Dry Panties!!

Bentli has been day-potty trained since May and I was starting to wonder if she would ever wake up with a dry diaper. Since she does very well during nap time I decided to let her wear panties last night, just to try it out. To be completely honest I thought that I would be doing a load of laundry in the morning. Still I decided to let her give it a shot. We talked about waking up in the night and getting mommy if she needed to go potty. Then I let Bentli pick out a treat; she decided on a ring pop. And off to bed she went.

This morning she was yelling for me to come and get her, and since she is usually climbing on me to get out of bed, I figured she had indeed wet the bed. I went in to get her and much to my suprise I found DRY PANTIES!! We did the usually yelling and jumping praises and then Bentli went straight for her ring pop and the phone to call Daddy! I really expected to do laundry the first time I tried this, so it was a wonderful suprise for me. I just hope this isn't a fluke!

I am so proud of my big girl!

Six months!!

Wow, my little boy is six months old now. I can't believe how fast the time has gone! The time seems to really fly the second time around. Tatum is growing so fast and developing such a sweet and fun personality. He is such a smiley baby and it doesn't take much to make him give ya a toothless grin. Tate has a fascination/fear of his sister, just kidding...kind of. He absolutely loves his big sister and they will sit and laugh with each other over the silliest things, but sometimes he gets nervous when she gets to energetic and Mom has to step in. Bentli is very good at sharing her toys with her brother and will even let Tate play with her Dora bike, she likes to take care of him. I am enjoying these times, cause I know that the fighting will come all too soon.

Tate can now sit all by himself for a little bit before he falls over. His prefers to just roll around now, he explores our living room and loves to play in the blinds by our sliding door. He is now learning the army crawl and getting better at it by the hour! It has allowed him to entertain himself a lot better, which is nice for me. I'm an emotional mother too and just can't believe how fast my baby is growing up; Dad will have him golfing soon!

Summer Vacation

I finally downloaded our pictures from our vacation up to Idaho/Utah. It was a whirlwind of a vacation and we are still trying to catch our breath from it. It started at 4:30 in the morning (Jul. 23) when Jodi, obviously an amazing friend, picked us up and took us to the airport to catch our early morning flight. My Dad picked us up at the SLC Airport and off we went to Lagoon!

Bentli had a blast running from ride to ride with her two cousins, Kayda and Kenzie. She was glued to Kayda's side and was so happy to have the undivided attention of her super-cool 6 year old cousin! (I didn't have my camera on me, but we did get some great pics on my dad's camera, which I will have to get later) Bentli was the little energizer bunny, she kept going, and going, and going... until 10:00 pm without a single nap and no major meltdowns! Tate the usual little trooper and was happy as long as he had a waterbottle to chew on.

These are pics of our Pioneer Day fireworks. Bentli and Tate loved them.

Bentli found these Barbie dress up shoes at my dad's house, needless to say, she loved them and wore them until she had blisters on her little feet.

We were able to spend a very special day with my sister Melody. I was able to be her escort as she went through the temple for the first time. We are so proud of her! It was great to see Grandma Connie and Cliff who came up for the event. We spent a week in Idaho with Jared's family. Bentli and her cousin Kallon would duke it out over all the toys, but were still inseperatable. Tate was a happy, smiley baby as he got to know all the family. We won't see Daniel again before he leaves on his mission so that time with him was priceless. We had a great time jumping from activity to activity in Idaho, here are some highlights:I guess this picture proves Jared right, I am a nerd, but oh-well. It will be fun embarrassing our kids when they are teenagers right?!It took a lot of coaxing to get Bentli to sit on the surfboard.Bentli and Kallon cuddling up with Uncle Daniel.Jared went home cause he had to work, but the kids and I were able to spend a few more days with my family. Aunt CC taught Tate how to play guitar hero.Our last day in Utah, we went up American Fork Canyon to have a picnic and catch butterflies. It was fun spending the day in those gorgeous mountains.

Unfortunately, all fun must end. It is nice to be home again and see our friends here. We had a blast and loved seeing all the people we miss so much. It was a wonderful vacation. We can't wait until we can visit again!!

