Little Betty

Betty's homework was making a little replica of himself. 

I think he did a pretty awesome job. 

He chose everything on his person, he even chose what NOT to put on his person, like shoes. 

We were brainstorming what we should use as hair- he originally wanted cooked spaghetti but after I told him it would get yuck he said 

"How Bout sparkles?"

"Sparkles?"

"Yeah, like the sparkles on cupcakes..."

And he told me exactly how he wanted the glue and he carefully pressed the stars in a row. 

Then he bawled himself to sleep when I told him he couldn't keep it. 

Preschoo open house

Today was the preschool open house. 

It was also the day I decided to become a big ol puff ball.

 (Like puffer than ever before, if you could imagine)

...maybe it's cause I only have 4 WEEKS left! 

Anyway, back to Benners...

Isn't he cute? 

He was so excited to come to preschool and meet Ms. Janeece! 

He even wore his batman backpack! 

He found his name right away! 

There are 8 other kids in his class- and all of them are kids we know! It's fantastic!

He got to paint a car, and play with toys...ms. Janeece even took his picture! 

He's been nervous about preschool all week, to the point he was in tears last night- but he left this morning feeling great and really looking forward to Tuesday! 

Creeper ba feeper

Ew. 

This picture gives me the hee·bie–jee·bies

(I had to look up how to spell it- that's how important it was to use that word to accurately describe how creeped out I get)

That's Grady.

He was sooooo excited over the Halloween aisle at dollar tree 

(That mask screams high quality dollar tree mask huh?) 

I don't even know what the poo it's suppose to be! 

But he put it on then called for me to turn around and look at him and I screamed like a little girl. 

And he laughed and asked if I would take his picture. 

The kindergartner

Grady had been counting down the days until Kindergarten would start since June.

His mom has been trying to talk him into online school since June.

He wasn't having it. 

All night last night we chatted, he ask a zillion questions ranging from germx to buses to friends. 

He picked out his own clothes,

Decided how he wanted his hair done,

(Kinda. He wanted it to come down and curl in the middle, like astro-boy maybe?)

And was sure to put his Spider-Man sweat band on "to look super awesome"

We stopped by the market and got.an apple for his teacher, and because she's also a good friend of mine we got her a chocolate donut and some chocolate milk too. 

I could tell as we pulled up, and parked halfway down the street that Grady was getting a little nervous. There were people everywhere! But we did manage to find the Noel's and they helped us make our way through the masses. 

(Daddy had court that morning so he wasn't able to be there. But he was able to stop by on his way home and wave at Grady through the window.)

He hung up his backpack and got his name tag on, and I was trying to decide whether I should hug him AND kiss him goodbye or maybe just hug and high five him (I don't want to ruin his street cred on the first day) but as I bent down to give him a hug he turned up and gave me a kiss "I love you mommy" yes! He isn't too cool for his mom just yet. 

I probably would of started crying if I wasn't already dripping from the humidity and from lugging two 50 pound babies around. 

Afterwards we me on the patio for a PTO meeting. They had oranges and muffins and I sat there and sweated some more and tried to make conversation with people. 

The rest of the day was awfully boring. 

Bentley and I didn't quite know what to so with ourselves and every 10 minutes he would ask "you go pick up Grady now???" So all 4 of us napped until I had to go pick him up. 

And when I did he had to show me his awesome kindergartner moves. 

(The tongue out is a trademark of his dad.)

Grady doesn't ever say much about his day, getting info out of him is like pulling teeth (he also gets that from dad)

But he seemed like he had a good day, 

He told me that he didnt eat his green beans but his chicken nuggets were very yummy! He said he got smacked in the face with the tether ball but didnt bleed.

And when I asked him if he was nervous about school he said "no, I'm not nervous about school- I just get nervous about the dentist!" 

(And that, he gets from his mom.)

Birthday song

Birthday wish from Chile

A special birthday wish from our little missionary we miss so very much! 

Morgie

This is how Morgan sits when he's comfy. In the car, on my lap, in his high chair. It makes me smile. And I'm so happy Wy thought to take a picture of it.  

Chiclet teeth

DO look at Grady's huge chiclet tooth coming in. 

DO notice how he hasn't lost the other two front teeth yet.

But DON'T notice how his fingernails are scary long. (Who are his parents??)

Come on teeth! Fall out!

Grady's been patiently waiting for a visit from the tooth fairy. 

6 going on 85

Grady has an old soul, he is wise beyond his years. And most times makes Wyatt and I laugh at how mature he is. 

He doesn't laugh at silly things.

He says "silly things make my smarts go away" 

He is usually parenting his little brothers,

And even told me once 

"Mom, you just need to calm down."

As I was having a pregnancy meltdown in the car. 

He's ALWAYS listening, and questions anything he overhears. 

He wants to be a half police officer/half meteorologist when he grows up. 

