Midweek

There is nothing better than a movie night to celebrate making it halfway through the week...

Born Knowing

I remember when Ben was just a little baby I was amazed that he knew exactly how to make car sounds. And if you gave him a toy car he would zoom it around and make noises with it. It was like he was just born knowing what to do with cars.

Now I am seeing the girl version of that with Kate. Yesterday I caught her playing with her baby doll. She had the play baby food and spoon and she was feeding her baby. She knew exactly how to feed it. She even made the feeding noises to go along with it. It was so cute to watch!

It is amazing to me how these things are inborn in us. God designs us this way. We don't have to teach our kids these things they just know! And He makes boys and girls so different. That is what makes it so much fun!

Last Summer Weekend

On the radio this morning they were talking about how the meteorological summer starts on Thursday. Ben got so excited. He said "I love fall." I have to agree with him. Summer is wonderful but it sure is hot. We have gotten a taste of cooler weather the last week. Highs are only around 90 and the humidity is way down. There has also been a nice breeze. Just gets you in the mood for fall!! And college football!!!! Can't wait.

So this weekend we lived up the last weekend of summer. Friday night Matt went to play a game with some friends so the kids and I just hung out. We even went and got some frozen yogurt.

Saturday morning Ben had soccer practice (I can't wait to tell you his team name!). After soccer we all went to the pool. The weather was just perfect. We had such a great time. I am going to miss the pool!!

My view at the pool. It wasn't so hot that you couldn't sit outside and enjoy!

Just lovely! Saturday night we went over to Matt's parent's house to celebrate his birthday. That was fun. Sunday was full of church. So it was a really nice weekend overall. But I am looking forward to some fall weekends!

Bedtime Stories

Before we even thought about having kids Matt began collecting children's books to have for the day he would get to read bedtime stories. We have had some of the classics ready and waiting.

A couple of weeks ago we decided to was time to start reading a chapter book to Ben before bed. We thought it would be good for him to follow a story along each night. Matt started with Chronicles of Narnia. Ben is loving it!! Matt promised him a book with lots of battles and he has been eagerly awaiting the battles. It is so great to see Ben's excitement each night as he heads off to bed. They are finishing up The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe tonight. Such a fun time. It is so fun to see your kids grow up and get excited about new things.

Library Time

Ben has started back to speech therapy each week at the local elementary school. That means that Kate gets to have library time!! She loves reading books and playing with the stuffed animals! As you can see she just makes herself at home and takes off her shoes and runs around. Best of all it is Granna's library so she gets to spend some time with Granna each week.

Birthdays When You Get Older!

Today is the most amazing man in the whole world's birthday!! My sweet Matt is celebrating is 32nd birthday. I remember his 16th birthday so I guess that means I have known him for half his life. I hope he has enjoyed this half of his life as much as I have. He really is the most wonderful guy. I feel so blessed to be able to call him husband and the father of my children.

When you get older birthdays just aren't that exciting. Everyone has to go to work and school. Ben had his first soccer practice. Life just keeps going on. The kids and I did put up the birthday banner. I cooked his favorite dinner (baked spaghetti) and make a red velvet cake for him. We even got him a few presents. Ok so they were really not that exciting. It was a dress shirt and tie. He seemed to like it (as much as you can like a shirt and tie).
He also gave me a list of some books that he wanted so I got him those. A book on the history of cancer and the Rwanda genocide. He is such a nerd!
Birthdays are just not that exciting as we get older!! I do hope he knows how special he is and how much we love him. Happy Birthday Matt!!!!

Thankful

Well today has been a regular old Monday. Nothing special about other than lots of errands, laundry and cleaning. I could really get down if I thought about it but instead I decided to be thankful...

Thankful that I got to hang out with this beautiful little girl this morning. I just love the way her hair curls in tendrils around her face when it is pulled back. I even love that paci that gets on my every last nerve at times. I got to listen to her sweet little voice as she learned new words. We went to the grocery store and cleaned together. We had so much fun.
Thankful that I got to pick this little guy up from school and spend the afternoon with him while sister napped. I love his little crooked smile these days. I love how he seems to grow everyday right before my eyes. In the afternoons we snuggle and just hang together. Sometimes we watch TV together. I love being able to talk to him about his day and learn more about him!
I am thankful to be a mommy to these two wonderful kiddos!!

Great Way to Spend a Saturday Morning

We have had a super lazy Saturday morning. We were out late last night with friends so we all slept in which was great! Really we all laid around in bed until around 9:30 which is unheard of for us. Ben then headed off with a friend and Matt is mowing the grass. So Kate and I decided to make some cookies.

