Ben Is One Month Old!

And we finally figured out who Ben looks like... any guesses? Above is his one month picture... and below is the one month picture of who he looks like!

It's McKenzie! Ben did not want to be outdone by McKenzie's cute one month pictures so he did a great job of holding his little head up for the picture.

Stay tuned for monthly comparison pictures. It's amazing how fast this month has flown by. It sort of makes me freak out like the next thing I know the kids will be in school. I am enjoying the time off from work getting to know Ben and especially spending lots of quality time with McKenzie who amazes me each day with the little things she does.

Here's a picture of McKenzie from yesterday when she had an impromptu dress up session while I was folding laundry. I just love that you can tell she is so pleased with her outfit choice. I have a series of these as she was looking in the mirror - definite scrapping material!



Here's another of McKenzie eating peanut butter, her current love. She actually goes several times a day and gets the peanut butter out of the cupboard and brings it to me to give her a peanut butter spoon. Her hair is a little crazy because she just woke up from her nap and also because she styled it earlier that day with a little toothpaste. She definitely keeps me on my toes!



Here's Benny boy striking a pose. Clearly not tired yet of me taking his picture!

Oh Come Let Us Adore Him...

Here he is - adore away!

There's a lot to love about Ben. He has been adored by all that have met him. Last week my Mom came for the whole week to help me out with the kids and mostly to adore them for a bit since they live over in Chelan and can't just pop in anytime. It was a big help to have her here especially since Matt was recovering from the kidney stone and also went back to a normal work week. The stone seems to have passed after a couple of really painful days for Matt. Thank goodness!

My Mom and I were able to get a lot of little things accomplished around the house that would have taken me forever if I hadn't had a second set of hands to help or to chase McKenzie around while I did things. We had a good time and the kids and I are looking forward to a visit to Chelan in April. Thanks Mom!



Matt's cousin Cassandra and her husband Chris and their little 4 month old Olivia came out for a fun visit and they took some pictures of our family which was much appreciated since we have very few pictures of all of us since it's usually one of us taking the pictures. Here's a picture from that day. Note McKenzie is once again kissing Ben it's a favorite pass time for her now.

Love is in the Air

Happy Valentine's Day! McKenzie is still in love with her baby brother. Ssmeday I'll probably have to bring out these pictures to show her that he didn't always annoy her.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. We spent the day at home relaxing since we had made an early morning trip to the emergency room on Friday morning for Matt who having horrible stomach pains. Turns out he had a kidney stone so we took the weekend off from exciting activities.

The trip to the emergency room did give me confidence in leaving the house with both kids in tow. This is especially so since we didn't pack the double stroller when we left at 5:30 am. Truthfully I had to read the directions on how to fold it down on Saturday so we couldn't have brought it anyway. I also forgot to pack shoes for McKenzie. Lucky for her we hadn't changed her out of her feety pajamas so she didn't have to be truly white trash going barefoot at the hospital in February.

Despite the drama of the kidney stone we did have a great Valentine's Day. As the pictures show there is a lot of love in our house these days!

Wax On... Wax Off...

Matt has been home from work the past two weeks helping with McKenzie so I could focus on recovering and taking care of Ben. It's been great having him home and McKenzie has taken even more of a liking to "my Da-Da". This little girl figured out really early how to keep Matt working for her affection.

She has the temperament of a cat - she will give you love when she wants to but don't try loving her when she's not in the mood. All Matt wants is a little kiss now and then but for months McKenzie refused . She would kiss the dogs, her baby dolls, any baby she saw, cousin Kayla to the point of them both rolling on the floor but not her Daddy. She would even go so far as to actually face push Matt if he tried to kiss her. She had been getting a little more affectionate but these past two weeks have really been a turning point. McKenzie now gives Matt hugs and kisses on a regular basis and wants to help him do everything.

Last weekend Matt washed his car and though Kenzie might want to help, is she really? Matt put her in the truck bed with some warm soapy water and a scrub brush and she scrubbed that truck bed for almost an hour and a half. She did not want to come in but I finally had to force her to come in since she was soaked and it was getting dark and really cold.

McKenzie's New BFF

McKenzie has been doing great with the addition of Ben to our family. She wants to love him and help take care of him. Anytime he cries she goes running to where ever he is and is always available to give kisses if needed. If we tell her the baby is sleeping she is so cute and puts her little finger up to her lips and says, "shhhh...". But then will most likely proceed to scream and run around wildly.

Here's McKenzie giving Ben some love. She did really well with holding him for a moment or two while I snapped the picture. She is quite proud of her "bebe" brother.

We do have to keep a close eye on her though because she really doesn't know her own strength. Here she is carrying around 5 lbs of peanut butter that she found in the cupboard. She just might be the worlds strongest baby.

The Sweetest Thing!

Our little Ben really is the sweetest thing! He has been the best baby. He loves to cuddle but is also content to just sit by himself and look about or sleep. He isn't bothered by much of anything just calmly going along with whatever the rest of the family is doing. The only thing that really seems to bother him is having his diaper changed but he gets over that pretty quickly so it's no big deal.

I've been very lucky this time and have been way more mobile and able to be up and around. Much more so than I was after McKenzie was born so we've been able to spend a lot of time having fun as a whole family rather than me taking care of Ben and Matt taking care of just McKenzie.

Ben is the incredible growing baby. We've been to two doctor appointments. The first at the hospital when he was five days old and he was back up to birth weight. The nurse weighed him three times because she couldn't believe he was already back to birth weight. Then yesterday at eight days old we went to our pediatrician for our first visit and Ben weighed in at 6 lbs 13 oz. They too were amazed at his growth.

Here are some pictures from the past week. I'll try to post more regular entries as we get a little more of a schedule going.


Here's Matt with our new dual stroller from Phil and Ted's. It's pretty neat how many ways we can arrange this one stroller to haul two kids. We've taken it to the park near our house twice and Matt has been taking McKenzie out jogging in it.


Here I am with Ben in the dining room. Matt and I were playing a game while McKenzie and Ben were napping.


This picture really shows off Ben's wild hair. I love the crazy spiked look he has going on! It's also a great shot of his blue grey eyes.