September is flying by

Am I the only one who is shocked that we are already at the END of September? I have gotten a little behind on my blogging, but not as bad as some people I know!

I have recently come to know that there are several people, mostly family but not all, who regularly read my blog that I was unaware of. I have not been writing as if you were a part of my target audience, b/c I didn't know you were audience at all. So in honor of all of you "silent" readers, I am going to include more pictures than usual.

This one is from July (see, I am way, way behind)


I mentioned before that August was a busy birthday month... well so is September. Paul's cousin Taylor, my aunt Laura, my uncles Clark and Sean, my brother Eric, and my Dad all have September birthdays. (Hope I didn't forget anyone...) So we have been doing a lot of birthday celebrating this month too.
This is from Taylor's family party. Since he got a new bike for his birthday, he wanted all the kids to ride bikes together- they were happy to comply. Payton and Ashlyn wanted to try on Taylor's new helmet, and I really liked the pictures I got of each of them. They are so close in age that they tend to always do the same things...Ashlyn thinks she is ready for a Big girl bike. How about putting the helmet on now?!Here is a picture from the party celebrating Clark's, Eric's, and my Dad's birthdays. This is from the same weekend- here are the girls in their snazzy sunglasses, looking fierce!Here are a few random pictures.
Random sibling picture-Benjamin has a clogged tear duct in his right eye, and so most mornings he wakes looking like this- but he isn't too upset about it.Paul took Ashlyn for ice cream and, of course, let her get the big cone with colorful sprinkles. She really likes ice cream! This past weekend we went to Austin to celebrate aunt Laura's birthday even though her birthday was last week. Laura lives in Maryland, so we went to visit her while she's in TX. She and Benjamin got to see each other in person for the first time. We like to watch football in our family... and in honor of the Cowboys' phenomenal win yesterday I wanted to include this photo. Yes, we will again profess to be Cowboys fans. (Thank you to those people who sent me some of these pictures.) I hope you have enjoyed the brief synopsis of our September.

Bumbos are awesome!

Pretty clear to see, he loves it. (Okay, so I know that he somewhat looks like a little girl with a strapless top on, but he spits up a lot so we have to keep a burp cloth with him at all times.) Thank you to our friend Nicki who gave this new toy to Benjamin who can now enjoy the world from a whole new perspective!!

So we have had a pleasant week. Monday: I don't remember already. Tuesday: Ladies Bible Class started back, YEA! Wednesday night we managed to all four members of our family to Wed night class for the first time. Thursday's gymnastics class went well, and today we went shopping!

Going back to Thursday- Ashlyn sometimes is a challenge for her gymnastics coach, but this week she listened and obeyed much better than she has been doing. After class was over she came running over to me and said, "Mommy, I was a REALLY REALLY good gurl in gyn-astics tudayyy!!" She cracks me up with the things she says. First thing this morning she said at least 3 words that I have never heard her say before: "I am starving," "my pull up is soaked," "my underwear must all be in the laundry." We went to the Shops at La Cantera this morning as well and we really had fun; I think this is the first time that I have taken both children by myself and really enjoyed the outing! Icing on the cake... on the way home, we did not hit a single red light. It may be silly to some, but that really made my day! It's almost as good as when there is no one else in line to check out at the grocery store.

He's Rolling!

The first official witnessed roll was last Saturday, but he had not been doing it consistently. As of yesterday and especially today, I can't lay him down on his tummy without him rolling over. Getting this on film has proved difficult b/c he flips around before I can even pick up my camera! I finally caught him rolling on video. I tried to upload it, but it was taking forever, so I will just have to post pictures until I can find time to figure out how to post a video.

Recent events

We haven't had much going on that is worth blogging about. I am still trying to get Benjamin to sleep for longer stretches at night, I miss the days of getting at least 4 or 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep! This too shall pass, and in the mean time I am really enjoying this phase (at least in the daytime hours).

We bought a new double stroller recently and I love it!

Here I was trying to get a picture of Benjamin during "tummy time" and big sis didn't want to be left out of the picture. For all you second-born children, I did get several of him by himself. He is holding his head up so well now and he likes to prop himself up on his arms like this to see what all is going on. At this point he finds joy in just watching others play. Ashlyn wanted him to wear his hat, and he actually thought it was fun to wear. I took somewhere around 20 smiley hat pictures.
I know that 2 months old is awfully young to have the "first haircut," but he was starting to look a little scraggly. I just trimmed a little in the back to get rid of that thick patch of hair and keep it from metamorphosing into a mullet. For some reason, both of my kids have TONS of hair from a very young age.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

much better, if I do say so myself!

Busy birthday week

Well, August is a busy month for our family when it comes to birthdays. Within one week, we have Kaylee's, Carly's, Ryan's, Butch's, and Margaret Anne's birthdays. Before the month is over, we also have baby Hannah's birthday. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY(s) to you all!

Here are just a few photos that I have taken over the past week or so. The "red eye reduction" setting on my camera is a joke- most of the time I can easily correct any red eye on us brown-eyed people, but I have a much harder time with Benjamin and his blue eyes. It really bothers me how most of his photos turn out with scary looking eyes.

Paul dressed all the children, so do they all end up wearing? -all their University of Tennessee football clothes.Benjamin really likes his bouncer seat, he laughs at the spinning starfish and the other 2 kissing fish. This is why I end up taking his picture in it all the time.

