baby steps

So yesterday I went and put Benson down for a nap...45 minutes later, he was still playing in his crib with his stuffed bear. I went in to explain to him that he needed to nap and he just looked up at me and put his arms out for me! It was his first time to reach out towards someone....It made me feel like a million bucks.

Santa Baby

This post goes out to my dear friend who is expecting a baby sometime soon. Her due date isn't for another few days but I made a prediction that the baby would come today...so

dear baby,
please come today. We are all very excited for you to come and we are all just waiting to meet you...and if you don't come today my husband will never forget to remind me how I didn't guess the right day. Your dad took his last final so he has free time and your mom doesn't want to go back to school...Pleassee Pleassee come today!
love,
Gini, Scott, Benson

Tis the Season

Tis the season for hussle and bussle, for getting things done, and trying to remember the Holiday spirit.

Things always seems to get crazy this time of year and it definitely has for us. It started with our boiler breaking...and after 20+ hours, seven different repair men, three space heaters, two flooded carpets, one melted bucket and a blow dryer..we believe it is fixed. they are coming today to check on it and hopefully we will never hear from Manwill Plumping again!

Thank goodness that great food comes along with the holiday traditions and Benson is just old enough to enjoy it. He has now tried pumpkin pie, pears, bananas, yams, and avacodo. He loves them all! I'm very grateful for Scott's parents idea of buying a highchair for their grandkids and then leaving it behind when they left for Hong Kong...Benson loves being in it!

We are celebrating this Christmas at home and my parents are flying out today to spend it with us. They live in North Carolina and wanted a white Christmas this year.

After the holidays I will start my student teaching! I'll be teaching US Government and World History...I am so scared! but very excited to finally finish school!

So, if the postings start to slow between now and April..you know why. I'll be up to my elbows in grading and lesson plans!! Wish me luck!

Play Date

Benson had his first play date this last week and it was soo funny to watch him and his cousin play together! Benson can't quite sit up on his own so I think when he can the play dates will be a lot of fun! They were so cute we couldn't help but take a few shots. Thanks for the pics A!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving
This year we have a lot to be grateful for. The last couple months have seemed to have some dark hours but each time we have been blessed with tender mercies that have pulled us through the hard times.

Here are things that we are grateful for (not in any order):

- Family
- Scott's job
- Ice Cream
- Our home
- A healthy baby
- airplanes
- gchat
- Friends
- King size beds
- Pacifiers
- Dishwashers

Happy Birthday

Dear Mom,

Happy Birthday!!

Hope its a wonderful day and I just wanted to say thanks for being such a great mom to me and a great meme for Benson. I hope one day I can be as great as a mom as you are!

We love you even though we tease you about being from Oregon and being a tree hugger...and shuffling your feet...and your garden that you know more about then your own child....

its raining, its pouring...

After being out of town for a long weekend, we came home to this:



a flooded dining room. The radiator pipe that is outside on the balcony busted while we were gone and it leaked into the apartment. Luckly, our personal handy man took the long drive up from Provo on a late Sunday night to help us out.

Thanks Todd (and Lori of course) for coming to help us out...by the way, can you tell Todd's got a new pair of jeans?

Fashion of a Mom

I made it to my favorite store H&M while I was out east. During our visit I was totally sick and so didn't feel up to thrashing through the whole store like I normally do but I did purchase a pair of leggings....and i finally wore them today..inside of course. Well, we did go for a walk but it was dark and we didn't see a lot of people.

I'm still deciding whether or not the public can handle me in them and whether or not I can really pull it off. Between diaper changes, cleaning kitchen floors and piles of laundry my wardrobe has taken a nasty hit of the not so stylish but comfortable and practical. I really like wearing them around the house and I feel like I got a great deal, 10$ for a pair of pants, which is way better than the 60$ jeans that I really want from Gap.

I think I'd be more tempted to wear them out in public if I found some cute tops like these to wear with them...

NC Trip

My brother Dallin came home from his mission and so my whole family flew out to NC to welcome him home! It was such a fun trip that I ended up staying an extra week (well, i got sick and wasn't about to fly home alone with a baby sick.) Here are just a few pictures of what we did!



went pumpkin picking...we got 8 or 9 pumpkins and then forgot to carve them!


The boys...doing what they do best... I have no idea.


Belle picking out the small pumpkins


Belle with Benson




Emily was out in SC visiting friends from the mission and came by for a few days to hang out, it was a lot of fun to have her come!

Each year the lake that my parents live on gets drained a few feet for the winter season, we were able to go out on the boat before they drained it this year. I'm pretty sure everyone else thought we were crazy but it was just warm enough to go without a wet suit and the sunset was so fun to ski with!

4 months

Benson is 4 months now and his check up went really well. He's just over 14 pounds which is in the 30% for his age. He's 26 inches long (he grew three inches in two months!) which is the 87% for his age. He got all his shots and the doctor recommended that both Scott and I get the flu and the H1N1 vaccine since Benson is too young to get it. I was a little torn whether or not I should get it but since I've had two run ins with my asthma already and been sick twice, both Scott and I are going to get it.

