okay he is not officially in preschool yet. But we did go to orientation at his school! He was so excited. We ended up leaving way too early and taking a very scenic route to preschool because he was itching to go so bad. His preschool is going to be so much fun. I am so excited for him. His teacher is awesome and she has so many fun things planned for these kids this year. I do not have preschool talents at all. I feel so blessed to have found a preschool with a teacher who is so excited, energetic and invested. I am not so sad about this milestone, but that may change the first day I drop him off for real. He is so ready for this. He can't wait. He keeps reminding me that I can't come to preschool, its only for big kids.

 I love you big kid!

first trip to the dentist!

We went to go see Dr. Steve last week, aka Uncle Steve. It was Ben's first successful trip to the dentist. The last time we went he was terrified and exhausted. He ended up falling asleep in the corner. But this time he was a superstar!! He took a ride in Uncle Steve's fancy chair. He tried on a cool glove, just like Uncle Steve's. He wore the super cool dude sunglasses so the light wouldn't get in his eyes! He completed the picture by wearing the giant bib. The best part was that Ben let Steve do a full exam! He even had his teeth polished and did a fluoride treatment! Ben is getting so big. It is exciting and depressing at the same time. I love watching him grow up and try new things and be brave. But it is hard to watch him leave toddler-hood behind him.

camping

Ben gets to go on the boys camp out this year. Last year Daddy, Uncle Steve, and Uncle Jason went camping without him. I thought his heart was going to break in his chest. He cried and cried and cried. It almost broke my heart. So this year when the boys decided that Ben and Weston could come, Ben and I jumped for joy. This morning I asked him if he was excited about the trip. This is how our conversation went:

Me: "Ben! Are you so excited to go camping with the boys this weekend?"
Ben: "Yeah. But its a boys trip. You can't come. But you will be in my heart. And I go fishing with Uncle Jason and catch a catfish wif wong (long) tencles (tentacles aka whiskers)."

I almost teared up. "You will be in my heart?" What three year old says that? I wish I knew where he came up with this stuff.

11 months old!

Another month has come and gone and once again we were at Lake Powell. Lucky us! Cole has turned into a real Powell baby. I couldn't keep him out of the sand and water. He loved the boat when it was moving, but was not okay sitting around in his life jacket.

Cole is obsessed with books. Any kind of book: board books, magazines, novels, etc. If it opens and closes and has pages; he wants it.

He officially says: "mama," "dada", and "dow" or "daw" for dog. He will roar like a lion, and say "vvrroooom" when he drives cars on the ground. Cars have become a very recent discovery. He has figured out how to crawl and push them along at the same time. Yesterday was the first time he tested out a walking push toy thing. Now he won't stop. Ben loves it because he finally has someone to race! They race back and forth across the living room all day. There has been a little jealousy over the grocery cart push toy. Ben thinks he is attached. Cole really really wants it because there is a shopping list on it that flips back and forth like a book.

Is that the beginnings of some curls? Oh please, please say it is true!

These two shots were taken back to back. Yes he is snuggling my leg! He is such a tender, sweet, snuggly guy. So so easy to love.

Cole's favorite part of Powell may have been his own personal swimming pool. This tote normally sits on the front of the houseboat for people to wash off their feet before coming back in from the sandy beach. Cole used it as his personal splash pool. We did use it for baths too.

I can't even tell you how often Cole makes this face. The best part is that it has a sound that goes with it. He sucks in his breath and says, "OOOOHHHHHHH!!" It is so dang cute!! He does it every time he gets excited about something. Which is pretty much all the time: whenever I pull food out of the fridge, every time he sees a dog, whenever he opens a book, when he sees a car go by, etc.

This is so typical of Cole. He loves to give loves. He always has a hug and a kiss for me. If he hasn't seen us for two minutes he lets us know how much he missed us with one of these sweet cuddles.

We love you little man!!

quote of the day

I was showing ben my temple recommend holder that has a picture of the salt lake temple on it. I told him that is where mommy and daddy got married. This was his response:

"mommy, i go to preschool first and then i can marry you. i going to be at preschool for long time. den (then) i come home and take you and say 'surprise!' and you be so happy!"

It was really really hard not to laugh.

shot of the day

singin' in the rain

 On Monday there was a torrential downpour. What did Ben want to do? Go outside and stomp in the puddles of course!! I have never seen him get dressed so fast. He wouldn't let me find a jacket that fit. He found his old "raincoat" from the DI that we took camping two years ago and demanded that is the one he wanted.

 He loves wearing his rain boots in all kinds of weather, so why not test them out in the rain? As you can see he had them completely filled up with water in no time.

 He begged and begged me to come out with him. It was one of those times as a mom when I said to myself, "I don't really want to get soaking wet and cold, but I don't want to miss making a memory with Ben." So I threw on my rain boots and the gigantic rain coat that Scott took on his mission and tromped through puddles with Ben. We splashed through all the gutters, jumped in all the puddles and sang, "singin in the rain." Pretty great day. Cold and wet, but so fun!

Here are some other fun Ben factoids:

He always says, "I gotta tell you. . ." before he tells any story.

He calls escalators and elevators "elle-gators."

He loves Cheetos and chocolate milk.

His favorite Disney show is "Special Agent Oso." He sings the theme song like this, "Special Agent Oso, the nique stuffed can." It is supposed to go,"Special Agent Oso, the unique stuffed bear!"

I think he has memorized the book, "The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear."

No matter what time he goes to bed he is always up at 7:00 am or earlier. And usually doesn't take a nap. This kid is go go go all day long from sun up to way after sundown. I need preschool more than he does.

He loves to wrestle all the time.

my little pirates

 How cute are these two? I realize that I am completely bias, but come on! Here is a warning. This post contains A LOT of pirate pictures. Why? Because I just couldn't resist. There are too many that I adore. It is rough being a mommy photographer because I take so many picture of my kids and I can never narrow them down like I can for other people because these are my kids and I am emotionally attached to all of them.

 Captain Ben had to wear his entire pirate get-up for the rest of our Lake Powell trip. The pirate map and his hook were particularly important.

 However, how can a pirate navigate without his trusty telescope?

 Check out the authentic pirate battle wound on his arm!

 He can be kinda scary. He takes pirating very very seriously.

 Cole-io had the cutest pirate bum on board!! Sadly he wasn't such a fan of his pirate hat.

first words!!

I am officially declaring Cole's first word: "uh-oh." Although he does say, "da da" and "ma ma" and "daw (dog)." He consistently uses uh-oh when he drops something. He said it for the first time on Sunday while I was changing his diaper at church. He dropped the toy he was playing with and looked up at me and said, "uh-oooohhhh." So cute. Scott didn't believe me when I came back to Sunday school, but about a minute later he dropped his toy and said, "uh-oh" again! Why does he have to grow up?

scripture stories . . .

The other night I was reading Ben his Book of Mormon stories before bedtime and we were reading the story about how Christ comes to visit the Nephites. Ben looked at me and asked,"When is Jesus coming to visit us?" I told him that he would come visit us someday. He told me,"I know he is coming to our house on Friday. Yeah, Friday." It was so hard not to bust up laughing. He was sure of himself that indeed Friday would be the day. Love that boy.