Ben Crawls!

Today Ben decided he was ready to crawl. He had been toying with the idea for a few weeks but with some Gerber graduates as his motivation he made a move. Now Mom and Dad need to lock down the house, we have a mobile baby!

Check it out...

Biltmore for Lianne's First Mothers Day

OK, so it has been a little while since our last update. We have been busy with Ben and getting ready to move back home! But enough of excuses. We decided to take a trip to Asheville, NC for Lianne's first Mother's Day, it was great. We had wanted to visit the Biltmore for some time since it is so close, and we had heard good things about the city of Asheville also. The Biltmore was build in the late 1800s by George Vanderbilt. The modest country home occupies 175,000 sq feet (about 125 Mike and Lianne sized homes would fit inside) and originally sat on 125,000 acres. It was spectacular to tour the home and hike around the trails, pastures and gardens. We also had a good time eating at some of Asheville's best restaurants (thanks tripadvisor), check out the Luella's Barbecue and Tupelo Honey Cafe if you are ever in Asheville. I think Lianne had a great first Mothers Day!

A shot from the gardens:

Ben and Daddy:
The new Momma and Ben in the conservatory:
A lamb we saw in the pasture (got to break out the 70-300mm lens):

The biscuits and jam at the Tupelo Honey Cafe (ours looked something like these from the website):
Momma and Baby Ben at Mother's Day Brunch:

Baby Ben Laughs

Today baby Ben had his first laugh... which was not caught on tape. However, we were able to get laughs 2, 3, and 4 for you to enjoy. We love our little Ben!

Baby Ben Is Two Months Old ...

... and he is all smiles!

Here is the 2-month diaper shot
He likes flying with daddy

And he really likes to spit up - all. the. time.

He enjoyed a visit from Grandma and Uncle Micah!

He had a great time at his first horse race ... that is to say, he slept the whole time.

Baby's first Easter!

The End.

Baby Ben Dancing

Mommy and Daddy went on their first date since Ben was born the other night. Dinner and a Movie. The movie: "Crazy Heart" had some folksy country we got into(a bit of a departure for us) and so we downloaded the sound track. Baby Ben decided he liked the music too. Man we love this kid!

Firsts for Baby Ben

Baby Ben is 7 weeks old today!
He is growing so much - I actually had to retire his newborn clothes the other day (sob).
He met a lot of his family last week when Jaron, Yvonne, Rachel, Brian, and Matt all came from Iowa to visit. A good time was had by all.
He has had a series of "firsts" lately, which has been pretty exciting!

His first Saint Patrick's Day!

His first haircut - yep, it was time for a trim. Here's a "before" picture - you can see that the mullet was getting out of control.

Giving the 'burns a trim

Happy with his new haircut!

Baby Ben's first mountain!
Mommy and Uncle Jaron took a hike up to Natural Bridge ... and Ben slept the whole time.
Oh, well.

And ... first smiles! Lots of them!
(just hard to catch them on camera sometimes - hence the blurry picture!)

And here's a video of daddy doing diaper duty ...

Random Ben Pictures

Here's some random cuteness for you!

Parenting can take a lot out of you ...

Sometimes you just need a little comforting.

Baby's first walk!

Baby Ben is One Month Old!

Wow! Baby Ben is one month old already!
I've decided to take his monthly pictures in an appropriately labeled diaper a la Binkie.
He's getting so big - he weighed in at 9 pounds, 11 ounces on his one-month birthday!

He still really enjoys his pacifier (which we are totally ok with, by the way).

He is soooooo cute when he sleeps ... sometimes I just sneak over to his bed and watch him sleep. Yep, I'm pretty in love with him.

Baby Ben Is Growing

I can't believe Baby Ben is almost 3 weeks old already! He weighs nine pounds now - some of his newborn clothes are starting to get a little tight. I'm choking back tears right now.


We enjoyed a visit this weekend from Nana Vonne and Grandpa Tom!

Baby Ben had his first outing to a restaurant - he did very well. And he looked awfully cute in his little bear outfit.

He also went on his first walk with mommy and daddy - it was a big weekend for him!

Whoa! First mohawk (and daddy's first efforts at hairstyling).

Here are some videos of Baby Ben in action for those who requested them (Aunt Amy).
He's not really doing anything super-exciting, but you can see how cute he is live.

Baby Ben Is 2 Weeks Old!

Baby Ben celebrated his 2-week birthday yesterday! I can hardly believe it's been two weeks already - my baby is growing up so fast! He had his 2-week well child check at the pediatrician today - his weight is up to 8 pounds, 11 ounces! Yay!


He has a wide variety of facial expressions - I think this is the "I'm sleepy, stop taking pictures" expression.

His umbilical cord fell off, so he was able to get a real bath!

Baby Ben's Bath!

On Baby Ben's one-week birthday, we gave him a good sponge bath. Now, I know I'm a pediatrician, but I still googled "how to give a sponge bath" and followed the instructions on the Johnson&Johnson website. This is just one example of how my medical training has left me completely unprepared to actually be a parent. Oh, well.

Baby Ben enjoyed the shampoo part of the bath very much. He was less than enthused about the rest of it.

Here's mommy working on her styling techniques ... not sure what to do about those sideburns yet.

Oh, that face - so adorable. So, so adorable. How could anyone resist that face? Mommy and Daddy sure can't.