Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

I finally got my Christmas video finished! It took me almost three days of work, but finally got it done! Not overly happy with the music, but I was in a hurry to get it done and don't really care :)

This Christmas brought LOTS of new challenges - SNOW for one thing, WIND, NO POWER and people being stuck because of the snow! This has definitely been a Christmas to remember!

Take a look at A Benson Family Christmas! WARNING it is a bit long...but very silly and enjoyable!!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hope you guys all have a HAPPY NEW YEAR! We're having our annual New Years Party, but this year its going to be really small - maybe 10 people. Gone are the days of 40+ people for several days!! *SIGH*! And it's looking like it will just be me, Erin & Alex of 'my' people that will be there! Zak & Jaime aren't sure if they are coming yet - all depends on how Jaime is feeling....so we'll see. If not Erin, Alex & I will have fun on our own!!

Baby Emmalee's Arrival -- Take 2

We had another exciting evening last night - it's been over a week since this excitement ... Baby Emmalee's Arrival -- Take 1!! Alex & I spent the night at Jaime's house last night to help get her to her doctor appointment this morning at 10am. All evening she had contractions about 3-6minutes apart. We all went to bed and at about 11:30 I woke up to hear Jaime on the phone with the hospital. They sent her in to be checked right away.

Unfortunately, they sent her home a short time later. She was having contractions but wasn't progressing at all, so she could go home. She continued to have contractions all through the night and then at her appointment today.The doctor told her that she was having contractions, but unfortunately they weren't 'real' - causing her to dialate - and they would just be uncomfortable but they wouldn't be accomplishing anything!!

Her doctor is hopeful she will deliver in the next week, but who knows! Jaime continues to just hang in 'limbo' and waits! So back to waiting we go!! But luckily she is officially 37 weeks and therefor FULLTERM tomorrow!! Dr. Eagan also informed her that she wouldn't be able to schedule an elective induction until 39 weeks. But for sure she'll deliver in the next 3 weeks! Getting closer tho!

I'm working on my Christmas Post and hope to get it posted tomorrow!!

My BIG CHRISTMAS SURPRISE .... REVEALED!

Okay, who can forget these three posts where I left you all hanging on WHY I needed that dumb fire wire chord from Radio Shack. Let's take a walk back down memory lane shall we...

Nov.29 -- String of Bad Computer Luck
Nov.30 -- More Computer Bad Luck
Dec.1 -- TMI I'm sure & More Bad Computer Luck w/ a little bit of good mixed in!

So Brandi & I made a 35minute long video of our Caribbean Cruise we went on as a family this past February!! We got it printed & put onto DVDs for gifts for my parents, Brandi's parents and our Grandma! It's long, but if you have time it's definitely funny!! We had several thousands of photos to choose from, but our video options weren't great - but what I can say we're amateur's! Now we know for our next cruise in 2010 what we should focus on!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I'm still working on the Christmas one - hopefully I'll get it done soon!

EXCELLENT Christmas!

Everyone has now gone home after a week of Christmas, windstorm, no power, snow storm partying!! It's sad to see everyone leave, but it also finally gave me time to sit down and write this post!! For Christmas (and really the past week) we've had 13 people, 2 cats and 3 LARGE dogs all living at my house. Needless to say it's been a full and crazy house - but I wouldn't want it anyother way! In my opinion the crazier the better! On to what I'm sure everyone wants to see...what I got for Christmas (haha)!!

Cori's Christmas Loot

The highlights were definitely the Coach Purse & Caribbean Cruise from my Grandma and the digital video camera from my parents!! I totally scored as you can see and I even got 3 (yes THREE) alarm clocks!! Apparently my family feels I sleep to much - LOL!

Our FAMILY GIFT this year was the wonderful TOBI steamer! If you haven't seen the infomerical for it you're missing out! I haven't got a chance to try it out yet - but plan on doing it soon!! I LOVE this gift!

AMY: Here is my purse!! Took this picture just for you!! For once your jealous of me - lol!!

It's kind of sad that Christmas is over now!! However, I still have a pile of gifts in my room that I need to give out, so Christmas isn't quite over for me - yay!! But with Christmas being over it brings our big New Years Party in a few days and then of course the birth of baby Emmalee! So there is still a lot of things to look forward to in the coming weeks!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas filled with fun and great memories!!! Stay tuned (maybe tomorrow) for my Christmas video!!

