Behavior Chart (Testing app on my phone)

Testing this blogger app, trying to do this from my phone..

Behold, our version of a "behavior chart".  At the very least, we'll get some laughs out of it.  We already have gotten a few :)

Ben is 11 months!

Oh boy, he sure is getting big, and SO FAST!  We've had a very busy summer so far, and Ben is doing great running around and keeping up with Nate and Lilly.  He walks holding on to things and actually has even started trying to take a step or two on his own!  Still stumbling a lot and mostly crawling to get across the room, though.  He just wants to go, go, go.  If he's fussy, we can usually take him to a different room and let him play and that change of scenery seems to do the trick most of the time!  I tried to baby-proof the play room (i.e. throw all barbie shoes and super hero swords away), so I don't have a heart attack every time he crawls over there, but we still have to keep an eye on him because his favorite thing to do in there is try to knock the TV over or pull it off the stand.  I cut even more hair off this month, it grows so fast just like his big brother!  He's got a major case of stranger danger and when any adults that aren't mommy or daddy get in his face, he very well may start screaming and crying!  He loves to play peek-a-boo and so far loves the water, and going to the pool with brother and sister.  He also loves to move the kitchen chairs back and forth on the tile, making a really loud noise which he seems to think is funny (I do not)!  I finally took these two large brown square decorative tins off the wall in the living room, because for some reason they were upsetting Ben terribly!   He'd crawl over there and touch them, trying to lift them off the wall, then scream and cry.  I had to go as far as to put them under my bed because he got upset every time he saw them!!  So funny.  Who knows.  

This is my friend, April's little boy, who is 5 months old here.  Ben loves him and tries to reach out to touch him when he can.  So sweet, they are gonna be good buddies!

Handsome haircut by Mom

Caught him sleeping like a pretzel.

In his big boy car seat for a month or so now..

                                       Some 11 month pictures.  Oh, how I love this boy so!!

July 4th FUN!

We had a great July 4th this year!  On July 3rd, the kids, Brian, my mom and I went to watch fireworks out at Big League Dreams stadium down the street from our house.  We sat next to some friends, so the kids had their friends to play with too!  We were way too close to the fireworks for Ben's comfort, and he was traumatized pretty good.  I was holding him but he screamed pretty much through the whole thing.  I don't blame him, it was really dang loud!!  Overall he did good for his first fireworks.  Then on July 4th, my sister and her kids came up from Waco and the kids had fun swimming and playing back at the house.  We grilled burgers and hot dogs and then managed to find a spot a few blocks away where we could sit and (kind of) see the fireworks over the lake.  Either way, we had fun!  

 Pictures from July 3rd.. 

Ice slide!  There was a small one, which Nate and Lilly both went down, and then there was a really tall one that Nate slid down too!  He was very brave!

We got crafty and made some flag shirts with hand prints, but Miss Lilly had to wear her dress that MeMaw and Papa got her for her birthday!

Ben was bear crawling to avoid the AstroTurf!

I don't think he really cared for his first taste of cherry snow cone Daddy gave him!

Sitting with their sweet friends enjoying snow cones!

Love Grandma!!!

ok, I had to post this funny, because this is what I wanted to make...

and this is what I ended up with!!  Whatever, close enough.  And it still got eaten, for the most part!  HA

Sweet cousin Avery taught Lilly how to make these loom bracelets, she can NOT get enough of them now!

Our attempt to see the lake fireworks from the street with the other chumps!  They were SO TIRED from swimming all day!

Lilly lost her first tooth!

It's been wiggly for quite a while, but she finally let me pull out her first tooth two days before her 6th birthday!  It was the bottom left, and the one next to it will be out shortly!

So here is a picture right after I pulled her tooth out.  She was a little nervous, but didn't cry at all and was actually super excited and laughing as soon as it came out.  She put it under her pillow and got three whole dollars!  I have it on good authority that the first tooth gets more money than the rest, so I told her not get her hopes up on the rest of them :).

Here's to the beginning of weird smiles full of gummy holes!!!