Pins and Needles

Ben chasing Kaylee

2011-09-05T23:37:00.001-04:00

Possibly the best video ever of these 2 kids. They are finally playing together. Kaylee still prefers to squeeze his head, steal his toys, and hit him. But it seems as though every night they need to chase each other a bit to get that last bit of energy out.

Ben and the Stairs

2011-09-05T23:34:00.001-04:00

Apparently you need to be a friend of mine of facebook to see the last video. So, this is for you Grandma!!

Ben and the Stairs

2011-09-02T22:20:00.002-04:00

I was attempting to get a video of the kids playing together. They were "chasing" each other for a good 20 minutes. When I finally got the camera out, Ben decided he was going to try to get up the stairs for the first time!

9 June 2011, Day 92

2011-06-09T22:01:00.002-04:00

It used to be that I could let Ben cry for a minute or two if he wakes up and sometimes he falls back to sleep. Apparently that is no longer an option because the second Kaylee hears him cry, she runs up to his room, climbs into his crib, cuddles with him and pats him on the back while saying "It's ok Baby Ben, Kaylee's here."

8 June 2011, Day 91

2011-06-09T21:58:00.003-04:00

Ok ladies, who wants tickets to the gun show? Hurry up they're going fast!

The beach is that way!

I'm so glad we've made it to muscle shirt weather. We're gonna have lots of fun with this outfit.

2011-06-09T21:55:00.003-04:00

Summer storytime started this week at our library. Kaylee just loves storytime. Summer storytime is about twice as many kids as normal, in a different room, and is lead by her usual teacher Ms. Debbie, but also by the other Ms. Debbie (there are 3 Ms. Debbie's on the kid's floor at our library, I guess it makes it easier for the kids!). Even with all these changes, Kaylee was more than happy to join in with the singing, stories, and craft! Maybe my little, shy girl is growing up!!

6 June 2011, Day 89

2011-06-09T21:52:00.002-04:00

Daddy is gone on another business trip, Mexico for 3 days. And Kaylee decided to take every single toy out of her toy box and spread it all over the house. Times like this make me think it's time to go through that toy box again and donate some stuff, then I get distracted cleaning up!

5 June 2011, Day 88

2011-06-09T21:40:00.003-04:00

One weekend every year the Schnormeier Gardens are opened up to the public. We went last year and went up the hill to the upper gardens, this year we stayed on the lower half and explored the meadow gardens and the forest walk.

And, just cause I can, here's some pictures from last year, followed by a picture in the same place a year later.

Last year crossing the bridge.

This year crossing the bridge.

Last year feeding the koi.

This year feeding the koi.

What a difference a year makes!!

4 June 2011, Day 87

2011-06-09T21:39:00.003-04:00

Another Farmer's Market day. Today there was a little surprise when we saw the fountain was filled with bubbles!! Maybe a graduation prank, I don't really know, but Kaylee loved it!

3 June 2011, Day 86

2011-06-09T21:34:00.003-04:00

Josh was in Texas for work for 4 days and my last day home alone with them was a doozy. We had gymnastics, which involved lots of my bending over to clean up baby spit up that seems to just ooze out of Ben all day, then we went to our town's First Friday event. It was lots of fun. Kaylee got a pink giraffe ballon animal, a basket with a book and frog stuffed animal, and almost tried the bouncy house (but she got too scared of the other kids). I sure was glad when Josh got home at 2am!!

2 June 2011, Day 85

2011-06-09T21:28:00.003-04:00

For the first time in far too long, we made it out for a walk. I couldn't manage to take a dog with us, but the the kids and I got out for a nice 3 mile walk.

Kaylee managed to stay in the stroller until just before we hit the 1.5 mile mark, the bridge was far too tempting! Then she stayed out for most of the walk home, it took FOREVER!

Then later that night, I made an enormous batch of banana baby food. This is about half of it.

1 June 2011, Day 84

2011-06-09T21:27:00.003-04:00

After over a year of playing with this water table, she has finally realized that she can climb into it. I was hoping it would take her longer!!

31 May 2011, Day 83

2011-06-09T21:26:00.001-04:00

Kaylee has been enjoying the farmer's market tomatoes. She likes to eat them like apples!

30 May 2011, Day 82

2011-06-09T21:20:00.003-04:00

Happy Memorial Day!! We spent the morning at the town parade and came close to having fun. Kaylee was a bit overwhelmed by everything and alternated between being held by someone or being in the stroller, then jumped out and ran into the street when they threw candy!!

29 May 2011, Day 81

2011-06-09T21:14:00.004-04:00

Happy 5 months old to Mr. Benjamin!! He's such a happy little guy and we all just love him to bits and pieces!!

Kaylee has discovered Thomas the Tank Engine thanks to library DVD rentals. So, while watching Thomas for the first time with Josh, he suggested maybe they should go see a real train. What kid wouldn't love that!! Luckily we've got one about 5 minutes away. It doesn't run anymore, but the kids are welcome to climb all over it. Unfortunately I missed out on the action since Ben was sleeping and they had to get there before it got too hot, but Josh sent some pictures so we could all see how cute she was!

