Ideas

I just watched the movie Maudie and it's gotten ideas percolating in my mind.  It's making me want to at least try painting.

Now, I don't know anything about painting.  I took a parks & rec watercolor class when I was in high school, but only because I didn't know the difference between watercolor and oil painting when I signed up for it.  Although this did help me appreciate how difficult it is to produce a good watercolor, my real love is for the vibrant colors you get with oil paints.  Or at least, those are what I usually prefer looking at.

I've always figured that if I wanted to try oil painting, I'd need to look for a class to teach me how.  And that would probably be a good idea.  But I'm pretty busy these days and when I'm not busy, someone else is busy.  I don't know when I could possibly fit a painting class into our schedule.  But watching Maudie it occurred to me that I could just buy some paints and try.  It probably won't look very good, but who cares?  You can't go about only wanting to do something if it's going to be perfect-- that's a terrible way to live your life.

As usual, Craig is also partly to blame for this.  For Christmas he bought me a big set of pens and the Bloggess's coloring book, You Are Here.  And it's not like I sit around coloring in it all the time or anything.  But when I do sit down and color, I enjoy it.  Especially right now when it feels too cold to leave the house and all the trees are dead and brown, sitting and contemplating pretty bright colors is kind of nice.  It makes me think that dabbling with some paints might not be a bad way to spend some time, either...


But at the same time, this week Camille is suddenly getting into EVERYTHING.  I keep finding her with lotions, baby powder, and diaper cream smeared in weird places.  (Yes, even after I moved all of that stuff to a high up shelf.  She simply dragged over a chair and collected it all back again.)  So this might not be the best time to start keeping oil paints around the house...

So Many New Family Members!

I think I've been sort of hit-or-miss about announcing when I get a new niece or nephew, and it's time I remedied that.  Because the last few months have been very exciting for the Bentley clan!

First of all, back in October, my baby sister Rachael gave birth to another son!  They named him Harrison Bentley Aveytua and he is growing into the smiliest little baby ever, with lots of love from his big brother, Nolan!

All of my babies combined did not have that much hair when they were born...

Love it when you can actually catch them with their eyes open!

Photo Credit: Brian Madden Photography

This is what he looks like now, happy little thing laughing that his mommy thought he'd nap long enough for her to shower!  As if!

Then, a week before Christmas, my other little sister Natalie had her 4th baby!  (And poor Natalie had just moved three days earlier!)  So we got to welcome Claire Aurélie Richards to the family!

Natalie in her shiny new house!

Sweet Claire!

The whole brood

Gotta love a Christmas baby!

So this has all been very exciting and happy.  And as if that weren't enough, we will soon be welcoming one more person to the Bentley clan, because my sister Tracy is getting married this spring!  So without further ado, here is Adam Nilsen, my soon-to-be brother-in-law!

She said Yes!

The happy couple

I haven't actually had the pleasure of meeting Adam yet, but I have reliable reports from lots of people and everyone has said only the best and nicest things about him.  I think he and Tracy will be very happy together and I'm excited for my kids to get yet another fabulous uncle!  Maybe in some other post I'll tell you the whole fortuitous story of how they got together, but for now, suffice it to say that this is something we've been praying for for a very long time and we couldn't be happier.  (I might be a little glad that we nabbed Tracy as a babysitter for our Hawaii trip this last summer, too, and didn't risk putting that off another year-- I suspect she'll be out of commission now!)

We'll be flying out to Seattle over our spring break to attend their wedding (special thanks goes to my Dad for paying for 7 airline tickets!!!  You're the best, Dad!).  I'm already dieting and exercising in preparation for the occasion (especially since at my family's last wedding I was 5 months pregnant!).

It's so happy to see my family growing by leaps and bounds-- what could be better?

Toddler Classes

I had Colton and Camille in a little Parks & Rec class last fall and they LOVED it.  I kind of hated to shell out the money to repeat it, but they've been begging to do it again and I couldn't bear to tell them No, so I decided after Christmas we'd sign them up for another one.

