Happy 1st Birthday Benson!

Benson's birthday was almost a month ago now but I can't NOT post it. Here's how his day was spent.....

Woke up happy
But don't mess with me!

A walk to the Garden's to check out the trains.

Benson loves the trains and will actually scream now when we leave them. He will also rotate his arm and make sounds trying to "choo choo" like the train.

After his morning nap and lunch we headed to the Children's Museum. Andrew was able to meet us there after getting off of work early .

He must not have gotten enough to eat.

We were getting squirted with water... you just can't see it here.

Back home to play before nap and the party!

The Cake!

I wanted to make a cute one, but Wal-Mart did all the work!
We had a few family friends over to help celebrate Benson's special day. We all ate ice cream sandwiches as we watched Benson decide whether he wanted to eat it or not.

Testing it!

Tanner and Jackson decided they wanted to try some too!

Finally chowing down.

...and he's had enough.

Tanner picked out Benson's birthday present. He of course was more excited than Benson and wanted to keep it in his room. He would say, "It's Benson's toy, but he wants to share with me. " Then he'd just take over it. After all it's the wrapping and boxes a one year old really wants!

Some of the friends we had over.

Relaxing after a fun long day.

Me and Benson, and Hannah S. and Avery.

Hannah had Avery the day before Benson was born in the same hospital and was just down the hall from us. It was nice to have some friends there. I don't know why I didn't think about getting a picture back then of both of them, but here they are a year later! Happy Birthday you two!

Tee-ball

Hey batter batter batter!

Waiting for a ball.

The shirt is a little too big.

Tanner got on a tee ball team through the YMCA here along with two of his friends. If he wants to he can have a lot of fun, he has just got to be in the mood. Next year if we do it I think it will be better. His attention span is just not long enough for a whole game. Our friend Mitch is the coach and does great with the kids. Here he's got them all huddled for a team cheer after their game. Go Dodgers!

CWS fun... for a little bit!

There was tons of little activities for kids-adults to do outside the stadium for the CWS. So a few of our friends all walked down with our families to let the kids play. They were all having a fun time bouncing around in this thing when I tried sticking the camera lens threw a hole in the netting to get a better picture when I heard Andrew yell with a few other adults. Tanner had bounced backwards with a big bounce and flew out the door landing on his back and bum on a stool to help the kids get in. It had rained earlier as well so he was covered in bruises and dirty water. I felt so bad for him. We were not standing by the door because there was too many people around. The lady running it was off in lala land and didn't even realize it had happened although she was supposed to be holding the door shut. What do you do?! Accidents do happen though, I know, especially with Tanner!

College World Series 2009

These pictures are not in order. But we took Andrew's mission friend and family to the opening day of the College World Series and were watching the teams practice. Then the boys thought it would be cool to go and try catching a fly ball. So we stroll to the outfield bleachers with two kids and two babies (I'm sure people thought we were terrible mother's putting them in harms way.) Andrew and Erik both tried catching one, Erik was close once. The ball came flying right at us girls with the babies. I covered Benson's head and ducked down when Erik went flying in front of me, the ball hit his hands, but he hit a bar in front of him and someone else got the ball. Finally Andrew picked Tanner up and Tanner yelled, "27, 27... my dad can't catch me a ball, throw me one!" It worked and the guy brought over a ball he caught and handed it to Tanner. He was so excited! Both boys got balls... no one got hit, (except Erik in his hands), and everyone had a blast. It was a little scary with flying balls coming straight at us though. They hit so hard!

Andrew has been able to go to one game Texas vs. Arizona? It had 12 innings and he didn't get home until about 11:30. Texas and LSU are the last teams to play so I think Andrew is hoping to go to another game. We'll see!

Benson actually had a really good time... if you couldn't tell. We'll have to do it again next year!

Benson, Andrew, Tanner, Eric T. and son Mckoy

Mckoy and Tanner were sitting about ten rows in front of us by themselves just dancing to the music playing. It was so cute to see their little heads bobbing. I got a little video of it I will hopefully add later.
Trying to get a ball with Tanner's tiny mitt.

The boys after they each got a ball.

The family!

Cement= entertainment for 3 and 4 year olds

Watching new cement being poured in.
Check out Tanner's face!

Our friend set up a pool and the kids were having a blast. I ran inside for a minute and when I came out everyone was gone. I didn't know what one earth would have been cool enough for the kids to stop swimming. I walked around the corner to find all the kids lined up behind the strung up caution tape, watching the new cement for the dumpster pad being poured in.