28 May 2011, Day 80

2011-06-09T21:07:00.003-04:00

Saturday's are always packed full of fun, shopping, and cleaning here!

First we headed out to the Farmer's Market and Maker's Market in the square. By the way, I love that we have a town square where things happen on a regular basis! Kaylee got to meet and pet a llama and it's alpaca friends.

And Benjamin got a new bib made by one of my friends who is a vendor at the Maker's Market.

Then we headed over to Lowe's for their kid's clinics, Kaylee and Daddy (mostly Daddy!) built a pretty nice quality biplane that will probably survive long enough for her kids to play with it!

27 May 2011, Day 79

2011-06-09T21:00:00.003-04:00

Our fun activity for the night was rolling coins, who says life is boring without TV?!

And Ben had to do some rolling of his own (ha, I love puns!)

26 May 2011, Day 78

2011-06-09T20:57:00.003-04:00

Oh, what a great thing a yearly membership to the zoo is!

25 May 2011, Day 77

2011-06-09T20:56:00.002-04:00

This is Ben's "hold on Mom, I'm making room for more" face.

24 May 2011, Day 76

2011-06-09T20:50:00.002-04:00

Today was our last official Mom's meeting of the year, we will start back up in September, but we will hopefully have moved by then. I'm really going to miss my new mom friends and all their kids. I hope to see lots of them over the summer!!

No wonder why Kaylee loves Ben so much! He's actually a real life version of Stella, if only his eyes were a brighter blue.

After dinner today we had a visit from Kaylee's new ducky friends. They "visited" for a few weeks and drove the dogs crazy the entire time. Not fair at all to have ducks right outside your window when you're a bird dog!!

23 May 2011, Day 75

2011-06-09T20:49:00.000-04:00

Another beautiful outside day!!

22 May 2011, Day 74

2011-06-09T20:42:00.002-04:00

One of those perfect play outside kind of days today. We busted out a bunch of the outside toys and had a blast. Even Ben got to join in from his shady spot on the porch:

Once Kay saw the camera she insisted on posing with all of her toys, so here is Kaylee and her water table:

Kaylee and her monkey chair:

And Kaylee with her pink car:

21 May 2011, Day 73

2011-06-09T20:40:00.003-04:00

Josh and Kaylee on the porch reading one of Josh's favorite books from when he was little: Peasant Pig and the Terrible Dragon. They were out there for a good 20 minutes reading the whole book and finding all the characters. Thank you Grandma for this book!!

20 May 2011, Day 72

2011-06-09T20:35:00.003-04:00

Some days it's just not worth the fight and you have to let your kid wear nothing but her undies, stand up on the chair, and eat instant mac n cheese.

19 May 2011, Day 71

2011-06-09T20:31:00.002-04:00

Happy Birthday to me!! 32 years old and loving every day!

18 May 2011, Day 70

2011-05-27T15:27:00.003-04:00

I left Kaylee in the kitchen playing with her tinkerbell doll and a dog food bag

while I went to feed baby Ben.

Little did I know that dog food girl would emerge from around the corner (after bumping into a few walls).

Oh wait, it's just Kaylee in a dog food bag. Silly mama!

17 May 2011, Day 69

2011-05-27T15:25:00.003-04:00

We did nothing exciting today, which would normally mean I'd post a glamour shot of Kaylee, but someone developed a case of camera-shy.

16 May 2011, Day 68

2011-05-27T15:22:00.002-04:00

Kaylee had a playdate with her bestie Hannah today. For the first time Kaylee was the little chatterbox and Hannah was quiet as can be. Kaylee dragged Hannah down to the basement , up to her room, and the into the den to show her all the toys and tell her all about each one. It was very cute!! I really hope Kaylee doesn't forget Hannah when we move!

15 May 2011, Day 67

2011-05-27T15:20:00.003-04:00

This is how Benjamin looks most days when I go to get him from his nap. I can't wait til he figures out how to roll the other way.

Ben would like to add that real men wear pink!

14 May 2011, Day 66

2011-05-27T15:18:00.001-04:00

The tower of foam exploded all over our dining room table!

13 May 2011, Day 65

2011-05-27T15:17:00.002-04:00

One of those great warm days where all you need is a onesie and a bib!

12 May 2011, Day 64

2011-05-27T15:13:00.003-04:00

The other day we got rid of cable as one of the many cost saving measure we're taking to save for the short term until our house sells. So, you will be seeing many pictures of us here:

At the library, where the toys and rental DVDs are plentiful.

11 May 2011, Day 63

2011-05-27T15:07:00.002-04:00

I'm proud to say that this is day 2 of Josh being in Mexico and not only did I take the kids to the park, where Kaylee did not leave the swing:

and Ben did not leave the stroller:

But, they also got baths. Not so bad for being home alone with them.

10 May 2011, Day 62

2011-05-27T15:03:00.003-04:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted, but I promise I'm still taking pictures. Life has been a hectic and stressful mess, but we're all doing just fine with it.

Baby Ben is really mastering his jumperoo and can even turn himself in it a bit.

