Tiger WHO?!

I've mentioned before how much Ben loves to play golf. His love affair started when he saw a commercial for a toy called Gator Golf. He reaaaaally wanted us to buy it for him and his lucky day came when my aunt gave him a Target gift card as a belated birthday gift. We brought the toy home and it quickly became one of his very favorite toys. I'm not even exaggerating when I say he played with it for nearly an hour(which is pretty amazing for a 3.5 year old!). Recently, I posted pictures of him enjoying a mini-golf display at our local Children's Museum. He talks about playing George Golf all.the.time. after that. When he saw commercials for a local mini-golf park, he quickly started begging us to take him. Dan got the lucky honor of taking Ben to play his first game of mini-golf last week while I stayed home to watch Emmie and Hazel:( Thankfully, he took some cute pictures for me and gave me a full account of their game. Ben apparently loved it(surprise, surprise!). What's really surprising is that he beat Dan by 2 points! PGA Tour members better watch out. We're coming for you! Benny G. is watching and waiting.

Father's Day '09

Here's the only shot I took of Dan with one of his children this Father's Day. He wanted to spend the first part of the day sleeping in and running errands by himself. We spent the rest of the day hanging out together as a family=) To fill in the rest of the post, I added some favorite shots from the past.


Dada and Emmie snuggling on the couch

What happens when you ask daddy to undress baby for you. Little things like snaps can really trip a guy up!

Cool Baby/Cool Daddy

Sweet Baby Ben learning the finer points of Xbox 360 with his dada.

Big Sister-in-Training

Besides the fact that she is beyond enamoured by babies, Emily exhibits many qualities that tell me she will be an excellent big sister. Here she is feeding Hazel(who's a mere 3 months younger than her!) lunch. She saw me hand over Hazel's bowl of mac and cheese and said, "Emmie feed Baby Hazel, mama. Need fork". I gave her the fork and she went to work! Hazel thought it was funny, too=) Another thing Emmie does that kills me is that she ALWAYS wants me to give her a diaper for her "baby". The baby in mention could be anything from a Little People figure to a stuffed cat to an actual baby doll. She'll lay the "baby" down, lift it's legs and say, "Ohhh, yucky! Baby has poopy!" or "No poops, just peeps!" if the "baby only has a wet diaper. When she's not practicing to be the best big sister in the world, she's pretending to be Baby Emmie. Baby Emmie likes to crawl on the floor, roll around, or have you cradle her in your arms while she closes her eyes and pretends to cry. Something tells me Baby Emmie will be showing up A LOT once Baby Callie makes it onto the scene;)




Emmie: "Here-go, Hazel. Bite?"

Look at the tongue=) She's showing Baby Hazel how to open up.

Ben took this picture of Hazel! Not bad!

Pool Party!

We attended a super-fun pool party to celebrate the end of the school-year for Ben and his friends at preschool. Ben has always been a water-baby. He loves to be in the water, and loves to go swimming! We've been swimming at the Y a few times this summer so he couldn't wait to go to this pool-party. The best part about it was the HUGE shallow end! It was only 2.5 ft deep so Ben could stand easily and walk around without me holding him. He really wants to be able to swim on his own, so this was beyond cool for him=) It worked out really well for Emily, since she is NOT a water-baby and pretty much clings to me the entire time. She likes swimming at the Y well enough because they let you wear life-jackets. She'll even jump into the pool on her own at the Y, but at this pool, she was very clingy and emotional. She didn't want to miss out on the fun, even though it was clear she wasn't having any! Eventually, I convinced her to go home with Mimi to see her new kittens and have a snack. Once they left, Ben and I had a blast swimming together. Dan showed up for the cook-out at the end and we enjoyed burgers with our friends from school. Swimming AND cheeseburgers? Now THAT'S what Ben calls a party!


The look on my face pretty much sums up how I felt about getting my picture taken;)

The look on Ben's face sums up how much he loves swimming!

"Walk SLOWLY, Ben!". Oops! Caught in the act of running by the pool!

Emily, the world's grumpiest mermaid

Ruby Turns Three!

The Lovely Miss Ruby celebrated her 3rd birthday last Friday and we got the pleasure of attending her party=) We dined on delicious pizza(Ben even ate some, proclaiming it "Yummy pizza!"), a fabulous ice cream cake from Trader Joe's and enjoyed some late-evening jumping on the trampoline(they did; not me. There's no way in hell I could even climb up on it, let alone bounce while this pregnant!). The Birthday Girl seemed to enjoy her party, especially all the Dora gifts. We gifted her with a Dora soccer set, complete with goal, ball and shin guards, as well as a Barbie=) Ruby's mama, auntie and I used to play Barbies together when we were little girls, so I couldn't resist! Here are my favorite snaps from the evening!


Emily, blowing bubbles. She L-O-V-E-S to blow bubbles. She's really good at it, too!

This picture sums the party up perfectly. Pure joy.

My little kangaroo bouncing himself silly

Ruby and her Auntie She-she(Sheila) representin' the Big Three

Fun New Game

Yesterday, we took one of our normal, early evening walks around the neighborhood. There are some steps leading up to the school across the street that Ben and Emily love playing on. Being that I am now in my 8th month of pregnancy(yes. that's right. 6 weeks or less to go 'til my c-section), I require rest periods, even after short walks. The walks might be short, but trying to keep two little ones safe while keeping up with them requires a lot more energy than I have these days!

Ben and Emily, being the industrious duo that they are, came up with a SUPER fun game while mommy sat down to rest;) All you need to play is a bulbous-shaped mother who can't get up easily, her flip-flops and the ability to run away laughing. "Steal Mommy's Shoes" was quite the game! They'd take turns pretending to put my shoes back on, then they'd jump up and run away laughing while I pretended to yell, "Hey! Give me back my shoes!!". I seriously adore games that we can play while I sit on my can;)

I hate that I need to rest so often, but I've been having a lot of contractions and the doctor's orders are to stay off my feet whenever possible. I just stared at her when she said this, because I thought it rude to laugh right in her face. I reminded her that I have a three year old and a two year old and that it's just not possible between 6 am and 8 pm! Hopefully Callie will stay cookin' until her scheduled c-section, despite me not resting as much as I should be. I only have a few short weeks left with my little guys; I want us all to enjoy them before everything goes pear-shaped while I'm in the hospital.




Emmie The Shoe Bandit

Annnnnd she's off!

Benny The Flip-Flop Thief in action

On their way back to "bring me my shoes" Yeah, right=)

Comparison Pictures

I found and scanned a few of my old baby pictures to compare them to pictures of Ben and Emily at the same age. Ben and Emily loved looking at them with me, but Ben couldn't wrap his mind around the idea that I was ever a baby! They have a vague concept of growing older, because our screen-saver is a slide-show and we always talk about "Baby Ben" and "Baby Emmie" when we see their pictures. Emily seemed to grasp the idea of "Baby Mommy", although Ben and I had a minor disagreement over who the pictures were actually of;) *I* think they look a lot like me(but much cuter!). What do *you* think?

Baby Ben at "about 2"

Baby Mommy at "about 2"

Baby Emmie at 2

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Baby Ben at 15 months

Baby Mommy at 15 months

Baby Emmie at 15 months

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Baby Ben at 4 Months

Baby Mommy at 4 Months

Baby Emmie at 4 Months