Merry Christmas, Y'all!

Hope y'all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

Ben, Joanna, and Russell

Scouts

Ben's calling is scoutmaster for the ward, so every Wednesday night they work on merit badges. For the past several weeks they have been working on the communications merit badge. Several weeks ago, they had to write a 5-minute speech on whatever they wanted and then deliver it to everyone that was there. Two boys gave speeches about Yu-gi-oh (go figure). Last night, they had to draw a picture of that describes them.

Ben usually participates in whatever they do. He wrote and gave a 5 minute speech. And, last night he drew a picture about him and his life.

Make sure you click on it so you can read the captions :)

Oh my!

Minnesota Love

Driving between errands a few weeks ago, I was thinking about how awesome it is to live in Minnesota. Here are a few reasons why it's a pretty cool place to live.

1. Your car is a refrigerator for 4+ months of the year. Even though we went grocery shopping first then went to Wal-Mart for all the other stuff, it didn't matter. All the frozen food was still nice and frozen when I unloaded it from the car to the freezer. I'm pretty sure we spent about an hour wandering around looking at all the little things that I didn't need to look at (fingernail polish? umbrella strollers? reindeer antler headbands?) We probably could have spent longer, but my shopping buddy isn't a big fan of shopping. No matter how long I spend after my grocery trip running to other places, I can count on my food staying nice and cold the whole time. Awesome!

2. No sales tax on clothing :) Not that I buy a whole lot anymore, BUT when I did do clothes shopping it only made it that much better knowing the price on the tag is what I would pay. It even applies to online clothes shopping. I found this out one Christmas as I was buying Ben some clothes and debating about whether to ship them to Wausau so he wouldn't know about them until we were at my parents for Christmas or just run the risk of them being delivered to us and him getting the package first. When I put in mom and dad's address the price went up a couple bucks, and being the cheapskate frugal lady I am, I wagered that Ben wouldn't care about a package and had it sent to us.

3. We just barely had our first snowfall in our neck of Minne'snow'ta. That's right. No measurable snow until Dec. 9. For all those people who complain about it, there was nothing to complain about (yes, Ben, I mean you). It has been really pretty. The aforementioned complainer even said that it was pretty, and had a nice drive into work on Monday. It could be like Alaska where winter is from September to May, but Minnesota hasn't disappointed by giving us some nice short winters lately. Yay! Russell loved the snow, by the way. Or at least he was excited to get out of the house. I'm not sure which one it was.

4. Ben would have me add the State Fair. It is pretty fun, and the three times we've been we've sufficiently gorged ourselves on food, looked at lots of animals and the wide varieties of produce, stood in ridiculously long lines for free stuff, rode on some pretty fun rides. We are both excited to go back next summer, and I'm sure Russell will have a blast.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

 On his way into town, Santa got stuck on the old city hall building. Luckily, the fire department was there with one of their ladder trucks to rescue him.

 Russell was not very impressed by Santa, but he did love the fact that there were really bright blinking lights on the fire truck. After being rescued Santa made his way to Barnes and Noble to meet all the children. When we got there a long line had already formed. But, Santa had not arrived and we caught a glimpse of him as he was walking into the store. We figured that was probably good enough since Russell would probably cry if he sat on Santa's lap.

Thanksgiving

Over the summer I was called to be the Laurel/Mia Maid advisor in our ward. I warned the YW president that I wouldn't be going on any camp outs and she said that was fine, I just had to teach the lessons on Sunday and go to any activities I wanted.  This week's lesson was on gratitude. I got to make it up all myself. No manual. Nothing.

I found some pretty interesting things to share, but the thing that struck me the most was I have so much to be grateful for even though Ben and I are not at all where we were hoping to be in right now in life. I have a happy little chub snoozing it up in the crib next door to me every night. I have an amazing sleep deprived husband who gets up at night just so that I won't be sleep deprived during the day. We have an apartment that keeps us warmish and dry and holds all our yummy food and makes it super easy to clean all the dirty clothes. We can get around to places we need to go most of the time thanks to our cars that magically keep running.

