More than a year later....oops.

I can't believe how bad I've been about blogging. Sorry, friends.  I do read your posts from time to time, and love to hear about your lives.

Bethany started 4th grade.  We're back in soccer season, she's in the school choir, and getting back to her piano lessons.  Mallory started kindergarten, is also playing soccer and LOVES going to school.  Elijah is teaching me all about how boys are different from girls.  He is one of the most cuddly kids I've ever seen.  He melts my heart.  And ,whew, does he wear me out.  But, I am older and pregnant, so that's to be expected, right?

When we found out about this pregnancy, we were shocked.....mostly because it breaks our 4 year pattern.  I honestly didn't know if we'd be blessed with more children, and we were talking about how old we would be if if was 4 years in between again.  Um, 38 and 39 seemed a little older than we would prefer to have babies, so Heavenly Father said, "Here! Have this baby now!" I am 20 weeks along now, and am actually starting to visualize having a real newborn again.  I love babies, that wasn't the problem.  It was the idea of being pregnant and taking care of a toddler, changing diapers and all of that lovely stuff AND how do I give them both what they need?? I felt super blessed to have older kids who have been understanding and excited when my last two babies came along. I kept thinking, "how is this fair to Eli? He won't get that one on one time with me for very long. What if I don't do this well?"  Yadda, yadda, yadda.....lots of insecurities.  But, I know that He must think I can do this.  I just want to do it well.

I am getting excited about baby number four.  We had an ultrasound yesterday and found out it's a boy.  We both figured, "hey, it's our fourth time. Why be surprised?" What is silly is that I was mostly excited about being able to use all of Eli's clothes over again.  :)  I think he is going to love having a baby brother.  Growing up a couple of years apart is lots of fun.  Since I'm 35, I get the lovely distinction of being of "advanced maternal age".  I agreed for the first time to the Downs Syndrome testing because I understand the value of knowing if there are any heart abnormalities for right after birth.  I regretted that decision, though, because at 13 weeks I get called in to the doctor's office in what seemed like an emergency, to be told that I have a 1 in 17 chance of this baby having Downs, instead of the 1 in 100 statistic for my age.  I thought, "why tell me this now so that I can worry for the next 27 weeks??"  I declined further testing, but have agreed to a fetal echo cardiogram which should be scheduled after a couple of weeks.  My doctor wants to know he's okay before we deliver in a small hospital without the required specialists.  Brad and I are feeling positive about things, though. 

Well, there's a bit of an update.  Miss my friends out there!  Hope you're all well.

SURPRISES

On Tuesday afternoon I was sitting on the couch nursing Eli while playing scrabble on my phone. Mallory was upstairs watching Between the Lions on PBS. Then, my house started moving. In an instant I jumped up from the couch with Eli on the nursing pillow and screamed for Mallory to come to me "right now!" Several thoughts crossed my mind.....a tornado is picking up our house, earthquake (nah!), back to tornado and what do we do again if it's a tornado to stay safe, then could it be an earthquake?...no way! So, as my heart raced and I sat on the steps holding Eli and Mallory at my side, I looked out the window at the sun shining and calm breeze, definitely not a tornado. And then I tried to figure out if I was going crazy because now nothing was happening and Mallory didn't feel it. I didn't have another adult around to look to for answers. So, I went back to the couch with my heart still racing and tried to reason things out. Could our old house be settling on its foundation? Did a train wreck nearby? What in the world is wrong with me?! So, when I received a text message from my sister-in-law in California a few minutes later that said "Could you guys feel the earthquake? Crazy!" I was so incredibly relieved. I called her immediately and said, "so I'm not crazy! Tell me about this earthquake." She had heard about it on the news. I could not, and can hardly still, believe that we experienced an earthquake here. Many people felt it, many didn't. My brother felt it 2 hours away, people around the rest of my family on the East coast felt it, but they did not personally feel it. CNN reported the many states that felt the aftershocks, but hadn't listed WV yet, but seriously, we're right next door to VA unlike many of the states reported, so of course we did. The next day I found evidence of the earthquake in the old cracks in our house which had opened a bit more, little bits of plaster that had crumbled away from nails, and the bits of debris on the things in my basement which had fallen from the ceiling. So, very cool that I was in my first ever earthquake, but glad that it wasn't severe at all.



And another surprise is pictured below......Brad and I returned from our late movie date night last night to find our daughters asleep in our bed. Sometimes Mallory sneaks in there and we move her when we go to bed, but we've never found them together in our bed. I had to take a picture before we moved them. :)

Bethany

Those who knew me as a girl know that I wasn't exactly girly. My sisters and I were probably described as tomboys, though I was a little less tomboy than they were. :) I didn't get into girly stuff until I was a teenager, but even then I don't think I ever really painted my nails unless it was for a prom or something like that. My daughter wanted me to paint her nails when she was less than 2 years old. She would sit still and let me do a french pedicure on her tiny toes. For the past month or more she's been asking me to do "french tips" on her toes, so we finally got it done for the beginning of school. I took these pictures of Bethany because I thought that on this day she really was showing her blended interests. Take notice of these details:

baptism bracelet on wrist (I thought it was cute that she added jewelry to her outfit :)

blue painted fingernails (a contrast to her toes)

Nike tshirt and shorts (because they're comfy and sporty)

long hair, worn down (which she prefers to up/fixed)

and of course, she's reading which is something she really enjoys

(not pictured -- her pink and black Nike flip flops which completed her ensemble :)

Eli on the Swing.....maybe

I don't know if this is going to work. I'm very new to YouTube. But I think this is the link to Elijah's first ride on the swing today at the park. I took the video on my phone, and my only way to use it is to upload it to YouTube because it is supposedly too large to email or text to anyone. Let's see if it works. http://youtu.be/4k3xufoehRQ (Oh, and my phone is taking photos and video sideways, and I can't seem to figure out how to switch it. Feel free to coach me. :)

First Day of 3rd Grade

Bethany started third grade last week. She was ready to go back to school and really seems to be enjoying it. Today she was super silly when I picked her up, and it was so nice to hear about how much she enjoyed her day. I can't believe how tall she looks in these pictures.

