Benson is 9!! :)

Benson is 9!! He is an absolute joy to have in our family, and we are so grateful for him. He brings so much light and fun and patience into our chaotic household. He's always up to play with his siblings, and patiently help them, whether it's with a toy, or making a sandwich, or helping them with a game online. 

I've noticed that Benson is VERY good at convincing people to love certain toys or do something he wants to do. He has a gift for making it sound and look fun, to the point that he's convinced Roz she wants his toys instead of hers. I'm starting to think he has a gift for marketing, haha!

This year he played soccer and also skied again and did AMAZING with both!! Little story, this was my first year skiing and Jeremy was busy with Ander and Roz, and I was left on my own nervous and frustrated because I kept falling over. Well, Benson comes cruising down the bunny hill because he had to stay there and hang out with us even though he's a little pro and he helped me up and then gave me some lessons. He went down this little hill first, then turned around and waited for me, and I go next and couldn't stop and ran right into him and we both fell down, haha. He was so patient about it though, just got back up and we kept going. He's a very patient teacher and very sweet. 

• He loves to create crafts and games out of paper and tape, and they get quite intricate. He'll put all the game pieces in ziplock bags to save and organize.
• He loves to help in the kitchen and is gaining a lot of independence there. He helps make lunch almost everyday!
• He loves to create Scratch games and code. 
• He loves cuddling with me during church and getting his hands traced or his back scratched. He also likes to doodle.
• He likes haircuts, when his hair starts getting in his eyes he gets annoyed and will ask me to cut it. 
• He loves animals, especially his stuffed animals still. He, Ander, and Roz play with them all the time. 
• He enjoys writing short stories, either on the iPad or on paper books he makes and illustrates. 
• He's made new friends this past year with the neighbor girls across the street, they played almost everyday. (this post is late, but back in March we still lived at Malmstrom)
• He's tall and skinny! 
• He's very, very creative. 
• He fights me on reading at night, but once he starts he doesn't want to stop, haha. 
• He will usually eat whatever I cook, he's not picky. He LOVES steamed vegetables and always asks for a big serving. He loves baked or grilled chicken, burgers, turkey burgers, tacos, pizza, macaroni and cheese, turkey sandwiches, and more. He loves all types of fruit, too. 
• His favorite color is still green (it has been since I can remember!)

22 Questions With Benson:

1. What is your favorite toy? Plump dog with babies
2. What is your favorite part about school? Math
3. Who is your favorite scripture hero? God
4. What is your favorite food? Hamburgers
5. What is your favorite dessert? Chocolate chip cookies
6. What is your favorite vegetable? Avocados
7. What is your favorite fruit? Watermelon
8. What do you want to be when you grow up? Coder
9. What is your favorite snack? Dried mangos and crackers and fruit bars
10. What is your favorite book? Magic Treehouse
11. What is your favorite thing to have for breakfast? Pancakes
12. What is your favorite holiday? My birthday! Christmas. 
13. What does Mom always say to you? I love you. 
14. What does Dad always say to you? Goodnight.
15. What is your favorite TV show? Mandelorian
16. Who is your best friend? Kaia
17. What are you really good at? Coding and soccer and math
18. If you could have a wish, what would it be? To have the baby that died (from a miscarriage)
19. What is your favorite primary song? My Own Sacred Grove
20. What vegetable do you hate the most? Lettuce
21. Best memory from this year? Getting baptized!
22. Something you accomplished? Skiing

Ander is 7!! :)

Our Ander boy is 7!!! 

We love him and are SO grateful to have Anderson in our family forever. Our little dude is SO BUSY. He loves to play with all things machines still. He loves to vacuum, build things using multiple fans (that we use in the bedrooms). We'll find all the fans grouped together in the playroom to blow paper in the air (among other things). He loves Snap Circuits, batteries, LEGO's, and occasionally he likes to draw pictures. He enjoys playing with Play-Do, and loves to play Minecraft (he's a little pro) and LEGO City on the Switch (it's so cute to watch him play). 

He loves when I rub his back when he's going to sleep, but my hand has to stay flat (no back scratches) because he's SO ticklish. His favorite stuffed animals are his foxes and his baby turtle. He kills all the bugs in the house for me, just takes care of business, haha.

He has been doing AMAZING with his school. Sometimes he fights me about actually starting, but he is reading SO well. He has Daddy's military size Book of Mormon and reads it on his own at night and even during the day. He used to ask us to read it to him at night, but he's been reading it on his own now. When he gets mad he's yelled at me "I'm going to go read my Book of Mormon!!" Then he slams the door, hahaha. He's been reading The Magic Treehouse series and also loves those, he loves reading in general and I'm so grateful for that. 

