Pictures

Here are some pictures with cousins.



One of his eyes have been a little unaligned and we are thinking about getting him check out. Some people have told me that it'll clear up on its own and it just takes time but I have no idea if he needs to see the doctor about it. You can see it in this picture a little bit. I hope that its nothing major but we'll find out next week.

Team Scott

This was taken when I had known Scott just a few weeks.....He comes home today after being gone on a business trip for the last two weeks ....... I feel like a school girl.


9pm can not get here soon enough!

Jumping too soon into Spring?

........Can we put away out winter stuff yet?

Should I wait another few weeks...?

Confessions of a single mom

Scott is away for business for two weeks. I'm on my 5th day of being a single parent and although we have avoided going to the ER, I can't say that its been going smoothly...

There must be a study somewhere that when you are around high schoolers, you lose brain cells...it has to be a fact.

yesterday i was cutting up some strawberrys for Benson and the water on the stove started to boil over, so i quickly got up to turn it off and after a few mintues i heard benson banging something on his highchair. I look over and i had left the steak knife that i was cutting the strawberrys with on his highchair! he was banging it around... luckly he grabbed it at the right end.

HOW COULD I LEAVE A STEAK KNIFE ON HIS HIGH CHAIR?!

So my coping mechanisms with being a single parent and having to start every morning at 5am and end it up 11pm includes:

- Diet Coke for breakfast
- Eating Girl Scout cookies for lunch
- Edema-me for dinner
-allowing Benson to play in the bath for 30 minutes or longer
- allowing Benson to play with our laptop as he pulls the buttons off (Don't worry its my parents old one)
- bribing him with TV and puffed snacks so i can finish my work.


Here's to my respect to all those single parents out there - I dont know how you do it but you are amazing!!

8 months

Saturday was Benson's 8th month birthday. He is getting so big! I put him on the scale and he sat pretty still - it told me he was 19 pounds which sounds about right. He has gotten his two bottom teeth in and has started to crawl, roll, and scoot to just about anywhere. Last week was his first time pooping in the tub (It was so gross!) and he also got his first diaper rash (sad!)

He loves to watch people and try to make eye contact - hoping they will give him a smile so he can smile back. He loves yams, cheese and crackers. He does not like mashed chicken. He loves baths and his toy trucks. He is very ticklish and is a very good sleeper.

The other week we had put oral gel on his gums to help with teething...it was my first time putting it on and so i was pretty liberal...so much that he couldn't keep his pacifier in his mouth....every time I'd put it in, he'd start to suck but couldnt feel it really and it would fall out. we tried several times but then had to give up till the it wore off. it was pretty funny.

He is still teething...do they get fevers and fussiness with EVERY tooth or just the first couple? if its for each one this is going to be a long couple of months!

we are excited for his 9 month check up and can't believe how old he is getting!

Hogle Zoo

Since we are moving soon, Scott and I have made up a long list of things to do here before we leave. Hogle Zoo was definitely on there. It was a little cold but worth the trip. We got to see a lot of animals and half way through Ethan and Alison joined us with their little man. (Warning: there is a lot of pictures!)
Benson was more interested in his snacks and watching kids
around him but he did like the meerkats a lot.
(i think that's what they are)


Scott's favorite part was the tigers and cougars

I liked seeing the giraffe's
Benson also noticed the parrot that was eating his food.



This is Benson's concerned look - Where's my snack?
The elephant got hers!

The baby elephant was my favorite.
she was having so much fun playing with her toys.

Trenches of Motherhood

When I was in high school, I was a trouble maker and by the time I was a senior had started to hang out with the wrong crowd. Luckly the fates of destiny intervened during my 7th period Government class with Mr.Patterson out in the trailers.

Mr. Patterson didn't like me. I talked to much and couldn't understand the basic's of the way our government is built (What comes around goes around, how ironic that i'm teaching government now?) He had one of those signs that said "Welcome" on one side and "We're closed" on the other. One day i stole it from him. I told you, i was a trouble maker. To this day I regret taking that sign.

point being- he had plenty of reasons not to like me. One day a girl who was sitting in front of me turned around and commented on how she liked my shoes. She had dark long curly hair and the most gorgeous lashes that came with big brown eyes. I had never seen her at school before but I told her thanks and explained how I worked at nine west and....before i could finish, Mr. Patterson interupts and asks me if i want to share with the rest of the class what I'm talking about. Being the disrespectful-senior-who-thought-she-owned-the-school I said I would Love to share with the class the story of how I got the shoes I was wearing.

Poor Mr.Patterson didn't know how much I loved to talk...10 mintues later i finish my story and he just stared at me and then went on with his lecture. The brown haired girl in front of me couldn't stop giggling. She thought I was funny and it turned out she was hilarious.

Alison was her name, and over the next few weeks we realized that we not only had the same birthday but the same car (just different color), same shoes, pants, shirt, and bag. this list could go on and on and on.

In the end this brown eyed girl became my best friend and greatest example. She was the answer to my mother pleading prayers - someone to pull me out of hanging out with the wrong crowd. We still got into mischief but it was more of an adventure than anything. Like the time we went to the mall and a huge thunderstorm came and cut off all the electricity. By the time that we had left the mall and gotten into the car we were drenching. For some reason or another we had the great idea that if we took off our shirts and pants, the seats wouldnt get as wet. That didn't go so well when we realized that we couldn't even drive on the road because the water was too high. we had to pull over to the side of the road and some innocent man who thought he was being helpful stopped to see if we were okay.

Took that man by surprise.

I've learned a lot from her over the years and to this day I still firmly believe that she helped me become who I am today.

Alison started a blog, Trenches of Motherhood, and after rolling around on the floor with tears streaming down my face while I read it because how funny it was, I HAD to share it with you...it is hilarious.

http://alisonwelti.blogspot.com/ for some reason i can't get it to link directly..weird.

Sick Day

Yesterday was a sick day for Benson. We stayed home from church and did this all day.