During the week I kept having things come to my mind to remind me how blessed I am. I hope I can keep remembering those things all year long.

Happy Thanksgiving!! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Russell's new tricks

Over the past couple weeks Russell has picked up lots of new tricks and habits.

He can scoot himself in an army crawl fashion.
He can sit on his own.
He can get onto his hands and knees and stay there for quite a while, but hasn't quite learned what to do to really crawl.
He is more consistent at rolling over from front to back.
He can roll himself from back to front, but that requires much more effort and he doesn't do it too often.
He can hold his own bottle most of the time and even get it in his mouth.
He loves peek-a-boo.
He loves to sit in his jumper and bounce and spin and look in the closet at all the fun things we have packed away in there.
He loves real food! Carrots are his favorite. Avocados are not.
He is always sticking out that little tongue.

This past week we babysat for a family in the ward while the parents were gone.  Russell loved scooting himself to the fireplace and pushing himself up on it to grab whatever we put there for him not to reach. We also didn't bother taking the pack and play or the swing since he doesn't consistently sleep in either when we are somewhere else. The first three nights he slept like a champ on the memory foam bed they had, but the next three he didn't. Once we got home we decided to let him tough it out in the crib thanks to the dad's advice (he's a family med doc). It hasn't been too terrible, and last night there was only minimal crying and no feeding or diaper change. It has been nice!

There is still just as much spitting up even though he's been on solids. Now it's whatever color of food he ate mostly orange) mixed with the spit up.  The problem: stained carpet. And Russell now wants to play in his spit up and rub it around with his hands. Great. It went from gross to just plain nasty. I'm sure if he were a girl that would never happen.

One day I was doing something in the kitchen and Russell was laying on the living room floor. When I checked on him to make sure things were okay, I found this.

He had been playing with his pacifier and got it stuck on his nose! He was sitting really still like that would help it fall off. I laughed and laughed before I could finally take it off. That's what he gets for shoving it in his mouth as forcefully and in whatever direction he can. He otherwise doesn't care for the thing and only uses it sometimes to help him go to sleep (sorry, Sas and Bri). It's just become another toy along with all the other pacifiers we tried in the beginning.

He had his six month appointment today, and I'm sad to report that he has fallen in the height and length percentiles, but his head circumference has risen some. The doctor had some advice for helping him sleep better at night, and all I could think in my head was, "Just you wait until you have your baby. Then you'll understand."
 

For Aunt Janet (and Uncle Jacob, but I feel he had little to do with this)

Here he is in all of his cuteness! The shirt fits great and should last a couple months. Thanks!!

Ruffle Skirt

Sarah inspired me to actually make a ruffle skirt. I've been wanting one for ages, but thought the fabric would be too expensive.  Well, with my 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby and my 40% off coupon at JoAnn Fabrics I was able to get the materials for the skirt at a relatively reasonable price, AND I could probably make myself a short version of the skirt or multiple little girls ruffle skirts if I want with the leftover materials.

Pleaseignore those nasty smudges on the mirror. Russell likes to put his hands all over it when we walk past and are holding him.

I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. It took a little bit of work to get the waistband sewed on decently, and there is one spot where I caught the ruffle fabric too low and it makes the ruffles stick out a little funny.  I would also recommend doing a little bit of an A-line for this skirt. The fabric is stretchy enough for a straight skirt, but an A-line would give more comfort for moving.

I can't wait to wear it to church next Sunday!

Cousins

 This past weekend was MEA (Minnesota Education Association) weekend, so we headed over to my parent's house to enjoy the long weekend.  Russell enjoyed having his cousins around especially Camille who came to visit Grandma, too.

Good thing Camille didn't mind Russell trying to eat her.

 

Everyone loves Grandma and Grandpa!

Friday Night Lights

Dover-Eyota's Homecoming was Friday night. Ben's students have been wanting him to come to their sports games all year long, so we finally hauled out and spent almost a whole half at the football game. It was chilly, so we had to get all bundled up. And, they won! Now they are 1-4. Sounds like Mount Vernon football.

Party in my tummy

Have you seen this video yet? Someone in this house LOVES it and always turns to watch it whenever it comes on the tv.

