Wordless Wednesday- The Shirt Says It All!

This May Be Easier Than I Thought...

Well, I finally got to try the Honey Bear cup with Bennett (the straw has gone missing with the first one I ordered weeks ago, hmm wonder who could have lost that straw?? Perhaps a certain 2 year old that lives in our house??) Anyways, I'm one of those moms that is adamant about having my kids off the bottle at age 1. And I mean to the day- the day after the girl's first birthday they were drinking from sippys. I don't know why I feel that way and I'm not saying it's bad if your child continues to take a bottle after age one, that's just me.

Now, I'm willing to bend my rule a tad for Mr. Bennett but he's already down to 3 bottles and I think I'm going to try to give the honey bear cup with his lunch so then he'll be down to just 2- morning and night. Over half of his bottle was in this cup and he did really good for his first time. This cup really is very easy for babies to pick up. I don't think my girls could drink from a straw at this age. Take a look!

A New Easter Tradition!

I recently got this recipe from another mom (who happens to have eight kids and is the most organized, crafty, on top of things mom I know-honestly, I don't know how she does it) and it's a definite keeper!! I had to share! These are perfect to make with your kids and then devour over Easter break. I'm telling you, if you like chocolate, peanut butter or coconut you will fall in love with these...

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Eggs

(they taste like they're right out of the candy store!):

1 (16 oz) package confectioner sugar

1 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

5 tablespoons butter-softened

5 tablespoon milk

24 oz package of almond bark

In mixing bowl combine peanut butter and butter. Add conf. sugar and milk (as needed) until blended. Mixture is slightly dry, but should hold together nicely when you form eggs (I had to put mine in the fridge for a bit to get it a little firmer. Freeze eggs for 1 hour.

So while the peanut butter was in the fridge

the girls decided to turn the music up and dance!

Okay, back to business-

While formed eggs are freezing melt the almond bark by preferred method on package. Stick a fork or skewer into the top of the egg and dip it in the melted choc to cover. Set on wax paper to cool. Decorate with sprinkles before chocolate dries.

YUM!

Enjoy!-My girls did:)

Here is the recipe (just as easy) for the chocolate covered coconut eggs- these are my favorite and I'm not a huge coconut fan!! Yes, I will have to add some time to my runs this week after eating all of these but they are totally worth it-LOL!

Chocolate covered coconut eggs:

1 (15oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups confectioner sugar
12 oz sweetened flake coconut
1 package almond bark

In mixing bowl combine cond. milk, butter and sugar until blended. Add coconut until blended. Cover with wax paper and chill for 24 hours or 1 hour in freezer, stirring after 30 min. Roll into egg shapes and keep cold.

Melt the almond bark according to package. Microwave works well. (We did in in a crock pot and then we dipped the eggs in there- very easy-) Dip eggs into chocolate using a fork or skewer. Drop onto wax paper to cool. Decorate with sprinkles, almonds, etc before chocolate dries.

It's Hard Work But He's Making Progress!

Bennett has been working hard in PT and he can now stay up on his hands and knees for a good amount of time! For most babies his age this comes naturally and probably quite easily but for a baby that has lower tone-it's hard work! I'm a realist and I'm not going to sit here and deny the fact that Bennett has lower tone because he does. I have no idea if it's low for a baby with Down syndrome but I know it's lower than a baby that doesn't have Down syndrome. And really I'm okay with that. If Bennett is crawling by 15 months I'll be thrilled!

I've come to the point where I know I am doing pretty much everything I can right now to help Bennett but in the end, Bennett is his own person and is going to do things when he's ready. There's a lot of uncertainty with Bennett but then again, isn't there with every child? Mike and I were talking briefly about school and I said "you know, it's going to be tough when he starts school and the whole kindergarten thing?" And Mike said, "so he won't be on the typical path, that's okay." And you know what? He's absolutely right. I'm so glad I have a husband like Mike to level me out and keep me from basically getting hysterical over something...well and maybe everything-LOL. Me, get hysterical, NO WAY!:) My family is chuckling at that sentence!

Every once in while, not often though, I find myself thinking what would Bennett be like and what would he be doing if he didn't have Down syndrome? But then I have to remind myself, there was never a Bennett of mine that didn't have Down syndrome. He's always had it (since conception matter of fact) so he wouldn't be my Bennett if he didn't have that extra chromosome.

