Last Night

Last night Ben and I went on a date. We had scheduled it a few weeks ago and both had been looking forward to it. We went to Subway for dinner, then Funway for bowling and Wendy's for a frosty. It's always so nice to spend one on one time with the kids. It is so much easier for me to really hear them and talk about things when it's just the two of us. Rick had got home from work and we were about to head out the door when Ben hands me this note he had made at school. He had had an extra inside recess and he made this for me then.
front
inside
So sweet!!!!

Ben was taking pictures

Eating at Subway
Ben opened my car door all night, just like daddy would.

Bowling

Ben is growing up so quickly. I have been feeling that way a little too much lately. Last week I cleaned out his closet and reorganized his shelves. It was long overdue and they were a complete disaster. I ended up taking all of the stuffed animals and blocks out and in their place put Star Wars Legos, DS and Gogo's. When I erased 'blocks' from the label I got a little teary-eyed. I mean, how did this happen? How did my baby get big enough to have big kids toys. It didn't help that a few weeks before, Rick had brought home 'Toy Story 3' for him and I to watch. Grandma had taken Ben & Olivia to see it over the summer but we hadn't seen it. Within the first five minutes I was sobbing (way too much for an animated movie). I was saying things to Rick like "I don't want our kids to grow up and go to college" and "I want them to never grow up and never leave." Seriously, it was sad.

Then on Monday night, we had a Family Home Evening about baptism. Rick and I had gotten out old pictures from the day we were baptised to show the kids. Of coarse, they thought it was so funny to see us so little and to see their grandparents looking so young (just so you know, I think all of you look just as young and beautiful as when Rick and I were eight). We talked about how we both felt that day. Since Ben will be turning eight this year we have been talking a lot about it. Rick said to Ben 'It is your decision if you want to be baptised and.." Ben interrupted and said "I want to choose now. I want to get baptised!" It does make me a little nervous that he will be responsible for all of his choices. Not because I think that he will make bad ones (although I'm sure he will once in awhile) it's mainly because I hope that I have taught him enough to be responsible for them. Yikes! I guess we have til September to do a good job. I'm just worrying about the big kid stuff now.