Top 5 Memorable Christmas Gifts of All Time!!

Over the past month or so I've been making a list of the top 5 gifts I have been given over the years and why!! It was hard to narrow it down to just 5 items, but I did it!! These gifts range from A LONG time ago to more RECENT!! Let's take a trip down memory lane....DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

In the 5th Spot .... CELL PHONE (2003)


The Christmas after I turned 16 my parents surprised me by getting me a phone. They had told me they weren't buying me one...blah blah blah...but they went against their initial feelings and got this for me for Christmas!

In the 4th Spot .... KITTEN (Sugar) (1995)


I remember it being late on Christmas Eve and my mom suddenly saying "I have to go into work". I thought that was odd, but didn't think much of it. The next morning Kelly & I woke up ran downstairs to see what Santa had left us and we didn't even notice my mom & dad had got us a baby kitten!! How cool is that!! I even got to name her...Sugar! She looked similar to the picture to the left!!

In the 3rd Spot .... SAMANTHA an American Girl Doll (1993)

I wanted this doll so bad, but she was sooooo expensive ($100) that my parents refused to buy it for me! I'd read all of the books and my best friend already had one - so that year I asked Santa for a Samantha doll!! Boy was I surprised when I woke up Christmas morning and Santa had brought me Samantha! Kelly even got one, Felicity, so we had fun playing together!

In the 2nd Spot .... NORTH FACE JACKET (2005)

All year I looked and looked and looked at this jacket, but never could bite the bullet and buy one. So I was ecstatic to see that my parents remembered and I got one as a Christmas gift! I have gotten more wear out of the jacket then any other coat I've ever owned! Two years later and I still wear it almost daily!! My parents feel they got their money's worth out of it!!

And Finally...In the 1st Spot .... BOP IT EXTREME(1996)


I asked for this game for 2 years before I finally got it!! I think I ruined my chances of getting it earlier when I made the mistake of telling my mom when she asked 'what does it do' that you used it to 'bop' each other on the head! So after that, everyone said they would NEVER buy it for me!

But I finally got one for Christmas, I remember it was coincidental the last gift I opened that year and boy was I soooo excited!! And to this day, that is my most memorable Christmas gift!

I didn't include any of the gifts that I got/am getting this year!! The cruise definitely belongs on this list, but I had already started it - so it will have to wait!!

Wishing you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Baby Emmalee's Arrival -- Take 1

Baby Emmalee seems to be ready to come, but it doesn't look like it will be today.

Jaime had contractions all night last night and when she got up this morning they were coming about 3 minutes apart for quite awhile. So since we had so much snow (we have about 2ft right now of snow) we had to call 911 to come and get Jaime to the hospital....while we were getting ahold of 911 Zak & my mom were getting ready to head to Carnation to help with the Hopelink Gift Room. Luckily they hadn't left yet so we told Zak to get back to Grandma's right away.

So he and my mom jumped in the car, only to find it STUCK at my house. Zak has been driving my Grandma's SUV for a week now and has had no problems until now!! So my mom told Zak to "start running to Grandma's, I'll get the car unstuck and meet you there". My mom was able to get a group of neighbors to help move the car and then was able to pickup Zak on the way (I think this is how it happened anyway). One of the people that helped my mom was Mark Harrington, he even offered to let them take their Navigator to get Jaime to the hospital, but at that point they didn't think they needed it.

Zak beat the ambulance to Grandma's and we all sat around in Grandma's room waiting for them. Okay, so some of us (not me) were panicking majorly and running around like chickens with their heads cut off, not naming names tho! When the EMTs finally arrived we found out that they currently didn't have an aid-car as it was already taking a pregnant lady to the hospital. So they had to drive their 'brush truck'. They finally were able to track down an ambulance, but it couldn't make it up the hill into Grandma's neighborhood! So they had to come up with a Plan B.

