Playing Catch Up

Okay, so I'm totally impressed with mommies who blog once a week. That's amazing!  Let's be honest, I'm amazed at the mommies that blog once a month! That they can find a spare minute and some left over brain power to piece together coherent sentences is nothing short of a miracle.  At my current rate, you'll be reading a new post once a year.  I'm going to try my hardest to change that, but as I type this, I've got a 3 and a half year old hanging on my back making noises in my ear and asking for ice cream. Oh, boy. Here are some high lights from the last year ...

In May, James and I found out we would be expecting a baby in January.  We were very excited and so thankful for God's faithfulness and perfect timing to grow our family.  This is how we told our families ... Extra, extra read all about it!

We conquered potty training!  We decided to have a potty training boot camp weekend in August complete with salty snacks and lots of liquids to make sure he had a lot of opportunities to practice.  The goal was to skip the Pull Ups all together and go straight to big boy underwear.  I had to order special training pants and underwear online, because Benny needed pairs that were 18 months size.  Apparently, not many people potty train their 18 month olds, because they were a little tricky to find.  With the exception of a two day regression at the beginning and about a two month period where we were washing poop out of underwear everyday, Bennett did really well. 

James and I had the opportunity to visit Montreal and Quebec City in September before a conference James was attending in New York.  We had a wonderful time exploring the city of Montreal and taking lots of transit pictures.  I mean, A LOT!  I joked with James that people would wonder if there actually any people on the trip because most of the pictures were of traffic signals and bike lanes.  From Montreal, we rented a car and traveled to Quebec City for a few days.  We stayed in a wonderful little Bed and Breakfast on an island just outside of the city.  Quebec City was so quaint ... very European with cobblestone streets and cute shops.  We enjoyed eating crepes, Indian food, Montreal BBQ,  and bagels from a famous bagel shop.
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Erin, James' sister, threw us a beautiful gender reveal party at Dresser Mansion since James was out of town for the big ultrasound.  It was so much fun to find out all together that a little brother was coming in January!

We had fun at the Tulsa State Fair this fall.  Bennett visited the animals and was able to see some newborn piglets.  We ate some yummy fair food and Bennett rode on a few rides for the first time!

One of our favorite family traditions is going to Beaver's Bend with the whole Wagner family every October.  We all had so much fun sporting our annual shirts and remembering Brian and Lindsay's brush with the law the year before.  They got busted for swimming in the low water dam, hence the Low Water Dam Swim Team shirts.  Many memories we made canoeing, hiking, and sitting around the campfire!

Bennett transitioned to a big boy bed this fall to get ready for baby brother who he affectionately called Bobby DooDoo.

Grrrrrrr!  Bennett was a tiger for Halloween.  We had fun trick-or-treating around the neighborhood and hosting our families for chili.

We hosted the Wagner Family Thanksgiving this year on our new dining room table.  It was a full house and we wouldn't have had it any other way.  Look at our beautiful grilled turkey!  James grilled it on our Webber charcoal grill and it was delicious!

Bennett turned 3!  He requested a "Mean Guys" party.  The "mean guys" are the lemon car villains from Disney's Cars 2 movie.  I couldn't find much "mean guy" décor, so we just went with the Cars theme.  We had a small family party and then a special play date with snacks and cupcakes for Benny's friends.

 

Stay tuned for the rest of 2012 and the beginning of the new year!