Belly Dancing

Bennett communicates with cows

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Sending love to our family and friends, we miss you!!!

18 Months old today!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Thank you to Grandma Lori for the adorable nativity scene!  

It looks perfect right where you thought it should be set up :)

Bennett sporting his new "hat" from our friend Tara!

(Hat in quotations because it is actually a little cocoon she knitted for the new baby, but it fits on Bennett's head pretty good right now!)

Thanks again Tara!!!!

30 weeks!!!!!!!

Christmas Tree

Leave a toddler unsupervised for 30 seconds...

... and you'll find that permanent marker has been used as face paint :)

Trying to look innocent, little stinker!

Pretty cute how he always wants to hold the camera, even in the video below (from one year ago) he does the same thing!

Some pictures from the past couple weeks

So much alike!

Getting so big :)

Hunting for our Christmas tree at a tree farm about 1 mile south of Chewelah.

Tried to get a picture of me and my two babies but this is the only one that turned out.

We got a really cute tree!  

After I get it decorated i'll put pics up :)

Water Boy

Learning to walk in snow boots

Settling In

We've been in our new home and new town for almost two weeks now, and so far so good!  I just finished orientation for my new job on Monday and Tuesday and my first shifts on the unit are this weekend, both 12 hour shifts.  Erik will be gone working this weekend as well, and we are thankful that my parents are going to be here to watch Bennett while we're both at work!!!  We are SOOOO EXCITED to have Grandpa Dean and Grandma Lori here!  They are arriving tonight :)

Bennett helping me make bread... well, at least he thinks he's helping :)

He loves to put Daddy's headphones on and listen to music!

I'm very excited and thankful to be working for Providence now... 

although I do already miss working with our awesome/strong/feisty veterans! 
The Providence Health & Services mission:

"As people of Providence, we reveal God's love for all, 

especially the poor and vulnerable, through our compassionate service."

I wish I would've gotten a picture on Monday morning because we had a beautiful layer of light fluffy snow covering everything here when we woke up in the morning.  It was so peaceful and it made me really excited for this winter... because we will actually get to have a real winter again after having four winters of rain in Portland!  Erik bought Bennett a sled and they did some sledding in the yard while I was at work.

Next week will be a big milestone for Baby Knutson #2... he or she will be entering the THIRD TRIMESTER!!!

I will post a picture of the growing belly next week :)

Welcome to Chewelah!

There goes our stuff!

We said good bye to our apartment in Vancouver on Friday the 2nd.

 Bennett did great on the almost 7 hour drive to Chewelah.

Bennett and Grandma Judy in our new kitchen!!!

 Our neighbors, the cows!  Bennett LOVES them!!!

The home we are renting... can't even describe how good it feels to have so much SPACE after living in a tiny crammed apartment for over four years!!!  

You can play "I Spy Bennett" in these pictures :)

Above: The High School and many sporting fields just past our backyard.

Below: The hospital where i'm working! Yep we live that close! Hello 1 minute commute :)

The front of the house.

Big two car garage & huge shed.

 I'd say he's happy here!!!!!!!!!!!

Mommy and Daddy are too :)

Rainy Days

"I love getting soaked with my clothes on!!!"

He was shivering the whole time but stayed out there for about 15 minutes, what a silly boy.  He took a nice warm bath when he was done so he didn't get hypothermic :)

The vent for the dryer goes outside right there... 

that's why there is steam in the air, and lint all over the ground.

Fun with highlighters... 

there is a reason he doesn't have a shirt on when learning to color :)

23 WEEKS!

We are making good progress on our move! Last weekend we got to see some rental homes in Chewelah and one of them stood out to us far above the rest... and we got approved to rent it!  So thankful for that, it made it feel like the last piece of the puzzle was finally in place for us.  It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home that has a nice big backyard for the kiddos to play in, and it's on the road to the ski resort!  The location will also eliminate any commute I would have to work... as we can see the hospital where i'll be working from across the field from the home :)  We'll be moving in on Saturday!  The movers are coming this Thursday to take our stuff, and then we'll be cleaning the apartment all day on Friday.  Grandma Judy is coming to help us with the move, we're very excited to see her!!!

Good bye for now!

Here you go Shelby!

