The Day after Christmas at Home!

These are before and after pictures of Christmas at our house. Ben is completely overwhelmed with all the presents he received for Christmas. He loves every single one. Thank you everyone!!

Ben's First Christmas Day!

Here are some before and after pictures of Ben on Christmas day at Grandpa John and Grandma Nelly's house on Christmas Day. He got loads of toys including the musical chair from Auntie Nattie, Peek a Boo blocks truck from Auntie Sandra, an awesome coat from Uncle Paul and Auntie Brenda, and books and clothes from G'ma and G'pa. He made out like a bandit!

Thank you!!

Christmas Eve with Luke's Family

Here are some pictures at Grandma Betsy's house on Christmas Eve.

Ben got the shirt he's wearing from Uncle Gabe and a zoo pass, zoo animal figures and sweat suit from Grandma Betsy. Thank you!!

We're definately having a White Christmas this year!!

3 feet of snow later. Here is a snow drift on Luke's car and him shovelling for the second time today. The Blizzard of 2006 hit us hard so we've been stuck at home for a few days. Ben has a cold so I couldn't take him outside. No popsicles were had at our house today, although I guess Ben could have eaten snow!! (see Megan's blog)

Ben's Stocking

Luke's Aunt Katie knitted Ben a real stocking for Christmas. It is really cute and will be in the family for years to come. It was so nice of her to do that. It says Benny and has 2006 on the front.

Our Christmas decorations

Here are some pictures of our house decorated for Christmas.

We went hiking...

We went hiking today to the top of Green Mountain. We bought this child carrier and Ben seems to like it a lot. It was a lot of fun.

My little stool...

Ben loved to sit in this stool from Africa. I couldn't believe he didn't fall off. He was pretty proud of being able to sit there by himself. He starting to look more like a little boy rather than a baby.

Our little helper...

Ben was helping grandma load the dishwasher and grandpa clean the oven. Pretty soon, we'll have him shovelling snow!

I can brush my own teeth!

Ben has been teething (the two front teeth finally came in) and he doesn't like to use teething rings, so he uses his tooth brush. He gets he teeth clean in the process. Hey, whatever works right!

I love cats!!

Especially grandma & grandpa's cat, Iguela. She is so good with babies and lets Ben do pretty much anything to her. It's pretty cute. Don't worry, although it may look like it, no animals were harmed in the taking of this picture.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving at Grandma & Grandpa's house. We had lots of fun.

Picture of Ben sleeping!

Ben slept in past 8 this morning and church was at 8:30 AM. I've never taken a picture of him sleeping in his crib so I thought this was the perfect opportunity. Wake him up with the flash!
He looks so peaceful.

Ben's new chair!

Well not really. Megan gave this to us and we used it when he was just a little guy, but we put it away once he started crawling. When we were rearranging the basement we thought maybe he might like to use it again. He loves to sit in it to watch his favorite show: Baby Einstein. Thanks Megan!

The way we do laundry...

This was Luke's ingenious way of doing laundry and taking care of Ben at the same time. Good thinking!

Our son is a vampire

Usually babies get their two front teeth first, but not Ben. He got the two lateral incisors first (on either side of the two front teeth). We're hoping for Christmas he'll get his two front teeth :)

Grrrr...I'm a lion!

Ben dressed up in his costume for our Pumpkin Carving Party. He looks so cute!

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Snow day today, sort of. There was so much snow outside that I decided to work from home. There's almost a foot of snow. There are still have some leaves left on our trees so I had to go outside and get some of the heavy snow off of the trees. I had to take Ben with me, so he got to try out his new snow suit. It's made out of down so it was really warm. We weren't out there very long since it was so cold & windy.

Miscallaneous Cute Pictures Everyone Should See

Just a collage of very cute pictures of our little boy. No story to go with. Just for your viewing pleasure.

Ben IS Superman!

Luke & his brothers all had a pair of overalls with a superman patch on them. So, Uncle Gabe made a pair just for Ben. He looks pretty darn cute in them.

I don't wanna work, I want to bang on the drums all day!!

Or pots & pans that is. I needed to do some stuff in the kitchen and he hates his exersaucer now, so I put down a spoon and some pans and voila and brand new drum set for little Benny. It amused him for about 20 minutes which was just long enough for me to get done what I needed to do. Who needs toys!!

Climbing the stairs

Ben found the stairs. He went all the way up them yesterday and then puked at the top. Next thing you know he'll be climbing fourteeners! Don't worry I was right behind him the entire way up.

First Day at School

I took this picture on our way to drop Ben off at daycare. He slowly adjusting to the atmosphere of daycare. He's also getting his first cold from daycare. Bummer...

Baptism Brunch Afterwards

This is the cake I made for Ben's baptism. It was a lot of work, but after the second attempt, I think it turned out quite nicely. The Alessi kids had loads of fun playing with Ben. As a matter of fact, they took care of him during the entire reception while I enjoyed everyone's company.