The Snake, with a butter knife, on the kitchen table!

This last weekend we made a random trip back to SV to visit our family's. It was nice, quiet and relaxing. Ben had a blast playing in the snow and with "Moma's" homemade playdough! I decided to join and found that I did a pretty good job at making a cute little snake! Once I finished him I went to get the camera to take some pictures.

That's when I found him . . . . dead.


Here is the evidence, the snake, with the butter knife, on the kitchen table! At least there wasn't any blood.

I only turned my back for a moment and Ben killed my snake. He is obsessed with cutting things up ever since he got his food set that he cuts apart!(They are put together with velcrow and he has a knife to cut up the food.) Anyways the playdough was a hit and he really enjoyed it! Thanks Mom!

Oh and here are some pictures of Ben playing with his beloved train! He just can't seem to get enough of it!

Bubble Baths with a "Yes Sir"

So Ben was having his regular bath tonight, you know the usual warm water mixed with soap suds that most people call "bubble baths". He was being really cute and playing around. I'll occasionally pull out the squirt bottle and we'll giggle and laugh together as we slowly slaughter the bubbles! So we decided to do it again tonight. In the middle of our laughter Ben asked if he could try! He's never asked before, just always watched! So I said surehe could and let him give it a try. He promptly grabbed the bottle and was squirting all the bubbles!! He was really doing a wonderful job! He than panicked and grabbed his foot (while still holding the bottle) and said,"Dirty!?" He grabbed his little toe and with his other hand maneuvered the bottle in his remaining hand and started squirting bubbles off his toes and feet! I was shocked!! I couldn't believe the balance he had in a slippery tub full of bubbles, holding a bottle and squirting his feet, while with the other hand holding his toe!? What 18 month old can do that!?!? I told him that he was doing a good job and that I was surprised! He just giggled and said,"Yes, Sir!". I couldn't stop laughing!
Just so you know I don't have anywhere near the talent that my son does! But Dane and I occasionally will have the humor!

"Mee Mee" Problems!?

So we are finally weaning our child from his beloved pacifier!? We have tried everything from cutting them up one by one to having him throw them away! But because of our circumstances,(Ben's health problems) he has used the pacifier as a comfort for when we(Dane and I) are not able to accompany him into medical testing. He also has used it to help console him when he has been very ill. To start off with we never wanted him to have it in the first place. But the first night we gave it to him he nearly slept through the night by himself! WHY NOT!!!? When he was a month old he ended up having surgery because of his stomach problems. The Dr's told us because he had a pacifier it saved his life. We were very grateful for that at the time.

Since than we have had several attempts to wean him off of it. At 6 months we decided that it was no longer necessary for him to have it. Now here we are a year and a month later and we are still unsuccessful because everytime we tired to take it away sometime terrible happened! At 7 months he had an allergic reaction to a flu shot and had the flu really bad for about 10 days. He became dehydrated and had to have IV's. Than when he was starting to get better we moved across states to another time zone and were trying help him adjust. When we had been there for 4 weeks Ben broke his arm and because he was immoble was only comforted by the pacifier! We were starting to break through with him when he was a year old and we moved again to a new school, house, and town. So he was seeking comfort once again. A few month's after we got here in Logan and Dane started school Ben started to become very sick. He stopped eating and drinking, the only thing he would take was a bottle twice a day. He was loosing weight and stopped growing!? He found once agian his pacifier to be the most comfort. We now have his weight under control and he is on medication that is doing wonders for him! Nevertheless he is still attached to his pacifier.

About a month ago we cut up 2 of his 4 pacifiers and handed them back to him. I have never seen a child MOURN!! He sat down in a corner and bawled,"MEE MEE!! ALL GONE!!" over and over again! He cuddled his pacifier. He patted it. He held it close and tried to rock it! He was so devistated. So we were down to 2 and we cut part of the tip off of one. When it's time for Ben to go to sleep he always has to hold a "Mee Mee". This was working! He knew that they were going away! Well the last 2 weeks haven't been quite as successfull. Ben got the flu and again was stuck to his "Mee Mee", than this last week he was starting to do better and got a terrible cold! Once again, "MEE MEE!!!". So tonight I brought the pacifier's to the table and told him that they were going bye bye! I cut the end off of the last one and he laughed! That was until he went to bed and it dawned on him that it was gone. I put him to bed at 8:00 p.m. and he didn't stop crying until 9:15 p.m. I went to him once to wipe his nose, teary eyes, and tell him that he was ok, I still loved him and if he needed me to call me and I would come. I left hearing these words, "MEE MEE!". Nope that's not me.


