thebensons123's blog

We are BACK!

I know, holy schnazzelcrackers!  Schnazzelcrackers?  I don't know - it just came to me so I went with it!  Give a girl a break!  I'm sure that those of you who follow our blog are falling off your chairs at the moment but hold tight my fair people - there are posts a'coming!  And yes, I will be making up for lost time.  I've been a loser.  So sue me.  :)  So be patient and within the next couple of days you will be getting a schmorgassboard (sticking with the 'sch' sound from earlier) of pictures and posts! 

1st Snow Day

We had our first snow and Josie was so excited for it that she got all dressed up so she could go out.  She had herself so bundled that I had to take a picture - it was so cute and I just had to share!

All dressed up for first snow

Trick-or-treating for Halloween 2009

Snow white and the little witch

The girls absolutely loved their costumes.  This was Josie's 2nd time dressing as Snow White, as we did it earlier in the week for school.  Addison loved her witch costume and the hat was a big, big, big hit!

the girls with Daddy

Getting ready to go trick-or-treating with Daddy.  We went to a place in downtown Billings where they actually block off like a 5 block area just for trick-or-treaters and there were LOTS of them!

Addison's 1st trick-or-treat ever!

the 1st trick-or-treat candy!

showing the 1st candy

Addison's very first time trick-or-treating!

Josie's 1st loot of the night!  She wanted it documented, so document we did!

how to hide the hair - take 1

how to hide the hair - take 2

In order for Josie to wear the black wig, we needed to hide all her blond hair.  This is how we did it.  It was quite the process!

Daddy with his girls!

pre-trick or treating

Pumpkin Decorating

Josie learned at school that yellow plus red equals orange and they mixed the paint in a baggie to show how it works.  Well, hers ended up being more red than orange, but she wanted to paint the pumpkins they brought home from the Pumpkin Patch with it, so that's what she did!

painting pumpkins

These pumpkins were grown in Uncle Andy's garden and he and Brian were willing to share with the girls, so they brought them out with these face pieces.  The girls picked out which ones they wanted to go where and mommy just helped push them into the pumpkins.  They turned out great!

decorating pumpkins thanks to Uncles Andy and Brian

When we were finished, we left them on the front porch as decor!

decorating for Halloween

Josie was SO excited to be able to help mommy decorate!  I think it's going to become a necessary thing from now on!

my schnauzer pumpkin carving

My parents found these pumpkin patterns for our dogs, and since I knew it would be a lot of work, I actually got a fake pumpkin from Michael's and carved it so I could have it again the next year and the year after, and so forth so I could enjoy it!  Turned out pretty good!

Power Outage!

Everyone with the power out

Playing with flashlights!

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We had the power randomly shut off one night recently, so we drug out the candles (which I have plenty of, and it was great!) and the flashlights which was a real treat for the girls!  They spontaneously started singing and dancing, it was so cute!  I actually caught it on video, which I hope to upload here soon!  Stay tuned!

PowerOutage Oct 2009

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Josie's school was able to take a field trip to one of the local pumpkin patches.  It was EXTREMELY muddy that day, but fun nonetheless.  They started out with a hay ride through a graveyard, through ghosts and gouhls patch, and then out among the haystacks and pumpkins.  The rules for the kids were that they could take the pumpkin as long as they could carry it! 

"I got the big one!"

cheese~

Maddie and Josie

mud puddle is better than pumpkins

Josie with Maddie and Addison playing in the mud puddle with Maddie.  It was way more entertaining than the pumpkins.

Josie's pre-preschool class

Most of the kids in Josie's class.  It's grown in size now to 13.

Mommy and Josie

Josie and Cooper showing the loot

Us on the hay ride and then Josie with Cooper (Maddie's brother), who is in her class.  Nice to have relatives around!

boo!

Spooky Hollow

Gainan's Outing with Papa and Green-Green

So, all the really good pictures of this came from Patti's camera and I need to snag them still from her, but I wanted to put a couple of what I had, at least.  Josie, Addison, and Syd went with my parents to Gainan's for pumpkin days while I was in Butte for a concert with Rhonda...yes it was Kenny Rogers, her fav.  No joke.  But we had a great time!

Patiently waiting

So excited for the face painting

Looking on

Mud Pit Enjoyment

As you all well know, I am sure, that our yard isn't complete yet.  We still have a large section of grass to plant and flower beds that we are trying to get in.  Well, in this section, we had a bobcat in trying to move in a rock which left a huge rut.  This will eventually be a large flower/tree bed, but we currently have brand new grass around it that needs to be wet 24/7 to grow and germinate.  This led to all this water collecting in the rut from the bobcat, hence our mud pit.  We girls found it one day, and although I cringed at the thought of the mud on the clothes, I just let them do their thing and be kids.  Plus I thought it would be a great photo opp, and boy was I right!

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Follow the leader, looking for sticks and worms (right) and where'd my shoe go (left)?  Oh, there it is!  Josie was wearing flip-flops and one got so stuck it broke!

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Look how dirty I am!













Even dirt caked on the face!  Love it!

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Checking out how dirty they are!  Those socks were purple like her shirt!  Agh!

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I hosed them off after they were all done and finally got them clean!  They were chilly by the end, but loved playing in the water!

 

in my frustration!

I'll start by saying that I am glad that I waited a couple of hours before blogging this because I'm a bit more calm.  A bit.  And I will say that by having a website I realize that there is a chance that something like this can happen.  However, can I say just how angry I am at the world of idiots who ruin things for the rest of us?  Why can friends and families not stay in contact via websites like these without others ruining it for them?  What a wonderful way for others to stay up on how our family changes - and being as small as our children are, that is daily.  So it is with a heavy heart that I am telling all of you that I am changing our blog to private for friends and family only!  I am frustrated beyond belief that with one small title that had "potty" in it - that was enough for 87, yes 87 (practically overnight) sick and perverted lunes to look at the picture, I am sure, hoping for a glimpse of an unmentionable.  I have ALWAYS been very careful not to post things that are personal, and especially of "private" items...  In two years time, I have never had a problem and now unfortunately a harsh dose of reality has slapped me in the face.  I feel violated!!!  Who are these people?  All I can say is that they make me sick to my stomach - and I hope that this blog will prevent any other parent from feeling how I feel at this very moment.  I must say that in the 2 years we've been with vox, we've never had a problem.  I started using Flickr a few months ago (as it was faster to upload to) and this is where I ran into the problem.  Nonetheless, I'm changing both to friends and family only.

So, this means if you enjoy checking up on us and don't have a vox account, you'll have to make one and we'll have to link for you to see our updates from this point on. 

I don't want any of our friends/family to miss our updates, so please go sign up HERE (http://www.vox.com/register/) so you can still keep up with us!  (Once you sign up, look for us "thebensons123" under the PEOPLE search and add us to your neighborhood.  This will send us a message you would like to added and I can approve it from there.)  It is free and you don't even have to blog like we do - but we love to stay in contact. 

So here's a big thanks ahead of time!

Beautiful sky

double rainbow

Twice now recently we've had big rain storms in the evenings and they've left beautiful rainbows in their wake.  This is the 2nd time now that we've seen a double rainbow.  The picture unfortunately doesn't do it justice - it's just breathtaking!