Wednesday, January 28, 2009

John Deere Delivery

I mentioned in the previous post that my parents were here last week. They made a special trip down to deliver Noah's John Deere. They had a fun, but short visit.

They spent most of their time in the ball pit.
Noah would get behind the ball pit and say he was on TV and pappaw would throw the balls at him.Noah still won't ride the tractor, but they found many resourceful ways to use it.
The "bat-hoe" (backhoe) hat.
Throw a towel over the "bat-hoe" and it becomes a tunnel for cars, who knew? Noah is SO in to tunnels right now. That's a whole other post in itself.
Combine the ball pit with the tractor for even more fun. They would fill the front end loader with balls and then dump them out (over and over and over and over)!Cheese! Wearing pappaw's golf hat.
Noah had such a fun time with memaw and pappaw and was so sad to see them go home to "Oat-homA" (Oklahoma).

Thursday, January 22, 2009

The Things You Do for Love

My parents were here this past weekend and that means we take advantage of built-in babysitters and go on a date. Instead of choosing a nice romantic dinner and a movie, we went to College Station to the OU/A&M basketball game. Yes, you read that right people.

Our seats were in THE. VERY. LAST. ROW, as in I thought I was going to experience altitude sickness. We could actually touch the wall behind us. I guess Brandon didn't have the secret Aggie password when he ordered the tickets online.

We ran in to a couple that Brandon went to school with and one of them marveled at how sweet it was for me to accompany Brandon to the game and cheer on the Sooners. Whoa!! Let's not get carried away. I didn't exactly cheer for the Sooners, I didn't openly cheer for A&M either. We'll just leave it at that.

Here's the view from section nose bleed. It was quite dizzying with all the singing and swaying and what not.One of the Griffin's. I can't tell the diff: We made a quick stop at the George H.W. Bush Library and Museum.
I did get a nice dinner out of the deal thanks to a recommendation from my College Station trip advisor. :)

Oh, and OU won the game 69-63, if anyone is interested.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Baby Bennett

Finally! I get to spill the beans! I don't know who I'm spillin' them to because I think all six of my readers already know, :) but still, it's fun to get to blog about it...

Ryan and Lindsey (my brother and his wife) are expecting a baby!!

They gave my parents this ornament for Christmas:
It says:
"Merry Christmas, Memaw and Pappaw, Love, Baby Bennett

It took a minute to sink in and then the reactions were priceless. We were completely shocked and surprised! So glad we have the video! Noah's new little cousin will be here late August and we couldn't be more excited!!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Luscious Lashes

Why is that boys are always blessed with long, pretty lashes? I don't think my lashes have ever been that long!

Monday, January 5, 2009

Five Christmases

Better late than never, right? The daunting task of sorting through 180+ Christmas pictures and uploading 35 to the blog was overwhelming me, but I finally made myself take the time to do it.

Our family is creating the sequel to Four Christmases. I haven't seen the movie, but I know our families aren't as dysfunctional as those shown in the previews!

Here's a recap of our Christmas(es) 2008! The cutest thing on earth:
Christmas #1: Spent with my parents, my brother and his wife.

