Kyle's 12th Birthday, LAMposium, and Spring Break!

It seems like there is always something going on at the Benich household. Try as I might, I never seem to keep up with more timely posts.

Somehow, our baby boy is now twelve years old.  (Next year will certainly be interesting, surviving in a household with two teenagers... yikes!)  He decided for a repeat with a request for monkey bread for his cake again.



His grandparents got his some great birthday gifts.  From Grandma Kathe and Grandpa Babe, he got an awesome leather jacket which he loves.



And from Papa and Dinah Grandma he got a hard-shell guitar case, which he has been wanting for quite a while.



We got him a couple of new songbooks, and the new LEGO Batman 3 game.  Unfortunately, free weekends are few and far between -- so his video game sleepover with his buddies for his birthday will have to come later.

Let's here it for some new songs!



Delaney has been super busy with school, soccer, visiting colleges and lifting.  Here is a video of her lifting for a Personal Record:



This year's LAMposium was in Chicago again and actually started on Kyle's birthday.  Kenny left to help thoughout the entire event, while the kids and I didn't head up to Chicago until later.



We had to get through the remainder of the week, especially Delaney's fun midterms!  Ugh!  But, it was soooo nice to make it through Friday.  We finally got a good night's rest that evening, then left Saturday around lunchtime to have time to help set up and attend the LAM gala that evening.  Many friends and family met up with us there, here is a group shot:



Delaney's friend Sam was able to come with again and help out for the second year in a row.  They do have clothes that aren't only soccer-related.  But while attempting to take a picture, they got photo bombed by Uncle Ed.


 
 They didn't let that stop them though.  They dress up nice, don't they!  :-)



Everyone had a great time!!!


 

 

 

 


We wanted to say thank you again for your support of our family and the LAM Foundation.  At the LAMposium Conference, there were over 100 scientists, clinicians and doctors gathered together to talk about the research being done and to talk with over 150 patients and family members.  At the Breath of Hope Gala over $200,000 was raised to help find better treatments and a cure.  We were the top raffle sellers once again this year - due to all your support!  We did have a raffle prize winner - a second place vacation package went to the Elo Family.  We appreciate all you do.

Afterwards, we came home a nice week off from school for Spring Break.  The kids and I definitely needed some down time.  We enjoyed some sleeping in, laid back days and thoroughly reveled in not having a schedule to follow.  Believe it or not, the kids actually get a long once in a while too.  Here they are playing a Kinect Dance game:



Then we had a mini-vacation away at a friend's house in St. Joseph, Michigan.
  


Delaney has been experimenting with braiding her hair, and she even did my hair.  I've been letting it grow out and the in between stages are... well, let's just say annoying.



We had a wonderful time relaxing out away from home.  We played a lot of games, I read several books, and we watched some movies too.  Sometimes it seems like we never have time to just chill out.  Delaney has been having a great time with her photo journalism class, and she is really enjoying taking photos lately.  While Kenny and the kids were out walking, she took a bunch of pictures (she even contributed several photos to the blog today).


 

 

 

 

 

 


She's doing a great job, isn't she?  Maybe we can take over all the official photography duties!  Woo-hoo!

I think Loki was more than a little lonely while we were gone, and he was super attentive and such a little purr-baby for a few days.  At least he wasn't like this:



I wish he didn't have such an over-developed stranger-danger sense.  Our neighbor was helping us out with him, and she said she he is so cute she wanted to pet him -- but he was having NONE of it.  (* sigh *)

I think next time he just wants to come with us.  Here he was when were packing:



He's so funny!  Enjoy!

~Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle
 

We Are Still Here!

Yes, we are still here. The holiday madness is just too much.  I was completely overwhelmed and exhausted.  But, we did make it through.  We did have a wonderful holiday break, that just went by way too fast.  We got some great family pictures:


 

 
And Dee even wanted some with her fur baby:


 

 
Who let her know when he was done with the photo shoot:


 
We also got some nice pictures with Great Grandma Imogene and the grandkids:


 

 
I had made a bunch of Christmas pillows as gifts:


 
and Great Grandma seemed to enjoy hers:


 
and everyone got some great gifts:


 

 
including Loki, who was completely spoiled:


 

 

 

 

 
I am getting a little brave with sewing and made gifts for Mom and Dad:


 

 
And Kyle even played some Christmas songs with Kenny's side of the family:


 

 

 
 Delaney even used one of her gifts to make cupcakes for a holiday party with her friends:


 
After all the holiday hoop-la, we just chilled out.  We slept in, played video games, went to see The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (after watching the first two first again)... basically just relaxed and had a great break. I also did another holiday puzzle.  Delaney was supposed to do it with me, but she decided it was more difficult than she anticipated.  I got a little help from her and from Kenny, but mainly it was all me.  It was the first puzzle I had done where the colors were pretty much the same throughout.  Looking at the picture on the box, was pretty much useless. 


 
Hard to believe, but it was New Year's Eve already.  The kids and I were ready to take the reigning champ down (Kenny) -- let the games begin!  Kenny pulled out a slew of games for everyone to pick from:


 
And the competition was on:


 

 

 

 

 

 

 
And Loki even was playing with us, look how much he grew since the previous New Year's:


 
And the final results, here are the wins:


 

 

 


Lady luck was my friend that night!  Kenny was dethroned; I was the undisputed champion of the evening.  And the kids were bummed.  That's right, bummed.  Not happy at ALL that Kenny wasn't the winner, they were upset that THEY weren't the ones who brought him down.  So much for our pact!  Here is my pile of winning games:



I'd have to say, what a great start to the 2015!  And with the new year, Delaney started up soccer once again.  She had a soccer combine to attend on her birthday, January 4th.  Then a tournament in Fort Wayne (at least it was indoors). 



Snowstorm time!  We got quite the snowstorm very quickly.  Kiddos even missed a few days of school!  Which is really fun at the time, but not all that great when you lose days later. 


 

 

 
Then school was back into full swing.  Delaney had semester finals, Kyle had the Taft Beach Bash, and of course, Delaney had soccer practices with Three Lions United.  Kyle is also doing great with his reading.  He has read all 20 of the Hoosier books and has over 660 points.  When he hit 500 points, he was able to get a new video game.  He chose Destiny.  Now he is reading a huge book by Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings.  We had read his first book written for young adults, The Rithmatist and loved it.  So we thought we'd try another series, since it wasn't specifically geared for young adults I read it first to make sure it was okay.  I loved it, and it was perfectly fine for Kyle.  So he's over halfway through now, and when he is done -- this ONE book is worth 58 AR points!  Crazy, huh?



And it was time to celebrate Great Grandma's 93rd birthday!  We were all able to get together on her birthday, January 17th.  We met at Marcella's and had some yummy garlic rolls and pizza, and Danah made her a beautiful cake.  We made Grandma a "snuggie" for her gift.



All our immediate family birthdays are in the first quarter.  So we've already had Dee's, then it was time for Kenny's.  Since we really never had a chance to celebrate Dee's, we had a belated get-together for her birthday and celebrated Kenny's at the same time at Tequila Restaurante.  Then, of course, the snowstorm hit and basically we were stuck at home for his actual birthday.  At least we had cake!!!



Now, if I could just keep on top of these a little better -- they wouldn't be so long! Oh well, there are times that I wish I could be a cat.  I want to be adored pretty much all the time, sleep pretty much all the time and eat without worries.  (* sigh *)


 


Hopefully we will post again sooner, rather than later!  Enjoy!

Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle