New Year's Eve

Happy New Year's Eve ~~
Last night we watched some Great Football games (and the night before). We watched A&M get stomped by Cal, Tech come back with an impressive surge to beat the Golden Gofers, Texas step up and beat Iowa, and Georgia upset the Hokies - GREAT GAMES... Yesterday I was walking around in a tank top - 52 degrees with a little rain, only to wake up to SNOW today... The weather service is predicted 5-8 inches by the end of the day. We tested out Ben's snow suit and it works great, but he doesn't seem to be a fan on the snow.. imagine that!



Stay safe - be smart - call a cab!

New Video

We wanted to let everyone know that there is a second video posted on Ben's Site on the Video Page.. So that's 2 new videos for Ben and if you take a look on Wed nights post you'll see a 3rd video link that is Pete..
Happy 4th day of Christmas

Ben's Christmas 2006 Video

Ben Enjoys Christmas

If you want to see the helicopter video
here is the link

On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me....

A yamaha DPG.. WHAT??!!
That's for him not me ~~ right?! Well the boys love it!

....and to all a good night!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Ben with his Christmas loot

Merry Christmas all! We hope you are having a wonderful day!
Ben was surprised to see all the gifts under the tree this morning when he woke up... He went straight for his four-wheeler... and after finding the "go" button on it.. left it just as quick.. He doesn't like the sound it makes when it moves.. b/c it sound is a lot like the Roomba vacuume.

He opened gift after gift.. and accumulated some pretty neat things.. His favorites today are the "piano" and "xylophone".

More pictures will be posted on the site, maybe this evening if I have the energy/motivation. There will also be a video of Pete and his new helicopter b/f it crashed..

So make sure you check back later..

Christmas Eve

Tonight came with a lot of firsts:

Ben's first card game and he CHEATED -- just look at him!

Ben's first carriage ride in the Old Market

Jenn, Ben and Pete

Pa, NanaMom, Ben, Jenn, Pete on the carriage

Ben's first view of an ice sculpture...
These were carved last weekend.. and somehow survived the mild weather we've been having lately... There wasn't much left on most sculptures but this was of the Polar Express and was still pretty impressive..

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Pull Toys

Some kids like to play with their ducks, blocks, dogs, trucks and trains...
Ours.. Not so much.. He likes to play with the outdated computer parts.

Hello NanaMom and Pa

NanaMom and Pa arrived today!
Ben hasn't seen them since July and after pretending to be little shy-guy.. He decided they were ok.. and started right away with having nanamom read books to him..
We are hoping the weather stays nice enough for us to go see the holiday lights tomorrow night..
2 days until Christmas - yay! 3 days till Kwanzaa and tonight is the last night of the Festival of Lights... woohoo..
Happy Holidays all!

Part Monkey??

Today I took Ben shopping and he got goofy (pointing and grunting) when he saw the bananas... I snagged a bundle and put them in the cart and kept going.. I guess Ben didn't notice the snag.. and started throwing a tantrum to let me know we NEEDED bananas... I told him "Ben if you turn around and look in the cart you will see that I got bananas for you already." And sure enough, the boy turned around, saw the bananas, and stopped throwing his fit. There was a guy in the aisle that witnessed this and just looked at me slack jawed, like he couldn't believe Ben actually understood what happened..

After nap snack.. Dad offered cookies or a banana and Ben chose the obvious.. usually we cut the banana up in chunks and he sits in his chair to eat.. but not today.

Ben feeding dogs

Ben feeding tally and bailey stealing food

Hello Blogger My Old Friend...

Lately Benjamin has been climbing on top of EVERYTHING.. and we've been trying to correct him.. but he's a strong willed little guy.. So tonight we freaked b/c he was on top of the dogs kennels digging in the dog food.. initially we thought oh crap he's eating it.. but no, he was just feeding Tally one kibble at a time.. So I captured some on video... There's a little extra something special from Bailey at the end too.. (will try to have it loaded tonight after Ben goes nighty-night..)

NanaMom and Pa will be here Saturday! We're excited to see them - sure there will be updates as things get "rockin' at the carters"

What's wrong with these pictures??

happy birthday uncle tank

Dad was on the phone to uncle tank.. and ben went and found his phone so he could talk to..

Words

We've been working on Ben with his words a lot lately... Today I continued trying to teach him "NanaMom" (what my mom's grandkids call her)... And Pete and I decided to stop.. b/c we realized that as soon as he figures out nana -- no no will be next.. and I'm not sure I'm ready for that..
So a few of the words he does say:
Mom, Dad, Bath, cup, book, ball, blue, (new yesterday) BEN, duck (have to be careful with this one), dog, Bailey, "There he is" (I swear he says it when we play peek-a-boo/pee-pie in the car), up, down, go.. and so on...

