Christmas Card

2008 was a year to remember
with the addition of a new family member

Molly Karison joined us in May
She’s gotten so big, she already crawls away

Emily Kate learned to use the potty
And we’re happy to announce: she’s even less haughty

Annabelle Joon began her school career
She’s getting too smart for her own good, we fear

Earl became a star with his big television debut
A commercial for jaguar and land rover too

Lisa stayed busy being a mom to three
She’s a little more tired & crazy than she use to be

Winter Wonderland

Raspberries Anyone?

All I Want For Christmas...

I sat on Santa's lap, he asked me what I wanted. I said "look Santa, all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. You see, I have this older sister, she keeps feeding me raisins and sausage and these gums just ain't cuttin' it any more."

Thanks Santa, I'm halfway there!

--Molly

HO Ho HO

Three in a row. One smiling, one not, one ready to go.

One Lucky Duck

in a sea of 7019

When I was in high school I had one of the luckiest experiences of my life. It was a school night and a friend called me up because she wanted me to go with her to try and win tickets to a Matchbox Twenty concert. Of course, I was on board, I love contests! We drove around Memphis following clues on the radio trying to fine a DJ intern named Cosmo who was in some random place waiting to give anyone that found him free tickets. We thought we had the clues right and drove into this gigantic parking lot in scary downtown Memphis in the dark. We could have been shot driving around like we were lost! There was a guy there about 18yrs old. He was all by himself, not even a car around. We were very skeptical to drive towards him, but of course, we did. We rolled a window down to talk, he looked confused and we look confused and we told him that we were trying to win Matchbox Twenty tickets. He acted like he didn't know what we were talking about, I think he was flirting (my friend was really cute) and then finally he said, you won, here they are! We were ecstatic! He told us to come to the concert early and there would be a drawing with other radio winners to get backstage passes. When we got there the day of the concert we met at the assigned spot and were told how the winners of the backstage passes would be decided. We had to draw a paper out of a box and it would have written on it whether or not we were winners. Simple. My friend and I couldn't decide who would draw the paper, neither of us wanted to be responsible for loosing. We had an intense game of rock, paper, scissors and I lost. I walked over to choose my paper and because we had taken so long deciding, there was only one paper left. I grabbed it up, turned it over and what did it say? We won! We had an amazing time at the concert and going backstage to meet Rob Thomas and the gang. Rob autographed a photo for me in which he called me "smiley." You would have been smiling too!

Well, not since that night 10 years ago have I ever felt so lucky (wedding day and births of children not included) as I did a couple of weeks ago. Alanna and I were talking and she mentioned to me that her childhood friend was giving away a homemade quilt on her blog and that I should check it out. Of course I did because I love contests! I was about the 30th person to enter, I thought, I might have a shot at this. I didn't think about it for a while and then one Sunday night I thought about it again and went back to Elizabeth's website to check it out. I showed it to Earl and tried to explain to him how exciting it was, he just didn't get it. I saw that the contest was over and the results would be announced at 10AM the following morning and that the entries had reached well into the 2000's. I was quite discouraged once I saw this. The next morning I got on my laptop to look something up, noticed the time--10:30am--and got excited about seeing how the contest had turned out. The first thing that I saw was that she ended up with 7019 entries to sort through. Wow, that's a lot! I began reading through her post. It was titled "RESULTS" but I was getting very antsy reading through thinking, are there ever going to be any results? And then there it was--the winner is the Bennetts said...and there was my comment. I was really confused and I tried reading through it again and I was even more confused. I immediately grabbed the phone to call Alanna. I told her that she had to go to Elizabeth's website because I thought I won the quilt. She got on and agreed that I was the winner. I was truly amazed and had no idea where to go from there. Alanna told me that I was suppose to email Elizabeth to claim my prize. I started calling people right away, Earl, my sister, Jeni. And then I emailed Elizabeth. I still wasn't completely convinced. I told her so in the email and asked that she confirm that I was indeed the winner, because I still couldn't believe it. Did I mention that there were 7019 entries. You would need convincing too.

I got the quilt today in the mail and went over to Alanna's to open it. I wanted someone to experience the excitement with and it was because of her that I entered and won. It's gigantic, much bigger than I expected. We spent several minutes going over all of it's detail. I'm so grateful to be able to call it mine and I have big plans for designing a guest bedroom around it--someday. A big thanks to Alanna and to Lizzy Anne designs for making a beautiful quilt and letting it find a home with me. I really do feel like a lucky duck!

