Picture/Video of the day: Day 23

For weeks, we've been planning to spend this past Saturday with Michael and his girlfriend Kelly, going to the pumpkin farm and then dinner at Kelly's house. It ended up raining on Saturday so we didn't go to the pumpkin farm but we still had a fun afternoon. Kelly had gotten pumpkins and all kinds of fun things to decorate them with for Ben. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching Ben run around nonstop. Thanks for having us over Kelly and for being a great hostess. We had a fun day with you guys.

Ben's pumpkin

Jack was sticking everything he could in his mouth

This boy cannot sit still

I think Jack was mad that I made him wear the hat

Uncle Michael is great with the boys and Ben loves to play with him.

Jack was so tired and would lay his head down on the table like he wanted to go to sleep.

Picture/Video of the day: Day 22

This was taken a year ago. I can't believe how much he's grown in a year.

Picture/Video of the day: Day 21

For almost a year, Ben has had a scab/wound/booboo, whatever you want to call it on the bridge part of his nose. He won't stop picking at it. I usually fix it in pictures so if you haven't seen him in person lately, you probably didn't know about it. Anyways, we have tried getting him to stop picking it but nothing was working. Last week, while we were in Fresno, Loree started putting Tamanu oil on his nose. Vicki (Drew's aunt) swears by this stuff that is supposed to help with skin irritations. You can read more about it here. So far it's working and Ben's booboo (as he calls it) is starting to heal.

Picture/Video of the day: Day 20

Ben and Noni

Picture/Video of the day: Day 19

Picture/Video of the day: Day 18

When Ben needs to take care of business, he goes into his playroom. He likes his privacy so he will send you on your way if you get too close. This is him waving bye to me while saying "bye mom, bye mom."

His playroom was very clean about five minutes before this picture was taken. It sure doesn't take long for him to make his mark.

Picture/Video of the day: Day 17

Ben: "Should I blow it?"

Ben: "It doesn't matter what you say, I am still going to blow it."

Jack: "Why did you have to blow it? It's so loud."

Picture/Video of the day: Day 16

He's a sleepy boy. Wasn't long until he fell asleep.

Mr. Mom

Yesterday morning, I went out on my own for a few hours while Drew stayed with the boys. This is what he had to say about his experience (I did not tell him to write any of this. He has been saying that he would write a guest post and this is what he wanted to write about)...

I finally got a real taste of what it's like being alone with both the boys this weekend. I knew it was going to be rough... even though I was only going to be alone with them for the morning. Well, it went good overall... good meaning no one was hurt. Ben is, of course, a hand full. He wants to play with me constantly, and whines and cries if I don't play. Throw a crawling Jack into the mix, and I didn't know up from down most of the time. I did get some relief when Jack took about an hour nap though.

Of course Stacey wanted me to get a feel for what it's like being alone with both boys. I knew that her job was a difficult, frustrating job, but to experience it first hand was a good way to figure out what Stacey is always talking about when she calls me at work to tell me Ben did this or Jack did that (with yelling in the background of course). Even for just a few hours I found out what a tough, demanding job taking care of two boys is. Stacey does it all day, every day, and I know she does her job well because our boys do so well in every facet of their lives. I was happy Stacey could get out for a few hours on her own, but let's try to stick to family outings most of the time.

Sunday morning

This is what we woke up to this morning

Picture/Video of the day: Day 15

Jack is finally starting to do better with solids. His favorite seems to be rice cereal. He must take after his mother and her bland taste in food.

Picture/Video of the day: Day 14

Ben was enjoying this more than Jack was

The reason they are in the laundry basket is because Jack kept crawling off as I was trying to get a picture. I thought this would keep him in one spot but he didn't like it.

There are lots and lots of new videos here

For some reason though, they got mixed in with the old ones

Picture/Video of the day: Day 13

When we were in Santa Cruz last month, Michael brought a little remote control helicopter for Ben. Of course, Ben loved it (so did Drew, Michael and Cary). Unfortunately, it stopped working after a day or two. We were able to exchange it the other day for a new one (they said the first one was defective) so tonight Ben and Drew tried it out.

At the end, Ben gets whacked with the helicopter. Don't worry, he was fine.

Picture/Video of the day: Day 12

My mom says I need to put more pictures of myself on our blog.

She sent me this one earlier so this is for you my wonderful mom