FL Beutel Family: March 2009

The Bug Parade

We just had to share this picture with everyone. Ben still takes a daily nap (thank goodness!) and during this time, Katie has what we call "Quiet Time" upstairs. She watches a movie and plays bugs (that's what she calls it) while I eat lunch, clean up the dishes from the morning, watch my soap, or study. She's been making these amazing "bug parades" with hundreds of little plastic animals, all lined up facing the same direction, and they kind of flow across the carpet like a river. It's pretty impressive to see in person. This is just one HALF of the parade...it continues on to the other side of the couch and around the room! Sadly, Ben wakes up from nap and the first thing he does is trample on her parade.

Shhh...don't tell child protective services

Jackson has been "upgraded" to his big-boy kennel and the kids are delighted with it. I'm pretty sure it's against the law to put your kids in a kennel, but I SWEAR, they got in there all on their own. In fact, we've had to go back to locking our bedroom door in order to keep them OUT of the kennel. They'd spend all day in there if we let them. Can you believe how big the dog is getting?? He's about 15 weeks in these pics..

This place is a ZOO!

On their final day in town, Grama and Grampa B took the kiddos to the zoo so I could go to the doctor (nasty cold!) and get some studying done for my exam. As you can see, they had a wonderful time, and I really appreciated having some extra hands around to help out since I was so under-the-weather.

Love those smiles

On one of the final nights of Grama and Grampa's visit, we all went to dinner at PF Chang's (see the horse pics from a previous post) to celebrate cousin Samantha's first birthday. After dinner, we went to watch Samantha open gifts and enjoy birthday cake. The kids LOVED all the "new" toys. Novelty is an amazing concept.

Beach day

More often than not, Chris is behind the camera, so we very rarely get a picture of him WITH the kids. As you can see, everyone got into the sandy fun!

Little Mermaid

Last spring when we first saw the pictures we took of her stepping into the water, we were astonished at how long her legs appeared. She continues to get taller and once again, I'm at a loss for words...when did these kids get so big?

Katie with a mermaid fin

It's hard to tell, but she has a sandy shark fin on her back.

Surfer dude

Ben was afraid of the water and the waves last year, so I'm happy to see that's no longer the case. I couldn't help pull up the blog pics from last year around this time...he's gotten so much bigger!

Grama & Grampa B's Visit

Ben was SO excited that he and Gramps had on matching shirts, so he instructed Grama to take a picture.

Grama and Grampa got to go to one of Katie's final Little Gym classes (it was pirate day...she doesn't normally dress like that!)

Momma had studying to do (and was fighting a nasty cold), so the kids headed to the beach with Daddy, Grama and Grampa for some fun in the sun. A large amount of sand came home in their swimsuits. That's ALWAYS a sign of a good time, as far as they are concerned. =)

Two cutie kiddos

We just bought Katie a few spring nighties a couple weekends ago and Ben could not restrain himself from wearing one of them. We try to limit him to wearing them only at nap or bedtime, but he would gladly wear it all day if we allowed him to.

Last weekend while Grama & Grampa Beutel were in town, we all went to P.F. Chang's for dinner one night. Some of you may recognize the over-sized horses that many Chang's have standing sentry at their entrance. The kids LOVE standing at the base of them and posing for pics. Tyler was with us a well (a rare treat, being that he's a teenager and has a busy social calendar) but we couldn't get him to stand with the horses. =)

For all those who DON'T live in FL...

I just had to share with you what we did with the kids the first week in March. We've had such beautiful weather lately that it was finally time to take out the baby pool and let the kids splash around a little. The weather is a bit cooler this week, but aside from this momentary lapse, we have every indication that spring it on it's way!

Jackson @ 12 weeks

This photo is a couple weeks old, so this was when he was around 12 weeks. He's easily doubled in size, but we think he's mostly fluff. He's such a good puppy!!