Christmas

I know, I'm a few days late! But Christmas was wonderful, Benjamin loved playing with the tissue paper (and his trains too)! We packed up and flew down to Ontario to Tim's parents' house on Wednesday morning. More photos to follow...

Christmas #1

We spent the day at our dear friends' house (they're as close to family as you can get without actually being related). Benjamin mostly napped, which meant that I got to visit! See my photo blog for a couple photos I took of Glen and Heather's family.

22 months old

I'm a couple days late, but I blame it on the cross-country flight with a coughing, runny nose toddler who just wanted to run around the plane and my recovery from said flight. Actually, it was a pretty easy flight, just rather exhausting! But we made it, our luggage made it, and no one was too unhappy for too long!

Benjamin is now 22 months old! I can't believe he'll be two so soon - this year has flown by! His current favorites: trains, throwing anything he can get his hands on, talking about "wewo" (yell0w) ducks, reading books, running around, and being generally adorable. We're enjoying him more and more every day!!

we've been elfed!

This is complete silliness. Click here to see our elfish family! Merry Christmas!

hold me close so i can thrive

I did some baking this week! (and too much cookie eating as well...ugh)

santa claus is coming to town.

Benjamin's first Santa experience went just as I expected it might...with tears and screaming. Here's a photo my friend Jen took. Her little boy Sam LOVED Santa (see her blog here)! Well, there's always next year...
After the Santa trauma, we went outside (since it's 78 degrees today...) and the boys played with some leaves and we took photos of each other with our respective little boys (or tried to, but the leaves were much more interesting than mama in both cases...)

jingle bells

Benjamin and I went to Meghan and Jamie's house to play/for me to photograph Jamie for Christmas card photos. Benjamin thoroughly enjoyed playing with baskets of bells!

new hair thursday...

was today! My friend Mary and I went to the Aveda Institute in Chapel Hill to get pampered...I got my shoulders rubbed, a mini-facial, awesome shampoo, and an adorable haircut for only $19! Granted, it took about 2 hours, but hey, Benjamin was having a ball at preschool at the time! I wanted a Katie Holmes-ish bob, and it's a bit longer than hers but I think I like it that way. I can always go shorter later.

Photos:
Mary and I before (being dorky in the parking lot outside of her car):
and because I had to get Benjamin and Mary had to get back home to get some real work done, the after photo is just me (one with the two of us coming soon...). I think the hair looks better in person. And it's really hard to take a picture of yourself that you think looks good, but Benjamin hasn't quite learned how to use the camera...
What do you think?? Should I go a little shorter with more layers in the front? I'll have to go back in a couple months...

busy december days

It's only december fourth and we're already excited for Christmas! So far this month...

Matt and Mary babysat, and Benjamin now has someone new to flirt with!
Then Sam and his mom Jen came over for banana bread and some playing. It was rather difficult to get the boys to stay still and close enough to each other to take a picture, but they definitely had a good time!
This is Benjamin showing off his "ga-ra" (giraffe) and his adorable Cars outfit that he got for his birthday from Bill & Danielle. And he's standing on a frisbee and holding his milk. Life is good!

Christmas decorations

We went to Southpoint to walk yesterday morning and the Christmas decorations caught a certain little boy's eye...He would have liked to attack that tree, but it was well-protected. I love this season...

tryptophan heaven.

Mmmm, turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn casserole, carrots, bread, gravy, cookies, pie, brownies, ice cream...we did feast yesterday! Our good friends Bill and Danielle joined us yesterday and we had a great time! Benjamin slept while we ate, then enjoyed his first real thanksgiving dinner (better than pureed turkey I think...) and then proceeded to flirt shamelessly with Danielle.

thankful

Happy Thanksgiving (tomorrow)!

Stealing this idea from my friend Jen, I thought I would write down a few things I'm thankful for.

