Super Seven!

Today Ben is seven months old Birthday! Let's see their pictures then compare some stats.

Here's Ben...

And McKenzie!

Eating Solid Food:
- McKenzie... Yes, loving every bite except what she smeared on her face!
- Ben.... Yes, a distracted eater but packs it away if you have the patience to wait him out

Sleeping Through The Night:
- McKenzie... Yes, that girls still loves her sleep
- Ben... Yes, but he does sometimes get up just to see if anyone is listening : )

Teeth
- McKenzie... Yes, first tooth just before six months and more constantly after that
- Ben... No teeth yet, more drool than I ever through possible but no teeth

First Black Eye
- McKenzie... Probably around 13 months when she took a golf club to the head
- Ben... Currently sporting a bit of a black eye due to the achievement below

Crawling:
- McKenzie... Nope not crawling until almost 8 months
- Ben... Yes! Crawling and cruising around on everything since August 10th! He is a man on the move, unfortunately that movement includes a lot of falling down as he is just like his sister with no fear.

Here's a little video of Ben doing his thing!

We also celebrated Grandma Z's birthday this past weekend. We had everyone over for a family brunch. Thanks Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Chris for bringing the food!

Here's everyone at brunch outside on the patio



Grandma Z and the grand kids playing the piano. Ben can play that piano forever!



Here's a couple of recent shots of the kids playing inside - our current favorite pics!

Playing Catch Up

Hi faithful blog stalkers who have continued to visit my page despite my long summer vacation from blogging. Yes, I know you have gone through many emotions when returning to that same old post from July. I too have blogs I stalk and I count on updates being available on a regular basis to add some enjoyment to my days.

So this blog will be about catching you all up on what's been going on since my last post. Here's a quick picture to start you out and to ensure one faithful reader that yes, I am okay! This is from this weekend at the end of a nice walk with the Great Aunt Renee and our wonderful cousin Karyn from Victoria who was down for the weekend. Needless to say the kids were ready to head home for lunch.


The main reason for my long break from blogging was not that I'd run out of cute pictures of the kids or interesting stories about our life. Instead it was about a complete lack of extra time for anything. Last year Matt and I were asked by some of our friends if they could get married in our backyard this summer. It was to be a small wedding for 20 people. We said sure but with no guarantees on projects being completed. Well, as anyone one who's ever had a wedding knows there's never a good place to cut off that guest list so that's how we came to be hosting a wedding for over 80 people in our backyard in mid August. Matt has been doing the bulk of the labor since one of us has to watch the kiddos but both of us were pulling some really long hours trying to get the yard looking good for most of July and the first part of August. Everything turned out great and the wedding was a success but if we're going to have that many people over again we'll make sure it's all people we know! Here are some pictures of the yard with the wedding stuff set up.





During all the work to prepare for the wedding we did manage to squeeze in some fun! The kids and I left Matt at home working and took a quick trip over to see Grandma and Grandpa C in Chelan. We spent a lot of time in the water which made McKenzie so happy! She was so funny and called the lake the 'big watee'. She also learned to say 'brrrr...'. When she first went in the lake water she said 'ouchy... ouchy' and we had to tell her it wasn't ouchy but cold and she should say 'brrrr'. It was very cute. Here's a picture of Grandma and Grandpa C with all the grand kids.


I also squeezed in a night out with the girls for August Wine Club! We had a Hawaiian night at Gina's. I love wine club and can't wait for it to get back in full swing in the Fall.




Here's a cute shot of Benny during one of his nightly staring contests with Daddy. Needless to say Ben won.



Ben eating McKenzie's shoe when we went swimming with Aunt Kacey and the kids. I recently read an article online about how gross flip flops are. I can't believe Crocs are far behind in cleanliness. Guess I won't be letting Ben eat those shoes anymore. He still has no teeth despite months of working those gums.




