Houston, we have a walker!

I think it's safe to say, Bennett is officially walking. After a month of taking steps here and there he's walking about 75% of the time & crawling 25%. There's nothing I love more than watching those adorable wobbly little steps, but man, it has me on edge.

My attempt at getting a video of him walking for the last couple of weeks has been a big fail. Between Cal jumping in front of the camera, the Flip battery dying mid-video & Bennett refusing to walk whenever I get the camera out, I've only got a couple less-than great videos. More to come (hopefully)...

A little model in the making.

The other day Cal told me to get the camera and take his picture. So that's just what I did. I told him to show me some poses and this is what I got (the poses were all him)...Model shoot round 2... A day later he asked me to take some pics of him in his new Coug basketball outfit. I'm thinking the finger point might just be his signature look.

I love my little cheeseball!

Big boy

We're in milestone mania over here. B's doing all kinds of new tricks - walking, talking, you name it. This kiddos is keeping me on my toes. He's into everything (seriously, everything. Plants, cords, cabinets, stairs, etc.) and he's the quickest little guy with no fear, not a good combo.

He's saying a handful of words: mama, dada, Suz, night-night, duck, fish, no-no and he's repeating all kinds of sounds. And for the big kicker, for the last month B's been taking solo steps here and there but in the last week he's kicked it into high car and a couple days ago took 7 consecutive steps all by himself and yesterday, 10! The funny thing is that he's such a stubborn bugger that's it's all on his terms, we can't stand him up and have him walk to us, he just drops to him knees (so don't expect a video anytime soon ).

Bennett had his 1-year check-up Tuesday, here's how he's measuring up:

weight: 26 lbs. 5 oz (88%)

height: 31 7/8 (93%)

Cal's 1-year stats:

weight: 27 lbs. 12 oz (96%)

height: 33 inches (99%)

my baby @ 5 days old (his first post-birth check-up)

and my babes at B's 1-year check-up

Obviously, teething just a bit (#8 should be popping through anyday)

sweetest little voice.

A nice little (wet) Saturday hike.

We live in such a great place w/ so many great places to play outside & usually the weather cooperates this time of year. Not so much this last weekend.... We planned to hike Silver Falls on Saturday and a boat load a little rain wasn't about to stop us. We knew rain was in the forecast but we enjoyed blue skies the whole drive up. Then we got there and this happened...The kids were troopers. Cal hiked the whole thing all by himself. It was a really cool, fairly kid-friendly hike and we're looking forward doing it again, rain-free.

After hiking, Lo came over and slumber partied at our house. The kids just adore her and she's such a great helper.

Camping Adventure

We braved our first camping trip with the boys a couple of weekends ago for Ians' family's annual campout. This year we were at Mineral Springs up on Blewett pass. I was a little worried about the kids sleeping, Bennett getting crazy dirty since he isn't completely walking yet, naps, etc. but it went much better than I expected. Cal's def. his dad's son, he LOVES this kind of stuff.

hiking!

Cal was such a trooper and hiked all by himself uphill, keeping up w/ us, until he ate it.... big time. So I played Sherpa.

And we can't forget, this was the trip that I discovered my new talent in life.

a little bit of everything from the last couple of weeks

we've been beating the heat with some of this (thank goodness for a fenced backyard)...

fixing holes that our not-supposed-to-play-in-the-house hockey stick makes

an after music camp playdate with Cal's bestie, Avery, and her sis and Logan

lots of cousin time (and stuart time, the rat)

and perfecting our parenting skills.

4th of July

We had an awesome 4th of July in La Conner at the Hinton's. Nothing better than one of our favorite holidays, great friends and hosts, a beautiful scene & fireworks!

the kids on a crab hunt

Cal & Hailey

this picture pretty much sums up how Cal feels about sparklers