First Video

(the oneise says "Shawn and Bekah Rock My World")

I've never posted a video on here before so I hope it works.

Here's Benson. He's such a talker, it's so fun!





Updates on pre-Christmas visitors and Christmas will be coming soon!

Early Christmas Present

I love being married to Anthony!! We celebrated 3 years this month! It's been a wonderful 3 years that keep getting better and better. One of the things I love about him is that he has the hardest time keeping gifts or surprises from me. Last night after we had been skyping with my family I was telling him that it was really hard to be away from family this time of year and that I just wanted everyone in Utah to meet our little Benson. He then turned to me and asked if he could give me an early Christmas present and made me promise not to say no. I said yes he could. He went on to tell me that he's sending me (and Benson) to Utah for TWO weeks in January!!!! Holy Cow!! That's a really long time but I'm so excited! I'm excited to see family, friends and to be cold! (It's 80 degrees today, 4 days before Christmas) I come on the 10th and stay until the 24th!!! I am a little nervous about traveling with a baby but others have survived so I'm sure I will too.

So THANK YOU ANTHONY!! You are the best husband ever!!!

Fun Pictures

This "little" guy is weighing in at 14.6 lbs and measuring 23 3/4 inches. At his last apt he measured 24.5 inches, obviously they did it wrong last time b/c he's definitely not shrinking! Here's a few pictures...

Huge explosion after I had already cleaned out diaper

Cutest dimples ever!!!

Tummy Time

Shows his cute curly hair and that he's a cutie!!

2 Months

Benson is two months today!!! We can't believe he's already that old, time flies! He's such a fun baby!

-He has the biggest smiles and coo's/talks to us.
-He loves watching our tongues move.
-He's eating every 3-4 hours, 4-6 oz.
-He has a blowout every day to day and a half.
-He slept once for 6 hours and since only about 4.
-I think he weighs about 15 lbs and is 25 inches long (we'll find out tomorrow if I'm correct, at the Dr. apt).
-His newest trick is to eat only two oz and then refuse more. When I try to coax him to eat more he just smiles and smiles, it's pretty funny!

We can't imagine life without him! I love every day I get to take care of him! We feel very blessed to have this little guy in our family!













1 Week 2 Weeks













3 Weeks 4 Weeks













5 Weeks 6 Weeks













7 Weeks 8 Weeks

Christmas Traditions

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is making graham cracker houses! We had a few friends over and it was a fun night! Our houses took on a college theme. A couple families left early so I don't have pictures of their houses, but you get the idea. I think I could do this more than once a year!

Christmas Miracle

Benson slept 6 hrs in a row last night!!! It was incredible! The most he's ever slept at once was 2.5, maybe 3 hours. He's done that a couple times. He's been eating every 3 hours religiously since birth but last night he ate at 10:30, went to sleep at 11 pm and didn't wake up until 5 am!!! We've been taking turns getting up with him, I take the week days and Anthony takes the weekends. And usually the one up with him sleeps on the couch because he only likes to sleep in his bouncer and is up and down all night. We really hope this isn't a fluke and that it'll continue forever :)

Christmas Beginnings

I love Christmas!!! We've begun setting up our house for it. It's fun! Benson loves it, especially the lights on the tree. I wish we had snow but instead just 80 degree weather. I just finished our christmas pj's for this year, I love that tradition, I love all the traditions!!













We also had our ward Christmas party so I got to take a picture of Benson on Santa's lap. It was a really fun party; I love our ward!

Thanksgiving and U Game

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving here in hot land! (It was around 8o degrees.) We got together with some families here in town and had fun relaxing and eating good food, thanks Warner's!! It was fun having Benson with us, boy having a baby changes your life :) Benson got to help Anthony make the turkey favors and it was nice to just be home with our family.


For Black Friday I let the boys sleep in and I went to JoAnn's. (Flannel for $1.29/yd!!) Then Anth, Bens and I went to a few other stores after the mad rush. I'm just going to say that it's fun to shop for kids, I know Benson won't remember it but we will and he needs to have something under the tree!

On Saturday we watched the BYU Vs UTAH game; the U won! Some good friends gave Benson this great jersey! It's an 18 month size so he'll be able to wear it next season too!

Mom and Benson ready for the game!