9 May 2011, Day 61

2011-05-10T14:24:00.004-04:00

Kaylee insisted on putting the pink bunny hat on her little brother today.

As payback Ben insisted that I take a plumber's crack picture of her!

8 May 2011, Day 60

2011-05-10T14:11:00.006-04:00

Happy Mother's Day! We spent most of the day playing outside. Mainly blowing bubbles, cause nothing makes Kaylee happier when we're outside! Josh spent the afternoon cleaning out his grill. We never managed to get it down into the garage so it served a useful purpose over the winter as a home for a mouse family. He had to clean out the nest (which still housed quite a few mice and was made out of insulation taken out of our home) and then do a through sanitary burn with some leftover charcoal. Kaylee was very interested in everything going on and loved seeing the mice.
However, Cooper was far more interested and kept looking for the mice all night.

Ben spent all day rolling over!! He's mastered rolling from his back onto his belly but he just can't seem to get rolling back the other way. I'm sure it will come soon enough, but until then he's just rolling onto his belly and getting really pissed that he's stuck there!

7 May 2011, Day 59

2011-05-10T14:07:00.002-04:00

Baby Ben looking just as handsome as can be in hand me down pants that Aunt Glory knit for Kaylee:

Kaylee is still enjoying her pink balloon. The balloon is quarantined in her room since Trapper is a bit obsessed and will bark incessantly at the balloon. He doesn't seem to know it's in the house either cause he would be barking at her door if he knew what was in there. Yeah, there's something wrong with that dog, but we still love him! Anyway, we spent a whole lot of time in Kaylee's room today playing with the balloon.

6 May 2011, Day 58

2011-05-10T13:57:00.004-04:00

We were on track for a rough day. Nothing seemed to be going the way Kaylee wanted it to and she let me know all about it with quite a few tantrums. She refused to nap and after spending some time in her room (both quiet time and time out time) she finally conked out on the couch around 4pm.

We woke her up when Josh came home to go to the town's First Friday event (a little free block party like event in the town square the first friday of every summer month). We're driving down town telling her all about how she's gonna see rabbits and llamas and the balloon guy will make her a balloon animal, she requested a blue puppy, and then we got there and it was empty. It seemed as though the threat of rain kept everyone away. Ben quickly fell asleep in the stroller so we were free to spend some time walking around.

We walked to the bookstore to visit our neighbor and surrogate grandma "Lolo". Lolo made everything all better by giving Kaylee a pink balloon from in front of the store. Then we met Mother Goose and she told us that everything had just moved a few blocks down the road because of the threat of rain. Thank you Mother Goose!! Kaylee got to see the rabbits, goat, sheep, and llama.

And she was so happy with her pink balloon that she didn't even want to stand in line to get a blue puppy! What a great end to a miserable day. Oh and the best part, we just made it in the door as the sky opened up and poured buckets.

5 May 2011, Day 57

2011-05-10T13:50:00.005-04:00

Thank you Erica!! My wonderful friend from graduate school had some pink yarn and thankfully thought of Miss Kaylee Bea. Now Kaylee has a beautiful new handknit sweater to wear on chilly nights and I didn't even have to knit it for her!

At the young age of 4 months, I can already tell that Benjamin is going to be a handful. He's started trying to escape from his bumbo seat and has been far too close to successful for me to let him use it anymore. I see other people's kids in these things at 6, 7, 8 months old, but it looks like we'll have to retire the bumbo after only one and a half months use.

4 May 2011, Day 56

2011-05-10T13:47:00.003-04:00

We ran errands in downtown today. Unfortunately it seems like every time I turn around another store is closing down. Luckily the bookstore has not been one of them and hopefully never will be! We always seem to find something in there. This is a make your own bookmark kit from Melissa and Doug for a whopping $4.50. Can't beat that value when it keeps her entertained for well over an hour!

3 May 2011, Day 55

2011-05-10T13:38:00.003-04:00

I'm feeling a bit sentimental about leaving our amazing house where our kids were born. One of the things that I will miss most is our wildlife. After growing up in the suburbs of Long Island where the extent of wildlife is the occasional raccoon living in your chimney, we were both amazed when we moved here and had deer walking through our yard. Kaylee absolutely loves the deer too and she gets very excited when she sees them. This is her watching the deer from the kitchen window and drawing pictures of them.

Today was a big day for big Ben:

He starts on solid food. And doesn't he look oh so happy about it! He wasn't so thrilled with the runny rice cereal.

2 May 2011, Day 54

2011-05-02T20:37:00.004-04:00

Lots and lots of cuteness today! We pulled out Kaylee's old jumperoo for Ben today. Of course Ben couldn't sit in it first thing in the morning thanks to his acid reflux so Kaylee decided she just had to sit in it!

Ben finally got a turn in it. Kaylee was more than willing to show him how all the toys worked. Ben doesn't seem all that happy in this picture, but I love that you can see his big ole cheeks and multiple chins!

And here's just a classic Benjamin look, when he's not flirting he can be very serious. And you can really see how much he's starting to look like his Daddy!!

After all the jumperoo fun we had Ben's 4 month appointment. The check up went very well. Ben is in the 50th percentile for everything. He's 14.8 pounds now!!

