Thankful

 

I remember thinking last year how thankful we were for all He provided and this year is no exception.  My heart just sings every time I look at the little monster miracle God gave us.  This Thanksgiving was so nice and relaxing.  We are very sad the week is over and reality returns again too soon.  Here are some of the things I loved about this Thanksgiving!

*My parents came!  This was the first time in 10 years to spend Thanksgiving with them.  Starting my junior year in college I stopped flying home for Turkey Day.  We have such a tiny family (small but mighty as Grammy says) and it just seemed like such a waste of money to spend the Holiday fares to fly home to eat dinner.  B has such a HUGE family so we’ve always done Thanksgiving in Austin.  It was Thanksgiving with the Mahrers, Christmas with the Michalsons (where we make up for being so few).

*My awesome husband cooking EVERY part of Thanksgiving dinner.  He earned his cooking badge this year.  The past few years we’ve had fried or smoked turkey and all I wanted was an oven roasted turkey.  He even got up at 5 since it had some thawing issues.  The man was amazing!  From two homemade pies to a turkey to everything in between he did it all.  All I had to do was open the cans of cranberry sauce.  I guess when you ruin enough meals, you don’t have to worry about cooking the important ones (gosh, too bad).

His homemade apple and cherry pies after they came out of our oven that’s on steroids (turns out it cooks 50 degrees hotter than it says-only took 5 years to figure it out-maybe that’s why so many meals I’ve made have been ruined).

B had everything so organized as he cooked.  Each part of the kitchen had the upcoming utensils ready to go all laid out.  He made fun of me for taking a picture.  It’s so him and such a Mahrer thing.

*Putting up the Christmas tree with my mom and Ben.  Ben is in awe of the tree, especially the ornaments.  Ben is so cute looking and trying to touch all the ornaments.  He loves balls and of course that’s what ornaments are shaped.  He walks up, pretends to touch and then says, “no no.”

*Shopping and lunches with my mom.  My mom and I could shop for hours.  And we LOVE potato soup!

*Countless hours of football.  Anyone who knows this family knows that football is just as important as turkey.

*Starbucks hot chocolate every morning courtesy of Pops.  As Ben calls it, “mommy juice.”

*Having another set of hands around to help.  Messes were cleaned up as soon as they were made.  So nice!

*Taking Ben to the pet store to see the birds and fish.  Great cheap entertainment!

*Ben loving on his Grams and Pops.  He got kind of tired of the name game as they left, but he loves his grandparents so much and oh my goodness is the feeling mutual.  Today they watched him so we could work on the lights outside.  I walked in and he was nearly asleep on Grams. 

*The one day B got up to get Ben he had HORRIBLE diarreah.  It also happened while we were shopping.  Thank you Ben for having these issues when Daddy was ‘in charge.’  Our little man has a bit of a tummy bug along with the never-ending cold and a tooth coming in.  The three just don’t mix and he’s pretty miserable.  With all this comes some of the worse diaper rash I’ve ever seen.  Our hearts just break for him, he’s in so much pain. 

The past week has been so wonderful.  Thanks Grams and Pops for coming.  Maybe now they won’t wait so long in between visits :)  We love you!

Some more pictures:

 

Grams teaching Ben some of her tricks in the kitchen

last Thanksgiving Ben had his first taste of veggies.  This year the first thing he asked for was a spoon.  He has grown SO much in one year.

    

What’s breakfast without reading the paper?

 

Ben came out to see Daddy’s progress on the lights

 

always nice to stop and smell the flowers

 

Ben and Pops

 

Ben’s horse, Bailey

The Michalson Clan

Zoo Day!

I have been looking forward to today for months!  Back when the weather was insanely hot we planned to take Ben to the zoo on the day before Thanksgiving if we stayed in town.  Well we’re here for the holiday so off to the zoo.  I was giddily happy (is that a word) about this day.  I even had snacks and water ready to go last night.  Sweet Ben loves birds and animals so we thought he’d eat up the zoo.  As soon as we got him in the stroller a strong gust of wind blew leaves and a bunch of birds flew by and he went nuts clapping and cheering.  Guess we could have just sat in the parking lot all day.  Once we were inside he was more timid than we thought he’d be and did a lot of squeezing of Daddy’s hand.  He LOVED the monkeys and the turtles were a hit, too.  I guess at school they practice being elephants because he started acting like one with his arm as a trunk as soon as we saw one.  Too funny. 

I took over 100 pictures today (I know, surprise).  Here are some of my favorites:

 

My two favorite monkeys watching some monkeys.

just in awe…

 

 

We asked him what a monkey does so he started acting like one :)

 

it’s so big!

