Carrie and Alli Playdate!

Carrie and Alli came to Lexington for the day and we had a little "playdate" at our house so that Alli could meet all of her mama's Lexington Friends! It was so much fun and Alli did so great! She is SUCH a sweet little punkin'!
I loved getting to hug on this little Allibug :)

Benson talks about "baby Alli" all of the time. Our trip to Texas really had an impact on him and every time we see an airplane fly through the sky, he points and says "baby alli, carrie." I guess he thinks since we rode on a plane to see them, they are on the planes he sees in the sky?


Look at those beautiful blue eyes!!!

I love this one...

Here are some of the girls from Carrie's sunday school class at First baptist.. They've ALL had babies within the past 10 months!! So Carrie and Alli got to meet their little ones too! It was such a neat little time :) (Sadly, Alli had already gone down for a nap when we snapped this pic...maybe i should photoshop her in :) )

There ended up being about 12 babies crawing around... it was a busy time!! And a fun one for sure! Hopefully we'll be able to see Carrie and Alli again before they fly back to Texas!!

One of the guys...

Some changes...

There are a couple of things that have been on my to-do list for over four years now...
1. Take down the border in our foyer
2. Take down the wallpaper in the guest bath..
So-- I finally got the gumption to do it. I called the Rent-x place in Lexington and found out I could rent a high powered wallpaper-remover-steamer thing for $30 a day.
After enlisting the services of my youngest sister Becca, I decided to go for it...
I was thinking it would take us two days, tops. It turned into a week-long operation.
I do not plan on taking down wallpaper again for a VERY long time!!

The steamer got the top layer of wallpaper off, but we had to SCRAPE EVERY SQUARE INCH of the wall to remove the glue underneath. Then we had to putty and sand the walls from all of the places where removing the glue also removed part of the dry wall. Unbelievable.
Then we primed the walls and the we painted two coats. It was QUITE the undertaking, but we finally got it done, and I am SO pleased with the results. I feel like we've brought our home into the twenty-first century!!

Before:
See the border back there in the foyer--- and the cream colored walls? NOT my fav.

Gotta love the "pink rope" look...

Becca, amidst piles of wallpaper peelings... yet with a good attitude. You rock, bec!

Ok, so this project was a little like... "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.." Because I had to take down the LOVELY four bulb light fixture and builders grade mirror that were in the bathroom in order to remove all of the paper...
Well, then i decided that it would REALLY make a difference if I changed those two things, so...
I enlisted my dad and his lovely assistant Mrs. J, to rewire the light fixture... What good sports they are :)...

So then I saw one of those newfangled curved shower rods at TJMAX for HALF the price it was at bed bath and beyond.. so of course I had to get that-- and my dad helped install that as well...
When it was all said and done.. We've got a WHOLE NEW BATHROOM!

After...



Ta Da!!


Yay for no wallpaper!!

Pizza with the Ingrams

Kelli and Trey were passing through Lexington and met up with us for some yummy Bellacinos pizza.
Is Kelli not the most adorable six-and-a-half-month preggo girly you've ever seen?!!
It was totally unintentional, but I just realized we're standing in front of a sign that says "Oven Baked" haha-- She's got a bun in the oven, for sure!!

And of course Benson wanted to kiss Megan Lael. He loves her already! He likes to put his hand on Kelli's belly and wait for a "high five" (kick) from Megan Lael, but he's not really patient enough to wait for it. Everytime he sees Kell, the first thing he says is "Where's ya baby, k-k?" followed by "What's she doing in there?" To which he normally answers his own question by matter-of-factly saying, "sleepin'."

Benson was trying to give a real good smile here.. can't you see how hard he's trying?...

We probably have 10,000 pictures of the two of us in this exact pose-- the only thing that's different in this one is, there's an extra person!
I can't wait to meet her!!!

Wake Up Call

I have no idea where he got this. We never wake him up-- we always let him sleep as long as he wants, so when we started waking up each morning to this "wake up call" it really made us laugh...

Benson the Virtuoso

Five Minutes of Hilariousness....

Our morning...

I went to a baby shower today and Benjamin was working, so we asked Benson if he would like to play at G.G's house for the day...

He was SO EXCITED and immediately started scheduling their day... "Pay toys... Ride Tractor... Playset... Fish..."

As I was packing his bag, he grabbed the miniature fishing pole G.G. gave him for Christmas and said (and I quote)

"Take Fishing Pole G.G's House?"

(then his face lit up and he started shaking his head yes, and then he says)

"Good Idea Benson!!"

So we carry the pole downstairs and he's casting it in the foyer while I'm finishing packing his bag.. and all the sudden the line broke and Benson says, with his sad face and lip poked out..

"Ohhh nooooo. Poooor little cricket. Can't fish. Pooooor little cricket...Dog-gone-it!"

So we decide to let G.G. fix the fishing pole when we get to her house and as we're walking down the stairs in the garage, he somehow hit his eyebrow on the rungs of the staircase and starts bellowing. At first, I couldn't understand him, so I asked him to slow down, dry his tears and tell me again, and he says,...

"Call Amblamps, Mama, Call Amblamps.... Help Benson... Call Amblamps!"

Note the slight redness over the left eye??? Yeah, I can't really see it either... this is what we needed to call the "amblamps" for...

"A happy heart makes the face cheerful..." Proverbs 15:13

Praise the Lord for giving us a child who makes our hearts happy and our faces smile!!

A Few Random Summer Shots...

Here's a few extra shots from the summer...

Undies swimming in the kiddie pool...

soakin' up some rays??...

Fun Times with Grandaddy...


Fun Times with Papa...


Making pancakes and "practicing" his smile...


One of Daddy's Best Friends, Will, Came to visit from Greenville...


Cousin Will came to play for the day...





Benson and Will "riding" Granny's walker...

This is a snap from a night where Benjamin can be quoted as saying, "I feel like I need to spank him like every two minutes... "

This boy LOVES his playset!

"Let's go to the Movies... Let's go see the stars...."

Benson and Hannah took their first trip to the movies last week. We went to the "regal cinemas Free Family Film Festival" and watched Veggie Tales. They did great and had a ball.
Quote of the day:
"Whoa.... Biiiiiig TV!" -Hannah


I love having a little girl to dress up :) I can't exactly do Benson's hair in pigtails...

No smiles, but at least they are both looking at the camera...

This was so cute-- they disappeared for a while, and I walked in Benson's room and found the "reading" to each other... Hannah was reading (aloud) The Little Train and Benson was reading (simultaneously aloud) Brown Bear, Brown Bear