Needless to say, my son will have to work hard at everything he does but there is nothing wrong with a hard worker. Mike and I come from families of hard workers and I think we both have lived under the philosophy of "No Pain, No Gain". After all, we both tortured ourselves with long hours in the pool during swim practice for many, many years and I think that carried into our every day lives. Bennett will be no different when it comes to work ethic.

So he may have to take a thumb break every now and then (that's another post for another day)...

But he'll get where he needs to be, with a lot of hard work and a lot of cheering from his mom and dad. Oh and by the way, Bennett is now 10 months as of March 22nd!

For My Dad...Will You Pray For Him?

My dad was recently diagnosed with melanoma on his scalp. He goes to the dermatologist every six months due to the history in our family- my grandfather (his father) died from melanoma and my aunt (my dad's sister) is fighting it now. Needless to say, it's in the genes.

He was getting his hair cut and this mole was nicked and wouldn't heal. So he went to the dermatologist right away and they removed most of it and the doctor didn't even think it was anything but sent it off to get it checked just in case and sure enough it came back as a melanoma.

He is going in today for a consult with a surgeon (we are thankful he was able to get in so soon) to talk about removing it and where to go from here. We are hoping and praying that it was caught early and has not spread anywhere else. My family knows this is in God's hands and is out of our control but will you please pray with us that this is just a "bump in the road" and that they are able to remove it entirely and that is has not spread anywhere?

My dad is a strong man and also the nicest guy, honest, if you met him you'd love him!:) I know he would greatly appreciate your prayers and so would we.

"For where two or more are gathered in My Name,

I am there in the midst of them."-Matthew 18:20

We love you soooo much dad and we're praying for you every day!!!!

3-21-You Must Read This Comment!

Today is the 21st day of the third month and it's also World Down Syndrome day! In individuals with Down syndrome there are 3 copies of the 21st chromosome- pretty clever, huh? So in honor of our little boy I wanted to share with you a comment I got on my blog about 2 days before Bennett blessed our lives. It's a comment I will never forget and it was in response to my post about the "What Ifs". At that time I had so many questions and worries before he was born.

Jessica said:

What if you fall madly deeply hopelessly in love with your new baby?

What if he is the most amazing human being you will ever know?

What if he makes you a better person?

What if he makes your other children grow to be better people than they would have been without him in their lives?

What if you fall in love with your husband all over again for the way he fathers Bennett?

These are the things that make me say "if I knew then what I know now". I look back on my worries while I was pregnant and wish I hadn't put so much energy into them.

Wow, she was so right.

When I'm Feeling Down...

...or when things happen that I wish wouldn't...

this little guy has a way of simply making me smile.

We went to the park yesterday and I recently received some bad news. I tried not to dwell on it and put Bennett in a swing for the very first time. This is what I got...

the biggest smiles,

happy faces,

kicking legs,

and best of all, laughter,

laughter

and more laughter. Exactly what I needed.

He is LOVE.

A Little Irish Love...

To Answer Your Questions...

To answer some of your questions on how I added some of the things I added to somewhat protect my pics:

Lisa was the one I got most of my info. for so check out her post as well!

• The thing that I did to enable left click was just to simply move my pictures around in my post after uploading- I rarely upload them into the correct order so I'm always moving them up or down. If you don't move them though, you can left click on them. I do this now because I just don't want to have to add the code that Lisa talks about in her post, for each of my pics. I figure if this works, I'm sticking with it.
• Now for right click- you can either do what Lisa says and do it for each picture in your post, which still allows people to right click on links on your blog or you can do what I did and add it to your main html code. The down side to this is that for example: If you are on my blog and want to click on a Blogher link in another window or if you clicked on the link for Lisa- you can't right click on it-the warning comes up so you have to double click on it and then click back to get back to my blog. I don't know, that's what I've always done so it doesn't bother me but I guess it can be annoying to some. Again, I just don't want to have to add this code to each picture. I've got two blogs, an etsy shop and sewing to keep up with so I can't be adding all these codes every time I do a post. But that's just me. Here's the code the way it looks in my html: scroll down until you see head followed by body -it's almost all the way at the bottom-

What's in red is how it looks in my code only I have OurUnexpectedJourney-you can just copy the red and add whatever you want after the copyright symbol.

