Christmas day!

We had so much fun having Christmas with just the kids. They actually slept in till about 8:30. Siena was excited once she started opening the gifts and wanted to open and play with each one so it took a long time to get through all the gifts. It was great though she was so entertained that Dave and I got to open all our gifts in peace. She came down and we had a new train set all set up. She was very specific in the one gift she wanted. A freddie train with pink wrapping paper and a red bow. I don't really know where she got the idea of the pink wrapping paper and bow but oh well. So it was sitting in the middle of the track just like she ordered. Ben loved getting into all the wrapping and he stole quite a few candies and got them in his mouth before we realized what he was doing. His most important gifts were his spunky dog that Siena gave him so he will stop stealing hers and his guitar hero drum sticks so he will stop stealing them from us. He gets so excited when he sees his drumsticks and surprisingly knows just what to do with them. Siena loved all her gifts and has played with all of them multiple times.She got board games this year and has really liked them even though she won't play by the rules...we are learning. We love the little people and we got a school bus and a circus. She also loves the candy and we hope that it will be gone soon. Dave splurged and got all the gifts that he wanted. Mostly buying them for himself he's so hard to shop for. I had a great Christmas too and am so sad that it is over. We had a great Christmas we are so spoiled!

 

More trains!

We can't get enough of trains in this house. For FHE we drove around town and looked at Christmas lights. We found this awesome house that has lots of displays and a real train that you can ride. So cool. Siena went on it twice not even minding that is was like 10 degrees out. It was freezing... Ben and Dave stayed in the car. Then today we went back to the Botanical gardens and saw the train display again and we went to union station and saw the tree and trains there and it wasn't nearly as impressive. We then went to toys r us and got her trains for Christmas. It's still nice we can go shopping with her for her own toys and she won't remember them.

Ben walking!

I finally caught it on tape he is actually walking a lot now.

Merry Christmas!

We are so excited to go to Hershey PA after Christmas and have fun with Dave's family. Here is a quick photo and fun list of things we did this year. (for people that I couldn't get Christmas cards out to...sorry)This is as much for my journal sake as anything else.

Ben came Feb 25th of course mom was very anxious and wanted to get him out before leap year and before Siena's birthday.
Siena had her train birthday a couple days later. She LOVES trains. we made a train out of cardboard boxes and had lots of people over. The cake was amazing!
Nana and papa visited. Nana visited for the birth of Ben and then they both came out for Bens baby blessing.
We had lots of family for Bens blessing. Grandma and grandpa, Tricia and her family, Steve and Nana and Papa.
Hershey park for Memorial day with friends.
Fun in the summertime with fun at d.c. sites, the zoo and the beach in Maryland.
Down to North Carolina beach to a house for a week with friends. Siena loved it and would live at the beach. Ben didn't like it so much and ate a lot of sand.
Mom braved an airplane ride with two kids to UT and the kids had a great time playing with cousins and visiting farms. They loved seeing papa sing and the temple and going trick o treating. They were peter pan and tinkerbell.
Many trips to grandma and grandpas house in PA. We loved the duck pond and hershey chocolate factory with free chocolate! We even visited and climbed all over Gettysburg.
We visited PA again for Thanksgiving and enjoyed playing in the basement with our cousins.
Good happy times!

Ben has started walking the past few days and Siena continues to talk a lot and make her wants known.

Merry Christmas and happy new year!

A day in D.C.

