Name that tune

No Tag-Backs!!

Hey, it's Ben. Katie the Cheater tagged me, so prepare for a treat:


Four jobs I've had...
1. Taco Bell (and I still love the food)
2. Roaring Rapids Pizza Company, boyee!
3. Wedding DJ
4. Apartment Manager



Four movies I could watch over and over...

1. Signs
2. Daredevil
3. Edward Scissorhands
4. The second part of any trilogy (Star Wars, Back to the Future, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, Terminator, Spider-Man, X-Men, Lord of the Rings, the Matrix, etc.)


Four places I've lived...

1. Springfield, OR
2. Orem, UT
3. Guayaquil, Ecuador
4. Pasaje, Ecuador

Four T.V. shows I love...

1. Seinfeld
2. The Office
3. Law & Order (and all spin-offs)
4. Lost



Four of my favorite foods...

1. Amy's Jumbalaya
2. Pancakes
3. Taco Bell (just put nacho cheese on it, and BOOYAH!)
4. KFC Mashed Potatoes and Gravy


Watch out, I'm gaining weight. The bad kind.


Four sites I visit daily... (almost)
1. Nintendo8.com
2. homestarrunner.com
3. wikipedia.org
4. marvel.com



Four places I have vacationed...

1. Vegas
2. Hawaii
3. Washington
4. California (Disneyland)



Four places I'd rather be right now...

1. Ecuador
2. California
3. Texas (what can I say, I love Republicans)
4. Hawaii


And I'm adding on my own touch here, not for me, but for you! A random TV quote from off the top of my head, the first thing I could think of:

"Check out this cool tattoo Err gave me. It's tough, isn't it. It's a clown, and it represents gang warfare. I'm part of the Clowns now, you dig?" -Meatwad




I'll let Amy do the tagging. I don't have the strength.

Baby Blessing

Okay, this post has an insane amount of pictures and it's going to be super long! So good luck to all. First Kallie drove down with Julie before everyone else. Julie dropped her off and then was off to Colorado to see her mom. Kallie's moving here so she needed a little time to settle in before the craziness began. A few days later Hayley, Karlee, and Whitney flew in. The first day everyone just relaxed and got to know Dutch. And played a whole lot of Blokus! Jackson followed Whitney around all day long! All of the kids love her!

(Karlee, Hayley, Me, Whitney, and Kallie)
Ben had the day off on Thursday and we all drove up to Salt Lake and went to the Gateway Mall. It was freezing cold but we had a good time. Hayley treated us all to lunch at the Thaifoon restaurant. It was amazing! That night my sister Jenny and her husband Mike along with their kids Phoebe and Adam came to join the fun. Everyone else was suppose to show up on Friday at around noon but were about 3 to 4 hours late. So at around 3:30 My Mom, Dad, brother Reese, niece Hanna, sister Erin, nephew Zack, sister Katie, and niece Ava rolled in. It was so amazing to finally have my family at my house! I've lived here for a year and this was the first time that my side of the family have been able to come and visit. And they were all finally meeting my little baby girl. We only had a few hours to settle in and then we met Ben's side of the family at the Mayan. Ben's Dad, Mom, brothers Aaron and Chris, sister-in-law Mona, and their kids (Hunter, Jada, Cole, and Brooke). The Mayan was soooooo much fun! For those of you who don't know the Mayan is a restaurant with a jungle-like atmosphere and a giant waterfall in the middle. About every 20 minutes they have a show where people dressed like Mayans dive off of the waterfall. The kids loved it! And I am pretty sure the adults all had a great time too! Having both of the families together was really fun!!! Ben and I are very blessed to have such wonderful families!

( Whitney, Jada, and Jack with one of the divers)

(Zack, Jack, and Phoebe)

On Saturday, my family had a big lunch at my great-aunt Jenny and uncle Bills house. All that day Ben's parents were sending warnings to me that the weather was supposed to be bad. I was planning a BBQ at the park that night and didn't really have room to host it anywhere else. A couple people offered to let me host it at there house but I didn't want to impose if I didn't have to. All day Saturday it was pretty nice so I decided that we were on for the park. Right as everyone was showing up the wind kicked in and the temperature dropped! IT WAS FREEZING! Even though the weather was miserable everyone was a good sport. We pushed through and had a memorable time! The next morning we woke up to at least 4 inches of snow. CRAZY! We had even more family and friends show up to the blessing. Ben's grandma and grandpa Fullmer came from Colorado, and Uncle Steve and Aunt CC (Julie's brother and sister). Stacy and her little guy Sammy came from Pleasant Grove, too. The blessing was beautiful. Afterward the families were invited to our house for soup and sandwiches. (Kallie and Ava)

(Katie, Ava, Me, Dutch, Jenny, and Adam)

(Jack and Phoebe joined in)

(DUTCH AND DUTCH )

This moment was very emotional for me!

