9 MONTHS

It has been a big month for all of us. The most exciting news is that after 4 weeks, Bentlee got her cast off! Her leg isn't 100% healed, but new bone is growing in really well. It's not as dense as it will be, but she is doing great-still crawling around like crazy. That leg is just a little weak, she's not putting much weight on it when we stand her up. I still can't believe we went 4 weeks without a problem, and then 4 hours before her appointment, she had a blow up which resulted in this:

Needless to say, we were hesitant when asked if we wanted to keep the cast. (We actually did...they assured us we could take off the white padding and just soak the pink part)

The process of removing the cast was a little sad because the "saw" was loud and made her leg vibrate quite a bit. She didn't love it. Daddy held her hand which made it a little easier.

Within a week after I wrote Bentlee's 8 month post, she started waving, clapping, and playing peek-a-boo all on her own. She started crawling all over as well. Before she got her cast, she was crawling a tiny bit at a time (the first time we noticed it was Thanksgiving day), and about 2-3 weeks after she broke her leg she took off. I walked from my room to her room to put something away, and when I started back to my room I found her halfway there, following me on her hands and knees! And on Sunday, the day she turned 9 months, she cut her first tooth! Let's just say if she handles every new tooth the way she did this one, I will survive. :) Bentlee has been SO much fun. This is by far my favorite stage so far. She brings pure joy to our lives, and smiles to complete strangers.

Many babies have the ability to make airplane rides loud and torturous. My sweet girl simply provides enterainment and laughter. She and I flew to Michigan on Monday and we were surrounded by men on the plane. She smiled and flirted with every one of them the WHOLE time. At one point she was giggling and I turned around to find one of them playing peek-a-boo with her. She fell asleep eating as we were taking off, and when the flight attendant came around with the drink cart and asked not so quietly if "WE WOULD LIKE ANYTHING TO DRINK?" Bentlee's head shot off my shoulder and she stared up at her with an insta-grin, looking back and forth from her to the drink cart, as if she just woke up to the coolest thing in the whole world. Despite my efforts to bounce her back to sleep, she was perfectly content with her bag of pretzels which I requested for that purpose only (you know you're a mom when....) and smiling at one guy to the next, while periodically touching the man's arm next to us ever so affectionately, almost to the point of embarrassment. The flight attendants wouldn't stop talking about how happy she was, and a lady we met at our gate kept coming over and talking to her.

Two things that I'm surprised she hasn't learned yet are taking her binki out to eat, and feeding herself finger foods. If I cut up a banana and put it on her highchair, it is mashed and on the floor within seconds. And if I feed her puffs or other snacks, she holds as many as she can in her fist, for as long as possible. It's kind of cute, but I'm ready for her to grasp this concept. On the other hand, this means she doesn't put anything, including non-edible items in her mouth, which is very nice. She's funny because she'll notice a microscopic crumb on the floor several feet away, crawl over to pick it up and examine it for minutes. But I've never seen her put anything in her mouth.

I love getting Bentlee out of crib. Whether it's in the morning, after naps, or if I'm waking her up to go somewhere, she gets the sweetest little grin on her face when she hears my voice, sometimes before her eyes are even open. And when I pick her up I get the most enthusiastic little pats on my shoulder and chest. 

She still adores other little people. We had my cousins Daisy and Anna over for a sleepover last week and a couple different times I had to bring Bentlee upstairs (away from them) for a minute or two, and she threw a FIT! Like, a tantrum of a two year old, complete with banging her head on the floor. It was hilarious. I didn't know she had it in her. The second we went downstairs and she spotted them again, she was as happy as a clam.

Our November trip

Since we weren't planning a trip to Michigan during the Holidays, we decided to surprise my family in November. Long story short, I ended up telling my mom and sister that we were coming but we completely surprised my dad, brother, Skyler and Gracie, my grandmas, and everyone else!

