Ben & Lori

Brandon has a Phone

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 02:25:00 +0000

Ben gave Brandon his old phone. He can't really make calls on it, but he can take pictures, listen to music, use it as a clock and play a few games on it. So now we get series of interesting pictures on our computer once in awhile.

Memorial Day Utah Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 02:11:00 +0000

At the end of May we went down to Utah for a few days. It was the best. We spent a day with my Dad and Alexis and my Grandma Merle and Grandpa Bob. We also got to see a couple of my brothers and and their families. My nephew Zack graduated from high school, so everyone went for that special occasion.

We stayed with Tim and Monique. Monique is pregnant and due at the end of July. So when she asked Bridger if he wanted to feel the baby he looked her kind of funny and asked her why she ate her baby. LOL!!

We also got to spend time with Ben's family. We saw Dan and Pam's new beautiful house! So nice! And it was fun to see our little nephew Mack and niece Andy, but we missed Toby and Sadie :(. Maybe next time. We also went to Thanksgiving point with Ben's family. Thanksgiving point has turned into a tradition when we go for a visit. The dinosaur museum is pretty fun for the kids.

We also spent a night at our friends house in Salt Lake. They are the best! You know who you are!

For this Utah trip we decided to spend a couple nights at a hotel to really make it feel like a vacation. We stayed at a hotel right next to the Gateway Mall. It was awesome!!!!!! We took the kids to Lagoon and met our friends Tawn and James and their kids there. It was perfect. It rained for the first half hour or so and then stopped, so it kept people away for most of the day. The lines were short and the day was cool. Couldn't have been better!! The kids loved it!!

While we stayed in Salt Lake we met some friends and went to the Discovery Center at the Gateway Mall. The kids had such a great time. That place is pretty amazing!

It was a great trip. We also went shopping at the new City Creek Mall in Salt Lake, we went on an IKEA date (Ben's favorite ;)), and we got to spend some time with my beautiful friend Hannah and her family.

Good times.

Duncan

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 01:34:00 +0000

We had to put our awesome little fat Duncan to sleep. We loved him so much! He was the best dog and we have great memories of him! Ben and I have had him since before we had Brandon. He was with us a long time. He was our baby before we had a real baby. Rest in Peace Dunky. We love and miss you!!

May

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 01:27:00 +0000

Ben upgraded his old Volvo fixer upper to a newer BMW fixer upper :)

Bridger graduated from his preschool (but he'll be doing another year of preschool next year). He loved his teacher Miss Tia. He seriously adored her. She really was so wonderful!! Just a perfect teacher for Bridger!

Brandon finished first grade! He is a good, hardworking, smart little man!

Poem Songs

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 01:14:00 +0000

April

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:55:00 +0000

We had our Easter Egg hunt the night before. It was fun the Easter Bunny came and left all of his eggs in the yard and the kids used flashlights to find all the loot. It was great!!

Our great friends hosted a little Easter Egg hunt at their house and we also had one in our neighborhood. Easter is always full of hunts and candy! Good time…good times…

In April Ben went to some caves with some friends to place call Smith's Crack.

Brandon and Bridger at Camel's Back.

March

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:41:00 +0000

I got to go to San Francisco for a family reunion with my brothers. Todd was the only brother that wasn't able to make.

San Francisco was a lot of fun! I'd never been before.

We had so much fun! I am so lucky to have such a great family!! I love them!!

If you look closely you'll see a nude dude. They had a nude bike ride while we were in town. But not to worry, they were riding for a cause, so no big whoop.

Ben and the boys made a couple shirts for St. Patrick's day :) They loved it and they turned out pretty cute.

And let's not forget the monster truck rally in March or…. maybe we should try to forget. Idaho has opened our eyes to the beauties of hillbilly hobbies :) No offense Idaho. We really do love you.

And wait! Look at this. I went to a totally sophisticated tea party with my friends. So…maybe I haven't into too much of a hillbilly yet ;)

January/February - Snow, Snow, and more Snow

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:26:00 +0000

December

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:18:00 +0000

Christmas 2011

November

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:44:00 +0000

November was a pretty low key month.

