Easter

So many firsts. This is the first year Charlotte really seemed to understand Easter. Sure, last year she walked around and collected the eggs, but it just wasn't the same. I think we hid eggs 6 different times. Daddy had to hide them, then Charlotte, then Mommy. She didn't even care about the candy inside. I'm having a hard time connecting Easter and Jesus and the Easter bunny, so we just did them on separate days.
Here's Ben ready for the hunt

Of course Maddie had to help find them!


Daddy and Charlotte searching together

My favorite part actually was being together with family. I don't always love everything about Utah, but I love having so much family around to give so much love to my children.

Here's the kids enjoying the spoils

SMILE!

The other day we had the camera out and we asked Ben to smile and Lo and Behold he did. It might not be the most endearing smile, but hey, we'll take what we can get.





Today Charlotte drew this and I can actually tell it's a person. That's Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk along with his Mom and the black one is the gypsy.The Pink thing is the beanstalk. Yeah Charlotte!


We took the kids swimming (at an indoor pool of course, it's still freezing here. The weather keeps faking us out with one day of spring and then boom back to winter) They did not like the pool, well, at least for the first hour and a half. They finally enjoyed the last half hour. Charlotte even went down the tube at the Lehi pool, though she didn't like it.



This is our beloved Auntie Coley. She and Charlotte are going down the stairs in the sleeping bag. If you've never done it, you oughta try it. Here's another of them in action.


Ok, well, I've neglected the kids enough today!

This and That

It's hard sometimes to convince Charlotte that she wants to go the bathroom. So we've taken to turning it into a race who can get to the potty first. We yell, "I'm gonna beat you to the potty" to motivate her to run. Now she yells to us, "I'm gonna beat you up." Not sure where the up part came from, but every time we go potty, we run the risk of being beaten up....

Here is a picture of what Ben looks like when he is making his ungh noise.



And this is what we do for fun

We'll update more later, but we're off for a walk. Hope everyone is well!

Benjer Douglas

That's his current nickname. Ben is just all boy. He walks around finding heavy things to lift and makes manly grunting noises as he does it. He is way more coordinated than Charlotte was. But he's non talking a ton. We've got the usual mama and dada. He "says" Maddie and Grandma, but he still loves to Uhh Uhh for everything. Not my favorite noise. He loves to give hugs and kisses to Charlotte's babies which has got to be one of the cutest things I've ever seen. When he sees Doug kiss me, he comes over and demands that he be allowed to kiss both of us. He loves to put on shoes. Charlotte's are the best as he can actually take a few steps in them. He is in a Mama mode. Now, some of you may argue that he's always in a mama mode, but this is above and beyond that. He loves to slide down the slide with Charlotte and lets her manhandle him all day. Car rides are getting a little better. He loves to be in Nursery with Charlotte at church. He really thinks he's one of the big kids. He's gotten 3 new teeth recently which has made for some long nights. Any time anyone starts to sing or he hears music he dances side to side. Oh my goodness, it makes me laugh no matter what mood I'm in.

A little on Charlotte

This is Charlotte in her new dress from Grandma Mary. Daddy asked her to do a cute face and this is what she got. She is a very good Mommy to all of her babies, allDaddy love that it has an off switch. She reads to herself now and has such a great imagination. She's our sweetheart and we don't know what we'd do without her. This is Charlotte with her cousin Lizzie





And Charlotte and Ben in their new Christmas present.

Happy Almost Birthday

So I know Ben's birthday isn't technically for another 3 days, but we had our monthly dinner and so we celebrated early. Ben did his Daddy proud by destroying the beautiful cake that Aunt Heather made for him. This is my favorite picture.



I made a cake too that everyone else could eat, but it was my first try, so be kind.


For those of you who can't tell, it's a pig. And Doug was adamant that it couldn't be pink. Ben had a great time with his cake and got a great truck from his Aunt Debbie and Uncle Steve. It's so great having family around!


This was the finished product.

Random Update

There's so much to tell. Charlotte is amazing us all. She can name all of her letters, but is especially fond of the letter A. I think we have Aunt Debbie and Uncle Steve to thank for that. They purchased a Sesame Street Letter video for her and she loves it. All of a sudden she has started to entertain herself. For 10 or 15 minutes she'll sit in her room and read her baby doll stories. The baby doll has now been named Melissa, by the way. She is really into both Melissa and her other cabbage patch doll named Emily Elizabeth because of those darn Clifford books. She is very imaginative; Emily Elizabeth went into time out because she hit Daddy or Melissa can't go shopping with us because she hasn't taken her nap yet. It may sound boring to you all but to us, it's so exciting to see this new side of her. Ben is really enjoying walking. He's figured out how to turn corners and can catch himself before he falls most times. He really wants to talk but right now all we're getting is dada. We're all dada. He and Charlotte are the best of friends, which I LOVE. When we read stories at bedtime, he mauls her and tries to bite her. We hope it's all affectionately. They really are so fun. Charlotte is actually understanding Christmas this year. She loves Christmas lights. She yells every time she sees them!

Also, we finally (Doug) got the video of Ben walking to work here. So scroll down and try again!! Thanks