2009 Christmas Letter

This has been a banner year for your favorite "S" clan! Every year that we actually finish is a banner year, but there have been some really fun things this year that we’re happy about, foremost the birth of our fourth child Mase. I (Ben) also changed jobs from making websites to making websites, so that change of venue has been fun. Princess was baptized in the spring and we have really enjoyed watching our offspring grow and develop into real little people. Rachel has recovered from the pregnancy and runs the household with grace and beauty, often with one hand tied behind her back. Since this is the season of giving, allow me now to give you an update on each of our children.

Princess (8) loves to read and spell and is currently spell-bound by the Fabelhaven series. She recently made a nativity out of Barbies to help decorate the house, and of course we love it! She is very good about helping her younger brothers with their troubles, playing and even basic daily decisions. Princess is very caring and sympathetic and it is fun to back-seat drive with her as she begins to really navigate her way through life. She is also a real cute one and we’re glad that she is only eight!

G-man (6) is the starting forward for the Fox Hollow Flyers this year as a freshman and although he already has a few scholarship offers, we are trying to focus on his education for now, like reading. He loves to play “Barbies and Transformers” with his sister in a compromise of their favorite toys. G-man is very imaginative and loves to run and play. We’re happy to see him begin to spell and read this year in kindergarten. G-man is a real character and keeps us laughing!

Ikey (2) is a wild man-child. He is taking full advantage of his “terrible twos” stage complete with high-pitched screaming and antics like standing on the pew at church and yelling, “to infinity and beyond!” before jumping into flight like Buzz Lightyear. Speaking of Toy Story, we have literally worn out a DVD and a VHS tape watching those shows repeatedly over the first years of his life. We look forward to taking him to sit on the very front row for the new movie Toy Story 3 !

Mr. Mase (4 months) is a baby, and a cute one too, but at four months he’s already the size of most 2-year-olds! Rachel has to work hard to stay ahead of his feedings and changings and I’m happy to jump in and get some quality snuggle (napping) time whenever I can. We really don’t know what he’s into, besides diapers, so you’ll just have to stop by sometime and check him out!

May the spirit of the season join with the Lord’s blessings this year and next!


Love, The "S" Family

BLOG FART

So, I have been having a blog fart lately. I just don't feel motivated to blog about the happenings around here. It's busy enough just accomplishing the things that we are supossed to do.

Will a list format work?

Christmas decorations
Temple square lights
Princess's choir concert
Get together with friends
Girl's night out
Ward party
Candy making
Visiting Teaching
Shopping - all done!
Need to wrap
Sub for santa
Bread making class
Helping with family
School class parties coming up
Ben YM's night
Court of honors
Church meetings for both of us
Neighbor gifts
Laundry, laundry laundry!
wedding videos
Our side business
The sitcom "Lost" - we're addicted! Hence why we are so tired, no self control!

RANDOM THOUGHT: As I was doing the dishes two days ago, I had a thought. It had been a particularly crazy day. I really wanted to fix a nice dinner and had been preparing it all day. I had to plan it just right because Ben had Young Mens that night and he only had about 20 minutes to eat and then be out the door. Backing up a little bit, I had been cross with the kids all day. It started with waking up really late and doing the crazy morning rush. I was totally wrong and shouldn't have yelled at them.

Ok fast forward, I had talked to Ben so I could time dinner being hot on the table when he arrived. As I was finishing up and expecting him to walk in the door, I get a phone call. It's him and his meeting went late. I was upset and really rude on the phone and hung up. I felt under appectiated because I didn't think that he was thinking of my feelings. In my heart I knew that he wouldn't be late on purpose, but my emotions take over and I feel I want to blame someone.

So, as I was cleaning the kitchen after having a nice dinner without Ben and then looking forward to a night solo with the kids again, I had a thought. And it wasn't just a thought, it was a whisper from the Spirit.

