Dear Bently,

I need to write these more often. I hate when I have too many things I want to say in one letter. Sometimes I just want to focus on one thing! Well let's start with Halloween.

You are such a sweet kid. We were originally going to go as people from Monster's Inc because that's what you wanted to do. Well, one day at the store Olivia saw an Anna costume. You immediately said if Olivia was going to be Anna you were going to Olaf. No convincing what so ever. You just wanted to match her! And let me tell you, you look mighty adorable in that Olaf costume! I loved every minute you were in it!

We did lots of fun things for Halloween this year! We went to the library for there little activity. We also went to our church Halloween party. It was quite the adventure. It was our first big function as a family of five and you could tell we were newbies! You and Olivia basically ran crazy as your Dad and I tried to figure out how to juggle holding Lincoln and dishing up 4 different plates of food. We failed pretty bad at it. We finally got food when Olivia fell down and split her lip open! So I ran off to the bathroom to help her take care of the blood. Then when I got back Lincoln was ready to eat. So Olivia and I went to the mother's room to feed him. (Olivia didn't want me to leave her.) I remember thinking, at least Greg and Bently will get to eat. At this point I had eaten a roll. While in the mother's room Olivia had diarrhea. As soon as I finished changing her diaper you and Dad walked in. Where he informed me you had not been eating like I thought. You both had been in the bathroom because you had diarrhea too! Oh boy! By the time Lincoln was done eating, so was our food gone. Oh well.

The rest of the party went much smoother. We played some games and did the trunk or treat and got our picture done in the picture booth! After the party we hit up McDonalds. Because we were all starving. Haha! So much for not having to worry about dinner that night! ;)

We also went to the Christian Academy's Halloween party. We went in with pretty low expectations. It was super crowded and it was free and we were late. We figured we missed all the good stuff. Luckily that was not the case. The first thing we hit up were the bounce houses. I tried on the way to explain what a bounce house was, but you didn't really get it. Well I don't think you'll be forgetting about bounce houses any time soon. You and Olivia LOVED it. We let you bounce for most of the time because you loved it so much! Then we went trunk or treating. For reals this time. The church one was actually inside, this one was the real deal. We went at the very end so everyone was trying to get rid of their candy. We got A LOT of candy! You asked me to hold your candy bucket as we walked back to the car because it was too heavy!

Finally the actual day arrived. You were so excited leading up to it and kept asking if it was Halloween yet! The day of we didn't do anything too exciting. It's hard to do activities during the day time! We did have a couple trick or treaters come to our door! You and Olivia loved handing out hte candy. Since I knew we wouldn't have too many and we were leaving I let you hand out multiple pieces to everyone who came to our house. It was so cute watching you be so big and putting the candy in the bags! We had our annual Halloween dinner and were running super late. But we finally got in the car to go trick or treating. You were so anxious to go. You had been asking all day if we were going yet! On the way we stopped by Dad's friends house to trick or treat. This did not please you! You just wanted to get on the road. After that we finally went trick or treating. Boy did you LOVE it. I smiled the whole time watching how happy you were! You never got shy or scared. You just walked up to all those doors and boldly exclaimed, trick or treat! Than ran off to the next house. You had a hard time waiting for you slow sister! ;) One funny moment from the night: We were trick or treating at a house and it was a little boy handing out the candy. He was probably about nine. Well he put the treat in your bag and Olivia's and you were able to see what was in the candy bowl. You exclaimed, "I like liquorice." The little boy just stared at you and you stared right back. Unmoving. The little boy slowly put the Liquorice piece in your bag. You Dad and I laughed long and hard about that one.

So that was our Halloween! We had a blast to say the least! I know you loved it and I can't wait till next year! :)

Tonight I was frantically cleaning trying to get something done in the precious moments while Lincoln was actually sleeping! In my haste I found a folded up coloring page. I remembered you had told me the day before it was for me and I couldn't look at it because you wanted to put it in the mail box for me. I had been feeding Lincoln at the time and couldn't get you an envelope. Well we had both forgotten about it. I picked up and considered throwing it away without looking at it. You have been very into coloring and I have too many to keep. But I decided to open it and boy am I glad I did. There was a colored Minion and written on the side in your cute 4 year old handwriting were 3 letters. Mom. You had written Mom before but this was the very first time you had written it without asking for help. I can't even describe how much those three little letters meant to me. I bawled like a baby just staring down at it! I couldn't get over how much I loved you! I hope you know how happy you make me as a mom! I hope you know that the little things are most often the big things in life! :)

I love you so much my Bently man!

Love,
Mom

Dear Bently,

I forgot to mention one of the funny things that happened while we were trick or treating! We got to the house and Bently loved to knock! Livvy near the end got in on the knocking too! ;) Well Bently knocked and the door swung open. I guess it hadn't been shut all the way to begin with Bently and Olivia began to just walk inside there house! We're like "No no stop! Come back!" Hahaha! We pulled you out just as the owner of the home came walking up to the door! It was a little awkward to be standing there with their door wide open! Haha! Luckily it was someone we kinda knew! It was hilarious! You two are going to be partners in crime! I can see it already!

