Church Christmas Program

Both Benjamin and Karina took part in the Christmas program today.  Benjamin was a little cow.  (A girl cow - he specified that he did not want horns on his costume.)  Karina was a calm and sweet baby Jesus!

Christmas is Coming!

Christmas cookies and the tree on Sunday!




Karina at 8 months.

Halloween

Benjamin was a handsome Chimney Sweep!




Karina was Piglet. You can't really see the costume here, but she looked really cute.

7 months old

Hi, Aunt Sara!

Karina is crawling!

She is on the move!!

Karina is 6 months old and Ben is in pre-school!

It is hard to believe that 6 months have gone by since Karina joined our family. She certainly has grown and Ed and I can hardly believe all that she can do now. She is quite the big girl - sitting up on her own, cooing, laughing, and trying her hand at eating. So far she has had banana (loves it), avacado (likes it), squash (starting to like it), and peas (definitely does not like it). She also eats rice cereal on occasion. She has favorite toys, but also loves to explore Benjamin's toys. She is most often wide-eyed and loves watching her brother.

I love sitting and playing with my toys.

And I love my papa.

Okay, mama, enough with the pictures!!

Benjamin started preschool right after Labor Day. He loves it. (My friend took a first-day-of-school picture since I forgot my camera... I'll post that when I get it.) Benjamin continues to crack me up every day. Since starting school he has really turned up the silliness factor in his personality. He comes home doing all sorts of goofy things that he and other kids (mainly his best friend, Miguel) did at school. He also is quite a skilled conversationalist. He learns lots of words from the books we read and then puts sentences together in ways that I am not expecting. Today it was his use of the word "creatures." At lunch he said, "I have never eaten a crab or a lobster. They are nice creatures." Yes they are.

Benjamin and Bart are good friends.

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Karina Laughs

Karina is quick with a smile and even a squeal of delight, but she is a tough audience for a real laugh. So far Benjamin is the only one that can make her laugh. We were DELIGHTED to hear this sweet sound. :-)



I just realized today that we never imported the last 5 months of video from our camera to our computer! What fun to see for the first time all of the video from when Karina was born, as well as our trip first to Schaumburg, Benjamin's birthday and our vacation in Wisconsin! Maybe I'll have to pull together some clips to post out here.

5 Months

Karina is 4 months old!

Look how big I am!

I like my Bumbo.

Chillin' with cousin Ray waiting for Anna to be born.
And here she is!

And here is one video of Karina at play...

Look Down

Karina is 3 months old!

ONE MONTH


TWO MONTHS


THREE MONTHS

I took this one a few days ago. We had a fun day at the park with Benjamin and Karina was asleep in the stroller.

I am so bummed this one is blurry. I love it when Karina snuggles in like this. She loves her daddy.

Fun in the sun

Benjamin had a great time running (and riding) through the sprinkler today. Ahhh, summer. I don't remember when he has had so much fun! He kept saying, and I quote, "I am having so much fun!" and "I love this!" Oh, it makes a mother's heart happy to hear him saying that and laughing and laughing and laughing. He kept getting more toys to ride or push through the sprinkler. Later he helped me pull weeds, Big Turnip style. Do you know that book? It is a cute Russian fairy tale. Our version was, "Mama pulled the weed, and Benjamin pulled Mama."





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New threads from Aunt Sara

Aunt Sara made this cute kimono style top for Karina.

Karina Ann Spohr

It has taken us a while to post pictures. It has been a crazy 2 weeks! Here is our sweet daughter, Karina Ann Spohr.

Big brother Benjamin loves her. He has been very sweet to her. When she cries he often says, "I am going to go check on Karina" or he sings to her. Children of the Heavenly Father and Rock-a-by Baby are favorites. Yesterday Karina was asleep in our bedroom and we were all sitting in the living room. Ben went in and then came out and said, "I gave a car to Karina." For those of you that know Ben, you know that he loves to hand out cars to everyone in the room. A while later I went into our bedroom and there was Karina still asleep with a little car on top of her. I just had to take a picture. Benjamin is a very sweet boy.

Singing Praises!

And now, for the first time on video, we give you the singing Benjamin Spohr.