We had a super great Thanksgiving though. Our friends Rob and Nayara and their three kids came up from Utah and spent Thanksgiving with us. And I have to say that our Turkey was the BEST turkey I have ever had - EVER. I don't even really like turkey that much, but this turkey was falling off the bone - it was super tender (I hate that word) and juicy. And I think it was so good, sort of by accident, but I want to write down what I did, so that I remember to try it again next year.

Turkey Prep:

Day before Thanksgiving I decided to prep the huge 22 lb bird. I have serious anxiety about touching raw meat/poultry - it's so gross!!! So I wanted to get it out of the way, so I could enjoy Thanksgiving. It was still pretty frozen, so I took it out of the packaging and soaked it in cold water for about 5 hours (I really think that is what made it so juicy). So then, Nayara and I prepped the turkey by rubbing softened butter (with a bunch of spices mixed in it and 4-5 cloves of minced garlic) in between the skin and meat of the turkey. I put a cut up apple, onion, and celery in the middle of the turkey, then we put it in a turkey bag and put it in the fridge until the next morning when I put it in the fridge. Pretty simple - but something in that equation made the turkey amazing - pretty sure it was the soaking.

Too bad I didn't take any pictures of the kids. Brandon and Ally got along perfectly! Bridger and Sophia totally acted their age :-/ and baby Devin cried a lot - poor Nina. It was so much fun to have them here. We are so lucky to have so many amazing friends.

Usually when I decide to post anything on our blog, I basically just look at what pictures we took to remember what we did. The only pictures I have are pictures a friend took on her iphone from a service project we did as a family with some of our great friends. The service project was called Rake-up Boise and it was really great to do something to help our community - especially with the whole family. So here are a few pictures of that.

October

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 03:29:00 +0000

October

Okay, last month to catch up on. Sheesh, I really just need to do this once a month or something. I really am just keeping up this blog for my own benefit, it's sort of like a journal and I'm hoping one day we'll print it out and voil à it will be a journal with pictures.

October was fun and busy. I can't believe how much of my day goes away just from driving the kids to and from school - blah! I started going to a fun book club with some interesting new people. I sort of feel like the dumbest of the bunch, but I love being there, I just don't contribute much - I hope I just pass off as a quiet thoughtful intellectual or something, not sure I pull that off. Why is it that just about every time I open my mouth I say something silly or if I try to say something smart I fumble over my words? Anyway, I am enjoying that. I've also been volunteering in Brandon's class at school. I love doing that. I also just love that when I come, Brandon blows me kisses and gives me hugs. He is the best!

We did some spooky Halloween things this year. It was such a great year for Halloween, Brandon isn't really too scared anymore and Bridger is brave, but from a distance. We went to a haunted forest for the kids and it was perfectly creepy, but just a little too creepy for Bridger (although the next day he told us he wasn't scared at all and that he really wanted to go again - brave from a distance=so cute!) We also had to walk by a house in our neighborhood that had some pretty scary decorations a least 3 times a week, for a couple weeks. Bridger loved it. Ben and I went to a fun Halloween party, I didn't take any pictures and my makeup was kind of awesome too :( I just went as a gypsy and Ben just went as a Roman (toga) - can you tell that I went for cheap and easy? We rarely ever dress up, but it was so much fun.

A friend of Ben's from Utah moved to Boise a week or so before Halloween, so they came over to trick or treat with us. So that was pretty fun. Brandon and Bridger had a blast trick or treating. I loved those days when I was little.

So, to sum up the past few months - they have been FULL and they have been wonderful.

BOO!

The kids seemed to enjoy dressing up a lot this month.

(On a side note: I finally got rid of our Winnie the pooh costume :( both kids wore that for 2 Halloweens each. But Bridger outgrew it this year and there was really no reason to keep it, but it made me sad.)

Brandon was really good at getting into character.

Cute little Thomas the train.

September

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 02:54:00 +0000

September

We took the last of our tennis lessons in September :( (at least, until next year). I made a few friends during the lessons, so maybe next year Ben and I will play mixed double or something with them.

Bridger started preschool. His teacher's name is Miss Tia and he reminds me that her name is Miss Tia, not Miss Quesadilla. He LOVES her.

It was also Brandon's 7th birthday. We had a fun party at our house for his birthday. We played a scavenger hunt/clue game, where at the end they found a bag of money, then they all split the money and used it at Brandon's little store, where they bought fun little party favors that Brandon picked out, we also had a piñata, and of course, cake and pop.

