Dear Bently,

You say hilarious things every day! Unfortunatly, I am not very good at remembering them, or writing them down! Here are a couple things you've said recently that I love!!

First, you've been really sick. I mean fever, sore throat, tummy ache, coughing, sneezing, you name it, you got it. Well it has made your voice hoarse. You don't not like your voice sounding funny, so you talk in a whisper to avoid hearing it. This is very unhelpful when you have two very loud siblings. I have an impossible time hearing you. Finally I kept begging and begging for you to talk loudly. You finally whispered, "When I talk loud, my voice is not beautiful!" I laughed pretty hard over that one! ;)

Today I was working on our Youtube pregnancy announcement. We have watched it quite a few times and after awhile you told me, "Our video is fantastic!" I love you so much!!

You started telling me how much you love me. I know you're trying to say, I love you very much!" But you always say, "I very love you!" It's really adorable! Especially when you start adding in lots of very's! " I very very very love you!" It always makes me feel loved!

The last thing I love that you do lately is you tell me I'm beautiful all the time! I don't know when you started doing this or why you started but I am not complaining! You always make my bad days better with your simple, "Mom, you are beautiful!" One time I had just gotten out of the shower, hair still wet, no make up, in my pjs, and you still thought to tell me I'm beautiful!!! :)

As you can see, you're pretty much adorable right now! Stop growing up!!

Love,
Mom

Dear Bently,

You are quite the cutie lately! I don't know why, but you have been saying the most adorable things! One of  my favorite things you say is "I very love you!!" I think you mean I love you very much. But I love the way you say it even more!! :)

The other day I was singing Rapunzel. Dad got me the Tangled soundtrack and thanks to Olivia we've been singing it non-stop. Well I always have to sing mother Gothel's part. (again, thanks to Olivia) After the song, you exclaimed, "Mom you are a really good singer!!!" It was adorable and may have melted my heart!!

One things I've been meaning to mention, is your love of dogs. You love to pet other people's dogs. I taught you to ask to pet dogs. We got into a couple uncomfortable situations when we weren't asking... Anyways. This seems like a good idea. But you are overly enthusiastic about chasing down people walking there dogs. You will run down the street yelling, "CAN I PET YOUR DOG!!!" It's embarrassing and hilarious all at the same time.

You haven't done this for a long time, but for a couple months you  had an issue with the microphone at church. You were always looking for an opportunity to talk into the microphone. You would run from your chair to the microphone and say... whatever you wanted into it. It was extremely embarrassing at the time, but now, it's pretty hilarious! I'll be grateful when you don't sit on the front row anymore!

Sorry this is so random, I just wanted to tell you some cute stories while I was thinking about them!!

I love you so much my adorable sensitive little guy!!

Dear Bently,

Since we put you in a school we're technically not in the district for, I have to drive you/pick you up every single day. It's honestly not as bad as I thought it would be. Mostly due to the fact Dad has Monday through Wednesday off of work. So there are only 2 days a week I do it all myself. My favorite part is picking you up. There you stand with the other kindergartners, mostly you are off staring into space. As soon as you see me, your whole face lights up in a huge grin. Then you run towards me screaming "Mom!! Mom!!" I of course wave enthusiastically back! I love it! Every single time it melts my mama heart to watch you be so excited to see me! I hope you never stop greeting me this way! :)

This morning we found out Grandma Hodson died. It was sudden and very shocking. We decided to not tell you till you got back from school. I wasn't sure how you were going to handle it. We went to Grandpa Stetson's funeral in June so I knew you had semi understood death. You were a lot closer to Grandma Hodson than Grandpa Stetson. Mostly because they lived a lot closer to us. I was really worried. We asked you what you knew about death and who we knew that had died. That's when you began to act very funny. You didn't want to listen to us anymore. You didn't want to hear what we had to say. It was so sad. I didn't want to have to tell you. But of course, that wasn't an option. You cried. For a good 20 minutes. It was so sad. You told me you loved her and liked to play games with her Grandma Hodson was the best Grandma! She spent so many hours doing puzzles with you and playing toys on the floor. She loved you so much. She always lit up when she saw you! I hope you remember something about her. Hopefully something good. She was amazing! I know we'll both miss her!

