My Benny

A small sampling of Ben's very random thoughts for you:

Ben: "Hey Daniel, have you ever lived in a cinnamon house?"
Daniel: "Umm.... no."
Ben: "Well, I have. It's very cool! The walls are all made of cinnamon & when you walk in everything smells like cinnamon."

*****

Ben: "Mom, we need to put Justin back in the baby machine."
Mom: "Why?"
Ben: "Because they didn't make him right. Look, his head is too big for his body!"

*****

Last year, when we asked Ben what he wanted for his birthday he very confidently said "A machine that shoots out pillows and then turns them into flan!" I didn't know quite what to expect for this year so today I asked him what he would like. Here is his answer:
Ben: "I want a baby Tapir or a platypus. But actually, the book says that platypuses have poison so it might be dangerous for me. Maybe you should just get me a Tapir. And don't worry, Tapirs live in the forest so we can just plant a lot of trees in the yard to make a forest for him so he won't die."

*****

Ben: "Mom, you are the queen ant and I'm the soldier ant that protects you, but oh no! we don't have a king so the kingdom will be torn unless we can find a king. Oh, I know, I'll go call my friend Jim. He lives down the street. He will be a good king for us. He knows how to rule everything, even fish and eagles."

*****

Michael & Joy came for a visit and Michael had some cookies for the kids. First he went to Lily and said "Lily, what's my name?" Lily answered "Michael!" So Michael gave her a cookie and she said "Thank you!"
Now, Ben was watching this and his eyes grew wide when he saw that Lily had gotten a cookie. He couldn't wait for his turn. So Michael turns to Ben and says "Ben, what's my name?" And Ben just looks at him all excited and says "Thank you!!!"

New Hair

Lily wanted to change her hairstyle and go really short instead, so Chris gave her the cutest haircut. Here are the 'before & after shots':

Long hair... ...and now it's short!

I think it suits her.

And speaking of haircuts, I got something a little different too. I had to get rid of all the dead ends so I just told the hairdresser to do whatever she thought would look good on me. You like?

He has a tooth!

My handsome got his first tooth! He's only 3 months old. Both Lily and Ben got their first tooth at 8 months.

He'd been fussier than usual for a few days but still not too bad so I didn't realize he was teething till last night I saw a white spot on his gum. I felt it and sure enough, his first tooth is breaking through. He's such a big boy!

To celebrate, I dressed him up like the big boy he is and had a blast taking cute pics. Enjoy!

And one random shot of Daddy being weird...

"Wuzup dude?!"

My little crab!

Ever since we told Ben that he was a crab (cancer) he's been fascinated by them. Today he got a special surprise; a friend brought him 2 crabs! He was so happy when he saw them that he couldn't stop jumping up and down. He was so excited!

I asked him what he was going to name them and without even stopping to think about it he replied: "One will be Justin and the other will be Alex!" Just like his baby brother.

Tonight he kept running out of our parent time activity to check on his crabs. It's so cute! I followed him once to see what he was doing and I saw him shaking their little aquarium. When I asked him why he was doing that he said: "I need to shake it to make sure they're still alive!" Great reasoning!

I don't know the first thing about taking care of crabs (apparently they eat turtle food which is good for us as the kids have turtles so it'll be cheaper to buy them all the same thing) so we'll have to do some research so we can care for them properly.

Speaking of pets, a while ago Tory bought Lily a cute little Beta fish. Thank you Tory! I love the fact that they're so easy to care for.

Lily named her fish Nemo, of course. He's a feisty little guy! The other day we hadn't cleaned his bowl in a while and he must've gotten pretty fed up with the dirty water, as he jumped straight out of his bowl and into my make-up bag. Chris and Lily were all excited trying to catch him and put him back in his bowl. After Chris's professional CPR treatment he was back to normal.

Now we just have to bring the turtles down from the other house and our pet collection will be complete!

A few more...

My baby can swim!

Well, maybe not 'swim' quite yet but at least he's one step closer. He went in the pool today! I was so proud of him because the water is really cold and he didn't even cry. Here are the pics:

Snuggle time with Daddy before going in.

First wet a toe to test the water...

then slowly go deeper...

...until he's all wet.

Don't let the faces fool you. He looks like he's yelling but not a peep came out of his mouth.

Ah, so much better without the soggy diaper.

Oliver had some more pics of him in a floaty but they're still on his camera so I'll just put these up for now. Love you!

Happy Birthday Irene!

Happy Birthday Irene! We love you and pray the Lord gives you the desires of your heart this year.

Chris wanted to be the first to call you today like you were the first to call him on his birthday, but sleep got the better of him, heh! He still loves you though!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

To all the beautiful mothers in our family...

Happy Mother's Day Mom! I love you so much. You're such an awesome Mom. Thank you for how you raised me and for always being there for me. You'll always be tops in this sonny boy's books. I love you!

Rosy, you're such a loving mommy! You're doing a great job in raising my handsome little nephew and I know you'll do great with the next one too.

You are going to be an awesome mom Ruth. Hope you have a great Mother's day. We'll be praying for the delivery.

¡Te quiero mucho Mami! Gracias por todo lo que has hecho por mi. Eres una madre increible y espero poder seguir tu ejemplo, en especial tu paciencia ya que solo tengo 3 hijos y muchas veces se me acaba. ¡No se como lograste mantenerte tan calmada y tranquila con 7! ¡Te amo mucho! ¡Feliz Dia!

I love you! I don't even have to tell you you're a great mom cuz the Lord wouldn't have given you 4 beautiful kids if He didn't think you'd do a good job! Happy Mother's Day!

I love you Irene! You're a sample mom! I'm always impressed with how patiently you handle your little guys and how much love you have for them.

Happy Mother's Day! Julie is such a little doll and I'm so happy you made her our niece. You are a wonderful mom and I know you'll be a great teacher too! Julie is in good hands.

We love you all so much and wish you a wonderful Mother's Day! xxx

Danny & Irene's visit.

Here are the pics I mentioned of Danny & Irene's visit. We had family day together & the kids had so much fun. They hadn't seen their cousins in a while.

Beautiful Sheila, looking tired after a long day of fun in the sun.

My handsome nephews, Donny & Arthur. Well, actually Donny is handsome, Arthur is just cute, heh.

I love this boy so much! He's so perfectly cute. His crazy personality is so adorable. Just watching him pretend to be a wild tiger caught in a cage (the trampoline net) made me want to keep him. When the time came for them to go home he asked his mom if he could "live with Auntie Naty forever 'cuz it's so fun". Awwww, he just melts my heart.

Since we had several guys visiting they organized a basketball game in the morning while the moms stayed home with the kids.

Unfortunately since Chris was taking the pics I don't have any of him playing.

When they got home we had a great pizza lunch and then the O'Conner boys entertained the kids with their crazy flips and dives in the pool. Following are the pics that Lily and Ben thought were the 'coolest' and asked me to post. Enjoy!

All in all we had a very fun day and hope to do it again soon. Danny & Irene are about to move but I hear their new house is very nice so next time we just might go visit them.

Adieu for now!