Two Weeks 'Til Two!

My sweet baby turns TWO in two weeks. I can hardly believe how quickly this past year has flown by! She's definitely hit the Terrible Two's well before her second birthday, but looking back at these pictures from her first year helps me remember what a sweet little monkey she really is. She looks so different in each picture; Ben was the sort of baby who looked the same from birth, on. As I did in the weeks leading up to Ben's 3rd birthday, I have recapped the years in pictures. With two weeks to go, here are my favorite pictures of Emily's first year! Be sure to check back next Thursday to see the pictures of Emily's second year=)

Brand New--a beauty from the start!

One week old--snuggling daddy and posing prettily

One Month Old--sweet, little chub-chub in the bath tub-tub

Two Months Old--big smiles in her swing

Three Months Old--relaxing in the sling

Four Months Old--back when she still had blue eyes!


Five Months Old--oh, how I miss that silly smile=)
Six Months Old--learning to creep

7 Months Old--Sitting pretty in her stroller

8 Months Old--doing her impression of a stand-up comic

9 Months Old--my all-time favorite picture of her!

10 Months Old--making mischief

11 Months Old--Bathing Beauty splashing in her Ducky Tub

12 Months Old--The Birthday Princess, reigning over her guests

Ben The Fisherman

Ben absolutely adores this toy fishing pole. He has spent so much time over these past few(unbearably HOT) days fishing in the toy sink. As you can see, he's really good!


Step One: Drop your line; wait for a nibble

Step Two: Reel 'er in!

Step Three: Proudly display your prize-catch

Step Four: Move on to bigger game

Step Five: Laugh mischievously, oblivious to the distress of your "fish"!

Go, Ben!

In an attempt to finish up this potty-training thing with Ben, Dan and I came up with an incentive chart for Ben to wear underwear. Right now, he's trained in every sense of the term(can and will hold it until he's on the potty, knows all the signs that he needs to 'go", even willingly goes on his own; without telling me first, when he's diaper-free). He just refuses to wear underwear. He prefers diapers; they are what's normal for him and he doesn't have to stop what he's doing to use the bathroom if he doesn't want to. Underwear feels foreign to him and he's never adjusted to change easily. We have TONS of fun, character undies he picked out himself. He's not interested in the novelty of wearing Lightning McQueen on his tush. This is more of a power-struggle between him and us that we have to tread very lightly over! He's so agitated by the thought of wearing them that he often throws a tantrum if we even suggest he put them on. It's.SO.Frustrating.

We're completely dreading the idea of three in diapers, so we're giving this one final shot before things get too hectic with Callie's impending arrival(experts say to start big projects like potty-training, moving to big-kid beds/rooms, weaning from bottles/pacifiers no closer than three months before or after adding a new sibling). Enter Ben's Potty and Underwear Chart! I designed it to have thirty spots, with incentives after ever five spots. There are three BIG incentives(buying a special toy called Coco-Nutty the Monkey, going to Chuck E. Cheese and the final prize being a special, ultra-hyped up trip to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, or Marine World as it will always be known as to me!). In between those three incentives, there are smaller incentives(get an ice-cream, get donuts for breakfast, and a special surprise treat that I couldn't think up while making the chart;p).

We're so happy to announce that yesterday, Ben earned his first incentive! He wore underwear fives times in a row(denoted by the SpongeBob stickers. The misc. bubbles, and shells are stickers for going potty) and earned a super-fun trip to Cold Stone with mommy, daddy and Emily today. For the first two incentives, he just has to willingly put them on long enough to put his SpongeBob sticker on the board. After that, we'll work on wearing them for longer intervals to earn the next two incentives. We're keeping our fingers crossed that he will enjoy this low-pressure attempt to get him wearing big-boy undies sometime in the near future! Wish us luck!The Chart to End all Charts. DON'T laugh at it! I just threw it together. It had printed pictures of the big incentives, but they ripped them off pretty much the first day. The resulting drawings were done by Ben...yeah. By Ben;)

Five VERY happy SpongBobs cheering Ben on!

The Winning SpongeBob! Go, Ben!

Enjoying the fruits of his labor:) He was very excited and proud to have earned his ice-cream!

