I just spewed Diet Coke out my nose

Many thanks to Aunt Jess for sharing this with me :)

Thanksgiving Pics (round one)

Jess took alot of great pictures with her fancy camera so there may be more to come in the future, but here's a little slide show from our trip.

Needless to say we had a great time. I was sad come home but now that the house is decorated for Christmas I guess I've perked up a bit. Rather than recount the whole trip, I'll let the picture captions do the talking.

btw yes I realize that a few of the pics are sideways. Slide.com won't let you do portrait for some reason. All I can say is to tilt your head :)

Carnivorous

We are home from our awesome Thanksgiving in NYC with Aunt Jessica. We had a GREAT time. I know folks are anxiously awaiting pictures. Hopefully tomorrow night I can sit down and sort and post, but for now I will leave you with this.

Tessa ate a whole turkey leg and a big bowl of chocolate ice cream and nothing else. Anything goes on a holiday right?

Tessa and turkey leg- Thanksgiving 09 from Laura Sargent Bennington on Vimeo.

Tree Time

This afternoon the kids and I went down to NV to pick up the dogs and left Daddy behind to do some Christmasing...mainly bringing boxes down, putting together our fake tree and stringing lights outside. These tasks are more easily done without the help of little hands.

You may notice that this year the tree is in the entryway instead of the living room. Since the entryway and stairs are blocked off from the kids, this is just a measure to make life a little easier on us. I'm sure it will eventually land back in the living room when little hands aren't so grabby. In the meantime they have their own toy tree and little people nativity to play with.

By bedtime our house was all Christma-fied, yay! Tessa was very VERY excited about decorating, especially when we pulled up in the car and she saw the lights on the outside of our house. She said "Look! Christmas is here, at Tessa's house!!"

I wish this pic wasn't so blurry. Tessa putting the star atop our tree.

I Don't Hate Hayden

Hate is awfully strong word. I would say that Hayden and I are often at odds with each other. I've been accused by my husband, who has a special bond with Hayden, of hating him or being mean.

Why? Because he barks...ALOT. Especially during the kids naptime, at every bird that flies by, neighbors that drives a car or squirrel that farts. He also steals food right out of kid's hands with no apology. He humps people, especially visitors. He pees out of revenge and anger on things he know you love, like your pile of birthday presents or laptop bag. He also has that disgusting anal sack leakage grossness every time he gets overly nervous, which usually happens inside of the airtight car.

Last week I heard Tessa say 'shut up!' for the first time, and not surprisingly it was directed at Hayden's incessant barking. A good reminder for me to control the curse words I often spew at him, little ears are listening.

But he can be a sweet dog. We've had him for 7 years and refer to him as "doctor Hayden" because he knows when someone is sick or tired and cuddles close.Case in point last week Tessa had a bit of a head cold, and I found them on the chair like this, watching Elmo.




Not too long ago I saw "Marley and Me" and identified closely with Jennifer Anniston's character after the birth of their second kid. She had just gotten both kids down for a nap and sat down herself when the UPS truck drove by and Marley barked and everyone was awake and crying. Later that day she told her husband to find a new home for their obnoxious disobedient dog.

And of course that didn't last long because they missed their dog and he went on to live another 10 years as a vital asset to their family. I know that that will be us, if I can remember to stop yelling at him.

My Thanksgiving Present

Jeremy and Tessa were out working in the yard on Saturday (closing things up for the year- yay!)and suprised me with two wreaths made from our grapevines. How cool is that?

Thanks guys!

First School Pics

Tessa's never had a professional picture taken so when they said they were doing them at school I got excited! Actually had I known it was picture day I would have shot for some fabulous hair do. Needless to say these pics are GREAT!

We got the basic package of two 5x7 and eight wallets and then they threw in a free bookbag with her picture on it that says 'I am blessed at Emmanuel Church- mother's day out 2009'. Awesome! $32 well spent




I'm going to have to ask how in the world they got such a great face from her. I am constantly chasing her down and can never get a good cheese. I guess that's why they're professionals!

Giggly Baby

I was blowing at Charley through a straw and he thought it was hilarious so I thought I'd catch a little on tape...

Charley 9 months- giggling at table from Laura Sargent Bennington on Vimeo.

Yeah What She Said

I realize that my blog is often just cute pictures of my kids without alot of meat or provocative insight...and maybe that's why people like it?

In any case, I aspire to one day sit down and write thoughtful and awesome entries about God or feelings or emotions, interjected artistically with personal photos to offer perspective.

But alas today is not that day. I'm tired, hungry and worn. Instead I will simply refer to one of my favorite Mommy blogs and and her awesomely identifiable entry about church and say, yeah...what she said!

The Cuteness Continues

Today at dance class we learned about the recital. So the dance school is so big there will be FIVE separate recitals. All the same but there's just that many classes (the little girls class like Tessa's caps at 10 students). Our recital is on June 4th, and like class itself , it will be half ballet and half tap.

We were all waiting on pins and needles (okay not really) to hear what the theme of each section would be and today it was revealed. The theme of the tap section is Candyland. All songs related to sweet treats. Tessa's class will be wearing bright pink and green outfits and doing the song 'Lollipop'.

Then in the ballet section the theme is princesses. Well you can imagine how excited the little girls were about that. The teacher was trying to show them the book of pictures and Tessa kept saying 'I wike dat one!' For ballet Tessa's class will the the Sleeping Beauty dance. The teacher (Miss Allison) will be Sleeping Beauty and all the little girls will be bluebirds. They have blue outfits with sequins and feathers.

Cute cute cuteness.