 

A certain mommy forgot the straw that goes inside this cup, oops.  Poor kid was a little thirsty all day.

 

Turtles!  Oh my goodness does this kid love turtles now.  We let him out of his stroller to get a closer look and he refused to leave them.  When we’d walk away he’d sneak around us and run back shouting “turtles!”

 

There just aren’t words for how much I love this little man!

 

Ben heard Daddy used to wrestle gators (wink wink) and thought he’d try it himself.

 

A bear!

MOO

2 1/2 hours of zoo fun equals a pooped out little boy. 

The difference between 95 and 100%

Okay Ben-you've got some competition in the jokester dept! Anyone reading this already knows, but it's one of those things we want documented. On Friday Daddy and I went for a sonogram to see your baby sister. The first thing I said to the tech was, "just let me see her heartbeat." She asked how we knew it was a girl and then said something to the effect of "they're never right, they just tell you that since they'll never see you again." Well Ben they were 80% you were a boy so we were pretty sure Olive was a girl since they said 95%. Fast forward about 15 minutes after she's checked all the vitals and we see this shot (minus the words):


She points out the butt and Daddy interupts her and says, "what's that BETWEEN the legs?" For 6 1/2 weeks we've planned for baby girl, debated her name, looked for bedding, planned out rooms and wondered what it would be like to have a princess. All that time God had his own plan. So just like your Uncle Tommy, it appears we have a little jokester on our hands. Already trying to fool his parents. Mommy and Daddy were literally in shock and just laughed for the rest of the appt. The tech even told mommy to stop laughing because it was ruining the pictures. So there is no Olive. It's back to Iron Man as Daddy originally coined it. Iron Man's real name is still up for discussion. We've spent the past weekend trying to figure things out like rooms and furniture. And your poor family already bought lots of pink which they get to return now.

Everything was good at the appt. Iron Man has long arms and has been enjoying headbutting mommy, but I LOVE feeling him.

And since I think this might be the first post without a picture of Ben...gasp...here's a little Ben tidbit: Tonight was the first night that Ben has told us he was pooping. We were sitting on the couch and he walks up, points to his bottom and says poop. I'm not sure if he took care of business after he told us or while he was telling us. It's the little things that make this momma happy :)

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

No, you’re not seeing things, this really is a new post!  A very sweet friend emailed me last night saying how she misses my posts and yes, I have been really bad about it. 

The past 2 1/2 weeks have been busy.  We haven’t really done much, but I’ve been so wiped out and in bed by 8 lately.  I guess I’m resting up for some sleepless nights coming this spring.  Ben is just an amazing little boy.  No one makes me laugh like he does. 

He literally amazes me with what he is learning.  Yesterday I picked him up from school and grabbed his jacket and he said “jacket” and then as we were walking out a leaf blew across the sidewalk and he pointed to and said “leaf.”  The amazing thing to me is that those aren’t words I’ve told him. 

He still LOVES sports and is getting over his depression of no more baseball.  Football is “butball” and basketball is “bataball” and he loves them both.  He waves bye to every car, bird, airplane, leaf…anything.  He’s gotten into trains, planes and automobiles lately.  He loves when cars and trucks drive by.  Anything bigger than a car is a truck (SUV, van, truck, bus).  It’s safe to say he’s still ALL boy.  And being all boy I’ve had to sign a few incident reports at school lately that someone has bitten or pinched a friend.  He worries me sometimes.

I love to watch him through the window at school while he plays.  I’m not sure his teachers love it, but I do. Yesterday he put a tambourine on his head like it was a hat and was so proud and walked to tell his buddy Austin (who he calls “Au-too”). 

We practice names each day, too.  He will repeat every family member’s name except Grams.  Most of the time when we say Grams he just laughs.  And he knows who goes together.  If you say Mommy he’ll say Mommy and Daddy and if you say Gramma he says Boots.

He loves to put things away.  He grabs my shoes when I take them off and puts them where we put shoes.  Sometimes we can get him to put laundry in baskets and put his books and toys away.

He is trying really hard to jump right now.  He still won’t lift both feet off the ground at the same time, but man it’s funny to watch him try.  He’s done two tiny jumps and then he falls when they happen.

He loves waffles and calls them awfuls.  Whenever he hears the toaster pop up he says “awful!” 

My favorite thing he does lately is lift up my shirt and give the baby kisses.  When you ask him, “where’s the baby?” sometimes he’ll pull up his shirt and point to his belly. 

