Ben's 3rd Birthday

Ben is THREE...I can hardly believe it!  His big day this year was all about school buses ~ he is crazy about them since his two big brothers ride them to school :)  It all started with him "driving" the bus on the invitation to his School Bus Party!!

It was such a fun theme, Mama went crazy with the decorations!!  

Welcome to the party!

Ready for his big day :)

We had lots of yummy food...Ben was in HEAVEN since he has the biggest sweet tooth ever!  (Wonder where he got that from??)

"Smarshmallows"...as Ben calls them!

Ben's all-time favorite ~ Oreos!

 He was probably most excited about the school buses and stop signs on the cupcakes.  He saw me making them a few days before and told EVERYONE he could about it, ha ha!!

He was also SUPER excited that his cousin Hank came all the way from NC to his party!  Those two had a blast, and were "full speed ahead" the entire weekend!!

To start the party off, as the kids arrived, everyone played in the basement in a bouncy house.  I'm glad we did all the bouncing before eating pizza, cake, cookies and marshmallows!!

Yes, that's Chandler in the bounce house, too, haha!!!

Ben's Birthday Buds!

After everyone played a while, it was time for a ride on the bus - whoo hoo!!  Ben was a little apprehensive at first, but once everyone got on he had a ball! 

Here are all the kiddos!

Hank, Ben, and Chandler

This was the best picture we could possibly get with 10 toddlers, ha!

Finally, time to eat cake!  Check out Ben's school bus cake!!  He was so excited :)

Parting gifts for our guests ~ school bus goodie bags, of course!





 Happy Day for All!

Ben's First Year of Preschool

Well, Ben's first year of preschool came to an end several weeks ago :(  That really hit Mama hard, realizing the next time he goes to school he will be three years old!  He had a wonderful year in Ms. Nita's class, and on the last day, she sent home lots of cute pictures from thoughout the year.  Here are some of the highlights from Ben's first year of preschool, in chronological order.

Working on his very first piece of artwork ~ special!!

Hiding in the cubbies...I guess those first few days without Mama were a little scary at times!

Naptime with Bunny....precious!

Playing dress-up, apparently - because I didn't send him to school in those shoes, ha!!

Getting some sugar from his best buddy Riley!!

Mrs. Nita ~ sweetest teacher in the world!

The whole class :)

Top Row:  Conner, Connery, Jax
Bottom Row:  Riley, Maggie, Ben, Madison

Part Two: A Perfect 10 :)

Miss Anna's been so busy the past two months, it was too much goodness for one post!  So, to pick up where we left off...she's been crawling like crazy!  And all day long, she is constantly picking stuff up off the floor and eating it.  CONSTANTLY.  We've even taken to calling her the "Crumb Bum" and have all but given up fishing each thing out of her mouth, poor baby!

Anna usually crawls on her knees, but she likes to crab crawl like this when she's wearing a dress so it doesn't get tangled in her knees!

Anna's Surprised Face!

She absolutely adores Ben, and wants to be near him all the time.  He is really good at making her laugh by saying something silly like, "Shookie!!" or just jumping up and down or twirling around.  She belly laughs!

Adores big brother!

Anna has really been practicing pulling up and is getting stronger by the day.  She hasn't tried to do any furniture cruising, yet, but I bet it will be any day now!

We've had fun times at the pool in this 100° weather ~ whew!  All smiles with Mama, lounging in a piece of shade...

....an hour later - all tuckered out!

Mimi came to visit and Anna loved seeing her!

And finally, Anna has started babbling a bit.  Her favorite thing to say is ma ma ma ma.  We're not really sure if she's saying "more" or "mama", but either way, I love to hear it!

Our Pretty Girl! Love her!

A Perfect 10 :)

Our Anna is ten months old today!  So much has been happening and changing in her little world lately, and she loves it all, every day :)  At her nine month check-up, Anna weighed 17.5 pounds.  She got one shot, but it wasn't bad at all.  We're still struggling with sleeping through the night - as usual, any strides made towards it get lost in a week or so when she goes back to her old ways of popping awake around 3 or 4:00 each night.  *Sigh* says the tired mama....but this, too, shall pass.  She is doing GREAT nursing (still!), and I'm so proud that we've made it 10 months!  Anna's also still great about eating her baby food...gladly eating MANY varieties that Ben would never touch.

She's been a busy little lady these since our last update...back in April, here she is with Daddy on his birthday!

Before it got so hot, we took lots of rides in the red car...

...and lots of rides in "the pouch"!

Yay!  Mama can cook AND hold Anna at the same time!

Poor baby got another cold, probably from big brother Ben.  Most of the time when she gets a cold, she needs the nebulizer - a.k.a. "penguin medicine".  Here she is with her buddy :)

Whew!  All this wears a girl out!  She did great at Chandler's 5th Grade graduation:

Anna and Grandmama

Conked out!

...but just couldn't hang in there any longer at the end!  And that's just part of it!  "A Perfect Ten" to be continued...