Arizona

I was originally planning to bring Bennett down to Arizona to visit my mom and dad on their mission but then it made me sad thinking Lilly would miss seeing grandma and grandpa so she was added to the visitor list. Then Tyson decided he wanted a spring break adventure and once Tyson gets involved nothing is ever simple. My little 4 day, 2 person visit quickly morphed into a 10 day, 4 city tour. However, I am glad we used the opportunity to see everyone.

Usually we fly directly out of Moline, Illinois but we found better flights with Southwest Airlines which flies out of Chicago. So the night before we flew out, we drove over to Chicago and stayed in a hotel. This allowed for a shorter travel day the next day.

Both Lilly and Bennett did an excellent job on the flight. Bennett slept most of the time and I made travel prize bags for Lilly that kept her pretty entertained, along with the IPad. It was Bennett’s first flight and the flight attendance gave him little plastic wings for his memory book.

Arriving in Arizona was a lot of fun. The moment Lilly saw grandma and grandpa she went running into their arms. It was so cute and sweet it made me a little teary eyed. It is lucky Lilly is so tiny because she really did run right into my mom’s arms. If she was bigger it could have been dangerous. Bennett took a little longer to warm up. I guess I am not doing a good job socializing him. He is a little bit of a mommy’s boy.

Since we were over in Phoenix we decided to go to the Phoenix Zoo. Before even entering the zoo we had to change everyone’s clothing. It was temperature difference between Chicago and Phoenix in March. The zoo was a fun zoo that had a different feel then what I am use to. They had a lot of desert animals and scenery. Lilly rode a camel, the train and the merry-go-round. We went into the monkey cage and Bennett got his first ice cream sandwich provide by grandma. I think grandma has provided several grandkids with their first ice cream sandwiches throughout the years.     

After the zoo we went to my mom and dad’s apartment, settled in and then went out to eat at a yummy Mexican restaurant called, Tia Rosas. After eating, we all went back home for bed. The 4 of us slept in the spare room. It was fun seeing the kids sleeping all over the ground.

The next day was spent at the Mesa, Temple visitor center, where my parents are serving their mission. We met the sister missionaries, took a tour of the rooms, and watched a cool ‘walking video’ that was very spiritual and kept Lilly’s attention. Lilly especially liked the map of Jerusalem and pushing the buttons to light things up.  We also walked around the temple to see the beautiful grounds. Then it was off to do some shopping (we needed to buy summer clothes since Tyson didn’t have enough at home that fit).

That night we had pizza and hung out at the house. Tyson and I were planning to go on a date but we were tired and went to bed instead. We are so cool, aren’t we?

The next day we started off with breakfast at the director of the visitor center’s home, Elder and Sister Cameron. They had their daughter there visiting with her 3 kids and Lilly had fun playing with her girls. Tyson had fun picking the grapefruits.

After breakfast we went to the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale. If you have kids between the ages 2-8 I think this is a must see when down in the Mesa area. It was so fun and inexpensive.  They had a train that you could ride around the park, a merry-go-round, model train museum, a restored train you could walk through, playgrounds, snack shops and picnic tables. We were able to do everything and had a really yummy picnic lunch. Even Bennett had fun and was all tired out at the end.

Once we got home my parents went to the visitor center and the rest of us had naps. We eat leftovers for dinner and spent a relaxing day at the house. It was nice just to have some relaxation time with the family.

The next day we went to the Arizona Mills Aquarium. It was located in the Mills Mall which is a very large mall. The aquarium was a good size for being in a mall. We all had lot of fun looking at all the fishes. Bennett’s favorite was probably the large turtles and Lilly liked all the little holes she could go stick her head in. My favorite part was the 360 degree tunnel tank.

After the aquarium we had dinner at the Rainforest Café. If you have never been to a Rainforest Café it is designed to look like a rainforest and it has animals scatter throughout the restaurant that move and make noises every 15 minutes. Lilly did not like it especially the gorillas. We sat right under the jaguar and Lilly would close her eyes and plug her ears whenever it went off. I am not sure if she ever got use to it. She did say she had fun when we left so that was a good sign.

