Our Little Slugger's 1st birthday party

What a party! Since Benjamin only turns 1 once, we tried to make it memorable- to us anyway! As mentioned before in the last lengthy post, he loves his bats and hitting the baseball so it only seemed natural to throw him a baseball themed party. I mananged to find 1st birthday baseball party supplies which thrilled me more than you can imagine. There was a bounce house and a few kiddy pools to keep the children happy. The menu included hot dogs, ballpark nachos, snow cones and there were even some peanuts and crackerjack. The only problem we encountered was the extreme winds! Lots of family, lots of friends, lots of kids, lots of wind, lots of chaos, lots of fun!!

waiting for the bounce house to inflate

gotta sport the jersey

nacho cheese with a fork, sure GrandPaul let him do whatever he wants

the cake that he only sampled
nearly all the kids

the evening's entertainment
Benjamin really put on a show. With lots of people around he tends to be a little quiet and reserved... but he really enjoyed the crowd watching him swing that bat!



(Oh, and next post will be dedicated to Paul's and my 6 year anniversary which is today. Maybe I can have fewer pictures for that one. )

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Happy birthday to our sweet little boy! Has it really been a whole year since we were celebrating your arrival? Benjamin has been such a good baby, so laid back and happy- people tell me all the time that he is the happiest baby they have ever seen.

Bless his little heart, he woke from naptime yesterday with a high fever. Stinks to be sick on your birthday, but especially your first one! Tylenol and Motrin have been helping him somewhat enjoy his special day. During early naptime Ashlyn and I made cupcakes. Big sister loves to cook and even helped clean up afterwards.

He pretty much only ate the icing. It takes him forever to eat anything, so by the time we were trying to clean him up, icing was dried onto his skin. So...Backyard time!

(these lists are for me... to help me remember)

These are a few of his favorite things: grapes, gatorade, clapping, sitting at the top of the stairs (behind the gate) and systematically throwing all his toys down the stairs, climbing into the tub if the bathroom door is not pulled to, carrying a baseball bat everywhere, hitting & throwing the ball, climbing the stairs, pulling all books within his reach off the shelf, closing doors, pulling all of Ashlyn's clothes out of her dresser, pushing kitchen chairs around the tile floor, dancing to music, going outside, wrestle-time, swimming in the pool, the computer, the dog, the remote control(and using it to find a Spanish channel), his sister, his Mommy, his Daddy

Dislikes: cold milk, being in his car seat, shopping, having a toy stolen from him, being talked to in a scolding tone, having his diaper changed, being dressed, being in the grass

Nicknames we've come up with during Ben's first year:

-Bamm-Bamm (he carries a toy bat all around the house with him)

-Mowgli- his new faster crawl, see picture above

-Buddy (Paul's nickname for him)

-Sugar booger (that one's mine and Ashlyn copies me)

-Benjer, Benjer boy, BenJermaine

Normal schedule at 1 yr:

wakes around 8

errands or playtime

snack at 10:30

nap around 11:00

lunch at 12

playtime

down for nap btwn 2-3

dinner at 6

bath at 7

wind down time

to bed at 8:30

LOVE YOU SO MUCH BEN! HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY

Silly smoshy faces pictures!

No stopping him now!

I am having some trouble getting my videos from youtube onto my blog... I don't know what is different from the last time I did a video.

Poor Benjamin- he has been walking for a couple of weeks but I never had the camera handy and he was eclipsed by his sister's hair fiasco. Here are two 12 second clips of Benjamin taking steps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNc8ETIIQTw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JatoJkXQMvE&feature=related

Oh it's bad

BEFORE:

AFTER:
Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. My daughter is sporting a mullet, a self-inflicted mullet in fact. Reactions have ranged from "Oh wow!" to "she looks like Joe Dirt" (quoting 2 family members). Ashlyn gets embarrassed about it every once and awhile. I am trying to keep things in perspective... and ultimately I have to remember that hair grows back.

Thursday morning is when the offense took place, I cried every time I looked at her for the rest of that day, couldn't help it. Friday we went shopping. Must be nice to do something wrong and be rewarded with a new wardrobe! I have to give a shout out to the nice lady working at the Gap at the Shops at La Cantera- she could not have been sweeter and more helpful to us. She brought out a HUGE box full of hats, headcovers, and headbands and we went through them all! Finally today (Saturday) my hairdresser did what she could and cut the back of the mullet into a cropped bob (Ashlyn likes that her hair is "Bob" now).

Not too sure how well you can see her hair and also I didn't get any good ones of her by herself. There is one that kinda/sorta shows the back of her hair. Her cousin Payton really enjoyed having his picture taken tonight.

For months I have been wanting to have her hair cut to a cute bob, but Ashlyn told me no, that she didn't want to get her hair cut... hmmm. Go figure!