• He says "bro" all the time, haha. 
• He LOVES his Chromebook. LOVES IT. He basically adopted it from Daddy and made it his own. He loves technology in general, and loves to mess with settings on EVERYTHING.  
• He loves to listen to Scripture Lullabies when he goes to sleep, but during the day he LOVES hard rock (just like his Dad). He carried around an old stereo we were going to get rid of and fiddled with it until he found a hard rock station on the radio and listened to it nonstop. 
• One of his favorite "toys" is a camera baby monitor we've had for YEARS that we don't use anymore. 
• He says he's going to marry Tessa (Tessa Long, in our Roe River ward in Great Falls), haha. He says he loves her. :)
• He doesn't like to sing in primary, but he likes to make friends there. 
• He loves to get a haircut, he doesn't like hair in his eyes, haha. 
• He's tall and skinny, his little pants hardly stay up. 
• He loves pizza, macaroni and cheese, turkey burgers, chicken tacos, and more. He loves most fruit, loves carrots and steamed broccoli 
• He loves to FaceTime Grandma on the little blue iPad. He'll just walk around with her and play, haha. 
• He loves to play at the park and jump on our trampoline, and he also LOVES to turn the hose on and play with it. 
• He's shirtless all the time, haha. 
• He rides his bike like a pro, it's one of his favorite things to do!
• He also played soccer this year and enjoyed it!
• One Sunday at church he showed me that he had a pocket full of batteries. hahaha. I told him not to show anyone. He even asked for batteries for Christmas. 

22 Questions With Anderson:

1. What is your favorite toy? My little white remote control robot
2. What is your favorite part about school? The lesson where I make the nest with leaves. (the leaves have words on them-his language arts lesson)
3. Who is your favorite scripture hero? Jesus
4. What is your favorite food? Macaroni and cheese and turkey burgers and pepperoni pizza
5. What is your favorite dessert? Cake. Chocolate fudge. 
6. What is your favorite vegetable? Cherry tomatoes
7. What is your favorite fruit? I like strawberries
8. What do you want to be when you grow up? Everything. Police, fire man, builder, work for a cafeteria. I'm going to be everything when I grow up. 
9. What is your favorite snack? Dried pineapple
10. What is your favorite book? Life of Fred
11. What is your favorite thing to have for breakfast? Waffles
12. What is your favorite holiday? Every holiday. Christmas. Oh, but Halloween? I love that!
13. What does Mom always say to you? When I'm hurt, I'm gonna be fine. 
14. What does Dad always say to you? Okay
15. What is your favorite TV show? Element Animation
16. Who is your best friend? Tessa
17. What are you really good at? Soccer
18. If you could have a wish, what would it be? That I could fly and build anything I want
19. What is your favorite primary song? All of them. 
20. What vegetable do you hate the most? Cauliflower
21. Best memory from this year? Seeing Tessa at church
22. Something you accomplished? a, e, i, o, u. The vowels. (He learned how to read, haha)

Bridger is 14!! :)

Bridger is 14!! We love him so much. He has grown and matured so much this past year, he even has a mustache, haha. 

Story about that. 

We were getting ready for church sometime in the spring/summer and he walked into the kitchen in his suit and I gasped and was like, "you have a mustache!" He immediately brought his fingers up to feel it and rushed to the bathroom. He wasn't super happy to find out about it, he thought it was weird at first. I think he's accepted now, haha. 

Probably not the best way to go about telling him, but I was just as surprised as he was, hahaha. We laugh about it now. :) He still hasn't shaved it, so apparently he doesn't mind it (it's getting thicker, too, haha).

He has continued to stay interested in all things computers and programming, and has absolutely LOVED his programming class this year. It's his favorite subject BY FAR. He pretty much speaks in computer language, and I'm trying my best to keep up, but I probably don't understand 3/4 of it. :) But he is the go-to for tech questions!

I love his maturing sense of humor. He's witty and sarcastic. He'll sit with me and watch funny reels on IG, and some of the things he says are hilarious. He definitely has developed a teenage attitude (moody), and sass to go along with it, which we are working on. But I love seeing the man he's becoming, and I'm so proud of him. 

He loves to come in our room and hang out late at night, he'll just sprawl across our bed and want to chat. We've had some pretty late nights, but I wouldn't trade it. 

Pics from his birthday:

We went to a trampoline park early in the day!

And celebrated with cake and homemade pizza that night!

He has really enjoyed young mens, his leaders have been incredible and all the youth here in Montana have been extremely kind and welcoming. They have had so much fun together these past few years. His best friend's name is Magnum, he's in our ward as well. They play online together all the time!

He enjoys going to the temple with the youth and with our family, and he does awesome about doing his priesthood duties at church. 

Also, lately everything is "cringe" OR "everything is stupid" haha

His first try at baking!! German pancakes. He took them to YM for a food night.

22 Questions With Bridger:

1. What is your favorite toy? The computer. Or Xbox X.
2. What is your favorite part about school? Coding and digital art
3. Who is your favorite scripture hero? Jesus
4. What is your favorite food? Pizza. Or pesto sandwiches
5. What is your favorite dessert? Cake.
6. What is your favorite vegetable? Pickles. (I never realized I like them until I had the farm burger at this place on the final drive home from Grandma's house)
7. What is your favorite fruit? Apples
8. What do you want to be when you grow up? Gamer. Or coder, something like that
9. What is your favorite snack? Super tasty chips. (Preferably unhealthy. Like chips from the store)
10. What is your favorite book? Skyward series / Bounty Hunter
11. What is your favorite thing to have for breakfast? Any kind of cereal. (If I ever get the chance to eat it)
12. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
13. What does Mom always say to you? No
14. What does Dad always say to you? What are you doing on there? / Get off of there!
15. What is your favorite TV show? YouTube
16. Who is your best friend? Magnum
17. What are you really good at? Skiing (We're moving to Hawaii D:) or gaming
18. If you could have a wish, what would it be? 
19. What is your favorite primary song? Gethsemane (I haven't been to primary in years. Although, today the youth were helping in primary by making crafts with the kids. This one kid, Landon's little brother, kept talking about Fortnite.)
20. What vegetable do you hate the most? Sweet Potatoes
21. Best memory from this year? My birthday is only 4 days into the year, but I went skiing
22. Something you accomplished? I was trying to get 100 subscribers before 2025. But it's been stuck at 69 for like, 5 months now

I think I'm going crazy, but I can't stop thinking about the graphics of real life. I won't even get bored, because I'll just be staring at a rock for like, an hour. I always notice the ambient occlusion, combined with the actual shadows. If you think about it, you realize that shadows are basically nothing, since the universe is completely dark, and the sun and stars are lighting it up. If a rock is blocking that light, then technically there's not a shadow, but instead nothing there. Along with that, I like it when the sky is cloudy, since it's much easier to see the ambient occlusion. My theory is that ambient occlusion exists because the closer in object is to something, the harder it is for light to move around there, so it's naturally darker. I also love when it rains, just to look at the reflections in the road, and stuff.

Funny Things From 2024!!

January

Benson: "Is it going to be cold tomorrow?"

Dad: "Like -5."

Benson: "That's not that cold." *all matter of fact*

Ander: *Talking to himself and making greens "add some of these..."*

Me: "You just talking to yourself over there?"

Ander: "No, I'm talking to my shadow friend." 

Me: "Shadow friend??? What's a shadow friend?"

Ander: "He's black." 

Me: Black??? Where did he come from???"

Ander: "Me. He always copies me." 

His shadow, hahaha.

Benson: "I tried to be quiet, but I just didn't."

Roz: "Thanks for my sandwich. I won't throw it on the roof." *Her eyes are all big*

Ander: "I love you too much Dada, that I can't stop loving you." 

Ander: "It's almost my birthday! *He smiles all cute* "I'm going to be too old for my age!"

February 

Ander: "I stay awake so long because I'm addicted to staying up." 

Roz: "I look like a ho!"

Me: "What's that??!"

Roz: "A ho-ho hat!" (Santa hat, haha)

Ander: *sneezes while looking out the window and looks at me all serious* "Told you I'm allergic to sun." 

Ander: "Look at the stars!"

*he got a little bear that projects stars on the ceiling and he aimed it where the ceiling and wall meet so the stars were stretching as they moved*

Me: "It looks like they're stretching." 

Ander: "Stars don't exercise."

March

Roz: "I didn't pray for Mommy's back to heal because we said prayers and that helped her, like beew, bones are cracked!"

Ander: "I didn't listen to the person who tried to give me a jelly bean because I didn't want to be too sugared." 

Roz: *lays on her belly on the swing* "Look Mommy!"

Me: "Fun! You can be an airplane!"

Roz: "No. I can be a penguin!"

Bridger: *Looking at the program for Benson's baptism and seeing his name on it as one of the witnesses* "I must be more famous than I thought." 

Roz: "Jesus sends those mail guys a Star Belly and those mail guys sell us a Star Belly." 

Roz: "I can do that. Let me test."

Roz: "I'm fast as a bean!!"

Me: "Oh, is a bean fast?"

Roz: "Yeah. Or a cashew. Or a unicorn like this *she paws at her pillow*"

Daddy told Roz she did great washing her clothes and the table today, and then we talked about how she got hurt. 

Roz: "I was trying to get the particles on the table." hahaha

April

Ander: "Mom, can you get a mini of the air purifier for the kids to play with?"

Me: "No, but we have fans you can play with."

Ander: "Those are boring!"

*even though he constantly play with them*

Benson: "You have milk. You're like a cow."