Of course, nothing can ever be easy, so it's been a huge headache.  First, I discovered that the class they'd been in was for ages 1-3, so Colton was way too old for that class.  (In my defense, I'd had them signed up for something totally different, but then it turned out the course description was totally wrong and it wasn't what I wanted after all, so the Parks People had just switched them over to this other class without telling me the age ranges.)  As I pored over the course catalogue for winter, I realized that none of the classes were really meant for a 2-year-old AND a 4-year-old!  They were all either for ages 1-3 or 3-5.  Now, Camille will be turning three in just a few weeks and I have no problem ignoring these "guidelines," but since my kids' birthdays are already entered into the system, it wouldn't allow me to fudge their ages!  I finally had to speak to some city employee who could override the system for me.

But I got it done!  My kids were signed up and there was much rejoicing!

So naturally, the day before our first class Colton was so excited he didn't sleep at all (meaning, I didn't sleep at all, either) and then it was icy in the morning so everything got cancelled.  And I got to deal with some incredibly sad children all morning.  And then today, the REALLY ACTUAL first day of class, we got there and found out that the teacher's car had broken down and she wouldn't be able to come!  We got to go to the tumbling class instead, which they did really enjoy, but STILL.

It just seemed like the universe is making this WAY harder than it needs to be.  I just want my kids to get to do some art projects without destroying my house!  Is that too much to ask for?


I also signed them up for a preschool class at the library.  Then found out that the library class is ALSO only for children ages 3-5 but they're not nice enough to include Camille and her three weeks shy of the cutoff.  (But to give them credit, at least they called me up and explained this to me a week ago, rather than springing it on us when we're standing there and I have to deal with a disappointed toddler in the moment!)  The library class starts Thursday.  Any bets as to what will go wrong with this one?



P.S. Those new antibiotics worked GREAT and I am back to swallowing like it's a normal function that one doesn't have to think about or dread or wince while doing.  The joys of good health!

January is Feeling a Lot Like January

So far we've had three delayed openings and one day where school was cancelled.  We haven't actually had any snow, mind you.  It's just been really cold and so the powers that be decided we'd better sleep in!  And you will never hear a complaint from me if someone wants me to sleep in a bit!

Last Friday as we were about to go to bed, I noticed that my throat felt a little sore.  Then I didn't sleep all night because it suddenly hurt so much.  I got up in the morning to get Camille some breakfast and her antibiotics (she got an ear infection over New Year's) and everything hurt.  I'd tried to exercise for the first time in forever the day before and at first I just thought I was sore from that, but when even my feet hurt, I knew something was terribly wrong.  I spent the whole day in bed and was running a fever that night.  I didn't sleep that night because of the fever and because every time I managed to nod off, I'd start snoring so loudly I'd wake myself up.  Can sore throats give you sleep apnea???  I spent the next day in bed, too, although at least my fever had broken.  When I still couldn't swallow without wincing, I went to the doctor Monday morning (while Craig stayed home with all the kids because school was cancelled in case of possible freezing rain that afternoon). 

Sure enough, I had strep.  I was delighted-- now I could get on antibiotics and start feeling better!  I HATE it when I shell out the money to see a doctor and they inform that I've got a virus and there's nothing they can do.  Grrrr.  Yes, give me a clear cut diagnosis and an easy solution any day.

Unfortunately, my medicine didn't really seem to be help.  The nurse practitioner who I'd seen had warned me that if I didn't improve quickly to get back in touch, so on Day 3 of antibiotics and still hardly being able to swallow, I sent her a message explaining this.  She immediately called in another prescription and this one seems to be working better.  My throat is still a bit sore (now I've got a lovely canker sore sitting right above my left tonsil) but at least I can swallow again.

Ugh.  I'm such a wimp when I'm sick.  But this was pretty lousy. 

Tuesday afternoon it finally warmed up to 50 degrees in the afternoon and everyone was so excited.  Winter is so demoralizing.

December Recap, Part III: New Year's and Stuff

After Christmas we had an entire glorious week to do whatever we wanted to do.  So, naturally, Craig buckled down and did some really great work and I sat around worrying about the New Year's Eve party we'd decided to throw.

