Gardening

The best part about the garden is watering it.  There are actual plants in the garden.  You can see a tiny pepper plant in the bottom right corner.  It may not have survived.  All the other plants should be fine.  Ben and Mollie are playing in an empty area that I left for the squash and cucumbers vines to fill. 

 While the sprinkler was on, Mollie ran after the water saying, "Rain, come back."

Yep, Mollie is wearing a dress.  Sometimes mud just happens.  It isn't planned for.

Mini Vacation

 We went to Gulfport this weekend for the Mississippi Truck Driving Championship.  We go every year to watch some of John's drivers compete.  We try to make it into a mini vacation.  Mollie and Ben did great sharing a bed.  I had the pack-n-play in the car if necessary.  It will be great to not travel with it.

 Ben was super excited about going to the beach.

 Mollie loved making mud in her bucket.

 The sand was fun but they loved the water.  The Mississippi gulf coast is not the beautiful blue water of Florida, but they didn't care.  It was amazingly warm for April.  Ben is jumping a "wave."

Just staying in a hotel makes it a vacation for Ben and Mollie.  They aren't picky.

Building

Ben is constantly building.  I took this picture of him one night last week.

 He built this "skyscraper" today. 

The tubes along the back bring in the electricity (according to Ben).

Truck

 On May 3, 2000 John bought his 1997 green Z71.  His dad co-signed.  He lived in the Point O' Woods apartments in Hattiesburg and we had not met. 

Twelve years later, John finally got a new truck.  Tomorrow I'm buying a For Sale sign to put in the window of the green truck. 

 After months of research and searching for the perfect low mileage four door pick up, John found this 2006 Dodge Mega Cab with 41,000 miles.  Monday night we drove to Tupelo after John got off work.  On Tuesday morning, we went in the rain to the dealership.  John test drove the truck and made an offer.  After some negotiation, he bought the truck and headed quickly for Memphis.  He left at 9:45 to make a noon meeting.  While he was buying the truck the kids and I hung out in the Durago and watched movies and then returned home. 

 This back seat is the reason we chose the Dodge Mega Cab.  We look forward to driving it on lots of camping trips and weekends at the hunting camp.

Hymns

As we were driving along the other day listening to a CD, Ben asked me, "Is this song about Christmas?"  I wasn't really paying attention to the music, but I thought, "It's a hymn.  It's about Jesus.  Sure."  So I answered, "Yes."  The next time it came on, I listened more closely.  Here's what Ben heard, "I stand amazed in the presents of Jesus the Nazarene."  I had to explain that it wasn't about Christmas and the difference between presence and presents."

Cheering Section

 Last night, Nana and Grandaddy and Uncle Bill and Aunt Vivian came to watch Ben play tee ball.  (The men didn't notice I was taking their picture.)

After the game, we had pizza and cupcakes for Grandaddy's birthday. 

Swinging

 Mollie hated the baby swing.  She wanted to swing, but every time I put her in it, she wanted down after two mintues.  She wanted to swing in Ben's swing, which caused arguments because Ben wanted to swing too.  Several weeks ago, John took down the baby swing.  The whole time John was taking it down Mollie was yelling, "mine, mine, mine."  But it was a good decision, she loves swinging in the big kid swing.

Family Pic

Ben drew this picture of our family at church recently.  My favorite part is Hal (our black cat) on the left.

Four Year Old Pics

We had Ben's four-year-old pictures taken at Olan Mills last week.  They are available to view online.

Image Center - Olan Mills Portrait Studios

Saturday Games

Mollie's nose is purple and her lip is swelled from yesterday's fall.

 Ready to run on first.

 Go, go, go.  John is the third base coach.

 Running home.

MawMaw and PawPaw sent Ben concession stand money.  He bought a Powerade for himself and suckers for both he and Mollie while we waited for the second game.  Ben's team played great the first game, but were tired and easily distracted the second game. 

After the Game

 Icing Mollie's busted lip with a popcicle.

 Mollie's face looked pretty bad, but she felt fine.  She's trying to push me on the swing.

I don't make the blog very often so I posted two pictures of Mollie pushing me.

Baseball Firsts

Ben had three baseball games this weekend -- 5 p.m. Friday, 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Saturday.  The coach pitches four or five times to each batter and if the batter doesn't hit the ball, then they get out the tee.  Ben got his first hit from a coach pitch. 

 At practice this week, they worked on staying in their positions and fielding the ball if it comes to you (rather than the entire team swarming on the ball). 

 Throwing the ball to first base.

Mollie had the first baseball field injury.  While I was taking a picture of Ben, she stood up in this chair, flipped it over, busted her lip and skinned her nose.  Blood gushed everywhere.  I was afraid she had knocked out a tooth, but they are all still in place.  She scared everyone around us.  

Puppy Dog

Mollie and I had lunch with a puppy dog.  Notice his ears and tail.

Wednesday night

Cowboy Ben and Mollie Claus ready to go to church.  They had to leave their hats in the car.

Well Child

On Wednesday, Ben had his four-year-old well child check up.  He had his blood pressure taken for the first time.  The nurse called it her "huggy" machine.  Is blood pressure was 108/66.  He weigh 31 lb 12.8 oz.  I have to find where I wrote down his height.  He did not have to get any shots.

Sunday

Last year Ben and Mollie did not do well at the Elders' church Easter Sunday and we declared we were staying home this year.  I had bought a ham and all the fixings to prepare an Easter meal to eat at home.  However, we were invited to join several families from our church for lunch and an egg hunt.  Ben and Mollie were super excited about hunting eggs again.

 It was naptime, so blankie hunted with Mollie.

 Counting eggs.

All the eggs were filled with candy.  It's no wonder Ben and Mollie made it all afternoon without a nap. 

I know that I have no pictures of Ben and Mollie together in their Easter outfits.  We were rushing out the door this morning to make the 9 a.m. service.

Benton Egg Hunt

 Ben's Sunday School teachers host an annual egg hunt for all the children in our church.  They all gather for a picture and to hear the rules before the hunt begins.  The rules mainly state -- there are no eggs in the flowers.

 I couldn't get everyone in this frame.

 Mollie knew just what to do.

 She waved at the Easter Bunny from a distance but didn't get any closer.

Real Eggs

 Ben and Mollie had fun dying eggs. We dyed eggs just for tradition since we hunted plastic eggs at both egg hunts we attended.

Mollie stuck her fingers in the dye and stained her skin red and green (of course).

Easter

 Ben asked me why we have Easter eggs.  I told him I didn't know because Easter is really a celebration of Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the grave.  He decided that he needed to draw crosses on all our plastic eggs so that we would remember what Easter is really about.

Last night he wrote this about Easter: HDFU (He died for us).