Remember that entry?

Remember when I was blogging and caught Ben climbing the stairs?
Well here's the proof!
Still not walking, but boy does he love to climb the stairs (with me behind him of course).
He's getting good at standing up by himself.
He can go from sitting to standing without any assistance or holding on to something.
He's fast and furious at cruising furniture, and going from one piece of furniture to another.
I've watched him take 3 steps before falling.
He loves to go from sitting to standing and then cheer for himself.
We're almost at 15 months, and while it would be developmentally nice for him to hit the walking milestone, I'll keep him a "baby" just a bit longer.

Air Time!

While bike riding on the camping trip, Abbie learned a new trick!
She can "pop a wheelie."
Watch out X-games!

I mean, come on, look at the air time!

Camping

On Father's Day weekend, Andy took Abbie & Will camping.
I wasn't sure how Ben would do being in the heat (it was HOT) and being confined to a camper so we skipped out.
Ben and I headed up to my parents house to stay the weekend. We also went to my cousin's graduation party.
Originally we had planned on the entire Manar family going on a canoe/camping trip.
However, there was a possibility that Bill would have had his knee replacement done the week prior so we didn't make reservations.
At the last minute, Andy decided to take the kids to Beaver Dam which is only about 20 minutes from home.
Due to the extreme heat they decided to borrow his aunt & uncle's camper instead of camping in the tent.
Andy's brother, Joe, and his three children went as well. Bill & Paula came and visited during the day time.
I ended up getting a cold so it was a good idea that we headed to my parents.
I spent the two days sniffing and sneezing.
They spent the two days fishing, playing, riding bikes, and going on hikes.
They had to evacuate the camper Friday night. There were some fairly severe storms, so at 1:00 a.m. they headed home to safe shelter. They went back early Saturday morning and was able to stay through Sunday.
Despite the weather setback, I think it is safe to say, everyone had a good time!
Will constantly asks when they can go on another camp out.

Brother, Brother

Do you think Will loves him?

Perhaps just a little...

They were sharing a late night bowl of cereal

Mmm...Good!

This Crazy Girl

This is how Andy & I found Abbie at bedtime.
Curled at the end of our bed wearing her dad's pajama pants and her dad's socks on her arms.
She must have been cold in her nightgown.
Very creative, but I wonder why she didn't use the blankets?!?

It Happened!

It happened people! It really happened!
Ben started eating food.
Real food.
Pieces of food.
As in he chews now!
Seriously, I was really worried about him not eating.
As I blogged before, he was choking and gagging on almost anything that wasn't pureed.
It was slow moving. I could get a few bites in before he would gag.
It must have been purely a texture thing since he could handle some bites.
Once we conquered chewing, we had to conquer feeding oneself.
He refused. Absolutely refused.
He would take his food piece by piece and throw it off his tray.
And then one day in early June, he surprised me!
I had to document the proof.

He picked his food up and put it in his mouth!
You have no idea the excitement this brought me.

And look at that!
Those are those nicely dissolving puffs that most babies can eat around 6 -9 months.
Up until this day I had to bite them in half to avoid the gagging game.
But look here! Whole puffs! And he's putting them in his mouth!
We've been good to go since.
He eats like a champ now!
And I'm so thankful there was no serious problem involved!

Sprinkler Time

Abbie got this flower sprinkler from Memaw and Papaw for graduation.
Later that day, she tested it out.
I think this picture is funny because both of my kids hate water in their eyes.
We ended up putting goggles on them.

Will with Ethan, one of our neighbors.
They all had fun taking turns spraying each other.

After Ceremony

Aunt Katy & Abbie

Abbie & Papaw
Memaw was in the picture too but I cut her out.
She had a migraine and let's just say the picture wasn't flattering.
Nono & Nona and Uncle Joe, and of course, Will and Ben were there too.
It was a bit chaotic so I missed those picture opportunities.
Afterwards, Papaw, Memaw, Nono, and Nona came over for cupcakes.

Graduation

Getting her diploma

It's official!
Kindergarten, here we come!

The class of 2010

Ms. Crystal, Abbie, Ms. Mary Jo
I am forever grateful for these ladies.
It's amazing how much Abbie absorbed and learned at school.
She was always excited to go, she adored her teachers, and I'm certain she has started her education on the right track.
It was a joy to share my daughter with these ladies!

Class of 2010

On May 16, 2010 Abbie graduated from Pre-K.
Her class put on a nice performance before they received their diplomas.
They played the bells.

They sang songs.
They answered lots of biblical questions.
I think we were all amazed at their knowledge.
This is her entire class.
Back row, left to right, Hannah Fowler, Kyle Mullink, Allison Medford, Ashton Seniker, Abbie, and Alayna Lewis.
Front row, left to right, Hope Seniker, Daniel Balai, and Hailey Jones.
The kids in the front were actually part of the 3 year old class that came on 2 of the days with the 4 year old class, which is why they were included in the ceremony.

I adore this picture!
They sang a song of prayer and Abbie closed her eyes while she sang.

More randoms

A few more randoms...

Abbie & Will planting with daddy.
They each have their own gardening set, aprons, gloves, kneeling pads.
It's too cute!

And he'll kill me for this one day!
Actually he can kill Andy for taking the picture.
Everyone wears a helmet while they take care of business, right?
In his defense, he had been riding his bike before the sudden pit stop.

Miss Mya at Abbie & Ben's birthday party.
Right before she started crying.
Oh, that girl!


And little Benny at one of Abbie's T-ball games.
The cute little ball cap stayed on long enough for the few seconds it took to snap the picture.

Random Benny

Some random Benny shots taken during May.
This one was at Abbie's school on the last day.
He thought he was big stuff sitting with the big kids.

And driving daddy's truck.
Pause, pause, pause button!