2 year old cuteness

Guys, Ben is so stinking cute right now.  I can't hardly stand it.  I just want to grab his little cheeks and constantly be kissing him.  He says the funniest things and has the best facial expressions.  I'm not even sure I can accurately describe his cuteness, but I'm going to try.

Sometimes at bedtime Ben wants lots of kisses.  He'll say "here" "here" "here" and point to each spot we are to kiss.  It's pretty funny and cute.  He'll laugh when he points some place silly like his ear or nose.  Then sometimes I'll blow a kiss from the doorway and he'll reach up and catch it with a big smile.  After I say love you Ben he often replies "love you Mom!"  I love that.

Ben is really getting into playing with Isaac.  It's both good and bad.  They have many little fights and squabbles but lots of adorable chasing and giggling too.  Typical sibling stuff but it makes me happy to see them becoming good playmates and friends.  When Isaac was recently sick and spent most of the day in his room Ben was so lonely for him.  He would go to Isaac's door and check on him now and then and say "get better, brother."  He also tried to comfort Isaac after Isaac had hit his head on the organ.  I was holding Isaac and Ben climbed up next to me on the chair.  I asked if he'd like to rub Isaac's back to help him feel better and he said "no, hold him."  I laughed and told Ben I thought his lap might be a little small for that.  He promptly spread his knees to make his lap a little bigger and said "bigger now."  So I let him hold Isaac and they both thought it was awesome.  So did I.

I was eating some nutella on a banana for a little snack and Ben came into the kitchen.  He quickly spotted the nutella and asked for some.  I asked what he would like to eat it on and he replied "my finger."  Yep, that's my boy.  I'll eat nutella on my finger, or spoon, or whatever.

Oh he's cute...and a little cranky and needy at times too.  I love him.

Oh Boy!

I was just looking back over pictures and realized I haven't posted any pictures in a long old while.  I guess we'll do a little catching up again.  This is going to be an especially fun  catch up because these pictures are totally out of order.  Awesome.

We decorated sugar cookies on Valentine's day.  We also took the boys to the Lowe's build and grow clinic that morning to make fun valentines picture holders.  They sure love those build and grow clinics.

We had the adult session of stake conference on Valentine's night.  I stayed home with the boys while Jacob went alone.  He said the stake president talked about dating your spouse.  He gave them a list of date ideas.  Jacob and I have been doing a modified version of the list once a week.  One of the items on the list was building a snow man.  Ours looks a little more like a snow ghost but it was fun to make.  

We recently had a successful family movie night.  Isaac still has a little bit of a hard time with any bit of suspense in a movie.  So we are slowly working through rated G movies.  This particular night we made it all the way through A Bugs Life.  It was fun.

We bought a minivan last week to help make room for this coming baby and the car seat it will need.  These aren't great pictures but it's a Honda and we are loving it.  The boys are so excited about the power doors.  They cry if I don't let them open them every. single. time.  Fun right?

We've been enjoying the Wednesday cheap kids skate at the local skating rink.  It's for kids 6 and under so it's really perfect.  This particular time we went with our friends, the Kackstaetters, that live across the street.  They have a daughter who is Ben's age and a 1 year old daughter.  We are loving having them right across the street from us.  I generally try not to post pictures of other people's kids on my blog though.  So...just know they are cute and we love them.

This may have been Isaac doing the hokey pokey.

Jacob and I have a tradition of sharing a box of See's chocolates for Valentine's day.  We usually take the boys with us to pick out our box and they get a sucker.  It's a win for all involved.  Just look at that awesome chocolate sucker face.

This is the first time Isaac wasn't a total sticky mess from the sucker.  He's getting so big!  :)

The boys wanted me to build them an igloo...um...okay.  I wasn't about to go out in the snow and do it so we got creative.

We also celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday with some green eggs and ham treats at preschool/story time.  It was fun.

And here's are little preschool group.  Isaac, Sydney Bills, Emma Kackstaetter, Kelsey Bills, and Ben.  Seriously...those kids are too cute.  They have a (mostly) good time together.  The Bills are moving and I am so sad about it.  Isaac is too.  Sydney is one of his favorite play mates.

These are the little boy and girl outfits I bought.  The plan was to wrap them up and then have the boys open the appropriately gendered outfit when we found out if this babe was a boy or girl.  The babe was less cooperative.  So we explained to Isaac that the tech wasn't sure but had a guess.  We let him open the girl outfit but reminded him it could still be a boy.  I returned them both and was going to exchange the girl outfit for a bigger size.  They were out at my store but then my heart was kind of set on bringing this baby (hopefully girl) home in THAT outfit.  So I called my mom and she had Diana look at their target.  Success!  If this babe is indeed a girl you will see that outfit on her to be brought home from the hospital.  Can I just say how weird it was to be buying a girl outfit and summer clothes too?  Strange.

