Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night

It has been four days since we celebrated Christmas and Ben still eagerly awaits a return visit from Santa Claus. Every night he says with a little gleam in his eye and a hopeful lilt to his voice, "if I go night night in my bed all night will Santa come bring me presents?" Christmas was definitely a hit this year...I just hope we can all survive Ben's anticipation for the next 361 days until we can celebrate once again!

We had the absolute best ever Christmas. Some highlights included Ben hearing Santa's sleigh bells in the morning ("him go ring ring ring. Ben hear him!"), Ben first setting his sleepy eyes upon the tree overflowing with gifts and the racetrack that continues to thrill him to no end, Ben looking for Baby Jesus in all the nativity scenes we passed on our way to Oma's ("oh there He is. Happy birthday Baby Jesus!"), Ben's joy in receiving gifts passed out by Uncle Rich (aka Uncle Duckie) and attributing all his gifts to Uncle Rich ("Oh thank you Uncle Duckie!"), Ben's glee at being awakened from his nap by Nana and Bampaw and getting to spend the evening opening even more gifts, including his very favorite, a castle, and spending time with his Uncle Craig who doesn't get to come home from school as much as we would like.

The day was such a tremendous gift. Dean and I are so blessed to have both of our immediate families in Indianapolis and even though the day is long and very chaotic, I wouldn't change it for the world. I thank God for each and every member of our family and love everyone so much. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Card Bloopers

Most of you have probably seen our Christmas Card by now. It is a lovely Charlie Brown background with a picture of Ben taken while at Ft.Myers Beach this October. It is one of my favorite pictures of Ben, but Dean and I both were really hoping to have a "Christmas" picture for our Christmas card. Alas, it was not meant to be...but not from a lack of trying on our part. It is an enormous challenge to get Ben to pose for pictures. He hates having his picture taken and wanted no part of posing by the tree. Dean tried so hard, but to no avail. I thought I would share some of the best of the more than 15 attempts that we made at capturing the perfect Christmas card photo. Enjoy!

Soccer Rules!

Ben has been "playing" soccer every Saturday morning for the past 12 weeks at an indoor sports facility in Avon. I have officially fulfilled my lifelong dream of becoming a soccer mom! Ben absolutely loves his class and for the most part follows Coach Mike's instructions. So as not to scare people who are reading this and assuming Dean and I are psycho parents forcing our 2 year old to become the next Pele, I should tell you that the Lil Kickers program actually begins at 18 months and is really more about fun and socialization than actual soccer skills development. Ben and his "teamates" kick balls, squash bubbles with their feet, play red light green light, and build ball/cone towers.

It really is one of the highlights of my week to watch Ben (and his daddy) on the soccer field. I can't help but wonder if he really will grow to love soccer and if my Saturday morning soccer spectator status will become a standing appointment...at least for the next 18 years!

Cookie Monsters!

Ben and I went to the Children's Museum with our friends Jamie and Maddy today for a special Cookie Making Class. Jamie and I tried to sign the kids up for a class once before and learned too late that the classes typically fill up within 48 hours of posting...these Children's Museum moms mean business! We decided we had to move quickly on the Cooking Making Class and signed the kids up months ago and Ben and I have been eagerly awaiting the big play date ever since!

I was a little anxious to see how Ben would do, considering he has a monster cough today and is not a huge fan of having to sit still even when he is feeling great! He thinks he owns the Museum so I wasn't sure how he would feel about having to spend a whole hour in one room during the cookie class. Much to my surprise he did great! He and Maddy play so well together. She is such a sweetheart and he, in typical boy fashion, spent the greater part of the morning trying to impress her! He had a blast, but ended up covered in flour and looked like the biggest ragamuffin child you have ever seen.

Ben and Maddy enjoyed painting, "baking," decorating and playing and were not ready for the playdate to end at the conclusion of the class. There are so many exciting areas of the Museum to explore, but Ben and Maddy chose to sit at the elevators for over 30 minutes watching them go up and down....too funny!

It was a great morning and there is no better way to spend your time than with friends...and cookies!

I had to steal these pictures from my friend Jamie's blog because she is the good mom who remembered to bring her camera today!

I Fireman

Hello! Sorry I have not posted in several days. As with everyone, the holidays are crazy and the days fly by way too fast. When did that start happening? I remember a time not entirely that long ago when December seemed to go so slow and I couldn't wait for Christmas to arrive. Now it seems the days are gone before they begin...we pack so much into every available minute that we sometimes forget to stop and enjoy each individual moment. That is going to be my biggest New Years Resolution this year....to stop trying to create memories, and start embracing the moments that just pop up.

The times I love best are when Ben and I are doing nothing special and he throws his arms around my neck and gives me a sloppy kiss, or when Dean leaves a note on my computer desk in the morning to greet me when I get up at 5:00 a.m. to type. I love that! I think as a mom I am pretty good at getting Ben out of the house and taking him on fun outings, but I sometimes forget how nice it is to just sit still and watch the beautfiul creature that Dean and I created as he grows into the most delightful little person I have ever met.

Anyway, speaking of outings...on Monday our friend Jarin took Ben and I to the Brownsburg Fire Station to visit her boyfriend who is a firefighter. To say that Ben had a blast is an understatement. He relished every moment of that visit. He was fascinated by the pole and the trucks and even got to wear a hat, "drive" the ladder truck and blow the horn. Ben kept proudly saying "I fireman." In typical boy fashion, Ben loves all things related to trucks. I sometimes wonder what he will be when he grows up. If his 2-year-old self is any indicator, he will be something highly useful to society. His favorite professions right now would have to be fire fighter, construction worker, and garbage man! Perhaps he will be all three!

I am going to attempt to post a couple of pictures from our day at the fire house.

Love to you all, Melanie

In the Beginning...

Over the past year I discovered a strange truth about myself, I am obsessed with blogs. I am a full fledge stalker when it comes to reading my friends blogs. I often check every day hoping for a new post or even better, new pictures. My friends have made so much fun of me that I finally relented, or rather Dean relented for me, and we have started a blog for our family. Hopefully you will enjoy the ramblings that are sure to follow and the plethora of Ben photos that I hope to post (when I figure out how to)! At the very least, I hope that we can keep up with this blog as a journal for Ben, so that he may someday be able to read about how full he has made our lives and the joy that he brings to Dean and my world every day. Love, Melanie