Bennett's First Picnic

We took full advantage of this beautiful day! We got up and went to our new Sunday School class and church. It was great! We decided to go to Betty Virginia Park (Betty Ba-June-ya is what my mom said I used to call it!) for a picnic! It was fun just to be outside with my 2 favorite boys. Bennett loves when Neil makes him "fly" through the air. With the sky in the background, he really looks like he is in the air!

cool

Steel Magnolias

At Thursday night Bible study we had a special treat! Weiser Duvall gave her awesome testimony! She spoke about her connections to the movie, Steel Magnolias too! The character, Weiser, in the famous southern movie is named after our real life Weiser! She is nothing like the character in the movie. She is the sweetest most godly woman I know. We had a great time listening to her. I brought Mom, Neil's Aunt, and his 2 cousins. I was so glad they came. Sister Leone Knowles came in town for the weekend and attended too! It was so great to see her live and in person instead of just in the blog world! Leslie made dirty rice and Kelly brought french bread. I made cookie dough truffles for the event! Here are some pictures from the fun night.

Here are all the Sigma Kappa's! (ha!)

Sister Leone Knowles and Sister Beck Douglas.
Weiser, Mom, and Jarvia. (Yes, I did get their permission to use their photos on my blog!)

Licensed to Drive

When we received this fun car bouncer from Neil's Aunt Catherine and cousins Elizabeth and Carolyn..we were thrilled! We could not wait to get our little guy in it. We thought Bennett was just going to love it and HE DOES! He loves all the lights and music that it plays. His feet do not his the bottom yet so next time we are going to put a phonebook under his feet!

Our Little Genius

When I bought this cute little shirt with a tie applique on it, I could not wait to put it on Bennett! I got it from the same Etsy seller that I bought the shamrock shirt for St. Patrick's Day. He looked so precious this morning that I had to give him a book and take some pictures! Bennett has really been looking at the books when we read to him. He acts very interested and even laughs at the pages!

He is really interested! This is so cool to me!
Bennett loves his books!


"What?" He looks so cute in his little tie. It's like he is going to work.

Going, Going, Gone.

Here is our precious baby boy falling asleep. I think it is such a sweet time when he is so peaceful. I just wish he would sleep through the entire night!
This was supposed to be a video...my techy skills are lacking today!


Does anyone have any ideas on how to get a 3 1/2 month old baby to sleep through the night?

Guess Who's 100?

Bennett is one hundred days old today! I cannot believe we have reached this milestone so quickly! He is the love and joy of our lives. He makes our families so happy! He was thrilled about his 100 day birthday too.

Match Day

We were so thrilled to be invited to the Match Day activities for our friend, Chris Beck. We went to the Mabry House with his family the night before and it was fabulous...as always! Match Day was very exciting. I had the chills the entire time!! It was so emotional to see where the future doctors are going to be doing their residencies. Some were happy and some were not so happy. Our little Match Day Candidate was one of the happy ones! He got his first choice of Vanderbilt! CONGRATS TO CHRIS BECK...FUTURE MD! I think we will have some Nashville trips in our future. Fine by me...I love Nashville! Here are a few pictures from the festivities:

Here's the video of "Christopher" reading his fate! (No, I do not know how to make the video right side up!)

We are so proud of you, Beck! We will be even more proud when we get free x-ray readings!

Our Little Shamrock

I never remember being so excited for St. Patrick's Day. I think this year was extra exciting because I had the cutest shirt ever made for Bennett. I bought it from this Etsy seller. She has some really cute things! His initials were a little out of order but, he wore it anyway!

We went to Gymboree and Bennett was such a good boy! The Gymboree bubbles are so cool...they will stick to you! Notice they are stuck to his head!

Bennett loves all the Gymboree songs! We had a great time.

We went to Barnes and Noble for story time. We went to support the Parkway HS book fair. Our sweet friend, Carol was organizing the whole event!! Way to go Carol!

Bennett's first time in the Bumbo... I think he was loving it. He can already sit! (with assistance!)

Bennett's Baptism

We had a wonderful weekend. It was filled with family and friends. On Saturday, I hosted a baby shower for my friend, Kendal. I made cucumber sandwiches that were yum-o! Then, we went to Georgia Buteau's 1st birthday party. After the party, we drove to Ruston for the Lewis family March birthday celebration. There are 7 people in Neil's family with a March birthday. Needless to say, it was a busy Saturday!

This morning was such a great time for our little family. Bennett was baptized at our church this morning. At first, I didn't understand why a baby would be baptized. My friend told me that her minister told her that "God chose the baby before Bennett ever chose Him." It does make sense that we should dedicate our babies to The One who created them! We had 25 friends and family members to be here on this special day. Bennett wore a christening gown that is 120 years old. It was originally made for Neil's great-great-grandfather. We were trying to be very careful with it. Bennett was a perfect angel during church and the baptism. He just looked around and "took it all in!" After church, we had a fabulous lunch at the Petroleum Club. I was glad to have it there so I didn't have to clean! ha!