We love you Grandma Tubbs!!!

Well, we got home off our trip on Wednesday. We had a great time and I will write more about it later. Yesterday we received the news that Jared's grandma passed away. It was pretty sudden and unexpected. Grandma had a stroke on Wednesday night and wasn't able to recover from it. How grateful we are that we were able to see her and spend some time with her just last week.

Grandma Tubbs was a wonderful woman who ALWAYS put her family first. She was there for all the athletic events, basketball, soccer, and tennis of course. She loved watching her family play sports; in fact the first time I met Grandma Tubbs was at a tennis match. Jared and I were dating and he was playing mixed doubles with his mom. Grandma Tubbs was there to cheer on her daughter and grandson. We chatted away the whole match. I remember her saying after the match that we were like old friends. Right from the begining she welcomed me into the family and I became her granddaughter.

One of Jared's fondest memories of his grandma was when she taught him to golf at Heise Golf Course. For those of you who know Jared, you know how much he loves to golf. Grandma and Grandpa used to go golfing with their friends every week. I wish we would have gone golfing with them like we always talked about.

We have so many fun memories of our grandmother, and we will always remember her love for us and how much she loved the Lord. She loved her mission that her and grandpa served. She served many people throughout her life. Many will remember the spirit she would bring with her singing. She had a beautiful voice. We love her and will miss her as she continues her eternal journey and we are comforted by the knowledge that we will see her again someday. WE LOVE YOU!!!

Sea World, Take Two

Well, on Saturday we headed over to Sea World again after Jared got off work. We had a fun, exciting, and exhausting afternoon. We saw a lot of fun stuff; from skiing pyramids, diving sea lions, break dancing sea lions, a walrus doing sit ups, dolphins, and of coarse Shamu! Our favorite show was the evening sea lion show, it was great!

Bentli felt like she hit the jackpot, Sea World twice in one week. On the way there she saw a Wal-Mart, and concerned that we would make a detour said, "Mom, don't go Wal-Mart. We go to Sea World, OKAY!" We made it to Sea World and she clapped through every show. When we left I asked her what her favorite was, her reply, "The whales". Shamu has a lifelong fan.

Tate took a nap, but he was sick of the heat and noise, so he was on Mom's lap most of the time. He was happy as long as he had his water bottle, but if you took that away, watch out!! Overall, we had a fun time together as a family. Mom and Dad were beat by the time we made it home. The memories make it all worth it.

Sea World

Yesterday the kids and I went to Sea World with Tiff and Abigail. We had a blast. We got to watch the Sea Lion show, Bentli loved it. We enjoyed some lunch before Tiff and Abigail had to go and we went to check out the dolphin cove. We were able to see the little baby dolphin swimming around. Bentli had to go see the horses (Clydesdales) and she was pretty disappointed when I told her she couldn't ride on them. Shamu (the mascot one) was there taking pics with kids and when I asked Bentli if she liked Shamu she said "yes". I asked her if she wanted Shamu to hold her while I took a picture and she said, "No, Shamu's scary".
Tate was such a good little guy! He slept most of the time and was smiley the rest of the time. He was glad to get home and take a nap in a nice and cool place. We were all worn out by the time we got home.

Canyon Lake

This weekend we went boating with our good friends, the Jorgensons. We sure are lucky to have such awesome friends who share their toys with us!! Bentli was so excited to get the lake and get on the boat. She was glued to our sides and wasn't interested in getting in the water at all. We did have her sit on the tube with me. She wouldn't let us pull her on it though. Tatum was happy as could be all day long, definately born to play. Jared takes after his mother though and donated his wedding ring to the bottom of the lake. It fell off while he was tubing and I guess we will have to go ring shopping again. We had a wonderful day, thanks to wonderful friends!!

Tate was such a trooper!

Bentli was safe by Daddy's side
Bentli clinging to Mom on the tube.
Jared and Ben Platt (Becky, Ben was missing you!)

Jared grilling us up some lunch

Bentli having a snack with Dana Jorgenson

Bentli chill'n with Michelle Jorgenson

Dana and Tate

Two wiped out kids on the way home!!