I want to hold your hand

Bennett is always reaching for something in our van. We keep a box filled with books and stuffed animals for her and she is constantly reaching out for one. Yesterday she was crying and asking for one of her books. He hand was stretched out trying to reach it and then slowly, this little chubby arm from across the way reached out and held her hand. It was like Will woke up all of a sudden and realized what he was capable of. Bennett was so surprised that she laughed and wanted to hold Will's hand the whole way home.

Today they held hands the entire time they were in the car. I took the best picture that I could with my cell phone camera. These are the moments that make every bit of it worthwhile.

My Morning Conversation

While reading a book to Bennett-

Me: (started the book on page 4) Mickey ran to the clubhouse and yelled, "Oh, Toodles!"
Bennett: No, No, Mama. Minnie Book.
Me: What?
Bennett: MINNIE BOOK!
Me: I am reading the Minnie book.
Bennett: No, No, Mama. (She takes the book from me and opens to the first page where Minnie Mouse is reading a book. I am clearly caught at skipping pages. Dang. Those days are over.)
Me: Good job, Bennett. Smart girl.
Bennett: Yup, Mama.

-5 minutes later-

Bennett: I so sad at the rainbows, Mama.
Me: You're so sad at rainbows? Why, baby?
Bennett: Rainbows on fingernails.
Me: Really?
Bennett: Uh, huh.

-2 minutes later-

Bennett: Mama, fruit snack on my hand.
Me: Oh, you want me to deliver your fruit snack right to your hand?
Bennett: Yes. Fruit snack in Bennett's hand.
Me: Wow, your majesty. Would you like a foot rub as well?
Bennett: Okay.

-Just now-

Bennett: I no like Will.
Me: Yes, you do. That's not nice.
Bennett: I no like him!!!
Me: He's your brother. You do like him.
Bennett: What's this, Mama?
Me: Ummmm..... that's an envelope. I thought we were talking about Will.
Bennett: I no like envelope.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

My baby boy is growing up. He is crawling everywhere and he has one tooth on the bottom and more coming in on top. He can clap his hands, say Mama, and has the most fantastic belly laugh that I have ever heard. His only fault is that he has to be near me at all times. If I put him down in the living room and walk to the kitchen, he crawls after me furiously and cries, "Mama! Mama! Mama!"

Okay, who am I kidding? That's not a fault. That's just pure heart melting. Man, I love this kid.

I would be funnier if I were British

Why is it when you see a movie, you fall in love with an absentminded heroine who is always getting herself into scrapes? So many movies come to mind, but I guess the classic would be "Bridget Jones Diary."


Bridget can barely dress herself, makes a mess of everything, eats ice-cream while crying on a couch, mangles conversations endlessly, and yet we love her. We root for her. And yet I do those things on a daily basis and I am what my daughter refers to as a "hot mess." I have decided that it would be better if I were British.

If you wanted to hear about all of my misadventures you would either need 22 hours to spare or just talk to my parents. A friend in college used to tell me that I could stand in the middle of a field with nobody around me for 10 miles and drama would find me. I think I have a lot less drama these days, but it's mainly because I have passed my flair for getting into scrapes on to a certain red headed 2 year old.

However, I did have one the other night. I used to have 5 a day so now that I have limited them to one a week, I am doing pretty good. But Rob and I had tickets to a Bon Jovi concert on Tuesday night. We lined up a sitter, had the tickets out, and were just waiting to go live on a prayer. I got on the computer the night before to see who the opening act was. I realized within 10 seconds that the concert had started an hour prior to my online searching. Wrong night. Wrong. Just wrong.

I cried. Well, I got depressed. Close enough. And then I did what anyone else would do. I ran out the door, called a friend, and told her to get out of her dreams and into my car. (Another 80's reference. I'm good.) She protested. I told her she had no option. She agreed. She got in my car and even managed to have on a snazzy top and mascara. We made it to the concert and only missed the opening act and about 4 of Mr. Jovi's songs.

But when I reflect on this, I realize that I just sound scattered and disorganized. But if Bridget Jones did it, she would be a lovable goof. So as I look back at so many of my "hot messes", I have realized that they would be a whole lot more endearing if I were British. I should move to England now to save Bennett from herself.

Some recent faves

I think (like most families) we have hundreds of great pictures that I never post. But here are three recent favorites that I thought I would share.