Love,

Mom

Dear Bently,

We told you something really exciting yesterday! We told you I'm pregnant! I really really wanted to wait till we had an ultrasound with a heartbeat but I am awful at keeping secrets! Horrible! I was so excited to tell you! We told you and you were pretty excited. You smiled and seemed genuiely happy. But then you started making the I'm about to cry face. You Dad and I kept asking you if you were okay. You kept insisting you were. With a little prodding you finally broke down and cried. I thought you were sad we were having a baby and I was sad! You had always told me you did want another baby in our family! But then through your tears you told us it was a happy cry! I asked why you were so happy and you said, "Because you're having a baby!" I'm gonna be honest, I cried with you! It was stinking adorable and I am so very grateful we got it on video! :) It is such a special moment that now I get to relive forever!

I love you my very sweet boy! :) I hope your feelings are always close to the surface and I hope you always feel comfortable talking to me about what you are feeling!

Love,
Mom

Dear Bently and Olivia,

You both are in this phase where you ask me how to spell things. A lot of things. It usually happens while we're in the car driving somewhere, but we also do it at home. You say, "How do you spell, House." Then I spell house. I don't know why this game entertains you so much. But you both love it and want to ask me to spell things all the time. Sometimes I don't mind, sometimes it's pretty annoying! ;) It sure makes me feel like I'm in a spelling B! It also reminds me how many words I don't know how to spell. Sometimes I have no idea what Olivia is saying so I just make up a spelling. I figure, you're not going to be able to remember it anyways! :)

You both love each other so much. It has been so much fun watching your relationship with each other grow! You can fight like none other, but you also play together all the time! :) Sometimes, if one of you isn't coming fast enough I threaten to leave you. This causes the other sibling to go into hysterical crying and screaming! Today I just walked out of the house ahead of you and Olivia began to scream, "Don't leave Bently!" Then she ran to Bently who was sitting in the hallway, helped him up and brought him to the door! It was pretty adorable! I love the fierce loyalty you have to one another! I hope you always feel protective of each other! :)

I love you both so much! I hope you know that!

Love,
Mom

Dear Bently,

I have been writiting you these letters for a long time. I haven't always been great about keeping up on them, but I've always tried. It's so strange, starting this letter like any other. Because today is your very first day of kindergarten! I can't even believe it's here. It's funny, when you entered preschool at 3, I remember thinking kindergarten was forever away! Even last year I still felt like you were never going to go to kindergarten! But suddenly the day is here! Time is so funny! I seriously feel like you were my baby just yesterday! How can you be in Kindergarten?

You did pretty good. I could tell you were nervous this morning. You kept asking questions about school. You also have this face you do when you are trying not to cry. That face kept cropping up and I hated it! I was banking on you being so excited I wouldn't feel sad!

You had that face on when I left you at your desk. I hope you are okay. I can't believe you will be gone for the next three hours! I miss you!

I love you so much Bently! I love watching you reach these milestones and hate it all at the same time! I may have cried pretty much the whole way home and again while writing you this letter! :( I hope you have a fantastic first day of school and I can't wait to pick you up and hear all about it!

Love,
Mom

P.s. Last night Dad cried with me as we cuddled you while you slept. He told me he was just going to take you to work with him today and keep you instead of letting you go to kindergarten. Part of me was hopeful he would! ;)

Dear Bently,

We are one week from kindergarten! AHHH!!! You are so ready... I am not! I cry about it almost every day. I often get misty just watching you! I worry a lot! I know you'll be fine and love it! I just can't help but worry! I also worry about poor Olivia! She is going to miss you so much!

Today we went to your school and you did kindergarten testing! You did really really good over all! You missed a couple easy ones! I'm sure you were just nervous! So here is what I wrote down!

You could recognize all the number 1-20 except you missed 19.
You knew all your shapes and colors.
You counted from 1-100. That surprised me. When I asked you to count for me a few days ago you didn't make it past 50! ;)
You recognized and named all the capital letters except you missed V.
You recognized and named all the lowercase letters except j and k. (You got the lowercase v which confused me why you missed uppercase. I meant they look the same!)
You knew the sounds all the letters made but you missed Q.

I love you handsome boy! You are so smart! You are going to rock Kindergarten!

