Life as we know it.

 As you know my parents have been visiting us for the past 6 weeks. We have had an opportunity to see so many beautiful places and have had many mishaps and surprises along the way.

Our first big trip was to Italy. We flew into Venice, spent a day there then took a train to Florence, spent a day there and finished in Rome and spent 2 days there. Because so many cool and wacky things happened I will be writing about this trip in installments.

BOOK 1

"It was the best of times it was the worst of times"

Not really, actually Venice was pretty much the best of times for the duration of our stay. The beginning was a little rocky but once we got settled in we fell in love with it's charm.

We decided to go cheap on accommodations as we knew things could get spendy as we wanted to see most of the sights. This will come into play with each of the cities we visited. Nothing was unsanitary but there were definite trade offs because of it.

We flew into Treviso airport (which is an hour outside of Venice) at around 7pm and we decided to take a bus in. When we arrived we gathered all our luggage, a pack and play, 3 backpacks, 1 giant roller suitcase and one carry on size roller suitcase which was one of those terrible ones that always flip over as you roll it. Also Ty's cheapo umbrella stroller who's wheels get caught on EVERY single uneven cobblestone. (Needless to say this caused problems). We were taking our time, went to the bathroom changed Ty, made sure we had everything yada yada yada and by the time we got out to where the bus was supposed to be it had already left.

We had to wait an hour for the next bus. We rode into Venice and then caught a vaporetto (the water bus) down the Grand Canal until the stop we thought was closest to our hotel. Funny thing is that Matt's phone said the hotel was a ways away but it was really only a few feet away from where we were dropped off. We were so relieved that we found this cool hotel "The Marconi" that was on the canal right by the Rialto Bridge for so cheap, also that we found it so easily. We walk into the lobby (a tiny room) and the desk clerk says "Are you the Bennetts?" My parents had made the reservations so we said, yes. He then proceeded to tell us that they're having "technical difficulties" and that the room we reserved was not available and that they booked us in another hotel that is nicer but that we don't have to pay anything extra. He said it was a 10 minute walk and "very very easy to find, very easy".

A 45 minute walk later still trying to follow the directions he had marked for us and we had yet to find this hotel. Something you should know about Venice is it is full of stairs. Every bridge has stairs up one side and down the other. Needless to say it's not very conducive to carting around all your luggage and infant at 11pm at night. Matt finally took over navigating and we found our hotel relatively quickly after that. The hotel was pretty nice and we got settled quickly, the only problem was that we were starved since we hadn't eaten since lunch. The boys went out and found a shop that had sandwiches for us and some fruit.

The next day we went and explored Venice! The best part about Venice are all of it's nooks and cranies. We loved wandering!

Us in front of the hotel we spent the night at.

The Rialto Bridge

Are we lost again?

Can't get enough of it's charm.

Frari Chapel

The Frari church was so beautiful! It has these massive tombs inside it for several famous artists.

Am I really seeing this with my own eyes?

See what I mean? It's breathtaking!

St. Marks Basilica

St. Marks Square has a million pigeons and normally I do okay with birds. Though I have been subconsciously scarred by watching the movie "The Birds". But Ty was hungry so I had a ziplock of snacks for him and was feeding him these little baby crunchies. These pigeons were so aggressive that one flew at my hand with the bag and tried to take it from my hand and then shortly after another one flew right at my face. I haven't been the same since. I swear every bird is out to get me. Pretty sure I have a new phobia. I've also decided that death by pecking birds is one more way that I don't want to die.

The expensive hotels by the Doge's palace and the Bridge of Sighs.

Me at the Bridge of Sighs

Ty sitting on the lion statue.

Ty is an amazing traveler! With all the late nights, missed naps and craziness he was remarkably happy and easy going. I feel so proud of my little guy! Hope our next one is just as chill!

In the courtyard of the Doge's Palace. Did you know that St. Marks Basilica was the Doge's private chapel?

Venice was stunning and all of our favorite. I would go back there in a heart beat. I feel so grateful to have the opportunity to see all of these beautiful places in our world. Stay tuned for Book 2, Florence and the Beggars with Fake Babies.

Happy New Year!!!

I can't believe 2012 is here already! I also can't believe that my parents will be in England in less then a month. I am so excited to have them visit us! I'm also excited that Ty will be a year old in only 1 month! He is so big! I only wish he'd sleep through the night...and that I wasn't such a pushover. :)

Well, Christmas has come and gone. We went to Elveden to get our Christmas tree. We had fun looking in all the shops and of course picking out our own tree. We picked a relatively small tree (6 ft). They stuffed it in the netting and Matt carried it to our car. If Ty had been older we would've paid to have one of the Newfoundland dogs that were pulling sleighs pull it to our car. They looked so cute pulling all the trees. I know once Ty is older he will get a kick out of it. Here's a pic of a dog with his wagon.

