My favorite sound in the world

I can never get enough of that giggle...

Grandmama can always get the giggles

Merry Christmas!

Bennett had a wonderful Christmas. He spent Christmas day with Grandma & Grandpa Jones' and then spent today with Grandma & Grandpa Olsen. He was completely spoiled at both places with love and lots of presents.

Here he is Christmas morning... still a little sleepy but digging into his stocking anyway...

Santa brought him this cool four wheeler... Here is a short video of him enjoying it for the first time. He sure seemed to like it and take off on it right away. I am not sure if he will be able to steer it for a while... but it is super cute seeing him go on it.

Here is a picture of the Jones girl Christmas pants, always festive!

He was also treated to his first flu bug outside of the hospital. He has never ran a fever ever until yesterday. He was burning up and actually spurred a 2 am phone call to the pediatrician last night. He is doing better now and just catching up on some rest from the big weekend.

Waiting for Santa...

It is easy for me to say that we have had one of the most amazing holiday seasons ever so far... We have baked holiday cookies, sewn Christmas quilts and stockings, visited Santa and spent a ton of time with friends and family. Joel and I even muttered our first threaten of coal from Santa today.

We had a great day getting ready for Santa. I have made, count em... 4 apple pies and Joel is doing some work for Santa assembling some of his wonderful gifts. We started the Santa festivities with reading "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" before bed... Bennett seemed far more interested in crawling all over Daddy during tonight's story time but it was nice anyway.

We also set out some cookies, milk and carrots for Santa and his reindeer. Bennett did a quick taste test before mommy could get them. Oh well a little chocolate treat to settle him into bed for the night :)

I could not be happier this Christmas! It has been so fun spending time with Bennett, He is growing up so fast and although he doesn't truly understand all of the festivities we are excited to start so many fun traditions as a little family.

I keep thinking about all the years to come and can not wait to watch him enjoy many Christmases in the future.

Mr. Clean, Mr. Clean

Bennett has found his new favorite toy. While I was sweeping this morning he became obsessed with the broom. It was cute until he started grabbing for the dirty end. I went to the garage and found a mop that the head screws off and cleaned it all up for him. I am pretty sure he will be entertained for hours.

He is dragging it from room to room which becomes really funny when he tries to get through a doorway.

I think he asked Santa for a vaccuum.

Dear Santa,

Bennett got to meet Santa this week with his good friends Hadley & Charli. He liked Santa and the long line seemed to be the most tearful part for him. It was a fun day because he loves hanging out with his girlfriends.

We can't wait for Christmas and see if he gets what he asked Santa for.

Hung on the chimney with care...

I made Bennett the green stocking today with Auntie Jania... Bennett can't wait for Santa to come and fill it with goodies... or coal... it is still up in the air.

My buddy Charli visits!

Auntie Jania and Charli came to visit today so that we could attempt to make some crafty Christmas stockings and let the kiddos play.

Charli is such a pretty girl and Bennetts sure loves her!

I am walking on my birthday...

With the help of my new lion!

Bennett had a long day but after a lot of his party people left he dug into the toys and Daddy put together this lion that Auntie Jeanie and Uncle Kippy got him... It didnt take him long to take off on it.

This is about 20 minutes after we had it assembled... by the end of the night he was crawling to it, pulling up and pushing the lion right into the christmas tree... definately his new mode of transportation and it makes mommy run a lot faster than the crawling.

He is growing up so fast!

Happy Birthday Bennett!

Giving it a taste...

Giving mommy a frosting kiss...

Done with cake...

Heading to the bath...

Bennett had a great first Birthday with lots of family and friends! He had fun playing with lots of other babies and lots of new toys.

He really liked the cake... He doesnt usually like sweets so we were a little surprized to see him dive in... He got a quick bath right before the presents!

We are sooo happy and proud of our little guy! He has come so far and we couldnt be more ecstatic to be celebrating such a happy time!

Thank you everyone for coming and spending the day with us!

The Best Anniversary EVER

We decided to get our Christmas tree to celebrate our 3rd Anniversary. Joel got off work early and we headed to Hunter's Farms in Yelm, this is the view of the mountain on the non-christmas tree portion of the farm... what a beautiful day! They have acres of trees to choose from and really helpful people with lots of Christmas cheer.

I love noble firs and I love really big trees... My husband, not so much! The nine foot tree we took turns taking pictures in front of is the one that Bennett picked out... Dad had fun lugging that one back to the truck...

We finished the night off with a romantic trip to kid friendly, Red Robin... it was pretty yummy and Bennett was happy because he got a balloon tied to his arm.

I love my wonderful husband and the fact that he cut down and drug this humongous tree just because I wanted it... He sure does love us :)

Our little messy mover

Bennett has had a great week. Not only did he have a great time hanging out with his family on Thanksgiving but I think he officially mastered crawling on all fours. He has always been a scooter and he has seemed like he wanted to walk before crawl but he has taken off on all fours this week and has been pretty happy with his new efficient mobility...

He is very hard to track down with a video camera but in this video he seemed more concerned with the light coming in the window... it is short but it gives everyone the idea of how he is moving :)

As you can see he is also liking to feed himself and although he loves it, it seems to be quite messy.

Almost one?!.... so much to be thankful for

All mothers with a young one in their shopping cart at the grocery store hears the phrase, "He is adorable, how old is he?" The other day when asked this I smiled and quickly said "almost one". I kept walking and thought while continuing my Thanksgiving shopping... I can not believe my baby is almost one!

The last year was definately not what new parents expect, but in all of the craziness we sure had some amazing moments and could not be happier and prouder parents.

It is hard to look back and imagine how we made it through and how our little man was strong enough to amaze us at every obsticle. He has completely blown us away as well as most of the medical professionals involved with his care.

To be writting about my son and all the normal one year old activities and struggles he is having is not something I thought I would be doing. Many things have changed over the past 6 weeks since he made a huge step to recovery by getting his trach out. Here are a few of my favorite.

Freedom: Bennett didnt get to see much of the outside world with his trach, Since being trach free we have been to Seattle countless times visiting his many friends including Charli Miltenberger and Hadley Block. He has spent time with his Grandma & Grandpa Olsen and a been able to hang out with his cousins and Grandparents a lot down in Chehalis. Taking my son to the grocery store was something I thought would be magical at first but soon got difficult as I now have to make sure I drive far enough away from the shelves so he doesnt pull stuff into the cart.... something Bennett thinks is really funny...

Eating: Most of my waking time while he had his trach was trying to get Bennett to eat. Although he doesnt look like he ever missed a meal, it was very important to the Drs and nurses that we kept up his intake. Since then he eats fabulous, we have actually enjoy 3 meals a day of all sorts of fruits and veggies! He even enjoyed some mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving.

He likes to move it: Bennett is definately keeping us on our toes lately, He cruises along the couch and has learned how to pull himself up on everything including the dog (which actually thinks Bennett climbing on her is fun)

Giggles and sounds: He still has a lot to learn with his new voice and loves to yell really loud. But all the giggles definately make up for any crying or yelling that might have been a tiny bit more tollerable when he was more quiet :)

We are so happy that we are looking back at the last year with thankful hearts and excitement for all the years to come as a family!

All the Olsen Grandkids on Thanksgiving day!

Bennett at the Thanksgiving table at Grandma and Grandpa Jones'

Playing with Daddy and Uncle Kippy on Grandma & Grandpa Jones' new fun kid mat.

Getting excited for the holidays

Bennett loves his Christmas hat... it will go great with his red reindeer sweater... I am blaming it all on Grandmama Jones

Bath Time

Grandmama Jones got a brand new sink and Bennett had to break it in!

He had his first follow-up appointment after getting his trach out today. All the doctors were so happy with how well he is doing.

He is so fun lately! We have been able to spend a lot of time with family and get out and about a ton. We are looking forward to the holidays!!

Go Bearcats!!

Bennett's Uncle Marty is a coach for the Chehalis football team and we
went to see Bennett's first football game and a big win for the
Bearcats!

A little wild...

Not sure if he could be any cuter!

Halloween... what a scary dragon!

Here are some pictures of our little dragon. He was not too excited about his costume because it restricted his new found mobility... pretty darn cute though!

Bennett is crawling, rolling and pulling up to sit and stand... I am just trying to keep up with him and loving every second of motherhood under more normal circumstances.

Here is one of Monkey Reece and Ladybug Evie. The mommies were having most of the fun and only tortured them for a few pictures :)

Story time...

This is what happens when we let Bennett pick a book for story time... all his favorites end up in a big pile on the floor.

We have had to keep an extra close eye on him since he became a climber and is into everything. Let the serious baby proofing begin...

The Jones girls all grown up!

The first of many crazy days with all three of the Jones grandchildren. Baby Evie is home and doing great! What a pretty girl!

I cant believe we all had our first babies within 10 months of eachother. They are pretty lucky kids to have such fun cousins...

Beautiful Baby Evie...

Bennett being busy busy...

Home sweet home!

Our little jail bird before we left... We are home and settling in... cleaning out all that medical equipment from the nursery... man does that feel good!

I cant wait to post some pictures of our time with our new neice Evelyn Belle Petersen this Saturday... So proud of my sister and Uncle Kippy today. She is beautiful!