The Most Magical Place On Earth....Disney World!!!

We made the treck down to Florida in mid-July.  We got a little nervous the night before we were leaving because Benjamin had spiked a terrible fever and we had no idea what was going on.  He ended up with a little flu bug and woke up the morning of the flight perfect!  We were all relieved and we headed off to Orlando.  Luke won a trip for the family through work and we are all so grateful for this experience!  We took the kids to Disney World one of the days down there.  I had never been before, so it was just as exciting for me as it was for the kids.  Benjamin was absolutely mesmerized that these characters were "real"!  To see the look on his face was what the entire trip was about.  Samantha was intrigued, but had absolutely no idea what was going on.  We stayed on Universal Studios' property so we went over to the City Walk and saw lots of really cool stuff the other days we were down there.  Benjamin had a blast in the water fountains.  Overall the trip was incredible!  Mom and dad were a little exhausted, but it was all well worth it.  Here are a bunch of pics from the trip!

She is growing up so fast!

 

Brunch with the characters!

Celebrating mommy's birthday

Ice cream time!

Disney is exhausting!

Samantha is 1!

Samantha turned the big #1 on May 12th!  It is so hard to believe that our little girl is already 1 years old.  It honestly feels like we just brought her home from the hospital.  We have had such a great year with her and she continues to bring so much joy into our lives.  It does amaze me how different her and Benjamin's personalities are.  Samantha is incredibly persistent and she will make herself heard.  She does not take "no" for an answer from anybody.  She is not afraid of her brother and will battle back, which is hysterical.  She does not sleep as much as Benjamin did and we have just come to accept that each and everyday we will be up by 6:30ish.  She loves the outdoors and wants to try anything that her older brother does. 

She is a little smaller than her brother was at a year.  She was in the 75th percentile on weight, height, and head circumference.  Her brother was in the 95th at a year.  Her hair is finally coming and it is incredibly bleached from the sun this summer. 

Here are a few pictures from her 1st birthday party!  We were able to celebrate with family, which is such a blessing. 

1st Birthday Cake

Look at Aspen in the background!!!!

Someone loves her daddy!!!!

Love their little faces here!

The 2 year olds were ready for the cake!

Spring Happenings!

Well sorry for disappearing for well over a month!  It has been a very busy past few weeks around our house.  We traveled to Minneapolis to celebrate cousin Dolan's birthday, baby Everett's baptism, and Uncle Paul and Memo's birthdays.  It was a very fun weekend and we loved being able to see all of our family!  It had been quite a while since we got to see all of the Knoblauch side of the family.  When we got back from Minneapolis, Benjamin decided that it would be really "cool" to get up in the middle of the night and come into mom and dad's room.  We would get out of bed and put him back in there.  This lasted for about a week and a half and knock on wood, he has started sleeping through the night again! 

Then we went to Wichita for a wedding and Memo and Papa watched the kiddos so mom and dad could have a little break!  When we got back from Wichita, Samantha was a bit on the fussy side and we found out that the little lady was cutting her top 2 teeth.  We are happy to report that they are both through the gum and we have our happy girl back!!!  Hard to believe that she will be 1 in less than 2 weeks.  She is walking everywhere!  She no longer crawls anywhere, so our lives have changed just a bit.  Luke and I call her the little "dumpster diver" because she will honestly go through the trash and she will try to splash in the toilet.  It is quite disgusting, but nonetheless it is very entertaining.  We have now shut the bathroom doors to avoid any of this activity! 

Benjamin continues to become more animated and is becoming very aware of his surroundings.  He notices new noises that never used to bother him, like trains, police sirens, lawn mowers, etc.  He has started to ask so many questions and his memory amazes me.  Other than that he is having his typical 2 year old temper tantrums, but snaps out of them and returns to his happy self.

I have been really bad with pictures lately, but here are just a couple from my phone.  We will have a fun post in a couple of weeks with all of Samantha's birthday festivities.

Who needs toys when dad runs you around in a empty box :)

This pictures says everything!!!  Samantha honestly adores everything that Benjamin does and she is always looking up to him.  Then Aspen is always trying to get in the middle of it all!  I think we truly have 3 kids...not just 2!

Picture Day at school...her hair is actually coming in so we can use some little bows!!!!

Daddy and Benjamin walking the Trolley Run...it was such a perfect day and a great family outing!

School Pictures

Well just thought I would share these with you all!  Benjamin and Samantha had their pictures taken this week at school and they actually turned out pretty cute!  We are just staying busy and soooo ready for spring!  Hope you all have wonderful weeks.

First Steps!!!

Well I walked into Samantha's school room yesterday and they informed me that she had taken her first steps!  I was so excited to hear that she had done it and I wanted to see it for myself.  We got home last night and sure enough she took 3 to 4 steps at a time.  She has the funniest facial expression when she does it, basically a "I am really doing this look"!!  Luke and I figured that she would do this pretty soon because she is determined to keep up with her big brother and crawling can only get her there so fast.

Then this morning she tackled crawling up the stairs.  She has been trying to do this for a couple of weeks and she finally figured it out!  Again, she was pretty proud of herself :)

We are loving the fact that she is figuring all of this out, but it really keeps us on our toes!  We have to make sure that gates are up and the door to the basement is closed.  She is seriously such a curious little thing. 

We also love her little determined personality.  She is always trying to get what Benjamin has and she will climb on him to get it and generally does not like taking "no" for an answer.  It is pretty funny to watch the 2 of them; sometimes he will let her do it and other times he just wants to push her away. 

Here are some pictures from the past week off of my phone...

She has discovered her new friend!!

ALWAYS on the go

New best buds!!!  I love it!

Snow Day!

Sorry we have been out of commission for the past few weeks.  Work has been crazy busy, Luke has been in and out of town, and the kids continue to be on the move!  We have been trying to get outside as much as possible lately especially with the random days this winter that have been so nice. Yesterday we received a ton of snow and Benjamin helped daddy "shovel" the driveway. 

Samantha turned 9 months last week.  We went her for 9 month check up today and she is our petite little girl especially when you compare her to Benjamin.  She weighs 18 lbs and 14 ounces (60th percentile) and 27.5 inches tall (55th percentile).   She continues to be a crawling maniac and is walking behind a walker very independently.  In the last week she has started walking with us holding just one hand.  She is starting to stand on her own, so we are just waiting for that first step!  We love seeing her grow each day, but it is hard to believe how quickly it is going.

Benjamin has continued to improve his vocabulary and his independence.  He has his moments of helping Samantha and also loves taking anything and everything away from her.  She has started to get a little more fiesty with him and has found that she can scream when he takes things; sometimes this gets his attention and other times he just ignores it.  We have loved seeing his little personality continue to develop.  He still loves his cuddle time with either mom or dad and loves to curl up and read books so we take advantage of this time because the other moments include running around like a true boy! 

Here are some pictures of the past month!

The winter wonderland

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Loves his Chick-Fil-A lunches!

Mommy's grocery store helpers

Valentine's Day

Taking a ride in the diaper box

Ready to walk.....

Benjamin thinks that Aspen needs some headphones :)