"My airport is Closed"

Tonight at dinner Joseph was helping Benjamin eat his required amount of food. (We do three bites of the main course and three bites of vegetable to correspond with his age). Anyway Joseph was doing the airplane. Benjamin covered his mouth and insisted "my airport is closed." We couldn't help but laugh.


Earlier today we went to the library and the second hand store in Chittenango. They had a Zurg toy that we quickly acquired. Ben of course loves it and his new belt. It's just like Daddy's and he is so proud.
I couldn't resist the chance to post the two belted boys.
Some other things that I ought to document are the ward Christmas party, Christmas at the farm and my new Christmas Stockings.

Benjamin was a cow in the Church nativity. He was so cute. He came in the chapel and ran to me on the back row and then ran to the stable. His Daddy was the narrator. He was okay with Santa Clause he didn't really cozy up but was willing to sit on his lap. At the farm he didn't want to sit on Santa's lap and in fact asked my father on Christmas day..."Are you Santa Claus? The conversation continued as Benjamin rattled alone something like this "You look like Santa? Do you have a Santa Costume? I have a dragon costume. I like to dress up."

I made Christmas Stocking this year. I really like them. I've looked for years for ones that I like. While we were in Boise I found this pattern and loved them. Four stockings now adorn our living room fireplace.

My parents gave us a pig for Christmas. They we as always very generous and gave us some Christmas books and other misc. things. I loved the delivery method of the pig and thought that I would share. Wrapped in a box was this note.

It reads, Joseph & Diane, I will come to your freezer about Jan 15th. I need to know how you want me cut. We laughed hard. I thought it was clever and of course we'll love the pork.

Finally, I thought that I would post pictures of my boys watching the last BYU football game.
And last but not least this is Benjamin's latest. He lines his crew up to watch the car races. He's got Handy Manny, Jessie, Woody, Buzz, Rumblin Chuck, the Wac-a-moles, Mater & Speed McQueen all positioned and ready for the big race. I was lucky that he willingly looked up for the picture.


More to come soon. Joseph got me a new camera for Christmas so I am working on learning it's ins and outs. Happy new year to all!

All I want for Christmas

Poor Benjamin got an ear infection for Christmas. This morning at 5:00 a.m. he woke us up and was feeling miserable. I got him to fall asleep for another hour but he wanted to sit up by 6. We ended up watching some early morning TV and calling the doctor as soon as they opened at 9. I love our pediatrition and there office. They got us right in and sure enough the left ear looked bad. His right ear was on the way to being infected too. I am thankful for Augmentin. Benjamin responds so well to it. Two hours after the first dose he was much more himself.
He is tired tonight though and just fell asleep. Santa should be coming in an hour or so, so I might wake him up. I'd hate to have him miss the big guy.

Two nights ago this was the scene in our upstairs bath-tub. Benjamin loves his "diver flippers". He now reports that he wants to be a diver or a fireman when he grows up.

And for anyone who is wondering....we are surviving the blizzard. Another one is projected for Sunday. We got 40+ inches of snow. The next week's forecast is for snow every day. We should have a white Christmas.

The Woody present

We received a present from Benjamin's birth mother. Here is his take on it:



...and a big THANK YOU from us.

Boise n Logan

We got home late last night from Boise. We went for Thanksgiving and stayed thru the next week. We had a great time visiting family in the west. We flew in on Thanksgiving day, spent the next day in Boise and got to participate in the annual Ward doughnut party and then on Saturday headed down to Logan, UT where Aunt Karen and her family and Uncle Dennis live. We even got to see Uncle Jason which was a treat! We didn't have snow in NY so the snow was fun for the kiddos.


One of the favorite things for the girls is a trip from Aunt Diane because I will put make-up on them.
Having girls around was fun and Benjamin loved palling around with Alyssa. We would often find them on (or under) the couch looking out the window.

Then after a very quick trip to Lehi to see Joseph's sister and Jason's wife who was unable to come to Logan it was back to Boise. On Wednesday we got another large snow fall and schools were closed. We played on the toboggan and made an adorable snow family.

We were grateful for the lovely fireplace in Grandma's family room.
One of our most favorite things to do in Boise is go to Joseph's parents cabin. We thought that we might have to snowshoe in but the caretaker had plowed a trail and we were able to walk right up to the front door. The cabin is lovely. Benjamin had a ball. He climbed up to the loft and back down so many times I lost track.




This last picture was taken as we waited in DC to board our flight. We had a 4 hour layover. After sleeping Benjamin was ready to go. Joseph tied him to the chair and he loved it. Oh if only I had his energy!