Happy Birthday, Grampa!

A great big Happy Birthday to Ben's Grampa!  We're bummed we can't celebrate with you, but we are wishing you an especially happy day today.  We appreciate all you do.  We love you and miss you!

I had to look for pictures of Ben and Grampa, and sadly this is almost all I could find!  You know what this means, photo shoot next time we are all together!

Ben playing with Grampa at Christmas time.

Buddies back in June.

-Kim

Walking in the snow

Snow!  We haven't gotten a ton of snow this winter.  From a driving and having to go about my business aspect, I am happy about that.  But from a playing in the snow aspect, not as much.  Ben is walking now, and I am so excited for him to play in the snow!  Alas, we have had a lack of snow and it is often too cold for me to take Ben out to just play.

Today it got up to the upper 30s, heat wave!  We had to get outside.  There are bits of snow, but not fresh snow in which to play.  We only had a short time since it was in the middle of the work day too, so instead of playing in the snow, we settled for walking on it and hearing it crunch.  Ben enjoyed it!  He's still getting used to this whole walking outside thing.  We are practicing holding hands while we walk.  Ben is not, nor has he ever been, much of a hand holder.  Inside that is fine, but outside he must hold our hands.  Of course for the snow stomping I had to take pictures, so he got to be free.

It was just a short walk, but here are way too many pictures of my sweet boy enjoying his snow stomping.

I'd also like to point out that Ben now wears his snow boots without screaming and walks in them.  That is huge progress from the first time we put them on him.  They are harder to walk in, but he is doing so well at it!  He looks like such a big boy in his coat and boots.  Where did my tiny baby go??

-Kim

Winter Water Play

It's been awhile, but I finally brought back some water play for Ben.  He loves it!  It's a bit messy, but that's what makes it fun.  While I cooked in the kitchen, Ben sat and 'cooked' with his pot of water and kitchen utensils.  We haven't done this since he could walk, so I was a little concerned he would try to walk around with the pot, but he didn't!  He sat and played happily for quite some time.  Dagger stopped by to watch the fun, but she was smart and didn't get too close.  Ben was a bit damp when he was done, but he was as happy as can be.

Lining up his supplies

Dagger wisely keeps her distance

Watch out!  I have a ladle!

Happy guy!

-Kim

It's a fort!

Ben loves to play with his music activity table.  Lately though, he has taken to also playing under it.  Yes, under it.  I wiggles underneath with some blocks, or some other small toy and hangs out playing.  Usually he can wiggle right back out.  Occasionally he tries to take a turn to get out and, well, gets stuck.  I am of course a helpful mom and run to help him out, but I can't help but laugh at the same time.  

It's fun to see Ben having such a good time under his table.  I am looking forward to all the blanket forts we will build in the future!

Playing under his table

Wrong turn! He's stuck!

This is so much fun

-Kim

Happy Birthday, Omi!

A big Happy Birthday to Ben's Omi!  Thank you for always taking time out of your busy day to hang out with Ben.  He's lucky to have you, as we all are.  We love you!

Best buds!

Happy Birthday!!
-Kim

Where's Ben?

Ben has a new game.  He hides behind the curtain and giggles as we ask, "Where's Ben?"  He also likes to hide toys and household objects back there.  Lucky for us the curtains are sheer, otherwise it would be really hard to find him. ;)

-Kim

Happy Feet!

Now that Ben is walking, he is dancing and moving more than ever.  His newest cute thing is what we call his "happy feet."  He stomps his feet with a giant smile on his face.  We love the happy feet, and we love our happy little guy.  Here are a few clips of him doing it.  You can also see the video here and here.  

I love Ben's Happy Feet!

-Kim

Christmas Trip: Cousin Fun

As I have said in past posts, a big part of our trip to Arkansas was focused on playing with the kids.  That is what we spent most of our time doing.  Pat and I, being the awesome Aunt and Uncle we are, got the kids a bowling set.  They had fun with the until Ben decided to bowl using himself.  Charlotte came up with a fun game we called Bensketball.  Basically it was him putting balls into a laundry hamper.  Pretty simple, but all the kids seemed to get a kick out of it.  Ben's cousins were so sweet to include Ben in all their games.  It was a joy to see them all playing together.

Here are some shots of the kids in action.

Ben helped me make breakfast

Charlotte loving on Ben

Ben teaching his cousins about 2nd and 3rd breakfasts

Joe bowling!

Ben 'helped' set up the pins

Charlotte and Ella giving us their bowling poses

Bensketball!

Charlotte and Ella helping Ben with his bottle.

