Preschool

The beginning of September Kaden started preschool. He was so excited and happy to be going to school. Here are the pictures on his first day.

The Twins

I thought I would start out with the twins, they have come a long way from how they started. The babies were born on September 17th 2009. They were 6 weeks early. Karson Kent Bennett was born at 11:34 pm and weighed 4lbs 14oz and was 17 1/2in long. Shortly after Kole Richard Bennett was born at 11:39pm and weighed 3lbs 13oz and was 17in long. They were both rushed to the NICU where they spent the first couple weeks of their lives. It was really hard for us to deal with, but luckily we have a great family support system that helped us through it all. We really appreciate everyone! Both babies luckily have no health problems. They were just early and had to learn to breathe and eat on their own. Karson ended up spending 17 days in the NICU, and Kole spent 22 days. We couldnt wait to get them home!

So much to catch up on!

Just wanted to let you all know I will be blogging again! I know it has been a long time since my last blog, but in my defense I have had a lot going on. I am going to try and catch everyone up with what has been going on even though most of you already know. I have tons of pictures to post and cute Kaden stories (those are my favorites!)

Wow

We are having twins!

Happy Birthday Jody & Alyssa!

Yesterday was my niece Jody's Birthday, and today is my niece Alyssa's Birthday. Happy Birthday girls! We love you!!

Fun Game

Here's how you do it:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name. (or if you're not a member of Flickr, do your blog name or email name or something like that)

Here is mine...




1. 2009YIP: 016/365 (Tom Cruise. This is not Valkyrie, Valarie), 2. Delicious Mexican food in Flagstaff Arizona, 3. Chaffey High School, 4. The Earth & the Heaven, 5. Jesse James, 6. Coca Cola, 7. Leaving Cabo in our Wake, 8. Raspberry - Swirl Cheesecake, 9. If there was a Stay-At-Home-Mom Olympics... 17/366, 10. Doll familly- Happy 2009, 11. The Lazy King..., 12. smile13. Not available14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available


If you are reading this, you are tagged :)

Expecting....

As probably all of you already know, I am preggo! We are very excited and can't wait. We are hoping for a girl. Keep your fingers crossed!

Valentines Day

So I will admit, I use to be one of those people that made a big deal about Valentines Day. But now I just don't get it. Yes I understand the idea of it, but why not be nice and show the person you love that you love and care about them everyday? Instead of making a big deal about one day and trying to make it perfect, or expect so much from your partner. The reason I am writing this is because I just had to go to Walmart to pick up some perscriptions and the place was a mad house. People everywhere picking out flowers candy and balloons. I even over heard these two guys talking about how their wives would make them sleep on the couch for days for not getting them flowers. Lets be real people its just one day. Why not buy your wife flowers because YOU ACTUALLY wanted to. Not because some stupid holiday says you HAVE TO. That's all.

P.S. I love you all and hope you all have a good day tomorrow. ♥ Val

Tag

Eight favorite Tv shows :
Grey's Anatomy
Desperate Housewives
Rachel Ray
All My Children
The Real World
Gossip Girl
Little People Big World
The Hills

Eight things I look forward to:
Seeing my boys every morning when I wake up
Spending time with Chad when he can fit me in
Seeing my family when I can
Bonuses
When my mom & dad in law are in town
My birthday, even though I feel like I'm getting old
Having a girls night with Kellie & Jessica
Summer because I cant wait to break out my flip flops!


Eight favorite places to eat:
Olive Garden
Outback
Cafe Rio
TGIFridays
Pizza Factory
Training Table
Texas Roadhouse
Appplebees

Eight things on my wish list:
Getting to see my family more often
To have all of my family and friends be happy and healthy
Money, and lots of it. An endless supply would be great.
Summer to come early
I would love to have some superpowers... like a snap of the finger and my house would be clean, another snap and dinner would be made. Boy I am a dreamer
Chad wanting to spend more time with me like he use to.
To have more friends in Utah
To have more fun




Eight people I tag:
Che is the only one that hasn't been tagged yet :)

Update

Just so everyone knows, Kaden's surgery went well. He is home and doing pretty good. I have to admit I was expecting a lot worse. My kid is a real trooper. He is stronger than I am. We are now just trying to make him drink and try to eat as much as possible. And I am bracing myself for the next couple of days. The Dr. said the third and forth day are the worst so we will see how that goes. Thanks for everyone's prayers and support. It means a lot to us. Here is the one and only picture I took. Its in the recovery room.

Chad holding Kaden and his new bear they gave him

Bowling

On Sunday we decided to do something fun while my mom was here. We let Kaden choose and he chose to go bowling. We had so much fun. It was Kaden's first time bowling and he loved it. We can't wait to go again. Here are the pictures I took...

My two favorite guys

My mom

Kaden

Trying to pick the ball up

Chad helping Kaden

The cute-est kid ever in ugly bowling shoes!

Happy Birthday Ally & Uncle Rudy!

Today is my beautiful niece Ally and my uncle Rudy's Birthday. Happy Birthday
we love you guys!

Happy Birthday Jennifer

Today is my sister Jennifer's Birthday. Happy Birthday sis I love you and wish we could be there for it! I hope you had a great weekend away!

Happy Blog-versary To Me!

