st patty's day 2011

{I'm catching up...in reverse!}

We made it back home from Oregon in time for what has to be Porter's favorite "holiday"--St Patrick's day!  He loves him some GREEN!  He was so excited that we all wore his favorite color for the day

bennett--7 months

Ok, well she's actually almost 8 months old now!!

She is just so much fun right now {and yes, I know I say that EVERY month}

She is:

still nursing 4 times a day

 still not a huge fan of the bottle, but will take on every now and then

loves to eat FOOD just NOT baby {as in pureed} food

the only "baby" food she likes is rice cereal

loves all the new finger foods she's getting, and prefers real solid foods

still has 2 teeth, but I can see 2 more on the bottom that should be coming in any day

sleeps good all night

doesn't cry much, and is pretty laid back

I have no idea what she weighs--maybe 17 pounds?  

crawling {eeeekkkk!} sort of :)  {she gets up on all 4's and goes a few "crawls" then collapses}

loves her toys in her crib

I caught her this morning trying to pull herself up in her crib {we lowered the mattress last week, thank goodness}

LOVES to be held!!

still loves Porter, Mommy, and Daddy

She was very excited to see Ryan this weekend after he had been gone for a week

loves her paci--I think she's even more attached to it than Porter was!

has started "clapping"--close fist style--it's the cutest thing {if you're her parents/family--maybe not so cute to the rest of you}

she is just so sweet & a really happy baby...

BUT, she's not happy ALL of the time!

the "beach"

we {meaning I} are in desperate need for a beach trip and SOON!  I LOVE the beach and we are planning on going a couple of times this summer when Ryan is done with work....BUT for now, we can just go up to Fountainebleu State park to the "mini beach" as I call it :)
The kids had a blast!  And I'm so excited that Bennett seemed to enjoy the water AND the sand!  She's going to be a good beach baby this summer!

Somehow I did not get one picture of Porter--which isn't too surprising if you saw how he acted when he sees me get a camera out ;)

bennett enjoying some sand with her cookie:

Kinley was there too, and she LOVED the water:

Porter's best friend Kamryn was there too!

I love the fat baby rolls in this picture along with the cheeks STUFFED with gerber baby cookies (oh, and a TON of sand)

**recognize bennett's swimsuit?? Porter has the SAME ONE :)  I've been waiting a year for her to be able to match her brother :)  {I'm sure Ryan is cringing right now}

I wouldn't say she exactly enjoyed eating the sand, but she just could not stop!

I'm back...

well, I will be back....SOON!  We've been very busy--and just got back from a 10 day trip to Oregon {that unexpectedly turned into an 11 day trip!!!} and I have TONS to blog about!
But for now, here are some pictures of the kids from today in their matching Easter outfits (Ryan is probably cringing right now at the mention of "matching")

bennett is SEVEN months old now!

 she is sitting up so good!

favorite thing to do right now when outside: eat grass!

Porter still loves his baby sister...

 but it's nearly impossible to get a good picture of the two of them together:

"throw me something mister!!"

Porter learned this phrase quick! We've had so much fun last weekend at TWO mardi gras parades! This is porters first time to be able to enjoy the parades ( we misses it last year because of the superbowl). I think he liked it since he told me during the first parade, "mama, this is the best night EVER!!"

Bennett got a sword too :)



Porter and his best "girlfriend" kam:




At the madisonville boat parade






He stayed in the jumphouse For about 3.5 out of the 4 hours we were there


Which explains this when we were driving home:




After the boat parade all three of us were tired and took a nap...I woke up hearing PORTER not Bennett on the monitor...he had woke up, went in her room, turned her light on, and climbed in her crib to play! He LOVES his "boo boo" ( what he has started calling Bennett :))
What I saw on the monitor:



We're headed out of town before the rest of the parades, but we had a great time last weekend and I know porter can't wait til next year!