Ty went down for a nap once we got home and Matt and I decorated the tree. We had just finished decorating the tree when Ty woke up. We turned down the main lights so the tree seemed to glow. Ty was so entranced when he saw the tree. He didn't know what to think except, must touch it, must touch it...It was pretty difficult to keep Ty from pulling off all the lower ornaments and from pulling on the actual tree. Our tree had a natural repellent. It would sprout it's needles at us.

Matt had cut a couple inches off the bottom of the tree like you're supposed to and we watered it but something must've been wrong cause 2 days after we bought the tree it died. No joke. You would barely touch it and needles would rain onto my cream tile floor. Needless to say I hated that tree. I was literally sweeping under the tree twice a day and there would ALWAYS be needles on the ground. I know I said the needles falling were a natural repellent when in actuality 2 members of our family were more intrigued by this. Ty and Gracie loved to either sniff and wag their tail by the tree and therefore cause a shower of needles or wave their hands erratically in an attempt to make the most needles fall off at one time.  When we finally took the tree down this was what it left us.

 Matt and I both agree that this is our last real tree. Fake all the way next year. Ty had his first Christmas and it was so fun!!! He opened presents and loved all the toys and books he got. He was pretty good at ripping the paper on the first few packages but after that all he wanted to do was play with his new things. He didn't care about all the other boxes with treasures in them, he only wanted what he had already opened. We had a great Christmas full of laughs, love and the Spirit of Christ.

Ty playing with ribbon.

 Here are some fun pics of our little guy:

He loved wearing the puzzle piece but Grace wasn't such a big fan.

Look at Ty as he cuddles with daddy.

Matt took this pic, I had just gone outside with Grace and Ty wanted to go with. He might be a Momma's boy. :)

My handsome boys.

Gracie love.

He's pooped! When he's tired he lays his head on the ground or bed in this case. It's super cute.

He had just woken from his nap this is how we found him. Somehow he had gotten his arm out of its sleeve. :)

Gracie and Ty are the best of friends. They love playing with each other and each other's toys. The most recent example is that Ty got a stuffed Big Bird (thanks Aunt Katie) and he really likes it. He'll cuddle and play with it. When Gracie thinks we're not looking she digs it out of Ty's basket and starts nibbling on Big Bird or licking it. Then there's Gracie's newest toy, rubber french fries that squeak (also thanks to Aunt Katie). She LOVES it and goes crazy chasing after it and chewing on it. Ty also goes crazy for it and will try to steal it from her so he can squeak it and when Mommy's not looking chew on it too. So as of now it's pretty difficult to distinguish between Ty's toy box and Gracie's toy box they seem to be one and the same.  Here is a video of  some Ty and Gracie play time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1c34nt5NIk&context=C3b94f05ADOEgsToPDskJDZWDtfMI5bl5mz9F2gl_j

You may think my background is very travel oriented and that we really haven't been traveling much. That is all about to change. When my parents come we will be checking off a few destinations on our bucket list. In Italy we'll visit Rome, Florence, and Venice. Then we'll be driving to Germany so we'll pass through France (probably see Paris), Belgium, maybe another random country and Miriam will be showing us a good time near Frankfurt. We're so excited to discover Europe these next few weeks!!

This holiday season has been a time of joy but also of sadness for us. Because usually what makes Christmas and New Years so much fun is family time. Being so far away from our families has made us very aware of how wonderful our families are. We have also missed being near our friends that we've made over the years. Though we definitely had some sad days the phone calls, Skype sessions, and numerous packages kept our spirits high and helped us to feel our family's love for us. Thank you for your love and prayers we have felt the effects daily. 

Here's to a Happy New Year!!!

Our Life Lately...

Time flies when you've got a little guy who gets into EVERYTHING. November was pretty dull for us. No trips or craziness. Some highlights were Thanksgiving and Ty learning how to crawl.

Thanksgiving was fun! Matt had 5 days off that week so of course we took advantage of that and had lots of family time. I actually cooked a turkey with all the fixings and it turned out AMAZING. Per Grammy's request we took a picture of Ty with a drumstick.

Though he didn't eat that part of the turkey he did eat some and he was a big fan.

This time of year made us very aware of how blessed we really are. We thought about what a miracle Ty is and how lucky we are to have him in our family. He brings so much joy into our lives and those around us. Matt and I couldn't help but reflect on how empty and self-centered our lives were before Ty came into the picture and we can honestly say that he has been the best thing that has happened to us. We love being parents and feel very honored to have been blessed with such a happy and loving little guy.

