29.

No, I will not reveal my height and weight as I do for my boys' updates. All you need to know is that I am still short and skinnier than I've been in years (yeah for me!). I am now 29! As usual my birthday celebration lasted more than just one measly day. It began Wednesday night when our friends Tamara and Doug offered to watch the boys so Matt and I could go on a date. We didn't do anything super special, but the time with just each other was amazing enough. No kids to serve, tug on us, or yell at us when we hug or kiss. We went to dinner, walked around Century City Mall, and then went and got Fosters'Freezes. By the way, the mud pie twister is the best treat I've had in a long time, and you know I am always eating treats. Doug and Tamara must have thought we were the biggest losers when we came home at 9 pm, L.A. just isn't our scene.

On Thursday, the actual birthday, I went to Disneyland with some friends. My friend Jenna and I have the same birthday and we needed to get our $70 gift card for Dland so we made a party of it. Bonnie and Em came with us too. This was my first time braving Dland with the boys and no designated person to help me. We hugged all of the Dland characters. My boys love to give hugs and high fives to the big cuddle creatures. By nap time Bentley had reached his limit and turned into a little monster. It was a good thing that Gaige was a complete angel. I should have left, but we stayed...big mistake! The boys passed out in the car on the ride home and then wouldn't go back to sleep once we got out of the car. I had lots of fun with my friends though, thanks girls for an excellent birthday.













After Dland we went to dinner with the Floods and the Jensens. Lauren's birthday is only 4 days after Jenna's and mine so we all decided to brave it and go with our husbands and kids to PF Changs to celebrate. At one point I picked up 5 forks, 3 napkins, and lots of unidentifiable things off of the floor from underneath the table. The highlight of the night was watching Bentley use chopsticks to eat his rice. He is amazing! He is a master at the chopsticks and doesn't even need that little rubber thing to help him. You would think this would be a reasonable end to a great birthday, but there's more....


Early Friday morning my mom picked me up and we drove to Las Vegas to spend the weekend with my sister. We stayed at Mandalay Bay, met up with friends, shopped, went to the spa, hung out with family, and slept in until 7:30 am and didn't have to cook any food or clean anything! We also went to see Lion King which was absolutely amazing and totally funny.


But that is not all, no that is not all. My friend and visiting teacher had me and some friends over for a birthday lunch on Tuesday. Karly made some delicious wontons, salad, and we made our own california rolls! It was so much fun. Karly is always very fun and innovative with food. I love learning new skills and will have to impress my husband with my excellent sushi rolling skills. Thanks Karly!

I am grateful for awesome friends and an amazing husband that took care of my kids while I jumped the mom ship and had a little vacation. And I am grateful for a very giving father that even got a call from the credit card company about all of the large expenses that had been charged in one day. And for a beautiful and precious mother that I got a chance to play with. And for my sister that will always be my other half. I had an awesome birthday. So I better start planning number 30!
And check this out. I made this apron for my sister for her birthday. I am super impressed with my designing and sewing skills. It was hard to give it away, but it helped that she asked me where I bought it! Hope you love it Janni. Please regift it back to me in your will, along with your two boys!

babyville.

A couple of weeks ago I babysat my friend Kimber's baby Abe and my friend Tamara stopped by with Benjamin. When Bentley woke up from his nap he was so excited to see babies. He insisted that I hold one baby and he hold the other. He got Abe's blanket and pacifier and was so cute with them. I asked him if he wanted a baby. Last time I asked he immediately told be "No!" but this time he didn't answer. It's gonna be awhile.

halloween.

My parents came up for Halloween because I had to work at our community opening social and Matt had to go to school. So they brought the boys to the opening social and took care of them while I sat on a ginormous bounce house and monitered the gazillion kids waiting in line for their turn. I will definitely be signing up to work at a different station next year. Bentley and Gaige had so much fun with Grams and Grandad that they took a very long nap. When they woke up we dressed them in their costumes. I got Bentley to wear his costume by telling him that people wouldn't give him candy unless he wore his whole costume. When we went to the ward party last weekend he refused to wear it and went as the UPS man instead. Gaige wore the pirate costume to the ward party and was the UPS man on Halloween.

