My Ben

  Baby Ben turned one year old today.

He started out pretty scrawny-just over 6lbs but still as cute as ever.

 He has been a calm, sweet, mellow, squishy little gift straight from Jesus since the very first day.

In a few short months he got nice and chubby

 
 He has lived this first year of his little life under the constant (and sometimes smothering) love of his 2 sisters and adoring big brother.

 He still has dark hair which makes me so happy.
He has been a wonderful sleeper even though i thought for sure i would ruin his sleeping habits with all the holding and moby wrap-wearing i did with him as a newborn. Those warm snuggle times were priceless.

 Our favorite names for him are, of course, Baby Ben. But I also love, Benny Boy, Benjamin Button, Benjamin Bunny and the Benster.

 I think Bow-Ties were made for him.

 He loves his bottle, but he loves me more. :)

 When he has been especially offended, his little face gets all blotchy and red.

 This was his favorite face for several months. It's one of my trademark faces so i'm quite pleased that he picked it up.

 Oh Ben!

You bring tremendous joy to our little family, we love you more than you could ever know and please don't grow up any more.

Happy Birthday, friend. Momma loves you.

First time for everything

 Well, i've been kinda out of touch with the little blog here lately. But don't worry, we're still here. We got hit with a virus early in the month and by the time it made its way to all 6 of us, we feel like we've been sick for 3 weeks. Anyway, next time someone gets sick i think maybe i'll just go ahead and swab her mouth, stick that swab in everyone else's mouths, THEN hand out huge lollipops to weaken everyone's immune systems. We'd all be sick together and then MOVE on with life.

But on the up side,  i had the opportunity to mow the lawn for the first time ever this last week. ALL by myself! Since Handy Andy was especially stricken with the cold + allergies, i thought it would be nice to give his sinuses a break. woohoo for excitement and adventure. It was actually quite nice, and the kids found it rather entertaining to watch me. Sophie was my little shadow and gave me thumb ups and lots of encouragement. ;)

Anyway, i think we're on the mend and i might even have a project to show you before the week is out.
Hope you all have been staying well and enjoying the nice fall days

sad to say good-bye...

....to these 3 little ladies

 I was so very happy to hear that 3 little Canadian girls wanted to adopt them but now that they are all ready to ship out i'm kinda sad to see em go. :)

However, before i did, i thought i'd at least let you meet the newest one. In honor of the little girl she is being given to, her name is Lily-Rose. Isn't that such a sweet name?

She has a chambray body with 2 red vintage buttons, a sweet little yellow skirt with pockets, and long striped seer-sucker legs. oh and a little removable felt pin in her hair.

Her legs are my favorite part, they will be just perfect for chubby little baby hands to grab hold of and pull around the house.
Although when Handy Andy saw her for the first time, he looked at me with a face that kinda said, "ummm, sweetie, did you realize the legs were almost twice the doll's height?? cause, they are. hope you're ok with that." isn't it sweet that he even cares. :-) yep, i'm cool with it and i think the baby will be too.

 Well, anyway, i guess that's all except that i'm afraid my little dollie shop will probably be deserted for awhile now. oh well. :)

camping, check.

 Well, at the end of august we crossed off one of the last things on our summer list. Camping.

 Our church organizes a young families camping trip each summer. They take care of all the food, tableware etc. so all we have to do is pack our entire house into our van, set up our tent, play and try to get a little sleep, if that's even possible.

We had a great time.

i mean seriously, with hot dogs, s'mores, dirt, fire, rocks and friends, how could anyone not have a great time?! :)

And amazingly, none of the twenty five kids (who all under 7 years old!) got hurt, lost or eaten by a bear. None of the adults got much sleep, but it was worth it....at least for one night. :)

Can't wait till next year!

happy day at target (my favorite shirt is back!)

Let me introduce you to my best wardrobe friend last year....this lovely gray and white stripe knit shirt from none other but...Target.  I bought it randomly last year (on sale for $9 instead of a VERY pricey $12.00! ha) and wore it all. the. time I was going to go look back in my archives and post some proof of how often i wore this, but just believe me, i wore it with everything: with sweaters, under dresses, under short sleeve shirts, with skirts... There's just something about these stripes and the shade of gray that went with everything. 

