6 Months Old and a Visit from 'Auntie' Mary and Luke!

Best friends and their babies

Oliver and Luke

Sweet sisters

Grace and Luke

Oliver

Luke

A visit from Lindsey and Lydia!

Baby wheel!

Auntie Mary and Grace

Audrey, Luke, Oliver, and Grace

Sweet Grace Maria

Hanging out with big brother

Grace

Sleepy Grace

Great faces

Luke has awesome hair!

Audrey's little piggies

Gracie loves the animals!

Our big boy

The snow is falling here in Bend, Oregon, which means two things: the babies and I get to enjoy the lovely white snow falling outside while we snuggle up in front of the cozy fireplace, and Christmas music has been brought in from the garage and is officially welcomed (and playing continuously) in the Bennington home!

The babies are now 6 months old; it is amazing how quickly the babies are learning new things! Audrey has started grabbing things and reaching for toys! She can hold on tightly to things (including mommy's hair!) and she likes making lots of new noises and squeals of delight:) Oliver still loves sitting up and has started "scooting". I have started burping him in a sitting position on my lap after he eats, and he thinks it is really funny to scoot his little buns right off of my lap! Grace has been smiling a lot and makes the cutest little giggles. She has also discovered her tongue and sticks it out all the time like a little tortoise. And best of all (drumroll...) the babies have begun sleeping pretty much through the night! Oliver likes to go to sleep around 7:30 p.m. (he lets us know by rubbing his little eyes) and doesn't wake up until around 5 or 6 in the morning! The girls stay up a little later with mom and dad, and sleep until about the same time. Sometimes Audrey wakes me up at 3 or 4, but only having to feed one baby in the middle of the night is a lot easier than feeding (and changing, and burping) three! And after their early-morning feed they often sleep for a few more hours until around 8 or 9 - and those few hours are when mommy gets her best and deepest sleep! Oliver is also taking a long three hour nap every afternoon from about 1:00 - 4:00! I'm hoping the girls soon follow their big brother's good example:)

Last week, my best friend Mary and her four month old baby, Luke, were able to come up from Sacramento and spend 5 days with us. It was so wonderful to meet each other's babies. We hadn't seen each other since March - right before I ended up in the hospital on bedrest. We didn't really leave the house (with four babies that would be pretty difficult!), but we sure enjoyed playing with babies, drinking coffee, and talking all day long!

October

Audrey listening to Oliver

Oliver talking to Audrey

Watching Gracie play

I worked hard for these rolls!

Brother and Sister

Workin' with Daddy

Our big boy!

Miss blue eyes

The babies at 51/2 months

The family on Halloween

The babies' first Halloween (Grace was too tiny for her orange outfit)

Oliver and Audrey - Boo!

Our Audrey pumpkin

Audrey and Kai

Grace with a few self-inflicted scratches - mommy needs to trim her nails!

Little Mr. Bennington

The time is going by so fast. In less than a week the babies will be 6 months old - incredible. The last week of October all three babies discovered their hands, which they spend ample time investigating and sucking on (which doubles as sign language to mom for "feed me!"). They have also discovered each other and are just fascinated with their new-found friends! They are constantly scanning their surroundings for each other and insist on staring at one of the other babies whenever they can - even if it means craning their necks to the side while feeding to get a good look at brother or sister. Oliver loves sitting up now and is constantly working those tummy muscles trying to get himself into a sitting position (but still requires a little help from mommy or daddy). He also giggled for the first time yesterday while daddy was flapping his arms like a chicken:) Audrey has been "talking" a lot and even lets out little squeals of delight from time to time. And it seems that little miss Grace has finally found her appetite! For so long she has been eating like a bird and it has been a constant struggle to get the volume down that she is supposed to be eating, but for the past few days she has been eating like a champ - and loudly letting us know if she's still hungry and wants more! Here are some recent pictures including some from the babies' first Halloween!