Halloween

This Halloween we had an Alice in Wonderland & a cute little monkey. They were both adorable! We all enjoyed a visit to the pumpkin patch and an evening of trick or treating in our neighborhood. Here are several pics of the little munchkins...Enjoy!

Ben's First Birthday

Can you believe it had been over a year?? I can't! We celebrated Ben's first birthday on October 18th, 2009. That was the day after his real birthday of the 17th. You see Ben's Aunt Amy got married on the 17th at the Bay house so we decided to celebrate the morning after with our closest friends and family.

Ben had a farm themed party with a beautiful cake his favorite GiGi made especially for him.

All the kiddos had a fun time, but sometimes the birthday boy didn't know what to do with all the attention!

He dug into his own special cake. He was timid at first, but eventually he got good and messy. We had a really memorable morning celebrating Ben's first year. I can't believe how fast it went!

Do You Know the Muffin Man?

Now that Ben is a big boy, he wants to eat like one. That means that he no longer wants us to cut his food into small pieces for him to eat. He wants to take small bites and then shove as much of whatever he is eating into his mouth as he can. Honestly, it is really cute to watch him try to figure this whole eating thing out, but it also makes me crazy! I have to watch him like a hawk to make sure he doesn't choke.

This is a perfect shot of that shoving thing I was talking about...and of course he was choking not long after that.

At the end of the day, he is pretty happy with himself! And Mommy is learning to let go and let him learn some things the hard way. Next up... the spoon!!

Our Third Anniversary

Matt and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on September 30Th. We decided to bite the bullet and go away together without the kids. This was our first time to leave Benjamin for any length of time. We were thrilled to get the chance to spend some uninterrupted time together, but I have to admit that unlike our previous trips this particular ride to the airport was filled with more apprehension than excitement. No worries though...I knew Benjamin was in good hands and by the time we landed in San Diego I was plenty excited. After we arrived in San Diego, we made our way to the cruise terminal, checked our luggage, and checked ourselves in. We had a few hours before the boat was taking off so we decided to take a cab over to Coronado Island for lunch.

We had been to Hotel Del Coronado a few years before during a work conference. We remembered that we had enjoyed a fantastic lunch there and took off to see if the scenery was as pretty as we remembered it to be.

Hotel Del Coronado is a beautiful historic hotel where the Marilyn Monroe movie "Some Like it Hot" was filmed. We had a really nice lunch and overall, it was a pretty great way to spend the afternoon I must say.

So eventually we made our way to the cruise ship and we were on our way to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. And this is what we saw when we got there! Isn't it absolutely gorgeous? The weather was perfect and the views were even better!

When we got off the ship we took a small boat for a cruise around the harbor and the bay. We saw Lover's Beach & Land's End, then we had a water taxi drop us off at a local beach.

Once on the beach we rented a jet ski and tootled around the bay for a while. It was the most fun! We were both impressed with Cabo and hope to visit there again.

In fact we had a very serious discussion about our future vacations there over a fruity drink as we pulled away and headed back to San Diego that evening :)

We had two days at sea to relax and have fun. We ate lots of yummy food, drank some good wine, and just hung out. I have to say I was feeling very relaxed and spoiled after a couple of lengthy and luxurious spa appointments! Yea me!

It was so great to spend some time as a couple and focus on one another. It was romantic, fun, and something I hope we make time to do as the years go by. While we were gone, Mr. Ben and Ava stayed with Gigi and later with Aunt Amy and Uncle Shane. Gigi posted pictures on Facebook so I could keep tabs from the cruise ship. I was really grateful that I could see how much fun they were having whenever I was missing the little munchkins! We were so happy to see them when we got home and I think they were happy to see us too. Now we have to get busy planning our next adventure....I wonder what it will be?

Another Haircut Post

So I call this his first big boy haircut. Gigi trimmed above his ears a little while ago, but it was definitely time for the real deal. He was shaggy and I needed a professional. I tried to wait until he was a year old, but we are all about being clean cut in our house so it was time...

Ben doesn't really look like he is buying this whole car story...he is too smart for all our tricks :)

Now he is looking at Ms. Maria like what in the h-e-double hockey sticks do you think you are going to do with that thing???

Now, my big man is just plain traumatized. But, for some bizarre reason I LOVE this picture. Obviously after it was all said and done Benjamin and Mommy are all smiles. Having your own baby is so cool.

Naughty Naughty

I promise I only looked away for a second. Benjamin is all over the place and into everything he can get his little hands on....and he is a quick little guy!

And then he looks over at me with this face. Who can resist this face?? It is a cute little face and at this point I could really care less about the mess.

But as soon as he sees me, he flashes that smile to distract me so he can flee the scene of the crime. Scary!

Happy Birthday Ava

Still playing catch up...hang in there :) OK, so just a few days after Ava started back to school we celebrated her 7th birthday. Yes, I said she turned 7. Sigh.

It was a Thursday so we decided to have an impromptu birthday party after school with two of the little girls that live on our street and who she now goes to school with.

I made a cake. It was shaped like a heart and it tasted good. It also looked like a second grader made it, fitting I think.

We all had a great time that evening. Ava went on to celebrate her birthday throughout that week and into the next with more parties and more cake. I can't wait for #8! (Well, really I want her to stay a little girl forever so I guess that is a lie.)