Awhile back I made some yummy no bake cookies.  No bakes have a long history in my family.  Joseph called them scooby snacks. Sarah made her own versions, including chocolate granola and then chocolate granola soup. Food Network has the perfect recipe.

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
1 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups oatmeal
Waxed paper

Directions

In a heavy saucepan bring to a boil, the sugar, cocoa, butter and milk. Let boil for 1 minute then add peanut butter, vanilla and oatmeal. On a sheet of waxed paper, drop mixture by the teaspoonfuls, until cooled and hardened. 

 I think I ate more than half of these in about two days. Poor Ben even sacrificed one of his so I could enjoy it :) He liked them, but said that he never had them made with peanut butter growing up. So we found this recipe(in his own handwriting!) that has peanut butter in it.

 I saw the recipe in the cookbook that dinner is coming from tonight, and so I thought I would make some cookies to fill the empty cookie jar. I halved the recipe and didn't use quite as much cocoa, and this is what happened--chocolate granola.

 

Nice and powdery and dry. It still tastes good, we'll just have to eat it with a spoon or something.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

 Russell got a high chair! Because it is an old school chair we had to accomodate it to fit him better. He tolerates it enough that I can do stuff in the kitchen.  He has even practiced his feeding himself skills and can occasionally get the right end of the spoon in his mouth.

My cousin, Russell, is serving in our mission and happen to be in town on splits.  Little did he know, his companion for the day set up a little reunion for him.  The funny thing is, I remember him as a little kid not someone who towers over me!

Don't mind the Joslin faces. We have one where we both look better.

 Our last walk of the warm-weather season :(  I don't know how I'll keep Russell happy during the day since we won't be able to spend lots of time outside anymore.  This was also one of the first places Ben and I went when we started dating.

Ben and his students did a bug collection for the ecology unit in his biology classes.  This is from one of his better students.  We've been grading lots and lots and lots and lots of papers recently. Grades are due by 10am Monday morning.

 Yummy foccacia bread.  Last Sunday, Ben's brother wanted Ben's awesome foccacia recipe from his mission.  Ben looked one up on the internet and sent it to him because he never brought one home.  Ben made it and he said it turned out just as he remembered it from Italy.  Our bishop and his wife went to Italy a couple weeks ago (he served his mission there, too), and took a cooking class.  We are both hoping we get invited over to enjoy some yummy Italian food.

Russell gets the most and most exciting mail in our family.  Today he got a box from Grandma Joslin with his quilt in it and The Saggy Baggy Elephant!!!  Thanks to his early arrival, Grandma didn't have time to finish the quilt before he was born.  She brought what she had done out when they came for Ben's graduation, and we have been waiting ever since to have the finished project.

 No drool got on the book, but the blanket wasn't so lucky.  Right after these pictures he barfed and Ben wasn't quick enough to catch it before it hit the blanket...

Russell sure is lucky he has someone to make him such a nice quilt because his mommy never will!  I wish everyone could see it in person because it really is awesome!  The gold, blue, and green fabric is printed with the same printing as on the spine of all the Little Golden Books.  The quilting on it is cool, too.  Now we just have to wait until Russell is allowed to have blankets in his bed with him.  Then he'll have Sooki to keep him company instead of me or Ben.

Book Review: Heaven Is Here

This month's book for one of the book clubs in our ward is Heaven Is Here by Stephanie Nielson.

Have a box of tissues nearby. Or don't read it if you are emotional. Or have recently had a baby. Poor Ben and Russell had to put up with me crying and tearing up as I read. I tried reading some of it out loud to entertain Russell, but that just made it worse.

What's it about? A husband and wife crash in an airplane, almost die, then have to rebuild their lives while trying to recover from the horrible physical and mental/emotional injuries.

The author did a really good job at making you feel like you were going through it all with her.  From her body healing and going through skin grafts, physical therapy, relearning how to do the simplest tasks to reconnecting with her young children (this might be where I teared up the most as Russell was sitting on my lap just having awakened from a nap), recognizing she was the same person even though she looked different in the mirror, completely relying on her faith in Heavenly Father.

