August Updates!

My camera is fixed! Yay! I can post pictures once again! This last month or so has gone by super quick. We've been busy busy busy, but it's been a great summer and we've been having a lot of fun!

James Bug keeps growing and growing! He's 11 months now (seriously?!?), learning to walk and balance, still doing the army crawl, and has 8 big-ol' teeth! He loves riding his car, chasing Hugo, his messy dinner time and then bath time right afterward. It seems like this kid finds ways to make me laugh ALL the time!

I'm pretty convinced Baby Dos is going to be a "challenging child" because James is really so easy and so much fun! Here are some pictures from this morning:



John has been busy between vacations working all day, then between family, friends, and life, doing Benchmark stuff at night. He's just about to release 2 new front bumpers and 1 new rear bumper! I don't know how he balances everything that he has going on, but that's why he's amazing! (I may be a little biased!)

Uncle Reed (John's brother) is staying with us right now. I really only see him for a little bit after work, but Jimbo loves having his uncle here (can't you tell!) and it's fun having him around!

And Hugo..... as happy as ever! We're pretty sure he has to be pushing 90 lbs now (at 6 1/2 months!). He's just a big ogre of a puppy that we LOVE!

This is pretty much how I'm feeling (and probably looking) these days, lol! (No. Really.)

8 weeks today until Baby Dos makes his grand appearance (October 25th is the c-section)! I am quite excited to meet this little man although I don't know HOW I can love a second little boy as much as the first!

This pregnancy has been much more difficult than with James. I guess that's what happens when you're basically pregnant for a year and a half straight! Admittedly, it has been a struggle to be thankful for (or even just not grumbling about) every little "symptom" the way I was with James. I constantly remind myself that this little boy is one of God's greatest miracles and gifts to me, it is His perfect timing to have 2 little boys so close together, and He is the endless supply of energy, love, and patience whether I need it now - or in 8 weeks - or in 2 years!

I'll update soon about our recent trips and other everyday details that I find so fascinating in the Carruthers house! Ooohh, can't you wait... ;-)

Sleepy

Someone got a little tired during room time today!

This is what happens when we leave Kiddo alone with Uncle Reed for *10 minutes*!

New Toy

Grandma Terri let James borrow this toy last week and kiddo is in love with it! It's one of those ones with a steering wheel and buttons with lights and music... I think he may love it a little too much!

www.benchmarkdesigns.com

The site is up! John says it needs lots of tweaking (including "Benchmark" at the top!), but it is miles better than the old site!

Top 10

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James is 10 months old today! Holy cow, where did that time go? I decided to do some reflecting this afternoon...


WHAT BEING A MOM FOR 10 MONTHS HAS TAUGHT ME:

1. Moms don't leave sticky messes in the high chair on purpose. The messes magically appear after thorough cleaning has already taken place.

2. When a child screams in the middle of the store, it's not always because the mom is doing a bad job!

3. What you feed your child directly effects what you will clean up later... if you get my drift.

4. Training a dog and training a child have more in common than I ever would have thought.

5. It isn't as easy as it looks to leave YOUR screaming child in the nursery!

6. Feeding your child sugar before their 1st birthday cake won't kill them. In fact, with a dad like John, I'm not sure James made it past his first month!

7. I will forever have a love/hate relationship with diapers. Similar to the dishwasher!

8. I now know "what stay at home moms do all day"!

9. Happiness is opening up the Costco coupon mailer to find diapers AND formula on sale!!

10. The minute I start to think my child is "well behaved" or "advanced for his age", God immediately finds a way to humble me... and usually it's publicly!


Any I forgot?


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I can't stop laughing at this!

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Long story... our camera is broken/unrepairable again! Actually, It's a pretty short story. "One of us" (not to name names, but it's the same person who broke the last camera) dropped the camera. In all fairness though, it was in the case and dropped on soft ground. I think "said person" just has really bad luck with his wife's cameras!

