the Bennions

Lollipop Wars

2012-11-11T21:55:00.002-05:00

We got some classic faces of our two kids enjoying a LARGE lollipop! We had a fun time taking pictures at the C&O canal in Williamsport, MD, a place where we frequently go running and have fallen in love with.

Mae takes the prize. . .

Jonah takes it back. . .

Kid's emotions are more fickle than a pregnant/postpartum woman!

Yes, I finally got a tripod and was excited to try it out on our family pictures! Of course I forgot the quick-release attachment so we had to manage with balancing the camera on our stroller.

. . . more balancing the camera on various objects, with just enough time to capture a shot before the camera was overtaken by Mae.

Here's some things we've been up to lately:

Dress-up

Bath time usually ends in both kids screaming- trying to keep Mae from constantly standing up in the bathtub and Jonah from drowning Mae with endless cups of water.

We got rid of Jonah's binky this week! We cut the end off so there would be no going back. He still asks for it but realizes it's all broken.

Jonah loves his Paddington Bear board books we got at Chick-fil-A!

This man was walking down the busy street on our way home tonight. Yes this is how bad the roads are with no sidewalks in West Virginia!

2012-10-12T14:44:00.003-04:00

We went to get our free pumpkins from Orr's farm market this year. I loved the hay ride and the warm apple cider donuts they make, oh and the pick-your-own blackberries that we made into shakes! I honestly think the best job in the world would be to work at a farm market. I know it doesn't sound very ambitious but I am just so giddy being around all the fresh produce and the beautiful orchards with the smell of fall in the air.

I got a tripod! Here's my first shot I got with it. I'm excited to start practicing taking better landscape & motion implying photos.

Summer Adventures

2012-09-11T15:49:00.003-04:00

We sure had some fun adventures this summer! I can't believe it's already over and we're home again in West Virginia. Here's how crazy we've been lately:

1. My sweet sister Martha helped me drive my 2 kids to Utah so I could run the Utah Valley Marathon and so we'd have our car for the summer- while John studied and took Step 2

2. We spent a month in St. George with my family- Jonah loved to "see the goats" with Grandpa. We had lots of babysitters and it felt like a real break for me. Jonah and Mae were glad to spend so much time with Grandma & Grandpa and all his cousins and aunts!

3. We went to Island Park, ID with lots of John's family for a weekend where we got to go rafting, go to the lake, and go hiking!

4. We spent a month in Salt Lake City while John did a busy ophthalmology rotation at the U. The kids and I tried to get used to living in tiny hotel rooms and were grateful to stay with my bro. Ephraim and John's sis. Laura for part of the time! We loved spending time with their families!

5. We drove down to San Antonio, TX for John to do another rotation for a month. John did a month's rotation there while we got used to the area.

6. We drove home to West Virginia and stopped in Pensacola, FL on our way! We stayed over in a hotel on the beach. The kids loved the sand, seashells, awesome shallow swimming pools.

Mae grew up these past 3 months! She changed from being a happy, smiley, bundle of joy to a curious little girl on the go, and recently a little mamma's girl.

Here's us at the Grand Canyon. Robbie convinced us to meet him down there for the afternoon since John had never been!

On our way to Idaho.

We stopped by Victor Idaho where John went to the Teton Bennion Boy's Ranch when he was a teenager. We found the cabin he lived in and even found his picture on the wall! He's the one in the grey striped shirt in the center and his twin Christian is the one in white holding his arm. Did I mention John wants to own a similar boy's ranch someday? The combination of work and service with spiritual growth really inspired him at that age.

Good summer! Wish I took more pictures this summer. I want my pictures to be perfect whenever I get my camera out- so I just don't get it out. . .too much work.
I'm so glad to be back in our home. We feel like we're living like kings after living in our car all summer!!!

Family Pictures. . . finally

2012-05-21T16:40:00.001-04:00

So, in December we decided not to do Christmas cards because we wanted to have baby Mae in our pictures. So, 5 months later we've finally gotten around to taking family pictures. Yay! Thanks to our friend Kelli for taking these of us in just 15 minutes!

Either Jonah's frowning or giving a there's a monster inside me smile. Check out Mae's belly! We grow them big in our family.

Our sweet baby is growing up. She's rolling around like crazy, eating solid foods, and is learning to sit up.

Hope you enjoyed that.

Race for the Birds!

2012-04-23T10:39:00.002-04:00

We got to run a couple of races this weekend at the National Conservation Training Center on their beautiful trails! How fun! Jonah ran a 1 mile kids race (with John) and I did a 7.7 mile trail run.

