Yee Haw little Cowgirl.

Entertaining the baby

Bentley was already in the closet, pushing these little buttons out from under the door, when Olivia came crawling around the corner.  She of course didn't know he was in there but was immediately so curious and baffled about things popping out from under the door every few seconds.  She sat and watched so contently for quite a while. Every time one would pop out she would kind of jump. It was so cute to watch.

You can see Bentley's cute fingers there under the door.

It wasn't long before Bentley realized she was out there because if things would stop coming out she would kind of grunt at the door and he would send a new one out.  You can imagine that she was very surprised when he opened up the door and yelled "Boo!"

I love watching my kids together.  There's nothing like the adorable bond between siblings.  I'm so grateful to be a stay at home mom so I can capture moments like these.

Eden starts Tae-kwan-do!

A few weeks ago Eden started a Tae-kwan-do class and it has been so good! For the past couple months I have felt like I should get her into something physical to help with her endurance and coordination and everything.  Before Christmas at some point she watched the movie "kung-fu panda" and said she thought karate would be fun to learn.  After thinking about it a bit I realized that it would probably be the perfect fit for her.  It wouldn't be something super intimidating like soccer but would allow her tons of exercise, and she could learn some great skills and confidence in her body. 

The first day there they had to run and jump over some pretty high mats.  She tried her best but was nowhere near being able to do what the other kids were doing, so once we were in the car she tried to get out of karate all together saying "well I just want to spend more time at home with daddy."  Daddy is still at work though so I knew she was fishing for some kind of excuse that sounded reasonable. We had a good talk though about the importance of trying new things, even if you can't do it perfectly the first time and she agreed to keep trying. :) 

It's been a couple weeks now and she is already starting to improve a lot! She takes it very seriously, and focuses so good.  Just last class one of the teachers came to me and said she was more worried about Eden and one other little boy because they were the smallest and youngest in the class, but she said they are the two best students because they focus and try so hard. 

I love going to her class and watching her.  She is incredibly happy there and so proud of herself after each class. She has even had a few "sparring" matches with her teacher and she goes for it.  It's adorable.

Now if I could just convince Olivia to sit nicely and watch instead of trying to crawl out on the mat and scream at the kids then we'd be in really good shape. :)

Good job Eden! I'm so proud of you!

Olivia - 11 Months Old!

Olivia is 11 months old already!  It's so crazy how fast the time is passing by.  I just adore this girl so very much. She has a very wide array of emotions and we love her through them all, but obviously much prefer some over others.  She is spicy - that's the best way to describe her. It's both good and bad. ha ha

I love those rainbow shaped eyes when she smiles big. She looks very similar to Eden at this age.

She has mastered removing the lids from markers and this time got a few good tastes before I took it from her.  She was very angry about that.

She loves to play in the toilet and with the toilet paper. On this night we were reading stories to Eden and Bentley and when Brad came around the corner and busted Olivia in the act of toilet papering the bathroom it really startled her and mad her very sad.

She LOVES to be outside.  However, she HATES the grass!  She will  try her best to crawl along any tiny little path if it means less contact with the grass. ha ha

I mean... look at that face.  I don't care how much she yells and tries to be the boss around here- she is so stinkin' adorable.

Olivia has mastered the stairs so we didn't have to keep the baby gate up long which is way nice. It's fun that she will just randomly wonder upstairs and start playing with toys. She loves to close doors which means that the problem comes when she goes into one of the rooms and shuts the door behind her. She makes sure to utilize her yelling though to ensure that we find her, and quickly.

She is still so quick to smile and is super friendly with other people, as long as they don't try to hold her.

She is starting to outgrow her morning naps which is both good and bad.

She's not very patient so when she wants something and it's not happening quickly she will give us a good yell. 

She knows she isn't supposed to play in the dog food, but she doesn't care.  She has a very determined spirit which is also both good and bad. ha ha

Most people I know say that their third child is either incredibly mellow and chill, or complete opposite.  Olivia is complete opposite.  She hates to sit on my lap and hang out (like during church or Eden's karate classes). She wants to be down and moving and doing her own thing. She doesn't put up with any mistreatment from her siblings.  If Bentley takes something from her she will scream at him until he hurries and throws it back.

We are praying she will get some words soon to save all our sanity.

We love this girl and her fiery spirit.  She is a handful, but she has so much personality and loves to be involved in anything and everything!

Valentine's Day and Austin's Baptism

Eden and her friend Makayla May got to spend an afternoon together making their valentine's boxes for school.  They were very excited about it.

Eden was adamant that her box did NOT have any polka dots.  I'm not sure why she felt so strongly about that. 

Eden picked out some "Monster High" valentine's.  Bentley got some Transformers ones. He obviously didn't need any, but he was really happy to write on them and prepare them for all his friends too.

On Friday I got to volunteer in Eden's classroom at school and help out with the Valentine's day party.  The kids were so cute, and I think Eden was very excited to have me there. It was fun to see her in that environment.  She was so happy and social with the kids and it made me feel so good to see her there being so comfortable and happy.

Eden made this Valentine for her teacher. I'm sure her teacher appreciated a little extra money. ha ha

Eden's cute class doing some activities. She is in the pink and white coat off to the right side.

Then today, Valentine's Day, we got to go down to Los Lunas and attend Austin's baptism.  I'm so grateful to live close so we could be there with them. 

Such a good looking family!

After the baptism, we spent the rest of the day at grandma and grandpa's house.  The kids learned all out the circle of life when they went in to collect eggs and came upon a dead chicken. Grandpa was very gracious and gave him a proper burial (for the kids sake lol).

Olivia wasn't too sure what to think about this swing.  She had a death grip on Bentley's shirt with one hand and his pants with the other the whole time they were swinging.

She loves to go on rides in the wagon though!

Looks like these two were surprised by the camera while playing Legos.

My mom thought to capture this candid moment of life for Brad and I right now.  Looks like it's just Bentley there, but there's another child in front of each of us.  I'm glad I have a good man by my side who is so involved and helpful with the kids because they can sure be a handful!

Just hanging out at the park...

I love the weather here, and we all love exploring the many different parks around our home. Olivia is a little tricky because she likes to put the wood chips in her mouth, but otherwise it's a very enjoyable experience for all.

Yes, this time Olivia did discover the slide.  I helped show her how to go down on her tummy (feet first though) and she LOVED it and giggled all the way down as she did it over and over again.  It's so fun to experience joy in the simple things by spending times like these with my kids.  I'm so grateful.

Eden's Art

Eden still LOVES to do arts and crafts.  She spends tons of time in at her craft table working on all kinds of projects.  She is so creative and surprises me all the time with really cool things that she makes, or ideas that she comes up with.

Lately she has been more into drawing which is new for her.  I like finding her cute pictures all over the house.

This was her palm tree.  So cute and creative.

But then sometimes I find really weird things, like this jar full of water and dirt, and a plastic spoon.  I'm not sure where she was going with this one, but it needed to be disposed of promptly!