Three!

Let me preface this post by saying that this is an off-year.  As in I am taking this year off.  Not completely, but I am cutting myself some serious slack as I try to get back into the swing of things with 4 kids.  I’m not beating myself up for not putting up Halloween decorations, or taking pictures at Halloween, or not sending bread and cookies in for the bake sale at school.  I just keep telling myself next year I’ll do better.  Next year, I will post about birthdays when they happen.  At least in the same month.  Next year…

 

Anyways, Ben turned three in September.  When I asked what he wanted to do for his birthday, he said bowling and swimming.  Easy enough!  Us Chaplins love a good game of bowling.  Then we stopped by Wendy’s for some kids meals.  Can you find Waldo?No pictures of swimming (you’re welcome), but we did get some of him opening gifts.  Of all the awesome gifts he received his favorite was the whiffle softballs.  This kid loves his sports!  I absolutely love how expressive he is.  Cracks me up every day.  His next favorite thing was this ball.  He is so dang cute bouncing around the house on it.  Ben doesn’t love cake, so we made one out of ice cream sandwiches .  Super tasty.  Funny story about that candle there… When Ben turned 2, he took a bit out of his candle thinking it was candy.  So Carter thought it would be funny to see him do it again.  After a whole lot of encouragement from Carter and Samantha he ate almost the whole candle.  After which he threw it up.  Mike and I were pretty freaked out until we realized what he had eaten.  Older brothers are the best. This kid loves getting his picture taken.  I have to say I think he’s pretty good at it.  One thing he doesn’t love is clothes.  Mostly pants.  They are off as soon as he can get them off.  You know something is important to him when he will put on pants for it.  He loves making faces for the camera.  He loves making faces for anything, really.  He loves making people laugh.  So much that if he makes a face and you don’t laugh, he will tell you to laugh.  He will also tell you to say thank you after he does something nice for you.  “I held the door open for you, say thank you!”  I absolutely love these chubby little hands.  Why do they have go grow up?

He is such a fun, active little boy.  I have loved having him home with me as my little buddy while the other 2 have been in school.  He definitely adds his own brand of crazy to the family and we wouldn’t be the same without him!

5 Months!

This little one is growing fast!  He’s almost sitting up by himself, scooting around, and I think he’s teething.  At first, I’m always surprised at the new things he does.  Then I realize that he’s at that age.  I don’t know if it’s just because I’m busy or just tired, but his growing up is catching me by surprise.  He is a super happy baby.  He’s learning to play by himself a lot better although he definitely prefers to be with people.  We are finally getting on a nap schedule.  He is still up at least once a night, but I’m hoping once he start solids he will stop that.  He loves people and will stare at someone until they look at him.  He’s easily entertained by his brothers and sister and loves watching them play. 

He’s super cute and we are glad to have him around!

11 years down…

Mike and I celebrated our 11th anniversary today.  Holy Moly.  I can’t believe it’s been that long. It's flown by.  We are lucky enough to have 2 of my sisters here with us to babysit, so Mike took the day off and we had a super romantic day.  We started off by cleaning up the house a little, took care of a few little projects and then went to lunch.  Then we ran a few errands, came home and fed Adam and went to dinner.  We topped off the evening with a steamy trip to Target to check out the Halloween clearance. Next year we won’t have a baby and maybe we’ll plan something a little nicer.  It was nice to just spend some alone time with Mike, even if we were just running errands.  He’s been so busy lately with work that we don’t see a lot of each other and we rarely get time without any kids. 

We were talking about the past 11 years over lunch and we have faced some pretty big challenges and made it through some pretty rough times.  But we’ve stood together and they have made us stronger.  We have had some pretty great times as well, and I hope that the next 11 years holds a lot more good times than bad.  But no matter what comes our way, there is no one I would rather be standing by than Mike.  He is the best husband I could ask for. He puts up with and even supports my random eccentricities and obsessions.  He is an awesome dad and takes his job as a protector and provider very seriously.  I’m one lucky girl!