Paul mentioned to me that I never put any pictures of myself on the blog. I was trying to fix this and found that I didn't have any since I am always the one taking the pictures. I felt a little guilty that I didn't have any photos of me and Benjamin together so Paul got behind the camera and now I have a couple that I guess I don't mind posting.

More later, just a question this time

Does any one have any suggestions/recommendations for a double jogging stroller?

I plan on posting again very soon and will include pictures of course.

Our trip to Florida and more

So we just got back Sunday from our week in Florida. Paul won an award at work and the prize was a trip to Key Biscayne, FL near Miami. For me to be able to go, we had to bring Benjamin, but sadly we had to leave Ashlyn. She would have had a blast and I spent most of the trip saying "Ashlyn would love this..." My parents watched her and I think now my family has a better appreciation for all she puts me through on a daily basis. More about that later.

Here is Benjamin relaxing by the pool.

It was a little difficult to bring an 8 week old on a trip like this. The smaller the baby, the more stuff you have to bring, right? He did wonderfully on the plane trips even though we had to layover in Atlanta on the way there and back. So really we spent the entire first and last days travelling. Thankfully the hotel was amazing and the beach was great, so the trip was worth it. We spent one day shopping and another day mostly at the pool. I even got to have some time to MYSELF, and I got a long massage! I had to miss many of the evening work-related events since they were fancy, and we weren't allowed to bring Benjamin. A few of his coworkers didn't even believe I was really there. It was great being able to take several naps during the day. Whenever Benjamin slept, I did too- it was like having only 1 child again. The return trip was stressful at the airport (it was packed- even at 5:00 a.m.!!!) but again, Benjamin did so well. He either slept, or ate, or was happy and social the entire way. People kept commenting to us that they didn't even know there was a baby on the plane. Having a baby with you forces you to be social, I think we talked to most anyone we came in contact with. It was a fun and much needed vacation.

So, Ashlyn stayed with my parents in Austin. She is extremely energetic and I might even venture to say "strong-willed". I know she had a blast with Grammy K and GrandPaul (also Carly and Ryan helped with her a tremendous amount), but I think they need some rest now. I don't know if she even missed us, but she acted like she was so happy to see us when we first saw her again. My parents had all these activities planned like going to the wildlife preserve, feeding the ducks in the arboretum (which isn't as clean as it used to be apparently), watching GrandPaul play softball, and many more exciting adventures. Not many naps were taken, so she has been trying to catch up on sleep since she's been home and I am enjoying that!


I on the other hand have been trying to catch up on laundry but first let me leave you with some funny photos...

Ashlyn trying on the football helmets at Academy

and Benjamin spitting up all over his new outfit before I even took the tags off.

update by pictures

Ashlyn drew a "cat". I thought that was pretty good! Not sure what the"OB" in the bottom left corner means.

This is a canopy we bought to take to the pool or the beach. We set it up in the kitchen and everyone loved it. (I have had to hide this shirt from Ashlyn now. If she had it her way, she'd wear it everyday for the rest of her life.)

Aunt Noel got a puppy and Ashlyn is NUTS over it! She keeps begging to ask Noel if she can keep the doggie.

The next two you have to look at together. Here are my children modeling the latest fashion in sunglasses. I thought the pictures were funny and worth including.

Work it, own it

...I finally caught a smile on camera. Of course it would be when he is wearing his silly glasses!

All the grandkids on the Whiteside side of the family. It has taken my father-in-law 6 weeks (that is how old Benjamin is here) to finally get them all together in one photo.

4th of July

Here are some pictures from our rainy 4th of July. We didn't go to see any fireworks this year, we wanted to be in bed early since we are experiencing sleep deprivation lately. We did go over to Paul's parents/Grandma and Papa's house for the day and enjoyed spending time with family.

No smiles for Ashlyn in the pictures today

with cousins Ethan and Payton

The past week

Benjamin is 4 weeks old as of today. I won't say that he is a month old until the 4th though, if that makes any sense to anyone but me.

Looks like he might end up being a thumb-sucker! Later that same car trip, I thought the "kissy face" was funny
His hair looks kinda nasty because I haven't been washing it as much-
I think it is starting to fall out!!!

Since my last post, Paul left town to go to a huge meeting in Florida leaving me at home with 2 young children. I enlisted the help of my lifelong friend Allison who came and stayed a grueling 5 days with us. If she no longer wants to have any children, it is entirely due to this visit. It actually wasn't too bad although it was obvious that Ashlyn missed her Daddy very much. On the first night when we talked on the phone with Paul right before I put her to bed, she started sobbing and saying "I want you Daddy, I miss you!" She made me cry it was just so sad. Thankfully we made it through and now Daddy is home again.

On Sunday, to make up for being away all week, Paul took Ashlyn out on lake Medina for some fishing with his friends Glenn and Brett. Glenn brought his camera and got some pictures to chronicle their fishing trip.

Here is Ashlyn, Brett, and a fish. They were so sweet

and let Ashlyn think that she caught all the fish herself. Glenn helped Ashlyn catch this whopper... and he let her drive the boat.

Right now I have both children asleep in their own rooms upstairs! I have never managed to pull this off by myself. I am sure there are a thousand other things I should be doing right now instead of blogging, I guess I better try to do a few of them while I still can!