Same dress, different year!

Much to my delight and amazement, Emily still fits into her holiday dress from last year! It was a size 6-9 months and she is more than twice that age now. It didn't seem too big last year, nor does it seem to small this year. Either way, I'm thrilled to be able to use it again. She only wore it once and it is so sweet. She recieved it as a Half-Birthday gift from her beau down south, Jett(of The Life and Times of Jett blog!) and we never got her pro pics taken in it.

Now, Ben on the other hand will be MUCH harder to dress. He will only wear dinosaurs or doggies so my search continues for something festive and Ben-approved. This is God's way of tempering my control-freak tendencies. He's given me a child who's even more arbitrary in his desire for control;)

What a difference a year makes!

The dress: Christmas '08

The dress: Christmas '07

Happy Thanksgiving

We spent a lovely, low-key Thanksgiving at Mimi's house. Ben talked about eating turkey and mashed potatos for days but when dinner began, he wouldn't touch it! Emily took "Gobble, gobble" literally and ate everything on her plate(and even some from mine and Ben's!). Both loved the pumpkin pie, of course! Ben has some for a snack yesterday and asked me for seconds and thirds! At least he likes one holiday staple! I'll have to bring an emergency PB&J to Christmas dinner just to make sure he actually eats. Oi.


My battery died, but not before I got a few mediocre pictures of the little ones!

Emily loves to look at that picture of herself as a baby. She WAS pretty adorable so I can't blame her.

This is their version of giving hugs. At least the do it when I ask them to=)

O Kiss-Kiss Tree, O Kiss-Kiss Tree!

After baking cookies(and the 20 minute sugar-coma in the car home that guaranteed neither would nap at home), we decided to play at the outdoor shopping center near home. Much to Ben and Emily's delight, everything was decorated for Kiss-Kiss(Christmas in Ben-speak)! There was a HUGE tree where the fountain normally is(Yes!!! So glad that thing is gone for awhile!) and the stage-area was also decorated. Sundays are always really popular with young families, so there were plenty of children their age to play with. I hope to come back soon when they're dressed more festively and get some shots for our holiday card! Here's a sneak-peak of the location. We can't wait for Kiss-Kiss!

Cookie Baking At Ruby's!

We spent the last two days baking cookies at Ruby's Grandma Mary's house! They ate more dough, sprinkles and frosting than anything else, but that had the best time=) Ruby really, truly is Ben's first best friend. This kid has TONS of friends his age, whom he loves and adores. But Ruby is the only friend he asks to play with regularly with no prompting from me. They really love eachother! It's so special to me because all my best memories as a child involve Ruby's mama and auntie, who were MY first besties growing up.


The Besties yelling joyfully to make "Decorations Cookies!" as Ben called them.

Decorating consisted of them pouring the whole container of sprinkles onto one cookie,
followed by me snatching the container away!

The really enjoyed the fruits of their labor=)

Ben had quite the sugar-high going for him! We decided to have our own version of baby Soul Train to work off some of that sweet-stuff. That's Mimi singing, btw;)

Emily couldn't believe how many calories were in those cookies she ate;)

We Hate Daylight Savings:(

Poor Ben and Emily have really been hating this whole dark by 5:30 business. It means we rarely get to go outside to play if Hazel's doesn't get picked up before 5:00. I try to get them outside for at least half-an-hour just to run around and burn off some energy before the dinner-bath-bedtime frenzy begins. For what it's worth, they seem to love that concentrated bit of play just as much as the hours we were able to spend outside during the summer! Ben is content to just run around our court-yard, though Milly prefers to go for a walk. We decide to go for a little stroll the other evening and ended up having tons of fun!



Ben and Emmie love the fall leaves.
Ben likes to crunch them and Emily likes to pick them up.

Whenever we go for a walk, we MUST pick a pretty flower, too.

