Dustin's birthday

Dustin turned 30 on June 8th, and it was a great day. We were able to leave the girls with my mom pretty much all day so that he and I could spend the day together. I first took him shopping for some much needed clothing. We had lunch at Costa Azul and then I took him to see Iron Man 2. It was really wonderful to spend so much time together without worrying about the girls or feeling bad that they were with a babysitter for so long.
This is a picture of the girls attempting to sing "Happy Birthday" to their Daddy. Of course they didn't do a very good job and just giggled their way through it. But they can sing the song perfectly in their imaginative play.

Birthday hug for Daddy:

Modeling one of his new shirts and pants. What a stud!

The birthday cake. Dustin's favorite is cheesecake and my Dad graciously splurged on one from Tahoe Joe's- probably the best cheesecake ever, the graham cracker crust is super thick and delicious. Actually my Dad splurged twice because the weekend before we decided we needed to test out the cheesecake to see if it was up to Dustin's standards.

Look at all that smoke! Man he is old!

Time for cheeseCAKE!


This was the day before we began our drive back to Indiana. We visited my Aunt Donna, Uncle J'Earl, cousin Tammy and her adorable boy Bryce. It was so much fun to hang out and talk and play chicken foot. Just wish it could have been longer than a few hours! This was just a quick picture before we all left, I was too busy having fun to take pictures. But of course, Aunt Donna and Tammy made us an incredibly delicious lunch of homemade panini sandwiches. They know how to make a pregnant mama happy!

Meeting Annelies

I finally got to meet my brother's newest daughter, Annelies, (she was born in January). She looks so much like her sisters, but even chubbier! I loved seeing her smile and play. Here are some cute, cute pictures of those chubby cheeks!

This was the day we went to see my brother, Mark, play softball with his church team. I actually enjoyed watching them play and cheer (or banter) him on. Adelynne and Amy were thrilled to see their cousins, Heather and Katie. Amy and Katie spent the entire game playing "Dora the Explorer," as they wandered around the park.

My Sister's Birthday

My sister turned 25 on June 2nd, and we celebrated with cake and presents. I just wanted to post these pictures of her and my girls. I'm glad I got to celebrate her birthday with her and spoil her a little.


Well, just for journaling purposes I wanted to mention that after our trip to Disneyland we spent another day at my Aunt Jill's house. We took the girls to the beach, since they have only been one other time when Adelynne was 2 and Amy was a newborn. They both loved it, and I didn't take any pictures. We went to Newport Beach and the water was cold, but that didn't keep Adelynne out. It did however, keep Amy from going in. She was much happier in the sand, and I am still cleaning sand out of her swimsuit as a result. It was a cool and breezy day, so the rest of us adults didn't do much but it was fun to take the girls anyway. My Dad and Dustin did bury the girls in the sand and make them sand mermaid tails. After a few hours we went back to my Aunt's house and went swimming in her pool which was also freezing, but both the girls loved it anyway. Eventually we got the hot tub warmed up and the rest of my family joined Dustin and I and the girls. It was really nice to enjoy time with my Aunt and her family. The next day we went to my Grandparent's house and visited with them for a couple of days. Again, it was wonderful to enjoy time together with them. One of the things the adults do when we are there is to play "hearts" and "oh heck" with my grandpa. Poor Dustin took a beating from my Uncle John and his sarcasm (Dustin isn't much of a card player), but he endured it well. It was nice to visit with the Bennett side of the family since it doesn't happen much anymore.

Then we drove back to my parents house. Its about a 6 hour drive, and the girls road with my parents in their van and Dustin and I drove our car. We made a stop at one town, but it was a bad place and time to stop because about 4 or more buses had also stopped so there were lines for the bathrooms everywhere. With two little girls that have a hard time "holding it," I was a little stressed. So I ran to one restaurant and the bathrooms were occupied but there was no line. So I waited and my sister came with Amy, and then Dustin came. Then the men's room opened up and I suggested Dustin take Amy to the bathroom, but she started to get upset, so I thought it was because he took her from my sister, so I had my sister take Amy into the men's room (just a one person at a time bathroom), but apparently my sister said that Amy refused to go to the bathroom. So we all loaded back into the car and headed down the road to get something to eat at a quieter place. It was about 10 minutes until we stopped again, but Amy screamed in the car the entire time. When we stopped I took her and was talking to her and asking her what the matter was. She was pretty hysterical. I was taking her to the bathroom and she was asking me if I was going to take her to the girl's bathroom, not the boys' bathroom. I reassured her that I was taking her to the girls' bathroom. And then I realized that was why she was so upset. She was mad that she had been taken to the boys' bathroom. We were at church nearly a week later and Amy had to go to the bathroom so I asked my sister to take her. Amy asked if her aunt was going to take her to the girls' bathroom, and I reassured her that yes, Aunt Amy would take her to the girls' bathroom. Amy had to be continually reassured for at least a month after this that every time we were in a public place we were taking her to the girls' bathroom. Funny girl.

