Benjamin Add-Ons

*Sorry if these two posts are long. Feel free to skip/skim whenever you want. I try to add as much as I can b/c I'm using this as a journal/scrapbook of sorts so that we can look back at all the wonderful things that happen as our kids grow up and so we can remember things we may otherwise forget.*

After I posted the one below, I remembered some funny things about Benjamin that I wanted to post. The other was so long that I thought I would just do one more entry so I wouldn't forget the sweet things he did tonight......

Dave and I have been praying with him when we put him to bed at night and I usually have him say "Dear God, thank you for...." and let him add people/things. He says someone and I say "and" until he covers everyone and then I say, "and Jesus" if he didn't mention Him and he repeats and then we usually say, "Love you God. Amen." Well tonight I did that with him and then after we were done I asked him to give me a big hug and he didn't respond. Instead he started saying something over and over. After a few times I figured out he was saying, "Dear God" and his eyes were closed. So I said, "Oh, you're going to pray some more." Without responding to me, he kept saying, "Dear God" five more times or so and then on HIS OWN said, "Thank you for Momma. Thank you for Daddy. Thank you for Anna. Thank you for Benjamin. Amen" My heart about burst open, it was the sweetest thing I've ever heard!!!! I'm so proud of him!

After I told him how good a job he did praying all by himself and explained that he could pray/talk to God whenever he wanted I kissed and hugged him goodnight and left thinking he would go to sleep without a problem like he usually does. I went next door to take care of my neighbor's dogs and when I came back, Dave told me that Benjamin had gotten out of bed and talked for awhile and tried to get out (we have a child lock on his door b/c putting him to bed became a game of him coming out of his room over and over). But that he had quieted down on his own and he hadn't heard him since. We thought we should check on him just to make sure he had gotten back to bed okay. Well thank goodness I'm in the habit of opening the door slowly (b/c he's usually sitting there waiting for me when he wakes up). When I tried to open the door, I couldn't b/c the poor guy was lying there asleep in front of it!!!! I pushed the door softly again and it didn't move, so I had no other choice but to call out to him until he woke up and stood up out of the way. Poor thing! I'm so glad we thought to check on him, or he would have probably spent the night sleeping on the floor!!!!

What sweet/funny kids I have! I'm so blessed!

Elephant 2.0

I was starting to look online for possible costumes for Benjamin the other day for Halloween. We assumed Anna would be an elephant like Benjamin was for his first Halloween. However, when I decided to go get the costume out to give it a look over for Anna I discovered that it was 12 months instead of 6-9 months like I thought it was. I figured since Anna's only 2 months younger than Benjamin by the calendar year, that they could share the costume since it's so cute. What I forgot was that we bought 12 months for Benjamin b/c we were afraid it wouldn't fit over his head (and it barely did btw). So we were a little disappointed to realize that Anna wouldn't get to be an elephant for Halloween, but I decided to put the costume on her anyways, just for kicks! :) It was humongous on her and I'm pretty sure will still be too big 3 months from now, so I went ahead and took some pictures of her, I thought it was pretty funny! :)

Here's a reminder of how cute Benjamin was as an elephant.....

We gave Anna actual food for the first time today. I've been pureeing fruits and vegetables and hiding them in food for Benjamin recently, so I'm just going to use the same method and make my own baby food for Anna this time around. So I just grabbed a frozen ice cube shaped sweet potato and microwaved it. She seemed to really enjoy it and it was super easy (and super cheap compared to buying the pre-made stuff).

Here's Benjamin getting in on the action! I was surprised, but when I asked him if he wanted to feed her, he came right over and did it! Such a big brother!

Dave let Benjamin take a picture of me feeding Anna too...turned out pretty good for a 2 year old, I think!

Anna really did a good job and ate the food really well! It was funny though b/c it took forever to feed her b/c she would take the bite of food and just hold it in her mouth. I think she liked the taste of it so much that she just wanted to keep it in her mouth! She seemed to like this way better than the cereal! Here she is holding it in her mouth before swallowing it! Such a funny little girl!


I'd appreciate if you'd pray for my little girl. I took her to the Dr. today b/c she's been spitting up a lot for the past 2 weeks and this week she's been really fussy and not sleeping well plus she's gotten a bit of a cough. Well the Dr. had to remove a bunch of wax and found she had a pretty irritated ear that was infected. So we started antibiotics today. He thinks she also is having some acid reflux with all the spitting up she's been doing and that it's probably irritating her. So if she's not gotten less irritable by Monday after being on the antibiotics, we're going to start her on some medicine for that too. She continues to amaze us though with her weight gain! Even with all the spitting up she's been doing, she still gained 3 oz from last week! So we know she's getting all her body needs, we just don't want her to be in pain or discomfort. So say a little prayer for my baby if you will, that she would feel better soon and that Dave and I would be able to get more rest (we've been up to 12 am or later pretty much every evening with her this week).

