Weathermen were right!

Holy Blizzard! We wake up to sleet and by 11am it turned to snow along with 50 mph winds. The weathermen get so excited predicting these storms so I have started to never believe, but boy they were right this time. Are we ever going to have a white Christmas!!

The north winds got the best of our fence :(

It's warm...'er, lets play

With the weather a bit warmer, Ben was ready to get out. He swept the driveway, played in Mr. Moore's water fountain (immediately walked over there) and roamed the yard waving the OSU car flag. He has been extremely happy the past couple days, so I'm HOPING his teething pain is done with (I feel 1/4 of the last molar poking thru) until his 2 year molars come in. I've had a teething baby for the past 11 months... I might get my child back now! hah The "words" are getting more and more intense, so we are hoping for a real word soon.

GO POKES!!

Ben a deer is smelling your rear!

Cutest lil monkey on the block!

Sunday Project

Today I put together little Xmas gifts for my neighbors and other lucky friends :) My mom mixed up the homemade hot cocoa, we bagged them up in Santa sacks, finished the gift off by putting the cocoa in my fabulous Target $ spot "pails" I found... I thought they were super cute and not to mention cheap to make!

Hello there Santa

Ben made his annual trip to Bass Pro to visit with Mr. Santa Claus. Just like last year, Ben was very intrigued by Santa and didn't fuss one bit. This year he just smiled and gazed at him and his furrie beard. After picture time, he wandered thru the maze and fun that Bass Pro is.... after an hour there though, he was pooped and ready for bed!

I would like my own tv, a broom, Elmo.......

Well hello there Santa!

OUT in the car after his visit to see Santa... seepy seepy baby!

Below is his picture with Bass Pro Santa last year... can't believe how much he has changed in a year!!!!!

Family Pics

On a whim Thanksgiving weekend, with no visible marks on Ben's face, I emailed the photographer and she actually had a cancellation and got us in! Ben was in NO mood to be photographed, but she still managed to a get a few good ones. Ben has one mission - go, go, go!!

Thanksgiving

Ben is back in business, after a week long stomach virus, and we had a good ole time at Grammie and Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving. When Ben is sick and then rebounds, I always forget how funny and what a happy baby he is. Cruising the store at Walmart last night, Ben is sitting in the cart, lifts his right leg up and toots!! Hilarious and he did it twice - thats my stinker! I'm thankful this Thanksgiving for Ben getting back to his usual Stinkerboodle self, my hubbie for doing things he never thought were possible, my family and my fun surprise visit from Gesell! She actually surprised me, which is hard to pull off, I am too sneaky to surprise but she totally got me. It was a short visit, but Ben loved seeing his Aunt Allyson!

For real Uncle Nathan?!?!

Carrying his pansie... loves his flowers

Reading with Grammie Thxsgiving night

How can you resist this face?!!? Love you Ben!

Love you Coneflower

My mom took Ben out to the backyard on Monday and he found himself a new buddy - a pink coneflower. From what Grammie said and as you can see in the pictures, Ben was quite attached to this flower. Once they came inside, he made his way to the bathroom, said his goodbyes and threw the flower in the toilet!! Love my boy!

Happy Birthday Daaaa-De

Happy 29th Birthday to my most perfect adoring husband!!!! I had these fantastic plans for today for the best 29th birthday for John.... why I thought these plans would go through with without a hitch with a 13 month old, I don't know! I've learned to just let it roll on days home with Ben, can't plan ahead cause it nevers works out :) With that said, John and I did make it to our spa hour - John got an hour massage and I got a spa pedicure. Very nice and relaxing and then it was back to daycare to pick up the coughing, snotty nose, teething, scraped and bruised up Stinker. Our afternoon/evening plans will be a 50% completion - dinner at Mahogany steakhouse. The other plan, family photos which is our 4th attempt, is a no-go. I swear, Ben knows photos are coming and bangs his head on whatever he can find. At 7:30 this morning, we leave the room for 2 seconds and he knocks his cheek on a copper tub we have..... a purple/blue bruise was the result. Aarrrggg. I give up on family photos. I'm not doing a family Christmas card with a child that looks I like I have beat him up. Make up wouldn't even hide his bruise and scrape.