We decided that we were going to go in to D.C. and see all the fun Christmas things. It was so much fun. We started out at the Botanical Gardens. So pretty. I have never been there but it was beautiful. They had a whole room of trains that Siena would stay in all day if we let her. She loved it. It really was amazing. They had all the sites of D.C. there too made out of the plants. I can't say enough about it, it was beautiful. Then we went over to the native american museum and had some lunch. Ben decided to impress everyone and took his first steps there!!!!!!!YEAH FOR BEN! He took 4 steps and of course I can't seem to get it on camera. I am still trying. Marcy is my witness that he walked and then he took a couple steps for Dave this morning. He is amazing! So we decided that the kids were doing well so we kept going with the D.C. sites. We went to the newly re opened American History Museum. It was wonderful. Honestly most of the exhibits I remember were still there and still the same but I guess it looks nicer and they have a wonderful exploration play place. Siena and Jacob and Ben loved it. We stayed there until it got dark so we could go to the white house decorations so it was about 2 hours playing. It's all about inventions and how people came up with their ideas it's fun. We walked from the mall to the white house and saw the White house christmas tree. It wasn't as great as I thought it would be. It just had white lights but it is huge. They have smaller christmas trees all around it from the other 50 states. Siena's favorite things were the huge bonfire that they had and the nativity scene. We tried to go and visit santa clause and she started screaming. I felt like the boy on the movie christmas story when they go see santa and the little boy starts kicking and screaming when they want to send him down the slide. It was kind of sad. It was a fun and an exhausting day.

we love t.v.

In the mornings Siena usually watches Thomas and Friends. Today I finally got her to watch something else. We watched baby Einstein which we haven't watched in forever. Ben loved it. He was fixed on it the whole time. I guess he had lost interest in Thomas and Friends after the 100th time watching it. So now we know how to quiet Ben down. It was funny he even got startled when one of the puppets jumped. Then we were coming home today and listening to the radio and a toys r us comercial came on and Siena says "Mom it's toys r us" and I asked her how she knew that and she said "because it sounds like the one on t.v.!" I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

 

christmas tree!

We got up our christmas tree last week. It was fun to go and pick one out. We waited a couple of days to decorate it and Siena got a little excited and decided to decorate it herself with her toys. So far we haven't lost any of the ornaments. Ben pulls them off the tree of course but no casualties yet.

babysitting group

We have been so lucky to have good friends here. We are in a babysitting swap where we get to go out 2 times a month and then we watch 2 other kids one night per month. It has been so nice especially now in December where Dave and I can go out and go Christmas shopping. It's great we have never paid for a babysitter. Here are the cute kids one night. They usually end up running around our house in circles and that wears them out pretty good.

Music class

We love our music class that we attend every monday morning. It has been so much fun. It is a bunch of mothers organized by a lady in our ward. It is the best $10 I have ever spent. Siena loves it and walks around the house singing the songs all day. Ben even gets really into the tapping sticks and shakers. So I finally got pictures.

a great surprise!

So I always think what a great surprise if Dave just came home one day and had dinner or some surprise..I love surprises! Especially on a really yucky weather day or a long day with the kids. Well the other day he surprised me with tickets to a concert and he had arranged all the babysitting. I was so excited! We went to the concert last night. It was wonderful. I like the concert hall you sat down and had dinner and then you had the concert. It was so nice to be out with my husband. The kids loved the babysitter and also had a good time and it was nice and quiet when we finally got home so it was wonderful! THANK YOU DAVE YOU ARE THE BEST HUSBAND! I had a great time! We saw Eric Hutchinson and he was funny and played great music.

fun on a rainy day

I am still deciding if naps are good for Siena. She either takes one and won't fall asleep till 10ish or she doesn't take one and she falls asleep at 8. If I put her up in her room during naptime she will fall asleep so if I don't want her to take a nap I have to keep her downstairs and entertained so I don't get any rest time (which is much needed). So some days we are really cranky. Today it was wonderful, Aubrey had a coupon for chuck e cheese and we went and she LOVED it. I thought it was still going to be too big for her. She spent her 25 tokens quickly, mostly on the merry go round. She was very proud of her sucker that she got from her tokens. Aubrey and I even got to sit at a table and talk while the girls ran around. IT was amazing we had the whole place to ourselves at one point. She hated the characters that sang on the stage. We actually lasted for 3 hours, way longer than I thought she would. Then we had no time for nap so it was a nice day. We got in the car this morning and she said restaurant? with cheese and the mouse! we will go back soon I am sure.

on the move!

