Update

Well, it is official. Our house is up for sale. Yep, the realtor came by on Saturday with the paperwork and to take pictures. She really liked what we had done (in regards to staging the house). We can now focus mainly on prepping for baby (less than 20 days away) and trying to keep the house clean. Kind of a challenge with a 2 1/2 year old. Benny has been going though a "I help" stage. We have been trying to take advantage of it as much as we can. Things don't get done very fast, but they do get done.

Baby Update

Well, I am now in my 9th month of pregnancy. At our last ultrasound (which was at the beginning of Jan.), everything looked good. They took measurements and at that time the baby weighed 5 lbs 13 oz. This of course is just a guesstimate. I have a feeling this baby will be closer to 8 lbs when he is born. They did not find the bright spot on the heart anymore and my doctor's response was "I told you you had nothing to worry about!". Everything is going well except I have been having acid reflux real bad and I am feeling a lot more aches and pains. I know I am due on Feb 20th, but I wouldn't be surprised if he comes early (but not too early according to Brad).

On another note, we met with a realtor a few weeks ago and she recommended putting our house up for sale as early as February. We had wanted to wait until after Benny's brother arrived, but our plans have changed. If we want people to take advantage of the tax credit, the earlier the better. So as you can imagine, we are very busy getting the house ready to sell and ready for another baby. Please keep us in your prayers.

Random Acts of Benny

Here are a few pictures of our little Benny being the silly boy he is. Enjoy!

Thanks Aunt Leslie and Uncle Steve for the firetruck pj's. He absolutely loves them.

Family

We had the pleasure of having Brad's sister Lynne here for a short visit. She was actually here for her work, but came a day early so she could spend some time with us. Benny had a great time getting to know his Aunt. We are looking forward to maybe seeing her in April when she needs to come back out for a conference.

A Boy and His Trains!

We have a little boy in love with trains. On Christmas day, he insisted on having every Thomas train car in his bed. Since then he is only allowed two.

We have converted our loft area from an office to Benny's play area. As you can see, we had to set up all the track. We have since scaled it down, but it still takes up most of the room.

Christmas 2009

Here are a few pictures and a video of our Christmas. We kept it very low key, only buying a few things for Benny. He really enjoyed his gifts from his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Thank you all for thinking of him. He received an art desk from "Santa", some Thomas the Tank Engine videos from Grandma and Pa Pa and I apologize but I forgot who gave him the Cootie game.

Here is a video of his favorite gift by far. The two times he sat on Santa's lap (one time on the train and the other at the mall) he asked for Thomas trains. Enjoy!

Christmas Cookies

I decided that Benny and I would make Christmas cookies this year. We made the dough from scratch. Benny helped put in the ingredients. He had fun rolling out some dough. Here he is sampling his dough.

Once the cookies were done, I put on some icing and he was in charge of sprinkles.

Silly boy!

During the days leading up to Christmas, Benny serenaded us with versions of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph. Enjoy!

Snowball Express

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went for a ride on the Snowball Express at the Mt. Rainier National Railroad in Mineral, WA. It was a 30 minute ride to the Island of Misfit Toys. Benny had a great time. He even wanted to see Santa. Benny received an ornament for our tree.

The cowboy who rides an ostrich.

Benny gave this big bear a hug and kiss.

When the conductor came to punch our tickets, he let Benny try on his hat.

Here is the engine that took us on our ride. It was not a true steam train but Benny liked the steam anyway.

I thought Grandpa would get a kick out of this.