All moved in...and a trip to the ER

True story, we moved into our new home the weekend before Thanksgiving. We moved to Hyrum, UT - 15 minutes South of Logan. Sorry I don't have pictures of the house, but I will soon, I promise. Just as soon as we get blinds all hung up. :-) We moved in the morning of the 20th and that afternoon the snow storms started, and they really haven't stopped. We were very lucky to be able to move in when we did. Benjamin loves the new house, but he does miss his buddy Russton. Luckily he still gets to go there often to hang out while mom and dad are at work. Being in a family ward is quite different, but it's been fun. Our first Sunday was the most memorable, but we'll leave that for a later post.

We have almost all of our boxes unpacked and the only casualty in the move was a lamp shade from my cheap-o lamp broke. We have AWESOME friends here that helped us move in and we're SO grateful for them.

We learned one thing that we don't like about living in Hyrum...the distance to the Logan emergency room. Benjamin had been sporting a temperature for the last day or so. He was NOT feeling well and wanted me to rock him to sleep. He rarely gets sick, so anything like this is out of the ordinary. After he fell asleep I put him down for bed. At 10 p.m. he woke up and I could barely hear him crying. I went into his room and he was gasping for air and crying - not a good combination. He calmed down a little bit and still had difficulty breathing. I decided that it would probably be best to take him to the ER. Josh was still at work and didn't have his phone. Luckily he got home 10 minutes later. We got into the car and even the cold night air wasn't helping his croup much. We got him in and they gave him a steroid vapor mist and then an oral steroid medication. They monitored him for a while and then let us go after about 45 minutes. Thank goodness for DVD's - Finding Nemo kept him entertained the entire time. We got home around 1 a.m. and had to stay in the room with him or else he would freak out. None of us got much sleep that night, but the next night we all crashed! Benjamin is doing better, not 100% yet, but much better! We're thankful for prayers.

Needless to say, we've had an exciting go around since we've moved in. Now if only our loan would close so we can put up blinds and a garage door opener, that would be fantastic!

Pumpkin Blow 2010

The first Saturday after Halloween, the Nash family of Weston, ID always does the Pumpkin Blow. People come from EVERYWHERE to watch the pumpkin blow. They bring their pumpkins and then Papa Nash puts a ton of dynamite in with them (88 sticks this year). Then Miles shot the dynamite from afar as we all stood on top of the hill...

Where there were once pumpkins....

Now there's a crater! KABOOM! Sorry, I was covering Benjamin's ears so I didn't take a picture of the explosion!

Fun picture...beautiful view!

Benjamin HAD to go and see the dog a gazillion times. He LOVES dogs! Too bad we won't be getting any time soon. Actually, I'm okay with that.

LAST Relay-o-Posting

I know, right? I'm actually doing two in one on this one. The new house AND Halloween. They mesh, right? I guess when you see the NUCLEAR green color on our house you'll get freaked out. Don't worry, they've changed that color. It's not so ghooly looking anymore. :-)

I know, I know...it looks like some disgusting form of diarrhea on our house. So glad it's fixed.

Our kitchen! That big hole is where our fridge will go. We have to get that one. Don't worry, we picked one out months ago! I'm very excited about it too! I did my homework. :-)

From the kitchen looking into the living room. This actually kind of makes our living room seem small, but it's a good size. I can't complain!

Master bedroom. It's so huge...this picture does NO justice to it!

Our red door! It's a deep red, but it's so beautiful. I LOVE it!

Changing scenes. HELLOOOOO skunk! Don't worry, that's a black hoodie and sweat pants with white DUCK TAPE! I just cut it so there were rounded corners on the front and then made it look skunkish in the back. Cutest skunk EVER! His ears are flopped over in this picture. SO hard to get a good pic of the costume in its entirety.

Oh yeah, the tail is a feather boa (thank you Trish!). I put two pieces of duck tape together (so they wouldn't stick to the boa) and then just safety pinned it all to his pants. PERFECT costume for our stinker! If you didn't know...he had been constipated...BAD. Well that weekend he went to the other extreme. Yeah, he was stinkin' it up, to say the least.