Home sweet home

We knocked on my parent's door at 6:45 pm right as they were about to sit down for dinner. My dad was caught so off guard that he wouldn't even open the door until he knew who we were. The look on his face was priceless when he realized who it was.

It took 2.5 days to get there, but not because of the baby in tow. She was perfect. Snowy/icy roads held us up the first night, and the second night we decided to spend with Kyle's Aunt Chris and Uncle Scott in Iowa.

We got there just in time to Brad and Cami's families for Sunday dinner. It was my first time meeting them so I'm really glad it worked out. They provided great hospitality and after a good night's sleep the next 8 hours of our trip was a breeze!


A few of my favorite Michigan moments:

We play-doughed with Grandma V....

And papa, who made us all laugh with his ridiculous sculptures

We introduced Kyle to ear candling

Gracie and I went to lunch with Nana. Can you tell someone adores her?

Gracie and Skyler dressed up like their cool Aunt Kiki

Bentlee played with toys at Grandma V's for the first time

And she got some snuggling in with Grandma H

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The drive to Michigan was so nice that we decided to take our time going back as well. We stopped in Kansas City where Kyle served his mission. It was fun to go to a place where Kyle spent so much of his time and has great memories of. He took me to Liberty Jail which was really neat. It is located in the same place that it once stood, but they built a replica of the jail. A sister missionary gave us a tour and bore her testimony of what happened here. It was just us 4 in the room, but the spirit was so powerful.  Joseph Smith was imprisoned and treated terribly there because his beliefs, and although it was extremely hard to be away from his family, he didn't give up hope. Instead, he grew closer to the Lord and received more revelation. He was an amazing man, and the reason our church was restored. He and his family went through so much persecution but never gave up because what they believed was real. I'm so grateful for his faith and great example. 

There's more information about it here: http://josephsmith.net/josephsmith/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=b2d3da73c0b52010VgnVCM1000001f5e340aRCRD

I'm not sure why I look like a freaky ghost in this picture. Scary.

The Kansas City temple which was dedicated last year

After that we went to a BBQ restaurant for the famous food that he's been promising me for years and that night we stayed with friends of Kyle's, the Smiths. They took good care of him when he lived there. Daryl was working but we chatted with Diana for a while. They are such a nice family. The next day we drove to Denver and stayed with Tom and Paula. Kari, Mark and Shannon, and Jamie and Emma all came over so it was a lot of fun. (Hailey was sick with Strep so Sarah stayed home with her) Emma is the cutest little thing and as always, had us all cracking up. Jamie sent me some cute pictures of her with Bentlee but for some reason I can't get them to load, and unfortunately I didn't take any pictures myself that night. I always enjoy being with my dad's family. If we weren't so tired from our trip and didn't have another 8 hours to drive the next day, I could have stayed up all night talking to Tom and Paula.

Somewhere in Kansas or Missouri

Our first cross-country road trip was so successful that I'm ready to plan our next one. Think she'll be as good next year when she's 18 months? Yeah probably not...

Christmas Day

On Christmas morning we slept later than we meant to. We had to wake Bentlee up so that we could open gifts before we headed to Kyle's parents for a big breakfast. The giant gifts were for me from Kyle. They were awesome gifts, but would have only required boxes 12 times smaller. Bentlee got an exersaucer from us and luckily we gave it to her early so she was able to use it for a week or two before she broke her leg. Santa brought her a few things that she opened on Christmas as well. She She loves her new little activity walker. The sleepers were items she needs (sort of) and the movie Cinderella was a must since it will soon be going back in the vault. :)

Her stocking stuffers were nothing special but as you can see Bentlee loved them and they made for great pictures. I like how she's holding the puffs up in the last one, as if she's showing it to us.

I think she was most excited about this old wreath of ours that Kyle wrapped up to fool me.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out in Elk Ridge

where Bentlee partied hard....

I love Christmas and love spending time with family! By far my favorite time of year. Dreading January and February.....