birthday madness.
We had an Angry Bird party for the boys this year.  We got a huge Angry Bird pinata, made some water balloon launching games, had lots of snacks and even an amazing black Angry Bird cake that I made.  Lots and lots of friends came and we had it at Los Rios Park.  Grandma even came into town especially for the party!  The kids had tons of fun and got to take home an Angry Bird treat bag with their pinata candy and some other goodies in it. 

 

 

 

gaige is 5.

We now have fish!  For Gaige's birthday I made the mistake of sending Matt to get him a fish.  Matt came home with a full on tank, rocks, decor and 3 guppies.  The boys were super excited!  For Gaige's birthday I got him and his friend Tate McDonald's for lunch and they ate it at Tate's house while they played and played and played.

Bentley was the star of the week in his Kindergarten class last week.  He took a poster into school that told the other kids about him.  His favorite food is pizza.  His favorite place is Disneyland.  His favorite thing to do is ride his bike.  And his favorite color is red.  He also got to bring Happy the hedgehog home with him for the week.  Happy made cookies with us, took dinner to Shannon with us, went to the mall, and even went to church and wore his own little tie.  Bentley kept a journal of all of the things that he and Happy did.

 

 

Elle is now 13 months old. 
She is so squishy and adorable I still can't stand it!  She can take a few steps but prefers to be carried and will often throw a fit if you won't pick her up.  She likes to hold hands with Bentley and Gaige and have them help her walk, though.  She gave me her first real kisses the other morning when Matt brought her to me when I was laying in bed.  She pressed her lips up to mine twice.  She loves to hug other babies over and over again.  She snuggles her blanket and is attached to her binky.  She jabbers up a storm and is actually pretty loud somedays. Church has now become a wrestling match with her.  Last Sunday Brother Manning took her and she fell asleep while he was holding her. When you ask her a question she answers, "Yas".  She says "Dadda" when Matt comes home.  She jumps up and down on my lap over and over again when she gets really excited.  She waves bye and waves hello to her favorite people (Becky and Cash).  The only thing she won't eat is brocolli!


reunited. 
It has been awhile since we got to hang out with some of our favorite friends from UCLA.  Truth be told I was missing my old friends.  Luckily I got to talk to most of them on the phone and even got to see Em and Kelli in the same day.  I wish they were closer, but at least they and some of my other besties are still in the state of California.

leprachauns.
The leprachauns visited our house for St. Patty's Day.  They turned our milk green and left a treasure hunt for the boys.  The treasure was a ton of green cookies.  I made the boys some straws with orange mustaches on them so they would look like leprachauns when they drank their milk! The boys were very reluctant to try our green milk.  We had green bread that night for dinner and green pancakes the next morning from the green milk.  After awhile Matt refused to use the green milk on his cereal because it was too weird!  I guess there is only so much green milk a man can take.

easters.
The Easter Bunny brought lots of prizes!  I put cute Elle in my little bunny pajamas from when I was a little girl.  She loved her easter egg.  E.B. even found the colored eggs on the counter and hid them around the house for the boys to find.  I bought the boys their first suits.  They looked so handsome in their three piece suits and new shoes.  And Elle was scrumptous in her peach Easter dress from Grams.  I wore my new dress I got back in December and saved just for Easter.  And E.B. brought Matt a new tie that was plaid and pink. We spent the day with my family and Carrie, Kaylee and Madison at my parents'.  The kids did a fun easter egg hunt and had a great time with all of their cousins.  Bentley asked me, "Mom do you know who my favorite cousin is?  When I asked "Who?" he told me, "ALL of them!"  The boys didn't last too long after church with their suits on but Uncle Marvin worked his magic with the camera and took some pictures of Elle for her first birthday.  Janni told me she didn't do anything to the color of her eyes when she edited the  pictures.  She asked if they are always that blue.  They really are that blue.

B's birthday.
Bentley turned 6 on April 2nd.  The first thing he wanted to open on his birthday was his card from Aunt Faith.  He knew it would be a singing card!  We decided to get the kids passes to Disneyland for their birthdays so I got him a Jake to hold his card.  After school I took him, Gaige and his friend Cash to McDonalds.  Then they played outside with friends and his new super soaker till it was time for their baseball game.  He did a great job in his game hitting the ball.  He still isn't much into running or paying attention.  This kid has no fast button.  But he has a ton of potential.  I brought baseball cupcakes for their game treat and then we went to Ruby's with Daddy for dinner.  It was the girl's birthday in the booth behind us so the staff came out and sang to her and brought her a sundae.  He said he did not want to do that to him.  We had them do it anyway and the look on his face was classic!  He was embarassed and excited at the same time.

elle's first birthday.

Elle turned one on April 6th.  This year has gone by so incredibly fast.  I cannot even believe she has been part of our family for an entire year.  This year with her has been so much fun.  She is an amazing little lady.  I asked Bentley what our lives would be like without her.  He told me it would be sad.  We all love her to pieces!  We had tons of family and friends come celebrate her birthday.  She loved her cake and ate it daintily, but with excitement! SHE IS SO PRETTY!

Needless to say we have been busy around here. I will not know what to do with myself when April is over! It is the craziest month of the year for us!

elle loves...
puppies, birdies, other kids, cuties (clementines), pizza, ice cream, and bottles.  Her newest tricks are blowing bubbles with her spit, clicking her tongue and crawling up the stairs.  She got her two front teeth around March 15th.  She loves to be tickled!

11 months.

Elle is now 11 months!  This past year has gone by in a blink of an eye.  I seriously cannot believe Elle is almost 1 year old.  She is still pretty happy, but we are beginning to see a stubborn streak in her, especially when it comes to food.  She loves to empty things out...baskets, purses, back packs.  She empties them out and then re-organizes everything into different piles over and over again.  She adores dogs.  When we were at the boys' soccer game we put her down to play on the grass and the next thing I know she started crawling over to some huge dogs.  She gets so excited everytime she spots a canine.  She is starting to stand up on her own once she pulls herself up. And she just started crawling up the stairs.  She'll be crawling around the kitchen and all of a sudden she has quietly climbed up the stairs without me knowing.  She loves to hug her dollies and even gave her cousin Aiva a hug the other day!  She loves watching other babies.  She likes to point to where we are going and claps everytime other people clap or we sing Patty Cake to her.  And she is a great snuggler.

reading award.

Once a quarter Ambuehl awards some of the kids on Formal Friday.  This quarter Bentley received an award for Reading and Sight Word Recognition.  His teacher said that he is the best reader in the class.  He reads to Gaige often and I even came downstairs the other morning to see them under a blanket reading a book!  He is a smarty pants.

pillow time.

The other night Elle kept snuggling Gaige's pillow.  She would grab it, throw it on the ground and then fall on top of it.  The boys had so much fun playing with her and the pillow.  She had a pretty good time too!

 
baseball.

I have now entered the world of baseball.  Bentley and his friend Cash are on the Lugnuts with another friend from school, Jackson.  Opening day was March 2nd.  Little did I know that it would consume my life for the next couple of months.  2 games and a practice every week and the games start at 4:30 leaving me to wrangle Elle the whole 2 hours!  Bentley does seem to like it better than soccer and he is doing really well.  He likes to be the catcher and though he doesn't take instruction well (just like his mom) he can hit the ball.  He still doesn't like to run and goofs off half of the time.   Cash's mom, Becky, and I have become great friends spending many hours at games and practice together!

 

 

We also took Bentley's training wheels off of his bike yesterday, March 15th.  He hopped on and took off riding right away.  He never stops amazing me with his coordination...probably because I lack that!