Family Facts

Life continues to fly by for us, as I know it does for everyone. Ben has discovered just how much fun it is to move around and get into things, which keeps me on my toes, whereas before he was content to play in one spot. A few weeks ago, Carl decided to spoil us and bought gym memberships. We thought for sure we would only need to pay half price because you can actually see the gym from our front porch. Unfortunately, no such discount exists. It's been so nice to be able walk down the street and work out, sometimes together. Thanks to our families for always making themselves available to watch Ben for us. The first months results are in: we've each lost about 3 lbs and have toned up a bit. I've lost 1/2 inch off my arms, thighs and calves, and Carl's lost 1 1/2 inches off his waist. We've been working with a trainer that puts together lots of exercise routines for us, and we're loving it. Here's to health.

Carl is involved in several research groups at BYU and is always working on extra papers and projects. A few weeks ago, he found out he's being published again. This will make number 3, but this is the first time he is the lead on the paper. I'm so proud of how hard he works for our family. I don't know how he does it. An exciting extra, is that he gets to present his paper at a big linguistic conference this May. The conference is being held in a little place called Malta, a beautiful country near Italy. He gets to fly out, attend the conference, and tell everyone how smart he is for doing something really smart. He'll be gone a week, and I'll miss him terribly, but I'm oh so excited for him.

Other than playing with Ben, a lot of my time is spent finding new recipes and creating things in the kitchen, and it's been so much fun. Carl and I have some new favorite recipes and some not so favorite recipes including these awful lettuce wraps, and some not-so-delicious black bean soup. Thankfully, Carl said he still loves me. I just get so excited about some of the stuff you can do with food. And my Vita-Mix. If there were one kitchen thing I could not live without, it would for sure be my beloved Vita-Mix. It was a group gift at my bridal shower, and it has brought us much happiness. I use it literally every day. I've used it to make soup, salad dressing, milkshakes and smoothies... so very many smoothies. I even use it to grind my wheat to make bread, rolls and crackers. As you might have guessed, I am in love with it.

Sunday marks Ben's first birthday and so far, we've all survived. I'm a little nervous to wean him and honestly a little sad. I have exclusively nursed him and now I have to worry about him getting his nourishment by other means. We've already given him cows milk and he seems pretty happy with it. My baby is growing up. Some of Ben's favorites as of late are: light switches, his ball popper, pulling off his socks, pounding on the keyboard of the computer and piano, and dancing to absolutely anything with a beat: music, our footsteps as we walk to church, my Kitchen Aid mixer, or mommy doing her jumping jacks. But his most favorite is Daddy. As soon as he hears the garage door open and he knows it's that time of day, he stops whatever he's doing and waits anxiously, looking longingly out the door of whatever room we're in until he sees him. And in that moment, he can hold his excitement no longer. He immediately bursts out shrieking, and giggling, as he kicks and bounces until Daddy picks him up. It melts my heart every time. I love my two boys.