Rose

My little sister Rose...She's gorgeous.  FUNNY.  Has a great voice!  And is a fabulous aunt.  




This is Eli.  He is a great nephew and has a sweet set of cheeks.

The Bentley Fam

Sam had to skip out early so I didn't get as many pics of these guys as I would have liked.  But we still got some cute ones.  And I will have plenty more opportunities since Buffy and I leave in FOUR more days on a THREE week road trip to CO, UT, and ID!  I am SO excited!  

Katie and Preston are Hot!

And Everett and Lincoln are pretty cute, too.
Found a puddle to play in!
Everett could not resist the water!  He stripped down to his skivvies and jumped right in!


See what I mean!

Katie and Rose

My sisters are so funny.  When we were kids we all shared a room.  I used to sleep on a double bed on the bottom of the bunk and they would sleep on the twin bed at the top.  Whose idea that was I don't remember.  But I do remember their giggling every night.  I would say, "YOU GUYS BE QUIET!" because I was older and getting up at the crack of dawn. Katie would say, "ROSE!" (Because Rose always starts the laughter when she is around.)  Then we all would yell, "MOM!!!!"  

So now Katie and Rose are both living in the same town across the country from where we grew up.  And one day Katie was dropping Rose off at school.  Rose looked at Katie and said, "Can I wear your jacket?"  Katie took it off and gave it to her.  Then she said, "and your hair thing?"  So she gave that to her, too.  It just cracks me up.  I don't know why.  But that just shows how close they are. I think it's adorable.   

Plus I love the way Katie is looking at Rose in this picture with that "your nuts and I absolutely love that about you" look.  It's classic.

mi familia

When we went to visit my family on the coast back in May we decided to take the opportunity to take a family picture.  We knew it would be our last chance for a while since Rose is headed to freezing cold Canada for a year and a half.  Things got a little crazy.  Mainly because I forgot my tripod.  I borrowed my dad's camcorder tripod and tied my camera to it with my sister in law's stash of yellow yarn! Then....after everyone was in their places I set the timer and ran like crazy to jump up on that tree branch.  It was surely comical in that long dress.  It was really fun, too.  My family was all saying, "CHEESE" so loud it was really cracking me up!  Normally I take a day or two to edit a photo shoot.  This one took me about a month! It's so hard to try and edit yourself.  And I also had picked about 70 favorites.  Kinda of a daunting task to edit.  So now I've edited about 24 of them.  :) Here are a few of them. 

Oops, I just realized I forgot to do my own family picture! 

couch time

I'm not usually a big fan of the ol' bube tube (or is it boob tube?).  But...there are exceptions.  Like the Oscars.  And So You Think You Can Dance.  Holy Awesome.  We got Tivo again just because of you.  And it was SO so worth it!  Isn't it amazing what a strong healthy body can do!  I'm in awe.  What can I say!  

summer, summer, summer time

My dad came to visit us right around the time of my last post.  Just for a few days.  But it was great.  My kids were total angels the whole time.  I kid you not.  No whining, no crying.  They were perfectly happy little angel children.  We did a lot of walking and riding bikes.  Got caught in a huge thunderstorm.  Just fun.  Every night my kids say what they are thankful for.  It's supposed to be something specific from that day.  But Bentley always says "Daddy and Milk."  Always.  Now, however he has branched out and he says, "Daddy, Milk, and Gwampa!"  They really had such a great time with him.  My dad is off to London now doing some really cool work that I can only pretend to understand.  :)  No really, I understand it, but I couldn't explain it to anyone else.  OK.  Now I'm embarrassed and I have to try and explain it.  He's a cultural anthropologist and he has started these plant clinics all around the world.  They help local farmers determine what bugs are eating their crops and what to do about it.  Is that right, Dad?  Anyway, they have really taken off and are getting some pretty cool attention.  He's a cool guy.  And I'm glad he's my dad. 

After he left I FINALLY did what should have been done about a year ago and weaned Bentley from his nightly bottle.  Then he got step throat.  Aye-aye-aye!  

But we are good now.  Back to normal.  Headed to Knoxville to do a family photo shoot with super cute Cally and co. tomorrow!  So excited!

You know even though the crazy summer schedule has totally thrown me for a loop, I think I'm thankful for it.  I needed a shift in perspective.