My pool buddy

Bentlee and I frequent our pool several times a week. She loves it when we first get there but depending how many children are there for her to watch, she's done approximately 30-60 minutes later.

She's gotten the lounging thing down pretty well

Our favorite days are when daddy gets to come with us.

Our other favorite days are when Jillian and Brynlee come. She loves these girls but she also REALLY loves pool toys and she despises this thing that mommy calls sharing.

I still can't believe it's been a whole year since they looked like this:

Videogram of Bentlee's first year

This is a simple way of showing how much Bentlee has grown this last year, her fun personality, and how much love that we and so many other people have for her.

15 months

Today Bentlee had her 15 month well check, and for the first time ever, she's higher than 25% for weight, and she grew 3 inches in 3 months! There's a good chance that their calculations are a little off, but I believe that she grew a couple inches because she seems longer every time I cuddle her. Bentlee was having a blast when we first got to the office. Daddy was entertaining her with the most random things that he stole off the counter, such as rubber gloves and wooden sticks.

But all in all, it was a sad appointment. She panicked the second we set her down on the table. They told us that all 15 month-ers have the same reaction, and that it's the noise the paper makes, but I SWEAR she knew what was coming. Luckily daddy was there to make it easier for both of us. He held her down while I hid in the corner. We were pretending to "let" each other be the one to stay with her while they did her shots, and luckily the nurse assistants didn't wait for us to come to an agreement, so I casually snuck away to the corner since he was closest to her. I felt a teeny bit bad making him the mean guy but since she always prefers him to me, I wanted to be the favorite for once. Surely when they were done and he picked her up, she would leap into my arms.

She didn't.

Somehow I was the bad guy and she was mad at ME for a good 5 minutes. But eventually she came to me, and after daddy left for work I may or may not have spoiled her with cookies. And I took her to a pond near my friend Janett's house to look at ducks where there are supposedly 12 baby ducks right now. We didn't see any babies but Bentlee still loved it and cried when I put her back in the car.

I say this every time, but she is SO much fun right now. We took her to the rodeo on the 24th and she had a blast. She clapped not just when everyone else was cheering, but on her own at random times because she was so excited. She loved all the animals and even started saying horsie without us prompting. She's been repeating a lot of the things we say (like her cousin Lyla's name), and also surprising us with new ones. I won't be able to think of them on the spot and I haven't written many of them down.  She used to say uh-oh and then stopped for a long time, but it is now back in full-swing, complete with palms raised upward and a worried look on her face. It's actually pretty sad, especially when Kyle leaves for work, or after we stop skying with my family. One thing I love, and she has been saying this since 10 or 11 months, is "E-I-E-I-O" along with "Old McDonald had a Farm". She says "bye-bye" sometimes which is fun because she used to just wave. She has a new obsession with shoes and a couple weeks ago she brought me some to put on her. I said, "pretty!" and she repeated it right back. And she just said shoes when she saw this picture. I can't even keep up with how fast she is learning new things.

These 3-6 mon shoes that Aunt Stephie bought her finally fit!

She recently put two words together for the first time We ask her probably every day, "who loves mommy?" or "who loves daddy?", etc. and she shoots her arm up. Sometimes we'll chime in "I do" and the other day when I asked "Who loves mommy?" she raised her arm and surprised me with "I do" in a quiet little voice. It made my day!

She has become a champion bedtime staller. Every night when we ask if she's ready for bed she immediately snuggles into us because she knows we won't put her down as long as she's cuddling. The other night I wasn't purposely trying to threaten her, but she lifted her head off my shoulder and I said, "Okay let's go ni-nght." and she slammed her head back down. So of course, I said it a couple more times and got the same reaction. As far as bed though, we are still so lucky. Sometimes she cries for a few seconds, but that's usually it. She's even gone down without her binki a few times. She's been spoon-feeding herself things like yogurt and oatmeal. The messes she is capable of making are unbelievable. Not at all worth the time saved feeding her, but I guess she has to learn sometime.

It's fun to see her begin to understand things and act on them. Last week she came near me and I got a whiff of something awful. I said, "Oh Bentlee you're stinky!" She turned and headed towards her diaper basket, came back, dropped one in my lap and laid down in front of me. It was awesome. And yesterday I asked her to bring me the diapers and wipes, not expecting her to return with wipes but she totally did. When we brush our teeth she has to brush hers, when I blow on my food or on my nails after I paint them, she has to blow on hers too. When she finds a tissue on the floor she pretends to blow her nose, or she'll hand it to me with her nose scrunched up, making a blowing nose as if showing me what to do with it. We Skyped with my Grandma last week and I put the computer down on the floor so she could see Bentlee better. Yesterday we Skyped with her again and Bentlee patted the floor, wanting me to put it in the very same spot it was last week. My absolute favorite thing she does right now is pat the floor or seat next to her when she wants you to sit by her. Yesterday I was making cookies and she came in the kitchen and pointed to them. I gave her a small bite and she plopped down on the floor and patted next to her as if to say, "Here mom why don't you just have a seat and feed the rest of that to me".  I love watching her play with her cousins and seeing her motion for them to sit by her. It's adorable. However, when she's watching you make her dinner and she "pats" her high chair tray...not so much.

She seems to be developing OCD tendencies. If I tickle one leg or arm, she hits her other leg until I tickle that one also, and so on. Or sometimes when she lays her head on my shoulder, she'll switch to the other side after a few seconds. It's funny, but maybe a teeny bit concerning?

"No" is still her favorite word, and my least favorite. Don't get me wrong- it's cute as can be, but so naughty! Sometimes she says it with a little accent, like "Nah" and that's what really gets me. I can't help but scoop her up and kiss her face when she says it like that! She'll tell me no every time I take something away or want her to do something she doesn't want to do (like get out of cupboards, etc.) The other day she walked to the couch to steal my phone, and before I  had a chance to try and grab it she yanked it away from my direction saying, "No no no", turned, smiled, and walked away saying, "hehe". Oh, and the terrible two's seem to be starting about 9 months early around here-she pretty much has temper tantrums down. And she has gotten crazy fast at walking. When she's taking off with something she's not supposed to have it's more of a run. Basically, to sum it up, she is frustratingly adorable!!!


15 month stats

Weight: 22.4 lbs  45%
Height:  30.5 in    50%
Head:    18.5       75%

Have we mentioned that we LOVE her?!

She gets lots of attention from my Activity Days girls

Let's just say we planned a last-minute date night that day

First popsicle


More pictures and videos to follow-it's been a long day!

The-out-of-staters

We're no longer the-out-of-staters when it comes to Kyle's family. Instead it's Justin's family and we miss them! They live in Hawaii and we definitely plan on visiting them, hopefully in the near future. We were excited to have them come visit in May and we even had a short little cabin trip. It was just us, Lee and Wes, but we had fun. I think it's safe to say Tabitha and Bentlee had a blast, they really hit it off. 

Can you believe all this hair belongs to a 9 month old?? (She's now 11 months) I couldn't get enough of this baby!

This was the first time I'd seen sweet little Tabby with a toy gun, and yes she s pointing it straight at my daughter. Caught me pretty off guard, but we all had a good laugh. After playing with her older cousins all week, it's easy to know where she learned it!


What we do best while at the cabin-eat, sit around, and eat some more.

Bentlee's first date

I think it was April-maybe even Easter, when Tyler and Ash brought their boys' remote control ride-in car (not sure what it's called) to our get-together. Nixon took Bentlee on a little date, and it pretty much doesn't get any cuter than this:

We just might need to teach Bentlee how to play a little hard-to-get... 

The rest of my parent's trip

Our two priorities while my parents were here were the party and the zoo. It was nice to just hang low and play with Bentlee the rest of the time. One day we met Kyle at Cabela's during his lunch, where I knew both my dad and Bentlee would be in heaven. She especially liked the aquarium full of fish. My mom gave her little fish pellets to feed the fish in the pond, but she had a hard time grasping that concept. She kept making the motion like she was throwing it in the water but her little hand never opened to drop the food. Oh, babies. 

I love these pictures of Bentlee with her Nana and Papa. We had a blast, and are so glad they came to visit. Thanks for the memories, and for making Bentlee's birthday extra special!

Time out

I'm a little stressed that I'm 3 months behind on my blog, and when cute pictures or videos come up that I want to post, I feel like I can't because it won't be in order. But tonight my blog is timing out for this video, because it shows how funny she is right now, and the reason she stays up past her bed time every night. She's so much fun that we literally can't get enough of her!

Have you ever met a child that likes being tickled this much? Love her.

Bentlee's party

We were ecstatic to have Nana and Papa here to celebrate Bentlee's first birthday with us. We tried keeping it "small" by inviting only close family, but over 50 of our favorite people still filled our Clubhouse that day, and we were so glad. Bentlee's reaction to everything at her party pretty much sums up what I've learned about parenting this last year: she is completely unpredictable.

When Kyle and I went shopping for her gifts, we decided to get a kitty pool and 250 balls to make a little ball pit for her and her cousins at the party. We anticipated her reaction for weeks, knowing she was just going to LOVE it.

She hated it.

