Happy Birthday Ben!

James Benjamin Butler made his appearance on Tuesday, November 23rd at 4:22pm. He weighed 8 lbs. 10 oz. and was 21 1/4 inches long. He is a big boy and I'm not really sure as to how he fit inside of me! We just got released from the hospital this morning and have been home for about 3 1/2 hours. Since being home, Ben has eaten, pooped, slept, been smothered by big sister Kate and ignored by big sister Maggie. And of course Lucy and Chuck are trying to get a handle on the situation too! I'm feeling pretty good, considering I had a baby 2 days ago. So all in all, I think we're doing pretty good as a new family of 5!

Enjoy the pictures of Ben's first couple of days of life!

Ben with Dr. Oglesbee...she had just

exclaimed, "I think he's 9 lbs!" Close!

A family of 5...doesn't Mags look happy about that?!

So proud and super sweet to Ben

Maggie thought it was funny that Ben would

hold her finger

Waiting to go home

Daddy and Ben

Let's go home!

O Christmas Tree!

We had to decorate a little early this year for Christmas because of a little someone special making his debut tomorrow. Regardless of when we did it, Kate and Maggie were super excited to get the trees up and put the ornaments on.

We started on Thursday night with the girls' tree...and Ben's!:) They have accumulated quite the ornament collection and their tree is full. We may have to work on getting a bigger tree for them next year!

So proud of their tree...and yes, they are

wearing Halloween pjs!

On Saturday we tackled the big Christmas tree. Kate was a great helper this year...Maggie was not so much! Kate sat patiently and drank her Starbucks hot chocolate while I organized the ornaments and put most of the breakable ones on and then she helped me finish up with the not so breakables. Maggie mostly just ran around the house, drinking her hot chocolate and playing with puzzles. She doesn't seem to be overly interested in the tree and that's just fine with me!

Special Christmas decorating treat - Mags had

hers in a sippy so as not to make a huge mess!:)

Helping for a short minute

Kate really loved picking out the perfect spot

Mimi and PopPop drove in on Sunday for the impending arrival of Ben and so Ryan and PopPop put up our outside lights. The girls went outside with the intention of helping but Kate said it was "kinda hard" and so they just played in the front yard and on the driveway instead.

We are looking pretty festive around here. Poor Kate just keeps wanting to know if it's Christmas yet?!

Blessing Basket

Maggie had her Blessing Basket performance at school yesterday. They had 3 songs to sing for the mommies and daddies...not one kid sang a word! Miss Kathy, the music teacher, performed a solo.:) That said, I'll post pictures but I'm not wasting my time by posting the video because she's just standing there looking around. On a side note, she's been walking around the house since she got home from school yesterday singing the songs...oh well!

Clark and Maggie before the big performance

Thinking about it but never made

the move

Didn't even throw her leaves

into the air during the "Leaves

Are Falling" song

A Whole Lot of Halloween Fun

Halloween is becoming one of those "holidays" that starts earlier each year. We were successful this year at keeping it to a minimum but we still had a busy week. Enjoy the picture post!

Maggie did not like cleaning out

her pumpkin

Kate was happy to get the seeds out

The finished jack-o-lanterns

Trick-or-treating at Boo Haha on Brookside

Maggie loved this bowl

We ran into Clark and Caroline and yes,

Maggie's finger is up her nose...new

past time

Halloween dinner at the Rabb's

The crew: Bat Girl (Caroline), Iron Man (Luke),

Superman (Clark), Tinkerbell (Caroline), cheerleader

and Minnie Mouse

They were all pretty good at trick-or-treating

Happy Halloween 2010!

Dress Up Days

Each girl had the opportunity to wear her costume to school last week. Maggie got to wear hers on the 27th and Kate on the 29th.

Miss Connie said that Maggie did not want to change out of her costume into her school clothes so needless to say, I picked up Minnie Mouse too. She was so excited about her "Middy" costume!

Ready to head to school

Minnie with her friend, little piggy (Kynlee)

Kate got to wear her costume on Friday morning for the Halloween parade. They paraded through the halls of the ECLC for the parents and then headed over to the Middle School to show off their costumes for the big kids. Kate said they wanted to high five her, but she had never met them before so she was shy!:) That afternoon Kate's class had their Halloween party and she and her classmates had a great time eating snacks and making ghost suckers.

So excited to see us at the parade

Ready to dig in...check out that cute jack-o-

lantern orange...a mom "carved" those and put

fruit inside!

Craft made:check; Can I eat it?!

Great way to kick off a busy Halloween weekend!

Pumpkin Patch Fun

We got to visit two pumpkin patches this year - Pumpkin Town and Carmichael's. We had never been to Carmichael's and were excited when we were invited to our friend Kynlee's birthday party. The girls had fun riding ponies, feeding animals, riding the hay ride, and of course eating cupcakes.

Celebrating Kynlee's birthday

Feeding the goats

Throwing food at the goats because she

was afraid they would bite her!

Hay ride

Pony ride

Mags loved riding her pony

Pumpkin Town is the patch that we visit every year to buy our pumpkins for carving. The girls love the inflatable slides and the pony rides. And Kate was lucky enough to get to go again on a field trip with her class.

Posing with their pumpkins

Loving the pony ride

Kate loved her pony too

Glammy and Papaw came to play at Pumpkin

Town too

Kate's class at Pumpkin Town (Kate is the 5th

kiddo in on the left)

Kate with her friend, Lauren

Having fun with her friend, Darby

Orange Day

Maggie's class focuses on a color or two each month and for the month of October it was orange. So a couple of weeks ago, the kids could wear orange and Mags loved her orange Halloween shirt - although she wasn't very cooperative getting her picture taken. And she's doing better at recognizing her colors...thanks Miss Connie and Miss Barb!:)