Rearranging

We have been busy upgrading our home to be more toddler functional. The guest room is now a guest/play/family room. It is already proving to be a great spot to relax as a family and let the boys be boys. We anticipate play dates, youth events, and family friend gatherings to be much more functional. The bonus is that during this stage of Owen's development, he can be contained when necessary. He has proven to be quite the escape artist and Mommy's back and nerves were taking a toll. This was our plan for the basement but we are too far financially from being able to finish it out to make it work now when we need it so we went back to the drawing board and this seems to be a better plan anyway! We are also now a lot closer to being ready to homeschool if needed!

Keeping an Eye on Things

Precious has her own opinions about all the increased activity in the house....

Christmas Day

The boys had an exciting wake up this morning. Aaron noticed the basketball net hanging on the door and asked about the orange ball, which he soon found in his stocking along with some other items. They enjoyed playing race cars and then Daddy surprised them with a helicopter flying overhead! There is a lot of action in the Bentley house these days. We expect their gifts will help get out some energy on the many days spent indoors. After church we went to Suzy and Spencer's house (Rachel's inlaws...even though she is in Texas!) for an enjoyable time of lunch and gifts. We've enjoyed the rest of the day hanging around the house.

Balance

Owen loves to pull pillows off the couch. He shows a lot of balance with being able to hold an item in one hand while holding on the couch with the other...we expect him to walk soon!

Race Track

Christmas Eve

We opened gifts from extended family on Christmas Eve followed by a delicious supper and musical service at church.

Our Handyman

We were able to open gifts with Mamma, Pappa, and Great Grandma via Skpe. Aaron is hardly seen without a tool ever since and apparently even spent the morning "fixing" the play kitchen in the church nursery during our service!

A White Christmas

We were starting to wonder if it would be a green Christmas with all the mild and sunny days but we thought surely since there was a brief snowfall at Halloween and Thanksgiving that Christmas would not miss out. Matt has enjoyed not shoveling and Dana has enjoyed all the sunshine and not having to bundle up the boys much. When the snow started falling mid-week Aaron was very excited to help Daddy shovel and he had the bonus fun of it finally being the kind that would build a snowman (his first one)..and the snowman had a piece of Texas with his Valley Ranch hat!

2 Weeks of Christmas

We were able to spread Christmas out over 2 weeks which allowed the boys to enjoy and savor their gifts. It all started with the children's play at church followed by a celebration at Pastor Chute and "Nana's". Different friends have randomly shared gifts with the boys and goodies and they've enjoyed receiving packages in the mail. Between Christmas and Aaron's birthday soon after, there's lots of reminders how blessed we are to have so many people caring for our family. Last weekend Grandpa and Grandma came for a visit. They helped Aaron build his new Lincoln log set that included a train and old west scene. He also has enjoyed figuring out his different puzzles. Grandma was a big help with baking the train cookies for our volunteers (Aaron decided he'd rather play with his new toys and just be the official taste tester :) .

Christmas with Toddlers

Aaron is starting to figure out the different symbols, stories, and traditions of Christmas. He's been learning about the true meaning and is also enjoying the gifts, festivities, friends & family. Owen just loves being in the middle of everything and quickly figured out the concept of unwrapping; however, he seems to mostly be interested in the paper or in being in the middle of whatever big brother is doing...Aaron is quite quick to let Owen know the boundaries...

9 months and cruising

2 Teeth

Sharing a Room

Feeding Brother

Just like Grandpa

Daily Creative Play

Aaron loves to act out stories and things/people he observes..one of his favorites is fixing the roof!