Easter

A few days before Easter we decorated eggs with my parents. It was the simpliest egg dye kit I have ever used, and the results were really pretty. All you do is drip a few drops of the dye, and then roll the egg around in your plastic gloved hand until the dye completely covers the eggs. Bentley was afraid of putting the gloves on, so just sat on the table and watched.

On Saturday James and I took Bentley to our gym for an Easter breakfast and egg hunt. It was outside and we didn't dress warm enough for the windy morning. Bentley barely ate his pancakes (his favorite) because he was shivering with cold. So we asked one of the ladies working the event, when the egg hunt and activites started? She told us at eleven (two hours away). We drove to the Greene's to watch conference, planning on coming back just before eleven. When we got there, we saw kids leaving in the parking lot, baskets full of eggs. Turns out they started at 10:30. I was a little upset to say the least! They offered to throw some plastic eggs on the lawn for Bentley, but whats the point of that. We just took him home and did that. I really wanted him to run around with other kids. Oh well, next year.

On Easter Sunday, Bentley must have sensed it was a holiday, and woke everyone up promptly at seven. He was excited when he got down stairs and found three baskets full of goodies (from his parents, grandparents, and great grandma). He went straight for the candy of course. Don't you love his hair?

Later that day we went to the Greene's to watch General Conference and enjoy a yummy brunch and dinner. And that was our Easter. I love th holdiays with my son, and know they will get even more enjoyable as he grows.

About A Boy

I realize that I seriously need to catch everyone up on my sweet, not so little baby. Bentley amazes me every day how much he has grown and learned in such a short amount of time. He is growing up so fast, and it scares me that I might not be cherishing every precious moment that I have with him. I feel like I need to record more of his milestones on paper, and take more pictures, and capture all of the funny little things he does on film. Most importantly though, although those things are all great, I think mother's loved their babies just as much before all of that wonderful media, I want to really be in the moment with him. Rather than beating myself up about my recent decline in picture taking, I just want to enjoy each moment more. I want to hold on to him at each stage for as long as I can. Take mental pictures of him in my mind; holding on to every feeling he inspires in me, in my heart. I ask him all of the time, if he will stop growing for me; to which he replies, as always, "No!"

Since he refuses to stop growing, here are some of the things that my growing boy has learned or mastered lately:

• He folds his little arms for prayer.
  
• He understands threats to be sent to his room, and immediatly stops whatever bad behavior warranted the threat (at least for a little while).


• He can climb anything the park can throw at him, and slides down the tall twisty slides all by himself.


• He says sorry when we ask for an apology and gives hugs and kisses, just to make sure we REALLY forgive him (of course we do).


• He can almost take his own clothes off, until his head gets stuck in his shirt (he has a big head), and gets his pants to his feet (at which time he trips, and looks to me for help).
  
• When we tell him we are going somewhere, he goes straight to the door, and gets upset if we don't immediatly follow.


• He has mastered the art of persuasion, especially over the three grandma's in his life. He leads them around all day by their fingers. and gets them to do who knows what for him.


• He figured out how to befriend his Grandma Greene's little dog, Chloe (who used to growl at him). He feeds Chloe all day, and they are quote the twosome now. Chloe is always at Ben's feet or underneath his high chair.


• His list of words: mom, dad, nana, papa ("bapa"), no, thank you, all done ("all dah"), mornin', ball, dog, and the latest: animal (surprisngly enough, he says it very well).
  

Like I said I haven't been the greatest picture taker lately (mostly because I lost our camera's charger, so I have to use my parents), here is one picture of my sweet, growing boy. His very first bubble bath. I was always afraid he would eat the bubbles. Again, I underestimated his new found maturity.

Love Day 2010

I love my family so much. James and I started the celebration yesterday. We went to a Mandarin temple session at the Oakland Temple (just to change things up; no, seriously, we were just late)! Then we went and shared a delicious burger and an even more delicious Sunday at Fentons in Piedmont. Haven't been? You have to go!

