Lauren's Babies: Minnie and Daisy

Lauren got two guinea pigs for Christmas and she named them Minnie and Daisy. Of course they could not be left alone in Virginia, so they traveled to Memom's house for the weekend. Jack was very interested in the girls, but once he felt the little claws on his neck, he would quickly be done with his "visit". They are so cute and they just love their mama, Lauren.


Madison is going to be so thrilled that I added this in. She didn't want her picture taken and was trying to hide. Sorry Madison.


Lauren and Jack in their pj's holding the girls.



Jack has Daisy and Lauren has Minnie.

They're such little snugglers.

Yeah, it was the first time he held them, so I took alot of pictures.

Ben and Uncle Mike Meet!

It's hard to believe that I haven't seen Mike since Thanksgiving of 2007. I'm sure it's that little fact that he was deployed for 13 months and lives 13 hours away from us. So, my entire pregnancy, Ben's birth and first 10 months of Ben's life were absent of Mike's presence. Our trip to Kentucky last week ended the two-year void:)

You can see Ben's excitement here...
okay, getting excited here

still exciting . . . Uncle Mike!

Ben's little girlfriend

My friend and neighbor, Laura, had a baby 10 days after I had Ben. Her name is Samantha. While Josh and Jack played upstairs, Ben and Sam got to know each other. She is a fast crawler and Ben really enjoyed watching her move around. They shared (for the most part) and smiled alot at each other. Here is their "playdate".

Jack wearing Sam's hat.

Sam didn't want to leave Ben out of the picture-taking, so here's one of Ben, too (as if).

Wanna Bite?

Last night we had the best time taking turns letting Ben feed us. He is so precious. He will put the food up to his mouth, then decide he wants to share and quickly push it in your face. He gets so tickled with himself.

Giving me a saltine cracker. (my hair is straight because I got it cut and my hairdresser straightened it for me).

'Round the House

These pictures have been just hanging out in my picture file - waiting to be used.


Ben looking alot like Aunt Jen when she was this age. A little bit of Lauren Elizabeth here, too.


I love taking pictures of bathtime. Ben has the best time. He splashes and makes happy noises.

Sunglasses he got at the Y.

Jack thinks he's hiding from Sam in this picture. Aren't kids hilarious?

A New Year in Pictures

My New Year's resolution is to try to require fewer naps and do more blog postings than I have been since Benjamin George came along. Here are a few pictures from today in the playroom. The last few are after bath. Jack ended 2009 being a fantastic big brother. He always wants to help Ben feel better, make him laugh, play with him, just be with him. He tells me all the time that he is going to get along with Ben when they are older.

Sittin' on the Diego chair in the playroom.

I love this picture.

...and this one...

....this looks like one from above, but it's different...

Oh my, Ben has his mouth open - never seen that before!

After bath, looking tired.

Jack got a new, New Year's haircut. He's slowly losing his curls and his hair is getting darker and darker :(

Santa is the coolest

Santa came to see the boys and the word of the morning from Jack was, "cool". Everything he saw, he said, "COOOOL"! I took more video of everything than actual pictures. Here is what the living room looked like when Jack came down the stairs. Ben's Christmas was there, too, but he was still in bed. He came down later and was only interested in toys after he had his breakfast. Unlike Jack, who hardly ate or drank anything all day because he was so "busy".

I had to add this picture. Sam spent over 30 minutes trying to figure out how to get this transformer changed into a car. I called it his nemesis

Tootin' my horn

I forgot to take a picture at Thanksgiving of my first turkey, so I made sure to take some shots of my Christmas meal. One thing that being home for both major Holidays has taught me; to cook poultry - whole birds. In addition, side dishes like mash potatoes, homeade cranberry sauce, green beans, dressing and, for Christmas, homeade pecan pie. I did it all by myself and it was all done at dinner time. Yeh me.

My Christmas "young" chickens (they were called -poor little fellas).
My homeade cranberry sauce in the process. I love the color.

Christmas with Granny and Grandpa Eugene

Can we just say, slacker. That is me. Granny and Grandpa Eugene came to visit two weeks ago and brought the boys their Christmas gifts. Ben got a ton of bath toys and sleepers and two outfits. Jack got the Shake n go Extreme. We had a great visit with them and the boys love their stuff. Here they are opening up their gifts.

New tug boats

And of course Ben was way more interested in the wrapping paper than the toys.

Jack's Artwork

I know it's not monumental, but I just loved this drawing Jack made of our family. What is so funny to me is I'm the biggest one on the page. He's the second biggest and Sam and Ben are the little, itty-bitty ones. I think it means that I'm the most important in his life right now....perhaps?

Daddy's baby

It's clear that I'm not the only one smitten with Ben. He has Sam wrapped. We both are so aware that he is growing so fast and won't be a baby much longer. He's such a snuggler and loves to grab anything on your face he can get a hold of and pull you close for an open mouth slurp. We enjoy it.



This is the cheek/neck grab. Not fun as he has quite a grip.

This video shows how he likes to hug.