Halloween (part 1)

Carving the pumpkin with Benson. Tori took these pictures on her cell phone so sorry they're a little fuzzy. fun times!!!

moving day

We move our stuff into our new home today. Wish us luck. We have a bunch of people from our ward coming to help pack the truck and we are so grateful for them and their willingness to help. I'll probably be too busy/tired to post anything else today, so have a great Friday everyone!! Enjoy Halloween tomorrow!

9 month appointment

Well, our little bug had his 9 month appointment today. He's healthy and that is great! He was talking up a storm and smiling at all of the nurses and it was so cute. Dr. Sroka came in and checked him out and he sat totally still the whole time. He barely moved. Now, for everyone who knows Benson knows that is QUITE SOMETHING! :) I think he was just so fascinated with all of the gadgets the Doctor was using.

Here are his 9 month stats:

29 inches tall--72nd percentile

20.4 pounds--42nd percentile

18 inches head circumference--60th percentile

He's a growing boy. He is over his fever and the doctor said his cough isn't anything serious. We love our little bug and glad he's growing!

home

We made it home safely. Our flight was one of the smoothest flights I have EVER been on. I think Heavenly Father was looking out for me :)

I'm glad the Phillies won GAME 1 today. I do not like the Yankees. at. all.

Sleeping

Will someone please tell Benson that it is okay to sleep through the night. He doesn't believe me when I tell him!!!

PS- read my post about my flying experience...I was late posting it and it's long, but it's a good one!

posting

I will be a little behind in my posting for the next few days. I am enjoying the last few days of my vacation and so I'm behind. I have a million cute pictures from our fun 2 week adventure in California. They will get posted but it will take a couple of days. As soon as we get home we move into our new place and so we're going to be busy busy busy for the next few days. I really will try my hardest to post pictures this week though!

Airplanes

So, many of you know that I am not a huge fan of flying. It's a fear that has been growing steadily for the last few years (since I've been married). Well, this last flight from Chicago to California has resolidified my fear of flying. I had a weird feeling that something was going to happen on our flight, but I'm a paranoid person when it comes to flying so I thought I was just imagining things.

We got on the flight at 9:00am. We went to our seats in the back of the plane only to find that people had already taken our seats. They were a foreign family and their seats weren't all together so they moved. Well, at first I was bugged we had to go sit further back in the plane because they had taken our seats, but it was okay. We took off and at 10,000 feet the flight attendants came on the intercom to announce that it was safe to use electronic devices. They also announced that there was going to be an in-flight movie and were going to show a preview. Well, halfway through the preview the TVs turned off. I thought that was strange, but not as strange as what happened next.

Within seconds they was a loud noise in the back of the plane. Since we were in the second to last row it wasn't hard to hear it. I looked out our window and noticed that we were turning. Then we started descending really fast (while we were still turning!) I turned to Josh and said, "Something is wrong. I can tell. We're turning and going down". Someone behind us said, "That's not right. Why did he turn on his spoilers?" It turned out the person sitting behind us was also a pilot. He knew exactly what was happening. He told us something must be wrong because the pilot is trying to slow down really fast and he's trying to descend.

All of the sudden the flight attendants in the rear of the plane get a phone call. They pick up talk for a second and hang up. Then both attendants RUN to the front of the plane. (keep in mind we are rapidly turning and descending at this point). Someone in the middle of the plane yelled, "Why won't they tell us what's going on!?!"

At this point the pilot gets on the intercom. He announces that an indicator light has come on indicating a fire in the main fuselage. He told us that we were turning around and landing at O'Hare. At that moment you heard EVERYONE'S cell phones turning on. The whole plane was filled with the music the different cell phones make when they turn on. That was kind-of funny!!!

This whole thing two maybe 2 minutes. It took another 5-10 minutes before we landed. The whole time the man sitting behind us (who is the pilot) is talking us through the whole thing. He told us the loud noise we heard were the spoilers going up--the pilot did that to slow the plane down so he could be an about-face and turn the plane around immediately. The flight attendants grabbed a book and sat back down to prepare for landing--the pilot told us that book was their emergency procedure book. There was another bang and the pilot sitting behind us told us that was the pilot of the plane "blowing" something (I can't remember what). Basically if there really was a fire the airplane pilot was "blowing" something to try and extinguish it.

It was amazing because this whole time I felt relatively calm. I didn't cry or panic. I was a little shaky, but talking to the pilot was keeping me calm. It turned out to be an amazing thing that those people had taken our original seats. Had they not I wouldn't have had this pilot sitting behind me reassuring me that everyone was okay.

As we got near the airport we looked out the window and saw 15-20 emergency vehicles waiting for us on the airstrip. We also noticed that they had grounded all other flights until we landed, so there were a bunch of planes waiting to take off. We landed and slowed down VERY quickly. We stopped in the middle of the landing strip and the emergency vehicles descended on the plane. It was actually kind-of amusing at this point. They circled the plane (obviously looking for a fire) and then after thoroughly checking the plane they allowed us to taxi to a gate. The pilot cam on the intercom and said that it appeared that there was no fire and that was light was a false indicator light. Mechanics were going to check the plane and let us know what they were going to do.