Here is the little angel now:

Pops loves Bennett! He visits him at least once a day!

I was so thrilled that my Great Aunt Cloie (Grauntie) and Cousin Susan joined us for this special day!

The grandmothers and their favorite boy.

Our Little Family.

The "self-proclaimed" God parents and Bennett

Aunt Carol is so sweet! I love spending time with her!

Aunt Leslie and Bennett. He was being so sweet and snuggly!

These are the "favors" I made for everyone. The recipe is on my recipe blog...click here.

Here is a photo of all over our family members! It is so nice to be surrounded by so much love!

This was such a wonderful day. It was great to have so many people that we love here for our special day!

The Graduate. Wooooohooooo!

Happy 3 Months to Bennett!

Bennett is 3 months old today! The past 3 months have flown by! Bennett is growing so much. He is smiling and laughing all the time. He is the sweetest blessing we have ever received.

Bennett has had a little cough the past couple of days so we went to the doctor today to have him checked. They also pricked his little finger for the 3 month check-up. He got a Tazmanian devil band-aid. His finger is so small they had to wrap it a few times! I don't think he was too thrilled with the whole finger-prick-thing. (See band-aid...top left)

Like I said, Bennett is growing so much...and so fast. Here are his stats from his 3 month check-up:

Weight: 12.6 lbs (25th percentile)
Height: 22.5 inches (10th percentile)

Head: 15.5 inches (50th percentile)

We had a little family photo session today for the big 3 months:

I had to include one from Gymboree yesterday! He was such a good boy!

Neil's Birthday and Uncle Frank's Graduation

Uncle Frank graduated from TECH on Saturday. I think my parents are pretty proud that both of their kids have graduated from college. I will post some pictures of Michael in his cap and gown once I get mom's camera. Michael graduated in French! How cool to be fluent in a foreign language. Michael was so thrilled to see his nephew. I think Bennett was excited to see him again! Aunt Rebecca came all the way to Shreveport to babysit Bennett while we went to the Mabry House to celebrate the graduation. She had him asleep in about 5 minutes after we left! The Mabry House dinner was so delicious! We had some great food and it was such a treat. Mine and Neil's favorite dessert there is the homemade blueberry ice cream in a beignet! Talk about fabulous!

Neil turned 28 on March 8th! I think he is looking pretty good for the ripe old age of 28! His parents took us, my parents, and my brother to eat at Tokyo for a Japanese hibachi/sushi feast. I think Bennett enjoyed the show. Neil had a strawberry ice cream cake that was hot pink. Apparently pink is the only color they use to decorate strawberry cakes. I had them write his name in blue to make it a little more masculine. Here are a couple of pictures from the festivities:

Bennett fell right asleep on his Nana. I can't tell if liked it or not! :)

Grand-Machine and Nana love their grandboy!

Both of the grandmothers love watching Bennett play.
The "gong-master," Richard, Lauri, Bill, Michael, Janine, Bennett, Birthday Boy, pink cake, and Fatty McGee who needs to lose pregnancy weight.

On a side note: I have all of my application information in to LSUS for the Alternate Certification Program. The interviews will be set-up soon for admission. I take the Praxis 1 on March 27th and the Praxis 2 on April 25. Please pray for me on the admissions and the Praxis! I am so scared about the Praxis because I am a terrible test taker!

Today was a great day!

Since the whole lay off thing, I have decided to take off every Friday this month because I have 4 days that I have to use or I will lose them. So, I kept Bennett home with me today. I was holding him this morning and just didn't want to let him go! He was rather fussy but just a little time on the play mat and he is A-OK! He gets mesmerized by the flashing star that is above his head. He gets really frustrated when he looking at it when he wants to look away but can't! It's like he is saying "Can't look away...must look away!" Anyway, the star's music has completely gone out! I called Baby Einstein today to get a new one!

We ran a few errands this morning before meeting up with Nana and Aunt Rebecca at Fairfield Grocery. Aunt Becky and Nana love Bennett...and I mean LOVE Bennett! They fight over who is going to hold him first! I just love that we have so many people in our families who love our sweet baby. It is such a blessing.

Welcome Back...You're Fired!

Well, the title of the post says what my first day back to work after maternity leave was! I was dreading going back to work today and leaving my baby ALL day at daycare. I was praying on the way to work "please God give me a good attitude toward work." I walked in the door and my co-worker says not 'good morning' or 'welcome back' or 'how's the baby' or anything sweet like that. She says "LOOK AT THIS!" It was an e-mail saying that HSBC is closing all 800 branches in the US and laying off 6,100 employees. Hmmmm... I can't say that I am sad though. I feel like it is a blessing because we all know how bored I have been the past 2 years!

After work, I met Neil and Bennett at Gymboree. It was a great way to end a bittersweet day. Here are a few pictures of my sweet boys.

Tummy Time on the big mirror:

Look at Daddy and Bennett! Sweet Boys!