I have a soft spot too...

Though I do appreciate good feet too (I guess) my soft spot is located around my waist. This desk job thing is way over-rated! One conversation we had today in "the cube" (workspace shared with my buying team in the midst of miles of gray, leopard-print cubicles) was about how much we weighed. Three were impressed that I am packing 175 pounds and still look like I haven't broken a buck fifty. The sad truth is that around my 27th birthday I noticed a strange vibration around my abdomen as I jaunted down the stairs for lunch. Could it be? I have been trying to fill our house with more love, but didn't expect to find it filling my shirt too! Love handles and a spare tire. It was like receiving the ugly, hand-woven, wool sweater from your aunt on your birthday...the one you have to wear with a smile at every family function. The only difference is that I can't take my handles off... or use my spare tire in a time of need. With 9 months of winter, a soft chair from which to allocate Britney Spears dresses 8 hours a day, and the best root beer on the market (Sprecher), what else am I to do but grow my very own root beer belly. Laura, on the other hand, has stayed thin as can be and continues to impress me with her fantastic figure. I am proud of her for doing so much. She is a wonderful, and active mother to our darling girls. She has a positive attitude despite all the frustrations of motherhood and being married to me (sometimes I'm the one needing mothering.) I am always impressed with her perspective - so often I am caught in the short-term worries and am soothed by her wisdom. I admire her passion for ballet and am excited to support her while she teaches ballet every Saturday afternoon during the summer. I love her so much. I hope to someday get in shape physically and spiritually just like her.

I have a soft spot for...

FEET!

Sorry the picture is so dark. I've been a horrible photographer lately.

Just look at that bevel!!!! One of Jane's friend's, Carter Hanson, happens to have the most gorgeous feet. I keep telling his mom he's got to put them to use somehow. Diving, swimming , gymnastics, flip flop modeling, ballet (where they would be most appreciated, but I don't know if Dad would go for it...), anything! Or, when they have a girl eventually (?) they should give her the same feet and definitely put her in ballet. Or any dance. These are the two best shots I was able to get, but this second one especially doesn't do his feet justice. But I can't help but post. When I see his feet on releve--he sometimes walks around this way--I literally feel myself start to drool. I'm jealous of a little boy. Do you know how much I stretched my feet to get a fraction of what he has naturally? I made my Dad stand on them! (Thanks, Dad, it really did help a lot.)

Another terrible, blurry, cute photo of that day:

Beach Day!

Ahh. Yesterday was, well, the only word I can think of is AMAZING, or perhaps FABULOUS. 85 degrees in Milwaukee (I wore my winter coat the day before) had everyone out in capris and short sleeves. I noticed that, with 2 exceptions, everybody had pasty white skin. Myself included. So we headed to the beach for a picnic and met the Hansons there. Audrey didn't know how to crawl around in the sand so she just sat there and every so often whimpered to be held or to get food. Jane knew exactly what to do. Thanks for the cute suit, Mom! The water was still frigid but it felt great to be in summer weather, soaking in some Vitamin D.

That is not a beer bottle. It's Sprecher's 10 calorie Root Beer. I didn't even see it in the picture until I showed Adam and he thinks it looks like the kids are passed out from drinking. NOT SO! They are just cold!

Is is safe to take a shower?

I honestly have to ask myself that question when I get out of my shower to find Audrey's face looking like this, thanks to Jane.

I'm not 100% sure...just kidding, I am.

I was going to say "I don't know where Jane came up with this!" But the truth is that I do.

Every once in a while I'll be sitting here at the computer and turn to Jane and say, "Oh! We've got to get downstairs FAST! Hurry, hurry!" And without missing a single syncopated beat she'll exclaim, "Oh! Hurry! It's burning!"

Now where would she get that idea?

Easter Eve

We had our egg hunt with the Mitchells on Saturday, Easter Eve. Jane and I colored eggs, which she loved. Then I told her I saw the Easter Bunny--I think we'll change his name to Spring Bunny next year--come inside and take our eggs away! (It helps to have bunnies all over the neighborhoods here.) She was really excited to see where he hid them.

One skill Jane has been excelling at is "matching." She can match colors, shapes, and things-of-a-kind. She got distracted during the hunt by the chocolate soccer ball.


Winfield, Jack, and Jane

I couldn't decide which picture of Audrey I liked best. She loved her PEEP.

