Family Photos!

Isn't our Father good to give us little gifts along the way? Well, I have really wanted some good family photos but was nervous about going to a studio here. My taste are a little different than theirs. Anyways, there is a highschool student here who takes amazing pictures and so I asked her to take some of our family. She did a great job and I am so thankful for her!! We are getting photos done at Christmas which I am super excited about but wanted some of us here in this country to remember.

A weekend of firsts

Ben has been working on crawling for awhile but had never gone more than a couple of crawls(is that a word?). Anyways, Friday we put up the Christmas tree. Apparently having christmas lights on the ground to crawl to was the motivation he needed to get the hang of crawling.
Now that he can crawl to things, he discovered that he can pull up on things to his knees.
Then yesterday, while he was having crib time he discovered he can pull all the way up to his feet!
And then finally first was the appearance of his first tooth! We knew it was on its way, due to the fussiness, drooling, etc. Well, this morning while he was eating breakfast, I noticed that his little tooth has broken the skin on the bottom right side(his right). Needless to say, his sleep has been a little interupted this past weekend with all of his new tricks to practice!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our "family" here. We have celebrated with this group for the last 3 years and it is truly special! We are going to miss you guys next year!! We had SO much food and it was all so good! Oh, I have so much to be thankful for this year! Here is our family photo from the day!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. So, Ashleigh and Jenny have been doing this for awhile now and I think it is hallarious. So, I thought I should post a not me moment from this past week.

So, a couple weeks ago, I posted about how we had taken Ben's passie away. He was doing great without the passie. However, this past week we went to England and he didn't do so great. The great family we were staying with has a daughter that loves the passie. The first night we arrived she carried around two and three passies at a time. So, in the middle of the night, when my son was screaming hysterically, Allen and I both DID NOT go searching through their house to find a passie for our son. Our son being the one who had done so great without the passie. I was not so desperate that I even searched through our friends purse and under the couch, to find NO passie!! The next morning I definately told my friend all about this and as soon as she offered a PINK passie, I did not immediately give it to my son and let him use it for the rest of the trip. In fact, he is not in his crib right now with a pink passie!! Allen did not promise to buy 5 more passies after that night of having a miserable son. In all fairness, Ben did come home with a cold and so I don't think it is the right time to take it away. In fact, we are going to the states in three weeks, so he will probably get to keep the pink passie until the new year, or maybe longer!

Quick Trip to England

We visited a quaint little town where parts of The Holiday and Bridgette Jones' Diary were filmed.


Allen driving on the opposite side of the road!! He did a great job.

Check out that mowhawk and his favorite toy of the trip, a nasal aspirator! So much for buying toys!

Off to England

We are headed to England for the week. Super excited about it, though it would be nice if I didn't have a cold! Anyways, we will post pictures when we get Ben. Just a sweet one of Ben chewing on an apple to tide you over!

7 Months

Wow, I can't believe our little boy is 7 months old!
-He still has no teeth. Drooling like crazy but no teeth.
-We noticed this week one evening that he was sitting up on the carpet. Allen and I both looked at each other and asked if the other had gotten him up. Then yesterday I saw him do it several times. Ben has learned how to sit up from being on his hands and knees. It is amazing to me how he figures things out.
-Still not crawling but getting close.
-He is eating solids but is really not very interested in them most of the time. He especially has a hard time when someone else is in the room or there are things going on. When we went camping he was so distracted.
-He is loved by all the people here and gets all kinds of attention. This week we had to go to the equivalent of the DMV and multiple men came up to us and tried to get him to smile or they would want to hold him for a little bit. Fortunately he will go to strangers with no hesitation. At first this scared Allen but he is slowly getting used to it.
-We took his passie away this past weekend! ICKES! I am a bad mommy and had made it a sleep prop. Not every night but often I would go back in his room in the middle of the night and put it back it when he would fuss. So, we had to stop that. He is doing great and has quickly attached himself to a stuffed animal, tiger. Oh, the things you learn as parents!
-Ben is a joy and a pleasure to have as part of our family! I love seeing him grow and learn stuff all the time! It is amazing. Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

Camping in the desert

We took Ben on his first camping trip this past weekend, Friday and Saturday. He did great! He went down for naps better in the tent than he does at home and slept through the night both nights. Unfortunately, we had our time change on Friday and Ben didn't get the memo that he could sleep an hour more! But that was ok, we all snuggled in our sleeping bags together. It was a fun time out of the city. Here are a few pics from the weekend.