Today we went to church. Came home from church an hour later because Bentley dirtied his diaper twice, which has been going on for over a week now, and we decided we didn't want him to spread this lovely bug around nursery. We ate lunch. Then took a family nap. It was lovely. Bentley snored REALLY loud though (he's congested now too). Bentley sat on the counter while Mommy baked heart shaped cupcakes, frosted heart shaped sugar cookies, and baked a heart shaped strawberry, white chocolate pizza for Bentley. While on the counter Ben discovered one of the joys of childhood, liking the batter of the beaters. Then we went to the Greene's for a yummy dinner.

Hope your Valentines day was just as wonderful as ours!

Ben's First Words

Ben has a vocabulary bank of about ten words currently. I know that will take off soon, since he has started to repeat more and more of what we are saying. Like a couple of days ago he said "mornin'" to his Papa, after my dad greeted him with a "good morning" as he was crawling down the stairs.

G Diapers

Obviously the big trend is going green these days. And I am all for it. I'm not extreme or anything, mostly because being gree takes more green than not being green, but I do like to do my part. A stylish way that Bentley does his part everyday is with his g diapers. WHen I was pregnant James became curious about diapers. He thought that it was such a waste to change and throw away a complete diaper every time our future baby were to wet it. He had this idea of an insert that could be removed in layers. depending on how wet the diaper was. One day James' Aunt Staci wrote us that she found a diaper similar to James' idea. What she found was g diapers.





















They are cloth diapers, with disposal or flushable inserts that you stick inside a plastic liner. Staci graciously offered a continuous supply of these adorable and environmentally friendly diapers as her gift to Bentley, and to us! We have loved them, and will continue to use them in the future on all our children's little bums. Bentley has super sensitve skin, and he rarely gets a diaper rash (only when he has continuous bad dirty diapers for several days).
















They are really cute in all there fun colors. And they can be flushed down the toilet, meaning no waste. Even when they aren't flashed they biodegrade like ten times faster than normal diapers.

















Thank you Staci for keeping Bentley's bum covered and green for all these months. We can't tell you how much we have appreciated it. Now, I wonder if they'll start making training pants. . .

New Years in Vegas Baby

On Christmas James surprised me with John Mayer tickets at our favorite venue, the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. So on Thursday after Christmas we packed all three of us into the car and made the long drive (made even longer with holiday traffic) to Vegas, and realized about half way there that we should have spent the extra $100 or so to fly! James' Nana and Papa live in Vegas, so they were very excited to have us and were in on the scheme with James.

We spent New Years Eve day looking at some of the kid approved hotels with Nana. I especially loved the Christmas display at the Bellagio, I think it was. The whole display was made from natural materials, such as flowers and acorns. It was beautiful.

The concert was amazing. The Joint is a really small venue, so we were about ten feet from John Mayer. Who by the way makes the craziest faces when he sings. But he is an amazing performer. His skills on the guitar are almost more impressive then his singing and song writing skills. We experienced two things while in line to get in to the concert that reminded us what a crazy place Vegas is. The girl two people behind us collapsed at our feet (alcohol induced). And these crazy John Mayer fans (they have been to twenty shows and were from some east coast state) lost their tickets and weren't allowed in. One of the girls was still sitting outside the building, tears in her eyes after the concert. It was sad.

Bentley meanwhile spent that night and the next with his Nana and Papa being spoiled. Nana even broke down and slept with Bentley (his favorite treat of all). It was so nice to see them with him. I just love for him to be around family, since we were living around none for so long. We wish that Nana and Papa Mike lived closer, but we love getting to visit them in good old Las Vegas. It makes for a fun little get away.

Christmas

I know, finally! Well, Christmas for us was great. Bentley was so much funner than last year. He was really into opening all of his presents. He would make sure evrey tiny piece of tape and paper was off of every present before he even noticed the contents of the package. He also wanted us to open up all of his toys for him right away. It is so much fun having a child around for Christmas; it brings back the magic of the season and especially the magic of Christmas morning. That is one of of the most wonderful things about being a parent; you get to re experience everything from the eyes of a child, all over again!

Here is our Christmas day in photos. Enjoy!

Look at that excited little face. I bet he already dreams about next Christmas!

The Lollipop Haircut Shop

Last Saturday we took Bentley to the Lollipop Haircut Shop to get his first haircut. And boy did he need it. His hair is very fine, and sparse on the sides. It was getting so long in the front, that in order to keep it out of of his eyes, I had to part it to one side. The result: the baby comb over! His hair has been referred to as "mad scientist hair," and "Donald Trump hair;" lovingly, of course.

