My BenBen

One of my favorite BenBen pictures. The Disney Cruise; May 2008

This year I thought I'd pay a little tribute to each of my kids on their birthdays. I'm a little late, but I wanted to write a little about Ben. Ben was born on February 18th in Woodbridge Virginia. He was 8 pounds 10 ounces and was 20 inches long. He was (so far) my largest baby which was probably do to the fact that he was 9 days late. His labor was my easiest and shortest being only 45 minutes from start to finish (also possibly due to the fact that he was so late.) He was a natural birth with no epidural which was easy to do because the labor is only 45 minutes. He came out not breathing, but the doctor/nurses quickly cleared his airway and we heard his little scream.

Thanksgiving 2004. 9 months old.

(I don't have any digital pictures before this one and I can't get the scanner to work so this will have to be the youngest picture of Ben this year.)

When I found out he was a boy I was so excited and so scared at the same time. I didn't know what to expect with a boy, but Ben has proven to be one of the neatest little kids I know. As a baby Ben was a chunk. He was born with fat rolls and quickly got more rolly polly. He ate whenever and whatever he could. He was such a doll with his blond hair, blue eyes, and big fat rolls. We've watched him slim down over the years. He's still tall for his age, but he's not nearly as heavy (he doesn't have that great appetite either.) His blond, blond hair has turned a little brown and his blue eyes are now a beautiful green.

One of my favorite pictures of baby Ben and I. At my cousin Amy's wedding, Summer 2005. Ben was just over 1. Notice the fingers in the mouth.

Ben has always been a wild yet mild boy. Out of all of our kids he's probably the one that requires the least amount of attention, which is good in some ways and bad in others. He's fairly easy going and likes to play by himself a lot. He enjoys being around other kids, but he's just fine if he's playing by himself while being surrounded by other kids. He loves his sisters and is a good brother. He gets along wonderfully with Sarah Kate and really enjoys playing with her and her friends. His wild side allows him to love to run, jump, climb, and tackle. When he was little we had to have a talk with him about how not all boys like tackling. Though he had to learn which friends he could tackle he knew Sarah and Daddy were always up for a tackle.

July 2006; Age 2

This picture was taken right before we moved to Virginia.

We've always called Ben the actor of the family. He loves to put on a show and make Kenny and I watch or listen to the funny things he does or says. In true boy fashion he enjoys hitting himself on the head and falling on the ground, he enjoys making up knock knock jokes, and countless other goofy things to make us laugh. I don't believe we've ever gone through a meal without Ben falling off his chair. Sometimes it's an accident, but most of the time he's just putting on a show. He loves to make his sisters laugh. Currently his favorite sister to make laugh is Gracie who he'll chase around the house or make funny noise at. It's so much fun watching him entertain his sisters.

January 2007; Almost 3

Ben LOVES Star Wars. If we can't find him it's likely he's downstairs building a Star Wars ship out of his Lego's, in his room playing with his Star Wars guys, or playing his Star Wars Lego video game. He also likes puzzles and other things. When he was younger we called him the puzzle king because he loved doing puzzles so much. In nursery at church they had to buy harder puzzles just for Ben because he would go through their puzzle supply in minutes. He seems to enjoy doing anything that uses his mind or his imagination.

May 2007; 3 years old

We have recently begun to see Ben show little signs of growing up. He has gained the desire to read and has been doing very well at his reading. He's reading level one books and growing his vocabulary daily. Ben's so excited to go to kindergarten in the fall. We didn't put him in a preschool this year, so that make the excitement of kindergarten so much greater. While we're watching him get smarter and bigger at the same time we still see some of that little Ben in there. He still sucks his two fingers and twirls his hair (though it's lessened, it's something I haven't figured out how to stop.) He's still that goofy fun little boy that makes us laugh.

May 2008; 4 years old.

I'm so excited to see what Ben has in store for us. He's such a fun little boy who has a mind of his own. Sometimes it can be frustrating or overwhelming, but I'm so glad he's creative, smart, and determined to do what he wants. There's never a dull moment with Ben and I wouldn't ask for anything more. I'm so excited to see him with a little brother. I wish they were closer in age, but I know Ben's going to be the best big brother who will show his little brother everything about being a boy. We're so blessed to have him and I'm so grateful to have such an amazing little boy in my life.

Happy Birthday BenBen

Ben with all of his presents.

Ben had a good birthday this year, well he seemed to like it anyway. He had to wait for Sarah Kate to get home from school before he could have his party. This was very hard for him, but he managed to wait until she got home and we got everything set up. We wrapped his presents and set up for him. In years past we've hid the kids presents around the house, but Ben told us he just wanted to come up and open them, he didn't want to find them. He was very excited and didn't want to wait any long for his gifts.

Opening presents with a little help from Hannah.

