Houston Trip

Everyone was in Houston for the weekend so we decided to take a couple days off work and have a little summer vacation. We wish we could have stayed forever we had a ton of fun. Will actually cried when we left.

 This is how Ben and Parker roll.

 Will decided he was a little to tired to bowl

 This is Danny's "really your just going to sit there and take pictures..." look

 yup

 almost there

wait come back

 Danny leaves the ball unattended 

 and the ball bowls all by itself (looks like a good shot though)

 I think Ben and Parker look exactly like twins

 They were really cute together though

 pretty much best friends

They sealed their friendship in drool ( and spit-up)

Catching Up

I have a goal to start my photo-a-day posts. I really like how it shows a snapshot of what our life is really like! So I've been taking pictures but not posting... It's time to catch up.

 Will plays really well with Ben. He'll tell me Ben is sad and go get his pacifier.

 But sometimes Will wants everything Ben has...

 And he'll go to great heights to get it.

 We were surprised with a bag of fresh blueberries at church one Sunday. I wouldn't let Danny eat any of them so that I could make these babies!

 This is how I attempt to distract Will so that I can mop the floor.

 This probably should have it's own post...

I went out to our garden one day and was startled as something took off from under our melon plant and raced under the fence. I didn't see exactly what it was but I thought it might be a rat. Danny thought I was crazy and that it might be a rabbit. Well the next day we were out there together and Danny said "yeah I think we have a rat" it had just startled him too. 

Um a rat in my garden? YUCK!!! so I made danny put up some wire fencing so that it couldn't shimmy under our fence anymore. Well that night as we were 1/2 done with our new fence job we saw this guy.

Apparently, opossums eat rodents so what we think we actually have our baby opossums sleeping under our plants and eating our garden. Anyone have any ideas on how to keep them out of my garden? Because if they ruin my melons... :(

 Will's training to be a cyclist. If you've ever worn bike cleats you know how slippery these shoes are. It's quite impressive that Will can walk in them.

 Will has a cold :(

Danny had this great idea to see if he could shimmy his way through our table. Kind of our own spelio box. Yeah well I built that table and thus that gap is not even all the way across... Danny could get in one side but not out the other. Sometimes I think I have 3 kids.

"Pi" day

 I love holidays! Danny is a good sport and celebrates the lesser known holidays with me such as Groundhog's Day, and the soon to come National Scrabble Day. So I figured we could celebrate one for him. 3/14 National Pi Day! or "Nerd" Day as I like to call it.

We even made his favorite, vinegar pie, with the pi sign :)

Nursery!

I'm not planning on changing the nursery for each kid, but with Will we were still in the apartment so I couldn't really do what I wanted to. I decided to create my vision this time around. I wanted a nursery themed on something literary. Maybe a early attempt to get our kids to like reading? I'm not sure. Anyways, I also wanted something unique.

While we were in London a few years ago I got my idea, Paddington Bear!!! My uncle is actually British, an only child, and didn't have kids for awhile. His parents we're more than happy to treat me and my sisters as adopted grandchildren when we were little. My Nana and Papa Willis, as we called them, spoiled us with all sorts of fun gifts from England. One of which was an original Paddington Bear and a few British children books. I loved my Nana and Papa and so everything they sent us was precious and special to me. I'm rambling, so we'll just leave it to say English children's books and Paddington Bear have a special place in my heart. So yes, this nursery is SO for me and not the kids, but hey I spend just as much time in there really!

 Step into the room :)

Changing table aka "place to dump stuff while you change the baby on the floor table"

 The crib was mine as a baby, we got it from my uncle (yeah it's on its 9th kiddo!) sanded it down and re-stained it. I absolutely love having my boys sleep in the same crib I did!

My Grandma had my Great-Aunt make the quilt. Since Ben can't have blankets yet it's makes an amazing wall hanging.

The frames I got from Danny's parents and painted.

BTW Danny hates the board and batten on the walls. I've always loved the look. I figured if he saw it finished he would love it, he just needed to see it right? So I secretly did it while he was at work, making sure to keep the door closed at night. Me and Will got it all finished and... Danny still hates it. Oh well I got my one room :)

I've also promised not to embark on anymore "secret" projects. It's a really good thing Danny doesn't travel for work because I would be so tempted if he went out of town.

 Painted bookshelf we inherited from my parents (no we don't buy our own furniture). I tried to make it look like a British phone booth with Paddington peeking out... It turned out okay.

Rug. 

Kind of a disappointing finally huh? Sorry :)

Anyways, I love my sweet little room and love putting my sweet little boy to sleep in it.

We based Will's birthday on The Very Hungry Caterpiller book by Eric Carle

So for those of you who don't know the story here's how it goes:

On monday he ate through one apple.

On Tuesday he ate through two pears.

On Wednesday he ate through three plums.

Pn Thursday he ate through four strawberries.

On Friday he ate through five oranges.

On Saturday he ate through one piece of  chocolate cake, one ice cream cone, one pickle, one slice of swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon.

So for breakfast we had one slice of apple, 2 slices of pears, three slices of plum, 4 strawberries, and five sections of orange, a muffin, and some yogurt and milk.

For lunch we had a picnic lunch with Daddy. We had cheese and crackers with swiss cheese, pepperoni, and pickles, more fruit, and a hostess cherry pie.

For dinner we had hotdogs and watermelon.

Then, chocolate cupcakes and ice cream for dessert.

That night we had a stomachache :)

We had to go into Austin early for my doctor's appointment, and were meeting Danny for lunch so we had some time to kill. We did a little shopping, went and bought a "big brother" shirt, visited Toys r' Us, and used up some free tokens at Chuck E. Cheese. Will likes the driving games best!

Yeah we're in trouble in 14 years!

Okay so Will cheats a little at skeeball. However, if you notice he's score is still zero because he walks up and puts them in the gutter so I figure it's fair.

Until he decided that putting the balls in the next game over would be even more fun! We moved on quickly after that :)

Then, we came home and decorated for his "party". We decided to keep it just us again this year, because lets face it Will won't remember anyways, and we would have hated to cancel a friend party if the baby came early.

Will's caterpiller cupcake cake.

We had to light the candle a few times because Will needed Dad to show him what to do. He finally got the hang of it. Hope he remembered to make a wish!

Happy Birthday Will!

 I can hardly believe it but our little munchkin is already here and we are officially a family of 4! If you can't read it here's his stats:

Benjamin Ray Rich

Weight: 9lbs 5oz

Length: 20.5 in

Born at 12:18am 2/16/2012

So far everything has been a completely different experience from Will, but even better than we could have hoped for. 

 Ben's nursery is Paddington bear. Come to think of it I should put up some pictures later.

 I thought it would be fun to let him use the same sleeper Will did coming home from the hospital. So in case you were thinking to yourself man he looks a lot like Will. Lets compare...

Will Coming Home

Ben Coming Home

Will

Ben

Will

Ben

 Yup I think they are related!

 So how is Will adjusting to being a big brother?

I think he loves it. His favorite thing right now includes mimicking Ben. He'll stick out his tongue, pull his hands into his sleeves (so he doesn't scratch his face of course), and...

 Will even puff out his lip and make crying noises when Ben is upset.

Pretending to sleep like brother

Everyone is doing amazingly! We are just relaxing and having fun loving on our newest family member.