He fell asleep on the way there. A bad start. When we woke him up he was tired and grumpy. By the time he got into his Hummer barber shop "chair," he was NOT very happy. Basically he cried and cried elephant tears for the first several minutes. Luckily in his crying he stayed really still.
















In an effort to stop the torture, we decided that he might be better off sitting on my lap, which he was, until . . . the lady brought out the clippers. The rest of thebuzzing was torturous, but luckily it didn't last long.


























Bentley was a much happier camper when the "mean" lady handed him a lollipop. He even told her thank you.





















Check out the cute certificate he received. Something for the memory book for sure.















I think he'll do better next time; let's hope!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Told you no promises on the everyday posting thing. My weeks are just crazy now. Not only do I work from 9 to 5 now, Monday thru Friday, but I also started working out Monday thru Thursday. Therefore, my two hours in between work and working out are spent with my son and not blogging. And I think I have my priorities straight!

James was away in Utah finishing up school until the 20th, so we only had five days to celebrate the holiday season together as a family. And for the very short time that we had, we did quite a few festive things. Our first event was my family's annual Christmas party. Here is Ben participating in the children's white elephant swap. He picked and unwrapped his own present; he got a pink kitty holding a pink blanket. Luckily my cousin Chloe swapped him and he ended up with a Target gift card.

Our next order of business was making sure that Ben saw Santa this year. Last year we didn't get this milestone moment accomplished, so it was a must this year. Bentley screamed when we sat him on Santa's lap. SO we kindly asked Santa to get out of his chair, placed Ben on his chair, distracted Ben thoroughly by dancing ridiculously and singing "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer," meanwhile Santa sneaked back in next to Bentley and they finally captured this picture. The serious face is classic Ben.

Constructing a gingerbread house was the next thing on my Christmas to do list. I want to make it one of our traditions, since neither myself or James grew up doing it (it can be ALL ours). I hope to improve every year (clearly).

The last must do was a trip to see the Christmas lights at beautiful Oakland Temple. It was freezing, but the bright lights and spirit there warmed my heart and made me happy knowing that my family will be together forever, and therefore have lots more Christmas seasons together to come!

Bentley's First Trip With His Grandparents

The weekend after Thanksgiving my parents, sister, and grandparents took Bentley to LA to Knottsberry Farm (I put Disneyland off limits, since James and I want to be with Ben for his first time of course). I had to work, and James was still in Utah, so we both missed out on the fun. Bentley loves his grandparents and quickly he learned to say their names. His first was "Nana" (my grandma), and then he perfected "Papa" (my dad), but still hasn't got my mom's chosen grandma name down yet, "Mimi." He says "mama." It's funny how I couldn't say "mama" so called my mom "mimi," and Ben calls my mom "mama," and can't say "mimi." Anyways, they loved taking him along with them and they had a great time. Although Ben would not let Snoopy get too close; he did like the characters from a far.

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving begin for us like it always does, at the Turkey Bowl. Mind you I am the only woman whoever goes to this thing. James just has a thing for showing off for me. So I go for him! Prior to stepping foot on the field with him I made him lose the headgear. Clearly its as much about fashion to him as the game. AT least he backed up his appearance and played really well.

After the game we headed home to get ready; James cutting off all the tape on his cleats, and me changing Ben and myself from our matching Tom Brady jerseys, to our Thanksgiving best. So far since we've been married we have attempted splitting Thanksgiving between the two families (we might change that in the future). So first appearance of the day was at my Grandpa's newly renovated house that my dad and Uncle's have been working on for the last few months. We only got to stay for a quick visit; just enough time to take a family picture and capture Bentley and my cousin's matching Converses.

Our evening wrapped up at James' aunt and uncles house in Sausalito (also newly renovated, and gorgeous). The whole gang was there; grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. The food was delicious of course. And I ate too much, of course. The boys watched football, of course. And cousin Mary Ellen performed two of her audition songs from Little Women for us. It was a great Thanksgiving, and made me grateful to be living nearer to all of those we have loved and missed while being in Utah.