This weekend schedules lined up perfectly so that my dad, Leslie, Chris and Danielle could come in from Massachusetts. Justin, Kate and Gabby also came to our house from Lockport. Family Christmas was so much fun, I wish we were all able to get together more often!

Love for Cassidy!

Baby selfies too.

Ben enjoyed wrestling with uncle Christopher.

Sister love, Gabby and Danielle.

Opening presents before dinner.

Ben got a dinosaur stamp set…

Cassidy loved watching Aunt Kate unwrap gifts. She tried eating the wrapping paper at one point.

Annnnd more baby loving. It’s hard to resist when you only see her every few months.

The boys after dinner.

We rounded out the evening when Leslie and Danielle tried to braid Andy’s goatee. Yeah, I don’t know, we were pretty tired.

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.

Then there’s the finished ones:

5 months

by Heather | 0 comments

Every post from here on out is going to start with “I can’t believe she’s (blank) months old!”

Seriously, I still feel like she’s a newborn and we just brought her home. Except, sometimes it also feels like she’s been a part of the family forever. Funny how that works. I definitely feel like more of a full family with her on board, instead of us just “having a kid” when we had one. Anyway, on to her…

Cassidy is really waking up to the world around her. She perks right up when she sees the kitties walk by or when Ben talks to her. And she’s recently found her voice, squeak! She’s grabbing for things and smiling when you give her a toy or bite of food.

She’s tried squash and pears and loved them. The pear I just kind of mashed up with a fork so it wasn’t even smooth, but she still gobbled it up. She’s also tried apples (unsweetened apple sauce) and wasn’t a fan. I think it was too puckery for her, she made some funny faces. I usually just feed her a tablespoon at one of our meals during the day.

She can’t quite sit on her own yet, but she’s getting there! She also sticks her arms and legs out and flails them around. We’re not encouraging crawling or anything (tee hee) but these are the beginning steps down that road.

Almost, almost…

Got it!

Benisms

by Heather | 0 comments

One weekend when Andy went hunting:
“Daddy went hunting in the woods. He see bear, elephants, goats and giraffes. Yeah yeah he see giraffes!”

A little 18mo girl at the Y waddled over to look at Cassidy in her carseat. Ben stepped in front of her and said “No, that’s my Cassidy!” all big brother protective like.

Do all little kids have a fascination with bathroom talk or just little boys? Ben brought Bear to the bathroom one afternoon and I heard “Ok Bear let’s go potty, I help you point your weenie down.” Yes, that’s the word we use for it. I’m all for teaching kids appropriate names and functions of body parts, just not when they’re 2-3. I don’t even know how we ended up on that one, but those are his little man parts. And apparently Bear’s too!

Often times when I’m nursing Cassidy Ben will ask if I’m done yet. I usually have to tell him no, I still have to feed her on the other side. So he’s started asking “You feed her backside way?” LOL

Before bed I try to engage Ben to talk about our day and ask what he’s thankful for:
Me: What would you like to thank Jesus for today?
Ben: Uhm, dinner and watching TV.
Me: Ok go ahead.
Ben: Jesus thank you for food and we watched TV. Amen. Thank you. From me, Ben.

Ben bashed his lip up one morning and asked to “see the bloods.”

Finally, he actually played pretend for the first time yesterday. He’s played with his trucks and made little adventures for his stuffed animals before. They’ve gone on picnics and go to school (even though he doesn’t really know much about school). But this time he said “I’m Colby and I meowing. Meow. You be Jack!” We acted out being kitties and ate from our bowls and meowed at each other. It was super cute.