Mainly Pictures

So let's see...lots has gone on. Bentley was hospitalized for RSV. It was scary but he was a fighter. Since then he has gained tons of weight, I blame some of it on all the steroids they have him on - but mainly he just feels better and is eating like crazy. His cheeks are HUGE. He is so pleasant. I can't get enough of him. Annalee has grown up so much. She is so funny. Everyone who knows her says she has the best personality. I have to agree. She is so strong-willed and stubborn. It makes it interesting. Kenny is working hard and will be gone for three weeks in May with the Army. We are not looking forward to that. We do have a trip planned to Cancun at the end of June. We will be going with Kenny's family. We are staying in the same place Kenny and I did on our honeymoon so I am super excited. The kids will love the swimming pools. There is still so much snow here. I've never seen anything like it. We finally saw some of our lawn and then we just got like another foot. Kenny and I are redoing our deck and extending it and I think we will be doing it in five feet of snow. Enjoy the pictures.

Before Getting Sick

After...Feeling Much Better

Bentley In A Bumbo

Annalee In a Bumbo

Bentley Finally Home From Hospital But With Oxygen

Annalee Taking Care of Bentley

She Would Read to Him and Sing All Day Long

Annalee Loves Getting Ready...Only Problem Is She Is Brushing Her Teeth With The Wrong End...She Knows It - She Kept Saying, "Mommy Look, I'm Funny Huh." What A Nut.

Mr. Smiley...He Loves to Smile.

Well I have a lot more to post but both of the kids are crying now. One reason why I never get on the computer :)

Finally...an update.

Finally....a post:) I ended up staying in the hospital until I had little Bentley Max West. A total of three weeks in the hospital - I could do a whole post on that but will refrain because I don't want to tear up right now. Lets just say that through prayers and a WONDERFUL Doctor, Bentely arrived three weeks early on November 9th. That was our goal, to make it to 37 weeks and for him to get bigger. When I got to the hopsital they started me on steroid shots and very strict bed rest, they thought they would have to delilver at any time and he wasn't weighing even four pounds. If my blood pressure was good I got one 15 minute wheel-chair ride a day. Imagine how crazy I was going. Imagine how much I missed my husband and little girl. I loved when they would come visit me about every other day. I could hear Annalee's squeeky shoes down the hall and could hear her yelling Mommy as she knew exactly where my room was. She loved playing with the latex gloves, eating my food, and of course taking over my bed:) My mom came the week I delivered and it was so nice to have her help and take a little burden off everyone else from Annalee, she is a lot of work and everyone commented on that; however, she is very brilliant. During my hospital stay she started to potty-train herself, that's right my 18 month old potty trained herself. What a gal.

Our miracle Bently Max West was 5 pounds 13 ounces and 19.5 inches long. Just a small bundle of joy. He dropped down to 5 pounds 3 ounces in the hospital and it got everyone pretty scared. He and his sister have been polar opposites...he is very calm and sleeps often. She is very energetic and doesn't like to sleep much. They have been so fun.

Just two months later Bentley has gotten so big. He was in the 20th percentile at his 2 month check up so I'm sure he will catch right up. He is awake more now and smiles all the time. He has had to do breathing treatments, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Apparently boys are a lot more prone to be sick, and they were worried about his lungs developing completely anyway...but he is GREAT:)

Christmas was wonderful. Annalee was so much fun. She loved decorating the tree and redocrating the tree.

We opened stockings first and she got this hat and sunglasses from Santa and she had to wear them the rest of the morning.

Life with two little kids, working full time, Young Women's, and a husband that works shift work has been interesting to say the least. My house may not be as clean as it could be and the laundry sure piles up, but we are having a blast!

