Merry Christmas everybody! We survived our Christmas trip to Illinois and are back home now enjoying all of our wonderful presents!

We drove down Friday night and spent Saturday with Grandma and Grandpa Andrews. We visited Brookfield Zoo for Holiday Magic and had a great time. Great Grandma Murphy flew in on Sunday and Benjamin really had fun hanging out with her. We spent hours opening up all of our presents on Christmas morning and the Coopers, Murphys, and Williamses all came over that afternoon. It was great to see all of my family. We really loved being able to share some great laughs with them as well.

I have added all of our photos to our flickr site, so please check them out. We have our next Christmas celebration with the Schmitt clan later this week and we can't wait! It has been a wonderful Christmas for us all!!

I know, I know, it has been a while. Our Christmas preparations are taking up much of our free time! I just wanted to give an update though (since Mom asked...).

We had a very nice Thanksgiving at the Schmitt house with nearly the whole family (Katie and Jennifer both were at home for the holiday). Benjamin really enjoyed his Thanksgiving food, even for leftovers! Mike, Joe and Dan ran an 8k race the morning of the holiday and had a blast doing it! Luckily the weather was pretty nice. That weekend we also visited the Minnesota History Center for a Baseball in America exhibit with Bert and Dan and were excited to find that the museum is fantastic! Andy met us out at a kids playzone near where he lives and he also accompanied us to a trip to the mall to see Santa. Benjamin isn't currently a big Santa fan. He cried as soon as he got closer than 4 feet away.

I celebrated my birthday on the 19th with a visit to the Minnesota Science Museum's Body Works exhibit and a very very nice dinner at Heartland Restaurant in St. Paul. We were lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Andrews in town to hang out with Benjamin while we celebrated. Shortly before my birthday I found out that I was awarded a scholarship from the University of Minnesota, where I am studying for my masters degree in Adult Education, so that was a nice birthday treat for me!!

Mike is busy preparing his training schedule for Boston and also is teaching a running class at the Running Room, a localish running store that offers clinics. He is teaching the "How to Run a 5K" class and is really enjoying it. We are all off this Friday and will be traveling up for a visit to see Joe, Jen and AJ, for which we are very excited!

Benjamin is enjoying himself in daycare in the toddler room. We have begun to notice that some part of his transition has had a positive effect on his language because in the last week he has begun picking up so many words and is really becoming quite the smarty pants. Just today he began FINALLY saying the name of his most favorite character in the whole world, Elmo. He also absolutely adores animals and can tell us what noises many of them make.

We are all so excited for Christmas, which will be spent in Illinois this year. Our tree went up the weekend after Thanksgiving without too much incident. Benjamin likes to look at it, but doesn't really get into it too much...yet.

We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and wish you all good luck in your Christmas shopping!!!

By now I am sure all of our avid readers are aware of our little adventure last week. We spent 4 nights at the hospital with Benjamin because he was having difficulty breathing due to a virus which eventually turned into pneumonia. Thankfully, he is doing much better now and really only has a slight cough to show for what he went through. We were lucky that some of Mike's family members were able to come down and visit us, which I know lifted Benjamin's spirits and helped us by letting us get some sleep and keeping us company, too.

Grandma Andrews flew up Wednesday morning to stay with Benjamin during the day on Wednesday and Thursday so that Mike and I could go back to work. It is so great that she can use her days off to spend time with Benjamin even though she has to travel far to be here. I know that they are having a great time!! Grandpa will be coming on Friday, so he will be able to spend some time here as well.

It is hard to believe that it is mid-November already! Thanksgiving is next week and then Christmas is going to slowly creep up on us. Craziness. We already had our first major blizzard here while Benjamin was in the hospital, so we feel mentally prepared for winter. Now I just have to find time to take down my outside Halloween decorations, haha!

