So thankful

Well, yesterday Aetna (my employer) laid off 3% of their employees. 1000 people got pink slips a week before Christmas. And I'm THANKFUL that I was not one of them. In fact, I didn't know anyone who got laid off. I'm lucky to have such a good job.

Wednesday...

It is still raining here...I do not know what the problem is but we should not be having rain.... It has even made my outside decorations fog up!

Melissa and Benjamin decorated the tree for me last night..I was glad to get it done...The Grand kids all made me a hand print for the tree last year they are displayed predominate on the tree and up high so nothing will happen to them... I have three more gifts to wrap...

I have made two cinnamon rings. One is in the oven now. I need to take it to Lilly since she did my hair for me yesterday...on a moments notice..

For Mom

I only took about 35 pictures of Austin's game. My theory on taking pictures is get a good camera and take as many as you can and at least a few will be good. At Billy's wedding I took almost 500 pictures. I know we got at least 15-20 good pictures. If you want to complain, next time I will keep all the good ones and just send you ones that look like this.

Guess who's headless body this is...
Can you see his legs?
I got the back of his head in this one. Remember...BEGGERS can not be CHOOSERS!!!!!!!! and that reasonable tempatures for you to sit outside in for 2 hours are still at least 3 months away.

Chuck E Cheese

Granny told Benjamin Friday that mommy was taking him to Chuck E Cheese. So we went after Austin's football game. They sure did have fun at the games and on the rides.
The pizza was good. Well, good may be an over statement, but it's so much better than it used to be.

FOOTBALL

Austin had his first football game on Saturday. They won 12 to 6. Benjamin and I went to watch. His outfit was so big on him. He is, of course, one of the littlest ones.

It is flag football and they can body check each other, as long as they don't use their hands. So they make fists and put them on their chest and then run into each other. I would have thought flag football was no contact, but it isn't.

It was really hot. But I think he had a good time. Even though he said he perfered soccer. Granny wanted me to send her some pictures to post of his game, but I think she should have gone and sat in the 100 heat if she wanted pictures. That's what we did. I'm sure she will just steal these and post them on her page.

Sleep over

Last night Granny surprised us by showing up at our house. Benjamin said that we could have a sleep over. He was so excited to have a sleep over with Granny. This is what they did for the first part of the sleep over. Laying in Mommy's bed watching mommy's TV. Notice that there is no mommy in the bed. Mommy was working on matching up all of Benjamin's size 4 clothes so he can be a handsome boy. Then Benjamin laid in Granny's bed with her and she told him stories and sang songs. He really liked that part.

1st Friends Birthday Party

Today Benjamin went to his first Birthday party for freinds. Kaidon and Karson turned 4 today and had their party at Chuck E Cheese. Benjamin had a great time playing games and watched them open their presents without complaining that he didn't get any.

Kaidon and Benjamin flying a space ship. We think we might need to have our Birthday party at Chuck E Cheese and invite our Sunday School class too. It was great fun and everyone was very nice.

Benjamin's Kids

Well, Mom's in the shower and Benjamin says "I'll get up in a few minutes." I explained we had to get up to go to the airplane and see his kids. He's too tired to care right now. We will be leaving in about 20 minutes. Then off to the airport we go. We are all so excited to see the kids. Once Benjamin wakes up he will be the most excited.

Granny's Birthday

Tomorrow is Granny's birthday, so we took her out for breakfast today at our good breakfast spot. Andrea, our good waitress was there. She sat down and asked us how we were and apologized if the service was going to be off, because she was pretty sure she was still a little drunk. Well if that was bad service from her, it is still better than the service we get anywhere else. Benjamin had pancakes and toast with jelly. I had eggs, ham, toast, and pancakes. Granny had toast. That was all. Just toast. Oh well, Benjamin and I enjoyed Granny's birthday breakfast.

Then she made an angel food birthday cake for all of us to enjoy. We've had a good time celebrating her birthday today.

We are fine

Benjamin is fine. We have been spending a lot of time at Granny's, so mommy hasn't been blogging. Benjamin had a great day. Austin and him went to Peter Piper Pizza and then Austin got to spend the night. And in just 6 days he will get to fly on an airplane and see his kids. Mommy has to pack up all the stuff we have to take to Kris'. We only get 6 bags to check and 3 carry on's. I hope it all fits.