QUITE A PREDICAMENT

I woke up from my nap today and no one was around

I tried to call for help, but no one heard my sounds

What should I do? I thought, I'd really like to eat

Hello, Hello? I'm no longer asleep!

I guess no one is coming, I hope they're all OK

It's not usually so quiet, especially this time of day

I decided that I should check on them,

since they hadn't come for me

It started out as a good idea,

but something went wrong you see

I wiggled a little to the left and rolled a little to the right,

I've gotten really good at rolling and wiggling,

I practice every night

Well, I made it out of the swing with only a little fall

But someone should have reminded me,

I haven't learn to crawl

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

Our little Molly is 6 months old today. What a joyous addition she has been to our family. I remember talking to my family during those first couple of weeks about how wonderful and easygoing she is and not wanting to get my hope's up that it would always be that way. Well, here we are at 6 months and she is as wonderful and easygoing as ever. What a blessing from Heavenly Father that she isn't high-maintenance when there are two other little spirits in this house that can be!
She just had her checkup and she weighs 12lbs. 10oz. and is 26in. long. That finally puts her back onto the charts for weight in the 3rd percentile. YAY, Molly! She's steady at the 55% for height. She is doing great and the doc says she is beautiful--no news there.

Six Months of Molly in Pictures:

How do you do?

BOW WOW,

and... what do ladybugs say?

It was no big surprise that Annabelle wanted to be a Princess for Halloween this year, Sleeping Beauty to be exact. Princesses are her whole world as a 5 yr. old. She felt beautiful all dressed up and had a splendid time Trick-or-Treating.
Emmy chose to be a Puppy Dog. She found the costume in the toddler boy section, but she really wanted it. I added red ribbons and ruby sleepers for a girly touch. She looked just adorable. When I asked if she was going to say "wuff, wuff" instead of "Trick-or-Treat" she replied, "no, I don't want to scare people."

We couldn't find a costume for Molly at the same time that we got the other girl's. She's just so tiny and the ones we found that were 0-6 months were just too big. About a week later, (while shopping for other things) we came across a rack of Carter's brand and other baby-size costumes. Annabelle walked over and picked one out for Molly that was a little princess and Emmy walked over and grabbed a little puppy dog. "Girls, those are the things you picked for yourselves. Molly needs to be her own thing," Earl and I told them. We found a little Ladybug and all agreed it was perfect.

We had an exciting night that started with going to Trunk-or-Treat. I walked around with the girls and Earl manned our trunk. He gave away all 250 pieces from our candy bowl. Annabelle has perfected her "Trick or Treat" but I couldn't get Emily to say a word. (no real surprises there) She must have been just too cute for it to matter because everyone gave her candy anyway. We followed Trunk-or-Treat with a drive over to this really nice neighborhood with giant houses and really nice people--that we don't know. We somehow ended up at this neighborhood last Halloween when we wanted to give the girls a real tradtional trick-or-treat experience. We went again this year and it was my favorite part of the night. There were well over 100 people walking the streets; families and kids with wagons and dogs. It felt like the good ole days.

For more pictures of our cute little princess, puppy dog and ladybug, click here.

Round Two

So after running to work a couple of months ago I realized three things: one, I am not a runner; two, three miles might as well be twenty; and three, man invented the wheel for a reason.

A couple of weeks ago I got a free bike from a co-worker. Well, we all know nothing is free; I had to put some money into it to get it rideable but it was still cheaper than a new bike. After I had it all together, and got a helmet and lights I was ready. The day had arived and disaster struck, I woke up to the sound of roaring rain. I did plan on riding in the rain with my rear fender and a rain coat, but I was expecting Seattle rain not Pheonix rain. Besides, I was all ready unsure of the ride, I didn't need to fight the rain. The next day was the day to shoot for. I awoke to a dry morning, darn that means I have to go through with it. So my travel begins again with the hill, the dreaded hill that claims cars in the winter and skateboarders in the summer. I was bound and determined to make it up the hill without walking. Good thing I had an 18speed, cuz I made it. My legs were all ready on fire and I was winded. I had only a short break before another hill that was much longer but not as steep. I thought about the missionary days and how it seemed much easier, then I realized the there were no hills in the Arizonan desert. I would gladly take +100 degrees over hills. Luckily at the end of my second hill I hit a red light, the only red light the whole trip (someone was watching out for me). I had time to rest. I realized how much more energy it took to stop and restart especially downhill. The rest of the ride was mostly down hill, a fact I would dreadfully learn on the way back home. When I made it to work my shirt was wet from sweat and my legs had that jello wraped in barbed wire feeling, I had to walk around for a few minutes to recover. Durring which I was paged into the parts department because they purchased doughnuts, I never have been repulsed by a raspberry filled powdered ring of goodness before, and when I turned them down everyone's mouths dropped to the floor. One of the guys in parts called the receptionist and announced to her the news, after about 5 minutes everyone in the dealership knew that Earl Bennett had refused a doughnut, I think they almost closed the dealership down just in case the world was truly gonna end. So here it is my first 3 mile trip in 5.5 minutes on video, brought to you by the EARL CAM. (camera affixed to the handle bars with packaging tape).