Very clearly I understood that I need to show the emotions that I'm ACTUALLY feelings. I often show anger when really what I'm feeling is disappointment, fear, or frustration. I was mad at the kids when what I should have portrayed was that I was nervous that we weren't going to be to school on time and I knew it was because I woke late. I was taking it out on them. What I should have shown Ben was that I was disappointed that we couldn't sit down as a family and have dinner together and that I miss him!

It will be amazing if I can put what the Spirit prompted me to do and be completely honest in my emotions and interactions.

...and the verdict is....

a dislocated pelvis!!

Yes folks. I have been walking around with a bum pelvis since Mase was born. For the lucky few that I usually complain to, I'm sure that you are ECSTATIC that I finally went to Dr. Chiropractor. I've never been to one, but I am a believer! You should have heard the pop that happened when he muscled that pelvic bone back into place. The back wasn't pretty and the neck needed a little work. After about a million pops, I'm feeling pretty swell.

As I was leaving he said, your back will feel like you've been in a minor car accident for a few days". I'm thinking, as opposed to feeling like a train is running over me :)

I'm a happy camper. A couple follow ups and I should be good to go. Mase should be proud of himself. Even though he was the runt, he did mama the most damage :)

Our weekend...

Whew! Just catching my breath here from the weekend. It's been a crazy couple of weeks (self imposed of course).

Friday afternoon I got together with my friends and we put on a Halloween party for the kids. It was the maiden voyage for the costumes this year.



Here's some of the kids. Ikey was no where to be found but this is 2/3 of the kids at the party



G-man loves his costume! He is so completely and utterly obsessed with Transformers. It makes Ben happy! I just roll my eyes. I have had to hide the costume so it makes it to the 31st.



Ikey is Optimus Prime...not because he's obsessed like G-man but only because BumbleBee needs a side kick :). Ikey is happy to oblige.



Princess had a tricky time deciding what to be this year. She finally decided on a Vampiress! Stay tuned for full make up and eye lashes. This was a hard feat eating the donut and not the wig :)

Friday night I decided to do a little furniture shopping. I found some really good deals at Knight's Furniture here in Lehi. I got a new mattress for our bed. We have been married 9 years which marks how long a mattress will last for us. Even after sleeping on the new mattress a couple of nights, I still have back pain. I may need to pay a visit to the chiropractor :(



The boys got new bunk beds! They are beyond excited. The first thing G-man did was set up rules...Ikey can't be on his bed



This picture was taken after G-man went to school this morning ha ha!

Princess has been sick this weekend, so we've spent most of it indoors. I decided to try out some yummy new recipes



These orange rolls are SO delicious! And they made my house smell like Christmas morning!! YUM!



This was Pumpkin Pie Shake. It had pumpkin, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, brown sugar, vanilla, and graham cracker. It called for vanilla ice cream and I went a step further and had french vanilla ice cream. It was so good!

I also made roast and fresh mashed potatoes with yams. It turned out ok. I love making homemade fries with the sweet potatoes so I think I'll use my last one on that :) later this week.

This is a terrible picture, Ben took it with his cell phone. Here Princess is mastering a Karate punch. G-man does very well also! They enjoy it.



Last but not least, a little potty humor:



What an ingenious idea! My friend Heidi showed me her toilet (I'm glad we're such good friends!) I'm getting me one! Ikey is going to be potty training just around the corner. She said she bought it at Target just in case y'all are jealous of my soon to be new toilet seat :)

2 month Mr. Mase

Here's a couple pictures of Mase. Our camera was out of batteries last Sunday when we had him blessed. I still need to grab the pictures, but I'll post when I get them.

In the mean time, look at this little guy!



I just love him so much. I can't believe it's been two months. He is so happy and fun. He's starting to grab for things and really enjoys watching the kids. He is so used to loud noises I can vacuum when he's asleep in the swing and he doesn't even flinch. He loves when I sing to him and when Daddy makes him "use his muscles". He can hold his head up and use his legs to stand up for a really long time. He hates tummy time :) He weighs 14 pounds...doubled his weight!