O' Christmas Tree

The first few days the tree was up, ben was really good about leaving things alone. There was only one little ornament (that I strategically placed on the bottom) that he played with (a red bird bell). NOW it's torture trying to keep him out of it. He wants to pull down every ornament; he wants to plug the lights in or unplug them. He has yet to climb the tree, so I'm waiting for the day to find our tree lying on the floor with Ben on top. I can see it happening, hope it doesn't.. but he's a quick little guy and very mischievous.
for example: today Pete was coming up stairs and from down the hall I saw pete walk thru the gate at the top of the stairs, went to meet him in the kitchen to finish packing boxes.. and on my way glanced down the stairwell.. and there stood ben..going down the second set of stairs.. He's QUICK.. pete never saw him get past, and neither did I..
Hope everyone's enjoying the first day of Hanukkah.

Toy Shopping

This evening we ventured out to the stores for a little shopping. Something light to get us in the spirit, and to get us started! We honestly found nothing, well almost. 4 rows down from the TOY section the boy starts pointing, dancing in his seat, and grunting. He obviously wanted something in that area, so we walked over to the crowd of overfilled carts and adults checking things off their lists or calling people to see if so-and-so has this toy. Ben found several things he wanted to play with; cars, trains, dolls of all things (especially the bright pink ones), and then we saw The Backyardigans.
The Backyardigans is a cartoon that comes on Nick Jr and we DVR it so we can watch it with him. It's not a very educational show, like say Sesame Street, but all the characters talk normal and they sing great songs and dance a lot, which Ben loves. So after annoying everyone else in the isle by playing each toy (most sing and jiggle these days) Ben finally picked his favorite, Tyrone -- Cowboy Tyrone -- I wanted him to pick Pablo -- (the surfer penguin) because Pablo has a way cooler song.. But, life goes on.. So down the store to the check out, and all the way there, we are listening to "Riding the range, riding the range, yahooo.." well you get the picture, if you don't go here

Sunday's Quote of the Day

"Do you know what Ben's Vans are? Minivans... "

Merry Grinchmas pics

Last night we watched The Grinch.. and figured Ben would crash during the movie.. but no.. he LOVED the movie and refused to succumb to sleep.. We haven't taken the official photos yet.. but we had some from when he tried on his santa outfit.. (thanks memaw) and played around with it in photoshop... Now to get Max's horn on one of the girls.. :D

Tis the season to be shopping!

Hello again Random Blogger

It's been a few days since we blogged.. I wish I could say there was a lot going on here.. but I would be lying..
I need to get busy and take Christmas photos to put in cards (if I'm doing that this year).. Ben's been out of sorts lately.. not really bad though, just different. He's super clingy when people come over.. and his favorite place to hide is in between my legs (if I'm standing) He just about knocked me down the other night, he ran so fast it was more of a tackle maneuver..
And today when Pete dropped him off at Michele's he cried.. and he never cries when he goes there..
Other than that, he is still enjoying his "bee-bo" book and the flip book he received.. His favorite would still be the Piggy Belly Button book.. but something happened to piggy's belly button..?? it's MIA.. don't know if the dogs ate it or it Ben ripped it off.. it happened while we were at the Game last weekend. But he still enjoys reading it.. and just pokes his finger throw the hole now.. Maybe we will have to get clever and find a way to rig a fix.. or better yet BUY HIM A NEW ONE.. that would be the easiest.. I'm cheap what can I say.. I just made pete help me pull and replace 100 lights.. b/c the strand wasn't working.. long story short.. after all that I gave up and threw all the lights away.. what a waste.. I don't see why manufacturers can't create quality items anymore.. And on that note.. b/f I go off on a tangent.. Happy Holidays.. enjoy shopping from China and Indonesia this year..

Since it warmed up to 24°, Ben and I decided to bundle up and play outside for a few minutes.


He had to learn how to walk in his new snow pants...


We played frisbee with Tally for a bit, but Bailey was shivering so badly that we decided to go back in...

2006 Big XII Champ - GO OU!!

Ok -I know this is "Ben's" blog.. but I have to share this... Up until yesterday I had never attended a college football game..and Yesterday I got to see the championship game and it was AWESOME! So what Texas wasn't there.. The Nebraska fans were fun and I was the only one in our section cheering for OU.. They threatened to throw me over the edge.. We had a blast.. and FROZE our butts off.. I don't think any amount of clothing would of kept us warm.. and there were the occasional Nebraska freaks that were SHIRTLESS!
Thanks to Shera, Trista, and Shayla for watching Ben for us.. Sounded like he had more fun than we did..

Here are some pics

Us before the game started.. Still somewhat thawed.. We sat on the 3rd tier 3 rows from the ledge.. A pretty decent view of the field..

Sooner band on the field b/f the game

from left to right: ME! still having fun, Rob, Norm (frozen!) and Dave

3rd Qtr Sooners 14 to Huskers 7 - View from our seats.. and you can see my breath
If you look at the top right of the pic and see the Sprint sign.. thats about the relation of where we were..

Us again.. frozen solid this time.. my feet went numb a few times..and I thought my hands would crack if I clapped..

But it was SO MUCH FUN and I would COMPLETELY do it again given the chance!