Benjamin is 3!!

 Happy Birthday Benjamin!!

"I am 3!"

My little love 1 Hour Old...

 1 Year Old...

 2 Years Old...

 3 Years Old!

 Life with Benjamin is pretty sweet.  He is such a precious, precious child! He loves fearlessly and forgives quickly. He is everyone's best friend and could get along with a wall.  Benjamin can be described as sweet, determined, a rule follower, detailed oriented, kind, giving, and smart! He LOVES a good wrestle with anyone who would be willing to play.  I think I see him contact sports in his future.  We are currently working on not head butting people. (sigh) This for sure includes his little sister. (double sigh) He is normally a great eater but still goes through phases that I feel like he is living off of milk.  We try to stick to a mostly gluten free diet due to his eczema which seems to disappear if we are strict about this.  His speech continues to be something he is still working on. He understands everything we say but struggles with his expressive language. The past few months he has improved tremendously but many times during the day we both have moments of frustration when I can't understand him.  He is starting speech this week and look forward to seeing him grow.  He knows all his numbers, letters, basic shapes, and can count to 12.  Benjamin LOVES school! He runs in his class every time and doesn't look back.

Benjamin's perfect/dream day would be spent at the lake, riding Rocky while sitting next to his Pop eating watermelon while holding a car or plane.

 Benjamin has LOVED my hair since he had the ability to play with it.  I am his walking lovie.

 Benjamin LOVES his cousins! They are truly his best, best friends. 

 Benjamin has really started to be into his little sister.  He takes a lot of pride taking care of her. Every nap/bedtime he makes sure to read her a book, sing her a song, give her a kiss, and tell me to be quite because Rebecca is nigh nigh.  Adorable.

 Oh potty training. We gave this a try a couple of weeks ago and it was a major fail.  He wanted NOTHING to do with his new Lighting McQueen underwear and new potty.  The past few days though he as told me every time he has gone to the potty in his diaper and wants me to change it immediately.  I see us giving the training another go soon and I am hopeful it will be successful this time around!

   Benjamin your heart is gold and you are loved more than you will ever know.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above."

6 Month Well Visit

 Rebecca had her 6 month well visit yesterday and did fantastic!

She weighs 16 pounds 6 ounces (50-75%), is 26 1/4 inches long (50-75%), and her head is 17 1/4 inches (90-95%!).  She is growing like a weed! Benjamin was 16 lbs 13 ounces (42%), his head was 17 1/8 inches (65%) and he was 29 inches long (99%).  They are pretty similar - he was SO long!

 She loveddd looking at herself in the mirror.

 Love her.

 Everyone always says shots make your kids nap.  This is false. :) She woke up at 7:00, her appointment was at 10:00, she was up the entire time, we got home at 11:00, and she napped for a whole 30 minutes. She is SO happy so the whole not napping thing isn't a big deal!  

 Since I didn't have enough 6 month pictures of her (sarcasm) I decided to do a little photo shoot at my parents house.  I copied Amanda's idea of taking a picture of her in the same chair each birthday.  Seeing Audrey grow and grow in this chair has been so special.  

So here is my girl at 6 months.

6 Months!!

 Well... I blinked and someone turned 6 months!

 When you have one child I feel like the time goes a little slower.  With Rebecca it seems like time is flying!

Rebecca continues to be an overall great baby!

She isn't much of a long napper so she still is taking 2 morning mini naps and 2 afternoon.  She sleeps from 7-7 at night. Normally she wakes up at 6ish but puts herself back down til 7.  Rebecca eats every 3 hours during the day with 2 meals of solids.  We started solids a couple of weeks ago and she loved it! Pears, apples, and bananas are her current favorites.  She keeps gagging every time I try to give her green beans or carrots. ha.

Rebecca so far has been a better baby than her brother. :) He. Was. Tough.  A major difference is she lets others hold her! I feels like she is getting better at this the older she is getting.  She is also doing things a little faster than Ben did which I heard is common with boys verse girls. She is a solid sitter which Ben didn't do until he was 7 months. She has yet to roll from her back to belly which I am hoping she will start doing soon.  

