Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, we went to Florida where my family lives. My dad and stepmom came up to visit as well as my cousin Amber who I don't get to see very much. She had her little boy Zac a couple of weeks after I had Ben, both were our firsts, both of us had c-sections and she and I are pretty close in age. It was nice to visit with everyone, although we missed my sister Jessica who lives in Utah and couldn't be there.

Ben got one of his Christmas presents early--a John Deere tractor bicycle. It is too big for his legs right now, but that will only be the case for a little bit. He had (is having) fun getting pushed around on it and pushing it himself. We got some pretty funny looks on the way home with it strapped to the car roof!



Thanksgiving dinner was at my uncle's house. He has a horse, a donkey, chickens, a rooster, and probably critters I don't even know about. His donkey would he-haw every now and then and Ben LOVED it. He is still making the noise to this day. Actually, he knows the difference when we ask him, but he is making an association between deer (with all the reindeer he's seen in Christmas movies, etc.), donkeys and Paw-Paw since his Paw-Paw was the one showing him the donkey. He is also associating Paw-Paw with M&Ms for some reason I just can't imagine. (It COULDN'T be the never-ending supply of M&Ms Paw-Paw would put on his knee one at a time for Ben to grab!)



Thanksgiving night, we got together at my brother's place just the immediate family (less my dad and step-mom) again for more Thanksgiving eating! I can't believe I didn't get one single picture there, but then again, a pregnant woman with that much food around is more likely to be carrying a piece of cake or roll around than a camera.

We also got to spend some time at the beach. One of my sisters lives right on the water and, although it was cloudy, we had such a nice time walking the dog, playing in the sand, and taking pictures. Ben especially liked the birds and the waves. He tried to jump in the water a couple of times!

Look at that water! Tell me again why I live in Louisiana???




Ben gives the best (albeit sometimes drooly and/or snotty)kisses spontaneously or if he is asked. He doesn't really discriminate either. He gives them to everyone.

English Toffee Giveaway

Like I even had a choice whether to post this or not. In my current state, my appetite does the driving. :-) (Thanks, Andrea for the hot tip!) To the two people who still read my poor, abandoned blog, go check this out: http://englishtoffeeanytime.com/index.php

My Two Cents on Twilight, the Movie

Ignore this post if you're not a fan, mostly bc you'll see how much of a dork I am..haha.
Going into this and any book made into a movie, I look for two things: Does is stay fairly true to the original story? Does it incite in me the same feelings as the book? If I can say yes to both of those things, then it's been a successful movie and anything else is icing on the cake. That was indeed the case with Twilight.
I was able to see things on screen that I had only imagined when reading the book or that I just wasn't able to visualize come to life before me on the big screen. Going in knowing that the movie would never be as good as the book (they never are), it was good for different reasons. Here's some things that I wasn't crazy about:

Bella--I didn't understand her character as much here. I never understood why she loved Edward so much even though this was from her perspective. From the book, I could see that his beauty and that he was perfect in everything were what did it for her..didn't get that from the movie though. I didn't mind that she never smiled. I didn't think she ever smiled much any way so I felt like that was true to character. I would have loved to hear them say they love one another at some point though.

Edward--nice beautiful face and I think he really transformed from Cedrick Diggory to be this character well, but, man, someone needs to tell him to stand up straight and hit the gym! Book Edward was PERFECT for goodness sake!

I really really hoped to see the "stupid shiny Volvo owner" scene. Deleted scenes maybe..

Meadow scene--I could what they were trying to do with his skin like diamonds, but to me "sparkly Edward" came across as "blurry Edward". It was weird. Maybe it was the screen and it will look better when on DVD. (Oh yes, gotta have the DVD.) Other than that (major) detail, this scene was better on screen than I had visualized from the book.

One of my favorite things was the addition of a new character: Charlie's mustache! That thing was awesome! It should have had it's own lines or something. Team Charlie's Mustache over here!

I thought I'd try something new for a change and, hey, actually post something. Madness, I know! I'm not feeling too philosophical or creative at the moment (and you know my blog is known for in depth philosophical matters and creativity) so I'll brag on my cute kid instead. Here's some pics of him in October.



The cutest puppy ever!



Jailhouse rock Elvis..bc I just couldn't decide on one costume




Walking up to his very first trick-or-treat house.



At the pumpkin patch..even though it wasn't really a patch bc everything was pre-picked. So pumpkin store maybe?? It was also my *gasp* 28th birthday.




Ben with pumpkins. We got him a Halloween book ("Happy Halloween, Biscuit!")to learn about pumpkins and Halloween and boy did he ever..he won't quit asking to read that book and point out the pumpkins. Aye..I'm going to have to buy a Thanksgiving book now so he'll move on. (Wouldn't you know all the Thanksgiving books for his age group are all checked out at the library.)



NOT a different Ben costume. But it was just too cool of a handmade one to not post. He could see out of black mesh that the eyes were made out of. Too bad all the other kids could easily run past him and get all the candy first. That's the price to pay for looking good though.




Elvis and his hound dog Boomer at the church trunk-or-treat.

Back to High School, More Like

The other day, I was pushing Ben in his stroller at McNeese taking care of some last minute school stuff. We are coming out of the handicap ramp in Kaufman Hall. It's like a two-lane ramp with a rail in the middle dividing the "lanes". Three police officers, pretty young, were walking towards the ramp and the middle spotted Ben and started talking to him, not paying a lot of attention to where he was going. Can you see where this going? He walked right smack into the middle rail! He bowed over in pain, holding his groin and his co-worker buddies started howling laughing at him! I felt like I was in high school for minute there. It was the funniest thing I've seen in while.

Funny Stories..true stories

My little boy, Ben, cracks me up! It is amazing to watch him take the things he learns and use them himself. Here a couple of examples. He has learned to make all kinds of animal sounds (cow, pig, sheep, elephant, dog, bear, lion, etc.). He also makes sounds for his dear parents. He likes to imitate us snoring. Now I'm not sure where he gets MY sound from because I am confident that I don't snore! :-D Adam on the other hand, well...Funny enough, he makes the same snoring sound for his dog, Boomer, a pug. So we are in church the other day and there is a family with a newborn. I had noticed Ben watching and had explained that it was a baby. Shortly after we got there, the cute little newborn did what all newborns do when there parents are awake--he went to sleep. Ben, using the new sounds he learned, saw the baby sleeping, pointed and started snoring!

Another funny Ben story..We are riding in the car and asking him what a cow says, what a dog says etc. He responds with the appropriate sounds. Then we ask him what sound Ben makes. He doesn't know so he just makes one up. We tell him that Ben says "waaaa" but we could never get him to do it. The other night we are about to go to bed and we ask him sound he makes. I thought he would have forgotten since we only told him that one time. He starts whining and waa-ing with a big grin on his face! so cute!

From Shaggy to Shorn

I finally broke down and cut Ben's hair. This is his second haircut. I like it long, but it just got of control. I missed it though the minute I cut it. Adam was probably tempted to roll his eyes at me when I cried over it..lol. I don't think I cried as much as Ben, but he just didn't like sitting there. I don't guess I blame him. It turned out cute I think although I'm kind of partial to the kid it's on. :-)