You can't really tell from this picture, but Ben was jumping like crazy! He is eight months old today....I can't believe how fast he is growing up.

Yesterday Ben stood up all by himself next to one of our chairs!

I took Ben grocery shopping today and decided to try out his new cart seat. I usually carry him in our Jeep front carrier. He seemed to be more interested in chewing the strap than playing with his toys. I couldn't even get him to look up for the picture. :)

Ben loves it when toys make sounds. He has started to test everything for sound. He will pick up a toy and shake it by his ear to see if it makes any sound. I took some pictures earlier today of him shaking one of his rattles.

Ben decided that he should dump all the toys out of the box, so that he could play with it. He has a lot of drool today! Yeah! Boxes are fun! :)

We decided today that it was time for Ben to have a haircut. His hair has gotten really long and crazy lately. I was too chicken to try, so Curt stepped up and volunteered. Ben right before the fun began. :) Curt did a good job, but it was really difficult because Ben would not keep his head still. He would see the scissors and swing his head around to see what Curt was doing. Ben showing off his new haircut after his bath.

My parents, brother Jacob, and niece Emma came for a visit this weekend. We were so excited that they could come! Yeah! Grandma's here! Ben loves to pull strings and quickly discovered the ones on Emma's shirt. Grandma has a necklace on...that looks like fun to pull on too! :) My dad's beard made Ben nervous for a little while again. Soon he was having fun with Grandpa. Ben and Jacob

My friend Amy came over today with her son Carson. Carson was very interested in Ben's hair and kept trying to touch it. I almost got a picture of it, but Ben started crying. Amy is a friend from Indy (who now lives in Ohio) and her family lives in Fort Wayne. Carson was born in August, so he is just a little bit older than Ben. It was fun to see the boys together! :)

Olivia is sharing her doll with Ben. She is very shareful with all her stuff...sometimes she even tries to share her mommy's money! :) Ben decided to check the doll out. Here is a close-up of Olivia. She is such a cutie! I missed the smile. Patty and I tried hard to get some cute pictures of the kids, but we kept missing the good ones. At one point, Olivia gave Ben a really sweet hug, but by the time I got the camera the mood had passed. :)

After work, Curt played on the floor with Ben. Ben had a great time. He was laughing and squealing!

Calm, thoughtful face one second... CRAZY smile the next!

Ben was pretty happy Friday during the day. He didn't know he would spend the evening trapped in his carseat on the way to Cadillac, MI. He cried a little bit when we first got there, but he warmed up to everyone really quickly. Ben sitting with his Grandma Walker on Saturday. He's excited to see Aunt Molly. :) Here's Ben with Aunt Molly and Katie on Father's Day. He made the rounds quickly before we had to get on the road. I didn't do a great job taking pictures this weekend...I'll have to do better next time we get together.

This is Ben's attempt at trying to feed himself. Lately, he has been trying to grab the spoon when I feed him. I let him try it out, but he makes a big mess!

Ben is waiting patiently for me to get a couple things ready for our walk. We went for a walk early today...before it gets too hot out! Ben is chewing on one of his favorite toys. I'm not sure what we would do if it got lost! He isn't crawling yet, but he is starting to scoot around a little bit if he sees something on the floor he wants. I think he's tired of photos! :)

Here are some photos of Ben taking a bath tonight. He loves having a toy to chew on. If you click on this photo to enlarge it, I think you can see his top teeth coming in.

We took Ben to the mall Saturday morning. He had fun getting pushed around in his stroller. Sunday, after lunch, we hung out in the backyard. I read a book, Curt chipped some golf balls, and Ben played with his toys. It was really hot and humid so we didn't last too long out there!

We had a bad storm come through on Friday night. We had a tornado warning for a while and I was pretty nervous about that...tornadoes have always scared me. At about 9 pm, the sun was shining and we could see a full double rainbow. Curt couldn't fit it all in the picture because it was too huge!

When Ben was wearing this outfit, he kept grabbing the yellow part that says "Hi, I'm new here".

Ben watched a few minutes of a Veggie Tales sing-a-long. He was jumping like crazy, but of course he stopped all that when the camera turned on. :)

We went for a walk this morning at 9:00 and it was already pretty hot out. Ben was a little warm from being belted in the stroller, so I decided to take his shirt off for a little bit. He was really excited about that! He has this basket filled with toys in our living room. Lately, he takes the toys out one by one and then has to play with the basket for a while. What a cutie! Ben watched a few minutes of a Baby Mozart video. He got really excited when they showed some animals. Ben is messy from his lunch. He started kicking his legs and waving his arms when I got the camera out...maybe we will be able to get those smiles easier now. :)