Big sister Kaylee had a blast since we were in a new room this time and there were some big bright murals of fish, dogs, cats, and rabbits. She almost named all the colors, she still has a tough time with orange, red, and green.

1 May 2011, Day 53

2011-05-01T14:20:00.003-04:00

I managed to catch some early morning cuddles.

30 April 2011, Day 52

2011-05-01T14:16:00.004-04:00

We had to be out of the house for 2 hours this morning while there was a showing at the house. For the first time during a showing, it wasn't raining! So, we went for a nice long walk with the kids and dogs.

I absolutely love my phil and teds stroller! Best stroller ever!

Daddy broke my cardinal rule of no getting out of the stroller and let Kaylee run around. Luckily there weren't many people on the trail and she was very well behaved.

She did want to take a few breaks. How could any 2 year old resist these benches. But she did manage to walk about a mile and a half. She took a nice long nap afterwards!!

29 April 2011, Day 51

2011-05-01T14:03:00.002-04:00

Benjamin is 4 months old today! It sure has been an adventure!

28 April 2011, Day 50

2011-05-01T12:45:00.002-04:00

Baby Ben got a new toy today. . . Sophie the giraffe. I've heard lots of great stuff about this toy and it was definitely on the expensive side. I think $17 for this toy. It got here today and it's basically a dog squeak toy. I expected a hard rubber teething toy. Oh well, he still enjoys it.

27 April 2011, Day 49

2011-05-01T12:41:00.002-04:00

Kaylee is going through a not so fun phase where she refuses to take naps. She throws a tantrum when I try to put herin her room for a nap, then she doesn't nap the whole hour to hour and a half that she's in there, and then she's absolutely miserable to be around the rest of the afternoon. Then at 4pm she falls asleep on the couch:

And then you forget just how miserable that day was!

26 April 2011, Day 48

2011-05-01T12:38:00.003-04:00

"I wear the black for the poor and beaten down" and because I just look like a bad ass!!

25 April 2011, Day 47

2011-05-01T12:35:00.002-04:00

Kaylee is getting more and more daring while playing with Ben. She's figured out that when she lays on top of him he usually just laughs at her. That makes it pretty hard to punish her for it!

24 April 2011, Day 46

2011-04-25T20:56:00.004-04:00

HAPPY EASTER!!

The Easter Bunny may have gone just a bit overboard with gifts for Kaylee this year. She got 2 books, a Dr. Doctor kit, Fern Gully, Anastasia, princess tattoos, and candy.

She was far more excited to see what the Easter Bunny bought than to go hunting for Easter eggs.

She did finally get into the whole Easter egg hunt thing, especially once she figured out there was candy in the eggs.

Ben doesn't get what's going on, but he does enjoy his new rattle.

We dressed the kids up in their Sunday best, took some pictures, then went to Kroger to go grocery shopping.

23 April 2011, Day 45

2011-04-25T20:47:00.004-04:00

Goodbye New York and all our wonderful family! We will miss you all and hope to see you again soon, but that probably won't happen for a while since we'll now have a 4 hour plane ride instead of an hour and a half. That's not going to be fun!!

Here's the kids in the airport at LaGuardia waiting for our flight.

Let's just say that the plane ride went about as well as the ride to NY. Only this time when we had to walk down the stairs to the tarmac, out to the shuttle, back out onto the tarmac, and then up into the airplane, it was raining and both kids were screaming and Kaylee insisted on being carried the whole way. Hey, it wouldn't be a trip to NY if I didn't leave town pissed off at the airlines and swearing to never fly again!

Oh and a little tip for all you non-New Yorkers. If your son poops on his second to last outfit and all you have left to put on him is a red and white striped outfit where the writing, which says "all-star", is covered up by his bib and people just might think he's dressed in a Red Sox uniform, leave him in the poop covered outfit!! It will be less offensive to the people in line in front of you going through security who talk amongst themselves rather loudly about how they would NEVER let their child where a Red Sox uniform.

22 April 2011, Day 44

2011-04-25T20:38:00.003-04:00

We got to spend the whole day with both Aunts, Grammy, Papa, and cousins Devin and Georgie. No plans, no schedules, just lots of fun! At some point during the day Kaylee went to the park with everyone and had a blast on the swings, but I had to stay behind with Ben since it was only about 50 degrees out. But, it was nice to have some quality Ben time, we never get that at home!

So, here's Kaylee chasing Devin around the house, there was a whole lot of chasing between these two this week!

Here's a new headband from Aunt Val and this is unfortunately what her happy face has morphed into. . . a gapping mouth look of pure shock:

And here's one of the few times that cousin Georgie actually spent some quality time with Kaylee, hey he's a boy, what else can we expect!

21 April 2011, Day 43

2011-04-25T20:25:00.003-04:00

Kaylee seems to be thoroughly enjoying her air mattress at Grammy and Papa's house. I can't believe she slept like this!

The kids and I went to visit Josh's side of the family today. Grandma was very excited to meet Benjamin.

