Winter Woes

Benjamin is 6 months already!
Longing for spring.
We love our wagon Papaw and Grandma got us!

We are looking forward to spring, now right around the corner, hopefully.

Time indoors has begun to wear on us. Particularly, Thomas, who needs to run around and burn off energy! Snow, snow go away, come again next winter...ugh. I think we are about to get another blast of it this week. Oh well. Such is life in good ol' northern Indiana.

Roadtrip!

Isaiah sporting a mohawk

Sweet Adrienne

After just over 2 weeks of patiently waiting, the time came for Sarah to go to Chicago to help with the new babies! Finally. It was a wonderful trip. Of course, Benjamin went along too, but the more the merrier, I guess. We were able to stick around in Oak Park for three days. Much of the time was spent feeding the babies, holding and snuggling, while chatting with Heidi. And since we don't have BRAVO, we also spent some time catching up on Project Runaway- go Christian! One day we had a lovely luncheon, when Annie and Nathan came to visit for the day. Actually, don't let me fool you, I am pretty sure we were all trying to eat with one hand, hold a baby with another hand, and hope Benjamin would stop crying and fall asleep already! Good news on our little Benjamin actually- he has learned to self-soothe, and is finally snoozing like a champ again. Yay!

Aunt Heather visits!

Heather came home from the boat this week, and we were so excited when she made plans to come visit us! Sarah particularily was thrilled to have company (and lots of help) for the week. Thomas loved having his auntie visit, and spent most of the time doing puzzles, reading and lazing on the couch watching his favorite movies with Aunt Heather. Benjamin also loved being with his aunt again, since he was only 2 months the last time he had seen her. One afternoon we all gathered in the kitchen to bake cookies for Valentine's Day! It is always fun when Heather comes home from a long trip- we always enjoy the photos and stories of her amazing cultural adventures. This trip Heather returned with stories from South Africa, Mauritius, and the Seychelles. She is so cool.

A Day in the Life...

Puzzle time!

At Christmas, Thomas received an amazing gift. A gift that gave his mom and dad a reprieve from the constant motion of a 2 year old: wrestling, playing hide-n-seek, jumping and dancing. Thomas' wonderful Grandma and Grandpa May gave him a new set of puzzles. And he loved them. Now his favorite thing to do EVERY MORNING is work on his shape, letter and number puzzles. And we get to have quieter mornings, too. With this new turn of events, our little scholar has actually learned his shapes, numbers, letters, and the ABC song! It is so exciting to see our little guy learning so many new things, and especially starting to enjoy it too.

Jump, jump, jumperoo!

Meanwhile, Benjamin at just over 5 months, is happily exploring life a little at a time. He is now rolling over, and practicing the difficult tasks of sitting up on his own and eating from a spoon. Of course, the task we really want him to learn is sleeping through the night! Thankfully, his ever-present and easy smile make the resltess nights a bit easier to manage for now.