Benjamin's 3 months old!

Each month goes so fast! Our little man is such a joy! He's been sleeping through the night since he was about 9 weeks old. He is smiling and laughing all the time! He loves grabbing for the toys hanging in his play yard, swinging, looking at his black and white books, taking a bath, being wrapped in his swaddle blanket, and playing peek a boo! Some things he doesn't like are laying on his tummy, loud noises (they scare him) and having to wait to eat!


As you can see Bella is full of personality these days but always has a gentle touch with Benjamin!

Family trip to TX!

A couple of weeks ago we made the long drive down to TX to spend time with family and friends. We left on a Friday night and drove half way to Norman, OK and stayed with our wonderful friends, the Kennedys. The kids did great and woke up to find their friends True and Selah ready to play! Then we made a stop in Dallas, TX to see Brandon's youth pastor when he was in high school and his wife Jill and their three wonderful boys! At last, we made it to Barry and Christie's house in Crawford later Saturday night. We spent the week hitting all of our favorite places and having a great time!

We got to see our cousin Carrie and her four kids Cami, Cullen, Corrin, and Camri. They were so excited to meet Benjamin for the first time!

What a bunch of cute monkeys!

Brandon, Benjamin and I enjoyed a wonderful night and two days in the charming town of Salado! We stayed at a bed and breakfast and went shopping in the cute little shops and ate at a couple of good local eateries. It was a great pace of life, we may have been the only life in the one street town! We loved it!

I got to visit a few of my amazing friends while I was down there! I had a great lunch with Stephanie at Food for Thought! Yum, the tank is still my favorite! Then I enjoyed picking up Common Grounds frozen Milky Ways for Ashely, Kami, and myself. The Common Grounds guys were amazed at how many Milky Ways I ordered! (only 4 large) haha, I think I set the record! But, we are pretty serious about Common Grounds! This is Ashley, True, and Selah, Me and Benjamin, and Kami and her new little guy Justice! What a crew! Amazingly enough, I think when we were sitting for the picture it was the most calm the kids were. We had to snap out of our glazed over looks to get up from the couch!

One last Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas with my parents on Jan. 10th since they were in Peru for the month of December. The girls have gotten to be professional gift openers by now! We had an amazing dinner together including BBQ brisket from my mom, pioneer woman potatoes and homemade rolls from Val, yummy appetizers, green beans, salad, and Christmas sugar cookies and apple pie. I don't think anyone went hungry! We are so blessed!

Here is Bella and Sophie playing hide and seek in the closet!

The girls pausing for a picture only briefly before passing out gifts and tearing into them!

I don't think Bella worried about who the gifts were for... she just knows if they're wrapped they should be opened! I think I had to rewrap Sophie's gift three times!

Here is Papa holding Benjamin and his new football!

Benjamin loves his new reading chair!!!

Papa and Gigi with the kids, can you tell Bella didn't have a good nap today?

The next day Bella ran downstairs to her art easle and goes "ooohhhhhh!" She also picked out green and gold by herself to paint with! I knew she was going to be a Baylor girl from the start!

Bella' First Hair Cut

Last week Bella got her first haircut from Miss Laci Thurn! I was excited to get the back all evened up, it was long overdue! As soon as we walked into the salon, Bella started crying like she knew what was about to happen and she did not like it! She was clinging to me in the chair as you can see and did not want to sit on the booster seat or wear the cool fish cape that Laci had picked out for her!



She warmed up and I think enjoyed how relaxing it was to have her hair combed through! At the end she was throwing her little blankie up in the chair and all over the salon!

Giving Laci a hug and kiss bye! I don't think she said a single word the whole time with those fingers in her mouth! Hopefully she'll warm up for next time!

2 Months!

Benjamin is 2 months old today! He is smiling, laughing, cooing, making raspberries, batting at hanging toys, wiggling, and kicking nonstop! He is such a good baby and so happy! He is sleeping longer at night now and only waking up once a night to eat and goes straight back to sleep. After his morning feeding he does not want to be put back to bed, he is ready to see his big sister and play! I love my little man!

This week our parent educator, Amy, came for his first visit! She thinks he's doing great!

This was a picture of Benjamin's first trip to the chiropractor. He was only a couple of weeks old, but he did great!

"Hoppy" 2nd Birthday Bella!

I can't believe that Isabella is 2 already! Her actual birthday is Dec. 27th but we celebrated this past weekend.

At her 2 year checkup she weighed 23 lbs, 10 oz and was 32 3/4 inches tall which both are in the 10-25th percentile. She is a very active joyful girl! Anything she can jump on, climb over, bounce on or crawl through...she's doing it! For example she got a little tikes baby doll bed that sits at the foot of her toddler bed. She likes to climb up over it to get into bed! She is talking nonstop and learning new words each week! The other day I found her in my room and she had turned on the TV. I told her no more TV today! She said as clear as a bell "Just a minute!" I asked her if she said "Just a minute" and she said, "Mmm Hmmm". LOL I wonder who she heard that from! She has the best laugh of any two year old! It makes me laugh or smile every time I hear her! I know God has gifted that laugh to her to bring joy to other people for her entire life! We are so blessed to have such a sweet, healthy, smart, and beautiful girl!

For Bella's party this year we borrowed a boucy house that was small enough to fit inside our basement! She loves to jump around. So I paired that with a cute little frog theme. In the basement I had framed Bella's two year picture and had everyone sign the Max Lucado "Just In Case You Ever Wonder" book to remember everyone that came to the party. That was a sweet gift from Aunt Val!

Upstairs we had hot ham sandwiches, sausage balls, and frog mix to eat. We had our traditional Izze drinks that we have each year for Isabella's party!

Fun frog balloons!

Yummy two layer cake that was gone by the end of the night! I couldn't believe we ate it all!

The kids food table had PB&J cut out in the shapes of thw number 2 and little princess crowns, more frog mix, flies on a log (celery, PB, and raisons).

Kaylen, Elayna, and Bella having a snack at the table!

Bella bouncing with her cousin Sophie!

They had so much fun!

Even Benjamin was sporting the frog theme! I made a little iron on onsie for him!

The girls from the party minus Miss Siena (getting her beauty sleep)

Bella is the gift opening champ by now! After a few Christmases and birthday with us, she knows exactly what to do!

We had so many wonderful family and friends in town for her party! My parents made it back from Peru just a few hours before the party, we had Brandon's dad in town from TX, Aunt Val, Uncle Lea, and Sophie were there! Our good friends the Armstongs, Williams, Meyers, Quicks, and Marbles were all there too!

Bella got a new little hairbrush that says her name on it from Bryce. She insisted on brushing everyone's hair immediately! The girls were really good sports about it! :)

Bella did fantastic blowing out her candles and letting everyone sing to her! I didn't know if she would like all the attention or not. She did!




The ball pit turned out to be the most popular toy of the night! Lots of hiding and using it as a fort and lots of balls to pick up at the end of the night!

All the kids got a little treat bag that had one of the inflatable frog beach balls, frog tattoos, their frog cup, and frog chocolates I made in the chocolate molds! Thank you to everyone for coming and celebrating Bella's 2nd year of life with us! You all mean so much to us and to Isabella!

Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's Eve over at the Meyer's home this year! It was great to hang out with friends and have LOTS of yummy food to eat and kids to chase after! We tried to have a quiet time for Bella and Bryce hoping they would fall asleep. Bryce got sleepy but our dear sweet Bella stayed up past midnight this year! She was dancing around, clapping, talking nonstop, and eating nonstop right up until 12:30am when we finally got her into bed! What a little party girl!