In my defense, when you invite eight families and only TWO of them bother to RSVP, (and one family asks if they can bring friends, but never confirms that they're actually coming, with or without said friends) it's really hard to know how much food to buy.  But even if that weren't the case, the fact is that I really suck at knowing how much food to prepare for large groups of people, so I probably would have been stressing out even if I'd had an accurate guest list.  (But seriously-- what's up with people not bothering to tell you if they're coming???  One woman very helpfully put her answer down as, "Maybe."  Why is that even an option????)  I sent a couple reminders through evite, and when that didn't work I finally just texted people.  And they all made it easy by saying they couldn't come but that next time they would!  Ha!  Like I'll be inviting them to anything ever again!

Anyway, let's switch the narrative to Craig for a bit.  He's less bitter...

Craig had gotten a couple tools for Christmas that he was excited to use.  He'd drawn up plans to build himself a workbench and it was finished before I'd hardly even realized he'd begun.  Turns out he works fast with a nail gun!  And then he went to work organizing his workshop, which is now a total man-cave, much to his delight.

This is what his workshop has looked like for the past year or two...

Same room, opposite angle; as you can see, it sort of turned into a dumping ground for cardboard boxes...

Here's his workbench!

Nothing like a pegboard for getting organized!

Sparkling clean!

I was super impressed with how quickly he pulled that entire room together!  I think I spent more time trying to pick out a new rug for our family room than it took him to do all that...

Anyway, suddenly it was New Year's Eve and time for our party!  In spite of all my agonizing, it all turned out really well and we had a great time.  The two families who'd said they were coming did in fact show up, with their combined 7 children, plus two of our neighborhood kids, so we had a decent number of people.  (I would have invited some neighbors, but since they're all very big fans of all the local breweries, I was quite certain they wouldn't be too thrilled to attend a non-alcoholic NYE party-- I explained this to one of them and he laughed and agreed).  We had TONS of food (SUCCESS!) and played games: Code Names, Apples to Apples, and Telestrations.  The upstairs was for sleeping children and quiet play.  The main floor was for games.  And in the basement the kids could be as loud as they wanted, which worked great!  We pulled out our crystal goblets and filled them with various sparkling ciders for the countdown.  And we let the kids have noisemakers and silly string (and I was very glad I'd kept the new rug hidden until after the party!)

And now I'm never doing that again! 

Or if I do, I'll only invite the people who actually come!

December Recap, Part II: Christmas Edition

The rest of the month passed in a flurry of fun, as it should!

I just love this picture of Camille

I hosted the Young Women's Christmas party at my house, since Craig had to work that night.  We decorated ornaments and played games and ate WAY too many cookies...

My girls!  (I tilted the photo so it would be less obvious that that tree is leaning!)

And we visited Daddy at work, which is always a treat!  Ryder loves dressing up in Daddy's Patriot paraphernalia...

I took the kids to the library one day and they discovered the new touch-screen computers for kids!

It always makes me happy when my kids play nicely.  If the house looks relatively clean, that's just an added bonus!

I finally took Camille to get her first haircut.  $14 later, you can't tell any difference at all!  {Sigh.}

That's her "What are you doing???" look...

My cute girls

Kendra is such a good sport about playing with her siblings!

I have a drawer for measuring cups and things and we decided to clean it out.  This is some of what we found...  I guess I have some hoarding tendencies...

Colton helping Craig wrap presents!

I had read that the National Gallery had a wonderful Vermeer exhibit and really wanted to see it.  Craig had the brilliant idea that we should go on the 23rd and then hit the Messiah Sing-Along, too!  It turned out to be the BEST day EVER!!!!

Fine art makes me giddy

The exhibit was really well arranged, with several other Dutch masters all put together so you could see how they drew on each other's works and how they made them their own.  This is a tricky way to organize something, because it can just make everything super boring-- I was impressed because in this case, it really served to show just how amazing Vermeer's technique actually was!

This was one of my absolute favorites

Craig taking a picture of me taking a picture.  So very meta.

