adventures of being thankful

we had a grand ole time for thanksgiving this year. aunt kristin & uncle oakley and family came to visit & auntie kate got lots of days off to play! we pretty much lived at nana roo & papa's house while the cousins were in town. ben picked up on all sorts of new things...both good & bad. :) he definitely talks a lot more, but he's also testing the limits too. he's growing up so much lately i can hardly stand it & yet at the same time be so amazed at what he does next. here are a few pictures of the weekend.

this is what auntie kate's are made for...playing with rowday kiddos!

ben was all smiles & couldn't sit still all weekend he was so excited to play with cousins.
at mac arthur playplace...the older 2 were in time-out & ben thought he'd join them. lol
this is what happened at my house...while the kids were being corralled at nana & papa's, the guys built a wall so the master bedroom can go upstairs. thanks uncle oakley for all your help!

adventures discovering Christmas decorations

we decorated our whole house for christmas this year! it's really the first year we've gotten to do the whole house since we've been married-sad. we're so glad we got to do it since ben really noticed things this year. we put up our tree, hung our stockings & garland, put up lights outside, and hung ornaments from the beams in our kitchen. we loves every part of it and loves even more to re-inspect it every morning.

we all love having the house decorated! it just gives you the warm fuzzies. we don't get to have many decorations up during the year because of our nosey toddler, but we can handle the busy hands for just a few weeks.

merry christmas!

welcome to our winter wonderland aka our kitchen


our wonderful christmas tree...with no topper & a gate around it. :) and so far only 2 broken ornaments.


our cute little house with it's white icicle lights.


ben the inspector

adventures taking pictures

ben loves the camera these days. if he finds it laying on a table, he'll pick it up, shove it to his nose & say cheese, then look for the picture. so then i usually get the hint & take an actual picture of him. these are what we've got in the "cheese" category for now.

i love this one!

adventures as a dinosaur

we went to a 5 year old's "Royal Princess" costume ball the weekend after halloween. mercy, the birthday girl was a princess, and everyone else wore their halloween costumes or a princess outfit. ben played his part by being the dinosaur. :) he was too cute for words & he didn't mind wearing the outfit at all. i think i may put him in it at home & let him run around, yes purely for my own entertainment, but it's too cute not to.

he discovered how cool bikes are. he wouldn't get off the pink princess bike. time for one without all the sparkles.

daddy & dinosaur ben-who was being uncooperative for picture taking

dinosaur ben & mommy

it's a bird! it's a plane! no, it's a paci monster! oh wait, it's just the dinosaur who stole some poor kids paci.

ben "roaring" as dinosaurs should.

after the costume came off, ben tried out his new trick...somersaults!

adventures as a Redskin

every sunday we have been going over to nana roo & papa's house to watch some football. since matt has decided he's a redskins fan & ben got a jersey for his birthday, he likes to wear it on sundays. (thanks grant!)

cheering on the skins! "go! go! goooo!"

proud of his Chris Cooley jersey.

riding Harry the dinosaur at the grocery store. he got lots of compliments on his jersey while sitting here.

adventures of the Ruckel Boys begins...

well folks, we found out this morning that Ben is getting a BROTHER!! yep, that's me & a house full of boys! we are definitely excited...still letting it sink in that my house is about to get crazier! now that we know, the imaginations are rolling! we still don't have a name, but we're working on that. thanks for all your votes...guess most of us were wrong :) love you all! we'll post some new pictures soon!