Where was I?!

Who even knows at this point! I'm determined to get it together though. I'll start with my "iPhone dump" and see where it goes! We have had 2 beach trips, a baptism and a kitchen renovation along with the everyday normal craziness so life is just plain BUSY. I'm loving being at home more and although I can't really tell you what happens to all the extra time, I would not trade it for anything. Hands down best decision ever. I can't say the same for remodeling the kitchen at this point!

A super fun weekend with the Warringtons

Doing a little fishing with the grandparents...

Preschool orientation

A sonic milkshakes

Surviving while daddy is out of town

B loves reading to his brother…he usually doesn't listen but so sweet when he does!

I'm not one to buy toys. I really just do Christmas and birthday, and honestly I don't buy much then because they get so much from everyone else. In fact, Bishop didn't even know Wal-Mart had toys until recently! But now he knows. He never has a fit to buy anything but he does want to look at every single toy every time we go. He had to look at this spiderman lego toy literally every time we went for 2 weeks. He truly wanted it. Bad. So I decided if he could work for the extra money, I would take him to buy it. He was SOOO proud of himself. I won't say it was easy getting to that point, but it was completely worth the wait and hard work. And he did it all by himself!

This year has gone so much better than last. I'm sure it is the age but he is excited to go every day. 

Reading before school

Crazy nap hair

Bishop had a birthday party to go to and Ben LOVED the rides at Chuckie Cheese

Trip to the coast for Leon's work convention. Interesting trip. I'll just consider it a learning experience :) Buffets are hard with two kids who can neither fix their own plates nor sit alone at the table while I go fix them. Hotel rooms are small. Coffee shops are expensive but a much better option than a buffet. 

Picking blueberries. 

My bible school group. Such a fun, wild group of preschoolers. It was a tiring week and I don't envy preschool teachers one bit but such a blessing to see these kids learning about God! 

Surviving another week without daddy. 

Helping with the kitchen 

They love this cabinet

Ben's first real trip to the library. He pulled off all of the books from the shelf. But, he is cute. 

I love how much he loves the library. 

Whew…that is all! For tonight at least!

9 and 10

I know, I'm terrible. I say I'm going to do better and then I don't.  I have intention. I have time. I just have other priorities. And, I'm ok with that for right now. I will have lots to write about later but for now, I wanted to give a quick update on my Ben. I'm combining the months again because they run all together. I barely remember what I had for breakfast let alone what was going on a month (and a half) ago.

9 months

10 Months:

At 9 months, he started walking behind a car (pushing his brother!) and by 10 months he has taken several steps at a time. Probably 10 or 12 and then he falls. And he crawls SOO fast he really just doesn't want to walk. When he does, he loses his balance because he tries to RUN.

At 9 months he had 4 teeth and at 10 (and 1 week) he has 5. And he can bite.

He still eats almost any food I give him. I can't even think of something he absolutely won't eat. I hope he stays that way. SO much easier that way.

He still wants things his way and will shriek if he doesn't get it. Rotten already ;)

When I tell him "no", he gives me the biggest grin I have ever seen. I try to be serious with him, but I usually end up laughing because he is so darn cute. TROUBLE!

I haven't gotten a good picture of the face he makes when he gets mad. We all can't help but die laughing. He scrunches his nose and pokes out his lips and breathes really hard.

He gives the sweetest kisses and is SO much fun every single day. Thankful every day for him!

His outtakes were too cute not to include. He kept picking up my sign and throwing it over the back of the couch. And giggling because I kept telling him to sit down. It was obviously hilarious :)

July 4th

This July 4th might go down as the best yet.

I asked Bishop if he wanted to be in our town parade and he said yes. Most people decorate golf carts or 4-wheelers or power wheels but we don't have anything like that so we decorated our bikes. Since we decided to do it like the night before, I scrounged around and found some ribbon, balloons, patriotic pater and some free printables. Had my printer not run out of ink, it would have been super easy. But all the red was hot pink, so I had to color over everything with a marker. It took more time, but it was still free!

It was a nice coolish morning and it could not have been more perfect for the parade. I was a little worried about him being able to ride that far, but he did great! He never even complained! I could just see us getting half way through and me having to push him or something. I was a proud momma.

Getting ready for "the race"

Ready to go!

Ben and Daddy watched the parade

Love, love these 2 kids

After the parade, we went to my parents for a 4th of July/birthday party. Perfect weather, good food, family, trampoline, water balloons, water guns, slip and slide, homemade ice cream, and birthday cake. I mean, really, what more could you ask for?!

And, he wanted his face painted when we got home...

We ended the night with a fireworks show at the country club. And, the flash blinded him apparently :)

I'm pretty sure we could not have fit much more into the day!