Another favorite is when he tells Bruiser no.  The dogs pretty much stay outside when Ben is up and Bruiser has a habit of whining through the window.  It gets pretty annoying so we yell “Bruiser, NO!” quite a bit. Our little sponge has caught on and when he hears it he turns to Bruiser and says “Broo-er NO NO.”  It’s so funny.  Bruiser even barked once at night and Ben got up and said it.  The best is that he takes his little sausage finger and shakes it at him as he says it.

Ben has also become a bit of a Momma’s boy lately.  Yes I love it, but it does get a little uncomfortable lugging around a 30 lbs Ben with a growing tummy.  

I haven’t taken too many pictures lately, sorry.  Here’s what I have though:

Daddy celebrated his big bday a couple weeks ago.  Unlike most normal people he doesn’t want to go out to eat to celebrate and instead insists on me making these ridiculous enchiladas.  So while I was making Daddy’s dinner, Ben chowed down on some pasta and veggies.  I thought he was so cute using his spoon and took the first picture and then looked back and saw the 2nd picture.  He was a MESS!

 

I love this goofy kid!

Here he is helping Daddy make his bday cake (yes he always makes his own rum cake for his bday)

 

It’s been a little cold lately so we had a fire.  Ben was pretty fascinated by it.  I couldn’t get a good picture, but there really is a fire.

 

Ben the little rapper!  He was playing basketball with Daddy and put on Daddy’s skull cap.  We told him to do the pirate dance (he does this at school).  So funny!

For his birthday, Ben got bath crayons.  He was having so much fun playing with them tonight, he didn’t care if the water was gone from the tub.

 

goofy-goof!

So it has been colder lately and Ben has had to wear jackets to school.  He HATES jackets (and clothes in general).  Today I was really worried about him being cold when they go outside so I made him wear a super heavy coat.  He looked like the little boy from A Christmas Story walking around the house.  He was so unhappy in the car.  This is what I saw each time I looked back.  Not one smile the whole way to school.  They were playing when I picked him up and his teachers called him the marshmallow man bundled up.

I should be better about posting the next couple weeks.  After tomorrow I have a whole week off and Ben can’t wait for Pops and Grams to get here!

Trick or Treat

I know, long time between posts, but really I’m just tired.  But I’ll make up for it with this one.

Tonight Ben went trick or treating for the 2nd time.  Ashley and Mayson came over and we dragged the kids around the neighborhood hitting up our favorite students and parents.  In the end we only hit 4 houses, but man it took awhile and the babies were soooo good!  It took Ben a second to understand that you can take candy, but man once he did he loved it.  He did not, however, love when we took away his pumpkin because he tried to eat the candy while it was in the wrapper.  Daddy decided Ben wasn’t just going to be a baseball player, but he must be a Ranger’s player.  SOunds easy, but they do NOT sell toddler sized jerseys anywhere (unless you want to spend a small fortune and you know Daddy doesn’t play that game).  In the end I will admit I loved his costume, even though I stressed about Ben looking like a fool all week.  He can rock the girl’s leggings :)  On Friday he had a Halloween party at school and his teacher told me he was hysterical eating all the goodies.  If they offered it, he ate (and wore it). 

not so sure about this pumpkin, he kept throwing it like a ball

 

look at his legs…so cute!

 

and so his butt

 

Practicing hitting with Daddy before trick or treat time

 

Off to get some candy with the cutest pink cat we’ve ever seen

 

This is how Ben rode the entire way home.

Our little man went to bed way past his bedtime, but it was totally worth it, he had a blast! 

Santa sent another early present down to Ben via Grammy.  We need to build another house just to store all his loot.  Now Ben has his own basketball hoop just in time for the NBA to start.  Daddy put it together for him today and he loves it!  I like to call him my little Michael Jordan, but sometimes he more like Kobe and is a ball hog.  If I could bottle his energy and sell it, I would be a billionaire in no time.  This kid literally wakes up and then runs until nap time or bed time.  The ONLY time he’ll sit still is if he catches baseball on tv or when he grabs a book to read, but otherwise he is always running. 

My baby Michael Jordan

 

I asked Daddy to show me how tall it gets and Ben freaked when he couldn’t reach!

Ben has another new love-cereal!  We randomly bought super sugary cereal at the grocery store this week (hey, it looked good) and Ben will crawl up in your lap if you’re eating it and stick his face over the bowl to get some.  I don’t really intend to buy sugary cereal for him, but a treat is always fun.