McKenzie looking 'too cute' as usual : ) She is growing like a weed, I feel like I'm boxing up clothes that don't fit her every week. Guess that means we have to go shopping!



Expect more updates this week.

A Very Merry Unbirthday To You! Yes You!

Our sweet Benny turned six months old this past Sunday. It's hard to remember life before he was here! I think it's fun to have a January baby because I can imagine him hitting milestones based on the events of the year. I thought he'd be crawling by Halloween and maybe walking by Christmas but I think this guy will be crawling - really crawling before Labor Day. Right now he gets up on his hands and knees and really gives it a good try before he breaks down and decides to do the commando slide across the floor.

Here's Ben's six month picture. He's able to sit up on his own and of course smile!





Kenzie definitely had some rosy chubby cheeks at six months!

Ben goes in next week for his six month appointment - the number to beat is 16 lbs, 13 oz. He's been stepping up his eating habits despite the heat wave we've been having trying to bulk up for his weigh in : )

Here's Flat Hippie, as Kenzie calls him, taking one for the team. Flat Hippie is serving a dual purpose as a Ben's favorite friend and a source of a much needed cool down. I do have to admit he was in need a bath anyway so I figured this was killing two birds with one hippo to get him wet before bed.



This picture gives a good view of how long Ben is getting!! I'll report next week with his official height but for now you can note he's the width of a standard crib which google reports to be 28 inches. His hair is giving him some height here since you can see it's in it's fully glory and not mashed down. Kenzie was 26 1/2 inches at six months so he maybe be right there as well.

We have been keeping busy working in the yard getting some long overdue projects done - yeah Daddy - pictures coming soon! We've also been trying to keep cool since we're having a pretty amazing heat wave here. Here's Ben on the last cool day when we decided to brave the park at the end of the day despite the chilly weather. When we got there the sun came out and didn't Ben look silly for having worn his pajamas to the park.



McKenzie continues to love having a little brother. She always has a hug or a kiss for that little guy and if I'm lucky I get an occasional bit of love myself.



Share the love and tell those who are special to you how much they mean to you!

Where to draw the line.

Before you have kids you hear how it takes over your life. Of course I heard this but I still thought, no that won't be me, I will do things differently. Then before I knew it my house was transformed into a plastic shanty town and I now find myself enjoying things like goldfish and boxed macaroni and cheese again. Not so much because they taste good, because they don't, but it's the fact that you actually get a bite in yourself when your child is enjoying their meal too.

So back to my point, children really do take over your life, your house, your everything and you find yourself letting little things slide but really where do you draw the line? Today I went to the store with Ben while McKenzie was napping and Matt was taking a break from the yard. I saw a lady driving a minivan, which is a level I have yet to lower myself to - sorry minivan driver. I know they are convenient but I just can't go there yet. It wasn't just the minivan that really got to me but the fact that there were stickers all over the interior windows. Seriously, how do you let that slide? At what point would any sane person think that was okay? Last time I check cars cost money. Seriously people, if you ever see me driving a car with stickers on the windows have an intervention.

Our kids are crossing new lines in a good way. Ben has been getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth before lunging wildly forward in a mad attempt to crawl. McKenzie is quite the fish in the water. We headed out to Grandma and Grandpa Z's again this past weekend to swim. McKenzie with the aid of her swim floatee was swimming around the pool without touching anyone. She was dragging an air mattress from one end of the pool to the other and even jumping off the diving board! I fear I'm in for a long life of holding my breath as she jumps head first into life.

Here's a picture of Benny in his crawling stance. He has his tummy up and off the ground. Kenzie didn't do that until she was about seven months, she was way more into the commando crawl. I'll work on getting some good video of him - he's a man on the move!




McKenzie in her swim floatee and with a water noodle. Nothing could be better...

except pulling an entire air mattress around the pool by herself.

