HAPPY 31st BIRTHDAY BEN!!!

Ben just had a birthday! The old man turned 31!! Can you believe it?! And that might 'cause you to think that I'm getting old too....you couldn't be more wrong! I'm not a day over 25....and ALWAYS will be. Otherwise I'm might start hyperventilating! :D
So with this 31st birthday comes a birthday post. (a little late but you know how it goes....)

31 reasons we love Ben:

Ty's -

1. ...he's nice

2. ...we get to play with him.

3. ...he buys me Mini Wheats

Laney's - 

4. ...he's part of my family

5. ...he's my favorite

6. ...he plays with me

7. ...he helps me get dressed in the morning

8. ...he eats breakfast with me

Nyah's -

9. ...he takes me to mom when I'm hungry or gives me a bottle (hahaha)

10. ...he's my daddy and he loves me

Nadja's -

11. ...he accepts me for who I am

12. ...he tries to educate me

13. ...he's non-judgmental

14. ...he loves his family

15. ...he moved to Germany just for me

16. ...he always does service (without complaining)

17. ...he always tries to do the right thing

18. ...he's always teaching the kids

19. ...he calls me cute, funny, silly nicknames

20. ...he's always making up songs and rhymes (when the kids want him to tell them a story, he ALWAYS starts singing the story and both kids yell, "NO SINGING")

21. ...he does he hair the way I like it, even though people make fun of him for him

22. ...he's always trying to be better

23. ...he's still a kid at heart

24. ...he's positive - always tries to look on the bright side

25. ...he's a hard worker! but we know he would much rather be home with us

26. ...he lets me think I'm right even though I'm not always

27. ...he always compliments me

28. ...he has a firm grip on the iron rod and is not about to let go

29. ...he's excellent at talking to people and making them feel like he wants to know everything about them

30. ...he never complains about all my faults and silliness

31. ...he's loves the kids and me unconditionally

WE LOVE YOU BENNY BOO BOO BOO BOO BOO

Forgotten Picture...

So I was looking through the pictures on my phone the other day...deleting about 400 that Ty and Laney had taken...when I found this picture and remembered the story. It was while we were in Italy and we had just left Sirmione. The kids had found some little seashells on the beach and the were looking at them in the car. We had driven for about 15 minutes when Ty had to go to the bathroom. There was nothing around and it wasn't the kind of go-to-the-bathroom-behind-a-tree...we HAD to find a real bathroom. (Although he did say that we could find a tree and he would just wipe with a leaf hahahahaha) Anyway....we found a McDonald's and did our business and got back on the road when about 10 minutes later Ty showed me that he had put the little seashell on his finger and he was pretending to be a....uhm...whatever you would pretend to be with a seashell on your finger! I ooh'ed and aah'ed. About 2 minutes later when he got tired of pretending he was a....yeah whatever...he suddenly said we needed to stop again so he could wash his hands. At this point I started wondering if he had wiped himself in the bathroom but quickly dismissed that thought because Ben and Ty had been back out of the bathroom pretty quickly and I hadn't heard any screaming coming from the McDonald's. I asked him if he had forgotten to wash his hands and he said no, but he needed to wash his finger because it was really stinky. I told him we couldn't stop again and gave him a wet wipe. Apparently those little dead sea creatures create quite a stench in there when they kick the bucket because the smell did not go away after wiping with the wet wipe. At this point he was starting to freak out and get hysterical. Ty has an excellent sense of smell and this was really bugging him. I told him again that it would be a bit before we could stop to wash his hands and that he'd have to just wait. I looked back at him several times and he had taken to plugging his nose to stop the fragrance from bothering his nostrils. Suddenly it got very quiet in the backseat and when I looked back the poor little feller had fallen asleep plugging his nose. He looked really cute and I just had to get a picture of it.

We Finally Got Some Footage....

She ONLY laughs at Ty....the rest of us can act like crazy people and she'll just smile, but Ty walks in the room and she just can't contain herself.

Who Does Nyah Look Like?

Ty @ 5 months

Nyah @ 3 1/2 months

Laney @ 4 months

Everybody always tell us that Nyah looks like Ty, but Ben is adamant that she looks like Laney. I can't tell...I think she looks like.....Nyah. So I thought I would open this up to my adoring fans of the blog. Who does she look like? Laney or Ty?

Nyah - 4 Months

*she starts crying when I leave the room*

*she'll follow us with her eyes all around the room*

*she loves when Laney reads to her. She just sits and looks at Laney and smiles the whole time*

*she's grabbing toys and things that are within her reach*

*she does little baby push-ups*

*she makes little tooting noises ALL the time*

*when she's on her belly she'll move around in circles or backwards*

*if she's on her belly she instantly grabs her feet and starts chomping on her toes*

*she's just such an alert little thing*

*she smiles ALL the time but we only hear her laugh once in a while and it's normally when Laney and Ty are doing something silly. her little laugh is so cute. it starts out with a laugh and then always going into this really high-pitched squeal - SO sweet* 

Halloween 2010

This year Halloween fell on a Sunday so the church had a trunk 'n' treat the Friday before that we went to. Before that though Ty had to be dressed up as his favorite storybook character for school. I only found out about it 2 days before so the day before I was frantically running around trying to figure out how to make a 'Thing 1' costume for him. I ran into several people from our ward who had costumes they offered we could borrow but when I told Ty about them, he would think about it and then say, 'no! I want to be Thing 1." So my search for blue hair went on. I had bought a clown wig that we spray painted blue but it just didn't look as good as I wanted it to. So went Ty put on his hat to go pick up Ben from work I noticed the little thing on top and thought maybe I could make blue hair out of fleece. We had already bought 2 red fleece blankets to make the outfit but we hurried back and bought a blue one too and a headband/ear warmer thing. Then I cut strips of the blanket and sewed them onto the ear warmer thing. I think it all turned out pretty good and Ty liked it - which was the most important. And I think he was the only one who was actually dressed up as a storybook character.

Then Saturday our friends, who had just gotten home from Rome and missed the trunk 'n' treat invited us over for some Halloween fun. Afterwards Ben helped the kids carve their pumpkins.

Laney does NOT like getting the guts out. haha

Then Sunday was Halloween and we only got 2 Trick-or-Treaters! The first little kid who came to the door...I could tell it was killing Ben, because he's normally the best candy-giver-out'er. Always commenting on their costumes and he just so cute with the kids but he knew that the little German boy wouldn't understand. It was pretty funny.