4 months old and feelin' good!

How is this boy 4 months old today?!?! 

Time for a Benny Boy check-in:

How cute is he?!?!

Weight: Still waiting on an official weight, but I'm pretty sure he's about 12 lbs or so. So much bigger than Keegan was at this age!

Clothes: 6 months clothes and going! He went from premie to 6 months in 3.5 months. What a little muffin.

Diaper: size one- close to moving up to twos already!

Sleeping: Bennett Chase has been sleeping through the night since eight weeks. He'll occasionally wake up for a bottle at night when he's going through a growth spurt, but more nights than not he's sleeping a good 11 to 13 hours a night. He LOVES to be swaddled, too. He is a cat-napper, though. However, he is a Momma's boy all the way and will fall asleep for nice long naps when I put him down at home. I credit Baby Wise all the way for my kids sleeping habits. In no way have I ever let my baby cry it out. I just follow the routine of "eat, wake, sleep" and the night time sleeping soon follows... It's almost like a miracle pill for baby sleeping habits :)

Eating: still a formula fed boy. He has gotten much better at latching onto the bottle over the past month (that was where we saw the most developmental delay initially when he was born late-preterm). However, I think we're working toward baby food/purées soon. I just got a Baby Bullet as a Christmas present, so I'm working on filling the freezer. I never made homemade with Keegan, but we're eating so much healthier now, that I can use all the fruits and veggies lying around. We'll see how this goes!

***side note: I would never buy a Baby Bullet on my own, since I knows it's just a food processor, so it's not necessary for making purées. I'm grateful to of received it as a gift, as it kind if makes baby food making a little more fun with the smiley face baby food jars and the instructions in comes with.

Milestones: for us, it is a big milestone that he's stopped struggling to latch into the bottle. He's smiling a lot more lately, and laughing out loud. It's precious. We're still working on rolling over but that will come in time. I'm not pushing the whole mobility thing, and am enjoying this milestones as they come. 

Bennett-Chase- you are a joy. You are calm and kind and sweet spirited. You are teaching us how to love even deeper, and are teaching your big brother how to be gentle and attentive. We love you so much, Benny Boy, and pray God's grace on every aspect of your life. 

Keegan the Snowman is a Jolly Happy Soul

Keegan has discovered Frosty the Snowman this year. His "Hammy" (aka Grammy) brought some Christmas classics over a few weeks ago when she babysat and Keegan fell in LOVE with Frosty...

He now asks to see it at least once a day. He only GETS to watch it once or twice a week though. He sings the song throughout the day too, and it's the sweetest voice you've ever heard.

He has Christmas spirit like no one I've ever met. He always wants Christmas music playing, and will constantly ask me to "Turn dat up, Mom!" 

Today while pulling into our neighborhood I heard him sweetly say from the backseat "Merry Christmas, Mom. Happy Birt-day, Baby Jesus." Talk about warming your heart! He looks and Christmas lights and says "That's just so pretty!"

I'm so proud of my sweet big-boys' Christmas spirit and that his little brother gets to see his example of joy.

Here's us enjoying Frosty tonight after baby brother went to bed:

The Best Saturday

Kris has been traveling quite a bit this month for work, so the time we have together has become even more special. Keegan was missing his dad BIG-TIME on Friday, so we were definitely all ready for today to come so we could spend some good quality time with Daddy.

Today was so wonderful.

Bennett slept twelve hours through the night last night, and so did I. Kris let me sleep in, and got up with the boys this morning. I don't remember the last time I felt so refreshed! I even got my workout in today (that's another blog post for another time. I'm currently participating in a Beach Body Challenge group for the month), which has been something I've been striving to do, but with Kris gone it seems about 10x harder to actually do it. Being a "single" parent is hard. I have such admiration for people that do it on their own- because I have realized how much we work as a team just in the little day to day stuff in our home.

This morning Bennett was ALL smiles:

He even took a two hour nap in his crib mid-morning... which if you know Bennett, you know this is incredible. He is a cat-napper all the way. But he's also a definite homebody who does much better in his normal atmosphere with his mom so today resulted in some good sleep :) I'm kind of popular around these parts!




Even Keegan took an AWESOME nap this afternoon. And by awesome, I mean UN-heard-of and insane. He slept for FOUR HOURS. I kept not wanting to wake him because he obviously needed it. It was glorious.

I spent the afternoon (finally) addressing Christmas cards... took me long enough! This is the latest in the year that I've even sent them out. It has just been a busy season (that's an understatement), and a season of adjustment. Learning how to do things alone during the week with two babies is definitely brain-scattering for me.

But they're done and will be on their way Monday morning... And I got to watch this cute nap taking place while I worked:

 Yes, my husband was sleeping like that. So uncomfortable, but this picture was way too cute not to take a photo of. They are both wonderful. All three of my men were sleeping soundly at the same time. I'll take it :)

After our 4 hour napping adventure, we decided to venture out in the snow. We have been craving some greek salad's from Zeus' Coney Island... which was my FAVORITE when I was pregnant with Bennett, and we haven't had it since. And I will tell you what... it did NOT disappoint.

We started out with a little saganaki, and some lemon rice soup and finished up with the best greek salad with homemade greek dressing you've ever had (and extra beets and chickpeas for me!)...