Ben took this photo of Isaac.

Isaac took these photos of Ben.  Ben was sad to not be taking pictures still.  Doesn't he make the saddest face?

And then the big tantrum ensues.  Two year olds...

We escaped most of the winter without getting sick.  Then March hit and I feel like we have been sick all month long.  First Isaac caught a stomach bug that lingered in his system forever.  Then a week later it was Ben's turn.  Luckily his was of a much shorter duration.  Jacob and I never caught that, thankfully.  But we've had our share of colds and sore throats recently.  I still consider us lucky this year.  Could have been the horrid flu that was going around  Glad we missed that!

And skating again.  This time with the Bills girls.  Isaac is getting pretty good.  He even upgraded to the regular high friction skates.

Ben is also pretty steady on those playskool ones.  He pushes with one foot and coasts with the other.  It's pretty cute.

As we were loading kids into the cars after skating was over Isaac got a little teary and concerned and said "Mom, the Bills aren't going to be here when we have the baby!"  Jamie and I both got a little teary ourselves...we know, Isaac, we know.  They have been great friends and we are going to miss them terribly.  At least I will.  I guess we can catch up with each other at those extended Lawrence reunions.  (Uncle Alma is Jamie's grandpa.)  Small world I tell ya, running into a second cousin in your ward.  Love it!

We took a quick weekend trip to Utah for Raylene Ireland's funeral.  Well, so I could attend the funeral.  Jacob hung with the boys.  They went to the build and grow with Sam and Brinton and then on to the Thanksgiving Point dinosaur museum.  (I'll have to get those pictures off Jacob's phone.)

That Sunday the boys wore the matching bow ties I had for them.  Jacob's is a legit bow tie and the boys were made from the pocket square that came with Jacob's tie.  I made the boys' bow ties too big.  They look a little clownish.  I'm trying to decide if it bothers me enough to take them apart and shrink them down a bit.  I don't know...

Ben was being a little grumpy and wouldn't get in the picture with Grandpa.  Oh well.

We loved seeing our Utah cousins and missed MaryAnn's and Shannon's family.  We really need to arrange all being there at the same time.  I guess not this summer though.  I don't travel with new babies.  Emma was adorable.  And patient with all of Isaac's attention.

He wouldn't just hold her still.  He had to try and rock her or something.

And then Hannah didn't want to be left out of the picture taking.

And Brinton wanted a turn too.  How can you not take a photo of those cute siblings?

Ben wanted to hold Emma but only with Jacob's help.

And last, but not least, here are 9 of my parent's 16 grandchildren.  Good looking group of kiddos.  But without Shannon and MaryAnn's kids there sure is an age gap from Matt to Isaac.  Ha!

We did have fun catching up with family and wish it could have been a little longer of a trip.  I'm a little sad because I probably won't see Josh again until he's getting home from his mission.  That is super strange.

Well, there ya go.  I'm trying to think if there was anything else terribly noteworthy in the past couple months.  I guess not really.  Just doing our thing...same old, same old.  I'm vowing now to do a better job at more regular posts though.  I've even got a post I started about all Ben's cute things he says and does that just hasn't gotten written.  Maybe this week?

Baby Girl?

Jacob and I went in for our 20 week ultrasound recently and things with baby number 3 are looking good and healthy.  I am very relieved about that.  I always am.  I often get myself into all kinds of a worried mess when I think of all the things that could go wrong in a pregnancy.  Thankfully we have been spared those challenges thus far.

We were also excited to find out if this baby is a girl or a boy.  I've gone both ways during the pregnancy, sometimes thinking it's a boy, sometimes a girl.  Turns out we get to keep guessing.  The baby was not terribly cooperative in showing off it's anatomy.  The ultrasound tech said if she had to guess she would guess that it's a girl but cautioned us against buying a bunch of pink without keeping receipts.

So, we might be having a girl.

I must admit I've started thinking and planning like it's a girl.  I hope we aren't all prepared to bring home a baby girl and end up with a boy.  I mean, I'm sure I'll love this baby either way, but I'd really like a girl.  I've bought some little girl outfits for bringing the baby home and all.  I don't have anything new for a baby boy.

I guess we'll have to wait and see.