Lots of pictures!

This cute boy really loves all his superhero guys.  He has the best sound affects as he plays. 

I love snuggling up with my precious girl.

Somebody at work snapped this picture right as Brad was winning his prize - he was obviously very surprised about where the wheel was stopping! ha ha

Everybody plays Uno in sunglasses, right?

Olivia has a very hard time making it through church without at least taking a little catnap but for some reason she refuses to fall asleep on me, but not on Brad!  His calling keeps him very busy during all of church, but sometimes he can step away just long enough to get her to sleep and bring her back to me.  It's adorable.

Most days Bentley wants to take his nap on Eden's pillow and with her blanket.  He has really missed her since she started kindergarten.

One would assume he was taking that slide on head first - but no.  He still wants me to stand at the bottom and catch him as he goes down on his bum.  :)

These two love playing together through the glass. They both pound the glass and laugh hysterically.

I love that his mouth is the best indicator of how hard he is concentrating.  :)

Another Turtle in the family...

Surprise kids!  Most people who spend any amount of time with Brad know how much he loves his turtles so now people are offering to give them to him!  This one came from a friend of somebody who works with Brad. Obviously, Bentley and Eden were very excited.

We kept her in the kitchen for a few days and they loved hanging out with her while they ate.

We are looking forward to the spring when the rest come out of hibernation so that Princess Leia can join the group outside.  Good times!

Datelivery!

Because we don't have to chance to get out on a ton of date nights, we decided to get a little more creative with in-home dates and subscribed to a service called Datelivery.  Each month we get a date box, complete with supplies, instructions and everything we need for a good in home date.  It always has some games, activities and stuff for dessert at the end.

This particular date was a travel themed one.  We were artists in Paris (the amazing berets came in the box of course) and we each had a canvas to paint something for the other person.  After painting we played a really funny bingo game (which for some lucky reason, Brad always got the punishment cards) and then we made crepes for dessert.  It was tons of fun.

I'm grateful for this man I married and for all the fun we have together.

Eden's 1st day of Kindergarten!

Eden was supposed to start kindergarten last August, but because of her upcoming reconstructive surgery and the unknown travel frequency to Denver, we decided to keep her in the preschool and hold off on kindergarten.

Since the surgery and everything with her health has gone so smoothly, we haven't had to travel to Denver nearly as much as we thought we would.  Around November, Eden really started to complain a lot about being bored, and wanting to be at school with her friends. We ended up having a meeting with the principal and decided that we would start her in kindergarten on the first day back from winter break.  She is starting half way through the school year, and we won't know where exactly she will be academically by the end of the school year, so we decided we would reevaluate then and maybe she will do the full year of kinder, or maybe she will move on to first grade in the fall. Either way, we were excited for the progress for her.

As the day was coming near for her to start, she was getting so excited!  She remembered going to the school that day last fall when we visited the classroom and she was super excited. I walked her to her class that morning and she waved goodbye and ran in. I literally had to hold back tears as I walked back to my car.  I doubted the decision we had made, worried that she just wasn't ready, and was having such a hard time letting her go.

When I picked her up that afternoon she was so happy and excited.  As we had a treat together, she talked all about her day and the fun things she did and she said she was so happy to be in school.

I like Bentley's cute effort at making a thumb's up.

I am just really struggling with the fact that she is now away from me more than she is with me!!  It's so sad.  With that being said though, I'm excited that we are at a place where she is even healthy enough to go to school.  I'm excited for the good school in our area that was willing to work with us.  I'm majorly excited about the fact that there are 13 kids in our ward who are all in kindergarten with her so she has two kids from church in her class and she knows tons of kids at recess. It's such a blessing and I'm excited for her.

School Update (January 30th)

Eden has now been in school for a few weeks.  On about day 3, that excitement and giddiness kind of wore off and she started having a really hard time when I dropped her off.  She would cry and hold on to me and beg me to stay with her.  Her teacher would have to help get her into the classroom, but she assured me that once Eden was inside, she calmed down right away, participated, and was really happy.  Each day when I would pick her up she was so happy and would say she was glad she went and liked it there.  It was heartbreaking though when I would leave her.  In talking with her teacher though, and even talking to Eden about it, she really was happy there and liked going to school, she was just getting herself all worked up and anxious whenever I would drop her off.  The good news though is that she is learning to overcome it (after time, and several good talks with her).  

Every day this week she has said goodbye to me and happily skips off to the playground and finds her friends. No more tears... no more sadness for her or me.  It's so hard to push her sometimes, but it's the only way she can make progress and step outside her comfort zone.  I'm so grateful that she is having such a good experience now.  There for a few weeks I was REALLY doubting our decision to put her in, but I think this same thing would have probably happened six months from now too.  Starting something new is hard for her, and we have learned that we have to push her a little, but it always pays off in the end.  I'm very proud of her and I love picking her up each day and hearing about all her fun adventures.  

Bentley and Claire Pickett

Bentley was just sitting, reading a book and minding his own business and Claire walked up and said, "Bentley, hold me" and sat herself right onto his lap before he even knew what was happening.  He wasn't really sure what to think, but he let her sit there for quite a while.

She brought him a book and said, "read it" so he proceeded to ramble off some cute story to her.

It's official - they should be married someday.  :)

"Bad"

Eden and Bentley were having a particularly rough time at getting along one afternoon, and they were in the craft room arguing about something before Bentley called it quits and left the room.  A few minutes later I noticed Eden sneaking towards him so I decided to watch and see how this played out.  She very stealthily taped this big paper to his back that says, "bad."  He didn't even notice, but I found it quite hilarious.

Well played Eden... parenting really is so entertaining sometimes.

Bentley - the Superhero!

 He will say "Mom, take a picture of me" and then proceed to make all sorts of poses like these.

I love this boy, he brings such a fun and different dynamic to our family... thank goodness he is mine! :)