Sharing some Reeces Puffs with Daddy

Since I know my favorite in-laws read this, I can’t forget to mention my fabulous Baylor Bears!  Sweet Ben, I want you always to remember that when you were one, Mommy’s Bears beat Daddy’s Longhorns!  Mommy has had to listen to Daddy and his entire Longhorn loving family put my Bears down for 11 years now.  Oh Mommy was SO excited when Baylor won last night.  And Boots owes Mommy pancakes since he lost his bet!  Don’t worry-I’ll share.  We have a whole year to be obnoxious and gloat about how fabulous Baylor is!  And speaking of awesome teams, the Rangers made the World Series!  Daddy has become a Ranger’s fan this year thanks in part to his season tickets.  It’s been fun watching the Rangers on tv (and Daddy can’t decide what he loves more-going to the games or selling his tickets for ridiculous amounts of money). 

And now Olive.  Olive is doing great I guess.  She’s growing little by little and it’s just about the point where I can’t hide that she’s in there.  Dr. Garner said everything sounded/looked great on Friday.  I think I found her bedding and I have to admit that when I went into Carters today to find Ben’s leggings, I got kind of giddy looking at all the adorable girl’s clothes.  We have another 3 weeks before we get final confirmation that she’s really a she, but Daddy said he’s totally sure (he’s ready to paint).

I can’t believe it’s almost November!  Daddy has a BIG birthday on Thursday and it’s also Grams’ bday, too!  And we have less than 4 weeks until Grams and Pops come to visit, woohoo!!!

Boots, baseball, a kitchen and Olive

I’m getting so bad at posting lately, but I seem to want to play with Ben instead of photograph him, sorry. 

On Friday Ben got an early Christmas present from the North Pole via Grammy.  His very own kitchen.  She said to go ahead and let him play with it now.  What a hit!  This kid is in Heaven.  It has a light he can turn on, the burner makes different noises depending on which pot or pan you put on it and the stove and microwave will beep once we get more batteries.  It also has a cell phone, because well doesn’t every kitchen have it’s own cell phone?  B put it together while Ben napped on Saturday.  When he woke up he didn’t notice it right away because we had visitors.  B’s parents drove in from Austin.  It took Ben a minute to warm up to them, but then Gramma started playing with the kitchen and they became instant friends.  We’ve also been trying to find just the right name for B’s dad, but Ben took it upon himself to name him…Boots!  B’s dad has some sweet cowboy boots and Ben loves them.  He learned to say boots, but then kept calling B’ dad “Boots” so we went with it.  Kind of sounds more like “buuuts”, but so cute.  He also says “may-maw” for Gramma.  He’ll learn.  Thanks Boots and Gramma for coming to visit.  Ben loved watching UT and baseball and going to the park.  We can’t wait to see you in a few weeks.

playing with Gramma

this is what the kitchen looks like after about 10 minutes (we spilled water on our shirt)

 

after Boots and Gramma left we went to the field by the pool to kick around a ball and fly Daddy’s plane.  Ben kept watching the plane (and birds and real airplanes) with his hands behind his back like this.  Such a goof.

 

Look at the birds!

 

Learning how to kick

 

Mommy and Ben unintentionally dressed alike :)

 

Ben took a header into the corner of the wall while chasing the dogs.  He nailed the side of his head near his eye.  A little cold pack, juice (which he never gets) and some TLC from Daddy made all the difference.

And now Olive…

Ben will be a big brother around April 18.  This puts Mommy 14 weeks tomorrow.  I actually found out right at 4 weeks when Daddy was at a Rangers game.  It wasn’t a huge surprise to us.  Daddy asked me to take a test a few days earlier, but it was too soon.  We kept it a secret from everyone except a few people we work with for about 6 weeks.  Pops and Grams found out on Pops’ birthday and Boots and Gramma found out a few days later.  There are still some people who don’t know (my kids and their parents), but for the most part it’s not a secret anymore.  In fact I found out tonight Pops was blabbing away to people who have no need to know!!!  The entire time I’ve thought girl and this was confirmed at our 12 week level 2 sonogram.  Two days later I ate a TON of Olive Garden breadsticks and blamed it on the little princess so I’ve been calling her Olive.  We possibly have a name, but it’s a secret for now (and it’s not Olivia).  We’ve been blessed to have an easier pregnancy with this one and my wonderful doctor still lets me come in every 2 weeks for heartbeat checks.  I can’t wait to start feeling her.  We are very excited about all that is to come as our family goes from 3 to 4.  We have no idea how to do girls, but we’ll learn and we have no doubt Ben will be a protective big brother.  We’re also preparing ourselves for the poor princess to be beat and picked on by Ben, that’s what big brothers do :)  In the meantime we’ll soak up all the Ben time we can get before our lives change again.  Ben is so amazing and fun, we can’t wait to double that!