Sweet siblings

Here are my two little cuddlers. They do have a great time together. Audrey sure does love her little brother!

Kitchen company

Here was my company in the kitchen today as I unloaded the dishwasher.

P.S. Check out all of Ben's luscious locks! His hair is starting to come in, and it's just "peachy!"

Surprise!

I found a present under the tree tonight that I did not expect!

Ho. Ho. Ho.

It's been one heck of a day, in a not so fun way. However, we did have a bright spot, and it included a visit to Santa. Ben has a cherubic-just woke up from a nap-where am I look and Audrey is just pleased to be there. She asked Santa for things I was not familiar with, so we'll see how this Christmas morning works out since Christmas shopping is already done. Oh, and she did ask where his 7 dwarfs were....

*Kudos to Mom for making Audrey's dress and Mary Ellen for making Ben's sweater, which he also wore in our family pictures. If the UPS guy ever decides to show up with my Christmas cards, you'll see more of that sweater*

Thanksgiving

Have you been on the edge of your seat? In complete suspense?? How did the turkey turn out?? You will be happy to know that the turkey was delicious! The entire meal was wonderful and we all ate way too much of it. This Thanksgiving was a true blessing, and we had a great time with our family. Here are a lot of pictures to give you the run down of the long weekend. We hope you had a terrific turkey day too.

Audrey and YaYa working on dinner the night before.

Ben enjoying all the extra attention!

The turkey is cookin'...

...and it's done!

Can we eat pie yet?

Ben has some sweet potatoes.

Jeff carves.

The host and hostess.

Post dinner game of corn hole to work off the turkey.

Audrey insisted we put the tree up right away.

Topping it off with the angel.

Ben and Dan relaxing.

Bailey is thankful for people who pet her.An intense game of Wii bowling.

Preggo Wii.YaYa bowls!

The dogs really want to get in to the action.

And a good time was had by all.

Gobble gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!
This is my first turkey. Hope is turns out well.

Meet "Baby Courtney"

Audrey's longing for a baby sister has temporarily been satisfied. She put a bow on Ben's head and started calling him "Baby Courtney." Ben, I hate to say it, but this probably isn't the last time Audrey will try to dress you up.

Turkey Lurkey

Are you ready for some turkey?!?! This will be my first Thanksgiving as hostess! I admit that this will be the first whole bird I will have cooked, and the first holiday dinner I am responsible for with guests! If it all goes awry, we can always order Chinese takeout, right? Fa ra ra ra ra...oh wait, that's Christmas. Anwyay, we are all looking forward to having Pop, Yaya, Aunt Kady, Uncle Dan, and cousin Heidi here to help us give thanks for all that we have. What are you thankful for? I can't even begin to list all the things I am thankful for! God is good!

A real flashback!

I have been relatively uninspired with my own camera this week....not to mention that I got a new one and have not read the instruction manual on it yet. I'll get around to it, I promise. In the mean time, here's a real flashback for you!

Uncle Eric sportin' a sweet ride in 1974! It's like some sort of modified grocery cart.
I think this resembles Ben a little!

Big brudder entertaining baby sis 1978.
This highchair pad looks a lot easier to remove and clean than mine!

Teeth!

Ben update: the 2 bottom teeth have finally decided to make an appearance. One has broken ground and the other is bulging alongside. The incisor that broke ground 3 months ago has stalled out and is still in the same position it was in August.

School pictures

You know how you have just typed a really long and elaborate email to a friend that you have not written in a long time, and then you accidentally hit the wrong button and POOF, it's gone? It is sooo frustrating! That is how this post has been going the past 4 times I have tried to post it. Maybe it's my blog trying to tell me something, or maybe it's just bad luck. I can assure you that the original post was very witty, funny, and soo worth reading. This rendition has lost a lot over time. Oh well. What am I posting to begin with? Oh, right, Audrey's school picture. She looks so grown up, so 4! Tacky to have a photo of a photo, but I'm not shelling out $20 for a 5 x 7 and a miniature class photo. I will wait until Kindergarten. Here's my gal!

