Baby Shower!!!!!!

On Saturday, Feb 12, I had a baby shower! There are lots of photos and they are in no particular orderMe and my friend C. who came and helped out!

Yay!

The infamous baby food tasting game

How many pins can you dig out of the rice game

The best fun ever - the can you guess the chocolate bar - in the baby diaper - game

And finally, the cakes

It was awesome!

Benjamin in 4 years

No, I didn't watch the superbowl. And Honestly, I CANNOT believe my mother didn't call me about this one. But when I came home from scouts, it was up on the internet here at home. I don't know who found it - but they obviously realized it certainly applied to our lives.

Sorry for embedding again, but it is SO true to Benjamin, words can't even describe it.
And Peter noted "But I don't think that'll be Dad in 4 years". But we all agreed that it DID completely capture Benjamin just perfectly.
Update: It became obvious that Gabrielle had found it and when I asked her how she found it: "Nannie told me to look it up."
go figure

How much I don't do toddler time well

As previously stated, I have really found inspiration in other blogs where it is noted that they take time to do entire lesson plans with their kids. I haven't done ANYTHING since early December. I could list off the reasons, but it would just serve as a lame excuse rant. I wanted to do an S is for snow as we had snow and ice for almost a week on the ground(which never, EVER happens here) but all the other kids were home as well, so nothing got done. If chance ever smiles upon me and I find another opportunity to do a snow unit one of the things I totally MUST use is this video -

How horrible is that - VIDEOS are the things I look for instead of hands-on-electronic-free educational materials?
Ugh. I guess it is a good thing I am at home now
But it is really cute, though

Time for a video

I am doing fine
Kids are doing fine
Baby is doing fine (8 more weeks! Woo Hoo!)
But I am lazy and I am tired of seeing my last post. So instead of real news I am embedding again.

Because of Benjamin's obsession with bom-bom (aka Star Wars) I looked this video up and Benjamin completely and immediately recognized the song (even though I didn't - I thought it was Hedwig's theme the first time I viewed it {and so did Peter, so I didn't feel quite as bad}) And just recently someone posted the group's name and I was finally able to find the actual group performing the piece, but embedding was disabled, so you have to watch the soccer video

Another Giveaway! And a good one

Okay - I had decided to not enter any more giveaways. I had won, and that was enough.
But there wasn't a disclaimer about previous wins and I just could not give this up.
A blog I follow - that I have written about before is having another giveaway



And this time, this fabulous blog is giving away a Baby Bjorn Carrier!!!!!!!!


See why I had to try
And you should try, too - those things are pricey. So go here and good luck!

I heart magnetic tape

For the past several weeks, I have gotten gobs of inspiration concerning lesson plans for the little one from different blogs I read - the most notable being Oopsey Daisey, Moo Moo's & Tutus and Nurture Mama. Because of the holidays, however many of these incredible, awesome, (some which offer complete lesson downloads - the best ever!) inspiring sites have been taking a break. Completely understandable. So I was kind of on my own when it came to something for December.

So I had the merry fortune of discovering the first school website again. Last night my deep love for magnetic tape resurfaced again as I completed a number of projects. This one from first school, which I love - I am not sure what Benjamin thinks, but I think the older kids started playing with as I saw some of the magnets had been moved. You can't see it, but the title says "Dress the Snowman"
Now this next one was not just for Benjamin, nor did I find it on First School. I got the link for this advent calendar from the Sugardoodle website. I couldn't tell you exactly where now. In the past, I have bought individual chocolate advent calendars for the kids. I looked and looked this year to no avail. So I decided to make this advent calendar, which included scriptures (of course so much better than just chocolate) and not to completely deny my children, I decided I would have a small treat for them each night. I started to make fudge and they all asked me what it was for - I told them it was a surprise. As soon as they ascertained that they fudge was indeed for them and not someone else, they got excited. When we sat down with the calendar, the scriptures and I explained the situation - Peter was disappointed - when he was excited about the fudge not 15 minutes prior! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. But too bad, Peter - that is just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.
We talked about being grateful after that.

And then finally, last night, I made another kind of advent - alas there is no magnetic tape involved but I totally stole this idea from Oopsey Daisy I even completely plagiarized her poem. Well, I am giving her credit, so that makes it okay, right?
But it is a little poem about Santa's bare beard, and Benjamin gets to glue a cotton ball each day to make a big fluffy beard. He totally doesn't get the count down thing, but that is okay.

I can't believe I was so crafty all in one night - Yes I know many others who can craft circles (many perfect concentric circles all in coordinating colors) around me, but this is big for me.
Yay for magnetic tape! And Card Stock! And my paper cutter - fun stuff when Benjamin is still awake

Christmas Party

It's that time again! Our branch Christmas party was tonight. And all of the kids actually sat on Santa's lap this year. Well, kind ofGabrielle went with a smile, of course
And Peter, my most heated contender last year also went with a smile - which he rarely does in front of a camera so this was a super double bonus
Tre went with a reason - that being Benjamin
All things were better for the Benjamin once the candy was secured

And even the new baby got its first picture with Santa. I LOVE Benjamin's look here. And Gabrielle did a perfect job of making sure she didn't catch my head. And no, that is not sarcastic - I would have photoshopped it out if she hadn't,