Rockband and Pizza, who could want more?

Did you know my husband is the best pizza maker this side of Chicago? No? Well, it's true. The guy can really make a pizza. And he makes everything from scratch. It must be the Amato in him. And it's not just pepperoni for us! He gets super creative with his pizzas- my personal favorite is shrimp scampi with a red sauce - but besides the usuals he also does a fajita pizza, a bbq chicken pizza, and a dessert pizza (yes, dessert! My ass gets bigger just thinking about it!). Anyway, it really is a sin to horde all of Nick's pizza-making talents to myself, so we recently invited a few friends over for Nick's homemade pizzas. Alas, there was no dessert pizza (I made brownies from a mix - a poor substitute!). We had chicken sausage, shrimp scampi, and bbq chicken, so that ALMOST made up for the lack of dessert pizza. After some pizza and many glasses of wine, we broke out the Rockband. We had a really good time, but I don't think anyone will be moving on to American Idol anytime soon. It was nice that Harper came over so Bennett had a playmate. It was his first bath with another baby and he really enjoyed squeezing her thigh and laughing (her, not so much). Thank God for Beth, who takes pictures everywhere, and who is the only person who can get a good picture of my kid. Please note: wine intake was kept to a minimum until the kiddos went to bed.

Here are the cute kiddo pics (that Beth took). The hot chick with Bennett is Harper:

Halloween pics!

Bennett was a little cranky on Halloween because his dad took him to a football game during the day, which cut in to his naptime. Despite the lack of sleep, he was a little trooper, and let us dress him up like a cow, take a few silly pictures and take him trick or treating through the Proctor business district. After he was done, we went to Beth and Josh's house and ate pizza and passed out candy while the kids played. It was definitely better than last year when he had is first cold and we were stuck at home! What a difference a year makes!

Dance off 2009!

Bennett is lucky enough to have a cousin, Owen, who is just 3 months older than him...the boys haven't hung out all that much, as Owen lives in California, but at Uncle Jim and Aunt Lauren's wedding in May, the boys gave us all a taste of what's to come in future years by having a dance off. Imagine the pictures to Hungry Like The Wolf. Awesome.

Pumpkin Patch? Yes, please.

Being the good parents that we are, we decided to take Bennett to a pumpkin patch. For me, pumpkin patches are a total thrill- no pumpkin patches in Vegas that aren't in an Albertson's parking lot -so of course I take advantage of having a child to do all the things I secretly want to do....So, this morning, after realizing we were having a brief reprieve from the rain, we packed up Bennett and went to Spooner's Farm in Puyallup. Bennett had a much better time this year than last year (I know, what a shock that 5 week old Bennett didn't have a blast at the corn maze we took him to!). The farm was pretty crowded, especially for a Sunday morning at 11, but it was easy to see why - homemade donuts, a small pumpkin patch for little ones, animals, pony rides, and did I mention donuts? Also, there was no admission fee, so score one for Nick! Anyway, Bennett had a good time (until he started to have nap time breakdowns), and, after a rigorous testing process, picked out three perfect pumpkins ....

I never should have changed my name....

Wow...who knew Jenny Durcan would have come in so handy?


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Ugh.

New post coming soon. I promise. So quit bugging me about it!

Awesome 4th of July!

We had a GREAT day yesterday! During the day, we went with our friends Andrew and Hillary on their boat off of Gig Harbor. We of course brought Bennett, who was excited for his first day of crabbing, boating, and sun. The day did not disappoint! We all had a blast and Bennett did great- he didn't get burned at all, loved the water, and even took an hour long nap...we spent almost 6 hours on the boat without incident - I was definitely pleasantly surprised by how the day went! We saw porpoises and sea lions- although I don't think Bennett was really able to focus on that!

After a short nap, we packed up again and went with Andrew and Hillary to his brother's house for dinner. Since we last saw Pete and Jen a few years ago, they went and had a baby too, so Bennett had a blast following around 2 year old big boy, Colin. Colin was kind enough to share his swing, which Bennett loved! Bennett's normal bedtime is between 6:30 and 8:00, so I was watching the clock, wondering how he was still going at 8:45, 9:45...then at 10:45 when we took him to the car, he was out! He really enjoyed the fireworks and I can't wait until next year. Pictures to come!