Happy Birthday to the best ddaaa-de and husband anyone could ask for!

Love to sit on da-de's shoulder

My boys!

You can see the new war wound on the cheek.

Giggle Box

Ben was all giggles while eating his snack of apples, cheese, and squash.... I was only slightly tickling his toes :) At the very end you can see his version of a kiss, a big wide open mouth. That kiss will come out every now and then. Who doesn't love a kiss from an open mouth full of toofers!! He is our silly string bean!

On the feet!

Ben is now officially, 100%, a walker! I know before I said he was walking, but after 1 week it has gone from a few steps to Mr. Independent Walker. After 3 months of crawling, he has finally made the jump to standing up and going. And he is going, going and going. Tonight he was even attempting to try out some running....that was ending in a face plant into our new plush CLEAN carpet :) It is strange to see him coming around the corner and there pops in our little man walking! What's even better, is he looks like a drunk man when working on his walking skills. Also he likes to clinch his right hand into a fist and hold it up, sometimes even shrugging his shoulders when walking. My lil stinkers smart ways of helping his balance :)

No real words from him yet... he did bring back his "little girl" most high pitch scream tonight. I was out cooking chicken on the grill, the back door was shut and I STILL heard it. He wanted more cereal, he was just letting John now.

Lil Stinker

Devon (my work) host a Spooktacular event for the Devon employees and their families each year. With the 1,000 Devon employees downtown, it can get quite hectic because all events are in the Chase Building on 10 different floors. However this year it was way more organized and they had the Chase lobby decked out with fun balloon decorations (a huge spider) cookies, drinks and a DJ for the families to enjoy. My lil stinker was focused on one thing... SUCKERS! He would keep the head piece on, IF he had a sucker. He is my little stinker and my little sugar phene. I was hoping he would be digging in the buckets for candy, but no as usual, he was the observant skunk just watching everyone. So I scooped up candy for uuumm John and I :) I felt kinda weird but someone had to take the candy! And to my surprise he wasn't on a sugar high, he passed out in the car on the way home and then took a 30 minute power nap once we got home. Ben cracks me up, he LOVES to watch everyone and is so content in doing so... he is such a calm boy! (probably going to regret saying those words)


I'm gonna spray you!!


Cooling off on the tile floor.


The ONE family photo with Ben looking



I can't see anything but the SUCKER!!

Enjoying more sugar

Pre-trick or treating in mom's cube

Whoa walk

Ben came home from daycare on Monday walking... he is really attempting to get those legs moving and perfect his balance. Finally our boy is getting the itch to walk!!!
(Sorry the video is the other way, I don't know how to turn it :)

Swingin Away

After a busy morning of cleaning out the garage and trying to eat dead beetles (yes I looked over and thankfully pulled it out), Ben got to go to his first outing at a park. John and I took him to Dolese Park where Ben went swinging, sliding down slides, and duck/geese chasing. He didn't quite know what to do when the goose had a stare off with him and continously squaked at him.

John and I for sure had a good time and I'm pretty sure Ben would say the same! Another first for Ben, SHOES. They were a tad bit large, lets hope those feet grow. Poor fella, with my size 5 foot and John's 11, the kid's large foot size doesn't look promising :)

The past 4 days Ben got 3 of his canine teeth (the fangs). We felt one on Thursday and then 2 more came over the weekend! My poor baby just doesn't get a break with these teeth, he has been teething since 4 months old and it hasn't been a pleasant teething experience to say the least.
Ben has been VERY chatty lately, these "words" are hilarious. He will go on and on saying what sounds like "i-do, i-do", cracks us up. I was in the kitchen cooking today and he comes in and sits there with his arms at me and yells "mmmaawwww"..... he wanted his milk. He is slowly learning momma and da-da. Not much else new coming from Ben's world... he will get to debut his little Stinker attire on Wednesday at my work for Devon's Spooktacular event :) Lets see if he even wears his costume, it has a head piece :)

I was trying to capture how "fall" it was out there

Yyyuuummm mulch - what else can I get in my mouth?!?