Even though Halloween is still one day away, we celebrated a little early at a party at Joe and Jen's. We got to wear our new homemade costumes and I think they were a hit! Benjamin didn't enjoy wearing his hood, but had it on long enough to snap a couple of pictures. If you can't tell from the picture, we dressed up as The Peanuts. Benjamin is Snoopy, I'm Lucy, and Mike is Charlie Brown. We were able to spend a little time with the uncles, aunt, and AJ. Benjamin absolutely loves his cousin!! He gives him tons of hugs and gets SO excited when he comes in the room. It is a real treat to see him light up so much!! Sunday night all of the Schmitt brothers and their significant others went to a Ghosts, Graves, and Caves tour in St. Paul which was very very cool! It really got us in the mood for Halloween!!! There are lots of pictures on flickr from the weekend, so check them out!!

Well, we are back from Chicago after an exciting, but tiring weekend! I haven't had the chance to get all of our pictures onto flickr yet, but will plan on doing that tonight. However, I did upload a couple of things to our youtube site, so here they are:

The first is a video of Benjamin on a pony ride at Sonny Acres (a pumpkin patch).

And the second...well, you will just have to see for yourself:
(the music is from Benjamin's music class cd!)

It is official...Mike qualified for Boston!!!!!
His time was 3:10:37, which falls under the required time of 3:10:59 or below!!

Anyone up for a trip??
Mark your calendars...April 16, 2007.....

(pictures to come).

Well, we are off to Chicago for the big marathon weekend...but before we go, I want to leave everyone with this cute tiny video that I took of Benjamin talking on the phone...enjoy!

Aside from our horrible experience at Sears Portrait Studios last night, Benjamin took some really nice fall pictures. Here is one of the proofs (the others are on flickr):

Our new camera arrived on Saturday while we were visiting Decorah, Iowa with Grandma and Grandpa Andrews! We took the opportunity to visit a local park and take some pictures of Benjamin enjoying the beautiful day! We only have the small memory card that came with the camera for now, so these pictures are all we have. I am sure that there will be many more photo postings to follow though...we have a lot of lost camera time to make up!! :-)

It is finally autumn here and the leaves are turning all of their beautiful colors. Andy and Jennifer came down this weekend and we all went to an orchard tour at Whitewater Orchard in St. Charles. We went to this tour last year and really enjoyed it, so we had to go again! This time they gave us big bags to collect a variety of apples off of the trees. Last year we had to use our pockets! Benjamin loves digging into whole apples and can even polish off one on his own! We still don't have a camera, so the pictures posted on the flickr site are graciously donated by Jennifer.

It has been a while since I posted last, I know. We've been very busy and also don't currently have a working camera, which pretty much prompts me to come on here and share the latest photos or video of Benjamin. We had a fun time over the past two weekends. The weekend before last Benjamin and AJ got to hang out together with Grandma and Grandpa Schmitt while all of us big kids were able to go out and have some child-less fun. The girls (except Katie, who had to work, booo) went to a tea luncheon at McHattie's Victorian Teahouse in Woodbury, which was very tasty and so fun. The boys all went to the St. Paul Gangster tour, which they described as "hillarious!" Then we all met up for Oktoberfest at the Gasthaus Bavarian Hunter in Stillwater. Benjamin and AJ kept themselves busy by chasing each other up and down the hallway and laughing hysterically! They are so much fun together, though Benjamin has a knack for pushing around his cousin a bit, haha.

This weekend we stayed home in Rochester, but Dan and Katie visited. They had only planned on coming down Friday night, but ended up staying until Sunday! We had a great time and visited a local apple orchard/pumpkin patch while the weather was beautiful on Sunday! Dan got a new job at HealthPartners, which he will be starting on October 9th, so we did a little celebrating with him. Yesterday, Benjamin and I took a trip to an outlet mall which is about an hour outside of Rochester. It was the most perfect autumn day and we had fun walking around outside to each of the shops. I just love fall!!!

Little Benjamin sure is on the go lately! He is sporting a brand new pair of Stride Rite shoes and is now walking everywhere! This morning he WALKED up all 10 stairs on the way into daycare!! He's so proud of his walking accomplishments. He giggles and smiles while walking all around.

