Last Day of Kindergarten

First Day of Kindergarten

Last Day of Kindergarten

My little girl is growing up.  As much as I want her to stay little, it just isn't happening.  I couldn't be more proud of the person she is growing into. 

Bentli's last day of Kindergarten was June 12th, 2012.  She had a blast in Ms. Palladino's class.  She has learned so much this year.  She loves to read and is zipping through chapter books like its nobody's business.  She loves Judy Moody and the Junie B. Jones series. 

Tate and Macie at the Recognition Ceremony

All the afternoon classes from the Kindergarten Center

Beauty and the Beast

Bentli has now been to her first Broadway play!  When I saw that Beauty and the Beast was coming to Academy of Art in Philly, I knew I had to take Bentli.   This is the same place we went to the opera.  We bought tickets for a matinee on Saturday, June 9th.  Krista and Macie came with us and we made it a Girl's Day Out.  Bentli was so excited, she was up at 6:30 am all ready to go.  We dressed up for it and Bentli was able to pick whichever dress she wanted to wear to the show. 

The week before, I was teaching Bentli how to make friendship bracelets.  (after seeing it on pinterest, I had to teach Bentli how to do this childhood favorite of mine)  Bentli decided to make one for me, I made one for her, and we wore them on our girl's day.  I was on cloud nine that Bentli wanted to have friendship bracelets with me.  I'm treasuring this time, I'm so scared for the day to come when I am so 'completely, totally, uncool'.  haha.  Love my little girl!

Anyways, the play was awesome.  I would definitely recommend it.  My favorite song was, "Be Our Guest".  The girls were in love with it from the get-go, eyes glued to the stage.  Near the end they were getting a little tired, but they had a blast!  Bentli's favorite part was when the Beast transformed in the Prince, it was pretty cool.  It was a wonderful Mommy-Daughter Day.  Thanks Krista and Macie for coming with us!

Love the details in this theater!  The picture's color is funky from lightening the picture... it hard to get a good pic in the dark!

Easter Sunday

Ben-tee

Bentli at 2 yrs old. Just a sweet sweet face!

Ben-tee. That is what we heard constantly from Tate up until about a year ago. He can now pronounce Bentli's name correctly, and that is the name ringing throughout our house. Ben-tee has stuck though, and we love to affectionately call her Ben-tee every now and then. As I sit down to write this post to Bentli, I'm a little unsure of how to phrase things. I don't want you all to think that I am one of those moms. You know, one of those mothers who think that their child is the most amazing, smartest, cutest kid around. But, lets face it, I am one of those moms. Because I do have the most amazing, smartest, cutest kid!

I have to be one of the most blessed mothers. Bentli is the best big sister. I have seen the 'mama-bear' in Bentli come out when her little brother was being picked on. A little part of me wanted to help calm her down and teach her a rational way to solve the problem. But honestly, most of me was just so proud of her. So proud that she would stop her own game and jump in to help her brother, that she viciously came to his protection. She loves her little brother, she spoils him more than I do, she's always picking up his toys for him.

Bentli loves to draw, she is our artist. Give her a sketch pad and pencil or markers, she will be entertained for hours. I don't know where she got it from, but I love it! She is a wonderful reader. She has taken to it so well. I feel a little bit like a fake because we really didn't have to do much for her to learn. We have started her on chapter books now and she is currently reading the "Junie B. Jones" series. She is a wiz at scripture and article of faith memorization in church. One morning I woke up to hearing Bentli teaching Tate the 2nd article of faith in their bedroom.

Bentli loves clothes, shoes, fashion, she is a true girlie girl! And she has the sass to go with the outfit. We have already had a first 'crush'. I can't believe we are entering this stage so soon! What am I going to do?! I have a feeling that the teen years are going to give me and Jared a wild ride. I'm trying to keep her from growing up too fast. Speaking of growing up, we found her first loose tooth this morning! She is pretty excited.

Most importantly, Bentli is sweet and kind. She cares about other people's feelings, that alone makes me so proud of the girl she is growing into. Bentli knows how to love people. She loves her family and she adores her younger brother and sister. I can't even begin to write about how much I love her, about how much she has enriched my life. How can I be so lucky?!

Lucky Birthday #6

St. Patty's Day is always great fun at our house. Doubly so, because our Bentli was born on this lucky day! I can't believe she is six already. She has been waiting for the the big '6' for awhile now. Since she turned 4, she talked constantly about turning the big amazing age of 6. We had a lot of fun that day. I normally make a big green breakfast for St Patty's Day, but I made a big breakfast the day before, so we hit Micky-D's. They were pretty pumped to go out for breakfast. We came home and opened presents. She got lots of fun gifts, spoiled girl!




Springfield township has a huge St. Patty's Day parade. It was CrAzY! There were people everywhere! But it was lots of fun, lots of green and fun Irish music.

This year we cut out the big parties. As much as I love getting together with friends on these special days, it was getting to be just too much. Growing up, I loved having small family parties. Plus, my kids were getting too spoiled and expecting too much. Bentli did invite one friend over to have dinner and cake with us. We were very glad Ashley could come and celebrate with us!

Bentli's birthday dinner consisted of chicken pillows (chicken roll-ups), corn on the cob, and green milk.

I like to make fun cakes for their birthdays. This year, I sat Bentli down and we scrolled pinterest to find a fun cake. Her decision: one with tall candles. Really? Nice and easy! I decided to dress it up with a banner. I used a recipe for a key lime cake with key lime cream cheese frosting. The frosting was awesome, the cake was okay. Bentli was happy with it.



We all had a fun day celebrating this big day with Bentli. She is one amazing girl, we are so blessed to have her in our family!

Christmas 2011

Little bit late. But this usually happens when I have an overload of pictures to post. For some reason it is just so hard to get the pictures from my camera to my computer. Lazy. We had so much fun with everyone and the kids were so disappointed to go home and only have boring old mom for entertainment.

Gingerbread houses. Can you say sugar high?
I was impressed that Tate had any candy left to put on his house.

Temple Square. Andersons met up with the Spicers to enjoy the lights.
I love sipping hot chocolate while freezing my bum off.

Early Chirstmas with the Andersons. We had a pinata, a huge dinner, presents and lots and lots of good family fun.

Bentli with Baby Eden

Girl time with Aunt CC. Kayda, Bentli, and Kenzie

Tate playing Airplane with Uncle Vett

After Jared flew in, we headed up to the Spicers. We were so lucky that Santa and Mrs. Claus actually came to our house on Christmas Eve!

Funny side note: Grandpa Chris had been teasing the kids that the Grinch was going to be in Idaho for Christmas this year. Tate was very adamant and vocal that Santa needed to watch out for the Grinch!

Christmas Eve sibling gift exchange. I love watching the kids get excited about giving. I love how they ask each other twenty times if they liked the gift they got them.

Christmas morning! Bentli got her Lalaloopsy Doll and Tate got his T-Rex. They had a great Christmas!

Its almost a tradition now to go and play at Randy's gym. So much fun.

Ever since last year, Bentli has been looking forward to going skiing again. We decided to bring Tate too. He was really excited when we were renting the skis... not so much when we got to the hill. He spent most the time wrapped around my legs-- it was an awesome work out! By the end though he was laughing and having a blast, so totally worth it.

Bentli was doing so well! She was going down all by herself and having a wonderful time. Once Tate calmed down and realized how fun it could be, he was yelling "faster mom, faster.... careful, careful!"