What Happened to Bennett?

I usually work out from 5:30-6:45 each morning. That way I can come home and shower before the kids are up and Andy is on his way to work. Tuesday I didn't feel great so I slept in and Bennett and I headed to the Y when he was up from his morning nap. I felt so dirty when I got home that I wanted to take a shower. Sometimes I will put him in the shower with me and let him play while I get clean. I didn't feel like changing his clothes before his afternoon nap, so I just put him in the bathroom with me and got in to take a quick shower. Immediately, he was looking in the curtain at me and trying to grab me. I told him no and pointed out his toys on the floor. The next thing I know he is sliding, headfirst, into the tub. In all his clothes. Totally ecstatic. He ran as fast as he could in socks to come hug my legs like he had just discovered the most exciting trick. Whew!

That's right, he's soaked!
Huh? You talking about me?

Tooth Fairy

I am late as usual, but the Tooth Fairy has been busy around here. Carly lost her first tooth in September and Joiner followed a month later. This delay has been a tough pill to swallow, but it is the first of many things that won't happen exactly alike:)

The Tooth Fairy asked Andy and I if we had any special coins for the occasion. As it so happens, Andy had two silver dollars that his grandmother had given him that he shared with the Tooth Fairy. One is from 1853 and the other 1857. The girls think this is very cool.

Joiner with her new look

Holding her new coin
Carly with her new look. I don't know why she has on a tiara, but this is what we do:)
Carly with her coin. Carly's new tooth is almost already in.

Sister smile...

Fall Fun

Fall is my favorite time of the year. North Carolina has amazing Falls. We have great weather and beautiful leaves. We have a 5 huge trees in our yard that keep us busy in leaf weather. I usually just let a majority fall before I get out the rake and blower. The kids love this because they love to jump in the leaves. Mr Richard, our neighbor, blows our front where it touches his grass, but I think he does that because he loves his backpack blower:)

Bennett and I have been going out and playing in the leaves after lunch.

Here he is picking the leaves out of his rake.

Sweet boy!

Stomping the leaves. Why do all kids love this sound? Actually, I guess I like this sound as well:)

The girls had Friday off from school. We had a fun morning and then headed out to play in the leaves before nap time. I knew we would be on leaf duty on Saturday and wanted to get one last play day in!

Jumping. Bennett can't jump yet, but he can bounce:)

So happy to have his sisters playing with him.

Leaf confetti! It is so fun to have a day like this with them!

Bennett had to be a part, although he wasn't too sure about it.

Now they are trying to rake them back into a pile to jump some more.

Now he's getting into this throwing thing

"Who are you looking at?"

Really into it now!

Joiner is trying to nail him with leaves. I had to keep asking them to throw them up and not directly at him!

Grumpa let us borrow his backpack blower and the leaves are now in a nice pile on the street for the leaf vacuum to come. I think Bennett loves this truck more than the leaves themselves!

Happy Fall!

Halloween 2011

It is only 2 weeks after Halloween, so I am not doing as badly as I would have thought.

We spent Halloween with the Townsends as usual.

We started with a pizza dinner.

The "big kids" table

Gigi and Bennett eating on the floor. You can see Bennett wasn't happy about it:)

Bennett riding Bear's car Carly was Belle, Ellison was Super Girl, Joiner was Rapunzel, and Ethan was Iron Man.
I love this one with Ethan and Andy peeking in the door as he got there late from work.

Bennett the lion. If you asked him what a lion says, he would roar! He also kept that hood on all night. He loves a hat!
Iron Man
Bear getting strapped into his trick or treat car. As the big kids were getting ready to get their things, Bennett grabbed a lost bucket and got in line. That was it. He got trick-or-treating right away. He had to give the bucket back to the owner and grab his Elmo bucket and then he ran as fast as he could behind the others.

Here they are at the first house. You can see him dragging Gigi up the stairs. The big ones could hardly contain their excitement.
Dragging Gigi to the next house
Waiting for other houses to turn on their lights!
Trying not to be left behind!

He had no chance because this crew was running!



I think Carly and Joiner just realized last year that the point of going out was for candy. Bennett reached in after the first house and was gnawing on something. We all thought it was safe because it was wrapped. Fast forward a minute or so later and he was covered in chocolate. We learned our lesson:)



Bennett went to this house all alone. He wasn't about to miss one!

After it got dark and really cold, we all came back to take a look at the loot! They each got to pick a few pieces. You can see Carly is really happy about it! After enjoying the candy for a few days, we took it to the dentist and sold it. They each got $3 for their American Girl Doll fund.
I realized when we got home that I didn't get a picture of mine together, so here they are.