On the move

We haven't seen Jons parents for a while so they came up to Lakewood Saturday morning to have breakfast with everyone. Jon headed to the mens conference at Parkside. He had a great time with the guys, but missed out on some good bagels. Sam is feeling better for the most part, but he's had some left over crankiness and was not interested in taking a picture.
After breakfast and some Gram and Pap time, we headed to a play/lunch date with some friends. By the time we were done, the boys were exhausted and took a great nap. I skipped a much needed nap for myself and started cleaning out the lego room. Sadly (for Jon) it is now going to be either our new bedroom or a play room for the kids. Jon is leaning towards a bedroom, but of course, I think I'm leaning towards play room.

Ben had a rough morning at church today. During an intense game of red light green light, he collided with another kid and went flying into a door. He has a purple mark going down the side of his right cheek. You can see it faintly in the picture. Unfortunately, its a bit worse in person. The thing that gets me is that last week he fell into a door all by himself and had a mark on the same cheek in almost the same spot.
After a week of staring at Bens uneven haircut, I couldn't take it anymore. Uncle A offered to help us out so we headed over tonight for a fix it job. It was pretty messed up, so there is only so much you can do, but it looks 1000times better than it did. Thank you uncle A for your clipper expertise!We had plenty of fun this weekend, but the best part was Sam taking his first steps! He's taken a step here and there, but it was more falling forward than walking. He still prefers crawling, but we're getting there. I think we're up to eight steps before falling!

No yell zone

Some days it feels like we do a whole lot of yelling. I'm sure many people would say the yelling that we do is deserved. We yell at Ben when he hits Bailey or takes something out of Sams hands. We yell at Sam when he plays with cords or tries to go down the steps head first. However, many nights we look back on the day and feel terrible. We don't enjoy yelling and its pretty obvious the boys don't enjoy being yelled at. For the past 6 days, we have been a no yell household. Of course, we have had a few slips, but for the most part, we've been calm and in control. What has truly amazed me is that when a situation comes up when we would normally yell, not yelling has had pretty much the same result. When Ben does something wrong, our first instinct would be to yell and then put him in time out if necessary. This week, when hes done something, we stop him, calmly explain what the issue is and still do time out when necessary. I think in some strange way, we yell to make ourselves feel better. Yelling in the moment, gets Bens attention and the behavior stops. We feel accomplished. If we get the same results and feel better about ourselves and our boys at the end of the day, why continue to yell? I'm sure Ben is loving the change since he gets the brunt of the yelling. I think overall he's been behaving better each day. I hope this is the trend and not just a faze!

On a different subject, Ben has sprouted plane arms. When a situation calls for his new arms, he will jump up in the air and throw his arms back and then run around the house like an airplane. He is too cute!

Unfortunately, Sam has not been feeling well the past few days. Look at that poor baby face.

Wordless Wednesdays

And thats why we have a $20 credit!

More Wordless Wednesdays here and here.

I survived!

We all know that I am not the crafty type. When people say things like knitting, diorama or even painting, my palms sweat a bit and I start to tune everyone out. When Ben and I started working on our letter of the month, I was able to embrace a very (very) small amount of crafts. Then I got a gift certificate to Pat Catans from my parents for Christmas. I was excited because I knew Ben would enjoy what ever we got there, but I was panicked because I knew I would have to go into the store to use it.
Luckily, I am surrounded by very crafty Purdum women. Corrie took me to Catans in Cleveland today. I didn't even know this one existed. It was huge, but she broke it down for me. We looked at the seasonal spot. I don't have to go too far past the front door if I don't want to. Then we headed to the kids isle. Ben loved asking about everything and occupied himself by spelling his and Sams name on the floor with big block letters. Corrie pointed out different things and gave me ideas on what to do with them. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
Corrie figured out my fear/problem and once she said it, it all made sense. I have to remember I'm working with a 3 year old. I don't need to plan out big, detailed projects. A glue stick and some pom poms will make his day. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, all the matters is that he's doing something that makes him happy. What we got today will make him VERY happy.

We easily spent the gift certificate and then some. The real test will be putting everything we bought into practice and then seeing how long it takes to go back!

After Catans, we were starving so we met another friend out for pizza. It was delicious. The kids were great and Sam even let Aunt Corrie hold him. I think he has a new buddy!

Thank you Corrie for the tour, for turning the light bulb on for me and making today not at all painful!

Push off

Ben started the next round of swim lessons at the beginning of the month. He absolutely loves the pool. He has mastered pushing off the wall. He can half jump/half fall into the pool, hes gone under water a couple times and every now and then he even does his arm circles. Unfortunately, even after 2 1/2 rounds of lessons, I think if we took the bubble off he would still sink to the bottom. Its probably just a ploy so we'll keep enrolling him in the lessons.