He wanted to pack 72hr kits for his birthday, but luckily we talked him out of it. 

He's so smart and loves learning! He already knows how to add and subtract.

He knows over 100 sight words and has the best memory I've ever seen. 

His favorite color is blue, he loves to bowl  and I love that he's still not too old to snuggle with his mom and dad! 

xoxo gamer ba famer. 

I love you! 

-mommy ba fammy

The accidental pirate party

The Cake 

Present from mommy

Present from grandma & grandpa

Present from daddy 

(That he opened the very minute he rolled out of bed)

The toys he bought from his friend Cameron Wright with the money Oma & Papa sent...

Jumping jacks was closed so we ended up here...

Grandpa & Grandma Holland sent a funny dog card and $10

"I can't believe grandpa gave me soooooo much money!"

We started celebrating the night before with a picnic in our pjs at the park, and Bentley gave grady the present he got for him, a boomerang! 

Happy Birthday my sweet little boy! 

I love you more than you'll ever know! 

IV Therapy

Some of the characters I see at IV Therapy are downright hilarious. Old people, rednecks, old rednecks. And we're all kinda packed in these comfy recliners like sardines. So it's really hard to not hear others conversations, and ask mr. Oliver I'm a pro eavesdropper anyway, but I makes the time go by fast anyway- and makes getting poked in the arm worthwhile if it comes with a good laugh too. :) 

Way to go Morgie!

The only good thing about having a little one with gross motor delay is how much more excited everyone is when they reach their milestones! Morgan was about 11 months before he could even pull himself up to stand but when he did- you would of thought he won the Super Bowl! The boys were hooting, I was hollering- and that's why he has a confused and slightly frightened look on his face...now he pulls himself up on everything and even has taken a couple steps. Marsden says we can expect him to be walking around 18-20 months but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a little bit before then. 

Joys of boys

It's tough being hot lava.

Especially when your 11 months and just wanna play with your brothers but don't understand why the scream and run away from you or won't let you on their cushion lifesaver raft. 

Poor morgie. 

Long ago: 4th of July

By accident, we found the best place in Mesquite to watch fireworks.

I had heard Marilynn Redd park was THEE spot, but since I'm almost thirty I hate crowds and I hate teenagers. (It comes with old age.)...but somehow after driving around for an hour we ended up there. It wasn't even crowded!- because it was 8:45. It wasn't until 8:49, after I got all situated and comfy on the blanket that the riff raff teenage crowd started showing up, and sitting way to close to my perfectly selected spot...

At 8:54 I had given up trying to intimidate the youngins away and just vowed to bring duct tape next year to rope off "our" section. The kids had been playing in the sprinklers at the bottom of the hill, and they were now treking back up the hill because they had turned off. 

Why it never occurred to me that the sprinklers would turn on somewhere else I don't know. But I wasn't even halfway through my melted ice cream sandwich before I heard them start to turn on just 2 feet away from me. I panicked and I'm sure watching a big ol pregnant lady shove the rest of her Ice cream sandwich in her mouth while swooping up bags and shoes and blanket and baby will be something the spectators will never forget. Needless to say we ended up in the hot concrete slab sidewalk on the other side of the street. Right next to out van, but wouldn't ya know, it made the perfect spot. Nothing blocking our view and no adolescents to annoy me. 

Long Ago: Navajo Lake

It's funny how sometimes we think things are going to be super fun 

(ie. "lets go to the 4th of July festivities at the park! That sounds really fun!)

And every year we forgot about the hoards of people and we forget how 115 at the park feels. And we leave there thinking "lets never do that again..."

Only to get amnesia the next year.

On the contrary, we spent the entire afternoon trying to decided whether we should drive up to the lake "it's 40 degrees cooler, and they have ice cream...eh, maybe we outta stay here and sweat to death instead" ....

But! We decided to just jump in and go, and boy are we happy we did! 

The kids had a blast building fire pits, throwing rocks and peeing in bottomless poop toilets. 

Grady refused to use the "toilet with no bottom" but he refused to drop his drawers in the open....

But eventually he decided he'd take the risk of someone seeing his weinee over what might be lurking in the endless stinky hole...

Oh the tough decisions of a 5yr old boy.

After that whole drama we drove aways down to duck creek village for some strawberry ice cream...

And we went on a vigorous .5 mile hike around the campground. The three amigos we sure we were on some grand adventure, stranded in the middle of nowhere. 

Morgan was less amused, and refused to have his picture taken...just kidding I don't know why he's not pictured. Probably cause he's #3 and were crappy  parents like that. 

Anyway, we had a wonderful time! And it was slightly depressing to watch the temperature climb 40 degrees reaching 113 at 8:00 pm in Mesquite. So I asked Wy if he'd be willing to drive 120 miles to work everyday...

Oh look! There's Morgan. :)

Cross it off the bucket list.