Ben is quite the mover. He crawls really fast now and crawls on his hands and feet with his butt up in the air. We brought out the push toy to help him walk and he loves it. I was cooking and Dave said he walked all the way across the room! He finally is starting to realize he can move when he stands up. He has started to walk around all the furniture too. So smart.

Fun does come in a box

what fun a new carseat box can bring.

 

To Grandma and Grandpas house we go!

We had a great Thanksgiving with Daves side of the family. It was good food, good family and a relaxing time. Siena loved playing with her cousins and grandparents and LOVED the gingerbread house that she is still talking about and still wanting to eat. Thanks for the good time.

cooking!

I dislike cooking very much. I never seem to have all the ingredients to a recipe and the food never comes out like it looks like in the picture. I was so excited when a lady at church gave out Amish friendship bread because I can do that and it is DELICIOUS! So I take care of it for 10 days adding little things and mushing it around and then I get all my ingredients ready and start adding them so I can pass the starter out to 4 more people. I forget to divide it all up and make the starters instead I just cook the bread. I am so mad but I do have bread just no starters. So sorry to people who wanted the starters hopefully you will get the starter from someone else and then maybe (hint hint) pass it on to me.
I did find the best thing and it seems so simple and stupid but Ziploc has these microwavable steaming vegetable bags. All you do is put the veggies in, no water required or anything and microwave them for a couple of minutes. You can do fresh or frozen. They taste delicious and you don't even have to mess up any pans. PERFECT. Siena loved it and even asked for more "trees". Maybe I am slow on this but they were good.

what we've been doing!

It has been so cold around here lately. I honestly have been inside most days dreading having to go bundle up the kids and go out. We did go out a couple of times. The kids are learning how to play with eachother nicely. You wouldn't think that would be that hard but somehow it is. Ben loves Siena and follows her around everwhere and tries to do everything she does. Siena gets really upset that he takes her toy or destroys her block tower or her train set up. It's really frustrating for everybody and I hope she can get over the screaming at him part and just learn to play with him. So here are the more fun things we have done lately.

Ben learned to wave and tries to say hi
Ben learned to clap (it is very cute)
(I am still trying to get a cute video of it all...stay tuned!)
Mommy and daddy got to go out this weekend. We actually dropped the kids off at our friends house and dave and I even went our seperate ways. I got a lot of shopping done and Dave watched the awful BYU game. He didn't come home very happy.

We took lots of random pictures. It seems so hard to get the kids to take good pictures together where they are both happy, so one day we spent a good amount of time on Siena's bed jumping and taking pictures. That is the only place where they are constantly happy at the same time. We love jumping on her bed! (that's our header picture)

We started talking to Siena about Christmas and about gifts. We went through the Toys R Us catalog. She thought it was fun and luckily for us she doesn't want much. She was actually really excited to get Ben a little doggie like she has so he will stop taking hers.

We had family night every night. Siena discovered the family night box. Dave had a story and game with her one night and she loved it and as soon as Dave comes home she is ready for the same game and story. She plays it every night. Bingo book of mormon words and Joseph Smith gets the golden plates and then ice cream.

Some funny things that happened:
Talking about Thanksgiving I asked Siena what she was thankful for and she said Pajamas! She is so smart. we love our pajamas!

Sienas 2 Loves!

It is a cold yucky day out so we decided to make chocolate chip cookies. She always gets the beaters eventhough she is terrified of the mixer and leaves the room while I mix it all up. She got all the dough off the beaters and quickly moved on to her favorite toy... the train table with the beater playing too. It was a crane.

Our dog Spunky!