Love,
Mom

Dear Bently,

Tonight we had smashed potatoes. That's right, you call them smashed potatoes instead of mashed potatoes. I never correct you. If you call them smashed potatoes forever, I'm okay with that! You also say a pin-yawn-a instead of pinita. Also hilarious! I love how you say things. Speaking of tonight at dinner, you had your dad and I cracking up at your dance moves. Olivia and you will sometimes perform for us while we eat. It's as adorable as it is annoying! ;) Olivia has an Elsa microphone that plays two songs from Frozen. "Let it go" and "In Summer". Olivia always sings the let it go and you do the Olaf song. It's cute but after you've sang it for us 10 times in a row, it looses it's cuteness somewhat! ;) But like I said, boy can you dance! Also you read me 3 books today while I was cooking dinner! I hope you always love reading as much as you do now! Even after the newness of it wears off!

I love you cutie!

Love,
Mom

Dear Bently,

You have been fighting bed time like none other. I don't know why. It's not like you are sleeping at all. You just hate going to bed. You lay in bed wide awake till 9 or later. We put you in bed between 7:30-8 so it's no small amount of time you are just laying there. You  had the stomach flu a few weeks back and we let you lay on the couch and watch tv in the middle of the night. Well last night you kept telling me you were sick and you needed to watch a show on the couch. I knew you weren't sick. You are not one to hide you illness well. There's usually lots of tears and dramatics. So when you are simply telling me you "don't feel well" I knew you were fine. After many no's you finally started to melt down. Yelling at me down the hall. So I brought you a bucket and told you if you threw up then you could come sit on the couch. I was secretly praying you wouldn't throw up, because then I would feel really guilty about not believing you! ;) I walked away and a couple minutes later you screamed you threw up. Not hearing any gagging what so ever we (your dad and I) assumed it was a false alarm. So your dad went back and in the dark looked into the bucket. He came back and told me he thought you had dumped water from your night time drink into the bucket. Though he did mentioned it look orange for some reason. We listened to you scream for a minute longer and I decided to go look. I walked in and looked into the bucket. In the dark I noticed it looked orange too, not like water at all. I opened the blinds to let some light in and looked more closely, gingerly sniffing at it.
I said, "That's not throw up!" And you proudly exclaimed, "It's pee!" "Pee!" I exclaimed as you nodded your head. It wasn't funny. It was awful. You lied and peed in a bucket. But I couldn't stop laughing! I tried to hide it from you but I couldn't stop! Kid, you are one sneaky boy! I don't know how you came up with the idea but it was a pretty intuitive one.

I love you my smart disgusting boy! :)

Love,
Mom

Dear Bently,

I  keep meaning to write you about some very important parts of your life!

#1 You started soccer. I was really worried that you wouldn't like it, or even care where the ball was. But to my amazement you LOVE it! You always ask when soccer days are! Your first game you were pretty clueless. You still tried and ran after that ball with all you might, but you didn't really know what to do with it. We practiced with you and the next game you scored 4 goals! I was so dang impressed! I was like, man we have a soccer start! I guess I should mention one of those goals went in for the other team. But you didn't know and were still so dang proud of yourself! You told everyone you met the next day how you scored 4 goals in soccer! Unfortunately you next game you tanked, bad. You were in your own little world. I can't wait for your game tomorrow to see what you end up doing!

#2 On Saturday May 7th you had your very first play! You were amazing! You were wolfie #1 and you loved your part. You told everyone every where we went that you were wolfie #1. It was pretty stinking adorable! I was worried you would be nervous the day of, but you weren't at all! You said your part nice and loud and it was pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen!