Uncle Chris was great with Kaylee, as always. He flew kites with her, blew bubbles, and picked flowers.

Uncle Mike was finally convinced to hold Benjamin.

Kaylee needed some down time so she made herself at home while she watched some Dino Dan.

And Grandpa spent some time holding his first grandson before we had a fantastic pizza dinner. Nothing beats Long Island pizza!

20 April 2011, Day 42

2011-04-25T20:17:00.004-04:00

We seem to be an early rising kind of family. Unfortunately my parents are not. After Ben's morning feeding, we usually spent the mornings like this, waiting for Grammy, Papa, and the dogs to get out of bed:

Kaylee got her Easter present from Grammy and Papa, a learn how to cut set from Melissa and Doug. Quite an interesting toy that kept Kay and Grammy busy for a very long time.

In the early evening Aunt Glory came home from Vegas Baby! Our last minute trip overlapped with her previously planned vacation so we had to just soak in all the Aunt Glory we could in a short time. Ben was glad to have yet another person to hold him:

And Kaylee was happy to see Aunt Glory and show off her happy face some more:

19 April 2011, Day 41

2011-04-25T20:10:00.004-04:00

Kaylee learned how to smile!! Aunt Val taught her happy face, sad face, and angry face. Here's a very good example of happy face:

We had my side of the family over for dinner. Nana and PopPop got to meet their third great grandson.

Kaylee got to open lots of Easter presents.

And Devin held Ben, or Big Ben as she calls him, a whole lot.

We also had lots of fun with cousins William and Sophie (but I'm not about to post pictures of other people's kids without their permission!)

18 April 2011, Day 40

2011-04-24T18:44:00.003-04:00

I almost didn't take any pictures today!! But then I snapped this one of Kaylee, Papa, Grammy and a little bit of Chopper.

17 April 2011, Day 39

2011-04-24T18:34:00.003-04:00

Let the adventure begin!!

The kiddos and I flew to New York for a 7 day visit with family before the big move to Texas. The plane ride went about as well as can be expected with a 3 month old and a 2 and a half year old, let's just leave it at that.

Everyone got to meet Ben, cousin Devin was especially glad to meet him and held him every chance she got!

When she wasn't holding Ben, she was entertaining Kaylee. What a great cousin these kids have!

Then there was Aunt Val, who couldn't wait to see the kids, but then yelled at Kaylee and put her in a cage (if CPS is reading, that's not really what happened and I swear she went in the cage by herself and we never locked it!!)

16 April 2011, Day 38

2011-04-24T16:37:00.003-04:00

Today was our open house and our time out of the house did not go as planned. We all got soaking wet when we tried to take the dogs for a walk. Poor Ben got the worst of it. He took a well deserved nap when we were allowed back in the house.

15 April 2011, Day 37

2011-04-24T16:34:00.004-04:00

Today was spent around the house cleaning for our open house. The big excitement was when the guys came to pump the septic. Kaylee thought it was so cool that a big truck drove into our backyard!

Then we were told by our realtor to go outside and pick flowers to put around the house. Normally Kaylee loves to pick flowers, but when we actually have to get out and do it, she throws a hissy fit and sulks!

14 April 2011, Day 36

2011-04-24T16:31:00.004-04:00

Yet another morning spent at the library. We just had to show off how great mister man looks in international orange.

13 April 2011, Day 35

2011-04-24T16:22:00.003-04:00

It was a beautiful sunny, windy day today. Kaylee played on the deck in her jammies. We blew bubbles and chased the puppies!

Benjamin just enjoyed being held by Mama and being outdoors. How cute is he?!

12 April 2011, Day 34

2011-04-24T16:16:00.003-04:00

I got baby Ben a new shopping cart cover since Kaylee's was bright pink. Here's our maiden voyage! He loved it, although with Kay in the basket there was not much room for anything else!

11 April 2011, Day 33

2011-04-11T14:15:00.002-04:00

Kaylee's crazy morning hair (and her ridiculous smile!).

10 April 2011, Day 32

2011-04-11T14:11:00.003-04:00

I never swaddled Kaylee but Ben is a big fan of the swaddle. Now he's becoming a big fan of sucking his fist and manages to bust out of the swaddle to get to his hands. It seems to be time to stop swaddling. I fear going cold turkey will result in a non-napping baby. So, we are 'swaddle weaning'. I've been told to swaddle with one arm free and then both arms then remove it all together. Looks pretty ridiculous, but hopefully it will work.

9 April 2011, Day 31

2011-04-11T14:05:00.002-04:00

Baby Ben started with some real nice giggles today. Unfortunately his big sister was quite loud so you can't hear too much.

8 April 2011, Day 30

2011-04-11T14:00:00.002-04:00

Easter fun continues as Kaylee spent the morning painting bunnies.

Then after a quick trip to Walmart and an outfit change, there was some serious dance party fun with Raffi.

7 April 2011, Day 29

2011-04-11T13:42:00.003-04:00

Today was a real flurry of activity. We started out with a trip to the library for storytime. We read about the billy goats gruff, did some coloring and glueing, the built a bridge out of marshmallows, pretzels, and graham crackers.

