Time for some spring cleaning!!!

I am so embarassed to share some of these pictures with you. I would consider myself somewhat of a neat freak to some extent, and so I was disgusted with what I saw when we decided it was time to move our KING SIZE bed and clean underneath it. I am super good about cleaning my floors, bathrooms, and keeping clutter to a minumum, but this was just horrible....how did I let it get like this?!?! I guess when you have such a big bed, you just don't think of moving it on a weekly basis to clean underneath it. We haven't moved it since we bought it 3 years ago....again...how embarassing, but maybe if I share these pictures it will motivate me and those who read it, to make sure this doesn't happen to you! So the following pictures are before & after we cleaned....I am not sure if you can see the dust...it was almost growing on the walls....it was horrible! Plus, all the little things, socks, papers, and even a diaper wipe holder was under the bed! :) I felt so much better once we got it cleaned. We moved our big dresser as well to clean. I think this will be a process we do more often than just once every 3 years.

Carson was such a good helper!!This is our clean room: (The drapes aren't pictured...I took them down to wash them!)
So what brought up this super cleaning day, was all the dust created from the sheet rock from the new pantry....it was everywhere....not just in the kitchen!
This is the piano....in the front room. I have only cleaned half of the blinds...and will try and tackle the rest of them today or tomorrow....those are the worst to clean. But since this is how the piano looks...I know the blinds are 10 times worse...since they don't get dusted weekly either!

So here's to Spring Cleaning!!!!! Let's get to work!

Is it really just another day???

As we get older, birthdays are a little different than when we were little...we play if off as "just another day"...and I am very guilty of that. Yes it is just a day, but for each of us, it is OUR day...the day where we can't help but be in a good mood, celebrate by eating whatever we want, and spending time with the people we love...that is not 'just another day'....

I am turning 28 today. Wow...28....I don't feel 28, maybe 24 or 25, but 28??? I am okay with 28, but it is so weird that I am already 28. 10 years ago, I turned 18, and was starting my last semester in High School, I was finalizing my decision to go to CEU for college in the fall, and my Grandma past away just weeks after I turned 18.....and 28 seemed so FAR AWAY.....and now it is here!! I think back 20 years ago...when I got babtized. I remember that day perfectly. My dad babtized me, and my Grandma Brower helped me get dressed afterwards into my pretty mint green dress my mom had made. I loved that dress...I think I even wore it two years in a row for school pictures. 20 years ago....it still boggles my mind!!!

So now I am 28....and it is good. I am still learning alot about myself and trying to be a good mom and wife. I don't think you ever reach an age where you will feel like you have learned everything you need to know. I learn so much from my two wonderful sisters and fabulous sister in law, my great friends, and my wonderful husband and kids. Thank you to everyone that I get to be friends with....in my ward, at Bells, where I used to work, from School, and of course my family. I love you all tons, and I have totally felt the love on my 28th birthday!!

So to celebrate my Birthday this year, some of my close friends to me to lunch yesterday to El Matador's in Bountiful...it was SOOOOOO good...and I ate way to much!! It was fun to get out and be with the girls! Thanks again you guys...you are all such good friends to me!

Kristi, Lindsey, Jana, Me, Katie, and Melissa

After lunch, Nick and I headed to Ogden, dropped off that kids to Matt & Nat (Thanks Guys!) did a little shopping and then ate dinner at Texas Roadhouse...and I again ate way too much! Later today, we will get together with Matt & Nat, and my parents and Chris for some yummy bday cake and icecream...until then, I am going to maybe take a nap, go to choir practice, and eat some more yummy food! :)

So, I am not sure if Nick meant to work on this for my Birthday, but this is probably the funnest gift he could give me right now....a kitchen pantry!

It still needs more work, paint, shelves, and trim....but with Ryan's help last week. They got most of it done. Right now, alot of our food stuff, is downstairs in a storage room, and I can't wait to put it all upstairs. I don't know why it took us this long to think of building this in our house. Oh well, better late than never!

We have an extra deep garage, so it didn't really take up any important space in our garage. Isn't that awesome. Good Job Nick!!!

Sorry for the long post, but I want to share one more picture. Kaylee just loves getting into this cupboard, and now she will just sit in it while I work in the kitchen. It was cute so I had to share!

Basketball + Family = Fun!

Wow...what a game! My little bro, Chris goes to Bear River HS and the boys bball team went to state last week, and won!!!! They beat Logan (who is in the same region, and BR beat them twice already) to take 1st!! I am so proud of Chris and the great job he did. He is #14, he scored 11 points, and made 2 3-pointers. He is just so amazing!! He can do anything!!!