Silly

Bennett ADORES Porter! She lights up whenever he is around, and he just loves his baby sister too. He is constantly wanting to play with her and make her laugh! Tonight after I got them dressed in their pj's, Bennett was sitting up smiling and playing so I told porter if he'd sit by her I'd take their picture and send to daddy (he's been gone to the combine for a week and won't be home for a few more days).
Of course Porter was all for that since the only time he'll agree to a picture is if we're sending it to daddy!
They were sitting and smiling so cute and then I took the picture...

Porter decided that this is what daddy needed to see (meaning him and not bennett!). What you can't hear is how loud Bennett was laughing! She thought it was the best thing ever! Of course she thinks anything with her big brother is great and hilarious!
Love these two and their little (make that BIG) personalities sooo much!

Big girl!

Bennett is getting to be such a big girl, and a baby on the move! She was pretty lazy there for awhile, and refused to even TRY to sit up--when ever I would sit her down, she would push her legs out so you couldn't sit her up! She was perfectly content to just lay there and roll around! She just decides this week that it's FUN to sit up like porter :)

And as soon as she realized sitting was fun, she thought crawling might be too!



I am NOT READY FOR THIS!! Luckily for mama, she hasn't quite figured out the whole crawling thing yet--though not from lack of big brother trying to show her how its done! (though somehow I think he's not gonna be as excited as he thinks he will be when she's mobile and into his stuff)
Right now she just rocks back and forth until she wears herself out! She can "scoot" pretty good--but as of right now she's a reverse only driver!
I just can't believe our little Bennett is almost seven months old!

love

6 months

Bennett is 6 months old!  I can hardly believe it :)

At 6 months: 

• I have no idea what she weighs??  Maybe 17-18 pounds??
• sleeps 11-12hours a night {8p-7/8a}
• takes a morning and afternoon nap
• sits up a little {but not very well--see pic below ;)}
• has TWO bottom teeth {and I think some top ones are coming soon}
• not a huge fan of solids, but eats about 1-2 jars of baby food a day along with rice cereal
• not much hair yet :)
• jabbers all day long
• loves watching porter
• loves being held ALL.THE.TIME
• is more of a "schedule" baby than porter was--she likes sticking to her schedule and gets upset when its disrupted {porter was never like this}
• has outgrown almost all of her 6 month clothes, and is now in 9 month clothing
• loves the jumperoo
• showing no signs of crawling (thank goodness!) and just seems content to stay in one place when you put her down
• likes to be outside
• not a fan of the sippy cup or juice (we've tried twice so far and she is not a fan!)
• will take a bottle better, but still prefers to be nursed

 In other news, we did not do Christmas cards this year--I just couldn't get it together in time.  SO I promised myself that I would do either New Year's or V-day cards...of course New Years came and went, and I had just about given up that I would do Valentine's day ones as well...UNTIL I saw Mixbook had a Groupon for $50 worth of products for $15!!  They happened to have cute Valentine's day cards, and I could get about 85 cards for $15.  So I bought it, and then of course it rained the entire week, so I had to wait until yesterday to get a good picture of the kids outside {cutting it close for my cards}...but the cards are ordered and should be here by next week so I can get them sent out :)

Considering these cards cost about one TENTH of what Christmas cards normally cost us, we may make this a yearly tradition!

And I couldn't not post this picture of my little buddy!  Mimi & Pop gave the kids an Audubon membership for Christmas, and we finally used it and went to the zoo last week!  It's the best gift ever!  We will definitely enjoy it all year.

We're off to enjoy our last few hours of being superbowl champs!  I'm thinking of making Ryan wear his SB ring for the occasion (kidding) :)  I guess we'll cheer for the Steelers tonight, but after going & winning the SB, it sure makes it hard to get into it this year!!  Hopefully we'll be back in the BIG GAME next year!

happy birthday...

happy birthday bongbong!!

we hope you have a great day!

it's also bennett's HALF birthday...she's SIX months old today :)