Plan B included taking Jaime in the brush truck (that only held 2 people) up to meet the ambulance at 150th and Baton Road. Since the second EMT didn't fit in the truck, he stood on the side and held on. But apparently as they turned the corner onto 150th the driver gunned it and the second guy went flying of the truck! Zak also didn't fit in the truck so he was to ride with my mom in Grandma's car and follow the brush truck and meet them at the ambulance. However, my mom wasn't able to get Grandma's car up 150th. So Zak (about 10ft behind the 2nd EMT) had to run up 150th to catch up to the ambulance. Once Zak got there they were off heading towards Evergreen (which by the way took over an hour to go a little more then 20miles!).

My mom and Sue soon realized that Grandma's car no longer was going to cut it in the snow. Apparently it does great in the snow up to like 18" but anything over that it couldn't handle! So they decided to take the Harrington's up on their offer to borrow the Navigator. So they headed back to the Harrington's. Kim wanted to go along (after being stuck in the house with 1-year-0ld triplets for over a week, I'm sure she was itching to go anywhere), so they then had the problem of getting the Navigator out of their driveway. They finally were able to get dug out of the driveway and were also off towards Evergreen.

Once everyone rendezvoused at Evergreen, Kim headed out to do some shopping since they all figured it would be an all day excursion to the hospital. However about an hour later they were ready to release Jaime!! They ate lunch in the hospital cafeteria since Kim was still out shopping and then when she picked them up they all ran some errands before heading up. Once they got home Kim & Jaime decided to go to Princess Nails so Jaime could get her eyebrows done, so they hung out for awhile after!!

Jaime is in labor, but not in active enough labor to be admitted. Delivery will be coming shortly, but they are still hoping to make it to January!! The one nice thing is that Jaime now has been able to test getting to the hospital and now knows that if needed an ambulance can get her there! We'll see when baby Emmalee makes her grand entrance!!

How's that for an exciting day, at least some of them got out of Duvall :)

Panama Canal Cruise - February 20, 2010

Grandma surprised us all today and is taking us on another cruise!!! Yes, the Benson Family is going on a cruise through the Panama Canal in February 2010!!! I can hardly wait!!


We will be traveling aboard the Coral Princess and our itinerary is:


Depart: 2/20/2010 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Day 2: At Sea
Day 3: At Sea
Day 4: Aruba
Day 5: Cartagenia, Columbia
Day 6: Panama Canal, Panama
Day 7: Fuerte Amador, Panama (Panama City)
Day 8: At Sea
Day 9: Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Day 10: At Sea
Day 11: Huatalco, Mexico
Day 12: Aculpoco, Mexico
Day 13: At Sea
Day 14: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Day 15: At Sea
Day 16: Los Angeles, California


The only place I've ever been before is Aruba (one of my favorites!), plus of course Fort Lauderdale & LA!! I cannot wait!! It's still 4 days until Christmas and I cannot think of a better Christmas gift!! Thanks Grandma!

Christmas in Camano - Part III

Madison & I made it home - okay well Madison did, I made a detour and will be staying in Monroe for the evening! I'm so happy that Alec drove us home, because the roads were still pretty scary. As we were getting on I-5 the car in front of us spun out and ended up going the wrong way! Then a little bit before the outlet mall we watched a car going the opposite direction completely lose control and spin into the ditch!! Thanks for getting us home safely Alec, very much appreciated!

This morning, before we left we once again went out in the snow! We were all set to go sledding down the steep hill above the swing set, however after one trip down the driveway in the inflatable inner tube, we realized it had a hole in it! So we tried to go down on it anyway, but it didn't work very well! So we spent a good amount of our time outside playing on the swing set!! I thought I'd share some lovely shots of myself (yes, I am vain ;)) of me jumping off the swing set!

Step 1: Get A Good Swing Going

Step 2: Swing Higher & Higher

Step 3: JUMP!

Step 4: Try Not To Fall!

Step 5: OOPS! To Late!

Thanks again Julia, Alec, Aiden, Connor & MacKenzie for a fun filled week! Madison & I had a great time!!

Christmas in Camano - Part II

The past two days we've gotten about 24" of snow - it is just crazy!! Loving the snow! We've had a lot of fun! Yesterday, we finished decorating cookies and then went out and played in the snow. Today we went out shopping to find snow stuff for the boys and then played out in the snow again!! Here's a glimpse into our last 48hours!

Decorating our Christmas Cookies
After each cookie each of the kids would lick there knives and then re-dip again! It was so nice ... not to mention cleanly as well!

