September Birthdays....

Every time I hear the phrase "September Birthday" I think of how close we were to having a September birthday in our family. Bentley's due date was September 25th and she magically decided to arrive one week later on October 1st - what a perfect day! Since she is NOT a September birthday girl here are the birthday's that we did celebrate this month......

We went to visit Maggie and Andre in the hospital on September 14th to welcome their baby boy........

......cute little Dreson Ethier. He is too cute!

Happy to have him here!

The proud parents!

SEPTEMBER BIRTHDAY DINNER FOR ABBI, BRUCE AND CARLEY.....

Taylor with her cousins Jackson and Parker.

Helping open presents.

In her pajama's & ready for some cake! What a cute bum!

And of course - feeding the cows! Can't forget about them!

What a handsome guy and beautiful little girl!

Me, Beny and Jord - Tay was too busy trying to get the cow's attention.

I can't help but SMILE!

Taylor has a million and one facial expressions and I LOVE them all, but I have narrowed it down to my top three and here are my favorites.......

#1 - Her smile is my MOST favorite of all her expressions! She has a beautiful smile that is simply contagious!

#2 - Her grumpy face! It never lasts very long and usually is followed by her "happy as can be" smile two minutes later. We go through a lot of different emotions in this house each day!

Jordan bought the girls each an ASU camo hat awhile back and I love when Taylor wants to wear it. She looks SO darling in it!

#3 - Sleeping! She seriously looks like an angel! So peaceful and perfect!

SHOES ANYONE?

I really had no idea just how many pairs of shoes we have accumulated these past few years since having children. We pulled out another bin for Bentley the other day and this is what I found.........SHOES! Now Bentley has plenty of choices!!!

Thankfully everyone in our house is a big fan of shoes!

The Princess version of baseball...

My girls are active and they love playing sports, but for now they kind of have their own version of how they do things. Which means that everything is done their own creative way and involves being a princess while doing it! I think the best way to describe our children is simply by saying they are TOUGH PRINCESSES!

We will teach them the real rules of baseball here in the near future!

"I WANT TO LIVE IN CANDY LAND!"

The girls are really into playing games these days, especially Candy Land. Well, Taylor wants to play and Bentley mostly just wants to sit on the game board and eat all the pieces, but we still have a lot of fun! When I ask Taylor is she would want to live in Candy Land she says, "Sure, Mom." I know I wouldn't mind it!

Us girls playing Candy Land together!

We must live a little too close to the boarder...

I took the girls with me to a doctor's appointment earlier this week and while we were sitting in the waiting room I noticed that we were the only white people in the entire room. Taylor and Bentley being the social butterfly's that they are, quickly included themselves in reading books and sitting next to the other children that were also waiting.

Taylor especially loves other kids and wants to be friends with everyone she meets. She started talking with this cute little Mexican girl and the little girl invited her over by her mother to have her read a story to them. The girls, with happy little smiles on their faces, quickly moved their chairs over by the little girl's mom and she began to read to them. Bentley of course wanted to go where her big sister was so we followed and sat by them as well. As the women began to read the story (in Spanish I must add) I just watched Taylor's face. It was priceless! Her expression consisted of confusion and laughter and interest all at the same time. It was so funny! The Mexican woman was so sweet because I think she could tell Taylor didn't understand a word she was saying and every few words she would speak in English or point to one of the pictures on the page and translate for Tay so she knew what was going on.

As we left that appointment I had a little talk with Taylor about what Spanish is and that some people speak different languages than we do. She said, "Okay, Mom. Spanish? Do I speak Spanish?" I shook my head "No" but I told her that it was alright for us to learn new things. And boy are we learning new things each and every day!

We LOVE our Mexican food!

This is the radio station that Taylor wanted to dance to one day. Bentley quickly wanted to join in on the fun!

20 MILES...

WE DID IT! WE RAN OUR 20 MILER SATURDAY MORNING! IT WAS AMAZING, LONG, HOT, UNBELIEVABLE, BEAUTIFUL, INSPIRATIONAL, GUT WRENCHING, MEANINGFUL, CHALLENGING, NERVE RACKING, MOTIVATING, DIGGING DEEP, POWERFUL, SUPPORTIVE, BREATHTAKING, AND ABSOLUTELY SOMETHING I WILL REMEMBER FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE! IN A WAY I FEEL LIKE I ALREADY COMPLETED MY MARATHON!