And then we went to Disneyland...

I know, I'm taking way too long to update our vacation. But here's our trip to Disneyland. It was so fun to see the girls' faces on the rides and to be with my parents and sister. We all had such a great time and the girls are still asking when we are going back to Disneyland. My mom made the girls these cute matching jumpers to commemorate their first trip to Disneyland, and then they each got a button for being a first time visitor.

First ride of the day was Peter Pan. Adelynne says it was her favorite ride



My Dad and sister, Amy, also excited about the magic of Peter Pan:



Dumbo ride! The girls had the happiest faces throughout this ride as you can see by their faces:







Casey Junior train ride:



After a bunch of rides in fairy tale land, we waited in line for over an hour so the girls could meet some princesses. Amy fell asleep in Aunt Amy's arms. It was a good nap for her, but not quite long enough. We had to wake her up, and I don't think she was quite aware of what was going on at first.

My Dad sporting Adelynne's sunglasses:

Meeting Aurora:

You can see that Amy is not quite awake yet:

Belle was so sweet

This one is blurry, but she was so sweet to Amy and gave her a hug and just kept talking to her. She was the best one of the three the girls met.

Jasmin was a bit of a snob (the girl who played her). But the girls were still excited to see her

Amy is smiling just a bit.

Then we let the girls get their faces painted:

Amy was so still for the process, we thought she went back to sleep!

Amy picked the "mermaid crown" for her face, so happy!

Adelynne picked the "unicorn mask" She had pink eyebrows for days after this



Dustin with sword and shield, my prince! So the most heartbreaking time of the day was when we left the princess area because we saw Ariel come out and Amy wanted to go see her so bad! When she saw Ariel she said with outstretched arms: "Let's go get her!" And then she started sobbing, and her blue and green paint started dripping down her cheeks. Luckily it didn't ruin the face paint. Oh, I wish we could have taken her to see Ariel, it really would have made her day, but waiting in line again would have done us no good.

The girls got to meet Minnie:

And Mickie! When they went into the room to meet Mickie, they both greeted him with big hugs! There is something magical about Mickie Mouse!



And while Adelynne got to ride on the bigger roller coasters, Amy got to meet Woody and Jesse. Woody even blew Amy a kiss!

Monkey's in a cage

Okay, not really, but for some reason these kids loved closing themselves up in this broken trampoline to eat their popsicles. Crazy kids! (Left to Right: Owen, Amy, Ethan, Adelynne).

Playing with the Patty's

We spent a day with our good friends Aaron, Niki, Ethan, Owen, and Randin Patty. They also live in Las Vegas. I was quite amazed that during our time in Las Vegas the weather was actually quite nice. This day at the park was even a little too breezy, but we had fun anyway. We love the time we have with the Patty family, and we are always wishing to have more time with them.






Niki and Randin:


Dustin and Owen:

Playing with Belt cousins

May 21, 2010:

Well, we couldn't go to Vegas and not see our cousins! Adelynne and Amy spent a day playing with Ellie and Lauryn, (Dustin's brother Chris' girls), and they had a blast. They both are still talking about these girls and all the fun they had. Ellie and Adelynne are about 1 and 1/2 years apart in age, with Ellie just finishing up Kindergarten this last June, and Adelynne starting it this fall. Now, Amy and Lauryn are only 2 months apart in age, Lauryn being the older of the two. A lot of people will tell us how tall Amy is, and yes, she is, but when you put her up to Lauryn, you can see which one of them really is tall! Perhaps Amy will catch up to her someday.

t
Hugs! So Ellie and Lauryn's mom, Melissa, is expecting a baby boy at the beginning of August, and we are expecting our baby at the end of August. We seem to be decreasing the amount of age between our children, and it sure is fun when they all get to play together!


Ellie and Adelynne- please excuse my lack of editing- I still think it is a cute picture.


After visiting with Dusitn's brother, we went over for an all too short visit with his sister Donna and her family. Donna and her family welcomed their newest edition Charles David on May 2nd. We brought him a little monkey for a present. Charles was just as sweet as can be and so fun to hold and cuddle. I can't wait until my own baby arrives!


Sarah was showing Dustin all of her high scores from school, we were quite impressed with Sarah!


Me snuggling with Charles:


Dustin's turn. I figured he should have a picture with Charles since it is his nephew


I was so excited to capture this picture of Charles smiling in his sleep. So precious!


Tesa, Sarah, Amy and Adelynne. What fun!