A visit from friends

This weekend we had the pleasure of a visit from my long long long time friend Kara and her little girl Tenley. Tenley is 8 months old, just shy of 3 months younger than Ben. Those 3 months seemed to be a big difference in size! Tenley is just a little peanut- so sweet!!- weighing in around 15 lbs!!! While the height difference didn't seem that big between the two, Ben sure does have a little bit more substance to him:)

It was absolutely the perfect day. Due to the snowy weather, we just relaxed around the house all day. Most of the time was spent blabbing- usually it's hard to get Kara and I to stop once you get us started- and we had A LOT to catch up on! It was great to see Ben and Tenley play together too- hard to believe Kara and I probably played together like that when we were their size!

Ben has been sick for the past 2-3 days, fighting an ear infection and some upset stomach issues... so he wasn't in the best of moods this weekend. Poor little guy seems to want to just snuggle on his mommy all day- and you don't hear me complaining!! Hopefully with another day of rest and recovery today (and more antibiotics) we can get him back to normal. Kara and Tenley were very patient and understanding of Ben's sad mood- thank you:)

Here are some shots of Ben and Tenley playing/posing together!

Ben is teaching Tenley all she needs to know about wooden blocks.

And now Tenley just sits and watches while Ben snatches up her pretty shiny dolly.

It must be a girl thing or the fact that Ben wasn't feeling well, but Tenley was MORE than happy to pose an smile for the camera! Ben, however, was of a different mindset.

Kara- can you believe these are our precious babies!! I could just eat them up!

The tale of a four surgeries...

It all started back in 2002. The first of four. This was when Nick had his very first knee surgery, to repair the tear in his meniscus. For those of you who didn't pay attention in health class (okay maybe this wasn't covered), but the meniscus is the piece of cartilage in the knee that keeps your bones from rubbing together. When your meniscus tears, it slips into places of the knee that it shouldn't and causes your knee to get stuck in a bent position. Lovely.

So 2002, 2003, 2004... every year Nick had surgery on his right knee as his meniscus kept tearing. Well we thought we were in the clear, as it had been about 6 years since this had happened last. Not so fast. Over the last few months, Nick's knee has been getting "stuck" here and there, and we knew that another surgery would be inevitable.

Well, this time, rather than just repair the tear, Nick's doc thought it was time to just remove a piece of his cartilage altogether- so that's exactly what he did. Nick had surgery on Friday morning, and I'm proud to report he is in good health and healing perfectly! Let's just hope that the fourth time was the charm:)

My sweetie taking a snooze in recovery

Healing from surgery is no fun- it's much better when you have someone to keep you company:) Ben was happy to lay with Dad and keep him entertained.

A new milestone

It seems as if every day turns over a new leaf for Ben. He is always discovering something new in his expanding little world. New sights, sounds, movements... learning to wave, crawl, talk. The latest? He has discovered the joy of real, adult food. No more baby purees- okay well maybe a few just to get his veggies in him- but for the most part he is eating pretty much what Nick and I have for dinner. And then some. His favorite? Cinnamon Burst Cheerios. Who can blame the kid? He is also loving anything that is full of carbs... bread, potatoes, noodles... all the good stuff:)

Here are a few pics of my little guy with his first meal of spaghetti!

Mom, how do I get the rest of this noodle into my mouth?

Our niece Alexa came over this weekend for a visit. She is only 7 months older than Ben- they are like 2 peas in a pod.

You know you slept good when...

I don't know about you, but when I wake up in the morning and my hair looks like a squirrel's nest shooting in every direction, I know I must have had a really good night of sleep. Well, if that is actually true, then based on his "do" Ben must have had a really good nap this afternoon:)

For the life of me I can't figure out why this pic is posting upside down. Whatever- you get the idea.

Ready to walk

Ben is rapidly approaching the 10 month mark and he is moving ALL over the place ALL the time. I can't believe this little guy just 3 months ago would just sit in one spot on the floor, right where you plop him. Now, no such thing! He has been pulling himself up on everything that stands still.

For Christmas, Grandma Braun got Ben this little walker thing that he can pull himself up on and push all over the place. He LOVES it! I really think he will be walking on his own by the time he's one, but who knows. I just know he will give it a good try!

Ben loaded up all of his toy friends in his push cart (with a little help from Mommy) and off he goes!

Such a cute little guy- he was doing his backwards wave to Aunt Lindley in this picture:)

Busy Busy Busy

Ben got a little tired so he decided to sit in the cart and let Dad push him around- all that walking wears a guy out!!

Happy New Year!

This year our New Year's Eve celebration was spent at my Mom's house with my entire family... it was fabulous!! We all arrived on Friday, lounged, opened Christmas gifts from one another, ate lots of good food (Mom, I think I'm still trying to digest your Carbonara!!), and just enjoyed being together. As usual, a good chunk of our evening time was spent floating in the pool and talking about the latest and greatest that is happening for everyone. Nick even took Ben in the pool for a little while and he was loving it!!

Thanks to my fam for a great weekend as usual... can't wait to see you all again soon!

Here are a couple of shots from the weekend...

I'm just not sure about this whole pool thing Dad...

Wait- I LOVE this whole pool thing!!!

Happy New Year to you too, Dom.

Grandma Braun spending some good QT with the grandbabies...

Merry Christmas!

I'll start out by saying Merry Christmas to friends and family! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We were blessed with lots of gifts and time spent with our family- but the best part of Christmas was watching Ben experience it all for the first time. The Christmas trees, wrapping paper, and even his first pair of Christmas pajamas:)

Nick and I had our family Christmas at home on Christmas Eve morning. We helped Ben open his gifts and played with all of his new goodies from Santa. Then later that afternoon we headed up to Francesville to spend Christmas with the Vollmer's. Here are a few shots of Ben from Christmas Eve morning at our house...

Balls, Blocks, Trains... but all he really wants to do is play with the wrapping paper;)

Such a sweet face

Our weekend at the Vollmer household in Francesville was entertaining, a little crazy, but fun as always. I'm sure I ate a week's worth of food (no thanks to those cake balls that you made Lin)! My favorite gift from the weekend is my Nook!!! Yay!!! It's like a kindle, but made by Barnes and Noble- just your basic eReader... it's perfect! Thank you Scott and Cathy!!

Here are a few pics of Ben from the weekend...

Enjoying his first bath in his rubber ducky tub from the Watts'

Loving the Christmas tree

Loving the bubble wrap even more

Daddy and his little elf

Aunt Lin and Ben with their matching hats:)