Aiden having fun decorating cookies!

Maddie trying her hand at cookie decorating!

Connor working hard!

Julia asked the kids to show her their tongues...which were very GREEN!

Here is a fun video/slideshow of our snow fun yesterday!! Check it out :)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Tomorrow, Alec is driving me and Maddie home. My mom's car is going to be stuck in Camano for awhile until it thaws out a little bit. But we've had a great visit this past week! LOTS of memories were made, LOTS of cookies were made and LOTS of snow was played in!!

Christmas in Camano!!

Madison & I came up to Camano yesterday and are spending the week here to hang with our friends and give Jaime a break so she doesn't have Emmalee to early...she needs to make it to January! We've only been here a day and a half and have already done a whole ton and had a lot of fun!! All 4 of the kids have played well together and even Julia & I have been nice to each other! Here are a few of the fun things we've done over the past couple days!

Bake Christmas Cookies
We made (okay Julia did) the dough yesterday and the kids & I cut them out today with plans to decorate them this afternoon, but we were out to late and didn't make it home in time, so we'll finish them tomorrow, but here are a few pics of the cutting out of the cookies!

MacKenzie's crazy hair!

Julia's kids went to get their Christmas pictures with Santa today and MacKenzie had her hair in pigtails. Here are a few 'after' the pigtail pictures that I snapped...I thought they were hilarious!

Madison is also obsessed with MacKenzie's tutu!!

Funny Story of the Day:
As we were heading to the mall Aiden & Connor were sure that we passed a 'train restaurant' and wanted so bad to go to it. Neither Julia nor I saw the 'train restaurant', but the boys were so obsessed with it that we finally agreed to go drive back by it to prove to them it wasn't one. Sure enough it was a COFFEE STAND and a TUGBOAT looking one at that! Connor was still convinced it was a Train Resteraunt that Julia had to drive through and ask the employee to tell the kids that 'IT WASN'T A TRAIN RESTAURANT"!! Connor didn't believe us still, so as we were heading back to the mall we passed a CARPET store and once again wanted us to stop there. Julia said NO WAY and we headed to an Italian Restaurant instead!! LOL!

We're supposed to get 7" of snow tonight, so that should be fun! We're also going to finish our Christmas cookies and hopefully play in the snow!! Try and keep warm everyone!!

SNOW Much Fun!

Boy it's cold out!! It currently is 24degrees out, but feels like 16degrees, brrrr!! The high for the next week will be 37deg and the low will be 16deg! Yikes!! We ended up with like 5-6" of snow on the back patio table. But there was very little that stuck to the road. But enough to be very slippery!! I came to Monroe this afternoon and slid down a good part of Stephens Hill. Scary! Thank goodness for Anti-Lock Breaks!

Brandi & I took Madison out to play this evening out in the snow - or as she says the 'no', so here are a few pics of her playing! This was her first real snow experience, and she was very excited to play in it! Here are a few photos that we took before it got to cold and we had to go in!

Heading up to Camano for the week tomorrow! Madison & I are going up tomorrow to hang out. With Jaime on moderate bedrest, it's gonna be hard for her to be watching Maddie - so she gets to go hang out with "her" Kenzie and "the boys" for a couple of days!

Try to stay warm!!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!!

It is SNOWING right now- I love the snow!! Especially when I have no real plans, no tests I have to take, no classes to get to, it's a non-work day...then snow is just fun!! It is now sticking to the roads within the last hour or so, but it's been falling pretty steadily all evening! Here are a couple of pics that I took around 7pm tonight!! It's so pretty!!

Backyard

Front Yard

Decorating Grandma's Tree

Here is a silly video that I put together of decorating my Grandma's Christmas tree last weekend!! My family is just nuts and well ... I guess just watch this and you'll see why!!

Big Sister School

Madison today got to go to "Big Sister School" and learn all about how to be good big sister!! She got to learn to hold a baby, got to visit a room like where Jaime will have the baby in and then make a picture for the baby! Here are a couple of pics that were taken!

"Oh I just love this baby Emmalee so very much, hope she doesn't mind being strangled!"

Yes, that would be Madison 'lasso-ing' the placenta!

"Look Cori, I graduated!"