Here is Bridger ready for his first day of preschool.

Brandon's 7th Birthday

We hand 10 kids at his party. It was actually great, but I stressed like crazy about this party.

When I was asking Brandon what kind of cake he wanted, he said he wanted to see some cakes on the computer to choose. When I looked up cakes, there were a ton of wedding cake pictures and just about every cake he wanted either was covered in candy or was a 4 tier wedding cake. It was so funny to me that he wanted a wedding cake. I told him there was no way I could make a big tall cake like that, he seemed a little disappointed, so, I made him a 2 tier candy cake. He loved it :)

Some of my friends and I went down town and took a fun art class. It was awesome. I haven't done something like that in a long time.

This is just a picture of a bbq I went to, but another cool thing we did this month is we went to a Star party. A couple of friends I do yoga with told me about it. I'd never heard of a Star party before, but it was really cool. I guess it's kind of a nerdy party, but I loved it. Everyone just brings their telescopes (if you have one) and you can look at different stars and planets and stuff. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. There were a few of the husbands that were really into it, so that made it fun because they knew what the stars were called and all of that. It was new and interesting.

August

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 23:07:00 +0000

During August we spent a lot of time swimming, playing tennis, and going to a lot of the great local markets that have around here.

The highlight of the month was going to Bear Lake for our annual friends reunion. We always have such a great time together. We leave every year feeling so lucky to have such amazing friends.

After Bear Lake, we came home and our days were packed before school started. We all went to the dentist and the kids had their doctor check-ups. Brandon went to climbing camp. We went to the Western Idaho Fair - which was SO fun. I love the fair! And we celebrated both Bridger and Ben's birthdays!! Brandon started 1st grade on Ben's birthday. It was hectic, but fun.

(All of these Bear Lake pictures were taken by our friend Melissa. I am so glad that not only are these pictures beautiful, but that she took so many. I don't think we took a single picture.)

So cool to see a picture like this, with so many of our kids together.

Meridian Urban Market. In the background is our favorite food truck. YUM!

Brandon at rock climbing camp.

Happy 4th Birthday Bridger!

Bridger wanted to go to a place called Pojo's for his birthday. He loves it there!

Something that is worth noting this Summer too, is that Brandon learned how to swim!!!!!!! He learned just 2 weeks before our pool closed, so hopefully it won't take much for him to remember how next year.

We have a few friends that also have August birthdays, so we kind of did a combo birthday for Ben and some other friends. We went to Eagle Island Park. It was fun, and then it started pouring :(, and then it stopped and it was even better because most everyone went home, but a lot of us stayed and the kids got the slide pretty much to themselves.

Ben's Birthday and Brandon's first day of First Grade.

We went out to breakfast to celebrate.

July

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 22:26:00 +0000

July - We started out July with having Jasmine come and stay with us for week. It was awesome to have her here. We miss seeing everyone and appreciate it SO much when someone comes for a visit. Jasmine and I went rock climbing - we really stunk, but it was a lot of fun. I'm glad she came with me. Ben and Jasmine went race car driving, and we all went to the Birds of Prey Museum.

I also cut my bangs this past July :/ I didn't really like them, so I'm growing them out.

We also started taking family tennis lessons. Ben and I had such a great time playing. Ben plays so well! It kind of bugs me! Just kidding. I love it. Brandon loves it and Bridger can amazingly hit 1 out of 100 balls. I mean it is unbelievable how much he misses the slowest of balls, but he actually still loves it and thinks its just as funny as we do that he cannot make contact with the ball.

During July, we went to a bunch of farmers markets and went swimming a ton. Also, Ben started a guys night with a bunch of friends. They get together almost every week. I think Ben was getting jealous that I always had plans with my friends ;)

Another really fun thing we did, that we haven't ever done before, is float the Boise River. We went with our kids, a bunch of friends, and their kids, it was awesome!! Can't wait to do that again next year.

This is the only good picture I have with bangs.

I stole these pictures from Jasmine. Ben and I took pictures on our phone, but I'm too lazy to get them on the computer right now.

These were taken a the Birds of Prey Museum.

Hanging out in during the hot Summer days.

