Mother's Day

I'm the luckiest mom alive. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father decided to bless me with the cutest little boys. I love being a mom and they brighten my day every time I look into their handsome faces. I'm also the luckiest wife and Casey got me a new car for Mother's Day. It is a 2003 Honda Accord EX, so it has all the fancy features like seat warmers, moon roof, 6-CD changer, etc. The best part is it has an A/C. Now the boys and I drive around in style and comfort :) I had a great Mother's Day this year. It started out with Casey making me breakfast in bed (he looked up recipes and everything), then we had dinner (prepared by Casey and Jason) at Jason and Ashley's. They did a great job!

Me and my new car. I just love it!

My present from Weston. He made it in nursery.

2 Months

Our handsome baby turned 2 months on May 5. Wow, time goes by a lot quicker with the second child. Weston going a 100 miles a minute probably helps, but I seriously don't know where the time goes.

Benson is a cutie and is already very alert. This is what he was up to:

-Smiles and laughs a lot.
-Kicks his feet constantly. He can't wait until his body catches up with his energy. He is always kicking his blankets off.
-Sucks on his hands like crazy and makes funny noises while doing it. If he sucked any harder, he might swallow his hand.
-Drools a lot.
-Is a big talker
-Went on his first plane ride.
-Loves to stand up
-Is already quite the observer and likes to be turned forward so that he can see
-Stats: 12 lbs and 23 1/2 in

Is he not the cutest?

We see a lot of this...

...and do a lot of this :)

New York - Day 3

Casey and I ventured out on our own the third day. We visited this really old church in downtown manhattan, hit up Wall Street (saw the New York Stock Exchange building), the brass bull from Hitch (at least that is what I know it from. It has a real name/story, but I don't remember), saw Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, Canal Street, SoHo, and a lot more of Central Park (made us miss Weston because he would have loved it there). We also figured out the subway system and Casey was addressed by a disgruntled New Yorker with a mouth like a sailor. I think the guy was having a bad day or something and just wanted to cause trouble. For dessert before dinner we went to Serendipity! I don't know what girl doesn't want to go there after watching One Fine Day or Serendipity. My frozen hot chocolate was delicious. It was a little pricey and probably a one time thing, but I loved it! After dinner we haggled a scalper for $10 tickets to the Knicks game. The crowd was really loud and the Knicks won, so that made for a good game. We were actually in New York one more day, but we were tired and just hung out with Rebecca and the kids until our afternoon flight. Thanks to the Kings for letting us visit and to Jason and Ashley for watching Weston!

The Old Church

The Brass Bull

Do you smell something?

Interesting sights on Canal Street

In front of Serendipity with Rebecca

My frozen hot chocolate. Yum!

All you need is love :)

The New York Knicks game. We were at the very top.

Benson the next day. This is what we wanted to do too :)

New York - Day 2

The next day we woke up super early to catch a ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Then it was home for some much needed nap time. We finished off the day visiting the World Trade Center Memorial site and museum, then walked over the Brooklyn Bridge to visit New York's #1 rated pizza place, Grimaldi's. Fun times.

We didn't get to check out everything that we wanted to here, but it was fun to learn more about the immigrants that came to America.Our Lady Liberty. She is smaller than I thought she would be.

Taking a funny picture with a replica of the face in the museum below.

On the ferry home.

That nap time I mentioned.

World Trade Center Memorial building site. The plans for the memorial look pretty cool. There were about 10 cranes working at the site.

The King Family making their way across the Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge

Grimaldi's. We even folded our pizza like a true New Yorker.

Everyone enjoying our delicious pizza.

I Love New York! - Day 1

Preface: Around the beginning of April, Casey surprised me with a trip to New York City. When I say surprise, I mean a complete surprise. I found out a few days before we left and he only told me because he didn't think he could pack for Benson, Weston, and me without me knowing. Good idea on his part. Unfortunately, Weston had just turned 2, so we left him with Jason and Ashley, but as always, I don't think he even missed us. Casey was worried twice that he would have to cancel our trip though because Benson got a stuffy nose, so Casey was worried he had gotten RSV from Spencer (his cousin). Then, the night before we left, Benson had a REALLY bad gas bubble (which we didn't know at the time, but that was our conclusion) and was crying almost non-stop from 8pm-3am. It all worked out though and we were off. Our friends, the Kings, were in New Jersey for Richard's work, and they were nice enough to let us stay with them and show us around. We had a blast! I think the only bad decisions we made pertained to some of our dining choices. I'm warning you now that I'm splitting this up into 3 days and there are a lot of pictures, but what is the point in taking pictures if you can't share them, right? :)

Day 1: We spent a lot of time walking around. We walked all along 5th Avenue and Broadway, saw a lot of central park, went into the huge Toys 'R Us store (they have a ferris wheel inside it), saw where they tape the Letterman Show, and made our first bad food decision by eating at Applebee's out of desperation. Lame, I know. Here are my favorite pics.

Benson's first plane ride. He was awesome and slept almost the whole time.

Our first subway ride
First stop: The Empire State Building. This is the view from the top.

You can't go to NYC and not get a hotdog from one of the street vendors. These nice men hooked us up.

I'm so glad we went in the spring. There were flowers everywhere.

I saw my first mime

Central Park. It is absolutely gorgeous in the spring.

Chillin' out in Central Park

Richard playing with his kids, Kaley and Tyler.

This was "Sexy" according to his belt buckle. We both took pictures with him, but he insisted Casey take one with him :) Sidenote, this guy was one of about 20-30 rollerskaters skating to music and a lot of them were really good.

The temple

Times Square

Casey with New York's finest

More Time Square

Macy's was having their annual flower show while we were there and their window displays were amazingly beautiful.

Me with the flowers in Macy's

Benson hanging out with Casey after our long day.

Easter

Easter for us was a little different this year. Mainly because we didn't celebrate with any family all day long. Charity was out of town and Spencer had RSV, so we didn't get to hang out with J and Ashley either. It started out great watching conference though. I really enjoy conference and I felt like so many of the talks applied to me since there was a recurring theme of family and raising children. Afterwards we had a little egg hunt with Weston, but it was a chilly, blustery day, so we quickly headed inside. We had a traditional Easter dinner that night and then enjoyed time as a family. I love special occasions and I'm especially grateful for this one that focuses on the love of our Savior and the sacrifice that he made for us.

Weston hunting for eggs with a little help from Casey

1 Month

Benson turned 1 month on April 5. We just love him to death and it is a lot of fun having two kids. These are a few of the things he was doing:

*Really likes his hands
*Started smiling
*Eats about every 3 hours
*Loves getting his diaper changed
*He's a really good baby. He hardly every cries and just sits there quietly in his rocker.
*Got his first injury from Weston. Weston wanted to play and "tackled" him when I was out of the room. Unfortunately, Benson was face down, so his nose got a little bruised :(
*We call him Benson Bear sometimes.

Our little Benson Burrito. He liked to be all wrapped up for a little while, but not so much anymore (there is about a 3 in space between his face and the blanket).

Benson's first bath. He even got splashed by Weston and didn't mind. First ride in a swing