Friends

We got to have a friend spend the night tonight. We went to Peter Piper Pizza for an early dinner. The boys had a blast. I didn't take pictures since it was just me and them keeping up with a camera is just too much trouble. Keep one eye on each of them is challenging enough. They sure do have a good time together.

3 weeks old

This is just the saddest little picture mommy has. He was 3 weeks old and had to be on breathing treatments every 3 hours. They say that babies that young can't get sick if you nurse them. Well, they are wrong. He was on breathing treatments for 2 weeks.

Seems Like Yesterday

Just days old.As we left the hospital.
Now you see them...
Now you don't!

Erin the time just flies by. It seems like just yesterday...

A Better Day...

Today we had a better day. We didn't cry when mommy left. Tonight we are spending the night with Granny. We had sloppy joe's for dinner. Benjamin loves katchup. So, mommy told him it was a meat and katchup sandwich. He wolfed it down. We wouldn't let him have anything else for a while, because we were afraid he would throw up since he and eaten so fast. Tomorrow will be a good day.

Monday

Well, the weekend is over. The boy had a rough day. He really missed mommy and cried for her several times. Poor baby. I think he really enjoyed spending the weekend with mommy and didn't want mommy to go back to work. He's such an angel boy. He just got to sleep. Now mommy is going to be.

Celebrate

We got to out out and celebrate tdoay. We took our "friend" Austin to Peter Piper Pizza. It was a fun day. Papa is a sucker and bought extra tokens because Austin used all his and Benjamin still had some and Austin suckered Papa into buying them more tokens. They were both such good boys.

Feeding Ducks

We went on Sunday and fed the ducks. Granny went with us, but after a few minutes she had to go back to the car where it was cool. He loves going to feed the ducks. He just loves animals that have no interest in bodily contact.

Another Beautiful Song

He learns such beautiful things at Sunday School.

Austin

Austin got to come over last night for a couple of hours. Little Benjamin loves for him to come over. We stopped by tonight to see if he could come play, but he was at his mom's.

I swear, he doesn't eat at home. They have started making him eat whatever they have for dinner and if he doesn't eat it all then he can't have anything else till the next meal. Austin only likes chicken nuggets for meat. S0, Billy, who would only eat STEAK if he could afford it, doesn't exactly make a lot of things that Austin is overly interested in eating. Thus, coming to Benjamin's house is an art in getting to eat whatever he wants. There are endless cups of milk, the soy kind Benjamin drinks and Austin likes, dinners of mac n cheese, ramen noodles, snacks of crackers and cereal. Now don't get me wrong. He has to try everything I make, but if he tries it and doesn't like it, he can eat something else. We have fruit and veggies at our meals. But we can have a snack later if we don't eat all of our green beans. I bet Austin thinks of Benjamin's house as a buffet...

Before anyone gets all bent out of shape, I have to do this because this is how Benjamin eats and it isn't fair for Austin to have to clean his plate when Benjamin doesn't. I can't make Benjamin eat all his food because of his stomach problems. Well, actually I can make him eat it, but then he throws up EVERYTHING he ate for the whole day. Pushing Benjamin to eat is counter productive. Thus Austin gets the same treatment at Benjamin's house. We can't wait for him to come over and visit again.

Sleeping Angel

This is my sleeping angel. Isn't he perfect! I think his lips look like Little Clayton's. I hate this new blog listing that everyone has. Now to get to the top of Mom's or anyone else's listing I will have to post every day. It was much easier when I set up mom's and Little Benjamin's page was at the top of the list.

Aunt Krissy's Birthday

Happy Birthday Aunt Krissy. I made you a cake for your birthday.

Happy Birthday Aunt Krissy

Happy Birthday!!!! Since you weren't here, we had to blow out the candles...

Good Cake

Aunt Krissy's cake sure was good. Little Benjamin licked his plate.

4th of July at Granny's

He's a water boy. Soon he will be a little fish. We are spending the day at Granny's and then we are going to spend the night here too. Papa said he would grill steaks for us and by that time it will be late afternoon and the drunks will be on the road, so we will have to spend the night here. Granny's happy to have the company and the boy gets to go swimming after his nap.

