Safari

On Jon's day off we took Benjamin and Andrew to a little drive through Safari. It was a nice drive up, both boys slept which gave us a little peace and quiet. We were put into this caged cart that a tractor pulled. Once the animals saw us they came running. They would stick their head in looking for food. I tried to feed one of the animals but got a little nervous. Jon then took over in the feeding and I took over holding Andrew sitting as far away from the animals as possible. I know that they wouldn't bite us, especially since they didn't have bottom teeth, but I was still a little nervous at how aggressive they were with putting their heads so close to us. Ben was nervous to feed them too so he would throw the food out or put it on the seat and the animals would stick their tongues out to lick it up. He had fun looking at all the animals. Andrew on the other hand probably didn't really care. He was too busy spitting up. I wonder if he might get motion sick, especially since the ride was pretty bumpy. After we headed back to San Antonio and stopped at one of our favorite Mexican Restaurants for lunch. They have a playground so Ben was able to play while we waited for our food and after he was done eating. It was just a fun day for a drive and spending time together. We sure do enjoy the time Jon has off and can spend time with us.

2009

2009 has been a full year with many changes for our family. Jon graduated from school in May. This lead to a big move for our family. We headed to San Antonio for Jon to start Residency. We miss our friends from Rochester but have been making new ones here. Jon is doing a transition year, which means he does a little of everything before starting Radiology full-time. He's had some hard rotations with very long hours and gone a lot but we have taken them one day at a time and are reminded about how grateful we are he chose Radiology. We are also so grateful that he has a stable job. We added a new member to our family. Andrew came into the world on Halloween. He has been fun to have. Even though he keeps me up at night he sure is a cutie. We love having him with us and are very excited to see his personality shine and what type of person he will become. Benjamin has had a big year. He became potty trained, ended going to Nursery at church, started speech therapy and preschool. He loves going to school. He knows the Pledge of Allegiance, has memorized several bible verses and many new songs. He is going through the alphabet and is able to write the first two letters of his name. It's fun doing groceries with him because he will tell me the number or letter of the aisle that we are on. He is starting to grow into such a big boy. I on the other hand am trying to learn to juggle two children on very little sleep. I am working on trying to be a good mom (I'm reading as many help books as I can, any suggestions?) and learning to be patient with the 14-16 year old kids I teach at church. All in all it was a good year. We are excited to see what 2010 has in store for us!

Bowling

We took Benjamin bowling the other day. He has a little critter book that talks about going to the movies and bowling. after we finish reading each page he say,"I want to go to the movies." or "I want to go bowling." We've taken him to the budget theater a couple pf times so when Jon had the day off on Saturday we took him bowling. He had the bumpers on and used a ramp to help roll the ball down the lane. The first game Jon won and the second game Ben won. I really need to work on my bowling skills. It was fun though to see his excitement. Now when we read the story he says, "I went bowling." It's fun to try and find new things to discover with Ben. Below is the video of him bowling.

Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam

Benjamin started Sunbeams this year. It's so hard to believe that he is old enough to be a sunbeam. I taught sunbeams for several years, they grow so much from the time they start sunbeams through the end of the year, so it's hard to believe that my baby is going to learn and grow so much this year. On his first Sunday he was a little unsure what was happening since he had to meet in the chapel first but once his little friends from nursery started to show up he became more confident. In preschool he is learning to spell his name as they learn the alphabet, so he has the B and E down. His primary teacher was impressed that he was able to start writing his name on his coloring paper. He also came home singing "Once there was a Snowman." We asked him how he liked Sunbeams and he said, "Good." We got a few other one word answers about the day, but over all he seemed to enjoy it. Jon was a little concerned awhile back that Ben would be a sunbeam that wasn't fully potty trained. I kept reassuring him that all the sunbeams I ever taught were potty trained. Ben became officially potty trained about a week or two before Christmas. He no longer needs a pull-up at night and he goes poop in the potty without announcing it to us. He started speech therapy last week and seemed to enjoy it. The therapist said he did great. The goal is for him to work on his pronouns, plurals, and prepositions. We are so proud of him and that he is growing up to be such a big boy. It's sad to see at the same time but we sure do love having him in our family and love him to pieces.

2 Months

Andrew turned 2 months on the 31st. It's hard to believe how fast the months have gone. It feels like yesterday that he was born. He had his check-up on the 31st. He weighed in at 12lbs. 13 oz. and is 23.5 in. long. He has an umbilical hernia, which the doctor said will heal on it's own but will take several years. We just have to watch and make sure that the intestine poking out will always go back in when we press on it. Personally, I think Jon jinxed him when he was so worried about it happening with Benjamin. He got his shots that day too. He didn't do as well with them as Ben did when he was young. He slept a lot for the next 24 hours after. He has also started to smile. It takes a little coaking or teasing with the Binky, but we can manage to get a few happy grins out of him. We sure do love having him around. We think he will be a great addition to our family.