Happy 9 Month Birthday to this Guy!

Time for the monthly post...

Well, at least this time I have a good excuse for not posting: we've been in the process of moving! We sold our house in 20 days and had to hurry and find a house- we closed on our house May 4, so we got out the weekend before....facing homelessness (our new house didn't close until May 11), my kind in-laws allowed Nick, me, Bennett. our 2 dogs and (grudgingly) our cat to stay at Chez Andrews for two weeks. Then, after getting into the house last weekend, we turned around on Thursday and flew with Bennett to Wisconsin for my brother-in-laws wedding. The 12 hour each way trek was worth it, and Bennett was a super star! Soon I will be posting pictures (hopefully)

Yes, I know I am a one-trick pony!

Pictures of Bennett

The most awesomest, raddest, smartest, cutest, funniest baby EVER

Is mine. I know some of you may argue with me - most likely those of you who have your own bundles of joy, or nieces, or nephews, or whatever....but you're just wrong. I think I will amend my statement to the most awesomest, raddest, smartest, cutest, funniest baby BOY ever is mine. Then I will just offend half of you.

Maybe some of you are wondering why I rarely "blog"....well, duh, it's because I work all day and then love love love to spend time with the ARSCF baby when I get home, not waste time blogging. But, since above mentioned ARSCF baby is teething and therefore hopped up on baby Tylenol and sleeping, I can just blog about how he's the best baby (boy) ever.

Sense of humor. The kid laughs at everything, and lets everything roll off his shoulders. I don't care how stressed, fussy or hungry the kid is, it's super easy to make him laugh. All other 7 babies at daycare could be screaming and crying, and Bennett will just laugh at God knows what. It's pretty awesome.

He's a boy's boy. Those who know Nick know he's pretty jock-ish (I know, how did this coupling happen?). Well, Bennett, at a mere 6 months, already loves to rough-house. Nick throws him in the air and twirls him upside down and he just squeals with joy.

He sleeps like his mom. Awesome. The most recent sleep schedule is from 8:00 to 6:30. Need I say more?

The little guy loves tummy-time. He's been digging this for a couple of months, but now it's just hilarious, because he's trying so hard to crawl - he looks like special forces, creeping under the barbed-wire.

He's Bennett. That's really enough for me. I can't believe he's 6 months old, although I am of course late at getting him to the doctor. I'll post some new pics soon.

4 month check-up (a month ago)

So, it's become expected at this point that my posts will be few and far between, and will include mostly pictures of Bennett. So why disappoint? I've been meaning to post about Bennett's 4 month check-up, which was almost a month ago now for, well, about a month. He is still freakishly long - 27 inches at 4 months, which puts him in the 98th percentile for length, and size 9 months for sleepers....crazy! He's about 16 lbs and is doing great- rolling over, obsessed with his feet, all that good stuff. While I was gone for a few days this week, he started jumping in his jumper, which is pretty funny, and sitting up on his own for a couple of minutes at a time. He has been eating rice cereal for a couple of weeks now, and he REALLY likes it. Maybe I'll even get around to posting a video. In the meantime, here are some pics:

Best intentions

So, my grand plan for today was to update the blog, along with about a million other things. Unfortunately, it is now 10:17 pm and I am way too tired to post!

Ok Ok Ok

So, I have been harassed enough to finally post after almost two months of being post free. It's not that I didn't want to post, it's just that I took Bennett to Vegas for a couple of weeks in late November, then started back at work December 10th. So much has happened, but instead of droning on and on, I'll just post some pics:

This is Bennett with his Uncle Erik in Vegas on Thanksgiving



Nick, Bennett, and I at Redrocks in Las Vegas


Me and Bennett on Christmas Eve - it was all just too much for him


Bennett smiling in his new jumper (even though his feet don't touch the ground yet)!


Bennett in his newsie hat on Christmas Day.


Looking very worried.....


Bennett in his Bumbo chair staring at his grandpa...


Bennett being baptized....he seemed pretty happy about it!