Mike and I are nearly finished installing our kitchen floor. Speaking of being proud...we have done it all by ourselves and it looks great! It feels so good to be close to finishing such a major home improvement (well, major for us, anyway...we are no Uncle Terry!).

Last weekend Mike ran the Rochester Track Club Half Marathon, a pretty major race in the season here. He finished at 1:31:41 (a 7 min pace), a personal record! He's been training so hard for the Chicago Marathon (Oct 22) and is very pumped to conquer his goal this year!!

We went to the State Fair on Friday. Benjamin was able to travel around in his new kid carrier backpack, which worked out great! We didn't have to hit anybody in the ankles with our stroller and were able to go in and out of the crowds without any problems. We met up with Uncle Joe, Aunt Jen and AJ and Jen's family there, which was great! AJ is getting to be such a big boy!

Grandma and Grandpa Andrews visited us all weekend. We celebrated Grandma's (last) birthday with a trip to one of our favorite restaurants, the Redwood Room. The weekend was relaxing and everyone had a great time!

In case you had any doubts about Benjamin's walking ability, we have provided a montage of video...

It finally came time to bring Benjamin in for his first haircut last Friday. We were hesitant to do it because we didn't want to lose all of his cute curls. At first he was scared and very unsure of the whole situation. He cried when the hairdresser sprayed him with water and started to cut his hair, but she acted quickly and gave him a sucker, which calmed him down. He soaked the gown with his sucker drool though, which you can see in the last picture on our flickr site. It is amazing how much the haircut turned him into a little boy, he looks so grown up now! We're not sure if his curls will come back, but now he's ready to take on the world with his new 'do!

We've finally recovered from our exciting travels which started (for Benjamin and I) two Thursdays ago. Benjamin had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Andrews Thursday and Friday nights and I enjoyed my alone time in my hotel as well. We had dinner with Aunt Arlene at Texas Roadhouse (yum!) on Saturday and spent Sunday with the WHOLE Schmitt clan! It was great to see all of Mike's aunts, uncles, and cousins! We visited downtown Elmhurst where they have painted trains all over that the kids all really enjoyed (pictures are on flickr). We then travelled up to East Troy, Wisconsin where we stayed at Pine Ridge cottage, which was a very beautiful cabin in the woods on a private lake. We didn't do a whole lot while there except swim and eat, which allowed us to really relax. AJ and Benjamin played and played and played! I didn't take any still pictures while we were there, but we did take some video of us swimming and also the boys playing, which I hope to have on flickr soon.

We've had quite the baby boom amongst our friends lately! Four babies in two weeks!! Our neighbors and very good friends, Katie and Jason had their son, Ethan Walter (8 lbs, 1 oz) who is SO adorable! Kristen and Jamie had their son, Gavin Presley (8 lbs, 11 oz) early Sunday morning. Stacey and Joe Brus had their daughter, Katelyn Adeline (6 lbs, 1 oz) on the 9th and Samantha and Jacob had their daugter, Nora June (5 lbs, 6 oz) yesterday afternoon. All of the babies actually came before their due dates...these lucky moms didn't have to wait a week beyond their date like we did! Haha. Congrats to everyone!!!!

Okay...so maybe you can't officially call it walking yet, but Benjamin has taken his first steps! It is truly amazing how much babies can change in a day! One day he was crawling and hanging onto everything and the next he is standing on his own and trying to take his first steps. He's growing so fast!

We're off to Chicago today by plane...I'm going to try to go it alone. I have a conference near O'Hare for a couple of days so Benjamin gets to spend some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa Andrews. Then we will be going to Mike's Uncle Francis and Aunt Agnes's 40th Wedding Anniversary party and then up to Wisconsin to a lovely cottage with the Schmitt-side. Hopefully there will be no throwing up on this vacation and temperatures should be below 95 degrees!!