I just realized that as of January 27th I have officially had my blog for one year. That is some big proof right there that sometimes I can stick to things I start. When I started blogging I wasn't sure if I would have enough things to talk about to keep this thing going. But I guess I do. Thanks everyone for reading! And thanks to all of the other bloggers out there that give me something to read/look at.

Happy Birthday Kellie

Today is Kellie's Birthday! Happy Birthday Kel I ♥ you!!!

Helping Out

Funny

It seems like Kaden is always making us laugh lately. He comes up with the funniest things. I often wonder If he may be a comedian some day. Last night we were playing our Wii and Chad and I have been pretty competitive with it. I happen to SUCK at Wii golf. Chad gets mad at me because I suck so bad. So there I was taking my like 10th shot or so and it kept going into the water, so Kaden grabs the Wii remote and said "mommy you are the suckiest golfer" so hilarious we almost died!

Advice

I seriously need some advice on what to do with Kaden. He has been potty trained since the end of November, but this past week he keeps on having "accidents" it is getting worse by the day. He actually laughs and thinks its funny. I get so angry. I am not sure what to do to make him stop. I have had many talks with him, I have been putting him in the corner EVERY time and Today I even took his skateboard Angie bought him for being potty trained back to her house and told him he couldn't have it back until he stopped having accidents. Any suggestions on how to handle this??

Happy Birthday Angie & Jordan

Today is Angie and Jordan's Birthday! Happy Birthday we love you guys :D

Fyi

Most of you already know, Kaden is having his tonsils and adenoids removed. Today we set the date of his surgery. It will be on Monday February 9Th. I am still a little scared for him, but I know its a routine procedure that is done every day and he will be so much better after. I think just the thought of my little bug being put out and cut open is what scares me. So keep him in your prayers that day.

Recipe

I found this online today, and I am going to attempt to make it. I decided to post it because I know of a certain someone that LOVES this.


Café Rio Creamy Tomatillo Ranch Salad Dressing
1 bottle fat free ranch dressing
2 tomatillos (tomato like vegetable with a husk around them)
½ bunch of cilantro
1 clove garlic
Juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeño (Use the seeds too if you like it spicy. You could substitute a few drops of green tobasco for the jalapeno.)

Use a food processor to blend all the ingredients well. Refrigerate.

Cafe Rio Chicken
1 small bottle Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
1 T chili powder
1 T cumin
3 cloves garlic—minced
5 lbs chicken breast

Cook all together in a crock pot for 4 hours, shred meat and cook 1 additional hour.

Café Rio Rice
3 c water
4 t chicken bouillon
4 t garlic –minced
½ bunch cilantro
1 can green chiles—or equivalent fresh
¾ t salt
1 T butter
½ onion
3 c rice

Blend cilantro, green chiles and onion together in food processor. Bring water to a boil and add all ingredients, simmer covered 30 minutes.

Pico de Gallo is easy just chop up some tomatoes (I usually use roma), white onion, jalapeno, cilantro, and add some sea salt and fresh squeezed lime.


Put it all together in this order:
Fried flour tortilla
Rice
Beans (black or pinto)
Chicken
Green leaf lettuce
Pico de gallo
Shredded cheese
Crushed tortilla chips
Creamy tomatillo dressing
Sour cream
Guacamole



This is another take on the dressing...

CAFE RIO CREAMY TOMATILLO DRESSING
(copycat recipe)

3 large tomatillos
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 envelope buttermilk ranch dressing mix
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh lime juice

Remove husks from tomatillos, wash, quarter and broil until soft--about 7 minutes.

Combine everything in blender until smooth. Chill for at least one hour for flavors to blend.

If anyone makes this, let me know how it turns out!

Kaden's Birthday Pictures

Opening presents

Skateboards!

Che helping the kids climb into the tubes

Kaden & Jase

Kaden & Chuck E Cheese

Jase, Kaid & Kaden on the roller coaster ride

Kaden & the Sponge Bob Cake

Christmas Card Picture

A couple of weeks before Christmas we decided it would be a good idea to go to the park and take a couple of pictures for our Christmas card this year. This was our first year actually mailing out Christmas cards. Last year I went out and bought cards, wrote them out to people and never mailed them! Don't be too shocked, everyone knows that I am a big procrastinator and I'm married to one. So I was determined to get them done and in the mail this year. And I did. Anyway we went to the park and it was starting to get dark. Angie and her family came too so we could get a picture of their family. It was SO cold out that we all got out of the car and posed really fast, and both mine and Angie's camera's would not work! I think it was way to cold. We finally got one of the cameras to work long enough to take one picture of each of our families and then we all ran to our cars to get warm. And as crazy as we are that was the night we all went to Temple Square to see all of the Christmas lights. It was really fun but cold.

Christmas

Christmas was really fun this year. Kaden is getting older now and finally realizes what happens on Christmas. Well he knows about Santa and presents. I think that's all that matters to three year old's at least. I think that I was a little more excited for him to open his gifts than he was. I was even awake first and had to wake him up to tell him Santa came. He got a lot of Backyardigans toys which of course he loves. Here are some pictures I took.

Kaden in front of the tree on Christmas morning
Opening a gift from SantaWearing his new hoodie

Were Back!

Thanks to our FAVORITE cousins, Andrew & Lindsey our computer is working again! Thanks again for helping us out. :)