Beth, Brian, Bennett, Quinn, & Everett

Halloween!

2011-11-10T19:49:00.001-06:00

We had a busy Halloween, as usual, starting with some pictures with the neighborhood kids (Bennett was not thrilled, as you can tell in these pictures), and then moving on to Grandma Wales' house (Bennett has decided that's what he's going to call her. Not sure where he came up with that!) where all of Brian's side of the family was waiting to see the kids all dressed up. Bennett got to go with the big kids on a hayride around the neighborhood. The highlight was a "monster house" with blue lights and spooky sounds. We had to drive by it, per his request/demand, after I picked him up. We stopped by my parents' house after that, but the twins were already asleep, so Bennett did some solo trick-or-treating there. We also made a couple other stops by Aunt Marilyn's house and the Judys' house. Bennett got more than enough candy!!

The twins are quickly approaching their 7 month birthdays, so here are there 6 month pictures. I don't know why, but 7 months sound so much older than 6! Quinn is reminding me more and more of her Aunt Brooke because of the volume of her voice :) She wakes up the whole house every morning with her singing. I guess it's a lot better than waking up to her crying, but at 5:15...what's the difference?! Ha! And Everett wins the award for Most Improved. He has been miserable a lot of his first 6 months with tummy and ear issues. Now that he is mobile and has discovered toys, he is an animal. He wants to play and will practically jump out of my arms when he gets excited. He has the BIGGEST smile on his face most of the time. He is still miserable at night, which we can't figure out, but we are hoping that putting tubes in his ears (Wed.) will help.

And they both have discovered food now and can't get enough. They LOVE baby food and Baby Mum Mum crackers. Quinn is pretty vocal when I hesitate for 1 second while feeding her. She's hungry!!

And Bennett is still loving his time at the Puppy Pound. They recently went to a pumpkin patch and to Shatto Dairy Farm. Grandma Dee (again...he came up with that name) got to take Bennett and Laiken on the trip to the farm. He got to see how the farm works, pet some cows, and taste some of their unique flavors of milk (although after he tasted and didn't like the banana, he refused to try others). I can't believe he is going to be 3 years old in less than 2 months. I wish he could stay 2 forever! I still hang on his every word and crack up at everything he says. I'll have to post a video soon of some of our conversations.

October 2011

2011-11-02T14:49:00.002-05:00

October has come to an end! I'll do a separate Halloween post, so for now here are some pictures of everyone from the month. We spent a lot of time outside because the weather has been so nice. I'm still trying to get a real photo shoot of the kids in before it gets too cold. (I type this as the reports of possible snow are coming in!!)

I finally got a picture of myself with all 3 kids. And I have 2 smiling and 2 looking at the camera. Not bad :) Everett is the only show-boat doing both!

Quinn and Everett are really interested in playing now. Brian and I are thankful! We were getting bored just holding babies! I know that sounds terrible, and I'm sure I'll regret saying it as soon as they are on the move and I can't keep track of anyone.

We've attended quite a few Fall activities, including Kearney's Halloween Hallows. It was so fun and it was totally free. That's hard to find these days! They had all sorts of activities and snacks for the kids, all set to an alien theme. Brooke and my mom helped me take all of the kids plus Corbin and Laiken.

We also celebrated Laiken's 3rd birthday with a weenie roast. We made "campfire cones" and roasted them over the fire as well. And Papa took them for a hayride. The weather was perfect, and everyone enjoyed it!

Here are some photos from our busy month...

September

2011-09-26T20:32:00.006-05:00

September is coming to and end! I turned the big 3-0 this month, and we also celebrated the marriage of my cousin Lexi and Stu. We love Stu and are so happy for the both of them. Bennett really likes hanging out with Stu. They spent a few days with us over the 4th of July holiday and the two of them were best buds. We like to call Stu by his Bennett-given name, "Sthu". At the wedding, Bennett had a BLAST dancing and playing with Stu's son, Robert.

I am loving my new job and absolutely love having the kids there with me a few days a week. Getting out of our house and into the school in the morning is quite the task on the days they join me, but it's wonderful to be able to go see them during my breaks. I try not to annoy the women who work down there and keep my visits short and sweet :)

This month, Bennett has been cracking us up because he is adamant that he only wants to be "Bennett Dean Freeman" for Halloween. He started out saying he wanted to be Woody from Toy Story, but then a lightbulb went off and he changed his mind. I think today, I may have gotten him to consider some other options, but we'll see...

Bennett and I also have a CD that we listen to together in my car. It has about 15 of his favorite hits, including, "Baby I Like It", "Break Your Heart", "Mamma Said Knock You Out", and his all time favorite, "Hey Hey Song" (which is really titled "A-Punk"). There are also a few songs from the Rio movie soundtrack. He loves the parts that Will I Am from the Black Eyed Peas sings. He's been spending too much time around my mom! Ha!

Quinn and Everett are really getting personalities and we love it. Quinn continues to be smiley, but now she's adding a lot of chatter. And it's LOUD. I think she's going to be a lot like her Aunt Brooke. And Everett is still my sweet snuggler, but he's wanting to play a bit more on his own. He flips right over and somehow gets himself to the toy he wants. I'm predicting early crawling for both. They also both love when Bennett comes to talk to them. Bennett was the first person to get a good laugh out of Everett. The women at the Puppy Pound (their daycare) tell me often that they are thankful for our kids because they are so good. That never gets old!

Here are some recent photos:

Long Overdue Update

2011-08-30T20:34:00.000-05:00

(I've actually attempted to update this a couple times before, but Blogger drives me nuts! The photos weren't uploading right, and it's hard to find time to get back and try again. Sorry!)

Quinn and Everett are now 4 montha old. I'm going to get better about updating this, so for now, I'm just posting the 3 month pictures and next week I'll post the 4 month pictures. Plus, Quinn needs a reshoot :) She wasn't a happy camper when we did yesterday's photoshoot, so I'm going to let her try again!

I can hardly believe they are already 4 months old! They are really starting to interact with us, and we love it. Bennett loves to get right up in their faces (as you can imagine!) and make them smile and laugh. He still has a clenched up look on his face anytime he touches them. It's like he wants to squeeze their guts out. ha! But he's never rough with them. He has adjusted to being a big brother really well!

And Bennett amazes us every day. We think his vocabulary and conversational skills are pretty amazing. We've heard it from the Parents as Teachers teacher and many others. We love watching Bennett and Laiken play pretend with their toys because the conversations the two of them have are hilarious. I could listen to them all day.

Bennett has also become quite the swimmer. I'll try to post a video (if Blogger cooperates) next time. He no longer uses wings and can swim under water on his own. He can swim pretty far without taking a breath. We are working on the part where he needs to pick his head up for a breath. And he can even turn himself around and go back to the stairs. I'm so impressed! The first 2 months of the summer, he wouldn't even put his face in the water or jump off the side (which was odd because he would do that last summer). Then, in just a matter of days, he went from doing a few jumps off the side, to wanting me to take him around the pool w/o his wings, to totally swimming on his own. He just had his ear tubes removed this week, so swimming time is over for the summer. I'm bummed, but we can take him to the Community Center to swim until next summer. We don't want him to forget his skills!

In other big news, I started a job teaching at the Jr High in Kearney. I love it! I'm teaching with the teacher who inspired me to pick English as my subject to teach. This might be her last year, so I'm excited I got there before she left. Another big reason why I made the move was because there is a daycare in the building, so the kids can come with me and be there with me all day! I love it! I can check on them during any breaks I have if I need to. On the days they don't come with me, my mom watches them at our house. It is working great so far!

Enjoy the pictures below and check back soon! I'll try my best to do better.

June/July

2011-07-18T18:18:00.000-05:00

The summer if flying by too quickly! I actually have to start my school meetings this week :( I can't believe it! We have been packing in the activities over the last few weeks, and Brian and I both even got to attend weekend get-aways with our friends. We are so lucky/thankful that we have such great families who love spending time with our kids!

Here are some recent photos of the kids. The last few pictures are from a visit to Deanna Rose Farmstead. It is such a great place for kids! And it's free during the week and only $2 on the weekends. Crazy! We spent a whole day there, and were joined by Laiken, Brooke, my mom, and Aunt Linda. It was so fun!

Month-By-Month

2011-06-19T21:55:00.006-05:00

My friend, Rachel, got me these adorable month stickers for Quinn and Everett. Each month, on their "birthday" you are supposed to stick the sticker onto a plain white onesie and take a photo. It's a fun way to track their growth. I already am amazed at how much they have changed in the past month! Here are the 1 and 2 month photos.

6 Week Check-up For Quinn and Everett

2011-06-03T22:34:00.000-05:00

Wow! Being a family of 5 is definitely keeping us busy! I haven't been able to post much on here, and I haven't taken near as many photos of these two as I did when Bennett was first born. I know that happens to every 2nd/3rd child :)

Quinn and Everett had their 6-week appointment last week, and everything went well. Brian's Grammy (Betty A.) helped me out while Brian was in a class. Thank goodness she came, because they both had to be stripped down the whole time and both had 3 shots. Poor babies! They BOTH weighed in at 9lbs 10oz. I had been wondering who was bigger....I guess neither one won that contest. I also am not sure how accurate that weight is. It was the same scale that seemed to be almost a pound off the first time we went. Last time, it had shown a full pound weight gain in just a few days from the time the in-home nurse came to weigh them. Not sure that's possible. Also, they are still in newborn-sized clothes that go up to 8lbs. Either way, they are sure growing a ton. And Everett even has a little fat roll on his leg! We never saw that with Bennett! He was super skinny as a baby, and still to this day has a hard time keeping his pants up.

As far as personalities go, they are almost complete opposites! Quinn is a quiet happy baby, who is already giving us tons of smiles. She is awake a lot during the day, but is pretty content. She also doesn't like to snuggle too much; she's too busy squirming.

Everett is a cuddler! He wants to be held all the time, and gets pretty upset when he's awake and not being held. We aren't sure that he's colicky since, as I understand it, colicky babies can't be consoled. He gets quiet the second he's picked up and hugged. We've had some rough days with him, but the good thing is, he sleeps well at night. He wakes up a few times still, but he just cries a bit, eats, and goes right back to sleep. No big crying fits in the night.

And big brother is doing so well adjusting to our new life. He loves to "pet" the babies...although he seems to prefer whichever baby is sleeping. Ha! He also likes to get under the little playmat mobile thing with both of them, and I even caught him reading "Harry the Dirty Dog" to Everett under there the other day. Cute! He has learned their names quickly and knows that one is a girl and one is a boy. We are doing our best to still do some things with Bennett by himself, and recently took him to see Rio and also went to Jiggle Jam at Crown Center. He's a lot like me in that he likes to me on the go and doesn't like to stick around the house!

Here are some photos (including the birth announcement for Q and E). Enjoy!

A Different Set of Twins

2011-05-23T15:06:00.000-05:00

We found a photo of my mom as a baby, and quickly realized that Everett looks exactly like her! Check it out:

They're Here!

2011-04-26T10:45:00.000-05:00

Quinn Nicole Freeman arrived on Wednesday, April 13th at 3:53 pm, weighing in at 6lbs 12oz and measuring 19.5 inches. She has a head FULL of dark hair. We are shocked!

Everett Drew Freeman arrived shortly after at 4:35 pm, weighing in at 6lbs 8oz and measuring 19 inches. He hardly has any hair, but what he does have looks kind of sandy blonde (and maybe even strawberry blonde).

Both babies are doing great! Everett had to spend one extra day at the hospital (and Quinn, my mom, and I joined him) because of some jaundice issues, but we were able to all come home Saturday morning.

Life with twins and a 2 year has already proven to be exhausting and hectic, but we are learning as we go! Bennett is pretty excited about the babies, but also takes time to do his own thing. We are excited that he's adjusting well (and hope it continues)!

Here are some photos from the first few days:

Induction Date Set!

