Christmas Part 2

After having our Christmas at home on Friday morning, we loaded up the Traverse and headed to Mom's house for the weekend.  It is always a little crazy there, but worth every second.  I love spending the time with my Mom and Ralph and all of my siblings and their kids.  There were 5 kids this year between all of our families, and with an addition to our family and to Allison and Daryl's next year there will be 7!  I can only imagine!!  Here are a few of my favorite shots from Mom's house...

My gift from D- he drew my name this year.  Impressive wrapping, right? 

Ralph and little Toby.  I never thought I would see the day that Ralph was holding a dog, but wouldn't you know I was wrong.  They adopted this little guy for Ralph's Mom and haven't given him to her yet... 

The kids enjoying a little snack- I cracked up at Ben in this picture because the little chair I have his booster seat strapped too was almost too low for the table! 

Ben on Christmas Morning

After leaving Mom's house on Sunday afternoon we headed over to celebrate with the Vollmer's.  Fun and crazy at the Vollmer house as always... 

Ben's hair looks like he got a hold of a scissors in this picture, but really he didn't.  Just the weird way it fell in this pic.  I had to post it though, look at that precious face!! 

Ben loves his Aunt Lin and Aunt Caity 

One of his favorite presents... the fireman hat!! 

Usually good for about 15 solid minutes of entertainment with Ben- a big pad of paper and some fat crayons. 

What little boy doesn't need a rocking horse?

Christmas Part 1

Merry Christmas!  We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family- you all made our Christmas very special this year.  I definitely wanted to share pictures from all of our Christmas celebrations, but quickly realized there is a little too much for one post.  So here is the first of 2, possibly 3 Christmas posts for this year! 

I thought I would start with our family Christmas at home.  On the Thursday before Christmas, Nick and I went out on a wonderful and much needed rare date night (thank you to Auntie Lindley for babysitting) and returned home to play Santa.  We spent most of our evening after dinner assembling toys, wrapping gifts, and just preparing the set up for Ben the next morning.  The next morning, Friday morning, we woke Ben up to see what "Santa" had brought for him.  Here are some pretty cute shots...

The big tool bench that will be strategically placed upstairs in his big boy room... 

My sweet boy, very excited to see a little Mickey Mouse 

Working on his drawing skills 

He managed to stick every sticker in his stocking on his pj's:)   

A little later in the day- rocking his new Puma sweatsuit from Grandma Sams!  Nick thinks he looks a little like Mini Me from the Austin Powers movies in that suit.

Breakfast with Santa

Or more properly titled, "Breakfast with the Watts family after attempting to take pictures of a terrified Ben and Owen with Santa."

Let's just say this first year attending Breakfast with Santa was as expected, not a big hit with the toddlers.  We met up with Mike, Erin, and their son Owen at the American Funds office (where Erin and I work) a few Saturdays ago.  Every year our employer hosts a breakfast with Santa where a huge breakfast is provided and kids/families stand in a very long line to get a chance to sit on Santa's knee.  Ben and Owen were very excited about this in theory.  Ben was even saying "See-ka, yap".  (translation, Santa's lap)  However picture pure terror on Ben and Owen's faces when they thought they were going to be left to sit all alone on this big guy in a red suit's knee... terror, I tell you.  The proof is in the pictures...

Luckily, breakfast was delicious and we enjoyed it with some of our best friends- a great way to spend a Saturday morning!  Maybe next year "See-ka."

A few random pics to catch up on...

Here are some pictures from over the last month or so that I haven't had a chance to post, even though they are blog worthy.  I'll just do it all in one swoop!  

Ben surrounded by 4 of his favorite ladies... all of his cousins.

(L-R) Alexa, Anna (behind Ben), Grace, and Violet

Ben, in his classroom at school waiting to perform at the Christmas program.  He did such a great job dancing and ringing bells to the music up on stage in front of all of those people, a real natural:)  I would post the video, but I think it might be too long...

Opening some of his first Christmas gifts for the year from his Grandma Haring.

Trying my Ugg's on for size:)

Big Boy

It's been a while since my last post- we've been busy!!  Sorry for the hiatus, but with Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping, family Christmas get-togethers, work, more Christmas shopping, baking... and our latest project, getting Ben moved into his big-boy room... I feel like I haven't had the time!  So this post is dedicated to our sweet sweet little boy, who somehow is growing up right before my eyes.

Today, we put the finishing touches on Ben's room, and made the leap.  After painting, wall decorating, moving furniture, curtains, etc... we finally finished and actually moved Ben into his new room.  This meant sleeping in a toddler bed vs. his crib, which is the biggest change of all.  The room turned out adorable, just as I had pictured, and much to my surprise the sleeping seems like it might be an okay transition too!  I have been stressed out about it, picturing Ben up until all hours of the night playing in his room with toys instead of sleeping now that he can get out of his bed, but he slept for 2 1/2 hours for a nap today and went right down for bed tonight without an issue.  So for now, we'll be thankful that the transition is going smoothly so far... here is a sneak peek at Ben's room!

The view from the doorway- on the wall is the Oopsy Daisy artwork that inspired me for the room.  It's a big city landscape with a bunch of different "cars, trucks, and things that go!"

