A week of fun and surprises!

Well lets start off with the most exciting news . . . . . Ben got the internship at HAFB! What a blessing this will be for our family.  He will now be getting paid salary which is great for an intern, and have steady hours and a boss that is actually at work instead of in Arizona all the time.  We are so grateful for this opportunity.

Sunday was Aubrey's 13th birthday, so on Saturday the whole family went out to eat to celebrate with her.  I can't believe how old my parents are getting :)  Their baby is a teenager now, what are they going to do with her.  They better hold onto their hats.  At dinner Jared and Alisha announced that they are engaged.  What a great surprise that was for all of the rest of us,  we are so excited for them.  While we were eating Jared talked Aubrey into eating a super hot pepper for $10 bucks.  It was great watching her face turn bright red and see her nose run.  Then afterwards Jared handed her the money and said "Happy Birthday, I was going to give you the money for your birthday anyway."  What a sneaky trick, which I  am sure that he learned from our dad, because I have been the tricked by the same trick :)

Then Sunday night we drove up to Wellsville to participate in the annual President's Day Breakfast.  We all went to IHOP to enjoy good food and great company.  It is always nice to go up and visit with everyone and to watch Ben wrestle with Clayton and Landon and have a good time.  And thanks Mom and Dad for watching Sadie (our highly annoying dog) so that we are able to go up there.

Learning the Language and Celebrations

Well Amanda and I the other day were talking about how well Jaynie is starting to talk. Even though our little girl is only 15 months old, she is beginning to have quite the vocabulary.

The following are some of the words that she says (I wish I could add a recording of the way that she says them, because just jotting them down doesn't do it justice nor is it nearly as cute as her saying them) :

Nana (banana)

O ju (hold you)

Ta Da!! (ta da!!) One of our favorites.

Peas (please)

NO! (she's got that one down pat)

Ooo! (she's so curious that when she finds something new or different that's what she says)

WOW!

Mom

Papa (I personally like being called papa instead of dad, I guess it's because I'm such a fan of the phrase "papa bear".)

tai tu (thank you, she's becoming very polite)

sNO (Snow. She hasn't quite got the transition from the S to the N quite right yet, but you can definitely tell what she's saying)

eeet (eat. She loves her food)

hom (home. She takes after her mother in always loving to be home)

uh-o (anytime anybody drops anything)

ball

ba-yoon(balloon)

baf (bath-this is her favorite time of the day)

bubbles

baby (she carries her doll with her constantly now)

The 'b' sound must be an easy one to make becasue she is very good at words that start with B.

Jaynie has now started saying Kiya, but she can only say Ky, but she says it twice so it comes out Kyky, and Kiya promptly tries to correct her every single time. She definitely does not want to be called by the wrong name.

Well that's all the words that I could think of off of the top of my head. We really need to keep a better list of all the words she's saying. I'm sure I am missing some, so if we can think of any we'll be sure to add them.

We had a fun weekend during our "Happy Super Bowlirthday Weekend" since it was both my birthday and the Super Bowl. Ya, the team we were rooting for lost, but really we just enjoy watching the commercials. Come on, who doesn't. But it really was a good game.

We went up on Friday to Logan and went out to eat at one of Amanda's and I's favorite places up there, Cafe Sabor. The food was good, the company was better, but the fried ice cream was the best. (that's why Amanda and I like it so much). We enjoyed being up with my family and hanging out with them a little bit. We came home on Saturday and enjoyed some time alone at home. That evening we went out to eat again with Amanda's parents and grandparents (Anitta and Doug), which is always fun. We ended up waiting over an hour to be seated at Texas Road House. Was it worth it?...it's always worth it when I don't have to pay. Thank heaven for birthdays. Since Amanda's sisters were watching the girls we went to a movie after dinner. The night was a real treat. It's not very often that we get to spend an evening with just the "adults" and get to leave the girls home.

It was a great weekend.

Happy Birthday Ben!!

Sunday is Ben's Birthday and I just wanted to wish him a Happy Birthday. What more could a guy ask for than to have the Super Bowl on his birthday (Go Cardinals :)
Ben I want you to know that you truly are my love. You mean the world to me. You are the greatest Husband that I could ask for. I know that I don't express my love for you as often as I should, and that I do not show my gratitude for all of the little things that you do, but I do notice them. You are always so considerate of what I want or need and are a amazing dad to Kiya and Jaynie. Thank you for being you and always trying to make me happy. I will always be your Sweetheart. I Love you! Have a great birthday and enjoy every minute of being young because we are getting too old to quick.