We spent the past weekend in the Wisconsin Dells with Grandma and Grandpa Andrews at a lovely condo. Of course, no Schmitt-Andrews vacation is ever a dull event and this one was no different. Temperatures were near 100 degrees, which prevented us from being outside much during the day. We visited the Dells Deer Park without incident, though it was VERY hot. It was when we got to a restaurant for dinner afterwards that the drama began. It turns out that Benjamin had a terrible stomach virus and he got sick at the restaurant. We had to go back to the condo where he seemed to recover, but during the night got sick again. We had planned to go out on a pontoon boat that we rented all morning on Sunday, but Benjamin was still a bit lethargic from his illness, so I stayed behind with him while my parents and Mike went fishing. The good news is that Mike caught his first fish...woohoo!!! When they got back from fishing, we all went to a winery for a wine tasting and then to dinner at the Essen Haus, a German restaurant. Just when we thought that Benjamin was better and our vacation was turning around, I came down with the same virus! Monday morning the other four seemingly healthy people spent some fun time in the pool while I stayed back and slept. We all drove home Monday afternoon and at various times on Monday night, Mike and my parents all came down with the virus, too. Though the vacation didn't go as planned, we all had a great time and we enjoyed spending time with each other!

Benjamin has learned his first song! He knows the chorus part of Old Macdonald and sings it constantly, haha.

We were very busy this weekend. Grandma and Grandpa Andrews drove up to hang out with Benjamin at the St. John the Evangelist Block Party (our church), which was headlined by Soul Asylum. The little guy missed the big show, but was able to get lots of good food and fun in before bedtime. We stayed at the show with friends and enjoyed a beautiful evening outside watching the band. We are headed to the Wisconsin Dells this weekend with G&G A and are very much looking forward to getting away!

Well, Happy 4th of July to everyone! The three of us spent a fabulous five days together over the holiday weekend and it was awesome! We spent time just hanging out, drove down to Winona to see good friends, ate Cambodian food at an engagment party of sorts, cooked tasty food, had visitors, and watched a great firework display! What a wonderful time!

For the fourth, we had our friends Sam and Jake over for the day and then we went to The Olson's house for their own personal firework display! Benjamin's first exposure to fireworks actually went great! He was a bit concerned about the noises, but was a great little guy! I am adding a video of the event below.

Benjamin had his 12 month doctor's appointment on Friday and he is doing great! The doctor was very impressed with his cruising skills and the fact that he's totally off of bottles. He weighs in at 23 lbs and is 29.5 inches tall. Completely in the 50th percentile for both height and weight!! He has started to stand all on his own, but has yet to take a step. We keep thinking it will happen soon, but then we remember how long it seemed like he was close to rolling over...haha.

Benjamin had a very exciting birthday! Mom and Dad came to visit him for lunch at daycare with cupcakes and birthday hats for all of the babies...it was so cute! Benjamin really loved his cupcake and so did all of his friends! We took lots of pictures and I will try to post them tonight...

Grandma and Grandpa Andrews and Great Grandma Murphy all called him to sing him Happy Birthday! How special!! He even got on the phone with Grandma and Grandpa to show them his new skill...he can take the phone, put it up to his ear and say "Hiiiiiii!" I bet he won't know what to do with himself now that all of the excitement is over! I guess he's left to just enjoy all of his cool new toys!!

My parents scanned in some old photos (and I mean OLD photos...Happy Birthday Dad!) of my Dad from when he was little. Here is a little comparison of the two June birthday buddies...scary!

We celebrated Benjamin's first birthday this weekend with family and friends. It was a successful party and so much fun to see everyone! Thanks again to everyone who made it.

As you can see by this picture, Benjamin really enjoyed his cake, which Mommy made to look like a page from his favorite book, "That's Not My Robot!" While holding it up for pictures, he started to dig right in on the frosting and loved every bit!! We will be adding more pictures to come from other people who took some at the party, so keep an eye out!!


After everyone left on Sunday, Mike ran a 5k race for the Ronald McDonald House, so Benjamin and I hung out. I made this video of him saying his (possible) third word...listen carefully...

