Baby Boy is growing up!

I just realized that Benjamin is almost 7 months! Wow wee his little life is flying by! I know I'm so that bragging mom but he seriously is the easy, most laid back, easy baby - so far...
Over the past couple of weeks he's started to find his legs (or knees I guess I should say) and is started to crawl a bit. He's not moving across the room yet and for that I'm thankful! I don't think I'm ready to chase a crawling, climbing baby! If you set a toy out in front of him he's pretty determined to get to it but then pretty content just to stay there and play. He's also able to go from sitting to on his tummy then back to sitting again. Oh, and I have a terrible confession to make - since I started feeding him baby food he gets it about once every 2 or 3 days! How terrible am I! It's just so easy to feed him his bottle then put him down to play and head off to take care of the others I usually forget to give him baby food! But now that I've made this confession I'll probably be more motivated to step it up :) But I must say, he doesn't look like a baby that skips any meals - ha!
Here are some pics of his new tricks!

On the move

And proud of it :)

Starting to hold his bottle on his own - of course he would rather me hold it but he can do it :)I picked up a johnny-jumper at my last consignment sale and he is LOVING it! I had one years ago but sold it after James and John-Mark didn't really love it too much but this baby jumps all the time! Whenever you are holding him he's trying to stand up and bounce up and down. His favorite place to be is in the doorway watching his big brothers and sisters run around outside - he's so ready to join them - ugh - he will before we know it!

Here he is going from sitting to his knees

And back again :)

This is a random picture but too funny not to share. Yesterday I found James just chatting it up with John-Mark while he was doing his business. He had even pulled up a little chair. No one is EVER alone at our house :)Another kind of random pic - this is the ONLY Easter picture I took! They all had cute little Easter outfits (Gracie in her smocked dress and all) but they quickly changed after church to get ready for our little egg hunt. We had a pretty low key Easter this year when it comes to the whole Easter bunny and basket of gifts but we had fun making Resurrection Eggs and doing other crafts.
Last random pics - this past Saturday was a beautiful day! The kids played outside all day and I got a sewing bug (which I haven't done in probably a year!) and set my machine up at the kitchen table so I could keep my eyes on them and sewed away. I really love to sew but just don't get to do it enough so it was a fun day for me :)

Gracie was excited too! She loves to wear dresses and spin around and say "I a princess".

Spring Break 2012

So, a couple weeks ago was sprink break for most of the schools in our area. Not that this really means much to us - every week could be spring break as far as the kids know but it did mean that our weekly homeschool co-op and Community Bible Study were cancelled for the week so we had a week with NOTHING planned. Which also wouldn't usually be a big deal but since everyone in our city also had nothing planned for the week we didn't dare head out to our favorite places - zoo, science center, parks, etc since they were packed with kids! I must say that as we begin to really move in to homeschool mode I am seriously considering schooling most of the summer and through all major holidays just because I hate going places when there are crowds. I would rather save our "free" days for days when most folks are in school so we have all our favorite places to ourselves :) Plus - it gets so stinkin' hot in the summers around here we might as well just stay inside and do school instead of melting outside :) One of the MANY reasons I love that we are going to homeschool.
Anyhoo - all that to say we had a week that required some creative planning on my part to keep us all from driving each other crazy :) I tried to remember to take some pics through out the week - here's what I got - not really in any order :)

Our little tomboy princess - at a local consignment sale i got this little ballerina outfit for Gracie - she LOVES a tutu - but notice the dirt on the front of it - I think she was riding her little four wheeler and had a little crash in the dirt with it on :) Tutu's aren't just for dancing at the Allen house :)

John-Mark and Gracie "getting married" - they love to hold hands and dance and say they are getting married. These two are like peas and carrots - too cute together. One day Gracie was playing with something and out of the blue John-Mark walked over and asked her, "Gracie, do you love me" - she never looked up but responded, "I gwess so" - ha! Whatever - she ADORES him!

These two discovered a new way to swing :)

Big boy getting a bath - He's getting too big for his little kitchen bather but it's so easy for me! Bath time is no longer fun play time at our house - getting 3 little ones cleaned is no easy task. Our guest shower has a hand held shower head that we've started using to "take showers" - much quicker and easier than trying to bath everyone at the same time!

We yet again attempted to potty train Gracie - James was trying to help by giving her some water to get things moving :) Baby girl LOVES to sit on the potty but that's about it - not too motivated to actually use it. We'll try again soon :)

Playing with baby brother - they LOVE him and are loving that he's starting to play on the floor more - easier for them to go and pick him up :)

LOVE!!!

James giving Gracie a little baseball lesson - yes she's in pj's :)

This handsome boy asked me to take his picture - I can not believe he is almost 4!!!

Since it was spring break I decided to break out the baby pool one day - they loved it. It's been a while since I did the whole swim diaper thing and I guess I wasn't really paying attention and I ended up accidentally putting a pull up on Gracie instead of a swim diaper on her - if you've ever seen what a diaper does in water it's pretty crazy - it expands to about 5x it's size! Baby girl gave a new meaning to "baby got back" :)
Too much fun!

Due to an unfortunate mishap between the van and James' bike I snagged him a new one at the consignement sale as well
James was very excited to "have his wheels back" :)
This picture cracks. me. up. She will probably kill me one day for this one. But this pretty much sums up our baby girl right now. All girly in her tutu and all brute force in getting her tricycle back up the drive way - she really is so dainty! ha!

See ya' later princess!