Benjamin at 17 months

This month shed a little more light on Ben's personality or maybe it's just a phase, but we are finding he is quite dramatic.  These days when he gets hurt or scolded, he will put his hands over his eyes while crying and then take them off to see if someone is looking.  It's difficult to hold back a little chuckle.

Ben is still jibber-jabbering for the most part, but he has added a few more words to his vocabulary such as baby, no way and Mommy, which actually sounded a little like Mammy when he first started saying it.

You know you're loved when your child shares their most coveted food item with you.  Recently Ben was eating some Lucky Charm cereal while I prepared his oatmeal.  As I was getting ready to help him eat his oatmeal, he reached his little hand up to my mouth and offered me one of his marshmellows.  Now that's love. :o)

Ben is expressing his displeasure in having to sit still for 3 seconds.

Did someone say squirrel?

Aron - 3 months old

This little guy has been through quite a bit in his 3 month of life in comparison to his siblings.  We went to his 2 month well-baby doctor visit and found that he had actually lost one pound.  The pediatrician referred us to an endocrinologist to get him checked further.  Having an inkling already that my milk supply was low we asked the pediatrician if we should start supplementing with formula.  She was not optimistic that it would help, but gave us the thumbs up.  So, in the meantime we did begin supplementing and saw noticeable differences even in the first couple of days and by the time his endocrinologist appointment rolled around (2 weeks later) he had gained a whole pound back.  The endo. doctor did want us to go ahead and get bloodwork done just to be safe.  Long story short, he had his endo. follow up appointment and all the tests came back normal and he had gained 3 pounds from the time of the last endo. appointment.  We can't thank everyone enough for your prayers and words of encouragement.  God is so good!!!

I call Aron Mr. Smiles because he seems to smile the majority of our day.  He loves hugs from his big Brother which is a good thing because Ben likes to give lots of hugs.

Emily - 4 years, 7 mo. - Mar. 16

You can see it on her face....quite the personality. If I could only capture an ounce of her energy.

Recently we have been dealing with bad dreams. We have our regular prayer time at night and ask that God would help keep her mind on Him and we encourage Emily to talk to God about her fears. One night after I left her room I could hear Emily praying and it went something like this....Dear God please help me not have any bad dreams and please keep bad people away from our house and if there are any bad people in our house please kill them with your mighty power.

Since then, a great friend of mine recommended reading a few pages from our Systematic Theology book regarding children's dreams. On page 430 it says, "Children from a very young age can be taught to say, "In Jesus' name, go away!" to any images that may appear in their dreams or in mental images that trouble them at night, and then to pray to Jesus for protection and happy thoughts of Him. Such action by those little ones who trust in Christ will often be remarkably effective, for their faith in Jesus is very simple and genuine."

Home and Garden Show 2011

We ventured out in the rain to the Home and Garden Show this year.  Emily and Cameron were excited to get to see the python and the little playhouses.  The show itself was ok, but not as good as prior years.

Benjamin at 16 months

Oh our little man is getting so big.  Even though you can't understand a lot of the words he's jabbering about, he has such emphasis when he speaks.  Two helpful "words" that are understandable are "all duh" which he says when he's finished eating.

I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture, but Ben's shirt is soaked on the arms and from the waist up.  The reason is that he is oh so fond of playing in water so we have instituted water time into our daily routine.  He will stand at the kitchen sink usually after breakfast while I am cleaning up and pass his plastic dishes from one side to the other.  

Another past time during our day is exercise time and recently we have enjoyed running around our kitchen table since we can't run outside yet.  Ben loves to get me to chase him and will laugh out loud when I am on the opposite side of the table as he peers through the rungs of the chairs.

Aron - 2 months old

Aron is a little peanut, but he is mighty strong.  His little neck and head pop right up when we pick him up and he loves to look around at his surroundings.

Here's a smile shot.  Thank you Shelli for capturing our happy boy. 

Emily - 4 years, 6 mo. - Feb. 16

Like Mother like Daughter, Emily has begun humming around the house while she's playing.  She used to hum little diddys that she would make up, but now I can tell she's humming along with the music we play in the background.  She really enjoys her music class she attends on Sunday nights at church.  Her favorite song right now during our music time at home is Father Abraham.

I love to see little children's excitement when playing dress up and it's even more special to me when kids play dress up in their parents clothes.  Emily is very fond of a comfortable dress that I usually wear during the Spring and Summer months.  She put it on recently and said "Mommy, lets pretend this costs 35 million dollars".  I had to laugh.

Emily's question for the month was "Mommy what does honor mean?".

Family Time

We had the chance to hang out with Aunt Kristen for an extended time back at the beginning of February.  Ben decided he would rather sit in one of the toy baskets which I didn't think would work, but much to our surprise he fit.

 Snug as bugs in rugs - rug (a.k.a. warmest Steelers blanket ever made)

Benjamin at 15 months

No, this is not Randy from The Christmas Story.  This is actually Benjamin Groff all bundled up for one of our days in the snow.  He loves walking in the snow with his snowsuit even though every 5 or 10 minutes he will fall down and proceed to roll over in order to stand back up.  He especially loves sliding on our playground set and won't even let me finish saying three before he propells forward to build up speed.  We're going to have fun this Spring and Summer.