We were at Target the other day and she started saying "Arthur cookies" over and over. I couldn't figure out what she was talking about. Then I saw a box of cookie mix with her favorite Arthur on it! Of course we had to get it. So this morning we did some baking!
She was a great helper!
I had to teach her the fine art of cookie dough eating that must go along with any cookie making adventure!

She loved wearing her apron and chef hat!

We had a great time! Best way to spend the morning if you ask me!

Wii Fun

So life is starting to settle into the new schedule for us. Lots of school and work. Lots of trips over the mountain. I am back to filling up with gas every 5 days or so. I miss the fun of playdates and hanging by the pool. Oh well I guess this is real life. Both the kids seem to be doing well at their new school. And my work has picked up like crazy so I guess we will all be busy. Because of that we are not very exciting these days. I really wish I had something exciting to write about. This is the best I could come up with...

Ben has always enjoyed watching the Wii. Him and Matt would go upstairs for hours and play. Well Matt would play and Ben would watch. All his friends would play but not him. He always said it was too hard and he was no good. Well last week Matt made him try Lego Batman and he fell in love with it! He has been asking non-stop to play. And he is getting pretty good at it. I am proud of him for trying something new.

See I told you life was boring around here!!

Kate at 21 Months

Our sweet Kate is 21 months old today! So hard to believe. I have been trying to do the updates every 3 months so I guess this is the last one before she turns 2. So hard to believe! So here is what Kate is up to at 21 months:

• You LOVE to eat! You will eat any and everything we set in front of you. That is the first thing that your teacher said about you on the first day of school. It makes this mama very proud! Some of your favorite foods are yogurt, cheese and fruit.


• You are really starting to talk a lot. You babble to yourself all the time but you are also copying everything we say. You will try to say anything and have started putting 2 and 3 words together. The first sentences!


• You love to play! Some of your favorite things right now are books, dress up clothes, jewelry, baby dolls and your stroller (and of course any of Ben's toys that you can get into). You are very much a girly, girl! You love to wear dresses and accessorize and pick cute shoes. It amazes me how much you notice about these things. You have a bit of an obsession right now with Mickey & Minnie Mouse! You have really gotten into watching them on TV along with Arthur. In this picture it is all your favorite things. You are wearing bracelets and pushing a stroller with Mickey in it.


• Your personality is so sweet. You love to rock-rock and snuggle! You do not meet a stranger. You will go and hug anyone! You are very independent. With this come some battles. You know what you want and are not afraid to let us know. There have been some royal fits pitched when you didn't get what you wanted! We have started putting you in time out which as been working really well to get you to calm down and let us know what you want.


• You just continue to grow so big! I would guess you weigh somewhere around 25 pounds. You are wearing 18-24 month clothes. Your foot has finally started to grow and you are wearing about a size 5. This summer your hair has gotten so light. You are not a big fan of having it fixed so it looks crazy alot of the time. You do love bows though! Your sleeping habits are amazing. You usually go down to sleep at around 8 pm and are up at around 7 am (this summer you would sleep until 9:30 if I would let you). You take a great 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. Can't complain about your sleeping!


• You recently started back to school and really seem to love it. It is fun to see you interact more with other kids. Your 2 best friends are Addy and Isaac (the younger siblings of Ben's 2 best friends). You absolutely adore big brother Ben. On the days he is at school and you are not you act sort of lost without him. You want him around and you guys play so well together! In this picture you were pointing to the seat next to you because you wanted Ben to sit with you!


• You love to laugh and try to make us laugh at you. You can wrestle with the best of the boys. Even if you are a girly, girl you are tough! You love being outside and getting messy as well. I have to say you are a big flirt. If there is a boy around you want to try to get them to notice you. It is so funny!

I can't believe how big you are getting. You are a full blown toddler now and not a baby anymore. This is such a fun age and we love all the experiences we get to have with our sweet Kate!

Partying, Partying! Hey!

(The title is from the song "Friday.")

We enjoyed a great weekend that was full of some partying for us. Friday night Matt and I got dressed up and went to the Miracle Bash. It is a benefit that is held each year for the NICU. We had a great time getting out of the house. We got to visit with lots of friends and co-workers. There was good food and lots of auction items. It is a great fundraiser for the NICU that has become near and dear to us. We actually got a rare picture of just the 2 of us!

Kate was one of the featured kids this year. They had these pictures on the tables at the event and also on the big screen.
Saturday was a nice lazy day for the most part. It was nice to just relax and be together as a family. Saturday afternoon Kate was invited to a princess birthday party for her friend Abigail. She had the best time dressing up as Belle. The party was so much fun and so girly!
Sunday was full of activity. All the big activities started back at church so it was a very full day!

We had a great weekend doing some partying and being together as a family!

