He's FOUR and we ADORE

We celebrated another birthday this week.

This deep dimpled spitfire we named Bentley Armour turned FOUR!

 

On Wednesday, his actual birthday, we went in to have lunch and ice cream with Daddy and Gramma Mary. How delicious does this ice cream cone look? The birthday fella was fighting a bug so he didn't take more than a few bites, but when he wants to try again, we will concur. Gladly :)

 

At 4 years old, Bentley's deep dimples bring us joy and we experience a love for him that comes from deep within our hearts. He's stubborn, strong willed, a screamer, a stomper, a major fit thrower, a "NO!!!"-er - but is also a tenderhearted brother, a nuzzler, hand kisser, giggler, inquisitive, great sharer, and focused. Bent brings a smile to our faces and an exploding love to our hearts!

 

Bentley's sweet smile and dimples often reminds me of the inner beauty of people. He's a sassy guy and often frustrating but he's also got that face and sweet eyes that bring me back to center...that remind me of just how beautiful and tender God created people. He is my reminder in so many ways that we are not our own and we need to be led by the hand by the One who knows all! And I love him SO much more for that!

 

Wow, this is THE day we welcomed him into our family. I can remember it all SO clearly, as if I had just experienced it. Auntie Sarah was living with us then and she had brought an unsettled little Coy in to the Birth Center to be with us. They dozed downstairs while Logan and I labored so hard to bring about this little guy into the world. After an undescribably incredible water birth, Coy came up to meet his brother. It was an overwhelming moment...these two meeting and knowing they'd be lifelong friends. Our days got busier, but hearts got bigger!

 

 

 

So, I HAD to share this picture too :)

And this one. Is there anything sweeter then loving siblings? We know their future will always include eachother! And their other brothers too, of course, but these two have an extra special bond.

Bentley wanted an airplane birthday, so here's the cake I tried to decorate. We had a few great friends over for pizza, popcorn and chocolate cake.

 

 

It's kind of hard to see hanging up, but the banner says "Flying High at 4". I'll admit that he's not flying too high a day after all that sugar! We even splurged and got soda because they were in such cute little cans. :) I know, bad mommy move! (I've learned my lesson)

 

It was satisfying to hear the laughter and screeches of these kids! They can all relate to eachother and somehow understand eachothers goofyness :) Plus, they all love Lego's and basketball. WIN!

 

 

So tonight we are going to kiss our not-so-little Bentley Armour and say a prayer of thankfulness for him and the joy he's brought us since second 1!

 

And also bathe him....we all know how dirty little boys can get! Eww!

 

 



In 9 Months Time..

In just 9 months time, our sweet little Reid bug went from this......

To THIS!

He crawling now, loves to eat avacados and bananas with raspberries and spinach, talk (hollars) along with his brothers, has that smile and dimple that stops everyone in the grocery store, and loves sleeping snug in our arms at night.

He makes our hearts feel full. He makes us so proud, growing well and developing into what we can already see will be a bright little fella.

He's finally getting a tooth and were so lucky he's been a fairly mellow tether. Maybe when he gets more teeth he will be more interested in food, as he eats a little but prefers to nurse yet. Which I absolutely love :) That however didn't stop him from chomping on Beth's caramel apple!

Oh yup, there's an avacado...more smeared  on the table than his mouth! Reid loves his daddy and always wants to be where his brothers are.  But the curious little guy usually ends up getting dragged to a secluded corner, giving brothers 32 seconds of 10 less little grabby fingers in their pile until he appears again...teehee!

Happy 9 months to our precious little B-Bug! You are a bright and warm ray of sunshine in our hearts and home!

Susie Fud

There's this girl, and her name is Susie. She is one of the most genuine, tender hearted, caring woman I have met - and today is her birthday!! Happy Birthday dear friend!!

We've got lots of awesome memories.... Running the halls after school, working at Culvers, driving with our heads out the window and tongues hanging out because we ate too many red hots...

I love this card that's by that picture of us being nutso in the snow!