2011-04-07T20:41:00.004-05:00

I'm so excited! The babies will be here no later than next Wednesday, April 13th. I can't believe it's already time, but I'm also more than ready! At last check, 2 weeks ago, Quinn was measuring at 6 lbs and Everett was at 5 lbs 10 oz. My guess is that by now, they are each close to 7 lbs. I'm so glad they are growing so well, and it seems to me like they should avoid any NICU time and get to come right home with us. I'm not sure that I ever posted about Everett flipping to breech position. He had been head down until 2 weeks ago, and I was devastated. I did not want a c-section and the 2 OBGYNs I talked to after getting this news said that they would only do a c-section with E being breech. Today, I asked a different OBGYN, and he gave me the news I wanted...He feels comfortable letting me try to have them vaginally! So, we've set the induction date around his schedule. Hope it all works out. There is still a chance that they could deliver Quinn and then have to do a c-section for Everett, but that's the worst case scenario. I don't think the doctor would let me try vaginally if he felt there was a good chance of that happening. So, that's the latest! Wish us luck!

Spring Break 2011

2011-03-16T16:22:00.002-05:00

Bennett, Brooke, and I went to the park AND the warm pool at the Community Center today. We are both on spring break, and she has been my life saver this week, helping with Bennett! I'm carrying around at least 10 lbs of baby right now, so keeping up with a 2-year old isn't easy.

Apparently, we wore him out...

I'm almost 34 weeks along now, which means that in 2 weeks, the OBGYN would not stop labor if it occurred naturally. Tomorrow, during my appointment, I'm going to see how far along I need to be before being induced. I really want to make it to April 8, which would be exactly 37 weeks and is right in the middle of that 2-week window the OB gave me. But, each day gets harder, and to be honest, more depressing. I can't play with Bennett much and I can barely walk up the stairs. We have so much to get done at the house/in the nursery, so I'm tackling it a little bit at a time.

I'll try to post an update ASAP if I get any info from the doctor tomorrow. The last few appointments have been pointless!

Update on Twins, Plus Valentine's Day Photos

2011-02-13T17:25:00.004-06:00

At our last visit to the OB, the twins were still looking good. They are now both over 3lbs! I can definitely feel it. I think my days of exercising are almost over. I went on a 45 minute walk today (in my mom's neighborhood, which is pretty hilly) and barely made it!

There was one little red flag this time around, and that was a "blob" in Quinn's belly. The sonogram tech wasn't too concerned because she said that tumors don't look like whatever this thing was. They are usually more rigid. We saw a perinatologist on Friday, and she confirmed that it wasn't anything to worry about. They both seem to think it's just something she swallowed. I personally don't understand why it didn't pass through her system from Tuesday to Friday, but I guess we'll just wait and see when I go back in next Tuesday.

They want to see me once every two weeks for the next month and then once a week after that. Really, the only thing different from a pregnancy with one baby is all of the sonograms (which we love). You can see the latest pictures below. This time we didn't get a great shot of Quinn, but Everett's is incredible!

As for Bennett, he continues to crack us up daily. I just can't believe his vocabulary. He doesn't just speak a sentence at a time, it is now real conversation. He also has a pretty active imagination. The other night, he and I played "catch" with an invisible ball for about 20 minutes. It was completely his idea and he did some really good acting! He's also come up with....lies! About a month ago, he told Brian that I pushed him! We weren't even in the same room together and I was blow drying my hair. He did something like that again this week, saying that my dad hit him in the face. I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff, but I sure hope he doesn't say things like that at school! Ha!

I've added a few photos from a really quick Valentine's Day shoot I set up in the garage on Saturday. He actually looked at the camera and smiled a few times, and I was thrilled!! Isn't he handsome?!

Snow Day Dance Party

2011-02-01T19:17:00.000-06:00

We've had lots of time to kill this winter due to snow days, and looks like we'll have at least one more snow day, if not two this week! I won't have to make these days up because I'll be on maternity leave, BUT each snow day is tagged onto the end of the school year and will be an unpaid day for me. That makes them a little less fun. :(

Here's a quick clip of what we did during today's blizzard!

Christmas and Bennett's 2nd Birthday

2011-01-17T18:30:00.001-06:00

Between Christmas, Bennett's birthday, a double dose of pink eye, snow days, and my grandma falling ill, things have been nuts around here. Its halfway through January and I'm just getting Christmas photos up. Sorry!

We made our usual stops this Christmas, but this year, added a trip to Fairfax. We haven't been together with my mom's side of the family like that in years, so it was nice. My grandma moved into her newly renovated house this summer, so now we all have room to sprawl out. (By the way, she is doing much better than a couple weeks ago. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and things were not looking good for a while. Brooke and I were able to go spend a night there last weekend and she was already looking like she had some color and some strength back.)

Bennett was spoiled again this Christmas. Here's a list of some of the gifts he got:

-A massive train table

-Lots of dragon and dinosaur toys, including a jumbo sized talking dino and his fave movie, How to Train Your Dragon.

-A remote control car (with just two simple buttons to make it easy for him)

-A remote control Toy Story train set

-A remote control Thomas the Train

-A little push-along 4 wheeler

-Lots of books, Play Doh, pajamas and so much more!

His birthday party was at Grammy Kim's again this year. We appreciate her letting us take over her basement! We narrowed the invite list down a bit this year and just invited immediate family and friends of ours who have kids Bennett's age. I think they all had a good time at his dinosaur-themed party. Bennett's favorite part: the chocolate cake!

He is speaking completely in full sentences now, which is pretty dang good for a newly turned 2 year old. I've done a little better about videoing him, so I'll get some of those added soon. Sometimes he amazes us with the things he says and comes up with. He's too smart for his own good!

We went in for a 2-year check up today and he's over 3 ft tall which is in the 95th percentile for height. His weight is still on the lower end. I figure he'll be built just like Brian!

The twins are growing like weeds and each gained a whole pound in the last month. I've gained quite a bit myself! I blame the breaks from school and the holidays :) We got a couple of 3D photos of them last week, so I'll get those scanned and post them ASAP. Also, we have decided for sure on names: the girl will be Quinn and the boy will be Everett. We love both names and think they go well together and with Bennett.

That's all for now. Here are some photos!

Logan's Wedding (and Visit with Santa)

2010-12-17T15:26:00.000-06:00

Can you tell I've been busy? I haven't updated this for almost a month! That's a record...and not a good one. I'll try to get better!

Between our busy schedules, computer issues (we finally got a new one!!), and plain ol' exhaustion, this hasn't been a priority. Sorry!

Here are some photos from Logan and Ciara's wedding. Bennett was a ring bearer and Brian was one of the Best Men. Bennett did great, and was really enthusiastic about his job, yelling "Hi-Ya" (think karate) when he entered. I've never in my life heard him say that, and I've never heard it since!

We are all really impressed with Bennett's vocabulary. He holds real conversations, and has been doing that for a while now. Even the Parents as Teacher teacher said that his conversational vocabulary was impressive. I definitely need to get some video footage of him talking! I'm so bad about getting out the video camera.

Christmas is about a week away, and I've gone overboard this year. I think it's because this is the first year Bennett can get excited about everything. We have a huge train table to put together Christmas Eve. I can't wait to see the expression when he comes downstairs to see what "Santa" brought!!

The last picture is one from a visit to Aunt Brooke's school. Bennett was a celebrity! One mom even said to Brooke, "You know you aren't supposed to bring someone to upstage Santa!" Ha! It was so true though. He has a swarm of kids around him at all times.

As for the twins, they have definitely had a growth spurt this last month. I already feel huge! I'm 21 weeks now, and they told me they won't let me go past 38 weeks (April 15). I've kind of decided in my head that I'll stop working April 1. I just know I'll be miserable at that point and won't be able to keep up with work and spending good time with Bennett. It's hard enough now!

Enjoy the pictures and I'll check back in next week after Christmas!

It's a Girl and a Boy!

2010-11-23T16:57:00.000-06:00

From the looks of the sonogram at 16 weeks, Baby A is a girl and Baby B is a boy! We are thrilled! I really had no guess this time. Brian was sure we were having two more boys.

The tech found the boy first and then had a harder time distinguishing the sex of Baby A, but was confident by the end of our session that she is a girl. I hope she's right, because I've already gone out and bought some girly things! :)

We go back December 9 for the sonogram where they'll really examine both babies and make sure everything is looking good.

I'm feeling much better these days; no more morning sickness, but still pretty tired. I usually go to bed when Bennett does, around 8:30pm. I figure this is my honeymoon phase where I'm not sick anymore, and not miserably huge. You can definitely tell I'm pregnant now. It took longer than I expected! I'm sure my belly will grow "fast and furious" now!

Bennett kept telling us he wanted "two sisters," but I'm not quite sure he even knew what that meant-so hopefully he's not too disappointed. Ha!

Omaha and Halloween

2010-11-06T09:27:00.000-05:00

We had a busy, busy October, and ended it all by going to Omaha for a quick weekend vacation. I had Friday off from school because we had parent-teacher conferences the couple days prior, so I figured it'd be a good time to go.

We headed to Fairfax on Thursday evening and stayed at my grandma's new house. Unfortunately, she was in the hospital with low blood pressure, so we only got to see her for a bit when we stopped by there on our way out of town. (She's back at home and feeling better now.)

Friday morning, we headed to Vala's Pumpkin Patch and were amazed! We didn't even do the actual pumpkin patch part and were still there for 3 hours. Bennet had a great time, and rode his first pony! He was very brave and even wanted to me to go "sit down" after a couple laps.

That evening, we stayed at Coco Keys Water Resort. Bennett is probably still a bit young to really enjoy it, but we still had fun. They had a toddler section with shallow water and a lazy river, where we spent most of our time. It wasn't quite warm enough in there for us though. Poor Bennett's lips were blue!

The next morning, we got up early and headed to the zoo. It's such an awesome zoo! Much better than Kansas City because you can really see most of the animals up close. We spent about 4 hours there and Bennett was asleep in the car before we even got out of Omaha! He slept the entire 2.5 hours home.

We also celebrated Halloween the same weekend. Bennett was a red dragon and loved it! He was really interested in his tail. We visited all our our relatives' homes and were out for about 4 hours total. He was a trooper and kept his costume on the whole time!

I can't hardly believe it's already November, but I'm glad October has come and gone. It was way to busy to keep up with!

As for the twins, we may get to find out the sexes on Thursday! I'll be 16 weeks exactly, so it may be a bit early, but there are a ton of girls I know who found out around that time. It'll just depend on whether or not the sonogram tech will try. I hope so! And I really have no guesses as to what they are. With Bennett, I just knew he was a boy. I don't have a feeling this time. I can't wait to find out so I can start really picturing what our lives are going to be like. If Brian is right, I'm still going to be the only girl in the house :)

Carolyn's Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-12T19:54:00.000-05:00

My side of the family headed out to Carolyn's Pumpkin Patch first thing Sunday morning. We wanted to beat the crowds, because that place gets crazy! The weather was awesome and the kids loved every minute of it! There is so much to do there, including Bennett's favorite part...a petting zoo! Bennett sprinted from one animal to the next. He was a little hesitant to pet some of them, but once we showed him it was okay, he went for it.

We also took a tractor ride out the get a couple of pumpkins. He definitely liked the tractor ride more than searching for pumpkins, so I picked a couple of good ones for him and he got to hold on on the tractor ride back.

Bennett amazes us every day with his vocabulary. For not even being 2, he sure says a lot, and often in semi-sentence form. (A lot of those sentences begin with, "I want..." Ha!) He named every animal at Carolyn's and was very vocal about pretty much everything he saw and every move he was making.

It was a great adventure! And I hear it is free in the afternoons during the week, so we may head back since it is only 5 minutes away!

Enjoy the photos!

School Pictures!

2010-10-06T17:13:00.000-05:00

We absolutely love Bennett's new preschool/daycare! I wish he could go every day, but the hours are only from 9:15am to 3pm, and we just can't make that work every day. The teachers and staff are wonderful, and he always comes home with great artwork.

They had photo sessions last week and I love how they turned out. I'm not usually a fan of studio portraits, but I can't help but love them! Bennett is his usual happy self in these! And doesn't he look old?! I swear he looks like he is 3 years old in these. Hard to believe he won't even be 2 for a few more months.