 So, recently i have been lamenting how i wish it was from a more expensive store so that maybe it would have held up better than the average 1 season wear i usually get out of Target clothes.
 But either way, regardless of how much i'm willing to pay, i can't always find just what i'm looking for at any store and i had pretty much given up hope of finding a replacement for this greatness until......

last week, i was at......Target, of course, and what should i see? But my favorite shirt brought back this season with just a couple little changes (crew neck and gray knit around the neck). OH HAPPY DAY!

And then,  i found these super fun shoes for $14.99.  They are SO great. i love everything about them. And you will too, just look.

funky hemp braiding, perfectly distressed gray color, gray stripe elastic......AND

the cutest little owls inside. Nothing could make my feet happier....well, maybe a pedicure...

Aren't they just wonderful?! yay for happiness in the little things. And yay for Target. In the end, what would i do with it that fabulous place? Even if their quality doesn't last forever, i feel great about walking away with this kind of happiness for the price i paid. even if i have to repeat myself each year. ;)

cheesy sisters!

So thankful for these girls. They are a HANDFUL to be sure, but without them, life would be dull and sad and much less pink and completely void of "pincesses", bunny and doggie infatuations, little painted toenails, and sweet little girly giggles.

And they really love each other too. Which makes me SO very happy. My sister was and is my bestest girlfriend ever and growing up with her was one of the biggest blessings in my life.

I'm so thankful my girls have each other.

Oh, and i bought these dresses at Target a few days after i had my ultrasound revealing the fact that i was carrying twin girls. I don't know what possessed me to buy two 3T dresses but it is certainly very sweet to see my girls wearing them after seeing them hang in their closet for 3 years. :)

1st school day

Well, we made it through our first day and actually had a lot of fun. The kids totally got into the teacher/mom phenomenon. The girls actually took it very literally; at one point madeline bumped her leg and  was kinda crying. i, of course, said "awww, are you okay?" Sophie piped up, "Are you the mom now, instead of the teacher since Madeline got hurt??" haha :) And every time we were in the school room, Madeline would call to me with, "Teacher, Teacher!"

Today was rainy, cloudy and a bit chilly, which ended up being a perfect day for the first day of school. Although, since it was so cloudy these pictures turned out kinda blah and grainy. I think Sister needs to come over and work some first day of school picture magic. How bout it? :)

Will had a bit of rough start. he woke up late and then got slammed with the news that he had to get dressed today- i know, how rude. His argument was, "jammies are clothes too." And then handy andy added insult to injury when he took Will into the bathroom to tame his bed head. To this he argued, "i really, really like bed hair." Don't we all.

But after a champion breakfast of doughnuts he got into the spirit and had a great day. He even yelled "YAY, its school time again!!' when the lunch recess "bell" rung. (who knows how long this enthusiasm will last, but i'll enjoy it while its here!)

He loved playing along with the whole teacher/ Mom thing and even "called" his teacher during lunch to chat about what the afternoon would hold. I asked him what his favorite part of the day was and he said, "the cookie baking experiment and Calendar time. " awwww

 Madeline was a little spacey yet adorable, as always. She happily followed along with the activities but definitely in her own way. When Will and Sophie were drawing pictures in their science notebooks about their cookie baking predictions, she was drawing and dreaming about "bunnies..."

Sophie was eager from the beginning.  Eager to answer questions, take turns, use supplies, follow directions, and tell her brother and sister what to do as well. :) Love her. And she even wore a skirt today without a fuss. Granted, it was green, which is her all-time favorite color, but still. :)

 Here's a shot of the oh so talented administration. heehee (andy has a principal tag on if you couldn't tell) We love being professional. haha.

Oh and Ben. Little baby Ben was just giddy this morning. Maybe he smelled the doughnuts. But whatever it was, he was definitely in the spirit. :) 

 

School Room Tour is coming soon. So hang onto your seats.

***Just had to add these ones that i took this afternoon. Since we were doing a science "experiment" Will was adamant about the safety goggles. safety first all the way. I love how kids think the dorkiest things are cool.