Queen Jane

Unabashedly, I have purposely helped Jane develop a love for all things ballet, princess, and pink. Remember the "girlie house" post? We are reaching a new level, however, as Jane is getting better at imagining scenarios and learning how to take on a character. I set up a little Ikea tent for her which she refuses to acknowledge as anything but her "castle," and Adam suggested the idea of him being the King and Mommy being the Queen if Jane was going to be the Princess. He also showed her how to kiss my royal fingers. I was loving that for about a week until today she switched things up on me and now I'm the Princess and SHE'S the Queen.

How can I be surprised about this after Stake Conference yesterday? I took her out to have a chat about being reverent. She pretty much seemed to be ignoring me until she put her hands on my cheeks and said, "Ok, sweetie. Ubuh dub hertie QUIET mah nanabittie SHHH. Okay? Be nice. Okay, Sweetie?" What else could I do but comply after that lecture? With her royal permission, we did a little bit better for the rest of conference.

Workin the brows

This first picture show Audrey's normal eyebrows, as well as the joy she finds in her dexterity at the dinner table. And here she is displaying her new ability to raise her eyebrows. She lowers and raises them several times while arranging her next bite. It is so precious!

Audrey is 9 months!

Audrey had her 9-month check with Dr. Linsmeier last week. In the national percentile, she is still at 75% for height, and 90% for weight, but her head is finally 50% rather than 25%. (Actually I'm grateful for small-headed babies. For one thing, it makes dressing them easier.)

Audrey passed all the milestones and health checks. She's crawling, pulling herself to standing-- even standing for some seconds unaided, peek-a-booing, clapping her hands, pulling things out of drawers, making messes, eating everything, and today she's grown her 2 bottom teeth. Jane got some shots while we were there, too. She was very brave getting her pokes and did some good pilates prep, as seen below.

St Patricks Day

We went to the park to celebrate the warm weather and Shamrock day. I arranged a hunt for a pot o' gold...which the kids FOUND using the awesome shamrock clues I made. A bag of gold and some Irish head gear for all! Carolyn made green cookies, Kate and Jenny brought conversation, the kids were thrilled at the park, and I felt pretty Irishly lucky.

Tag

A friend of some friends started this tag:

TAG!!!! I challenge all who read this plea, to put down their craft projects, and t-ball trophies---just for a few hours, and let me see the human side of your lives. I'm not asking for a video account of you losing your temper after one of your 45 sons pees in the garbage can. Maybe just a picture of an unmade bed, or a mole with hair growing out of it. Just listen to your hearts on this one post, and then get back to business as usual.

Well said, Jodi! I mean, it made me laugh. So here's to life and its imperfections. Looking over my blog, I realized this won't be the first time I post in this nature (chicken pox, dumpster diving, etc) but why not one more? The other day I found Jane quietly chewing on this block of cheese because I hadn't fed her breakfast or lunch. (It was about 11 am). Horrible mother! I'm just glad she can open up the fridge and find something to sustain her sweet little life. Well done, Jane.

Old friends

These 3 gorgeous girls and I danced together in Fresno. I missed Rachel's and Carissa's weddings (the 2 on the right) and actually hadn't seen Carissa in like 6 or 7 years.... And we finally got together! We've only been 3 hours apart for the past year, but Adam and I decided to go to the Minneapolis temple and they were right on the way. We were pregnant at the same time with these 2:

And here are our 1st-borns:

I love this girl!

Girlie house

Sometimes Jane and I play dress-up, going-to-the-store, or talking-on-the-phone. Here are some of our props.

I guess I like to relive my glory days!

Vids of Jane

This video is from a while ago. I like it because it's fun to see how kids make animal sounds at this age, and also because she is so obedient when I tell her to scoot over. That doesn't always happen these days...

With the help of Leap Frog, Jane has been learning her abc's. My favorite things are her "lmnop" and "z." Whenever I sing to Jane I shake my head around on the long notes to keep things interesting and you can see that she has picked that up on "z." The "Yeah!" at the end is in keeping with a long tradition of Bennion-style singing. Thanks Mom and Dad.

I've got that lovin feeling

This morning Jane was the last one to wake up. As Audrey and I were cleaning dishes downstairs, I suddenly heard Jane's little getting-out-of-bed patter. I raced up the stairs to find Jane much sooner than I expected on the landing outside of her room rather than in it. She saw ME much sooner than she expected, too, which made us both thrill from the surprise of it and the joy of seeing each other. We couldn't help but laugh right out as we basically tackled each other and I listened to her excitedly tell me that she was awake! What a great start to our day together!

(It reminded me of a time that Adam and I bumped into each other in a very similar scenario in the RB at BYU--the exact kind of giddy anticipation as this morning was probably one of the first moments I knew I loved him. Remember that, Adam? We went and got apples down the road right after?)