I went with some girl friends to the Boise Art Museum. The had a shoe exibit. Sorry art, but my favorite part were the appetizers at the show :)

June -

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:29:00 +0000

Ok, it is November and I am going to try and do a Summer recap.

We had a really AWESOME Summer. Probably one of the best for me :-) The weather here in Boise was perfect!

In June, the boys and I flew to sunny Southern California, to spend some time with my family. It was so great to see everybody! It was a nice surprise to have my cousin Nadia in town as well. We haven't seen each other in years!

Anyway, here we are at my Grandma Merle and Grandpa Bob's house.

It was so nice to be at her house as always :) She made us a delicious lunch and the kids had so much fun there. Grandpa Bob, swung Bridger on the outside swing, and they were both in heaven. So cute. While I was there my Grandma had me pick out some things I might like to have (because they were thinking of selling the house) and so I picked some of the art work that my Grandma painted. She also gave me another piece of art that used to have hanging in her guest bathroom, that I used to stare at when I was kid while I was… well, you know. :D Anyway, I love it. It is actually something that really reminds me of her house.

While in California, my Dad and Alexis made plans for us to go to camp in the San Bernadino mountains at a camp called Camp de Benneville Pines. I'm not going to lie, it felt a little crazy with the boys and not having Ben with me, but it was SO much fun for the boys. There is nothing like spending time in nature. We went with my Dad and Alexis, Nadia, Jasmine & Jeremiah (Alexis' great grandkids), and Devon (Alexis' daughter-in-law and her son).

Learning to draw castles with Grandma Alexis.

Playing and canoeing at the lake.

Jasmine at the little talent show. (So cute!)

Brandon loved the main hall of the camp. He loved that he could go in anytime and make himself a hot cocoa :)

After the talent show, the kids made a ton of s'mores!

My happy Bridger.

At the end of our trip we spent a couple days at Bryan and Melanie's house with my Mom and Nadia. I love spending time with them. We had such a nice time together. I just love their girls too. They are what make me wish I had daughters sometimes - but then Brandon and Bridger remind me why two boys is quite enough :)

Cute little Tess. My favorite part about this picture is Isabella in the background. That is such a Bryan pose. Hahahaha.

My mom is going to kill me that I posted this picture. LOL!! We are so dumb.

My beautiful Mom and cousin Nadia.

Brandon didn't dare touch Tess, or she would flip out, so that is as close as he would get. So funny!

After our trip we came home to lonely Ben. As always it was nice to be back home. At the end of the month we went to Ben's Summer work party and had a lot of fun. I'm mostly mentioning it, because during the party Brandon went tubing on the boat and had such a great time. As most of you know Brandon can be timid about a lot of things and it was just awesome to see him having such a great time doing that. Ben was kind of shocked. Brandon asked for weeks to be able to do it again. He said he's going to save every dollar he got to get a boat - that lasted until he got his first dollar- then suddenly his priorities changed.

As Cute As Ever!

noreply@blogger.com (The Husband) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 18:02:00 +0000

Kindergarten Grad!

noreply@blogger.com (The Husband) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:54:00 +0000

This little Dude is now a Kindergarten Grad!

(sniffle-sniffle)

Utah Bike Trip

noreply@blogger.com (The Husband) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:16:00 +0000

We went down to Utah for a quick weekend trip. We celebrated our 11th Anniversary and Ben rode in the Cycle Salt Lake Century (100 mile bike ride) with one of his best friends.

The 2 days we were there were packed full of fun stuff. We spent a lot of Friday with Ben's familia. We went to Thanksgiving Point and the kids had a lot of fun. Then Ben and I went to Snake Creek Grill in Heber for our anniversary. I love that place! While we were eating we were trying to remember what we've done for each of our anniversaries, I think we finally remembered all of them, but it was kind of hard. It was kind of fun trying to remember all of them. We've had some fun ones! The next morning Ben and Spencer started their looooooooooooooooooooong ride and I spent the day with Erin and kids. It was a fun and CRAZY time. (Thanks Erin for the fun time! ;) You are a seriously good sport about everything! ) Ben and Spencer finished and had a great time!

Grandma Jensen is a such a fun Grandma!

How cute is Brandon?!! I just love him!

