Happy Birthday to Ben!!

That's right! It's birthday time over here. Ben has turned TWO. He's officially a Big Kid...Well that's what we are telling him since we will be adding a new "baby" here soon.

We've started the tradition of sprinkled donuts on the two year old birthday to keep things simple. It seems I've been prego a few times right around their 2nd birthday so why not skip the cake making and do sprinkled doughnuts. Kids love them!

So we bought some on Saturday enjoyed them at a really awesome park, and we saved one for today for the standard birthday picture.

The funny thing was Ben was so intrigued by the "fire!" he touched it....

He didn't seem to mind, he said, "Mom, HOT!" But the kids reactions were awesome.

Since we had a family party tonight, Alayna had this brilliant idea to make a CANDY cake for Ben. Because if you know Ben...he BEGS for TREATS and CANDY every other minute of the day. So what better cake to document his life than a candy cake.

He loved the frosting...

He's eyeing the candy and SO wishing he could eat it all!!

The family of six soon to be one more....crazy!

He gobbled up all of his "treats" off his candy cake.

A happy kid on his birthday. In new birthday pajama's from my mom.

Yeah, for his Cheese face. We love you Ben!

Monthly Update....

Yup. He did it. He set a goal to ride in a Century Bike Ride...100 Miles!!!

I can't believe he was still smiling after 6-7+ HOURS of TORTURE, WIND, HILLS, WIND, HILLS, WIND... WOOT WOOT. Nice job, we couldn't be MORE proud of you!!

The cheering squad.

The Man Buddies that he rides with. Two finished at the same time, then the other two finished together. It was a super tough race that pushed them all, but I think the WIND and HILLS left them all desiring to do another one.

Our kids spent the day waiting for Jared to finish the race by helping the other little kids pass out the finishers medals. It was great fun. WAY TO GO!!! (Just for the record a 2 hour half marathon seems like a walk in the park compared to this race!)  

The kids were being funny one night. They were placing ALL of their socks on their legs and pretending they had broken legs.

 

 

 

Yet again, our morning view...all four kids eating breakfast and getting ready for school.

One of Ben's all time favorite past times. "BUCKLES" Buckling them and then hauling the chair over to me to unbuckle them. Just so he can do it all over again, and again.

Time Out For Women Logan...This is one of the BEST weekends I look forward too ALL year. Honestly, it's so uplifting and so wonderful.

The Perry Girls

 

The Peck Gals

Monthly Update...

I really have no cleaver way of starting new posts these days. Because honestly I feel like we are in the countdown to our "new" "normal" life around here...Welcoming a new baby means most things get neglected for several months. I finally sat down to upload some pictures and I realized I hadn't blogged anything for over a MONTH. Wow. Talk about being behind schedule. I think a mix of school, four kids, and pregnancy has really taken it's toll on me. Either way, I'm enjoying the journey (for the most part) and surviving and still we are trying to have some fun.

FHE at Gardener Village to visit the Witches. It was 75+ degrees and we decided it was a must activity while the weather was still warm!

Cute posing children

Jake was missing, he had a friend birthday party to attend too...

We just so happened to run into some cousins thinking the very same idea...

Caleb loving the Baseball witches

Caleb really wanting to scream and wear a witch hat...he has this cackle scream that is hilarious.

We managed to find all the witches and get our .35 cent cookies...YUM.

Lego's...this is Caleb's life. Seriously, all he does is play non-stop with Lego's. Ben likes to call all the Lego people..."guys" It's pretty adorable how much these boys love their Lego's.

Ben has a new talent...you say, "Cheese" and he gives you this adorable smile! I can't keep my hands off of him. He's growing leaps and bounds every day. His vocabulary is accelerating and we are just loving it. Some of my favorite phrases is he tells me, "Just a minute!" and if I say, "Come on let's go..." he follows it up with "HUSTLE!" Obviously, these are key phrases said multiple times a day.

Enjoying some sunshine during the General Conference break....

One morning Jared was awesome to clean out my inside freezer. Well this nearly empty carton of sherbet was going to be tossed. Well, Ben was the only kid hanging out with us in the kitchen so we let him have at it. This boy LOVES "Ice Cream!" and don't you worry he will tell you about his love. "Ice Keam!"

 

Seriously, he couldn't have been happier. Funny enough the kids had the opposite reaction when they realized Ben was eating ice cream before breakfast...I think a few shed a few tears!

This is our morning each day...I just have to laugh at these cute kids eating up and getting ready for school. I just think...One, Two, Three, Four...then I look down and realize there will be Five...and where is he going to go??

He's a hungry hippo these days. I can't get enough food on his plate and keep it that way.

This one day I made some chicken dish with mashed potatoes and he was in HEAVEN! The boys were laughing and laughing at him because he'd polish off his plate and then push it towards me and say, "Mom Mom - MORE, Please!"

At one point he ended up getting some in his nose. We all laughed and laughed.

We had a great visit from Brian, Ashley and Mikey from Texas. It was sure fun to have the kids play with their cousin. Not to mention he's absolutely adorable!

Park City 2013

As always the Marriot resort is never ready for 16 grandkids...but man alive we love this place and vacation!

The kids thought this bus was just for them to climb all over. 

The girls happy to be together.

Jared and Conner...Jared is totally pleased that it started POURING rain right as we headed outside for fresh air, lunch at a park, etc. We waited out the storm for a few minutes then off we went. 

The music park...the kids love this place. 

 

When else can Caleb use a rock to hit it against things to make pretty sounds....

 

 

Down further on the trail...We all sat up and watched the kids at the shoe tree, and walking in the mini river. 

All the crazy grandkids. 

Everyday consisted of swimming!

 

The 6 year old boys have SO much fun together. It's great now that they all know how to swim, they just do their own thing. We really don't see them for HOURS.

Happy Jake

The girls also loving the pool.

Here we all sat and hung out...I did a lot of reading, and a little swimming. Thanks to my mother-in-law she leant me three books by Beverly Lewis...The Shunning, The Confession, and The Reckoning....MUST READS. I finished all three this week. and they were spectacular. I even ended up ordering the movies that were made about them. I haven't watched them yet, but I think tonight is the night! FUN.

These 6 year olds think they are pretty hot stuff. 

The family tradition, taste test....cereal.

The girls loved this taste test. It was over Malt-O-Meal vs. the Capn' Crunch and Lucky Charms. Malt-O-Meal won the lucky charms but Capn' crunch berries won. YUM.