Ain't no party like a birthday party

We had a cupcake party for Andrew on Saturday night. He was the only kid there, everyone else where aunts, uncles or grandparents, but they brought better gifts than other kids would have so it worked out!

The sign on our front door, just in case they forgot how old Andrew was turning.

Opening all the loot...

Posing for pictures with Aunt Georgia...

Andrew themed cupcakes...

Digging in!

Afterwards, showing us his baby six pack!

gingerbread houses

As I have been looking at other peoples blogs and seeing them make gingerbread houses with their kids, they all end up looking just like the box. I would like to know how the heck that is possible if you let a three year old decorate it? I mean I would love a perfect little house to display but maybe Allie is just not as developed as some of these other kids! At any rate, our house turned out cute and Allie had a blast alternating between eating the candy and putting it on the house. My personal favorite part is the peoples faces being held up by red frosting so it looks like blood. Gross I know, but try telling me that is not what it looks like.

We did not even have it done a day before a giant rat (Aaron) got hungry and ate half the roof!

funniest thing ever

For those of you who know my dad, he is not the most computer literate person. In fact, he doesn't even have a computer. Aaron and I are running the bowl challenge this year (if you want in, let me know... entries are due by tomorrow!) so my dad wanted to see what the predictions were for all the games before he made his choices. Aaron found him a web site and my dad sat down to look at it. The web site had all the games listed and you had to click on the game and then it would have a pop up with the info about it. Then you just had to close the pop up, click on the next game, and continue on down the line. Pretty simple right? Every minute or so I would hear, What is this? What did I do? He was doing things like clicking the right side of his mouse so the little window pops up and didn't know what to do. He hit the maximize button instead of the close button on the pop up and didn't know what to do. One time I told him to hit the back arrow in the top left corner. He hit the forward button and didn't know what to do. It was even funnier when Allie came over and tried to help him. I love my dad, but it is pretty funny to see him get mad because he has no idea what he is doing and his 3 year old grand daughter does!

Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Our little guy is not so little anymore! In honor of his birthday I will let him empty out all the kitchen cabinets without getting mad and I will let him get at least half way up the stairs before I go get him. Depending on how my day goes, I may let him pull out everything from my purse and empty my wallet across the living room... or maybe we will save that for a rainy day.

A stocking story

I have no idea what we have done for the past few years but we don't have stockings. Maybe I have been borrowing, or buying some and then returning after Christmas. I can't remember. I decided that this year I was going to finally buy some nice stockings for us so we could be a nice normal family (because having things like that makes you normal right?) I found some adorable ones from pottery barn kids. Here is what some of them looked like...

So the funny thing is that since I was spending all this money on stockings I wanted to make sure that they would last for many years. With that in mind I decided to get one extra for a future Bennion that might come our way. But then I thought, what if I have twins? What if I get my tubes tied after the next one but by some miracle of nature (I heard of it happening) I get pregnant again? So I just decided to buy 2 extra. So the nutcracker and the reindeer are waiting patiently in the garage for their debut. Hopefully it won't be for a few years!

Hung by the chimney with care...

Heart Attack

I have never had a heart attack- but I am pretty sure I just made my heart skip a few beats. I was trying to be pro active and update the background on my blog. Of course I backed it up first- or so I thought. The background was the wrong format so I went and re loaded the old one, only to see that the right column did not load. All of my links to other blogs was gone... nowhere... or maybe just hiding on my desktop somewhere. So... I have now spent the last hour scanning the web for everyones blog addresses. Sorry of I missed someone. I also just went with the good old Cutest clog on the block background. I called this one... sorry, you should have updated your blog before me.

I decided that while I was at it, I would make a new banner to go with the new background but I discovered that I have not taken pictures of my kids in the last month.I have no idea where November went, but my kids will not remember it because I have no pictures to show them what they were doing. I had to round up some old pictures and crop people out to put something together.

Lastly, I went to Kohls this morning. I made it about 10 steps in before I turned around and left and went home for the day. I am waiting for Cyber Monday. If I can get Allie off of Play House Disney for a few minutes I may actually get some Christmas shopping done.

