St Patricks Day

It is a constant battle in my house...Irish vs Italian. I think that the Irish know how to party and the Italians know how to cook. So I think we have the best of both worlds in our house! But that the Irish have a better holiday to celebrate while V thinks St Josephs Table is better. I think he just doesn't want to admit that St Patricks Day is AWESOME! It has been 3 or 4 years since we were in KC to celebrate it so I was so excited for this year! We also got to be in the parade this year with the Harris family! Angela & Paige came up from Garnett and Carrie & Taylor from OKC! It was so much fun! Ben fell asleep right before the start of the parade and about halfway through we woke him up so he wouldn't miss his first parade! And I am so glad we did-he had a ball! Waving and Clapping! Waving and waving and waving with a huge smile on his face!

Marco Island 2012

                                               Our view for 7 days!


March 3-10 was our annual family trip to Florida and this year was our second year going back to Marco Island! This year we decided to rent a condo instead of getting a hotel room. And boy did we make the right decision! It was great having 2 separate bedrooms and a kitchen but I will admit we missed the pool bar a bit. I was having anxiety about the 2 legged flight we had to take. Unfortunately there is not a direct flight from KC to Ft Meyers so we had to stop in Houston and change planes. All I can say is that I hope to never fly with a 16 month old again! We landed in Florida about 2:30pm and got our bags, rental car and hit the road for our 45 minute drive to Marco. We stopped off for the necessity's for the night and then went straight to the condo. Ben went to bed early since he hadn't really slept much that day. We ordered pizza and poured our first vaca cocktails! It was perfect and the only night we actually managed to see the sunset. The trip pretty much consisted of getting up, making breakfast, walk on the beach, morning nap for Ben, lunch, beach, afternoon nap, dinner, bed for Ben and a nightcap for V & I. We did take Ben to the zoo in Naples one morning but other than that it was beach beach beach! It was perfect! I must admit I was very surprised at how much Ben loved the beach and the ocean. The kid literally ran through the sand and straight into the ocean-NO FEAR! He's going to take year off my life! It was a great trip with mostly great weather! The memories made are priceless! I can't wait for next year when we bring my parents and brothers and soon to be sister-in-law with us!

                                                                              Fearless!

16 Months

It just amazes me time and time again at how much Ben learns everyday. This walking, talking, running 16 month old is a little sponge. I must say the greatest accomplishment this month is his vocabulary. He is a talking and signing machine. Just in the past few weeks he has learned more words than I think I can count. My favorites as of late are...eat eat (not sure why but he always says it twice), cool, car, fishy, crazy, mommy, go, please, shoes and night night. He repeats us constantly which is pretty funny! But makes us realize we have to be careful about what we say since his little ears seem to be everywhere!  He can run now and just keeps getting faster. He has very strong opinions about his stroller now and would prefer to walk not ride. He still loves his fruit and hates milk. I think he is working on a new tooth or two-he has been super drooley the past few days. He is learning his body parts-his favorite to show you are his hair, eyes, nose and mouth. He is quite the little funny man too. He lifts up his shirt and pokes his belly button and says beep beep! He also like to try to lift up my shirt and do the same at the most inappropriate times! He loves "talking on the phone"! He will grab a phone or remote hold it up to his ear, start talking and the walk around still gabbing away. Again how Ben mimics us is so cute, funny and scary!