After the hour and 15 minutes of crying he stopped. I was worried and wanted to make sure that he really had gone to sleep. I went into his room and found that he had been standing up before he fell asleep. I found him crumpled up in the corner of his bed. His head was squished in the corner, a foot was hanging through the rails, a hand(holding a "Mee Mee") was also dangling out of the bed, and he was snoring. I figured that he wasn't going to be very comfortable in that position and so I gently lifted him up and laid him back down on his pillow. He woke up and started softly crying,"Mee Mee". I gave him a kiss and told him good night and covered him up with his blanket. He hasn't moved since. But he is still breathing!

I can only hope and pray that this is the end of our "Mee Mee" problems!

Do what is Right

So Ben asked me if he could color with a pen and paper. I told him that he needed to be careful and not color anything else. That he needed to "Please keep it on the paper." So he started, leaning cautiosly across a bucket that houses his beloved kitchen toys. When all of the sudden he paniced and ran into our kitchen crying "quashcaf"(translation "wash cloth"). Where he promply grabbed our kitchen towel and brought it back to his bucket and started frantically wipeing at a small red spot where the pen had gone off the paper. He than came over to me and told me "Uh-Oh!?" and pointed to where he had gone off his paper. Than he put his little hands together and held his head down, with the saddest look on his sweet little face. I said,"Did you have an accident? Did you get it on the bucket?" He than ran to me with open arms and big tears. I told him that it was ok, and thanked him for trying so hard to clean it up.
My heart just swells to see that he understands and wants to do what is right as such a very young age! I hope that I can continue to teach him the right way and that he can always come to me when he has done something wrong. Just like we too can go to our Heavenly Father with open arms, knowing that he still loves us and wants us to learn to do what is right.

A little about Britt

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:

1- Thinking that Jr High was aweful.
2- Getting my tonsils taken out!?
3- Going to funerals for Great Grandparents
4- Flirting with boys
5- Shoveling snow for the 2nd time that day!


5 things on my "to do" list:

1- Mail bills
2- Laundry
3- Dishes
4- Dishes
5- Refill our ink cartridges


5 Snacks I enjoy:

1- Fresh Fruit
2- Jerky
3- Yogurt
4- Popcorn
5- Orange Julius


5 Things I'd do with a Billion Dollars:

1- PAY off school Debt.
2- Buy a modest home.
3- Set up a mission fund!
4- Actually buy some clothes!
5- Set up saving for our children. (when they come along)


3 Habits:

1- Leaving the dirt dishes until there's a mountain!
2- Taking off my shoes without untying them.
3- Misplacing important items, all the time.


5 places I've Lived:

1- Billings, Montana
2- Ucon, Idaho
3- Afton, Wyoming
4- Salt Lake City, UT
5- Ephraim, Utah


5 Jobs I've had:

1- Full-Time Mom and Wife
2- Photography Assistant/Secretary
3- Pharmacy Technician Intern
4- Quizno's Sandwich maker
5- Housekeeper

First Presidency

On January 27, 2008 our beloved Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley passed away. There were so many countless opportunites that he had to serve the Lord diligently, and he did so with great humilty and compassion. We will miss the man whom we loved, laughed with, cried with, and felt the spirit with.

We are now happy to sustain and support the New First Presidency for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

President Thomas S. Monson as President of the Church.


Henry B. Eyring, First Councelor.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Councelor.


Ben and I had the opportunity to watch the broadcast on the BYU channel and were excited and happy for these wonderful men and their new callings in the church. We look forward to hearing them in the April General Conference.

Real *SNOW*

So we are happy to say that we have finally went out to play in the snow this year! We've been waiting for Ben's health to improve and couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. Here are some pictures of our adventure as a family!
Dane only had 15 minutes to spare and wanted to do something fun with Ben! It was a blast and we enjoyed every minute of it. Ben wasn't ready to be done but was tired enough to come inside with us.

Snow!?

Who knew that fake snow could be soo much fun!
(Notice we have real snow outside!)

Christmas Confessions

Ok so I'm slow putting up our Christmas pictures but I lost our camera in our stuff and didn't take any pictures of Christmas morning. Thanks to Mom we were able to capture the precious moments with Ben on her camera! So here are a few pictures of our quiet and small Christmas together!

Here is Ben coming up the stairs on Christmas Morning!

Dane and Ben excited over Ben's new train set from "Bampa" and "Moma"!

Ben's new tools! I was trying to help clean up the boxes.

Ben using his new hammer.

"Moma" helping Ben unwrap a presant. While "Bampa" looks on.