Mike celebrated his first Father's Day this weekend! We had an excellent day with his family at Minnehaha Falls park in Minneapolis. Mike received the poster here in the picture from Benjamin and I. It is made up of pictures of Mike and Benjamin throughout the past year. He also got a Dr. Suess Book called "Hop on Pop!"

On Saturday I performed in the Rochesterfest Cemetery Walk as a dead person from Rochester's history. I had SO much fun and acted my little heart out for 17 separate groups! What a tiring day!!! Joe had a graduation party on Saturday as well so Mike and Benjamin went up to the cities for that, a parade and also so that Mike could watch the US World Cup team tie with Italy. Thursday will be a big day for the US team who plays Ghana. We're very excited!

We had a wonderful weekend! Saturday we went up to the twin cities for Deutsche Tage with Joe, Jen, AJ, Andy and Jennifer. We ate amazing German food, danced around to an oom-pa-pa band, and enjoyed being outside (even though the weather was unseasonably cold). Then the whole crew followed us down to Rochester where we spent Saturday night and Sunday playing and having fun with family. Benjamin and AJ finally got to spend some quality time together and they really had fun playing and making trouble. Joe and Andy helped Mike install a new faucet in our kitchen, which looks great and works wondefully!! It was so great to spend time with everyone, it is hard to get back to the grind this week. Benjamin's birthday is quickly approaching and we're all getting ready for the big day!!!

Joe graduated with his bachelor's degree in Business and Information Technology this Sunday from St. Mary's University. It is a great achievement to go back to school like he did with a full-time job and a family, we are so proud of him! Benjamin had fun seeing his cousin and the whole family!

Saturday night Mike and I went to a murder mystery dinner at our friends' house (Laura and Eric). It had a mardi gras theme and we all had fun roles to play. Of course, it is verrrry unlike us to get into the whole costuming and characterization part of it all, but we had fun anyway! ;-) Eric turned out to be the murderer, which was a relief to me because I was the murderer at the last mystery that I performed in with the Historical Society! I would have begun to think I was being typecast! Here is a picture of the whole ecclectic group:

Our next weekend includes a trip to Deutche Tage, which is an annual event by the German American Institute in St. Paul. There is no doubt that we have some good German food and beer in our future! Joe, Jen and AJ are traveling back to Rochester with us after that and will be spending the night and all day Sunday with us, we are very excited! Benjamin can't wait to share his pool with AJ if the weather is nice!!

We made it through our whirlwind weekend! We flew down to Chicago early Friday morning and spent the day hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Andrews. Saturday morning was Stephanie's high school graduation from Fenwick and her party followed. After the party, we drove back to Minnesota with G&G A. and arrived at about 12:30pm. Mike got up Sunday morning and ran a 2 person relay in the Med City Marathon in 90 degree heat! G&G A. left Monday afternoon after a very long and exciting weekend. We had such a great time seeing family on Sunday! Benjamin even met his Great Uncle Steve from California for the first time!

G&G A bought him a blowup pool which we ALL used on the hot day we had on Sunday! Benjamin loved splashing around and playing with his beach ball. He is getting SIX new teeth in right now so as you can expect, he has some touchy moments. We are all looking forward to his big birthday bash in just ONE month!! Eeek!

A bunch of new pictures are online on Flickr...

We are enjoying the nice weather lately with swinging on Benjamin's swing and playing with the neighbors. Benjamin is quite fond of the swing but isn't too into the slide just yet when he goes on it by himself.

He is crawling everywhere and it is just a joy to see him explore new things! He loves to come find Mom and Dad when we are in the kitchen and laughs the whole way. About two weeks ago Benjamin advanced to eating table foods exclusively. Of course, he hasn't yet given up his beloved bottles, but he is using a sippy cup more and more everyday. He loves to feed himself and doesn't really like being fed at all. He eats so well at daycare, they have said that he is their best eater! This Monday he begins his transition to the Infant 2 room at daycare. He will now be in a room with babies that can crawl and most of them can walk. We're hoping he can pick up their good habits!