We are not completely crazy. We did NOT get a dog. Siena has turned into a dog. She has had this stuffed animal dog since she was born and was pretty attached to it. It used to bark and then I did some much needed surgery on it so it would be quiet. She still loves the dog and Ben does too. Ben may be getting one for Christmas since they fight over it. Siena loves it so much that she insists that she is Spunky dog. Whenever we call her name she responds that she is spunky dog not Siena. Dave tries to tell her that she is Siena and not a dog. I gave up and just call her Spunky dog. It makes the day easier. She hasn't caught on that dogs eat off the ground and walk on all fours so I am okay with her being a dog. If she starts having dog behavior this may have to stop. So please come on by and see our Spunky dog but please don't bring any dog treats.

Ben update!

I seem to forget about when all the milestones happen but I think Ben is making them just as fast as Siena did. I don't know if them doing these things early is good or bad. I definately don't want him to walk anytime soon. Ben is really fast at crawling and can get into everything before I can get to him. Siena goes and opens the bathroom door and Ben crawls to the bathroom really fast. They think it's so funny to make me go in and get them in the bathroom. From the previous post this occupies a great deal of the day for me... chasing them out of the bathroom.You will notice in the picture we don't even have a doorknob on the door because Siena has locked herself in there too many times and it terrifies her. A couple weeks ago I went to get Ben from his crib and he was standing up in the middle of it not holding on to anything. He has started pulling up on everything and can stand for a couple of seconds by himself. Whenever I put him down he tries to find me and climbs up my leg. He is getting a little clingy. I don't know if it is because he is the second child or what but he is so mellow. Just recently he has found his voice and when he wants a toy he will let you know. He seems to always want the toy Siena has. That doesn't usually end well. Siena is learning how to share toys with him or how to trade toys.

Craziness

I know you think this post is all about the election. I really don't know how I feel about it all eventhough we all knew this is how it was going to turn out. I am writing about the craziness of my kids. We miss nana and papa's attention and we have had too much candy. Siena has been potty trained for a couple of months and rarely has any accidents and doesn't have to be rewarded anymore, but as of halloween she thinks she needs a halloween treat everytime she goes to the bathroom. She is constantly on a sugar high or screaming in her room because i won't give her chocolate. It has been a long day. Ben starts crying if I walk out of sight and tries to follow me wherever I go. Either that or I find him in the bathroom playing with the plunger or the screws on the toilet. SO GROSS. I don't know why he has chosen that place to hang out. I can't wait for this day to be over.

future wedding video

Someday when Siena gets married she is going to regret all these pictures. We have the funniest pictures of her. I don't know why she decided she had to take her pants off in this picture. I guess to see the whole boot. She loves her shoes!

Halloween

We had lots of trick or treating parties. On friday morning we went to the library for storytime and a parade. That night we had pizza with our neighbor and then tried to go trick or treating. We went to probably 20 houses and only 3 people were home. It was so sad. I don't think Siena really got the idea that people were supposed to give her candy. Then later that night we went to the church trunk o treat. We got lots of candy there. It was really fun and there were a lot of people there. Siena had a little piece of candy on the way there and perked right up and was hyper for the whole event. Now she has been asking non stop for halloween treat and has been quite persistent about it. I can't wait till the candy is all gone. Ben was really good and went along for the whole event with his costume on. He didn't really like his hat on and Siena would not keep her wings on but it was a great night and wonderful weather. We didn't even have to wear jackets. Now if I only could have gotten Dave to dress up like captain hook!

