An Ordinary Week

This week has been pretty uneventful and I am thankful. Here are some pics of the kiddos.

Today was gorgeous so we went to the park and when we got home Addie wanted to dig in the dirt. She had a great time digging and flinging dirt everywhere.

This is what breakfast time looks like at our house. Bennett has moved up to finger foods, he eats a banana and cheerios every morning. When Addie sees Ben eating a banana then she wants one too. She usually steals a couple of Ben's Cheerios too.

Doesn't she look so grown up? I love this picture of her.
I hope you all have a great weekend!

Playing Guitar with Daddy

While Jon was in Iraq he started to learn how to play the guitar. He got his own guitar for Christmas. The kids love to watch him play. If Ben is fussy Jon will take him and play for him and he calms right down. Tonight Ben decided he wanted to join in the fun.

Happy Valentine's Day

I know this is a little late, but our Valentine's Play date that we hosted got bumped to this week. On Sunday we got to go to our Sunday School teacher's house. It was an amazing house, great company, and yummy pizza. We grabbed a friend to take a family pic.

Bennett being his usual charming self.



Bennett has been moving around a lot lately. He is not quite crawling or pulling up, but he definitely does not stay where you put him. Ben was acting like he wanted to pull up so Jon helped him. He was so proud of himself standing there. He was pretty wobbly, it was so precious.






On Monday we hosted our class Valentine's Day Party. It was a smaller crowd becuase of the President's Day holiday, but it was a lot of fun anyway. Here are some pictures of some of our decorations and refreshments. We hope you all had a very Happy Valentine's Day!

Addie and Sarabeth

This is Addie and her friend Sarabeth. They are only about 6 months apart in age, they are both oldest children, and they are both spunky little girls. They are so fun to watch when they get together because it is never dull. There is usually some screaming involved, but they are able to work most things out on there own. It is so much fun to see little friendships developing.

Having some fun.

We had to get a new computer because our lap top finally gave out. It was time for us to get a new computer so it wasn't the end of the world and Jon was able to get all of our pictures downloaded safely. Jon got our new computer set up today and it is so much fun to work on. It is so fast and has a nice big screen. I am finally able to organize the thousands of pictures I have taken.

This is a little collage I made using Picasa. These are all of the pictures I have taken of Ben on his month anniversaries. I am still in shock that he is 8 months old already, but I thought it would be cute to see how much he has changed. The blanket was made by Ben's great-grandmother, Nana. He sleeps with it most nights and it is so special to him. Thanks Nana!

Happy Birthday Nick

Today we got to celebrate the birthday of our friend Nick. We had so much fun with all of our friends. Here are some of my favorite pics of the day.


Addie giving the Birthday Boy a hug.

Our most recent family picture.

Addie twirling in her tutu. I love the tutu.

Ben's new favorite person. Jeremy works with Jon and Ben loves him. They spent some quality time together at the party.

The tutu and the party hat is a special look.

The super cool cake.

Some of the boys playing games.

Ben and his buddy Grant. They are very close in age and it is fun to get them together.

Addie and her sword. Nick got a bouncy house for his birthday and all of the kids loved it.

Bubbles, always a crowd pleaser.

Nick's parents even had a balloon drop at the end of the party. The kids went crazy. It was such a fun party!

8 Months Old

Time is going by so quickly. I was updating Ben's baby book this morning and I couldn't believe he is already 8 months old. Here are some pictures of our handsome little guy. He is such a sweet baby, we are having so much fun with him. He is almost ready to crawl, he can spin himself in a circle and scoot backwards. I am waiting for the day he takes off after Addie, it will be funny to watch. He still only has one tooth, but we are expecting more any day. He is a great eater. He is still nurses 3-4 times a day and he can put away some big boy food. We went back for a weight check at the doctor and he has regained all of th weight he lost in the last couple of months, he is bac up to 19 pounds, 4 ounces. He is now closer to the 50 percentile for weight, height, and head. We were very thankful to hear good news. He loves going out places and he smiles at everyone that makes eye contact with him. His sticker was from a new friend he made at the grocery store. We love this little guy so much.

I know it's been a while

I got lazy about posting, and then our computer died. Our new computer is on its way here, but for the time being Jon got our old computer working on a limited basis. We have had a busy couple of weeks, here is a sampling of all the fun things we have done.

Nannie came for a visit and put up some more curtains. She found this cornice board in Colorado before we moved. Doesn't it look so cute with the cowboy curtains she made? Bennett's room is really starting to come together, I mean, he is only 8 months old.

Addie is wearing her new cape in this picture. It was a present from Nana. We got to drive up to Dallas for the weekend while my mom was here. We got to celebrate my cousin Mikey's birthday and see Nana and Uncle Bim who were visiting from Maine. It was a great weekend, and we had so much fun, and I didn't take a single picture. I still can't believe it. Addie loves her cape from Nana, and she loved having Nannie here.

Nana got both pairs of shoes while she was here. Addie's are hot pink cowgirl boots and she absolutely loves them, you will see them in more pictures. Bennett's are liitle man Sperry's. It is too cute. I love little shoes.

I let Ben go after whole peas the other day. He was concetrating so hard, it was precious. He sure does love his food.

Ben and I got to do another play date while Addie was at school. Ben's friend Blythe is so sweet, she is a couple of months older and she is almost walking already! She sat down with Ben to look at a Winnie the Pooh book. They were so cute sharing the book.

On Friday we went with our Sunday School play group to the aquarium. We had a group rate so it was a great deal to get in. We had almost 50 people there counting all of the kids. With all of those people I only managed to get pictures of Addie with her friend Sarabeth.



It was a super fun day.

Speaking of super things. We hosted our class Super Bowl Party. We had 45 people at our house. Everyone brought yummy treats and we all had a great time. We had three tvs set up so everyone could watch the game.





One last cute picture from Sunday morning. Bennett usually lays down for his nap at 9, and we leave for church at 9:20. Some days he does okay, other days he struggles. This Sunday I got him dressed and left him on the floor in his room to play. Jon went to get him and this is what he found.



I felt so bad waking him up, but he was a good sport about it.

One Year Ago

One year ago today we welcomed Jonathan home from Iraq. It has been a great year with many exciting changes. Here is a picture from the Welcome Home Ceremony. It was about 9 PM when we finally got to meet up with Jon and we had been waiting there for several hours. It was loud and hot and that is why Addie does not look that excited. It was such a fun time for us and our friends who also came home that night. Our thoughts and prayers are with our friends who are getting ready to say good bye again.