Roz: *getting dressed with me after our shower*

Me: "You're my litle mini me!"

Roz: "Does that mean I can tell the kids what ta do?"

Ander: "Even my nuts got itchy."

Me: "Are they still itchy?"

Ander: "No, I itched them."

Roz: *Called Daddy "the rudest" for saying we wouldn't be home until bedtime-we were on a long drive home from Hurricane*

Ander: "I want to be jacked."

Us: "Oh, you will, we'll take you to the gym, baby." 

May

Ander: "I finally went on to chapter 3! I've been working (reading) so hard it made me sweaty!"

Ander: "What do I do?" 

Me: "Sleep."

Ander: "That's boooooooooring."

Roz: "I love you forever. In one billion days! In one thousand billion billion billion billion billion billion days. That's how much I love you!"

June

Roz: "Is 100 a lot?"

Me: "Yeah."

Roz: *puts a finger on her cheek like she's thinking about it* "I guess I can't have that many pets."

Roz: *Daddy was leaving* "Don't leave, you're cooler than Mommy."

Daddy: "Mommy's cool too."

Roz: "She's a dot cool, and a dot cute."

Roz: "Why are you sleeping with nobody? Mom's up. You're sleeping with nobody."

Roz: *pretending to make bread* "The baby cakes are going to rise to death, and then we're going to eat them, eat them, eat them. Yum yum yum, dinner dinner dinner. They're on a one-minute hour (timer) to bake *clicks her tongue to make clock ticking sound*" hahaha

Roz: "When I'm a mom I will make healthy hot dogs... and healthy chicken nuggies. I will ALWAYS forget to make bread." 

*since they only get those things when I forget to make bread* hahahaha

July

Ander: "I never understand anything. Like batteries. I never understand them."

*he's loved batteries since he was like two!!*

Bridger: "Captain barking in the background of my last video is just embarrassing."

Roz: "I love you forever. I love you for fifty hundred days."

Roz: *a deer shoots across the highway and Jeremy slams on the brakes to avoid it* "I just saw a flamingo!!"

Roz: "When's Grandma going to be here? It's up time."

*it was 6:30 AM* hahaha

August

Ander: "I'm gonna barf if I don't get an apple."

*He's all mad because it's time for bed and no food*

Roz: "It's cause my eyes are tired. They won't stay open no more."

Roz: Blows daddy a heart kiss and asks "do you feel loves?"

Ander: "I do have a little bit of girlfriends."

Ander: "I know how to play chest... but I always just lose." 

Roz: "I love both of you 1500 love."

Ander: "Why do you guys always hug?"
Me: "Becuase we love each other. When you find your special lady and get married you can hug her all the time too."

Ander: "Do I get to choose my own?"

Me: "Yes. When you meet a special lady and love her and she loves you, you get to choose each other."

Roz: "Bridger is my best older kid. He's nice to me sometimes." hahaha

Roz: "I would never eat Captain cause it's his birthday." 

Roz: *fishing with her magnet toy* "The maglet ones."

September

Roz: *after she pooped and I was wiping her* "One looks like a horse with none legs." 

October

Roz: "I like Mommy. She always gives me cauliflower."

Roz: "Why do you hate smoothies? You have to eat smoothies if you want your back to heal." 

November

Roz: "Jesus comes out of that picture in the middle of the night to protect me. I know because I saw him." 

*not funny, but really special*

Roz: "In two days we get BIG CHICKEN."
*For Thanksgiving. She's talking about turkey, haha*

December

Ander: "I was born to workout. That's why I've never been plump."

Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas!! :)

 Halloween this year was super fun, we love walking the neighborhood here at Malmstrom to trick or treat! We did an earlier trick or treat at Dad's work with the security forces too. :)

Bridger :)

Beckham :)

Benson :)

Roslyn :)

Anderson :)

Thanksgiving was just here at home with our family this year, and we had a lovely time. :) We always miss being with extended family at Thanksgiving, but we still had a wonderful day. We watched the Macy's parade and everyone pitched in to prep delicious food. :)

Christmas this year was amazing. Grandma and Grandpa Brown got here a few days early, so we were able to go visit some hot springs even thought it was FREEZING outside! They were about an hour drive and the weather was actually really great, so we spent the entire afternoon there. The water was sooooo warm. They are natural hot springs, so a bit smelly, but oh my goodness they felt amazing to swim in.

Because they got here early we were also able to do Christmas JINGO on Christmas Eve for the first time in a few years!! We had tasty food, did Jingo, read scriptures, and sang a few Christmas carols before we sent the kids to bed on Christmas Eve. 

Christmas morning pics:

On New Years we played Guesstures with the whole family before we watched an "early" ball drop and the younger kids went to bed. 

 

We had amazing holidays this year and I'm so grateful. :)