THE END of this post...now go read the other three - or at least look at the pics!

Relay-o-Posting #3

PUMPKIN WALK 2010

Benjamin and I went on a date one afternoon to the pumpkin walk. It was pretty chilly, but we bundled up. We actually ended up walking around it THREE times. Twice with Benjamin in the stroller and then once with him walking, mostly running, around. We did have to stop for the Toy Story one, the Polar Express one (there was a train...CHOOOO), the Monster's Inc one (Mike Wazowski!), and the UP one. We got home and had soup. It was a fun and FREE date. Have we mentioned how much we LOVE Cache Valley?

All bundled up and ready to GO!

UP! I forgot to mention that there had been some HUGE rain storms a couple of nights prior, hence the reason why some of the "balloons" from the house are missing. I was amazed at how well the faces on most of the pumpkins held up...and sad to see how some just washed right off. Very talented people. There were SO many scenes there!

MIKE WAZOWSKI. Seriously, Benjamin stopped and chatted with these pumpkins for a good minute.

I wish I could have gotten the whole Polar Express in one shot...they did an incredible job!

Benjamin's ALL TIME favorite!

Here he is chatting it up here with Buzz and Woody. We were there for a good 5 minutes...I kid you not!

So glad we got to go to the Pumpkin Walk this year. I think we'll make it a tradition. SO much fun!

End Post #3

Relay-o-Posting #2

What's next? FAMILY PICTURES!

So, seriously, Belinda Olsen is one of THE most patient photographers that I've EVER met. PLEASE use her for your family/wedding/baby/senior/engagement/whatevertheheckyouwant pictures. She really is SO amazing. Here are some of our pictures...Benjamin was a GRRRRRRUMP for most of our family pictures. It's a miracle that Belinda got anything good. But, she's just. that. good! Go figure, she got a ton of Benjamin running and playing when he wasn't pinned down by mom and dad. Ah well.

Relay-o-Posting #1

Benjamin's Birthday - yes, it's true, I STILL haven't posted about his birthday which was 09/30. Sad, but true...POOR UNFORTUNATE SOUL. I hope you get that, it was certainly funny in my head. (hint: Little Mermaid)

We celebrated Benjamin's 2nd birthday the Friday of Conference weekend. We had it at Brett and Sari's home. My mom and dad were able to make it along with Trevor, Jen, and their family. We had so much fun!

Back up a couple of days. On Benjamin's actual birthday, we gave him his train table. He was so excited about it...here he is "choo, chooing"! What a cutie!

Here's the cake! This was my idea, but I was not the sole creator. I made the cake and cut it up, but I have to give props to my sista' who did the decorating. I did, however, almost chop her fingers off when she left Benjamin's name as Ben at first as a joke...I have a say in what he goes by at this point in his life....and it's Benjamin. I don't hate the name Ben, just prefer Benjamin for my cute 2 year old. Wow, glad that's off my chest. :-)

Benjamin opening presents while dad supervises!

The more I look at this picture it looks like Benjamin is doing a cheesy pointing pose that you'd get from a 10 year old...but this is just how the picture turned out. To be honest with you, I think he was in mid sentence and telling me something intense because he's pointing. I know everyone was exciting about the cake...especially my 38 year old brother!

 The End...of post #1

I love it when....

...Benjamin laughs!

Yesterday after I got home from work Benjamin and I had so much fun. We went to the store, then we prepared dinner and put it in the crockpot so it would be ready when we got out of the cold. We braved the first snowfall and went to the Pumpkin walk (pictures to follow). We LOVED the pumpkin walk! After that we went home and got warm. Benjamin wanted to bounce on mommy and daddy's bed. So he got up there and we were wrestling and I was tickling him. He was laughing so hard he was screaming. It was hilarious! We both were laughing pretty hard. Later that night, he even let me cut his finger nails without any complaints!

