Stinker Bum Bentley

Travis is my best friend, my husband, my eternal companion, that pick-me-up when I need it, my better half.  I am so grateful to have such a good husband that never makes me wonder what is most important to him.....which is me of course:).  That is until another girl stole his heart.....and his looks.  She looks so much like him and I'm completely ok with it:)!  One of my favorite moments of every day is when her daddy comes home and I get to see her trademark smile, her big blue eyes light up, and that cute little "Da-da!!" There is something special about dads and their daughters.  

As soon as "da-da" is home, she's got one hand holding onto the side of his pants and everywhere he is, she is.  She loves to go for walks, knock on the door with the back of her little hand when he is studying, get pushed around in her baby stroller or toy basket, play the piano with him, pack his shoes to random spots all over the house, wrestle, do sit ups, and gives him hugs and kisses.  She loves when we take her to a gym and always points at the net until Travis lifts her up so she can touch it. She also loves to watch him play basketball....she can pick him out every time.  And by every time I mean any time I can get her to stop running around the gym or getting into other peoples diaper bags/purses/etc.  

Of course she finds "chairs" everywhere.

These are some pics of Travis setting up her crib when we were moving into our house.  Naturally Bentley wanted to be right there next to him "helping." She kept backing up to sit on him!

She loves to show us her tongue! I love my little family and these 2 make me so happy!  And I am more than happy to share Travis with "the other woman" in our house:).  Sometimes we call her The Queen or The Boss,  but mostly Stinker Bum. (for obvious reasons)  She even answers to it.  Haha! Her dad calls her his little angel, and she takes full advantage of having him wrapped around her finger already. I can't wait to see what she gets away with in 10 years.......or maybe I can. :)

BSU

Travis and I have always been Boise State football fans, and since we have moved to Boise we have tried to take full advantage of what that means here:).  We were able to go to every home game except 2, and thats because we were on our cruise.  Which I still haven't posted...will do soon.  Anyway, besides a heartbreak here and there, it was an awesome season.  Kellen is awesome....and Doug Martin is awesome, we are excited to see how is does in the NFL.  Right after thanksgiving, we headed back to make it to the BSU/Wyoming game.  My parents came, Kade, Gabby, and her little brother Gavin as well.  We had so much fun! And it actually ended up being a nice day, we took our coats off!  Gavin is in the marching band at Madison, so I think he was more excited to see them than the football team, HAHA! We love him! Here's some pics from this game.

Kade, Gabby, Gavin

My parents.....how cute are they?!

Bentley got her face painted, scared her to death. haha. 

She loves her "papa"

Gav was so excited to get his whole face painted! 

Homecoming was against Air Force this year. It was an orange-out.  One of my best friend's family invited us to go to the game with them! We went early, and this is when Bentley met the Hamster....which like I said in a previous post, she LOVED! 

Our friends Brittany and Tyler also got to go to this game with us!

Us with (some of) the Noble's.  Love them! (I'm not so secretly hoping that Jase hits it off with this beautiful girl Carli when he gets home:)) 

Next up...TCU. The heartbreaker. But still a good time!  Got to go with Kylee and our friend Chyna came as well.  Also realized I don't have any pics of Travis and I. Go figure. 

We always park our car at the park next to the stadium, and on our way back we always let Bentley run around for a bit.  There is also the zoo right there, and usually a HUGE giraffe is out which is pretty awesome.  The weather is so so nice here in the fall, we were usually in t shirts. A nice change from SE Idaho!

OK....Carli took this pic of Bentley at the AF game.  HILARIOUS I might add!  There were a group of young boys sitting behind us that had this wig.  They were so cute, and so into the game.  Bentley of course had her eyes glued to them the whole game, and they were so good with her!!  Towards the end one of them asked if he could put this on her....We laughed pretty hard!  She wasn't sure what to think.

Football season is amplified here in Boise, it makes games so much more fun and exciting.  Can't wait for next season!

Santa Claus

Back in December we took Bentley to see Santa Claus for the first time.  We went to RC Willey and while dad stood in the super long line I walked around the store with Bentley....furniture stores are her favorite place to be.  She loves chairs. So she literally sat in almost every one. Its pretty funny how excited she gets over chairs.

Eventually we headed back to the line for our turn with the big man.  I wasn't sure how she would do, but I figured ok, since she loves the guy who dresses up as a human sized hamster at the BSU football games.....pic later...she hugs him.  So Santa would be no big deal right? WRONG.

Aftermath even required a binky!

We felt guilty enough for scaring her to death that we let her walk around some more and sit in some chairs.  She was back to her happy self in no time:).

WOW!

