Upcoming Vacation

David and I have been talking about taking a trip to Hawaii for our 10th Anniversary for a while.  Last week we made it a reality.  In one month we will be headed to the island of Oahu, just the two of us.  The grandparents will watch the girls while we get some time away from all the busyness.  For me there is no better way to celebrate an anniversary (I love to travel). 

We will be taking our vacation before our actual anniversary (coming in September), but that is because we want to go someplace warm while it is cold here.  Also, Bria will be starting school this fall which will make it more difficult to get away during the school year.

Bria has heard us talking about going and is already excited to go stay with her grandparents.  It doesn't seem to bother her that we will be leaving.  We will see how the she handles it when we actually go.  We have yet to see how Bentley will do.  She has not stayed with the grandparents for more than three or four days at a time.  They both really want to travel in an airplane so they may be a little upset that they aren't getting to fly.

I can hardly wait (good thing we didn't book it any sooner).  The weather here has finally turned to the freezing snowy winter we are used to which makes it that much more exciting to get away.  There is nothing like having something to look forward to to keep me motivated to get things done here.

If I Could Only Take a Picture…

Right now my two girls are playing so nicely together.  They are talking quietly, Bria was showing Bentley a shape book, and I think they are actually sharing a tent (probably playing house).  Taking a picture destroys the moment because it distracts them from what they are doing. Some of their games I can only speculate about because if I interrupted in any way we would lose the moment—playing together nicely would be completely over, they would insist on sitting with me while I type this, then they would start fighting about something. 

Their behavior is not at all what I would expect, especially considering that grandpa and grandma just left a little while ago.  Generally after company leaves the girls think they need just as much one-on-one attention as they had before, but can’t get all they want from me.  Bentley actually wanted to go home with grandpa and grandma instead of staying here.  It is amazing how much those two love their grandparents, and from what I can tell the feeling is mutual.

Changes

After all of the Christmas travels, we knew it would be time to make some changes to Bentley’s sleeping arrangements.  It was time to move Bentley from her crib to a regular bed.  The girls’ room poses some problems, however.  We had to consider the limited space, the patio door with an easy to open handle (not to mention it is on the second floor and the deck doesn’t have stairs).  What type of bed would work best, do we want to put the girls in the same bed, and so much more before we could make a decision.  After rearranging the furniture several times, we did finally decide to have the girls share a full size bed.  That still gave us room for the dresser and we even moved Bria’s chest of drawers out of the closet and in front of the patio door.  We still have a few things on the walls that need to be moved.  Over all the process is complete.

We knew with the girls sharing a bed that there would be some fighting, laughing, and unknown disturbances.  We also wondered if Bentley would climb out of bed whenever she pleased.  It has already been several nights and they seem to be adjusting pretty well.  The first nigh, David had to go in several times to settle them down or to settle a disagreement; the second night we went in a fewer number of times, and last night we only had to go in to find lost animals (that they sleep with).

The girls in their new bed.  (We just moved one up from a room in the basement and moved Bria’s twin bed down.)

The other change is that both girls got hair cuts today.  This was Bentley’s first hair cut, and she was worried that it would hurt.  Bria has been asking to get hers cut for a while now; she gets tired of all the snarls, so she went first to show Bentley how easy it was.  It definitely made Bentley less afraid.  She ended up doing a great job despite all the distractions in the salon that she kept turning her head to see.

Bentley getting her hair cut.

The girls with their shorter hair.  Bentley only had an inch or two cut off.  Bria had probably eight to ten inches cut off.

Their hair will be more manageable, hopefully.

Christmas #3

I haven’t had time to post anything about our final Christmas celebration, which was at my family’s house over New Year’s weekend.  The weather is so nice today I sent the girls outside so I would have a few moments to update the blog.

As I just said, New Year’s was when we celebrated Christmas with my family.  The whole family was there, we played lots of games, and opened lots of presents.  With my family, there is never a shortage of gifts or food.

David looking at the stockings for our family.  Mom decided to put our stockings on top of bags filled with our stocking stuffers since she can never get everything in the stockings anyway.

The piles of presents which are not even completely passed out.  Also, my parents, brother, and youngest sister already exchanged their gifts on Christmas so this was just what was left.  My mom really loves giving.  Not only does she give to her family, neighbors, church family, etc., but she also makes sure that several needy families in other countries receive gifts of chickens, goats, etc. (through World Vision) in the girls’ names.  That is a wonderful tradition that I hope my girls will learn to appreciate as they get older.

My sister brought their kitten again (her name is Razzy), which the girls love; it is the only cat that will let the girls come near her (my parents have two cats also).  Razzy had a great time playing with the tissue and wrapping paper that was left on the floor.  She even buried herself in it, then Bentley decided to copy her.

Razzy in the paper.

You can hardly see her, but Bentley is under the paper trying to copy Razzy.

My mom has a little wooden sleigh that holds a couple of snowmen, and it seems every Christmas one of the girls has to climb into it.  Bria has gotten too big, and honestly Bentley is probably to big too, but she still sat in it anyway.  (This will have to be the last year or it is not going to make it through another Christmas.)

The sleigh is just her size.

Now that I have caught up all the Christmas posts, it is on to the next thing.