Update On Twins and Bennett's New Obsession

2010-09-23T19:35:00.000-05:00

We saw the babies again this past Tuesday and all is still well! They are both measuring right around 9 weeks and have strong heartbeats. We even got to see Baby A move his/her arm and head.

We also "graduated" Dr. Gehlbach's office! Since everything looks great, we are now free to see the regular OBGYN. I will have my first appt there on Oct 7.

I can't wait to find out the sexes of these babies!! Here's our latest photo. Yep-one is right-side up and one is upside down. :)

And Bennett continues to crack us up every day. His latest obsession is The Wiggles. I blame my dad. He has been showing Bennett and Laiken Wiggles clips on YouTube (as well as a clip of Riverdancing monkeys which they LOVE) and now he is requesting The Wiggles all day, every day.

Here is a video of Bennett and Laiken doing the moves to the "Do the Monkey" song!

TWINS!!

2010-09-08T08:28:00.000-05:00

We are in shock! I had no feeling at all that we would be having twins. I've been sick (and never was with Bennett), but a lot of people told me that probably meant I was having a girl. That's what I was leaning toward!

We saw Dr. Gehlbach yesterday to make sure we had a heartbeat, but instead we have two! They are both measuring right on track and we heard both of their heartbeats.

Brian and I still haven't fully wrapped our heads around the idea. We realize that we have about 7 months to make a lot of changes in our lives! My due date is now the end of March, rather than the end of April. Wow!

I'm nervous about a lot of things, but right now, I'm just going to let myself be excited for a bit. Today is my birthday, so I guess I got a pretty big birthday surprise!!

Here is the first photo of the twins!

Test Results

2010-08-25T13:55:00.000-05:00

Looks like Bennett is going to be a big brother! Even though this blog is public, I'm not going fully public with this news until after the first sonogram on Sept 7. So, if you are my friend on Facebook, please don't post anything yet. I'm just a bit nervous still! I wasn't sure if I was going to post here, but anyone who has been reading knows that I had my beta last Thursday.

I had actually been testing positive since the Sunday before the beta, which was really early. I got nervous because I started having some spotting on Tuesday and also had a negative test that morning. It was the only negative test I got though....and I took a ton :)

My levels for my first beta were 164 and then on Saturday, they had raised to 365! They are supposed to double in 48 hours, so that number was great! With Bennett, my first beta was 103, so my numbers here have been very close to what they were with him. That's got me thinking that we are not having twins. I will be happy either way, but the thought of having twins and a toddler scares me to death!

I hope the time flies and September 7th gets here quick. We want to see a nice little heartbeat at that appointment. After that, I will go again 2 weeks later, and if all is well, I will be released to my regular OBGYN.

Thanks for all of your well-wishes and support !!

FET Yesterday!

2010-08-11T13:27:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update on our frozen embryo transfer:
-We had two embryos frozen from Bennett's cycle. Kind of strange to think if we do get pregnant, Bennett and his brother/sister were conceived on the same day but aren't the same age!

-We transferred both embryos yesterday around 11:30 a.m. All went well! The embryos had high grades (4AA and 4BA) and both had expanded to 100% by the time of the transfer. Dr. Gehlbach said that the expansion happened pretty quickly compared to what he usually sees with frozen embryos. Good! Click here and scroll down a bit to read about the grading scale.

-I am currently relaxing (and going a bit stir crazy) and letting those embryos get comfy. :) Bennett stayed with my mom yesterday, and Brooke helped out. His cousin Laiken was there too, and from the sounds of it, he didn't miss me one bit! Today, Bennett is swimming with Grandma Winters at Grandpa Louie's house.

-This was a very easy process compared to a "fresh" cycle of IVF. There were no shots this time around! And we pretty much got to pick a date that worked best for us. Originally, it was going to happen next week, but since that is the first week of school, I requested to change it to this week.

-The blood pregnancy test is scheduled for next Thursday, Aug 19. I'm really tempted to do an at-home test before then, but I just read that frozen embryos tend to implant later than fresh, so I don't want to get myself discouraged if I see a negative home test. I'll do my best to wait...

Wish us luck!

Summer Fun!

2010-07-22T14:07:00.000-05:00

Here are some photos from some of the fun things we've been doing this summer. I can't believe I only have a few weeks left until school starts. I'm back to school Aug. 16th, and will be missing my Bennett-time quite a bit! I think it'll be harder for me this year because he's so much fun at this age. He is learning new words every day, and is showing his hilarious and entertaining personality more and more. He loves to have the "spotlight"!

The pictures below are from Kauffman Gardens, The KC Zoo, a local spray park, and Paradise Park. We have spent almost every day of the summer in the pool, but on the days we don't swim, we are making sure we are doing something else just as fun!

Here are some of Bennett's favorite words/phrases: outside (he says this from the minute he wakes up!), cookie, let's go, I don't know, sit, bubbles, night night, no way, water, okay, and many, many more. I keep saying I need to write them down because (like now) I know I will forget all of the things he says.

We have also started the process for our FET! I'm on meds now and the embryo transfer will be August 10. Although I'm thrilled there are no shots this time around, the estrogen I'm on is making me pretty sick. It's kind of playing with my mind too, because it feels like morning sickness. I know we were beyond lucky to have Bennett, but now that we've started the process, I am extra hopeful that we can add to our family! I thought I'd be fine either way, but I do have high hopes now that I'm on the meds and being monitored. Wish us luck!

Doo-Dads Concert

2010-07-01T21:34:00.004-05:00

Here are a couple of short (1 minute) videos of Bennett dancing at the Doo-Dads concert. They performed on the Square in Independence. It was a perfect night for it! It was about 80 degrees with a slight breeze; very unusual for July 1st!

As you can see, Bennett LOVES to dance. He was so upset when the concert was over. We gave the lead singer high-fives and he told us that usually when he bends down to sing to a kid, the kid usually runs off scared. But he said Bennett would just look right back and smile and dance!

Summer!

2010-06-24T21:31:00.002-05:00

It has been a busy summer so far; I can't believe it is almost July!

Since I last posted, my grandma had her big surgery, and she is recovering quickly. We are all so proud of her!

Brian and I headed to Playa Del Carmen a couple of weeks ago with my family, while Bennett stayed at Gramma Kim and Pappy Benton's house. We are so lucky to have family who enjoys Bennett as much as we do! I'll share a few pictures from the trip down below. We really liked Playacar....maybe even better than Cancun. It seemed a little safer and wasn't as crowded. We even took out bikes from the resort and rode downtown to shop. I hadn't ridden a bike in probably 20 years! I definitely wasn't great at it. It was great to get away, but we missed Bennett like crazy.

In other big news, we visited Dr. Gehlbach today to discuss our timeline for transferring the remaining embryos from Bennett's "batch". They are all so friendly there! Everyone was happy to see us back and asked about Bennett. I'm so glad we picked Gehlbach's office. They are miracle workers! Long story short: we are transferring both embryos in early August. The success rate for their FETs (frozen embryo transfers) is 40%. Not great odds, but we have beaten the odds before, so we are hopeful! Also, for those of you wondering, the odds for twins is only 19% when transferring two embryos that have been frozen. The process for the FET is so much easier; no shots! And it's a lot cheaper too. Everything we heard today sounded like good news to us!

So, here are the Mexico photos I mentioned earlier. Enjoy!

Fun Day in Fairfax!

2010-06-01T13:48:00.007-05:00

After receiving some heartbreaking news about my grandma, Gloria (aka GiGi), Brad, Brooke, and I decided to head to Fairfax for a day and take Laiken and Bennett. We wanted to spend some time with GiGi and let her watch the kids run around all day. It was the perfect day to do just that. The weather was threatening rain almost all day, but we barely felt a few sprinkles. My grandma was able to sit out on the Fishers' front porch most of the day because it wasn't too hot. I think she enjoyed watching all of her great-grandchildren play together!

Here are some photos from the day. Please keep my grandma in your thoughts and prayers and she begins her battle against pancreatic cancer. She has a tough fight ahead of her!

Puddle Jumping!

2010-05-23T15:28:00.001-05:00

After many, many, many days of rain, we decided to make use out of it and go splash around in the puddles. Bennett and his cousin, Laiken, had a blast! I love these pictures because they show just how much fun they were really having.

Outdoor Fun!

2010-05-14T10:11:00.000-05:00

I've found some great toys for Bennett at garage sales this spring, including this ship playhouse (for $30!). It looks brand new, and as you can see from the pictures, Bennett really likes it. He loves that he can walk in and shut the door behind him. It's his own space....

We have our basement almost completed, so it, along with the back patio and backyard, will be our new hang out spots this summer. There is so much room in the basement! Bennett has been keeping busy mowing the carpet down there with his Bubble Mower. :)

Bennett's New Tricks

2010-04-26T11:42:00.000-05:00

I share plenty of pictures of Bennett, but I'm not sure I share enough about his development. Bennett is clearly taking after his dad because he thinks that the "Bennett Show" is always on :) He hams it up for anyone who will watch.

Here are some things Bennett is doing:

Animal noises: I've got to get this on video. He's been doing it for months, but I'm terrible about getting the video camera out. Any time he sees an animal (in real life, in a book, on tv, etc) he immediately makes the animal's noise. He barks like a dog, growls like a tiger, chirps like a bird, meows like a cat, and quacks like a duck. I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones he does the most. I turned on Animal Planet the other day and he just went crazy with one animal sound after the other! Funny!
Words he can say: Bennett can say quite a few things, but what's weird is that we are still working on "mom" and "dad". I think he has caught on this past week, but it has taken awhile! The two words I hear Bennett say most often are "ball" and "dog". Unfortunately, I hear him say, "No!" quite a bit too. He also says, "more", "belly", "up", "hi", "bye", "bear", and "SpongeBob". We have no clue how he picked up "Spongebob" because we don't really watch it at our house and I know Toska doesn't watch it there either because they don't have cable. He has seen it a few times at Gramma Kim's and Meema's, but it's not something he hears a lot. We are amazed! I'm sure I'm forgetting a few words.
Jumping: Bennett thinks he can jump really high! This is something else I need to get on video! We will count for him, "one....two....three....JUMP!" and he will bend his knees, shoot upward, and throw his arms up. His feet never leave the ground, but he thinks he is jumping high! He is so proud!
Belly inspection: Bennett is really into seeing and touching bellies. He likes to show his off, and when he lifts his shirt to do so, he sucks in and pushes it out. Then, he wants to see everyone else's bellies. What's funny is I haven't seen a single person NOT give in to his demands. I've seen a lot of bellies lately :) He likes to pat bellies, bump his belly onto another belly, and blow raspberries on bellies.
Baseball hat: I really hope this trend sticks around into the summer....Bennett loves wearing his baseball cap. He often brings it up to Brian or me and wants it on. He will leave it on for hours. The other day, I had to undress him completely (diaper and all) before I could get the hat off so he could shower. Ha!
Swimming: We took Bennett swimming twice this weekend. He is not afraid of the water at all and is a little too brave, if you ask me. He was putting his face in the water on purpose, so I tried to show him how to blow bubbles. He does an okay job at that. Bennett also was really into "diving" off of the ledge inside the pool (not off of the side of the pool). He really does kind of dive. His upper body goes in first! We will have to watch him VERY closely this summer.
Obsession with dogs: We have been to a few parks lately and Bennett has no interest in the kids and play equipment if there is a dog around. One day, there were probably 10 dogs at various times during our visit, and he had to pet each one. He loves dogs! I knew he would love the Pet Expo. He wasn't feeling the best that day, but he did get to pet quite a few dogs and other animals.

So, here are a few pictures from the Pet Expo and one random picture I think is pretty funny. He loves his new tool set and even wore the goggles for about 5 minutes the other day.

Happy Easter! (And a scary story...)

2010-04-12T09:39:00.000-05:00

This post was going to be all about Easter, but things have been a little crazy since then. Most of you who read this probably already know about what happened last Tuesday.

