Look who is 11 months old!!!

I seriously can't believe it has been 11 months! In just 31 days I will no longer have "babies". I will have "big boys". Makes me sad and very happy at the same time. It has been so cool watching the boys start to play together over the past few months. I can't say enough good things about how great of a big brother Jonathan is. He is gentle and patient. He is constantly trying to show him how to do things. It warms my heart! Of course, there are the not so good moments, of the bumps and bruises and the "I had this first" and "he took this from me"...Okay Ben doesn't actually say those things too, but it is implied in his cry.
One thing is for sure, I love figuring this parenting thing out with Michael. He and I make a really good team, and with the 2 kids, I think we make a great family!

Ben has had a lot of firsts over the past few months, nothing can slow this kid down! One big piece of news, he has taken his first steps!!! He took them on March 19th! He had been cruising the couch for a month or so and this particular evening he was cruising and turned to grab my leg, which was still about 1.5 feet away. He realized after standing for a split second that he wasn't holding onto anything. He took one gigantic step forward, it was hilarious because he looked shocked the whole time. Then when he grabbed my leg he laughed and laughed. It kind of reminded me of when you laugh after you fall, you know instead of crying, you laugh? Either way, it was precious and I was so glad that both Michael and I were there to see it! He has taken a few more steps here and there...I am sure that by his first birthday he will be running!! For now he continues to speed crawl throuoghout the house. He loves to go up and down our long hallway and to do circles around Jonathan's train table!

Another BIG thing is that, I weaned him when he was 9 months. There were many big factors that went into this decision and was a difficult one to do, especially since my goal was to nursing him until he was a year. That being said, this was an extremely good decision for all of us. Ben switched over to the bottles extremely easily! I loved that I was able to nurse him for 9 months! It is a time that I will always treasure.

His favorite word is still "Dada"! In fact, we are all Dada. But I finally got a "Momma" the other day and few more since then! There is nothing like it! We have been really working with Jonathan and his alphabet flash cards lately and Ben has been right there under him, watching closely. So I expect that he will know his letters very soon! (I'm kidding of course! But I love how curious he is about what brother is learning...and Jonathan is doing an awesome job with his letters and numbers!)

We have a busy month ahead planning and preparing for 2 big boy birthday parties at our house! April will never be boring for us!!! It's exciting!!! Stay tuned for pictures!

This is by far one of my favorite pictures of him. He was being really sweet and I was feeding him lunch (Jonathan was at school). Then he did this with his arm and smiled at me. I was so happy I had my phone right there to grab and take a picture. As I might have mentioned before, there are times that Ben reminds me of my Dad. This is the first time I was able to capture it in a photo. Amy saw this and agreed, it's okay if you don't, you didn't know are Daddy like we did. The cool thing is Michael and I both have seen Theron, Michael's Dad, in Ben too. I think it is a blessing to have children who can carry on the legacy of our awesome parents.

He loves to clap. Any time I tell Jonathan "Good Job" - Ben will immediately start clapping! It's cool on so many levels!

I love his big beautiful eyes!

I think he looks like a doll baby!

Always happy to be here! Watching brother play at the park!

Brothers!

Spring Break 2012 - The Capitol

One of the things that was a MUST STOP for us was the Texas State Capitol. Michael had never been inside, and since he is married to the former Youth Attorney General of Texas ('98), I felt it was my duty to take him and the boys on a tour. (If you have no idea what I am talking about, then I will just have to tell you some time!)
We had a great time. It's a really beautiful building, with so much history.

We drove around a lot on Saturday and then again on Sunday morning. So Sunday afternoon, the clouds cleared right as we pulled up in front of the Capitol. Ben was still sleeping in his car seat and poor baby, I really wanted him to get as much rest as possible. So I suggested that Michael and Jonathan go run on the beautiful Capitol lawn! Jonathan had a blast!!! Ben and I stayed in the car and I got some photo's (of course) of J running! The little red speck in front of the statue is Jonathan. Only problem was, Jonathan grew really tired towards the end of our tour, probably from all the running! Oops!

As we approached the Capitol. It's just so pretty. The pink granite that was used to build this building was brought in from neighboring Marble Falls, where we visited later.

At the front door.

He ran right in and looked up, almost like he knew what he was doing or been here before!

And this is what he saw!

I like this shot.

Down one of the corridors. Each room is a Senator or Representatives office. I would love to have an office here!

He liked these chairs!

And so do I...I want one!

Details everywhere...this is the door hinge.

The beautiful House of Representatives.

Looks like an air hockey table to me!

I love these lights! I must have these!!! - The Docent walked by as I was taking this and said, "Isn't it just so neat that the star has 5 points and TEXAS has 5 letters! It works out perfectly." - :)

The Texas Senate Room. This is where, then, Governor George W Bush, spoke and I sat behind him.

I just thought these chairs were cool.

Ben was hamming it up!

We were on the top floor (the 4th floor) looking down!

What we saw when looking down!

Michael, Jonathan, Ben, Me and Sean!

This picture is taken from the underground extension. And one of my favorites.  

In the underground extension.

Heading out...LET'S EAT!

 

Spring Break 2012 - The Trip

Traveling on the road was one of the best parts of the trip. We are very blessed that both boys like being in the car and are content to stay in their car seats. I was a little worried about them getting bored in the car...so I did my best to pack games, snacks, and I downloaded new videos to my iPad. The thing that did the trick, and in my opinion, saved the trip - The Laurie Berker Band CD (The Best of)...