We found some great deals right after Christmas for some of Ben's presents. It's nice to have his birthday in February so we can take advantage of those sales. He got a Blue Man Group Drum set (he LOVES music), a storm trooper helmet, some 'boy movies' (the day after we found out we were having a boy he asked me if when his brother comes we can watch more boy movies) and a Tag reader.

Ben with his drumsticks


Storm trooper Ben


The Tag package.
(This is great by the way if you don't have one.)

One the kids birthdays we normally let them choose were they want to go eat for their birthday. Of course Ben wanted to go to McDonald's. This worked out well because all the kids were very tired and very ornery. Instead of going and eating at McDonald's I loaded the kids up and took them to the drive thru while they watched one of Ben's boy movies in the car. I let them get whatever they wanted which mostly consisted of chicken nuggets, parfaits, apple pies, and rootbeer. How fun! After dinner came the cake.

Looking back on the day, it wasn't much of a birthday for him. He didn't seem to mind. He got to opened presents, eat McDonald's food, play with Mom and Dad, and have some cake and ice cream. All in all I think it was just perfect for a 5 year old boy.

The Cake

Every year I make a special cake for the kids on their birthday. I started it when Sarah Kate turned 1 and I've been doing it ever since. I had a friend in Virginia teach me how to do it and it's become a tradition. The kids seem to like it. I try to hide their cake from them until their birthday. They like the surprise and enjoy seeing what Mom picked for them. It's fun for me and I love watching their excitement over it.

The Cake

For Ben's birthday this year I made him a SpongeBob cake. I'm starting to run out of cake pans at the store that I haven't already used so I had to go with what I could find, luckily he liked it. Next year I think I'm going to have to look online for more options. Anyway, as I said earlier, I try to hide the cake from the kids until their birthday. I didn't do a good job with Ben this year because he found the cake pan in the car. He was very excited for the cake and excited that he got so see it before his birthday. Oh well! Maybe next year I can surprise him. I'm glad he like it anyway.

Even though he had already seen what the cake was he enjoyed it and looked forward to eating it. After dinner we lite the candles and started to sing. Halfway through the song Ben blew out all his candles. I guess he was just a little excited. We lite the candles again and started over. This time he waited until the song was over, but he couldn't get the candles to go out. It was kind of funny. He got a little help from Hannah and finally got them out.

Ben trying to blow out the candles.

Getting help from Hannah

We have begun another tradition the past few years where the birthday kid gets to get the head of their cake. SpongeBob was pretty much all head and so that did work. Instead he got the eyes and he was content. The kids ate their cake without forks or hands (another tradition) and had a lot of fun. Birthdays are so much fun.

Eating SpongeBob's eyes.

Messy face.

Hannah eating her piece.

Sarah devouring her cake.

Gracie likes her cake too.

The Proud Mother of 5 Babies

So, today started out strange. Sarah Kate got up around 6:45. I heard her come out of her room and got out of bed to greet her. I met her at my door where she told me she had heard squeaking in the gerbil cage and looked in to make sure they were OK. Then she said, "Snowflake had babies." We've been wondering if Snowflake was pregnant for a few weeks now so at first I thought it was more just wishful thinking on Sarah's part. However, she raised her hand close to my face and said "See!" Sure enough there was a tiny baby gerbil in her hand. I turned around and woke Kenny up. I wasn't ready to deal with this on my own.

Three of the baby gerbils right after their birth before they had been moved to the nest.

Close up view of the babies.

We went in their room where we found Snowflake still giving birth. She had 5 babies, one of which died either shortly after birth or before it was born. It was very interesting to watch her pop out her babies. We had to convince the kids to leave them alone, which was very difficult. Kenny got the one that died and we decided to give it a burial by water. This made Sarah very sad. We had to convince her that we couldn't bury it because the ground was frozen and that it wasn't OK let it stay on top of the fridge until the ground thawed. Finally we were able to flush it. Actually Ben helped Kenny flush it and Sarah Kate had to leave the bathroom so she didn't watch.

Snowflake - Sarah Kate's gerbil and the mom

Speeder - Ben's gerbil and the father

The rest of the day was spent watching the gerbils to make sure they didn't hurt the babies. Both Snowflake and Speeder have been great parents, building nests, sitting on them to keep them warm, and so on. Around 4:00 Sarah went in her room to get some socks on and she came out to say that there was a new baby all by itself. Sure enough, Snowflake had another baby. Kenny was worried she was rejecting it so he kept a close eye on them. It took Snowflake awhile to realize that this new one was hers, but once she did the baby was welcomed into the nest.

Speeder checking in on the nest.

Snowflake checking in on the nest.