It was a GREAT day. At times it's hard having a child - not only is it waring on your nerves, but sometimes it's hard to see all the time and money other people have that we don't. But every day I'm reminded of how grateful I am for our son. Today was one of those days where my JOY was full - I wouldn't have known this kind of joy if I didn't have my Benjamin!

Sometimes I feel like...

...I'm going a hundred miles a minute and when I stop just to look at what I've done, I have no idea what I've been doing. Definitely not blogging, that's for sure. Then I look at other people's blogs and they are always on top of it. They are also the ones with the clean homes and the well groomed and well fed families. At least that's what I see...or what they portray to me. I just look at my house and I look at myself and I think UCK...can't I just be on top of things for once in my life? I'm picking up after Benjamin, I'm picking up after dinner, I'm picking up after everything. I'm frustrated because I'm too tired at night to get it all done, frustrated because I've spent too much time blogging or too much time on facebook, frustrated because I hardly see Josh, frustrated because I'm always too tired to spend time with Josh.

After I think all this(for the tenth time), I am quickly reminded where those thoughts come from. The tender mercies of the Lord remind of the amazing talk given by Elder Ballard, "O That Cunning Plan of the Evil One." My favorite quote is this, "Like the fly fisherman who knows that trout are driven by hunger, Lucifer knows our “hunger,” or weaknesses, and tempts us with counterfeit lures which, if taken, can cause us to be yanked from the stream of life into his unmerciful influence. And unlike a fly fisherman who catches and releases the fish unharmed back into the water, Lucifer will not voluntarily let go. His goal is to make his victims as miserable as he is."

At times my weakness is my lack of esteem. I beat myself up over what I'm not and what I'm not doing. Satan knows this and he just pushes and pushes and pushes. He doesn't care that I'm miserable in my selfish woes. He just cares that I'm not happy.

I know that there are many people out there who feel the same way. You are not alone. Satan also knows us and our weaknesses, but he has no power over us as we keep our focus on the Savior. If you are not happy, let go of the lure that Satan has on you. As we follow the Savior, we will find happiness and joy. Though our life will not be void of trials, we can find hope and peace as we endure and conquer our trials.

LOOK WHO'S TWO!

 Dear Benjamin (it's okay, everyone can read this. :-))

Who would have thought that you could have so much impact on our lives! We are so grateful every day that you are part of our eternal family. Here are just a few of our favorite things about you.

You never get mad if your diaper hasn't been changed in a while, you're quick to forgive after you've gotten in trouble, you are always happy in the mornings even if you're stuck in your crib for a while, you are always willing to go to bed for the night, you eat almost anything, you ROCK at sharing, you make us laugh, you already know the Scotsman(GO AGGIES), you think we are AWESOME, it makes us happy when you say I love Yoooooooooooooou, you have an amazing cheeser smile, you LOVE being outside, you get so excited to see your friends and family, you know where Aunt Jessie keeps her cookies and you go straight there when you go over, you love books, you love to talk on the phone, you love being chased, you've taken down daddy already, you LOVE swinging and could stay there for hours (weeeee), you know what to do at a green light, you stop and make siren noises whenever you hear a siren, you love the potty even though you're not potty trained, you know what it means to go fast...but not slow, you fold your arms for basically the whole prayer, you sustain (and oppose) sustainings at church, you know Jesus and love to look at His pictures, you make us better people!

WE LOVE YOU BENJAMIN HOWARD HUFF!!!

Our new HOME!

Josh and I are not from UT and neither of us ever thought we wanted to settle in UT. But...we love it here in Cache Valley. It's the best place to be in UT. So we will be making HYRUM our new home for a while. At least until Josh can afford to buy us our big house on the hill in Smithfield....or so he tells me.

Here are some pictures of our new home - we are so excited to finally have windows! They were on back order for a while.

Hyltons house on the right, Huffs house on the left.

