Trick or Treat!

Today was a fun day!  This morning we went to church.  Benjamin was great in the nursery though naps in the nursery no longer exist so that means that he fights his afternoon nap at home too, but oh well!  Church was great, I really enjoyed singing with everyone and we were reminded to wait in peace and anticipation for the King is Coming!  Here's my stinkin cute little man before church...

a sweet lady from our church gave him his shirt :-)

After church we tried to get Benjamin to nap which didn't last very long, while Peter and I cleaned up the house a bit for when his parents come to visit.  Then we got our candy bowl filled for all the trick or treaters that were sure to come to our door!  We had quite the group this year and it was fun to see the cute kids all dressed up.  There was even only a small handful of "I'm entitled to that candy" kids, ha! :-)

After Benjamin woke up, we put him back in his giraffe costume and Daddy took him on his first trick or treat.  Our neighbors were really wanting him to go around and visit them all, so we had to oblige :-)  So yes, you have to endure more cutie pie giraffe pictures.

 why do I have to wear this again?

 OH, we're going to get more candy?  Yippee!

 These two were my favorite trick or treaters of the night

 I'd let a baby this cute have two pieces

 luckily for us, he is much more into the glowstick than the candy

 he enjoyed showing off his crawling skills for all the kiddos

 and loved people watching as the kids walked through the neighborhood

 then he went CRAZY and started yelling and screaming

 he was SO loud I almost plugged my ears.  And he hadn't even had any sugar!

 he eventually calmed down a bit

 I have a feeling that pictures where he looks at the camera will no longer happen

 our little giraffe and all his loot :-)

 he was perfectly content even though the bag of M&M's wasn't opened....that'll change soon I'm sure!

 Mom, this trick or treat thing totally rocks

 some people roll around in their money.......Benjamin prefers to roll in chocolate :-)

 he is always on-the-go

 oh to know what goes on in his little head

our first night of trick or treating as a family

We finally turned off the porch light when we had almost run out of candy and it was time for Benjamin to go to bed.  I had to share this next picture though.  I had been vacuuming and he's usually a bit scared of it so when it was just sitting in our living room he slowly inched his way over to it and put his hand on it.  It was as if he was trying to show the vacuum who was boss in this household.  Apparently that wasn't Benjamin though because he somehow scared himself and frantically needed his mama to hold him...I even got some snuggles.  Haha, it's hilarious that he's afraid of the vacuum.

We got Ben in his pj's and Peter decided he needed some more fun in the laundry basket before bed.

 he isn't content to sit anymore and pulls up on everything including laundry baskets apparently :-)

 with all that drooling going on Benjamin, it's a good thing you're a Little Submarine

 Ben, you are so lucky to have such a fun Daddy

 can someone please tell me when he got so big???

I'd say the look on his face shows he had a great day.  And he's right, it was a great day!

Harvest Party Fun!

Today's been a bit of a cold and rainy day so we were pretty lazy and hung around the house.  It was nice to have a low key day because things have been so busy lately.  We had things to do, we just didn't do them, ha :-)

Benjamin enjoyed a tiny bit of chocolate chip cookie after eating his lunch

 I'm not in trouble right Mama?  You gave me the cookie!

oh, you just want a picture?  Okay, I'll smile cause I sure LOVE cookies :-)

Benjamin took a good morning nap and then fought his afternoon nap for the first hour but finally went to sleep at 4:00pm.  He slept, and slept, and slept.  He stirred just twice and I thought he would be waking up but he just rolled over and went back to sleep.  Our church had a Harvest Party at 6pm but he was still sleeping at 6pm so we gave him a few more minutes.  We then went upstairs in his room, turned on the lights, started talking and scratching his back.  He didn't budge AT ALL.  He was so out cold.  We decided to let him have 15 more minutes and finally had to go wake him up at 6:30 so we could go.  I think he would have slept through until morning, he really was that out.  I guess he was making up for the fact that he's slept so terribly lately!  Let's hope he keeps sleeping so soundly tonight....fingers crossed!

He had to wake up though because he needed to be transformed from Benjamin into a........

 GIRAFFE!!

We were given this costume as a hand me down from a friend awhile back and it just barely still fit him!

I know I'm biased but he really was soooooooo stinkin cute.  He doesn't exactly fit the tall and lean profile of a giraffe but I could just eat him up.  He was so distracted by all the people, games, etc going on at the party so pictures were hard to come by but here's a few of my little sweetie.

 As you can tell, Benjamin loved his cornbread.  He made a MESS!

 Such a cutie

 there were so many things for him to observe

 pick a duck Benjamin and you win a candy prize!  Mommy sure enjoyed the Skittles he won :-)

 sssshhhh, don't tell Daddy he picked the pink one ;0)

 it's not everyday you see a giraffe playing tic-tac-toe

 he loved all the excitement and attention

 I don't know about you, but this is for sure the cutest giraffe I've ever seen on a ping pong table

 come on Mama, I challenge you to a game

 quick Dad, snap a picture before he escapes again

 he was yelling/screaming/squealing with delight

 you normally see giraffes on safari, but the hay bales worked just great for this photo op

 he's getting SO big

Oh Benjamin, you just make me smile.  I love you my sweet giraffe!

Feeling sleep deprived & crafty!

So my darling son Benjamin is on a roll with his cruddy sleep habits.  He was up again every 2 hours last night, slept 30 minutes this morning and just over an hour this afternoon.  I'm not quite sure what his deal is but as much as I love seeing his adorable face I would prefer to not see it every two hours throughout the night!! 
 Anyway.......
So part of the reason he's not sleeping is because he's a crazy man in the crib and has learned how to pull himself up!  See the photo evidence of my little booger who is quite proud of his achievements.

 He's usually making maniacal sounds at this point!

 the view from this crib is awesome

 Good morning Mama!!!

 he is sooo proud of himself

who has time to sleep when there's things to climb?

One would think that after being up most of the night that he would at least certainly nap well right?  HA!
5 minutes after being put down for his nap this is what I see on the monitor...

He is far too busy exploring every corner of his crib to even think of sleeping.
I just keep telling myself it's a phase.  At least I think.  Oh boy.

This morning while he was playing he kept scratching the carpet in one spot and I couldn't figure out why until I realized he was playing with the "sun spot" coming in from the window, too cute!

This boy sure LOOOOOOVVVEEESSSS his Daddy.  He just lights up when he sees him and it's pretty stinkin' adorable.  They have so much fun playing together.

 tickle time is hilarious!

 oh Dada, I love you so much

 Benjamin hates things on his head....unless Daddy laughs at him then he thinks he's hilarious and will wear it!

 hey Mom, I've got a camera bag on my head...take a picture.

they'd just finished listening to the Davy Crockett theme song on youtube, too cute.
You look a little tired Benjamin, nap much today???

Despite his lack of sleeping and extra crankiness/neediness as a result I somehow managed to be a bit crafty today.  We're having a Harvest Party at church with a dessert auction so I decided to make some Cake Ball Pops.  Since it's fall I used Pumpkin Spice cake with cream cheese icing and orange colored vanilla candy melts to coat them in.  A pretzel stick and leaf sprinkles completed the pumpkin effect.  I wrapped them up, tied some ribbon and put them in a fall container with candy corn.  All in all, I'm happy with them.  I'm not very crafty on my own so I had to steal the idea but they're tasty and surprisingly addicting :-)

Spice Cake Pops after being dipped and decorated

The finished product....I made 2 of these.

Hooray for the start of the weekend :-)