Ben's new tooth brush and he was showing everyone his teeth!

New Year!

We are learning everyday with Ben and his health. At times it is trying as parents to watch your child cry because there is something that has to be done. Even though we still don't have the answers as to why Ben is having such problems, I'm grateful for the peace and serenity that my testimony brings. I'm grateful for a New year to start fresh and begin anew to find myself. Something that seems to have gotten lost over the last few years of ill health on my part as well as Ben's. I look forward to accomplishing more and feeding my soul with good. I don't know where this year will lead as we travel through it together as a family, but I pray that we might be able to adhere to the plan the Heavenly Father has in store for us.
May you also have a Happy New Year!

Where did it go?

Dane and I decided to tackle the Christmas decorations yesterday. We wanted to put them away while Ben was asleep and we were very successful. By the time Ben woke up all the decorations were gone and we were rearranging the living room. Ben was happy because he wanted a ride on the couch while we moved it around.
Well I usually have Ben look out the window when Dane comes home because he always likes to see him come in. Usually our tree with "lights" has been sitting in our front window taking up almost all of it. So I told Ben to go look out the window and see the snow. He obediently went and was very excited about the snow. I than asked him if he wanted to see the lights. (This means that we turn on our Christmas tree lights for the evening.) He got all excited and turned around looking very puzzled and quite alarmed. He kept turning around in circles looking for the tree. He had a look that said this,"I'm sure that it was just right here and now it's gone!" He was very concerned, but we were able to comfort him and tell him that it was, "All Gone. Bye, Bye." After which he was content to know that the tree wasn't there anymore.
The look that he had and the sudden dawning was priceless! Dane and I had the giggles for a while afterwards.

Check out the Shiner!

Just a warning to all Mothers . . . .

The Wal-Mart carts bite back!?

Hershey Kiss!?

Isn't it a sweet moment when your baby learns how to kiss you!? It was for me when Ben gave us our first kisses and now is so eager to give them all the time.


Well the other day Dane came home from work with a candy cane full of "Hershey's Kisses". Once Ben saw that Dad had candy he wanted some!! He kept asking,"Bite, Meese! Bite MEESE!!!" (Translated: Dad I really want some of your candy PLEASE!!) Dane told him no and that he wasn't suppose to have any because of his health problems. But he told Ben that he could play with the candy cane, but not eat it.


Ben seemed to be satisfied and went on his way. Dane and I started discussing the holidays and when we were going to travel, what we were going to do, and who we were staying with on what days. When suddenly we realized that we hadn't saw where Ben went and noticed that he was too quiet!? I walked around out counter to find this . . . . . . .
























And wait there's more . . . . . . THIS . . . . . . . .

How did he do it!? I would really like to know!

So Dane and I stood there in AWE and Ben kindly walked up to Dane and said,"Here go!" as he handed him one of the kisses. (When Ben walks he puts his hands behind his back. And as he was walking away from us we noticed that his back was chocolate coated too!) Then he squatted back down to open another kiss for himself. Ben had unwrapped 3 kisses and had eaten them all! You could tell that he wasn't very good at getting all the wrapper off because he had spit out pieces of the tin foil and they were chocolate spit covered on the floor. I turned to Dane who was trying not to bust a gut, and asked him if he wanted the boy or the chocolate covered floor.

He said Ben!

I personally want to say that it's easier to get chocolate off your skin than your living room carpet!?

Merry "Kiss" Moose!!

Ho Ho comes early!

Ben has been just a joy to have in our home and always keeps us on our toes.
Just the other day I was emailing family when all of the sudden I hear this RRIIIPPPP . . . WHEEEEE. Someone was thrilled with his new find of hidden toys! I quickly went to his side and told him, "No, No, we have to wait until Ho Ho comes and than you can open your presents." Ben got all sorts of excited and ran over to our small homemade North Pole and pointed at the candle Santa in it's chimney. He begain exclaiming, "Ho Ho!!", while pointing frantically at the Santa. Than promply ran back to the tree grabbed another gift and sat down to open another treasure. Taking away a 17 month old's new found toy isn't easy, but I managed to calm him down and told him that we had to wait for later. This was something that he understood, but was still bummed that he didn't finish opening his new found joy!
I hope that by next year Ben will understand the concept of "Ho Ho" as a real person, and not as the candle on the counter.
Until than "later" works just fine.

Getting Started

Well I finally decieded to start blogging because I have such fun stories to tell and never like to sit down and write with pen and paper. My hand always cramps up. But I do enjoy typing and have enjoyed Meg's little stories and fun pictures.
Just don't know what to say now!