Benny the scholar

Bennett loves to read in the loosest sense of the word. He will sit & look at his books for a long time. He also likes to lie back on his pillow and relax while he looks at his books.

The other day at Costco, Carter & Bennett were both sitting in the cart looking at books. A lady walked by and thought it was cute they were both reading & called her husband over to see what nice boys they were (we were having a good moment). Then they noticed that Jillian & I were both reading also & they were very impressed. I too find literacy impressive & am glad the kids are good readers.

Thanks Aunt Kelsy!!

The kids always love the fun things you send them. Jillian & Carter picked their colors while Bennett was asleep then decorated the pink one for him. He loved it!

4th of July

To celebrate the 4th of July, we went over to the Mahkorn's for a BBQ & water fun. Bennett was very excited to see the big backyard to play in. He was having a great time, and then Spike found him. Bennett was interested in spike at first and thought he was just fine until the turtle started nipping at his toes. He didn't like that much so he got up and ran away. No sooner had he plopped down somewhere else in the yard than that silly turtle found him again. It followed him everywhere. He tried ignoring it and when that didn't work he tried pushing it away. But Spike was very persistent & wasn't going anywhere. Finally Bennett just got ticked. I thought it was pretty funny and had to get some, or a lot, of pictures but I did rescue him from that terrible turtle!

After lunch Auntie Brittany brought out the water balloons. The kids were so excited.

After it was time to dry off. Luckily Hani-girl shared her towel since we didn't think to bring any and auntie Brittany had some extra. These girls love being together! When we were saying goodbye Hani-girl said I had a choice, she was coming to Vegas with us or Jillian was staying in California with them. I think the choice was obvious except with Jillian gone I have to play with Carter more! So everyone went to their own homes with many tears shed by Jillian!

That night we lit fireworks in front of the Gardena house where Conan & Sierra, Christian & I, & Steve & Tracie have all lived. Steve & Tracie, the current residents, were not home but we didn't let that stop us. The older kids had a great time. Carter spent the entire time jumping up and down yelling dynamite. The three little ones were not thrilled about all the noise, as you can see by Emme in the bottom left picture. Bennett had one big crying fit at the first loud firework but was ok after that as long as he was snuggled up with his Mommy.

We had a great weekend and loved seeing everyone!

Long weekend

Last minute we decided to go to California for the long weekend. We had lots of fun. We drove down Thursday night. On Friday Jillian & Carter were very excited to see Hani-girl. We went to the beach that afternoon and the kids had a great time. Bennett really liked playing at the beach, Carter loved jumping in the ocean & Jillian played in the sand. The weather was perfect.

On Sunday we went out to visit at Grandma & Grandpa Underwood's house. We ate lunch & played with all the dogs at the house. Duke was there as usual, Chris & Missy dropped off Prancer while they were out of town & Paige & Joe brought Robot & Zoe for the kids to play with.

Jillian loved the puppies and carried them all around. Carter was fairly indifferent to them. Bennett seemed a little unsure at first but warmed up quickly. His favorite thing about the puppies was their toy, Chuck the Duck. He walked around squeaking that thing forever & the puppies, thinking he was playing with them, would run along behind him.

What was funny was seeing Bennett with Duke. He wasn't concerned about Duke at all even though he is big. He did however start to object to Duke licking his face every few minutes.
Thanks for bringing the puppies over to play Paige!