A new Camera, finally pictures :)

My new camera came and we have been using it about every other day since we opened it. Here are some photos of the kids to give you updates:
Ben is our little monster now. (But he is soo cute) Here he is trying to bug Brendan while he plays his DS.
Every meal is a messy meal these days. Me getting Madelyn ready for the Daddy Daughter Dance at her school. Daddy & his Daughter just before they left for the dance. Maddie had sooo much fun, it was all she could talk about for a couple of days.
Of course our other baby Mojo who doesn't really like being outside for more than 5 minutes. He doesn't know that he was suppose to be a hunting dog. Did we tell you guys that Benjamin was our little monster? Yeah talk about Brendan all over again. Trying to get underneath the baby gates....Yes he is eating again. Every meal is now just a matter of what to feed the crazy man. Brendan's indoor soccer team - the Sharks. Team Photo...His trophy. Brendan is going to take a break from soccer this spring and try his hand at baseball (yes I really got him signed up this year, go me!)
Madelyn is still in dance and will have her recital in the late Spring.
Ben we are just trying to keep out of trouble right now. But at almost 11 months is not walking yet. Note the yet, any day now he is just going to stand up and start running.

Update

Well I have been IMA for a while now. But finally I am back.
We had a slight Laptop crash but no photos were harmed or lost in the process. They are just waiting on our spare backup harddrive for me to find time to get to. Humm, don't see that happening this week.

But I do have photos from when we took the kids to see the Ringling Bros. Circus back in November. The kids had a blast & Brendan got all the gags that the clowns were doing between performers so it was great watching him laugh so hard I thought we was going to fall out of his seat.

Here are some of my favorites:
The motorcycle on the high-wire with the lady underneath.... All the elephants...
Brendan with is cool hat....
Me & Ben...
Daddy with all his kiddie's.....

Indoor Soccer & Easy Bake Oven

Here are some photos of Brendan's final game of Season 1 of indoor soccer. His team ending the season in second place with 4 wins and 2 losses. Season 2 starts after the new year and hopefully we can get some better video of him getting some good shots in.


One of the presents that Madelyn got from Grandma & Papa Andrews yesterday was a Easy Bake Oven. Of course we had to use it today. Here is her looking at her cake bake in the oven.
Getting ready to mix the frosting for the cake.
Her mixing... (I knew she was going to be getting this so when we were at Crate & Barrel I saw these really cute mini-spatula's and had to get her the set)
Of course you have to taste the frosting to make sure it is good, I am guessing from the smile that it is.
Daddy helping to take the cake out.
Maddie & Daddy watching her cake cool.
Maddie frosting all by herself. Of course she ate the whole thing all by herself too. Reminds me of the little Red Hen book.

Christmas in Flint

Here are the photos from Christmas in Flint.
Since we didn't put our tree up at home here are the kids in front of the Christmas Tree.
Maddie:Brendan:
Benjamin:
Daddy with the Benny-man. Maddie with her pile of Presents.
Ben trying to eat the paper.
Brendan loving the DS games.....
And legos.
Easy Bake oven...
and Barbies. :)
The piles of paper after opening all the presents.

Ben's 6 months Photos

My baby is growing up so fast. Here are a couple of the photos that we took for his 6 month old photos. I have a couple more that I want to touch up still.
Of course we love our black & white photos. And one of all 3 kiddies. It is really really hard to get all three looking good/at the camera so this is the best of them.

Brendan's Final Soccer Game

Saturday was Brendan's final soccer game of the Fall season. He of course had a blast playing for the Skyhawks. Some of the kids on his team have been together now for at least 3 years, and given that they are only 7 is quite a long time.

But as one season ends another begins. Brendan is going to try the in-door soccer and see how he likes that and of course it starts next week! No rest.

Here are some photos from his final game:
Brendan's team are in the yellow pennys b/c both teams were red. (ours Clawson and the other a Royal Oak team)
Brendan running the ball. He got two goals in this game.
Brendan's team: Brian was the other coach this season but he was gone teaching a outdoors class this past weekend.
Our silly face soccer star:
I am going to try to see if the video I shot will load correctly:

Ben Eating....

As all of you probably know baby Ben likes to eat. And even though he is only 6 months old he is already eating quite a bit of solid food. For example those little baby puff bites, teether biscuits, the soft part of the bread that comes with a salad at Panera (that is one if his favorites). But the other day while eating his teether biscuit thing he looked like this....And of course everyone needs one of those baby photos with food all over the face.
And while Ben was eating (he eats all day long about once every other hour but sleeps all night so I am not complaining) the older two kids were being cute. Here is Brendan playing his DS that he got for his birthday & letting Maddie look over his shoulder to watch. What you can't hear in a photo was Maddie telling Brendan what to do like she had a clue then saying "Good job Big D!"
Brendan has a weekly spelling test now that he is in the first grade. He worked hard all week on learning all his spelling words and was really excited about getting a sticker on his test. So of course we had to put it on the fridge to show to Daddy.




Yes I have issues and here they come out. Madelyn gets to bring snack to her soccer game tomorrow and me looking for any excuse to use (and/or buy stamps) I will take it. So we (I use that very loosely here) made goodies bags for the after game snack. Her team color is red & on the back it sayes Go Bulldogs. Inside is a RiceKrispies Treat & a fruit snack pack.

Georgia Trip

Most everyone knows that Benjamin and I flew down to Georgia to visit with family and for Ben to meet his great-grandfather before he past way. Luckily we made it in time for Ben to still be able to bring a smile to his great-grandfather face. Well since most of our time in Georgia was spent with red-eyes by most I wasn't able to get that many photos. But the other wonderful thing was this was the first time ever that all the grandkids where in the same state let alone the same room. So if I can I will post a photo take by my Aunt of that.

But kids are the best form of therapy and Benjamin (not even knowing it) did a wonderful job of bringing smiles out of everyone around.
Here are some of the photos that I took:
Violet really got a kick out of Ben being smaller than her, and for the most part she was pretty gentle with him.
Papa's make the best bed's for naps not at home...but of course Papa took one too.
Here is Ben with my cousin Bekah.
And with John (he liked Ben but was nervous holding hims since he wiggles so much).

And Rain. It rained everyday I was there and of course on Monday the day before my flight back home Dad's yard became river back property.
Here are some photos. This is how it looked, all dark, brown and wet.
Here is the flash on the camera showing off all that nice Georgia Red-clay water.
The rocks on the bottom of the larger pond dad had to go out and put out two additional rows from his walkway to keep the fish in his pond.
This one is blurry but you get the idea, this is normally his back yard. The row of smaller green bushes on the right side about the middle of the picture is the neighbor's yard.
My dad out standing in the flowing water, where he is standing up to just below his knee is normally grass.