Empathy

I try to teach my kids to be sensitive and have empathy for people or things.
So some things we talk about might be a little over exaggerated.
Yesterday I was sitting on the porch and Livi brought me something small and yellow and then told me it was the leg to the grasshopper.
I then saw a squashed grasshopper on the sidewalk.
So this is how our conversation went.
I said "Livi, now that daddy grasshopper can't go back to his family"
(we try not to kill bugs outside) (inside a different story)
She said "Mom, they can get a new dad"
"hows that"
"Mom, there are more grasshoppers."
Yes there are, we have a lot of grasshoppers this year and it has been quite fun to watch the kids try and catch them.
Bauer loves bugs and will walk right up to them and pick them up.
Ben also found a garden snake, the kids loved him and were sad to see him slither away back to his snake family. There is no more room in our family even for a snake.

hApPy BiRtHdAy GinA!!!

Happy Birthday to Ben's sister Gina, our sister in law, Aunt and friend!!
We love Gina because....
1. She loves Mountain Dew.....(a lot)
2. She is an Awesome mom and has really cute kids.
3. Her husband has a cute butt.... (Ben wanted me to make sure people knew this was an inside joke)
4. She is a VERY talented scrapbooker
5. She is very organized
6. She will never neglect to tell you how she feels or what she thinks about something...
7. She looses her belly button when she is pregnant (weird)
8. She went to BYU....whoo-hoooh
9. We have the same car, a white suburban...
10.She makes really cute baby blankets.
11. She loves to eat stew.
12. She hates bugs, especially moths.
13. She loves to read.
14. She likes to listen to Rascal Flats
15. She likes Jamba juice.
16. One of her favorite stores is Pebbles in my pocket.
17. She likes to shop at Old Navy.
18. She is really good at sending cards to people, with cute pics of her kids.
19. She likes to sleep in
20. She gets home sick during the holiday season
21. She dated Ben's best friends:)
22. She likes to play pranks on her siblings (when she was younger)
23. She doesn't like to wear dresses.
24. She would take her blanket to seminary.
25. She didn't want to get her drivers license because Ben would drive her every where.
26. Gina is a whiner (according to her husband, from her blog)
27. She was really excited about Deegan being potty trained.
28. She likes pizza pops, old dutch jerky sticks, fudgee-0's, shreddies and hickory sticks.
29. She likes to give goodie bags at Christmas.
30. She is collecting Willow Tree figurines.
31. She has a great Disney DVD collection
32. We love her and hope she has a great birthday!!!

Friends...

My whole life I have been so blessed with good friends. When I was younger growing up in a turbulent family situation they saved me, literally.....I would not be the person I am today without the example they and their families showed me.
And today I still am blessed with such good friends, friends who want to do what is right, be good people. Care about being good spouses, raise their children with the spirit. Help me be a better mom, make me laugh, challenge me to do things, maybe I wouldn't do.
I am so blessed, in every way. Thank you friends, all of you.

Calling all Memories!!

So here is a fun new blogging game:
1. Leave one memory that you and I (or Ben) had together, as a comment on my blog. It doesn't matter if you know us/me/him a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Potty trained??

So yesterday was one of those days you mean to get the kids dressed and stuff keeps coming up. Well I have heard of the method where you just take their pants off and let them pee on the floor or where ever and they learn really fast to go in the potty. Well that is kind of how it worked, Cooper ended up getting Bauer dressed and put big boy underwear on him, and that didn't last very long, he got those wet, but when he realized his pants were wet he was really upset.

So Bauer generally goes the bathroom at the same time every day, I am sure some of you can relate (Lily Boston:) and so we just let him sit there for a while, yeah didn't go..... but ended up going later. I was thinking this is a good start, well this morning he woke up and went right to the potty and went potty. He didn't have a diaper on last night.

So did we make it? I don't know but a good start for sure....

Ben's wardrobe...

I was recently trying to organize closets and this is how Ben's turned out...

Hmm..what should I wear today red and khaki or khaki and red???

Happy Canda Day (July 1) and Independance Day!!

Happy Canada day a few days late and Happy 4th of July.

In honor on Canada day I thought I would post a few things about Ben the Canadian!!

He was born in Kelowna B.C and he grew up in Victoria B.C and Northern B.C.

The town he spent most of his growing up years was in a little place called Vanderhoof. On this map it is about 1 hour and 10 minutes west, of the town of Prince George.Vanderhoof has 2 wards and the Stake there is about the size of Utah.

Ben is still a Canadian citizen and has no desire to become an American citizen. He did consider it once when he found out you had to be an American citizen to try out for the show Survivor;)

We love traveling to Canada, luckily we have only drove there a few times, when we were dating, and it takes about 24hours to get from our house to his parents house.

And of course Ben loves hockey, he even subscribes to the hockey package through our Dish, that is why our license plate on our car says 'Canucks' for the Canadian Hockey team the Vancouver Canucks.

It can get very cold in Canada, it does live up to its reputation. I have on 3 occasions felt what -36 degrees c. feels like, and yes it is cold. I don't like driving there in the winter time, it is not like Utah where you salt the roads and they are somewhat clear in Canada they sand the roads, they pretty much put a layer of sand on ice, and I try not to freak out when we have to drive a ways.

Ben still very much considers himself Canadian and wont even put his hand over his heart when he hears the Star Spangled banner:) ( he usually does that to bug me;)

If you ever get a chance to visit Canada, he are a few tips.

The one dollar coin is called a "Loonie"

The two dollar coin is called a "toonie"

You will have to try the Crush red cream soda, it is nothing like the old crush cream soda from here.

Also the candy bar, 'Wunderbar" and the "Aero bar"

Also very famous the "Old Dutch" potato chips, salt and vinegar (if you don't mind your tongue being numb for a while after eating them)

The all dressed potato chips, there is also, pickle and ketchup, just to name a few.

We celebrate most of the same Holidays, except for obviously Canada Day, Thanksgiving is in October and Boxing day, the day after Christmas.

There are so many neat things that we love about Canada, most of Ben's family still lives there, so we like to visit often.

Happy Canada Day and Happy fourth of July, I consider myself lucky to be able to call both places home!!!