Utah trip

Instead of doing laundry and putting away our tons of luggage I will write about our wonderful trip to Utah. We had so much fun but missed Dave by the end of the week. It was the most perfect flight on the way out there. It wasn't a full flight and we had the nicest flight attendants that actually took my kids and walked them around the plane for a little bit which saved my sanity. We also had a whole row to ourself which was nice. On the way back it was another story. I didn't get on the plane early enough so we got the last seat where there were actually 2 seats next to eachother and it happened to be next to an older man, he was very nice and helpful but it would have been better if we had the whole row to ourselves. Of course halfway through the flight Ben was stinky and we had to change him. So I took him to the back where the flight attendants were and changed him there on the little jumpseat that the flight attendants sit on. I changed him then lifted him up and Siena had her fingers there when the seat came up slamming her fingers in the seat.She screamed for 30 minutes while a nice flight attendant held Ben. It was awful and we still had 2 hours left. We never really recovered from that and had a wigly crying wining rest of the flight. Thank you, thank you holly for the dvd player that helped. We did so much in Utah. Siena was really excited that we could see so many temples. We saw the almost finished Draper temple and we went to temple square. We went to music and the spoken word to see my dad sing in the choir and then president Monson came out after they sang. It was cool. I was so close to him and it was cool to see my dad sing live. We went to a halloween party where we could trick o treat and Siena fell asleep in the car ride there so she missed the whole event. She woke up when we put her back in the car when we were done. We were so off our schedules and were always so busy. Ben had a good time trick o treating. A lot of people thought he was Robin Hood which I guess is easy to mistake him for. If Siena was awake and trick o treating with him they would have been able to tell he was Peter Pan. They are so cute together in their costumes. We went to Thanksgiving point and did the Dinosaur musuem which Siena was scared of. I don't know why. We went to barnyard boo also at Thanksgiving point. That was lots of fun. There was a little petting zoo, pony rides and a haunted hayride where the headless horseman came up and rode right next to you. She wasn't scared of that. Surprisingly I saw my mtc roomate there, that was really fun to see her little family too. We braved the HUGE crowd to go to Boo at the zoo. It was the most perfect fall day ever to go to the zoo. I think my kids were the only ones not dressed up. They would not put on their costumes. I got yelled at by a little 4 yr old because I thought he was a tiger when he was a lion. WOW. I guess I don't know my animals well enough. We saw lots of animals and got some candy. They need to be a little more organized about it all. We got to hang out with my brother that day which was really fun. My sister Jennie and her 3 boys came to play a lot and they loved hanging out in grandmas basement and on her swingset and my sister Amy came and stayed with us while we were there. It was fun to see my newest nephew and my little sister Amy cute and pregnant. The cousins got along wonderfully and we miss you guys. We played all day and shopped a lot which was exactly what we wanted to do.

Haircut

We are having a great time in Utah and Dave will never let me come back because I cut all my hair off here. I love it. We miss you Dave

Happy Birthday to... ME

this is the only picture of me on my 29th birthday...how sad



Yeah I had my birthday Wed. It was a good day but not the kind of birthday you had when you were little. I miss those fun all day birthday party type days. I got to spend it with a 2 1/2 yr old and a 7 month old doing errands. Yeah! It was nice Siena would randomly say happy birthday to me all day and she even said it this morning. It was a good night, we went to Five guys and we had a delicious chocolate cake that Siena was so proud of but she would not sing happy birthday to me. She had been asking for the cake all day. I turned 29 and will forever be that age. It's been a great year!

Gettysburg

We had so much fun today. We met grandma and grandpa at Gettysburg, which is halfway between us. It was such a beautiful day and the leaves were so pretty up in the countryside. I hadn't been since after high school and I don't really remember it, so it was good to remember the history and the battles. Siena loved following her older cousins around and playing on the cannons and rocks. My little nephew told me today at one of the battle sites that he was sorry that my team had lost the war. Being from viginia, even northern virginia qualifies us as the south. I thought that was pretty smart. It was a perfect day and we had fun.

 

on the farm!

We had so much fun. We went about 45 minutes away to a farm where we took a hay ride out to a pumpkin patch where we could actually pick the pumpkin off the vine and then there were orchards where we could pick our own apples. Siena loved picking her own apples and eating them and then throwing them in the orchard. She ate a lot while we were there. We picked so many. We have apples forever! I have started making applesauce and other yummy food for Ben to eat. Luckily both Siena and Ben love apples and Dave makes a yummy apple crisp. There was also a petting zoo with goats that climbed up boards that were crazy high, it was fun. It was a perfect day and the leaves and countryside were beautiful.

entertainment

I thought this was the funniest thing. Siena likes playing guitar hero with daddy at night and has tried many different kinds of toys as being her guitar. Then she just decides that dancing is better. She was way into it.

trip to d.c.

Siena has been talking a lot about going in and visiting daddy for lunch so today we rode the train in and did it. Each time I forget how much she loves doing it.Ben of course was great. Such a good kid. They both liked the train and were really good. I also remember how lame d.c. is for not being great stroller friendly. I hate finding all the elevators that are in the way opposite corner and they are all dimly lit and scary. O well it's over now. So we went in with our friends Marcy and Jacob and met our daddys for lunch. Then we went over to the natural history musuem for the new ocean exhibit there. It was fun. I think Siena wanted to see more fishes swimming around but she was entertained. We also like the mammal exhibit where all the big animals are stuffed. It was fun and a long day. No nap so tonight will be a early night. Yeah!

Halloween Time!

Fall is my favorite time of year. We all are so excited to go to a pumpkin patch and apple orchard this weekend. Siena is getting excited about trick or treating eventhough I am not sure if she completely understands it. She so far like dressing up in her costume. So last night we made halloween cookies. Siena ate a lot of the dough before they were actually cookies but surprisingly isn't sick. She was very excited to decorate them and did a good job. Nice and sugary.


Ben later found 2 M&M's on the ground. first chocolate at 7 months. that's terrible!

time goes by

I am kind of sad that I haven't posted in a while and I don't have any pictures to post but we have been as busy as ever. Dave actually asked if I had posted anything recent so I know it's been a while. The days just go by so quickly. Ben is crawling so fast now, I wish the floor would get swept and vacuumed more because he picks up everything and eats it. It is so gross. He finds things everywhere. It seems like this last week Siena realized that Ben was her brother and now includes him in things. It's really cute. She will bring him toys and take her toys away from him. She will want to go and wake him up so he can come and play with her and when we are leaving she says we can't leave Ben. We haven't left him anywhere yet so I don't know where she gets the idea that we are going to leave him. It's fun and I hope it gets even better. Sometime I will try to get pictures of this but we go to a church organized music group every monday. It is so much fun. Siena tells daddy every night when he comes home that we went to music class that day. She loves it. We sing and do marching band and rythym and parachute. Her favorite are the shakers and the parachute. The 45 minutes go by way too fast. So life is great and crazy all at the same time. We are excited for the fall where we can get our warm new clothes out and go to all the cool pumpkin farms around here.

church

Ben has teeth!

Ben broke one tooth on the bottom left and is working on the one right next to it. No more putting your finger in to chew on. It's so cute. I couldn't get a picture of it because I don't want to put my fingers near it. yeah for Ben! He got his first one way before Siena. We weren't expecting it so soon. It's good to have proof of because now I can have something to blame his crankiness on.

The Amazing Race...the best show EVER!

I am so excited for this show to be back on. It is my alltime favorite show. I get so caught up in it and get all anxious for the competitors, I even yell at the t.v. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It's a good clean sunday show. It's about 10 teams traveling around the world competing in different challenges. The first one back to the pit stop at the end wins 1 million dollars. so cool. I would be horrible at it for many reasons, one I am awful at reading maps and directions and two I am too high strung for it. A couple of seasons ago I told Dave I would love to do it but I would only do it with him. He just said yeah...and left it at that. Meaning he would not want to do it with me. I'm just to dramatic for it, I would make good t.v. We all love the crazy people on it, that's why I watch. They also go to cool places. So much fun, so don't bother calling me Sunday night at 8. I will be busy!

This makes me laugh. what a cutie!yum yum black beans

stupid FIOS...I need to vent!