We stopped for a bit of run-around time on the steps of the college across the street from our apartment. It's like a mini-stage and they loved running, jumping and climbing up and down the stairs

All that jumping and stair-climbing led to Milly getting a boo-boo:( She was all too happy to go home after that! Ben is such a nice brother. He was more concerned about her being hurt than our play-time getting cut short! He even let her carry his beloved Softie-Pants all the way home.

Yummy Yogurt

These children of mine adore yogurt. They will eat it for every meal and snack if I let them! I've had to resort to hiding it in the fridge because the second I open the door, they each grab one and beg me to open it. The only issue I have is that both will only eat half before they want me to open a new one for them. They can only easily spoon the first half of the carton, leaving the rest for me. I like yogurt, too, but not enough to eat all the half-containers they leave in their wake! Enter the mini-yogurt! They say necessity is the mother of invention? I'm convinced a mother invented these because her children did the same thing. These little 4 oz containers(decorated with Dora, naturally!) have become my saving grace. They can easily feed themselves the whole thing, though I still have to hide them! Maybe I'll invent the secret-compartment refrigerator some day;)

Ben LOVES Dinosaurs

From what I understand, this is normal, right?! Preschool boys tend to fixate on one thing(dinos, trains, cars, bugs) and it becomes their world. Ben's fixation right now is definately dinosaurs! We wants to wear a dinosaur shirt every.single.day. The only problem is that we have a finite number of dino-shirts! He will be placated with a doggy shirt for now(phew!). He requires that all his dinosaurs join him in bed for nap and bedtime, too. He has a collection of molded-plastic dino figures that he absolutely loves. The are spikey and realistic and hurt a lot if you step on them. I know this from experience. Because they are as dangerous as the real-deal, they have to sleep at the end of the bed. I tell Ben it's because they need to stretch out;)



Mmmm! They're not just fun to play or sleep with! They taste yummy, too!

Emily is 18 Months Old!!

I can't believe this sweet girl is 18 months old! Over the last 18 months, she has learned so much. She walks, talks, runs, jumps, sings. She has absolutely stolen the hearts of everyone who knows her. She is funny and sweet and mischeivious and naughty! She loves to give hugs and kisses almost as much as she loves to hit and push;) She is the absolute best little girl I could have hoped for and these last 18 months have been nothing but fun! Thank-you, Milly, for letting me be your mommy! Happy Half-Birthday, baby! Below are Milly's monthly chair pictures. I didn't do this with Ben, and I wish I had! It really shows how much she's changed. Some months I forgot(oops!) so I used the next closest picture. enjoy!

17 months old

16 months old

15 months old

14 months old

13 months old

12 months old

11 months old

10 months old

9 months old

8 months old

7 months old

6 months old

5 months old

4 months old

3 months old

2 months old

1 month old

Happy 1st Birthday, Bloggy!

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of The Benmily Show! Thank-you, readers=) It makes me very happy to know there are people out there that enjoy my babies as much as I do!

The Harvest Festival

Ben's preschool has an annual Harvest Festival and I was the co-hostess. We planned some child-friendly harvest activities and rallied the families to bring food to the potluck. The parents got to socialize while the children played. It was a very nice event and I was really pleased with how it went! Ben had a blast. He loves to go to his school, so any chance to be there is fun for him. But, add a giant haystack, pumpkins galore, tons of food and desserts and all the school's students plus their siblings? Well, needless to say, he loved the "Preschool Birthday Party" as he called it. The whole way home he talked about playing with is friends, the pumpkins and told me "I had SO fun, mommy. I had SO fun at preschool!". Emily and Mimi came a little bit later and also had a great time!



Ben thrilled at showing his sissy around. He loved showing her this slide.

There was a 5-foot high haystack set up at varying heights. Much of the party was spent jumping from stack to stack with is little buddies. This is his pal, Henry(who is in another class) and they had the best time climbing and jumping together.

Since I was the co-hostess, I also had to clean up after the event:( By the time it was over, Ben and Emily were beyond over-stimulated. They just wanted to go home! They look so cute here at the door way. She's so short compared to him!