Mase's blessing

We feel so blessed to have Mase! It's fun to see him getting bigger. Ben gave a beautiful blessing. I am so thankful that he holds the priesthood so sacred and is able to bless our children.



Cutie smiles!



His Grammas love him. He's so lucky!



This one is just funny...goofy Daddy :)

I figured it out!

Everyone keeps asking me how the adjustment is going with having 4 kids. I keep telling people that it's going ok. They seem to assume that what that really means is I am not coping well. Does it show on my face? Deep dark circles? :) Is my aura giving off stress?

Well, I figured it out! (By the way, this makes me a genius)

It's not necessarily that 4 is a lot more physical work than 3. They are all still healthy, loved, bathed, and taken care of. But MY EXPECTATION on how well those things are done has made me have to down grade. I can't clean the house a well as before. It's still clean, but not to my standard. The kids are still clothed, but the clothes don't match all the time, because I haven't gotten all the laundry done. Dinner isn't done when I want it to...it's chaotic where before I really strived to be more organized. Does that make sense? I stress more because I have to be on time. I just have to. So I'm not a very pleasant person while we are getting ready to go somewhere because I haven't adjusted to how much time things take.

I've always heard that when you have 4 or more kids it's just easy and adding one more is not a very big deal. I say this is true AND not true.

Ben asked me last night while we were watching a movie how many more we were going to have. I told him no more. He smiled at me and said...that's not true. He was fishing for a commitment from me. I told him he better not press his luck for a commitment because I would MOST DEFINITELY commit to NO MORE, which is not what he wanted to hear probably. Sounds to me like he needs to feed the baby in the middle of the night for a week and then we'll talk :)

Chunky Monkey

Mase is getting so big! He is loosing the newborn baby look, which kind of makes me sad :( He started smiling and cooing at me last week....time if flying by so fast!!

So I decided to weigh him on the scale today....

Mase's stats:

At birth 7 lbs 2 ounces.
Leaving the hospital he weighed 6 lbs 5 ounces.
At 2 weeks he weighed 7 lbs 5 ounches
Today, he is a little past 6 weeks and he weighs.....

13 pounds!!!!! In a month he's gained 5 1/2 pounds! Holy Smokes!! I thought he might be my runt, but he is making up for his inferior weight really quickly!!

Happy Birthday G-man!!

Oh how I love this kid! 6 years old today and I still can't get enough.

G-man is such a complex little boy yet he really isn't and is so happy to just be here. He is quick to hug, lives hard, and brings a special spirit to our home. He is the epitome of Ben and I mixed together...calm and inquisitive like Dad; curious and emotional like me. G-mans most overwhelming characteristic is his contentment with life, yet he has some spunk! He generally just observes and loves being. He is the kindest old soul that I know. We love you SO much buddy!

I hate picture day...but the end result is priceless

My cousin Kari took these pictures. Aren't they amazing? I may be biased :)

Firsts...

Playing catch up here....we've been running by the seat of our pants. It is HARD to juggle four kids! I'm not complaining. I LOVE it!

This is the first time Mase had a bath. He didn't like it much but now a days he's digging it!



G-man started kindergarten last week and he is loving being a 'big kid'. I didn't even cry because he was SO excited to go. Princess loves being a big sister and helping him find everything. After all, she is a seasoned 3rd grader :)

Here's a few pics of the first day of school

The baby has arrived!!!

We named him Mase B. He was born on August 12th at 12:04 am. He weighes 7 lbs 2 ounces and is 19 inches long. He’s got black hair and loves his binky (Yay! Ikey hated the binky!). We are ABSOLUTELY in love!!

Here are all the gory details of the birth! If you don’t want to read, just scroll down for some pictures! I won’t be offended.