When we got home there was a package for Kaylee and Benjamin on the front porch. Grandma and Grandpa sent them their Easter presents. The biggest hit were the bubbles, the stuffed bunnies, and the bunny hats.

And I just had to post this last picture because Josh said he was looking at pictures and he thinks he always looks pissed off. This was him making a real effort at looking happy!

6 April 2011, Day 28

2011-04-11T13:40:00.001-04:00

We got to spend some time outside today! Yay for SPRING!!

And check out those cheeks!

5 April 2011, Day 27

2011-04-05T13:38:00.002-04:00

We left the house today! Woo Hoo! It was only to buy some groceries cause I'm getting sick of canned and boxed food as we try to clean out our pantry before the move. As always, I couldn't resist getting a toy for Kaylee (which is why we spent all last week bagged up items for goodwill!)

4 April 2011, Day 26

2011-04-05T13:36:00.002-04:00

Ben is one of those freaky kids who sleeps with his eyes partially open.

I find it very weird and disturbing!

3 April 2011, Day 25

2011-04-05T13:33:00.003-04:00

We have not left the house in days since I've been crazy cleaning the house, decluttering, and getting the house ready to put on the market. I figured Ben needed a little change in the routine and I let him take a nice long nap in the swing. There's a domed mirror right above his head and he stared at that thing and smiled for 30 minutes then finally drifted off to sleep.

2 April 2011, Day 24

2011-04-05T13:28:00.000-04:00

Baby Ben rolled over today! From his belly to his back. He's only done it once and I haven't been able to capture it on film, but here he is on his belly crying and fussing but refusing to roll again for me.

1 April 2011, Day 23

2011-04-05T13:27:00.003-04:00

Kaylee is getting so used to having Baby Ben around that she normally pays no attention to him anymore. This is one of the rare moments when she just had to be right next to him.

31 March 2011, Day 22

2011-04-05T13:24:00.003-04:00

We're moving to Houston!! Not sure when, but some time in the next 4 months. Kaylee is very excited that she won't have to wear her bathing suit over her clothes anymore.

30 March 2011, Day 21

2011-04-05T13:21:00.003-04:00

Kaylee testing out Ben's new tummy time mat. Kaylee has spent far more time on this thing then Ben has!

29 March 2011, Day 20

2011-03-29T15:50:00.002-04:00

Baby Ben is 3 months old today!

We love you little guy!

28 March 2011, Day 19

2011-03-29T15:48:00.002-04:00

Kaylee seems to be coming down with something. She's had on and off low-grade fevers for a week or so and it seems to have finally caught up with her. This is the first time she ever fell asleep on the couch.

27 March 2011, Day 18

2011-03-29T15:42:00.002-04:00

Kaylee's first haircut!!! As expected she was far too scared to sit by herself so she had to sit on Dad's lap.

Bangs were not intended, but she had some scraggly curls up there. And she got the random straight hair on the sides angled by her face. The rest was just trimmed so it won't get so knotty.

26 March 2011, Day 17

2011-03-29T15:40:00.002-04:00

Baby Ben in his poop chair. I swear the second you put him in the highchair the poop fountain starts flowing!

25 March 2011, Day 16

2011-03-29T15:38:00.003-04:00

Our last shopping trip with Ben in an infant seat. It is far too cumbersome to go shopping with! From now on he'll be in a mei tai carrier!

24 March 2011, Day 15

2011-03-24T21:42:00.003-04:00

A picture in honor of my homebrewing husband! It's his first day back after a 4 day business trip. I was home alone with 2 sick kids, not fun for me at all. But we are so grateful to have Daddy home!!

23 March 2011, Day 14

2011-03-24T21:37:00.003-04:00

My beautiful kids!

Kaylee doesn't really take a pacifier, but if Ben's doing it, it must be cool!

Grandpa Ben with his pants pulled up to his armpits and a plaid shirt. I think my grandpa actually owns this outfit!

22 March 2011, Day 13

2011-03-24T21:32:00.004-04:00

After repeatedly smacking Kaylee's head on the roof of the car, I broke down and bought her a new car seat. It was either that or a minivan. I'm quite the stickler for car seat safety so we went top of the line, again. Here's Kaylee in her brand new Britax Frontier 85. And I am happy to report that it sits low enough that I'm not smacking her head when I put her in and she can easily climb in herself, when we're not in a rush!

This is by far my absolute favorite picture I have taken of Benjamin since he was born:

I just love his smile!! And those cheeks look like they're gonna pop!!

21 March 2011, Day 12

2011-03-24T21:29:00.002-04:00

Finally I've captured the elusive smile:

And today we had to use some extreme bribery (blue iced cookies) to keep the peace at the grocery store:

20 March 2011, Day 11

2011-03-24T21:24:00.002-04:00

We're going through a major stuffed animal phase right now. This is her elephant knit by my friend Joanne. It has a matching mouse, but that is far too tempting for Trapper so we keep it in Kaylee's room!

19 March 2011

2011-03-19T20:25:00.003-04:00

Stella and Delilah underwent some minor surgeries today.

