Beckham turned 1 on Nov. 19th! He's been such a wonderful little guy to have in our family. He's been through a lot his first year and has been a champ through it all. We thank our Father in Heaven every day for allowing us to have him in our lives. He's always so happy and easy going. Loves to laugh and play. There's not an ounce of him that's not little boy, haha! We love him so much and look forward to all that life has in store for him! We love you Beck!!
We want to wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! We hope the holiday and New Year treat you well. May the spirit of the season fill our hearts and homes at this wonderful time of the year :o) Much love!
Pic on left, Tessa on the Cow Santa at Chick-fil-a ....we frequent there on Family Night
Pic on right, took the kids to see Santa. Tess was pretty sure she liked it, but Beck was not a fan.
PS...I promise to do better on posting. I've got a TON to blog about, just don't have the time.
Got this story via email and it was too good not to share. It's a great reminder to all moms as to the importance of our job, as hard as it may seem sometimes. Thanks for sharing Suzi!!
It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?' Obviously, not.
No one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all.I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands,nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? & Can you open this?Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer,'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around5:30, please.'One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England ...Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned tome with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe . I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription:'To Charlotte , with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.'In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything. A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.' And the workman replied,'Because God sees.'I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you, Charlotte. I seethe sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.'At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life.It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree. When I really think about it, I don't want my daughter to tell the friend she's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want her to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to her friend, to add, 'you're gonna love it there.'As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot see if we're doing it right.And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.
Beckham is aloud to have his helmet off for an hour a day. That hour is very nerve racking for me because he's so used to having his head protected that he doesn't pay attention to where or how he falls. Well tonight I think he may have figured out that he needs to pay a little more attention. It was right before bed and I was in the kitchen cleaning up. I turned to grab Beck's helmet off the counter and go into the other room to put it back on him. Then, I heard a loud bang and Beck started crying. In the two seconds it took to get in the room the cut on his head was swollen and purple already, but very little bleeding so that was a plus. Tess, being the little mom she is, insisted that Beckham wouldn't be ok until he had a band-aid on. So we cleaned him up and put a George Band-Aid on his cute little head. Tess also being the funny 2 year-old she is, insisted that she needed to be just like Becks and have a band-aid on her sweet head too. So the result is in the pictures. Funny kids!
So a couple people, my mom, have got mad at me for forgetting to tell them, her, that Beckham is now walking. So we thought we'd take some video to show you the proof. This is a game that's played every night after dinner. Not sure why they are so eager to run around right after eating, but it's tradition. Beck thinks he can run too, but that's when it turns into the "drunk baby" walk, haha. Enjoy the video, mom ;o) Love you!
With all the bad weather lately we've had to be creative with activities to take up time in the day. Tess had been pushing this basket around everywhere all day and Beckham was always a step behind her laughing as if it was the best game ever. So, we decided that instead of making Beck keep up with Tess, we'd put him in the basket and see if he liked it as much. He didn't laugh and get super excited like we thought he would, but he smiled to whole time they played.
On Halloween day we went over to Brook's house, with a few other friends, to have a little Halloween party. Not to mention that her neighborhood is the place to trick-or-treat! It was so much fun and between all the families there were had 8 kids who were very excited for the evening :o) We tried to get a group picture, but with that many kids that just wasn't gonna happen. All the dads were so great and took all the kids (minus the 2 babies) out to trick-or-treat. They only did one loop around the neighborhood because the kids go tired, but they all did really well in the candy department. Tessa's saying about Halloween is, "it's hard to get candy mom" She makes me laugh!
Because Steve's schedule is so busy we never got around to carving pumpkins. Having good-luck one day as I walked through Target (my favorite place ever) I noticed that the Mr. and Mrs. Pumpkin Head kits were on sale :o) Love a good sale! So Tess picked out one for a mommy and a daddy pumpkin and was very excited. When we got home and tried to punch them into the pumpkins I realized that I was not as strong and I thought I was. But, lucky again, right as I was gonna go grab a screw driver to poke holes in the pumpkins Steve came walking home from school and was able to take over, without the assistance of a screw driver. Tessa loved the outcome. And since it was one of two nice days that week both kids were pretty excited to just be outside.
