Who stole the cookie(S), in the cookie jar?

Kate...and she got caught!

After discovering the height the oven gave her, Kate moved on to bigger and better things. She now pushes our kitchen chairs EVERYWHERE she goes.....over and over and over and over again! There is NEVER a rest with Kate in our home. She fell off the chair yesterday and bruised her forehead. Did it stop her from doing it again minutes later? NO! She has a LARGE scratch on the other side of her forehead from her second fall. She hit the entertainment center on her way down. Mom is very lucky she didn't hit even a tad harder or we would have been on our way to the ER for stitches. In his prayers last night, Ben said a prayer for Kate's forehead! I promise I do not neglect her. If you don't believe me, come on over. It won't take long for you to understand! FYI: She is taking a nap right now...the only time I get anything done. Despite it all....she is still SO darn cute and we wouldn't trade her or her personality for the world.

One DETERMINED little girl!

What am I going to do with this little girl? I gave her a dorito, set the closed bag on the stovetop and went into the front room with Ben. A minute later I heard what sounded like a chip bag in the kitchen. This is what I found. She was SOOOOO proud of herself. I couldn't help but smile for a second and snap a picture before I scolded her and counted my blessings the oven was NOT on. She has never opened the oven before, but obviously figured out that it would give her that extra height she craved today. She is ALWAYS on the GO and has NO fear!

Odds & Ends Before the New Year

Christmas seemed to fly by this year. Before the New Year rings in, I wanted to post a few pictures of our Christmas festivities. These first two pictures are from our Welcome Home Party for Rob(from Iraq) and Sam (from the hospital). Jae and Amanda drove up from Texas on their way to Utah, Mike and Christina from Norman and Randy from Lawton. Ben tried on all 48 pounds of Rob's body armor and the Behrmann men posed together for a quick family shot.


These next pictures are of Ben and Kate on Santa's lap. Ben enjoyed himself and was very thrilled that Santa "just knew his name without him even having to tell him." As for Kate, I will let the picture speak for itself.


We spent Christmas Eve with just our little family. Ben and Kate had fun making cookies with Daddy for Santa, reading the Christmas story from the Bible, watching the Nativity Movie and reading Polar Express, all in their new pajamas.


On Christmas Day, Rob and Di and family and Mike and Christina and family came to our home for the day. We enjoyed a great meal together and had fun visiting and playing Natalee and Katherine's new Wi and Rockband games. Ben was especially good at the boxing game and gave David a run for his money. While playing the guitar, Ben said, "I don't need help, I can rock it!" And he certainly did! Much better than both of his parents ever could.



We had a wonderful Christmas and wish all of you a Wonderful New Year!

And here is our "Life According to Ben" Section: 2007-2008!

Karen: "Do you love mommy?" Ben: "My love daddy better."

My OB is Dr. Goff. Ben calls the Dr.'s office the "Dr.'s Goffice."

Nurse Practioner: "Looks like Kate's cord will fall off any day now." Ben: "That's not her cord, that's her penis."

Karen: "Do you like my hair today?" Ben: "It's beautiful, just like the sun."

Karen: "What color are your eyes?" Ben: "White and brown, just like Daddy's underwear."

Karen: "I won't let it touch your chest." (speaking of a cold washrag while wiping his face). Ben: "I don't have a chest. You have a big one, with lots of milk for Kate. Daddy doesn't have one either."

Ben: (after several minutes of attempting to go to the bathroom on the toilet): Yelling to me in the kitchen: "Mom, it's not working! My penis must be sleeping."

Ben has an Aunt Di from Thailand. Speaking of her today he asked: "Where is my Thai Di?"

While upside down doing a headstand at his YMCA tumbling class. Instructor: "I can see your belly button Ben." Ben: "I have a penis too." One of the other mothers told me this yesterday. She said it took awhile for the teacher and all of the moms to control their laughter. I missed it, but can picture it perfectly.

Preface: We don't have cable. We are STILL poor college students. Ben: "Mom, how come Diego doesn't like to come to our TV? He comes to Aunt Dis and Madeleines." I took him to the library to check out some Diego movies. Problem solved.

While playing with toy animals Ben asked them: "Are you done hyper mating?" I believe he was trying to ask if they were done hibernating.

After saying a phrase we never say, Karen: "Where did you learn that from?" Ben: "PBS kids, where a kid can be a kid."

While watching TV, Ben: "Mom you are blocking my interview!" Can you tell its interview season for David?

Asking to eat another gobstopper, Ben: "Can I have a go stop?"

Ben had some friends over to play tonight. Karen: "Ben, tell them what you did in your soccer game today." Ben: "I scored a girl."

Ben took off his clothes and is running around the front room naked. David walks in the room. Karen: "Put your clothes back on." Ben: "It's okay mom, daddy is one of our people. He can see my bum. He is one of us."

While working on going #2, Ben yelling to me: I'm going to need some raisins in here!"

After finishing his YMCA swim lesson, while walking out of the pool, Ben YELLS to me: "Mom, I didn't even pee in the pool." Apparently he has in the past and now everyone knows it!

Preface: I recently bought Ben the go fish card game. We have been playing it alot. Today David was looking for the garage door opener when we were in the driveway. We always let Ben open and shut it. He likes to push the botton. David: "Ben do you have the opener?" Ben: "Nope, go fish."

