So a couple of days ago, we were having Sharlee over for dinner and her and Nathan were talking and joking around. I was in the bathroom getting something and I could hear everything they were saying. In the course of the conversation, Nathan sarcastically and jokingly said "get outta my house" to Sharlee. I then I heard Benny, who was in a playful and happy mood, say to Sharlee in an excited voice "Get outta my house!" Sharlee instantly said "That's rude Benny!" Nathan who hadn't heard Benny, asked what he had said. When Sharlee told him, he got up and uprooted Benny from his chair and dinner plate telling him that he couldn't talk to Sharlee like that and how mean he had been. Benny who was confused by the sudden mood of things and why he was being taken to time out began to cry. It was about this time that I finally came out of the bathroom. As Nathan was walking out of the room where poor Benny sat crying in his confinement, I told Nathan "you do know that he was just repeating what you said don't you?" He then said "what?" It turned out that neither Nathan nor Sharlee had realized that Nathan had said "Get outta my house". Which is really funny since they were in a conversation and they weren't even paying attention to what they were saying or hearing. Anyways, when we realized, Benny was apologized to and restored to his seat at the table but I felt for poor little Benny. So many injustices and misunderstandings happen when you're a kid. It's hard to avoid them. It brought me back to some of my childhood days when the same kind of things happened. I remember one time specifically when my sister Julie was not getting along with mom and dad and I guess they had had an argument. Julie, to get back at mom and dad, wrote a sign and stuck it on their bedroom door. It said something like "Beware" or "do not disturb" but she drew blood dripping down from the letters. It was her way of saying mom and dad were being mean. Anyways, when mom and dad found the sign on their door, they thought it was so funny and were laughing. So as a kid, I thought I would be so clever and make mom and dad laugh by writing the same kind of sign but since mom and dad had already been done, I decided to do it on Julie's door. But when mom and dad found the sign on Julie's door, instead of laughing, I was scolded and punished for being a mean sister. Talk about confusing. Childhood seems full of these moments. They're funny though later.

We've also been talking to Benny lately about baptism and even though the idea of going under the water was very unattractive to him, when daddy mentioned he would get the gift of the Holy Ghost, he enthusiastically replied, "I want the goly host!" So cute, I love the way he pronounces everything. I'm also learning that he must do things his own way and with his own style. For instance, he's refused to say prayers for awhile now, but one evening he mentioned that we forgot to pray for the dinosoars. So I asked him if he would like to say it. He readily agreed and then bowed his head and said, "Thank you for mommy long neck. Thank you for daddy long neck. Thank you for little foot. Thank you for Pee Tree. Amen" I thought it was cute but I didn't realize the significance of the prayer till later. Benny loves the movie "The Land Before Time" and he loves to pretend that he is little foot. When he turns into Little Foot, I become the mommy long neck and Ephraim becomes Pee Tree. We sometimes go to the great valley even, which is the playground. Anyways, that was his way of praying for Nathan, me, Ephraim and himself. He was saying thank you for his family. We all just had code names. What a sweet little boy prayer. I love that little guy.

This is the snowman we made before it all melted. Benny decapitated it and loved stomping on it. Such a boy.
visiting the great valley

just a life update. The weather in Rexburg has been great but that all changed in a day at the beginning of this week. It started to snow like crazy and we were turning on the heater already. I was sad to say good bye to the hot weather but thankfully the snow melted and the sun came back out again but I suspect that won't hold out much longer. Surprisingly, Benny loved the snow and wanted to stay out in it and build snow men, and throw snow balls. Ephraim however, did now like the snow at all. All he did was touch it with his bare hands and then he started crying. Benny and Ephraim have been at odds a lot lately. Benny gets into these crazy moods when he's playing sometimes and gets really rough with Ephraim. I think Ephraim is kinda scared of him now because he'll wince or start crying a little when Benny gets too close sometimes. I wanted Ephraim and Benny so close together because I wanted them to have each other to play with but I didn't take into account that they'll also have each other to fight with. I still can't tell if Benny realizes that he hurts Ephraim when he plays or if he's oblivious. Time outs seem to be losing their effectiveness though. Benny also has been doing better with his potty training but I still can't get him to tell me when he needs to go so I can put him on the toilet. I usually put him on the toilet in the morning and then if he goes I give him a potty treat and I let him know that he can get another one if he tells me before he goes so I can put him on the potty but it never works. So if anybody has any ideas, feel free to share. I'm scared to switch him to under wear though lest I'll be cleaning them out every 2 hours.

I had my first cross country meet on Saturday. I was second to last and got 30:14. Sharlee did amazing. She was the first one on our team (there are 4 teams altogether) to cross the finish line and she got a whoppin 22:something!!! She's a fast one.

Also Nathan and Justin are on a business venture together. They decided to buy a whole bunch of that furniture from the hotel that's going out of business and sell it at a higher price. They got a U haul and a storage unit and moved everything over. So hopefully people buy it. It makes me nervous doing that kinda stuff, but I guess there's no stopping it now.

Anyways, life it good. till next time.

Okay, so Nathan and I found the bargain of a life time!! There is this hotel in Rexburg that is going out of business and they are going to be converting it into community housing. They're basically just going to put a small kitchen in each hotel room and make it a studio, so I guess it will only be for married people without kids. Anyways, they're getting rid of a ton of furniture and so we went there and got a cabinet/drawer piece that came with a T.V. for $20!! While Nathan was taking it away, the man offered to sell him a king size bed that included not only the mattress but the box spring, frame, sheets, 2 blankets, and head board for the same price!!! Its crazy huge! We moved our full size bed into Benny's room and deflated his air bed so now Benny has a crazy huge bed too. Nathan spread the news of the sweet deals to Justin and Rachel and they got a king too and then we had to borrow a neighbors truck to transport everything so they ended up getting stuff too. It was an exciting night for everyone.

here is the T.V. center. I have to come up with a new arrangement on the wall above it now but that will be fun. We just moved the fire place over to the corner. We got to buy a DVD player now but Nathan is going to save up his plasma money for that so it will be a little longer before we actually watch movies on it.
Here's the king, we need to buy a bed skirt for it though but that will come with time too. The head board also came with two really tall spires one each side that you screw on but they looked a little to overbearing so we're going to try and find something a little more subtle to screw on the ends. I also want to do something like paint or modge podge the head board but that will probably be a while because is it will be a bigger project and might require buying paint and stuff so I don't know.

So Benny has been getting better and better at talking and he'll often blow me away with what he's learning to say. For example, he's starting to form complex sentences. He doesn't get it quite right all the time but it's so cute. He's also feeling more confident showing off to people he doesn't know. He'll often ask another parent at the playground to watch him as he displays his awesome running or jumping skills. Anyways, one day our disposal had broken down and the repairman was over fixing it. Benny was showing off his ball throwing skills to the repair man which wasn't working out too successfully since his head was under our sink and decided rather to carry on a conversation instead. He then excitedly boasted, "mommy goes to the bathroom a lot!" Why he decided to open up with that remark, I don't know. But like I said, he'll often blow me away with what he's learning to say. (... and I don't go to the bathroom a lot. I am an average bathroom goer)

the kiddos can take a real bath now. It's so much more fun than getting a pitcher of water dumped on you.

We watched conference at our house on the laptop. Needless to say, it was quite hard to concentrate as this picture reveals.