And check out Benny-boy in his sweet little hat:

Is he delicious or what?!!?!? 

And he ended up being the nicest boy ever the whole evening. He laughed and talked, and even smiled at an older woman sitting behind us. What a muff. It warms my heart to see his personality start developing, and it warms me even more when I see he's becoming friendly.

And is this not another adorable photo of a little boy spending some much needed time with his daddy? I took this photo right when Keegan was instructing daddy to draw him a cheese sandwich... Seriously. HA! This boy is one of the funniest and sweetest kids I've ever met. AND I gave birth to him, which is even cooler! Ha!

 And then we did something that I swore I'd never do...

I have avoided it for two and a half years... but we had to get to the mall tonight to get Kris a sport coat for a big district meeting this week, and while we were walking around, Bennett needed a bottle. THIS is where we ended up:

That is definitely the play area at the mall.  That germ infested trap that I've avoided for so long was actually Keegan's paradise. And it was surprisingly not as dirty (at least in appearance) as I imagined. He was able to run, play and climb for a good 25 minutes. It is always so fun to watch him interact with other children. At one point a little girl was following him around trying to hug him while Keegan side-eyed her and finally crept over to me trying to push her away. SO FUNNY.

We had an awesome day as a family. It's always so pleasant when both boys are nice. We have been praising the Lord all day for the incredible time together, and the sweetness that has been radiating from both of our boys today.

I hope YOU had the best Saturday too!

Christmas Cookies: Finaaallyyy

Okay, dramatic, I know.

But I kid you not, I've screwed up sugar cookies every time. I just resorted to pre-cut frozen ones from Gordon's for the past few years because I've made such a mess in the past.

I cried the year I was pregnant with Keegan. I couldn't make Christmas cookies and I burned the banana bread, okay?!?!? What kind of mom was I going to be?!

Well this year, for the first time- I was the mom who made homemade Christmas cookies. And frosting.

And they are delicious.

Thank you Rhonda (my incredible baker friend who I think I will reference in a million posts on my blog when all is said and done) for the recipe of the most incredible sugar cookies I've ever had.

The frosting has a stick of butter, 1/2 a stick of Crisco, 4 cups of powdered sugar, vanilla AND almond extract... how can it NOT be good?! Kris agreed they were the best Christmas cookies he's ever had, and Keegan ate one for dinner the night we decorated them (in retrospect I guess we should have decorated them AFTER dinner and not before...).

So if you need a great cookie recipe, I'm your gal. I want to be that girl that you talk about my incredible cookies behind my back... and to my face. Ha!

See, they turned out perfect and so festive!

The Birthday Girl

So look how I fell off the bandwagon already. Isn't that just what happens over the holidays, though? I'm getting a little better- it was just a month or so since my last blog, so this is an improvement from my last absence... Baby steps, right?!

I left off just before my birthday. I was spoiled this year. I think this was one of my best birthdays by far.

My sweet and incredible baker friend, Rhonda, from work baked me the BEST carrot cake cupcakes with homemade cream cheese frosting... so that's always good...

And then while I was at work this bouquet was delivered from my dad and step-mom to be:

I have never be given an Edible Arrangement... SO DELISH! What a treat. And I didn't feel too bad eating it, because at least the chocolate was covering fruit, right?

My mom wasn't initially going to babysit on my birthday, but because of scheduling conflicts for both of us it just so happened to work out that way. This is the second year in a row that she's been with my boys on my birthday, and it's been the second year in a row that she had a big celebration waiting for me when I got home from work. So special to walk in and feel so loved!

She had banners hanging up, and this cake was waiting:

And she even had party hats for all four of us to have with dinner! Keegan especially enjoyed his pirate apparel:

I may be spoiled and require my mom to baby sit every birthday work day in the future now!

We had filets for dinner (made at home- but I'm kind of insanely good at cooking them, so they're now my favorite- so modest, I know)... And then cake and tirimisu for dessert... Then I was gifted some of my favorite gifts ever.

I have used these boots more than I thought would be humanly possible in the past month:

I mentioned to Kris that I wanted wellies and he thought I was nuts. He gave me a look like I was some kind of crazy... THEN he saw an advertisement in one of his Forbes magazines of Paul Mitchell- and his wife was wearing the shiny black Hunter Wellies... And he finally saw why I said they were stylin'. And they are. And they are warm and keep me dry. And I love them so much. Okay, really, Mandy?! They're boots! Calm down!

And then I got the most special gift that I've gotten yet. This was the first gift that Keegan picked out. He kept it a secret from me from Saturday until Wednesday... Right up until Kris was handing me the gift. Keegan shouted in excitement: "OPEN THIS ONE! IT'S A NECKLACE!" So precious.

Keegan picked out the chain out of all the chains at Medawar's. Kris picked out the two charms with both of the boys birthstones, and Keegan picked out the pendant. Finally I have a necklace with BOTH of my boys names on it. I had a "Keegan" necklace for the longest time, and now I'm thrilled to have one with both precious names on it. They are so wonderful and sweet to me, I love the constant reminder of God's grace in entrusting them to me and Kris.

So far 27 has been full of laughter, and grace and so much fun. I'm so blessed to have the awesome husband and family I have, and the incredible friends and co-workers I've been given. Birthday celebrations are fun and all, but the whole past month has been a total reminder of why I'm so grateful for every day.