Let the adventures begin....

After years of dreaming my sweet husband bought me my first super awesome camera! I got it this weekend and have had butterflies in my stomach ever since! :) One day I'd love to move into the world of photography but I have MUCH to learn. So to all of my fellow blog readers that know or have an eye for the art of photography don't judge me while I am in the learning process! :) I am so overwhelmed by everything there is to learn and wish I could just know it all right NOW! In the mean time I'm lovin' the quality and beautiful colors in the pics I take with my new camera. Hip hip hooray for awesome pictures! Here are a few of my favs that were taken the first day I got the camera...I'm telling ya, I have the best husband on the planet....seriously!P.S. Standby for my post about Ben's blessing day. We took so many pictures it's going to take me awhile to sort through them all!

Which Disney character are you?

Zack was watching Finding Nemo the other day and the baby turtle reminded me of Ben...you see it?

Colds, cars, and cameras...

This last weekend was quite eventful. Sunday morning pretty much sums it up...6:00am, Ben in my arms, Zack in Trent's. Ben grunting uncomfortably, Zack with a fever weakly snuggling up to his dad. Trent and I looking at each other laughing at what a pathetic sight our little family must be right now.
Ben and Zack both caught a cold this last week. We took them into the doctor and Ben was diagnosed with double ear infections and Zack's is nothing but a cold...thank heavens for tubes! I have to say I'm not exactly surprised Ben's ears are infected, with his genes (I had tubes twice as a kid) and if he is anything like Zack was before he got tubes then a cold will probably always turn into an ear infection. Uggg...here we go again. The good news is he was back to his happy easy going self as soon as he started taking the antibiotics. Thank heavens for modern day medicine! Now we just sit in isolation and wait out the colds. They are both doing better already so hopefully they'll be back to normal soon!

Our latest exciting news is that we found a car to buy finally! It's a 2007 Nissan, Murano. We haven't driven it yet because it was having some work done on it before we buy it. However, if all goes well we'll have it by the end of this week. It is a steal of a deal and it's a car both Trent and I like which is BIG if you know how different our opinions are about cars! :) We'll get some pics of the actual car for you after we buy it!
As I mentioned earlier I got some AWESOME pics of Ben taken by my friend Carly Pendleton. They turned out so perfectly!She truly captured his "soul" in this picture. Look at those eyes! I call that expression his "smiling eyes" he does it all the time when we pick him up and give him attention. I'm SO glad she captured that expression because it is my favorite!She got SO many great pictures, what I wouldn't give to have pictures like that of my kids on a regular basis! Trent and I have started talking about saving to get me a nice DSLR camera and me attempting to enter the world of photography. I'd LOVE to get good at it, but I have A LOT to learn! But look at these pictures...it would be so worth it. So thanks Carly for the beautiful pictures and the inspiration to finally start learning about photography! If you want to see the rest of the her awesome pictures check them out here.
The "newborn" phase fly's by so fast! I have been making a point this past month to pull out the camera even when nothing "special" is happening so I don't forget how awesome everything has been lately.
It doesn't seem possible but I love Trent more and more all the time. Seeing his as a new dad (again) just makes me adore him even more. I have no idea how I got so lucky to have such an awesome husband, I seriously don't deserve him!
Me and my kiddos, Zacks loves to just crawl into my lap and hang out with Ben and I. I live for times like that!
Ben LOVES having his hands right up next to his face like this. If I swaddle him with his hands down it is inevitable that he'll break out of the swaddle so he can put his hands next to his face. I finally got wise and started swaddling him like this and then he sleeps great!
One of the funnest parts of having Baby #2 is having a kid around to celebrate developments with you. When Ben does "tummy time" Zack loves to lay on the floor next to him and cheer for him when he lifts his head off the ground, it's so cute!
Zack's new recliner.
Last but not least, I have a few videos for you.

The lip quiver.