Mae even ran! J/K. Jonah didn't want to wear his race bib so we put it on Mae:)

Jonah stretching his arms. . . by folding them and clapping. . . both proven methods of stretching.

Ready to start.

And they're off! Jonah loves his friend Naomi! She's super fast and he wants to be like her when he grows up.

Here's how he looked at the finish. Free ride by John!

Finishing with Daddy!

His prize was chocolate milk!

"Almost Heaven, ~~West Virginia~~ Chocolate Milk"

My support team. John was awesome to let me do this race, he even missed a Scout campout to watch the kids.

It was soooo pretty and the hills really gave me a workout!

Mae Standing Up

2012-04-02T13:58:00.001-04:00

Blue Eyed Gal

2012-04-02T11:26:00.001-04:00

I finally pulled out my camera when we were all trying to watch conference.

What good kids we have! Jonah folded his arms during the long prayers and kept saying "Prophet" and was really paying attention for a few minutes. He really likes TV so I'm sure that's what helped!

Jonah loves Mae lately! I love when I walk in the room and he's giving her a big hug, and I'm glad she's chubby now so I don't have to protect her so much. . . well Jonah is getting really gentle with her, too.

We are loving shorts season!

Blackwater Falls

2012-03-04T15:37:00.000-05:00

Daffodils in February??? They just popped up in front of our house- I'm loving this mild winter!

Sad little Jonah. He's good at throwing tantrums and he's not even 2 yet!

Jonah playing baby. He wanted to be wrapped up like baby Mae and go "night-night" in her crib.

We took a fun trip to Canaan Valley this past weekend with some of John's fellow med students. Jonah loved staying up late at a nice cabin where he got to sleep in a "big bed" and go hot-tubbing with us.

We stopped at Blackwater Falls on our way home- it was a pretty large waterfall. . .well if you're not from the West where there are real mountains:)

Jonah loves to "hike." He's growing up so much right now and loves to repeat the last word of everything we say.

Picture Update

2012-02-15T18:03:00.001-05:00

Mae already weighs 11+ lbs. I can't believe how fast this little gal is growing!

This is what I do all day- Save the baby from the bigger baby!

Jonah jumped off the couch onto Mae's bouncer and got a bruised, puffy eye to show. He's turning into one little rascal that loves wrestling with his daddy!

He is very sweet at times, too!

Newborn Photos of Mae

2012-01-18T19:46:00.000-05:00

Here's some fun pics we took of Mae a few weeks ago. At her last Dr. appointment she weighed 9 lbs so she's definitely filling out and starting to get some chubby rolls on her.

Mae's Blessing Day

2012-01-08T21:19:00.000-05:00

Sweet Mae in her dress on the special day! We were so lucky to have both of our sets of parents come out to West Virginia to enjoy this day with us.

John's so happy to be a father of 2 now that he's 26. He's really getting up there!

John's parents being a little cheesy. We only got to see them for a few hours on their quick trip but we enjoyed every minute with them.

My mom with Mae. She's got a way with those newborns! Jonah loves her, too!

Thanks Mom and Dad for coming to visit! It was fun to have you here for a few days!

Jonah loved playing with Porter and getting the attention he wanted from all the family members around. I'm starting to realize he's not a baby anymore:(

We went with my parents to see historic Harper's Ferry. Jonah's highlight was the choo-choo's. We loved trying out our new double jogging stroller that neither of our kids wanted to sit in:)

John trying to mimic Jonah- guess he has a little separation anxiety from his twin Christian.

Beautiful, warm sunny day for January. We're so glad we could get outside with our TWO kids! Do we sound old or what?

Mae's Birth Story

2012-01-01T21:17:00.003-05:00

So I thought I'd write my labor story down since I obsess about the details of labor stories. It seems like women that have given birth love sharing and hearing birth stories, probably since it's an unforgettable, overwhelming, and miraculous experience.

Due Date Dec 15th
We went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse. Yum, I'm still dreaming about that Smothered Chicken, which was my last real meal for a few days. We walked around and did some Christmas shopping at Kohl's. I started to feel a few contractions, but they weren't too frequent or painful yet. That night I had a burst of energy and wanted to make a pumpkin pie- I think the abdominal workout of rolling out the pie crust is what did the trick of spurring on the labor:)

Dec 16th
I tried going to sleep that night but I was up until 2:30 AM due to the contractions getting more frequent and painful, and because of the excitement of probably having the baby soon.