Can I just say what a sight it was to see Earl on this bicycle! He rides up in his bright red helmet, dripped in sweat, twigs stuck in parts of his make-shift bicycle and please, please take note of the chip clips around the ankle of his pants! I'm just sorry that I missed seeing our nice Kodak camera taped to the handlebars. -Lisa

Still Tall, Still Skinny

Molly had her 4-month checkup on September 8 where it was confirmed, yet again, that Molly just wants to be tall and skinny! She doesn't want to conform and be like the rest of us. We think that's ok, but the doctor would still like her to put on a few extra pounds. She was 9lbs. 15oz. and 24 1/2 inches putting her in the -3% for weight and 55% for height. She went back today for a weight check and she had gained 14 oz. She's still in the -3% soooo, we got to add something new and tasty to her diet. Alright, you might not think it's tasty, but what does she have to compare it to?

She did an excellent job eating her Rice Cereal. She got the hang of it quickly. She's been eyeing our food more and more lately and I think she was pretty excited to see that the spoon was actually coming her direction. We hope this will give her a little extra weight (maybe even her pants will stop falling off). The Doc said that babies with reflux tend to do well with cereal. We'll see.

We think she liked it, what do you think?

PETER the Puffer

how one little fish turned our evening upside down

5:30pm While browsing the local Wal-Mart, Lisa fell in love with a round-faced, polka-dotted, fluttering-fin pufferfish. As a family we decided that we wanted to buy him to be a companion to Fairy Godmother (the male betta) and Kermit (the african dwarf frog) that we've had for over a year. Leave it to Wal-Mart to have the Paint & Hardware guy scooping out the fish. We told him what we had at home and asked if everyone would get along; he didn't have a clue. The only thing he could offer us was that the tank had over 20 puffers at the start of the day and it was down to four when we got there. We decided to get him anyway (did we really have a choice?). He was looking right at us through the tank and even swam to the top when the lid was removed; he was so excited to see us. We picked up a new tank with room for him, Fairy Godmother and Kermit to live. (Our current tank recently suffered severe trauma). 5:35pm We named our pufferfish, PETER the Puffer. 6:30pm At home, Earl started putting together the new tank and Lisa googled "green spotted pufferfish". Here's what was found: Life Span: 10+ years. Hmm, that seems awfully long. I came across a little yellow fish with black polka dots. It had a cute baby face and greeted me at the glass, like a puppy dog, appearing happy to see me. I had to have him. YES, this described my encounter with PETER exactly. I took the little cutie home and everything seemed fine as I went to bed. I awoke to find the rest of the fish cowering in one half of my aquarium, missing fins and tails. The little "sweetheart" was happily buzzing around the other side of the tank, belly full of fins. UH OH! Green Spotted Puffer fish are aggressive predators. They have sharp teeth and prey on shrimp, snails and other shell fish. It is best to keep your puffer in an isolated tank as he will quickly destroy all other tank mates. HMM, I think we might have a problem. We bought a carnivorous fish with sharp teeth; not our puffy little PETER? 8:00pm PETER goes into the new tank, against guidance from the tank instruction manual to wait a full 24 hours. PETER refuses to eat Fairy Godmother's fish flakes or Kermit's frog pellets; they're just not his style. 8:20pm Earl heads to PetSmart for pufferfish preferred food while Lisa is still researching on the internet.Their teeth are constantly growing, much like rodent mammals and providing rocks or coral for chewing on will prevent the teeth from overgrowing, unless you want to take the time to file them down. If their teeth get to long they will not be able to eat. File them down? If puffers are not offered hard food such as snails and clams, their teeth will grow to the point where they cannot eat anymore. If this happens you have to trim their teeth. To do this, fill two containers with 1 litre of aquarium water each. Add 1 - 2 drops of clove oil to one of the containers. Clove oil can usually be found at drug stores. Capture your puffer and place it in the container with clove oil. After a couple minutes the puffer will slow down and eventually stop moving. When this happens trim the teeth with a very sharp pair of cuticle scissors, or some other small sharp scissor. Supposedly, cutting the teeth is like cutting fingernails, but I found the teeth of my puffer to be much more brittle. When the operation is complete, simply put the puffer into the other container. When it wakes up it can be returned to the tank. I have heard that some pet stores will do this operation for you. Of course it is best to avoid this situation altogether by meeting the proper nutritional needs of your fish. AH? 8:30pm Earl calls from PetSmart with confirmation that yes, PETER the Puffer will indeed devour any tankmates. 8:45pm Lisa calls Wal-Mart to ask about returning the carnivorous puffer. They agree to take him back, with a receipt. They close at 10:00pm. 9:10pm Earl removes PETER from the new tank and adds Fairy Godmother and Kermit. Earl and Lisa say so long to PETER and wonder what the girls will say in the morning. 10:00pm Earl returns home with three head & tail light tetras to replace the one puffer. Lisa calls them the Kindergartens (they swim in a school).

