Back Home and Playing the Kazoo!

We're home from our long weekend in Big Bear still a little under the weather but home nonetheless!
The reason we went was because we were invited to speak at our churches winter camp! The weekend focused on the parts of the trinity and Adam and I spoke on the Father. Apart from the speaking side of camp we were with all the Jr. High girls (and Jenn and Jackie) and we had a great time with all of them!
Adam ended up being our lead breakfast cook each morning, which was awesome!
On Saturday, we spent the whole afternoon at a sled park! Adam and I both took turns with Bennett trying to get him excited about the snow...


...but Bennett's over all feelings for the day were just about as great as the pumpkin patch day! So, needless to say, Bennett and Mommy left early and took a nap.
Other than that camp went really smoothly (Praise the Lord)! No broken bones, no big drama, just a great time in the snow, learning about who God is and how much he loves us - what more could you ask for in a weekend?!

On a totally unrelated note, I am proud to say I actually captured a "first" this afternoon! I was sitting at the computer looking at possible birthday shirts for Bennett to wear at his party next week on Etsy and all of a sudden I heard a noise I had never heard before. Then I heard it again, and all of a sudden I realized - "That's a kazoo! Oh my gosh! He figured it out!" So I grabbed my camera off the kitchen table and went straight to his room to capture the following:

I know it's dorky to so excited over a kazoo - but I guess that is just part of being a mom! Oh and then just a few minutes later, my son pulled his diaper bag down and dug out the rice cakes to help himself to a snack - he sure is getting around quickly for not actually walking yet!
Anyways, like I said earlier I was looking for a birthday shirt and was planning on making one inspired by the great Katrina however I was saved by Kohl's this afternoon and will not be making the shirt (YAY!!!) That's not to say, however, that I don't still have fabric and paper and ribbon in my house waiting to be turned into something fantastic for my sweet boy's party next week! Wish me luck!

Fun Times With Dad!

The other night Adam was practicing some songs on his guitar and Bennett wanted to be involved so bad!



As you saw at the beginning, Bennett has started to climb! He will only take a few steps on his own but he has no fear when it comes to climbing! The other morning I was folding his laundry in his room and Bennett took the laundry basket and ended up like this:

Isn't that face just precious?!

Oh and the reason that Adam was practicing songs is because we are heading off to Winter Camp this afternoon! We are speaking on "the Father" (and then other people are speaking about Jesus and the Holy Spirit later in the weekend) to the Jr. High and High school group. There are 50 of us going and we are looking forward to a great long weekend and introducing Bennett to SNOW!

Here's the boys trying out the amazing backpack we are borrowing from my Uncle (which I'm sure we are going to have to return soon with the arrival on baby Jake!)

Bennett loved looking around at everything from that new perspective! I'm sure he's going to have a great time this weekend!

Blue Grass Baby

As we have mentioned before, Bennett loves music and a good beat and he loves it when Adam gets out his guitar or banjo so they can both play with them! So, knowing this fact about Bennett and just being a Grandma, Adam's mom got Bennett a very special treat last week - his very own Banjo!!!

Bennett loves his banjo!

He tunes it...

and strums it....

and plays it like a fiddle sometimes!

Here's a little video of him playing with it - sorry for the radio in the background, i usually turn it on for him in the mornings because I can only handle so much Raffy and Veggie Tales songs (not that Air 1 is much better, but at least it's something different!)

Announcing Our Newest Family Member...

...Crystal - Lee!!!!

Yes, folks it's true my little brother Brian is engaged to be married to this wonderful woman!

Tuesday night, yes Groundhog Day, Brian proposed marriage and Crystal-Lee, after asking if he was "for reals", agreed to become his wife.

Crystal-Lee Howley ... it's kind of adorable if you ask me!

Here they are walking into Claim Jumper were we were waiting to congratulate them just after he proposed at the Temecula Library

(not the old one, the new beautiful on the hill above the sports park)

Here's Crystal-Lee and I, the new sisters!

Crystal-Lee only has one sibling, a younger brother and I only have sister-in-laws who live very far away, so we are both very happy about our new "sisterhood"!

Bennett is also very happy to have a new Aunt!

We are trying to come up with a good name for her. So far all we've got is "Auntie Lee-Lee" or "ACL" (Aunt Crystal-Lee) but we are open to suggestions!

(He really is happy about his new aunt, it was about 8:30 pm ... he was ready for sleep!)

Bennett got his new Aunt a little something... here he is about to wrap it just before we left to meet up with everyone to celebrate...

Once he read what the little tile said he just couldn't hold back his excitement!

(that is until he saw her and took that picture with her... oh well)

Crystal-Lee, we are all just as happy as Bennett looks in that picture!

