So much candy

I plan on starting a gingerbread house decoration tradition. This is the second year we've decorated a gingerbread house and it's something that the kids are really enjoying. This year I let Charlotte pick out the candy. So, worms and fish it was!



The finished product

On display!

It was time for the annual haircuts :)

Children's Museum

The Indianapolis Children's Museum has this Carousel that's been around since the early 1900s. My grandmother rode it when she was a child, I rode it when I was a child, and now both of my kids have ridden it.

Me:


Char:



Ben (and Matt):

Milestones

Char is potty trained and Ben took his first steps. I just happened to be recording when he did this!



You'll just have to trust me on the Charlotte front ;)

Chicago

Museum of Science & Industry (U505 Exhibit)

Siblings

Teeth

Love that toothy grin :)

Vacation: South Carolina!

We went to South Carolina this year for our annual family vacation. We stayed on beautiful Folly Beach. Here are the photos: South Carolina Photos

Sneak peak:








Ben likes to eat sand and Charlotte is no longer afraid of the waves.

In other news, during our trip Ben's mouth decided to give him 3 more teeth. He also still hates the car, mostly. ;)

milestones (again)

Ben started pulling up regularly, today. :)

Milestones

Ben is 9 months old today! I guess he felt that today was a good day to start crawling, too. I find it mildly amusing as Charlotte also didn't crawl until she was about 9 months old. So, new tooth and new found freedom all in less than a week! No wonder he's been such a crank monster lately. ;) He's also started pulling himself up on things. It's all happening so fast, ahh!

Tooth

Ben's first tooth broke through last week! Still no luck on crawling, but we're getting there. He definitely has no problem getting to where he wants to be. ;) I can't believe he'll be 9 months old soon.

Easter

Easter was pretty uneventful here in the Addison household. Ben had just recovered from a case of croup and Char on the tail end of something with a wet cough/drippy nose. It did not prevent us from dying eggs, watching an Easter movie, or eating candy, though ;) The kids even got to dress up which pleased Char. So, here are some photos!


Benny and Peter Rabbit


Char enjoying one of her new Easter books


Some sisterly love ;)


Gimme those chips!


The eggs we decorated that eventually became egg salad


Char showing off some of her work

The rest of the Easter photos can be found here: Easter 2013

Updates & More Photos (of course)

Ben is now moving fowards AND backwards in his walker. He's also rolling around everywhere including off the bed (he was fine, don't worry!). He's also in the process of sprouting 2 bottom teeth. It's been.. fun. Yea, we'll just go with that. He's sitting unassisted and pushing himself backwards while on the floor when he's not rolling around like a madman.

Here he is enjoying an empty pack of wipes:



Kids:



Charlotte enjoyed her very first bowling experience (duck pin bowling) at a friend's birthday party. Funny enough, she's a very gentle bowler and we had to tell her to throw/roll the ball harder than she was. Anyone who knows Char probably realizes how silly that is considering ;)



The norovirus has managed to hit us yet again and it always seems to hit us in February. Every year (minus last year). It was here and left pretty quickly, however. I had a minor case and Matt never really caught anything. We purchased a new car about a month ago which Matt is enjoying immensely. Especially since he's getting, on average, 40mpg.

Looking forward to seeing all of our cousins on Easter Sunday. I imagine there will be another update shortly after Easter with photos. :)

Siblings

It's so fun to watch the kids interact with one another. Charlotte is easy going and care-free while Ben is very serious. I think the above photo reflects their personalities pretty well. Below is just a short video I took of Ben in the walker.. going backwards ;)

Photo Update

First, Christmas!

Ben's first Christmas



Charlotte helped Grandma Kathy make cookies



I think she was having a good time :)



I don't know if Ben enjoyed being held by Char, but she's always eager to "hold Benny"







While we were down in TN it snowed a bunch in Indiana. Charlotte was thrilled



She even made her first snow angel :)



Ben's eating more and more foods every day and he's starting to sit up on his own. He's also a big fan of rolling over and jumping lots in the door jumper and the jumperoo.





Charlotte has been exploring her artistic side more and more. We're not too sure about the body art, but she seems pretty proud of her artwork. Let's just hope she doesn't start using Ben as a canvas.



I (Bam) had to have my gallbladder removed last week so that was surprising! I am almost 100% recovered and had a lot of help around the house during my down time which was much appreciated. Here's hoping the rest of the year is a bit more calm.

update

Hope everyone had a good holiday! We had a great time. Indiana got a lot of snow while we were gone so Charlotte was excited for that. Ben's been eating more solids lately. Today we tried mango and it was a success. So far we haven't found anything he dislikes. Here's the video:

Mango time!(sorry it's sideways)

Things have been mostly uneventful and laid back. Had a great time in TN for Christmas and rang in the new year down there, as well.