The Benson girls in goal, the walking 9 month old, a running Titan and some sad news

Life has been real hectic. When I looked at the blog tonight, I was shocked that I had not written a post in nearly 4 months. I guess that is what little league football, girls soccer and some family events will does to you.

THE BENSON GIRLS IN GOAL
The picts below are of Kaitlinn and Tia - each of them took a turn to play goalie this year. They had enjoyable seasons and I think they will be playing again next season.



Tia is the small speck of green....she played great in this game, despite not having played there a lot. Kaitlinn is the adorable goalie on the right. She played there several games and seemed to enjoy it.

THE WALKING 9 MONTH OLD
I know - she is now 10 months old but the video was shot when she was 9 months old - so there. She is growing up each day, now she waves and is found smiling most of the time (apart from the "change my diaper," "feed me now'" and "I just woke up faces" moments she has)

AND NO - THERE IS NO NEED FOR A SOBRIETY TEST - REMEMBER THIS IS A 9 MONTH OLD WALKING - THERE IS GOING TO BE A CERTAIN TILT TO HER SWAGGER.




A Running Titan
This year was my second year coaching little league football. Our team was the Olympus Titans Grey Team - (hence the Running Titan reference) I have learned a lot and have found a lot of joy helping coach. The pict below was in a game against Cooper Hills. The 42-0 win was very satisfying. We did not make the playoffs this year, but hopefully we will be in the playoffs next year. I am hoping to take some coaching clinics in the off season to help me improve.




Some Sad News
Some of you may now that on October 21, 2009, Shannon's mom, Joan lost her battle with cancer. She was an incredibly, amazing woman. I was very lucky to have known her as long as I did. We have been very touched by our friends and family who have checked in on us. I have hope that my girls will grow up to be as amazing as their Grandma Flowers. We were lucky to have her in our lives and she will NEVER be forgotten.

Tia's Baptism

Our 8 year old got dunked.

We celebrated the baptism of Tia Aldine Benson on Saturday June 27th. She has been an incredible part of our lives, we are so proud of her. We were lucky to have many family and friends joining us for this special day.

It was a busy day as later that afternoon we went to a family party at Shelly and Jim's. It made for a real long day, but it was so worth it.

Below are some other pictures from the baptism:

• Tia was able to share this day with her best friend Mimi, who was baptized the same day.

• A picture of Tia and the rest of the family.

• My Mom and Steve and our three girls.
  

• Joan and Mike (Shannon's parents and the rest of the gang)

• My Dad and his mom Aldine Benson and the rest of the family.
  

• Tia and her great grandmother Aldine whom Tia is named after.
  

• Tia and Mom and Dad

Sizing up the competition

TAKE THAT

Late tonight Kaitlinn brought one of her dolls out. Needless to say a"Toddler Cat Fight" broke out between Senia and the doll. I am not sure if she was jealous or annoyed at the noises the baby could make. Her dad was excited because he has been wanting to smack that noise making baby around before but held back.

There is no truth that Dad is going to start her on a training regimen so she can be in mixed martial arts when she is older. But if anyone know how much those woman fighters make - please let me know - I am curious.

If you add water - they multiply

Tia's Birthday

We had Tia's birthday party in our back yard. We invited over 20 kids and most of them showed up. There were two slip and slides in the back yard along with a 8 person kiddie pool. Let's just say our back yard was packed. Good times. We even decorated little surf boards and let the kids color their own beach balls. Both were hits.

The kids seemed to have a great time. Mom and Dad are still comatose.

SAY CHEESE - I have to go to the bathroom

Well Kaitlinn's team had their soccer pictures. If you can not tell by the pictures, the sun was shining right in their eyes. Aidan # 2 liked the sun so much he turned his back on the camera. Two kids in the front row are covering their eyes, and if you look real closely at Kaitlinn she looks constipated. That is about par for the course for a soccer team of 4 year old's.

Betsy Ross and Spider Tia

Our fair daughter Tia played Betsy Ross in her class play. She remembered all her lines and did a great job - she would have made Betsy proud.