To get the copyright symbol- for MAC it's option and then g. Not sure what it is for PC's but I'm sure you can google it.

So it's up to you, you can add these codes (left and right click) to each picture for every post

or

you can shift pics around, up and down while posting to prevent left click and add the right click to your main html- however, remember that you're preventing people from being able to right click on links (they can still go to the link-they just have to click the back button to get back to your blog)

But when it's all said and done, unfortunately people can still take a screen shot of your pic but if you have a watermark near the main subject this will be harder for them to photoshop or crop it out.

People can also drag your photos onto their desktop but again, with the watermark there, I feel a little bit better. I did my watermark in photoshop.

Hope this helps and is not too confusing. Lisa and Bethany both have great tips and suggestions.

Will You Do Me A Favor??

Just working on some things to protect my pictures (as much as I can, anyway). When you right click on my pictures you should get an alert message- saying the pic has a copyright and I added a watermark to my pics as well. What I'm wanting you to do is try to left click on the pic-there is a code you have to add to prevent people from being able to do this but I've found that if I move my pictures while writing my post and rearrange them how I want, once they are moved you cannot left click on them. So much easier than adding all the code to each pic. But it only works when the picture was moved. If I upload it and didn't mess with it, then it's left clickable (not sure if that's a word:)). Let me know if it works when you click on my pics, please because it may only be because I have a MAC so I want to know if it works across the board! Try it for yours and see if it works! *Edited*- in previous posts, if I didn't move the pics, you will be able to left click on them but I just don't have the time to go back and move them all!;)

Straws and Biscuits and Throw Up, OH MY!

Bennett's been working on some new things...

Like the Bitter Biscuit. Hmm, not too sure about this thing...

Yumm, I kinda like this.

Now, what is this mom?!

Hmm, different but not bad. (Yes, still waiting on the honey bear cup but this works great too and it's cheap!) I can squeeze up the liquid for him to get a taste just like the HBC!

After a while though this is the face I got, I think he was telling me he's had enough of that.

Bennett's also been working on a his first tooth! Can you see it?! (Please ignore the bitter biscuit that is smeared all over!) I think I may have written that I thought his first tooth was coming in on the top, back when he was 8 months because of a little white dot I saw, well that white dot is still there. Not sure what that is but this is definitely a tooth!

And with teeth comes slobber!

This is his "I'm all done with the picture taking mom" face.

***Okay, after I posted all these pics, later in the evening we went to swim lessons for Ainsley and in all 9 months of Bennett's life I think he's maybe thrown up once. Wouldn't you know he threw up all over himself, me and the pool deck, twice!****

And do you think I had any extra clothes for him, of course not because he never does that! I don't know if he's ever pooped up his diaper before-this kid is just low maintenance. So he just sat on my lap in his diaper and the second time he barfed it just went on me and the pool deck. Nice.

So do you think it was the juice (very diluted but it was the first time he had it-only sips though) or the bitter biscuit-which he only nibbled on? He slept for 2 hours before the whole barfing ordeal and seemed fine and he seems okay today. I tried to offer him his bottle at the pool but he pushed it away and then 10 minutes later that's when he started to throw up. It was a sight to see, let me tell ya.

Anyways, has anyone else had this kind of reaction with juice or do you think it's just a stomach bug??

A Golfer, A Football Player and a Sweetheart!

The weather has been so nice and we've been taking advantage of it and pulling pretty much every toy we can out of the garage!

Ainsley decided it was time to bring out the old clubs once again...

She's got all the gear...the clubs, the pink glove and of course....

...pink golf balls! Her daddy is responsible for all of these purchases!

Yes, I thought this picture deserved to be all by itself. Her Daddy and Grandpa would be so proud of her perfect form!;)

It was time to take the sweater off and get down to business. She's a natural, don't ya think?:)

Harper wasn't so interested in actually hitting the balls, she wanted to take the clubs and run just to get Ainsley all in a fuss. She's mastered the skill of getting Ainsley all in a fuss. She's also good a pushing Bennett all around.

After watching Ainsley swing at the balls a million times and taking off with her clubs, she decided it was time to play some football! She's gotta pretty good throw!

And this one, well he's just really good at being extra sweet and an absolute mama's boy!

Like I've said before, I could eat him up!