Benjamin and Anna in Pictures

Our little ones are so full of emotion these days, it's easy to show exactly the things that take place around here with only one or a few pictures needed. Don't even need video to get the point across! :)

Emotion #1: Irritation (Starring both kids!)

Anna has been getting up almost 2 hours earlier than she used to and isn't making up for the sleep anywhere else in the day, so she's been quite sleepy lately. One morning while my amazing hubby was letting me catch a few more Zzzzz's (as it was only 6 am), he documented both kids exhibiting irritation at one another. It starts out innocent enough with both kids side-by-side, enjoying playing with their own computers.........

Then Anna decides Benjamin's computer looks like more fun......

As you can see, this does not sit well with Benjamin........

Benjamin's irritation causes (you guessed it) Anna to be quite irritated by it also.....

Emotion #2: Unembarrassed Joy

Benjamin was slightly confused, but only for a bit when I suggested we have some water fun in our underwear (them, not me!) and skip the bathing suits the other day. It ended up being quite a lot of fun in the heat of the sun and the cool of the pool! The kids were cute and filled the water table up all by themselves.....

As always, they are cute for their close-ups too (even if they are naked!)......

Eventually, the hot sun warmed the pool enough for a fun dip for the kiddos.....

Emotions #3 & 4: Exhaustion and Dazed

After an hour or so in the sun, we came in and I put in a new Veggie Tales tape we got. They completely zonked out on the couch together to the tales of Jonah.

Emotion #5: Attitude (only one picture needed and just starring Anna)

Emotion #6: Silliness

Where's Anna?

There she is!

And always silly!

Ah, oh! We lost her again!

No emotion here, just wanted to show off my handsome son, who's getting big like crazy and starts preschool a week from Tuesday!

Emotion #7: Discovery

Anna has recently discovered how much fun this rocking whale is. I moved it out to the living room today from her room since she's been enjoying it so much. She's also getting more adorable by the second, in case you were interested! She's now singing parts of "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "ABC's"!

In case the whale pictures weren't enough evidence of her adorableness, here's one that should bring the point home! ;)

Emotion #8: Hooked

I put on PBS this morning for a change from Disney Channel cartoons and Benjamin was so happy to watch some new shows. He was glued to the TV, enjoying all the different cartoons. I felt a little guilty letting him watch so many in a row, but at least they were all mostly about reading and letters! Which btw, he's all of sudden showing an interest in. When I would try to teach him letters before, he'd get almost mad at me and say he didn't want to do it. Now he can recognize 5-10 letters! Doesn't he look so huge sitting like this???

Fun FILLED Weekend

and by FILLED, I mean SUPER full!!!! We had one of the fullest weekends I can recall. Saturday, we all headed off to watch Dave swim as part of mini-triathlon. Dave's parents came up to watch Dave and then we headed over to the airport for breakfast/lunch. We then came home for a very quick nap, before heading out to a graduation party and a pool party. The next day, we went to church, came home and had lunch, then drove about an hour and a half for my cousin's Eagle Scout ceremony. By the time we got home late Sunday night, we were all very tired and continue to be today! But it was worth it, b/c we had so much fun!

Early in the morning, before Dave's race the kids were looking at a picture book I made Anna to help her learn all her families' names. Benjamin is a super helper at telling her who's who!


Dave joined a team with two guys from his work to be the swimmer in a mini-triathlon that they had here in town. He swam a half a mile with only two weeks to train and it was his first time competitively swimming in open water.


Go Daddy! Go!!!!


Almost finished!!!!!!!!!!


Getting out of the water. They had all these volunteers to help the swimmers get out b/c it was crazy slippery!

He's off to pass the timer on to the next team member.......

I was terribly proud of him! He did so great!!!!

Pool Party! Watch out, Benjamin will get you!

Poor kid has no body fat and needs lots of warming up after swimming!

Benjamin was off playing with his friend Maddux and an older girl from church, which meant Anna was in heaven!!! She played for a really long time with this kitchen set, completely content to be by herself. She actually cried when we finally pulled her away from her alone time!

Enjoying some cake after the Eagle Scout ceremony. Great job, Joel! We're really proud of you!

Night Time Visitor

Every once in awhile, Benjamin gets up over and over again through the night. I will usually get up once or twice and then I make Dave take over. Last night after several visits, Dave was nice enough to put him back to bed and then go sleep on the couch so that I wouldn't be woken up if Benjamin kept getting up. This morning I found this email in my inbox explaining the night's/morning's activities:


"So I put Benjamin back to bed around 3am and went to sleep on the couch. I set the alarm on your phone and went to bed. I woke up about 6am and turned over to see something rather odd. Right next to me on the couch, curled up in the fetal position and snoring away, was Benjamin. (See camera for photo) He was sleeping so well, I changed my cell phone alarm from 6:30am to 7:15am. If the phone had not gone off at 7:15am, he would have kept sleeping. The best part was the first words he said to me when he woke up. He looked up at me with his squinting sleepy eyes and said with his most sheepish grin....'I slept with you Daddy'. "


As I was loading and editing the pictures, Benjamin came over and gave me an account of the situation also. So cute!


Anna continued to feel pretty yucky yesterday. We were supposed to go to the grocery store as a family, but decided she wasn't up to it. So Benjamin and I went and ate Subway in Wal-mart and then did the shopping just the two of us, while Dave and Anna had quality cuddling time at home. Here's how sad she appeared yesterday:

Pretty miserable, but at least she's styling in her new bows! :)

I know it's still early, but so far she seems much happier today! She got up around her usual time this morning too, so that should really help! I know it makes a difference for me!