Then Tia let her hair down and tried the climbing wall at her school carnival. She got about a third of the way up before she waived the white flag.

Most recent photos of the girls. With looks like these, Dad may want to get rid of his gun-phobia and get a hand gun permit for when these girls are of dating age.

Photo on the left is the most recent photo of Senia. Grandpa Joe is holding her. As you can see Senia has as much hair as Grandpa has on his lip.

Senia update: She started eating cereal and is on the verge of crawling. Once that kid is mobile I may need a hip replacement to keep up with all three of these girls.

Catching up

It has been a while. I blame it all on having two girls in soccer at the same time. So here is the family update -- inspired by the news piece "World in a Minute."

Yes indeed we did color Easter eggs. After being ridiculed at work by saying we did not color Easter eggs the last 2 years, Dad had to "man up" and break out the dye and eggs.

There were no chickens harmed in the coloring of these Easter Eggs.

The blue kid above is not a smurf. For those who don't know what a smurf is, I recommend http://www.smurf.com/smurf.php/www/home/en. That is Kaitlinn 10 minutes before her first game and about 40 minutes before her first goal. That's right - little Kaitlinn scored a goal in her first game. Something her Dad was not able to do in 6 years of playing soccer. (it should be noted that Dad was a full back - meaning he played defense)

Moving on to the picture of a bright red chin - for those with weak stomachs - I apologize. The picture is Tia's chin. This picture was submitted to the North Pole to see if she can guide Santa's sleigh should they encounter fog at Christmas time.
Can you spell stitches. That's right - Tia face planted it while riding her scooter - where is the air bag when you need it? She received 5 stitches. Although, each time someone asks her how many stitches she got, she adds a number to it. Right now she is somewhere in the teens. She is fine now, she was scared though. But I am very proud of her. She is growing up before my eyes. Oh and by the way - the scooter is doing just fine.

CHA CHING --- Tia lost a tooth this weekend. The Tooth Fairy brought her $ 1.00 for the tooth. There is a grass roots movement to see if the Tooth Fairy can get a bail out from the U.S. Government. At this rate the Tooth Fairy is going to need an AIG-like bail out. I think I needed to loose 3-4 teeth as a kid before I made a $ 1.00.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. SEUSS

Yes you are seeing Green Eggs and Ham. To celebrate Dr. Suess's birthday I made green eggs and ham for dinner Monday night. We finished off the night by reading one my favorite Dr. Seuss books - I Can Read With My Eyes Wide Shut.

The more I read him with my kids the more I realize what a special gift he had. I am glad Dr. Suess shared his talents with us all.

Senia's Blessing

We blessed Senia om March 1st. Above are Senia pictured with Tia and Great Grandma B. It was a nice day. She started to cry during the blessing, then a member of our Bishopric held her binkie in her mouth for her. She stared at him the entire blessing and did not say another word. After the blessing we had some family over and shortly thereafter, Suzanne received a text that Brandy had had her Baby.....looking forward to seeing the new addition to her family.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

This was the mailbox that Tia and Shannon put together for Tia to take to school. It is really creative. The purpose was to make a box that the other kids could put their Valentine day cards in. There was a prize for the most creative box, most beautiful and most humorous box. I thought we were a shoo-in for most creative but the creative award went to an ARD2 box instead. I blame George Lucas. Oh well, there is always next year.

Visiting Grandma and Suzanne --

Ok I got the picts from Suzanne's website - oh well. They are cute picts though. It was fun to spend time with Suzanne and Grandma

Tia's School Play

Tia was Arable from "Charlotte's Web." She did a great job, although her sister Senia cried the whole time she talked.

She was also a horse in the second half of the play - one that the kids from her 2nd grade class wrote.

Guess who got swimming goggles for her birthday?

Kaitlinn turned 4. For her birthday, Kaitlinn wanted swimming goggles. Here she is showing them off.

She also got a Monkeys Jumping on the Bed game and a play hair cut kit. She is a stylist in training.