 Loves: baths, ME :), sucking her hands, eating, being near Benjamin, sitting, putting everything in her mouth, looking for Daddy when he is in the room

  Not A Fan Of: super loud places, having her clothes changed, having to wait for more food to be put on her spoon

 1 Week, 1 Month, and 6 Months 'wearing' my wedding shoes.  

Once she starts standing I think these will get a little cuter. :)

 

 

  1 Month. 6 Months.

 She was so sick in this first picture I can just see how tired she was in her eyes. Poor baby.  Seeing the second picture really shows me how far she has come in 6 months.

 My sweet Memaw had very special blanket made for her when she was born.  She loves playing on it and looking at the fun colors it has on it.

 

Christmas Celebrations!

Christmas Eve
We spent Christmas Eve at Tula and Pops and had a blast!

All the Gibson grandkids.

Rebecca with her Godfather Uncle G.

No love like that of a Tula.

Benjamin LOVES his buddy Uncle G.

My parents got new bikes for Christmas and we enjoyed riding them around the circle just like we did as kids.

Benjamin was adorable and sat still for a good while watching Tula work her magic in the kitchen.

Our new little sitter.

Aunt Amanda getting some kisses in.

It is such a blessing raising our babies up together.

Lunchtime!

After naps we opened gifts.

Tula and Pop went above and beyond on the gifts.  Benjamin had a rough time understanding the concept of taking turns opening presents.  There may have been a few time outs involved. :/  Hopefully next year he will have more of a grateful heart. Ha.

Fighting one second...

Best buds the next.

Uncle G was so excited to give the kids new bird houses for our backyards.  It was so thoughtful he picked out such a special gift.

 

 Rebecca was more into the bows.

Uncle Si made an appearance.

(One of G's gifts to Will - a talking Si pillow)

So sad she doesn't get any attension.

 

After dinner we headed home to get ready for Santa.

Benjamin wasn't too sure about sharing his cookies with the big guy...

His face says it all. Haha.

Christmas

Christmas morning my family of four woke up and saw that Santa has come the night before.  Benjamin came downstairs and was a little confused about what had happened.

Santa had brought Benjamin a new bike and he was SO excited!

After Rebecca had her breakfast she joined in on the fun.

For breakfast we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and blew out candles on his cake.

After a little time spent playing with his new toys we loaded up the car and headed to Fort Worth.  This picture was snapped in the back of the truck. I swear I am this kids walking lovie... he asked to play with my hair the WHOLE drive over.

Benjamin walked into Boots and Miss E's house and saw his brand new roller coaster. 

He was in heaven.

While Benjamin was playing Rebecca enjoyed some girl time with Geeb.

And then Aunt Lindy.

Then the kids opened a few more presents before it was lunchtime.

Miss E made a delicious meal for lunch!

After nap time Rebecca had a wardrobe change. :)

Benjamin had so much fun playing with Boots rope.

The helicopter was a huge hit!

Ben is SO spoiled by both sets of grandparents. :)

A Few Days After Christmas

Our final Christmas celebration was spent with the Dodges and my Memaw.  It is always a blast when we get together!

Rebecca had a few hours there where she was OVER the whole Christmas thing. She happen to turn 6 months that day and I was trying to snap a cute 6 month picture. This attempt was a major fail. :)

 

I get it. Sometimes a girl just needs her mama.

Wouldn't be a Dodge/Gibson get together without a dance party!

The kids were spoiled yet again with tons of amazing, unique gifts.  We are so grateful to have so many people that love, love our children.

I love this picture of Benjamin - he looks like my little baby. (tear)

Playing with Noah's Ark.

We love Molly!!

After the final round of gifts we enjoyed (another) yummy Tula made meal.  Benjamin just LOVES his cousins.

 

Rebecca was so excited to back home in her bed after all the celebrating! She is loving her new doll Memaw gave her.  You can't see it in the picture but there is a precious "R" on her shirt. Adorable.

Stay tuned for Rebecca's 6 month post!