Videos of the Kids

Here's a video of Jay. Enjoy.

Here's Jay and Ben playing together.

Here's Ben jabbering and doing a little complaining.

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Jay: Man down

Backyard Barber

I finally got to abuse... er, enjoy my kid the way I want and not the way that all of the ladies in his life want. Let the hate mail begin!

15 minutes and zero dollars = best haircut ever! (Don't worry, it'll grow back by Christmas)

Ben's Photo Shoot

My favorite pair of jammies are striped and footed and have an orange elephant on them. Of course, they aren't mine - but they're still my favorite! As I put them on Ben today, I noticed that I was stretching the collar to get it over his shoulders. "Oh, no! I don't even have a picture of you in these - and the make you even cuter than you usually are - which means they must have some magic power because you are already super cute!" So I zoomed around the house, grabbed my camera and Baby Ben and went outside in a flash. I thought I only had one shot but as you can see I got several. Here are all the pictures I took (and edited).

2 Vids and some Vacation Pics

Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. Lots of driving / Sleeping in the car (and not just for the one behind the wheel!) I (Shamus) take no credit for the layout as this is the 15 minutes where everyone is sleeping and I don't have to work / mow the lawn.

Ben can finally smile for pictures

How embarrassing...

Edward-Glove-Hands = Age 2

Baby Army 2010

First Victim of the Baby Army

"Either I jumped or someone just left me lying here on the ground. Either way I'm yellin!"

A little Air and Space Museum

Sure you can take a picture but it'll cost you $5

Jay and his stuffed animal brother. Looks real doesn't it!

So Ben can smile and laugh but he has to do a full body situp... and when he's laying on the ground it turns into a full body face plant. Oh well, abs of steel and a broken nose are what most super heroes have, right?

He may need a comb in his hair, a better looking smile, and less food stuffs all over but he can almost say all of our names. A little more trivia and he can probably pass the high school graduation test!

I hope that holds everyone over... time to go mow the lawn.

Morgan, Drew and Sam Visit

Aunt Morgan and her boyfriend, Drew, came to visit the family and met little Ben for the first time! We had a great time while they were here...

Drew and Morgan bottle-fed Ben in the van on the way home from the airport - so he likes them a lot!

We hit Chick-Fil-A for lunch on the way home where Morgan and Drew took turns going into the play area with Jay

Morgan and Drew came over one morning and watched Jay while I got a much-needed nap!

Morgan and Drew came to Jay's first dentist appointment and took care of Ben while I got some dental work done.

Aunt Sammy came into town from Charleston, too! She and Morgan took turns holding a sleepy Baby Ben at church.

Aunt Sammy also decided to stay in Greenville a little longer than planned so she could visit with everyone! That was really sweet.

Morgan, Drew, Judy, the boys and I all went for a late night ice cream - it was Jay's first visit to an ice cream place and they gave him a free cone (since he's so little)!

Morgan and Drew went to the zoo with the boys and me. It was a lot of fun - especially since the gibbons were making lots of noise! (Check out the short video if you haven't ever heard them.)

Praise God for such a tightly knit family, for providing the money and time for everyone to visit and for sweet, sweet moments with the ones we love!

Growing Up

He's not a baby anymore. He's a kid. Here's the proof.

Our first crop

Today my mom, Jay and I picked one big

zucchini, one cherry tomato, and a bunch of baby spinach in our vegetable garden. Can you believe it?!? One big zucchini, one cherry tomato, and some baby spinach!! That's one hundred times what we got out of our vegetable garden last year (about 6 beans). We'll have to give Jay some credit for that since he loves watering the yard so we've been doing that this year. Plus, God has given us a good, rainy spring! Yay!

The Best Lullaby

We went to the park today with the Hallmans and ate a picnic lunch. Jay had a great time picking all the "flowers" (we call them weeds, but he thinks they're nice) and playing on the playground. Time flew by, right past nap time, in fact. This was mostly due to the novice mother-of-2 in charge (me) who thought 5 minutes was enough to load the car. Wrong. It took me a total of 30 minutes to put Jay in the double stroller, get things organized enough to be able to push the stroller, respond to Jay's fist of fury saying, "Potty", use the bathroom, change Ben, repack the stroller, put the kids in the car and drive away. Wow. I was more exhausted from leaving the park than playing with and chasing Jay in the midday heat. I managed to stay awake for the whole ride home, but nothing beats a nice drive to put the kids to sleep.

Jay asked for a snack shortly before falling asleep. I gave him

some cashews. Apparently he does not like cashews.

The Best Almost Sleepless Night of my Life... So Far!

On Saturday night, I fed Ben at 10 pm. He couldn't go back to sleep on his own so he ended up resting his little head on my chest until 3 am while I slept on our recliner with him. It was so nice waking up with my newborn so close that I could kiss his sweet forehead. I fed him again at 3 and then helped him settle in for a few hours of sleep. Moments later, we woke up to the sound of Jay crying. So Shamus went to calm him down but was unsuccessful so Jay ended up in our bed with his arms wrapped so tightly around my neck that I couldn't help but kiss his little forehead because it was basically in my mouth. He hugged me, kissed me, and snuggled with me until he fell asleep. And I thanked God for waking up in the middle of the night. Twice.

Ben is Here!

Ok, some photos published from the hospital room... on the slowest computer ever so more will have to be posted later:

I claim no responsibility for the formatting of this post. It will be corrected by the Mom once we're home (should be Sunday).

PRAISE THE LORD!

Ready for two!

We went to the doctor today to see how little Ben is doing in utero - and he's head-down! Yay! We're packing our bags and finishing up Jay's new room this week in preparation for Ben's arrival.

I am super-pregnant (this picture is from March 27!) and ready to end this pregnancy... although I did have a "freak-out moment" with Shamus, during which I showed him a newborn diaper and a newborn onesie and said through tears and a smile, "Can you believe how tiny he's going to be?" while Shamus laid the onesie on my belly "to make sure it would fit Ben". "Are we ready?" I asked. Silly question - as if God would a) wait until we're ready or b)give us something we're truly not ready for... so we're as ready as we're going to be!

The due date is April 30th, and it's plus/minus 2 weeks... so April 16th - May 14th is the range. April 16th is THIS FRIDAY!!! We're almost in range! Watch out, world - here comes Ben!

So we got about 3 inches here in Lyman and we made it outside twice to enjoy it. The first trip was mainly sledding (and wiping snow off of Jay's face... we really need a windshield) and the second was for making snowmen.

No one was injured in the making or uploading of these films.






I keep getting errors when I try to load more videos so this'll have to last until next years snow. Let's keep the tradition going!

Working at Night means Jay time during the Day

So I'm working a split shift for 2 weeks but that means that Mondays will be only Jay and I in the house. Today we didn't get into too much trouble (at least I'm not going to write to the world about it).

He can finally use the Fropper:




And he's ok at the truck:




Enjoy... when the 2nd baby comes I don't think anyone will have to update this thing.