I love my boys!

Oh these two boys just make me smile.....ALL....THE....TIME!

Look at those moves, this is part of one of our regular dance parties (The video is from January...it takes us a little while to post things!)!  As you can hear the classic duck tails song is in the background!

Oh I love my boys!

We're So Glad When Daddy Comes Home!!!

That we all wear matching clothes and take pictures!!

MEET THE ARTIST

Here is the long anticipated post of Jeffrey's exhibit at BYU and Meet The Artist Reception when it opened. It will give you of the fam not there a peek at the special evening. Mom and Dad went up for the big event. Mom is a handy person to have on the team when it comes to feeding masses yummy goodies. Sarah and Rachel were there as well to celebrate Jeff's accomplishment and meet and greet his friends, teachers and peers.
This has been so long in coming due to the 336 computer switch to Windows 7. The old video software is not compatible and in fact the most used video editing software used in the past is not made for Windows 7. So there has been a lag time to find a program, learn the program and become semi-proficient. Tiffany's video a few days ago was the learning curve production. We will see how this works for the future.

OH dad -

Certainly you know, you're everyone's favorite guy. Aw gee, how incredibly fortunate we all are to have a dad as good as you. You are undoubtedly the best anyone could hope for.

And as we all know that Mr. Bean is your doppelganger, here's a quick message from him:

Happy Birthday to DAD!!!

Great wishes to the one of the greatest guys around. Dad we hope you know how much we love and appreciate you!! (Thanks for the juice glasses Sarah - they came in handy to put the fresh squeezed orange juice in.)

My little Models!

Paisley and Jarom got to be models yesterday for my friend Chelsea. She is an amazing seamstress and has been in a Project Toddler Runway competition on someone website. This is the final project and my two cuties were included! She used a candy shop theme. Paisley is the cotton candy and Jarom is an orange creme saver (you can tell he had a blast doing this!) Anyway, now it is time to vote so let's help Chelsea win!! Visit the Shwin and Shwin blog and vote for the candy shop!!!

The Rest of New York

 Friday morning in Brooklyn, Rachel and I went to Miss Dahlia's Café for breakfast: croissants and an omelette with toast. It was a pretty darling place and the food was . . . of course, delicious.

 The greatest thing about New York was the array of people I saw there. Frankly, it's just a wee bit more diverse than Provo. It was fun to see every type of person all together on such a tiny island.

 When we got into the city, Rachel went off to work and I headed over to the UN building. I had to go through a major-security check but once I got inside it was fun to see all the tourist groups all over the place. But in one corner of the building there was a prayer room that was absolutely non-denominational. I can't help but think that in a place that strives for peace, there should be a room a little bigger than this devoted to prayer, but oh well.

 Outside they have this sweet sculpture of a gun with the end twisted into a knot. Again supporting the notion of striving for peace.

 Later I headed to Museum of Modern Art - and guess who met me there? It has some pretty incredible pieces; while walking through each gallery I would turn the corner and gasp at the pieces that were there. After this museum we met up with some others at Vapiano's, a su-per hip pasta place. And afterwards we went to a little Italian bakery - Rachel showed us around.

 Saturday morning Rachel and I went to the Boston flea market. It was AMAZING. I loved it so much. There were all kinds of old things, and crafty things, and delicious food, and of course some fascinating people.

 Plus it was in this great old building that was formerly a bank. Later in the day Rachel and I popped into the Met for the first time and checked out some more of the incredible art. Then we buzzed to Whole Foods in downtown to get some items for dinner. Rachel had invited several friends over for a potluck and it was incredible to meet some of these individuals I've heard so much about. Plus the food was fabulous. I went to bed incredibly late and incredibly full.

 Robb and Marybeth's post pretty well summed up Sunday except that before I saw them we went to the Manhattan 3rd singles ward and then I hailed a cab to get us to the Museum of Natural History. It was SWEET. Oh those yellow Taxi cabs. After I said goodbye to them I rushed back to Rachel's place and then rushed to the airport where I had a lovely flight back and ended up being able to sit next to Spencer.

And speaking of Spencer, the day after we got back from New York was - Valentine's day, and he gave me these lovely flowers. And I also got to hang out at Jeff's sweet Anti-Valentine's day Michael Jackson-on-vinyl party.

I'll Tell You What's Playin'...

Here is a little mini-concert of cousin Tiffany's show last Thursday night - the L.A. stop on her month long U.S./Canada tour.

This is what I woke up to this morning!

Just wanted to share what I saw this morning as I woke up!

(the video quality is bad and hard to see but you get the point)

P.S. There was no snow last night!

Conduct A Fun Activity

Stefanie's post prompted me to share this idea for an activity for you with little ones couped up inside all day and would like something for them to do that includes a bit of culture, exercise, coordination, attention, and fun. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0REJ-lCGiKU . It may prompt you to listen to classical music a little bit more. If you watch to the end you may get a little laugh out of it too.

Love is in the air!

Something about this years Valentine's package got Mabe and I to singing a little jingle "your fresh breath goes on and on, while you chew it" we heard only a few short years ago. So we looked it up and heres what we found...




And we haven't stopped singing it since.
But we didn't stop there.....





Now we keep singing that one....
And this one!



Oh Why don't they make commercials like they use to...although maybe they do but we just wouldn't know it.

Gum Anyone?

Projects!

Today Paisley felt in a crafty mood so we went to Walmart to pick out a fun craft to do. We stumbled across this awesome "Box of Projects" and got started with much excitement! There are over 30 projects to complete in the kit. Here is Paisley working on dressing the bear with stickers and Jarom is creating a farm scene with stickers.