Kate has learned how to open the DVD player. She scratched Ben's diego movie. In order to prepare him that it might not work anymore I explained to him the situation as he was beginning to watch it. He stopped me mid sentence and said, "If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't." Now if I can just get him to transfer that attitude to all aspects of his life.

While on the phone cancelling a family picture appointment. Karen: "I won't be able to reschedule at this point. My kids have pink eye." A Yelling Ben: "I don't have pink eye. I have red eye and Kate has blue eye." He was correct. His eyes were pretty red and Kate did not yet have it, I just knew she would eventually. Just like David, he doesn't miss a thing.

Sitting at a stoplight Ben spotted the lady next to us smoking. Ben: "Smoke isn't bad for her body, just mine." Karen: "Yes it is Ben. Its bad for everyone's body." Ben: "How come she is smoking then?" Karen: "Some people don't know that Jesus and Heavenly Father don't want us to smoke." Ben: "Mom (pause).....is she a stranger?" Karen: "Yes. We don't know her." Ben: "Does she have candy?"

The other morning as David was headed out the door he told Ben to give him a hug. He explained that he wouldn't see him until the next day because he was on call at the hospital that night. Ben looked at David with big, wide eyes and said, "Daddy, you get to have a sleepover?" David smiled and said, "Yep." The next day when David returned Ben ran to the door and said, "Daddy did you have a great time at your sleep-over?" We no longer refer to David as being on call in our home. He just gets to go to lots of sleepovers. A much more positive outlook.

Karen: "Can I have one of your reese's pieces?" Ben: "Um, no. They are very special to me...(Pause)...my daddy gave them to me."

Ben:(While running to the muted TV and pointing to Obama speaking) "That's a rock Obama, mom." Karen: (In shock because we seldom talk politics in our home and never include first names). "Who is he?" Ben: "He tells people what to do and what not to do." Karen: "Oh yeah, like what?" Ben: "Um stuff like, don't play in the mud." Karen: "Did you learn about him at school?" Ben: "Nope, just TV." Ben is a sponge! A good reminder for me to regulate what he absorbs!

After watching the video clip of Rob and Sam on the news 2 times: Ben: "Mom, Uncle Rob is a super hero!"

While opening the attic to get down the Christmas tree....Ben: "Mom, is uncle Rob in there? I haven't seen him in a loooong time!" For those of you who don't know Uncle Rob is serving a 15 month deployment in Iraq.

Sammy's Miracle Makes the News!

On Christmas Day the channel 9 news crew came to Rob and Di's home to cover Sammy's Christmas Miracle story. They said they had received a few calls from people in the area telling them about Sam and Rob. Click on this link and it should take you to the news website. Click on the video above the picture of Nat and Kat holding the sign they made for Rob at the airport and after watching the Mathis Brothers commercial you should be able to see their "Answered Prayers" segment. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas this week. If you did not receive my Christmas card, I will post it here for you to read. Hopefully you can make out the words. Doubel click on the card and it will be magnified.

I also wanted to thank all of you who have helped in anyway this past week while my nephew Samuel was in the hospital with pneumonia. I will forever remember the many acts of kindness and service on his and his families behalf. We are surrounded by good people who have become our family. Samuel is home now, with not only his mother and big sisters, but his father who was granted an emergency return from his deployment in Iraq. Christmas of 2008 for me will be the year Sammy brought his family together for Christmas. Something only he could do....an answer to many prayers and nothing short of a true Christmas miracle. Treasure your families and friends this Christmas season. May you find Christ in your Christmas.

My baby is 4!

Friday was Ben's 4th birthday. How time has flown by. It seems just like yesterday that I was trying to wake David up at 3 am and convince him that my water really had broken 5 weeks ahead of schedule. Ben was 3# 15 oz when we brought him home from the hospital just 3 days later. And now he is 4! We had a great weekend celebrating Ben's special day. David had friday and saturday off. On friday morning we made pancakes together, his favorite breakfast. Then we headed over to Pump It Up to play. On the way home we drove to 3 different Redboxes trying to find Kung Fu Panda. I finally convinced frugal David to go to blockbuster and rent it there before we burned all our gas money. Of course seconds after renting it there our friend called from the ONE redbox we hadn't gone to, to report they DID have it. I long for the day when money won't have to be such an issue in the little choices of our life. But knowing us, we will still hunt for the deals. Ben loved the movie and watched it twice in a row. Then off to Toys R Us where Ben played for 2 hours, telling us everything Santa should bring him. We went to Red Robin for dinner before heading home. On saturday Ben had a great birthday party. We took his soccer team and his cousin Elijah to the local fire station and had a great tour. The firemen were great with the kids and they loved it. David and I stayed up until 1 am the night before making Ben a unique firetruck cake. It was far from perfect, but we had fun making it and Ben loved it. We had a great weekend and enjoyed every minute together.

99 Balloons

I love this video on youtube. I saw it on the Oprah show on tuesday and wanted to share it with anyone interested. It is a father talking to his son Eliot, a baby born with trisomy 18. My little sister, Sarah, was born with trisomy 18. It was so positive and gave me a little glimpse into what life may have been like for her...a miracle and an angel. Grab a kleenex and enjoy.