*My husband and son, who bring me such great joy.
*Laughter
*God's blessings & provision for us, especially that I am able to stay home with Benjamin and work as a photographer
*Our house, food to eat, clothes to wear
*Love
*Friends
*Family

a different sort of blog

I know that normally this is an "all things Benjamin" blog (with a little bit about Tim and I thrown in), but upon finding out that a good friend of mine is expecting her first child and her asking me questions about baby things, I thought I'd write some things down so I don't forget them! (And perhaps they'll help you too!) I am by no means a "baby stuff" expert, but these are things that have been useful - mostly in the "baby gear" category.

gear...
*crib, dresser, changing table, jogging stroller: look on craigslist. there are usually tons of so-so items, but generally a few nice ones and you can save money!
*carseat: buy new, but babies r us and target usually have coupons or online deals. I love the evenflo triumph carseat we have - much less expensive than the britax and just as safe, and I think easier to install and adjust.
*other must-haves: a pack & play, swing, monitor (we love our video one!), a placemat for restaurants (one of the best things we own!)
*oxi-clean baby = the miracle stain remover.

other tips & tricks...
*when Benjamin was an infant, I used to put him in his bouncy seat in the bathroom so I could take a shower. Most of the time he would fall asleep in it.
*register for diapers.
*the books Baby 411 and Toddler 411 are probably the best ones we have - I recommend them to every mom.

twenty-one months

Benjamin is 21 months old today!

Current loves:
Putting his animals in his truck and dumping them out and then lining them up on his chair.

Reading books. Current favorites: "Trucks," "Planes," "The Rainbow Fish," "Gossie," and "Olivia".

Coloring. He was introduced to markers at the Children's Museum of Richmond. Yikes.

Pointing out ducks wherever he sees them. It's his favorite word. Well, second favorite behind dada. :]

Running.

Pointing at the number 1 in his counting book and saying "ah-won". (Tim is so proud)

Hiding. (Where's Benjamin? is his very favorite game)

Playing with pillows.

official marathon photos

here are a few photos the photographers at the marathon took. i couldn't get close enough to the finish to take any, unfortunately. tim's feet are still a little achy, but otherwise he's recovering well!

the glory of it all

tim and i went to see david crowder band last night in raleigh. it was an amazing show...less show, more worship service. the guys in the band have been blessed with such talent, both as musicians and as songwriters. they basically did all the songs i hoped they would - except they omitted wholly yours, which was a bummer. but i can't really complain at all - it was a fantastic night.

our friend todd babysat for benjamin, who loved him! he even has a sign for todd now, the first person who has their own sign! (besides mama and dada of course).

our son = adorable. (are we biased? see for yourself!)

richmond

we just spent three days up in richmond, virginia. we stayed with our friends chris and katharine and their daughter elizabeth.
tim gave a talk at virginia commonwealth university on thursday where his friend wes is an assistant professor. friday we spent the morning at the richmond childrens museum (benjamin loved it!) and then spent the afternoon driving along the marathon course to find places i could spot tim.

then saturday tim ran the 26.2 miles (and says that the last 0.2 was the longest 0.2 miles he's ever run in his life!). but he made it with a time of 4:00:36! i met him at 5.5 miles,
11 miles, and 21 miles,
making my way through closed streets/freeway offramps and was very thankful to chris for making me take the big richmond map! it definitely came in handy. benjamin was a great sport with getting in and out of the car, and i rewarded him with lots of fun time playing with the leaves at the 21 mile mark!

hanging around

we haven't been up to much lately! the refuge on sunday nights, i've been doing some photography, some coaching, and attempting to keep the house somewhat clean and organized. i also gave benjamin a haircut.
checking out dad's guitar case:

trick or treat!

benjamin doesn't really get the trick or treating thing yet, but he LOVES having people put items in his pumpkin! (and then he takes them out and puts them back) isn't he the cutest little tiger? :) for you oxy people: he even has orange and black "tigers" socks on!

grrrr.

yet another new video

bill and danielle, thank you for letting us use your video camera! i really should return that soon...

another new video

a new video

from this morning:

the park and mapleview farms

today tim ran from duke to mapleview farms, a dairy farm with a store that sells the yummiest ice cream. so, rachel, benjamin and i went to breakfast at panera, then to cedar falls park, where benjamin LOVED the swings, slide, and playing with the leaves.

giving rachel some love:
sliding with mom:
swinging!

then we met tim at mapleview for some ice cream!

the pumpkin patch

we went to the ganyard hill farm pumpkin patch yesterday with my friend rachel. we went on a hay ride, romped through the corn maze, pointed at the animals, and played in the pumpkins!

20 months old!playing in the pumpkins:
the family (thank you rachel!)

aunt melissa and uncle andy

(we had to bribe benjamin with some life cereal to take this photo...)

tim's brother andy and his wife melissa were in town, so they came to stay with us for the weekend! they went to the state fair on saturday (i had a photo shoot scheduled, so benjamin and i will be going next week with my friend rachel). we also went out to chili's for dinner (yummy!) on saturday night.

a sneak peak of benjamin's tiger halloween costume: