Still alive, just busy.

I've neglected the blog and everyday for the past week I've vowed to update it but nighttime rolls around and my to-do list is harassing me and the couch or my bed is calling my name. Tomorrow is the day... hopefully.

Pics of the little mister

I can't get enough of my littlest guy (making me a bit of a baby hog with my own kid). He's completely stole my heart times 10 and is just the most perfect addition to our family. All he wants is to be loved (and fed) and is as sweet as babies come - thankfully making the transition to a family of 4 fairly easy, for now. It's this little munchkin that's giving us heck now...so what else are we to do, than lock him outside the sliding glass door... kidding.

My attempt at getting B to smile for the camera & taking a pic at the same time. pouty face B sleeping through his first wedding reception

Gigantism must run in the family

Bennett was getting loaded up in his car seat the other day, and I couldn't believe how ginormo he looked. I kinda feel like I get a little jipped in the newborn department cause my kids certainly don't start out small to begin with then they grow like weeds.

a day old

6 weeks old

A date with dad.

I've been trying to get out of the house with Cal for some 1:1 time with him, which means Ian gets some quality time with Bennett. What else does a dad and his 6 week old kiddo do.....

Tummy time!

Cal's bedtime routine.

Every night we put Cal to bed and then he plays in his bed, reading books and playing with the few select toys that he gets to keep in his room (otherwise he'd be up all night), for a little while. Then after he falls asleep I go in and pull all of the toys that he insists he sleeps with out of his bed. It's always pretty funny to see what kind of stuff he takes to bed with him and what he falls asleep with in his hands. Here's what I pulled out the other night... and these...
all while he sleeps peacefully.

1 month & then some

I can't believe it's been over a month since we welcomed Bennett into the world (5 weeks). He's growing like a weed and while I love watching him grow, learn and change everyday I'm not ready for him to not be a newborn anymore... I feel like we're enjoying this age much more than we did with Cal. Maybe it was the stress of "learning" how to be a parent with a first kid or that Bennett is a pretty content baby that it makes being his parent easy. Whatever it is I just want the days/months to pass a little slower.

Here's a little bit about our lil' B: he's an awesome sleeper. I almost hate saying it out loud cause I don't want to jinx it... Since week 1 he's only been getting up once a night and sleeps usuallly in 6-7 hour stretches (and since he's gaining weight like a champ, I let him sleep). In the past week he's had a couple nights where he's gone to bed at 9, woke up at 5 a.m. to eat and was back in bed from 5:30 until 9:15 am - amazing! He's the type of kid I've heard other parents talk about but I didn't think they really existed. I sure hope he keeps this up cause I've been spoiled and it would be a rude awakening to start getting up several times a night. He LOVES bath time, loves being toted around in the Ergo, is socially smiling more and more everyday, loves to eat and eats A LOT, doesn't like being hungry, giggles when he sleeps, is a really noisy sleeper, snorts when he's really hungry, loves to snuggle, makes the sweetest coo'ing sounds, is balding on the top of his head, enjoys sitting in the Boppy and taking in the sights, hates when he has a poopy diaper, has insane head control for a 5 week old, and is almost out of his 0-3 month clothes.

staring contest

reading books in bed with my two favorite boys

The fire. Best seats in the valley.

When we moved to Wenatchee earlier this year and into the neighborhood/house we did, there were to 2 things I was worried about: fires & rattlesnakes. Now lets just hope we go the rest of the summer without seeing any rattlers in our yard...

Here's how last night went down: We were home and getting ready for Cal's swim lesson when we heard a loud truck head up Badger Mt. road behind us. Ian looked out and it was a brush fire rig. Then a couple minutes later there were a couple more fire trucks speeding up the road with lights/sirens on. After looking hard we could see a little bit of smoke coming up from one of the hills behind us. Since the fire appeared to be fairly close (w/in a couple of miles) we loaded up for swim lessons but first went up the hill to see the fire. It wasn't far and there were about a dozen fire rigs in the field fighting it. We figured since the fire seemed pretty small and in control so it would be out by the time we got home.

So an hour later we're heading home and as we get close to our house we notice 3 helicopters flying right behind it, dropping water on the fire and the wind was really starting to pick up so we assumed the fire was starting to pick up. That was an understatement. At this time we could see several groups of flames from our house but they were still a ways away. After a little bit of time passing and both of us watching the fire pretty closely, we started hearing and seeing TONS of fire truck/brush rigs/etc., some racing up the hill and several parking right behind our house. Then all of a sudden Ian yelled, "oh $hit, it's coming over the hill." And at that moment, things got really crazy and started moving really fast. The fire came racing down the hill and was getting closer and closer to our neighborhood by the minute. I ran upstairs grabbed bags and started getting some stuff together to load into the cars in case we were evacuated.

I like to think of myself as fairly calm and collected in emergency situations. I had a tower crane crash into my office building while I was in it and had a steam pipe explode a couple blocks away from me in NYC with pure pandemonium breaking out on the streets with thousands of people running and screaming - both of which times I stayed relatively calm. Well this was not the case last night. I was a chicken with its head cut off. I think when the safety of your children comes into question and the reality that you just might lose everything you own, calm and collective go out the window. Thankfully Ian and my folks kept their cool and got some great pics and video while I was a mad lady racing through the house throwing the most random stuff in bags and loading the cars completely full.

Ian guessed at one point that the flames were about 50 yards away from our backyard. Yikes. So we and our neighbors just waited with our cars loaded for word that we would need to evacuate until about 10ish p.m. when the fire appeared to be in control thanks to a barrier of way too many to count fire rigs and fire fighters between our house and the fire.

It was an insane night. One that I hope we NEVER experience again. I have a whole new appreciation for firefighters. On a positive note, Cal was in heaven with all the fire trucks and helicopters essentially in our back yard.

Here are some pics of the progress of the night, all taken from our deck.

the fire when we got home from swim lessons

this is Ian's "oh $hit, it's coming over the hill." and it's off.
view out our living room and from the kitchen window. these pics don't do justice to how vast the fire was, it went way up the hill - this is just the part of right behind our house. the end of our night. the aftermath.