Bennett was with his babysitter and they went to the Community Center. While there, he goes to a daycare so she can teach her water aerobics. He goes there all of the time with us too, so he's a familiar face around there. While there, he somehow got out. Not just out of the daycare, but outside and into the parking lot. He had to get out of 3 doors in order to get outside.

While there, he was almost hit by a car! The woman who almost hit him grabbed him and took him inside.

We feel beyond lucky that nothing happened to Bennett. He didn't have a scratch on him. Brian and I were both a mess about it (and still are pretty nervous) but Bennett has no clue that he was even in any danger.

The Community Center has put some temporary barracades in place, but we are going to be watching cloesely to make sure that they put something more permanent in place. They need to make sure this never happens to another child. We got lucky, but so did they! If anything would have happened to Bennett, there would have been a major lawsuit!

So, that's the short version of our traumatic day. Now onto a lighter subject!

We had a busy Easter weekend! Sunday alone, we had 3 family events to attend. Bennett and I have also hit up some other local Easter festivities during the past week. Here are a bunch of pictures from the many places where we celebrated Easter:

Photo Shoot w/ Bennett

2010-03-26T10:02:00.000-05:00

Last week, we had some nice weather (after the major snowstorm!), so I took Bennett out for a little photo shoot. I haven't used my new camera on him much, mainly because it has been so gross outside.

I drive by a cool area on my way home from school everyday, so I loaded him up and we headed there.

Out of about 200 photos, I probably only got 5 where he was looking at me. He was too busy exploring! He was checking out everything around, including the little bit of snow that was left on the ground.

Here are some of the photos. I played around with some different editing on some of them to get different effects. I also made a 5-photo story board. It would be cool printed on canvas!

A Few New Videos

2010-03-07T18:57:00.004-06:00

Here are a few short videos from this past week. The first one shows Bennett playing the harmonica! My mom has all sorts of musical instruments at her house, and when Brooke picked this one up today, Bennett wanted to try. He caught on right away! He loved playing a couple notes and then pausing for applause! As the day went on, he got better about playing for longer periods of time and making new sounds.

Bennett has been very talkative lately. I'd love to know what he thinks he is saying! The other night, he was acting as if the switch for the heated throw was a phone. This probably went on for 20 minutes! He wanted both of us to talk on it as well. We were getting a kick out of it!

Bennett is a Hide 'N Seek Pro!

2010-03-01T16:48:00.002-06:00

I walked into Bennett's room so I could finish getting him ready for the day, and this is what I found. As soon as I walked in, he started giggling behind the curtains. So funny! Neither Brian nor I have shown him good places to hide, so we think this is pretty clever. He came up with this all on his own! (Please excuse the grainy cell phone photo!)

In other family news, I was honored to be selected as the Teacher of the Year for my school! I'm pretty excited about this since it is an award given by the staff. In August, I will be honored at the kick-off meeting for the district. I'm not a huge fan of being up on a stage in front of about 1000 people, but hopefully it'll go quickly.

We are all looking foward to the warmer weather forecasted for this week. Next week is my Spring Break, although I'm not completely excited about it because it is so early in the semester. It's going ot make for a LONG rest of the year. Bennett and I will just hang out here most of the break since Brooke doesn't have hers until the week after and my mom doesn't get one at all. We may try to venture up to Fairfax for a night. Other than that, I don't have any wild plans. :) Spring break isn't what it used to be.

Bennett Celebrates the Chinese New Year

2010-02-16T20:51:00.003-06:00

I probably don't share enough about how thankful we are for Toska, Bennett's babysitter. She is really, really awesome and an added bonus is that she lives right behind us. Toska watches Bennett 4 days out of the week, and he absolutely loves her. (I think she is pretty fond of him too!)

Toska and her husband Brian have one daughter, Sosie, whom they adopted from China. They have recently been matched with another little Chinese girl they will adopt this summer. We were thrilled to hear the news!

Toska, Sosie, and Brian did quite a few things to celebrate the Chinese New Year this past week. Today, they celebrated at Sosie's school and Bennett got to join in on the fun.

Here are a couple of photos of Bennett in his special outfit from Miss Toska. Cute!

2010-02-06T13:21:00.003-06:00

I think I am finally caught up on sleep! We stayed in this weekend, and it was wonderful. I was asleep by 9:45 p.m. both nights of the weekend and I'm not ashamed to say it!

The last couple weekends, we had some birthdays to celebrate. Last weekend, my cousin Shelby came to visit with two of her friends. Shelby had just turned 21, so we wanted to take her out downtown Kansas City. Bennett loved having the company! The second video I have posted is from when they girls were here. He was definitely putting on a show!

Some big news for me this week: I passed the Praxis test for Library Media Science! I am interested in running the library/computer labs at my school now that our current librarian is retiring, but I had to get certified first. Now I am! My principal seemed very excited and the job was posted the day after I told him I had passed. I'm not sure if that is just a coincidence or not...

The job wouldn't involve any extra hours or extra pay; I would just have a change of responsibility and a change of scenery. I think I'm ready for that!

This has been a big week for Bennett, developmentally. He has picked up a few new words, including "yeah" which he began repeating after he heard it on the radio. I better start paying closer attention to what we listen to in the car!

He is also saying "Mom" now, and especially loves to holler it from upstairs when I am downstairs. He has been saying "Dad" for a while now, so I was definitely ready for my turn!

Bennett also vocalized a decision this week, which I thought was pretty smart. When I picked him up from the babysitter, I asked him if he wanted a snack. He quickly said, "No!" which is generally the answer to any question we ask him. But then I asked him if he wanted a bottle, and he attempted to say "bottle"! I fixed him one, and sure enough, that's what he wanted!

I am really liking this stage!

Here are a couple of short videos. The first shows Bennett with his best friend, Finn, who puts up with A LOT from him! He's such a great dog. (The noise in the background is from our new favorite show, Modern Family.)

The second is the one I mentioned before. It shows a dance party at our house with his cousin, Laiken. He loves to dance! Lately, his dancing has just become spinning in circles. I guess he likes the feeling of being dizzy!

Catching up!

2010-01-24T20:16:00.001-06:00

Wow, I can't believe it has been so long since I posted! Things have been crazy around here since school started back up.

Bennett was pretty new to walking when I posted last, but now I hardly remember what life was life when he wasn't walking! He is everywhere....and he gets there FAST! He also likes to keep a pivot foot steady and spin himself in circles to make himself dizzy. It's funny to watch!

We are in the process of finishing our basement and will have the drywall put up this week. I can't wait to have more room for Bennett to run around. There will also be a bathroom and another bedroom down there. Finally a place to guests to stay! We used to have a guest room, but once I got pregnant, that room became Bennett's room and the other available room became his play room and where we rock him to sleep.

Bennett is also starting to say some words, like "Dad." He loves to yell for his dad in his loud voice. He thinks it's really fun to holler at Brian from over the balcony when we are upstairs and he is downstairs.

He is also doing some animal noises that are pretty hilarious. I bought a book that is simply photos of animals and will point to the animal and make the noise, and he will do the same. He does it almost every time when it's just the two of us, but of course when I try to get him to "perform", he won't! I'll try to sneak in the video camera sometime soon.

Here are some recent pictures of Bennett. I bought a new lens and have been practicing on my favorite subject.

Sorry for the delay in posting! I won't go this long again in between posts!

Bennett: 1 Year!

2010-01-06T10:40:00.006-06:00

Here are some highlights from Bennett's 1st Birthday! Kim and Benton let us take over their basement for the party. Thank goodness they have a lot of room down there because there were close to 50 people who made it to help us celebrate.

Bennett was really sick (not surprising, huh?) so he actually went to the doctor before the party and arrived right on time. Once he was there, he forgot he was sick and enjoyed every minute of it.

Besides watching Bennett have fun, my favorite part of the party was the cake! It was amazing! I had asked Denise Marek to make it for me and she did not disappoint. I had pretty much based the whole jungle theme around the cake, so I was happy that it turned out so well. Thanks Denise!

I've added some photos and a video from the big day, but I've also added another short video which is not from the party. Bennett is walking everywhere now, and I wanted to show everyone. He's pretty proud of himself!

I also wanted to let everyone know that I won't be doing the weekly Bennett reports anymore. I will definitely be posting mostly about him, and of course I'll still have tons of photos and videos of Bennett, but I also want to start including more about the whole family and what is going on with all of us. Thanks for following his first year! Can't wait to see what this year brings!

Bennett: 51 Weeks!

2009-12-28T10:39:00.001-06:00

We had a WONDERFUL 1st Christmas with Bennett! He had so much fun with all of our family, and he received many great gifts. He is a very lucky boy to be so loved!

We were also blessed with a White Christmas! My dream come true. I love the snow and don't think we get enough of it. This time, we sure did!

And to top it all off, Bennett finally started walking! Right before we headed out to the Christmas Eve church service, Bennett walked halfway across my mom's kitchen. He's still pretty slow and would rather crawl, but we are still working on it. I really think the tubes helped with his balance, considering he was walking within a week of getting those.

Here are some photos from all of the family functions we attended this past week. Next up, Bennett's 1st Birthday party!

Bennett: 50 Weeks!

2009-12-21T20:19:00.000-06:00

Bennett is less than 2 weeks from being 1 year old! How did that happen?

I am so excited that I get to spend the next two weeks with him at home. Friday was our last day of the semester. Brian and I headed to the Lake of the Ozarks right after school so he could take some photos for work and so I could get some last minute Christmas shopping done. (I'm still not done...) While we were there, Gramma Kim kept him. The next night, he stayed with Meema Deanna while we hosted our neighborhood Christmas party. It's so nice to have such great family around! They have always been there for us when we need them, and a lot of times don't want to hand Bennett over to us when it's time for him to come home. Ha!

Today was a big day for Bennett. Most of you know, he has pretty much had a constant ear infection since September. Antibiotics work, but within days of being off of them, the infection would be back. We made a lot of trips to the doctor this Fall! So the best option was to get tubes in his ears.

The surgery went well! It literally took 5-10 minutes. They warned us that he'd be cranky when he began to wake up. If you know Bennett, you can already guess....he was barely cranky! He didn't like the oxygen meter on his finger, so he did take that off and threw a pretty good fit when the nurse tried to get it back on, but that was it! The baby next to us was screaming his head off, and I swear Bennett was more worried about him than he was himself! He kept trying to pull the curtain back so he could see what was going on.

It was also pretty funny that he was eating animal crackers while still barely awake. He was even holding them himself, and sitting up on my lap, but his eyes were still closed. He sure loves to eat!

By the time we got him home, he was back to normal. Once he saw his doggies, he was ready to play. It was kind of amazing! He played hard the rest of the morning, took a good afternoon nap in the recliner with his Meema, and played hard this evening. What a trooper! I pray that this keeps us out of the doctor's office for a while.

Now it's time to gear up for Christmas!

Bennett: 49 Weeks!

2009-12-13T19:13:00.003-06:00

Another busy week at the Freeman house! This week coming up is my last week before Christmas break! Yay!

Bennett is picking up new skills/activities daily now. He's standing on his own a lot more, and today he started holding the remote up toward the tv and pushing buttons and holding the phone up to his ear. This goes to show he really pays attention to what we are doing at all times!

We had another playdate at the Freshman Center on Saturday, but Bennett was too tired to enjoy it. He had spent the night with his Uncle Corbin on Friday (we attended Brian's work Christmas party) and that always seems to wear him out. Gramma Kim says that she wishes we could see the two of them in action first thing in the morning. I bet it is LOUD and WILD!

This coming weekend, Bennett may be making his first long road trip to the Lake of the Ozarks. Brian needs to go for work, and of course I want to tag along and get my last minute Christmas shopping done at the outlet mall! Fun!

Here are a couple of short videos. The first one shows Bennett standing for about 20 seconds! He is getting so strong, but still gets nervous when he realizes that he is standing on his own and usually slowly sits himself back down.

The second is a very short video of Bennett dancing. I've been hoping to get a really good video of it because it seems like he dances non-stop, but this one will have to do for now. Any time a song is on anywhere, he starts groovin'!

Bennett: 48 Weeks!

