Some more random pictures

Not necessarily in order...
Andrew and Rebekah on the annual snow day where they blow fake snow all over the grass in our neighborhood:

 Rebekah's first lost tooth:

 Benjamin by the Christmas tree:

 Andrew and Rebekah at Halloween:

 Rebekah with  her Elsa dress from grandma at Christmas/birthday:

 Bubble machine fun on Christmas day:

April 2015 Update

Here is a little update on each of us:

Benjamin:

This picture is a few months old so he looks even older now. He has taken on the 2-year old mantle in all its glory: word explosions, tantrums, funny sayings, very specific opinions on things (like what he wants to wear, the proper order of bedtime routine, what he wants to eat, etc.)

• He loves being outside and animals (like any kid) but loves flowers more than anything. He also pronounces it "flow-eee". Which never gets old. 
• Although he is definitely not shy, he is somewhat more of an observer than our other two. He likes to watch and study kids playing for a while before he engages. He also likes playing with himself quite a bit, and shows other signs of being an introvert. 
• At the same time, he loves his older siblings. He talks about them when they are not around and follows them around when they are. Whenever Andrew is napping and Benjamin has already woken up, he usually tries to sneak in his room to wake him up. Mommy has to keep careful watch.

Andrew: 

• Andrew loves cars (still) including some new shows with cars characters like Blaze (Nick Jr) and Chuck and Friends. . We try to limit screen time to about a half hour a day, although he would probably watch them all day long if we let him.
• Andrew is very protective of others. When we told him we were signing Benjamin up for swimming lessons, he started to panic, even cry, because he was worried Benjamin would not know how to swim and drown. It wasn't until we spent some time explaining that the swim instructors would watch him and make sure he wouldn't sink that he was calmed down enough to go with him. Once there, he hovered protectively over the first bench where the kiddos were waiting their turn whenever Benjamin was sitting there, and even reached down to give him kisses when Benjamin was wailing after his turn (don't worry, he's doing better now).
• Has started to read some, mostly just the three-letter words (cat, sun, hot, bus, etc.), and can read some very basic beginner books by himself. We use the BOB books which we borrowed from a friend. Side note: given how popular and commong this BOB series is,  can someone please explain to me how no one has pointed out that one of the main characters, Sam, looks EXACTLY LIKE A KLU KLUX KLAN MEMBER?
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Rebekah:

• In the day of DVR and streaming, our kids don't get as exposed to commercials as we did. Most everything is DVR'd or on videos, but every once in a while they will watch a commercial or two on TV and it will really make a big impression on them. They will talk about or ask about the advertised product almost obsessively (the TV makes it look so fun!) and even give me pointers on which toilet paper to buy (At Costco today: "Mommy, you should get Bounty, because it lasts soooo so so so long. Like two years. It will last two years." (Wrong kind of paper but whatever)).  This is very different from how we were--  I think our spongey minds were so oversaturated with advertisements between the Saturday morning and after-school cartoon fests that we built up some kind of immunity to them. Commercials or products had to really be special for us to be convinced. Kind of makes me wonder what kind of voters our kids are going to be...("Mommy you should vote for  him. He is so so so soooooooo nice and he loves babies sooooo much and the other guy will take alllllll your money.")
• Rebekah struggled to stay focused the first quarter of school but has greatly improved. I do kind of like the modified year round system here, where they are  not in school for any more than 9 weeks at a time, and then they get a 2 weekbreak, Seems like that is about as long as they can go without a breather. Academically she has always done well and has taken to doing made-up school related games. Here was today's homework she made for her made-up student:
  
• Speaking of which, she still does a lot of imaginative play, sometimes with Andrew although she is perfectly content playing/pretending/talking to herself for hours on end. 

Us

• Oh, who are we kidding. The family blog is really about the kids, right? Scott continues to like working for Intel, and I am busy trying to keep up with my own job as well (which is supposed to just be in the mornings but has somehow crept into the rest of my day lately) (jobs are like that when you also happen to be a workaholic/micromanager:  job creep happens every once in a while, but as long as I make a focused effort to beat it back some, it usually stays at bay.)
• Scott likes watching sports and has started to get the kids involved in playing with him a little bit as well. Andrew especially loves playing baseball with daddy in the backyard.
• In one of those rare "I want to do something for ME" kind of moments you have as a mom, I decided to buy a guitar (my old one had broken years ago) and re-learn an old talent. That, along with piano and other things, sort of fell to the wayside when I started working. Not sure exactly where I am going with this, aside from learning some Disney songs.  Unfortunately,  a case of carpal tunnel hit within a few weeks, which has caused me to scale back on practice time (either too much too soon or just maybe I'm getting old...) One day though...
• After hearing everyone complain about daylight savings time on Facebook and how we should abolish it, allow me to sing its praises. I had never had strong feelings about it one way or another prior to moving to Arizona, but now that I have had to live without it for a few summers, I think its the most ingenious idea and whoever invented it should get a Nobel prize in humanity. Especially if you have kids--what we find is that they naturally wake up when the sun comes up or shortly thereafter, no matter how late they go to bed. And the sun is coming up around 5:15 to 5:30 in the middle of the summer. So the only way to get them enough sleep is to get them to bed an hour earlier at night. Thus, we essentially end up trying to  "practice" daylight savings in order to get them the sleep they need, but that's very hard when the rest of Arizona (work time,school time, activities, church activities, etc.) is not on the same page. Usually we just end up exhausted. So count your blessings, you rest-of-America, you.
•  We got family pictures in November although they are already a bit dated:
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