9 Month Update

Bennett is just about 9 1/2 months old now, but I finally scanned his pictures, so now I can update! :) His basic 9 month stats are:

22 lbs, 12 oz and 29 1/2 inches tall

...but let me tell you more about this sweet little man!

He loves to walk! He he hasn't ventured out on his own yet but he turns anything he can into a walker. He uses things such as kitchen chairs, his high chair, laundry baskets and even the tubs we had our Christmas decorations in... basically if he can push it, he uses it as a walker!

Bennett has also become very, very vocal in the last month. He talks and talks and talks. Sometimes to his books, sometimes to his toy and sometimes my mom and dad's dog Tony but more often then not to Adam or I. So far his "words" include: "Dada" Mama" and "Hi" (Hi is almost always accompanied by waving, it's adorable!)
Bennett loves to eat! His favorite thing to eat is puffed brown rice, the boy would eat it all day long if I let him. But he's also really enjoying tofu and he has just started on eggs. He loves yams and green beans and does not seem to be a big fan of spinach (but we still try to get it down him every other day or so). As of yesterday Bennett has 6 teeth!
Bennett's favorite toys right now are (as always) his air-tivity thing we got from the Curry's but he is also really into the Nativity scene his Grammy got him for Thanksgiving and his walker Deanna got him as well as his books! This boy loves books! His favorite seems to be Good Night Moon (as he has almost totally destroyed it) but a very close second is the Jungle book Maggie Underwood gave him at my baby shower.
Bennett loves music. He dances (aka rocks back and forth) when ever there is any music. If Adam or I sing to him he makes the cutest sounds that are so light and faint we can only assume he is trying to sing too because his normal voice is much louder and fuller than his "singing voice". Bennett's latest musical trick is standing at the edge of the piano and pushing the keys with one hand and then with the other hand banging on the d'jimbe. He also LOVES Adam's banjo! He will strum that thing for 10 minutes straight - no joke! I think the music lessons will need to start soon!
Oh and FYI, the bear in these pictures is the bear I received when I was 6 months old on my first Christmas, her name is Sarah Bear-ah.
Bennett is growing like crazy! As you might have gathered from his stats at the beginning we have a big boy! He's wearing 12 - 18 month clothes (depending on the brand/store) and is wearing a size 3 shoe, but we expect him to move to a 4 rather soon.
Bennett is such a sweet boy and we love his so much! He's a smart cookie and we know he is going to keep us on our toes, but I wouldn't have it any other way, we need to be on our toes! :)

( I love this picture! )

Ladies Dessert Night!

It officially feels like Christmas! Every year it seems like Dessert Night is the thing that does it to convince me, "Okay, I guess it really is Christmas time!"

This year was great and as usual the church was transformed into a Christmas wonderland!

This year I hosted a table and did a Hanukkah table. Although I did a Hanukkah table two years ago, this year there were some new and fabulous Martha Stewart touches that I am rather proud of! (Click here to find out what they were and to see them in more detail)
Although the title of the night is LADIES Dessert Night, my littlest man decided to join us for the evening after the child care brought him out to us and said "He won't stop crying" ... Oh, okay, well then he will sit in his stroller at our table and eat green beans from his Grammy! (He did pretty good, but the poor boy is working on more teeth so he's not super happy about anything right now... except peek-a-boo... but that's a different blog)

Here are the lovely ladies who sat at my table! Back row: Emily, Maddison, Angela, DeAnna. Front Row: Juanita, Barb aka: my mom, Bennett, Me, Crystal-Lee

(Also, please notice our son might have received the Holy Spirit this night as noted by his "tongues of fire" in this picture!)

The evenings entertainment included an unusual but very funny and entertaining entrance by the waiters for the evening:

As well as the Bethlehem Bed and Breakfast skit and an outstanding handle bell choir (but I didn't get a picture of them)

Dessert night also had a wonderful sound man (and sound assistant) !
And as is the tradition for the past four years, here's Adam and I after dessert night with the stage decorations.
As always, Dessert night was a huge hit, but there were two people who were greatly missed! Good thing they were able to stop by for a second :)

Thanksgiving (and there abouts)

So, the day before Thanksgiving is when we went to the Getty, so you all already know about that but we did do other things the week of Thanksgiving as well.

My Uncle Tim (Bennett's great Uncle) came down and we got to see him for a little bit. Bennett was very glad to share a large amount of his old clothes with his new cousin (or second cousin... or whatever) Jake that is due to be born in March and I was glad to get them out of Bennett's room! :)

So, you know at JoAnn's how you have to stand in that forever long line just to check out and they have all that dumb stuff in line that you totally don't need... yeah - well I actually got sucked in! I bought something (or two somethings I should say) while in line at JoAnn's! The turkey head band and turkey mask were a dollar each and well... we just needed them! Aren't they awesome?!
Anyways... here's a better picture of the fam on Bennett's first Thanksgiving once we got to my mom's house and got tired of wearing out turkeys. (Bennett is waving at Uncle Brian and Crystal-Lee)
All in all it was a great day and a very peaceful meal as Bennett went down for a long nap just before we sat down to eat! Here he is with his Grammy looking out the window.
In keeping with tradition, Tom and Jennifer won du-wrags as a pilgrim prize and were required to put them on immediately! They were really good sports and we were glad that they made it out from Indianapolis to share this holiday with us!
Bennett received the cutest Thanksgiving toy - the little people's nativity scene! He started playing with it right away and loves it!
He also really enjoys chewing on baby Jesus ... chewing on "the Word" at an early age - we're so proud! :)
Bennett loves his Tio Pepe (Uncle Aaron)! But sad to say, Tio moved to Wyoming this last week to take a job make "green" homes. We won't get to see him again until Christmas! :(

Another little treat on Thanksgiving day was seeing the Ward's for a few minutes in the evening! Here's Katie and I and baby girl Ward at 24 weeks! Baby girl can't wait to come meet me! :)
And then we wanted the kids to take a picture together! It's their first one... I'm sure this will be in their wedding slide show someday! :)
In other news, I started working the day after Thanksgiving at La Master's in Temecula and I love it! It's fun and easy and I get to gift wrap! (I LOVE wrapping presents! Seriously, I'm for hire if you want me to wrap your presents!) Anyways, I'm loving it, very busy, but loving it! So not much else is happening with Adam and I both working this month but we did just get a tree and Hanukkah is coming... I'm sure their will be more blogging on that to come!

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!