#3 A couple days before the 7th you told Dad your tooth was loose. We both tried to wiggle it and it wasn't loose. I decided to google when kids start loosing teeth. I was surprised the average age is between 5-6. I thought you had to be older. Again, it wasn't loose, so I didn't think to much more about it! The day of your play dad took you early to go to practice and I came later. When I arrived your Dad informed me your tooth was loose! I could hardly believe it! I went straight to you and wiggled it myself! Boy was it loose! I was shocked! You wanted it to come out so badly so the tooth fairy would come! You kept complaining about it and wiggling it non stop. Finally you told us it hurt to eat dinner. Dad asked if you wanted him to pull it out, you said yes. Dad tried with his hands and only managed to make it bleed. I'm not sure if it was the bleeding, or because it really hurt, but you started to cry. A while later I found you in the bathroom wiggling it in front of the mirror trying to get it out. I asked you again if you wanted me to try and pull it and you said yes. So I got out the floss. That's how I always had my teeth yanked out. Oh and you decided to sit on the toilet and go potty at this time. It was actually perfect because it made you hold still! I put the floss around your tooth and tried to get you to pull it. That didn't work at all. I put it on again and tugged a little. I was so scared I was going to hurt you. It didn't come out, and you weren't hurt. So I decided to pull a lot harder. It happened so fast I didn't even realize your tooth came out till I didn't see it in your mouth! I pulled your tooth out! I felt so awesome! ;) You were pretty happy to! We decided to wait to put it under your pillow till Sunday night so Dad could be there the morning after the tooth fairy came. The tooth fairy left you a dollar and an electric Mario tooth brush! You loved it! :)

It's so crazy I have a child old enough to be loosing teeth! I love getting to experience all these first with you! It's fun to watch you growing up!

I love you my toothless guy!
Love,
Mom

Dear Bently,

You started something that I think is hilarious. Ever since your birthday you are always telling me all these new things you can do now because you're five. For instance, today at church you took a drink out of the big drinking fountain. You proudly told me, "Mom I can drink out of this one now because I'm 5!" It always makes me giggle. Apparently being 5 has given you more confidence because you are trying things you wouldn't before. Because you can do it now, because you're five! 

I love you my big five year old! It's still weird to think you are five! Less than 5 months till I have a kindergartner! Heaven help me! ;) 

Love,

Mom

Dear Bently,

You were really mad at me the other night. I can't even remember now why. But when I went in to kiss you good night like I always do, you were not happy. You spitefully told me, "I don't love you anymore, only Dad!" This has been something you and Olivia have started that I really, REALLY dislike. I know you're 5 and I should let it get to me, but some days it hurts. And this night for me, well it hurt. I told you I still loved you and walked out. I complained to your Dad about how sad it made me feel and we started to watch a show in the family room. It was at least 10 minutes later that your beautiful innocent little voice rang out, "I still love you mom!" I would be lying if I didn't admit to getting a little choked up. It's those little moments that make all the hard ones worth it. I hope and pray that no matter how mad I make you, no matter how unfair you think I am being, you will always "still love" me!

Love,
Mom

Dear Bently,

Yesterday 4/7/16 we had your very first soccer game ever. To be honest I expected you to be the one that just sat and played with the grass. But to my surprise you loved it! You hated every single time you had to sit out! You chased that ball all around the field. The most surprising thing may be that you loved to play goalie! You said that was your favorite part of the day! And you were pretty good at it! You stopped a couple goals! There were two pretty funny stories from yesterday.

#1 You had never seen a soccer game before or played one before. So you had quite a steep learning curve. They had the first kick off and the other team scored. The put the ball back in middle field for the kick off. You walked up to one of the coaches and loudly informed him, "I didn't get a turn!" It was pretty dang adorable! You just wanted a turn with the ball. You didn't understand you had to get it for yourself. But don't worry, you did pretty good after that!

#2 The other story is you weren't really paying attention and the other team was moving the ball down field. Dad and I frantically yelled at you to go get the ball. But you had no idea it was behind you so you started running in the opposite direction pointing at balls on the side line asking if we were talking about that ball. It was pretty stinking cute! :)

I love you my soccer star!

Love,
Mom

Dear Bently,

I hate to admit this but we are not good at having family night. I mean we really stink. As in we had it the other night, and you and Olivia had no clue what the heck we were doing! To show you just how confused you were, let me demonstrate with a story. We asked you to say the opening prayer. I thought it was a very clear and simple request. To my surprise, you folded your arms, bowed your head, then said, "Oh God, the Eternal Father" and then waited for me to help you with the rest. Your Dad and I tried really hard not to laugh. You honestly thought you were doing what you were suppose to. Then came a lengthy discussion of when we say that prayer! Only in church and when we are old enough. I have made a goal to be better at having family night, if only for the sake that you understand what it is! ;)

I love you adorable boy!

Love,
Mom

P.s. You turn 5 in 5 days and I may be freaking out about it. :( How did you get so dang old! I can't even believe it was 5 years ago that we had you! So crazy!