What A Week

Just a quick update...I've been in the hospital on bed rest since Wednesday. High blood pressure...thank you Eagar chromosomes! I'm going crazy...bed rest is bad enough but in a hospital. I walked down the hall to the nursery and got a little scolded by my nurse and CNA...they told me to limit my trips to only one a day and short ones. Do they know who I am! Perhaps the hardest part is that I'm missing Halloween stuff with Annalee. I don't really like this Holiday but Annalee enjoys life so much right now that she makes everything special. I cannot thank my wonderful husband and sister Whitney enough. They have jumped in and taken care of everything. Whitney's recent blog posted that she has had two hours of sleep in two days and has tons of laundry to do and she is so thankful for her unmarried and childless life...she said I need to come home soon. Oh she is a life saver. She even rushed to Evanston last night with Annalee so that she could go to one of the parties. I was feeling bad because she missed her class parties and probably won't go trick or treating...Whit did a good job getting her dressed and making it work...I had her costume strung from here to there and whit made it work in a short amount of time. Cutest lady bug ever!

Fun Pics

Yes, it's been awhile. Lets see there has been 4th of July, 10 Year Class Reunion, Work, Girls Camp, work, Lake Powell, remodeling our house, going to the lake, work, finding out we are having a baby boy :), work, and a lot of pic-nics to the mountains. Here are some pictures...

Kenny and Annalee loved riding the 3-wheeler at my mom's house. I'm not sure who liked it more...but they were always riding it.

We all went fishing at Big Lake...Whit and I were more spectators. Nobody caught a fish but we had fun. My mom still took care of the yucky worms like she always used to.

I was so happy to be home in Eagar for the Fourth of July. There is nothing like being home...I got to enjoy my mom's home cooking, seeing a ton of family, and relaxing. It was awesome. I LOVE MY MOM! And Whitney, and Shane and his family...it was just so much fun.

Girls Camp...what a blast. These are such great girls. I'm so glad I was able to go for the whole time. A BIG thanks to Whitney for watching Annalee, even while she was sick.

It's starting to get cold here in Wyoming, I can tell winter is close. So, we go to the Uinta Mountains a lot and try to squeeze every bit out of summer we can. Annalee loves it, especially since there is a river close by. I have to watch her because she will pick up a rock and run for the river to throw it in. I love going to the mountains, it reminds me of home.

Annalee and her two cousins Kendall and Emmerson. They always go on walks when we go to the mountains.

And Kenny enjoys fishing. Although right after this picture he lost his dads shoe that he was wearing and then fell in and got soaked. And, he still hasn't caught a fish.

Annalee has some funny funny faces she pulls. Everyone is teasing her here trying to get her to make her faces. Oh she is a drama queen, but at least she is a cute, funny drama queen.

And perhaps our family favorite thing this summer....going to the lake. Annalee loves the boat and hates to get out when we are done. She has been on the tube and even fell asleep on it once. I'm pretty sure she will try water skiing next summer. We are going to Lake Powell again and have a house boat for a couple of days. It will be nice, although I have to admit I am pretty disappointed to be missing out on wakeboarding and water skiing at one of my favorite lakes. Last summer when I could do water sports we never made it to a warm, nice lake. Weird how this summer that I can't do water sports that we will make it to Lake Powell twice....EVEN WITH A HOUSE BOAT! Mother's really do sacrafice for their children...jk I'm so excited to be having another sweet baby in our family. At our ultrasound the baby would not cooperate. Of course I was devastated so my doctor told me to try a fetal photo place in the mall and they were usually pretty accurate...so we went and it was pretty clear on the picture that it is a boy. We are so excited - Bentley Max West, expected to arrive on Novemeber 20th if everything falls into place.

About You Hair.

Wow I wish I was better at keeping this updated....but I'm not...so you get little updates and maybe a few pictures. Kenny Graduated from the Police Academy! YEAH. It was a hairy ceremony with Annalee...I missed the whole thing cause she wouldn't sit still. Seriously it was hairy, zoom in and look at my hair. What the, why didn't anybody say anything.



Then after graduation we went to AZ to visit the family. It was so much fun. We had Easter, Shane and Jen had their baby, and we ate and played a lot. This was Easter morning.