I only got about an hour at the museum before Craig had to drag me away to eat.  Seriously-- art museums turn me crazy, I can't stop running around trying to see everything!  We walked to the Shake Shack and had a big mid-meal (lunch? dinner? who knows???), then walked back to the car and drove to the Kennedy Center.  We were very lucky, because even though it was a bit rainy and windy, it wasn't actually cold.  Considering the artic fall we've been having, 60 degrees in December felt quite nice.  I can handle rain just fine when it's not freezing!  Craig dropped me off so I could get in line right away while he parked the car.  The ushers were already warning us that we weren't guaranteed tickets, so that made me nervous.  Somehow I'd gotten us in line right between two different Mennonite groups.  As we stood around waiting, the group in front of us began singing Christmas carols.  I figured we were all there for a sing-along and would be doing this inside the concert hall as well, so I went ahead and joined in with them.  They noticed and began chatting with me and we had a great time in line!

When it was finally time to get our tickets (an hour and a half later), I was kind of sad that we weren't all seated together!  But I couldn't be too sad-- because it was just the two of us, we ended up getting AWESOME seats, row L in the orchestra section AND next to an aisle!  We were stoked.  AND THEN I ran into a friend of mine from BYU that I haven't seen in years, so that was super fun, too.

Not bad for being "not guaranteed seating"!

The concert was so fun. They had a new conductor now, which made me a little sad since I've always loved Barry Hemphill. But this new lady kept things hopping, as she conducted almost the entire thing at what felt like double time. And the soloists were some of the best I've ever heard here, so that was wonderful.

Another nice thing was that they'd changed the concert time.  Where it used to start at 8, this year it began at 6pm.  We were done by 8:30 and since there wasn't any traffic, we buzzed right home and were there before 11pm!  I was afraid we wouldn't be back until one in the morning!

Craig's parents had been babysitting all day and we'd set up the guest room for them so they could just stay the weekend, rather than going back and forth between our house and theirs so many times.  We got home and told them all about our day and heard about what our kids had been up to before heading to bed.

And then it was Christmas Eve!!!  We had short church and then Craig and his Mom got to work in the kitchen while I, um, napped...

Camille is so helpful!

Bentley was bored, so we put him to work chopping potatoes

Once it was dark, we went to see the crazy house-- Charlottesville's very own winner of the National Tacky Light contest!  They're now up to over 300 blow up decorations and countless nutcrackers and other decorations.  I don't know how these people do it, but we sure enjoy seeing it!

Camille with Rudolph (the owner) before we entered the yard

And they had Santa there!

This panorama doesn't even do it justice....

Then we went back home and read the Luke 2 story and sang Christmas songs.  The kids got to open their Christmas Eve jammies from my parents.  I may have picked them out this year and it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to find matching jammies for all my kids' sizes.  So I tried to get them all similarly themed.  In this case, they're all very fuzzy and feature either polar bears or penguins, with an emphasis on black, red, and grey.  I thought it worked well!

The kids settled down really well (no one wanted to climb out of bed and risk scaring away Santa!) and before I knew it, it was Christmas morning and they were rushing down the stairs in gleeful anticipation!

Typical: she's more interested in the packaging than the actual present!

Ryder has desperately wanted a huge stuffed animal pig but those are ridiculously expensive so we found this instead: the idea is that you use it to hold your stuffed animals and then it's like a beanbag chair!  Fun and functional, right?  But we were worried that Ryder wouldn't like it, so I was so happy that he was so excited!

Kendra finally got her own Kindle Fire

It's a big hit!

We let Oreo nibble around her present for a couple minutes before opening it for her

Colton wanted these very fashionable slippers

Bentley finally got Jurassic World

Colton & Camille playing with the cooking set from my Aunt Jan

This present was almost as big as Camille!

This just makes me laugh: I'd asked Ryder to set up this nativity set and it wasn't until way later that I noticed the extra angel lounging on top of a palm tree!  Quite the vacation he seems to be enjoying!

Ryder's bean bag can also be a costume!

That's what was inside the big box!  Happy Camille!

It was such a fun day!  Presents took most of the morning (with a break for cinnamon rolls) and then Craig got to work on the turkey.  I spent a huge portion of the afternoon chatting with each of my sisters and parents, who I was missing a lot.  Dinner was pretty much perfect and it was just a relaxing rest of the day, in the best Christmasy sort of way.

Merry Christmas!