Thursday, December 18, 2014

The Season of Giving...Post one


Here in the Benson Household we like to teach our children lessons in humanity...
One of the most important lessons we try to teach them is kindness <3
Now Our kids are on the younger end. So we try to keep it simple.
We give to toys for tots and the Salvation army donation stations.
We have volunteered with the older ones at different places.
But for me it is important that they understand the holidays are supposed to be the season of 
GIVING...not receiving.
So in light of trying to teach them this we wanted them to give things to their classmates,
and teachers.
Nothing crazy mind you just something small and kind. 
I let Mack look at pintrest first and he chose hot coco snowmen...
So that's what we made today :) 
So without further wait here is our pintrest project of the day

HOT CHOCOLATE SNOWMEN
 Items you will need 
Cleaned baby food jars with the labels and glue removed
Hot Chocolate mix
Marshmallows
Candie's if you want them
Hot glue gun
Black Spray paint 
Ribbon 
Black paint
Orange Permanent marker

I bought these from costco so they are pretty good size, 
I used about 2 of these to make 22 of them...
but I also let my four year old fill them up so a lot of it went on the table lol
 Good brand marshmallows of course I would suggest at least 2 possibly three bags of these
First you want to spray paint the lids of the baby food jars black
A couple tips
Don't do this outside when the weather isn't great lol
You are going to want to give them two coats so let the first dry until it's tacky and then spray the second coat
Make sure you cover the sides
And do this at least 24hrs in advance 
(I didn't and it was a pain in the but..whoops)
Also try to use all the same brand baby food jars...
I used two different kinds and once you spray the lids you can't tell which is which and they have slightly different sized lids..pain in the butt


Now Assembly style works well in our house so I put Mack on filling up the bottom jars with
hot coco :)
Another tip I would also paint the faces and buttons on the jars 24hours in advance before filling them up
Again learning curve... I didn't and it was a pain lol
 And Emmit was in Charge of filling up the marshmallows
(don't worry both boys had their hands washed before starting)



 (Gracie tried to join the party but mommy made messy face get down and go play with A)

 He had so very much fun doing this





 Use Black paint to paint and face and buttons on your snowmen 
(on the pintrest ones I saw they used actual buttons but I was afraid of the 
kids pulling them off and putting them in their mouths since they are preschoolers)
and the orange permanent marker to make the nose
When you are assembling them you need to put the bottom lids on then hot glue the top jar to the bottom lids after they are on the bottom jars
Another tip- gluing in the center of the bottom lid doesn't work you need to glue around the edges
Put the top lids on
Now you want to let those dry
and last but not least you want to add the snowman's scarf
I just used one peace as a measurement and cut them all out
I then put on dab of hot glue on the back of the bottom lid and one on each side of it
I wrapped the ribbon around and then put a dab of glue on the top of one piece of ribbon 
in the front of the snowmen and then press the other side of ribbon down on it
and TADA :) Hot coco snowmen 

 Aren't these cute :)
 I mean look at that face ;)

 We decided his teachers didn't need snowmen 
And made them cute little ornaments with Mack's finger prints on them instead :) 

 These were a big hit with his teachers
 So sweet :)
 Love the finished product 
 Merry Christmas 2014

(I saved the containers from the CoCo mix and have a fun project in mind for those to So stay tuned for that project as well) 


Tuesday, December 9, 2014

That fateful day I became a...

That fateful day I became a mommy...
My oldest Celebrated her 8th birthday last week,
 it's been so hectic around here that I am just now getting to blog this :)
One a cold winter night... December 2nd, 2006 to be exact...
After going over due by 2weeks and 2days and being scheduled to be induced the next morning...
I finally went into labor on my own. 
My stubborn little baby (we didn't know what we were having because she wouldn't uncross her legs)
was supposed to be due November 20th and I waited and waited and waited...
Honestly as a 18yr old mom that was determined to have a all natural birth I was loosing my mind.
I swore that kiddo was never coming out and I was about to loose it...
I was terrified of being induced, but the other option seemed that she would never come out...
So I finally relented, and scheduled the induction on the morning of December 3rd. 