Watch close, he does it right as the movie starts. He is so stinkin' cute, I HAD to get a movie of this before he grows out of it!

Chubby Cheeks

Before I had Ben my fear was that Zack would feel resentful toward his new baby brother for taking away attention from him...now my fear is that he'll maul him when I'm not watching. Zack ADORES Ben and is always sneaking upstairs to wake him up so he can play with him....another reason we'll have to move him out of the bassinet soon! :)

Favorite 2009 Pictures

As many of you know I take WAY too many pictures. This year I decided to keep a "favorites" folder to help me be able to find the pics I like best easier. Here they are if you're intersted.

Notice the AWESOME pic of Ben on the right? Of friend of mine took it for me. Standby, she took a lot of good ones, I'll post them soon! Here's her website if you're interested Carly Pendleton Photography

Christmas

Christmas MorningWe had so much fun on Christmas morning this year, Zack was so dang cute! He was so excited about every little thing he got. He went to see Santa about a week and a half before Christmas and asked for a monster truck and a Lighting McQueen car. He talked about those two toys nonstop until Christmas. It was so funny when he opened his Lighting McQueen...I guess he didn't completely connect the dots that "Santa" brought all these toys. Here's the moment where he finally did...it was "totally funny!" :)

(Sorry, I'm having issues getting the video to work right, just push play and wait a sec and the movie will start. I'll try to fix it later.)

He had lots of fun opening his presents and was so happy and excited all morning, it just gets more fun the older he gets!I couldn't get him to look at me for any pictures the whole morning because he was way too fascinated with his toys.He wanted to use his tools from Santa right away, pretty handy huh?

Ben was cute too, he must have known something cool was going on because he is never awake at that time of day. But he woke up as soon as we went downstairs and stayed awake until we finished opening presents.

Christmas Day

We decided to take it easy Christmas Day this year and only visit out parent's houses instead of Grandparents as well. It was sad not to see everyone we usually see but also nice to be able to just relax and spend some quality time with our immediate families.
First we went to the Nelson's house and spent the morning with them.Joanne made her delicious cinnamon rolls (Trent was literally talking about them for a month before Christmas!) and Trent and Steve spent the morning setting up their parent's new TV with their awesome sound system. Trent loves doing that kind of stuff so it was a perfect Christmas morning activity! :)Zack the coolest tools ever from Grandma and Grandpa Nelson so he was just in heaven the whole morning. He still plays with those tools pretty much non-stop everyday so they were definitely a hit!

Around 4 we went to my parent's house to spend the evening with them.The most exciting part was being able to talk to my little sister Melissa who is in on a mission in Tampa, Florida. She is doing so well and it was so fun to hear directly from her how everything is going!

We ate dinner together and opened presents and it was really fun! This was when I was the most grateful we took it easy this year and only went to our parent's houses. Last year Zack missed his nap and was super tired. By the time we got to my parent's house he was so overwhelmed that he just sat in the corner and cried pretty much the whole evening. This year all the kids had so much fun and all the adults were able to just relax and talk. It was really fun!We took a lot of pictures but we used my mom's new camera and had the settings wrong so most of them ended up looking like this...Very blurry, would have been such a cute picture though! Such a bummer.

I guess Richie was put in charge of buying the presents for the boys...nice eh? Trent's were superman instead of Bateman, pretty awesome huh? Haha!

This is what Ben spent the whole day doing, it's what he loves so it was a great day for him!