Last minute cuteness: As I was finishing up this post, Benjamin looked at this last picture and declared "That the bib Anna wearing right now! See?!?! (pointing to Anna)" in the most amazed voice! :)

Last minute sadness: Benjamin is now in timeout (a mere 3 minutes after this occurred) b/c he took Anna's toy for the millionth time today. And btw, Anna is also sitting in her timeout spot as a form of solidarity with her brother. She's too funny! In fact, they both are! :)

Also, Little Three is doing well! Kicking and squirming away and he/she began having the hiccups for the first time this week (which is such a funny feeling!). I went to the Dr. this week and the baby is back in the head-down position instead of being breech like last time, which was very good news to me!!!!!!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

No Sun, No Fun (apparently)

I would have never guessed that dreary weather days would equal such dreary days all around. I haven't been the best summer mom this year and letting the kids have as much fun in the sun as they would like. Because well, I'm tired & pregnant & hot & tired!

But we haven't had the best couple of days. Both Benjamin and Anna appear to have colds and Anna is teething hard core right now. Monday night Benjamin kept getting us up, then storms started a little after 5....which meant I was up with my insanely nervous dog. Shortly after, the hail got so loud it woke Anna up. I went out to the couch with her and we cuddled and watched Sesame Street together. Just so you know, neither of us girls are morning people. If you can't tell, I'm thinking in this picture "I don't even want to be awake yet, what makes you think I want you taking my picture!" But being the nice wife that I am, I still gave the hubby a smile.




What I didn't know was that the day was only to go downhill. It preceded to storm all day long and by all day long, I LITERALLY mean ALL DAY! So we pretty much had a full/long day of tired kids+sick kids+annoyingly, scared dog+tired, worn Momma.



Unfortunately, the next day (yesterday) wasn't much better. It was dreary and rained occasionally, but during a dry moment the kids and I made a sick run to Target for tissues and Tylenol. When I came home I found that my lovely cats (who aren't even allowed to be on the table) had knocked my anniversary flowers over along with the huge vase they were in, which meant tons of water spilling all over my table, chairs, and floor. I actually managed to keep the kids out of the kitchen long enough for me to get most of the water cleaned up (in spite of the fact that they were done and ready for naps). Right as I finish cleaning up one (big) mess, I hear Benjamin come running while saying, "There's a big mess Momma!" As I had just heard him in the bathroom, I was fairly sure what "the mess" was. So I quickly told the kids to stay in the living room, so I could go clean it up. Unfortunately, Anna thinks that rules are meant to be broken and instructions to do something are really just challenges to do the opposite. So, she of course ran off down the hallway. I got to her just as she was slipping onto the bathroom floor into the huge puddle of pee her brother had left behind. The poor thing slipped and fell with her whole body (head and back) hard on the floor. I quickly picked her up and managed to slip her pee-soaked outfit off her and then cuddled her poor naked body while she cried ever so hard. Crying hard + a cold = mass snot production, btw. :( After medicating both kids, I tucked them into bed and went on to clean up the pee-filled bathroom.



They took long afternoon naps, but it didn't matter much as Anna was still feeling pretty bad. The teething became much worse as she quickly soaked the t-shirt she was wearing (she's only wearing the t-shirt btw b/c I just wanted to grab something quick to put her in so she could go to sleep and it was pretty cute watching her toddling around in it I must say!)

See the drool soaked t-shirt? Even when not feeling well, she's still so very sweet......

and still loves her baby!

Thankfully, Benjamin is a pretty good brother to his sick/teething sister. He helped her onto the love seat for story-time yesterday.......

It lead to a few upsetting moments (as most things do) when Anna wanted to control the page turning (at quite the fast pace)..........

but mostly it was just two kiddos who love each other so much!

Today we are doing a little better. The sun is shining which is a huge help and Benjamin seems to be feeling better after just one day of being sick. Anna continues to seem sick and the excessive drool leads me to think her teeth are still quite bothersome. The funny thing is she's almost 1 1/2 and this is the first time she's ever drooled like this. She's quite the site walking around with her baby bibs on today to catch all the drool and save her from wet shirts! It's nice b/c she's no longer crying all the time and throwing fits every other minute, but it's kinda sad too b/c instead she's just quiet and cuddly. While I enjoy the cuddles (ever so much), I'm pretty excited for my spunky-sweet girl to feel all better!

Bliss (For Six Years!)

The kiddos were cuddling on the couch (mutually for once) the other day, so I had to grab the camera and snap a few shots of my sweet babies!

I got dressed up for our anniversary, so I thought I'd post a picture of my belly to show just how big Little Three already is! :)

And speaking of Little Three, we have decided to change the girl name to Cassidy Eve. So we are just in the waiting game to see if we are going to have a Cassidy or Collin join our family in a few short months! God is so awesome, isn't he?!?!? Close-up: Can you tell if it's a boy or girl??? ;)

We went and had breakfast at the restaurant in our little airport here in town. Benjamin loves watching the airplanes come and go, so it was a nice start to our anniversary (minus the 6 am wake-up call we got from BOTH kids!) After that, we headed downtown to the farmer's market. Dave was sweet and got me some beautiful flowers there...........

After naps, Dave's parents came and we were able to go have a nice, long anniversary date! :) We went to a fondue restaurant called The Melting Pot. We went there four years ago for our last anniversary before Benjamin's arrival. So we thought it'd be fun to go again before we have three little blessings running around! It's a super romantic restaurant where all the tables are practically secluded from one another so that it seems like you are by yourselves. There's four courses and it takes about two hours, so it was quite the treat to just enjoy a really long, relaxing and romantic dinner with no kids! :) We had a great anniversary together and are so blessed to have had these six years together!