You Learn Something New Everyday

Sometimes you like what you learn, sometimes you don't. Recently I learned how to get my mailbox key out of the cassette player in my car. McKenzie for some reason thought that was where it went. Now you're asking yourself why did I bother to spend an hour wedged up in the dashboard of my car with a bent paperclip, a screwdriver and a flashlight. Am I so out of date that I still use the cassette player? No I'm not that lame but that key is our last mailbox key so we couldn't lose it. Note to self: make duplicate keys soon and put the key on a key chain so it can't fit in that cassette player.

Most days though I seem to like what the kids learn. It's amazing to watch them learn the simplest things and get so much joy out of it. McKenzie is picking up new words all the time. She still really loves words that start with 'B' - she likes to say book, bib, ball, baby, 'Benky' (aka Ben), and Bob (my sisters neighbor or any older balding man she sees). Ask her what our dogs are called, she'll quickly respond with 'Icky' (Indy) and 'Barkey' (JonesZ). All other dogs are called Barkey now too. I guess she feels she overused the word dog (dog-ga) early on and now can't be bothered to say it anymore.

Ben is learning to eat baby food, roll and scoot all over, grab everything and anything and put whatever he can get into his mouth. He's also in my opinion successfully learned to sleep through the night!

Here's Ben sleeping during the heat wave we had last week. Poor guy was wiped out but his hair didn't wilt despite the heat.



Benny on the move during a play date at Gina's.



The best thing that Ben has learned lately is how to make his big sister laugh!



What new thing did you learn today?

Happy!

Happy! It's a word we used to hear often but hadn't been able to get Kenzie to say lately. Until today when "happy" was the word of the day to help celebrate cousin Kayla's fourth birthday and Benny turning five months! This also starts our three straight days of eating cake. Today for cousin Kayla's birthday, tomorrow for cousin Claire's birthday and Sunday for my cousin Brandon's wedding.

We stayed over at Kacey and Eric's tonight at dinner time for Kayla's birthday party. Was it ever exciting - with pink bug cakes and balloons you couldn't go wrong! Well, McKenzie literally dance her diaper off. It should be fun to see her do some serious dancing at Brandon's wedding.

Here's Ben's five month picture and he is "happy" as always! Still rockin' the hair. On a side note his hair can be made to lay down but then he becomes his alter ego 'comb-over' Ben. Not a very popular guy at all... so rock on hair!




Here's McKenzie's five month picture - she's probably happy cause she only had a diaper on!



Ben is now eating one real meal a day. So far he's had apples and sweet pototoes. Sweet potatoes produced much nicer facial expressions than apples. He is working on sitting up and can really get moving with rolling and scooting when he wants to. He continues to be happy and healthly which is all anybody could ask for. Kenzie continues to love her baby brother and cooks wonderful things for him in her kitchen but she won't let him use the toy knives as they are "ouchy."

Question: What's More Fun Than A Barrel Of Monkeys?

Answer: Not much except getting a barrel of monkeys from your Grandma while at the zoo for your birthday party!

Needless to day we had a great time at the zoo last weekend for McKenzie's second birthday. It was a perfect sunny Seattle day - not too hot, just right for the animals to be out and about. We saw all of McKenzie's favorites including the monkeys, more monkeys, the penguins and the elephants.

Here's McKenzie, Daddy, Grandma Z, Aunt Jennifer and Claire riding on the carousel at the zoo. Both girls thought that was pretty fun . McKenzie being the dare devil that she is was standing on her horse for part of the ride. If she doesn't run off and join the circus I'll be amazed.




McKenzie looking at the big kitty!




Kenzie is trying to tell this long haired monkey not to roll around in the straw because he was getting "ucky'"but that monkey just didn't care. Look at her finger scolding that monkey.



Here's McKenzie and Grandma C looking at the flamingos. It's always fun to see a pink bird!



Kenzie enjoying a birthday cupcake - yummy!


Yes, I'm behind in my blog. I'll either catch up soon or just move on! Stay tuned either way!