2009-12-06T10:42:00.003-06:00

Bennett took his first step this week! It was just one, but that counts! He has been standing up and walking using things for 3 months now, so we are surprised he hasn't started walking yet. Sometimes he will let go and just stand, but once he realizes he is standing alone, he sits down. I bet he'll be really walking by the time Christmas comes!

This week we were referred to an ear, nose, and throat specialist because Bennett once again has a double ear infection. Poor guy! I'm going to call this week to see about possibly getting tubes put in over Christmas break.

As usual, even though Bennett is sick, he is as happy as can be! We've been singing him some Christmas carols and his favorite is "Up on the Rooftop" because of the "Ho Ho Ho....who wouldn't go" part. He dances and sometimes even sings along.

It's so hard for me to believe that in less than a month, our little guy will be 1 year old! It really doesn't seem possible.

Here is a short video of Bennett riding his duck. The first time I put him on the duck (a few months ago) he somehow knew immediately what to do. It's hilarious how serious he always looks while riding!

Bennett: 47 Weeks!

2009-11-29T18:43:00.000-06:00

We all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are so happy we got to spend time with our families! Bennett got to meet a few family members on Brian's side whom he hadn't had a chance to see yet. You'd never guess by the way he was hugging them and reaching for them that they had never met!

Yesterday, I attended my first MU football game. Brian went too, so Grandpa Louie and Grandma Gail helped us out by having Bennett stay at their house all day. We checked in around halftime and found out that things were going great, but the house was destroyed :) Bennett is pretty good at doing that! He wants to take everything out. It doesn't matter what it is or where it is...it needs to be out. I think they had a lot of fun with him, despite the mess!

I'm sad that my 5-day weekend is over, but there are only 3 weeks of school until Christmas break!! This year, it's a long one. I think we have 17 days off. What a great break!

Here is another photo of Bennett from our Weston trip, along with a photo of Bennett with his cousins on my dad's side of the family. Getting this picture was quite the battle. We all got a good laugh out of it!

Bennett: 46 Weeks!

2009-11-22T20:41:00.001-06:00

Bennett met Santa and Father Christmas this weekend! He was a busy guy.

Saturday, we started our day by going to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa. He really like it there because there are a lot of "stuffed" animals to see and pet and some real ducks and fish. When we got to Santa, he wasn't thrilled, but he didn't get scared or cry. I'll have to get the photo scanned in so I can post it. It's not the best photo in the world. I wish I could have just brought my camera and done my own thing :)

Today, we met the Bolton crew in Weston to celebrate my Aunt Barb's 50th birthday. (p.s. I would pay to look as good as she does when I'm 50!) They were having a Christmas Homes Tour this weekend, so we joined in on the fun. We had lunch, shopped around, and then visited the homes. We were there from 12:30 to 4:30! Bennett got a little cranky midway through the day, but he was a pretty good trooper all day!

I love getting together with my family and wish we could do it more often!

Oh, and of course....Bennett couldn't get through the week without being sick. I don't want this to end up being a "Bennett is sick with (FILL IN THE BLANK) this week" blog, so I'll be brief! Bennett was up in the night coughing Wednesday night. Thursday afternoon, I took him to the doctor to find out he has croup, reactive airway disease, a double ear infection, and a throat infection. I was shocked again because he just never acts sick! We will go back this Wednesday to see about his ears. He may need tubes :(

Here are some photos from our trip to Weston today!

Bennett: 45 Weeks!

2009-11-14T07:54:00.004-06:00

Well, Bennett sure doesn't discriminate when it comes to illnesses! This week he had pink eye (or something similar). He felt fine, but it looked like he had been punched in the eye. It was so swollen! And it was filled with gunk. Not fun!

Thankfully, the medicine helped right away and Brian and I both avoided getting it :)

Here are a couple short videos I took recently. The first one shows Bennett "reading". He really enjoys sitting and looking through books. He will "talk" while he's reading and point to things. I love it!

The second one is really short, but definitely worth watching. This shows Bennett laughing hysterically at his cousin Laiken. Not sure what he thinks is so funny! I love his laugh!

Bennett: 44 Weeks!

2009-11-07T16:25:00.003-06:00

Bennett wanted to show you his teeth! He worked long and hard for those, and he uses them wisely :)

Here are some photos where he is showing off his teeth and his new favorite pasttime of pointing. The last one shows he newest facial expression that he has been practicing. It's pretty hilarious!

Bennett: 43 Weeks!

2009-10-30T09:05:00.002-05:00

Happy Halloween!!

Bennett is going to dress as a sock monkey for his 1st Halloween. Last year, before he was born, I had bought him a fuzzy puppy costume on clearance. When it was time to start thinking about Halloween this year, I immediately thought, "Bennett is not a fuzzy puppy kind of guy!" It just didn't fit his personality. The sock monkey is much more his style!

Also this past week, Bennett stayed with his Gramma Kim, Pappy Benton, and Uncle Corbin. Brian and I were in Denver for a weekend get-away with the Fischer family. We had a great time and even got to see some snow! Thankfully, we got back before the huge storm hit and left them with 22 inches!

Bennett came home exhausted, as I expected. He wants to do everything Corbin does! He also came home with a new trick: walking behind a walker toy. It's more like a sprint though! I expect he'll be walking on his own in a month or so.

He is also big into pointing right now. He points at everything! And he really likes when I point back and we touch fingers. Pretty funny!

I hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween! We are going to try to make it to all of the relatives' homes tomorrow so they can see him in his costume.

Bennett: 42 Weeks!

2009-10-23T14:56:00.003-05:00

Bennett had his first trip to a pumpkin patch on Sunday. We went with a big group of friends and their kids, so it was extra fun for him. He got to pet some animals, check out some pumpkins, watch pigs race, and go on his first hay ride.

We spent almost 2 hours there even though it was a little chilly and pretty windy. I can't imagine how much fun he'll have with it next year when he can ride on the train and play some games!

This week, Bennett also made his first trip to the ER. On Monday, I took him for his 9 month check-up and get got a flu shot. By Tuesday, he had a fever. I called the nurse and she said it was most likely due to his shot. But then Wednesday, his fever shot up to 103.9 degrees. Our pediatrician couldn't get us in, so we headed to the ER. After 3 hours there, we still had no answers, but the doctor gave him some antibiotics and Tamiflu.

Brian stayed home with him the next morning and I came home from work around 10 to take over. By 2, his fever had broken and I could tell he felt a lot better. Thank goodness! Now, I'm feeling like I'm getting sick, but I'm praying I'm not because we are leaving for Denver in the morning.

And one final thing Bennett has started this week: pointing! I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is pretty cute. He usually has something to "say" along with the pointing. I'd love to know what he thinks he is talking about!

Here are Bennett's 9 month stats and photos from Sunday!

Weight: 18 lbs 15 oz. (10th percentile)
Height: 29 1/2 inches (75th percentile)

Bennett: 41 Weeks!

2009-10-16T21:17:00.003-05:00

Saturday, we had a mini-session with Kris Kanenwisher. She had taken our family photos back in May and she also did some photo tutoring for me. (And helped me tremendously!) We loved the photos she did for us! I knew I wanted something a little more updated to send out with our Christmas cards since Bennett has grown so much since May, so I was hoping she'd be coming back. Luckily, she planned a trip to KC and did some quick sessions while she was here.

It was 39 degrees and bit windy Saturday morning, so I was worried how Bennett would handle it. Of course, he was a trooper! Kris worked her magic quickly so that by the time his little nose was red, we were done.

Here are some of the photos she did for us. I know, I shouldn't be sharing all of them since one or more will go out in our Christmas cards, but I couldn't wait! I love them!

Bennett: 40 Weeks!

2009-10-09T19:06:00.003-05:00

Bennett is now 9 months old! And he is busier than ever. He is crawling everywhere non-stop! I look back to when I thought I was tired and realize I had it good!

His favorite thing to do right now is playing catch. I posted the video a couple weeks ago, but he has gotten even better. It amazes me how he just naturally knew what to do! We've found some balls that are more his size and he can really throw those well. He's also pretty good at stopping the tosses that are going past him.

This week, we didn't have our regular Wednesday & Friday babysitter due to illness, so one day he stayed with my dad (his Papa) and today he stayed with Brian's Grammy and PawPaw, Betty and Chuck. He had a great time at both places! We are so thankful that we have so much family around!

While at my parents' house, Bennett kept crawling over to Ava's closet and squealing. My dad joked that he assumed this meant Bennett wanted to play dress up. This was the picture I had emailed to me in the middle of my work day....

Pretty funny! I have shared this with quite a few people who have all said they got a good laugh out of it! I keep saying it's a good thing Bennett isn't a girl. I'm not sure he makes the cutest girl... Ha!

Bennett: 39 Weeks!

2009-10-02T21:15:00.005-05:00

Today is Bennett's 9-month birthday and to celebrate, we took him for a much-needed haircut. He has always grown hair right down the middle of his head, but not really on the sides. I know mohawks are "in" right now, but his hair was simply out of control! Here are some photos from the big event. I added the "before" photos so you can see what I am talking about. Wild!

We went to Shear Madness at Zona Rosa and really enjoyed it. They have a package for baby's first haircut which includes a certificate with a before and after photo, along with a lock of his hair. They were very friendly, and Bennett seemed to be okay with everything going on. He did cry right at the beginning, but I blame us for that. We got there after 7pm and he had fallen asleep in the car. We had to wake the poor guy up to take him in.

As you can see, he wasn't upset too long!

Doesn't he look handsome with his new 'do?!

Bennett: 38 Weeks!

2009-09-27T18:11:00.003-05:00

It's been a rough week at the Freeman house! Last Sunday night, I came down with a bad case of the stomach flu. I haven't been that sick in a long, long time! I was down for a couple days. We tried our best to keep Bennett away from me, but in the end, we figured out he was the one who gave it to me (and probably everyone else...) There is a long list of people who ended up with the same flu, including Brian who got sickwhile he was away on business.

I think we are all over that, but now Bennett has a double ear infection. The poor guy can't catch a break! The one in his left ear was described by the doctor as "raging." He thought the eardrum may burst, but we think we are in the clear now. Friday night, Bennett had a 102 fever. With all of these other illnesses he has had, he has never shown us that he doesn't feel well. This time, it was very clear he was sick. He spent the day with Grammy (Brian's grandma, Betty) and she was concerned with the way he was rubbing his ear. He was also sleeping a lot and she thought he felt warm. She was right!

He seems to be feeling a lot better tonight. I'm hoping he's in the clear for a while! He has spent the whole month of September sick.

Here is a short video of Bennett's new game he likes to play with Brian. Of course Brian has been waiting for this since the minute we found out we were having a boy! There will be many games of "catch" in their future!

Bennett: 37 Weeks!

2009-09-20T09:30:00.005-05:00

Bennett and Brian went to the Royals' Open House on Friday, along with my dad, Chad, Joslin, Brad and Laiken. It sounds like it was a great time, with free food and other items. Brian came home with a Royals baseball glove and a stadium replica. He said that Bennett enjoyed watching the people there and that there were many comments on the guys with their babies. Dads' Night Out!

Also this week, Bennett started with his new babysitter, Ally. He will be going to her on Wednesdays and Fridays. Ally is Corbin's former babysitter, so we know he's in good hands! He also has a girl close to his age to play with. I think he will be coming home exhausted on the days he is with Ally. Sounds like he's busy, busy, busy over there!

In other family news, the Jesse James Festival was this weekend and Brian and I played in the mud volleyball tournament. Brian's team did well and my team got 2nd place! We are both worn out and sunburned. It was an all day event!

Bennett: 36 Weeks!

2009-09-13T14:49:00.008-05:00

No, your eyes are not deceiving you....Bennett is standing! It hasn't happened a lot, but at the time of these photos, Bennett stood for about 10 seconds. And as you can see, he had distractions but was still able to concentrate enough to hold his pose for a bit. Finn was extremely interested!

Bennett has quickly gone from army crawling, to pulling himself onto everything pretty quickly. Brian found him standing in his crib the other morning, so we quickly moved the mattress down as low as it could go.

