Pretty Girl

This story is the reason I started this blog. I want to get this story down in a scrapbook page to remember forever, but I don't have time right now so I'm hoping writing it down here will help me remember it. Then I hopefully I'll get a chance to scrapbook about it later.

So the other day we got a new Hanna Andersson catalog in the mail.



It was on the table in our "dining room" (ie common area) and Ben discovered it. He became infatuated with it. He would continually ask me to read it to him like a book.



Although we just skimmed through the pages looking at the pictures. Anyway, I started calling it the "pretty girl" book and soon he started saying "pretty girl" then he started trying to tickle her feet and laughing. Then after prompts he would try to kiss her and laugh. Like this



He would ask for the "pretty girl" book and "pretty girl book ah bed" translation read the pretty girl book on the bed. John started teasing him a little bit about having a girl friend and now when Ben says "pretty girl" he gets all giggly and silly. Just like he has a crush on the girl on the cover! It is absolutely the funniest and cutest thing I have ever seen! I tried to capture it with pictures the other day but I don't think they quite do it justice. It's kinda like the "had to be there" saying. This is the best I could get.



But regardless, isn't 21 months just a little too young for a girlfriend? I thought this afternoon it might be wearing off a little bit but then after we read stories at bedtime he insisted on bringing that catalog to bed with him. (He doesn't bring blankets or stuff animals to bed, he brings books! And other than trucks, I think they are his favorite things. I can't sit down without him bringing me a book he wants me to read. Which reminds me, next time I have to post about the doctor visit today and the nurse's comment to me about "his skills") I hope before it wears off completely and he forgets about the pretty girl, I can get it on video tape. But I won't get my hopes up. It seems every time I get the video camera out to record, he stops doing whatever it was that was so cute. But I will try because it would be so priceless! Here's one last shot of him all serious, studying the back of the catalog. I couldn't resist including it too.



So that's it for now. I have to get myself to bed. I just wanted to get this down on "paper" before I forgot. Lots to do this week. I'm planning on taking pictures of the before, during and after of my tiling project to post about on the blog. Lots to do and never enough hours in the day! The story of my life! See ya soon!

Lesson 3 Scrapbook Page & Basketball Photos

Another couple of weeks have gone by and it's hard to believe it's the 12th of February 2008 already. I finally managed to wrap up SEI year end files and mail them to the accountant yesterday. Whoohooo! I can cross something off by list! And the tile for the bathroom is ordered and should be here by Friday. I'm hoping to start tiling the Master Bath next week. So things are moving along...ever so slowly!

Ben has had pink eye twice and now is sporting a rash on the right side of his chest and under his arm. So we visited the doctor yesterday. We have no idea what's causing it and it doesn't seem to bother him. We are all about 99% over our cold ailments (although my left ear is still blocked!) so it's about time for it to start all over again!

Ben had his third haircut this morning and he did a really great job sitting for Mary. We all get our hair cut by Mary Paquette at Mary's Place in Middlebury. Mary has a little bird in her salon named Petri and Ben thinks he is just the neatest thing! Petri's cage sits on the floor and so Petri is right at Ben's eye level. I wish I had brought the camera with me this morning to get some photos of him staring at Petri! Next time. Anyway, his hair was getting pretty shaggy looking and John was calling Ben "Daddy's little Hippy" again. It's not too short but definitely looks much neater. I have to take some pictures when he gets up from nap and post them next time.

I finished up my week three digital scrapbooking layout for the class I'm taking last night. It took me awhile to finish it with everything that been going on. But I'm happy with how it turned out.


I love the photos in this layout. These are some of my all time favorite photos of John and Ben. I'm glad this class has given my an opportunity to scrap them. I start the fourth and final week this week. It's kinda of a bummer. It has been forcing me to take the time to do some scrapbooking. Maybe after I get the upstairs of the house done, I can make some more time to do it again. I also hope to take here next level class that start the end of March. It's called "digi in deep"

The weekend before last I made it to Katie's Saturday game at Castleton. They are having a great year this year so far. Krysta watched Ben and I was able to get a few good pictures of her. Here are a few of the best.



I can hear Ben stirring so that's it for this time around. Hopefully I'll be back to posting once a week again. Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

Sick & Digital Scrapbooking

Well, so much for posting every week! But I had a good excuse for last week, everybody here was sick with a nasty cold. Last Tuesday, I felt miserable and I'm sure Ben was feeling the same. So we didn't do much. We are all better now, thankfully, with only mild runny noses left. Although, Ben woke up yesterday morning with pink eye. So he was home with me and of course no work done!

Last week, I also started something I've been wanting to do for a while and that is take one of Jessica Spraque's digital scrapbooking classes. You can check out her website and classes here if you are interested. I'm taking the "Now we're rockin'" intermediate class right now and just finished up my second assignment. It's a four week class with one assignment per week with challenges and daily emails. It is awesome! I love it. I just wish I had more time! The story of my life! Here are my first two assignments:


We had a fun weekend. Heather, Dave, Max, Mareta and Michael Oberheim came up for a short but sweet visit. It was loud and rambunctious but so fun to have everybody here and sleeping in one house. I am just so happy and excited to have space and room to do things like this finally. I love my new house! I got some great pictures of everybody sledding down the driveway on Sunday but haven't uploaded them to my computer so I'll have to post those on a later day. Ben was just thrilled with the "big" kids. He couldn't take his eyes off of them. He loved watching Max and Michael play with his trucks. I can't believe Michael is almost 5 and Max and Mareta are 7. Where does the time go! They have gotten so tall and are such little people now. I can remember seeing them as babies at Lake George their first summer.

I can hear Ben stirring from his nap so I have to get going. I'm sure there is more to say but it will have to wait until next time!

Sticks, rocks and mud

Has it really been a week already since I posted last! Where has the time gone? Although I think posting once a week will be my goal. I think that's a reasonable goal so we'll see how it goes.

So much to talk about...where should I begin? Ben officially turned 20 months last Wednesday. He is growing up so fast. He is talking so much better in the last couple of weeks. It just amazes me. Even Tammy commented on it yesterday. Here are some of my favorite versions of his words right now.

* fafall = waffles
* serser = ceral
* dump digger = daddy's dump truck
* oooeee = wubie (our word for his pacifier)
* self = by myself
* baff = bath
* yogeet = yogurt
* ire = fire truck
* wessel = go into Mon & Dad's room and "wrestle" on the bed

He is doing so well feeding himself right now and has really started to show an interest in doing it all by himself.


He does a great job considering and thankfully has started wearing a bib again. He loves to zoom around on his radio flyer scooter. He absolutely loves books. His favorite thing right now is to go lay on Mommy and Daddy's bed to read stories and when he's home he wants to do this several times a day. He is starting to identify pictures in books and tell we what they are and also tell me which book he wants to read. (ie ire weeooo weeoo = fire truck book and the fire truck says wheeooo wheeoo) He still loves to be outside and really really enjoyed the 60 degree weather we had last week.

He doesn't seem to mind the cold and likes the snow but has a hard time walking in it. He really enjoyed playing in the mud and puddles last week when it was so warm.

His favorite thing outside right now other than going to see Daddy's "dump" in the "shop" is throwing "ocks" in the puddles outside. Sticks and puddles are also fun too!

Last Friday night we celebrated Papa's (John's dad) birthday. We had him over for a ham dinner and it was the first time Ben went over to him on his own and asked to get up in his lap! That's a big milestone! Also, yesterday (1/15/07), Ben didn't take a nap but spent 1 1/2 hours playing in his crib and when I went in to get him he had taken off his duck slippers, his socks and his pants and thrown them all on the floor. That's the first time he's taken off his pants by himself! Thankfully the diaper stayed on!

I've been keeping busy trying to get all of our year end stuff done. Hoping to get our Christmas cards out in the mail finally today! Needing to get back to the finishing the upstairs of the house. John's been fortunate enough to get a new house project in January. It's nice to have some income this time of year! So he has been busy at that. We finally moved the big chest freezer from the shop to the basement of the new house!! Yeah! It's funny how the little things like that, which make your life so convenient are so nice to get done! It really is so nice to have a house finally and have some space. Even if it's not done and there's a ton of boxes and stuff in the basement that needs to be dealt with.

So that's about it for us for now. I've got to get back to getting some work done. See ya next week!

A start

Well I've done it. I've jumped on the blogging band wagon. Why you might ask? First, I really want to document and remember our everyday lives. I want to get those memories in scrapbooks for myself because I love looking at them. But I don't have much time to scrapbook. So I thought, if I recorded a few memories here with photos and printed it out it would allow me to remember the things to scrapbook when I do have the time. Why not just keep a journal? Well, I do sort of and that leads to the second reason, sharing our photos and events with family and friends. We have some many contacts spread all over the country that want to know how we are doing and how Ben is growing but to keep up by email is very time consuming. I'm also terrible about sharing the photos I take. So that leads to this blog. I'll jot down some memories for me to remember and post some photos and thoughts to share with family and friends and hopefully spend less time and feel better about it than I do know.

I've been an avidly reading the blogs of some of my favorite scrapbook celebritys for at least a year now and that has really inspired me to keep track of our everyday daily routine lives more. For no special reason other than I just want to be able to look back in 10, 20 years and remember those little things that I know I'll forget. Plus I wanted a place I could share photos with friends and family easier.

So here it goes! I hope I can keep up with it. Not take too much time but still record some moments and photos that I want to remember forever.

On that note, last weekend John was able to move Ben swing into the basement. He was able to attach it to holes that already existed in the short metal beam. Here's what it looks like
(Look at all that stuff to deal with in the background!)Ben absolutely loves it! He has always loved to swing of course but now (especially with the winter weather) he can't get enough of it! I timed him yesterday and he swang for 22 minutes before he was even remotely interested in getting out! He calls it "winging". He gets this pleading look on his face and says to me "winging?" It is sooo cute! My heart just melts. He trys to squeeze under the gate and to go downstairs and gets so excited when I say ok..lets go winging!

Is that a happy face or what!

So that is it for today. My first blog entry and hopefully the first of many more. If you take the time to read it, be sure to leave a comment and let me know!

Ta Ta for now!
Heather