Wednesday (the 29th) was our ward Trunk-or-Treat. However, we had snow/freezing rain all day that day so it turned into a trick-or-treat through the halls of the building. The kids had SO much fun! I dare say that it was a better party than lasts years!
So this is just to say sorry that I've slacked so much lately. Steve's school schedule has been killer which means that I'm basically a single mom which then means that blogging is last on my list of things to do. So, sorry. Here's an update and then I'll post some videos and photos.
Steve...has pretty much been studying non-stop. He has 2 tests a week and sometimes a quiz of two on top of that. He got a job at one of the local hospitals as an intern pharmacist and so whatever free time he had before is no longer available. Somehow he manages to still be happy though...wish I knew his secret! Oh and funny storey - Steve had to go get a health assessment for this new wellness center that the school is opening. He did pretty good in most areas and overall he's healthy. However, the person giving the assessment must have been having an off day because when she did his BMI she said that he was in the OBESE category! HAHAHA!!! Um, did she look at him at all during this assessment?!! Kinda silly!
Mom and kids...we've been staying busy with whatever we can find to do. The weather hasn't been very good so there's not been that much to do however. But things are good. Tess is getting to bug and is such a little girl with a touch of 20 year-old in her as well as a dash of little miss mommy. But she's a happy one. Beckham is SO busy!! I totally was not prepared for how busy a little boy is compared to how mellow Tess was at this age. He's EVERYWHERE and into EVERYTHING! He's also walking now and thinks he pretty cool stuff. His little personality is breaking through and he now fake cries, knows how to push Tessa's buttons and enjoys doing so and also has MANY different laughs...some real and some fake. He pulls such funny faces and is just a ball of happiness. We love him!
So there's an update on life. Hope everyone else is doing well. Enjoy the pictures and videos!
Friday night we all needed a break from a hard and busy week. So we decided to have a family date night. We called some friends and headed out to Port Farms. It was so much fun! I love this farm. They have a ton for the kids to do....huge slides, hay mazes, corn mazes, hay rides, pumpkin picking, corn-box, etc. Everyone had a great time! After the farm we ended the night with a yummy dinner at Cracker Barrel :o) What a fun night with family and friends!
One afternoon I was making lunch and all I could hear in the other room was laughing, which is not totally uncommon, but this particular week it was rare. So I peeked my head in and found my 2 sweet kids laying on the couch together watching whatever was on the TV. Made me smile and made all the hard days of that week seem easier to handle. Funny enough, Beckham loves to lay on Tess like this in the mornings while they watch their shows.
During Gen. Conf. weekend we took a family outing to Mason Farms to pick out some pumpkins. Each family member got one. Tess was so excited! We went out and bought paint for her to decorate her own pumpkin and she had a blast. 
Can you tell which one Tess did?!! haha!! And yes, Beckham's pumpkin does have a helmet...we thought it was only fitting :o)
So all you have to do is go to this website, enter your name and email address and you're entered to win a free purse as part of Handbagplanet.com website launch on Oct 15th :o) They'll give away a free handbag every hour for the first 24 hours of their launch. They have a lot of cute bags!
http://www.handbagplanet.com/
A few weeks back we had some family pictures taken. Our good friend Michelle took them and did an amazing job! So many turn out great and we're so thankful to Michelle for taking time out of her busy life to do this for us :o) Here are a few of our favorites!
Beckham is getting so big and is all over the place! Here are a couple videos to show you what he's been working on :o)
Notice his nice, mostly, round head :o) He's got his helmet off cause it was his "free time" right before bed.
Think this is so cute. I like how he's always looking back to either make sure we're watching him or looking back to see if Steve is coming to help him. And I get a kick out of the fact that he's laughing the whole time he's doing it. He's such a sweetie!
Ok, so I have to vent about something that happened the other day as I was leaving the grocery store...
