Ben crawling

So here is Ben's version of crawling. I will have to try to capture some of him coming at me because it looks quite silly from that direction also. It is really funny when he gets moving fast.

Carving Pumpkins

She has the cheesiest smile lately. I love it. I think all kids go through a stage where they do this.



Ben just wanted to eat the pumpkin guts. Hehe, it's a vegetable right? One serving down


So here is Mike and Ben at 11:30 last night. Yes, Ben was awake at 11:30! He does a wierd late nap thing where he goes to sleep at 7 (like Ashley) but then wakes up around 9 to play for an hour or so and then hits the hay again. I don't mind too much because I am up anyway and then he sleeps in a bit longer in the morning.


Mike did this one and I just love it. The pumpkin is all warty looking so it looks cool even during the day.


This one I made for Ashley. I thought it was pretty cute.

My chuckle for the day

I saw this and it made me laugh. Enjoy!

Potty training HELP!

I am calling on all my more experienced Mommy friends for some potty training advice!

Ok, so here is the issue. Ashley did great the first few weeks of potty training with very few accidents. We did a potty chart that she filled up and earned a trip to the water park. She was staying dry most nights although I was still putting her in a diaper for bedtime. Everything was going too smooth :).

This past week she is peeing her pants constantly. Most times without even saying she has to go or trying to get to the potty chair. I tried to bribe her with a piece of candy corn for everytime she went and it worked for the first few days but now she is doing it again. I also tried to resurect the potty chart and still she's not too interesting in going to the bathroom.

So my question is what should we do. First response is to get mad and try time out or something but I know there has to be a better way! Help, I need some advice!!!!

Pumpkin Patch

Ben is so into balls he never wants to put them down. His new favorite toy is the dinosaur ball toy. Mike's sister M got it for Ashley when she was a year and boy he loves it way more than she ever did!


We took the kiddo's to the pumpkin patch. Ashley is hard to get pictures of now because she moves so quickly. Even if you get her to stop and smile it's only for a half second and then she is going again. Most of the pictures I got of her were either blurred or I got the back of her head.


Here is Ben in his bumble bee costume. It barely fits. But it will work for this year! It looks so cute because he is so rolly-polly.

He found a pumpkin and wouldn't let it go, of course, until his big sister Ashley stole it away in the wagon. How sweet huh!

Update on Ben

So I took Ben to his 9 month check up yesterday and he is 23lbs 15oz. They said he was in the 95th percentile for weight and 90th for height. So he is for sure a big boy! Otherwise he is doing great, besides being cranky from teething.

Here's a funny one of Ashley. She was trying to get her big baby to eat her dinner. She was quite mad that the baby wouldn't pick up the spoon to feed herself. hehe. I was just laughing while watching her explain that she needed to eat her dinner.

*I swear I have that same conversation with my little girl EVERY day*

Yay, Ben is 9 months old!

Yippee, Ben is 9 months old! He is doing well and is still the most smiley baby I have been around. I snapped a couple of his precious smiles this evening for you.

He's got a funny thing going on with his tongue which is probably because he CUT HIS 1ST TOOTH TONIGHT!!!

Here I think he is really just hamming it up so I have a cute picture for his 9 month page in his album (yikes, that I haven't started, bad mommy!)

Now here he is trying to show off how he started crawling, or scooting, or whatever you can call it. He works his arms well but only one leg is in the crawling position and the other is folded under him, but he gets around so that's what counts.

Now tell me this picture doesn't make him look older than 9 months, holy cow. What a big boy we have!

So yes, he started crawling, and cut his first tooth all on the day he turns 9 months!

Break from school

Man, I was really looking forward to my break between classes and when I went and looked today on the calender I realized I only have a week. Classes start on the 22nd, No fun! Usually it has been a little longer but oh well. I guess a week is better than none, right?

So for the next term I am taking:

Psychology Tests and Measurements & Minority Group Relations.

Should be fun! But now I only have one more quarter of required courses and then the rest are all electives. Yay!

Fall fun!

I love fall weather, I just don't like raking the leaves. Ok, well I don't mind raking as much as I hate getting the leaves into the bag. I did 5 bags 2 days ago and I swear if I went out right now I could probably get at least another 5 bags.

At least everyone enjoyed themselves though. I have to keep Ben in something because he likes to eat anything and everything, including leaves, grass and bugs. YUM, right!

Ashley had fun collecting the leaves in her trike and then I got to dump it in the can.

Oh and she also decided to make a bed in the leaves and as you can tell she improvised with a garbage bag for a blanket.

Potty Training Reward...the waterpark!

So we took the kids to the water park to celebrate Ashley and her new big girl skills.

Both kids loved the water. Ashley even went on the biggest slide with Daddy although when he asked her if she wanted to go again her was response was "NO!"
But she loved these slides. She even went down this one all by herself.

Here is Ben after we got them ready to go home and go to bed. It was a fun time but both kids were pretty wiped out.


here's a pic of Ashley on the way home. She is doing so great with her potty business.