Pediction??

"Mommy, when I am 6 you will have a baby girl and I will go to the hospital with you to see how they take it out of your tummy and then I will go home with Grandma and Papa and go to bed."
-Audrey

If this prediction comes true, I will start taking lottery picks from her!!!!

Health and wellness report:

I took both children to the Dr. today and managed to get a double appointment- woo! Ben is sick and Audrey had her 4 year well check. Audrey is of course practically perfect in every way (again). She stands 42 inches tall and weighs 39 pounds. This is 90% for height and 80% for weight. Always better to be taller than you are fat, but I wouldn't know. Ben is sick, duh. He has a high fever, cough, runny nose, occasional vomiting due to drainage. Awesome. No flu, no pig flu, and no ear infections. Just a rockin' virus. Pray that it ends soon. Little man is not a happy camper and Mommy has slept 5 hours in 2 nights. Why am I awake right now? Because Mommy knows that as soon as I close my eyes Ben will awake with cries and I would rather him rest....Oh, Ben is 19 and a half pounds and still completely adorable despite the tears.

In other news....

Ben is working on being mobile! Today he pulled up for the first time, crawled 1 step, crawled backwards several, and scooted in reverse about 100 yards. It won't be long now until he has me on my toes. My sweet, docile little boy will be on the move soon. Guess it's time to remove all the Barbie shoes from the playroom. Sigh....

Birthday bash = Exhausted

We all had a great time, but man are we tired! Being 4, well, even watching someone be 4 is extremely tiring. Audrey and the crew had a wonderful time at her birthday party and the whole weekend for that matter. Grandma and Papa were able to join us, along with most of her good friends. There were a lot of pictures, presents and even more excitement, and it wears me down just to think about it, so I'll keep this short and let you paste together the weekend with the pictures.

Woke up at 4:15 a.m. "Is it my birthday yet?" Referred to herself as "The Birthday Girl" all day.

The Birthday Girl would like to eat cake now.

The birthday girl reads cards.

The Birthday Girl shows off some loot.

The best present of all...a baby brother...at least for now.

The princess party....My sweet princess.

The parachute and all it's tricks were a big hit."Sleeping Beauty says...."

FOUR

My baby girl is 4 years old today.

More exciting post to follow with pics soon.

Pre School Party

Let the sugar high begin! Today started the 3 day sugar spree know as Audrey's birthday weekend. She had a "party" at pre school, and tomorrow is her actual birthday, and a friend's birthday party, and then Sunday is her birthday party. Of course there is cake involved in each of those days. Whew. To say Audrey is excited would just be a drop in the bucket of how she really feels about turning the big 4.

The birthday girl and boy getting serenaded by their class.

Audrey sampling her "4" cookie

Ben was the main attraction for all the kids.

"And he snapped that monkey right out of the treeeee."

Count down

Do you hear it? Tick, tick, tick, it's the count down to Audrey's 4th birthday. She'll be happy to tell you about it if you're around! I took several pictures at the park yesterday but I had my camera set on "blurry" apparently, so sorry about no pics today. Soon, very soon.

Quote of the day

"What do you think about us changing Ben's name to Fuzzy Head?"
-Audrey

Audrey also later decided that "Wouldn't it be funny to change Ben's name to Callie, and then we could play with Callie every day.

November!

I can't believe it's already November. This is the beginning of a very busy few months here. Birthdays and holidays all smooshed together. Better get a good supply of caffeine at my house, because I don't see any chance to slow down between here and January. Enough rambling though, you're here for the pictures. Here are a few from trick-or-treating last night.

This is the only picture of the 4 of us since the hospital picture when Ben was born. Sad, but true. These are some astronaut helmets we slipped on just for fun. We did not go out in public like this.

Candy, candy, candy!Ben opted not to wear his Superman costume due to the extreme humidity last night. He went for the lil' pumpkin look instead.

Viking-Sueprgirl, everyone's favorite superhero.