Jarom sure loves to do his own thing with stickers!

Paisley moved on to making a mosaic heart with some foam stickers.

Here they are proud as can be of their paper bag puppets. Paisley's is a monkey and Jarom's is a dog. Super fun!

Now that the weather is warming up tomorrow we will be able to get out and do some running around before we come in and craft some more!!

WHAT'S PLAYING AT THE ROXY...

Mom and I may pop down to Sunset Blvd. tonight to see Tiffany at THE ROXY.part of Tiffany's concert tour.

Day 1 in New York City!

Finally - I got to take my friend Rachel Jamieson up on her offer to visit her in New York City, and it was INCREDIBLE. Truly.

I flew in on ol' JetBlue and was supposed to land around 5:30 in the morning (local time) but because of some delays it ended up being closer to seven, which was fortunate because the city looked so beautiful so early in the morning.

 Rachel let me attend one of her smaller NYU lectures (very interesting) and then we picked up some bread and cheese from a little shop and went to the harbor looking over New Jersey . . .

 As well as the Statue of Liberty

 Unfortunately it was SO so cold that we only made it through about half the baguette before we couldn't feel our hands and feet and had to go back to warm ourselves.

We went over this lovely overpass/walkway that the city had recently completed, went into the Chelsea market - which I loved, and then met up with my friend Spencer (who just so happened to also be in New York City at the exact same time) and some other BYU art history students at the Brooklyn Museum primarily to see Judy Chicago's piece "The Dinner Party." Then we all headed over to a pizza place and went home, and after a little chatting, went to bed.

 Day 2 is forthcoming.

Visitando

 We were able to take a trip to New York this weekend. 

It was a long drive from Boston so Bennett of course had to bring some of his favorite reading material.  Since he knew there was going to be artwork to see he decided he should study up on his colors.

We were lucky enough to visit with Aunt Rachel and some of her very nice friends.  Here are the

R BUDDIES posing for a picturesque shot!

I thought I would take a pictureof Grays Papaya because I remember hearing about it on a movie and I thought only California had stuff from movies.....like outdoor corridors and famous high schools....etc

 Outside the American museum of Natural History- a very busy place.

 Rachel fits in pretty nicely in New York if I do say so myself!

 The four of us outside the MET.

 Heres the group enjoying some Modern Art.

Bennett enjoyed being carted around by Aunt Rachel, he was glad they were able to catch up.  We loved seeing Rachel and are so glad she took the time to be with us! 

BE MINE Bennett and I took advantage of our time together to do a little Valentines Photo Shoot. He did such a great job and I had more than enough pictures to choose from as you can see in the picture above. We just wanted to tell Marybeth how lucky we are to have her in our lives. She is a Great Mom, and Wonderful Wife, she works really hard at work and comes home and gives us both Lots of Hugs and Kisses. There is no better Valinetine that we would rather have and we never want that to change. WE LOVE YOU MARYBETH.

Happy Valentines Day to You and Yours.

Happy Valentines Day!!

We are missing being together today - but we hope that you know how much dad and I love you and are thankful that we an eternal family.

After 2 years . . .

As all of you might know I cut most of my hair off a little over two years
ago and now after letting it grow I wanted to show it off so here ya go,
this is how long it takes for my hair to grow.

By the way this not the best picture of my long hair, but you get the effect.

Work Bench

Where all the important tools get hung up!

One Month Left

Today I am 36 weeks and exactly one month until my due date.  We are getting very excited around our house.  I have been nesting in ever corner of our apartment and getting baby things in order.

Every night I lay in bed with Elizabeth and tell her scripture stories.  Her current favorite is Jesus’ Resurrection.  For the past two weeks we have talked about how Jesus’ body and spirit were separated when he died and that when he was resurrected they came back together.  It is so exciting to think of this little boy whose spirit is leaving our Heavenly Father and is entering a new body.  He has been waiting since the beginning of time to come to this earth and we feel so blessed that he was chosen to come to our family.  We are grateful for God’s plan of happiness because we are planning on having a lot of fun as soon as this little one gets here.

UTAH TRIP GLIMPSES

Mom & Dad made a quick little trip up to Provo.  The main purpose was for Jeffrey’s exhibit (which shall be covered in it’s own post once some photo/video editing is accomplished). 

We also took the opportunity to visit the wonderful CARL BLOCH exhibit at the MOA at BYU.

We visited Jeffery at the Charter School where he is student teaching – Renaissance Academy in Lehi.

We enjoyed seeing Rachel’s mug plastered all over the HFAC.  She was the photo subject for a play production.  Alas, she is not a performer, just the “face” of the production due to a photographer acquaintance last year.

7 Wonderful Months!

 We love our happy little guy!

 Our photo shoots have required us to be a little bit more creative and quick.  Bennett enjoys grabbing and biting the horse.  Tapping and pushing over the football.  Rocking so hard in his rocking chair that he nearly falls out.  And.....

 Taking breaks to text....

He is a very happy and curious boy. 

Fun Facts About Bennett:

Loves:

Dancing in front of the mirror (still)

Looking in the refrigerator

Rolling from his belly to his back

Climbing on Mom and Dad

Walking holding on to Mom and Dads hands

Sticking out his tongue

Playing Peek-A-Boo

Turning Pages in Books

Mom and Dads phones

Giving Hugs

Strings on Clothes

Baby Food

Cuddling with Mom and Dad

Playing in the tub

Saying DadaDa, "Hi" and lots of other vowel consonant combinations

Being Kissed

Favorite Toys:

Little Tikes Bat

Lion

Shape Sorter

Peg Board

Bowls and Spoons

Small Basketball

Books

Tub Swimming Frog