Any Given Sunday

The Gleason house has changed considerably in recent weeks as Anna and Ben have decided that walking is much better than crawling.  The pictures below clearly demonstrate the joy that they share in their new freedom.  

They are also rapidly expanding their vocabulary.  Here are some examples:

Mom: "What does a horse say?"

Ben: "Neeeeaaaaa (smile)!!!"

Mom: "What does a cow/sheep/dog say?"

Ben: "Mooooooo/Baaaaaa/Wooooo (smile)!!!"

Other common words:

Anna: eat, socks, shoes, eyes, ben (pronounced Beeooww), daddy, mommy, Uh-Oh!, cow

Ben: No, Uh-Oh! (constantly), mommy, daddy, eat, please, door, animal sounds (above)

Anna is very silly...

It's good to have a partner...

Baby blue's holding strong...

Daddy is the new favorite playground...

Ben is that hilarious and rare combination of...

loves to be tickled... and is ridiculously ticklish (can't control himself)

Here come the tractors!

On our way out of town, we stopped by the John Deere dealership to let Ben and Anna see the real live tractors.  Ben has been obsessed with his tractor book, so we wanted to show him the real deal.  Note his serious face when he's sitting on the big tractor...although it could be because the sun was bright.

And a final parting shot until we post again...Ben woke up from nap like this one day.  Time for a haircut!

Playtime

Anna and Ben took advantage of the playground next door to Gran and Pop's house.

At one point during our visit we were finishing breakfast and Anna and Ben were being unusually content and quiet...this is how we found Ben when we checked on them.  He found a piece of Dove chocolate in daddy's stocking.  He's not very good at covering up the evidence.

Twas the night before Christmas

Our first "night before Christmas toy assembly" picture...I'm sure there will be many more like this in years to come.

Modeling Christmas pjs and eating a cheerio snack

Our stockings and toy display - train for Ben and a baby doll and strollers for Anna 

Anna actually liked wearing her headlamp and dad thought it was super cool that the kids have them now!

Sometimes it's more fun to sit on the box than open the present.  Also note that Anna has spent some time this winter in boys pjs because we got a lot from our friend Mac...she doesn't seem to mind!

The cozy coupe was the hit of Christmas day!  Good job Nana and Pop!!

Christmas in Clarksdale

We visited Gran and Pop for Christmas in Clarksdale, MS this year.  Here are Anna and Ben when we first arrived in their cute grey and pink outfits from Grammie...they rarely coordinate on clothes but I think it's so cute when they do!

We got dressed up for a Christmas eve service and then got a special treat of hearing Pop and Jon play guitar for the Christmas day service.  Here's our pretty girl in her Christmas dress - from cousin Kate of course!

This is a fun series of pics showing their interaction and some funny expressions!  It's especially cute to watch them interact at this age.

December 2011 - catching up!

Well I'm a little behind on blogging so this will be a big catchup from Christmas.  Anna and Ben were big helpers this year with Christmas decorations, although we opted for an out of reach 4 ft tree rather than our usual real tree.  This is Ben helping with the ornament project...

We enjoyed eating Christmas cookies

And wearing Christmas pjs.  This is one of A&B's favorite pastimes - listening to music at the computer with daddy.

In December my Aunt Basye was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal church, and we all went out for a brunch to celebrate.  Of course Basye is holding Ben - she plays favorites.