Dancing Queen

Today Allie had her first dance class. So dang cute! They get to do ballet and tap. Allie definitely liked the tap better but she had tons of fun doing both. The kids even get to do a little tap show during Vine Street in Paso next month. Everyone get your cameras ready!

Later that day, Allie went in and used the bathroom. She came out and said, "Mom, I can't find my underwear." What the heck to do mean you can not find your underwear? They were on when you went in the bathroom. We had only been downstairs so I start to look around for them. Nothing... Nowhere... Aaron came home and went to use the bathroom and it backed up a little. He plunged it and it finally started to work again. So we are thinking that my lovely (arson inclined) daughter can now add flushing underwear down the toilet to her growing list of deviant behavior.

On the hot seat

Aaron and I got out our holiday candles because we both like the way they smell. (the one pictured above is falling snow- ooh, so nice) Allie of course is infatuated with them. I thought it was under control until last night when I was getting dinner ready. Suddenly I heard, "uh oh." I turned around to see this...











No... Just kidding... but she did set her babies blanket on fire and it was burning on top of the table. It had been burning for a a good 15 seconds because it was pretty well on fire by the time I saw it.

So- lesson learned. All candles will now be put up on the counter away from my arson inclined three year old.

Lasting election memories

I try to put Allie's hair up in pony tails so it is not hanging in her face. She usually lets me do it and just pulls it out 10 minutes after I do it. Yesterday we were sitting on my bed doing her hair and she yells, "No mom not like that. You are making me look like Sarah Palin." I have no idea what the heck she meant by that, but it was funny anyways. Our other event is that I am trying to get Andrew to drink whole milk. So far it is not going well. I have even tried putting chocolate in it to make it more yummy. All I get is leaky sippy cups left in random spots over my floor. Luckily we have all wood floors downstairs so it is not to much of a pain. Hopefully he will start drinking milk and get some calcium before he gets a vitamin D deficiency or rickets.

Here and Gone Again

Wow- moving is a pain. I forgot how much stuff we have, and how much stuff we do not have. I feel like I am heading to Wal Mart or Albertsons everyday. Hopefully that will all die down soon. I still have not taken pictures of the house... sorry... in my defence, it has been raining the past three days.

Last week we got in on Sunday afternoon, unpacked and then Aaron left for Fresno to work over there for the week. I spent two long nights unpacking and then the kids and I followed Aaron over to Fresno on Tuesday to hang out with Lauri and Logan.

Although the boys are three months apart (Andrew is older) they look about the same. The only difference is that Andrew is walking and Logan still just scoots around.


Andrew, Logan and Andrew (no, we did not name our Andrew after this Andrew- although it would not have been bad if we did. Andrew is Eliot's (Aaron's brothers) middle name)

Andrew is still the mean older cousin, body slamming Logan and crawling over him, but hopefully in a year they will be able to equally beat each other up.

Georgia set up this cute picture background in her front yard for Logan, so of course I had to jump in on that on take pictures too. Andrew was mostly interested in eating the pumpkins so they did not turn out as well as I had hoped, but what ever does.

One if Allie's favorite parts of being at Georgia's is being able to help drive the car down to Grandpa's house to collect the eggs. (Don't worry people- it is just down the dirt road, I am not pulling a Britney Spears)


For Halloween Andrew was a turtle (the same one Allie was on her first Halloween) and Allie was a flower fairy. They all had fun at the ward parties and Allie is still enjoying getting to have a treat after each meal.

Movin' movin' movin'

After an extended stay in LA, we are finally moving! We were pretty open to anywhere in CA but as fate would have it we are winding up back on the Central Coast. I will email everyone our new address, but in case you don't get it and want it, leave me a comment and I will get it out to you. Aaron started his new job with Rabobank this last week while the kids and I stayed in LA to pack up all of our stuff. I think I failed as a mom for my first week being alone because I got strep throat and Allie has a cold. Can't there be a way for Aaron to stay home and for us to get a paycheck? Are there any wealthy relatives out there who would like to leave us an early inheritance? No... figures... dang poor Dellaganna's. Maybe the Bennion's will come through!

