Bethany reading Samantha books

Samantha Sliding

Spring 2011

Hello friends and family. I am terribly sorry to have neglected you this past Spring. It has been one of the craziest times of life for us here, and I had not even thought about blogging in months. Benjer's job has been keeping him very busy, and Jennifer's job of taking care of the girls and Benjer, as well as her volunteering and teaching has also been keeping her busy. It has been a very dreary spring here, with this past week being the first to have more than one sunny day in a row. So, here is a photo gallery of what we have been enjoying these past few months, despite the lack of sunny or warm weather:

Ice cream!!!

  

 All bundled up... almost all Spring long.  

Bethany right before her first dance class. She has been taking a half tumbling, half ballet class since January (thank you Nana!)

Who can forget about the Treehouse Museum, where we spend many dreary, rainy mornings?

Swinging

Having fun inside: Drawing and other art projects,

 dressing up in Mama's shoes,

 and wrestling.

 

Wagon rides rule. In our neighborhood, with sidewalks that leave a lot to be desired, it is very good that Granny got the girls an All Terrain Wagon! :)

The Zoo (Thank you Adam, Molly, Caroline and Charlie!)

 The girls on Easter all dressed up :)

And, thanks to Aunt Nan and Granny, we just got a new sandbox for the backyard. We have really enjoyed it and when it gets really warm we'll get our water table out and have some fun summer days. Mama is looking forward sitting in the backyard while the girls play, too!

Bethany's 3rd Birthday!

We can hardly believe Bethany turned 3 yesterday! One on hand it seems like just yesterday that we found out we were going to be parents, but on the other hand it seems like she's been with us forever. I cannot imagine my life without  my little Monkey Jones. Bethany LOVES Curious George. So, naturally she wanted a Curious George party. She got to choose 3 friends to come to her party (but one of them was a little picture-shy). Below is the Birthday Girl and two of her friends, Bethany and Leah Holladay.

 We started out with an arts & crafts project: making their own placemats with googlie-eyes. 

Bethany even got to hold a baby! Sweet baby Josiah is the little brother of Bethany H. and Leah.

 Mama and Jaxon's Mama, Denise. Jaxon is the picture-shy third friend she invited. 

The monkeys!

Monkey-ing around! 

And here is the cake Bethany requested: A cake that looks like Bananas but tastes like chocolate. 

I am having some severe technical difficulties getting our videos of the party to upload to here or youtube, so when my super-smart husband is able to, he will post them later :). 

Happy Birthday Bethany! 

Christmas

Here are our belated Christmas time photos. Enjoy!

This was the first Christmas Bethany was old enough to help decorate a tree. She got to help Granny decorate her tree before we decorated ours at home.

We got to spend some time with Uncle Jeff and Joelle and family during our trip to Colorado. Sammy sure enjoyed snuggling and playing with them.

Bethany's older cousins, Joshua, Madeline and Emma love to play with her! Pictured here is the treasure trail Joshua made for Bethany in their house.

As previously mentioned in a sermon by Daddy, here is Samantha pushing Bethany in the stroller :).

At their check up at the doctor this past week, we found out that the girls are only about 2.5 pounds apart. But, Bethany still loves to hold her sister...

...and can still tackle her pretty well, too!

Making Santa Cookies with Daddy (a tradition in his family)

The girls got a train table from Mommy and Daddy as their big present this year, along with all of Daddy's hand me town brio trains and train tracks.

Here is Mommy painting it the night before:

And they got Granny's gift of an All Terrain Radio Flyer Wagon. We got to take it out Christmas morning in the neighborhood (as you can see we did not get a white Christmas. The snow came the next day).

With love to you all!

Benjer, Jennifer, Bethany & Samantha