The Language of Benjamin

My little brother, Benjamin, has his own way of saying things. Below I'm putting some of his words, and then the translation:

Marmee=Emma

Nana=Hannah

Pwara=Clara

Pween=(Lightning) McQueen

SaSa=Applesauce

Breenbrow-Eyebrow

Ah Ru Roo=I love you

Pry=Cry

Shashie=French Fry

Oh Benjamin, we love you and all of your adorable cuteness :)

Locks of Love

I am very excited to say that last week a few days ago I got my hair cut for locks of love! I love it soooooooo much :) Here are some before and after pics:

Before:

After:

My Best Friend

My best friend moved right before Christmas and it is the hardest thing I've ever gone through. I've known her since I was two years old because our daddy's worked at the same place for a long time. She was a lot like me, yet different in many ways. We were gymnastics buddies for awhile, but that soon faded too. For a long time, I couldn't understand why she moved. Couldn't God have changed her heart here? Then I would still have her, she would still have me, and she could get closer to God. But God has His own ways that we don't understand, no matter how hard we try. Sometimes I even tried to pretend it didn't happen. I felt like Rob from The Tiger Rising, always keeping my suitcase shut tight. Because hey, if you didn't think about it, it's almost as if it didn't happen right? But keeping it closed doesn't make it go away. All it does is make it harder not to open it. Instead, I have to accept the fact that she's not here anymore. Now, as I make new friends, I'm almost hesitant, like when I'm feeding Clara peas (which she HATES) and applesauce (which she LOVES). Even after the peas are gone and she's only eating applesauce, she's holding back, as if at any second I might give her a bite of peas. That's how I was. I almost didn't want to make friends because anything could happen. Tomorrow I might find out that we're going to a different church, or one of my friends is moving. But we can't live our lives like that, because then we won't enjoy the time we have now. Below are some pictures of my half of our best friend necklace and some of me and her. The necklace was a present from me right before she moved.

I love you Haleigh!

Circus!

My mom was able to get tickets to the circus for a cheaper price (homeschooling does have it's advantages ;) and we had lots of fun. I brought a friend and a couple other families we know came too. Sorry most of the pictures are blurry (as I type this Sam is standing over my shoulder telling me which ones I should delete and which ones are really blurry) but the lighting there was weird and even with my flash on some of them came out fuzzy. I will {try} not to overwhelm you with pictures ;)

Oh and did I mention Benjamin had an allergic reaction to pollen and broke out in hives? And had a double ear infection? No? Oh, well.

This is probably my favorite picture :)

On the way home :)

These people were on a wire right above us. No worries right?

Luckily these people were on the other side of the room ;)

The half man half woman. When we got home and Sam saw the picture, he confirmed that it was actually a man :D

Nano the midget :)

This was probably the most boring uninterested part of the whole circus

Nano and the ringmaster

These last five were taken before the show. We got there early enough to go to the floor and see the clowns and take pics with them.

Me and my friend Riley :)

Benjamin didn't exactly like the clowns ;)

Me and Emily <3

Bekah's Giveaway!

Thanks Bekah for the awesome giveaway! Here are the questions :)

1. If you had to describe yourself in one word, what would you say?

Happy :)

2. If you could go anywhere in the world with anyone you wanted to, where would you go and who with?

Paris with my family

3. If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

Flying

4. What is one habit (or two ;) that you get teased about a lot?

Squirming around in bed alot

5. What is (or are) your food obsession(s)?

Steak

6. What is the best April Fools prank you pulled on someone or that someone pulled on you?

Never had one done to me, never done one to anyone

7. If you were an inanimate object, what would you be?

A book

8. Let's say you could change the world in one way. How would you change it?

No abortion (and no Bekah, I'm not copying you ;)

9. You have a million dollars (*gasp* ;). How do you spend it?

Buy a Nikon D3000, buy camera equipment, buy lots of books, get a mac and give the rest to my parents

10. What is one thing that always takes your breath away? (That could mean in a good way OR a bad way)

Rollercoasters in a good way :)

11. You are granted three wishes. What do you wish for? (Remember, you can't wish for more wishes ;)

My best friend to move back, summer be longer than the school year, and adoption to not be so expensive!

12. You can spend the day with one character from a book or series that you've read. Who is that character?

Kate from the Mysterious Benedict Society series

13. What is something odd or interesting about you that is not commonly known?

I have a crazy memory

14. What is one thing that you absolutely positively cannot stand?

People tapping with pencils or their nails on the table

15. Say you commited a crime. The judge gives you a choice between sentences: twenty years of complete solitude in the mountains or never having another moment alone for the rest of your life. Your choice?

Me commit a crime? ;) Hmmm probably the second one. But the people around me better be quiet ;)

16. What is one benefit that blogging has given you?

Being able to record my life so that I can look back on it

17. A perfect day in your eyes would be...?

All my favorite meals all day, have the mac all to myself, and getting to read all day :)

Playing Outside and When Dad Goes Grocery Shopping ...

The other day was really nice out so we (Hannah and I) took the boys outside to play. All of the pics were taken by Hannah with Mom's camera except for the first one (which I took with Mom's camera too :).

If you can't tell by the picture, there's three movies (The Blind Side, National Treasure 2, and Up), two bags of jellybeans, two bags of sour gummy worms, a box of gumballs, and bunny shaped marshmallows :D

Dance and Co-op

Sorry it's taken me sooo long to do a post. It's NOT because i don't have anything to post about, because believe me, there's plenty of things going on. That's the reason i'm not posting ;) So I will {try} to do some short posts of all the things we have been doing lately. First off, for those of you who don't know, I'm taking dance. I take jazz, tap, lyrical, and tumbling. I LOVE all of them. Except probably tap. That I just like :) Anyway, here are the songs that we are using for the recital:

Jazz- Bet on it (remix)

Lyrical- The Climb

Tap- Good Golly Miss Molly

Tumbling- A song from the movie "The Matrix"

Now, moving on to co-op. The co-op we go to is called CCA. This year I'm only taking General Science, but next year I'm taking Photography, Spanish, and Business Math. Business Math is basically a class where you learn how to run your own business and to run a bookstore. I'm really excited about Photography since I just got a camera for Christmas and I'm still figuring it all out :)

I will try to post some pics soon, because I've taken ALOT :)

Which ones?

I'm trying to decide which pair I should ask for my birthday:

I would love feedback!

2009 ...

Here's a video that Hannah made of 2009:

Christmas '09

Wow I can't believe Christmas went by that quick! Here are the gifts I got for Christmas:

• a digital camera!
• camera case
• calendar
• necklace
• rubix cube
• ornament
• guitar charm
• gift cards for Barnes and Noble, Ulta, and Michaels
• Hannah and I got the Love Comes Softly series to share

I LOVE all of my gifts!!! My camera is a black nikon coolpix s630. I took probably 100 pictures the day I got it :). Here's some:

{sigh} Oh Benjamin! Don't you know your finger's supposed to go in your nose?

Um there's something behind you.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Our Christmas tree :)

An attempt to eat the fooseball handle?