We had portraits taken on Saturday of this weekend. They turned out quite good, so here is a sneak preview. Proofs of all of the pictures are on our flickr site.

I intended to add our pictures from Easter onto flickr, but somehow only two pictures from Sunday got on here. Argh. I hope to have the Easter pics up very soon.

Benjamin is going to be 10 months on Thursday, which is really nuts. He's getting SO big and is crawling all over the place. He now knows to crawl from room to room, which he really enjoys. He laughs the whole way. It is so cute.

Mike babysat our friend, Lora's two daughters on Sunday while she and I went to rehearsal. He took the three kids to the park and took a couple of pictures, which are now on flickr. We are enjoying the nice weather as much as we can!!!

Benjamin visited the Easter Bunny this weekend, which turned out to be more eventful than expected. We drove up to the Cities to go to AJ's 1st birthday party. AJ had a bad cold which was made worse by his asthma, so Joe took him to urgent care. They ended up calling an ambulance to take him to Children's Hospital because his breathing wasn't improving. They diagnosed him with pneumonia at the hospital and he ended up staying two nights. He is doing much better now though. Poor little guy missed out on almost his whole party. He did get some awesome gifts though, which he can enjoy when he feels better.

We stayed in the cities so that we could visit AJ in the hospital and we heard about a Breakfast with the Easter Bunny while we were up there. We took Benjamin and he had a blast (as you can see in the photos). The rest of our photos from the weekend are on our flickr site.

We hope everyone has a great Easter Holiday!!

Everybody watch out...

Benjamin has begun to crawl. And he's coming to get YOU!

On Monday night, which just happens to be his 9 month birthday, he discovered how fun it is to stick your hand in the little door on the VCR in our living room. He beelined right for it. He had been close for a while, but we could never get him to move beyond a step (knee) or two. Guess the VCR was enough to do it. Now he is crawling to toys, to Mom and Dad, and to various other non-baby proofed things around the house. He isn't into long distances yet, so Daddy-the-marathoner needs to show him how to do the 26.2!

Speaking of Mike and running, we are headed down to Chicago this weekend because Mike is running the Shamrock Shuffle. It is a huge race, even though it is only an 8k. Hopefully the weather holds out so we can all go to see him run!

Our nephew, AJ, turns one in just over a week! It is truly unbelievable! And our good friends' daughter, Sidney, is going to be three soon! These kids grow up toooo fast!! Unreal.

I have some pictures of Benjamin from various miscellaneous days on the camera that I have yet to upload, so I hope to do that tonight. I will post them on flickr asap!

We had some spring weather this weekend on Saturday, it was over 50 degrees! So Benjamin went for a ride in his Radio Flyer wagon and he loved it! Whenever we would stop pulling him, he would rock in the wagon to get it to move again! What a hoot. Grandma and Grandpa Andrews came up to Rochester for a visit and to babysit Benjamin while Mommy and Daddy went out for a night. On Monday, a blizzard hit and we were left with 6-8 inches of snow and very cold temperatures...no more wagon riding for now! We are actually expecting another snow storm tonight and another 6-8 inches is possible. Argh.

Benjamin finally rolled over somewhere other than his crib this weekend. Grandpa even captured it on film! He also has recently begun to learn what it means when I say "Benjamin, No-No." It is so funny. He cries immediately when I say it to him. He doesn't, however, seem to mind when Daddy says it. Looks like I'm already the bad cop, haha.

I started my new job last week and am absolutely LOVING it! I am working on some facinating projects and really like my Monday and Friday off-days. I get to be home with the baby AND spend time working at something I like, which is the best.

Benjamin has officially mastered pulling himself up on things to stand. He was a determined little guy and tried and tried and finally got it down perfectly last night! He's getting so big! He is soo close to crawling too, he has been moving backwards for a long time, but now is rocking forward. He never sits still, he is always trying to be on the go. It won't be long before the gates and cabinet locks go up! We really can't wait!