The rest of the day was spent packing and getting ready for the flight the next day.

We had so much fun in Arizona with grandma and grandpa. The weather was beautiful and it was fun being outside and walking to the visitor center. Bennett learned how to roll over from his back to his tummy while we were there and Lilly talked the ears off of both grandma and grandpa.  I think she may have talked the entire time we were there.

Thank you mom and dad for driving us around, letting us stay at your house, loving our kids and all the other millions of things you did and do for us. We sure do miss you!

Starting Solids

We started Bennett on solid food about three weeks ago. He was super excited to have everyone looking at him.

But he was not super excited about eating.

Bennett's first tooth popped out. It is on the bottom. I think he is WAY too little to get teeth and I am hoping the second will be a long time away. 

I keep finding Lilly and Bennett cuddled up together. Whenever I move away from Bennett I come back and find Lilly in my old spot. It is very sweet and I feel very lucky to have children that like each other. 

Here are some other cute pictures of Bennett.  

Binky Fairy

At the first of last year I started thinking about Lilly and her binky. It was getting to be about that time when we needed to get rid of the binky(ies). Since 2013 included some large changes for her such as a big girl bed, potty training and a new brother I decided to let her keep it until her 3rd birthday. I started thinking about how we were going to get her to say goodbye to the binky without a lot of fuss and I decided to try using the binky fairy method. (If you are unfamiliar with this method I will be explaining it.) 

I looked online for a binky fairy book that I could read to Lilly but I couldn’t find any I liked. So I wrote my own story and let Lilly draw the pictures. I liked this process better because it got Lilly more involved in the story, it was fun and Lilly took pride in the book and wanted to read it frequently. After the pictures were done I had it laminated and bounded so it was easy to read. Here is the finished project. Sorry the pictures are bad. The lamination made it hard to photograph. 

Once upon a time there was a beautiful baby born and her name was Lilly.

On the day she was born she was visited by a beautiful fairy that had a wand and a pink dress. The fairy gave Lilly a binky and told Lilly that she could keep it for a little bit. But when she got bigger she needed to give the binky back to the fairy and the fairy would give it to a new baby. Lilly loved her binky.

Lilly was getting bigger and was about to have a birthday and turn 3 years old. She was going to have a big birthday party and invite all of her friends.

Because Lilly was becoming a big girl it was time for the Binky Fairy to come and visit her. Lilly knew that when the Binky Fairy comes she will take Lilly’s binky away and replace it with a present. Then the Fairy will deliver all the binkies she has collected to new babies all over the world who don’t have binkies of their own.

To get ready for the Binky Fairy Lilly made a special binky bag. She colored it and put sparkles all over the bag.

The night the Fairy was scheduled to arrive Lilly put her binky in the bag and went to bed. In the morning she found a very special present that she wanted, in the bag.

Lilly was sad for a little bit to say goodbye to her binky but she was happy to get a present. She was also happy that her binky went to a new baby and made them happy.  Pretty soon Lilly didn’t miss her binky anymore.

When doing the binky fairy method you are supposed to ask the child if they are ready for the fairy to come. Then when they say yes that would be the night the fairy would arrive. However, Lilly would never say she was ready and I knew she never would be so I just scheduled a day. Lilly made her bag, we put the binkies in it with no tears and in the morning she found paints in her bag. She looked at the paint and then asked me when the binky fairy was coming back to give her back her binkies. I told her the binkies were gone. That night I heard her in her room crying and saying she wanted her binkies back. It was heart breaking but I didn’t give in.

Since then she has cried about her binkies 4-5 more times. It is always when she is really tired. She also likes to dress up and ‘be’ the binky fairy. She talks about the fairy coming back for Bennett’s binkies and wants to still read her book. I won’t let her read it anymore though because it always makes her sad. Overall I thought the binky fairy method worked well. She no longer uses binkies and it was done with very little drama.