Jefferson Paul Bennett

Born 23 August 2011 at 1:39 PM

Weight 8 Pounds

20 inches long

Perfect!

Our military family

William and I were very lucky in that we were able to take a gorgeous photo home from WWI . In the picture is my Aunt Millie's brother. Well, that beautiful picture got us thinking that it would be fun to also put up pictures of our family members who have served in our great military. These are just some of the pictures that we have been blessed to recieve. I need a copy of my Uncle Jeff in his navy uniform and Willliam's Uncle Mike then the wall will be complete! I think these pictures are so awesome so I thought I'd share them with you all.

This is my Grandfather and Grandmother on their wedding day.

a great picture of William

My mother's Brother Uncle Don

My mothers other brother Uncle Lee

William's Uncle Bill (Carol's brother)

William's other Uncle Jimmy ( Carol's brother)

A family member, Cletus Bower

A family member Rufus Bower

William's Uncle Doug and Aunt Gail on their wedding day. ( Carol's Brother)

James big birthday celebration!

On the 16th we had a huge birthday party for James. It was so much fun! We held it at the pavilion at the community center in housing. We grilled some hot dogs and hamburgers and played some fun games. After it was over we all headed to the community pool and cooled down. James had 15 of his friends come and play with him. Which to be the truth was a bit much, but he loved every second of it. What got me was that we had invited even more and only 15 showed up. I can't even think of what it would have been like if they all came! Total chaos! Anyways, here are pictures of the activities. I think a dot of water must have gotten on the lens of the camera cause after the water fight there is a smudge on the lens and the picture quality goes way down. Sorry.

James hugging his awesome pinata

James and Will with the pinata

The kids coloring their grab bag to fill with their pinata goodies.

The water balloon toss which came a water balloon fight.

Then we got to put our Spidey skills to the test by flinging webs at everyone! So much fun!

Then it came time to beat Spidey up!

James taking a turn.

Lil'Will swinging at him.

When he was broken it was goody time!!

Cake time!

James opening some of his presents.

James wearing his water mask and breathing apparatus!

James home party.

We celebrated James birthday on Saturday with a little family party and then the next weekend had his big party. On the 9th we played at the pool and went and saw a movie. We all had a great time being together. James was so excited it was his birthday. He told everyone that it was his birthday. We also did cake. He wanted a spiderman cake, which is way fun but a little hard for this mama to pull together. Thankfully we had lots of spiderman toys and pictures to draw inspiration from. Here are pictures of James gettting sung to and blowing out his candles.

Look at that big breath! So excited!

being super cool with the cake.

A sweet picture of my birthday boy!!

J.J. the spy

With the latest box of Juicy Juice came this disguise. Instead of being J.J. He is now the infamous spy Fin McMissile. So cute!

Some brotherly love

One of the things I love most about being a mom is watching my boys. Now they wrestle and give each other black eyes and are generally crazy boys, but at least once a day I see them like this. They are watcing cartoons first thing in the morning and they are cuddled up on the couch. Now sometimes I don't see morning cuddles but usually sometime during the day I get to see this.

I love that even though there is a huge part of the couch for the other one to sit they sit as close as is humanly possible to the other. It is the sweetest part of my day!

Summer Update

I realize its been a while since I posted something and we have a lot to update.

Lil'Will: Lil'Will successfully graduated from Kindergarten. He was so excited to graduate and can hardly wait to be a big first grader. To keep his skills sharp he reads up a book each day. He is doing really well. We have also been spending a lot of time at the pool and Lil'Will is my fish. His goal is to swim well enough that he can go down the slide by himself. So far he can swim half way across the width of the olympic sized pool by himself. He is doing great!!

James: James had an end of year party at preschool and was thrilled to have mom and dad there with him. At first he was shy and then he took off and we didn't see him again until it was time to go. He is thrilled that it is summer. We've been staying up later than usual and he crawls into bed with me after William leaves for work than sleeps until 9 or 10!! I love all the extra snuggle time I get with him, but it is bad since I am already a night owl. Sleeping in that late is not good for me. James is still in love with everything Lil'Will does and wants to be just like him. This in turn drives Lil'Will nuts. Yesterday I heard Lil'Will tell James, "I know I am awesome, but you can't be me!" We may need to work with Lil'Will on humility. James is still the ladies man. He recently told me that he would rather play with a friend who is a girl than go to Legoland!! We definitely have our work cut out with him.

William: Will has been chugging along at school. I had posted a while back that William would be done this weekend. Unfortunately, one of his classes wasn't available in May and didn't start until June. So he will finish school at the end of July. Just in time for the baby to come. I am still thrilled that he will only have one class for the month of July. It will be a nice transition for him being able to come home more. William also won another award. It was the Wetzel award, given by the Las Vegas Rotary club. Mr. Scotty Wetzel was a former Colonel in the air force. When he retired he joined the Rotary club and became and very important member. After he passed away the club formed the Wetzel award in his honor. It is given to Airman who show is spirit and giving attitude. With the award came an amazing package. William was given $150 to eat at Lowry's, The Prime Rib restaurant, they also had a rotary lunch there and he said it was wonderful, 2 tickets to see Legend in Concert, a tribute show, 2 tickets to see blue man group and $150 gift card for use at any of the station casinos. Basically they gave us a great night out and a room!! At work William has been working hard as the 98th Range Wing changed into the Nevada Test and Training Range. They had a change of command and all of the security badges and paperwork has had to be changed to the new name and colonel. At the same time two of his coworkers have had emergencies and left him in charge of the office. So needless to say it has been very busy for him between work and school.

Emily: I am thrilled to have a summer break. The baby likes to sleep in the morning and I enjoy the extra time to lounge in the morning. The boys and I have kept very busy going to the pool, getting the house ready for the baby and Dr. appointments. The pool has allowed me to get a tan and take some of the swelling out of my ankles. A win- win situation. I am fully nesting now. We have put together the baby's room. We bought and painted a dresser that is adorable. I have also gotten off my behind and finally hung all the pictures and decorations in the house. This is something that William is thrilled with since there are no more boxes taking room in our living room. We redid the boys bedroom and took down the bunk beds so they have two twin beds. We hung up curtains and put up pictures. I am thrilled since their room no longer looks like a college dorm room!! Lol! This baby takes a lot of appointments. I see my normal OB every two weeks now and I see the specialist twice a week. So every other week I am at the Dr.'s office three times!! As you can imagine it has been hard to find sitters for the boys for something that I do so regularly. The boys have been amazing while at the appointments. I now pack a bag with treats and toys and a dvd player. It seems to be working so far. Plus for the non-stress test they put us in a room with a lounge chair for me and a tv for the boys. They love it!! They even bring the boys snacks and juice. Its a great time for them!! I only wish the Dr.'s didn't work across town. By the time I drive through traffic (with construction) and wait in the waiting room with the boys my blood pressure is high. I now have to take my blood pressure here at home twice a day. I also asked to be put on insulin. I really didn't like how the glyburide was making me feel. I freaked myself out the first time I shot myself up with the insulin. Of course it didn't hurt at all and I am thrilled to have more control of my sugars.

I have finally found the battery charger to the camera so hopefully the next time I post I can put up some pictures! I hope you all are having as great of a summer as us!!