Dear Bently,

Yesterday was Valentines day! You've have been more into Valentines day this year because you had a preschool party. Before that, Valentines day wasn't really a big deal for you! But since you had a party I decided we should do some major Valentines day celebrating. Well it wasn't that big but we had fun! :) We made Valentines for everyone we could think of and took Valentines day pictures and had a "fancy" Valentines day dinner! I also made a special Valentines Day dessert that you loved! It was so fun to see you so excited! You kept asking if it was Valentines Day yet! I love you so much handsome! Spending holiday with you is magical and they just keep getting better as you get older!

Speaking of getting older, can you believe you'll be 5 in less than 2 months! Holy Bananas Batman! What the heck!? How did that happen. I know I say this every single year but 5 is old! 5 is kindergarten. 5 is 3 years away from being baptized for heavens sake! I know time is just going to keep getting faster and faster so I'm trying to enjoy every single minute with my adorable 5 year old! Who always tells me he loves me! You tell me all day long and I love it! And you still call me Mommy! I secretly pray you'll never stop!

I love you handsome!

Love,
Mom

Dear Bently,

Today we were walking around the Valentines day section in Walmart. You and Olivia were off looking at stuffed animals a little further down the aisle. I was surprised when you came running up to me, holding a single fake rose. With the biggest smile on your face you told me, "This is a rose. It's for you because I love you!" Talk about melting my Mommy heart! I totally got all misty eyed in the middle of Walmart. You see lately, I've been really struggling with feeling loved by your sister and you. You both are huge Daddy fans which is fine, most days. But lately I just feel unloved. It's hard to constantly hear, No I want Daddy. All day long. Especially since lately you've pulled out the big guns and have started to say, "I don't love you mom, I love Dad!" Whenever you're the least bit mad at me. I know your four and you don't mean it, but I can't help but let it hurt my feelings. So this little moment in Walmart meant more to me than you'll ever know!

Though I appreciated the gesture, I didn't necessarily want to take the rose home. So later I tried to ditch it, but you caught me and told me, "I want you to have it because I love you!" I couldn't say no to your cute face so we bought the rose! And now whenever I look at it, I remember how much my adorable 4 year old loves me! I love you more than you'll ever know!

Love,
Mom

Dear Bently,

The other day you fell asleep in our bed so you wouldn't wake up Lincoln. When it was time for me to go to bed I pulled back the blankets to move you. Seeing you there in your jammies I couldn't believe how big you are. Where did my baby go? How are your arms and legs so long! There is so much of you to carry to bed now. I love you sweet boy! I loved baby you and I love big boy you. Watching you grow is an honor! I am so glad I get to be here to witness it!

Tonight you were calling for me. And to be honest this is a nightly occurrence so I wasn't all too quick to answer your call which I assumed would mean you needed a drink. When I walked into the room your eyes were full of tears and you told me "I'm scared and I want you!" I realized in that moment our time is short. Pretty soon you will be a big boy who isn't afraid of monsters in his closet. Who doesn't call for me when he is scared. With that in mind I got in bed and cuddled and talked with you. I gave you a million kisses and soaked in the moment all that I could!

I love you handsome!

Love,
Mom

Dear Bently and Olivia,

Sometimes I catch myself getting caught up in things that aren't important. I'll tell you no or later because I have to clean or do things on the computer. And while those things are important, I'm trying very hard to stop telling you later. You guys are going to be big and old and grown before I know it. I never want to look back and say I wish I would have played with them more. Or cuddled them more. So today I stopped what I was doing and made a very sad make shift tent in the family room. I don't know who came up with the idea, but I know both of you wanted to do it. Unfortunately, when it was done, Bently wanted to read books and not play with Olivia in the tent. So I suggested we read books in the tent! So that's what we did. We read our library books in our tent. It was magical. It was perfect. It was a moment straight out of my head of what being a Mom would be like. I wish you guys could remember these moments! They are fantastic and magical and hilarious! You both say things that make me laugh all the time. I was sad when Lincoln woke up! I love spending time with you guys! You make me smile and laugh every day. I couldn't ask for a better job than being your Mommy! :) Thank you for reminding me to slow down and appreciate the moments!

Love,
Mom