Playing outside

I got some decent photos with my iphone when the kids were playing outside a few days ago (finally offloading them now!).

From 2010_04_23

From 2010_04_23

From 2010_04_23

From 2010_04_23

Does she look like me?

This photo of Maddie makes me think she's looking more and more like me...

From 2010_04_19

From 2010_04_19

From 2010_04_19

The rare picture of them both!

Lately it's almost impossible to get Ben & Maddie in the same picture frame, and both looking at the camera with a half-way decent look on their faces. So this one's precious!

They were checking out the box that came with stuff from Amazon last night:

From 2010_04_14

And here are some others from recent weeks that I've been negligent to post....

From 2010_04_14

This is Jamey's uncle Mark and grandfather Jack, who came to visit with Grandma Liz.

From 2010_04_14

Addicted!

I am completely addicted to this song, "Highway 20 Ride" by the Zac Brown Band. I just saw the video for the first time and the video is even more heart-breaking than the song. It's just a beautiful melody with an amazing story about a divorced dad and his son.

15 months!

Life has sure changed around here just in the past month. Ben and Maddie are fully walking and getting into EVERYTHING! It's just a whole new ball game.

They are also getting outside now that winter has ended, and it's been interesting watching them figure out this weird thing called "grass."

Here they are playing outside on Tuesday with my aunt Ann, including checking out their new (to us, at least) climber and slide.

From 2010_04_01

From 2010_04_01

From 2010_04_01

And tonight I caught them taking turns climbing into the cabinet -- which they broke the door off of yesterday. Nice.

From 2010_04_01

From 2010_04_01

The remote

Now that Ben is walking, he's discovered he can carry something around. And he's decided to carry an old remote control. He carries it everywhere! So far, though, he hasn't freaked out if he can't find it. But boy does his face light up when he "discovers" it after not having it for awhile.

From 2010_03_23

And here are some other pics from last weekend (finally getting around to posting!)

From 2010_03_23

From 2010_03_23

From 2010_03_23

My birthday

So this is the last birthday I'm going to celebrate. #39. How can it be possible that I'm just one year away from 40? Seems like just yesterday that I was in college. Jeez.

I'm spending the day home with my babies and tonight Jamey and I are going out for dinner, while my aunt babysits the sleeping little ones.

Update on "the box" from the last post. I took it away last night because Ben figured out that, if turned upside down, it makes a great stepping stool to get up on the coffee table next to the window -- so he can then bang on the glass and look outside. He had also gotten into the habit of letting it fall on top of him while he was laying on the floor, then he'd freak out when he realized he was sort of stuck. :-)

That boy just gets into everything. It's unreal. Maddie is the only one of the two who will sit quietly in the bathroom with one or two bath toys and wait while I blow dry my hair (she did this morning, without getting into anything or making any sort of fuss!). Ben, on the other hand, will open every cupboard, pull out every item he can reach and generally terrorize the place in a very short period of time! He's all boy, that's for sure.

The Box

You wouldn't believe how many hours of endless fun this box has been. We got something in it more than a month ago and it's still a prime favorite every single day.

They're getting more creative with it now, though. At first, they were sitting IN it. Now they are sitting ON it.

From 2010_03_19

And using it to crawl ever higher:

From 2010_03_19

From 2010_03_19

Children's Museum

We took Ben & Maddie to the Minnesota Children's Museum for the first time today. They have a toddler area that was awesome for them. Unfortunately the place was packed because of spring break and school groups who came by the busload, but most of those were not in the toddler area. Ben & Maddie loved it -- especially Ben. He didn't want to leave.

From 2010_03_18

From 2010_03_18

From 2010_03_18

From 2010_03_18

From 2010_03_18

From 2010_03_18

Missed my pumpkins

I got back this afternoon from four days in Phoenix for a conference for work. It was fabulous to get away, although I missed my pumpkins! I swear they looked a little different when I first saw them today. And they have certainly made big progress in both walking and talking. Ben has become a little motor-mouth. He was babbling like crazy. And he's walking as his primary means of getting around. Maddie is about a week behind him on the walking front, but is doing way, way better than when I left last Wednesday.

I got some new pics of them this afternoon....

Here's Maddie walking:

From 2010_03_14

And here's Ben:

From 2010_03_14

From 2010_03_14

From 2010_03_14

From 2010_03_14