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 love you kid! No seriously I do! You are the cutest thing in the entire world! The following examples will prove that you are just that, completely adorable.

Example #1: No matter how badly my day is going you always find some way to make it better! The other day I was having a horrible day. I finally just dropped to my knees and started to pray. For some reason me sitting there, on my knees, with my eyes shut was hilarious to you! You let out a screech and a giggle then come running over and jump on top of me while trying to poke my eyes out with your little fingers. I couldn't help but smile and scoop  you up into the biggest bear hug I could muster! :)

Example #2: You have started doing this thing where you talk all the time. Most of it is things I can't understand but you don't let that stop you. The funny thing is you will randomly say something and then laugh about it! I can't wait to be in on the joke! It sure sounds funny! :)

Example #3: You found some old sunglasses in my room. I'm on the computer and you bring them to me all the while saying, "glasses glasses" in your little baby voice. I immediately put them on you and you just grin from ear to ear! You then run around the house giggling. It sure made me laugh watching you run around in your sunglasses!

Example #4: You have just barley learned to talk on the phone. Before you would not talk back or you would push it away. Now you actually enjoy talking on the phone and will usually jabber away for long periods of time! You are especially good at talking to your Dad! You get all excited when it's him on the phone and will actually take the phone from me and walk away. The other day I hear your Dad on the phone say "I love you!". Then you in a high excited voice say "love you!". It was adorable and pretty much melted my heart. I still have a hard time believing you are old enough to talk! Crazy!! :)

Example #5: Okay this is the last one. Today your Dad brought you to come visit me at work. As soon as you see me you point to me with a huge smile on your face and yell out "mama" while reaching for me! I loved it! I love that you love me! That you want to be with me! That you are almost as excited to see me as I am to see you! :)

Bently I love you so much! Thank you for making me so incredibly happy! I don't know what I would do without my little man! You have made some horrible days all that much more bearable! :) I love you my little man!

Mom

Dear Bently,

Since Daddy is working full time and going to school we have been spending lots of time together! Lots of mommy and Bently time. Something that never happened very much in the past. I love it! I love spending time just us two bonding! We go to the park and run errands and I let you get into lots more trouble then Daddy did! We have dance parties and watch your favorite TV show the backyardigans. You love it! You hear the theme music start playing and you laugh and clap your hands. Adorable! We read book after book. You love to read books! We take walks to the trash and talk about cars. We spend hours playing with the alphabet refrigerator magnets. You have recently become obsessed with letters! Every where we go you point out letters to me! You now recognize H and M almost all the time. You are so proud of yourself when you can recognize a letter! It's adorable!
It's hard to watch you grow up but it's also so fun watching you want to be more independent. Today I was feeding you when you grabbed the fork from me and didn't want to give it back. Things like that tell me how much bigger my little boy is getting. You now want to do things for yourself. I snuck home for a second on my break tonight. I just needed to see you. I slowly opened the door and crept over to your crib. There you were. Spread out with your baby hair all a mess. As I watched you sleep I suddenly realized, you are not a baby. Not even a littel. I kept telling myself you were turning into a toddler. Little did I realize it has already arrived. You are a toddler. You are the big kid now! You don't have to walk holding onto my hands and you can feed yourself and you know what I mean when I ask you to go get your shoes. I can't believe my little baby is so big. I can't believe how fast it has all gone. I can't believe what joy and love you have brought into my life. More than I ever thought possible! Being your mom is the very best job in the world!!! :) I seriously love it! I can't wait till I can do it 24 hours a day 7 days a week!
Little man I hope you always realize how much I love you! I hope you always feel it. No matter where you go in life or how far away we might be from each other I will never stop loving you ever! Thank you for choosing our family to come to! Thank you for changing my life and making me happy every single day!
I love you always!
Mom