Welcome Home Elder Pitt!

On March 23 my brother got home from his mission in Jackson, Mississippi. I can't believe it has already been two years! It seemed to go by slow at first, but then just sped up and all of a sudden he was home. There was going to be a huge gap in between when he got off the plane and had his Homecoming talk in church, so we decided to see him when he got off the plane (and because we're going back shortly for my other brother's farewell). It was a fun experience. We had balloons and made signs. I'll admit, I got a little teary-eyed when we first saw him. I am so proud of him and the decision he made to further the Lord's work here on earth. Welcome Home Jaren!

All of us waiting

Just a little video of him coming through the gate.

Hugs all around
Waiting for his bags

All of us waiting for his bags. I love Jaleen's face in this picture, but I also love that Jocelyn must have said something shocking for both Janelle and Joanna to have those expressions on their faces.

Jaleen and Jonas went earlier that day and made sure Jaren had a proper welcome home sign. This overpass is known for welcoming many a missionary home.

Benson's had a Birthday, Shout Hooray!

We just love this little guy to pieces. Benson at 1:

-Is a great sleeper and wakes up happy.

-Only takes 1 nap a day, but it is usally for 3 hours or more.

-Loves to dance. Whenever a song comes on, he stops what he is doing to dance.

-Still puts everything he can get his hands on in his mouth. I don't understand it. It can't taste good.

-Is an amazing eater. He eats whole sandwiches for lunch and whatever we eat for dinner. He often eats more than Weston right now.

-Says Da-da, go, go cougars (at least that is what it sounds like), ball, quack-quack, bubble, ma-ma (occasionally), and uh-oh

-Is a good helper. He likes to help us clean-up.

-Is getting more daring and adventurous. Loves to be thrown in the air and swing really high.

-Our tough little guy. Constantly has a bruise or a scratch somewhere on his body.

In his new carseat. He loves to be facing us. Showing his daring side
Always happy when he's eating.

Our little Rocky after his bath.

Loves to climb. Climbing on my hope chest is one of his favorite spots.

Playing "tackle" with Weston. He likes it most of the time.

Climbing. I just love Weston's commentary during this. Such a supportive brother :)

It's a jungle out there!

On March 5 (Benson's actual birthday) we threw a jungle party for our little one-year-old. The few days before, the weather had been rainy and cold, so I was worried we weren't going to be able to have our traditional party at the park. My prayers were answered though, and we were blessed with a sunny day. It is so much more relaxing for me having it at the park. Everything went off without a hitch and we always enjoy spending time with friends and family. Thanks to everyone that came to help us celebrate out little man's big day!

The cake

Monkey cupcakes. I really enjoyed making these.
The rest of the food

Our handsome little birthday boy. He was happy to be at the park too because he loves to be outside.
Weston playing swords with Jason

"Blowing" out the candles

Going in for the kill

First taste...

...and back for more...

...and a whole lot more. He definately had his cake and ate it too :)

The aftermath

Opening presents with help from Daddy

I think Casey was more into the toys than Benson :)

28!

Just writing that title makes me feel old. I definately don't feel like I'm 28. I had a great birthday this year. I was worried that it would get lost among the festivities for Benson since his birthday is the day after mine, but Casey did a great job of making sure that didn't happen. Casey's mom was in town, so she started my day off great by taking me to breakfast. Later, we met Ashley and the kids for lunch and then Casey's mom watched the kids while I ran errands by myself. She also babysat with Charity while Casey and I went out that night. Casey planned this elaborate scavenger hunt that took me to memorable places all over town, dinner, and then to the lake to enjoy the nice night. It was the perfect birthday. The next Sunday, we had my birthday dinner at Jason and Ashley's. Ashley made a mexican dinner and my yummy cake and we opened presents. Thanks to everyone for the calls, emails, and presents!

