monsters and purses

I'm turning over a new leaf. I've gotten into this habit of only posting birthdays, trips, and holidays and I've decided that I really need to start posting more about our regular day-to-day happenings because my kids are growing up too dang fast and I know I'm going to forget all the cute things they do if I don't write it down.
Roman and Iris have finally seemed to reach a turning point in their relationship. They actually like each other. Well, Iree has always adored Roman, but he always acted like she was a bother. Now he's realizing that she's not such a baby anymore and he tries to make her play with him. It's so cute. I'll hear him saying things like, "OK, Iree, let's race our monster trucks!" Then he'll say "GO!" and she's still holding onto her monster truck, but she's clapping and screaming for Roman's and he loves it. Then he always has to let her know that his won. They love taking baths together too. Look at those two little angel-faces!
Iree has reached another big milestone...she's walking! She took her first steps on her 13 month birthday and she's been improving more everyday. She officially walks more than she crawls. Now that she can walk, I've discovered that she loves purses. What, already?! She takes this old purse of mine and walks (or waddles) around with it all day. It's so funny because that purse is the size of her. And don't you dare try to take it off of her. She'll scream and then just put it back on. She thinks she's so cool. So, I took a few pics of her wearing her huge purse, but of course she wouldn't look at the camera. And she's a busy woman too, she needs her pen and to-do list as well.

She's such a diva...

Roman has been obsessed with motorcycles and monsters lately. He tells me everyday that he wants a motorcycle birthday cake and party. We'll see if I can make it happen (his bday is on the 29th). He also likes to play monsters, talk about monsters, ask if they're real, etc. Yesterday he said he wanted a monster mask. We don't happen to have one laying around, so I told him I would help him make one. So, we collaborated on this beautiful mask. He had some very specific instructions for me to follow. The monster needed to have curly hair, and big nose, sharp teeth, and fat ears. So, this is what we came up with. That's about as crafty as I get. He was pretty excited to scare Jason with it. He's played with it a lot yesterday and today.

You scared? Don't worry, it's just a mask.

NYC Trip

I've been meaning to write about my fun trip to New York City. I went there a few weeks ago and I figured I'd better get it written down because I'm already starting to forget...yikes! So, anyway, I flew to NYC with my sister Danna (and NO kids...thanks, jase) to visit our brother Collin, his wife Jen, and their new little baby, Violet. We met my parents and our little sister, Cicily there too. Violet was getting blessed, so we figured it would be fun to see the city and be at her blessing too. By the way, isn't she the cutest? Look at that hair and those perfect eyebrows and those pretty blue eyes. She really is a cutie. Collin and Jen were the best little tour guides. I'm just a small-town girl and I never would have been able to navigate through that city on my own. Luckily, they are seasoned pros, so they took us all around the big city. Little Violet was a trooper too. Here they are on the subway.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was all the good food we ate. I LOVE my food, and New York has the best. This is Cicily and me at Max Brenner's. So delicious.

Our hotel was right across the street from the museum of natural history, so we spent a few hours there. It was pretty cool. I liked the dinosaurs...I especially liked the fact that so many of them were found in Wyoming :)

We took a tour of NBC studios and then we went to the top of the Rockafellar Center.

This is the view from the top of the rock. Pretty, huh?

Here's Collin, Jen, and Violee (as my mom calls her) just before the blessing.

A better look at her cute blessing dress.

Below is a small portion of the Bennion Family. It would have been fun to have everyone there, but it just wasn't feasible. We really did have the best time though. We also saw two broadway shows while we were there (Jersey Boys and 9 to 5). They were so much fun. My mom was laughing her head off at 9 to 5. That was another highlights of the trip :) One of the best parts was just hanging out and being together. Danna, Cic, and I shared a room and we had so much fun talking at night and getting ready together in the morning. It was like the good ol' days. It was such a weird experience to go somewhere without Jason and the kids. I missed them all so much, but it wouldn't have been fun with the babies. Luckily, Jason is a good Daddy and he took great care of the kids (except for the one night when I called and asked him what they had for dinner and he was like, "Shoot, I knew I was forgetting something." Yep, he put the kids to bed without dinner, but that's ok. They all survived. And let's just say he was REALLY happy to have me back home!)