It was an easy read, but have those tissues ready. Seriously.

This is how we read a book

 

Sorry for all the action shots. He didn't want to read the book slowly.

Yummeos

That's what they should call these new oreos.

I can't necessarily say they taste like candy corn, but they sure are delicious.  Mom informed me these were coming out, so yesterday we made a special trip all the way to the Target on the other end of town to get some and see if they were really worth it.  Maybe we just haven't had the special treat of oreos for so long, but I'd have to say they were worth it.  I don't know how much longer they will last in the cookie jar.

Parenthood

Having Russell join our family has been quite the experience for Ben and I.  It was a little bit of a rough go at the beginning, and it had me wondering if I really wanted to be a parent after all. 

I do.

The gratification in seeing Russell smiling and laughing as we sing and play with him has almost made me forget those retched nights and the seemingly never ending days of crying we lived with for a few weeks. And, when it's time we'll have more children.

But, it's not that time now. With our move and change in the station of our lives, we have had some opportunities to interact with other people's children.  These have made me realize what a little doll Russell is even at his worst (like as I was trying to make dinner today and he screamed and screamed and screamed because I wasn't holding him).

For example, a friends daughter not much older than Russell spent an entire two and a half hours screaming while her parents were away and all the babysitters rotated who would take time trying to soothe her unsuccessfully. In weeks previous she did the same thing while at church.

And then, the darling daughters who have their parents wrapped around their fingers so tightly that they could get away with probably anything.  The girls know it is their way or no way.  To us it seemed that their parents had fostered into the daughters the idea that they are better than anyone else and thus needed to be treated as superiors.

Never have we been happier with our little boy who wants us to always hold him and snuggle him and make him smile.  We've learned a few things as we've seen other parents with their children. We aren't planning on being their best friends, but we will love them and do our best to parents them as best as we can. 

Hair

Poor Russell has had to live with an Uncle Forrest haircut these past 4 months.  It wasn't made any better when this past Sunday there was a baby blessing and the baby, who is three weeks younger than Russell, had tons more hair than he had.  She had so much hair that they can already put it up in pigtails! Anyway, we were sitting in front of some friends, and when the kids in that family saw how much hair she had and then looked at Russell they quickly let us know Russell has no hair.

He does have hair! It just happens to be pretty light and is short because he is a boy. And, his Uncle Forrest haircut isn't as noticeable these days.  It's being stretched around his 75th percentile head.

Ready for the football game!

Political

No, this post isn't political. I am becoming political. I guess.

Ben is helping with our Sunday school teacher's campaign as she runs for the state House of Representatives in November. He has been out knocking doors with her and her 'people' and attending campaign meetings.  They've asked him to be in charge of the social media aspect of her campaign, so he gets to update Facebook, make her web page look good, etc. Well, little did they know that he is pretty busy getting things ready for school. Last night as we were getting ready for bed, I asked him if he had gotten around to updating Facebook for her (because he was talking about getting it done Saturday and Sunday), and he let out a big sigh. 

Nope. He didn't get to it. He said I could do it if I had time.

Well, I have time, and I spend quite a bit of it on Facebook. It wasn't too hard to post some pictures on her wall for it. So, that's it.  I'm being political.

You can check out her webpage, or facebook/twitter Bly for MN House. 

Guess this is good practice for when Ben runs!

For those who only come to see Russell pictures, here you go! This is his favorite activity--eating burp cloths. Thanks for sending more, Becky!

Russell's Books

Russell loves reading books! He stares intently at the page, looking at the pictures and listening to the story.  Today he helped me turn the pages and was hitting the pictures of different vehicles in one of his books. Yesterday we went to the library to pick up more books so he can read other books besides those in his own little library.  I was impressed with the public libraries selection of board books. It was huge! I was expecting a little shelf, but they had several little (and by little I mean short for the little kids) shelves filled with board books.

One of my favorite ones he got was this one.

It is illustrated to look sewn.  Cool, huh? Okay.  At least I think its pretty cool!

Russell really likes some of his other books like

 

We love them too! Hopefully Russell develops a love of reading early that will stay with him for his entire life.