 The kids kept us busy, but it was so much fun to play with them!  They are sweethearts and we all had a blast with Ben's cousins.

-Kim

Happy Birthday, Gramma!

Happy Birthday to Ben's Gramma!  We're sorry we can't celebrate in person with you, but we are thinking of you and we love you!  Happy Birthday!!

Ben and Gramma!

-Kim

Christmas Trip: Bubbles!

Christmas was the major event of our trip to Arkansas.  After that, the rest of the time was spent just playing with the kids and enjoying yummy leftovers.

The day after Christmas it was reasonably nice out, so we decided to try to get the kids out of the house.  The plan was to pick up some lunch, then go have a picnic and play at the park.  Unfortunately on the way there we hit our only real hiccup on the trip, Pat and I got rear ended on the way to the park.  Fortunately no one was hurt, but it was a little scary for a few minutes.  I really have to thank Lindsay and Chris for their help and patience with the accident.  We were following their car to the park, but Pat was able to avoid hitting them.  Chris was awesome at getting the police there and keeping Ben's cousins calm while we worked everything out.  Lindsay was very  helpful in helping me be sure Ben was okay.  As I said, everyone was fine, which is what really counts.

After that incident though, we didn't really feel like a park trip.  Instead we went home and let the kids run around in the back yard with bubbles!  Kids love bubbles, so this was a big hit.  Ben enjoyed the bubbles as well.  This was his first time wearing his boots outside, and he was not a fan.  He accepted them on his feet, after some protesting, but wouldn't walk in them.  He mainly sat and crawled around a little.  But bubbles made it all worthwhile.

The kids had a blast.  Thank you again to Lindsay and Chris for all your help with the car.

I know it is already mid-January, but I only have a few more trip posts to write up.  I'll try to get through them quickly and move on to more current events!  At least there are more pictures to come!

-Kim

Go Buckeyes!

Big game tonight- Championship Game!

We are of course cheering for the Buckeyes.  Sadly Ben will be in bed before the game starts.  That didn't stop  him from showing his Buckeye pride today!

Go OSU!

Cutest little fan ever.

-Kim

Christmas Trip: Christmas!

Yes, finally getting to the good stuff from our trip recap.  Christmas was wonderful.  We made the big kids wait until 7am to get up, since that is Ben's wake up time.  I know, we could have gotten him up earlier, since he often wakes up before that.  But I think everyone liked that we had an 'earliest time' that wasn't tooo early.  Just pretty early.  Gramma, Grampa, GiGi, and Papa John all got up early and came over to see what Santa had brought for the kids, along with Uncle Chris's sister and parents.  We had a full house!

The kids were pretty great and let us get a bunch of pictures before diving into all the presents.  Gramma got them all matching penguin jammies, so they looked so cute!  Ben is still a bit too young to really get what was going on, but he loved being in on the excitement with his big cousins.

Everyone was so generous with Ben.  We are truly blessed to have so many wonderful people in his life who want to share with him.  In other words, Ben got so many gifts!  Oh my goodness, is he a lucky boy.  Thank you to everyone who helped give Ben such a merry Christmas.

The morning was spent opening gifts.  We did a big Christmas dinner around midday.  While we had a bunch of food that Ben enjoys, he decided he only wanted an apple.  What can I say, kids are strange.  Lindsay and Chris put together a delicious spread, with the help of Gramma and Grampa.  Everything was super tasty.

After eating, the kids napped a bit and we adults got to just relax.  Basically we spent the day enjoying family and playing with new toys.  Ben was awesome and took his naps pretty well.  I think running around so much really wore him out!  His cousins were so kind and shared all their toys with him whenever he wanted.  They were really good about understanding that some toys had to be put away because they had too many small parts for 'Baby Ben' to be around.  They really are some great kids.

I took a ton of pictures, but just as Charlotte, Joe, and Ella are getting old enough to know to sit still, look at the camera, and smile, Ben is learning he can just get up and move away.  Sigh, the pictures are still pretty cute.

Getting some milk before presents

Looking so cute in his jammies!

Trying to get a picture of the cousins

Ben wasn't in to sitting

Four cute little Christmas Elves!

The big kids

Stockings first!

Presents!

Ben loved his new toys

Everyone who came over early

Taking a break on LadyBird's bed

Watching Charlotte open gifts is fun!

Everyone takes a little break to play with their feet, right? ;)

Fire Station!

Thank you to everyone who helped make this such a merry Christmas for us and especially Ben.  We missed seeing some family, but we were so happy to spend the holiday with family we don't get to see very often.  We are so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives.  We are looking forward to all the fun Christmases to come!

-Kim