Our pantry - WAHEW! Good thing it's big, Josh just bought me 100 pounds of flour. It was only $20, I might add.

The living room. I'm thinking of having them leave the wall that way - awesome? Okay, no.

Going up the stairs.

Josh coming in the front door...HELLOOOOOO! Half bathroom on the left.

One wall of the master closet...Most of it will be mine. Ha ha ha

All are invited to come to our home in November...it will be finished then. You could come now, but there's no electricity, running water, carpet...and you'd probably be woken up fairly early by construction workers. You're call.

INDIANA

We went to Indiana over Labor Day weekend. Josh had the amazing opportunity of baptizing his nephew and confirming him a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This would be Benjamin's 2nd time riding in a plane...the last time was when he was 3 months old. He actually did really well. There was another little boy on the plane that made Benjamin look like a perfect angel!

Thank goodness for play areas at the airport! We had to wait a couple of hours to board our plane, so this was nice to occupy Benjamin's time!

Let's be honest, he would have rather looked out at the planes than played with the toys. He was in heaven!

Benjamin was a trooper. If you don't know, his bed time is about 7 p.m. We got into Indianapolis about 8 p.m. UT time and then had more driving and a stop for some dinner. He didn't get to bed until about 10 p.m. UT time only to turn around and wake up around 6 a.m. our time. Needless to say, he was a little tired, but did amazingly well! What a trooper, and GOOD LOOKIN' to boot!

Here are Josh and Zach after Zach's baptism. It was wonderful to see all the support of the ward and friends and family. The room was filled with people.

Three handsome boys!

Josh and I with Zach....WE LOVE YOU ZACH!

Benjamin loved watching daddy and Zach play the Wii.

Josh and Zach playing a mad game of bowling!

Benjamin at the birthday party they had for Zach and the Jammin! He was in heaven with all of his presents. THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!

Benjamin playing with toys...go figure!

MORE CAKE PLEASE!

Grandpa and Benjamin having a great time!

It's always a joke that Josh says that I know someone EVERYWHERE we go. Imagine my surprise when we are waiting for church to start and I look over to see Dallin Murray. Dallin was my little brother's good friend growing up in Casper, WY. His mom was my YW leader and I graduated with his older brother. Yeah...random. Turns out, he's in my mother-in-law's ward. What are the odds?

Benjamin got to see a REAL fire truck - thank you AUNT DANI...we LOVE YOU! He was excited about the fire truck, but not quite as excited about the fire hat. Thanks Grandma for helping with the picture! In fact, every time you say the words "fire truck" he quickly replies with his rendition of a fire truck's siren.

We got to go to the Indianapolis zoo and you can pet sharks there! Here's Aunt Dani petting a shark. Yeah, pretty sure I was too scared to do it...I've seen too many "sharks eating humans" shows.

There goes Josh petting a shark. Benjamin wanted to put his hand in the water SOOO badly, but I don't think that the sharks would have liked that too much. You weren't supposed to splash and you had to use two fingers. I think Benjamin would have wanted to jump in with them.

Benjamin looking at a HUGE walrus...he loved all the animals.

He wasn't so sure about this huge gigantic FAKE snake. Now, if it would have been REAL...that would have been awesome.

As we were walking through the zoo, it started to POUR! The beauty of Indiana. So we got soaked...to say the least. Here is Benjamin wanting to go back out into it, and then there's me - drenched.

Sadly, we only got to stay about four days there. We had a lot of fun. Josh and I also got to go on a date while we were there while Benjamin got to play with Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Dani, and Zach. We all had fun. I have pictures on my phone that I'll have to download from the park. It was THE most AMAZING park! Even better than Ryan's Place Park here in Cache Valley - which is saying a lot. They had the best slides...they were rollers. It does get a little dangerous when you have 3 people going down them at the same time. But we had SO much fun there.

Thank you mom and dad Huff, Dani, and Zach for a wonderful time. We love you guys and we miss you guys. We can't wait to see you again!