The funnest thing about last weekend was that my WHOLE family was there! We all cheered Chris on, and it was just a blast! Maris lives in Boise, and Tiffany lives in Reno, so it isn't always possible to get us all together.
The games were held at the E center, and Carson had a blast! We left Nick and Kaylee at home since the games went quite late, and Nick had to work the next day. This is at Fridays game...

And this is Saturdays game...Carson really was happy that night, he just wouldn't smile for the camera! Little stinker!!

This picture isn't from the weekend, but from one of the games at BRHS....We really enjoyed going up to Tremonton to watch Uncle Chris play and hang out with Gma & Gpa.

Last weekend, not only did we watch Chris play ball, but he got his Eagle too. So it was a full weekend!!

The Grandkids sang "I'm proud to be an American", and they let Carson stand up there with them, it was so cute....he just sat there and smiled!!! The Eagles Nest....which included Nick, Matt (Brother) & Justin (Bro-In-Law).

After the Eagle Court of Honor, we took some family pictures...first the grandkids....
My Siblings: Me, Matt, Tiffany, Chris, and Marisa!

My Cute Sisters....Me, Marisa, and Tiffany. It was soooo good to see them!!! Aren't they gorgeous!!!???

Our Family!! Even Gma & Gpa Edstrom came down from Rexburg to be there for the championship game and the court of honor. All in all, it was just FUN!!!!

Do those come in my size???

Every once in a while I find a steal at Kid to Kid...and these are my latest discovery....pink boots for Kaylee:
Aren't they adorable!? They were the perfect size and a great price!! I wish I could shop for MY clothes as easy as it is to shop for my children's clothes!!!

She likes her boots so much, she was doing somersaults.....:) That is her most recent movement discovery...it is funny cause she can't get all the way over....but she tries!

Grandma Joy gave Kaylee some really cute clothes for her birthday....here is one of the outfits...Kaylee seemed to enjoy wearing it today...she even posed for a few pics.

It has be so fun getting to dress a little girl!!! I can't wait until she walks, it will make wearing dresses a little easier....right now she has mastered a bear crawl so she can still get around in a dress. :)

Here are my cute kiddos....Carson has a mouthful of fruit snacks...and that is what he is trying to show the camera.....what a boy!!!

Fun Pictures...

It has been a different kind of week....Nick has been home from work recovering, and so we have pretty much stayed home and just found new ways of entertaining each other. I have been taking pictures of the silly or cute things the kids have been doing...and the first is a picture of what happens when Carson wrestles with a bar stool, and the bar stool wins.....
His poor left eye! He looks like he is wearing eye shadow!
Kaylee has found where we keep the cereal, and she loves her cheerios! This is what I found her doing the other morning...

She also loves music...I can turn my piano on so it plays music, and she will try and play along! She used to SIT on the bench, but now is getting very daring, and will STAND on the bench! She is such a climber this way, just like her big brother was! I am probably a bad mom for getting the camera to take a picture, rather than making her get down.....but she does this ALL the time, on ALL the furniture!!

Yesterday we got fresh snow on Valentine's day....it was great packing snow, so as I shoveled the driveway, I piled as much snow as I could in a pile, and built a little sledding hill for Carson....I thought it was brilliant!! He seemed to like it....and I even went down a few times! :)

Kaylee loves big people food.....and so for dinner I made pesto chicken, (Nick blended his up with some milk and had a soup version of it), and I have a little food grinder for Kaylee that I used to mash up some for her. But she didn't want that, she wanted the BIG noodles...so I put some cut up noodles on her plate, and she went to town with 'em! She ate TONS...but managed to get it all over her face, head, body....EVERYWHERE!!! So not only did she get a bath BEFORE church, but also BEFORE bed!!
So that is about what we have been up to lately...just chillin' and trying to stay sane for the rest of the Winter....I can't wait for Spring and summer!

It will be fun!!

Something just for you!
Whoohoo!
Lucky you!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. Just for you. However, this offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2- What I create will be just for you.

3- It will be done sometime this year (Hopefully sooner than later).

4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be a card. Or maybe if your really lucky you could get a singing telegram from me, not likely, but hey, you never know! I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Whatever it is, you will be one lucky person!

5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they've posted on their blog win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! Good luck!

I can't wait to see what Melissa will bring to ME!!!!

Recovering...