For about three weeks I have had really strong contractions on and off. It’s been really emotional feeling like that was the day only to have them stop over and over. On Monday (August 10th) I had an appointment where I was going to have my membranes stripped (translation: really terrible exam that gets things going). The midwife told me that they were totally swamped at the hospital and couldn’t do it! I was really disappointed. To put the icing on the cake, my cousin went into labor that day and delivered, which made me want to be there even more! The midwife had told me to call the next day (August 11th) and see if it had died down at the hospital and to see if they would strip me that day. I called at 8 am and she said that I could! After the appointment I went and finished the school shopping! When I got home I felt crampy but no contractions. I needed to get this show on the road! Sooooooo…I mowed our lawn! All the neighbors kept coming out and offering to help me, but I just told them this was self imposed torture. I started contracting during and as soon as I was done, I told Ben that we needed to walk more. So we went to run errands. We went to the post office, shoe shopping, we returned clothes that I had bought that didn’t fit, and got some lumber from Home Depot for projects.

At this point it is 4:30 pm. The contractions are coming on strong. My sweet sister came to my house and took over and we headed over to the hospital. They put us in an evaluation room to see if you will change over time. When I got there I was a 4, which is still no change from my appointment that morning, but they can see the contractions are consistent. They said, walk around for an hour and we’ll see. I was so disappointed at this point because my body was acting different than it usually does. It usually takes a miracle to get the hospital in time :) . After that hour, I had dilated a ½ cm. She took pity on my soul and admitted me. I was so tired at this point and opted to get an epidural. They then broke my water. Now it is 8 pm. I was comfortable and able to sleep a little bit. My mom and Ben just hung out. They checked me at 10 pm and I was only a 5. By 11:45 pm, I was only a 5 ½. I got REALLY discouraged and just cried. I didn’t want to do this all night. About 11:55 pm I started feeling really icky. I just felt awful. I started shaking really bad and could feel the contractions. The nurse came in and decided to check me since I said “something wasn’t right”. She suddenly said, Oh my goodness! You are 10 cm. Let’s get the midwife! The midwife had gone into a break room and had just lain down to take a nap (Remember 10 minutes earlier I was 5 1/2? She said later that she was really confused and didn’t know how long she’d been sleeping. My nurse was awesome and already had the room set up for delivery (luckily). By 12:02 am I was ready to push. I pushed once and he flew out at 12:04 am, 19 minutes from 5 cm to in our arms! He is TINY compared to my other boys so it was pretty easy!

We are so in love! He does have a nice set of lungs and lets us know what he likes or not! We are so happy!!

Update on me!

I haven't posted forever! I've been a bit busy...

Life is good, but man! Is it hot!! I swear all I do is sweat (I know the visual is appealing :) Everyone say a prayer that Ben can handle a tearful, emotional wife. I'm getting so funny about things. I'm not near as ready as I should be for this baby, but really I must have a problem. The nesting instinct hasn't really kicked in this time around. I have everything I need, it's just the motivation for putting it all together. I guess I figure it will all work out.

I went to my appointment this morning and I am 4 centimeters and 80% effaced. That's normal for me to walk around like that. Until I am having regular contractions I don't consider myself in actual labor. When it does start, I have to hurry though!

I guess I better go and start, you know, washing some clothes or something. Maybe I should pack a hospital bag? LOL!

I'll post a big fat picture of me soon!

Crazy Summer Days....

There have been some changes around here lately!

My body is getting increasingly HUGE! By the end of the day I am so tired and I start to waddle. Ben thinks it's endearing and I think that it sucks :)

We are enjoying summer! My sister in law came over one day and totally laughed at my chore charts, daily schedules and structured activities that I have planned. Come on people, are you really surprised? It's my OCD and perfectionist self coming out in rare form. Where did I learn to pay attention to detail? I can't pin point it exactly, but certain members of my family carry the trait well. We are a club. The other members, they are on a different team. The team that doesn't care about every little detail and won't have a full blown breakdown if something isn't planned.