Well, I better head off to bed. Anna was so tired from crying after her Dr. appt. that we already have her asleep and so we should follow so we can rest up for tomorrow. We're headed to Louisville for our 5 year Anniversary to stay in the hotel we stayed at after we got married. We're excited to be celebrating five wonderful years that God has blessed up with together! Happy Anniversary Hubby! I love you more than you will ever know....

Look Who's Sitting Up.....

It's Anna!!!! She sat up quite a few times this evening for a few minutes at a time. This is the first time she had done that, so we were quite excited! Dave was very happy that he was here for it too! :)



And here are just some fun naked baby pictures.....





Daddy/Daughter Time


Kiss-fest!

Another Pretty Dress

Anna looked so pretty in the dress she wore for church today, that I couldn't resist posting some more pictures of her. She was really happy this afternoon, so I got a lot of really cute pictures of her smiling....

I couldn't resist getting some video too...she was just so happy!

Five Months Old

Here's my cupcake last night! Isn't she a cutie-pie??? She likes to roll onto her stomach like this and she enjoys herself and even though she knows how to roll back over, she gets frustrated b/c she can't get herself to move how she wants to. I think she's ready to start crawling!!!!

Can you believe it? Anna's five months old today!!!!!!

My cousin got married today and we had a great time there. I thought this picture was funny b/c Dave and Anna were both making funny faces!

All four of us all dressed up!

Benjamin has so much fun with Katie. He especially enjoys time with her now that she has a baby and so she can't always play with him all the time. Here they are enjoying some quality time together.....

Here's my beautiful cousin, Stephanie. She was a very pretty bride. I think her hair was prettier than any other bride I'd ever seen. You can't see all of it here, but it was gorgeous! Congrats Stephanie and Seth. We pray you have a lifetime of happiness together! Anna was so amazed by her, she must have thought she was really pretty too! :)

Here's my Mom and her sister, Diana, the mother-of-the-bride....


When we got home I had to get a picture of Benjamin in his outfit. He looked so grown up to me! He had a really great time and danced the night away!

And Anna was very pretty in her dress too! It's a little wrinkled now, but she still pulls it off I think! :)

Siblings, Food, and Other Randomness

Maddox and Benjamin joined Anna on her activity mat and even though she got scooted way over, I think she enjoyed the company!


Anna's new favorite past time is taking her paci out, holding it in front of her and talking to it! It's pretty funny...except when you're trying to get her to go to sleep!


We've had a lot of fun in the mornings here this week. Benjamin loves to go get Anna when she wakes up and the two of them lay on my bed together just talking to each other and being silly! It's so sweet to watch!


I took this picture to show how long Anna is. Their feet are lined up so you can see how tall she is compared to Benjamin (who I think is also pretty tall)! Crazy, huh?


Bike time!


More sibling loving!

He was so pleased that she was holding his hand!



Don't you just love fun summer foods? Enjoying some juicy watermelon....

and a really big corn on the cob! And yes, he ate the whole thing!

Anna had fun eating last night too! She got her first baby food (cereal). At first, I think Anna and Benjamin were a little confused to see what was going on!

"What is this Daddy?" Dave enjoys getting to be the first one to feed our kids baby food, since I'm the only one that gets to feed them at first. It's a special little tradition of ours. Anna wasn't too thrilled at first, as you can see....

But after a few bites, she started to like it. It was funny b/c she didn't let Dave feed her too much. As he would bring each bite to her, she would grab the spoon before he could get it to her mouth! It was pretty funny! Someone is trying to grow up too fast on us!

One last note, I wanted to post how sad I was to learn that Randy Pausch passed away today. I don't know if you've heard of him and the speech/book of his "The Last Lecture." I really enjoyed the book and think it was full of great advice. I would encourage anyone to read it. It's not too long and reads pretty fast. My prayers go out to Randy's wife and their three young children. They are loosing a great man. He was such an optimist and the world will miss the ultimate "Tigger."

Buddies

We went over to Benjamin's friend's Maddox (and our friends', Maddox's parents) house. They went swimming and when we stopped for dinner, the weather turned on us and we couldn't swim anymore. They were sad, but they still had so much fun together. We stripped them both out of their wet clothes and they just ran around playing and wrestling in their diapers! It was the cutest thing!

Isn't this the sweetest picture you've ever seen?

Say, "Cheese!!!!"

Silly times!

I thought this was funny b/c the boys are both in their diapers and they're watching America's Funniest Videos and it's a little girl putting frogs in her diaper. :)

We feel very blessed to have Brian, Ryan, and Maddox in our lives!

Charleston Vacation

We made it back home! Yea! We decided to go ahead and leave Saturday after we got back from the beach and the kids did such a good job we ended up driving the whole way (~10 hours) and got into my parents' house about 2 am! Since we left later in the day the kids went to sleep and we didn't have to stop as much and actually only stopped twice! We are very thankful for how good they were and that we made it home safely!