The "reading corner" with his new favorite chair... you can just barely see the wheels and shadow of the airplane that Nick hung in this corner- my fault for not getting a better picture of this! 

And finally a little craft table.  

Drumroll please.....

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

 Today was our 19 week ultrasound and time for BIG news!  We finally found out that Ben is going to have a little sister- and we couldn't be more excited!  Now it's time to plan the nursery and buy a whole new baby wardrobe:)  Thanks to Momo (aka my Mom) our little sweetie pie already has a few outfits to get her started.  

If anyone knows someone that needs baby boy clothes I have a few tubs to loan out!

Along with finding out the gender, they also measure and check the baby out from head to her little itsy bitsy toes.  I'm proud to report that she is perfect in every way, and measuring right on track!  Looks like we'll be welcoming this baby at the beginning of April as planned!  

Zoo Boo

This past weekend we met up with some of our friends at the Indianapolis Zoo for their annual "Boo at the Zoo" event.  Essentially, it's a big Halloween party at the Zoo, and let me tell you- it was PACKED!  However, we muscled our way through the crowds so the kids could see all of the animals, gave them their first tastes of Halloween candy (and maybe had a bite or two for ourselves!), and all about collapsed when it was over from sheer exhaustion!

Our little tiger- wouldn't keep the mask on for too long so he spent most of the night dressed up as Ben in a tiger's body. 

Lucky boy has a Daddy with sturdy shoulders for when his legs got tired! 

L-R:  Owen, Parker, Kate, and Ben (who is snuggling himself right up to Kate, he might even be sneaking an arm around her!!) 

Our little tiger, one lucky shot of the approximately 30 seconds that he had his mask on:) 

Ben and who else but his best buddy Owen.  Poor Owen seemed a little terrified of Ben's tiger costume that night, as you can see Ben looks pretty ferocious! 

A family picture- thanks to the Watts family for bringing the wagon that only our kid used for the night!

Special Vegas Visitors

It had been WAY too long since my Grandma and Grandpa Wuethrich came back from Vegas for a visit, so we were thrilled to be able to spend the day with them this past Sunday.  They are staying at my Mom's house for a week or two, and it has been packed every day with visitors.  The last time we saw them was over 2 years ago when Nick and I took a long weekend trip to Las Vegas, so they hadn't even had a chance to squeeze Ben yet!  Lucky for Ben- he got some much needed squeezes from his Great Grandma, and of course some classic love pats on the cheek from Great Grandpa.  We had a great time with you two and hope to see you again soon!

Thanks for visiting!  We love you!

Smart Boy

Caught on video- don't ask me how we got him to sit still for this long and pay attention- but I think this is pretty good footage!  So for some of you that haven't seen Ben in a while, he is talking up a storm, and as shown in the video below, naming and finding all of his body parts!

Daddy's little helper

Are you having trouble keeping up with all of the tasks and chores around the house?  For example, something as simple as washing the car?  Invite Ben over... he's a pretty good helper.  Just a fair warning though, he will spend much more time sloshing around in the sudsy bucket of water than actually scrubbing:)  

In case you were wondering, the answer is yes.  I did have to strip Ben down all the way to his diaper after this little project, peeling each soaking wet piece of clothing off one by one.  Even his socks were soaked clear through his tennis shoes!  Oh well- it's worth it when they are having so much fun!

Hensler's Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend Ben and I headed up to Momo and Ralph's house for the weekend (aka, my mom, known by her grandkids as Momo).  My sister Allison also came with her family and we spent time just hanging out, letting the kids play, and catching up with each other.  Saturday afternoon was beautiful, and in the spirit of getting the kids out of the house for a little while we decided to find the nearest pumpkin patch.  

Thanks to Google, we found Hensler's, which was only about a 30 minute drive away up near Hamlet, Indiana.  They had a horse drawn wagon ride upon arrival to take you back to the pumpkin patch, a big wooden train for the kids to crawl around and play in, little shops with knick knacks, and of course hot apple cider.  It was such a fun afternoon... here is my proof:)

Ben LOVES tractors and was very excited to get to sit on this one all on his own!

The big wooden train for kids to run around and play in.  

Ben poking his head out of the window of the train- he was having so much fun playing peek-a-boo!

My niece Anna (who is turning SIX on Wednesday... when did that happen?) and the "World's Biggest  Pumpkin"

Aunt Allison hanging on to a squirmy Ben, next to sweet Alexa and Anna on the hayride.

Mommy and Ben- less squirmy now that he has fruit snacks:)

Ben exploring the pumpkins- or "punkins" as he called them!

My sweet little boy- getting so big!  

Easily my favorite picture of the day.  Momo holding Alexa with the horse looking like he was about to take a crunch out of her leg!!  Ben only liked the horsey's from a distance... up close they were a little too huge for his liking!

Thanks Momo for a fun weekend and a great afternoon at the pumpkin patch!  See you next year Hensler's!

It's time for BIG news!!

Shhhh.... Ben has a secret to tell....

Can you guess it???

Ben's going to be a BIG BROTHER!!

Maybe to a little sister, maybe a little brother, we'll know in about 8 weeks!  So far everyone is healthy and very excited about the new addition to our family!  Help us welcome Baby Vollmer in April 2012!