How cute is Ben?!! I just love him! lol ;)

This is how Erin and I spent a lot of our time that day. Letting the kids play in a flooded playground. Without a change of clothes or towel, but the kids had fun playing in it and sometimes drinking it. Seriously! Drinking it! But make no mistake, we are still good Mom's.

This is the only picture I took of the kids at the Discovery Center in Salt Lake. We were there for like a half hour and then had to leave because our men were finishing their ride. So we didn't get to see everything, but that place looked FUN! We'll have to check that place out again soon!

Easter

noreply@blogger.com (The Husband) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 03:42:00 +0000

Yeah, that's right, Easter.

Yes, it is the first of June tomorrow, yet I am about to post a little something about our Easter. What I can remember of it anyway. I guess really only has been a little over a month, so, not too bad really.

In a nutshell, we had a fun Easter.

Our neighborhood had an awesome Easter fair, with a hunt, games, face painting, a freaky Easter bunny greeting all the boys and girls, a bounce house and an obstacle course slide, it was really awesome. I think if we knew it was going to be so fun we wouldn't have planned going on another Easter egg hunt, but alas, we didn't know and bought tickets aboard the Easter Train at the Thunder Mountain Railroad in the lovely mountains of Idaho. Bridger and Brandon were way excited to go on a train. It was about 2 hours long, an hour up the mountain, where we all got off and had an easter egg hunt, then road the train for another hour back down the mountain. It was kind of nice actually, because Ben and I were a little under the weather, so it was nice to just sit and relax a little.

Easter Sunday, Ben and I were major sickies, and were mad at each other for not being able to take care of the kids because the other was sick. Don't you hate that. It stinks when you are both sick at the same time. However, the Easter bunny did manage to come by our house for a little hunt and brought the already spoiled kids some presents.

Overall it was a nice and fun Easter holiday (aside from Ben being a big baby when he got sick [a total man cold, watch it and you'll know what I'm talking about] and me being understandably upset while being majorly sick :) )

Can I take a picture? Can I take a picture?

noreply@blogger.com (The Husband) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 03:27:00 +0000

Brandon begs to take pictures with the camera all of the time. I really need to get him a kid camera or something. However, these are the pictures he take when we let him have it. I mean common!

This is a good one!

Seriously?! the garbage!

And these are the most interesting of the bunch! lol!

Hillbilly Brandon

noreply@blogger.com (The Husband) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 03:13:00 +0000

I love these pictures!

Brandon lost his front tooth a few weeks ago. He was majorly excited. I heard him wishing on his tooth before bed that the tooth fairy would bring him 100 dollars so that he could buy a really big transformer. Poor kid... I let him know that I was pretty sure that wish wouldn't be coming true. That didn't seem to deter his hope though.

Before

After

Hallelujah!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (The Husband) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 02:57:00 +0000

Bridger is finally potty trained!!!!

This is one of HIS and MY greatest accomplishments! :)

The only problem is that now that he is potty trained, he is a bit of a potty mouth. Pee and poo is his favorite subject. He laughs all day about it. I can't get him to stop, and now Brandon has jumped on the pee and poo wagon and they both joke about it like two regular little boys, I guess. I am going to put a stop to it and then that will trump this greatest accomplishment and will become MY new greatest accomplishment as a parent.

Any suggestions on how I might do it?

We Moved

noreply@blogger.com (The Husband) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 02:39:00 +0000

Actually we moved way back at the end of March, but hey, better late than never for an update and some pictures.

We just moved over a city into Meridian, Idaho. We love it here. Love the the neighborhood, the house, the location, it is a awesome! It is bigger than our old house, which has it's perks. We have a spare room with a queen size bed just waiting to be used by visitors (no more air mattress in the office;) ). So, come and stay with us anytime people! Just know that there is always an open invitation for you to come stay with us :)

Brandon

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 20:01:00 +0000

Brandon kind of likes having his picture taken. So it makes it easy on me, the cruddy photographer, to get some cute shots. Bridger on the the other hand does not like having his picture taken. If I posted the pictures I have of Bridger they would all be blurry or of him hiding his face, or at most a big grin with his eyes closed.

Hope you enjoy pictures of Brandon as much as I do. I just love to kiss that sweet little face everyday!

Oven made S'mores

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Lori) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 21:10:00 +0000