ten months.

This little nugget is still our sweet little guy. His personality is shining more and more.
Fun Facts:
- Benson has been babbling a ton more. Lots of "ba-ba-ba" and "va-va-va" along with all his other sounds and jabbering.
- He goes back and forth with his sleeping through the night. But lately it hasn't been the best and wakes up to eat only once.
- He rolls around at record speeds and is slowly but surely figuring out the whole crawling thing. He has made great strides though. He army crawls with his left hand while his right arm gets stuck underneath him. He will get it. He is definitely getting around though. I will sit him up in my room with toys while I shower and soon he is pounding on the shower door.
- More than anything this boy loves to walk around. He is getting more brave moving around furniture and standing by himself. We are never far from him when he does this though because he will fall instantly. If he could hold our hands, he would walk all day long.
- He loves his baby food, puffs, and Cheerios...and thats about it. He doesn't like to eat table food. If you can get it in his mouth he loves it, but won't feed himself and won't let you feed him anything. Silly boy. Some foods we have tried: eggs, toast, green peppers, yogurt...the last two he does like. It's a slow process as we try to introduce more foods to him. At least he doesn't spit anything out and flat out refuse.

-Benson loves to be outside. We are loving that Spring is here and that Summer is coming. Many park days, bike rides, and swimming to look forward to.

-He loves when he can hear the train that goes by or any fire trucks. He will stop whatever he is doing to listen.
-He has recently discovered that he can stick his tongue out. It is the cutest. Of course when we try to get a picture of him doing it, he stops. So just believe me.
-Each morning Benson brushes his teeth with Matt. He loves copying Matt.

nine months.

Although I didn't mind being pregnant, the nine months we have had Benson have been way better then him being in me. These past nine months have gone by way faster then my pregnancy too. I can't think about the fact that I will have a one year old in 3 months. Not okay.

Weight: 22 lbs 3 oz- 85%

Height: 28 1/2 inches- 65%

Head Circum.: 44.8 cm.- 40%

- Benson is a wanna be walker. He is most happy when he is up holding our hands and walking all over the place.

- He isn't crawling yet, but is making progress. 

- We gave homemade baby food a try. He loves the fruit and hates the veggies. So we do both homemade and jars. It's mostly just something fun and different for me to do.

- He finally got his own highchair and loves it.

-He has had more types of food this month. Puffs were strange for him at first but now he eats them by the fist full. He loves Cheerios and black beans. Still not a fan of avocados. We are looking forward to eating more soft table foods this month.

-Benson got 4 teeth in the last few weeks. Two on top and two on bottom. Those top two were super painful for him and gave us some sleepless nights. It was awful.

- His sleeping at night has gone downhill. I think the teeth threw him off. He has been waking up lots. We are working on getting back on track. Last night he slept the whole night so fingers crossed.

- Benson learned how to do "sooo big" and loves to do it.

- He has also gotten back into his spitting/noise making phase. We think its cute and fun except when it comes to eating time. Not fun. Food gets all over him and me.

- He loves to drink water out of his sippy cup, but loves drinking out of my glass even more.

- Benson still loves his books and now likes to pull them all off his shelf.

- He loves his touchy feely books and knows right where the different textures are. He thinks every book is going to have different textures and feels every page for them.

Sorry buddy, no furry penguin on that page

celebrating.

This past weekend was full of celebrations and fun. Valentines Day this year was perfect. We ate in and had a delicious meal. I really wanted to have a fun table setting. I just couldn't find exactly what I was picturing until my mom came to the rescue with some birthday presents I opened a bit early. The tablecloth and chargers were perfect and I can't wait to use them more. Saturday we celebrated my birthday with a trip to Salt Lake to get me a new phone. I am loving the gold iphone. We went out to dinner at Malawi's Pizza. Always a favorite. Sunday we continued to celebrate on my actual birthday with Asay family dinner. There were lots of February birthdays to celebrate. I felt spoiled all weekend long.

tried and true.

You can tell I am not a professional foodie picture taker. But at least it tastes good. Each week in my Relief Society's newsletter they spotlight someone and have them include a favorite recipe. This past week this recipe was included and it looked good. I gave it a shot and Matt gave it a 4.5.

Spicy Avocado Chicken Enchiladas Lasagna 

For the sauce:

- 1 Tbsp. butter

-2 cloves of garlic, minced

-1 Tbsp. flour

-1 c. chicken stock

-1 tsp. cumin

-1/4 tsp. salt

-1/4 tsp. pepper

-1 c. medium salsa verde

-1/2 c. sour cream

For the enchiladas:

- chicken, cooked and shredded

-monterrey jack cheese, grated

-1/2 onion chopped

-1 or 2 avocados, cubed

-8 to 10 corn tortillas

Preheat oven to 375*. In a medium sauce pan, melt butter and add garlic. Saute for 1 minute. Stir in flour and constantly stir for 2 minutes. Whisk in the chicken broth, cumin, salt, and pepper and bring to a low boil. Once boiling, whisk in salsa and sour cream. Remove from heat.

Spray/grease 9x13 pan. Cover bottom of dish with sauce. Layer tortilla, chicken, cheese, onion, avocado, and sauce. Repeat until all ingredients are used. Top off with sauce and cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until bubbly.

MY NOTES: Next time I would saute the onions. They were a bit strong. I didn't mind them but I know Matt would prefer them cooked down to be softer and smaller. I used a smaller baking dish and it worked fine. You can make it as spicy as you want depending on your salsa. I even sprinkled some crushed red peppers in the sauce to give it an extra zing. Yum!

eight months.

This crazy boy is so fun. He brings so much happiness to us and everyone he sees.

This month Benson:

- figured out how to roll over from his back to tummy and now he rolls all around the room. 

- picks his pacifier up and puts it in his mouth.

- won't sit peacefully on your lap for very long.

- continues to love his food.

- dropped one nap, so 2 naps a day now.

- likes to try to stand on his own.

- sleeps through the night...most nights. 

- rolls all over his bed. We love going in and seeing what position he will be in. The first time I found that he had been sleeping on his stomach totally surprised me.

- is no longer swaddled. I swaddled him with his arms out for a long time.

- has discovered more sounds he can make and that he can get louder with them.

- got his 1st tooth! That sucker is sharp. It is not all the way through yet, but just about. It started pushing through a few days ago and I can feel more on the way.

Yes, he rolled away from his blanket

No, he didn't pull himself up