Lighting my candles

Weston trying to blow out my candles before me
Opening presents with a little help

Valentine's Day

We had a typical Valentine's Day. I made dinner, we had dessert, and then watched a chick flick (tradition :) ). Charity came over and was able to have dinner with us. Simple and relaxing.

Dinner: Strawberry Spinach Salad and Chicken Palliard with a Lemon-Butter Sauce

Weston took this picture. It shows the cute cake pops Casey got me for Valentine's Day that a co-worker's wife was selling. We ate them for dessert and they were delicious. The 3 loves of my life

11 Months

I love this little boy of mine. He is such an easy going kid. We really can't imagine our family without him. At 11 months Benson was:

-WALKING - Yeah! He started the day we got back from our cruise (isn't that nice of him :) ) and has been motoring around like crazy since.
-Loves to play outside and eats sand, dirt, rocks, Weston's chalk, sticks. Whatever. He's not picky :)
-Always has something in his mouth.
-Is still a really good eater.
-Can get off the couch by himself.
-Getting to be quite the climber.
-Throws the cutest little temper tantrums

All smiles playing at the park

Loves to play with Weston and Casey. They are all just so dang cute.For some reason we have more videos than pictures, so here are a few of my favorites:
Rocking in his chair


Spitting

Rolling around his ladybug car


Walking!

Almost Home

We did a lot of relaxing our last day. We slept in late, took a nap, and enjoyed our last day of vacation. There was a dessert extravaganza that reminded me of Food Network Challenge. They had sculptures made out of bread, ice, and chocolate. It was pretty neat. Casey and I both sang karaoke and did pretty horrible. In our defense, you couldn't hear the music very well and the host picked our songs for us. The next day when we docked in San Diego, we had to wait until all the foreigners had checked in with immigration on the boat, so we got off 2 hours late. It took forever and we found out how grumpy some old people could be. It was a great trip though and I always love the alone time with Casey. Thanks for an amazing trip Baby!

The dessert extravaganza

Karaoke

My favorite towel animal

Our boat: The Oosterdam. Back to real life.

Cabo San Lucas

Cabo was very touristy. So much so that there was a Subway right on the dock and a Ruth's Chris about 1/4 mile away from it. Casey went on a cruise to Mexico with his family before his mission and he couldn't believe how much it had changed. We didn't have any planned activities in Cabo, so we kind of winged it. We were going to go snorkeling, but the water was colder than expected. Instead we did a little 4-Wheeling on the beach, rode a scooter around town, ate more tacos (they were actually the only thing we ever ate at port), walked around the dock then headed back to the ship to get ready for our last formal night. It was a nice relaxing day.

4-Wheeling

Leaving our mark on the beach
Having some fun with the cactus (it was everywhere)

Our scooter

Riding around town. I was excited I got a pink helmet.

All dressed up for formal night.

Mazatlan

We decided to do a kayaking trip out at sea while we were in Mazatlan. We took a boat to an island, kayaked out to sea, around a big rock, then back again. It was alright, but we made it fun. Afterwards we were just relaxing on the beach and reading and we heard we could ride horses on the beach. We thought that would be fun. It turned out to be more comical than anything. Lets just say, the horses were well-trained. They followed one path, didn't go any other way, were going slower than molasses, and didn't like to stop either. I didn't get to ride next to Casey the whole time because his horse was a little bit faster and mine wanted to stay behind this other horse the whole time. We relaxed on the beach some more before we headed back to the dock. From there we took a taxi to the city, had tacos at 2 different taco stands, then walked around. The city wasn't very cool, so we headed back to the boat early.

Posing with our kayak The horse ride was right next to a coconut grove
Happily posing with my horse. This was before we got started.

This picture just makes me smile

Relaxing on the beach. We asked a guy to take our picture. He agreed, but asked Casey to hold his beer while he took it. Casey tried to keep it out of the picture, but obviously that didn't happen.

Stealing a kiss on the beach. Casey always takes me on the best vacations.