Scribble and Scrabble

Christmas part 4

by Heather | 0 comments

We spent Christmas morning at our house, relaxing and opening presents in our jammies. It was really nice to spend the time together, just the four of us because we’d already visited with family the few weeks before.

We have a tradition of reading the Christmas story in Luke before bed on Christmas Eve. We didn’t quite get our act together this year so we read it Christmas morning before presents. From the tablet of course.
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We gave Ben a Fisher Price nativity set. I think I’ll put it down with the Christmas stuff in a few months and pull it out next December for him to play with too.
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We also gave him the little tool bench that had been my brother’s. We’ll give it back to uncle Justin some day, don’t worry.
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Got to start ’em young.
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Although Cassidy just wanted to chew on the tools.
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Ben also really liked his Haynes Thomas Manual! Haynes manuals are made for every car model to help you troubleshoot problems and see how parts of the car work. I found a Thomas the train one and knew he’d love it, all the engines and coal cars are illustrated and broken down into pieces. Super cute.
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One of the gifts I gave Andy was this collage. Both he and Ben really like reading the I Love My Daddy book, but when Ben destroyed it one day all that was left was the cover. We did buy a new one, but this time have a board book.
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Andy gave me a new laptop bag, 2lb bag of coffee beans (mmm) and this canvas print of a picture I’d taken of Ben and my dad. They were walking together inside a C-5 at my dad’s Air Force base. Super sweet picture and I love the flag in the background.
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Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!
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Christmas Eve

by Heather | 0 comments

Christmas Eve I sat the kids down in front of the tree and tried to get some pictures of them all dressed up. Ben wouldn’t let me touch his hair so it’s a hot mess, but we did get some cute ones. Andy’s mom made Cassidy’s dress, it was SO cute! Ben decorated the bottom of the tree so there is a mass of ornaments 3 feet and below and then all the breakable ones are spaced out at the top of the tree. It looked hilarious but I loved it ;-)
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We went to the Christmas Eve service at our old church. Since our new one is just starting (and at the community rec center) we didn’t have one of our own this year. A lot of the launch team was away on vacation and the student volunteers we have were home on break anyway. It was a nice service, a bit more of an entertainment production than I really liked (I’d be happy with a little sermon and just singing Christmas carols) but they did a nice job with it. Ben actually let me spike up his hair before we left, it looked super cute.
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Andy’s Lair

by Heather | 1 Comment

It’s finally “done” :) I say that in quotes because he still needs to organize all his things…but the carpet, trim, paint and closet doors are finished. It’s the tiniest bedroom out of the four we have, but somehow he’s making it work. You can see the before pictures here.

And some during pictures.
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Then there’s the finished ones:
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The Great Pumpkin Party

by Heather | 0 comments

This year for Halloween Cassidy and Ben were Little Bo Peep and her sheep.
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We visited a few neighbors after an early dinner. When they asked Ben what he was he said he was a “sheep costume.” Afterwards we headed to our old church for their Great Pumpkin Party event.
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Little sheep waiting to play some games.
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Ben’s cotton balls unrolled as the night went on, he started looking a little shaggy.
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We were leaving a little cotton ball trail everywhere we went.
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A few gratuitous shots of Miss Bo. I am so not into “frilly” but my goodness she was cute in her dress. I can’t believe little girls used to wear outfits like this all the time!
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We ran into Heather, Eli and Casey at the party too!
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Mahna, mahna
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We even met Gru and one of his minions :)
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Fun times!
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Ben is 3!

by Heather | 0 comments

We had Ben’s birthday party almost two weeks ago, man I’m behind. It was a ton of fun though and neat to see him experience it and really understand that it was his special day. The theme was diggers and construction with an awesome birthday cake made by Aunt Becky. She even made dirt cups for us too :)
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We had mostly family and a few friends over to play too. Cassidy also got TONS of attention.
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Annnnnd, Justin and Kate announced that they’re expecting a baby June of next year! Ben and Cassidy will have a little cousin! :)
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Ben’s 3 Year Stats
Sizes
Height – 36.5″ (30th percentile)
Weight – 33lbs (60th percentile) … apparently he’s short and fat, kidding!
Wears 3T clothes, but we’ve been in them for a long time and some shirts are starting to get a little short.

Sleep
We moved to the big boy bed! I’ll post more about it soon, but he loves it, so far so good. He still sleeps 7:30-7:30 every night and usually naps 1:30-3:30. Sometimes we don’t get a nap, but he’s pretty good with book/quiet time. He wears a diaper to bed because he sleeps so heavily and doesn’t wake up. He still has 5,000 buddies (stuffed animals) tucked in with him at night.

Eating
Still an amazing eater, I really couldn’t want anything more. Vegetables, meat, fruits, everything. He has started to whine “I don’t like it” if I cook something he’s used to a different way. The other night we had sauteed carrots and he complained that he wanted crunchy carrots to dip in ranch…but ended up eating them anyway. We stopped using a sippy cup at 2.5 years and he does great with a cup half full of milk. I’m thinking of having him start using real silverware too, the toddler plasticware almost seems to babyish for him now, funny.

Milestones/Other Things
He talk talk talk talks! Sometimes it’s still Yoda speak where he has backward sentences, but I can still understand what he’s saying. He has opinions and thoughts on everything, it’s very cute.

I have noticed ever since Cassidy was born he’s started testing limits a bit more. Nothing terrible, just little prompts to see what he can get away with. It’s exhausting keeping one step ahead of him and repeating myself all day though “thank you, please, how do we ask nicely, gentle please, try it first before asking mommy to do it, no thank you instead of shouting no” but I guess it just comes with the territory.

He is still super sweet with Cassidy and brings her toys to play with (sets them in her lap). He gets frustrated when she cries and tells me I need to feed her or hold her. Or asks if I can turn her off :) She watches him like a hawk and fixates on his voice a lot too. I hope she continues to adore her big brother!

Very sweet, smart, OCD about specific things and gentlemanly is how I’d describe Mr. Benjamin. Happy three years buddy!

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