WOW.....I am so far behind in blogging that I'm not even going to attempt to catch up on every little thing, just some highlights.  Since the last time I blogged, we have been robbed of our propane tank to our grill,  bought a house, moved to Meridian,  painted painted and painted, replaced carpet, went home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, Bentley has grown 2 full inches (maybe more), and I have officially been called as the ward babysitter!  I'm not complaining though...yet.  ;) I really am glad I get to be with Bentley in Nursery, because what mom likes to go to church and be spiritually enlightened while having a break from their kid? Not this mom.

First....let's just start with Thanksgiving.  I almost can't even remember what we did.  It was a quick trip back home, but always so nice to spend time with family and eat some good food!  We did make some time in the morning to visit with some of our friends who we miss so much!!

Best thing about this pic....every kid is NOT looking at the camera.

Bentley loves her friend Chloe!

Finally. Her boyfriend...or one of.

Come on Cal....

Bring it in.

We have much to be thankful for! We have such great family and friends who we love and miss.  I am especially grateful to have a very energetic, happy and healthy baby girl. Normally I'd say something like Happy Thanksgiving here, but it's January, so I won't:)

Moments

Do you ever just have those moments where you are so grateful to be a MOM?

I've been having them quite often lately.  Nothing out of the ordinary, no amazing life changing story made me have these moments.

Just....... life. Life with a one year old.  Examples of "my moments": 

Took Bentley to a play group with some moms in my ward, which she loves of course.  Every few minutes she would stop what she was doing, drop the toys, and wobble on over to me to give me a hug. Then, just as fast as her chubby little arms squeezed me, she was right back onto the next fun thing.

The way she brings me her books umpteen times in a day, crawls up on my lap, and loves to be read to.

The way she kisses my knees better after she bites them.

How she only says "Mama" when she needs me.  The rest of the time, its "Dada" and she thinks it's funny to say Dada even when I ask her to say Mama.  

How she stands in the tub just to hear me say "Sit on your BUM!" and laughs and then sits down hard enough to just about splash all the water out of the tub and onto me. I don't even mind. 

How she clicks her tongue to say "tickle tickle"

The way she somehow knows when I'm down and will give me a long hug and endless (wet) open mouth kisses.  

The way she grins when she signs "Please"

The realization that it finally clicked in her little head that being "nice nice" means no pulling hair, biting, or scratching.  She will flatten out her hands, put them on my cheeks, and be soft.

I love being a Mom.  It has changed me in ways I never even knew existed.  I'm so grateful to be this sweet little girl's mom, and for my own mother as well.  I'm grateful for good friends who are awesome moms with awesome kids.  It's moments like these that remind me what this life is all about.  I can only hope that I am doing things right with my daughter, and that somehow, she will always love me as much as she does right now.  

ONE!

Our little Bentley Brenna is now one.  Which means I also have to say that I have a one year old.  I know it's cliche, but I really feel like I just had her, and was just so excited for her to smile, rollover, laugh, and finally speed crawl(this girl doesn't have a slow mode).  And then all of the sudden shes walking(running) has 6 teeth, pulls her earrings out(trying to find a solution to this) and is saying mama, dada, baby, boo, tickle tickle, and my favorite right now is "eeeewww" as in oooo scary oooo.  Everytime she sees a Halloween decoration she now says ooooooooo because thats what my mom said while showing her decorations at her house.  Her face goes to concerned mode also.  Its so funny, yet she really does get scared of the stuff so I have to be careful.  

Here is the birthday girl....she has so many people who love her to pieces.  Lucky girl!

Check out those teeth!

Love Her

Cousin Jersey came for her birthday, Bentley loves her and thinks she should be able to pack her around like her baby dolls.

Travis gave her her first real basketball

She has also started to copy animal sounds.  She won't actually say alot of words, but instead copies the tone of voice you use, which makes for good entertainment:)!  She just started to yell "MAMA" when she is ready for me to come get her out of her crib. We love her so much and are so grateful for such a happy and healthy baby girl. Who is a toddler now. We don't say that out loud:)

Good Friends!!

Over Labor Day weekend, we were lucky enough to get to see some very good friends of mine.  Kylee flew in from STG to visit her family, and we went over as soon as we could to see her.  It was the first time she got to see Bentley!  We had a lot of fun catching up, and Bentley loved their dog Precious and a huge stuffed bear Ky's mom had! I hope that Kylee and Kyle move here soon:-)  I didn't have my camera, but luckily Ky got a few pics!  I just borrowed one for this post.

 Another "NOBLE" girl that I love is Hailey!! She lives in LA doin her fashionista thing!  I met her through her sister Kylee.  I have known these girls for about 7 years now and I love them to pieces!  I am so glad Hailey fit me into her schedule for a visit before she left.  Bentley kept giving her hugs and kisses it was so cute:-) Bentley got to play with the huge bear again, but no Precious this time to her dismay! haha!  (Small pic cuz I had to get it from my phone...and this is the best I could do. Sorry Hailey!) Note: This small pic isn't fair to Hailey's larger then life personality:(

I hope to see you both again ASAP!