Ben is changing jobs. He is currently in the middle of transitioning from one to the other, which has made life crazy. We haven't seen much of each other lately with our callings pulling us some nights and Ben working so much. He just left this afternoon for a camp out in Nevada with his Young Men's group. Sunday night/Monday morning he leaves for L.A. to finish up and pass off his current projects to those who are taking over. The new job is for a company in Orem that works with financial software. They have been "recruiting" him for a long time and the timing just felt right to us! It's an amazing opportunity and has a few perks that I will enjoy. He'll be working from home 2-4 days a week, which will be SO NICE after I have the baby. His opportunity for growth is immense and if we all know Ben, he will jump in there and put everyone on the efficiency wagon.

That's all for now...wish me luck this week without a husband :(

Happy Niner, My Love

Rachel will regret giving me access to her blog the minute that I embarrass her, so read fast!

It's true that Rachel and I knelt across an alter nine years ago today. The image of my angelic wife smiling at me is burned into my mind - I'll never forget it, not ever.

Our song was "You Had Me from Hello" by Kenny Chesney and the reason it's our song is because it's my song to her. Yeah, it took Rachel a little longer to come around and stare fate in the eyes. I knew that this girl was going to be mine after our first kiss, which I distinctly remember thinking, "Oh boy..." immediately before. Anyway, Rachel completes me, she really does. I'd be a big pile of goo without her discipline and planning!

So it's been nine years and here's to nine more! I think I'll only see my wife grow in virtue and capacity. She continually amazes me with her tireless pursuit of perfection. She works so very hard to keep everything running smoothly and I cannot thank her adequately.

Rachel, I love you, happy anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to us!!

I just can't believe how fast time has flown by! All the ways we have grown individually and as a couple.

Indulge me for a minute. I must publicly share my feelings about Ben. Even as I type, I know he will be embarrassed by this post, but guess what? That's too bad! :) See what a good wife I am?

I am so proud of my husband. He has been nothing but generous and outstanding in every aspect of our marriage. He is an amazing father and so much more patient than me. He balances me out in almost all areas. He is a honest, hard working man. I can honestly say he has never raised his voice to me or spoken to me with an ounce of unkindness. How? I don't know! I can't say the same for me. I have depended and cherished his ability to bring the Spirit into our home, to quietly reprimand me when I'm not the best. I don't know how he does it, but he motivates me to be better because he is better. I will stop now, but I needed to get this out of my soul.

I am so grateful that we were sealed in the temple and are forever linked if we are faithful to our covenants. What a journey it has been. It's hard to imagine what our lives will be like in another 9 years...(Princess will be 17!!! AHHHH!!! :) It's the best choice that I ever made and I'm so thankful for a Heavenly Father that knew the potential that we would have together. Love you babe!



This is the only picture I have in my computer right now...pre-digital age!

Ikey is 2!!!

Has it really been 2 years already? What did I ever do without him?

Ikey was a really easy newborn. I don't know if it was just that I was in a good place mentally or more tolerant to sleepless nights, or if it was hard but his little smile and dimples made me forget!

Ikey is strong willed, outgoing, rambunctious, active!, and so so curious! He is always thinking of something to get into or explore. He doesn't have much to say but he ALWAYS lets us know what he's thinking!

I was in labor with him for about 2 hours. I had him Au natural!



His antics always make us laugh













Yesterday we had a memorial day BBQ/birthday party for Ikey and his little cousin Jacob who was born the day before him.



Here's a picture of them side by side in the hospital. Ikey is on the left, Jacob on the right.

It was fun to have family come to eat and play. We had cupcakes and ice cream. Ben, his brother's and sister Janette along with the nephews had a trampoline trick contest. How many of you are sore today?? :)

I can't wait to see what the next year will bring us...we love you Ikey!

Princess's Baptism Pictures

It's taken me a while to get these up! It was such a special day. She was baptized on her actual birthday and that was really special! We are so proud of you Princess!









Princess and her primary teacher