We had an absolutely wonderful time in Charleston. We love that city so much! I got sooooo many great pictures! So be prepared, there's a lot here!

Aquarium

First up, we headed to the aquarium. That was Benjamin and my favorite place to go when we lived there. It stunk that Dave couldn't go, but it was still really cool being there with a 2 1/2 year old instead of a baby! I think he was still tired from the time in TN, b/c he didn't seem to enjoy himself too much. I'll go ahead and spoil it and tell you that most of the pictures where he's smiling I worked hard for and had to be super silly! We still had fun though. This is Benjamin waving at the diver in the big tank....

I was able to get Benjamin to have more fun once I got Anna to sleep and could focus on him. I think Anna enjoyed it more then too! :)

Pointing at the octopus...

Big fish....fake smile....still a cool picture!

This picture is kind of bittersweet for me. This is my favorite place in all of Charleston to get pictures (it's the back of the aquarium). So it was great to get some, but I missed Dave not being in them!

Benjamin really loved being out here too. I think part of why he didn't seem to enjoy the aquarium was b/c it was a rainy day and there were so many people there. So I think he enjoyed some space!

Now he can sit on the turtle all by himself!

We love downtown, but had done that so many times and weren't interested in shopping or anything so we decided to try something new and took a carriage ride! It was great! Benjamin loves horses, so he of course loved riding on this! This is his smile as we first started moving! It was so sweet! Dave and I enjoyed it too b/c we got to see the whole downtown without having to walk it with two kids and we learned a lot of things we didn't know!

Going for a stroll downtown after eating at my favorite restaurant, Blossom. I thought Anna looked like a little southern belle in her hat! :)


Later that night in our awesome hotel, I got some great naked baby pictures!

Beach Time

It wasn't raining on Tuesday, so after Dave got off work, we headed to the beach! Benjamin had the time of his life! We went back on Saturday too (but I forgot my camera :( ) and he had so much fun both times! He would get upset when I would tell him we have to go back and get Daddy so they can have a turn! He just didn't want to leave the ocean! He loved standing in the water and waiting until the waves came and then having Dave or I lift him over the wave. He would just laugh and laugh!

Daddy's turn!


Anna's first trip to the beach!

Benjamin also really loved sitting in the water and throwing the sand. Doing this activity successfully got the sand EVERYWHERE and yes I do mean EVERYWHERE!

Benjamin cried so hard when it was time to leave! This is him crying/yelling "Bye Beach!" It was so sad!

Shem Creek
After the beach we went to another favorite restaurant of ours that is on a creek that fishing boats come in and out of. The sunsets there are amazing!

Anna found her feet about 3 weeks ago and has been playing with them all the time now!


Tickle time.......


Benjamin's turn!

Old playground

I took Benjamin back to the playground we used to go to one morning. It was weird seeing him being able to do all the stuff when before all he would do is hold my hand and walk around watching all the kids. He had a great time there and didn't seem to notice that he had been there many times before! :)

Making his "stinker face" almost 2 years ago.....

Battery

Here's some of the rainbow houses downtown on our way to the battery.

This was Benjamin's absolute favorite part of the trip to Charleston. He is still talking about the pineapple water fountain! Every day after we went here he would tell us that's what he wanted to do. It was pretty funny. He doesn't look too happy in this picture b/c the water was a little cold, but I promise he loved it!

Anna and Daddy sat this one out!

On his way to another water fountain!

Dave edit: Picture caption should read "Come on everybody, we're going streakin"


We made him take a detour though and go out on the pier first.

He only stayed in this one for about 2 minutes b/c a big kid accidentally splashed him and he was too scared to get back in after that. Oh well!

Round two in the pineapple one!

Hugging a Palm Tree, I'm sure he was thinking, "I love the Palmetto State!" When we got back in the car, Dave said, "You're not going to make him a tree hugger are you?"


Children's Museum

On our last day, I took the kids to the children's museum. Benjamin had a great time. He played with almost everything. He especially loved this water exhibit! That's him in the yellow apron. If you look in front of him you will see his loot. He had this big fish that he would play with and wait for a boat to float over to him. Once it did, he wouldn't play with it, he'd just line it up in front of him! I'd feel bad for the other kids except that the whole rest of the time we were there the bigger kids were mean to him and would take what he was playing with. He was so passive and nice he would just give it up! Poor thing!

They have a grocery store set up that is pretty much just like a real store and you put things in your cart and then you can scan all the items at the check-out. He thought it was great fun to get to push his cart around and put whatever he wanted in the cart!

This was in the toddler room. Before, this was the only room where he could do any of the stuff!

Anna enjoying her feet at the museum!


Pool Time

Our hotel had an indoor pool in it that we enjoyed several times. Benjamin had a great time and even started trying to float!

Road Trip

The kids were so great and made the trip back home so easy on us! Here's Benjamin fast asleep! Bye bye Charleston!