So Monday is shopping day for us. We meet a bunch of the other moms for lunch at Wegman's (my favorite grocery store EVER) and then we do our grocery shopping. Tess was having a rough day and had a melt down just as we're getting ready to do our shopping. She cried the whole time we walked the store getting the few things I needed to make it through the week. Now, the crying was not by any means loud or out of control. Every now and then she'd get loud and stand up in the cart and in a stern, but not ever yelling, voice I'd say "sit down please." Nothing more and nothing less was said and she'd always sit down and the crying would go back to a lower volume. Well as we're walking around I pass the same old couple a few times and every time they would give me a crusty look, but I ignored it and continued shopping. However, as I'm walking out of the store this same old couple was walking out in front of me. The old woman turns around to me and says, "If you can't control your children, you probably shouldn't bring them out in public." OMG, can you believe it?!!! I was stunned!! It took me by surprise so much so that I wasn't really sure how I was supposed to react. So I gave the lady a crusty smile and walked past her. Did this woman never have a 2 year-old of her own?! Did her own mother never teach her manners?! And just because she's old does not give her the right to say whatever the H-E-double she wants! I really wanted to say something back to her, but because my own mother taught me manners, I refrained and I'm now venting to you all.
Was there a right way to handle this situation? I needed to do my shopping, so I'm not sure what else I was supposed to do. And I was in NO way going to apologize for my child...she was tired and needed a nap...just because she's only 2 doesn't mean she can't have a bad day.
I just thought that was SO rude! People need to think before speaking.
Well, I don't think we thought this day would actually come....the Olsen's have left us!
We are so sad to see them go. It feels as if we're leaving family all over again. We want them to know how much they mean to us. We consider you family and our best friends. We couldn't have come to Erie without your help and guidance nor could we have made it through this first year without your love, friendship and support. We so excited for you guys to start "real" life and can't wait until we can join you and our families back in Utah! We love you much!
Neither Lesh nor I like this picture, but it was taken when we were having so much fun :o) Lesh you are the best! I'm not sure what I'm gonna do without you!
One cute couple! All the boys!
These two were the best of friends and the worst of friends. A true love, hate relationship, but I'm not sure they'll know what to do without each other.
What great friends! You will be truly missed!!
Just some updated pictures of our little man. He's getting so big...I just can't handle how fast time is going. He's 9 months now!
An update on his helmet progress... He's grown 2 millimeters in his flat spot as of our last appt. Which doesn't sound like a lot, but for him only having it for 3 week that's great growth. They put air holes all over the back of his helmet because he was starting to get heat rash all over his face and body. So thank heaven the extra air to his head has helped and the heat rash is long gone. Beck has been a trooper and is such a happy and easy going guy, I'm not sure I could ask for a better baby.
His favorite new snack is chocolate rice cakes. He's got to an age where he gets upset if you don't share food with him. He eats EVERYTHING! As I'm sure you can tell, haha!
He tries to go from sitting to standing and this is as far as he gets. He'll do this a few times and then realize he's not getting anywhere and then look for something to grab onto. Silly guy.
(notice the air holes in the helmet)
Beck pulls himself onto everything and walks along all the furniture. He's tried to let go a couple times and walk on his own, but it doesn't last long. His favorite thing is to stand holding a hard surface and see how loud he can bang on it. Makes me crazy, but he gets the biggest kick out of it. Must come from his father!
So it's been a while since I've posted, sorry. Life all the sudden became busy.
Here's a few cute random pictures from the past while that I've meant to post and never got around to it.
I think this picture is classic. Ko is givin' a cheesy grin, Becks is just cute and who knows what Tess is doing, haha! 
Beckham LOVES the tub! It's our cure-all for him.
Beck cut 4 teeth at the same time a couple weeks back. Needless to say it was horrible for all of us. The only way he'd stay relaxed enough to sleep was while being held. So this is what I found one day after running some errands. My poor tired boys!
Watched Jace the other day and Tess insisted that we take pictures. How cute are they?!
At the zoo with some friends. Tessie's face is blurry, not sure why. But you can see cute Benjamin and his mom Emily and then little Addy's face through Tessa's arm. It's so nice to have a zoo so close. It's one of Tessa's favorite places to go :o)
