Happy Birthday Ralph!

What a night! December 18th was Ralph's 70th birthday as well as the official launch of the Ralph Braun Foundation- and let's just say that my Mom sure knows how to throw a party! I should start by saying thanks to Mom and Ralph for putting on such an amazing event- it was truly an "Affair to Remember"!!

Scott and Cathy were nice enough to come to our house for the day/night on Saturday to stay with Ben- such a sacrifice for them:) Nick and I began our day with some shopping, lunch at Rock Bottom, more shopping, and then a good solid nap at the hotel before getting ready for the party (typical parents, day away from the kiddo and what do we do... nap). Then it was time to get ready for the party. It was so much fun to get all dressed up in our formal gear- I even got my hair done!

The party was on the 48th floor of the Chase Tower with floor to ceiling windows all the way around and a gorgeous view of the city. The night kicked off with a silent auction, raising money for the foundation. Nick and I were the proud winners of a pretty cool framed picture of the Colts team from the year they won the Superbowl! After the auction, we were treated to a fantastic dinner and live music. My favorite part of the meal was the little tiny chocolates served for dessert- if you have never had a chocolate that has caviar and pop rocks incorporated I have to tell you to give it a shot!!

Mom had a couple of surprises up her sleeve for the night for Ralph. The first was the birthday cake. Most of you know how I love the Food Network... well Mom actually hired Duff Goldman from Charm City Cakes- he has a show called Ace of Cakes on the Food Network- to bake and present the cake for Ralph! The cake was in the shape of an entervan with the ramp down and Ralph rollin on out- hilarious! It was very cool to see Duff in person and get to chat with him a little bit. Then, there was a guest performance by a truly talented Marilyn Monroe impersonator- classic! Ralph was loving every second of it!

I'm going on and on, and there are so many more stories from the night... needless to say we had just an unbelievable time!! I'll stop rambling, but check out the pics to document some of our night!

We clean up pretty nice, huh!

Lovely ladies...

Me and my honey

The man of the hour, and the woman behind him that made this all happen-

I'm so proud that she is my Mom!

Hands of Marilyn... he's mine:)

Duff with his masterpiece

Ade meets a celebrity... pure excitement

9 month stats

Yep- that's right. Ben will be 9 months old this coming Saturday! Before we know it we will be celebrating his 1st birthday!! I took him to the pediatrician for his 9 month well baby visit last week and the report is a very happy healthy little boy. He was 21 lbs and 9 oz, 28 inches long. That equates to 75th percentile for weight and 45th percentile for height. Just perfect:)

There are of course a few things I'm probably more concerned about than I should be (called first-time-mom syndrome) but I'd rather worry over nothing than ignore a potential problem! For example, he has a hard time keeping down any sort of table food that we give him... even the littlest pea won't stay down! So I guess we stick to the baby food for a little while longer until he can learn to swallow and process better. Anyone else out there have this problem?? And then there is his rashy red skin. Poor little guy. The doctor seems to think it's pretty normal dry baby skin, so I guess we just slather with Aquaphor and move on!

Here are a few of the latest pictures. Brace yourself, he's pretty charming...

No caption needed for this cutie-pie. I know, you just want to squeeze those cheeks!!

Mommy is busy wrapping gifts. Daddy is busy making paper hats for Ben out of tissue paper. Sigh.

Ben got a new sled from his Grandma Haring for Christmas- it was big hit! Since it's too cold out for little man we have resorted to pulling him around the living room:)

I'm thankful for...

... so many things, way too many to try to sit here and name/type them all. So for 2010, I'll just stick with the most obvious thing I'm thankful for, and that is my son. I'm thankful that God has given Nick and I the chance to raise this precious little boy, thankful that we have so many loving family and friends to help us with the task, and thankful just to be Ben's mom.

He looks pretty mischievous...

Thanks Great-Grandma Gutwein for my

very first set of Lego's!!

Grandma Braun

Grandpa Vollmer

Who is having more fun building the train set,

Ben or Uncle Aaron?

The 5 cousins (L-R), Violet Gutwein (2 weeks), Grace Gutwein (2),

Alexa Starr (1), Ben Vollmer (8mos), and Anna Starr (5).

Aunt Carrie keep the kiddos occupied with

The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Great Grandma Gutwein with Ben,

one of her 18 great-grandchildren...

Footie PJ's and time for breakfast-

does life get much better than this?

My little man

Welcome Violet Yvonne

Today, we truly have something to be thankful for. My brother Anthony and his wife Jennifer welcomed their 2nd child into the world, a perfect little girl named Violet Yvonne (after Grandma Gutwein, of course). She was born shortly after noon and weighed in at 8lbs and 5oz. I really do forget sometimes how much of a miracle little babies are until I hold one just like Violet... only 7 hours old and so very dependent.

I can't believe I have 4 nieces now!!! What in the world- I guess we'll either have to have another little boy or hope for a nephew sometime in the near future so Ben has a cousin to play with. He'll just have to stick with his friend Owen for now:)

Enjoy a few snapshots of Violet! She has the best little chubby cheeks!!

Proud Papa

Fall is here

I did some shopping this week and bought a much needed new fall and winter coat for Ben, and as you can see a ridiculously cute hat:) The temp outside has been averaging around 45 degrees in the mornings when we leave, so little man needs to be bundled up! I love this picture- you could seriously just eat him up!

We are so glad for the beatiful changing seasons in Indiana!!

Seven Months

Ben will turn seven months old tomorrow- it is just going by WAY too fast! I'm sure other Moms out there feel my pain. I'll have to post some new pictures soon. They will probably be action shots of our little man crawling! He is so close- right now he inches his way across the floor doing the army crawl:) We will also have some good pics of Ben in his Halloween costume... more to come on that! The picture above is from Ben's 6 mo. photo shoot with our photographer Mandy Leonards- she is the best!

Sorry this is so short, and it's been a while since I've posted too! I've been busy preparing to take my Series 6 test coming up here in a week and a half... wish me luck!

Family Pictures

As most of you know, the photographer that did Ben's newborn pictures offered a "baby's first year" package that we couldn't pass up! This package included 3, 6, 9, and 1 year photo sessions for Ben, and she was kind enough to include a family session with one of these. So this past Sunday it was time for Ben's 6 month pics, and we opted to do our family photo shoot at this session as well. Mandy, the photographer, is wonderful to work with. She is great with Ben, and even was kind enough to cooperate with Gunther for a few shots!


Well, Ben is definitely photogenic, but Nick and I are a different story. Ben looks absolutely adorable in all of the pics... and then you have us. The family shot leaves a lot to be desired. Let's just say the family picture that she posted in our sneak peak won't be appearing on your Christmas Card:) Hopefully there are some better ones in the entire gallery once she is finished!

Here is the link to her blog, where you can see our "sneak peek"! This includes usually just a few shots that are Mandy's favorite from the whole session. Enjoy... and tell me which ones you like best! (And feel free to comment about how Nick looks like he might topple over in our family shot...heehee!)

You have to scroll down a little past a few other families to get to ours once you click the link below...


http://bodylifeworks.com/photo/