I am not a hermit.

Alright, here's the deal. I stay home a lot. It's because I have two little girls that I bathe every morning and interupt me a thousand times as I'm getting showered and dressed for the day. Therefore, I can't get out of the house before 11am half the time. Josie takes an afternoon nap, which is priority number 1 for my sanity in the evenings. So that give me two hours to get her lunch, get somewhere else to hang out and get home. (If she doesn't get her nap, everything is a tragedy, for us all.) I don't go to the exercise class (Tuesday and Thursday mornings at the church) because it's way easier to run on the treadmill at my parents' house in the evenings (because we're up there anyway, and Dan's there to help) than hauling my kids to the church in the morning by myself. Third, I don't like to play volleyball (Thursday nights at the church). So, I do stay home a lot, but I love to hang out with people! Adult people! So lets hang out. At night. When my kids are in bed. I'm sure some of you understand.

More pics

What a silly little face.

Josie loves to read her books.

Here she is in her big-girl bed! Violet outgrew her bassinette already, so she needs to be in the crib. So far, so good. Josie's doing great in her bed and sharing a room is no problem! I thought it would be a lot more of a fight/adjustment. If anyone ever needs bedrails, these kind are awesome. They hideaway and were cheap.

Reading stories!

Smiley little Violet

Josie's fish face. She just came up with this on her own.

This is my favorite picture of Violet so far. I love it!

This is the ugly yellow crushed velvet chair. My mom is a lifesaver and made the slipcover. Isn't it cute?

Josie got this stroller and boots for Christmas. She loves it all! I refinished this dresser by the way, and that cute mirror. Dan painted the bed. I love the girls room!

Some pictures of the last while

Josie wanted to drive the motorhome to Utah.

Violet just along for the ride.

Dan thought of this, but Josie thought it was pretty fun.

Sleeping in the motorhome. What a cutie!

Uh oh.

Violet wore my blessing dress that my mom made out of the leftover material from her wedding dress. The blanket was Dan's blessing blanket. We blessed her while Tyler and Sarah were there over Thanksgiving. I love my baby's blessings!

Our Christmas picture, if you haven't seen it already. (It was cropped on the card, so you don't see the mess in the background and the blinds drawn. What's up with that?

Violet loves this little chair!

Back the baby blessing. My sweet girls.

Violet is such a smiley baby! She smiles all the time! Love it.

Let me sum up...

So, since Halloween a lot has happened. Tyler got married. His wife Jaime is cool. We had Thanksgiving, which was great and yummy. Sarah came home and we blessed little Violet. That was very special.

Then came Christmas! We were snowed/iced in for many moons. It was so bad we had to pack up the hill with all our snow gear on and the kids on our backs. Very pioneery if you ask me. Oregon doesn't invest a lot in snowplows because it hardly snows here. Needless to say, there was many feet of snow and the freeways were either closed or requiring chains. We watched a lot of movies and ate.

With a break in the weather, we headed to Utah and partied there for a short amount of time (I wish I could have hung out with any of you, but priority went to Dan's immediate family and my grandparents. Oh well, maybe next time.)

Now we're home and life is back to normal: i.e. above freezing. Violet has gained 4 pounds over the holidays (as well as the rest of us I suppose), and my New Years resolution is to be skinny again. Actually I've started running on my parents' treadmill. It's very fun actually, with an ipod to pass the time that is. Happy times! Now I can continue.

Happy Halloween

Halloween was fun this year. My mom made Josie a Little Red Riding Hood cape and Violet wore the Pea in the Pod costume Josie wore last year. Our stake does a Trunk or Treat in the parking lot of the church where everybody decorates their trunks and hands out candy while the kids go around the parking lot. It was so cute to watch Josie. We taught her to say Trick or Treat that day. haha.

Pictures!

These are completely backwards. Sorry. Meet Violet Rachel Bentley now to the beginning.

We got a cute little book about sisters as a gift. Josie loves it.

Josie giving Violet a hug. She also likes to touch her hair and have it tickle her face. It's very cute. She's a good big sister.

Violet ready for her ride home from the hospital.

Dan carting out all our gear from the hospital.

Violet with her pink roses from Grandma Bentley and the other roses and balloon are from Dan. What a sweetie.

Our new little family.

Josie holding Violet at the hospital. She kept pointing and saying "baby". Now she can say Violet-- it sounds like Bi-weh.

The roses pre-arranging.

Me and my girls.

Little Violet just minutes old.

Violet Rachel Bentley

I'm going to be in trouble: no pictures yet. Just picture Josie. So I'll give you the facts so if you're not interested you don't have to read about the specifics. Violet was born at 8:06am Oct 15th. She weighed 7 lbs 9 oz and was 18 inches long. She has a fuzzy head of dark hair (not as dark or as much as Josie) but she's just so cute! You can stop here. Wednesday morning I was up with Josie (teething) and at 4:30am my contractions were about 7 minutes apart. So I tossed and turned, woke up Dan, packed some stuff, and we got to the hospital about 6am. I was already to a 5/6. Then within a half hour I was to an 8! Ahh! I was in really good control so they still gave me an epidural. Things went so smoothly, it made me realize what a crazy delivery/recovery I had with Josie! I didn't get very many stitches and it was really cool to watch Violet be born and feel involved in her delivery and everything. What a special experience. More later, meaning pictures.

In the words of my sister-in-law Mary...

What do you do on your due date when there's still no baby? Get a haircut! It's very short... which may not be the best. But oh well, it will grow, and it's pretty cute.

All Is Well

So we went to an orthopedic surgeon today and . . . it's just a really really really really bad sprain! Really bad, but it's just a sprain! No surgery! No cast! He does have to wear a boot for who knows how long (thanks for the loan Season). There is a little bone chip in there, so we have to go back in three weeks to see what the deal is after the ligaments heal and the swelling goes down. We think that the bone chip might have been there from long before though. Anyway, things are totally awesome! I was thinking today would be a good day to have the baby, but hmm. No go so far. By the way, if I don't answer the phone, don't assume I'm at the hospital. Or if you do assume, just don't say it on the answering machine. Love ya!

Remember what I said about no stress?

Dan hurt himself playing basketball last night. We got some x-rays today and it might be broken and might need a screw! Good crap! Surgery isn't allowed! We have no insurance! He has to go to an orthopedic guy on Monday to know more about it I guess. Ug. I feel sick. So helicopter training is on hold, but I'm not sure about the baby...