Goodbye Paci!

Within a few months of each other we put Benson in a big boy bed, potty trained him and got rid of his paci. It was a big couple of months for Benson but he handled it like a champ! We threw him a "Paci Party" where we sang a "Goody bye paci" song, taped up his old pacis in a box and "mailed" them to grandma. We told him he could trade his paci's for a new present and he was all for it! We gave him a small Buzz Lightyear toy and he never looked back. I don't think he has asked for his paci once since then! Ha ha, this boy is really motivated by "new" things. Anywho, we are so grateful that it went so smoothly. We love this easy going little man of ours!

Halloween

Halloween was so, so fun. We enjoyed making caramel apples as a family, carving pumpkins, the ward party, trick or treating for the first time, and our traditional "spooky" Halloween dinner the night of Halloween. We went as the Toy Story gang, mainly because Benson is obssessed with Buzz Lightyear. I didn't have time to round up a Jesse costume because I was too concerned about how everybody else looked (I'm a total mom) but I think everyone still turned out cute! Finn was supposed to be bullseye but it was really just an old horse costume we had laying around. Pleas ignore Finn's blank/mad faces in the pictures. He was a sicky boy during halloween and was NOT in the picture taking mood. To top October all off, we had a great time at our friend's the Quinn's murder mystery dinner. It was a night full of good friends, food and intrigue! Makes me want to do that again sometime.

Whole 'Lotta Us

I haven't updated the blog in forever, so here are a few quick updates! Starting with our Fall get away with the DeVries...in October! Mike and I decided it would be lots of fun to enjoy the fall with his family so we loaded up the kids and spent the weekend up there. It has been so fun to live so close to them, especially while we have young kids and don't have to worry about missing school or anything like that. It has been a little tender mercy! Benson LOVES his Nonnie and Papa's house and just runs wild the whole time. With a basement full of toys, a pantry full of treats, 5 adults who would give him anything he wanted without blinking an eye and a river and a pond in the backyard, what's not to love? The following pictures are, in no particular order, of canoeing in the pond, visitng Kapnick;s orchard and drinking the BEST apple cider I've ever had, hands down, taking a hayride, playing Uncle Drew's trumpet, snuggle time with mom and lots of others. Words cannot express how grateful and happy I am that I married into this family. I hear so many people complaining about their in-laws and it shocks me because I have not a thing to complain about. I love them and I love visiting them! I am one lucky gal!

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8 Months

Seriously? Where does the time go? I always hear other moms say this about their kids, and now I understand why. My baby is 8 months old and I'm not ready for him to get any bigger than this! Here He is 8 months old now, but there are several different age pictures of him. First, I took this the other morning while Finn was being mauled by Benson on my bed (8mo)

Traditional 7 Mo photo in the laundry basket. So big!

Comparison photo, taken in March. He is 3 months old here

We love this baby boy so, so much. These two boys are everything we never knew we always wanted!

Texas

If I could move to any state in the U.S. of A. it would have to be Texas. Think about it. BBQ, Country Music and Cowboy Hats. Wherever you turn. It would be awesome. PLUS Mike would have to wear tight jeans all of the time. Sigh, hold on while I imagine it :) Just kidding. I had to add that because most people who haven't been to Texas think it's just a desert with a bunch of hicks and tumbleweeds and confederate flags. While that may be true for some cities, I grew up in Dallas and it is beautiful and definitely not a desert *Note: If you are from Utah, you are from the desert ...different climate people* The people are so FRIENDLY and homes are reasonably priced. They have some great schools and who doesn't love a good Friday night high school football game? I am rambling like this because we just got back from a week long trip to Dallas to visit my parents and I guess I am still delirious from the Texas sun. Here are a few pics to document the trip.

Benson was a ROCKSTAR in the car. No tantrums at all. He just happily played with toys, read books and watched movies for basically 24 hours there and 24 hours back. How did we get so lucky with this little boy?

My sister and her little family live half way to Texas, in Missouri and they were kind enough to let us bunk there on Friday night. Here are the two boys playing on the blow up bed at 10:00 PM. Both families woke up the next morning and hit the road. It was so fun to be there with the Taylors! We miss you. Factoid: Rachel and I were roommates when we met and married our husbands, who were also roommates at the time (Mike and Dan). Dan's (Rachel's husband) sister was also our roommate. Her name is Jana. I owe Jana a lot because she set up the dinner that allowed Mike and I to meet, flirt (and what a flirt he was) and eventually date. Thanks Jana!

I couldn't find Mike any sunglasses before the trip, so he had to wear mine :)

Sunday, Father's Day, was our first day there. Here is Grandpa Bastian with just the few grand kids that were there. Believe me, there are a lot more...We love you Grandpa!

Mike and the boys on Fathers Day

Had to add this. Sometimes I think my guts are going to explode with pure joy, just from looking at pictures of my kids like this.

Playing with dolls with Lexi Lou in the front yard, Duh.

One of so, so many swimming pictures. We swam A LOT and loved every second of it. The water was warm and refreshing and Benson was a little fish. He was going all over the pool all by himself by the end of the trip. We were a proud Mama and Papa.

These three are from Feedstore BBQ. Yum. We savored every bite.

We went to the Dallas Museum of Science and Nature. It was so fun! The kids loved running around and getting into everything. So much so, that we could hardly catch any of them together. I especially love the ones of our fam outside near the water. Mom never EVER let us go near that as kids, so Rachel and I had a wonderful time fulfilling childhood dreams as we raced across the bridges on the water. And when I say "raced" I mean we power walked. Rachel is 20 weeks pregnant and I...have...no...excuse.

We also spent a day at Jump for Fun (one of those bouncehouse warehouse thingies). This is the only picture we got, but it expresses the pure joy Benson felt while he was there. He was running around and giggling with his daddy the whole time.