I had a great time, but I was ready to come home to my sweet Jason and to this face...

...and this sassy girl. I heart NYC, but I heart those three more :)

Little Miss Ris Turned ONE!

Here I go again...apologizing for not posting for like 3 months or somethingl ike that. So, sorry to all my fans...LOL. I hope we've been missed, but I'm pretty sure that my mom and a few of my siblings are the only ones that really read this so-called blog anyway. I'll blame my lack of posting on the fact that we've just been busy AND that my kids are both way too high-maintenance. They go crazy if I'm on the computer for one minute. Seriously, I can't even check my email if my kids are awake. Anyway, we've been having a really fun summer. We're loving the warm weather and we've been doing lots of swimming, playing at the park, taking little trips, and jogging (well, I jog and the kids ride in the stroller.) So, that's pretty much our summer in a nutshell.

So, now that I've apologized, let's get back to the reason I'm posting...little Iree turned one on the 17th! Can you believe it? Time is just flying by way too fast. Look at that little girl. Isn't she the cutest? I think she's beginning to look more and more like Jason. She's a sweet little thing with a little bit of sassiness too. I'm starting to see some drama-queen-like attributes that I'm a little nervous about, but we still love her dearly. So, we had a birthday party for her and here's some pictures from her big day.
I made her a flower cake (obviously...I mean her name IS Iris.)

That cake took me a long time, so I thought I'd better post another picture of it :)

Here we are singing "Happy Birthday."

Iris is delving into her cake and Vivian is helping.

She likes it. Isn't this such a cute picture? My friend, Korbi took my camera and took all these pictures. That's why they are so good.

Opening presents. She got lots of cute clothes from our friends and family.

This is just another cute Iree picture. She got so dirty eating her cake that I had to bathe her before we opened presents. Here's some info about our little Iree:

1. She's a major thumb-sucker. She is almost always sucking her thumb. It's something she started at about 6 months and she's gotten more addicted to it since then. I like it though because it's cute and it calms her down.

2. She thinks Roman is hilarious. She's always laughing at him and he loves it.

3. She won't let me put anything in her hair. She has been taking out all my cute bows, clips, and rubberband 'dos since she was about 5 months old. She'll usually take them out immediately, sometimes she'll leave them in for about an hour, but never longer than that.

4. She loves to dance and sing. If she hears music or if I sing to her then she'll start dancing and singing in the cutest little voice. It's adorable.

5. Iris is teeny tiny. When I took her in for her one year check-up she was only 15 lbs 10 oz and 26 inches long. She doesn't even show on the growth chart. Her pediatrician was all worried about her and did some blood tests to make sure everything was all right (of course it was). She's just small....that's all.

Our Wyoming Easter

It took a little persuading, but Jason finally gave in and agreed to spend Easter in Wyoming. He was concerned about missing work and the LONG drive with the kids, but when I found out that my sister Natalee (who lives in UT) would also be visiting AND that I would get to see one of my BFFs (Kenna) and a bunch of my aunts and uncles then he knew there was no way he could talk me out of it. So, we left early Tursday morning and came home on Monday. We had a fun and eventful weekend and the kids did WAY better than we expected. They were such troopers.

On Friday, we went to my grandma and grandpa Hopkin's house to decorate Easter cookies and look at the baby cows. Rome loved decorating the cookies although I think my grandma was a little concerned with the amount of sprinkles he was putting on them. Cicily and Iris on the farm.

Look at that. Sometimes I wish I lived on a farm.

On Saturday my cousin, Claire got married in the Billings temple. We drove up for the reception and it was fun to see so many of my family members. I was especially excited to see my cousin Kenna. We were roommates during our freshman year of college and we had so much fun together. The only bad part was that I felt like we didn't get to spend enough time together. I miss her :(

My sister, Natalee, has a little boy named Keric that is two months older that Iris. He is so cute and sweet. They loved each other. It's hard to believe he's only two months older though because I swear he weighs twice as much. My little Iree is very petite :)

Cicily and I did an Easter egg scavenger hunt for Cameron, Reagan, and Roman on Saturday. The kids loved it. Here they are searching in Cicily's room.

