Life

Wow, it's been awhile since I've post...oops! Life has been crazy and is just flying by. Benjamin is growing up so fast into a little boy and he's just adorable. I can't believe he's already 16 1/2 months. He's talking up a storm and says new words every day. Right now he can say Bailey (our dog), airplane, car, truck, up, outside, please, thank you, more, cracker, water and he makes some animal noises. :) He talks in long sentences all the time but we have no idea what he's saying and lately you can tell he gets frustrated that we don't understand! He also loves to play with anything that makes a ton of noise and if it doesn't make noise,  he crashes it into something so that it does. He loves to line up his toys too so I'm hoping he'll be an organized little guy. I can dream! He loves to get dirty and to be outside and he cries when I make him come inside. He has turned into an amazing sleeper as well and I'm loving it! He sleeps 12 hours every night and sometimes wakes up once (around 6am) and I still nurse him and then he goes back down. This last week though he has been sleeping 12 hours straight with no waking and it's amazing. On top of that, he takes a 2-3 hour nap each afternoon. I guess he's catching up after 12 months of not great sleep. :)

We just got back from a crazy, whirlwind trip to Italy. It was amazing and exhausting and I will now say that I would not recommend international travel with a toddler to anyone. It was a long trip in the making  that my sister had been planning for years to celebrate graduating with her PhD. It was a fun time with family and awesome to see the sights but I'm glad we're home!

Easter was also a fun weekend hanging out with family and celebrating our risen Savior and reflecting on what He did for us. We didn't go an easter egg hunt, but my mom got Benjamin some plastic eggs and a basket and he played with them for hours!

We have a lot of changes going on in our family right now, and I can't talk about all of them yet, but I'm really excited about them all (and no, I'm not pregnant!) Not to leave everyone hanging or anything, but I'm sure I can say more in my next post. I'll try not to go three months before posting again!

He walks!

And just a few days after this, he started running...and then flying headfirst into the ground. :)

A look back at Benjamin's 1st year...

Best viewed in full screen with the volume on. :)

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Milestones:

-He takes 1 step :)

-He says cracker and thank you

-He can ride a quad (see video)

-He has 6 teeth!

Happy birthday Benjamin! I can't believe it's finally here. One year since my life was turned upside down...in a good way. He's growing up SO fast and he definitely looks like a little boy now and not a baby. :( He is very adventurous, very stubborn and is in to absolutely everything. He has a ton of expressive faces and talks a lot. He repeats things back to us very well and I swear he has said full sentences and probably clearly repeated at least 10 different words to us. Of course he doesn't know what he's saying, but he sure is articulate. He's also a sensitive little guy. If we tell him no, he pauses, looks at us like his world just crumbled, sticks out his lower lip and gives a very hilarious fake little cry. 

I'm happy to say that we are all finally getting some sleep in this house. It only took a year! I was desperate and hate to admit it, but I did resort to "sleep training".  At a year old, I knew he did not need to be waking up multiple times to eat still. Instead of a total cry it out method, I would just lay him down in the crib and then sit on the floor next to it with my back to him. So he knew I was still there but I wasn't going to pick him up. When he woke up at 2am, I did the same thing. It only took a few nights and was way easier than I thought and now I just lay him down at night and he puts himself to sleep and he doesn't wake up in the middle of the night AT ALL. He now sleeps a minimum of 8-9 hours straight and then I feed him and he goes back down for another 3 hours. I missed sleep so much and it feels wonderful to be able to sleep again. And this is how we all feel after a good nights sleep... :)

Thanksgiving was really fun and we had a house full. We got to meet Benjamin's newest cousin and he got to play with a ton of them. He just loves being around kids and had a great time with them!

On the 15th, Benjamin had his first cupcake ever and we sang him happy birthday. We had a cupcake for Makenna too that Rob and I shared.

The party was awesome and we had quite a few people, even though it was the weekend before Christmas. The theme was sports and it all turned out really cute. Benjamin got SO spoiled and ended up with a ton of loot. It was a great day celebrating our little miracle!

Finally, I will leave you with the cutest video. My mom got Benjamin a quad for his birthday and he has just figured out how to ride by himself. Enjoy!

Eleven Months

Milestones:

-He learned to wave

-He says "hi"

-Standing unassisted

Here we are at 11 months! Benjamin is crawling faster than I could ever imagine and is cruising around like crazy. No walking yet, but he can now stand for extended periods of time without holding on to anything. His 3 1/2 year old friend, Eva, also taught him how to wave. We'd been trying for weeks to get him to wave, to no avail, and we were hanging out with our friends and Benjamin was playing and copying Eva all evening. She waved at him and he just waved right back like it was nothing!

