Benjamin's First Birthday

Benjamin is one and I'm only just barely getting around to hanging up some adorable 6 mos pictures of him. hah! C'est la vie.

We celebrated the big ONE with family in New York with all the grandparents, cousins, most of the aunts and uncles (missed you, Brian!), and even some second cousins. Because I'm totally lame when it comes to picture taking all these NY pictures are photos Carrie took (thanks, Carrie!).

On Saturday early early morning, ohhhh around 12:28, we were driving home and stopped to think about this time 12 months ago. Okay, so we actually missed 12:28, it was more like 12:32 haha, but let's just pretend here. I would go through pregnancy, labor and delivery all again ten times over because he is so worth it. (11 times is pushing it though...)

Ben doesn't really like being thrown, but we do it anyway ...

That evening we celebrated with cupcakes (the mix inherited from the Blevins!) topped with whipped cream and raspberries. YUM. Benjamin liked it too!

Benjamin's personality shining through:

• He's beginning to tantrum 
• His favorite food is/are raspberries 
• His favorite book is How do Dinosaurs go to School (this SAVED us on the airplane!)
• He definitely understands the words: Benjamin, Ben, diaper, light, milk, outside, bath, pacifier
• He probably understands the words: bottle, Momma, Dadda, park, stroller, food, eat, book, TV, fan
• His best friend is Zack Ransom - though he likes any kid under 2 that walks through our door
• He still loves his paci
• His favorite game is toppling over towers or getting chased

I am so looking forward to this next year with my boys. We have such a wonderful little family :).

AZ trip

Hello from the hot and sweaty land of North Carolina. We just got back from a three week vacation - one week in Arizona, two in New York. We had a great time and Benjamin sorely misses the constant entertainment and lovins :).

Here are some pictures from Arizona. We stayed with the Lemmies (Miriam and I are besties from college) and she graciously acted as our tour guide.

skyping with Doug

Doug was afraid Ben would forget him! He didn't forget, of course, and Ben would often only leave me for Doug.

cousins and second cousins

We visited lots of family. Ben met his second cousins and his great grandparents. He was such a trooper with all the traveling every day. Which reminds me - the transition to Arizona (ie: 3hr time difference) wasn't nearly as bad as I predicted. He actually slept better in AZ than he had the few weeks before in NC haha. Maybe it had something to do with playing with his little roommate all day long (see below). Ben's crawling speed legitimately increased several mph!

Great Grandma Standage

Josh and Miriam spoiled me with delicious chicken tikka masala, steak, burgers, pasta, pie, chocolate covered almonds... need I go on?

Josh's signature steak. yummm

Strawberry and rhubarb pie

Benjamin at his Uncle Jonathan's grave

Great Grandma Driggs

Sporting a brand new quilt from great Grandma!

at the pool in Miriam's complex. heavenly.

Phoenix Zoo

Benjamin's "little roommate"

Benjamin after the splash pad was done with him :)

We made some awesome memories and I'm sad it went by so quickly. We look forward to next time :).

Date night

If you are at a loss for fun date ideas, add this one to the list: sportsplex. We went to one in east Durham and had more fun than I thought we would. So either I had low expectations, or Doug makes anything fun, or it's nice to have some alone time. Or all three.

See the resemblance?

My form is horrible.

And my hands are still bruised! 

Aye.

I barely made the cut ;).

Afterwards we had to get pizza, of course. Ben loved it, of course.

How else do you eat pizza?

Asheville

We do get out of Durham sometimes. Every once in a while. The most recent was yesterday - Chapel Hill. Haha, okay so going to church hardly counts. We went to Asheville! As always, we had a blast and I hardly took any pictures. So most (all) of these are courtesy of Ranita (she and Shiwen came with us!).

On Saturday we went to downtown Asheville (say it like Downton Abbey - it's a lot more fun!).

In that cool place with lots of art...
I forgot the name - anyone know it?

Some street performers

Lunch at a Mediterranean place. The food was delicious
 but this picture sums  up our experience there with Benjamin: hectic, frenzied...

We couldn't leave without Doug playing some chess!

A pistachio turtle. Oh that was delicious.

Fortunately Ben fell asleep after lunch for the remaining
 2-3 hours of our pedestrian-ing.

On Sunday we went to church and then to a park in Granny's neighborhood. Not to mention the delicious chocolate cake Granny made or the yummy Chinese food Aunt Heather made for us that night!

Doug and Shiwen are playing the Chinese version of Jacks.
Neither of them were very good at it haha.

Thank you, Ranita for taking such lovely pictures :).

And that was how we spent spring break.

Surprise visit from Grandma and Grandpa! (and Aunt & Uncle, of course)

I can remember three (maybe four) times my family drove to go on vacation. So imagine my surprise when my family decided to drive to visit us in North Carolina! I was thrilled to have them come and they did not disappoint - we had a blast.

This is essentially the only picture I took while they were here, but it sums up their visit nicely - playing with Benjamin. He absolutely adored his Uncle Daniel, frequently preferred Sarah over me, cackled with his Grandpa, and snuggled with Grandma. I absolutely love visiting and being visited by family. Plus things are "accidentally" left at my house: chocolate covered blueberries, milano cookies, a $20 bill, apples, yogurt, Twix, a pair of darn tough socks (??). Does everyone's mom do that? :)

Our weekend (and bellies) was filled with food from Durham's best eateries: Q shack, Tonali, Sitar, Ox and Rabbit, and homemade pizza. We toured Duke Gardens, went swimming, and watched General Conference.  My favorite talk was Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk from Sunday afternoon. I can't wait to read it again. I don't know how anyone gets through 8 hours of conference without busying their hands or "resting" their eyes.  This year I worked on burial gowns for UNC hospital. The pattern I used was quite simple and it went faster than I anticipated.

I think it looks precious though my heart aches for the parents who need it.

On a happier note, my sister got engaged! Wahoo!

Congratulations you little lovebirds.