Ever wonder how much fun a family can fit into one day?

I still need to post about Michigan but since that will take me a year, I'm going to squeeze Labor Day in first.

Labor Day means Payson Onion Days to us, and it's always a fun day spent with Kyle's family. All the brothers intended to participate in the 5K that morning, but it ended up being just Kyle and Justin (and Tabby). We aren't sure how many people participated overall, but it was a lot, and Kyle took 26th place, and 5th in his age group. Justin crossed the finish line soon after Kyle, pushing Tabby in the stroller. They accidentally had him down for the 10K, so it showed him winning 1st place overall, with a 4 minute mile average. He's hoping to see his name in the paper. :)

After the race we went to Lee and Maxyne's for a big breakfast, and then went back for the parade. I was a little nervous Bentlee wouldn't be digging the loud sirens, but her bottle was distraction enough during the beginning and then she surprised us all and slept through the rest. Babies are so unpredictable!

I get a kick out of advertising campaigns parades. There was definitely the normal candy throwing. But there were other interesting goodies as well. One guy was passing out notebooks. Can't remember what his company was, ironically enough. Our friend's mom owns a flower shop in Payson and they handed out flowers. But my favorite was probably the popcorn from the local movie theater because there's nothing like movie theater popcorn at 9 am. There was a cool float here and there, but mostly just company after company passing out fliers and coupons.

                                                            Yes, those would be donkeys.

                                         Tabs was so darn cute. She's the lil runt of the family.

Hearing this music always makes me nostalgic for Alma's Highland Festival

Nixon!

                                                                              Lyla!

Ryan bought his boys these cool umbrella hats. Of course, the boys didn't find them nearly as interesting as Lydie and Ryan himself.

Ezra and Maddox jumped on these cool bungee trampolines, and then Tyler showed them up with some mad flips.

After the parade, we went to Lee and Maxyne's to barbeque, and then the girls took off for the craft show, leaving all the kids with their daddies. We received this text from Justin while we were gone:

                             Take your time. Just enjoying baby arm wrestling. Nixon's in the lead!

When we returned, the boys started their semi-annual tennis tournament (not really, they do these randomly but they seem to fall on Memorial Day and Labor Day) and the kids played on Grandma and Grandpa's new swing set. And the girls did what we do best- chat, nurse our babies, and console injured children.

                                        Can you believe Nixon is 10 days younger than Bentlee?

                                          Abby was sporting her new cape from the craft show

We finished the day with pizza and then Amber and Wes and Noel went off to take engagement pictures! 

I love Holidays!

4 MONTHS

This is a big month for Bentlee because she is in Michigan for the first time! We arrived a week ago today, and are still here for 2 more weeks. So far she has met her Uncle Jeremy, Uncle Mitch, Grandma Hinton, Aunt Karla, Aunt Gail, and cousins Aubrey, Michael, and Carlee, everyone at the Weiferich family reunion, and my BFF Ashley for the first time. To say that she is being spoiled would be an understatement. This morning she was pretty fussy while we rocked and she didn't calm down until Aunt Stephanie scooped her up and began walking around with her. Something I have never had to do until we came here.

Last Monday we flew from Salt Lake to Phoenix, then Phoenix to Detroit and Bentlee was perfect the whole time. I think the people sitting near us were pleasantly surprised. The flight attendant on the second flight fell in love with her. She stopped to talk to her several times and even gave us a certificate for her first time flying.

Randoms:

I guess she likes to show off more for her daddy because she has now rolled over both ways several times and I've only witnessed it once.

She still buries her head in our arm when she gets really tired. Case in point:

Even Skyler can put her to sleep!

At home she's always smiling and giggling but she's much more serious when we are in a new place or around new people. It's funny to watch her bob her head around and take in her surroundings. I wish she would show off her cute laugh for my family though!

She loves and sometimes even needs her bunny or a blanket against her face to fall alseep. My favorite thing is when I give her her binky and she grabs my hand as fast as her little hands can, holding tight while I try to let go. Other times she just needs a finger to hold. She's not high maintenance at all. :)

Nursing isn't going as well as it did the first few month so we've been supplementing formula here and there. I love nursing and will be really disappointed if we have to stop. I am trying hard to keep it going, but I'm also preparing myself in case it doesn't. I have so many friends that couldn't nurse at all, so I'm grateful for the 4 months that I have. And I'm glad that we've always given her formula every once in a while because now she isn't picky about what she eats, or what kind of bottle she takes it in. Before we came to Michigan I stopped at her Pediatrician's office to have her weighed and she had actually lost almost a whole pound. That's when I started supplementing formula and we've already noticed a difference. She's never looked unhealthy or anything, but she's almost starting to look a little chubby to me now. We went away for a night this week and were gone only 36 hours but I SWEAR she got bigger!

Words can't express how in love I am with this baby. The way she grins at me almost every time she sees me makes my heart melt. Often when I will look at her, her arms and legs are kicking and she's grinning up at me as if trying to get my attention. 

I was helping Skyler find something to wear our first morning here, and I was just as excited as she was to discover they had matching dresses. I just so happened to have matching headbands as well!