I woke up at 4:00 AM and could no longer manage the pain of the contractions while laying down, which were coming 5-8 min apart. I resorted to the exercise ball, which allowed me to relax and move around some during my contractions. I used a rice bag to heat my back to help alleviate some of the pain.

John woke up at 6:00 AM and helped comfort me for a couple of hours, then went off to take his last Shelf Exam at 9:00 AM. Talk about good timing! I labored quite well throughout the day. This labor was much less painful than Jonah's was- I had a lot of back labor with Jonah, so this time I was much more prepared to relax and cope with the contractions.

As the afternoon progressed the contractions were coming 3-5 min apart, and it became increasingly more difficult for me to stay happy. We decided to go into the clinic for the midwives to check me (I desperately didn't want to go to the hospital too early like I did with Jonah) however when we called in they had just closed the office for the evening. So, we decided to go to Wal Mart to walk around and try to distract me. We walked down just about every aisle, and I tried to not look like I was in excruciating labor during contractions, pretending "Oh I really want to see these crayons on the bottom shelf", while crouching and wincing on the floor. We got home and John tried distracting me with the movie Rocky Balboa, but I had no idea what was going on around me. I just tried to rest and would collapse on John's shoulder for a few minutes between contractions. I threw up a few times, and around 9 PM I resorted to taking a shower, which I hoped would give me a break from the hard labor I was going through. My mind began to get weaker, and I started to think that the labor would never end. It had already been about 18 hours, and I felt that I hadn't progressed too far, just comparing to how things went with my last labor. Thinking I would be in labor indefinitely and knowing that I wouldn't be sleeping that night either, I decided that I was ready to go to the hospital. To heck with a natural labor, I was ready for the labor to end and was ready to get an epidural! John got everything ready for us to head to the hospital. Luckily John's mom was there (and had been helping me throughout the entire labor), who stayed at home with the oblivious sleeping Jonah until we arranged for our friend Jared to come stay with Jonah for the night.

I got to the hospital around 10:30 PM. "Yes I've been in labor for 18 hours. Make it go away!" What a blur that first hour at the hospital was. "Like I can sign my name when I'm in such a condition. I don't want to answer any questions and I don't know what's going on anyways."

My favorite midwife happened to the one on call that evening. She arrived and I broke down and told her that I didn't think I was very far along and wanted an epidural. She calmed me down and checked me. She said "How does 6 sound? See you haven't been laboring all this time for nothing." What a life saver. This progress was the encouragement I needed to hear to keep me positive, since I was devastated to hear I was only at a 2 or 3 when I arrived at the hospital to have Jonah.

After hearing this news, I decided to take a shower, and quickly found out the water wasn't warm enough and made my entire body shiver and convulse. I yelled for help and warm blankets, finally I was able to get warm again. I acted crazy until I could control my shivering again. The hospital's birthing ball was huge!!! I couldn't even reach the floor. So my two methods of coping with labor (hot shower and birthing ball) were quite disappointing. We resorted to walking up and down the hallways, which was the best method for moving the labor along. John's Mom gave me the needed advice to relax and stay in control of the pain, and John gave me the support I needed to not feel alone through all of this.

Dec. 17th
By 1:45 AM I was dilated to a 7 or 8, and the midwife broke my water to get things going a little faster. We then realized I was required to get another dose of antibiotics before having the baby. They hurried and got it in by 2:45, just in time for me to be mostly dilated and close to pushing. (Perfect timing- I wanted to minimize my hospital stay!) Wow, lets just say the rest of the story was really intense but quick. I was ready to push before the midwife was ready for me. I was thinking- lets just get this baby out now, to heck with getting your clothes dirty.

After about 3 contractions, Mae was born at 3:26 AM. She actually started crying before she was all the way out. I was so happy to hold her and didn't want to give her up to anyone else to hold. I was beaming inside that the labor was finally over, and no matter what other pains I was going through I had a perfect little baby in my arms and everything was going to be alright. John was so glad to have me back (I had been stressing about this labor for the past 18 months), and was so happy to have another little baby. We are so blessed to have such a sweet, healthy baby girl join our growing family.

Mae's Slideshow

2011-12-20T10:20:00.001-05:00

Scary Santa

2011-12-14T13:13:00.001-05:00

We had a fun ward party last weekend and Jonah got a little too close to Santa. What a sad little boy- apparently he doesn't like Santa on such a personal level.