Benjamin and I took a trip to the pumpkin patch with some of Rob's family but he had to work so he missed out! :( We had a great time though and got some fun pics.

We had a church event for "Halloween" and Benjamin was a football and he was so cute! We dressed up too and Rob was a football player and I was a cheerleader. :)

This last month was the girl's 2nd birthday and the three of us went to the lake by our house and had cupcakes and let Benjamin play at the park. We had a really nice time with just the three of us. I can't believe it's been two years already! Benjamin wasn't allowed to have any cupcakes but he did try to eat the candles.

We had  a few weird gas episodes with Benjamin this month, but it hasn't happened since, which is a relief. He would basically wake up in the middle of the night (earlier than he normally does anyway) and scream his head off. I could hear his stomach making all kinds of weird rumblings and after a ton of gas drops and tylenol, he was finally able to get back to sleep. A week later, it happened again only nothing was helping this time. After hours of this, we finally took him to the ER, where they determined he had a bad gas pocket.  Right after we got there, he seemed to be a little better though and it hasn't happened since then. The icing on the cake is the insurance letter I just got this week saying it wasn't covered because it wasn't a real "emergency" and that we now owe the hospital $15oo. Nice! :(

We're having Thanksgiving at our house again this year and are super excited to hang out with the family and meet Benjamin's new cousin, who is a few months old.  I'm also planning Benjamin's 1st birthday and I can't believe it's almost here.

Ten Months

Milestones:

-He now has four teeth!

Wow, I think his fourth tooth coming in is the only new thing this month! He's still cruising along while he holds on to things but no walking on his own yet. I seriously can't even believe another month has gone by...it feels like I was just on here posting. He has become a little ham for the camera though, which is new. Lately, every time I put the camera in front of him, he gives the funniest little cheesy smile, so he already knows how to work the camera. I'm starting to think about planning Benjamin's 1st birthday and I think we're going to do a sports theme. I just can't believe he's going to be 1 soon!!!

So an opportunity came up for Rob to go on a trip to Israel next spring with a group from church and we're super excited about him going. I was thinking and praying about going as well but Benjamin would be 16 months and we just weren't sure how that would work. I talked to people from church that said it was doable but then I spoke to the president of the travel agency planning the trip and she very highly advised against it, so sadly we are going to pass.  I know it will be an amazing experience for Rob though! :)

After some major ups and downs, God has really been blessing our business and we are super thankful! Owning a business is so incredibly stressful and hard but we feel like it is finally paying off after being in business for about 3 years.

Other than that, I'm really not sure what else is new with us. I guess no news is good news. :)

P.S. Does anyone even read this thing anymore or am I just posting to myself? Just curious... :)

Nine Months

Milestones:

-His 3rd tooth is here (front)

-Crawls EVERYWHERE nonstop

-Takes steps while supported

-Stood without support for about 10 seconds

-Said "I love you, dada" (Ok, so he didn't REALLY say this but we have 4 witnesses that swear that is what he said, right after Rob gave him a bite of food!)

Benjamin has come a long way in the last month! He went from almost crawling to literally crawling across the house in seconds! It just happened so fast a week after crawling he started taking steps and then a week later he stood on his own with no support. I seriously feel like he's going to be running in no time at all. He also finally got his first front tooth last week so sleep has still been pretty bad. He usually sleeps good up until 1am or 2am and I feed him once and then he just keeps waking up every few hours until it's time to get up for the day. I wonder if he will ever sleep through the night???

So it turns out his nanny didn't start her daycare and decided to stay with us, which I'm really happy about. I was seriously dreading having to start from scratch with a new person and having Benjamin have to get used to someone else.

We just got back from a trip to Utah for business and then to visit some great friends that we hadn't seen in awhile and Benjamin had fun playing with his new buddies. Our friend's kids are 8 and 4 and he really loved them. He really just loves kids! :) That was his second plane trip and he did pretty good. It's great when people leave the plane and tell you how good your baby is. A woman at the hotel came over to meet him at one point during our trip and she thought he was 18 months! I really think it's his height that makes him look so old. Speaking of height, he just had his 9 month appointment and was 20lbs. 2oz. (50%) and 29.5" (85%). 

He just loves to laugh and is such a happy baby...as long as he's gotten his nap. :)

I'll leave you with a picture when Benjamin was 8 weeks, where we captured his first smile and about 8 1/2 months. What a difference!