Whew...we are home! Nick was discharged today and we got home by lunchtime. He is glad to be home, and has been mostly sleeping today, trying to stay comfortable. He had a chest tube in, and that incision has been hurting the most. They took the tube out yesterday, and that really helped him feel better as far as pain goes. He is on some pretty heavy pain killers, in liquid form of course, and that has been helping him sleep. All in all, surgery went really well. The surgery was scheduled for 10 AM, but of course, they were running behind, and he finally went into surgery at 12:30 PM. The Dr. came out a little after 3 PM, and talked to us about the surgery. He was quite surprised when he got in there, and realized it wasn't a cyst, but a tumor that was the object restricting his esophagus. He assured us it wasn't cancer or anything life threatening. It ended up being the size of a large orange, once it was totally removed. Nick will have to go see the Dr. every 6 months for the next few years and have his esophagus checked, since when they removed the tumor, they also removed the outer lining of his esophagus. That is also why his will be on a liquid diet for the next 2 weeks. Here are some really interesting pictures of what they took out: (Warning: If you have a weak stomach, you might want to quickly scroll down!)

On the left side, you can see Nick's ribs, and his deflated lung on the right. The tumor is in the middle. The tumor wrapped around the back of his esophagus. With part of it, pushing into his esophagus, causing the bump that was originally thought to be a duplication cyst.

Here is Nick, yesterday, enjoying his Morphine drip....

Last night, I rented a Redbox movie, and Nick and I enjoyed some alone time at the hospital and had a movie night. It has been awhile since Nick and I had watched a movie, just the two of us!

Nick's mom and dad were here with us during all of this, and took great care of the kids! You guys are great and we really appreciate your help! Carson loved it! He got very spoiled with them here! Here they are in the hospital, and Carson was eating Papa Bear's M&M's. It kept him very content!

Kaylee loves her daddy!! We let him hold her long enough for a picture, but she was sad she couldn't be with him more. She has enjoyed a little bit more snuggle time with him since he has been home today.

Here is Nick relaxing on the couch. He was laying in bed, but was having a hard time getting comfortable. He just got done eating a cup of pudding and chocolate milk. Yum!

Thanks again to everyone for their thoughts, concern, prayers, and pre-surgery treats. We really appreciate everything you do for our family! Thanks to Ted, Karen, and Joy for helping us with the kids. I am so relieved to have this over with, and to be on the recovering end of it. I am sure Nick will be even more relieved once he isn't on a liquid diet, and can enjoy a big juicy steak, without worrying about it getting stuck!!

quick update....

Hey Everyone! This is actually Jana, a friend of the Bennett's, with a quick update on Nick!

Nick is doing great, and is hoping to come home by tomorrow evening. They ended up removing a LARGE benign tumor that was wrapped around his esophagus. Not exactly what they expected to find in there. It is called Esophageal Leiomyoma.

They had to remove part of the outside lining of his esophagus to remove this tumor, so he will have to be on a liquid diet for at least 2 weeks until it is strong enough to handle food. Doesn't sound like fun!

Brittany will update you hopefully tomorrow night with more of the details....and maybe some pictures! So check back later!

We are thinking of you Nick, and wish you a speedy recovery!

LaDyBuG PaRtY!!!

Our little Lady Bug turned one last week, and we had a party for Kaylee on Saturday to celebrate! It was a blast! She wore a really cute pink and red lady bug dress, compliments of the Yospe's. (If you haven't noticed, the theme for the party was Lady Bugs!) This is Kaylee getting excited as we sing Happy Birthday to her.

We played "Pin the Dot on the LadyBug". Thanks to Jana for creating the lady bug! You are amazing!! We even had a lady bug pinata....but my camera battery died, so I didn't get any pictures of that. (I plugged my battery in at that point, so I would at least have enough battery to take pictures of the rest of the party!) Kaylee had fun opening her presents, of course with help from me...
And the boys....

Grandma Karen came up earlier in the day to decorate Kaylee's Birthday Cake. She is a fantastic cake decorator, and I really appreciated her help with the cake! I thought it turned out very cute!!!

The little lady bug was just for Kaylee....and this is what she did with it:

It was hilarious! She didn't need much help to get it all over her face!! The black frosting was everywhere! I was so worried it was going to stain her face, so we didn't waste anytime getting her cleaned up afterwards. Surprisingly enough, it came right off!!!
It was a fun party, and I really appreciate everyone who came and for the gifts that were given to Kaylee. We seriously have the best family and friends!!!