A gift for Eli

At a family reunion recently, my cousin-in-law, Jen (Calvin's wife), gave Eli a gift that included these super cute items. The first one pictured is called "washcloth lollipops". A spoon and fork have washcloths rolled on them.

And the second picture is a silicone cupcake holder, a washcloth and a tie dyed onesie all put together to look like an adorable, colorful cupcake. Cute, huh?

The Infamous Haircut

I took a few pictures with my cell phone the evening of Mallory's do-it-yourself-haircut. They didn't turn out great, but here they are.

(blurry, sorry.) Some of her hair from the back is over her shoulder, but the sides have multiple lengths, now.

Side view - gives you a bit of an idea as to the damage
She took a huge chunk out of the underneath side of her hair....and cut a few outside areas of the back, too. It is starting to grow, but some of it is more noticeable to me now that it's grown out a bit. :(

I'm BACK!

I kind of dropped off the face of the blogging world for a while, I know. My first excuse was that I was completely immersed in being Mommy to Eli, Bethany and Mallory. But, then I lost my means of blogging, my computer, back in March due to power outages during a terrible storm. I've stayed busy, but I've missed my friends in the blogging world. We live all over the country, and this is the only way I really stay in touch with you all. So, I'm so glad to be back. I'll try to get back into a regular blogging groove. :)

So, what have I been up to? Let's see, since January 31, my last post??

• Bethany turned 8. She had her first "friends from school" birthday party. She was baptized which was so wonderful for all of us. I wish I had a recording of she and Mallory singing "I Know My Savior Loves Me".


• Elijah was blessed the day after Bethany's baptism. Super special. Of course, we were running late and I didn't even take a picture of him alone in his sweet, little white outfit.


• I turned 34 in March. Big whoop. Next year might be depressing, but I usually don't worry much about age. The aging in my face, however, is a different story. :)


• We took the spring sports season off this year. But, we're gearing up for our first soccer season with both girls playing. Oh, boy, it's gonna be crazy.


• We visited my parents for General Conference weekend and for Easter.


• May turned out to be a busy month because our niece, Katie, graduated from Pharmacy school at WVU, my sister, Jessica, graduated with her Criminology degree from WVU - in the same weekend, and my sister, Heather, was in labor during graduation. My niece, Amelia Kate, was born May 16. She is adorable and precious.


• At the end of May, Mallory broke her mommy's heart by taking scissors to her beautiful, long curls. I've said that I'm surprised that I didn't wake up with all white hair the next morning. I was so upset...I had to bag up all of the hair, drive 45 minutes to see Brad at work just so he could hug me. Really. I knew he'd understand how upset I was. It felt so personal, like it was worse than if it had been my own hair. Silly, huh? I'm actually lucky that her hair is curly because I can hide the different lengths with clips and headbands.


• In June we started summer vacation which included a short vacation of Washington DC. We visited the temple, the National Zoo, and a few of the Smithsonian museums. It was a great getaway. My nephew, Ranger, turned one year old June 30th. He is adorable.


• Our niece, Katie, got married on July 1. It was a beautiful wedding, and we love her husband, Ray. Amelia was blessed two days later. July brought with it Brad's 35th birthday, which he was not pleased about, and our 13th wedding anniversary, which we still haven't really celebrated. We went to Idlewild Park that day with our kids and my brother's family. It was lots of fun, despite the rain. Our family from California visited in July, and it was great to spend time with them. Our kids love that time with their cousins. Brad also traveled to CA for a golf-filled "Brothers' Weekend". I think the kids and I did pretty well while he was away, but we missed him.

There you go! A six month summary.....I probably forgot a few highlights, but good enough for now. Send me some love, people. I've been socially starved for those six months. ;)

Our beautiful girl and her Daddy

My brother Daniel, my dad, Brad with Elijah, and his dad

Big sister, Bethany, with Elijah

My squeezable, cuddly boy.....ready for a walk on a cool day.

Before church on Easter morning

First day of "shorts weather"....I just wanted to kiss those little legs. :)

Katie with Uncle Brad

Jess, 4 years down - 2 to go!

Our kids just love being on the temple grounds. Brad and I take turns in the temple.

Natural History Smithsonian....they LOVE the dinosaurs and animal exhibits.

Ranger

Jaxson and Mallory at Idlewild Park

Some pictures of "our son".....

It is so weird to say that...."our son". I have been so out of touch, so here are some pictures of Elijah up through today. I'm doing well, and he's a great sleeper. I only get up once with him at night, and sometimes not at all. He's growing great, but not too fast so he's still little and smushy. Oh, how I absolutely LOVE having a newborn again!

5 days old

1 1/2 weeks old

2 weeks

4 weeks

5 weeks

He is getting ready to cry, yes, and he still has cord. Ugh...6 weeks.

I took these last three photos this evening. 6 1/2 weeks old....my sweet boy, Elijah.

ELIJAH BRADLY BENNETT

Our son was born Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 12:59pm. He was 7 lb 12 1/2 oz and 22 inches long. We think he's just perfect, beautiful, and all of those gushy parent feelings.....I'll get up the energy sometime to post about his birth. Merry Christmas to all of you! We're enjoying the blessing of a baby boy in our home as we celebrate the birth of our Savior.

What a special time of year....