Noah "helped" everyone open (opi!) their presents, he had so much fun and we had so much fun watching him. Helping Memaw open her iced tea maker:
Helping mommy open clothes. I'm sure he was feeling sorry for us that we didn't get toys.
Uncle Ryan and Aunt Lindsey:
The fun ball pit from Uncle Ryan and Aunt Lindsey:
Brandon showing off the Dunder Mifflin t-shirt I got him (Dunder Mifflin is the company on The Office for those of you who don't watch it).
Noah begged and pleaded until daddy, pappaw, and uncle Ryan blew up the ball pit. He had SO much fun! We laughed so much. He wore himself out. Here he is taking a break to rehydtrate. This thing has provided hours of entertainment.
Noah's big gift from memaw and pappaw was this ride-on "E-I"! He was nervous about it at first, but the next day he finally sat down on it. He didn't want to make it go though. He'll get there. We didn't get to bring it home with us. but hopefully memaw and pappaw can make a trip down to deliver the John Deere.
After we opened presents, we gathered in the kitchen to frost the sugar cookies. This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions and one of my favorite Christmas treats!
Our finished products! So tempting to eat, but they are MUCH better after they sit overnight in the cookie tin and let the icing soften the cookie. Delish!! Mmmm, I want one right now!
Pappaw built a fire for us a couple nights that we were there. It was SO cold outside, we needed it! Noah was captivated by it! He called it a wow-wow. :)
We went to Rhema Bible Church/College one night. They have a massive light display with millions of lights. Noah was overcome with excitement and just RAN down the sidewalk looking at everything. He was hilarious! We had to run to keep up with him, that helped keep us warm, I think it was about 35 degrees outside!
"No time for pictures! Look at those lights!!"
Mommy and Noah at Rhema:
I had no idea my parents saved so many of mine and my brother's toys from when we were little. My dad drug this Holly Hobby stove out of the attic and cleaned it off while we were there. Noah enjoyed pretending. He closed the microwave and punched the pretend buttons. He made us pizza, hot dogs, cheese, "crackers", and "hottea" (he says it like one word). They also got our little bitty table and chairs down from the attic so Noah could color. You saw in the Thanksgiving post how uncle Ryan's old hot wheels keep Noah entertained. And he loved this old Fisher Price camper set. He can pretend play so well for a two year old! He amazes me.
My parents also found my brother's old cowboy boots and tried them on Noah. His reaction was SO amusing! They were a couple sizes too big and he'd never worn boots so I'm sure the little heel felt funny to him. He walked down the hall so awkward and bow legged! After he "broke 'em in" he was showing us "Happy Tee" (dancing like the penguin in Happy Feet).
Christmas #2


Uncle Troy and Aunt Phyllis. We opened gifts with my dad's sister and her husband. Here's Noah helping his great uncle Troy open a present. We really enjoyed getting to see them, it was just too quick. We're going to have to figure out a better schedule next year so we can spend more time with them!Christmas #3

My grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, and their babies (and my parents, brother, and his wife, of course)!

My grandma has a Christmas Eve birthday so we celebrate her birthday in the kitchen then relocate to the living room to read the Christmas story and exchange gifts. Here are the great-grandkids watching her open her birthday presents.My cousin brought a little animated movie for the kids to watch called The Very First Noel. It was so well done and so cute. Here we are watching the movie: Little cousins! We got them to be still long enough to take their picture together!!
Christmas #4

Brandon's dad's family.

We had a delicious steak dinner and ate waaaaay too much!

Aunt Khelsea is Noah's buddy. He really warms up to her and I think she enjoys him too. :)Noah and grandpa Gary. Noah is pushing the present along the floor rather than opening it! They got him a football, a walkin', talkin' Lightning McQueen and the cutest growth chart.
Noah got to play outside for the first time in a long time that day (it had been too cold) and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. He passed out in the car before we even got out of their neighborhood!

Christmas #5

Brandon's mom's family.

Noah loves his "big boy" cousins. Nana was trying to cook dinner, but Camden and Noah thought this was the best spot to play cars and trucks.Jake entertaining Noah. Noah laughed so much with his cousins!Noah warmed right up to Aunt Char! They hadn't seen him since he was two months old, but he walked right over to where she was sitting and climbed in her lap. I was like, grab the camera!!How many cousins does it take to give Noah a bath? Good thing Noah hasn't reached the modest stage yet, because he had an audience.Nana fixed us an awesome dinner before we opened presents and again, we ate way too much! Everyone got to be home this Christmas, Nana had a house full, but it was so fun.The cousins and pawpaw. A couple years ago when Noah was a newborn, it was Camden and Jake trying to escape the picture, this year, it was Noah.All the kids helping pawpaw open his birthday presents.Noah got lots of fun blocks, tools, cars, trucks, and tractors. He couldn't finish opening his presents because he wanted to open the package right then and start playing with everything. At one point he was laying down under Brandon's chair playing with his new cars and trucks.

It's always bedlam! Nana and pawpaw got Brandon got a nice new OU polo and me some OSU jammies.Uncle Brad and Aunt Char.We went to Subway after church on Sunday. Look at the sweet look on Camden's face. :)Cheese! Noah with his Mack Truck. He calls him "MaTT".Thank you, everyone! We had a wonderful Christmas and are truly blessed. Noah gave me such joy watching him this Christmas season, I don't think I ever quit smiling. He gets SO excited about every little thing in life and all things are new to him. I am so thankful for him and his sweet spirit. I'm also thankful that we got to see almost our entire family and celebrate the birth of our Lord (we missed you, San Antonio Bennetts!).