Beautiful Surprise!

My husband had to attend his first ever teacher conference this last week and I was left home to be a single parent! However, upon returning home he informed me that he had planned a surprise day for me! As some of you might know (or could guess about me) I'm not big on surprises... I want to know what's going on so I can be prepared. I want to know if I should bring sunscreen to my surprise or if I should wear walking shoes or if dress would be appropriate... anyways, all that to say, I usually ruin surprises. So shortly after telling me to set the day aside for a surprise my husband me told me what the surprise was... THE GETTY CENTER!!!!

I LOVE the Getty Center! Adam and I were engaged there, Project Runway recently visited and well, it's just so beautiful... let me explain, with no words:









See what I mean?! It's just stunning and inspiring and beautiful and alive! And my husband knows my love for this place and thus I gladly accepted this gift of beauty he offered! He even got a babysitter and called a couple of our friends to come with us! (However, we ended up bringing Bennett, not due to lack on the babysitters part, it was was me, I just wanted him to come and get some beauty in his life too)

Here's some highlights from our day:
Did you know the Getty has a "Family Room" ? Very cute, and I'm sure Bennett will love it next time he's there when he can run around on his own!
The weather was perfect and everything was so0o beautiful! We couldn't help but take pictures!

Bennett and Jaso listening to the water!

Cuddling with Papa

Family picture on the bench where Adam purposed almost 3 years ago on the day after Christmas.

Bennett being cute!

Taking it all in...

Snuggles with Mama

We might have taken a Christmas card photo ... but I of course would not show it to you, thus you will just have to imagine the cuteness and except one of the runner up family photos for now.
On the way home we had an amazing dinner at Jaso's favorite Thai restaurant in La Mirada!

Basically, it was just about the most perfect day ever! I'm not kidding, Bennett was an perfect angel, the weather was perfect and the art was stunning as usual. Let me leave you with a picture of one of my most favorite things at the Getty, Spring!

Baby's First Hair ...

... Trim?

Yeah, we didn't really do a whole hair "cut" as it wasn't needed. But the hair growing over the ears and down the neck (into a rather lovely mullet) needed to go!

Luck for us, our good friend, and maybe Bennett's future mother-in-law, Erica cuts hair and was more than happy to do the little trim after we had dinner together the other night.

All in all it was a very pleasant experience, no screaming or crying, just one super handsome boy!

Walking and Attacking

Bennett is being increasingly mobile and creative in his play. Enjoy theses clips of life in the Elwer home.

Doing Nothing!

I must admit, Veteran's day is not a holiday I often get excited about, or even think about for that matter... but after this years experience I might actually look forward to Veteran's day next year!

We made plans with some of our favorite people (Jaso and the Shelton family) and had a great day "doing nothing". We (and by we I mean Adam - because I was working one of my many jobs) made cinnamon rolls the night before so that we would have hot fresh fabulous rolls first thing in the morning (thank you Prior family for your wonderful recipe)!!! And then we all headed over to the Murrieta Veteran's Day Parade! Sounds cheesy huh?! Well it sort of was, but it was just the perfect amount of cheesy to be super fun!

Bennett loved it! He watched everything!






At one point a guy was handing out "Jr. Park Ranger for the City of Murrieta" badges, we all put them on!
Here's our whole group just after the parade ended. Bennett and Audrie seem rather interested in something to the left and apparently there was some memo that went out to between the guys to all wear gray shirts - but still, I think it's a great picture!
After the parade we walked down the street to the Veteran's day celebration were we enjoyed the FREE lunch that was being handed out and then we went over to Chick-fil-a to have our free chicken sandwiches that we had been handed coupons for during the parade! So, yeah, lunch was totally free! Random, but fun!

After the parade and free food fest, we headed back to our house for good conversation, Balderdash, more cinnamon rolls, naps and eventually soup and grilled cheese sandwiches followed by more good conversation! Seriously, it was such a great and refreshing day that can only be had in the company of good friends because who else can you invite over for the whole day (and evening) and say "Do you want to come over and do nothing?" and actually have them come! Hope you all had just as great a Veteran's Day!

Bennett Update

Our big man is now 23 lbs and 28 1/2 inches tall!

He's wearing a size 3 shoe but will very quickly be in a 4 and is wearing almost exclusively 12 months clothes.

Here's his 8 month pictures, enjoy the cuteness

Standing

Crawling

This month we decided to get some father-son pictures ... I am so glad we did!

Baby Mozart

Bennett has a new favorite toy - the piano!

Note to viewers with musical ears: Please don't judge the piano, it was free and tuning a piano is not in the Elwer family budget right now. Please set aside the out of tune notes and enjoy the cuteness of a little boy who loves music.

This was Bennett's first time sitting at the bench - we have no idea where he got the idea to turn the pages - he must just know in his soul what to do!

I heard the piano playing as I was putting away laundry... this is what I found!

Here's my men this morning before church working on a piece together.