Hay and Pumpkins Everywhere!

A couple of weeks ago, some friends and I met up at the Arboretum to enjoy this awesome fall weather. In celebration of the fall season, the arboretum decorated the park with hundreds (or perhaps even thousands) of pumpkins!  They were everywhere!  There was a fun kids' section that was completely covered with hay and pumpkins, so we decided to take the kids out of their strollers to let them play. Well, of course, my kids never fail to amuse me... as soon as I set them down on the hay, they became so upset because they didn't like the feeling of the hay on their bare feet!  They also despise shoes and refuse to wear them, so it was really a no win situation for them :)

Here is our first attempt of a group picture with their buddy Sam and the boys' first encounter with the hay...

The frustration and anger over the hay on their feet began to esculate as more and more got tangled between their toes...

Looks like Sam is trying to console Benjamin...

I couldn't help but to laugh at the ridiculousness...

I tried to distract them with a pumpkin...

But, it didn't work, so sweet Melissa layed a blanket down for us to sit on...

Of course, adorable Sam was sweet as always... unlike my boys, he posed for the camera and didn't mind the hay one bit!  Actually, I think he enjoyed chewing on it :)

While Sam looks at the camera, my boys look at Sam!

Finally! Here's one picture of the boys looking up! Melissa worked really hard to get us this picture!

On the other hand, it's always so easy to catch this duo looking at the camera and looking adorable!

Me and my buddy...

Our friend Amie was also with us that day with her two beautiful girls.  Here is Olivia (Livie)...

... and her big sister Elise, who absolutely loves to pose for the camera!

Since the kids were having fun and my boys finally got over their hay frustration, we decided to feed the kids lunch there...

Sam even posed for us during lunch time...he's so stinkin' cute!

After lunch, we took a walk to the infamous spitting frogs...

Here are the boys getting wet while staring at one of the frogs...

We had a great afternoon and for many days afterwards, I kept finding hay everywhere...in my car, in their bed, in the diaper bag, in their stroller...

Just Monkeying Around

Here are some funny pictures of the boys just monkeying around...they were taken on the same days as the previous walking pics :)

I'm not really sure if Bryce is pretending to be a puppeteer or trying to give Benjamin a peace offering...

An action shot!  Perhaps my little man will be a soccer player like his daddy one day...

Look at that sweet face!  I just noticed Bryce, in the far back, has the same expression on his face.  They make my heart melt :)

On the contrary, here is Bryce's "serious" face...but how can you take him seriously when he lifts his shirt to show us his cute little tummy?

Bryce, our little bully, is constantly taking things out of Benjamin's hands.  Here he is (caught on camera!) contemplating on how he's going to steal that soccer ball from Ben...

I think Ben was on to him!

Poor Ben accidentally threw the ball in the wrong direction and Bryce quickly pounced on it...

Who's going to win this time?

Looks like Bryce got it (and showed it off to daddy), but Ben seemed to have lost interest anyway...

Well, maybe not!  Here's Ben sneaking up on Bryce...take a look at Bryce's fancy left handed move to keep that ball away from his brother!  Pretty impressive!

Benjamin looking smug after he successfully pushed the ball out of Bryce's hand...

The wrestling match over the ball begins, with dad as the referee...

Check out that leg move...

Sure enough, someone got kicked in the head...

I guess this means Benjamin won his ball back...

He was so happy that he took a bite out of it!

And another...

He got mad when daddy told him to stop...

He got over that quickly and found something else to occupy his time...

...slamming his legs against the gate!

"Uhh, daddy, I think I might need your help..."

Now here's Bryce a few days later showing his stubborn and determined side...

The harder he tried to climb into that thing, the madder he got...

Eventually, he gave up and the two of them found a better way to play with the playstation...

It's exhausting just watching these two busy bodies!

14 Months and Walking!

At 14 months, the boys finally started walking!  Yay!!!  They're almost 15 months as of today and are now walking a lot more than crawling.  Here are a few pictures of our big boys walking... and stumbling :)

Bryce actually started walking "longer" distances first...

...while Ben was much more content just relaxing and crawling. :)

But, then, Benjamin decided he didn't want to be outdone by his brother and started doubling the distance that Bryce was walking.  The picture on the left is blurry, but I just love Ben's facial expression!  He looks so proud and excited to be walking.  The picture on the right was taken five days later.  By then he was already walking even more and even better... even while carrying stuff in his hands!

They've also improved their climbing abilities...

We call this Benjamin's "crab crawl"... he started doing this after he started walking.  I guess it's his new half crawl/half walk move when he wants to get somewhere faster than he can walk!

Here's Bryce (left) and Ben (right) five days later getting more and more confident with walking...

Now, they can even maneuver over and around books and other toys that get in their way! :)

...and, even look around while walking :)  They're going to be roller blading, skate boarding, and riding bikes before we know it!