So, we are the proud parents of two owners of 5 baby gerbils. Snowflake and Speeder are doing a great job as parents and the kids are sooooo excited. It's the first experience I've had with baby animals and I'm excited to see what happens next.

It's Boy Number 2

Yesterday was my ultrasound and my lovely sister-in-law, Sarah, came up from Pocatello to watch the kids while we went to the ultrasound. Sarah Kate decided she wanted to go, but we couldn't talk Ben into going, he was way more interested in playing with his cousins. They did the normal check up thing and then the doctor came in to do the ultrasound. He quickly discovered we are indeed having another boy. YEAH! Another little boy. I'm so happy, but honestly I think I would have been happy either way. I love girls, but it'll be nice to get some more blue in the house.

As I already said, Sarah Kate came to the ultrasound with us. She enjoyed being with just Mommy and Daddy and she enjoyed the ultrasound until it was discovered that he was a he. This didn't please her at all. I think if she could have, she would have gotten up and left at the very moment. She wanted another sister so bad and look as though she was going to cry when she found out she was having a brother. Since then she has warmed up to the idea and I think by the time the baby comes she'll be happy.

Ben on the other hand is VERY excited to be having a brother. He needs a brother really bad even if they are 5 years apart. Ever since he found out he's been making comments about what he's going to do when his baby brother arrives. He told me he's going to teach him all about Star Wars and he hopes that we can watch more boy movies (instead of girl movies) because there will be another boy in the house. I'm so happy for him and I have an odd feeling this little guy will look up to his big brother for the rest of his life.

As far as everything else goes, everything is good. The baby looks healthy with a good spine, a good heart, and a good brain. He's about a week smaller than he should be, but all my babies have been at least that small at this point. They're going to do another ultrasound in 6 weeks to see if he's still that far behind and to determine if they need to move my due date back (no thank you.) We are so excited to be having a little boy and can't wait until he joins our family in June.

Hannah's Recovery

It's been a week and 2 day's since Hannah had tubes in her ears and got her tonsils out. It's been a long week and a half in many ways, but I'm glad we did it. She did fairly in the hospital, but that night and many nights thereafter were HORRIBLE. I didn't know when you get your tonsils out your nose is really runny and stuffy. This was especially bad at night when she was laying down. She couldn't breathe through her nose so she had to breathe through her mouth. This of course, hurt her throat even more, the poor girl. So for the first 3 or 4 nights she would walk up crying after about 4 hours. She was generally still so sleepy and out of it that we couldn't get her to take her medicine. This made it all the more challenging and tiring for everyone. Luckily the really bad stuffy nose only lasted for about 5 days and then she was able to sleep.

The days have been much better. She's definitely not herself yet, but she's doing much better. Once we convinced her that the yucky tasting medicine actually does help her feel better, things have been much easier. She's still on her pain medicine every 4 or 5 hours, but that should go away as the scabs start to fall off. She's a lot grumpier than normal and a lot whinnier, but I think every day she's feeling better.

Her appetite hasn't been the best, but we're doing what we can. My parents came to visit on Friday night and took us to dinner at Chuck-A-Rama for Kenny's birthday. We choose this place because it has a lot of soft food for Hannah and it was a wise choice. She ate like crazy, everything from mac and cheese, french fries, ham, ice cream, and many others. It was so nice to see her eating and drinking so much. Hopefully once her throat heals she'll be eating and drinking more. Until then, maybe we should try Chuck-a-Rama again.

As far as her hearing and goes we've noticed a few changes. The day after her surgery I had taken the other 3 kids to the store and left Hannah asleep with Kenny. Apparently while we were gone they were sitting on the couch and the fridge kicked on. You know the sound of the fridge when it kicks on, it's very soft almost not noticeable sound and probably something most of us don't ever really pay attention to. Well, Hannah looked up in surprise at Kenny and pointed to the kitchen. Thinking about it, she's probably never heard the fridge kick on. She apparently thought it was us coming home so if she thought it was the garage door opening it must have been a significant sound to her. Also, this morning before we went to speech I started the car in the garage. When it was time to go I opened the door and Hannah put her hands over her ears, said 'loud, loud' and pointed to the car. I've noticed lately normal everyday sounds are considered loud to Hannah. I bet it must be strange to all of a sudden be able to hear. I wonder how long it will take her to get used to it.

Her speech is about the same. I have noticed she's using air in her throat a little more. Her B's and G's are becoming a little more clear (something her speech therapist also mentioned today so I know it's not just in my mind.) I'm so excited to start hearing good, clear words from her. I can only imagine how frustrating it is for her to not be able to talk.

All in all everything is starting to fall into place. We saw Dr. Hanks on Wednesday and he said she looks wonderful. Her throat is healing great, her ears are dry, and everything looks as it should. I feel very blessed that everything went well and that Hannah can now hear and will hopefully be able to talk soon.