 Ty is getting bigger all the time! He learns new things constantly. It's getting so hard to keep up with him.

He loves the dials and buttons on mommy's record player.

He likes to help mommy load and empty the dishwasher.

It amazes me how quick he is. As I was writing this I look over and he was attempting to crawl onto the elliptical. He's such a munchkin, but I love him. A couple new things besides crawling are that he's learned how to wave, he has started thrashing in your arms when he wants to grab something or be down on the ground, I swear he can almost say doggie, he's officially had his first of quite a few tantrums, he loves Christmas music, he makes silly faces at mommy all the time, we're pretty sure he wants to be a dog cause he loves trying to get into Gracie's food and water, and he loves standing in his crib.

When he first started standing in his crib at nap time we would go in and lay him on his back and tell him, no no, it's naptime. This didn't seem to be working as he would laugh at us and promptly flip over to get on his knees so he could pull himself up again. So now we just put him down and let him stay in his bed until he falls asleep or it's been an hour.

We have a video baby monitor and it's been really fun to be able to see what he does. However, we didn't place it high enough on the wall so there were several times when he would be really quiet and when I looked over at the monitor I would see little hands slowly moving towards the camera trying to pull it off the wall. But because we can see what he's been doing we often times see him falling asleep. These are a few of the pics we've taken. Don't worry, we fixed him afterwards.

We love our little munch (as we call him, it's short for munchkin). We still don't have a tree and secretly I'm grateful. I keep telling Matt that we should get just a table top tree so I don't have to worry about him getting into it and pulling it down on himself or something. I'm not really winning that battle... oh well. Hope this Christmas season is treating you well. We love you all!

It's Autumn Time! It's Autumn Time!

It's fall and we have had so much fun! We went to a pumpkin patch and Daddy pushed Ty around in our wheelbarrow. Ty thought that was super cool.

Ty with our pumpkins

Daddy and Ty.

So I got a pedicure with a friend the other day...tell me what you think.

It's called a fish pedicure. The fish nibble off the dead skin. As you can see by the first picture I was pretty terrified at first. If Leila hadn't been there having one with me I probably would've chickened out. But the fishes actually worked, my feet were a lot smoother and they felt relaxed. So if you have the opportunity get a fish pedicure!

Ty's first Halloween has come and gone. We almost didn't get a costume together for Ty in time but we did last minute and we are so proud of it. Presenting...Mr. T from the A-Team! So many people wanted to get pictures of Ty while we were trick or treating, it made us feel so proud.

I can't wait to have some more firsts with Ty! We're already gearing up for Christmas, can't wait to get a tree and decorate...on second thought keeping Ty from pulling off all the ornaments is going to be challenging. Uh oh. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes. :)

Ty is Big

Ty is eight months old! Our little man is finally scooting!!! He does an army crawl, lies on his stomach and pulls with his hands and pushes with one leg. It's super cute! He says "dada", sometimes waves (usually with both hands), loves when Mommy reads "Bert and Ernie's First Book of Opposites". He can even point to Ernie or Bert when I ask him where each one is in the pictures. He loves pointing at things and just looking at his pointer finger. He is sooo ticklish and his laugh is so infectious we can't help but laugh with him. Ty enjoys talking on the phone or rather listening to people talk to him on the phone and breathing heavily through his mouth. Sometimes we can get him to say hi, "haa". It's one of my favorite things.

Cords are irresistible to him. If he sees one he has to suck on it, pull it or munch on it. He is still toothless and seems to be quite content to be so for awhile. He sometimes gums on rice cakes, wheat toast, gold fish or Kix. He likes when we sing "The Wheels on the Bus", Pat a Cake, and his favorite song to listen to is "Tapioca" from "Thoroughly Modern Millie", he loves those musicals, what can I say. :) He makes faces at us to get us to laugh, he is very expressive. He may look like his Daddy but he definitely has his Mommy's personality. As far as I'm concerned I have the cutest, smileyest, smartest, most loving and bestest baby in the world. We love having him in our lives and are so excited to be a part of all of his new accomplishments.

Laughing cause he sees himself.

Cute goofy face

Loving being in the big chair.

He can hold himself up and pull himself up to standing!

I guess he's trying to do a spell or something. :)

He loves leaning back and being goofy.

Cutest monkey I ever saw.

Watching Baby Geniuses and playing along.

Yes he is watching it so intently that his mouth is open. I tried to distract him but he was focused.

He loves looking at himself.

First time holding a bowling ball.

Playing with his balloon palm tree with a monkey. He loves balloons.

Ty with Sparky or Daddy?

Doesn't he look way too old?

Loves wearing Daddy's baseball hats.

He's having a ball and Gracie is terrified. Yes we were cracking up laughing. :)