Delilah had many more injuries since she is often left at home to be abused by Trapper whereas Stella goes everywhere Kaylee goes.

I must admit, I would make an excellent surgeon! I am getting a bit worried about how many more injuries Stella will be able to sustain. That will be one sad, sad day and I believe there will be many months of crying over her when she does finally go to the big doll house in the sky.

18 March 2011

2011-03-19T20:19:00.004-04:00

A day filled with utter chaos! First we met up with some good friends at the zoo. We finally got to try out our awesome double stroller (we've gone on a couple walks, but this was it's big public debut!)

Kaylee refused to get out of the stroller most of the day, she gets very overwhelmed when there is a lot going on. But this was one of the rare out-of-stroller moments when we were in the aquarium.

Benjamin spent most of the trip like this, which was just fine by me:

Then after the hour drive home and no nap, we had gymnastics.

17 March 2011

2011-03-17T14:29:00.004-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day from my little munchkins!!

Today we went to the library where Kaylee loves to play on their touchscreen computers. Here she's following what Ernie does.

Then we went to the park for the first time this year. Kaylee had a great time on the slides, until some other kids came around and she got real shy. (And yes, her boots are on the wrong feet, but she put them on herself and that's the way she wanted them!)

And Ben was having a bit of a difficult time figuring out just what wind is. He kept trying to catch his breath when he got a big blast of wind in his face. But he got held tight by Mama, so he wasn't fussy at all.

16 March 2011

2011-03-17T13:59:00.002-04:00

Kaylee just loves dressing up like a dinosaur! This is her being a big helper and letting the dogs in.

Baby Ben in his swing. He doesn't spend nearly as much time in there as Kaylee did when she was little, but he sure does love watching his mobile!

Trips to Walmart always seem to produce clothing for the kids. Today Kaylee got some Elmo jammies and Ben got a dinosaur onesie.

15 March 2011

2011-03-15T20:59:00.002-04:00

Kaylee and her best friend, Hannah, at our moms' group playdate.

14 March 2011

2011-03-15T20:48:00.003-04:00

Naps for the older child are becoming less and less frequent. We're lucky if she takes 2 naps a week. Even though she won't nap, she has an hour and a half of "quiet time" in her room, which is never very quiet. During nap time today she decided to rearrange furniture and pulled her bed over to her dresser so she could get the stuff on top of the dresser.

She also managed to get a bunch of scratches on her face, she couldn't quite articulate where these came from.

13 March 2011

2011-03-14T13:54:00.004-04:00

Kaylee's yogurt came with seeds to grow chives in the yogurt cup so after a messy yogurt lunch, we planted some seeds. And Kaylee dressed up as a dinosaur all day!

12 March 2011

2011-03-14T13:35:00.005-04:00

Daddy returned in the wee hours of the night from a 2 day business trip. Kaylee was very excited to see him in the morning and even more excited with the new toy airplane he brought with him:

Benjamin has discovered his legs and they never stop moving!!

11 March 2011

2011-03-11T19:40:00.004-05:00

Friday is the most favorite day of the week for my little princess. Friday is "Nimnasnas", which translated from Kaylee speak is gymnastics!! Today's pictures are from our post-gymnastics drive-thru dinner.

Kaylee Bea, our little milkaholic:

Baby Ben, finally big enough to sit in the high chair while we eat dinner, sort of!

365 Project - 10 March 2011

2011-03-10T21:17:00.003-05:00

I've decided to put this blog to good use again! My knitting is on the back burner right now while I adjust to life with 2 kids. So, I'll be using this blog for sharing my kids with my friends and family. Starting today I will take at least one pictures of my daily life (mostly the kids). Once a week (or whenever I can manage it) I will post the pictures along with a little blurb. The 365 project has been around for a long time and I've never been inspired to take part, but looking at Ben and then Kaylee is a daily reminder of just how quick time passes. I am not a fantastic photographer and I don't have a great camera, but the subjects will make up for any artistic absence!

If you choose to follow me on this photo adventure be sure to bookmark this page or add it to your blog reader of choice.

Today's photo submission:

My 2 and a half year old daughter, Kaylee. Today she wanted to dress herself. In case you can't tell, she's wearing a Tinkerbell nightgown with pink leggings, monkey rainboots, a sweatshirt that is 2 sizes too small for her, and a panda hat. And yes we left the house like this to go to storytime at the library and to go shopping at the grocery store.

A serger for a greener world!

2010-08-07T14:34:00.003-04:00

I have not posted on my blog in a very long time, but I am posting today to enter a contest being held by the sew mama sew blog. They want to know how winning a serger would make my life better. I'm not going to only answer that question, but I will try to convince them that a serger will make everyone's lives better since it will help my family and my friend's families become greener, more environmentally responsible people.

First of all, it would make my life better cause I would have a serger, just owning a serger would make my life better (you can tell you're an over the top crafter when just owning the equipment makes your life better!) I would make clothes for my little one (I live in a small town and our only affordable clothing option is Walmart, their clothes are fine, but sometimes I just want my daughter to wear something other than Walmart clothing!) Here's my first tie in to how my winning a serger would make the world a better place. For those times when I do not want my daughter wearing Walmart clothes, I can go downstairs to my fabric stash, or drive a mile down the road to one of 2 quilt shops, pick out some fabric, and sew something cute with my new serger. The environmental impact of me driving 2 miles round trip (or not at all if I have something in my stash) is far less than me driving 110 miles round trip to the nearest city to buy an outfit!