Meet Baby Ben

Is he really a month old already!? I can't believe how FAST time is flying. My biggest fear is always that I'll forget the little things, time just goes by way too fast and there are way too many special moments to remember! I guess that's why I'm so obsessed with blogging and taking pictures, it helps me remember that things I'd forget otherwise. So bear with me on this post, it's just an effort to preserve memories of my new little baby!He is SUCH a happy little guy! Whoever said that newborns don't smile socially must have been smoking something! Ben has been a smiler since the day he was born. He is totally content just sitting on his own staring into space but the moment you pick him up he smiles and gets all excited! He is so social and loves attention in any form, even from his rambunctious older brother. So far he has been a GREAT sleeper. I keep wondering if this is too good to be true, he's just too easy to take care of! From the day we brought him home from the hospital he's only been waking up one or two times during the night. He has been able to sleep six hours at a time during the night from day one, the blessing of having a such a big baby I guess! :) He is very easy to get to sleep too. Usually when he's tired I just swaddle him and lay him down and he'll slowly dose off to sleep, at night he goes right back to sleep after he's done eating. Sometimes it takes him awhile to go to sleep in the evening, right before he goes to sleep for the night, but that is the best time for me to spend rocking him because Zack is usually in bed so I don't mind at all.
He LOVES having his hands right up next to his face. Zack would break out of being swaddled to put his hands above his head, Ben breaks out of the swaddle so he can scratch his face up! :)He is growing SO fast! He has already lost the newborn look...This was when he was just a few days old.
This was about a week ago. I guess when you have a baby that is almost 10 pounds they lose the newborn look REALLY fast! :)
I was wondering how difficult it'd be to take care of a 2 year old and a newborn but so far it has been surprisingly easy. Zack LOVES Ben and is more than happy to give him his binky or pay some attention to him when he gets fussy. Ben is so mellow and easy going that I feel like I have to make an extra effort to make sure I'm giving him enough attention! Oh, and did I mention that he doesn't spit up!? I REALLY hope that doesn't change, Zack spit up enough as a baby that I think I've earned a non-spit-uper (nice word eh?) When Zack was a baby he only wore an outfit for a few hours before it would be soaking wet and I'd have to change him, with Ben I just change him because I should, not because I have to.So the summary is...I am LOVING it! You know how some people go through postpartum depression? I am lucky because it's exactly the opposite for me. I just feel overwhelmingly happy. I just can't get over how awesome my life is right now. Trent has been so sweet. He is such a cute dad, I just love it!He was SO helpful when I wasn't feeling well from the c-section. He did pretty much everything for us during that time.
And of course I sure can't complain about NOT being pregnant anymore. I love what pregnancy brings but being done with it is sure worth celebrating about! It is just heavenly to be able to sleep on my back again, and be able tie my shoes or pick something up off the floor without significant effort. Oh, and being able to breath again and wait more than an hour between trips to the bathroom...I don't mind that one bit. Not to mention I feel somewhat more sane, I am pretty emotional the ENTIRE time I'm pregnant, so yes being done with pregnancy is definitely worth celebrating...plus I have a beautiful baby to hold now. :) I am loving every minute with my family, life is just good right now!

From the mouth of Zackie...

Zack is at such a fun age...he says the craziest things! I have to write them down somewhere so I don't forget, hope you enjoy! :)

This one was about a month ago but it is just too funny to leave out!
We were eating at a restaurant and Trent was telling Zack to sit down or something. Zack got mad and said "You're stupid daddy!"
Trent and I looked at him horrified that an innocent mouth could say something so rude. I promptly told him to apologize to Trent and so he said "I'm sorry your stupid daddy."
Hehe, we couldn't help but laugh...
Anyone who knows Zack knows he LOVES tools. One of the things he says when he's having the most fun working with his tools is "Whew! This is hard work!"
The other night after we finished eating dinner Zack turned to me and said "Thanks for dinner mom, it was good time!"
While driving in the car on Sunday Trent and I were arguing about something. Zack stopped us and said "mommy, be nice to daddy!" Trent of course rubbed it in and said "ya be nice!" Then Zack stopped him and said "daddy you be nice to mommy!" Then he sighed and said "Everyone's freakin' out!"
haha, that fight quickly turned into laughter!
Today during lunch out of nowhere he turns to me and says "We're friends huh mom?" of course I said yes and then he said "I spending days with you." I just love this kid, it is so fun to be his mom!