You are a great friend, momma, and person this world gets to have in it!! 

I hope you are getting spoiled today and you eat an extra piece of cake for the little guy you're growing! I love you!

All Night Long..

Sleep!

That's what this guy finally did all night long! For the first time in nearly 9 months, we got a full night! Although I'll admit, I missed him during the night...is that weird? And I'm not feeling as rested as I thought i'd be, but I'll bet I won't be saying these things after a whole 'nother week of amazing sleep. If I'm that lucky ;)

Doesn't he look all bright eyed and bushy tailed? Except no bushy tail like his brothers tend to sport ;)

 

This is my favorite time with Reid...when we sit down to nurse and he plays with my shirt, annoyingly pinches my skin, grabs for my nose and looks into my eyes and breaks into a toothless grin. Lucky for this mommy, he hasn't really gotten into eating food until just a few weeks ago, so we were nursing every 3-4 hours still. I'm learning to cherish more and more these hours. As our baby no.4 has learned to crawl, baby no.3 is saying up to 5 word sentences, baby no.2 is about to turn FOUR and baby no.1 cannot possibly be categorized as a baby anymore...I'm so melancholy thinking of how fast they change, how fast they grow. This day is closer to the very last day that these guys will need me for everything (although I'm not gonna lie...it's exhausting some days!), want my kisses, ask me to teach them and read to them...sigh. I want to soak it all up...every day of it! <3 nbsp="" p="">

 

East, then home West again

Last month I felt an overwhelming desire to be with my family that i really really missed. The heartbreaking kind of missing. Logan was busy with work and couldn't catch a break, so the kids and I packed up our things, changed the tires and the oil in the van and headed eastward. This is a post of a "few" pictures of our trip. :)

The night before we left for 2 weeks, daddy read many many books to the boys. I knew we would be really busy and not feel the seperation as much as HE would, coming home to an empty, QUIET house. They of course soaked it all up.

We stayed the night as Jessie & Damiens in Miles City the night after we left. It was a short stay, but I loved those little girls in that house who played with our boys like they'd known them forever! So this scene was displayed in my rearview mirrior shortly after we left their place in the morning. It was a quiet hour :)

Miles and miles and miles pass without oppertunities for good stops, but we always seem to hit this place, well known even by our kids, in Bismarck. It was hot chocolate and mini vanilla bean scones and an Americano for mama.

We spent a night at Auntie Evelyns in Fargo, which is always a GOOD stop for me AND the kiddos! I really appreciate that we can stop there and feel completely at home...always a good nights sleep, a breakfast ready for us in the am, and an auntie that the kids accidently call Grandma :) We went on to another favorite spot....Ashley & Seth's. Another home that I'm grateful for...a house full of love, laughter and BOYS! Between the both of us, there's 7 boys all 5 and under. The first time we were there, the boys were all like friends. This time, they were like brothers <3 p="">

This is Ashley, getting some baby Reid snuggles. Her Gunther is only 2 weeks old then him, but is much bigger.

I have a picture of my Grandma Erna Krisher on our bookshelf that I see every day. Under her picture is a handmade Scrabble decoration that has the word "Grateful" on it. It tugs at my heart when I see it, and that tug was oh, so strong again when I passed the exit near Medford, WI where Grandma and Grandpa Chester are buried. Precisely 8 miles past, I turned the van around and went to their burial grounds to visit and pay my utmost respect to them. I walked around for about a half hour looking for their graves, not able to remember where they were and not where I thought I had pictured them. Taking a break and then bundling up the kids who now woke up, I searched again and found them. I wasted a lot of time looking around for them, but I also saw headstones of faithful friends in that area now buried there. I saw the stone for Frances Hebb, and a not yet finished store for Hester Williams. It made me so aware, and so glad for faithful friends.

This here, is MAX! Oh, I just love Max....I have no other words! <3 p="">

And this is the way country boys ride! Coy, Bentley & Cole played for hours and hours together! How great are cousins, seriously?

