All things Bentley Owen~ newly 5

Bentley loves to learn new things.  He asks lots and lot of questions.  "Mommy are the clouds higher than space?" "Can an airplane go faster than the clouds" just a couple I got in the car today.  He's very fair and patient and loves playing in our courtyard in the "kitchen", setting up various grocery stores, playing with trucks, and playing with Olivia(when she's being nice). He still asks for cuddles and wants Mama to sing "Somewhere over the Rainbow" at bedtime(I hope this never ends).  Bentley is now going to school 5 days a week and his favorite day is share Friday's.  He's very proud to bring a share item each week and loves picking out the item with Mommy.  Here are just a few of his favorite things:

Favorite treat: He loves chocolate chip shakes from Dr. Conkey's and frozen strawberry lemonade from Starbuck's.  He requests one of these daily after school pickup and Mommy thinks of different ways to hold him off!! Mommy gives in AT LEAST once a week!!
Favorite food: He loves mac n' cheese and pizza(who doesn't!!!).  He also is our only child who still loves bananas!! YUM!
Favorite color: Green!
Funny words: This is Mama's favorite.  He still says "dis" and "dat" for this and that.  I refuse to correct him bc soon he'll lose is "baby" language and Mommy will cry so for now I just soak it up:)

All things Olivia Rose~3 years old

Our Olivia is such a huge bundle of love and joy!! Here is a small list of her loves(she's VERY particular like her Mommy!!)

Favorite food: "cahitos" = taquitos.  This is her request both at home and at any restaurant we attend.  When we were on the Disney cruise she asked every waiter if they had "cahitos".  She doesn't like just any taquitos, she actually ONLY likes the bean taquitos from Trader Joes.
Favorite movie: "Tangled"  This has  been her favorite for about a year although she will still watch "Frozen" over and over and over.  Her current favorite this week is the movie "Coraline" which she calls "Coraline Jones"(Mommy gets a kick out of that).
Hobbies:  Loves watching anything on YouTube Kids.  She takes Mommy's phone and will watch anything from gross eating contests to kids making playdough food.  She also loves dancing and is now officially in her first Tot dance combo class where her big sissy assists so she loves that!!
Favorite Color: pink AND purple alllllll day.
Funny Words: all of a sudden Olivia likes to say "awkard" but it's a long drawn out "awkard" and she seems to insert it at the perfect moment like when there's a lot of people around her and she feels squished.  We think she might've gotten it from youtube kids but it's the funniest thing coming out of a 3 year old's mouth!!

She loves going to school and hasn't noticed that her class has 9 boys and 2 girls!! Ahhhh!!! She loves going to "Godmother's House" on Friday's(which is what she calls Church).  She loves to dress up and loves to wear princess anything.  She loves mommy's nails tickling her and asks us to cuddle with her each night and sing "butterflies"(which is Somewhere over the Rainbow).  She still shares a room with her big sissy which they both love for right now!!  Olivia is super friendly and full of energy.  She doesn't take official naps anymore and hasn't for 6 months or so.  She's by far our earliest non napper!!  She's 100% potty trained as has been for a year which is so crazy.  She's never needed pull-ups for bed(just like big sis' that way).

We just love you sweet libby rose.  You are such a ray of sunshine:)!! xoxo

Fall Happenings 2016

Oh how we love this time of year and it's our first year in our new house so we were SUPER excited about decorating!! The kids requested "spooky" decorations and while Mommy prefers a "Fall" theme we went "spooky" in the front yard,  dining room, and "white room" and Fall in the living room.  Everyone is happy!! We celebrated Nana's birthday at Cafe Firenze with the whole family.  Mommy ran a 5k and came in first place in her age group(wahoooo!!).  When we all arrived home BT had made an amazing bloody mary bar and prepared a super yummy brunch for all the ladies who ran and their families(he's a super amazing husband like that!!!)
Mommy took Preston to a Harvest Festival and Bentley and Olivia decorate their "people" for school. Also, it's soccer season and Preston has amazed us all so so much.  He's learned so many skills through the Challenger league and we're so happy to see him applying them in his games each Saturday.  This past Saturday he made the most amazing goal.  He said "Mommy I was so scared I wasn't going to make it".  He was dribbling the ball from centerfield and got by 3 or 4 opposing team members before shooting and scoring!!! Definitely the highlight of the whole game. He was soooo soooo proud and so were we! Next up: Bentley and Preston's joint birthday celebration at Underwood Family Farm!

SURPRISE!!! Great Wolf Lodge 2016!

We celebrated Daddy's birthday this year with a 3 night trip to Great Wolf Lodge(AND we managed to surprise the kids with the location until we got there)!! This place is a kids' dream.  They could not get enough of the water slides.  Daddy took the bigger 2 on the "big kid" slides.  Phia even did the crazy one where the floor drops out from under you(she also did a similar slide on our Disney cruise...she's definitely a dare devil!!).  Preston is not far behind and went on everything he could as many times as he could.  Bentley and Olivia were busy in the "kiddie area" and so was Mommy! We loved  the lodge and we got all the kiddos "Wolf Passes" which kept us busy with various activities while we were not at the park.  We had a family birthday party in our hotel room for Daddy.  Preston kept him distracted at the water park while Mommy, Bentley, Olivia, and Sophia decorated the room and set up the cake and cupcakes!! The kids LOVE surprises of any kind so they loved every minute of the celebration!

^Stuffing their forest animals(part of the "Wolf Pass)

^Cute lil' wolf slowly eating her giant pink donut

^^Aren't these so purty??!! We'd never been to Dunkin' Donuts before but it was in the Lodge and they sold these beauties so it quickly became a family favorite!!

^^^Daddy's birthday loot!!! The kids loved setting up all his b-day treats!

 ^^ Dance party each night in the lobby.  All 4 of them were WAY into it!!