Some things I like about my kids that I want to remember

A few months ago Philip wanted to do a taste test night. He went to the store and bought an assortment of snacks with different flavors. We lacked blindfolds so we tried wool winter hats, but this picture is about how long they lasted on their heads. It was July!! They both thought it was hilarious to close their mouth and have us put food in it. Now both of them are addicted to doing this and make each other "test" food all the time and occasionally I hear a sentence I dread, "mom, close your eyes and I am going to put something in your mouth" all sing-songy and then pop goes in a curiously warm fruit snack, or a soggy cracker. Gross, but still cute.

This is Ben's toy. The way it came about our family was very lame and dramatic, but it has slowly become one of his favorites right now. (I will spare you the long story of me alone on a trip to UT, stopping at a McDonald's in Primm for lunch, multiple fits about not getting the right toy, food, drink, you name it and a middle aged very annoyed man loudly criticizing me to his partner so everyone could hear his disgust in children and people who shouldn't have them, namely me!!!! Not kidding). But aside all that, what I love is what he has named him, Powerful Dog. I think it might have derived from the movie Up because it looks like the scary dog on there, which was one of the reasons he didn't want it at first. We have some great names for the toys in our house and all are completely their own. Enna, Buster, Princess, Powerful Dog, Ramasaucy and Petty (Philip's personal favorites), back it up guy, gray guy, van-truck, hospital bear..... It goes on. Amelia takes the more creative approach and Ben is a more call-it-as-I-see-it namer. But I live to hear the names of their toys and imaginary creatures.

These are my kids legs, side by side. They fell asleep next to each other today and for some reason I love the contrast of their skin so I had to snap a pic and share how tan she is and how stark white he is. In my family Amelia is considered pale!! So does that make Ben albino??

Here's all their cousins on my side (minus one) to show you what I mean. I also love this pic because he is freaking out, my nephew is just so happy to hug him, my other nephew is trying to calm him down by rubbing his leg, and Amelia is perfectly posing for my sister's pic totally unphased by his drama.

It only took 9 days!!

That's all it took for Amelia to violently shake free of my hand when she approached her classroom. Obviously she didn't want her teacher to see us holding hands. My heart dropped a little. Luckily she had no problem giving me a big hug and kiss and yelling out "I love you" so I will just chalk it up to the fact that she doesn't like holding my hand (which she usually doesn't like to hold hands even as a baby, she was always breaking free to do it by herself) and not that she has already out grown me!!!! This is a pic of picking her up after her first day of school. Her face looks like this every day after school. Grinning ear to ear.