We also found out that Bennett has pneumonia! I'm kind of having a hard time believing it because he has not acted sick at all. We only took him in because he'd had a cough for a week and Toska (Bennett's sitter) said that he was having trouble catching his breath when he was coughing. That scared me enough to take him in right away. Good thing I did!

He has antibiotics and a breathing machine to help with the symptoms. The breathing machine is awful. It takes both of us to hold him down and keep the mask on him. Not fun! But, it'll be worth it in the end.

Bennett is acting a little tired and cranky today, but honestly, he has been his usual smiley and happy self all week. I just never imagined they'd say it was pneumonia. I thought it was allergies.

Here are some pictures of him standing and the rest are from a pit stop we made during our walk yesterday. The weather was perfect! I love Fall!

Bennett: 35 Weeks!

2009-09-07T08:23:00.006-05:00

Happy Birthday to my mom/Bennett's meema! We spent the day celebrating yesterday. Here are some pictures of the day.

The only other update I have is that Bennett is now 17 lbs 6 oz. Still pretty skinny. (He's just now getting into 6-9/6-12 month clothes, but can still wear 3-6 pants because his waist is so skinny.) We had taken him to the doctor on Friday to make sure his ear infection had cleared up. It has and he is perfectly fine! Good!

Bennett: 34 Weeks!

2009-08-31T16:45:00.003-05:00

Bennett's new favorite pasttime is eating! Here are a couple pictures from his Meema's house (my mom) eating his lunch outside on the deck. He still doesn't have any teeth, but that's not stopping him from eating green beans, broccoli, a croissant, mashed potatoes, and corn! He definitely makes a mess, but he really seems to enjoy his "real" food. The whole time he was eating the croissant, he was making the "mmmmmm" sound. Pretty funny!

Bennett also pulled himself up to standing for the first time yesterday! He learned it by watching his cousin Laiken. They were both sitting by the window seat in my parents' front room. It was pretty cute how hard he had to try. His little arms were shaking, but he grabbed the window seat, pushed himself up and made it. He stood there for a while before his first fall, but he got right back up.

Bennett: 33 Weeks!

2009-08-23T09:51:00.004-05:00

Bennett was the star of the Fairfax Fair Baby Show on Friday! My mom, Brooke, and I rushed to Fairfax after school to get there by 6:30. Bennett was in the 7 to 12 month baby group (no prizes other than participation ribbons are awarded, so it's not a contest. It's more of a baby parade.)

I swear, I'm not just saying this because I'm his mom... He really was the only baby up there who showed any sort of personality. The rest of the babies were just watching the crowd. Bennett was working the crowd :) He smiled, squealed, and when I let him stand, he bounced and danced. I wish I could show you all, but I was in such a rush, I forgot to hand my video camera over for someone to tape it. I'm really beating myself up for that!

But, we got plenty of pictures (as usual).

These are the ones just from the night of the Baby Show. I'll try to get the rest of the trip, including the parade, up later this week.

Bennett: 32 Weeks

2009-08-14T21:24:00.003-05:00

I survived my first days back at school! And Bennett loves being surrounded by girls at Rachel's and Toska's houses. He and Addy had a great time together on Thursday and he loved watching Sosie today. I think I definitely miss him more than he misses me during the day!

Here are some pictures I've taken of Bennett recently. I've been practicing my photography skills pretty much any time I have a free minute. I've been meaning to post some pictures from my recent practice sessions, but haven't gotten around to it. I'll try to do that later this week. I think I'm getting better, but there is still a TON to learn! I don't think I ever would have picked up this hobby if I would have had a clue how much it entails!

The first two pictures crack me up. I seriously can't stop looking at them. Why is he so happy in those??? Because Aunt Brooke is walking up the front steps!

The second set were taken at William Jewell during Joslin Milligan's wardrobe changes. I got to practice with her and brought Bennett with us. He hadn't had a nap that day, but was a total trooper and gave his best smiles for the camera.

Seriously....I'm not sure there is a happier baby in the world!

Bennett: 31 Weeks!

2009-08-09T14:49:00.005-05:00

Bennett and I had a lot of fun during my last full week of summer. He is definitely showing off some new tricks these days. (Although I will admit...the clapping has come to a stop all of a sudden. Not sure what happened! I guess we burnt him out on it because we were requesting it every 5 minutes. Ha!) It's making it even more difficult for me to think about leaving him. This is such a fun stage!

Here are 3 short video clips of his new tricks: The first one shows him clapping and the second two show how close he is getting to crawling. As you can see, we are using the dogs as bait! It seems to be working.

Bennett: 30 Weeks!

2009-08-01T18:36:00.003-05:00

Bennett will be 7 months old tomorrow!

He had another busy week and was on the go quite a bit. He even stayed with his Great-Grammy and Great-Pawpaw (Brian's grandparents) for a few hours on Wednesday!

Today, we drove to Maryville and back to celebrate my grandma's 81st birthday! Round-trip, he was in the car for over 3 hours. Needless to say, he wasn't on his regular schedule and he's tired! It is now a little after 7pm and he's already asleep for the night!

I really think Bennett will be crawling within the next couple weeks. He is holding himself up on all fours right now, but has a hard time lifting his head with the rest of his body. He gets pretty frustrated! He is pretty good at scooting and rolling to get to where he wants to be, but hopefully he won't be satisfied just doing that.

He's also a pro at sitting up on his own now. He rarely falls over anymore and can even maneuver himself from sitting to on his stomach.

I think it's time to really get our house baby-proofed!

Here are a couple of pictures from the week. As you can see, he still loves his bathtime! And I don't think I've added any pictures of him sitting up by himself. He looks pretty proud, doesn't he?

Bennett: 29 Weeks!

2009-07-26T19:37:00.005-05:00

Here's a video of Bennett playing in his new favorite toy (given to him by Rachel and Denise at my baby shower...thanks guys!). He loves to "run" laps, as you can see. It's good practice for him!

My Summer Vacations

2009-07-22T16:39:00.008-05:00

I'm always trying to make sure I get my weekly Bennett updates on here, so I have completely missed out on showing off pictures from Cancun and Las Vegas. I thought I better put up some photos real quick and show you where we've been this summer.

Back in early-June, Brian and I joined my parents and Brooke in Cancun. We stayed at the Riu Cancun, and once again, Riu did not disappoint. (We had stayed at the Riu Caribe a couple of years ago and had a great time.)

This was our first trip away from Bennett, so Brian and I decided that 3 nights away was plenty. My parents and Brooke stayed 4 nights. And while we were gone, Gramma Kim and Pappy Benton kept Bennett for us. Knowing he was in great hands (and probably having more fun there with Uncle Corbin than he has at home) made leaving so much easier.

As usual, we did a lot of eating, drinking, and lounging on the beach in Cancun. What else are you supposed to do there?! Ha!

For me, the highlight of the trip was meeting Coco, the chimp. She came to the beach every day with her owner and posed for pictures and interacted with everyone. Brian wasn't too sure about the whole set-up, so he kept his distance....

Here are some photos from the trip!

A couple of weeks ago, Bennett and Brian held down the fort while I went to Las Vegas with some of my girlfriends. We wanted to do something special to celebrate Brooke's 30th Birthday!

We stayed at the Treasure Island (Brian and I had stayed there a few years ago and loved it) and had a great time. I've never really been on a girls' trip, but I'm already ready to go on another one. We had so much fun seeing the sights and enjoying the nightlife! The only negative was that it took me quite a few days after we got back to finally feel like I'd had enough sleep!

Bennett: 28 Weeks!

2009-07-19T20:29:00.005-05:00

This week flew by! I'm afraid that's how the rest of my summer will be...

Now that Bennett is eating baby food, he thinks he needs to be eating every time we are. So, our secret weapon for entertaining him while we are out to eat are these cracker-type things called Baby MumMums. They pretty much dissolve in his mouth, so no need for teeth. We also like the little puffs, but he's not great at feeding himself those yet. He'll get one in his hand and get it up to his mouth, but doesn't realize he needs to let go of it! For now, the MumMums are the big winner.

And yesterday Bennett had his first boat ride! My friend/co-worker, Doug, bought a boat this spring and has us out on it often. This time around, we took my mom and Bennett. We went to Lake Jacomo where there is no skiing or anything like that allowed, so the lake is very calm. Bennett was his normal, happy self the whole time. He took a little 10 minute snooze, but the rest of the time he was checking things out and playing with his rubber ducky (his new favorite toy). It was a perfect day for it since it was only about 80 degrees outside. We actually had to wrap him up a couple times so he wouldn't be chilly. Sure didn't seem like July!

Bennett: 27 Weeks!

2009-07-15T20:52:00.004-05:00

Bennett had his 6-month check up and shots today. It wasn't a fun visit for him, but everything looks good!

Here are his stats at 6 months:
Weight- 15 pounds 10 ounces (25th percentile)
Length- 27.75 inches (75th percentile)

Dr. John predicts he will be a basketball player. I think everyone would be pleased if that came true...

We are definitely pleased with his weight gain. He has been holding steady in the 5th-10th percentile. He's finally getting a little belly! I don't think there's much hope for his legs though. I'm sure they'll always be long and skinny like Brian's.

Also this week, Brian and Bennett had their first few days alone together. I went to Las Vegas to celebrate Brooke's 30th birthday. It was a blast! I'll post pictures in a separate post later. Brian said that everything went well and he was happy to have the time together, just the two of them. I sure missed them though!

And finally, here are some very random pictures from the past couple weeks. Poor guy, can't go a day without getting his picture taken. Ha!

Bennett: 26 Weeks!

2009-07-06T22:05:00.003-05:00

This past week has been a big one for Bennett. He turned 6 months old, and things are definitely changing.

Bennett has started sitting up unassisted! He can do it for about a minute now, but I'm still sticking close by to catch him when needed. He's always been pretty strong even though he's super skinny. I think he'll be done with me as his spotter really soon.

I also moved a lot of his newborn stuff into the basement storage area. I'm not going to lie...I got a little teary-eyed when I took the swing down. I remember putting him in it for the first time and being scared because it swung him so fast and high even on the lowest setting. He was so tiny that he wasn't weighing it down enough! Now, he just doesn't use it much anymore and it's too big to just be sitting in our living room.

I took a big crate of too-small clothes down and one of his activity Bumbo-type seats. He's now moving on to bigger and better things!

He now has a new high chair set up in our eat-in kitchen area. It's the kind that hooks on to a regular chair. That's really the only one that'd work since we have a bar-height table in there. I already like him sitting in that opposed to the Bumbo seat. He was arching himself backwards in the Bumbo and it scared me sometimes.

He also has a new activity table that was given to me/him at my shower by Rachel and Denise. It is awesome! The table has a seat (with wheels) connected to it that allows for him to "walk" all the way around it to get to the different toys. He also has been trying to walk toward the dogs to grab them and gets bummed when he realizes he can only go in a cirlce around the table. It's pretty funny!

As you will see in the pictures below, Bennett still seems to just be growing hair in the middle of his head. He still has a nice mohawk going on! And he's still blue-eyed. I guess he'll be staying that way. No clue how that happened! I never imagined him with blonde hair and blue eyes. It works for him though. Ha!

Bennett continues to entertain us and keeps us smiling and laughing! Now that he is laughing out loud, we are trying our best to entertain him as well!

Here are a few pictures of Bennett in his mini-microfiber chair. I got this at Overstock Freight for $15 last summer. It was so cheap because it had a small rip in the fabric, but the rip is right in the seam and will be easy to fix. Now that he might be using it, I better get to fixing that... :)

P.S. I got a new lens over the weekend! I'm really excited about this one and can't wait to use it some more. I love how these turned out and some others I have taken so far!

Happy Half Birthday, Bennett!!

2009-07-02T21:06:00.002-05:00

I'll write a "real" post later on this weekend with updates for the week, but I just wanted to post one quick picture for Bennett's 6 month birthday. Where has the time gone?! I've loved every minute of the last 6 months (well, maybe not EVERY minute...Ha!)

Bennett: 25 Weeks!

2009-06-26T22:17:00.005-05:00

Bennett will be 6 months old this coming Thursday.....how did that happen?!