The pilot got on a few minutes later saying the fire chief was now checking out the plane and they wanted us to sit tight for AN HOUR while they checked over the plane. However, 5 minutes later the pilot came back on and said "This plane is out of service. Please deplane and we will get another plane out of the hangar for you." Before we deplaned a gate-side checker came on the plane to talk to the flight attendants. He asked them how they were feeling. Their response was "other than our armpits being a little sweaty we're okay". Turns out even flight attendants get a little scared. We deplaned and while we were waiting for our carseat to come up we heard the pilot getting debriefed. He mentioned that the indicator light came on but then turned off and then came on again and then turned off. He didn't know if that was because there really was a fire and it was messing with the indicators or if it was faulty equipment. It was a brand new plane (we were the first passengers) and so it turned out just to be a faulty wire.

We waited 2 hours and they got us a new plane. We boarded and found out that one of the flight attendants had been so shaken up by the experience that she didn't get on our second flight. Looks like I wasn't the only one scared by the experience!

This whole experience taught me a few things. 1. I don't like flying. 2. If a plane I am flying on is going to crash there is nothing I can do about it so I should stop worrying about it. 3. The Spirit is with you when you need Him...As soon as I noticed we were descending I had a overwhelming warmth and calmness come over me. I knew things were going to be okay. I was still a little shaky, but I knew we were going to be okay. It felt good to know the Spirit was with me in my time of need.

Major Milestone

Josh's grandpa is 94 today. That is crazy! He's an amazing person and we love him very much. We are so glad we get to be here on his birthday to share this special day with him.

Fever

It's another first for Benson. He has his first fever. Poor Boy! He started getting it last night. He slept terribly and even though we've been giving him Tylenol, it's still around 100.8-101.2. Poor baby!!! I hope the fever breaks soon otherwise we might have to go to the doctor's.

Up close and personal (and mostly fuzzy)

9 months old

My baby is nine months old today! Oh my goodness! He's growing growing growing! In three short weeks he has learned to crawl, has started saying "dada" and "daddy", is pulling himself up on furniture, feeding himself, and starting to stand without support...wow! He's not my little baby anymore. He still loves to be held, but he's loving the new freedom of being mobile. I actually like it too. He just seems much more excited about everything now that he can move around. It's a little more work watching him, but it's worth it!

His 9 month appointment won't be until we get back to Chicago so we'll have to wait and see his current stats. We're loving California. We went to the beach today with our friends Jessica and Siena and some new friends Melissa and Merrick. It was fun! Pictures to come. It's been a pretty chill week. We've been having lots of fun with family and friends.

I hope you all are looking forward to our scary plane story that I have to share about our flight out to California. It's a good one! Maybe I'll take the time to write about it tomorrow. Other than that, no exciting news. I'm hoping to download pictures from the camera tonight. I still have some from before we left for California that I need to post.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful FALL. Enjoy your week!

Sisters

So, this was taken a while ago but it was on my sister Katie's camera...fun times.

PS- California pictures will be coming, but probably not until we're back home. We're having too much fun, I don't have time to download and post new pictures. Everything you've seen from 10/8/09 through now has been done ahead of time. I did all of these posts on 10/9/09....Tricked you all, huh? You thought I was diligently posting everyday, when in fact I was up until 3 am on the 9th posting everything...Now you know my trick, don't be mad/sad--be glad :)

Papa (aka Grandpa Noel)

These two are buds!

Aunt to to

Just some fun times...

Computer trouble...

What happens when a curious 8 month old gets his pretty little hands on daddy's computer????

Well, of course he tears off a few keys (don't worry he didn't want to eat them and we took them so he couldn't try)

And then....

He turns the screen UPSIDE DOWN!

Then daddy had to type upside down into Google to figure out how to fix it...

PS- To fix--In case this happens to you in the future---Ctrl + Alt + Up arrow....

CUTE!!!!

Seriously, could this picture get any cuter?!!? Ditto!

Ditto! Sorry this last one is fuzzy, still had to include it!

bed time

Josh: What! What! What! Something just jumped on my face!

He then proceeds to jump out of the covers and huddle in a ball on the corner of the bed!

Kiera: What are you doing?

Josh: Trying to stay alive!

Kiera: This is goin' on the blog!

Josh: Thanks for listening...

Blue eyes

finger lickin' good

Mommy is such a copycat...

We're so cool :)


PS- We're in California! We'll be here for two weeks, so wish me luck on keeping up with the blog!

Straight and Tall

Look at the "look" Benson is giving the camera...seriously hilarious!

Just because

Just another fun photo shoot on Benson's behalf...

Adorable...