My messy little boy


Sharing a cool drink on a hot ride


Walking down a snow covered path


Keep in mind that the sunny wagon ride and the snowy walk came within 48 hours of each other. Totally bizarre, but it makes for some great pictures.

Cookies trump "Z" everytime

What a difference a day makes

This was us yesterday. Playing in the yard. Short sleeves. Bare feet.

This was us today enjoying the first day of Spring.


Kansans are officially crazy. Or at least their weather systems are. I suppose they are not to blame.

You got me feeling emotions

Is that Mariah Carey song stuck in your head now as well? Whoa Whoa Whoa- YOU'VE got me feelin' e-mo-shuns!

Anyway, that song is in my head constantly these days because Bennett is constantly telling me how she feels. For a few months it was just, "I so happy," or "I so sad." But now the child feels compelled to tell me everything she's feeling.

We took her on her first amusement park ride- the Tilt-a-whirl. Don't ask why. I am still trying to understand what in my process of using good judgement possessed me to try that one out. But all I have heard for days now is, "I so scared of the ride, Mama. I so scared of the ride."

Her last cousin left yesterday. Now I hear, "I so sad, Mama. Pipuh on da hairplane, Mama. I so sad. Pipuh on da hairplane."

She tells me when she's tired, mad, sad, hungry, and happy. I love it. I love knowing how she is feeling.

However, right now she is face down on the floor right beside me crying because I won't let her go play in the snow. Yes, I said snow. IT IS SNOWING!!! On March 20th!!! But I won't let her go outside right now and she is bawling and saying, "I so sad at the snow, Mama. Bennett go outside? I so sad, Mama. Oh, no. Bennett play in snow, Mama? Oh, no. I so sad."

She can't get what she wants, but I like the fact that she can tell me.

Finally!!

We finally finally finally had a warm day in Kansas today. I won't talk about the fact that it is supposed to snow on Sunday. I will just concentrate on the fact that we took a wagon ride to a neighborhood park and played. I will bust the coats back out this weekend while I am silently crying. Or loudly sobbing. Depends on my mood.

My girls

Two of my nieces left last week (sniff sniff) and I have missed them so much. But fortunately their big sister has been here for four days now and I think I am going to tie her to the stairs to keep her from leaving. We have had the best week so far and it reminds me so much of how much I miss these beautiful girls. I got the best picture of Bennett with her big cousin last night, but first I had to share this flashback picture-

Here are Piper and Bennett when little B was almost 3 months old.


And here they are last night. I think that I am kind of crazy about these kids.


And just for good measure, here is one of Piper's little sisters last week when they were here in Kansas City. I am so thankful that I get to be their aunt.


And as I am ending this post, I thought I had better clarify that I am not just biased towards girls. Little boys are fully capable of stealing my heart as well.


Life is so incredibly good.

I have a fun induced headache

I haven't been very good at blogging lately. There are many reasons for this-

1. I have a 2 year old and an 8 month old.
2. I don't have a computer
3. I had strep throat. It wasn't pretty.
4. I have had 4 kids in my house this past week.
5. Did I mention that I didn't have a computer?

Well, let me clarify. I do have one thanks to our fantastically awesome friend Jerry who let me have an old computer from his office. Unfortunately it takes 5 minutes to load a page so I use it to read the front page of news websites and that's about it. Just needed that caveat in there since I technically have one.

And now I am using my husbands since he is in the shower and can't say anything about it.

I digress.

Back to my fun induced headache. Despite three of us having strep (me, Bennett, and my niece) we had a great week. My parents came to see us and brought two of my nieces with them. We watched movies, made popcorn, went to a park, dressed up in costumes, went to an arcade, ate at the train restaurant, had an Easter egg hunt, went to an indoors water park, laughed a lot, cuddled up and read books, went to see a play about Junie B. Jones, went to a carnival, and just played. Pretty fun if you ask me. Oh, and I can now tell you anything you want to know about Hannah Montana. Just try me. I dare you.

There was still some snow on the ground when the girls got here. There wasn't much left, but these 'Bama girls loved it.

Morning cuddles with baby Will.

Having a swingin' good time.

Inflatables always make a day better. If you don't believe me, ask any 4 year old.