Everything But The Kitchen Sink

Our next-door neighbor, Kai, got a super-fun toy today! Emily and Ben have been eyeing this kitchen-sink water toy since they first saw it at Costco so they were beyond excited to see it downstairs this afternoon. Good neighbors that they are, Kai and his parents offered to keep it downstairs so we could play with it any time we want! We did the same with Emily's water-table last year, but it apparently got too much use. It barely lasted the season(shoddy craftsmanship and too many small parts to lose!). We're so excited to have a new out-door toy to share:) Thank-you, neighbors! We're looking forward to another fun summer!


Emily, Kai and Ben testing out the new toy.

Emily helped herself to a sip of water.

She's so gracious! She'll even offer you some!

While Emily quenched her thirst, Ben was unfortunately run over by the Cozy Coup. Clearly, he didn't mind!

Ben and Emily--Baby Product Testers At Your Service

My Step-Grandma, Shirley sent us home with a beautiful moses basket that her grandchildren had used many years ago. Ben and Emily have taken it upon themselves to test that bad-boy out for Baby Callie. Surely they don't want their baby sister laying in something potentially uncomfortable! As you can see from the pictures, it's not just lovely, but pretty cozy, too:)

Vintage Ben, testing out the cradle swing before Emily was born.

Vintage Ben, also testing out the Baby Papasan chair for his precious sister. What a good brother!

Easter Dinner at Mimi's

We stayed closer to home this year and spent the afternoon playing at Mimi's house. She blew up her mini bounce house, hid eggs and baskets and prepared a delicious dinner with Papa that we all enjoyed. The highlights included fun with watering cans, bouncing in the bounce-house, playing in the little house, finding eggs, eating WAY TOO MUCH candy and enjoying a fabulous steak dinner that even Ben liked(!!! He's basically a carb-itarian...very few meats, no veggies, lots of dairy, fruit, and, eggs, peanut-butter and carbs!).
The only down-side was missing Dan's family and Emily's frequent oopsies, ouchies and boo-boos. Apparently when your diet consists mostly of sugar for the day, it tends to make you clumsy and prone to falling a lot. I swear, she must have fallen down 10 times this afternoon; the poor baby! They really had a wonderful day, though, and loved all the Easter treats, surprises and family time. We hope your easter was fun, too!

Obligitory Family Pictures

After the egg hunt, I made them pose for pictures with me. Not too bad!


I wasn't lookin' too hot in this one, so I cropped myself out. Those are the perks of being the blog author;)

A little better! Emily is showing off her sassy attitude!

This would have been the best of the three...if only they were both looking in the same direction! Oh well...they're cute enough that it doesn't really matter:)

Easter Egg Hunt

Mean Dan didn't even want to do an egg hunt for the kids! It wasn't exactly hard to toss a bunch of eggs on the grass before letting them run around and find them, though. While we attempted church, he went back to bed like the proper little Pagan he is. When we got back from church, I "hid" the eggs and let the kiddies loose. I'm SO glad I decided to go ahead with our hunt because they had so much fun! Ben remembered exactly what to do and Emily caught on right away. It lasted all of 5 minutes, but it was so fun to watch; definitely worth the minimal effort. Now, the millions of M&Ms we have littering our living room floor? Yeah....not so much fun. Next year, the Bunny will be putting stickers in the eggs instead:)


Ben jumped right in and started finding the eggs(not to hard, as I just threw them around on the grass!).

Emily needed a little help from Mimi, but loved finding the eggs and putting them in her basket.

Um, WHO is this big boy?! Where is my Baby Easter Benny?

She looked far too grown up, too:( At least we'll have a new baby again for the next Easter!

Easter Morning

Ben and Emily awoke to find the Easter Baskets left by the Bunny. Ben had a Lightening McQueen basket filled with candy and a super-fun SpongeBob Shake n Go racer(basically, you shake it up, it makes a ton of noise, you set it down, and it rolls away on it's own). Emily inherited Ben's Elmo basket from last year, and loved finding a Dora doll thatcould go in the bathtub, a stuffed bunny and some more candy! They played with their toys, ate far too much candy, skipped breakfast(thanks SO much, Dan.) and got ready for church with Mommy and Mimi. Unfortunately, the sugar-crash coincided with the start of church, resulting in us leaving after just 5 minutes. The crying-room was packed already, and a super rude guy turned around and shushed my precious children(jerk!). I didn't feel like torturing B and E(and, thus, everyone around us) by trying to make them be quite for an hour, so we skipped the service and went home for our own egg hunt.


Emily, lovin' on her new Dora doll!

Ben, enjoying his Easter treats.

Really. They were much more pleased than they look. Really!