Well the teeth buds have finally made their grand entrance into Ben's mouth.  Charlie was having his evening wrestle/bonding time with the kids one night and when he tilted Ben back, he saw at least 6 new teeth making their way in.  

Ben loves to give hugs and has recently started patting my left arm again like he used to.  He loves to hug on Emily, but usually he will give her a hug which leads to a mini wrestling match.  They laugh out loud for a couple of minutes during the wrestling and then one of them will just get up and move on to something else.

Ben has surprised us in that he has not attempted to climb out of his crib at this point.  In the mornings he will be softly mumbling to himself before I open his door. 

 

I knew a long time ago when we had our first son that one day he would get to wear his Daddy's boots and that day finally arrived a couple of Sunday's ago.  We were curious if they would fit Ben's rather wide feet, but they slid right on like they were made for him and he loves them.  He slowly walked around in them for a few minutes and then when he hit the kitchen floor and realized they made noise he danced around like he belonged on the Riverdance tour.  I would love to find a picture of Charlie wearing these boots.  

Fun in the snow

I will tell you it is somewhat of a chore to get both kids bundled and out the door, but they absolutely love being outside in the snow.  Emily picks her snowball to chew on and Ben resembles Randy from The Christmas Story trying to get up and walk around.

Aron - 1.5 months old

No, I'm not going to start doing halves with Aron's photos, but I've been a little behind in my postings so I wanted to get one up before the next month rolled along.

Aron is his own little self already.  He has a very long, skinny body that I know will plump up soon.  He is eating like a pro and is a very good sleeper.  We call him our little snort because his right nostril is swollen a little and at times he snorts like a pig.  He recently started smiling and cooing a little.

Just out of curiosity I wondered what Emily and Ben's 1 month shots looked like....

Emily - 4 years, 5 mo. - Jan. 16

These days have been filled with creative ways to enjoy the indoors.  Emily has been very helpful with entertaining Ben as we attempt to establish some sort of a routine.  She is gaining more responsibility with things such as picking out her clothes (from the 2 or 3 choices I give her), pouring her own cereal AND milk (which took some self-control on my part since I presumed there would be a mess - thankfully the gallon container was only half full so it wasn't too heavy for her) and doing her own laundry.

We're still in the full-blown question and answer phase of life and the recent question was "Mommy, how come God can hear us, but we can't hear Him?".

We can be having the most frustrating of days and then Emily pipes up and says "Mommy, do you know I love you thiiiiiiiiiiiiis much" while stretching her arms out as far as she can reach.  Talk about melting the heart.

 Thanks Holly for capturing this great Emily moment while she was trying on her scuba gear.

Steelers in the playoffs

We had some family bonding time at our house to watch the playoffs this year.  Everyone was dressed in uniform except for Emily because unfortunately we failed to buy a jersey in her size.  Good thing we were able to borrow one for Super Bowl game day (thanks Kristen).

 Ben just couldn't stand the suspense.

 Players and spectators - everyone gathered around the iPad

First photo shoot

Randa was gracious enough to take some photos of Aron for his birth announcement.  Here is a sneak peak.

Thank you Randa for taking the time to get these shots.

Lovin' this cuddle time

My Sister and her family were able to come up for a visit during part of this month and last month.  It was so nice to have them so close by again.  The kids had a blast as they always do.  Jack was especially fond of Aron and would usually request to know where he was as soon as we walked in the door at my parents home.

The siblings get acquainted

 "I think this belongs to me."

 "Oh this isn't mine????"

Aron at 2 weeks old

Aron's adventure begins in the infamous rocking chair.  He was not happy that I put him in this uncomfortable spot.

Aron with Friends and Family

Benjamin at 14 months

This month was a little difficult trying to get a good picture since Ben is on the move.  It's like a switch was flipped with him with regard to his personality.  He is still so funny and energetic, but he is definitely showing his ornery side partly because he's growing up but I think part of it is due to the attention his new little Brother is getting.  I'm sure that's a hard concept for a 1 year old to understand.  Ben is actually doing really well with Aron.  He has moments where he tries to pat Aron's head a little harder than he should, but most of the time he just wants to love on him.

Ben is jabbering up a storm and we think even more than Emily did when she was Ben's age.  He loves music and can often be found walking/dancing around the house listening to Emily's new CD player.

During this cold season we are very excited that Ben has learned how to blow his own nose.  We are working on him getting only the kleenex in the trash since it seems he likes to throw additional items in there as well, but he's getting it.

We're also thankful Ben is learning to use a spoon these days.

I love this shot of Ben and Holly.  I know there's a good caption for it, but I can't think of one right now.  Maybe - Holly asking Ben if he ate all the Peanut Butter

Merry Christmas from the Groff's

We had quite the hectic Christmas this year with our new bundle of joy that entered the world just 4 days before.  Since I had the privilege of holding Aron that meant the camera had to take second fiddle.  We had a great Christmas as always, filled with lots of laughter, food and fun and some special memories.  The gate from my Sister was very useful this year with a curious 1 year old on the loose.  The tradition lives on of going to a local tree farm and cutting down a live tree.

Merry Christmas!!!