We are so glad to welcome you into our family!

Where's My Baby?

Who is this 11 month old man?

Fish on Sundays?

On the way home from church today We noticed that Bennett was clapping and I wanted to capture it on video. So I got my camera out and by the time I started to record he had changed "tricks" but I found it so amusing that I kept recording anyways

Play Time with Mama!

Look at that smile...

I might just be the luckiest Mama anywhere!

10 month pictures

So I figured that since my son turned 11 months yesterday (sniff, sniff) it was about time to scan his 10 month pictures!

My little Cruiser!

Doesn't he just look like the life of the party? Such a little ham!

Cute little stander!

Look at this perfect little gentleman!

And then last but not least ... the picture you will find in your new picture frames you buy:

I just LOVE this last picture!

Young Love?!

I don't know if I would go that far... but I do think they like each other!

Here's a video of the two together last friday:

Please ignore my horribly sexist comment towards the end of the video!

Then the next night Clara came back over and they were very happy to see each other again!

I think my son is trying to flex his muscles in this picture!

Bennett wanted to share one of his favorite toys with Clara

She checked with her dad first to make sure it was okay she accept such a gift

Then Clara decided to practice her Karate moves on Bennett's big cloth diaper booty!

(If I remember correctly from elementary school - hitting is a good thing!)

A Fun Start to a New Year!

Hi Everyone! The Elwer family is back online and blogging!

We took an unintentional break for a while there due to busy-ness and illness and vacation time and family visiting and well... you know, life. So, lets play a little game of blogging catch up.

Fasten your seat belts this could be a long ride...

We were very blessed to celebrate the lovely and talaneted Miss Kelly's 28th birthday with her! Bennett kind of loves her and wants her to be his Aunt Kelly so he took some time to be extra nice to her. (Which in Bennett language means sharing his all precious brown rice puffs with her) Kelly is a great sport actually eating things a 10 month old puts in her mouth!

That evening was also spent chilling with Tio Pepe and trying on his sunglasses (not that they were necessary since the sun was down, but look how cute he is!)
We have been spending a lot of time playing with out new toys from Christmas! The "Band in a Box" by Melissa & Doug continues to be a favorite!
New Years Eve we had a few friends over for some of Adam's homemade chili and to play Settlers of Catan. We really didn't plan on people staying until mid-night but the game just wouldn't end! And wouldn't you know it, about 11:45 Bennett woke up to ring in the new year with us (You can see the excitement in his face!)
Lucky for us Adam got a 3 WEEK vacation from school so when everyone else had to back to work, we still got a whole extra week to sleep in and play!
Bennett discovered a new love in life ... the baking drawers! The boy just can't get enough!
We also introduced avocado over the break - that was a big hit as well!
As usual, Bennett continues to enjoy music! He really loves the banjo but is only allowed to play with it while Adam is with him.
But Bennett's Grammy let him play with her pots and wooden spoons all by himself! He REALLY enjoyed that!
As for walking... well... we are so close! Adam and I are sure that he does it when we aren't in the room. But really we are in no rush for him to walk, he can just stay a baby forever, it's fine by me!

Bennett's new love in life is going out side! The boy seriously crawls to the front door and climbs up trying to reach the nob all while looking at me and trying to talk with his little "Ah, ah" language he has going. It's rather adorable/scary ... we need to keep the front door locked!
Here's Bennett on his first walk in his new wagon! (the video is long... mostly posted it for the Grandma's and Aunts ... I won't be offended if you don't watch the whole thing... I mean he is precious... but I know, he's not your kid)

So, he LOVES his wagon! I'm pretty sure going on walks in the wagon is the only reason he likes to go outside! We go on walks down the street...
... and to see the horse too! Bennett is just mesmerized by them and they are pretty interested in him too!
But mostly what we do with the wagon is push it around in circles (No, I'm not kidding) For about 30 minutes a day Bennett is totally intent and focused on pushing his wagon. The only other thing he pays such close attention to are his books (and well that' s because he's a genius!)
Again, the video is a little long... but if you are related to him I'm sure you'll love it!

Oh and another thing Bennett has discoverd about being outside ... there are all these little snacks all over the ground! We're working on it, but boys will be boys and no matter how hard I try he's going to eat dirt... I just try to make sure it's not an overwhelming amount!

Other than all that we are starting to plan for Bennett's first birthday party. First step, a picture for the invitation. We were thinking something similar to the picture we used for his birth announcement would be cute.Here's how well that is going....




Oh well... the blocks didn't make the cut, but we did get a super cute picture to be shared on here later!

Thanks for sticking with this post for so long! We promise more consistent updates in 2010! Happy Blogging all!