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.

Potty trained!!!!

YAY we finally have Ashely potty trained! Whooohoo! We started this past weekend and she is doing great. Today was the first outing in big girl pants and we went to the library for storyhour then to the BX. We had to visit the bathroom 3 times but only once made a deposit. I was just super happy that she didn't have an accident. Yay, we have a big girl on our hands.

Mike's Radio

So here is Mike's latest project a Philco radio from 1938. He bought it off ebay (we picked it up in Fargo) and stripped it down, sanded, refinished, replaced all the tubes and compacitors, order a new part for the dial and so here it is. The only thing left to do was to order the original fabric for the bottom as this has been changed. Oh and the darn thing really works. It picks up stations from all over, the other night we were listening to a Thailand station. It's pretty neat.

The only problem is now he is addicted to the old radios. Two days later we were at a garage sale out in the prairies of GF and came across one from 1935ish so he had to have that one too. Oh well, I got my crop-a-dile so I'll be happy for a little while :)

32 degrees

Holy cow it is only 32 degrees outside. Brrr, I had to turn the heat on this morning when we woke up because apparently I stole all the blankets and Mike was left with a sheet for most of the night. Oops! Brr. I better get back into my ND layering mode.

Gotta bundle up all those kiddos cause were heading out for story hour. I love story hour, especially cause they do art projects which means no clean-up for me! Last week the theme was monsters and so they made paper bag puppet monsters. Ben if so scared of Ashley's, everytime he sees it he starts screaming.

3 Firsts in 1 day!

So we put Ben in the pool today for the first time. He is usually quite finicky with cold water but today he seemed to love it. He sat in there for close to 20 minutes.

He's already picking on his big sister. tisk tisk

His second first was saying "mama". He did it probably 10 times yesterday!

Aren't they cute from behind? Anyway his 3rd first was clapping. Which is what Ashely was showing him to do in this photo. He is doing it on demand now, as soon as we clap he starts too!

We went on a date....

So Mike and I got a babysitter for the day and went downtown for a movie. We had planned on seeing Chuck and Larry but when we got there we realized that Borne Ultimatum was still playing. Yippee! So I saw my first....let me repeat that....first movie in a theater since we moved to Grand forks in 03. Crazy huh? I am really not a fan of movie theaters (and it drives Mike nuts). I don't know why but here are a few of the reasons I have come up with....

1. I'm short and tall people with big heads always sit in front of me.
2. The chairs are always uncomfortable.
3. I always get cold!!!!!!
4. I end up biting my nails to where they almost (or do) bleed.

I know I am weird but for the most part I would much rather lay at home on the couch with a big blanket cuddling with my hubby or kiddos. The ability to pause the movie for a bathroom or snack break is always a plus...

So anyways I actually did pretty good in the theater besides being uncomfortable and COLD. The movie was great and we both enjoyed the time out. Plus the kids did well with the sitter even though Ben refused his bottle. At least he is eating some solids now so she could feed him that instead! When we got home she had both kids passed out for naps at the same time (trust me that's a challenge). If ya need a sitter, I know a good one!

Our kitchen table, just for you Ellen

Okay Ellen, here is the picture of the kitchen table. Whatcha think? The camera makes the table tops look much lighter on both of them than they are in person.

Our coffeetable

So here is our *new* coffee table. This is the one that I saw on the curb while on a walk and sent Mike to go pick up. Mike stripped it down and refinished it so that it matches our kitchen table. We really like the way it turned out!


Now, Mike has a wild itching to reupholster our couches...the next big project. We bought them used from a family on base and we really like the shape of them, but the fabric pills and it itchy on bare skin. So Mike did some research, ordered some new micro fiber fabric and now we are just waiting for it to come in.

So I'll post more pictures when the next project is done....

the kiddos

So here are a few pictures I took of the kids the other day. I was folding laundry and thought hmm this blanket could be a backdrop.


On another note, I made Mike go curb shopping the other day because while on a walk I notice that someone was throwing out a decent coffee table. We used to have one but it was a piece of crap. We bought it new and within a few months it was chipping and wobbly. A total waste of money. This new one was a little beat up but was solid wood so Mike went to work and has stripped the stain, and is now in the process of staining and painting so that it will match our newer kitchen table that we bought. I love it already! So far he has the bottom (legs and ledge) stripped and painted black and all he has left is the table top. I can't wait to take a picture. Silly me forgot to snap one before he went to work on it....

Football!

We brought out the football that Mike's dad brought when he visited last time and boy Ben loved it. He chewed on it, rolled it, and then threw a fit when he couldn't get it back.

Looks like we may have a football junkie on our hands, well just have to wait and see.

I fell down!

Ashley has gained a new sense of invincibility and with that has come some daring trials and of course that have ended with booboos.

She had been running around in cirlces on the back patio and tripped, fell and scraped her knee. Although it was traumatizing she was back doing stunts in about 3 minutes. Today she fell down the back stairs onto the cement while I was mowing the lawn.

Wagon fun!

So now that Ben can sit up I broke out the wagon for today's walk. They both had a blast! Ashley had a tough time staying seated on her bum because she wanted to see Ben and then wanted to watch where we were going.

Thankfully daddy installed a seatbelt last year. It worked great to keep Ben upright and happy (and in one place) for our adventure.

more catching up

Just like Mommy! Ben loves typing on the keyboard so much that I can no longer hold him while getting anything done. So low and behold I dug out the old keyboard to our MAC and gave it to him. He loves it.

Buddies, well Ben loves Boca and Boca loves any form of attention, even if it is ear pulling. They make a great pair. It's so funny because Boca will come by and force her head under his hand so that he "pets" her even though it's more like hitting.

Here's a few pictures of Bath time lately. Ben has outgrown his baby bath and is now ready for the bath seat. He loves splashing and between the two of them my bathroom is drenched afterwards.


Ashley loves blowing the bubbles off her hands. Bubble baths are so much fun!

Catching UP!!!

So here are a few pictures of Ashley when we went to the CanadInns Waterpark for Kadence's birthday. We got there early so we had to wait for a little while. Ashley was so excited to get in the water.

Here she is chillin on the beach chair before having cake. It was a great birthday!


W's boss made instant buddies with Ben and held him almost the whole time. It was great cause I was able to take Ashley out in the water without worrying about him. As you can see Ben enjoyed himself also.

Fudgecicle

Here's another pic from when Ashley stayed with J. I gave her another fudgecicle yesterday and oh my what a mess.

here's a couple pic of Ben smiling up a storm. He is quite the smiley kiddo!