Beach Baby!

Last week, we went to Gulf Shores, AL with my mom, stepdad, and grandma. We had such a great time! Ben really liked the pool and the ocean, but he didn't like the sand - all he wanted to do was eat it! It was a wonderful week, and Ben loved being in a new environment! Above is just a cute picture of him eating breakfast in the condo.

Chillin' on our beach chairs!

We went out for a nice dinner one night and to keep Ben occupied, he watched a Baby Einstein DVD after he ate. Not my proudest parenting moment, but you gotta do whatcha gotta do, right? ;)

Ben and Grandma at Sea n Suds, one of our favorite restaurants - we eat there every year!

What a proud daddy!

Hands down my favorite picture of the week! I love, love, love it!

Trying to figure out the whole sand thing...

Ben and GG at dinner

Ben and Mommy at the beach!

Such a sweet smile! This was before the sand made it to his mouth!

Stay tuned... I still need to upload pics from my mom's camera!

Wild Hair

Nice hair, Ben ;)

Weekend at the Lake

We spent 4th of July weekend at Eddie's dad's lake house in Michigan. It was so much fun to spend time with our family!

Ben loved playing with Aunt Stacey!

He also loved being able to touch the tv...

Ben and Uncle Chris had fun playing in the yard. Ben showed him how to work the See n Say!

Domino, anyone?

Two good lookin' boys!

If you look close, you can see 2 teeth on the bottom!

Look at Ben go!

He was a little unsure of the life jacket.

How cute is he???

Ben even helped Grandpa drive the boat!

Ben loves his Aunt Emily and Uncle Stephen!

("I'm on a boat... in my flippy floppies!") :)

Family photo!

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day, Eddie!

We visited Grandpa and Uncle Chris at the festival they were working. Ben liked "dancing" on the big counter!

Three Meiners Men!

My two favorite boys!

I couldn't ask for a better father for Ben - Eddie is an amazing man and such a good role!

These two are already best buddies!

9 Months Old!

Check out Ben's 9 month pictures, shot by Erin Dial (www.erindialphoto.com). She is the mom of one of my students at school, and she is amazing! We truly enjoyed working with her, and I can't say enough good things about Ben's pictures! To access them, go to:

www.erindialphoto.com

Click on blog (far right side)

Ben's should be the first ones there.

Enjoy!

The Little Things

I just love the little things about Ben that make him who he is... for example, he played with my Perrier bottle for a good 15 minutes the other day. Now, there were about 12 other toys on the floor next to him, but what did he gravitate toward - my bottle.

I'm thinking this is creative thinking on his part - or maybe just boredom?

A boy and his dog - Ben just LOVES Murphy! And I've got to give Murphy props, he is soooo good with Ben! He lets Ben pull his tail and grab his ears or fur and it doesn't bother him at all!

Look who's standing up!
This is his new favorite activity - standing. He pulls up on everything, which makes me very nervous... but he's having a grand ol' time!

And even though this one is a little dark and blurry, I just love the look on my peanut's face... and the fact that he's waving, which we've been working on!

Splash!

We took Ben swimming for the first time today! He really enjoyed it! He splashed and kicked and spent nearly an hour in the pool.

He wasn't a big fan of his float though - we think he's still a little small for it.

I sat on the side lines and was the official photographer of the day...

... it's almost like Ben's saying "seriously, Mom enough with the pictures already!"