Buds.

Morning, noon and night.

They are the best. And the best of friends. (Even after the milk thief made his move)

Oh, my heart. I love them.

One month away.

Ok ya'll please tell me I'm not the only one that turned my head and 11 months flashed on by before I even had the chance to blink.

11 MONTHS.

I'm speechless. I'm awestruck. I'm in shock. And I'm bearing just a tinge of denial.

My baby, my baby....

He is adventurous. Tough. Strong-willed. Sweet.. And oh-so cuddly sweet.

He is his own little being. You don't mess with him, don't tease him, and whatever you do...DO NOT take keys away from him. Ever.

Peek-a-boos are welcomed, dancing is a given, food is always priority. And me being available to nurse on and off for as long as he pleases is expected.

If asked if he can say "yes" he shakes his head "no". And then follows that up with a wave, and a dance...he likes to do his tricks in an orderly sequence.

He gives "kisses" by slowly lowering his head into yours. And this is the first thing he does to Cole as soon as he awakens in the morning, noon or night. It doesn't matter. As soon I ask if he wants to go get brother he squeals. Then the two of them crawl up to one another and lower their head in sweet adoration. They stay with their head pressed against each other for a few seconds....never long enough for me to run and grab my camera to catch the sweetness. But long enough for them to accept the love and for my heart to melt. 

The sweet moment is usually ended by Bennett trying to rip Cole's eyes out......

He prefers to sit in rocks instead of grass. He likes to stand and push things to walk. And he will not give up easily.

This persistence was demonstrated the other day while the two of us were playing outside during big brother's nap. He wanted Cole's firetruck sit n' scoot toy really bad. So I brought it over to him. He moved it one way, squawked. Turned it another way, shook both hand in exasperation and squawked even louder. He then flipped it upside down, right side up, to the left, to the right, on its side...hollering with each failed attempt. Finally he got it placed just where he wanted it, grabbed on to the back and the handles and started pushing it sideways, smiling at me as if he had been the happiest of campers all along. He was so proud. And looked like such a big boy shoving that firetruck sideways as if that was its one true purpose. In his mind it was a means to walk, and he was headstrong on making sure it produced his expectations.

Goodness, I love that about him! While frustrating and testing at times, I'm always grateful that he knows exactly what he wants and will stop at nothing to get it. Some day that will get him far.

This last month he has taken and (we) survived two road trips, one to Seattle and one to the beach. The beach was a whole lot more successful in the car ride department.

He loved the beach, and the sand.

Apparently it's a true delicacy.

I gave up trying to keep it out of his mouth after the umpteenth time.

He didn't seem to mind, and that sand beard looked pretty good on him anyways.

Watching them play together always gets me excited for when they can talk and imagine together. Already they love to play tag, hide n' seek, build forts, play trains, color, and eat cheerios together. Bennett is now the one dog-piling, and I usually have to peel him off of his big brother who has been flattened on his back. He is little, but mighty.

Speaking if him being so little really baffles me. This kid can eat! Seriously, he packs it away. And he wants everything I am eating. I can't really think of anything he hasn't liked. His new favorite food is beans. I still stay away from rice and apple anything as he tends to get constipated easily.

He now likes to drink out of a sippy cup...mainly because he wants brother's all the time, so I fill him one up with water and that usually solves the dilemma.

He has discovered the joy of dropping things over the side of his highchair. Hearing a little cheerio crunch beneath the foot is pretty much the norm these days. I really should consider keeping the broom attached to my hip, or get a dog (hint, hint Kyle).

He has had a growing attachment to his daddy. It's pretty precious. As soon as he sees his daddy he reaches his chubby little hands out to him. If I try to take him back he flattens his body next to Kyle and nuzzles in tightly. And for some reason on the weekends when we are both home he seems to be more confident to go play and explore by himself, when it's just me he likes to be held and have me within his sight at all times.I think someone is having daddy separation anxiety.

He has been waking up between 5 and 6.....no, I'm not going to complain about this....at least he is sleeping through the night! But it does make for a tired mama.

Although one of my all time favorite moments in the day is when I get him in the morning, bring him into bed with me to feed him. We lay there in the darkness, him eating contently, me breathing in his baby smell, and my nose being tickled by his sweet curls. I love having him snuggled up by my side, it's like a little piece of heaven, even at 5 in the morning.

I'm gonna miss that, so I'm soaking it in while I can.

I love this boy. So, so much. And in less than a month he is going to be 1. Really, it doesn't seem possible.

I'm still speechless, and in shock, a little blurry eyed, but so excited that we thrived and survived such an amazing year. He is my Bennett, and I will forever be in love.

Always. Forever.

