My little champ

We had tons of fun at the Utah Jazz game last night. It was Kaitlyn's and Ben's first live NBA basketball game. They were so cute when the game was starting and the music was going and the lights were all crazy. They both clapped along with the crowd and danced to the music. Ben really like watching the Jazz dancers. We took my sister Jasmine with us, so Kaitlyn could be there for all the action.

During the start of the second quarter, Brandon, Ben, and I had to meet the radio people and the other contestants just off the court. We got to go to the area where the Jazz dancers wait and got to see them, which Ben loved even more since he is a huge flirt. We also get to meet the Jazz Bear. At the start of halftime, they had all the babies and parents go out onto the floor. Brandon was holding Ben at the start line and I was waiting at the finish line. Todd, the radio announcer, said start and the babies are supposed to go. It took a second for Ben and two other babies to start crawling. The other seven babies just sat at the start line. As you can tell from the title, our little Ben won. He is the 2009 B98.7 Diaper Derby Champion. He cruised past the other two babies that were actually crawling.

We were told we were allowed to bring one item/toy to try to coax our baby to move. I decided not to bring one, because Ben is not really passionate about any toys yet. If Kaitlyn is playing with it, he wants it, but she could not go down to the race with us. So, I used the next best thing, Mommy. Ben is a huge Mamma's boy, and I knew his desire to cuddle Mommy would motivate him to come to me (especially since he was really tired). It work and our little guy did really well. After he won, Todd told us Ben moved to fast, they did not have enough time to get footage of all of the other babies. It was a neat experience, and one that our family really needed.

This is Brandon's footage of Ben, using our pitiful camera. I will post the video from the radio station when I get it.

So what did Ben win? He got a cute little trophy with a baby crawling on it, of course. He really likes to eat the babies head. He got a basket full of Utah Jazz goodies. Mom and Dad got tickets to go to another Jazz game. Ben got a $100 gift certificate to the Mommy in Mind website, and a $500 college savings certificate. Also, he won a really expensive stroller. All in all, he did really great.

Happy Valentine's Day

We hope everyone had a good Valentine's day, full of love and happiness. It was pretty mellow at our house. Kaitlyn has been sick, so we did not want to do much. After a couple morning errands, we ended up spending the rest of the day at home relaxing. Brandon left for a couple hours to help a friend fix his vehicle. Kaitlyn, Ben, and I cuddled and watched a movie. When Brandon got home, we played with the present I got Brandon for Valentine's day, a Nintendo Wii. We actually bought a week ago, as an early present. It is lots of fun. Kaitlyn likes playing Mario Kart with Daddy, and I beat Brandon at Kung Fu Panda. It is a fun game system and we enjoy spending some family time together playing games.

For anyone who is curious, Brandon bought me a new washer and dryer for Valentine's. We got a nice Kenmore front loading pair from Sears. I am really excited for them to be delivered on Saturday. My dryer has been working on and off since we got married. Brandon would fix it, and it would work for a couple months and then break again. It finally died completely right after Ben was born. So, I have been hang drying our clothes ever since. It was not that annoying during the summer, but during the winter the clothes take forever to dry. I can't wait to be able to dry my clothes in a nice new dryer.

Radio fun

Brandon was listening to the radio this morning at work and heard the announcers mention a baby contest. It is a diaper derby to find a fast little crawler. So he called, not knowing all the details, and got on the radio. He entered Ben into the diaper derby. Guess when it is? During halftime at the Jazz game on February 17. That's right, we get two tickets to the game plus a couple other cool prizes just for being contestants. So I hope everyone will watch the game Tuesday night and cheer on the Jazz (they are playing the Memphis Grizzlies) and our cute little Ben. Hopefully, he will do well and kick some baby bottom. If not, at least we get free tickets to a game and get the chance to show off our adorable baby. We are extremely excited!!!

And he's off...

It is official. My baby is walking. Ben is almost eleven months old, which is way to young in my opinion for him to be walking. (He is supposed to be my cuddly baby, who needs mommy for almost everything.) Oh well, you can't stop your kids from learning and growing. I encourage him and help him however I can. He started taking six to seven steps last Saturday. The last two days he has been walking almost everywhere. He still falls A LOT, but he just crawls to something stable and pulls himself up. He discovered that it is also easier to carry toys around when he is walking, which is convenient when you are stealing big sisters dolls. It is the cutest thing in the world to see my little baby toddling around. I told Brandon his walking reminds me of Frankensteins monster. He bobbles back and forth and grunts and growls; he just needs to put his arms in front of him. My camera can record little videos, so I have tried to capture him walking, but to no avail. When he sees the camera, he gets really excited and falls over. Here is the best shot I have so far.

On a side note, congratulations to my sister Jacki and her husband Patrick. Baby expected to arrive in September. Yeah, I love having another niece or nephew.