Halloween

Bowen as Yugio and the Emperor

Sarah as a Bumble bee and a tiger

Trunk or Treat, Sarah sat and ate that sucker the whole time
Elijah as a dead Incredible and a power ranger

Crysania as a Pirate she loved her wig, she bought it with her own money.

The cousins playing "Don't eat Kya!!!"

Beautiful girls

My mom had a halloween party at her house again this year for all the Benson cousins. Then on Halloween day we went to the ward trunk or treat and dinner. If you notice all of the kids wore two different costumes, since we they got to dress up on two days. I told the kids that I was not going to buy costumes this year so they just had to search through all the old costumes and dress up stuff we already had to make their costumes. They turned out pretty good and I was happy because I didn't have to spend $80 on costumes this year.

Pine wood derby

We didn't find out what day the pinewood derby was until the night before, so it was a very last minute thing. Moroni was so good to help Bowen carve it and then we let him paint it all by himself. We didn't have any weights so we just had to glue a big bolt on the top. He got last place in every single race, so apparently we need to work on our car building skills, but I think he still had a good time and he didn't freak out about being last so that is always good.

Random pictures

My camera broke a few months ago so I have been using the camera on moroni's cell phone to take pictures lately and I have finally gotten around to putting the pictures on my computer.

Sarah 2nd Birthday

Elijah, Crysania, Grandpa Benson, Sarah, Grandma Benson, and Bowen. We didn't have a party but the grandparents came over and we opened presents and had cupcakes.

First day of School

No fancy clothes, because they don't even have to leave the house. This picture was taken in the school room, you can see their school desks behind them.

Field trip to the Bean Museum

We had a fun time going to the museum with and Lizzy Grandma Starks and the cousins

We went on one big family trip this year. The first day we went to Lagoon, we went to lagoon-a-beach first but the water was so cold we didn't stay for very long. We had fun riding on the rides and stayed almost until the park closed. Then we stayed the night at a hotel in Salt Lake City. The next day we went to liberty park and played then walked over to the Tracy aviary to look at all the amazing birds, the kids loved the Bald Eagles they thought it was so cool that they weren't even in an enclosed cage because they can't fly.

Lagoon

The merry go round

Rattle Snake Rapids

Swimming at the Hotel

Tracy Aviary

Lia Sophia party

I am having a Lia Sophia party at my house Tuesday at 7:00. I wasn't able to get invitations out to every one so if you would like to come but didn't get an invitation, consider this your invite. My sister in law Elizabeth just started selling and I am doing this to help her out. She is also moving to Hawaii in a few weeks so those of you that know her this may be your last chance to hang out. September is buy 2 get 4 at half price so this would be a great chance to buy christmas presents for all those wonderful women in your life.

SEE YA THERE

School

Well we are a few weeks into school and I am still alive. We have been working our little butts off every day to finish all the assignments the kids are supposed to do. Let me tell you, it is a lot of work trying to teach school to 3 kids in 3 grades, luckily elijah is just in kindergarten so he only has 2 1/2 hours of school a day, but next year when he starts going full time I don't know how I will handle it.
I really like the curriculum and only have a few minor complaints, overall I am glad we decided to try this online school. I love the structure it provides for me and for the kids, and I love knowing everything the kids are learning. I hated when the kids were going to public school and they would come home with assignments and I wouldn't know how to help them fully because I didn't know everything they were working on. I just love being so involved in my kids lives.
And I love not having to do homework after school, my evenings are mine and mine alone (well sort of) because we always finish school by at the very latest 4:00 and sometimes as early as 1:00. It is so much less stressful teaching kids during the day than it is to try to teach them when you are trying to get dinner on the table and dad is home from work and they want to go play with friends. (if you cant tell I hate homework--if kids are going to be at school for six hours a day they should have plenty of time to finish all their work !!!)
So my mind has been occupied the last month or so with school school school and I keep trying to think of ways to make it more efficient and not so stressful for me. I wrote up a chart on sunday for the kids to follow so that when Crysania is doing something on the computer that doesn't require me to help, Bowen is doing an assignment that I need to help him with, and vise-versa, and the same for elijah. It seemed to work really well and the day went pretty well, and we were done a little sooner than normal. So hopefully we will be able to stick to the schedule and school will be a little more pleasant. Before I felt like I was running from one kid to the other constantly trying to help them all at the same time and it just wasn't working.

Family Portrait

I couldn't wait to post this even though there are still more pictures coming.Instead of trying to do home school on my own again this year I decided to sign the kids up for Utah Virtual Academy. It is an online charter school that you do from the comfort of your own home. They provide all the materials you need including a computer. We got all the stuff in the mail about a week ago, I couldn't believe how much stuff we got, 10 big boxes full, If I had a working camera I would take a picture of it all. The kids had so much fun opening all the boxes to find out what was inside, it was like Christmas. Crysania got the funnest stuff for her science class, electronics stuff, magnents, different rocks, beakers, chemicals and tons more. They also got art supplies paints, clay, and brushes, as well as music CDs and DVD's, Bowen even got a tamborine. Elijah keeps telling me he wants to start school right now (he will be in kindergarten so he got some fun manipulatives) And this morning Crysania said that school will be lots funner this year, lets just hope she is right.