I know my grass doesn't look great but it's after Aug and it was a dry month. This picture doesn't do it justice of the big hole there. I didn't want to go out and take a picture with the workman standing there.
So this is what is happening to my beautiful backyard. I come downstairs in the morning hardly awake and not ready to greet workman to having workman in my backyard digging lines for FIOS.Don't mind knocking on my door or warning us. It's craziness! They dug two big holes in my yard one day and then we wake up this morning at 7. (that is early for us) to them digging more holes. It would be somewhat ok if they warned us or told us about it and if they laid the beautiful new grass back nicely, but they didn't. So I am so upset mostly about my beautiful yard that is now torn apart. They also put a box into the ground so we can't lay grass over that. If they had laid it another 2 feet over it would have been out of our fence. I am so mad! This FIOS better be worth it. And another thing the weather has absolutely been perfect and of course we can't just go out and sit in our backyard and enjoy it because we have people back there smoking and doing work that we didn't know about. CRAZINESS! the work better be done today!

temple day!

Siena has been talking about the temple a lot lately (thank you nursery teachers).So today we met grandma and grandpa there. We went to the visitors center and watched movies and watched the Cristus. She loved it. When we were going down the beautiful road before you actually see the temple she was looking for the temple all over saying it was coming soon. She ran right up to the doors of the temple and she knew that once we went in she had to be reverent. She especially liked the fountain in front and wanted to swim in it. It was a fun trip thanks grandma and grandpa for the fun trip.
Later that day grandma and grandpa came to our house where we were able to enjoy the beautiful weather. It has been so nice we were able to stay outside all day!

they keep themselves entertained

Somehow the week always seems to end really quickly. The kids are keeping me really busy. As you can see, Ben is crazy mobile and we have had to put up the baby gate. I hate the baby gate. So whenever we put Ben down on the ground he goes straight to the stairs and props himself to a standing position and just jumps up on the gate. Seriously this would entertain him for a long time. He is either there by the stairs or in the front foyer area trying to find crumbs on the floor or a shoe to chew on. It's so gross. Siena is getting better at entertaining herself by reading. It's very funny to hear what her stories sound like.

Half a year!

aren't they so cute together!
We finally had Bens 6 month appt. He is getting so big. We went to the dr.s today. They say he looks great. He is definately keeping mom busy. He is 16lbs 2 oz. and 26in long. He's always been in the 20% for everything. The important thing is that he is gaining weight eventhough he spits up a lot. Ben can do lots of things: crawl, roll, babble, laugh, somewhat get his fist to his mouth so he can feed himself things and pull himself up. We love you Ben! Siena better watch out... Ben is on the move!

picture opportunity

When I was little my mom would dress my sister and I exactly alike. As we grew up we would still dress alike without trying too. We would come out of our rooms wearing similar things but different colors. We were cursed with it from a young age. So it is with my children. I had no intention of doing this, but it happened the other day and the kids were in good moods so we decided to take pictures. We are still working on getting them to smile at the same time. It's hard to get a good picture of both of them together.

TROUBLE!

what the heck has happened to my little babies! I was bringing in the groceries the other day and I promise I only left for 1 minute and I came back to this... Siena had found red lipstick and wrote all over herself and she put it all over Bens head. I came in and thought it was blood. It was quite the scare. It's also kinda hard to get out of Bens hair and scalp. Then later that day we discovered that Ben knows how to pull himself up and now we have to lower the crib because he can almost crawl over the bar. So scary. He also tries to climb up onto things. This is way too early for him to be doing these things. People that know Ben know that he is a really spitty baby. Siena was too but it stopped when she was 6 months and started eating solids. Since Ben has turned 6 months it has gotten worse. He spits up on everything! It's all over the place. I can't wait for him to stop so we can clean the carpet because it is BAD. So he was rocking on this toy that we have and he spit up all over it. Then he face planted right into the spit. I took a picture of it just so I could remember someday how gross it was. I had forgotten about the awful reflux stage that my kids go through. So all in a LONG... hard days work. I was so glad to see Dave on this day.