These are a few recent photos from my old school camera phone - hence the impeccable quality! ;-)

This one just makes me laugh!

Bath time! (Notice the correct length bangs... I haven't touched them in months!)

Surprise to me, he figured out how to stand up in the tub and now prefers it!

And who could forget Hugo... now 70 lb puppy!

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Waking Up

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This is how I find Kiddo when he wakes up from naps now - peeking through to see when I come in to get him!

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8 Months!

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I'm always late taking the monthly pictures, but technically I always get them done before the next month (ok, usually)!

Let's see... James likes to eat (everything but yams!), crawl (just army crawl, but the little dude can mooove!), grow both up and out (but let's be honest, mostly out!), produce teeth (6 now!), play with blocks (thank you whoever got those for him!), go swimming, go camping, and pull Hugo's tail. That about sums it up! Little bugger's growing like a weed!


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Other 8 Month Pictures of the Chunky Monkey

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Some Faces of James Bug

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These just make me laugh....

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A Peek into James and Hugo's Relationship

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James pulls Hugo's hair...


Hugo pulls James' clothes...


James grabs Hugo's nose...


Hugo politely tells him to be gentle.

Just kidding... Hugo chomps his hand!



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Hugo Update

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Now Hugo only has a bandage over his "pressure sore". Poor guy hated the cast and got a big sore on his leg from it so we decided to skip the cast and let it heal on its own. The fix seemed WAY worse than the problem!


In other Hugo news, I weighed him at the vet and at 3.5 months, he weighs 45 lbs! The vet said a dog will be at least double his 4 month weight, making Hugo over 100 lbs full grown! Pretty sure he's a real German Shepherd! ;-)

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6.4.10

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This was last Friday when Hugo got his cast on. James thought it was great!



Then Hugo had his room time and James still wanted to play!




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Poor Hugo

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Poor Hugo. If you haven't heard the story....

Wednesday, I took him in for a routine puppy bath at Petsmart. I got a call about an hour later from the manager saying they had an incident with Hugo (Great, he bit someone's face or something). Nope, when they let him out of the cage for the bath, he got his foot stuck in the grate, twisted his whole body around, and ended up on his back.

Longer story shorter - he got some x-rays and they found he broke his toe! Today he got a splint and cast put on and can I just say that it is probably the funniest thing I have ever seen! He hobbles around banging this loud cast on the wood floors. Then gets frustrated and tired on the way to where he is going and lays down in the middle of the floor, exhausted! Imagine having your leg "casted" up to your thigh without any crutches to walk around with. It's pretty great!

He has a cast for 3 weeks (which the vet has warned me will need to be redone due to chewing, water, etc... at least a few times), needs to be on very low activity for 4 weeks (yeah right!), and hopefully he'll be back to his lovely, charming self soon!

Until then, at least I can hear wherever he's walking - THUMP thump THUMP thump THUMP THUMP thump - and then some sort of loud crashing noise as he lays down on the floor!




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Chompers!

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James Bug is popping out teeth like crazy! He got his bottom 2 teeth a couple weeks ago, the top snaggle tooth you can *kind of* see here, and another top one last night! We can definitely see at least 1 more ready to pop out too... holy cow! I think this kid is really looking forward to sharing steaks with John this summer or something!


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Where have I been? Part 3

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This last weekend, we went camping at the Thousand Trails campground in Lake Wenachee with some friends. It was definitely different camping with a baby and puppy, but we had alot of fun and are looking forward to camping a few more times this summer (don't worry, I WON'T give up condos and hotels yet... or ever!).


I was very excited that Kiddo finally got to wear his cool camping clothes! Thanks Grandma Ronk!



Waking up Sunday morning.



Sunday afternoon we visited Aunt Kim and family at their cabin in Liberty.








Then we headed back to our campsite for hot dogs and smores with the Bogners and Woods!







Kiddo taking a break with Daddy from the awful Memorial Day weekend traffic.



We're great parents, really!



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