Sunday, December 14, 2008

It's time for Christmas!

We got out all the Christmas decorations the Saturday after Thanksgiving and let the kids go to town putting them up. They did a pretty good job and it was kinda nice not to have to do it all myself.

Isaac couldn't wait to put up the tree!


This shows Joseph placing the Sun Valley sun which he said was the most beautiful ornament of them all.


Kate liked all the pretty decorations and lights.


Eli wasn't sure what to think of the whole thing but was having fun anyway!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Giving Thanks

Since we just had Thanksgiving I thought I would write about all the things I am thankful for. First off we have been sick, so I am thankful for health. They say you don't appreciate it until you don't have it anymore, that is so true! I am thankful for a wonderful husband. He treats me so well and loves me despite my shortcomings. I am thankful for my 4 children. Each one is unique and so smart and fun to be around. I am thankful for temples. I am so glad we can go to the house of the Lord and feel the peace that exists inside and be in the only place on earth where we are free from Satan's influence. I am thankful for good food. As a Bentley/Richardson, I never seem to get full, which can be a good thing and a bad thing! I am thankful for our prophet. Thomas S. Monson has been a General Authority for a long time and it has been wonderful to see him ordained as our prophet. I am thankful for the Atonement. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, willingly died so that I can repent and have a chance to make it back to heaven! That means so much to me! I know I could go on and on but I will just stop here. Thanks for reading it!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Indiana Jones

Ok, so I know this is over 2 months late but I wanted to show you the pictures from Isaac's birthday.

This is the Indiana Jones volcano cake his dad made! Doesn't it look great!


This is the cake we had with the Bartletts


This is the cake we served for his Indiana Jones party we had for his friends. He designed it and put the Indiana Jones characters on top.


Here is a view of the table for the party. We lined it with plastic snakes that the kids all got to take home. We served mummy fingers (pigs in a blanket), monkey brains (bagel bites) and a popcorn mix along with Capri Sun to drink. The kids all got Indiana Jone's hats and we had a treasure hunt. They all got a goodie bag with a squirt gun, kaleidoscope, and noise maker inside.


It was fun for me to decorate the table.


Here are all the kids.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

My baby is 9 months old!

So, I took Eli in for his check up on Monday and this is what his stats were:

Weight: 23.56 lbs (89%)
Height: 29.0 in (74%)
Head: 18.5 in (90%)
Hair: none to speak of ;)

It has been so fun to see how much my little guy has grown since his slow beginning. He is crawling everywhere and getting into everything. His favorite things to do lately is play in the toilet and crawl under the desk at high speed toward the powerstrip with the bright red light! He thinks it is soooo funny when mommy gets all excited and tells him "no!"

Our favorite shows

I read on Marci's blog about how she loves fall because the new seasons start to all her favorite TV shows. I think Nate and I have to agree on this one. The shows we enjoy watching are:

1. American Idol (although I don't like thinking that we worship these people, so sometimes we call it the singing show)
2. Monk (I see some of my own quirks in Adrian Monk)
3. Chuck (his best friend Morgan, cracks me up)
4. 24 (I delayed starting on this series, but now we can't watch them fast enough)
5. Psyche (these two guys are so goofy and immature it's funny)
6. The Office (Michael Scott really bugs me along with a few others, but I like Jim and Pam)
7. and our favorite...Lost (This has to be our all time favorite show and we wish it started in the fall, we have to wait until the end of January for this one!)

We also used to like to watch:

1. Alias (until it started having dumb episodes and then got canceled)
2. Smallville (we watch it sometimes, but make fun of it the whole time)
3. Heroes (we liked it, and started watching this season, but I couldn't handle it anymore)
4. Fringe (this one we really wanted to like, but I think all the weird stuff got to be too much)

So there you have it! Tell us which TV shows you enjoy watching.

Nothing Sweeter

I found these two sitting like this while watching a movie one day.


So precious!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Like mother, like daughter

This is Kate at 3 years old sitting with her favorite dolls: Sarah and Cause


And this is me, at 3 years old with Cause and Harper

Monday, October 27, 2008

Halloween Carnival

Our ward had a Halloween Carnival on Friday

Here is Kate as Tinkerbell and Skyler Escue as Snow White


Here is Nate as Abraham Lincoln and Eli


Joseph as Iron Man eating chips with Kate


Rebecca as Cleopatra holding our little lion. Nate was calling him "E-lion"


Isaac was at the party too, dressed as a knight, but he was running around with his friends the whole time that we didn't get a picture of him, maybe we will get one on Halloween.

Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze

We took the kids to a pumpkin patch and corn maze over the UEA weekend. Here are the pictures we took while we were there.

Here are three of the kids looking for pumpkins


Joseph and Kate with mom posing with the green pumpkin we saw


Eli was so patient in his stroller


Here they are pulling the pumpkin wagon with the ones we decided to take home


Nate, giving his approval of the pumpkins


What cute kids we have! Don't you think?


Eli riding on Daddy's shoulders through the corn maze


We really had a good time!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Isaac's Ideas: How to exit out of your dreams

We were talking about nightmares and Isaac decided to share some tips with us.

Monday, October 6, 2008

It's #4's turn!

Well, as fate would have it, we found ourselves at the Instacare once again on Saturday. This time I left Nate with the kids while I took Eli in. He had a fever of 100.8 and was fussing while pulling at his left ear. The Dr. confirmed my fear that he had an ear infection and gave us a prescription for it. He is doing so much better today and is finally acting like himself again. The only problem is he hates the taste of the medicine! Sorry kid!

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Crawling, Coloring, Swimming, Wii games, and Everything else!

Eli is crawling! He began about 2 weeks ago and is doing really well. Now he is pulling himself up to a stand! I would like him to crawl for at least 4 months, but he just doesn't seem to want to wait that long! We have noticed that he doesn't like riding in the car anymore. We think it might be because he knows he can get around now and hates being strapped in, unable to move as he pleases.
Kate is healing up from her stitches and hopefully won't end up with an awful scar. Kate has developed a love of coloring, where she will sit or stand for quite sometime while she colors in her coloring books. Her coloring is usually all in one color, but it is done very neatly and carefully.
Joseph and Isaac are off track from school, so I put all three kids in swimming lessons to give them something to do during the day. I am also trying to get them to work on projects for the Reflections contest. They can enter as many categories as they want, so we are going to try to do a bunch of things.
Nate is having fun playing MarioKart on the Wii and the kids enjoy watching him play it.
I am trying to keep up on the housework, following my crawler around and planning Young Women in Excellence among everything else!
So, how are you doing? :)

Donut Falls!

We went with the Bentley's on a hike up to Donut Falls over Labor Day weekend.
We had a good time.

Here is Eli ready for his hike with Daddy.


Kate with Trevor Higginson, one of her cousins and friends.


Mom with Joseph and Isaac. I dressed them in orange so I wouldn't lose them.


6 of the Bentley siblings standing at the family tree.
Jane, Rob, Julia, Ruth, Tom and Rebecca.
(some of us are pointing to our names)


A shot of the donut.


An upside down tree!


Nate with my three boys and family members climbing up towards the donut.


All tired out from hiking.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Stitches

For the third time in less than a month, I found myself back at the InstaCare. After Isaac's bruised elbow and Joseph's constipation that we thought might be appendicitis, it was Kate's turn this time. She ran into the corner of a table and got a gash that is between 1/4" to 1/2" long, just below her nose. She had to get four stitches that will hopefully prevent the scarring from being too bad. The doctor and nurse kept commenting on how calm she was and she held perfectly still during the procedure. The only time she really twitched was when the thread tickled her nose!

Kate got a sucker and a Thomas sticker for her troubles. Poor kid...

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Eli's New Tricks

Eli has learned some new tricks.

If you look closely you can see him flipping the ties on my shoe.


He says "Hi" and waves!

6 months old

We got these pictures taken of Eli when he was 6 months old. He is 7 months old now, but I still had to share them.

He is such a happy baby!


This is a very typical expression for our precious boy!


Aren't babies just the best things!

Friday, August 29, 2008

Arm in a sling

Yesterday, at school, Isaac fell down at recess and hurt his arm. We took him into KidsCare last night and they took some x-rays. We are waiting to get a call today as to whether or not his arm is broken, but we think its probably just sprained.

Here he is trying to be cheerful. He likes the sling they gave him.


He was nervous about going to the Dr.'s office, worrying that it would hurt, but was feeling better about it after he went.


We hope he gets better soon.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Baby eating!

We're still fiddling with the easiest way to transfer the pictures and video from our camera to our computer, so here are some follow-up baby eating videos!






Solids!

Eli is 6 months old now so we started feeding him rice cereal. This is how it went the first time.

Waiting for the eating to begin.


His first bite...


and his last bite! I think he liked it.


It sure is fun to watch a baby's expressions when they try food for the first time! It's so funny!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

"The Chunk" can sit up!

Eli has learned how to sit up. Sometimes he falls over but he can reach for toys and balance really well. I think it might help that he has a round behind. :)

Here he is with his big eyes and his alligator.


At the splash pad...


and again with the alligator, but this time eating it.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Kate's new 'do


We're pretty pleased at how Kate's hair turned out. The stylist decided that we could probably blend it in with a short bob by parting it on the other side. She did a great job of blending the rough cut that Isaac made so that it looks more natural.


Kate seems to like the new style!


If you look carefully, you can tell that some of the hair is shorter, but it really does blend in fairly well. In natural light it looks even better than it does here with the flash.

Poor Kate...


So this is the current state of Kate's hair. She loved her "wings"(pigtails) so much, but it's going to be a while before we can do her hair like that. Hopefully Isaac has learned his lesson.

Rebecca plans to take her in to a stylist today to see what they might be able to do. She'd like to do a "pixie" cut, but I'm afraid that there just isn't enough hair right there to make it look even.