Sesame Street and more

The upstairs in the Children's Museum will change themes every few months and this time it is Sesame Street- My Body. Walking in it looked just like we were on Sesame Street. I was probably more excited about it then Tanner. We have recently had Andrew come along to see it and he thought it was pretty cool too!

The little eyes/faces pop up in the flutes when you play too!
Tanner was so funny, there were no real characters out but he was determined to find where they were hiding. (You could hear their voices). He kept asking me if he could look behind the curtains to see if he could see Count Dracula.
Tanner served me, took my "fake" money, and mess around at this little diner for at least a half hour. He would have kept playing had I not persuaded him to see other cool toys.
You could hear Oscar the Grouch (sp?) banging around. Tanner wanted him to come out so he could see him. I told him to knock on the can and listen. He was nervous about that and told me to do it. He took a picture of me listening. :)

A carousel was going too, so I told Tanner he could ride it but wanted to see how Benson would like it. He liked it when it was still. Same with me, I hadn't been on one for a while... it made me want to throw up.

Tanner would shoot the "bad guys" riding up behind him.

Clinging on for dear life once it got started.

Going through the obstacle course

Go Benson GO

"Boys I do adore"

Tanner curled up in a blanket on the floor so I had Andrew grab on side and I the other without Tanner knowing and started swinging him. He thought it was pretty cool so we threw Benson in with him. Benson wasn't so sure about it at first but then started laughing along with Tanner. It was tricky to try and take a picture without dropping a kid out. But mission accomplished. ;) Aren't they cute!?
What you get when pavement meets head.
Tanner was chasing around a remote control plane our neighbor has when we was looking up and skipped a step. Both of his knees were covered in blood and his face covered in tears. After cleaning him up and bandaids put on he wanted to go back out. We told him he needed to watch where he was walking so he didn't fall. Not even two minutes later he fell off the same step broke open both bandaids on his knees making them bleed more, scrapped up his elbows, and smacked his head. Ouch! He was done after that.

Brotherly love

Coming to get the camera! Yes... he finally started crawling last week! And I think I liked it better before. A lot less mess!

Walked to the zoo

I've walked to the zoo a few times with the kids. Andrew said he'd go to the zoo with us on his day off so I thought it'd be nice to walk. He didn't think so, but I loaded the kids in the stroller anyway. After we got to the zoo and watched all the animals he forgot how much he didn't want to walk there and had fun with us. Until he had to walk home after all the walking at the zoo, then the walk home being up hill most of the way. Needless to say... he ended up being a good sport... after all the complaining. :)

Feeding the birds little bird seeds on a stick. It made Tanner nervous at first with them swooping all over because there was birds everywhere. Then he realized it was kind of fun and chased the birds around to feed them. Thanks to a little girl who gave us the stick.
"Are you peacocking?"

This crazy bird was trying to pop our tires.

Look at the belly on that thing.

Fishing

These little fish love to bit what's thrown in at them which is a good thing. It keeps Tanner liking fishing with Dad, and everyone entertained. Benson just wanted to grab the fish and play with it... YUCK!

Tanner's amazing style

I think I have said before about how Tanner is very particular about what he wears and HE PICKS IT OUT. Well lately it has been very interesting. I don't have pictures of all of them of course, but here are a few.

Notice in the top picture the button snaps hanging down... yeah, it's Benson little onesie romper thing. The buttons obviously would not button up on Tanner. He put it on because there was basketballs on the front.
Sweatshirt, thick pants, snow boots, and a knights helmet.... all on a very HOT summer day. It took him only about 2 hours to change his mind about this outfit. After my persuasion.

Backwards shirt so he could see the pictures and the snow boots. I actually blame some of his cute little friends for the boots. They have rain boots they wear... which is fine. But Tanner doesn't have any so SNOW BOOTS it is!

Crazy child!

Car seats

Benson is turning one and outgrowing the infant carrier so we went and bought a new car seat for Tanner that will turn into a booster. ( I still think he is too little for a booster so we are using the 5 point.) And then put Benson in Tanner's old seat. The first car ride we took was to a lake about 15 minutes away and Benson just clapped, screamed, and smiled the whole time. He was so excited to be able to see us and everything else that is going on outside and in the car. My camera memory was full because of hundreds of pictures I hadn't dumped so it shut the video off right before he really got going. But here is still a glimpse of his first forward facing ride.