Ready Set Go Benson Go!

Benson started walking a day after Sam and Brittany left (about a week before turning 10 months). Bummer that they missed it. Here is a video of him starting to walk. He is walking very steady now, but I just love the video of him just starting. You can click on the link to our first youtube video for family and friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzN7lqiF2ys

Here's what under our couch, what's under yours?

The Many Halloween Activities

We had so many Halloween Activities. We had a church carnival one night and church trunk or treat another night, preschool Halloween party, twin day, school Carnival, and Sea World's Spooktacular. Here are the pictures.

The kids had twin day at school on the Friday before Halloween. Spencer wanted to be Summer's twin, which was just what every mother wants to hear. I surprised them with gender neutral shirts so that it wouldn't be such a hard thing for Summer to agree to. Luckily, everyone was happy and they looked so cute.

Here is us at the Ward Halloween Carnival. Stuart and I were Vampire Summer's victims. Yes Mom, that is the beautiful prom dress you made me for my junior prom. Summer pulled it out of my closet that afternoon and said I should wear it to the Halloween Carnival. So this is what we came up with. Benson is a Christmas baby, dressed in Nephi's jammies from Grandma Spendlove. Summer is below with her return missionary friend, Christina. Nephi was hulk that night and Spencer was Darth Vader. Neither Nephi or Spencer wanted to be photographed that day. Bummer because we don't have any cute pictures of them, but they were cute!

Sea World's Spooktacular...with Mr. and Mrs. Gumdrop. Mr. Gumdrop is in the Circ De La Mer show during the summer time and is hilarious. So it was so fun to talk to him. He was so kind to the kids and very quick on his feet. He remembered the kids the second week we went (we went 3 Sat. in Oct). Nephi was too freaked out to get pictures with any of the characters but I think he enjoyed seeing them. One of the times was with Sam and Brittany. It was tons of fun going with them. Brittany took our family pictures while she was here. Wow is she an amazing photographer. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures with them. I am sad because we won't see them until after they return from England. They always spoil us when they are here. We love them so much.

Here is a beautiful vampire eating her dinner. She found a young couple (OK maybe not so young, but it was Halloween so let's just pretend) on their prom date and went in for the kill.

Nephi's attempt to make pumpkin pie

I was busy doing something with Benson and came into the kitchen to this. I asked Nephi what he was doing and he excitedly said, "I'm making pumpkin pie." He certainly keeps life interesting doesn't he! I have been letting him use butter knives to cut certain vegetables for our salads. He REALLY enjoys using them.

Disneyland Trip

The kids had their annual 2 week fall break, so we planned a 3 day trip to Disneyland at the beginning of it. We had so much fun. Even though we are only 1 1/2 hours away, we stayed in a hotel. It seemed much more like a vacation doing it this way. I think though that next trip will be no more than 2 days. By the third day, we were beat and grumpy from staying late and getting up early. So glad that we went though.

Stuart and Summer went on California Screamin' while I took the boys on the Little Mermaid ride. We had never been to California Adventure before and we loved it. Stuart's favorite is still Disneyland because of all of the nastalgia. But I didn't grow up going there and only went last year for the first time. So the modern architecture and vibrant, beautiful colors caught my eyes at California Adventure. We split the trip up pretty evenly so everyone was happy.

The World of Colors was spectacular. Poor Nephi was asleep during the show, but hopefully will be awake next time.

Spencer was not too excited about going in the haunted mansion. It was really fun taking Benson on all of the rides because he just looked around and took everything in. One of the highlights of the trip for me was definitely seeing Peter (my cousin), Christy, and their darling kids. They were so kind to bring us pizza and drinks for lunch at the picnic area. The kids had a BLAST playing with each other, while the adults chatted. I am so glad that we got to see them before he finishes school in Irvine and moves on out.

Jonas Brothers and Demi L. Concert

I was driving in the car one day and heard the radio advertise a Jonas Brother's Concert featuring the cast from Camp Rock 2 (which Summer had just bought with her birthday money) for $10 a ticket. That is my kind of price! So I surprised Summer and Spencer with the tickets. Our friends the George family joined us to rock out. We had a lot of fun. I had never been to an amphitheater concert and was surprised at how awesome and beautiful it was.

Elder Spendlove's Blog page

Our amazing nephew is serving a mission for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In addition to sharing the Savior's message of love and peace in person, he has been given a special assignment to keep a blog and facebook page to share this message. We would like to invite anyone in and outside of our faith to follow his blog, which is below....

http://spendthelove.blogspot.com/

Feel free to share this address with whomever you would like to.