Home sweet home

You know what I have discovered? When you get out of the habit of blogging it is really hard to figure out where to begin again. And not only that, but it seems that as of lately finding the time to squeeze out another post has been the hardest to come by. I think that this has been the busiest summer we have had in a loooong time. I have hard time when I look at the calendar and see that practically every weekend until mid September is full. It makes me itch and twitch and want to cry a bit. Don't get me wrong, they are filled with great things....but it means no decompressing time, no time to just chill out and prepare for the week ahead. No time to just be. I need that time. I can go, go, go with the best of them....but then I hit an emotional wall. I feel that is where I am at.

I think the biggest factor has been buying this house and then trying to find the time to do all that we want to do to it. We are trying so hard to make our house our home. Unfortunately with that comes money and time. Both of which we are trying to either save or find. we still have so much we want to do, but I have had several people ask to see pics of the new place. So here are a few bit and pieces, we still have a lot of decorating to do, pictures to hang, ugly green marble to rip out and replace, mantles to paint, rugs to buy, tables to find, and a buffet or sideboard to lodge all of Cole and Bennett's art and fun project stuff.

I keep reminding myself that all of these things will come together and evolve with time and a new piece here and there. I think I just get hung up when I read design blogs and see all of the before and afters and it seems that they get beautifully renovated over night.....what I fail to see behind the before and afters is all the sweat, blood, and grunt work that happens in the between time. So I am trying to appreciate and be grateful for the achievements whether big or small that we have made.

So here are a few pictures of some of the little things that we have accomplished in making our home.

Curtains. These were the first things we changed. You should have seen the ones that came with the house....they were thick, dark, flowery valances that seemed to suck all the light out of the room. We ripped those puppies down as soon as all the papers were signed. Oh but no fear, there are still some ruffled flower curtains hanging in the upstairs bath, and maybe even still in Cole's room...as embarrassing as that is to admit.

We decided to hold off on painting since the whole house is done in nice neutral taupe. Eventually I would like to change the kitchen/ living room into more of a soft greige or grey to make it seem more light and airy. But that will have to come after we figure out what to do with our very own Mr. Green.

Jealous? but wait, that same wonderful green marble is carried throughout all our counter tops....and there is a lot of counter space which = lots 'o' green. So in the meantime I am trying to do what I can to take eyes off of the green. I putter around putting things on shelves. Shelves are my new favorite thing.

I have since changed them a bit, and added a few more things here and there. But this is the main gist.

I have the best little helper, isn't he just the cutest playing with that puzzle?! Don't know if I could have set up the shelves without him. :) I have great plans for some built ins.....hopefully someday. But for now I plan on filling this house with shelves and pillows.

I'm working on my collection in teals, yellows, and greens. Pillows are EXPENSIVE! So it's a slowly growing collection.... But next on the agenda is putting up panels in the formal dining as well as a rug...since we can't seem to find a table for the eat-in kitchen that we like, we are eating in the formal. And little mouths means lots of crumbs and spillage....Need.A.Rug.

Here is what you see heading up to all of the rooms.

Yes, those blank walls need some serious attention and art work.....but I have a serious problem called being "indecisive". 

We still have several rooms that don't have a lick of furniture in them, one has a huge cheapo chandelier that screams at me every time I step in the room, so I just close the door and ignore it for now.

The boy's rooms.....well, lets just say they still look like we just moved in. I've bought a couple pieces of fun prints that i am sooo excited to hang up. But we still need to get a few more things like dressers and curtains and beds and.....the list goes on. For some reason I have a hard time completing a room until I have everything I want in it. So I will post photos of rooms as we finish them. But please don't hold your breath, because at this rate it may be awhile. ;)

I am really really excited to do our kitchen. We picked out counter tops and back splash this past weekend. And honestly going into it I thought I would leave in frustrated tears, sometimes Kyle and I can't always agree on decor. But amazingly we both fell in love with the same everything. And this is hopefully going to be our new counters. We didn't like any of the granite choices but LOVED this Caesarstone Quartz.

And the back splash is GORGEOUS! I went into it dead set on subway tile. But then the lady showed us this new subway-isque glass tile, it's bigger and longer than the classic subway. And picks up the the grayish-brown flecks in the counters perfectly. I can't find a picture of the tiles, but imagining it on our walls makes me even more excited to cook in my new kitchen.

Soooo lots of stuff going on around here. most importantly I have two adorable little boys that are in Heaven with the space. We run laps around the main level daily, sometimes it's in a game of tag or because we have magically transformed into airplanes. We are sooo thankful for a nice sized back yard and spend a lot of time there doing this.

And some of this.....

Dinner parties, birthday celebrations....yes, this yard is going to get lots of good use.

Especially when there are squirt guns at hand.

Hope you enjoyed the mini tour. And hopefully this post will get me back into my blogging rhythm. :)