He missed his first Oscars Party this weekend because he decided to sleep 12.5 hours and went to bed at 6:00pm before everyone arrived. The party was a success, even if he wasn't present. This year was our sixth party (minus the one we missed when we lived in England). They are so fun! Thanks to everyone who made it!!

We are back from Florida! We had a great time!! Benjamin got to spend some quality time with Great Grandma, Great Uncle Mark and Great Aunt Debbie. We took Benjamin to the beach for the first time and let him play with (and eat, haha) the sand. Grandma was able to show him off to all the ladies of her condo complex, Kalmia. He's certainly a lady killer with his curly hair and blue eyes. They all fell in love. We also took a trip to Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo with Uncle Mark and Aunt Debbie. Benjamin saw all sorts of fun animals, including a baby elephant that was born in October. Mike and I enjoyed countless tasty seafood meals, including a famous grouper sandwich on multiple occasions! The warm weather lifted our spirits, but it was hard to come back home and throw on our winter coats once again. Here is a picture of Benjamin and Great Grandma playing in the sand! :-)

We just got Benjamin's pictures taken at Sears this week. Here is one of them:

Benjamin is now rolling over. He's a bit behind on this milestone, but we'll forgive him! We found out that he was capable of this maneuver when we began finding him on his back after putting him to bed on his tummy. One morning I went in and turned him back onto his tummy and he flipped right over onto his back again! Hooray!

We are getting mentally ready for our much needed vacation later this month! The cold weather, stressful jobs, etc are making us look forward to sunny Florida!!

Mike, Andy, Benjamin and Bert went to Twins Fest this past weekend. Benjamin was able to meet lots of past and present Twins players and even had his picture taken with "TC" the mascot. Andy bought Ben a Twins kids book and had the famous Rod Carew sign a page in it. No doubt this will be a treasured item as Ben gets older!

I have some good news to share! I was offered a new job at Mayo. It is a part-time job as an Education Specialist in Women's Health. I will be working 2.5 days a week so I will be able to spend more time with Benjamin. I am not sure when the actual start date will be, but it will most likely be around March 1st. We are traveling to Florida to visit Benjamin's Great Grandma on February 22nd. It will be a wonderful vacation before I start on a new adventure! Thanks to everyone for their prayers and support as I waited to hear something about the job!!

I have posted new photos from our second Christmas (okay, Mom??) and from Benjamin's weekend with the ladies. Everyone is doing well here. We are glad to have Mike back from Vegas!!

It is Wednesday in my week of single mom-dom. Things have gone smoothly thus far and I don't think that Benjamin has even suffered toooo much! We both miss Daddy very much and can't wait for him to come home on Saturday! Mike seems to be having a good, but very busy time in Las Vegas where he is working at IBM's Software University.

I had class last night, so Grandma Schmitt got to spend lots of time with Benjamin! I think they both had fun!! Grandma Andrews, Aunt Mary, and Erin are coming on Friday because I have class all day on Saturday. We can't wait! Benjamin is going to need some time with some men soon, he's getting too much estrogen!! Haha.

Happy New Year everyone!

2006 is here and I can't believe it. 2005 was an interesting year. I know it was very good for some of you and some of you are really looking forward to leaving it behind. In any event, I hope 2006 brings wonderful things to all!

Grandma and Grandpa Andrews have come and gone and they left behind a huge pile of gifts for Benjamin!! His toy collection quadrupled in one day, haha. He is having so much fun playing with everything (and I must admit, so are we!). It was hard for all three of us to go back to the daily grind, but so far we have made it through the majority of the first week back unscathed. We are very much looking forward to the weekend though! Benjamin has his sixth month shots on Friday, which were delayed because he had a fever last week. I'm sure he is really looking forward to them! Haha. We finally figured out that we need to schedule his appointments late in the day so that he has less time to be cranky after shots. We are learning as we go, I guess.

Last month Benjamin had his picture taken by a photographer at daycare. We didn't expect much from the pictures, but they actually turned out quite good. We didn't buy any, but I scanned them at a very high quality so we could print them ourselves...sssshhh, don't tell! Here's a taste...