On to the other environmental benefits of me owning a serger. I am already a cloth napkin/towel/diaper user. I made my own napkins with the old fold over the seam twice and sew method. Far too tedious! When people come over and say they love my cloth napkins, I'd love to have a few sets on hand to hand out to people. For a few bucks I could make multiple sets, but not with my sewing machine! I'd need a serger to whip out napkins fast enough to keep up with the demand that is sure to follow once the word gets out that I give free napkins to friends and family. I have not made my own towels, I have store bought ones. I hate having store bought items when I can make them instead. My store bought towels are ugly bar towels. I could buy some beautiful beach towels at the end of the season and serge them to make some gorgeous kitchen rags/towels. Oh, I guess that's not going to help the environment much to make new towels but it will make me happier when I'm doing kitchen chores. And the same goes for cloth diapers. Right now I use prefolds with plastic or handknit covers. I'd love a stash of fitted diapers but just can't seem to afford them. If I had a serger I could take my current prefolds and turn them into fitted diapers in no time! No more strain on the environment by producing more cotton and no strain on my wallet!

And last but not least, I am a knitting podcaster. Our podcast is huge! Like 300 people listen to each of our broadcasts. Oh, I guess that's not as much as some other podcasts that get millions of listeners or some other knitting podcasts that get thousands of listeners, but it's huge in my mind! If I win, I will gush about how great Sew Mama Sew is and therefore win over a loyal following of 300 crafty people.

I hope I've convinced the beautiful, talented, and bright selection committee of my worthiness for a serger. If not, will a set of cloth napkins do the trick? (Of course, I'll need that serger first!)

Harry Potter contest

2009-08-11T12:44:00.001-04:00

I know I haven't posted in a while and I promise to start posting again soon! Right now I'm on a Harry Potter kick. I finally got to see the sixth movie this weekend and then while listening to the barknknit podcast she said she's having a Harry Potter contest for a pattern and yarn! If you'd like to enter, just take the quiz here. And if you're a knitter and a dog lover, give her podcast a listen. Tons of fun!

Here's a picture of babycakes from a couple weeks ago in her little kiddie pool:

We have a roller!

2009-03-27T10:58:00.003-04:00

Well, it's been forever since I've posted. Kaylee Bea is almost 7 months old. Two days ago she finally rolled over! She's only got rolling from her tummy to her back, but she tries real hard to roll from her back to her tummy. I'm still enjoying every second with her. She's just a little happy girl. Although she's starting to be a bit of a drama queen. When she is upset about something she sure lets us know!

Here are some pics of my princess.
With her Grammy and Papa when they came to visit in early March:
Playing with her pups:
Drinking from a sippy cup like a big girl:
Wearing the shrug I made her from Aunt Val's handspun:
See you again in a couple months!

5 Months!

2009-01-30T12:47:00.003-05:00

Blogging seems to be going out of style, and I can see why, with facebook and ravelry I have no real need for blogging anymore. But, I know some people still check this every once and a while. So, here are a couple pics of my babycakes. She turned 5 months old yesterday!! She's so interactive now. She grabs and smiles at everything! She's also started cereal which she just loves. Show her a bib and she smiles at the thought of food!

She's very interested in the dogs and grabs at them whenever they walk by. They are not all that interested in her still, but they like to lick her hands after cereal!
It's been super cold here in Ohio and there has been quite a bit of snow on the ground since Christmas. We're eagerly awaiting some melting, but there is none in the foreseeable future. We don't get out much, but when we do she still gets lots of comments on how cute she is. And how could she not with all the adorable baby clothes she owns!!

Early Christmas

2008-12-22T13:54:00.006-05:00

Kaylee and I celebrated Christmas early with my family. She was the most wonderful baby to travel with ever!! We even got compliments from other people on the plane about how great she was.

She got to meet her Aunt Val, Uncle George, cousins Devin and Georgie, and Uncle Mike for the first time. And her Aunt Val introduced her to some great songs like 'good garbage' and 'recycle'. Kaylee hasn't stopped singing them!!

Kaylee's Aunt Val made her a few special presents. One was a santa hat, which she made for Kaylee's cousins as well:
And the other was a panda stuffed animal that Devin designed for her:
There were quite a few baby hogs at Grammy's house. The biggest two were her cousin Devin, who grabbed her every second she could:
And her Papa, who just loves holding sleeping babies:
She got special pajamas from her Grammy and Papa to open presents in, we call them her Kaylee Kane PJs:
She also met her first boyfriend, who tried kissing her on the lips a lot, I really don't think she old enough to have a long distance relationship:
She had a great trip and we can't wait to go back to Long Island again. We were left with one question that Kaylee will have to answer on her next trip, who is her favorite Aunt?

Aunt Val:
Or Aunt Glory: