Bennett is 6 months!

Bennett turned 6 months old last friday! She is an ever changing bundle of joy!

Some things that Bennett can do are:

• Crawl (army crawl... it's all arms!)
• Roll over both ways
• Drink from a bottle (this took us a long time to conquer!)
• She knows her name
• She smiles and laughs a lot!
• She is on a 3 nap schedule
• She loves playing... her favorite toy right now is her brother's firetruck!
• She takes a pacifier now... for awhile she sucked her thumb but I wanted her off of that!
• She wants to put everything in her mouth
• She enjoys her johnny-jump-up a lot!
• She is very ticklish!

Yesterday Bennett had rice cereal for the first time and tonight we tried carrots... here are some pics!Her first bite of rice cereal... she likes it! Happy girl after eating! Always sticking out her tongue! It's been a busy month for us... sorry I don't write more often. I'll end with a very silly family pic, minus Bennett (she was napping).

Signs of Fall

You know fall is here (not that there was a question!) when your yard looks like this:

That would be my backyard after I raked this afternoon. I ended up filling 11 bags! Here's my yard after... We are renting this house and are very blessed to have a yard at all... but you'll notice how there's no grass! Because the house is so close to the business next door and the large tree cover, sunlight does'nt cover the entire yard, therefore grass does'nt grow. Needless to say it is very muddy! And here are my shoes after raking in my muddy yard... I think I was almost a whole inch taller! All in all it was a productive day outdoors! I still have my front and side yard to rake, but the weather is supposed to be great through the weekend! And I need more bags!

Stains!

I love Shout Advanced Action Gel! It has saved many outfits from horrible set in poop stains! Most moms who breastfeed know what I'm talking about... it seems impossible to get those kind of stains out... but this product is amazing! If I am at home and can soak the stain in water right after it happens it does help... but the Shout gel works great on the set in stains that I don't soak too! You just spray the gel onto the stain and then rub it in to activate the gel and cleaning agents... then you throw it in the wash and awhile later your outfit is as good as new! Whenever Bennett's clothes get stained my first thought is "this stain will never come out!" I have yet to use Shout and not get the stain out! It's amazing! I would highly recommend this product if you are in need of a good stain remover!

Conrad's Birthday Cake & Party!

Conrad's 2nd birthday party was on saturday! We had a great time celebrating with family and friends and Conrad got some pretty sweet presents! (thank you to everyone who generously gave him a gift... he has been very entertained all weekend!)

Here is a video of us singing to Conrad... he's pretty unsure of everything!

Conrad loves Cars so I decided to make him a Lightning McQueen cake! I found a lady who blogged about how she made one using fondant and I just had to try it... click here to see her blog. First I baked a cake, cooled it and then froze it for 1 hour. Then immediately after removing it from the freezer I carved it... I cut the cake in 1/2 and stacked it. Then I carved the shape of McQueen and using the extras that i cut off I built the cab and spoiler of the car. Then I frosted it... which is when you really begin to see McQueen! The frosting helps everything stick together.

Then it was time to work with the fondant. I bought a $6 already made package at Wal-Mart... so all I had to do was dye it. The Wilton concentrate colors work best, and for the red I used a whole container (they're really small jars). Before you start make sure you have gloves b/c the dye will stain your hands! So you just add the dye to the white fondant and work it in by pulling, kneading and twisting until it is the color you want. Then using powdered sugar and a rolling pin you roll it out to the size and thickness you want. You then wrap it around your rolling pin and place it over your cake.Then using your hands you smooth it around your cake. I was able to shape the spoiler a little better at that time too. Using a knife or scissors you cut the extra fondant off. The powdered sugar will absorb into the fondant. Then using a picture of the Radiator Springs Lightning McQueen I began to add all of the details. I just used a knife to cut the fondant into the shape I wanted and then wet the back with water and placed it on the cake. For the wheels I used hostess chocolate donuts and covered them in black fondant... then i cut wheel wells into the cake so the wheels didn't stick out too much. For all the lettering I dyed vanilla icing and used Wilton bags and tips... they work great and really aren't hard to use or clean (it was my first time for all of this!) The finished product! It probably took 4-5 hours to do everything, but was well worth my time! Conrad loved it and I had fun trying something new! I was nervous at first, but fondant is not too hard to work with... if I can do it then anybody can! I will definitly be using fondant again!

Happy 2nd Birthday Conrad!

It's Conrad's 2nd birthday today! My how time flies! It seems like just yesterday this bright eyed dimpled face boy came into our lives! We have made so many memories, both good and bad with Con... and I am so excited to see the little boy and someday man that God turns him into!

Some of my favorite things about Conrad are:

• He gives the best hugs and loves to cuddle!
• He has a great laugh... it's hard not to laugh with him!
• His run is very funny!
• He has some sweet dance moves
• He is a great eater! He especially loves green beans!
• His cute smile... how can you resist the dimples?!
• The way he copies everything Gunnar does... he loves his big brother so much!
• I love it when he makes Bennett laugh and smile!

We love you Con!

Spiders

I am very scared of spiders! It doesn't matter what kind they are, whether they are inside or outside... I hate them! So I am preparing to have a garage sale this weekend and I've been spending a lot of time in our basement sorting and pricing things. I had a group of chairs sitting by a wall in the basement probably for about 2 months now and I noticed maybe 3 weeks ago that this group of chairs was covered in spider webs. It kind of grosses me out to see that but its no big deal as long as I don't have to go near them. Well within this group of chairs is a highchair that I want to sell in my sale... so you guessed it, I have to touch this highchair... clean it, take it outside and try to sell it. So I go down in the basement with a paper towel, all prepared to get all the cobwebs off and carry it outside. It's just my luck that today there was a spider on it! And it wasn't just hanging out for fun... come to find out that it has decided to have it's babies on my highchair! That's right... there are a bunch of little spider eggs all over this thing! So gross! So I'm down stairs trying to figure out how to get this mama spider off my chair and I just can't get close to the highchair... did I mention that I hate spiders?! So I get enough courage to finally drag the highchair up the steps and out the door, stopping every few moments to make sure the spider is still on its eggs and not preparing to attack me! So I get it outside and get the hose out and spray the crap outta the spider and the eggs... at one point I shot the spider and saw it shoot a web and try to stay attached to the chair and its eggs but the water was too strong! So now the highchair is sitting in my yard, wet, with the eggs soaked, but still attached... and I am still scared of this spider! I don't want to go back out there b/c I'm afraid it's mad at me and will attack me! I know this is very irrational thinking, but I am terrified! Maybe I'll just leave the chair alone until Thaddeus gets home and let him move it for me!

Bennett is 4 Months Old

Bennett turned 4 months old on Sunday! Where have the months gone?? It seems like just yesterday she was new to our family and we were all just getting to know her! We are very blessed to have easy, happy babies and I would have to say that Bennett has been even easier than the boys were... it might just be that I know more now as a mom than before, but she really is a very content baby! Some things about Bennett:

• She loves to sleep on her tummy
• Her favorite place to hangout is in her bouncy chair w/ the vibrate on
• She is usually sucking on something... her favorite's are her hands, her bear, and her burp rags.
• She will smile and talk to anyone who talks to her... I think she will be a people person, just like Thaddeus and Gunnar!
• Her eyes are definitely brown... there was a hint of blue when she was first born
• She is very talkative, especially compared to the boys! She coos and laughs and makes lots of cute noises!
• The only time she cries is when she is startled... usually only happens when Thaddeus sneezes!
• Instead of crying when she is unhappy she kinda screams and yells... it's really funny and loud.
• She can roll over from her tummy to her back... and sometimes will do this in the middle of the night and won't be able to fall back asleep again until we roll her back
• She is a great eater! It only takes her 5-10 minutes to nurse each time... I love how fast she eats! She gets very distracted while nursing lately too!
• She kind of sleeps through the night... 9pm-5am most of the time... she'll nurse for 5 minutes and then go back to sleep for a few hours.
• She usually takes 4 naps a day and almost always wakes up happy!
• Her favorite time of day is in the morning when she wakes up... just like Thaddeus! She is so happy and content in the a.m!

Bennett has been such a blessing to our family! I love having a baby around to snuggle and cuddle and just love on! Her smile always puts me in a great mood! We are so excited to watch her grow up and to see the little girl that she grows into... we love you Bennett Nelle!