Eight Is Great!

You guessed it, Benny turned eight months old this past Saturday and he is doing great! He continues to be happy, healthy and always ready to share a goofy grin. He is now speed crawling and cruising a bit, and practices walking on his walker when McKenzie isn't 'helping'. He also has two bottom teeth that finally made their appearance around Labor Day, you can see them in the second picture below. Now we're waiting for those all important top teeth, let's hope they are nice and straight like McKenzie's.

Here's Ben's eight month picture. He's definitely becoming his own self!





Here's Miss McKenzie at eight months. She was too busy practicing her crawling to stop for a picture.


We've been keeping busy enjoying the last of the summer weather. We were lucky enough to be attending the first birthday party of Olivia, Matt's cousin's little girl, this weekend and had some great weather for playing outside. Here's Ben introducing himself to Olivia and Olivia checking out those teeth.



Ben's hair continues to amaze us. Here he is with half a Baby Mum-Mum, which is his current favorite snack, lodged in his hair. It did not bother him in the least and would probably still be there had I not removed it.


McKenzie continues to learn new words every day and never stops amazing us with all the things she can do. We recently found a new playground not too far from our house that was just completely redone. There are signs at the playground saying it's appropriate for kids 5 to 12 but McKenzie manages to do 97% of the routes with little more than somebody there to spot her and give directions on where to reach and how to make the next move. She certainly doesn't get her coordination from Mom!

The kids make each other and us laugh everyday. We sure are having fun with these two!



We're now gearing up for the annual Crush Festival which means a girls weekend for Mom, Grandma and Grandpa C weekend for the kids and a man weekend for Daddy and the doggies!

You'll Kiss A Llama But Not Your Mama?

This picture that Aunt Kacey took of Kenzie at the Arlington Kangaroo farm a few weeks ago kind of says it all. Apparently you could feed the llamas by putting one of their food pellets in your mouth and then the llamas would come and eat the food. Just like a cat McKenzie decides who gets loves from her and who does not. This is one of those pictures I'll be saving for a long time to show Kenzie what kind of a girls she was when she was two.

A Season For Change...

This Labor Day weekend blew into town with the feeling of Fall with rain showers and gusts winds that blew my plans for outdoor activities with the kids away. So we settled in for a laid back weekend but by Sunday afternoon we'd exhausted our indoor ideas and I was looking for something to do until dinner. What better thing to do than spontaneously decide to get my daughter her first hair cut. I lucked out that the kids hair salon near us, Bella and Max, had an opening and off we went.

I know some of my readers must be thinking I've gone crazy because they know me and I am not spontaneous about most things but for some reason I am all about the impromptu hair cut. I cannot seem to book even my own hair cuts in advance, one day I just decide I need my hair cut and then call for an appointment that day, preferably within the hour. This has behavior has caused me to have some very bad hair days but I just can't seem to plan ahead when it comes to hair.

My current hair dresser, Jenny, won my business when I called the salon and discovered my current hair dresser had quit. Jenny's next words were "You come in, I cut many, many hairs." That and the fact, or maybe only the fact that she had a 4:30 appointment available won me over. I've been using her and recommending her to others for several years now.

Okay, so back to McKenzie first hair cut. Here she is looking at some ducks before her haircut. You can see her hair is attempting to be in two pony tails the preferred style for controlling her long locks and various layers of hair.



I wasn't really sure how she would react to getting her hair cut but she did great! Maybe it was the fact she was sitting in a pink Cadillac. Or maybe because she had a bucket of toys to play with. Or was watching Strawberry Shortcake on the tv. Or maybe because they gave her a sucke. Probably all of the above. We ended up going with a nice bob to get rid of the different layers of hair. Needless to say McKenzie did amazing and the hair cut looks great!

Note: I personally wouldn't recommend the combo of hair cut and sucker. Those should be two exclusive events in life.





After we got home we decided to wash off all the extra hair so the kids took a bubble bath - the soapiest one ever since Kenzie helped with the bubbles before I got into the bathroom and poured in the whole bottle. Good thing Benny also loves bubbles!







Overall, it was a great weekend. We love having three days to play!

The New Do

I finally had to admit that even rock stars get their hair cut to maintain that perfect look. So after much deliberation, I cut Ben's hair. The actual cutting took all of five seconds since there was only one crazed section of long hair left in the back. You can see it in it's full floppy glory here.




After the hair cut and a nice bath he was still rocking! As Scuttle, the seagull from The Little Mermaid would say "You've got an aesthetically pleasing configuration of hair that humans go nuts over."


Maybe someday I'll get McKenzie's hair cut. Her hair has taken so long to grow and it's not very thick at all so I just haven't been forced to cut it. Granted I rarely let her leave the house without doing something to it. Guess she wont' take after me with thick hair. When McKenzie was born my mom gave me my baby book and I was looking through it and found this envelope stuffed full of hair that was labeled 'first hair cut six months' and I thought my mom must have been mistaken and then I saw a picture of myself at six months. I needed a haircut! If I could ever decide if McKenzie should have bangs or not I'd probably get her hair cut a little but I can't decide so we do nothing.

We had a big weekend last weekend, first we went to my Aunt Wendy's 60th birthday party and had a lot of fun and food. So much food that McKenzie woke up at midnight and got sick. But after we got cleaned up from that she felt much better. Guess no one should eat that many grapes. Here's Grandma C and her sisters and brother. They are in age order, youngest to oldest, from left to right - Aunt Bonnie, Grandma C, Aunt Wendy, Aunt Diane and Uncle Jay.


Good thing McKenzie felt better because on Sunday as Part Deux of Grandma Z's birthday we went downtown Seattle and rode the Duck Boat. Very exciting stuff if you're two. Riding a bus / boat combo while blowing on a duck beak quacker can't be beat. Unfortunately for Matt we didn't get seats together and McKenzie spent most of the trip yelling back at me to look at things. When the duck went in the water Ben and I went up and we all squeezed into one seat so McKenzie didn't have to shout.

Here we are after our duck ride.


Here's Benny after the duck ride with his too cute duck feet.



And no, the fun didn't stop there. On Tuesday after work we headed out to Monroe for our annual trip to 'The Fair' (see last years post). This year McKenzie was tall enough for some of the rides. Her favorite was the yee-ha's, aka the horses on the carousel. She also went on a mini roller coaster with me and did no hands almost the whole way. Here's Kenzie blowing kisses to the crowd while riding her yee-ha.



McKenzie also convinced her Daddy that she needed to play a carnival game. So they threw some darts and popped some balloons and then McKenzie had to pick between two prizes. She didn't want either of them, we thought no we're not taking home a huge prize, so then after much negotiation with the carnie McKenzie left happy with a small prize and an un-popped balloon. Who knew that was what she wanted the whole time!

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.



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