We listened to this CD almost every single time we were in the car! Very catchy tunes that the whole family enjoyed! "We are the Dinosaurs" of course was already one of Jonathan's favorites, "Moon Moon Moon" quickly became one of his favorites, and we loved to hear him sing it. "Victor Vito" is my personal favorite, along with "Bumblebee"!!! If you have a child in the pre-school age group, you MUST have this CD in your car at all times! :)

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Jonathan's statement of choice on the drive down was "This is taking forever..." But occasionally he would say, "Are we in Austin yet?" We would always respond, "No, not yet, we will let you know once we are!" So as we finally arrived in Austin, I was driving, Michael wasn't feeling well, Ben was asleep, it was raining really hard, I was trying to figure out where the hotel was...etc, etc...you get the idea. So as we drive into our hotel parking lot, the La Quinta, Jonathan said, "Are we in Austin?" and I said, "Oh, YES, sorry buddy, yes, we are in Austin." I look back to see him scrunch his nose and give the hotel a once over and looks at me and says, "THIS is Austin?" I quickly tried back tracking, knowing where his head was going..."No, this is a hotel that is located IN Austin. Austin is a city"...etc. He told me he understood and we moved on...or so I thought.

Days later, we are leaving San Antonio and from the back seat Jonathan, very excitedly screams, "There is Austin!!!" Both Michael and I are confused and looking around...and all the sudden, I see it. One parking lot over is the La Quinta, or until further notice, Austin.

As we got to our room that rainy afternoon in the La Quinta/Austin, I ran over to the heater to crank it up, but it wouldn't turn on. Michael messed with it, then called the front desk. The front desk sent up a guy who messed with it and decided it didn't work. - Sigh - But Bad News - No more rooms in the hotel (or anywhere else) because of SXSW and Spring Break. Good news - we now get the room for free! AND they were able to fix the heater!

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Speaking of Hotels...the one we stayed at in San Antonio was AWESOME! I think Michael's face said it all when we walked in. It's the little things, but when traveling with 4 people, space is a must! This room had 2 rooms separate by a big door. We had 2 queen beds and a bathroom. The other was a living room/ kitchen with a couch, chair, dinner table and TV of course. We had all the kitchen appliances too, which helped so much with all the bottles and cups that we brought along! The location of this hotel was awesome too! We were right there on the Riverwalk. I would highly recommend this hotel! The Hilton Homewood Suites! We thoroughly enjoyed our stay!

Thank you Hotel for the free newspaper, Ben said it was tasty!

We need to get one of these closets with a mirror on it! It kept him busy!

One of the great things about having 2 rooms...our little early riser and I hung out in the living/kitchen for hours while the other boys slept!

The boys loved looking out at the Riverwalk from our hotel lobby!

They thought it was super cool to see the boat that we road on the day before, it was the same guy that drove our boat too!!!

Jumping around...

We had been in the car what seemed like all day on Saturday. So on Sunday, the rain cleared when we arrived at the Capitol. So we let Jonathan go run around while Ben slept in the car. Jonathan had so much fun! He was running and chasing squirrels!  

Driving around Austin...I had to go to one of my parents favorite spots...Guadalupe Street. Lots of memories of trips with them. There was a computer shop that Dad liked to go to and Mom would take Amy and shopping at all these boutiques down the street. It is a very different street now. But it was still cool to drive down.

I thought this was too funny not to share. I think they are parks and rec guys! :)

So one of the most asked questions is, "So did you go to the Alamo?" - Well the answer is yes, we drove by...it was crazy busy, crazy hot and we were crazy tired and ready to go home. So here is the picture...I stuck my camera out the window as we drove by! We will return and tour it one of these days!

Example of the crazy tired boys on the way home (You can see Ben sleeping in the mirror). They both crashed pretty quickly once we hit the road and slept for about 2 hours. Michael and I enjoyed the silence and the view as we drove up 281 through Hill Country.

Spring Break 2012 - San Jose

When I was in 8th grade, my class took a field trip down to San Antonio to do a tour of the Missions. The San Jose Mission was the one, besides the Alamo, that stood out to me the most. When Michael and I planned this trip, we decided to skip Sea World (since the boys were so young and it is so expensive) and we were going to do the Mission tour. There are 5 major Missions in San Antonio. Well, we did 1 of the 5, but we did my favorite, so it is okay!
The San Jose is known as "The Queen of the Missions". It was established in 1720 and was used as a model for other missions. It was a social and cultural center that housed 300 residents. I thought it looked like a pretty cool place to live...as did Jonathan, who continued to say through our tour, "I wanna live here!" (I'll remember that buddy!)
The tour was definitely enjoyed by all 4 of us! I highly recommend if you are in town! I had fun and fancied myself a photographer. Please enjoy the beautiful San Jose...

The Church

Jonathan inside the defender wall.

The homes. This is where Jonathan wanted to live.

Knock Knock. Lemme in!

Jonathan: "They aren't answering!!!"
Me: "No one has lived there for a very long time."
Jonathan: "Okay, then I want to live here!"

Love the cactus on the roof. Jonathan called it "Cass-muss".

Really cool old tree.

I did my best Snow White..."I'm wishing, for the one I love, to find me"...but I already found my prince charming!