**UPDATE** Earl and Lisa explain to the girls that although we all really liked PETER, he doesn't play nicely with other fish and we weren't able to keep him. In his place we got three new fish! They have been named Tabitha, Telly and Tim--the tetras--AKA the Kindergartners.

Girls Just wanna Have FUN

a week of new adventures

Emily started swim lessons and had a blast. She didn't listen to her teacher and hardly participated at all, but, if you know our little Em, we couldn't ask for much more. She had been so excited in the days leading up to her first class, then when it actually came time to get in the pool, she wouldn't budge. It took Annabelle and me nearly 5 minutes to get her in. Then all she did was sit on the stairs. After another 5 minutes she really started to have fun. Mind you, class is only 25 minutes long. Things never really got better during that first class, but by the end of the second one things starting looking up. Michael Phelps, watch out!

Annabelle thought her first dance class was so much fun. Over the next 6 weeks she will learn Jazz, Ballet and Tumbling. At the end there will be a little production for the parents. It was so much fun to watch her; she was so cute. Her teacher told me after class that she picked up on the ballet postions very quickly. Maybe we have a prima ballerina on our hands.

Molly had her first experience with the MegaSaucer. She started playing with toys a couple of weeks ago so we thought maybe it was time to dust off the old saucer. She looks so tiny in it. She has started to explore it a little bit, but because of size, she's pretty limited. Lucky for her she has 2 big sisters that like to help. They stand around the side and show her how the toys work.

Chester Copperpot never made it this far...

There are 3 places that I have always wanted to visit.

• Wilmington, NC where Dawson's Creek was filmed
• Astoria, OR/Cannon Beach,OR where The Goonies was filmed
• Minneapolis, MN to see the apartment building used in the Mary Tyler Moore Show

Over the weekend we went on a unofficial Goonies tour and it was all I hoped it would be.

On Saturday morning we headed for Cannon Beach. Haystack Rock was featured several times in the movie. We had a great time with family; eating, playing and trying to stay warm. The girls had a blast collecting shells, crab legs and digging holes. Emily had an especially enjoyable time chasing the seagulls. It was about 60 degrees outside and the ocean felt like 20. We had several wardrobe changes as girls got cold, and wet and dry again. We even had one wardrobe malfunction, but you'll have to ask EARL about that one.

Next we headed for Astoria in search of "Mikey's" house.

Annabelle: When do we get to the store?

Dad: We're not going to the store.

Annabelle: Yeah

Mom: We're going to A-stor-i-a. It's a city, like Seattle. It's name is Astoria.

Annabelle: How come it's not a store?

Mom: Because it's just not. It's a
city.

Astoria was just as great as the beach. We drove around and were able to see places and roads that were used in the movie and we were even able to find the house that was used as Mickey's house. It looked a little different after 23 years, but it was definitely the same house.

I have to take a moment to brag. I have an awesome husband! If I didn't, there's no way I would have this priceless image of him reenacting the truffle shuffle outside of the Goonies house.

What a great weekend. Goonies never say die.

1 down, 2 to go. Wilmington here I come.

So grown up, but still my little girl

My little girl is all grown and going to school. She just got on the big yellow bus and drove away; so excited and not at all scared. I'm so proud of her. She is going to love kindergarten. She wasn't full of much information when she got home. She acted as though it where any other day. I grilled her as much as a could and this was all I got.

