About a boy (or two)

I thought today would be a good day to post something about the boys since its been a while. They are both awesome. When Zack isn't teething he is a sweet and happy boy. The poor kid has had the hardest time cutting teeth. Its molars right now, but even his little front ones were brutal on him. When he is cranky, I have learned that Tylenol is not the most evil thing in the world. I don't like dosing up my kids, but a mom's sanity is dependent on it sometimes! This video is a new favorite. Its totally Zack in all his sweetness. He is precious and learning so fast!

Aiden is a great big brother. He loves to teach Zack all he knows. He walks around the house singing random rhyming words. Most of them aren't actually words, but they rhyme with a real word so they make the cut for his songs. He is an independent little soul. I'm learning to keep him busy so he stays out of trouble. He tests the bounds constantly. But it melts my heart when he climbs on my lap and says "I love you Mom." He's a good kid and he has a passion for learning that is adorable. He can't wait until he can go to school like his older friends. He likes to tell everyone that "When I get bigger and bigger I can go to school." This video is of one of his favorite things to do - Make Zack laugh. He's good at it too! What parent doesn't want their kids to get along so great! Its such a blessing and we love it!

Baby Showers

It seems strange to me to be posting this here, but its one of the best ways to reach all of you!
I have a few fabulous people who have offered to throw me a couple of baby showers here in Mesa. The one Jenifer is throwing will be on June 27th. Afton and Jennie Raye will throw one for me on July 11th. Jenifer is a good friend of mine and Afton & Jennie are family. So, for the most part, I'm inviting friends to the June 27th shower and family to the July 11th one. Confused yet?
What I need from all of you? Addresses! You can email them to me at swmngrd99@yahoo.com If you would like to be invited to the 'other' shower (ie: you're a friend and July 11th is better for you - or vice versa) let me know. I'd love to see all of you to celebrate this little girl!

Update on Baby Girl

If you are bored of hearing/reading about this, I can't blame you, so feel free to skip on to another post. But I had better write this down for myself so I can remember later. I guess.
We saw the doctor and had another ultrasound last Friday. We are all very pleased that the cyst is actually getting a bit smaller! 15cc volume 3 weeks ago; 5.5cc volume last week! Almost two thirds smaller! Yea! Not only that, but because she is growing it is (obviously) significantly smaller respective to her size. All of this is great news. We will continue to watch the changes. We have appointments to meet with the pediatric surgeon (mostly just in case) and the neonatologist who will be present at the birth. I don't really know what those appointments will entail (Jen - if you know - will you share please?) but we've been told we should see those docs soon.
We're feeling blessed and other than the discomfort of the last trimester, the pregnancy is going very well.

Car Seat Covers

I'm thinking about getting a carseat cover made so that Baby Girl can ride in adorable comfort, rather than "already-been-thru-my-two-older-brother's" style. Does anyone know of someone who makes these? What is a good deal? Have any of you used a custom cover and loved or hated it??? The pic above is from an Etsy site, but I'd love a personal recommendation if any of you have one. Thanks guys!

Aiden's First Primary Talk

Aiden got to give his first talk in primary this last Sunday. His topic was baptism. I was a little nervous about what he would do because just a few weeks ago I, sort of jokingly, asked him if he wanted to bear his testimony in Sacrament Meeting and his reply was "No, Mom! Everyone will laugh at me." Who knew there was anything timid about that kid!?!? But we talked about baptism a few times during the week and when it was time to give his talk, he did awesome. I was so proud of him for speaking loudly and clearly. Cause we all know how sunbeams can get shy and mumble at the podium. It was really nothing super spactacular, but for the mom and dad (and him being our first, of course) it was a sweet, rewarding day.

Another Ultrasound

No pics this time. But just as an update, we are all doing fine. The cyst grew a little and then regressed a little. No big changes and that is good news. The best news to me was that my Dr. moved my due date up a week. Originally I told my OB that based on my dates (which I had payed close attention to!) I should be due on August 1st. But the 7-8 week ultrasound "sac size" indicated that I was due on August 9th. Whatever, fine. But when the Perinatologist got those records from the OB she looked at the crown-rump length (which is a more accurate indicator than sac size) and it matched up PERFECTLY with MY dates! Stupid OB!!! So I'm officially back to being due August 1st. YEA!!! Don't know how early I will have the C-section though, because she is on the small side.... Okay, she's a peanut - 8th percentile! Yikes. My babies just keep getting smaller. I'm guessing that unless she has a good growth spurt that the docs will want her to bake as long as possible. But she's still likely to have a July birthday. Until next time....... ;)

More Baby Girl

We had another ultrasound on Wednesday and got a few cute 3-D pics of our cutie pie. Everything looks good still. No growth of the CCAM and good growth of the rest of her. YEA! Here are my favorites.

Family Camping

We had a great time this weekend camping with Jeremy's family. We went to a spot just outside Wikieup (po-dunk town on the road between Phoenix & Vegas) where there are endless trails and dirt roads all over the desert.

Notice the oreo's on Zack's face in this pic! The boys LOVE Grandpa! And Grandpa LOVES to sugar them up!



Our campsite was within walking distance of a very wide but very shallow river and we spent some time each day playing with the boys in the water. The water was cool and refreshing, not bitter cold, because of how shallow it was. The kids had a blast. They both started out playing in thier clothes but, one wet piece at a time, ended up in thier birthday suits. Forgive us for being a little protective of the crazies out there and not posting those pics :)






Of course the Benson's don't go camping without the VWs! Grandma & Grandpa brought the Thing, and Jennie & Logan and Jeremy & I brought our Bajas. We explored a bunch of territory and had fun finding a ghost town and several private ranches out in the middle of nowhere.
Jeremy thought a trip along the river would be fun, since it was shallow. Our baja did just fine, but Logan's got "temporarily delayed" in the mushy mud. When Robert found out (we went back to camp to get tow ropes) he thought he might be able to help. Jeremy assured him that if he brought the Thing down there, they'd have double the work and Jeremy would end up pulling TWO vehicles out of the mess. Robert couldn't resist though and this is what happened when he "came to the rescue"! LOLOLOLOL!!!!!! They spent about 2 hours getting their vehicles out of the mud. What fun! What memories!

Aiden didn't hold still much, so I seem to have gotten a lot less of his action on camera. But there are lots of fun pics....