Bentlee loves her cousins!

It just doesn't always show.

Love these pictures! According to Skyler, this toy laptop is Bentlee's favorite toy.

How cute is her arm hooked around Skyler's?

Bentlee's first tea party! 

Clearly, she was stoked.

Did I mention they adore each other?

I started writing this on the 13th and finally finished now. Today is Saturday and we leave a week from Monday. In case there was any confusion.

Time

Earlier this week I had a day with nothing to do so I literally spent every waking minute being lazy and holding my baby. Dishes stayed piled in the sink and laundry spilled over the hamper. And I have no regrets. I was devastated yesterday morning to hear that my friend's 4 year old niece passed away from Leukemia. I have been following her sister's blog and knew that things weren't going as well as they hoped, but I have been praying and rooting for her along with so many people and really hoped she would make it. I know she is in a better place and is no longer suffering, but my heart is broken for her family and the pain that they are and will continue to go through. It is something that would have affected me at any point in my life, but today it's really hitting home as I sit here holding my baby. I know Bentlee is a daughter of God and He gets to take her back some day. I am so blessed to be given this chance to raise her, and I am going to keep loving her like cazy, spend ridiculous amounts of time holding her, and cherish every day because we never know how much time we have.

3 MONTHS

Our baby is 3 months old today! It's amazing how fast time flies, and it's amazing how my love for her keeps growing. Every night when I lay her down, I think to myself that I couldn't possibly love her any more. And then I wake up the next morning to her grinning at me from ear to ear, and I do.

Remember when she was brand new and I feared her unhappiness? Thank goodness for the facial expressions she is able to make now! Every time she smiles at me I breathe a mental sigh of relief. I can't wait to hear her laugh for the first time. She's so close. A couple times she's given me a really soft, short giggle, (like "Ah hah") but that's it. One of my new favorite things is how often and how loud she coos. Last night while I was changing her diaper (which, by the way, she usually hates) and right about to give her a bath (which she also still hates) she was cooing the cutest, happiest coos and grinning at me like I was the coolest person in the world. Needless to say, she went to bed "dirty". :)


I love when she smiles at me so big that her binky falls out of mouth. And even though it's really sad, her pouty face is just about the cutest thing you'll ever see. If she keeps it up for the next 18 years, we're in serious trouble.

                               This picture shows her starting to pout, but definitely not all the way

Yesterday Kyle was holding her and pulled one of his "Oops did I accidentally scare you?" tricks by waiting around the corner when I came out of the room. I jumped and let out a weird shriek which scared the living day lights out of poor Bentlee. She jumped a mile, never cried, but gave me her sad little pouty lips for the longest time. Nice one daddy!


When she's super tired, her latest thing is to bury her head as far into your elbow pit as she can. It's adorable, but you have to check every couple minutes that she can breath. On the rare occasion that she's super fussy and nothing else is working, all I have to do is help her get into that position and she's asleep within seconds.

When I got Bentlee's play mat out a few weeks ago she wasn't too interested. She would look at us instead, completely oblivious to the toys hanging above her. She has started noticing the toys this week though, and she sometimes stares at her reflection in the little mirror. I am already realizing how lucky we are to live in a time with so many toys. Babies survived back in the day without bouncy seats and swings, so clearly they aren't a necessity. But I sure appreciate them, especially when I'm doing lashes. If Bentlee gets bored in her swing, I just move her to her bouncy or play mat. If I'm feeling especially neglectful, I will run next door and grab my 11 year old neighbor Maddie. She loves Bentlee and the feeling is mutual. Bentlee will even cry sometimes when she sets her down, which I think makes Maddie feel pretty good.

She LOVES her dad. As I knew she would. Remember how Jillian would often be consoled by only Kyle? We are already reliving that. As I knew we would. He has a certain way he holds her that is her favorite, with her back against his chest facing out. He also happens to have a really bad case of tendonitis in his left arm that isn't getting better. Any guesses why?

I could go on and on about what a happy baby she is, but I've also still been worried that she's teething already. Aside from the obvious sign (drool, drool, and more drool) she still seems a little more sleepy and fussy than she used to be. Last night at Stacy's baby shower Ashlee was sitting next to me and caught a glimpse of Bentlee's gums and confirmed my fear. Teeth. They haven't cut through but there are two little white spots under her gums. I noticed them a few weeks ago but the people I pointed them out to didn't know if that's what they were so I tried to forget about it. But Ashlee's reaction went something like this,       "(Gasp) Those are teeth. Kristen. Those are teeth!" She said Ezra's looked exactly the same when he got his. And Nixon is Bentlee's age so she understands how early it is and was able to freak out with me a lttle last night. I seriously wanted to cry. My baby is too young for teeth! I don't want her to hurt, and, well...I don't want to hurt either if ya know what I mean...


Today I decided to film her waking up so I could capure how happy she is in the mornings. At 10:30 she was STILL sleeping so I turned on the light and and started talking to her (I'm sure I'll be just as nice when she's 16). Excuse my annoying voice.