Long Weekend = Good Times

This last weekend we headed up to Cache Valley to spend some time with my (Ben's) family. It's always so good to see those guys. Tenaya and Jason bought a house and we helped them move out of Grandma's basement and into their new home. Congrats!
On Saturday night the whole family (minus Jason and Tenaya due to settling in the house) decided to go bowling. Clayton and Landon brought their girlfriends, Krista (Clayton) and Kirsti (Landon). It was fun just to meet them and get to know them.
Afterward we went back to Mom and Dad's and had pizza, treats, and played the ever popular Mormon (Barnyard) Rummy. It was just the kids that played, Mom is always so busy, and Dad just won't play with us anymore, especially if Amanda's playing since about 97% of the time we play games she wins :)

We came home on Sunday morning and rushed to get ready for church since it started at 11 and then came home and made dinner for us and Amanda's family and Grandma and Grandpa Cheney. It's always good to see them, and visit with Grandpa even though he always falls asleep in the middle of a conversation.

Monday we went to breakfast with Anitta and Doug which is always a treat. We then went and did some shopping then went to a nearby park and played with the girls. Kiya finally likes going down slides now, instead of screaming whenever anyone goes near one. It was a great weekend all in all and we wish we could have more just like it.

P.S. I just have to add this on to Ben's post becasue it is not often that I beat anyone in bowling. I bowled and 102, thus beating my old record of 100, and getting second place out of every one bowling. Now for the greatest part not only did I beat Ben's score but I almost doubled it. Hooray! - Amanda

Grandpa White

Well we just found out that this morning that Grandpa White (Ben's Grandpa) fell on the ice and broke his hip.  He was rushed in for an emergency surgery to put his hip back together.  We hope and pray that he will have a quick recovery and be able to walk well again.  

Running the Wasatch Back

In high school I ran on the cross-country team, and lately have been toying with the idea of taking up running again.  So yesterday on a whim I decided that I would run the Wasatch Back and get Ben to run it with me.  For those who don't know the Wasatch Back is a 180 mile race from Logan to Park City.  What was I thinking, this is totally crazy!  Granted one person doesn't run the whole 180 miles by themselves the race is split up by 12 people on a team, it is still completely insane.  

When I originally starting thinking about this, I just thought that getting back into running would be a great way to get back in shape and maybe lose some of my baby weight (now that Jaynie is 14 months old it's about time).  But what possessed me to want to do this is beyond me.  Ben is committed to doing this, and won't let me quit now that I talked him into doing it. So I guess I am stuck and should start training one of these days.  This whole thing will be quite the process and we'll have to see how it goes.  I just have to wish myself a bit of good luck, I'm going to need it.

Give-ups and Goals

Well it's Sunday evening, the last day of Christmas break.  It's a great vacation from the hectic schedule of work, school, dropping off and picking up the kids, especially that last part.  I have seen Amanda in her element this last week and a half as she gets to stay home with her two little girls and teach them, play with them and listen to them.  It's sad to see her these last couple days slowly come to the realization that Monday brings back early mornings and late evenings teaching school, but mostly the fact that she doesn't get to spend as much time as she wants to with Kiya and Jaynie.  I  start school again on Tuesday since this semester I only have classes on Tuesday and Thursday, and I figure I am about one year out from graduating.  I can't wait to be done with school so I can finally be done with the construction industry, but more than that I can't wait to be done so that Amanda doesn't have to work and can stay home with our girls.

Well one of our good friends has a blog and she listed her Give-ups and Goals.  I thought that was a clever idea to do, instead of just setting goals on how to make you a better person this year but to also state what you were going to give up to help the process of becoming better a little more defined.  So I wanted to do the same thing by listing the things that I want to do this year and also the things that I was going to give up.

Give-Ups

Ben: Soon to come.

Amanda:  Junk food and sweets, kind of the same thing I guess (except for on birthday's you can't pass up chocolate cake on a birthday).

Goals

Ben:  Coming Soon.

Amanda: 1) Leave school by 3:30 at least 3 times a week, then maybe my girls would actually have a mother.  2)  Do my visiting teaching each month.  And 3) Organize my house one room at a time.