Some more swimming shots and my sister, who lives in Texas with her hubby Preston and two kiddos Abigail and Sam. I had to document this (Sorry Sar) because this woman is weeks away from delivering her fourth child and braved the Texas heat and driving to be with us the whole week. We miss you!

And in case you were wondering where Finn was during this whole vacation, I made sure to document where he stayed almost the whole week! I must be a bad mom or something but he literally stayed in that car seat almost all day everyday and never really complained about it. He is truly the most amazingly wonderful, scrumptious and perfect baby. Okay, not perfect. But almost.

One of my very best friends from high school happened to be in town the same week I was, so we got our two broods together. This amazing lady loves families and is happily married with three kiddos. I really miss and love her. It was awesome to see what great parents her and Brandon are (Brandon is also another friend we used to run around with sometimes in high school. High school sweethearts. Awww) It was also fun to see how alike our two oldest kids are. Hmmmmm. There are a few things I'm forgetting, but this post is getting too long anyways. We loved playing all day with the Marchants, the Taylors and Mom and Dad. We loved naps in the afternoon. We loved the game playing and Psych watching at night when the kids went to bed. We love the Texas sunsets. We loved Sonic shakes and Southlake Townsquare. I loved being able to share a lifetime of memories with my husband. I loved introducing my husband and the boys to my home ward (even though I only knew about two families. I have been graduated from highschool for ten years and our ward is very transient. I hardly knew anybody). Mainly, I just loved being home. Thanks mom and dad for the amazing trip. WE LOVE YOU!

Way too much

Warning: This is a long, boring post. You might not even want to attempt to read it. Phew! We have been busy busy busy little bees around here. I will just explain what we have been up to in pictures I guess! First of all, we drove up to Wisconsin to see my niece Reese (it rhymes!) 's baby blessing. It was sooo much fun to visit with my sister and her sweet family and we had a great time at church with them. We actually have gone up there fairly often since we moved to Chicago, but I rarely remember to take pictures. Hence the pictures stolen from my sisters blog. Thanks Brooke! The first one is the whole clan in front of their church. A few days after that I met up with Brooke's family at the Museum of Science and Industry. Oh my goodness, the kids had a blast running around and looking at everything. Benson was in heaven because his most favorite friend in the whole world was there: his cousin Tanner. Benson was copying everything Tanner was doing and laughing hysterically at it. He also still makes "Tanner faces" at me and repeats things Tanner says. I get a lot of requests during the day to go to "Tanner's House" as well. I'm so sad they recently moved away to the far off land of Utah...which leads me to my next destination... The Hedins were quickly packing up to leave, so on May 12th we took the kids to spend a last "Fun" weekend with the Hedins. We played at the park, ran around their house and went out to eat and ate the best Fish Tacos EVER! That was a quick trip but very worth it. (No pictures of that weekend yet, I think Brooke has them all...) The next weekend my brother in law, Ahem, Dr. Hedin was graduating from Medical School. My parents came up for the occasion so I threw the kids in my car and met up with everyone in Wisconsin again. It was very cool to see a medical school graduation and see the students and the families honored. The kids didn't get too bored, thanks to the help of two IPads and one Kindle Fire. We love technology around here. Benson, again was in heaven because he was with Tanner and Katelyn. After the graduation, we said our goodbyes because it was the last time I would see them all before they moved. Lots of tears on both sides...I really hate having to leave my sisters. Still can't believe she had the audacity to up and leave me :( and take Benson's favorite friend with her. I then drove back to my house with my parents and enjoyed and short visit with them! (Pictures of that to come as well, Brooke still has them all...but she is moving so she has an excuse) The next weekend was memorial day weekend and Mike's family had gotten tickets to the Senior PGA tour in Benton Harbor, MI so we hauled it up to MI on Friday night and spent the night at Nannie and Poppa's house (with a lot of car trouble on the way up, like always. It's not a DeVries' family vacation without it I guess!) Saturday the boys all went off to the tournament and the girls hit up the outlets! Benson and Finley did awesome shopping with me all day (due to their doting Nannie and Aunt Allie who seriously entertained them the whole day and spoiled them with hot dogs and ice cream and rescue packs! Thank you!) That night Mike and I were about to head home when we made the last minute decision to go to Mike's parents house instead in Adrian, MI. Who cars that we only had one change of clothes! They had a washer right? We had the best time there. We explored the backyard. They have the most gorgeous yard I have ever seen. It is huge, with a river running through it, a pond next to their house, a sand box for the boys, trampoline, firepit and canoes and paddle boats to play around with. They really do have everything. Benson was beside himself with glee. He loved running around with his Nannie and Poppa and Allie, Andrew and Dano. Mike and I enjoyed our paddle boating adventure. We all enjoyed church. They have the sweetest ward and I feel like more people know my name there then in my own ward! Ha ha! Memorial day was fun, we got to see Uncle Andrew march in the parade and then celebrated with a little Mexican food. (I can't find the pictures of our last adventure there, so here are some pictures of when we went up for Easter weekend. Can you see how much Benson loves it there?) This weekend we headed up for Great Uncle Bob's 90th Birthday Celebration. Mike and I headed up early to spend the day at the beach and we had a great time! It was especially fun to have a little two year old to swim around with and build sand castles with. Kids are so fun, no matter what age they are. We love them. Finn had a great time chillin in his tent and splashing in the water. That night we headed out with the whole family to celebrate at Tosi's. We loved it. Happy Birthday Uncle Bob! Well that is it! We are really trying to soak in the family time while we have it. We just decided that we might as well travel while we live close, cause we don't know when it might change! Now on to our next adventure: TEXAS! We will be leaving this Friday and I can't wait. I sure love summer.