To fill the cuteness quota yesterday we put Charley in the wagon and made him ride around.

9 Month Well Check

Charley is perfect, but didn't y'all know that? We had his 9 month appointment today and all is well. His stats are:
-- 19.4lb, 25th %tile
-- 29 inches, 75th %tile

Tall and skinny. He had no shots and when I asked doc about swine flu shots he said they didn't have any more and didn't know when they were coming. So we'll just hope for the best on that. Maybe by the time we can get it the swine flu will be over?

Tessa took along her toy stethoscope and syringe and gave Charley about a hundred 'shots' and told everyone she was a doctor too. The nurses got a kick out of her. That's all there is to report!

Our New Addition

Well there it is- our new car. Yup, after 7 years of living as a one car family, we have added to our fleet a hybrid Ford Fusion. We knew the time would eventually come when we needed one, and Jeremy knew exactly what kind of car he wanted. So you all know Jeremy, one day we decided we needed a car, and the next day he was driving it home from Plainfield.

It's pretty cool. It has more bells and whistles than my technologically inept mind will ever use, but I am a fan of the display that show what's behind you as you back up, not to mention the heated seats.

This will be Jeremy's car for the most part (a point possibly proven by the fact that he hasn't let me drive it yet), meaning it will still be spending a considerable amount of time parked in the garage since Jer is either working from home or has flown somewhere.

Tessa approves. We were on our way to Olivia's Princess themed 2nd birthday, hence the Snow White outfit.


this is the shot you get when you stick your camera out the sunroof

We had to clean out the garage a bit in order to make this happen.

It's still a little weird to think of us as a two car family. Not because it's a weird thing, but because we've never done it. We've become very adept at working around each other's car needs, doing the pickup and drop off thing, planning our weekend errands to meet everyone's needs. How strange to think we can each take a kid and go our separate ways, and honestly I hope that doesn't happen very often. Two kids, two dogs, two cars...are we the picture of suberbia or what?

Biscuits

Charley's getting more and more into finger foods every day and yesterday he tried some biscuit. He loved them and may very well become a biscuit addict. He also likes little pieces of egg yolk, green beans, mandarin orange, tortilla, cheerios, bananas and any kind of bread. Like his sister and parents, he knows good eatin'!

A Classic ?

I have never heard of this movie but Jeremy downloaded it onto our Netflix on Demand. Made in 1956, he insisted that this movie is a children's classic and he watched in school as a kid. So we thought we'd give it a try.

Tessa LOOOOOVES it. She is glued the whole time that this little boy is chasing his magical red balloon around Paris and she shouts at the tv 'oh no!', 'find it'...'the balloon!!!' The first time we watched it she actually cried, yes real tears, when the boy lost his balloon.

Just a few days ago she started handing out invisible balloons to us and likes to pretend like it's flying away and she's trying to catch it.


If you're like me and have never heard of it, here's a little info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048980/ The cool thing is that it's only 30 min, so it's a nice little snippet of tv time for Tessa. Who knew?

Pre Halloween Festivities

Friday Jeremy was still out of town so we decided to head down south to show off Tessa's Snow White dress. First we stopped by Room 42 at Hayden to steal some snacks and visit the 4th graders. Tessa has been there enough times that she just made herself at home drawing on the board, hugging kids and visiting the 5th graders who knew her from last year.

Watching The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and eating popcorn balls with the 4th graders.


Practicing trick or treating at Mamaw Sargent's house

Yup, he's wearing his sister's headband. I gotta do a better job of watching out for Charley's masculinity.

David and Charley with Aunt Becky

Saturday morning we went out to a farm out in the country in Jennings County where they do a huge pumpkin display. We would have gone to see it lit up at night but a cranky toddler and rainstorm kept us in


When we got there they were carving some replacement pumpkins.

Becky is involved in the pumpkin carving. She said she made something like 72 of them this year. Can you believe she did that freehand?
Chilly cousins, including Charley snuggled up on my back

Becky also made the boys dinosaur and duck costumes including the hat Charley is trying on. I requested a couple for Christmas presents. I wish I could say I was artsy like Becky but alas, if I made their costumes one of these years it will be pretty sad (think pillow cases with eyes cut out like in the Charlie Brown movie).

Halloween!

What a fun time we had! As you saw last week Tessa had a beautiful Snow White dress made by her Mom-Mom which she totally loves. Her little friend Olivia was planning to go as Cinderella so we decided they should go together in our neighborhood.

Why oh why wasn't I smart and creative enough to make Charley a dwarf or prince? Well I just wasn't, sorry people. It didn't even cross my mind really. We had a hand me down chicken outfit from our friend Traci that fit him perfectly so that was that- free and cute!

On our front porch ready to go. At first she didn't know what was going on but she had practiced trick or treating to the Hayden Elem classrooms (stay tuned for a post on that) so it didn't take long to catch on. By about house number three she was on the move, running down the sidewalk from place to place saying 'dis way Via, dis way!'

As we progressed her manners were a little faulty too. We went from 'trick or treat' to 'I want one TOO, THAT one'. I was proud that she said thank you every time though, that's my girl.

Charley the chicken

Snow White and Cinderella having a great time. They even stopped for a little leaf fight.

Now once Charley started to get heavy and squirmy I told Jer to run back and get a stroller and blanket...and he came back with the pink stroller and Tessa's flowery pink blankey from the car. So Charley is not only a chicken here, but apparently also a girl . Two different people saw us walking and said 'oh she's so cute!'. Again to be clear, Jeremy's fault not mine.

We were out for about 45 min until we all got cold and came home. Happy Halloween!