I looked over and Annalee seriously had her bunny basket over her head. She is a crazy nut and makes me laugh so hard.

Here is Shane and Jennifer's baby. She is so sweet and so small. This was her a few hours old. Oh she is precious! Shane blessed her a couple weekends ago and I'm so proud of him. He is such a cute dad.

We then went to Mexico for a couple of days. Annalee loved being outside...it took awhile for her to like the pool but after we found the indoor heated pool all she wanted to do was play in the water.

After Mexico I went back to Eagar and Kenny flew home to work. It was a blast playing with the new baby and seeing Shell and the boys. The weather was pretty decent in AZ too so we got to play outside...This is the boys flying kites.

Then Annalee and I had to make the 13 hour drive back, and yes we came back to snow :( I'm not sure how I'm going to handle this crazy Wyoming weather. They basically have two seasons winter and a short summer. Well in other news Annalee's follow-up appointment at Primary Children's went well. Yes, she does have ptosis, no there isn't really anything to do for it now unless it gets worse. The good thing is she will keep that same specialist her whole life so that is a big bonus. Poor girl, she already has an annual eye appointment. Her new thing is she will fold her arms before she eats. It's amazing what kids can pick up. She doesn't keep her arms folded the whole prayer but at least she does it. We were at a restaurant and we put a plate of food in front of her and she folder her arms and looked at us. I love her!!!

Gotta run to work or I'd post more...and yes, I am pregnant. Not planned at all, I was pretty depressed about it and now we are super excited. Our new little baby is due Nov 30th.

Business in the FRONT - Party in the BACK

Wow there is so much I need to update on...but I am pretty sure I will only get to touch on a few things. Annalee and I fight over the computer - serious she loves to type. Warning...it's going to be random.

Well we went to Primary Children's Hospital and they noted she has slight ptosis, but because she didn't cooperate they need to see her again in April. I'm wondering what cooperation they excpect to get out of a one year old who is EXTREMELY active and you are dilating her eyes and some stranger is prying them open while her mom is sweating from pinning her down. I can't wait for our next appointment. I can totally see the lag in her left eye but the Doctor said he doesn't really think it is anything to worry about. I can see it, but I'm the mom. It doesn't seem to slow here down....she is walking like crazy :) She started walking about two weeks before she turned one and she hasn't looked back since.

She is sooo funny.

Walking!

Kenny graduates from the Police Academy on March 31st. I surely can't wait for this to be done. It has been really hard working full time, being basically a single mother, and remodeling our basement. Annalee is certainly a daddy's girl and when he is home on Saturdays they can't get enough of eachother. I can't handle it when he leaves - she follows him to the door and she just cries and reaches out her hands for him. March 31st!!! March 31st!!!

Annalee's first birthday was pretty sad. She was diagnosed with RSV the night before so we had to cancel her party. The theme was Dr. Suess and I had so many cute things for it, but it was more important that we take care of her. She has been pretty sick lately and let's just say that she can give herself her breathing treatments. Through it all she still laughs and is just a great girl. One good thing from the Police Academy is her and I have gotten to be so close. She's my girl.

We still had cake and ice cream with Kenny's family after her birthday with Kenny's family. She didn't like the birthday crown but she did love the cake and presents :) By the end of the day she was so tired she fell asleep giving her favorite doll kisses on the floor! I can't believe she is a year old!

Not a chance. Clapping for herself while we sang!

Yummy! Crashed.

I don't think I've posted the typical bath picture...so here one is!



Last week we got to go see Kenny on Wednesday - he only had one class so we got to spend a couple of hours with him. The five hour drive was so worth it though. Annalee found her next love - a firetruck shopping cart! Look at her hair. She is getting curly curly hair in the back and is still as bald as can be in the front. Business in the front - party in the back.

Christmas Year Round

Yes, I wish Christmas could be year round.