Monday, January 23, 2012

This is the post that never ends

Well its time to play catch up! Its SO HARD to come back after Christmas and do anything except lay around 10 pounds heavier wishing you hadnt eaten your weight in butter tarts for 4 solid weeks. Even my fingers feel fatter as I type this. All we did for Christmas was EAT EAT EAT! When we had the energy in between meals and card games we slept...


 We had faux Christmas on December 24th up at the Cabin. And it was extra fun because my Grandma Cele and Harold were there too. My grandma is the authority on all things sewing and craft related so I love exchanging project stories with her. And Harold is my favorite person on earth to cook for (second only maybe to Gabe!) because he LOVES food as much as I do! And they both are excellent baby tenders so it was extra great for me.

Christmas was awesome and my parents way spoiled us again. Our kids get way too many toys every year despite our pleas.
Here are the girls ready to see what Santa brought - all in their matching jammie pants my mom sewed for them. They all got adorable handmade bathrobes as well - Brigitte sucks her thumb on hers around our house now whenever she doesnt have a different "warmie" handy to do the trick!

Brigitte got a little nursery station and a new baby and car seat. She calls the baby ADORA and she loves her. The other favorite present this year were her princess dress ups. Shes all about being a royal mommy these days. It makes me feel so pleased that she is FINALLY into girly things! She ran around all weekend wearing her see through skirt and no pants. Ahh to be young and uninhibited!





Spencer got a farm house, tractor, and farm animals - and he runs around the house singing at the TOP of his lungs E I E I E I E I E.....and never gets to the OOOOOOOO. Its amazing to me that he is obsessed with farming - it must be in his genes! (Not my genes, mind you!) My mom got a huge dollhouse and Spencer just LOVED it. I think because it was practically life size for him and it was opened up for easy access. He spent a lot of quality time with barbies over the holiday!

It took him no time at all to geth the hang of opening presents...now THAT gene he got from me!

Pants apparently are optional in our family.... what can I say? My kids are half Beal so nudity is a pretty high priority in their lives.

Spencer also got a scooter so he could keep up with Brigitte in the driveway. Or at least be able to get away from her when she comes after him for toucher HER scooter, which he was obsessed with!


My poor dad is Spencer's best friend - whether he likes it or not! From the second Spencer was awake and until he fell asleep at night he was completely glued to my dad's side. He kept tabs on Pop everywhere he went. In fact the only words I even heard Spencer say all weekend long were Papa, ball, and No. 



Spoiled kids! We love them too much!


Benett got a lot of clothes for church and a super cute Giraffe noisemaker that now lulls him to sleep with whales singing. I dont know why Ive never bought one of these before - they are great! It was lots of fun to have a little baby to pass around and snuggle on the couch this Christmas. It took my laziness to a whole new level.


Aunt Kallie is Benetts preferred snuggler. She has the magic touch for sure. Its the "Aunt gene". 

Go ahead and crack up at this one. Here is a cute little snapshot of my husband and new baby. Can you tell which is which? Me neither.

Poor Gabe. All he got for Christmas was a money clip. For reals. It was like the croquet set all over again. I bought him a bunch of clothes that didnt fit so he got majorly gipped this year. The worst part of this story is that he bought ME an Ipad!!!!! I got SOOOO spoiled this year. I am addicted and in love with my new gadget and I dont know how I ever lived without googling things like "what are scallops and do they have a face"? at 2 am from the comfort of my own bed. Not to mention watching grays anatomy on demand every time I sit down to nurse the baby. In fact we busted it out for FHE tonight so we had music to our songs that  we sang from the children's hymn book app. How did I ever live without it??? I also got a sewing machine that I cant WAIT to put to use! Ive been dying since my old one broke this summer. Look out martha stewart Im back in business!


One of the cutest memories Ill keep from this years Christmas was watching Benett while Gabe sang him the song "I hope they call me on a mission". Benett was doing HUGE smiles and cooing and just loved being sang too. I think this was one of the first times he REALLY smiled and talked. It was so precious.

Benett when they do call you on a mission I am going to want to go with you. *His cute little Christmas onesie was from aunt kallie of course, and it said "Dear Santa, I can explain" on it! 


On New Years we had a FEAST and invited over my family to eat and play games. We had a great time devouring homemade boston cream pie, jalepeno popper dip, buffalo chicken balls, club sandwiches, moroccan dip, bbq chicken legs, cheeses, spanish tortilla, shrimp cocktail, and sherbet punch. See paragraph one.


The best part of the whole entire night was when my Dad got the word "Platypus" to draw in pictionary....but he forgot his glasses and drew a "Playground" instead. Close enough dad! We had lots of fun and called it a night around 9pm. In fact we were alseep by 1030 and didnt even watch the ball drop on TV! We are old and we have too many kids. That is our excuse.

In other non-food/holiday related news...Mr. Benett had his 3 month checkup today and is sadly suffering with a violent case of eczema. I thought it might be eczema but lots of people told me it was just bad cradle cap. THEY WERE WRONG! Poor Benett. His head drives him crazy and he itches it until it bleeds all the time. Ive spent 12 weeks slathering him with every cream on the market and nothing was getting rid of it. My pediatrician prescribed a steroid cream, took me off dairy, and now we get to soak the baby for 15 minutes 3x a week, wash his hair with dandruff shampoo once a week, and keep him shined up with a thick layer of cetaphil 24/7. Poor little babe. But the good news is his eye doesnt seem to have a blocked tear duct anymore, so at least hes got that going for him!
He weighs 13# 12oz (66%)
23 1/3 inches long (38%)
Head circ. 40 (25%)




So, yeah. Right on trend to short and chubby with a tiny head. Just like my other babies! He is starting to really be a talker, which I love. And he pretty much sleeps through the night going to bed around 10 and waking up around 6. He is calm and studies his environment constantly. But he is also extremely quick to smile, and if you even look his way his little chin disappears as his huge cheeks go up and up! We love him to bits and he hasnt been nearly as stressful as I was anticipating. In fact all of my kids have done really really well with the transition of adding another baby to the family. We have our moments of course - when everybody is melting down all at once. But thankfully Im married to MR mom so we survive ok. Gabe is great to jump in and take a few kids off my hands when it gets rough in the evenings. 

Overall, life is going pretty awesome. And I am SO GLAD to have this post finished! A gold medal for you if you actually made it to the end! And a special thanks to my mom who provided every single picture in this post!




4 comments:

Shawn AND Chelsey said...

YAY!! i have been WAITING for your blog update! i just love all of your pictures! your kids are darling and they look like they got so big overnight! that's crazy! looks like you had a fun, fun christmas!
and i'm glad his tear duct cleasred up! i always get so annoyed by clogged tear ducts! i don't know why - they just stress me out!

OK, update again really soon!
xo

jayna said...

Tell Bennet to STOP growing!!! It really was a delightful time!

Mitzi Beal said...

Poor Benett and poor Christy for having to deal with making his skin condition better. Annoying, and I hate clogged tear ducts too. I agree I think I might barely be over Christmas. I've had a really hard time getting back into the swing of things. I just want to be rancho relaxo all the time in my jammies and eating chocolates. Sounds good to me.

Sherry said...

Loved your Christmas post! (and those pictures look familiar :) and Happy Valentines Day!!! We love and Miss you!!!