Update...

So, as always, I have a lot to catch up on. You know you should probably start updating things when your grandma tells you she's been checking your blog and was sad to see that you haven't posted in a while. We have been incredibly busy and having lots of fun. I'll try to get you updated on what's going on in our lives.

We had the first (and the last, so far) snowstorm of the year. It was a lot of fun to go out and play. Jackson enjoyed building a snowman with one of his friends, Aurora (with some help from the parents, of course). I sure wish it would start snowing again soon to clean out this gross air and make it feel a little more like Christmas.

Jackson is now talking up a storm! It's amazing the little things he says. He can count to ten, even though this movie makes you think he only knows up to three. Whenever I ask him to count with the camera out, for some reason he thinks he should count to three, yell go, and run out of the room. I have no idea where that came from. I still think it's cute though. I also love it when he says things like, "Mommy, where are you? There you are Mommy." "Bless you Daddy," "Oh dear" and "I love you." Those are just a few of my favorites. He is a little chatterbox and likes to always be part of the conversation.

Dallin, Jackson and I headed down to temple square the other night to check out the Christmas lights. It was really cold, but we had a great time. Here's a pic of Jackson haming it up.

We also went to Louisianna for Thanksgiving with the Koecher side of the family. Dallin's sister, Lisa, and her family live there and we've never been out to visit. I was a little nervous to fly with a two year old, but we made it and had a great time. Here is a random sampling of some of our pictures. I took tons of pictures, so a few will have to be good enough. We had a great time and enjoyed our week off immensely. Thanks for everything Lisa, Andrew and Deanne. It was so much fun to spend so much time together. The first day we were there, Jackson started saying, "Go home? Jackson go home?" Who would have thought he would get homesick? Then, when we landed in Salt Lake, Jackson told us, "Jackson go to Ava's house?" What a turn of events. Lisa made Jackson a delicious birthday cake. For everyone who wasn't there, here's a little video of it. Sorry for the poor singing. I think I was paying more attention to getting the video than singing.

The beautiful view out of our plane.

These next few pictures are at a restaurant in Lafayette called Prejean's that Matthew, Steven, and Rolf raved about when they drove through a while ago. We all went there in honor of them. We had a great time.

The whole gang.

We went on a swamp tour and Dallin even got to hold a little alligator. Jackson even thought it was cool. I contented myself with holding Jackson.

This is so Michael.

Dallin and I in New Orleans.

The French Quarter in New Orleans. This wasn't exactly my favorite part of the trip, but we still had a good time. Jackson and his cousins.

This is one of the bridges in Shreveport, where Dallin's sister, Lisa lives. I thought it was pretty all lit up.

Ice cream at Brahms. Yum! This restaurant is almost enough to make me want to move to Texas.

We went to the Tyler Zoo when we drove through Texas to pick up Michael. It was a wet and rainy day, but it beat the snowstorm Utah was getting at the time.

Another birthday cake picture.

Jackson's first flight.

Jackson's cute cousin, Ava. Michael was teasing her and put her on a produce scale. Every time Jackson see's this picture, he laughs. I think it's pretty cute. She's adorable. It was fun spending time with all the Bensons.

We had sucha great time in Louisianna, but it was still nice to come home to our version of "normal". Here's a taste of what's been going on since. Here are a few pictures of what happens when we put Jackson down for a nap before he's really ready. He tries to either read himself to sleep or redecorate himself and his room ;-)

And these are just because I think my little boy is adorable!!! The first one is the face we get when we tell him to smile or say, "Cheese!"

Happy Birthday

We miss you Steven. Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Halloween

What is that you say? Two posts in one day by Amber? Impossible? Not today ;-) I just wanted to put up a few Halloween pictures. I hope you all enjoy this close to as much as we have. And...if any of you are experiencing a candy shortage, please come take some of ours off our hands. We've done a lot for Halloween this year. We carved pumpkins in Park City on a get away with my family, we went to Boo at the Zoo, we had a rockin' ward Halloween party, and did a lot of trick or treating. I wish you all could hear Jackson say 'Tic-o-Teat' and "Tank You". He's so cute. He also loves flying around our apartment as Superman. He spreads out his arms and goes flying. The first time he did it, he ran into our couch and said, "Uh-oh, crashed." He sure makes me laugh. I'm also pretty sure some of the first words he said this morning were "Soupman?" (Superman). What a cutie. Love that munchkin. This video is from Boo at the Zoo. The Verizon booth had loud music and Jackson just couldn't help boogy-ing. Sorry it is sideways. I'm not sure how to rotate a video. Just turn your head and enjoy.

I was Lois Lane and Dallin was Jimmy Olson. If you don't know who Jimmy Olson is, don't ask Dallin. He may be disappointed. He was wearing a videocamera around his neck earlier in the party too.

Show us your muscles Superman!

What a heartbreaker!

Oooooo.

Family Pictures!!!

Before you start reprimanding me for not posting in too many months to say, I have a post to make up for it. On Saturday, my sister-in-law, Bethany Bown, took some family pictures for us. I am so excited with how they turned out. I put a sneak preview up here. You can see a few more on her photo blog at bethanybownphotography.blogspot.com. She is very talented! Thanks Beth. As a ps. I am still going to try to catch up on posting about things when I get around to it ;-)

Boring Mondays???

This post is to help Dallin's cousin, KC get through her boring Monday. She was quite upset that I have been such a slacker on the blogging world lately, so here is my attempt at changing that. I have now been out of school for almost two years now. It's weird to think about how things have changed. I really do miss some things about going to college. I miss the friendships, the learning, and feeling good after you get a long paper or project finished. I miss the stretching and growing that seem to be pretty constant while you're in school. One other thing I miss is....Spring Break. Luckily, Dallin is still in school, so I get to adopt his Spring Breaks too. This last week we went to Mesquite to escape from the cold weather and have a much needed break. Luckily, two of our cousins, Tyler and KC, and one of my best friends, Tycee were able to come with us. We had a great time. Here's a quick update about what we did.

We spent one day in Mesquite playing volleyball, racquetball and swimming at the rec center. It was nice and relaxing. Then we watched the BYU basketball game that night. It was a fun game to watch, even though the ending was less than ideal. I actually made a bracket for the tournament this year, so I have been infinitely more interested than last year. Too bad my bracket isn't shaping up to look too good. Oh well. I also didn't take many pictures that day. Oops.

We spent the next day in Las Vegas. We had a ton of fun at M&M World.

The Pinball Hall of Fame.

Coke World (This was called Tastes Around the World. It was drinks from all over the world. Most, but definitely not all, of them were really good.)

After we got back to Mesquite that night, we went bowling. I got the exact same score both games. It was pretty entertaining too.

The next day was our travel-back-home day. Luckily, there were some fun things along the way. In Spanish Fork, at the Hari Krishna temple they celebrate the Festival of Colors each year. I have seen lots of pictures and heard a lot about it, but never been. So we stopped there on the way home. Here is a before picture...

And some after pictures. Yes...we are covered with colored chalk. I'm not sure about the reasoning behind it, but you purchase colored chalk and everyone throws it at each other and in the air. Sounds crazy and it is...but it was also a lot of fun.

And here's a movie of the actual throwing of the colors. It is as crazy as it looks.

Then we stopped at my parents to shower and get cleaned up before we headed home. Thanks for the great food and the shower that has never felt so good. All in all, we had a great trip and a wonderful time. Thanks everyone who came and helped make it possible. I think Spring Break is going to have to continue even after our college days are done.

KC...I hope that helped you get through your Monday blues. :-)