Right here is one of my most favorite pictures ever. Great Grandma LaVerne, in all her wisdom and faithful years, and Reid is none but a new babe with many years ahead of him. I feel the connection between these two was so great. Or maybe it was the dimples that are irresisable?

An awesome Grandma brought home a bale of straw, pumpkins, and old clothes that were not meant for anything other then scarecrows!! Or, more accurately, FRIENDcrows :) That one is Grandpa, and then later they made a new one that was Grandma.

We were so lucky to get to see Auntie Sarah too! I'm pretty sure she's near the top of our "Most Favorite Persons" list! She read books to the boys while they drank some chamomile tea that did NOT make them sleepy ;)

My sisters, my best friends <3 p="">

Grandpa here, is a great teaser. I don't blame him, you can't ever resist when there's a bubbly blondie giggeling!

Culvers. Chocolate custard. Sprinkles. Yum.

This was our last hour at the farm. Coy was not happy about getting back into the van that morning. My heart sinks and I'll admit that I usually cry when driving down the driveway each time we leave. There is such beauty in the place that I grew up, there's no denying that. But it's also where I learned everything I know, where I fell down, where I got back up again, where I knew love and peace. This time though, even though I was sad, I was also very happy that we would be going home to see daddy again!!

I will admit, no normal mother would make the Mall of America, alone, with 4 kids a usual stop, but I had promised Coy that we could stop at Lego Land. It went well, wasn't too busy and kid played Legos, picked some out to take home and then we were on our way. Fun stuff for little boys!

So when people hear that I traveled 3,000 miles alone with 4 kids, they call me nuts. But really, it wasn't that bad....I tend to drive 75% of the time so the driving didn't bother me. What WAS hard was bathroom stops! Haha! This is what our bathroom stops looked like, plus 2 diapers to change, a mama who had to remember to go too, with the usual touching everything and screaming :D

Annd...the last 4 hours of driving were the worst...so coming home to this warm and comfortable glow and the man of my dreams running out to meet us made it worth it!

 

There was so much that I feel I didn't get to mention because i didn't get pictures....but I loved having a few hours with my great friend Susie and her precious little kiddos, my best oldest friend Naomi, and I even got a few fun hours in with Auntie Mary and Uncle Dale. I'm so grateful for my trip and can't wait to do it again next summer when my brother Ted gets married!

 

Phew, I had fun re-living that again!

Funny story; Chewing chicken

I am that overprotective mommy who will not bring people-shooting guns into this house whether it be in movies, magazines, games..

But of course, the police men in their Lego City sets have them, so Coy was pretending to shoot at Bentley's Lego guy. As Bentley's guy was laying disconnected and "bleeding" in a pile on the table, I said that guns were not meant to shoot people.

So he asked, "Well what's his gun for then?"

I told him vaguely that it was for in case there was an emergency and police man needed one.

He replies completely straight faced, "Like when a chicken is chewing on someone?"

Yes, boy, they're for chickens. Except I said that through tears because I was laughing so hard. Turns out, he was dead serious about the people-chewing chickens!

Thumb Cuteness

No really, what's cuter then a baby sucking its thumb? 

When I was washing off constantly dropped pacis with B, I dreamt how nice it would be to have a thumb sucker! Then a friends little girl wouldn't stop sucking hers, so I thought meh, maybe it's ok. So R has been our first thumb sucker but it just tickles my bones!! First from obvious cuteness, and then for him to be able to soothe his need to suck without mama sometimes, and then third, I've been told its good for their brains...i love it. Thumb sucking also re-optimizes heart rate and can help a baby digest more efficiently. 

But no, it's not cute when adult do it, so you might want to stick to aromatherapy or music to calm you down ;)

WOW! It worked! Maybe photos are allowed again?
This photo I randomly picked from my folder to see if it would allow my to load....and I love it! We were on our way to the Braaten Family reunion this past summer and had stopped for gas - among other sweeter things - halfway inbetween. With kiddos, it's a gaurentee that anything sweet WILL be messy :)