(Grandma Jo and baby Dutch)

(Grandpa Craig and Dutch)

(Dutch and daddy)

(My parents)

(Chris, Cole, Hunter, Mona, Brooke, and Jada)

(Ben's Parents with Brooke)

( Ben's brother Aaron and my sister Erin)

(Whitney, Karlee, and Hayley)

(Reese and Hanna)

(Dutch and Ava)

Sunday night there was a delicious turkey dinner hosted by Aunt Jenny and Uncle Bill.

Most everyone left Sunday night or Monday morning. Thanks to everyone who was able to come. We had a wonderful, fun, spiritual weekend!

A family of 4

So two parents and two children equals a family of FOUR. I have to say that I really like it! I was really nervous about having two kids, but I love it. It really is much easier then I thought that it would be. It helps that my kids are super good. I feel really blessed! Little Dutch sleeps really good for us. Every night she goes for a 5 to 6 hour stretch wakes up to eat and goes back down for 3 more hours. It has been this way ever since she was two weeks old. Jackson has really become a big helper and is very patient with us and with Dutch. He is in love with her. He proclaims his love for her often and tells me that he NEEDS to hold her. Sometimes he loves her too much and we have to save her from him. Dutch is smiling all of the time now. She laughed for the first time the other day at Ben. It was soooooo cute! We are having a lot of fun together!!! I LOVE my little family! BOOYA!!!

Can you believe she is already 2 months old?

Jack lookin like a G all ready for the park

Sleepy baby

She is not big enough for her bumbo seat but Jackson loves it!
The tray won't click in because he is too big but he insists on having it.

Jackson and me playing GO FISH
(he used to say "No, gold fish crackers" instead of go fish)

Loving each other

For Katie!

Tummy time

Things that make you go Hmmmm....

Time to update this blog again. This is Ben bytheway, and I may have been designated as the official blogger of the house. A decision Amy may live to regret. Because guess what? I'm at work, with some spare time. And away we go.
Amy and I created this game last night in the style of the World Series of Pop Culture tie-breaker. We pick an actor or director and go back and forth seeing who can name more of their films. We probably played for an hour. Then later we brainstormed who the best actors would be to play my favorite comic book heroes in as-yet-unmade movies. That's how much she loves me.
So, in 2 weeks almost ALL of our families are coming to town for Dutch's baby blessing. It's such a blessing that so many from my side AND her side can make it. We're going to have the best time. We are all so excited for them to come, even Jackson. Amy spent some time with him today looking at a family portrait to make sure he knows all of their names.
Jackson goes through funny phases. He used to yell "Don'choo ever Daddy!! Don'choo ever!!" Before that if he ever started to cry about anything it would always include, "I can't ... (sob) ... be yate (late)!!!" More recently, every word that comes out of his mouth is from the Jungle Book, like "Go away and yeave me ayone (alone)," or singing "The Bear Necessaries." And we proudly announce that he is fully potty-trained (knock on wood). He's great.
Baby Dutch is going to meet her extended family here soon. They will never be the same.
Amy spends every spare minute, which are few and far between, choreographing cheer routines for non-existent squads or watching America's Next Dance Crew on MTV. Or she will sit and watch old X-Files with me.
I am speaking Spanish at work still, although I have only gotten one call in the last 9 hours. (It's a nice job.) I'm spending the free time drawing for the portfolio that I'm turning in to BYU at the end of the month. I'm taking a break to write this. I'll post some drawings here one day.
On a personal note, I'm extremely stoked for the Indiana Jones, Batman, Iron Man and Hulk movies coming out in the next few months. If you know anything about me, you should have guessed that, though. I'll have to buy Jackson all the new toys (but who are they really for...?)

Oh yeah, here's a P.S. that I have to include. It's about Jackson, I must love him or something. Whenever we open the back seat for him to crawl into his carseat, he pats the carseat and says "It's beautiful! It's beautiful!" The End

New car and old pics

Hey, it's Ben. We've got some swell updates for the blog today. First some big news, we got a new (used) car last week! Here's the fotos:

2005 Chevy Malibu

We bought it at the Church Office Building. It was previously driven by a pair of LDS missionaries in Texas. It was a great deal, the price was well below wholesale, and the Church gives their cars oil changes and check-ups religiously (no pun intended).


This is our first car with power options and keyless entry, so we're more than happy.


Now for a great story of the day we bought the car. We had just handed over the check and we got in the elevator in the parking garage, when who gets into the crowded elevator with us??





Why, it's the Elders M. Russell Ballard and Quentin L. Cook!
(Elder Cook is new to the Apostleship as of October, he was called to take President Faust's place.)






So, our little family of 4 is crammed in an elevator with two apostles and some other folk. Jackson looks around at the adult faces in the elevator, and STOMPS on Elder Cook's foot! (I'm exaggerating a little, it was a gentle sort of foot placement.) But still, how many people even get that close to an Apostle, let alone tread on his shoes! Little monster.

Speaking of Jackson, we found an old roll of film that we had never developed, so we took it to Target. Most well-spent $9.00 of our life! Look at little Jackson from a year and a half ago. I almost don't remember him looking like this!