And the -Oscopy goes to...

(Look at him in his cute tiny hospital gown!)

Benjamin had his "endoscopy/flex sigmoidoscopy" early this morning and he did great! As an obvious response to our anxious prayers, the anesthesiologist was a wonderful Dr that goes to our church and is a close family friend. Now I am feeling dumb that I didn't think before to ask for him specifically, but it all worked anyway. The gastroenterologist said that he didn't see anything to be concerned with by his visual inspection but that a few tissue samples were taken from different areas of his digestive tract for testing and they should have the results in the next 2 weeks. Ben only cried for a minute or two as he was coming out of anesthesia in recovery. Thank you God for assuring that today went so smoothly!

Thank you for your prayers about this- they are much appreciated! We'll keep you posted on the results.

Prayers for Benjamin

I was just thinking the other day that I don't blog anymore about one of the main things that consumes my life. I have mentioned it before, but not for awhile... it is Benjamin's eating & growing issues. Well, he still isn't growing on a normal curve according to the growth charts. After months and months of visting different specialists, his pediatrician and the gastroenterologist are in agreement that he needs to undergo a procedure. This coming Monday Benjamin is to have an endoscopy/sigmoidoscopy performed under anesthesia. I think we are most nervous about the anesthesia part. Tissue samples will be taken from different parts of his digestive tract and sent to the lab... looking for celiac disease. I think that there may be other things that he would be tested for- I don't want him to have some serious life long illness of course, but some answers would be nice. My fear is that we will STILL not have an answer after we put Ben through all this. Anyway, please pray that the procedure goes smoothly without complications.

On a lighter note-

Giving kisses. They are so sweet to each other... most of the time.

Third times a charm

This is literally the third time I have tried to post this week. I'd write something and then realize that it was not interesting or informative and then give up. I couldn't remember what all we have been doing to keep so busy... until today when I finally got around to downloading pictures from the past week.

For sure the highlight of the past week was last Friday. Paul took off work and we met up with some out-of-town friends at SeaWorld! Between the three families there totalled 9 kids all under the age of 5. A friend of Paul's works with the Killer Whales and so our little party got to pet baby Shamu. Actually her name is Haylen, but when I say baby Shamu you have a better idea of who I am talking about, right?

7 of the 9 kiddos

the other 2

Well, Paul had made the rookie mistake of telling Ashlyn the day before that we were going to be able to get close and touch Shamu... so for that stretch of time she was certain she wasn't going to touch something with that big of teeth. However, when the time came she gladly took her turn. Maybe because it was only the little tiny Shamu.

I think all the kids except the babies were brave enough to have their turn. I didn't think about it until later that I wanted to pet baby Shamu too. All of the adults were either holding a small child or taking pictures, so I guess we weren't really available to participate. We were like the paparazzi- all the pictures being taken with this crowd of children since something exciting was happening. Happens all the time... and it always makes me laugh.
Such a fun and memorable day!!

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter! This was my favorite picture of the kids today... they looked so sweet in their matching outfits. Thank you Grandma & Papa!

Here are more pictures I took to chronicle our Easter Sunday:

He's not too happy, but Benjamin was showing off his 3 (almost 4) teethies! He was strong enough to knock Ashlyn over backward a couple of times before I gave up taking their picture.

The sweet girls in their matching dresses.All the cousins right before the Easter Egg hunt

Ashlyn's findings

this is what Benjamin did while the rest of the kids hunted eggs... and he slept on Noel at church this morning too. Aunt Noel is GOOD!!

I wanted to end with our family's scripture reading for the week leading up to Easter, that thanks to Ashlyn I have read more times than I can count... she likes to say "Jesus is risen- hallelujah!" afterwards. She would have me read it at least 5 or 6 times in a row. How could I say no?

"After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” --Matthew 28:1-7 NIV

So many of you have asked...

I am sorry for being so rude and not yet replying to any of you who have been so sweet to ask about the status of our move. We are still in San Antonio right now, waiting (impatiently on my part), hoping, and praying for Paul's company to give us a moving package. Since Jan 1st Paul's been working in his new territory which stretches from New Braunfels to Waco (Austin is located right in the middle and has the largest concentration of Drs). The commute is hard since there always seems to be traffic- and being the worrier that I am it makes me sick that he is on I-35 so much. To make things a little easier on all of us, we have accompanied him up to Austin for the week on a few occassions. It is much more productive for him to be there. However, I am so thankful that he is willing and somewhat able to come back home- the times that he has stayed overnight without us are really difficult days for me. It has been hard on Paul having to wake up super early (sometimes as early as 4:30) and having to be in the car for such a long time everyday. Anyway, Last news I have from Paul is that his company should tell us in the next month if they will be moving us or not. I am trying to be open to whatever God has planned for us...