Long Overdue

So I know this is long overdue.  At this point it's way too overwhelming to try and catch everyone up on everything. So, instead I'm going to give a quick update on what's happening now and try to catch people up slolwy. Mostly, right now I'm in Pittsburgh visiting my sister and her family who just had a new baby, Tobin Joshua Grant. It's been great, especially because Ben loves playing with his cousins. Owen and Oliver are great cousins. They are so fun. Oh, and it should be noted that I'm using a Mac (I hate Macs) for this post, so I don't know how to do slideshows and such. As a result, this will be one of those posts that has lots of pictures that take up a lot of space, so prepare to scroll. Anyway, I'll start off with a couple of pictures of Ben, since he is the star of this blog.

Here is Ben saying peekaboo

And helping me sweep, one of his new favorite pasttimes

And showing off his finger painting skills

And getting cleaned up after finger painting

And being the adorable and cool dude that he is.

Here's a shot of my pregnant belly at about 25 weeks I think.

Ben loves his mama ( most of the time)

Risky business baby (This was Jon's doing)

Ben playing with the new corn popper that Nammy got him while she was in town.  It was so fun having Nammy and B-Pa here (albeit at different times).  Ben loved playing with them so much, and he loves his new toy.

A couple of shots of Ben enjoying the little tricycle at Rachael's house

Rachael with the baby all bundled up because it was chilly out.

Owen being Owen.  That is, just posing silly for the camera.

It takes a lot of focus to ride one of these things.

Me and the boys

Courtney enjoying the sweet little guy, and he surely is sweet, and tiny.

Courtney, Rachael, and Tobin, the man of the hour.

Lance made fake mustaches for the boys.  They thought it was pretty hilarious.

Here's a close up of the cute, little guy.  He's seriously adorable.

Tobin and his dad.

Ben turns the big fat One

So, I know this is long overdue.  Jon’s been really busy with tests and what-not, so I haven’t had much Ben-free time to get to the blog except at night.  Which, I’m sorry to say, I usually reserve for watching a show or two and reading before I turn in.  Anyway, Benjamin managed to complete his first year of life on April 18th, which was Saturday (a week and a half ago).  I think I’ll start off by showing you how much has changed in that year.

Benjamin	Me (Chelsea)
Born: 8 lbs. 12 oz. 21 inches long 1 yr: 23 lbs  31 inches long	OK, I’m feeling skinny and good about myself, but not good enough to tell everyone how much I weighed before I delivered.

OK, so I know that the picture of me you can’t really see how much I’ve changed.  But it turns out that Jon and I never take pictures of each other, so it’s the best I’ve got.

Anyway, we celebrated the big day by taking Ben to the park and having a picnic and playing on the playground.  Be forewarned, this will be a fairly long post with lots of pictures and video.  We went a little nuts.  One of the first things we did was show off Ben’s upper body strength, which also serves as a demonstration of how he is quickly turning into a good climber.  It’s cute, but definitely not good news for mom, who has a hard enough time keeping him out of trouble as it is.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the park:

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We also found out that Ben’s two favorite things at the park are:

Tunnels:

and slides:

Lastly, when we got home from the park, Ben took a ride on daddy’s shoulders and showed that dad’s head makes an awesome drum.

That’s pretty much it for Ben’s actual birthday.  We did most of the presents and cake on Sunday.  Pictures and video of that will be in the next post, hopefully tomorrow.

Musicals

So, Geri, my mother-in-law responded to my Zac Efron post with a link to a pretty awesome video of people in a train station. Even Jon thought it was funny. He said it's the funniest social experiment he's ever seen. I just think it's awesome. Does it make me crazy that I want to live in a musical? Check it out:

Sound of Music Train Station @ Yahoo! Video

Thanks Geri, that really made my day.

Easter

As promised, here are some pictures of Ben’s Easter celebrations.  First, I have some pictures I took of Ben at our ward Easter dinner.  He usually loves going to church activities because everybody pays attention to him and plays with him.  Unfortunately, he had missed his afternoon nap on Friday and it was about bed time anyway, so he was pretty grumpy.  Still, I got some cute pictures of him exploring the gym and the halls.  He especially loved playing peek-a-boo with me through the glass doors.

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Now for the really cute pictures of Ben Easter morning.  I also have some video of him when he first got up and found his Easter basket, but I don’t think I have time to upload and edit it right now.  Anyway, he was pretty adorable in his little outfit.  I didn’t get any super pictures outside like I’d hoped because he was so distracted by the cars going by and he was already about ready for a nap.  I pretty much just posted all of the pictures I took.  I’m a little too lazy to be selective and this way you all can decide which ones you like best.  Plus, this way the album sort of functions as a montage of our morning.

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I hope you all had a happy Easter.  I certainly love this time of year where we get to celebrate the resurrection and really turn our hearts and minds to Christ.  It doesn’t hurt that the world is coming back to life as well.  Now, if only the weather would really commit to being nice so Ben and I could go on more walks and enjoy it.

Zac Efron on SNL

OK, so maybe I'm admitting to something I probably shouldn't admit here, but I'm a big fan of High School Musical. As such, I have a bit of a fan crush on Zac Efron. Some of you may think less of me for it, but I definitely don't hide the fact. Anyway, Zac hosted SNL on Saturday night, so I taped it and watched it in spite of my thinking that SNL really isn't very funny these days. I was right. Pretty much the only funny parts were the opening monologue and the skit making fun of High School Musical. I embedded those two clips for your viewing pleasure. I always think it's great when actor's can make fun of themselves. The opening monologue just makes fun of the fact that all of Zac's fans are girls between the ages of 7 and 13 (the tweens). And of course, me.



The High School Musical sketch is pretty funny, especially for those of you who feel the same way about musicals that Jon does. I love them, well not all of them, but a lot of them. Jon thinks they're awkward and silly. Don't get me wrong, it is a little odd for people to randomly start singing and dancing. Obviously that never happens in real life, but a girl can dream, right? Anyway, musical-haters and musical-lovers alike can still get a kick out of how absurd it is when you think about it. It may not be quite as funny if you haven't seen the movie.



I know I promised Easter pictures to some. I promise, they'll be up ASAP, hopefully tomorrow. Ben was struggling tonight, so I didn't get a chance to upload the new photos.