Hi Kids!

The CUTEST thing in the WORLD

Mommy has no speakers on her computer. I had a couple of sets, but I gave them away. I don't like the speakers because the computer makes noise and I don't want to hear it. We'll I didn't want to hear any noise coming from the computer until today.

Is this not just the cutest little voice in the world. (not that I'm biased or anything) Little Benjamin has learned this song at Sunday School. He enjoys singing it very much. He was being a little shy on the last word. Usually he screams it as loud as he can. We should all be thankful he was being shy.

My camera allows me to take videos. I can then upload the video onto my computer. If I had speakers, I would be able to hear my little angel sing his song. Mommy must get speakers. Maybe Billy has an extra pair. He's the one I gave all mine to. I'll just called and he didn't answer. I bet he's gonna claim he was asleep. It's only 11pm, I don't know why he would be sleeping! I want to hear the angel's voice and I could (even though he's sleeping) if Billy would just wake up and bring me speakers!

A song from Sunday

Little Benjamin just learned this song on Sunday. He doesn't like the verse that says "Jesus Loves the little children." He's pretty opposed to the word love. I guess it's easy to not like the word love if you know that you are loved more than anything else in the world by mommy.

Mommy was not prompting him on the words at all. He was just having to think about what the next line was. I think it makes it cuter. We've only been singing the song since Sunday. He's so smart to learn it so fast.

My little singer

He made up the ending on his own. Next we are going to learn "This Little Light of Mine." Well, at least the chorus and the 1st verse. He will like that song. Next time I will turn on the over head lights and hopefully they won't be so dark.

I don't remember singing like this. Once I started recording him, he was having fits to sing more songs on the camera. He almost had an attack waiting for me to download these so that he could sing Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Hopefully the next song will be coming soon. We practice every chance we get. Especially when we are driving in the car.

Water

Little Benjamin had the hose on the trampoline. Austin was getting squirted but good.
Austin getting his revenge on my boy.
For quite a while, long enough to make the dirt under the trampoline and along the grass a mud hole, I squirted the hose over the top of the trampoline and the boys got to jump in the rain. The neighbor behind us was out cleaning his pool. He said he thought that was the way to jump, with mommy squirting the water hose. He has a real pool. I wonder if he is single or if he has small kids. He seems like a good "friend" to have. Anyone with a pool out here would make a good friend.

Benjamin can put his face in and blow bubbles. Even while laying on to floaties.

They love drinking out of the hose. These two were drinking water like they were camels getting ready to cross the Sahara.

Austin can go under water all the way.
Then he comes back up.

We had to put the pool on the porch in an attempt to have some shade. In the shade it was 111 today. In the sun, it was closer to 120. The boys had a great time. My boy took no nap. He never takes a nap after going to his dad's because he wakes up a couple hours later and doesn't want to nap till a couple hours before bed time, so mommy keeps him up and gets him to bed a little early. He was asleep in minutes tonight. I'm sure Austin was asleep early too.

Pillow Fight

We went and got Austin on the way home from church. The boys are having fun. They had a pillow fight. Benjamin is having a blast with Austin over. The boys want to jump on the trampoline, but I told them we can't do it till later. It's about 115 outside right now, and it will continue to get hotter for the next 2 1/2 hours. If he's still over, I'll let them get on it with the waterhose. It's so hot right now, the black would burn the bottom of their feet.

Granny was sure that Austin hadn't had lunch, so I fixed the boys a snack of honey bun, breakfast bar, wheat thins with spray cheese, and milk. Austin loved the honey bun and Benjamin liked the breakfast bar and the spray cheese on chips. They are both on their 2nd cups of milk. Austin drank the soy milk Benjamin drinks right now for a long time because milk made him have eczema. He has grown out of it, so his parents quit buying it for him. When I can't find it on sale, it is $8 to $9 a gallon, depending on what store I can find it out. Only 3 grocery stores around here sell it, and Walmart isn't one of them. So, when ever Austin comes over he always asks if he can have some of Benjamin's milk. Usually him and Benjamin will drink 3 or 4 cups each. It is sickenly sweet and smells disgusting, but those two can't get enougt of it.