There they are with all their candies.

Of course I had to get a few shots of the family in our Easter outfits. The theme was supposed to be pink. You can't really tell though. My shirt is kind of light pink with green flowers. Roman's shirt is pink although it looks kind of white here and Iris' dress has pink polka dots. Jason didn't want to go along with the pink theme, so basically there was really no theme this year. Maybe I'll do better next year :)

Natalee, Chris, and the kids. They all looked so cute.

Here's a pic of my parents with the kids. We had such a fun trip...I only wish that it lasted a little longer. Thanks Mom and Dad for the great food, hospitality, and always entertaining conversations :)

We will, we will shock you!

Some of you may already know this (I'm trying to remember if I've mentioned it on my blog before), but anyway...my brother-in-law, Brady (who's married to my sister, Danna) owns an arena football team called the Spokane Shock. Yesterday was their opening season game, so we drove up to see it and visit with Danna, Brady and their cute kids. Since Brady's the owner, they have a suite. It's so nice. I feel so bad for all the peasants that have to watch it in the bleachers, just kidding. But it is nice to have the suite because we could watch while the kids just ran around behind us. The team looks really good this year. They beat the other guys, so that's a good start. They had some pretty good touchdowns that even I could appreciate :) There were a lot of people at the game, I think the announcer said ten-thousand something? People in Spokane love their Shock and Brady's pretty much a celebrity there :) So, thanks, Danna and Brady for the fun night! Anyway, here's some pictures from the game.Iree was getting so excited when everyone else would clap. She was so cute...and a real trooper too. She usually goes to bed between 6:30 and 7:00, and we didn't leave the game until 9:00. She was such a good girl.

Roman absolutely loves his cousins. We were walking in to the game and he was holding my hand. Then he decided he wanted to hold Tate's hand instead. So, he just left me and added another link the Danna's chain of kids.

That's Danna and me in our orange and blue. Go Shock!

Roman, Ella, Tate, and Milo just before the game started.

I think this was right after a touchdown. Brady looks pretty excited, but I don't think Danna noticed :)

This picture is worth a thousand words. Roman is starting to have so many of the same mannerisms as Jason. He likes to play with his hat and adjust is just like Jason. See what I mean? Two peas in a pod.

Spring....and other things

I can't believe it's been more than 20 days since my last post. Where does the time go? This month has especially flown by for me. I'm so glad that the weather is starting to warm up a little bit and the kids can go outside! I'll have more on that later, but first I just have to complain about Roman's eating...or lack thereof. Apparently he's inherited his father's picky eating habits. He's good at eating snacky foods like crackers and fruit snacks, but when it comes to meal time it's become a huge battle. He won't eat anything I cook (which is too bad for him because I'm a pretty darn good cook if I do say so myself :). Lately all he wants to eat for all three meals is rice krispies. Not the most balanced meal. So today I said, "Roman, what do you want for lunch?" Of course he said, "Cereal." which means rice krispies because it's the only cereal he'll eat. I told him he had to choose something else. So, he said he wanted pickles. I told him he would need to have something else besides just pickles and he said toast. Of course he won't eat the crust though. Then he said he wanted pop corn too. I said no to the popcorn and suggested corn instead. So, this was his lunch. Just a weird assortment of strange foods. Oh, and to make it worse, he put the corn on his toast like it was a corn sandwich. Please tell me this is just a stage. We've had a few nice days and the kids are loving it. We've been going for walks in the stroller and it's so nice to have the option of going outside.

On Monday Jason came home from work kind of early, so we he played catch with Rome for quite a while. Iree and I just watched.

Look at that form. We're fully expecting him to be an athlete - and by that I mean a professional one :)

I told Jason to pose, and so he did. Nice pose, Jase.

And my teeny tiny angel (that's one of her many nicknames) turned 8 months on St. Patty's day. She's getting so big! She's the sweetest little girl and she's just so happy. We love out little Iree and I can't believe she's already 8 months. Like I said, time is just flying by.

The Good News and the Bad News...

