Spotlight on Benjamin

Since I use this blog as a family journal of sorts, I thought I'd take a minute and spotlight each one of our kids (since I've stopped writing in their individual journals-- Ty was the death of the whole journaling thing). They are each so fun that I want to be able to remember their cute little antics at these stages forever.

Benjamin just turned seven at the beginning of the month, but he's been wearing size seven clothes for a long time now-- in fact, he's starting to grow out of them! It works out nicely though because although he is the youngest kid in his class, he's still one of the tallest.

Benjamin never ceases to amaze me. Since he was tiny, he's always been fully committed to the things he was interested in-- to the point of total obsession. Fortunately, now that he is older, he is able to be interested in more things at a time. The following are some of the things that float Benjamin's boat at the moment:

1. Sports. It doesn't seem to matter what the sport is, he wants to do it. And he's pretty good at them, too. Just yesterday his soccer coach suggested that we put him in a more competitive soccer league because he is clearly his team's superstar. He is also amazing when it comes to hitting baseballs. He can stand up by our house and hit balls clear across our yard and over the top of our neighbors' playhouse which is built on about 6 foot stilts. He certainly didn't get it from me!

2. Word games. Bookworm is still his favorite, and the kid has UNBELIEVABLE word skills. He can find long words while I'm still staring at the grid trying to get my bearings. He also likes to play Boggle with us and is pretty good.

3. Reading. Benjamin is a great reader and powered through probably close to one hundred books this summer. We just finished reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban together, and he loved it. I'm sure he'd already be done with the whole Harry Potter series by now if we let him have his way, but we only let him read one HP book with us each year.

4. Pets. Benjamin was infatuated with all of his friends' dogs and BEGGED to get one for his birthday, but thanks to a tip from my visiting teacher, he got a hamster instead. He is totally smitten with Chip (his hamster) and is trying to train him to come when called.

Benjamin is a wonderful kid who seems to be able to succeed at whatever he puts his mind to. We love him a lot and feel lucky to have him in our family!

Catch Up

This month has been a crazy one, and as soon as things get busy, the poor blog gets neglected. So this post is an attempt to record our exciting August events.




We finally got our group of high school friends together and had a wonderful evening with them. Two things amazed me: First-- everyone looks exactly the same as they did in high school (why am I the only one aging here?), and second-- it's amazing how many kids we have as a group! It was really fun to watch our kids playing with our friends' kids-- "The Gang Part II."



All summer I've been wanting to take our kids tent camping since I have so many fun camping memories, but with Jacob hating the great outdoors the way he does, I was nervous about it. We decided just to go up Little Cottonwood Canyon and give it a shot since it is so close to our house and would be easy to bail if we needed to. I spent all day packing up (I can NOT believe how much stuff is required for a simple overnight camping trip! It's no wonder we don't do it that often!), and when Brigham woke up we took off. Unfortunately, we missed the last camping site by about 20 minutes. After all the preparation the last thing I wanted to do was go home, so we decided to be brave and drive 1 1/2 hours to camp with my family at their mountain property. Jacob mostly wanted to hang out in Grandpa's Jeep or in the trailer, but it actually went surprisingly well! It was Ty's first camping trip (sad to say), and he had a great time. He LOVED Grandpa's "tractors" (ATVs).






Jacob's fifth birthday was a major August event as well. I still can't believe that my boy is 5! Jacob's birthay was one of those days when everything that can go wrong does. We were seven minutes late for our appointment to meet his teacher, so we had to reschedule. The balloons I bought for Jacob were not tied tightly enough to their holder, and they ended up on Walmart's ceiling. Brigham took Jacob to the raceway in West Valley to see some real race cars, and they finished practicing about 2 mintues after they arrived. We went to go swimming (one of his very favorite activities this summer!), but found that all the pools were closed. Jacob was a very good sport about everything and seemed to enjoy his day despite all that went wrong. Like always, he LOVED opening his presents (even more than the presents themselves), and we let him eat about four pieces of his Bookworm cake (he would have kept going, but I knew that we were nearing the point when we'd see all that cake once more). Aunt Cambrie arrived from CA with her girls that afternoon, so it was fun to have cousins for a birthday party!



After a summer that didn't feel nearly as eternal as the last one did (thanks to having family close by), Benjamin and Jacob headed off to school. Benjamin started second grade on the 23rd, and was happy not to have to go with a full set of baby teeth once again, having lost his first tooth about 5 days before. In ABQ he was one of only 4 boys in his class of 17, and now he is enjoying being one of 21 boys in a class of 26. He actually has 2 teachers who each teach for half of the week.



Jacob started school on the 30th. He is in a developmental kindergarten class that only has 6 kids with a teacher and 2 aides. So far it seems like he is enjoying it quite a bit!

Although we don't have pictures (I have a hard time managing a camera when my boys require full-time supervision), we also spent a weekend up at Bear Lake with the Dastrups. Unfortunately we arrived in unison with a storm/cold front, but we still had fun swimming in the heated pool, playing on the beach, and playing some tennis. Jacob started having asthma trouble which ended up cutting our trip a little short, but with the help of some breathing treatments and steroids, Jacob is doing much better.


Whew. We finally made it to September. It is only the 5th, but those few days have been eventful. Brigham's sister got married on Benjamin's birthday (much to his dismay since wearing dress clothes is just about the worst thing you could make him do), and she had her reception the night before ("I can't believe that I have to wear church clothes for three days in a row!" said Benjamin after church today.) Not only were Aunt Liz's wedding and luncheon on his birthday (both wonderful events), but the first BYU game of the season was, too! Benjamin was happy that the team gave him a victory for his birthay. He received many wonderful presents, but his favorite was the hamster that we gave him (instead of the dog he's been begging for). He named it Chip (short for Chipmunk since he thinks it looks like one), and he adores that little animal! Ty does, too. We all get a kick out of watching it roll around the house in its ball.


Here is Benjamin's football field cake which Jacob got to before he even saw it. Benjamin was shockingly good about it. He just laughed and said, "Jacob, you're a pest!" I learned that Jacob's wingspan is far more than I gave him credit for.


So that's about it! For any of you still reading, here are a couple of random cute pictures from August:


Ty figured out how to ride a scooter at 18 months old. The kid never stops going!


...except when he's sleeping. He loves chewing on Bear's tail and often falls asleep while doing it. Maybe that's why Bear went missing for a weekend this month... it was a long weekend!