We met up with the Floods, Jensens, Crisslers, and Hoovers to trick or treat in our neighborhood. The boys had so much fun and were pretty good about taking one piece of candy. By the time we got home Gaige had eaten 3 lollipops, one with the wrapper on it. I guess we know his favorite candy!

After trick or treating we came back to our place and had scones and hot apple cider. I have never made scones, but remembered my friend Carrie Nuttall's mom used to make them on Halloween in Georgia and I loved them. So I am starting my own tradition of Halloween scones. We ate them with whipped cream, honey, honey butter, and cinnamon and sugar (not all together). Thanks mom for frying them all! Here is the recipe:


Sconecutter White Bread Scones (Randy Barton)

Ingredients:

2 packages (2 tablespoons) active dry yeast

1/2 cup lukewarm water

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon salt

2 cups warm water or warm milk

1/4 cup shortening, butter, or margarine

7 cups all purpose flour


Dissolve yeast completely in 1/2 cup lukewarm water; stir in sugar and salt. Add warm water or
milk; stir until frothy and smooth. Add shortening or butter and 7 cups of the flour to make a moderately stiff dough which is each to handle.Place dough on lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, five to six minutes (or in kitchen aid with dough hook). Place dough in lightly greased bowl. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch down dough. Place on lightly floured surface and roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Allow to rest five minutes. Cut with pizza cutter into desired shapes.Fry dough in deep, hot vegetable shortening (350 degrees) one minute on each side. Serve hot with honey butter, butter and honey, or jam.

Bentley - 2 years 7 months

height: 35 1/2 inches

weight: 26.9 pounds

Bentley loves to go to school. He often sings the "Who Came to Class Today?" song on the couch and names Bentley, Brother, Mommy, and Daddy. He also loves to sing the ABCs, but likes the Super Why version much better than the original ABC song. And he loves Super Why. He always says "Super Bentley, super Brother, super Daddy, super Mommy, super Grams to the rescue!", "the power to read!" He talks a lot, especially to Gaige. One night he didn't want to go to bed so he layed next to the door and screamed. After a couple of minutes he got up and got in bed and we could hear him telling Gaige "Mommy and Daddy won't open the door..." He gives "big" hugs and kisses and loves to help. He says "Bentley help mommy." He really likes to help cook dinner and carry stuff.

He also loves to walk Brother into nursery. The first day Gaige went to nursery they walked in holding hands, Bentley turned around and said "Bye Daddy" and they ran off to play. Usually Bentley cries for 10 seconds, but now he takes care of Gaige. The nursery leaders told me that Bentley would stand behind Gaige with his arms around him and would kiss the back of his head several times and rub his shoulders. If only he was always that nice to Gaige!

Gaige - 18 1/2 months

height: 33 1/3 inches

weight: 27.5 pounds

Gaige has to do everything by himself. He doesn't want help eating, drinking, or anything else. He loves to jump, and when he gets really excited he jumps and yells "Yup!" He is getting goofier and goofier. He loves to stomp up to people all hunched over with a big smile on his face. And he loves to giggle! He gives very big hugs and loves to give kisses too. He has recently learned to push and hit, probably from being in nursery. And he loves to say "No, no, no" to Bentley while Bentley is sitting in time out. He talks a lot and thinks everything is the color blue. He hates when he doesn't get to go to school with Bentley and can't wait to go pick him up. His favorite song is "Ring around the Rosie" and his favorite book is "A Mouse About the House." They boys call the book their "Mickey Mouse Book." They fight over it like crazy and Gaige gets so crazy that we don't read the book anymore. He is so obsessed he freaks out when we won't let him read it or try to put it away.

He follows Bentley around and wants to do everything Brother does. They love to sit on each other and wrestle, usually resulting in a lot of yelping and whining. They adore each other. I found Bentley in Gaige's crib the other morning, and this morning he brought Gaige lots of toys to play with in his crib before I got up. Which brings me to the rough stuff...my boys get up at 6 am now because of the time change! This week has been very long with early risers, not so great nappers, and lots of tantrums, crying, and naughtiness. No matter when we put Bentley to sleep he strolls out of his bedroom before 6:30 am which is just too early for my old bones! I've tried everything!