Ready to be a Big Brother

2011-12-14T13:10:00.001-05:00

Jonah has finally 100% transitioned into his toddler bed. Perfect timing, because little Mae is really going to need his old crib. He is so good at going to bed- he loves getting lots of kisses from me and John, then he just waves us good night and usually sleeps for 12 straight hours! I've been so lucky to catch up on sleep before our new baby comes.

We've been going to a little gymnastics place lately, which Jonah loves! It's only free till he turns 18mo. in a couple of weeks, so we've really been taking advantage of this place.
He already loves chasing little girls and showing off his mad skills!

We have a fun time there as well. There's a big foam pit that you can run and jump into- a little challenge to get out of with a belly.

They always do a little parachute activity at the end that Jonah is usually scared of, but lately he wants to do whatever all the kids are doing.

John's been studying a lot for his Shelf exams for the 4 rotations he's had this past semester. Only 1 test to go on Friday. I don't know if I want to wait that long to have our baby- we may interrupt his focus:)

Here's our Christmas tree. We got a white pine tree this year, which is way different than any tree I've ever gotten, but the needles are nice and soft and it's a pretty color. The ornaments definitely don't stay in one place for long thanks to Jonah.

Belly Shots

2011-11-26T10:32:00.001-05:00

John and I decided to run a 5K on Thanksgiving- I really just wanted some more room in my stomach for the yummy food we would eat. I ran the full 3 miles and felt great- until afterwards. . . then I was in a lot of pain for the rest of the day. I think my body is getting ready for the labor or something. I'm all better now and glad I accomplished the feat, and in record time from the last time I was 8+ mo pregnant!

Mae is getting huge and can't wait to come out and join us! We can't wait either!

I stole this idea from Pinterest and made this fun pregnant Halloween skeleton shirt. Jonah loved trick-or-treating and wouldn't let go of his lollypops- John and I were a little sad when people kept giving Jonah goldfish and lollypops,when they had king size candy bars in the same bucket! What a shame. I guess you can't live through your kids.

Mae's Blessing Dress

2011-11-21T13:04:00.001-05:00

So I attempted to make Mae a blessing dress- It's the first dress I've ever made, so although it's not perfect it was a feat for me to accomplish. The crazy thing is that it was a hundred times faster than the afghan I've been crocheting her- I'm still working on it and can I say I'm sick of it? I'm excited and ready for her to come!

Here's what the back looks like

and the bottom.

HOPE IT FITS! I'm not remaking it!!

Our Trip to the Zoo!

2011-11-21T12:32:00.000-05:00

We finally made it to the National Zoo in Washington DC this Saturday. We figured we should take advantage of the good weather before our baby Mae comes in a couple of weeks.

Not sure you can tell us apart. Jonah and I are on the right- that's a gorilla and baby on the left. Her belly and fur are pretty indistinguishable from mine so I thought I'd help you out.

Jonah was so excited to see all the animals that "ROAAAR!" He thinks all animals say roaaar!

Yep, I'm ready to pop. 3 1/2 weeks left- not like I'm counting down or anything, but I would like to sleep on my back again.

This tiger was awesome! It's roaaar rivaled the lion's- wish we could have see a fight between the two.

Reverent Jonah doesn't know the dangers lurking out there:)

Ok, our favorite stop was at the new Cafe Rio in the DC area. It's been 3 months since I've tasted that sweet pork barbacoa. A little out of the way, but definitely worth it!

John's dream is to own a Cafe Rio someday.

As you can tell from our faces, we were in Cafe Rio heaven!

Jonah is fitting in well with the family. . . he knows what's good. He even craves that crushed ice!

Running, Bonfires & Cold Weather

2011-11-17T18:00:00.000-05:00

John ran a 1/2 marathon last month that actually ran through the Antietam Battlefields. His knee was really giving him troubles prior to the race but he stuck it out and did a great job. Jonah and I froze waiting for him- I really feel for all my family that's supported me at races in not so fun weather. It's a lot more fun to be the one running. I was jealous that John could run, but I figured 13 miles was stretching it for being 8 mo pregnant at the time. Go John!!!

Jonah has recently learned how to throw tantrums-great, just in time for the new baby. I thought that happened when kids were 2?

We love playing outside and are enjoying the nice fall weather!

Rachel sent these cute snowman pajamas! Jonah loves snowmen and everything with snow since we had our first snow storm a couple of weeks ago. He says snow, "no" so it gets a little confusing what he's talking about since he likes the word NO a lot, too.