MICHELLE AND ME AFTER FINISHING OUR 20 MILE RUN! WE HELPED EACH OTHER EACH STEP OF THE WAY!

THE WEST VALLEY GIRLS - RHONDA, KIM, MICHELLE & ME

And so it begins........

Our little Beny is starting to walk......literally one baby step at a time! The past few weeks she has been taking a few steps here or just standing in the middle of the room not sure what to do next......until last night! The girls and I were having a dance party so I grabbed my camera to video them when Bentley suddenly let go of the couch she was holding onto and started walking. It was SO AMAZING! I love seeing her cute little legs lift off the floor and stumble towards me. You can see the excitement on her face and hear it in her voice when she does something new all on her own! I simply love it, that's all I can say!

Bentley taking her first big group of steps! We'll see if she can master it sometime soon!

Care Bear Flashback...

The girls and I took out yet another bin of clothes for Bentley to start wearing (12-18 months). Mostly for her to start wearing the correct shoe size, but the clothes surprisingly are fitting her rather well too! We have way too many girl clothes! Anyway, I came across Taylor's 1st Halloween costume - a Carebear and I couldn't resist trying it on Bentley. I'm not sure why it's so fun dressing your kids up in costumes, but Taylor and I (and even Bentley) could not stop laughing - we had so much fun! Taylor especially got a kick out of it and kept saying, "Oh Mom, look at her! She is so cute...that little Carebear!" I cherish moments like this! It brought back so many memories of when Taylor was my little Carebear. Where does the time go? Before I know it I will be saying the same thing about Bentley!

I can't believe how similar the girls look at this age - It's pretty unbelievable!

One cute Carebear! She was so frustrated that she couldn't climb into the chair and I thought it was too cute! The heart on the bum just tops it off!

STARTING THIS FRIDAY 9/12/08......

I will officially be making our blog private.

If you haven't given me your email address yet, please do so by leaving me a comment or you can email me directly at jmtth143@cox.net. I will add your email address as a viewer of our blog starting on Friday! I love hearing how all of you are doing these days and would love to continue keeping in touch with everyone!

Thanks a bunch!

LABOR DAY WEEKEND - Dixie Football & Celeste is 21!

Last weekend for Labor Day we drove up to St. George, UT to watch Dex's first football game of the season as starting quarterback for Dixie State. We met the rest of Jordan's family up there and made a great long weekend of it! The girls had an absolute BLAST with their aunt, uncles and grandparents - they are SO spoiled and loved!

We also were able to celebrate Celeste's 21st birthday on Sunday while we were there and that was great to be able to spend that time with her on her special day! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CELY! You are THE BEST sister-in-law that any girl could ask for and I love you to pieces! Thanks for such a great/fun/wonderful weekend!

Just arriving at the hotel after a 6 hour drive. Taylor & Bentley were ready to PLAY!

Taysom & Bentley

Taysom & Taylor going to the Dixie State game to watch Uncle Dex!

The girls at the game - They LOVE football to say the least!

I LOVE this picture of Taysom and Tay - Taysom is her little buddy!

Beny spending some time with her daddy!

Taylor seriously makes friends wherever she goes! Her and this little girl were having so much fun together just cheering and dancing, jumping up & down and basically laughing the entire game!

It was kind of nice to actually go to a football game with my husband and sit by him & everything!

Uncle Tays with his nieces!

Our family of four!

Shante (Dex's girlfriend) and Celeste - What hotties!

Pics on the field after the game!

Of course we went swimming every day! I don't think Taylor could have it any other way!

Shopping with the fam!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CELESTE!!!!

Celeste with her nieces!

Just a few family pics after Celeste's B-day lunch at Chuck-A-Rama!

The girls hanging out at Dex's house!

The St. George Temple - It was SO beautiful!

Grandpa Dougie and Grandma Hill with the girls!

Me & my beautiful sister-in-law!

Time to head back home!

Tutti Frutti popcorn from Grandma & Grandpa Hill!

Our busy little bee!

We had lots of fun having breakfast/lunch at The Cracker Barrel before we had to say our good-byes!

I sat in between the girls for part of the trip on the way home and this is what I saw. It cracked me up because I am always hearing them laughing together back there while I am driving and I was able to get a glimpse of what they are up to!

The girls waving to each in the car! They sure love each other!