• Jarom almost fell down on the bus. The bus was her favorite part and she wasn't scared even though mom and dad weren't there with her.
• At school she didn't talk to anyone new, just Jarom. She played with blocks, did a dot-to-dot, colored a bus and had recess in which she got to play on both playgrounds. Her friend Allana from church has a friend at her new school who recognized Annabelle on the playground.

When told that she would be going on the bus again tomorrow!!, she replied, "I know." That's our little Annabelle.

A Fishy Sort of Day

What a fun time we had for Emily's 3rd birthday! We went to the aquarium, touched Starfish, ate pizza and bleeding octopus cake and Emmy even found her bird twin.The day started with a trip to the Seattle Aquarium. We all loved it. They really found creative ways to maximize a small space. They had places where the fish were above you, and places where the fish were all around you and even places were you could touch.

While at the aquarium, Emily met her bird twin--the tufted puffin. She kept trying to tell me something and I finally got it.

"The birdie has hair like me!"

Emily chose pizza for lunch even though we went to Chuck E. Cheese's last night. She opened and loved all her presents

and then we helped ourselves to some red velvet Octopus cake that I stayed up until 2:30 this morning finishing.

It was a great day and we are so blessed to have Emily in our family. Although at times we are confused by her personality and mood swings, when she laughs or smiles it can make your heart melt.

More pictures available here.

My Mama said there'd be days like this...

This mama spent a good portion of today saying "no," or

"don't" or "stop." It has just been one of those days. Annabelle was running around crazy like she'd had 2 dozen cookies, Emily hurt herself, wouldn't listen and even tried to change her own poopy pull-up and Molly cried and cried--and Molly never cries. By 8:30am Annabelle and Emily jumping and rolling around in the living room.

At lunchtime Emily decided it was better to eat her PB&J while sitting on the table instead of in her seat. She fell off and slammed her head into the girls' little table. It swelled up the size of a ping-pong ball. It took me a good 10 minutes to convince her to let me put ice on it. Did I mention that Molly was crying all day?

While I was holding a screaming baby, holding ice to Emily's head and trying to look up concussions on the internet Emily fell asleep in my lap. I kept her on the couch under close supervision to make sure she would wake up. All 3 girls went down for a nap at the same time, but Molly wouldn't stay asleep. I had to rock her every 30 mins or so. Also, not something I ever have to do with her. Things didn't get much better after naps. While I was incapacitated feeding Molly, Emily thought it was a good idea to change her own poop. You can use your imagination on how well this went! I told Emily that she couldn't play with play dough and she apparently forgot about her blow to the head because she continued to make unsafe choices.

To the untrained eye this looks sweet.

However, that always leads to






THIS

Tomorrow can only get better, right?

Kids Say The Darndest Things

Q: What does Mom always say to you?
A: "To Be Nice" - Annabelle
"Say prayers" - Emily

Q: What makes Mom happy?
A: "To clean up your room if mom asks you to or like put your toys away. Our brush your teeth when mom wants you to." - Annabelle
"I don't know" (any guesses? - Mom) "I don't know" - Emily

Q: What makes Mom sad?
A: "If you don't do the things your mom and dad asks you to." - Annabelle
"Crying" - Emily

Q: How does Mom make you laugh?
A: "Tickle me" (anything else) "uh uh"
"Smiles" - Emily

Q: How old is Mom?
A: I don't know, I don't remember how old are you, 60?, 70?, 80?, 90? (That's enough) - Annabelle
Holds up hand, "this many" (five) - Emily

Q: How tall is Mom?
A: "80 foots tall" - Annabelle
Holds up other hand (still 5) - Emily

Q: What does Mom like to do?
A: "Do the laundry, make dinner (laughs, are you sure?) "Nawwww. Are you sure?"
"Sing songs" - Emily

Q: What is Mom's job?
A: "To feed Molly" - Annabelle (loud laughter from mom & dad)
"I don't know" - Emily

Q: What is Mom's favorite food?
A: "Green Beans, Peanut butter and jelly (are you sure those aren't your favorites?) "No, Mexican Food?" (good job Annabelle) - Annabelle
"Oranges" - Emily

Q: How do you know Mom loves you?
A: "Ummmm, cause I do the right choices" - Annabelle
"I don't remember" - Emily

WHAT DO YOUR KIDS SAY?

And We Kept Going and Going and Going...

WHO: Annabelle
WHAT: Walking up the stairs to our apartment
WHEN: 8:00AM

Annabelle says as we are on our third flight of stairs, {pointing at second floor apartment} "How come we don't live there, Or on the first floor? How come we live on the third floor?"

Well, Annabelle Mom asks herself that same question every day!