Love,
Mom

Dear Bently,

We have had the busiest couple days trying to fit in as many Halloween things as possible! It all started on the 29th when we went to "Pumpkin Palooza". Now I found this from a flyer and we decided to try it. Let me tell you, I was pretty disappointed. It was basically a bunch of business trying to sell you things. There was little to no Halloween activities let alone activities for preschoolers. But we did do the blow up toys. We paid a dollar to get in and then were informed that only gave us 10 minutes. Even though that was lame, it was worth it to watch you have so much fun! You seriously were laughing and jumping and singing with the music they had playing! I had a blast just watching you! :)

You also met Minnie and Mickey Mouse! We happened to be right there when they came out so we didn't have to wait in line at all. I was very curious to see how you would react. You are in a fears stage and are afraid of most everything! But to my surprise you gave them hugs and high fives and told them hello! It was adorable! :)

After that we went trick or treating to all the different businesses booths. It was a good intro to trick or treating and we came out with a fair amount of candy! :)

On the 30th you had your Halloween preschool program! Now you have been looking forward to this program for a very long time. Basically all month. You would ask us almost every night before you went to sleep if you got to be Spiderman at preschool the next day. :) Finally the day had arrived. You were on cloud nine getting into your spidey suit! You were shooting webs and talking up a storm! You were so stinking adorable in your program! I was worried you wouldn't sing loud because you tend to get stage fright! But nope, you and Brynnlee were the loudest singers in the whole group! You had a smile on your face the whole time and tried to do every single action! Of course your Mommy got a little choked up watching you preform. You just seemed so grown up singing all those songs with the other kids. I was so proud of you! :) At the very end when you had sang all your songs you yelled out with the biggest grin on your face "Let's do that again!" That's my boy!

We also finally got pumpkins on the 30th. We just went to the little fruit stand down the road and picked some out. I had no idea they would be so expensive! 24 dollars later we walked out with our pumpkins! Again, worth it because you loved walking around the pumpkin patch! Every pumpkin you wanted was either huge or ugly or rotten. You were not very good at picking out pumpkins! ;) We went home and decided to let you paint on the pumpkins instead of trying to carve them. You loved it! In hind sight I wish I wouldn't have given you black paint, it took over the whole pumpkin! But you were sure proud of your pumpkin! :) And you took such care to paint your pumpkin. It's funny beining a parent,. All these activities that weren't very fun for me, I LOVED because you had a blast. Your happiness is everything to me! Your happiness is more important than mine. I hope you realize I would do almost anything to give you joy! ;) (Excluding buying you every single toy in the store!)

Then it was finally Halloween! Again you had been asking us all week if it was Halloween and yet and then, it was! We had orange waffles (I died them) for breakfast. You of course didn't eat hardly any of it! Valerie invited us to go to her works trick or treat. They had all the desks in this huge office building supplied with candy and goodies! I didn't know what to expect but off we went! :) Well let me tell you, we probably walked out with 3 lbs of candy or more! Everyone told you to take multiple and there were so many desks to go to! We seriously could have not gone trick or treating that night because we already had more than enough! :) I thoroughly enjoyed watching you say thank you and trick or treat to everyone. You again got lots of good practice.

I spent the rest of the time getting ready for dinner. What started out as a small simple family dinner exploded into quite the event! We had Sue and Ron Hyer, Grandma Kay Lynn and Grandpa Paul, Grandma and Grandpa Hodson, Annie and Scott Dickey, and Melissa Hyer all over for dinner! Let me tell you, it was fun and stressful all at once! I think it's just a miracle it all came together as well as it did! :) You had a blast playing with your grandparents! You ended up feeding Papa Ron for a second! I guess you really wanted to play on his phone but he told you he needed to be done eating first! So you began to feed him! Telling him to swallow and asking him if his mouth was full! It was pretty cute! Melissa got you dress in your Halloween outfit and of course everyone gushed over how cute you looked! :) You were so excited to be Spiderman! OH and I would like to mention Janaye and Aunt Stacey and Uncle Jesse also came to dinner, just later! So I ended up feeding 15 people! Crazy!

I had a goal to get a really cute, really good family picture of us in our costumes! Last year we didn't end up with a picture I liked and I was so disappointed! So I was pretty dang determined. The lighting was perfect and we had someone to take our picture so we didn't even have to use a tripod. But alas, you and Livvy did not want to take a picture! Livvy was tired and you were running literally in circles through the backyard. I think you were pretending to be Spiderman which was cute but not what I was wanting. So we didn't really get a single good picture. I am thinking on my days off coming up I am going to convince your Dad to dress up again and go take a good picture in the leaves some where. We'll see if we have anytime for that! And and then you fell asleep in the car! Like zonked out! Hahaha! Luckily it was a rejuvenating cat nap because you woke up in a great mood!

Then we loaded up in the car and were off to go see Grandma Curtis who of course oohed and ahhed over our cute costumes and took tons of awkward pictures! ;) Then we went trick or treating joined by Stacey, Jesse, Janaye, and Courtney! We had so much fun! You and Livvy got so into it! And you were such a great big brother helping Livvy and making sure she got candy! You ran around and fell multiple times! (You are a little klutzy) And again we walked away with so much candy! You insisted on holding your candy bag even when you could barley lift it! It was pretty adorable.

Then it was time to go home and go to bed. I think you had a fantastic Halloween! I know I did! ;) Today you woke up and asked if we were going to go trick or treating tonight! I told you know and you responded with your typical "Later?" It was hard to explain to you that you have to wait another year before Halloween to come again! I can't believe you'll be 4 next Halloween! Time is going by too fast handsome! :) I love you so much! I work so hard to make sure you have fantastic holidays! :)

Love,
Mom