Mommy and Daddy Suttle with 4 of their 5 grandchildren. The 5th will be here in KC next week!

Two princesses and a cow. Sounds like a fairy tale gone horribly wrong.

Hanging out on a lazy river in March. How I love indoor water parks. I wish I had a picture of the monster slides that Emmie and I went down. I was so proud of her and I threw my hands up in the air and partied like I just didn't care. Because I am Jay-R.

Uncle Rob only appears when we are in arcades apparently.

Eating ice-cream at our favorite candy store, Sweet Caroline's.

In downtown KC on our way to see a play.


Wow! Just think of how much fun we would have had if strep hadn't knocked us out for a few days. They left yesterday and I miss the girls so much already. Bennett keeps walking around the house saying, "Oh, no! What happened to Sutton?" Where did Emmie go?" When my parents loaded everyone in the car to leave, Bennett stood on the doorstep and bawled, "Bennett in car! Bennett in CAR!!" It broke my heart. Fortunately I am leaving in 3 hours to head to the airport to pick up their big sister. Let the good times roll.

Party Girl

We had Bennett's 2nd birthday party tonight. We kept it very small because I didn't want to overwhelm her and it turned out to be perfect. We had Bennett's grandparents, two of her cousins, and two of our favorite families in Kansas. What a sweet day celebrating our favorite two year old.

Getting ready for a Par-tay!

Will decided to get in on the shot. What sweet children.

Friends are arriving. Let's eat!

Opening gifts with her cousins looking on.

I absolutely love this picture! She's like, "Wow, Mom. What a cool gift."

I made her a Mickey Mouse cake. I was pretty proud of myself for this.

Chocolate cake? Bring it!

Cake AND ice-cream? I mean, how much better can this night get?

Fun group shot. Thanks, Jess for taking the picture.

It ain't a party until the clothes start coming off.

Thanks, Mommy. Let's do it again next year.

Birthday part 1

Here are a few pictures from Bennett's actual birthday. We are having a small party for her tomorrow. Nothing fancy because, well, she's only 2. No need for that yet. We waited a week because her grandparents and cousins came into town today. Hooray! But we wanted to make her day special so we did a few things to celebrate.


We covered her floor in balloons in the middle of the night while she was asleep. She woke up to a lot of balloons on her floor and it cost us less than a dollar. Nice.


I read an article in a magazine that was giving examples on how to make the day special for your kids. They asked why we only put candles in cake? Why not put candles in pancakes? Peanut butter and jelly? Let them have candles all day long. Why not? I loved that idea and so I made her pancakes and put candles in. We also hung her Mickey mouse banner. She was soooo happy. She came downstairs and said, "It's a birthday party." The next morning she asked for pancakes with candles.


We took her to a playground because it was actually above freezing that day. We don't have pictures because we were too busy taking video. But that night we took her to Chuck-E-Cheese. Here she is with Daddy enjoying pizza.


Will rode his first ride and wasn't scared at all.

Ending the day with more slides.


After Chuck-E-Cheese we went to a friends house who was having a huge party. We told Bennett it was for her birthday. They hired a band for the party and we told Bennett that we were the coolest parents in the world for having a band at her 2nd birthday. She didn't buy it. But she didn't care either since her best friend Levi was there.

So we had a fabulous day and tried to do little things to make it special. But her big fiesta is tomorrow. Aren't week long birthdays the best?

Imagine seeing you here

We could never have imagined when we moved from Alabama to Kansas that just one year later, some of our dearest friends would move to Missouri and live less than three hours from us. We have been close to the Segars family for a very long time now. We hung out a lot even before we had kids and then when we had Bennett, their four boys became her unofficial big brothers. We have missed them so much, but now Shane is a teaching pastor at a church in Springfield, Missouri so we were able to go and spend the weekend with them at their new home.

It was so good to catch up, hear Shane preach again, see where they live, and have all the kids reunited. Here are a few pictures from our weekend.


Taylor and Bennett share the same birthday and so we had cupcakes to celebrate Tayor's 14th and Bennett's 2nd birthday. Notice how Bennett didn't get how to blow out candles. She just sniffed them.

Cade was so happy that his "Guhrl-frind" came to spend the night

Rockin' the pajama look. I think they could have played together for a week straight. Bennett has been asking for him non-stop.

The Segars and Webster kids. Always a party.

Best friends.