We've made a couple of bonfires lately and some delicious tin foil dinners. We're a little to lazy to actually camp for the night since we like the comfort of a bed. . . oh wait, I'm 36 weeks pregnant and nothing seems to be comfortable right now.

Jonah hugging his good friend Jules. He gets giddy whenever he sees her!

Pumpkin Patch!

2011-09-25T19:50:00.000-04:00

Jonah looks so old to me in this picture- it must be the jeans. It's the first time he's ever worn jeans before, and in combination with his little running shoes, he looks a lot less baby-ish to me. We are obsessed with our little boy.

He is starting to grab our hands when he's too scared to go places alone, in this case it was to see some ducks. We like it because we're used to him being super independent.

Well, you can see he warmed up to the ducks quite well.

Jonah loves the weekends when he gets to see John more. So do I!

We went to a fun farm market in Martinsburg and got a free pumpkin at a pumpkin patch. What a great day!

Jonah loved the pigs at the farm market, even though these pigs were boring and just slept the whole time. We are dying to take him to a zoo soon!

They had the greatest collection of bright colored pumpkins/gourds/squash.

Jonah loves playing peek-a-boo!

Love the grimace on his face trying to lift his heavy baby pumpkin.

They had a pick-your-own flower deal at the farm market and I picked out these beauties.

Jonah loves reading books lately!

He always carries the keys when we go get the mail. . . oh, it's the highlight of our day walking 100ft to the mailbox and peeking to see what junk mail we can throw away.

Jonah loves playing with my old stuffed animals I had growing up, especially this old teddy bear. I'm surprised it's lasted so well.

Curtains

2011-09-20T14:43:00.000-04:00

I finally made some curtains for Jonah's room. Yay, it's not so bare anymore. I used the fabric from an old nursing cover I had and voila. I can't wait to decorate the rest of his room.

Here's a fun pic of Jonah taking a bath with his buddy Noah from Morgantown. Our friends Bethany and Daniel stayed over on their way to the temple in DC and we were thrilled to see them. Noah has grown up so much during these few months we've been gone.

Our New House

2011-08-11T07:22:00.000-04:00

Jonah's New Tricks

2011-08-09T18:19:00.000-04:00

Jonah thinks it's pretty cool to stand on his head.

I think he looks a lot like John in this picture.

Hiking

2011-08-09T17:34:00.000-04:00

These were from June when we were in Utah. Just thought it would be fun to show some of the hiking we did in sunny St. George.

Jonah eventually liked swimming after a few tries. There were so many fun places to play in the water in St. George.

Ragnar

2011-08-09T16:51:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to catch up on all my fun from this summer but I've been really addicted to reading Harry Potter lately so I've been putting it off. My sisters Selma, Martha, and Rachel all signed up to do Ragnar (a 190 mile relay race from Logan, UT to Park City) with their husbands. Kody ended up getting an injury and had to take time off his foot, so they invited me to run with them since I was going to be in Utah during the race. I was a little hesitant because I was newly pregnant when they asked me and I wasn't sure how I'd be feeling. John encouraged me to do it, and I started getting really excited and started training more to get ready. I loved having a few weeks in St. George to go running with my sisters. St. George is such a beautiful place to go running, in the mornings before it gets too hot! I was about 14 weeks pregnant during the race and I actually felt really good. The race helped me be motivated to exercise during the blah 1st trimester laziness, and I was surprisingly competitive during the race. Anyway, I'm so glad I could spend that time with my sisters- John was able to fly out to Utah to watch Jonah so I could have a break.

Cute Selma & Scott

Awesome reflective vests

Poor Rachel had to put up with me as her spouse since the team name was "Couple's Therapy." We all missed Kody- I could never take his place.

Determined Martha. I'm glad I didn't have to race her, she's dang intimidating!

Me, Rachel & Martha

Scott flying up a steep hill. I'm sure he had the most "kills" of anyone.

Classic picture- describes how we all felt with little sleep.

Tough Adam truckin' up Ragnar.

Who's leg is harder/steeper?

Go Scott! We're all big Mizuno fans!!!

I love my sisters!

Rach & Me

Selma was cruising, and super nice for switching legs with me to give me the easy one.

Ooh, la la.

Rachel ran the fastest times out of the girls!

The start of my first leg. I was so nervous!

I loved my early morning 2nd leg. The mountains were beautiful and I got a lot of "kills."

Sweet night gear we had to wear. It was freezing!

Oh, a cute "Couple's Therapy" moment.