Except she had other plans, 
on the night of the second as I laid down for bed I knew something was off.
I was restless and couldn't stay laying down. I tossed and turned.
The contractions got stronger and closer together.
I had been having braxton hicks for weeks but these felt different. 
I took a bath and that didn't relieve the restless feeling or the contractions.
I got up and paced and tried having some tea and I still couldn't calm myself.
I walked the hallway and then took a shower.
From about 10pm to 2am I had myself convinced I wasn't in labor and just being hopeful
I was afraid to go to the hospital and look stupid.
(Give me a break guys I was young and this was my first kiddo)
By 2:30 am I knew I could wait no longer and I loaded up in the car and drove myself to the hospital.
I was checked in and they monitored me and told me that although yes I was in labor it wasn't active and I wouldn't be having the baby today without induction. 
I was instructed to go home and rest until I had to come back for my induction....
YEAH RIGHT...
They were oh so wrong and I was back by 6am ( I was scheduled to be induced at 7am)
So this time they just had to keep me.
I spent the next 12hrs pacing, and using the tub to manage pain.
I talked to Dev on the phone a lot 
(Once I could reach him, he was in California)
Unfortunately my regular Doctor was on vacation in Oregon with her family.
(I was two weeks overdue after all)
So I had to have a male doctor that I had never met before. 
I was not at all happy with this...only one man needs to see my parts in my opinion.
But what are you going to do..,
When you are about to push a baby out someone has to catch the baby.
The nurses kept trying to convince me to get a epidural, 
and finally I snapped at them...
" I swear if any of you try to stick a damn needle in my back it will end up in yours"
Let's just say I am the best OB patient you can ask for...until you don't listen to me
(Or if I have to have a labor with pitocin for longer then 12hrs...Sorry Dr. Kraus)
Let's just say they didn't bug me about it again and move on with our story.
By 7:30 I was saying I feel like I need to push.
The nurse's took their sweet time getting the Doctors in the room...
by the time everyone was in there I swear there was 15 people in my room...
Talk about over kill...
Anyway they were taking their sweet time and I simply said...
Listen folks I know this is my first time but if one of you doesn't get down there I am catching this baby myself.
They just laughed and said it will take you more then one push hun...
Apparently they expected me to push for at least 20minutes...
And they told me to go ahead and push...
So I did...
And exactly two pushes later at 7:43pm 
Our beautiful daughter was born...
I told the doctor beforehand not to say anything because I had Devon on the phone and I wanted to tell him.
So I didn't know until they laid her on my chest and in one of the most perfect moments of my life
I looked down at this sweet perfect screaming chubby little girl and I told her daddy...
"It's a girl babe, we have a daughter"
And I was a mommy and it's the best thing that's every happened to me. 
She was a healthy 8lbs 11oz and 19in and we named her 
Cherry Lynn Benson
Cherry- Because she was our sweetness and innocence reborn
Lynn- After her Auntie Dakota, God mommy Rachael and adopted sister Ronda 
Benson- Because it was time for this last name to be carried on in a beautiful way.
<3Three very important names to us <3
Happy 8th birthday Cherry Lynn Benson
May you always know how loved and adored you are
- Love your mommy and daddy 





Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Checking off the Kids Christmas wish list...

 Well despite our best efforts we weren't able to make it to the lighting ceremony this year because they did it before Thanksgiving and sadly I had a shoot scheduled that I couldn't reschedule :(  But we explained it to the kids and they decided having a lighting ceremony of our own was more fun ;) so that's what we did. We attempted to go cut down our own tree but sadly they were out of the tags from the forest station to cut down your own tree and by the time we got back to Spokane all the kids were to tired and cranky to go to a tree farm so we went and bought one at the General store, we did unload all the kids and let them choose..but it was to dark to take pictures.. #momfail But we got our tree and we decorated it as a family :) we also have done two different days of Christmas movie Marathons :) We did a craft today but I didn't get a chance to upload photos of it so I will get those up soon :) for now please enjoy these photos of our family decorating our tree and our new start to the newest Benson tradition...opening a book every night from December 1st to Christmas :)

Daddy putting up our parking lot tree lol 
 All the kids in front of our tree...sadly Gracie didn't want to take the photo...
Got to love Jaydon's Solution
 We are still buying books, They are so pricey. But I would much rather buy books then more toys.
But this is our stack of Christmas books to open one a night. 
 Gracie is hiding under the blanket in this one,
 but Emmit and Jay holding hands was just too cute not to share.
 I love this because they were singing oh Christmas tree and swinging side to side.

 Decorating the tree all together 






 Gracie's "stop taking pictures mom" look







 Awe her smile <3
 One of the few ornaments that survived storage, Cherry's first Christmas ornament
 Devon's Seahawks ornament, My Cowboys one is hiding somewhere but I will find it ;)
 Our beautiful Christmas tree 


 In our house things go youngest to oldest, it works well and teaches patience.
So for the first night of Christmas Grace got to choose the book.
For once she decided posing was more fun
 Book??? What book mom???
 Choosing the book
 She then decided she didn't care to open it and passed it off to Emmit


 Sissy will you hold my snack...no sissy not eat it

 I did it mom!!!
The first book of Christmas <3