It's Friday!!!

The internet sensation song "It's Friday" by Rebecca Black has become a big hit in our house. Both of the kids know all the words to the song and love to sing it!! If you have not seen the video you have to go watch it on youtube! Be ready to laugh. Anyways we are singing "It's Friday" at the top of our lungs here.

It’s Friday, Friday
Gotta get down on Friday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend, weekend
Friday, Friday
Gettin’ down on Friday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend

It has been a hard week adjusting to our new routine. Lots of school, work and other activities have left us all very tired! We are very excited for the weekend!!

Kate's First Haircut

Well I finally broke down and got Miss Kate's haircut today. I had been putting it off because I wanted it to grow out but it was getting so uneven in the back. It was just looking stringy and not so cute. Our sweet friend Brittni offered to give her her first haircut which made it extra special. Kate did great (having a movie to watch helped)! I love this. She is like what are you guys doing to me!

Such a pretty girl!

Brittni did an amazing job just evening it up and cutting just a little bit. It made it even more curly.

I love all these fun firsts that she has had lately. Can't believe how big she is getting. Moving from a baby to a big girl.

Crafting (Pinterest Obsession)

I have jumped on the latest online bandwagon of Pinterest. It is just slightly obsessive. All it is is a place for you to bookmark cute ideas. Whether it be clothes, books, decorating, crafts or food. It is awesome! I could spend hours just looking around at all the cute stuff. I guess it has inspired me to be crafty as well! I have made several neat crafts over the last few weeks...

First up was the Auburn wreath. This idea actually didn't come from Pinterest. Kelly and I saw it hanging on some one's door back in the spring and we just had to have it!! So Kelly made up one and I copied it. We had a super fun crafting night last week. They turned out super cute!! I even made an Alabama one for my mother-in-law for her birthday. It was made with lots of love!
Side by side! We have gotten lots of interest from people in wanting them so Kelly and thought about making a bunch up to sell. How much would you be willing to pay for them?

Craft project #2 - I made this super simple memo board for my kitchen. All it is is a frame I bought at Hobby Lobby with a piece of scrapbook paper. You can write on the glass with a dry erase marker. So easy!! But so cute. I plan on using it to write messages and menus and such!

The next crafty project I did was for the kid's teachers on the first day of school. I wanted to send something fun for them (and to get on their good side). I saw this great idea on pinterest and just had to copy it!

I dipped some fortune cookies in chocolate...

Made up the boxes...

And it was the perfect little gift for the first day.

The final project I did was something I made for my mom for her birthday. I saw this super cute saying on pinterest and knew I had to make it for my mom! I just used some of digital scrapbooking stuff and made up a cute card in photoshop. I framed it in a cream frame and it was the cutest present.

I just love all the crafts! I think I may need some help with the pinterest obsession!

Kate's First Day - 2011

Today was Kate's first day of school for the year! She is such an easy going little girl that I knew she would love it and of course she did. We started off with her favorite breakfast - scrambled eggs!

Then the traditional chair picture
She has grown so much in a year!
And lots more pictures to mark the day!

Off we headed to school. She was so excited to go to her class. Mrs. Patty had the bubble machine going when she got there so she ran right in and didn't even look back.

She did great all day. Ate a good lunch and had lots of fun. Mrs. Patty said the only time she got sad was when she saw Ben in the gym. She wanted her brother! So sweet.

I am so glad both kiddos are adjusting as well as possible (Ben is still not sure about it all). It is going to be a great year. I enjoyed some alone time to get caught up at work. I had been putting off alot of stuff all summer so it was good to be able to caught up! Nothing like an empty "in" box!

Ben's First Day of School - 2011

Today was back to school day for Ben! So exciting. We were all up extra early to make sure we were ready on time. I made Ben his favorite breakfast of bacon. Then it was time for the traditional picture in the green chair!
And of course had to take lots more pictures...

He had his homework all ready to go. They got this at open house and had to fill it out and bring back.

Ben was super excited about the day. He did not seem nervous at all. he walked right into his class and started playing. No issues at all. I think I was more nervous than he was.

I picked him up this afternoon and he seemed to have a good time. His folder was already full of papers that he had worked on. He did say there was too much time that they had to sit and work. I asked him if he wanted to go back tomorrow and he said "No because he wanted to stay home and practice being a superhero." That cracked me up. I guess he decided learning was too hard and the superhero route was the way to go! We enjoyed a cookie snack when he got home. He said he liked playing on the playground but it was really hot. He did not eat any of his lunch. Overall I would say the day was a success. We are praying for a great year!

I can't believe my little man in in pre-K and next year he will be headed to kindergarten. Where did the time go?