Swimming with Dad

Erik was going to be gone for five nights this week, so on the third night Bennett and I decided to surprise him by showing up in Spokane to stay with him in his hotel room!  Erik was very surprised and very happy to see us :)

It was an easy trip because we didn't have to lug the car seat along, since the hotel is a 5 minute walk from the airport.  And there were enough open seats on both of the flights that Bennett & I got a row to ourselves each way so we didn't have to worry about him touching all the stuff that the stranger sitting next to us had (ex: iPads, cellphones, beverages, etc...).  Bennett loves flying, he laughs at the prop when it starts and stops, and he makes friends with every person sitting around us.  Since I took him on his first flight in October last year (when he was 4 months old), he has now been on 36 flights in his short little life!!!

Luckily, I thought ahead and packed Erik and Bennett's swimsuits because I knew the hotel had a pool.  They had a BLAST swimming together, and then the best part (the part that always comes after swimming)... Bennett took an awesome nap after spending all that energy in the water :) :) :)  

Then we ordered Pizza Hut pizza (the Aaron Rodgers deal I might add!) and all got to watch a great Monday Night Football game together.

Bennett has always loved being in the water.

SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH!

"Dad you rock! Thanks for taking me swimming!"

He loved jumping off the steps into Daddy's arms... or... as you'll see in the video at the end of this post... NOT into Daddy's arms! lol.

He swallowed quite a bit of water because he was always laughing!

Daddy teaching Bennett how to float. 

This might be one of my all-time favorite pictures of the two of them together :)

Right at the beginning of this video you'll see how brave Bennett is when he's in the water... he jumped in without Erik being ready to catch him!!!

The next step in our journey toward Eastern Washington is to fly back to Spokane this Saturday and spend a few days up in Chewelah looking for a home to rent!  Wish us luck!!!!

Hulk Baby update

Not a whole lot of change in the last few weeks I guess!

(Other than looking more pale all of a sudden?!)

The picture on the left is 19 weeks, the picture on the right is 21 weeks (today).

20 week Ultrasound Pictures:

This baby knows how good life is already!

Well hello to you too little one!

Our baby was squirming and moving around so much during the ultrasound that the tech had a hard time getting a profile view of the face.  

I like this picture of its spinal cord though!

She's gonna get tired of this REAL soon!

Bennett's new favorite toy... his fat cat, Nina!

The greatest thing about this activity is that it might help Nina lose some weight!

Oh, and the laughter that comes from Bennett while he's chasing her around is pretty great too :)

Bennett's first trip to the Zoo

I'm not sure why, but we've never been to the zoo that is right in Portland.  It's the Oregon Zoo, and it's only $4 to get in on the 2nd Tuesday of each month.  So yesterday Bennett and I decided to get in on the deal and see some cool animals!

This was the first animal he got to see up close, this friendly sea lion was swimming around in circles much to the delight of the many children standing in front of the glass!

Checking out the monkeys.

Up close and personal with a cheetah!!!

He was barking at every single animal he saw... it was so cute!  I tried to get a video of it, you'll hear him making his barking noise once at the lions at the beginning of this video...  

Then you'll get a fake cough, followed by a real cough, followed by a real sneeze :)

The last thing we did before we left was play by this miniature geyser.  It scared him the first time, but then he loved it and was babbling at it and didn't want to leave!

We had a really great time at the zoo together,
 Bennett's favorite animal turned out to be the giraffes.  

And on a different note... reflecting back on 10/10/10, two years ago today we found out we were going to have a baby!  That baby turned out to be a little baby boy, and he is an incredible blessing in our lives.  We are so excited for him to become a big brother now too!!!

Fall Fun

It was so beautiful yesterday that Bennett and I decided to take a drive up the Columbia River Gorge and pay a visit to our favorite place in the Hood River Valley... 

the Packer Orchard in Parkdale, Oregon!!!  

Bennett was dressed appropriately for the day, being that the Packers were playing, 

and that we were at the Packer Orchard.  

Unfortunately the orchard is not named after the Green Bay Packers.. 

and the Green Bay Packers lost on Sunday :(  

Despite all that, we still enjoyed our HUGE cookies that we got there!

Trying to multi-task!  

It's hard to eat & walk at the same time when you are only 15 months old ;)