Our new house is super cute. Allie is super excited to have her own room and I am super excited to have my own bathroom (separate from the kids!). No more straddling Allie's little potty when I need to wash my hands or do my hair. I will post pictures as soon as we get up there next week .

Until then I have a busy day! Packing, kids getting shots, packing, Halloween party, and probably some more packing!

See... punters are cool.

Congrats to my little brother Teddy who was named the Big East Special Teams Player of the week! Here is a part of the article about him from the Rutgers Football page...

"Dellaganna played a huge role in the outcome of Saturday’s game against Connecticut. He averaged 41.7 yards on seven punts with four of his kicks pinning the Huskies inside their own 20-yard line. Connecticut’s best field position in the second half was its own 24-yard line. The Huskies had five drives that started inside the 15-yard line in the second half. Dellaganna’s second-half kickoff was fielded at the one-yard line where the return man was tackled. After a defensive stand, the Scarlet Knights got the ball on the UConn 37-yard line where they scored the first touchdown of the contest. Later, Dellaganna’s punt pinned the Huskies on their own two-yard line and the first play of the drive resulted in a safety.

Dellaganna had a long punt of 56 yards in the contest and is averaging 41.9 yards per punt with 14 of his 42 punts landing inside the 20-yard line and 10 more traveling at least 50 yards."

Let's Review

Okay, Okay so it has been awhile. I just get into moods where I don't feel like blogging. Or maybe I am just trying to make Lauri feel better about never blogging! Here is our month in rewind...

We took the kids to the Science Museum down by USC. It was a little over their heads, but they got the basic idea of some of the stuff.

Instead of building an arch with the blocks Andrew decided to chew on them.



Aaron and Allie went in the hurricane machine. It simulates winds up to 80 miles an hour. We had to stop it half way through because Allie was screaming.




Right about here is where she started screaming.


The one moment when Andrew let us pick him up.


We have also made a few trips up to Paso to see the fam. Here is a picture that Allie took of the herd of turkeys that live at Georgia and Kurts. Allie knows that you have to be very quiet and tip toe up to the fence to see them.


Kurt took Allie up to the hay field to see her cow. Here it is outside the window of the truck. I have no idea what kind of face she is making. But we did finally get her to come up with a name for the cow. Allie named it Aurora (from sleeping beauty).



Since we have been making so many road trips, Allie has gotten use to watching movies in the car. Here she set up a movie for her baby (in the bottom of the bassinet that is still sitting in the den waiting to be put away).


My dad came down and got to play with the kids for awhile. He had Allie walk on his back (he said it felt good) so now Allie wants to walk on all of our backs (which we think does not feel good).


So that is what has been going on with us. There is lots more stuff going on, but that will have to wait for another post. Hopefully this will hold you all over for a week!

End of Summer Fun

Yesterday we went to Universal Studios (thanks Natalie for the tickets!). It really is not a little kid place, but yeah... free tickets are free tickets. The one thing they did have was Curios George, which happens to be one of Allie's favorite shows. She was so excited to meet him. We also went to a stunt animal show. Allie also loved that. Funny enough, her favorite part was once we were done. We got dippin' dots and she got to play in a fountain that was on the city walk. So the lesson learned is that although we had tons of fun at the park, she would probably had just as much fun with an ice cream cone and the sprinkler in the back yard.



We saw Dora right as we were walking in. Allie was not quite sure what to think of the gigantic girl.





Again, I am not sure she expected an eight foot tall monkey, but she warmed up to him and finally gave him a high five and a hug.




The ball pit was pretty awesome. I can see it getting totally chaotic but luckily there were not that many kids inside so Andrew got to get done an shuffle around. There were basically giant guns and launchers that you could put balls into and they shot around the whole place.




Score with the Dippin' Dots.





First try through. Playin' it safe.


Getting nailed by a steam of water



Pushin' through to the finish!