Ben's lip

Most of you probably know about Ben's lip by now. He had a mucous seal growing on the inside of his lip and had it removed on Monday. The doctor said that the youngest he had done it in the office was probably 7, but may have been 8, so he was willing to let us try to do Ben's in the office rather than going to the hospital for it. I was pretty glad about that, since it would have been more expensive in the hospital.

Ben did great with it. He only got a little nervous when the doctor was going to put the anesthetic cream on it because the thought that part would hurt, but once he realized it wouldn't hurt, he was fine. He even sat still for the needle part. And he totally cracked me up while they were removing it. They were holding his lip still and he kept talking throughout it, saying, "Hey, I don't feel that!" It's especially funny when you realize that Ben is our shy one and doesn't typically talk around people he doesn't really know. So there he was in the doctor's office with basically strangers who were trying to hold his lip still, and he wouldn't stop talking.

His lip started hurting a little bit later that night, but hasn't hurt him since.

Here's Ben showing his mucous seal:


Here's a picture Ben took of his doctor. Nice, huh? I don't know why, but I see this picture and think, "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." And the doctor didn't remind me of that at all in person. He actually reminded me of my home teacher (who is blonde, so he reminded me of a dark-haired version of him).


Here's Ben after they put the cream on his lip, trying not to swallow any of it.


Here he is in the chair after he's been numbed, waiting for them to come back in and remove it.


Here's his lip after.


So while it wasn't fun for him to get it removed, he did great. The doctor said he thought that was worth a $50 Christmas present for him, since he saved us lots by not having to have it done at the hospital. I agree. But I got him an icee on the way home from the doctor and we rented a movie to watch that night (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which he really liked). He thought that part was fun.

Christopher's 4th birthday and more

So I used to be pretty good at posting things as they happened, but lately, that hasn't been happening. So instead, you get a single post with a few things. Probably keeps it more interesting that way anyway though.

Chris had his 4th birthday on August 30th. We were all going through a stomach bug, but mostly everyone was okay on his birthday during the day, so that was nice.

Here's Chris blowing out his candle:

Here's Chris with his birthday cookie. He wanted birthday cookies instead of a cake this time, so that's what we did:

Chris is unwrapping his presents:

Everyone checking out Chris's presents and getting ready for ice cream:


You may have noticed that we go to the zoo a lot. Yes, we do. We have the season pass and the kids love it, so we go. Here are some pictures of our latest trip, most are pretty self-explanatory:






I had to throw this one in. I'm not sure how well you can see it, but the snow leopard was sleeping in the barrel and it totally cracked me up, so I took a picture:


Alex has started playing soccer again, and this is a picture from his first game this season:


In other news, Abby is getting her first tooth. I first noticed how close it was two Sundays ago and noticed that it was cutting through last Saturday. If I hadn't seen it, I would have had no idea she was getting it. She's a good teether.

So that's all for now, sometime I'll post more. If you want to hear more about what we're up to, you can always check out my other blog.

Just a few more pictures...

Today was Alex's first time riding the bus, so I have a picture of him getting on it and then one of him getting off it when he got home today. He was pretty excited to go this morning and yelled out, "Awesome!" when he saw the bus coming around the corner. He said he had a pretty good day too, and is excited to go back tomorrow. That's always nice to hear.

And of course, Daniel fell out of the stroller when he tried to turn to see behind us and bonked his forehead pretty good, but I didn't take a picture of that. Just thought I'd share, since his accident-prone phase is continuing.

Getting on

Coming off


And now, just for fun, here are a few pictures of Abby

First day of school! And other pictures

So yes, today was the first day of school for Ben and Alex, although Alex just had a kindergarten orientation for an hour and doesn't really start until tomorrow. They both seemed pretty excited, although Ben was a little more nervous since his teacher, who was going to be moving up with the class, was no longer working at the school. So he got a teacher who just moved here from Colorado Springs 3 weeks ago. She seemed pretty nice at the meet the teacher night last night, but Ben isn't sure if he likes her yet.

After we dropped Ben off at the bus in the morning, Alex asked why he didn't get to go for his full class today. He was a little sad about that.

So anyway, here are some pictures from today.

Here are Ben and Alex ready for their first day:


Here's Ben


Here's Alex


Here's Ben getting on the bus. The face wasn't because he didn't want to go, but because he didn't want me to take his picture:


Here's Alex in front of the school before orientation:


Now Alex, Chris, Daniel, and Abby:


This morning after we dropped Ben off at the bus, we walked down to the park to play for a bit. Here's Alex hanging on the bars:


And the 3 boys playing:


Chris and Daniel going down the slide:


Alex going down the slide:


Alex likes to take random pictures. This is one of the irrigation canal by the park:


Here's Alex pretending to be a frog at the zoo:


All the kids by the tigers:


Here are the boys by the river at the Nature Center:

Daniel's accidents

Daniel had a rough week. Last Wednesday, he fell through a hole where a slat was missing at the walkway in the park, hitting his chin on the way down. Last night, he was on Ben's bed and reached up to grab Alex's bed and slipped off, hitting his back on the open drawers (Chris's clothes are in the drawers in Ben's bed and he tends to leave them open) on the way down.

I've decided that Daniel, even though he's a 4th child, is like your typical fearless 2nd child. He's not afraid to climb on anything or get into anything. I told Bryce that if we didn't already have Abby and weren't expecting her either, at this particular point in time, I would probably decide to be done. He's a very pesty 2 year old. But he's cute. That's probably the only thing that saves him right now.

Here are some pictures of the results of his accidents: