Happy Birthday Benji!

 Our sweet boy turned 2 yesterday! We had a great day and he loved all the attention on his "burfday".

 Ruby and I made the cake while Ben napped and I successfully kept him away from it until 2 minutes before party time.

 "Oh, this black stuff on my fingers....it's, uh, I don't know where it came from...?"

 Grace made us a birthday list to make sure we did all the required birthday stuff.

 We FaceTimed with grandparents to open their gifts. He was thrilled with all the Thomas train stuff he got!

 He was so focused opening up his presents.

 He was also pretty happy when the cake came and he got some for real.

 

 Quite a spread he ended up with thanks to grandparents, Craigslist and DI :)

His birthday was so bittersweet for me. It's exciting to see him learn and grow and do new things, but it's so sad that I really don't have a baby anymore! This sweet boy is so snuggly and loving, but he's got a headstrong and stubborn streak in him too. I think this week he knew that he was turning 2 and has started exerting a more independent mind and spirit (a.k.a. not listening and doing what he wants to do!). One of my favorite things is how his cheeks jiggle when he runs. He's in the 99th percentile for height and weight, the doctor this morning was surprised that Rob was only 6' tall because she thinks Ben will be really tall! We all just adore this kid and feel so lucky that he is in our family!

Trunk or Treat

 Friday night was the ward Trunk or Treat Halloween Party.

 We had found the girls' costumes months ago and snatched them up when we found them knowing they'd be the most popular costumes for the year. Then on Thursday morning I realized we didn't have a costume for Benji! I didn't want to spend a ton of money on something he wouldn't wear or he would hate, so I figured he would wear his very favorite thing on this planet...a train! I found some boxes lying around the house and bought some paint and voila! I was really pleased with how it turned out and Ben was over the moon happy about it!

Such a fun night! I love having a couple of times to dress up and enjoy Halloween!

The Pett's Move aka My Heart Broke

After moving back to Frisco from London, Brent and Aubrey got a really good opportunity to move closer to their families in Atlanta and stay with HP, so they moved. It was so hard to say goodbye to our closest friends who have been our family for the past year but we're excited for all the new opportunities they'll have in Georgia!

We had them over for one last Sunday dinner and forgot to take a picture until the end when everyone was melting down, haha!

Best buddies!

A couple days later we went over to help them get all packed and cleaned up.

 The kids had a great time jumping on the trampoline until it was time to disassemble it

 HP guys

 HP wives and kiddos

 Everyone

 I love this squash/selfie picture of everyone!

They even did the kick off for us when we left. We sure do love them!

September

 I just downloaded the pictures from Rob's phone and missed some of the fun we've been having as of late. It's picture overload, but I just need to get it done! :)

 Back to School night with Grace

All of the classrooms are set up in pods with a common area with computers. There are probably 10 or so rooms coming off of this pod with all the K and 1st classrooms and a restroom area. It's cool that it's pretty self contained.

 

 Annual Daddy-Daughter camp out with some friends from the ward. In the picture above right, Ruby is standing behind a huge tarantula they found. Below is a close up of the 8-legged beast. They were apparently all over the campsite!

 The girls had a blast and came home exhausted!

Uncle Rob was in town on business this last week and we were lucky that he had time to come visit us. We love seeing family here in Texas!

 Yesterday Grace participated in Camp Rock put on by the high school as a fundraiser. They got to learn 2 songs and choreography to go with it and then did a performance at the end. It was so fun and Grace did a great job!

 Enjoying the late Texas summer. The heat just never ends!

Snuggling watching BYU football. Go Cougars! (This was back when BYU was doing great, before Taysom Hill broke his leg :(  )

Memorial Day we spent at the "beach" with friends. We went to the local beach at the lake and had a great time playing in the water and sand. We are so blessed to have awesome friends here!

Ben was completely worn out by the end of the day!

Ben is my little engineer. Here he is helping me put together the shelves for our closet. He is always trying to figure out how things work. Whenever he hears any mechanical noise (a car, washing machine, anything!) he tries to find the source of the sound and wants to know what it is.

All ready to go for tomorrow!

Homeowner problems. I'm grateful Rob is awesome at figuring out how to fix things!

The kids were happy we finally got a rug for the living room so they could have something softer than wood floors to roll around on :)

Grace's lunch one day. I'm making them Bento lunches. It's fun for me and them and they end up being really healthy because I can't just stick pre-packaged stuff in them :) I love the eyes!

The girls helped us do some planting

Rob and I painted our bedroom after much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth decision making. It was a long process, but much better than before!

 I love that Benji plays trains in the princess castle ;) #brotherproblems

 We got him a train table and he's loving it! Boy sure does loves his trains!

 Isn't that what the kitchen drawer pulls are for?

Grace lost her front tooth the day before picture day. She worked really hard to loose it at school so she could go to the nurse's office and get a little box to keep it safe in.

Last Friday night there was a free movie showing at the ballpark. We had a blast with friends, it was the perfect night!

  Silly little Tinkerbell-Ruby girl

This is how Ben snuggles to watch football re-caps on Saturday mornings with Dad.