Here are some pictures of Bennett and his future wife, Addison. :)

Addy is Nick and Rachel's daughter. Rachel is my best friend and is also who watches Bennett a couple times a week when I'm at school. It is GREAT to know he's in such good hands while I'm at work. It makes not being home with him so much easier on me.

Bennett loves being over there and loves Addy! She also seems to be pretty fond of him. Rachel says that a lot of times when Bennett leaves during her afternoon nap, she'll wake up asking, "Where's baby?!" Cute!

Since they aren't spending their days together while I'm at home for the summer, we've made sure to get them a little bit of quality time together lately. We went to their house for an awesome dinner (all made by Rachel!) and Bennett and Addy lounged together for a while, as you can see in the pictures.

Today, Addy came over to my mom's to swim. She and Bennett ended up having matching floaters!

Rachel and I joke that these are all "cake table" pictures....pictures that will be framed and displayed on their cake table at their wedding!

Young love! :)

Bennett: 24 Weeks

2009-06-22T17:39:00.003-05:00

Bennett has been filling his time with swimming, swimming, and more swimming! He loves every minute of it and is a lot more tolerant of the cold water than I am. The water is perfect now, but the last couple weeks when it wouldn't stop raining it was too cold for my taste!

Brian spent a couple nights in St. Joe again this past week for training. Thursday, we loaded up with my mom and Brooke and headed that way to meet him along with the Fisher girls and my Grandma Gloria (GiGi). We also picked Ava up before meeting everyone at Cheddar's. I can't believe it worked out so well! It always proves to be hard to meet up with the Fairfax crew. I know we should do it more often, but we are all so busy! It was great to see everyone and Bennett definitely put on his usual show. He did A LOT of hugging and kissing on my Aunt Barb!

Friday, Bennett saw his first movie theater movie, "Up". We were babysitting Corbin for the night and Ava was in town, so we thought that'd be a fun way to fill the evening. It was a cute movie and everyone enjoyed it. Bennett seriously only made one little peep and that was right before falling asleep for the last 10 minutes of the movie.

Yesterday was Brian's first Father's Day! We spent the day by stopping by all of our parents' houses. Bennett had his first time swimming at his Grandpa Louie and Grandma Gail's house. Kyle, Logan, and Gail's sister, Pam, were there too, so everyone got to see his swimming skills. Afterward, we went to my mom's for a bit and then on to BoLing's with my family. We were all pretty exhausted last night!

Here are some pictures from Father's Day and from Friday's swim:

Family Photos!

2009-06-18T22:14:00.004-05:00

Over Memorial Day weekend, we got together with the Whitford side of the family and had Kristin Kanenwisher (Meet My Camera) take some pictures of us. I kind of twisted everyone's arms, but in the end, they were all really excited about the pictures. Kristin did a wonderful job and got it all done in a little over an hour! That's exactly how we wanted things to go since we had three youngsters with us.

It was a little windy (or maybe a lot windy! You can see some wild hair in some of the pictures!), and was threatening rain the whole time, but it held off until we were finished.

I'm so glad we did this! Kristin is also the photographer who did the one-on-one tutoring session with me. She is a great teacher! I though I'd have a ton of time to practice what she showed me this summer, but I haven't so far. I am going to make sure I make time ASAP.

Here are some of the pictures. I could have posted a ton more because they are all great, but I'm sure you'll get the idea. Ha!

Bennett: 23 Weeks!

2009-06-15T12:34:00.006-05:00

First, I want start out by showing you Bennett's mohawk! It's completely natural. He seems to only be growing hair (blonde hair, by the way! I never would have guessed him to be blond haired and blue-eyed!) straight down the middle of his head. It's pretty cute!

Bennett's big event of the week was going to his first Royal's game! It was the perfect night for it. Not too hot, not too chilly. We suited him up in his Royal's gear, strapped on the Baby Bjorn, and were all set (well...except that Brooke and I both forgot our cameras. That never ever happens. Luckily, my phone has a camera, so I got a few shots). We were surprised at how many other people were there, carrying their babies in their Baby Bjorns!

Bennett loved people watching and loved hanging out with his great-aunt Linda! He was hamming it up for her big time, giving slobbery kisses, smiling, and even cuddling in for a short 10 minute nap. He also almost got on the Jumbo-Tron. The workers had Brian stand up with Bennett in the aisle to wait for the camera guy, but he never came our way. Dang!

Overall, it was a great success. He didn't complain one bit!

I also need to write a post about our trip to Cancun and Bennett's stay with his Gramma and Pappy! I'll try to get that done this week.

Bennett: 22 Weeks

2009-06-09T19:47:00.004-05:00

Here is a video of Bennett playing in his new favorite toy, the Jump-a-roo Horse. This was something that Brian actually picked out before we knew Bennett was a boy. Once we found out for sure, I went immediately to Babies R Us and bought it. It wasn't often that Brian got too excited about buying baby items!

I apologize for my video-ing skills! I get too distracted watching him that I don't pay attention to what I'm doing with the camera!

Bennett: 21 Weeks

2009-05-31T16:01:00.004-05:00

Here are some pictures of Bennett swimming at his Meema and Papa's house for the first time. With all three sets of grandparents having a pool, he'll be an old pro before the summer is over!

Bennett: 20 Weeks!

2009-05-23T11:09:00.004-05:00

This was a busy, busy week for everyone!

Bennett is now on the move! He is rolling around like a madman. He has also decided that he loves to blow "raspberries". He came home from Gramma Kim's on Thursday and wouldn't stop. It is hilarious!

Toska, who babysits Bennett on Mondays and Fridays, can't get over how much he has developed in the 3 weeks she has watched him. He's much more animated now and seems to work the crowd. Ha!

Also, this week I had a one-on-one photo tutoring session with Kris from Meet My Camera. She is in town visiting family and will also be taking our family photos on Monday! I'm excited to finally get some pictures of the three of us (and the Whitford side of the family will be joining us for a few as well).

I really learned a lot from Kris in the short time she was over here. I definitely learned a lot more from her than I did in my first class. One-on-one is the way to go! The pictures below were before the tutoring, but don't worry...I'll be practicing all weekend and I'll post some of my new "tricks" here soon!

Bennett: 19 Weeks!

2009-05-17T18:02:00.006-05:00

Bennett had his first experience with baby food this week, and we got it on video. Here are a couple of clips.

Of course Bennett was not lacking in the attention department...not only were Brian and I there, so were Brooke and Cara. Brooke took pictures, Cara took the video, and I fed Bennett. Teamwork!

The first clip is when he is just getting started and the second clip show him making some sour faces. Overall, he did really well and seemed to like it.

We started with bananas and will move to peaches next!

Bennett: 18 Weeks!

2009-05-12T21:43:00.005-05:00

It seems like forever since we've been to the pediatrician. We went today and all is well. I'm not thrilled with his weight still, but Dr. John says it is fine. He gained almost 3 lbs in 2 months, so I guess that is good!

Here are his stats at a little over 4 months old:

-12 pounds 5 ounces (5-10 percentile)

-25 inches (50-75 percentile)

He also had a few shots today and wasn't feeling the best tonight. He started feeling a little better right before bed and got some play time in with Jack. He has really started paying attention to the dogs this past week and loves to pet them. It's pretty cute! Jack is good about letting him do it, but Finn just immediately starts licking him in the face. We cut that off real quick!

I had a wonderful first Mother's Day on Sunday! Brian let me sleep in and then we met up with his family at The Dish. Yum! I swear, I ate my way through this past weekend. Brian and I ate at Jose Peppers (and had margaritas!) on Friday and we celebrated Mother's Day with my mom at PF Chang's on Saturday.

On that note, I'm proud to say that even though I let loose this weekend, I stepped on the scale this evening and see that I'm now only 10 lbs away from my goal weight. I have lost 20 lbs in the past 3 months with the help of Weight Watchers online and lots and lots of excercise! I was really surprised when I got on the scale today. I'd like to hit my goal weight by the time I go to Vegas in July for Brooke's 30th birthday. Think I can do it?!

Here are a few pictures of Bennett on Mother's Day at my parents' house. He touched his first worm and helped his Papa in the garden!

Happy Anniversary!

2009-05-06T16:40:00.003-05:00

Today is Brian and my 3rd Anniversary!

We are going to go out and celebrate this weekend because I am too run-down from my first full week back at work.

Here are some pictures from the big day. We were lucky enough to get to say our vows at Brian's grandparents' gorgeous home in Palm Springs, CA. You can't beat that scenery!

Bennett: 17 Weeks!

2009-05-03T18:22:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was Bennett's 4 month birthday! It's really hard to believe. Just like everyone warned me....the time has flown!

I survived my first day back at work (with the help of some gorgeous flowers sent to me from Brian!), but I'm thinking tomorrow will be harder. I went back on Friday, so I knew it was just one day and then I'd be back to hanging with Bennett all weekend. This time, it'll be a whole work week before we get to hang out all day.

Bennett's first day at the babysitter's house went really well. She said he didn't cry at all. That's my boy! This week he'll make his first trip to Rachel's. He is going there Tues, Wed, and Thurs. and to Toska's house (right behind our house...can't get any more convenient than that!) on Mon and Fri. I'm just glad I don't have to worry about him while I'm at work. He's definitely in good hands with Toska and Rachel.

Here are a few pictures from the week, including two from his first trip to the park (with Addison):

Bennett: 16 Weeks!

2009-04-26T12:09:00.004-05:00

This week, Bennett has discovered a couple new things...

1. He found his feet! Now any time he is lying on the bed or floor, he's immediately trying to get both hands on his feet. And of course, like he does with everything now, he's trying to get those feet into his mouth. He has yet to succeed though.

2. He found his LOUD voice. He is really into squealing now when he is "talking" and it's so funny! To me, the funniest is when he does it when he's in the backseat of my car alone. I wonder who he thinks he is talking to...his toys, I guess.

This coming Friday is my first day back at work. I think I'd be in a huge depression if it wasn't for the fact that there are only 4 weeks left until summer break. I just praaaaay that my students are still the same great kids they were when I left back in December. I think I'm dreaming though. Not only have they had a sub for 4 months, it is also May now which means they think school is over.

Brian had his first week at the office and seems to be enjoying it so far. Don't be surprised if you ALL get a call from him soon, asking if you want to switch your insurance. Ha!

Here are the pictures for the week!

Bennett: 15 Weeks!

2009-04-16T17:58:00.005-05:00

Bennett made his first trip to Fairfax to see my family last week. He loved it and I was glad to get to show him off. The night we got back, he slept from 8:45 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.! I think we wore him out. Ha!

Here we are passing him around at Pizza Hut...

And here are a couple pictures from Easter at Brian's dad and Gail's house. Thanks again for a great Easter dinner Gail!

Brian has been gone all week to Wisconsin. It's his last week of training. Thank goodness! We will be glad to get our regular life back on track. I owe my mom and Brooke BIG TIME for all of the nights they stayed with us. (Yes, I am a huge wimp and won't stay home alone!)

Bennett: 14 Weeks!

2009-04-09T10:29:00.004-05:00

I'm posting early this week because Bennett, Brooke, my mom, and I are headed to Fairfax tonight! I'm so excited to see everyone and to show Bennett off. My grandma hasn't seen him since he was a few days old, so it'll be fun for her to see his smiles and other new tricks.

Here is a short video I took the other day. He sure likes to see himself in the mirror! Please excuse my baby talk.... ha!

P.S. For anyone looking for a cheap video camera, you need a Flip Mino. It's the camera you see in the mirror. It's only about $150 and takes up to 60 minutes of video. Everything is saved on the hard drive on the camera, so there are no discs involved. And there are literally 5 buttons on it. It's SO easy to use. When you want to upload the video or charge the battery, you just plug it into your computer. Everyone needs one!

Bennett: 13 Weeks!

2009-04-05T19:55:00.005-05:00

Bennett is 3 months old now, and growing like a weed. We don't go back to the pediatrician for another month, but I really feel like he is doing much better with his weight gain. His spitting up is still pretty bad, but it seems like he has filled out a bit.

