Smiles and Belly Time

Benjamin's smiles are my favorite! And his favorite time to smile is laying under his jungle gym thing with his worm hanging down...his worm makes him smile the most!

Benjamin has become a bigger fan of belly time if the worm can be in front of him.

Getting settled...

Well, after the crazy month we've had, we are finally getting settled. We moved out of Bryan's parents house and moved into my sister Christine's basement. We have a full apartment down there, but we basically just sleep there and hang out all the time upstairs with her and her girls. It's been so fun to have a sister to hang out with and play with Benjamin...he has quickly decided she is one of his favorite people in all the land and loves her more than me...unless he's hungry!

Bryan went to Texas last weekend as a National Achiever for Chase Bank. He had a great weekend and loved every second of the conference! It's pretty impressive to make it to this conference your first full year with the company...he's pretty impressive!

Benjamin and I are heading to Medford, OR next week to visit my Great Aunt Dottie...Benjamin's Great-Great Aunt Dottie...and we are so excited! I haven't seen her since my wedding and I'm excited to see her! My parents are also going out, so that will be fun too. Bryan's going to stay here and work...so weird, we've never spent a night apart since we got married and we'll have had two trips just this month where we haven't been with eachother...just a little weird for me.

So that's it. Life is pretty great and we're pretty happy. The new year has started out pretty great!

2 Months

Itty-Bitty (aka Benjamin) turned 2 months old yesterday. Seriously!?!?! How did my Itty-Bitty go from this......to this????....

I will say it's been amazing to watch him grow and develop. I don't know if this is a first time mom thing to say, so don't mock, but Itty-Bitty doesn't seem like a normal baby. He's been holding up his head almost since birth, even rolling over and just acts way older than he should be. It actually makes me really sad. I'm so not ready for him to be out of the newborn stage. The holidays were so much fun with him...it's hard to remember what life was like without him. Bryan and I were so happy with our life before him...but our happiness has reached new levels with Benjamin. Our idea of a good time in now watching our Itty-Bitty and catching his smiles and laughs. I just love this kid!!!

Benjamin's First Nuggest Game

Bryan's parents snagged 4 box seat tickets to the Nuggest game last night...and Benjamin was very excited to sport his Nuggets outfit. It was an intense game and so much fun!

Benjamin getting ready for the game.

The boys all wearing their Nuggets stuff

Our family in the box seats.

Benjamin cheering for the Nuggets

Daddy and son in their favorite past time--watching the Nuggets. We do this a lot at home too!

And the last 3 minutes of the game, Benjamin decided he was done. I couldn't believe he slept through the ending...it was so intense! We were down 1 point the last 3 seconds and then they fowled us as we shot a 3 pointer and then we went to the free throw and made the first 2 of 3 shots and won the game by one point! Amazing game!!!

New Years Eve

For New Year's Eve, we went to the Longview, TX Family Dance. It's something we grew up doing and it was fun to have all the grandkids dance and play. Here's just a few random pics from the night.

Texas was a blast! It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, but we made some amazing memories, laughed till it hurt, and ate more than our hearts could desire! It was a great way to end 2009 and start 2010!!

Benjamin's Baby Blessing

Since my whole family was going to be together, we decided we would do Benjamin's baby blessing in Texas during the reunion. So on Monday night, once the last person arrived, we had Benjamin's blessing in my sister's living room. Our whole family (all the siblings) hadn't been together for a baby blessing since two of the grandkids where blessed the same day 17 years ago! Bryan was just a bit nervous to do his first blessing, but it was incredible and so sweet. Here's a picture of all my siblings and my parents.

Dad, Cathy, Joanna, John, Elizabeth, Michael

Christine, Carolyn, Benjamin, Maggie, Mom, Melanie

The guys that stood in the circle with Bryan

John, Dad, Bryan, Peter, Ray

Benjamin getting dressed for the blessing

Dad and son

My sister, Christine, made his blessing outfit out of the same material she made my wedding dress from. I just love it!!

Christine also did a mini photo shoot of Benjamin and us before the blessing.

Our family

Mommy and son

Woodman Reunion 2009

My brother, Michael, got home from Afghanistan a few months ago and wanted to get together with the whole family...so we had a Woodman "Great Goat" reunion from Christmas to New Years in East Texas (Gilmer to be exact!) And it was amazing! It's the first reunion Bryan has been too (it was his first time to meet Michael) and I was thankful for the chance for everyone to meet Benjamin! This is the group shot with everyone there. The white shirts are the original Woodman family and the black shirts are the in-laws and off spring! Not to shabby for a boy and girl from Cali!!

These are all my siblings in order from oldest to youngest.

Just the girls with the Mommason.

Our family pic.