Benson loves to play with people. He likes his toys but LOVES it when someone just talks to him. Its pretty easy to get him to laugh if you just talk to him. He also really likes to be held, which can sometimes get difficult when there are things to be done.

He hates being in the back of the car by himself, every time we go somewhere he fusses unless someone holds his hand. He also lately has been a big cuddler which I'm glad. I can't believe that he's already 4 months!

Belated Birthday

This is a little late but I still wanted to post a little Birthday wish to Scott. I wasn't able to be with him on his birthday but thanks to family, Scott got tickets to the Jazz game and went with some of his friends on his birthday!

I want to wish him a belated birthday and am sorry I couldn't be there to celebrate! Scott is now the big 2-5 and I'm so glad that he was willing to marry me. He is probably the most patient person in the world and I have no idea what I'd do without him.

Maybe one day I'll be able to make him a cake like this...



Happy Birthday Scott!

Family Photos

Todd was nice enough to take some photos for us down at hobble creek canyon a week ago and they turned out really good. I always dread family photos because it seems like they dont always turn out great but thanks to Todd's mad skills and Lori's assistance, we are very excited about them. We're even going to attempt to do Christmas cards this year because they turned out so well! So i need addresses! email me at giniberrett@gmail.com

Moab

Scott's sister, Angie, ran the half marathon this fall and we went down to support her. It was Scott's first time going to Moab without a bike...what a trooper!

we got a there the night before and left Angie and Benson to rest and hang out while me and Scott went out to cause trouble on the town.



First stop, the general store where we found this awesome lava lamp and enough nick nacks to keep up entertained for awhile. Then we went a Mexican restaurant and splurged on dessert....fried ice cream!




The next morning Angie had to get up at 530 to be at the transfer bus on time. She did AMAZING and actually ran so fast we missed her by a few minutes at the finish. We don't have any of the pictures on our camera but will post them up when i get a hold of them.

It was a great trip and everyone slept on the way home. Benson loves Angie and would only sleep if she held his hand on the way home.

Janice Wedding

Our good friend Toby just married his sweetheart Lyndsay and it was very exciting that we got to be there for it. It was a beautiful wedding and we had a blast! Congrats Toby and Lyndsay!


The Bride and Groom


Benson with his good friend Kade who He'll miss- Kade is reporting to the MTC in Jan and will be going on his mission to North Carolina. (Benson really did have a good time, he just looks a little out of it here)


Me and my HOT date.

good idea...

I think I'm going to try this...

14 days....

In 14 days my brother will be home from his mission. He is currently in Portugal and has been there two years sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ as a missionary for our church. My whole family will be flying in to surprise him and i'm so excited! its been two and a half years since we have all been together!

Proud Owners

I am now a very proud owner of a bumbo. I've always wanted to get one for Benson and now that he holds his head up, he can use one!

Friday night me and Scott went to Target for our date night and got a green one, along with a few other baby needs items.

Today, my niece Brooklyn was visiting and this is how our conversation went:


Brooklyn: "GiniBerr, whats this?"

"oh, its a Bumbo, for Benson to sit in"

Brooklyn: "Ohhhhhh!! A Bum Bum! I wanna sit in the Bum Bum, oh Giniberr I like the Bummm Bummm"

the whole rest of the visit she referred to it as "the bum bum".

For the family

Him or Her

So many people ask us who Benson looks more like, me or Scott. It's pretty hard to tell since we used to be confused as brother and sister and Scott's mission president to this day still exclaims when he see's us "Just like brother and sister!"

it sorta makes me feel a little uncomfortable when he says that.

here are some pictures of me and Scott when we were little and you can tell that we are family by way of husband and wife and not brother and sister.

this is Scott i think around 7 months?

This is Scott's baby blessing day


Here I am... I have no idea the age though


And this is Benson at three months

Conference Weekend

This last weekend was General Conference for our church; its very exciting for us because we get to listen to the the Lord's servants and gain spiritual strength and knowledge from them. We also get to hear from President Monson who is the President of the LDS Church and Prophet. There are two sessions on Saturday and Sunday.

During the Sunday morning session of conference, me and Scott attempted to make danish pastries while listening to conference. Scott's grandma Wall used to make them and the recipe has now been handed down to her grandchildren. They actually didn't turn out too bad for our first attempt, i believe we are going to try again and try different fillings.



it was a almond filling with a custard base


the before and after baking picture

During the Sunday afternoon session, we listened to conference on the radio and drove the alpine loop. We ran into some snow and a lot of other drivers but it was still so much fun to see the leaves changing. It reminded me of my home back east and made me miss the east coast terribly...




This was at the top, when the snow started coming down


Benson's first snowfall...sorta...


Thanks Scott for driving me the whole way and stopping every 5 seconds when i wanted to take a picture!



i love love love love the red leaves!!