This past week, we had two big events: Bennett saw the Easter Bunny and he had his first solo overnight trip at his Grandma Kim's.

The Easter Bunny was at Zona Rosa Saturday and as you can tell by my hair in the picture, it was REALLY windy. I didn't want to be in the picture, but the Bunny wasn't sure about holding him.

And Saturday night Bennett stayed with Kim, Benton, and Corbin. I think they had a lot of fun and they said that Bennett was perfect! He slept from 9:45 to 4:30 and then went back to sleep until 7:30. That sounds just like what he does here at home. His uncle Corbin, who is now 7 years old, loved pushing him around in his stroller inside the house. Kim said he must have pushed him 5 miles! ha!

I wish I could say that I caught up on my sleep while he was away, but we were up celebrating Rachel's birthday too late. We had a great time!

This coming week, Bennett will make his first trip to Fairfax! We are so glad that my Grandma Bolton is at home from the hospital and is doing much better!

Happy Birthday Rachel!

2009-04-03T13:15:00.003-05:00

Today is my best friend Rachel's 27th birthday! Happy birthday Rachel! Enjoy the nice weather and the day off of work!

(And Rachel's aunt is having her twins today, so she will get to share her birthday with them. Fun!)

Here are some pics of the two of us. The first one is from 8th grade!

Bennett: 12 Weeks (Lots of Pictures!)

2009-03-27T18:08:00.007-05:00

Not a whole lot happened this week, so I'll just share a TON of pictures! Enjoy.

Watching the MU game!

Bennett and his cousin Laiken. They are 3 months apart, and I'm sure they will cause a lot of trouble together in the future!

Check out the size of this foot!

Bennett: 11 Weeks!

2009-03-20T10:45:00.004-05:00

This week flew by!

Brian was home with us Friday through Tuesday and then left again for St. Joe. While he was gone, Brooke stayed with Bennett and me. I'm such a wimp about staying home alone, so I owe her a huge "THANK YOU!" She also helps give me a little break in the evenings so I can eat and shower.

Brian just got home this evening, but unfortunately to a cranky baby. Bennett honestly is never cranky, so we aren't sure what's going on. I started trying soy formula mixed with breastmilk to see if that helps with his spitting up. It hasn't and now I'm afraid it's giving him a belly ache.

Speaking of his spitting up, his appt. at Children's Mercy went well. They didn't see anything that would be causing him to spit up. The nurse from Dr. John's office told me that he will just eventually grow out of it. I hope it's soon!

Now for the best news of the week.... I just got my request for a longer maternity leave approved! I won't be going back until May 1 now. I'd rather not go back at all this school year, but that would have left me w/o pay through August, plus I would have had to pay my own health insurance through August. And it's expensive! So, May 1 it is. That'll give me about 4 weeks back and then it's summer break. Not bad!

Here's a picture of Bennett lounging in our bed. We do a lot of talking, playing and stretching on our bed. I really think it's his favorite place to be (other than in someone's arms being rocked).

Bennett: 10 Weeks!

2009-03-15T17:38:00.003-05:00

When I took Bennett to Brooke's school on Friday, I realized that the first time I had taken him he was 10 DAYS old. Now he is 10 WEEKS! How did that happen?!

We had another busy week this past week. The main event was figuring out what to do with our car situation since the lease on my Edge was up. In the end, I kept the Edge and Brian got a Milan. Brian's car is actually a lot nicer than the Escape he was driving (has lots more extras) but the payment is less. We lucked out there.

Bennett also had his 2 month check up that included a couple shots. He sure didn't like those, but got over it pretty quickly. The nurse said she wanted to give both in one leg, but there wasn't enough leg there! He's too skinny!

Bennett is now 9 pounds 9 ounces, which still isn't great. I talked to Dr. John about the spitting up issue and he gave him some meds for reflux. I don't like what we have though because we have to dissolve it in water and it doesn't really fully dissolve, so I feel like he's not getting the full dose. Dr. John also wants to check on some sort of "valve" in his tummy, so we are headed to Children's Mercy bright and early tomorrow.

Hopefully everything is okay! He said they'd admit him to the hospital immediately if they found anything. That's kind of scary.

I'll post an update ASAP. For now, enjoy the short video of his 2nd time swimming! This time he went with his two cousins, Ava and Laiken.

Bennett: 9 Weeks!

2009-03-05T20:04:00.004-06:00

I can't believe my little Bennett is already 2 months old! The time has gone by so fast!

This week, we are all trying to get adjusted to Brian's new job. He started training with American Family this week. The job training takes him away from home some nights, so it's not ideal, but we have lots of help from our families. Thank goodness!

Bennett had his first overnight trip to Meema and Papa's house. Well, actually we've stayed there two nights now. I thought maybe it'd throw off his schedule since we were in a new place and he wasn't in his bed, but he actually has slept better than ever this week. The last three nights he has slept from around 10pm to 5am! Yay! I hope he keeps it up.

Also this week, Bennett and I started a "mommy & me"-type exercise class. Let me tell you...it's a lot of "mommy" and very little "me". This instructor is kicking my butt! She is not taking it easy on us new moms. So far, the only involvement Bennett has had is when we do walking lunges while pushing the strollers. Today, she had us do the same workout she had her bootcamp class do (minus the 2 mile run). It involved a 2 minute push-up test! I will be sore tomorrow.

I think we are going to take Bennett swimming again this weekend while his cousin Ava is in town. That should be fun!

Okay, now for the cutest picture EVER....

Bennett: 8 Weeks!

2009-02-27T17:57:00.006-06:00

The main event of this week...

Bennett went swimming for the first time! We just got back and he really seemed like he liked it. There were no tears at all.

Grandma Kim got us a family membership to the Community Center as a Christmas present, so we took him there this afternoon. They have a warm pool for young kids, but it wasn't as warm as it was supposed to be. I was worried about the temperature, but he seemed just fine!

Here are some photos:

Bennett: 7 Weeks!

2009-02-20T19:56:00.002-06:00

Not too much going on this week in Bennett's world. I'm proud to say the two of us left the house every single day this week! He loves getting out and about (I think it's because of his cozy car seat!) and it's definitely good for me to get out and get things done.

Here are all of the places we've been this week:

-Monday: The airport to pick up Meema, Papa, and Aunt Brooke.
-Tuesday: The Legends to shop. It was supposedly 54 degrees that day, so I thought it'd be a great day to be outside. Wrong. Although the temp read 54, the wind was freeeezing. And it was blowing hard. We ended up only going to three stores.
-Wednesday: Walgreens (Hey, I didn't say all of the places were exciting!)
-Thursday: The grocery store and Meema's house
-Friday: The Freshman Center to visit my co-workers, Babies R Us and best of all....Bennett's first Costco trip. He better get used to those because it's probably my favorite place to go other than Target.

And for the picture for the week; all I need to say is that Brian had a part in this one....

Bennett: 6 weeks!

2009-02-16T18:01:00.005-06:00

Highlights from the week:

-Bennett got to meet Dr. Gehlbach and staff on Wednesday. They even gave him a cute little Midwest Reproductive t-shirt. I need to have him model it and get a picture up here! It was great to show him off and to get to thank everyone there again for all of their help. We couldn't have started our family without them!

-Bennett gained a whopping 9 ounces this past week! (Probably more now, but as of Friday he was up to 8 lbs. 8 oz.!) I'm still trying to increase my supply, but nothing seems to be working yet. I guess there is a prescription I could get, so that'll probably be my next step. I'd love to quit supplementing with formula and I'd love to have at least a couple feedings a day on the breast.

-He is full of smiles now! It's pretty funny because he will sometimes doze off and wake up smiling. We'd love to know what he's dreaming about!

-His neck and legs are getting stronger by the day. When I hold him, facing me, he wants to "stand". I don't know how there is any muscle in those skinny little chicken legs. Ha!

-I'm SO glad I chose to stay home for 12 weeks instead of the usual 6. I'd be going back to work tomorrow. Ugh! Thankfully, I'm not going back until mid-April. I don't let myself think about it too much, because I don't want to go back at all. There's absolutely no way we can afford for me to stay home though. Darn.

-Bennett's play room is finally done! We now have a place to sit and rock him upstairs. We also have a little tv in there and all of his books and many, many toys. It's not a huge room, but it'll be a place we can hang out, play, and read.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T14:10:00.002-06:00

Some Pictures

2009-02-11T17:43:00.004-06:00

I think I got a smile in the second one...

Photo Gallery

2009-02-09T18:33:00.003-06:00

Here is a link to the photo gallery from our session with Lori at Center Stage Photo.

www.centerstagebaby.com
Click on Client Proofs
Enter (with a capital F): Freeman

I still can't decide if I'm going to order any since I already have similar pictures I took myself. Professional pictures are expensive! I had no idea...

Bennett: 5 Weeks!

2009-02-06T14:27:00.006-06:00

Here are the highlight's from the week:

-Bennett is up to 7lbs. 15 oz. I really wanted to see an 8 on the scale, but he's getting closer! I'm now pumping 100% of the time and supplementing about an ounce of formula in with the breastmilk. It's kind of a pain, but I'll do whatever it takes to fatten him up! I just started an herbal supplement that the lactation specialist recommended, so hopefully it'll boost my supply. If I can boost my supply, I can cut out the formula!

-We took Bennett to Center Stage Photography in Shawnee on Tuesday night to be a "newborn model". The photographer, Lori, wanted to try out a new style of photography with lighter colors. The session was free and we'll get a discount if we want to order any of the photos. The funny thing is...she used the exact same blanket I've already used to take some photos of him! What are the odds?! If you look at the pics on her blog, you can see some examples. She didn't get to do exactly what she had planned because he didn't want to go to sleep and he really wanted his pacifier. And we are still without a family photo! We ran out of time for that.

Here is Lori's blog: http://centerstagephotography.blogspot.com/

-Bennett and I have gone on quite a few walks lately since it has been so nice out. We just got back from one a minute ago. He always snoozes through the whole thing, so I guess he likes to go on walks! I like to get out and get fresh air!

-Bennett got his first piece of mail today: his social security card. He's official! ha!

-Brian and I went out without Bennett for the first time since he was born. Grandma Kim, "Pappy" Benton, and Uncle Corbin came over to babysit Bennett and the dogs. It was fun to get out for a few hours, but Bennett was on my mind the whole time and I was anxious to get back. I'm sure it'll get easier as time goes on.

-As I said last week, Bennett LOVES his bath. He hates the first and the last part (getting undressed and getting his pjs on), but he is so calm when he's in that warm water. I can't wait to take him swimming at the Community Center! They have a warm pool for kids, but I wonder how warm it really is. We'll be trying it soon. For now, here's a video of Bennett's bath. It was our first time really using our new Flip Mino (which I love and think everyone needs one!) with the little tripod. Sorry about Brian's leg and my arm in the way!

Bennett: 4 weeks!

2009-01-30T17:28:00.003-06:00

Here are some pictures and highlights from this past week:

-Bennett rolled from his stomach to his back! I'm sure it was probably a fluke and won't happen again for a while, but when I put him on his stomach for tummy time earlier this week, he was so mad that he somehow got himself onto his back! I had looked up at the tv for 2 seconds and looked back down and he was on his back. I was shocked!

-I'm pretty sure I'm getting real smiles from him now. I've tried to get one in a picture, but it hasn't worked quite yet.

-Bennett LOVES the bath. It's pretty funny to watch him go from screaming his head off when Brian undresses him to completely silent and content once he's in the warm bath. I think he'd stay in there all night if we'd let him!

-On a not-so-great note, as we guessed-Bennett isn't gaining enough weight. I have been feeding him constantly during the day. Sometimes he'll eat twice within an hour! I just felt like things weren't right, so I called the lactation consultant today and sure enough...he's only weighing in at 7 lbs. 8 oz. Three weeks ago he was 6 lbs. 15 oz.! She had me sit and feed him and showed me that a lot of times when he's "feeding", he's really just using me as a pacifier. She showed me ways to get him back on track and to encourage him to actually eat. Monday is our next pediatrician appt. so I'll be asking more about what to do about his lack of weight gain.