Family Circus, Volume 2

Things have been a little crazy around our house this past week, and to be honest, I'm not even exactly sure what day it is... :) I went to my last Leadership Texas conference which was held in Fort Worth earlier this week. I am so grateful to Lanny and his parents for all that they did to enable me to be a part of that program this year. It was an amazing experience for me.

Anyway, updates on the kids:

Ben:

Recent Ben-ism's - In his prayers, “thank you for the people all cracked to pieces.” When I asked, he said he was praying for the people who got in the tornado (which was like a month ago);

the moral of a story according to Ben, “don’t get stepped on by a giant.”

One of his friends was a t.u. cheerleader (texas longhorns for my non-Aggie friends) for Halloween and he called her a Home Depot cheerleader.

“Mom, I need some more towels. Can you write ‘more towels’ on your list?”

Lindley:

She still loves to sing and dance!! All the time!! Her Daddy taught her a new way to see an old favorite...

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Brandt:

Brandt is now 3 months old; he was weighed just last week and was almost 15 lbs!! He is a tubba chubba!! And, if you are keeping score, my diet is even more restricted. We are hopeful, though. We loves his smiles and hearing what he has to say :) He loves to talk to the airplanes on the wall by his changing table.

And, I know this gets old for some people, but it just doesn't get old for me. Here is a similar picture of Ben way back when.

And Lindley at the same age

Halloweeny-O

Lots of fun Halloween activities!  Ben's concert and parade at school; pumpkin carving, Halloween carnival, trick or treating, and party at a friend's house afterwards. During trick or treating, we didn't stop at any houses that were 'all darked up' according to Ben.  Many thanks to Meme and Grampy for all of their help!

 

Pumpkins

Everyone else is posting their pumpkin pics, so here are ours :)

The patch we go to also happens to be at Ben's pre-school.

Another Belated Milestone

Brandt turned 2 months on the same day that Lindley turned 2!  At his check up, he weighed 12 lbs 8 oz and was 23 something inches. 

My giving up eating dairy has actually seemed to help some.  But, who knew that the milk protein is in pretty much everything I eat??  Even a piece of bread has dairy in it.  So I have been shopping in the Kosher section of the grocery store with all of my Jewish friends.  And yes, I even found dairy free ice cream.  I also have learned how to make a cake with just the mix and a can of coke.  I couldn't give up all my sweets!! And, thank goodness there is no dairy in Dr. Pepper.  If there would have been, we would have traded a fussy baby for a fussy momma!!

He also had to have his first bottle this week because my boss was in town and wanted to have breakfast.  Well, technically, Brandt had some bottles in the NICU, but those don't count.  He did really well, just ate a little slow :)

She's 2!!

Okay, so I'm a little late in posting about Lindley's birthday.  Earlier this month, Lindley turned the big 2!!  We had a small "bubble blow-out," which turned out to be more of a "burst bubble" :)  We only invited a few little friends that are her age, and she was a little overwhelmed with even that.  One of the bubble things I ordered ended up getting shipped to Europe...it of course arrived the following Tuesday (and it would have gotten there Monday but for Columbus Day!) It was a little cold outside, so none of the big bubbles were actually working, so there went the activities!! But, the kids managed to have fun anyway. And, I was happy with my decorations :)

We opened gifts after the party. Ben had wanted to wrap up something for her, so he went and chose one of his "old" toys that he doesn't want anymore. He wrapped it himself using tissue paper. He had chosen his tool box to give to her. We let her open that one first, and it turned out to be one of her favorite gifts!! It was so funny; she wore the "work gloves" the rest of the evening!!

Here is our big two year old on her actual birthday!

At her 2 yr checkup, she weighed 28 lbs and was 35 1/4 inches.  The height predictor thing said she will be 5'7" when she is 18.  That is also my height.  We will see!!

Family Circus

Just some things that have been going on in each "ring" of our three-ringed circus :)

Ben:

The other day I had twelve dollars sitting on the console in my car. The next day, I went to go ahead and put the money in my wallet, but there were only two dollars. I couldn't imagine how I had lost the $10 bill; I searched high and low in the car, in my pockets, purse, trash can...I had decided that maybe I was crazy and never actually had $12!  A day later, Ben walks in and annouces..."Mommy, I have $10!" Here is the convo:

Me: Oh, really? Let me see!

Ben:  (goes to get $10 bill and shows me)

Me: Wow, where did you get this?

Ben: From you

Me: (laughing) Oh, really? How did you get it?

Ben: I wanted $10, so I took it!

I then of course went on into the lesson on stealing and how I didn't give him the money and he didn't earn it, so it wasn't his!!! Funny....

He also has some football terms : Runbacker, Defenser, and Down set hutter.

Ben and Lindley also like to go and play in Ben's room. I knocked on the door and opened it to this :

Lindley:

She absolutely LOVES music, dancing, and singing ( and also Barney). Our step stool is her stage...all the time. She has been singing some tunes to us lately. The sweetest song is "Jesus loves me," but I didn't get that whole song on video. So, here is a video of a different song. We also got her saying her newest phrase, "I don't know!" We celebrated when she said "One, two, THREE" on the video because usually she says, "One, two, FOUR!"

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Brandt:

He still eats, sleeps, and cries :)  We have caught him smiling a couple of times, but he is still just taking it all in most of the time.  He moved to his crib this week, and he has been doing okay in it. I have now given up eating dairy to see if that helps his tummy problems. We'll see.

Why-Day Friday

Why do we spend tons of money on toys when our kids are perfectly entertained by a bucket of soapy water and four wash rags??

Back story:  I had taken a water bucket and wash rags outside to wash the dirt off of the front door and let the kids "help."  Afterwards they took turns slinging the water off of the wet rags onto each other, seeing how far they could throw them, and generally getting wet.  Go figure...

Soccer Has Begun!

Ben is #12 on the Texans for our 3rd season with this team.  Ben is playing "up" a league with Kindergartners.  They now have goalies and referees.  Here are some action shots...