Goodbye to a dear friend

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delays in posts....we've been really busy around here camping and stuff--living the hectic summer life. Benjamin is doing great. He now says Daddy, Stella (or at least a VERY clear version of it) and just yesterday he said "titty" about my mom's cats. We'll need to work on that one...but at least he's not calling everything with four legs Stella anymore :)

Thanks to everyone who sent presents or money for his 1st birthday. It is very much appreciated...he's been playing with everything he got and I'll be using the money to get his one-year portraits done and get prints printed from the past 12 months for his scrapbook. So thanks everyone very much!!! :)

Now on to the bad news. Andrew and I had to make the very tough decision to find Dex, our 5 year old puppy, a new home. Yesterday we brought him to the Dumb Friends League, a local animal shelter. It was really sad and we missed him before he was even gone. He had started to growl sometimes at Benjamin and usually nervously paced around him in circles, so we were attempting to prevent a possibly harmful situation for our little boy. Unfortunately, all yesterday and while we were at the shelter he was his usual angel self, wagging his tail and offering us much love....that only made it harder. We miss him very much and it will be a very sad couple of days for us. The shelter felt confident that they would be able to find him a good home without any children. I hope so. He'll be a wonderful dog for the right owner.

Thank you all for your support during this time. I appreciate anyone who emailed and tried to find him a good home. Thank you very much for that. You are good friends.

I hope everyone is doing well. I'll try and write again soon, but we have overlapping family visits next week that will keep us busy for sure. We are taking Ben and Grammy camping over the weekend, so I hope we'll have some good pics from that to post.

My First Birthday party!!

Well, Benjamin doesn't officially turn 1 until 1:19pm on Tuesday July 17, but we celebrated with friends and family on Saturday July 14. We had 9 little kids and 12 adults come over and we had a baby pool, cake, and lots of fun! Benjamin loved having all of his friends over, although he didn't take a nap all day, so he left the party after his cake.....went for a bath to get cleaned up, and never came back to the party! :) He went to bed at 6:30pm and slept until 6:30 this morning....boy, he was tired out from being the man of the party!


Enjoy the pictures from the party!

1 week to go!

I can't believe my little boy will be celebrating his 1 year birthday in a week!! It is crazy! Not much is new around here....Ben's 2nd tooth has come in and he ate his first hot dog on July 4th. He doesn't look big, but he is definitely growing....and eating like a college football player! Of course, with the amount of calories he expends in a day, which is more than I can bear to count, he burns that food up right away! I'm glad he's so healthy, although his energy levels can be a bit exhausting! :)

We are celebrating his birthday with a small get-together next Sunday, July 15. I got an idea from a friend to put together a time capsule that represents this time in his life and the year in which he was born. The time capsule will be given to him on his 18th birthday. What a fun idea, huh? If you have anything you'd like to contribute to the time capsule, please feel free to send it to us! 3372 Prairie Vista Drive, Castle Rock, CO 80109

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the summer. I know we are!!

Jillian

HALLELUJAH!!!

The baby gate that this baby has climbed up (and almost over) since day one of learning how to pull to standing!

Who's my cutey?
Bedtime story with Daddy. Benjamin is finally starting to really like books. Our favorite is "The Flea's Sneeze"
Napping....rump up!

Little bruiser. The mark above the right eye of this pitiful face is the cut Benjamin got while pulling up on the dinner table chair. He fell backward, and the chair fell right with him...well, on top of him. I wish I could say he hasn't tried it again. Silly boy....

Playing in my changing table...what fun!
Mommy, look at the beautiful leaves!
Sleeping in the tent..in my favorite spot...cuddled between mom and dad (who didn't sleep a wink the entire night for fear of rolling on him) :) What an angel!
Mom, I can reach it, I can reach it!
My favorite new toy....yellow flashlight. Daddy hangs it from the middle of the tent ceiling and I just gaze at it...or try and get it!

Thank goodness, my pictures are working again!!!! YEAH!! I know you all are as excited as I am!

So, here are some pictures to recap the past few weeks. I can't believe this little boy turns 1 in 2 weeks!!! How crazy! The time truly flies!

We went camping this weekend near Vail, Colorado. It was such a great trip. The weather was beautiful and we went to an awesome trail and camped along the river. Benjamin had a great time in the tent, and slept really well. A short recap of the trip: well, we brought the camera AND the battery charger this time, however we left the memory card in the computer at home....so no pictures. Also, we (I) packed the bag with Ben's clothes, my clothes, toiletries, and Ben's diapers.....we (I) also left this bag at home by accident. Soooo, we stuck him in his Bear snow suit that was packed separately for sleeping and we had 2 diapers that I had stuck in another bag for "just in case." Boy, I didn't know "just in case" would really happen. :) We all made it just fine...had plenty of food, warmth, and love to get us through the night! I so wish we had the camera because our little bear was absolutely ADORABLE...which I'm sure you can imagine :)

Enjoy the pictures! Sorry it's taken so long....