Good news first. We took a little family vacation to Boise this weekend to see Jason's brother, Chad. We had so much fun and the kids were GREAT. They were angels during the drive there and on the way back. They slept like logs in the hotel and they were practically perfect at the stores, restaurants and the zoo. We had so much fun and we ate lots of good food. The other good news (and part of the reason we went up this weekend) is that Chad finished taking the BAR on Wendesday. So, we thought it would be fun to go celebrate with him. He won't find out if he's passed it for a few more months, but he's pretty much a genius and I'm willing to bet some big dollars that he passed. The other good news which has nothing to do with this, is that Cadbury Mini Eggs are officially in the stores and it makes me smile just thinking about that. I purchased my first bag of the season last week. Pure joy.

Now for the bad news...don't worry, it's not THAT bad. We took lots of great pictures of our little family vacation and a certain little boy earased ALL of them. I know...I'm still so sad. I can't really blame my Romie too much because I let him look at the camera. You see, on the way home from Boise he was getting a little tired of watching movies, so I told him he could look at the pictures of Uncle Chad and the animals. So, he was looking at them for a while and it kept him entertained. I showed him the button to push to skip to the next picture and that was the only button he would push. So, the next day I was home doing the dishes and Jason was working and Rome was wanting some attention. So, I gave him my camera and told him to look at the pictures. He was looking for a while and then all the sudden he says, "Here, Mom, pictures gone." Sure enough, I look and the camera says, "There are no files". What?! That's right, he erased all of them. The thought had crossed my mind that he might do something like that, but I didn't really think he would because you have to push the trash can symbol and then scroll down to "delete all" and then it asks you if you are sure you want to delete all of them and you have to select "yes". Anyway, he managed to do all of that. I was so sad. Usually I'm not that great about taking pictures, but this time I took a bunch. We had tons of cool pictures from the zoo and Chad even managed to take a family picture where we are ALL looking at the camera (that's like a miracle). Oh well, in the grand scheme of things it's really not a big deal. I really need to learn to stop underestimating that little boy of mine.

Excuses, excuses

I haven't posted in a while, but I have a good excuse. This is currently what my keyboard looks like.... Roman decided to pluck off a bunch of keys while I was putting Iris down for a nap. And I can't get them back on. Fortunately, you can still type without keys. However, there's these litttle nubby things that you have to hit just right since there's no key there. It's extremely annoying. Right at this very moment I'm about to throw in the towel on this whole post because I'm getting so annoyed. I'm so cheap though that I'll probably just keep it this way forever. When did I become so white trash?

There's a funny story that goes with these two pictures. Roman LOVES the Backyardigans. My mom knows of his love for the cartoon, so for Christmas she bought him a Backyardigans DVD and some toys. Well, he loves his little guys. Their names are Tyrone (the one on the left) and Pablo (on the right). Anyway, they're probably his favorite Christmas present. I'll often find him walking around the house with Pablo and Tyrone tucked safely in his jeans pockets. By the way, what's with those names?! So, the other day he was rebelling against taking a nap (a regular occurrence these days). So in an effort to get him to go to sleep nicely, I took Tyrone and held him up to my ear and acted like I was listening to something he was saying. I started saying "Uh-huh...yep...I'll tell him." Roman's face lit up. Then I said, "Roman, Tyrone just told me that it's time for you to take a nap. He really thinks you need one." Then without missing a beat, Roman takes Pablo and puts him up to his ear. Then he says, "Mommy, Pablo wants to watch Cars." What?! How did he get so smart? He didn't buy it for a minute. I know for a fact that I was not that smart as a kid. In fact, I was down right gullible. I was one of those kids that believed anything my parents told me. I guess I won't have that luxury...not with Roman anyway.

I just love this picture of my little Iris. Who knew that a unabrow could be so cute? She's starting to eat baby food AND last night was her 3rd night in a row of sleeping through the night...yay!! It's so nice to get some sleep. She's such a sweet girl and her personality is really starting to show. She is always smiling and laughing- I love it.

Just so you all know, this has been the most annoying post to type. I hope you're all grateful for your fancy computers that have keys. D0n't worry about me...