Frequent flyers

We have become regulars at Chick Fil A (some more than others---Debbie). Its nice to get out of the house and go to a clean restaurant that plays Christian music. The boys have a blast playing and the adults can carry on a conversation. We headed up there today. Here are some of the highlights:
Ben is not a fan of the cow.
How many pictures does it take to get three boys to look at the camera and smile? Couldn't tell you. We gave up!
We had a great time as always, but today it was a little more special. As we were leaving, Tate told the boys he loves them. What a sweetie!

Soup and sumthin

Several times a year, Cross Point Church will have some sort of get together outside the normal worship service. Last night was our annual soup and sumthin night. The church divided up into 4 houses and we all ate soup and did....sumthin. Games are usually the sumthin and our house was no exception. While we did have an intense game of Catch Phrase, we spent most of the night just talking. 2 couples come up from Arkansas every year to help Cross Point celebrate its anniversary (we just celebrated 3 years on 2-11), and one of the couples joined us at our house. The kids wore each other out, the food was excellent and the conversation was great. It was a great night of fellowship. Pizza lunch to celebrate our 3rd anniversary:
Red punch mustache:

Show me your moves

As soon as the music starts Sam looks for dad, crawls over to him and begs dad to put him on his shoulders. Every now and then he lets Ben have a tun on dads shoulders. Sam has come up with his own dance for when he's on his own.

Of course, its never as good when the camera is on. He will spend an entire song (or as long as it takes to get dizzy) bouncing his head up and down and going in circles. Its the cutest and weirdest thing I've ever seen, but we love it!

Sam found a new love of whipped cream:

Sam is still loving his train. Ben wants to get in on the action too.

The letter C

We covered C stuff in January. We started by making daddys favorites, Chocolate Chip Cookies. Ben being the master chef that he is also helped make some Chili for dinner in the Crock pot. We topped it with Crackers, Cornbread and Cheese. We also had some Cantaloupe and enjoyed lots of sugar with Cap'n Crunch Cereal.

We did some basic Crafts. It mostly consisted of Coloring. Ben also made a prayer Chain to remind him of some things to pray about and be thankful for.

Ben got a new game for Christmas, Candyland and it has quickly become a favorite. Ben also borrowed Sams book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and read it while sitting on his Elmo Couch. Ben also got some Colorforms for Christmas that hes been having fun with.

We found some animals that start with the letter C like Cat, Camel, Chimp, Crab and Cow. Ben learned that camels use their eyelashes to protect their eyes from the sand and cows have 4 stomachs.

We talked about Caleb and learned another French word, Chapeau (hat).

Ben revisited Sesame Street and Colored some pictures of the Count and Cookie monster.

One of Bens favorite movies is Cars and we found a picture of Chick Hicks.

Ben loves Cuckoo Clocks. When ever he goes to my parents house or to Mamaws, that is a show stealer for Ben.

Ben and I played Catch and Sam Clapped when we Caught the ball. We remembered that Circle starts with C.

We talked about different places like Canada, Chicago and China. Ben has tried out some Chop sticks in the past, but prefers to use them as drum sticks.

Of course, aunt Corrie starts with C. Shes been in Ravenna for a while so we found an old picture to use.

Ben always likes to help me Clean. Sweeping and vacuuming are his favorites.

Ben is still stuck on Christmas music. I've been so lucky to listen to it all January long! Bob the tomato is still a favorite. Ben loves the Commandment song.

Finally, we talked about Church. We looked at several Churches in the area and talked about how different they can look.

I think we had a lot of fun with letter C.

My old man

Today is Jons birthday. Unfortunately, he had to spend the day at work, but he managed to sneak out for a bit to meet us and some of the extended family for lunch. The boys always love meeting dad out somewhere in the middle of the day.

After lunch, Ben and I slaved over a cake for Jon. Ben also made dad a little video where he sang happy birthday and told dad he didn't look a day over 15!

We had dinner at one of his favorite restaurants, Red Lobster. We all ate too much, but it was a nice treat. After, we came home for cake and presents. As always, Ben was kind enough to help dad out with the candles and wrapping paper.

Ben really liked the cake.

We hope you had a great birthday baby. We love you.

Proud sister

Just wanted to let everyone know my brother, Tony is in Vancouver for the next month for the Olympics. He is there for work, but I'm sure will have plenty of fun. He started a blog to document his journey. I've got on link on the side or click here.