Sweet Benjamin

I never did one of those popular birthday posts for Benjamin. Well, I don't think I did. Anyway, he is turning into quite the toddler. He enjoys mischief. He even throws baby tantrums that are so cute. When I laugh at him throwing a fit it usually makes him smile. He is the loudest walker in the house! You can hear him coming because he really smacks his feet into the ground. I love to listen to him talk. I have no idea what hes saying but his little voice is adorable. Here are a few fun pictures: 

Benjamin woke up from a nap and this is what Carman found when he went in to get him. That's poo. On his lower back. And his head. But his bed AND hands were clean. We have no idea how he managed it.

Here's a nice spaghetti face. I have to take pictures of my kids when they're dirty to prove that I let them get dirty sometimes.

 Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the birthday money. We bought Benjamin a swing and he LOVES it. And I think he's the cutest little boy ever!

 I'm not sure why this picture is out of order. But this is Benj talking to me. He has two different ways to talk. One is calm and sweet. The other is loud and informative. Can you guess which one this is!?

Unnecessary Conversation

Clara: Mooooo-mmmmmmy! Mooo-mmmmy! (repeated at least 6 times in 10 seconds)
Me: What Clara?
Clara: Moooo-mmmmy! Moooo-mmmmy!
Me: What Clara?
Clara: Um... I don't want to talk.
Me: Ok.

The New House

Here it is! Our new house! I'm sharing way too many pictures. I'm too lazy to try to figure out how to make a slideshow. Sorry.

 Here's the formal living room.

 I put lots of effort into my curtains.

 The pictures are out of order again. Blah. Here's the entryway.

 This is the office. Other people might call it a dining room. :)

 Kitchen.

 Eat-in part of the kitchen.

 Family room view from the eat-in kitchen.

 Good news. Benjamin didn't die after posing for this picture.

 Family room again.

 When my parents moved to town (last week) they generously gave us their extra huge flat screen tv. We still have to get rid of our old entertainment center. Hopefully it will disappear soon.

 Here's the little half bath. My helpers were glad to pose for this shot. Benj sure is busy.

 This is the playroom. I didn't bother to clean it.

 Now we're upstairs. This is my room. Obviously.

 Here's the family room as seen from upstairs.

 My bathroom.

 Another view of the master. I don't know why these pictures are out of order but it sure does drive me crazy.

 Emmalynne's bedroom. Currently its Grandpa's room.

 Here's Clara's room. She was super excited to get bunk beds a few days ago. It makes an awesome fort with the fancy bedskirt that I've been saving for 3 years. I found the bed for free on craigslist and I got the skirt for free at a yard sale. Now Emmalynne loves it when someone needs to sleep in her room. And the girls have slumber parties just for fun.

 Looking down into the living room. Perhaps this gives you a idea for how open the floorplan is. You can hear everything from anywhere in the house.  I thought it was going to bother me but I've gotten used to it.

 Here's Benjamin's room.

 The kids' bathroom.

 One of my favorite parts: the backyard!

Discovery Place

After our swimming adventure, my sister and I took the kids to Discovery Place. I think the last time I was there was before Clara was born.  Here's Emmalynne and Megan making race cars.

 We enjoyed looking at the fish. Benjamin could have stayed there for a long time if he didn't have anxious girls ready to go look at the next thing. The jelly fish were the most photogenic.

 Emmalynne worked up the courage to lay on the bed of nails. You lay on a metal bed and then push a button to make the nails lift you up. I'm sure she has no idea how cool it was.

 If you've met Benjamin, you can probably tell what he's doing here. When he walks around and gets excited, he likes to yell and throw his arms around. Hard to explain, but its cute.

 Clara was only willing to try out the bed of nails if Aunt Laura did it with her. She didn't enjoy it too much.

 There was a huge tub of tiny plastic balls. You were supposed to use the mechanism to send them from one container to the next. My kids just liked the feel of the balls in between their fingers! I don't blame them... it was kind of fun.

Splash Planet

When Clara was a baby, Carman and I took the girls to Ray's Splash Planet. It was lots of fun but I never had the mental capacity to go by myself. Just last week I worked up the courage and went. It may have helped that not only my sister, but also 2 of my friends were going with their kids. We had a great time! Not sure I could have managed without extra hands though!  Allow yourself to look closely at this picture of the 3 of them. I had the girls get themselves ready to go to the pool. A certain cutie-pie wore panties under her swimming suit. I didn't realize until we'd already been swimming an hour.

It took Benjamin a few minutes to decide this water thing was fun. He was apprehensive at first. I was surprised. I thought he'd of been excited from the get go with how much he loves baths and how many times he walks into the bathroom and tries climbing in the bathtub. He was successful once.

After the lifeguard had to jump in and rescue Clara, I took his advice and put life jackets on the girls. (not one of my shinning moments as super star mom)

 I LOVE Megan in her goggles. I don't think a child in goggles could be any cuter than this!

 At one point I noticed Emmalynne and Clara jumping up and down in the water with some random little girl. I thought it was peculiar since they're typically way too shy to do something like that. Then I realized it was their best buddy Corrina! That made so much more sense.

Talking & Walking

Our January

I've been overwhelmed with having too much to blog so I haven't done anything. So, I guess I'm just going to blog what I can and perhaps miss out on somethings... like Christmas. We'll skip ahead to January. Carman turned 30. He'd been wanting some weights so he can do P90X. The girls enjoyed trying them out. Altogether, its 30 lbs. Emmalynne tried to lift the entire thing and couldn't, much to her surprise. She promptly concluded, "Maybe I can lift it after I have a chocolate protein shake." 

This was our first snow. It was a very light dust that didn't stick for long. Snow is so foreign to us. I asked Emmalynne what she thought it was. She guessed, "Sand?"

Benjamin turned 1! I can't believe how quickly his first year went. I wish he wouldn't grow quite so rapidly! He's so big, as evidenced by his half naked picture. He loved his cake.

On the 28th, we bought our new house! It was an interesting process. We went from thinking we'd move to Colorado to staying here in Charlotte. We are so glad we sold our other house. It was great while we were there but the time had come to move on. We love our new neighborhood much more. Its actually the area we wanted to move in when we bought our first home but couldn't afford it. The photo is of us at the closing.

And just for fun, here's the picture of us at the closing of our first home, Jan. 22nd 2009. I was holding Emmalynne. (At the time I was babysitting for a friend, and Carman's holding their little girl)