She was downright terrified, didn't even like the sound of other kids playing in it. But that was okay, we still had the cake. Bentlee's own, delicious but so beautiful you almost don't want to eat it cake that Aunt Amber made JUST for her. It was going to make her whole day. I couldn't wait to see those blue eyes light up and watch her face get messier and messier as she dove further in. We had both the camera and video camera ready to capture it all, until she had eaten so much that we would finally have to pull the cake away so she wouldn't get sick.

We got nothin'.

She became timid as if she were afraid of the cake. Like it was going to eat HER. She finally realized it wasn't so bad once we started shoving it in her mouth (despite her tears) but even then it was nowhere near the reaction we hoped for.

Oh well. At least she looked really cute. And the food was yummy, thanks to everyone that helped. But most importantly, she shared her special day with everyone she loves most!

The picture of her looking out the door is when she watching papa grill the hot dogs amidst all the kids and the chaos inside-love it!

It was a good day.

Shout out

Just wanted to give a shout out to one of my BFF's, Lindsey Tanner. She works for Designer Blogs and designed this template. My blog has been mega boring for so long because I've been meaning to get one of hers, I just never got around to it thinking it would take a while.

It took like 7 seconds.

Not only is Lindsey super talented, but this template just happens to be named Bentlee. You know you have a good friend when they name one of their designs after your baby. :) Seriously love it and I love her work. There's a link on the bottom of my blog to Designer Blogs. They have pre-made templates like this one, that literally take seconds to upload to your blog, and they also do custom work for blogs and websites where they work with you individually to design exactly what you want.

Thanks again Linds!

One Year

I have a bad habit of starting new posts before I finish others. I guess I'd better finish Bentlee's birthday posts before she turns 2.

I attempted to take her 12 month pictures myself and sort of failed doing so. She was extremely busy that day and crawled away every time I sat her down so I finally gave her a cookie. Needless to say, the best pictures I got were of her stuffing her face. Even though none are perfectly posed, there are lots that turned out cute and brought out her goofy side.

Nicknames: Bentee (came from her cousin Gracie), Bent (I said we would never do it, but here we are), Benz, Benzee

Favorite foods: Yogurt, fruit, pasta (I honestly can't think of anything she doesn't like, at least not consistently. Some things, like avocados, are hit or miss)

Favorite toys: Balls (she has freakishly good aim-her Uncle Jeremy discovered that last time we were home) and lately her baby dolls, and little doll stroller that she carries around instead of pushes

Words she says frequently: Mama/Mom/Mommy, Dada/Daddy, Doggie, Kitty, Baby, Ow, Abby

Words she has said a few times: Skyler, Nana, Papa, Baby, More, Hi, Bye, and other random things she has copied us say

   Stats: 19 lbs 11 oz - 25%

Length: 27 inches - 20%

Head: 18 inches - 70%

 It's hard to put into words how much we love this little girl and how our lives have changed in the most wonderful way this last year. We love her spunkiness as much as we love her sweetness. I love that even thought she's becoming quite independent, like needing to hold her own fork at dinner, she still needs me whenever she's sad or gets hurt. I love the way she points to her rocking chair every morning when I pick her up out of her crib, even if the rocking only lasts for 4 seconds. I love the way that she takes her binki out of her mouth, whether she's blowing a kiss or giving a real one-somehow that makes it more heartfelt. And I LOVE the way she presents me with kisses all on her own at random times throughout the day and gives not 1 or even 2, but 3, 4, or 5 at a time. I love the way she "dances" though I'm not sure it can really be called that, as all she does is shrugs her little shoulders. I love the way she lights up whenever daddy walks in the room, and even the way she prefers him to me sometimes. I love the way she says "Ow" when she runs into something but then keeps on going as if it didn't phase her at all. And I LOVE the way her chubby little legs waddle around clumsily- I'm going to be sad when she walks more steadily. I love the way she climbs up just the first 3 steps on our stairs and then holds onto the railing, smiling as she waits for me to come "scold" her. I don't love the way she pulls everything possible out of our bathroom cupboard while I'm getting ready, and also the kitchen cupboards and drawers while I make dinner I love that she can entertain herself while I'm busy getting ready in the morning, or in the kitchen making meals. I really, really, love that she still cuddles me, especially when a bottle is involved. I love her developing personality even though the angel status is quickly fading into something some might call an attitude (I guess you can only blame it on teething for so long). I love absolutely EVERYTHING about this child of mine. I feel like she completes us, but I can't get enough of her. Which makes me excited to have more kids in the future, if that makes any sense. If all of our babies are easy and as sweet as Bentlee, we just might have 5 dozen. :)

Here's to the first year of Bentlee's life, the best year of ours, and many wonderful years to come!!