Smile

The other night I went in to check on Benson and just took a picture in the dark. He's just a smiley guy! Right now he's sleeping in the day and not a night, which is tiring but I still love getting up with him!

4 Weeks Old

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Visitors

The day after we brought Benson home my sister Rachel and her daughter Adalaide came for a visit. They stayed for a week and were the perfect baby-first-week-home visitors. We just sat around playing with babies all week, it was wonderful! Rachel was able to answer so many questions, as they just adopted Adalaide 4 months previously. We're pretty sure these two cousins are going to be the best of friends. The day before they left we were able to give them a tour of Corpus from a car, with hopes that they'll want to come back soon to really experience Texas (although Rach did get to experience texas cockroaches :)!

Us and our babies!

Cute cousins (4 months apart)

They were such good traveling buddies!

We ran out of blankets one night so borrowed one from Adalaide :) I think Bens looks good in pink!

Isn't she darling!!! Such a good baby!!

Since my parents were in China when Benson arrived my mom came down about a week and half after we brought him home. My dad came down a few days later. We've invited and un-invited them a few times so it was nice to finally get them here. If you know my parents, you know they are movers and shakers, they can't sit still very long. We recently bought a house that needs a lot of work so it was a perfect time for them to come and help! And boy did they! Just to list a few: making bumper pads and a valance for Benson, helping me bath Bens for the first time, making Bens a quilt (out of tricot!!), fixing a leak in the roof, painting one whole bathroom and the cabinets of another one, replacing rotting french doors with a beautiful sliding door, ect. I could go on but you get the idea. I'm pretty sure we wore them out! Oh and my mom would also take Benson at around 3 or 4 am so we could sleep! It was amazing!



On the last day of their stay we took them on a drive through Mustang Island, over the ferry (which we saw lots of dolphins), and back to Corpus to the USS Lexington. It's a carrier from WWII. It was lots of fun to do tourist-y stuff with them! We finished the night off at our favorite mexican restaurant, La Playa (which means 'The Beach.' I didn't know that when we first got here and thought it meant something else :). We loved having them here, thanks so much Dad and Mom!!!

Halloween

This was Benson's first Halloween (and our first with a baby)! I love dressing up! How great is it that there is a holiday dedicated to dressing up!? In the past Anth has refused to dress up for Halloween but with Benson now here, he gave in! We got the idea for our costumes from Anthony's brother's family. Plus it helped that he had these jerseys from high school. My mom was in town so at the last minute we decided she could be the ref, I think she makes a good one!

Our little football!

Our Ward had a fabulous party and instead of doing the usual trunk-or-treat they had families decorate doors in the church so the kids could walk around inside. We got to man a door and it was a blast handing out candy :) (I don't have a picture, I was holding Bens at the time) For one of the activities they dressed up the Bishop and his counselor, then voted on which team did a better job. Alas, Anth wasn't picked but I think they did a pretty good job! It was a really fun night and I'm sure Bens loved it, even though he slept through it :)

Dress-up a Bishop

Dress-up the 1st Counselor (he won)

3rd Week Dr Visit

Although Benson doesn't turn 3 weeks until tomorrow we had a Dr visit today so here are the stats: 10 lbs 15 oz
22 inches long

He's grown a lot since birth (8 lbs 8 oz and 18 3/4 inches long)! The Dr said "he obviously doesn't have a problem eating." Which he doesn't. He loves to eat 4-5oz, about every 3 hrs. At night he sometimes has a hard time sleeping, which we think is due to gas; just him figuring out how his body works :) The Dr said he looks great in every area!

We love him more and more every day, if that's possible! It's so fun to just sit and watch him, whether he's awake or asleep. He smiles all the time and often laughs while he sleeps. He's a very good baby and we feel so blessed to have him in our lives!!!

Just More Pictures...

Group changing

Picture with Peanut (the elephant)

On the way to the Dr. office

Cute dimple!

Playing with mom!

Baby Shower

Some amazing ladies from my ward threw Bens and me a shower on Saturday! It was so much fun, they really know how to throw a party!!! (I asked my pediatrician if it was ok to take Benson to the shower, he being just over a week old, and was told yes but no one was allowed to hold him. I succeeded 100%!) We played games, ate good food and talked about babies! Benson received so many wonderful gifts! Thanks for everything!

Such a cute cake!