Deck the halls... or rather the living room

So, in the midst of our week of sickness, we realized that the only time that we would all be together to put up our tree was Saturday(Nov 29th). So, we looked over the junk heap that had become our living room, and began a decorating.
My boys are ready to decorate!! (Ben was the supervisor!)

Checking the lights!

Daddy, daddy let me help.

Wow, these lights are really cool!

Daddy, you aren't doing it right
Nope, still not right
That's better!!

"Did you see how I did that Ben? Remember that for next year."



JohnBug's amazing decorating skills!

Checking out the finished product!



And this is what our animals did while we were decorating. Kebap chewed his bone contentedly, and Tess "hid" in her little manmade tent!

A house divided, multiplied

This has been in my drafts for a couple of weeks (Dec 3) waiting for the picture to be uploaded off the camera. Unfortunately, I am not as technologically savvy as some of you may think, and I didn't know how to do this, so I had to wait for Chris to A.)be home & B.)show me, so that I could upload pics in the future!!

Every Thanksgiving week, the annual Texas/Texas A & M game comes. I love football, and marrying a Texas boy, I have learned more and more about the game, instead of just following the ball. I now "keep up" with different teams and their standings, and have a few favorite quarterbacks. Now, I have never been a fan of UT, probably because it is a very liberal school, and I just don't like that (sorry to all those who go there), but mostly cuz my bro went to A & M, and my family has "always" (meaning since we lived in Texas) been more partial to it.
Well, I married a die hard UT fan. For a while I resisted letting him get his fix. I wouldn't even touch the color burnt orange, but slowly and surely he wore me down. I now "faithfully" (as faithfully as you can with two little ones) watch all the games, and even enjoy Colt McCoy and Mack Brown, and there was Vince Young before that (mmhmm, my eye candy!!! ). They are a fun team to watch, but this time of the year is the one time I have to revert to my roots and cheer for the other team.
So, to add to all of this, our families are filling our children with paraphernalia (yes folks that is the correct spelling!) from their respective favorite schools, each trying to outdo the other. So, this week is the week we get to showcase some of what the kids have received in our annual "House Divided" picture.

Ben is sporting his Aggie onesie with his Longhorn bib and socks. John is sporting one of his Aggie onesies with his Aggie socks and one of his Longhorn windsuits. And well, the rest is self explanatory!
Unfortunately none of us stayed in these clothes for long. John was sick with a nasty stomach virus and had diarrhea explosion all over Chris(probably TMI, however b/c of said stomach virus, we had no Thanksgiving dinner. We all stayed in and dealt with it, as we each ended up coming down with it), and Ben, well he just likes to poop and pee, and somehow it got all over me!!!

Aleena's visit

Here's a post that was in my drafts before Benaiah arrived.

Well, Chris's unit decided to go to the field two weeks before I was due (Oct20-24). So, I had my friend Aleena come over to be on "babywatch" as she called it, so that I would have someone here in case I went into labor. Aleena works 12 hour shifts on the weekends only, so she was free all week!
She arrived Friday and John & Tess immediately took to her. It probably helped that she had food. Both of them mooched off of her.


She was a tremendous help all week. We prepared food and froze it, went shopping for some things needed for the birth, and worked on getting my house ready. But most of all we talked and caught up on long lost time. She also kept Kebap busy with bubbles and throwing his balls. Every time she would go outside Kebap would dutifully follow her. Poor guy didn't know what to do when she left. John also enjoyed the bubbles as you can tell from the videos!



She also helped out with dinner time and bath time, the times that were the hardest for me. And the best part, she took John and wandered the mall, so I could get a much needed haircut. Here are the pics from the day.


Had to get some belly pics in there, plus, the last one shows some of the layers!!


Nope, sure doesn't look this good anymore. I don't have the time to straighten it daily, so I just leave it curly, or up in a ponytail!

Breakfast of Champions

This morning John was playing while I was trying to wake up. I hear him scrounging around in the kitchen, and then he brings me his selection: Tortellini. This is promptly followed by signing "Please." Yes, he wanted Tortellini for breakfast. Then when I wouldn't give him any, he went back into the kitchen and produced a box of stuffing and signed "Please." Apparently my kid is hungry. I guess I had better go feed him, but alas it probably won't be tortellini and stuffing. Sorry bug!

Random pictures, just cuz

"Smiling" at two days old

My little monkey

4 days old, checking out the world

One week old

Enjoying the colorful playmat

1st Texas Longhorn game with daddy and big bro
His look during the game, "Oh my goodness what is my daddy subjecting me to?"

John loves carrots, and somehow the carrots we got at the store this last time were ginormous. He likes to chew right through the middle.

Our little "John Deere"

This being outside the womb is exhausting business.

Meeting and getting to know each other

The next morning (November 5th) after we woke up, John was brought into our room to see his baby brother. He was all excited to see us, and then he saw something squirming on the bed, and got really curious. We brought him up to the bed, and I picked up Ben to show to him. He pointed and was really curious, but when I tried to put him on his lap he would have none of it! Later that day, Ben was on my lap, and John came up to me and looked at his baby bro. He then proceeded to point out his hands, take off his hat to look at his hair, point out his eyes and nose and mouth and then decided Ben needed a high five. It was too cute! He was very gentle.

Curious to see what the moving "thing" was in our bed.

"Um, he was better from afar, you can take him back mom."


Finding Ben's eyes, hands, hair and then finally after everything is deemed ok, giving him a high five.

Checking out the mouth and again the hair.


Since then, he has gotten a little more used to Ben. He wants to "help" (more see what is going on) when Ben is crying. He also likes to help him swing and bounce. The swinging assistance isn't too horrible, but when Ben is on the bouncer chair, John likes to try to push the chair all the way to the floor to give Ben a good bounce, so we have to watch them carefully and continue to remind him to be careful. The hardest thing now is the car rides. John enjoys kicking his feet and thus Ben's chair. He also enjoys playing peek-a-boo with Ben, which consists of pulling his "shade" (is that what they are called on the little carseats?) back and forth.