Seven peaks

Last school year the kids earned free seven peaks tickets through the peak reader program, and since I am their teacher I got a free ticket as well. So yesterday we packed up and headed on over for a day of fun. And it really was fun!!! Most of the time when I try to take the kids places they are way too hyper and end up driving me crazy, but this time they were really good. I think taking James with us was the reason they were so good. He was such a big help, there was no way I could have managed all 4 kids without him. Moroni couldn't come because he had to work and I figured teenage boys like to go too the pool, even if it is just to stare at the girls in bikinis (and believe me there were a ton of girls in bikinis).
The kids spent most of their time in the wave pool, they loved it! Even Sarah loved the waves she would laugh every time I would jump over a wave with her. After we got home all of us felt like we were still in the waves, the kids thought that was cool. We went on a few slides (I even got to go on a few while James watched Sarah) and the lazy river, but the water was so cold we couldn't stay in there for very long. Elijah especially liked the kid area with the floating alligator and anaconda. We ended up staying for 7 hours and we all would have liked to stay longer but we were starving and it was getting late.
I didn't get any pictures though because my camera is broken and I haven't gotten around to buying a new one yet. :(

Beaver and Cedar City

My niece was the lead actress in the Teen theater play down in Beaver last weekend "The wearwolfs curse". A pretty funny play and Meili did such a good job. The whole family; my brother, sister, mom, dad, and grandma went down to watch and show our support. Everyone stayed the night at Melyndas house so it was quite the bunch. The kids all slept outside with grandma and grandpa while all us who enjoy comfort, slept in the house (it is a good thing Melynda has lots of double beds). Then the cousins got to spend the day playing saturday.

Later we drove down to Cedar City to have family pictures taken with all the Pickering family. Howard is an accountant and he did a trade of pictures for tax work, so we didn't have to pay anything. It was pretty crazy with nine kids and three of them babies. They were all pretty ornery by the time we got done. Afterward we went out for ice cream which was not necessarily the best idea at 10:00 at night (but it sure tasted good). Then we had a 3 hour drive home arriving at 1:00 in the morning and then we had to get up at 7:30 to get ready for church the next day.

I haven't gotten to see all the pictures yet but here is a sneak peak.

Lava Hot springs

For the 4th of July weekend we had a big family reunion in Lava Hot Springs. We stayed at a lodge about 2 miles from the city. We were right up next to the mountain with a beautiful view. There were nine families that ended up coming but it was a big lodge so it didn't seem too crowded. There was a large room upstairs for eating and talking. In the basement was another big room with a ping pong table, air hockey, and a pool table, plus lots of card games and chess.

Friday, Moroni took advantage of the mountains and went out shooting with his brother James, while Liz and I and all our kids went to check out the town. We went to the local museum and ice cream shop and then played at the park for a while. When I was trying to get my camera out of my pocket I dropped it on the cement and it stopped working, although I was able to get the pictures off when I got home so all the pictures I have are just from the first few hours of being there.

Saturday we thought it was going to be rainy all day but we decided to go to the pool anyway and hope for the best. Luck was with us and it ended up being a nice day until about 3:00 and by then we were ready to go home anyway. That night we got to watch the fireworks, which Sarah hates by the way. Even in the car with the sound muffled she was screaming, we finally turned on the radio and that seemed to help, and she eventually fell asleep.

We left first thing Sunday morning and went to Nate and Adrianne Gause's ward for the blessing of their new baby Memre.

Payson pool

We got to go swimming with Grandpa Howard a week and a half ago. Howard had just gotten a new camera and took a ton of pictures of the kids, but he has only sent me one of Bowen going down the slide. So I didn't get to post any cute pictures.

We got to go again yesterday and had a blast. And I remembered my camera this time.

Sitting around waiting for the 10 min break to end.

Sarah is my little water baby

Tooth Fairy

Breakfast a the Pickering house.

Bowen got a hold of the camera and took some really cute pictures.






I am not very good at telling my kids that there is a Santa clause or tooth fairy or anything like that, they all know that Mom is the tooth fairy and Dad is Santa clause!
So Elijah lost his first tooth on Monday and he was so excited to get his dollar from the tooth fairy (aka Mom). He told me that his tooth will be under the pillow on the top bunk of his bunk bed and then proceeded to ask if I was going to give him his money before I watched my movie or after. The little pest!
So I sent him to bed, thinking I would remember to get the money after the movie, but typical of me I forgot. So this morning he comes in and says Mom you forgot to give me my money. My reply was "go get a dollar out of my purse".
So he did.
So much for the tooth fairy in this house.

I don't know how any parents can keep up the pretense of these imaginary people who give kids free stuff. It only lasted in our house until Crysania learned to ask questions and then the truth came out.

Chess

Moroni has always loved chess and he is passing that love onto his boys.

Friends

Today the kids all had their friend over. I am so glad the kids all have such great friends

Bowen and Nathan
Playing the Wii
Emily, Crysania, and Jessica
Watching the boys play the Wii
The Super Heroes

Brandon, Elijah, and Tucker

Sarah
She doesn't invite her friends over to play yet,
but she is just so cute