Gracies's Preschool Graduation

We had our first ever graduation last night when Gracie graduated from Preschool! She had such a wonderful time in preschool and learned a lot too. Ms. Kiley did such a great job all year long and with the graduation night. It started with a program of songs and poems by all the preschool kids. We were surprised when Gracie had a part singing a song about Lollipops!

They recited a poem about being a star, the sunglasses were a fun touch!

We also didn't know that the "graduates" (the ones going into Kindergarten) would be wearing a cap and gown. They even marched out to "Pomp and Circumstance" (is that the right name?)

I had an odd flash forward to Gracie graduating high school and I about lost it. I had to keep telling myself what a fool I would look like if I starting blubbering at a Preschool graduation! Aren't they cute though!

Gracie with some cuties from our ward. The other mom's and I joked about taking the same picture at High school Graduation... wouldn't that be funny!

Congratulations Gracie!!

Now let's make sure High School Graduation doesn't come as quickly and Preschool Graduation did!

A Pinkalicious Birthday for Gracie

I can't believe it but my little Gracie turned 5 yesterday May 17th! 5 seems like one of those landmark birthdays to me. 5 is a real kid. Officially out of toddlerhood, starting school, and into the big girls section at the store (don't love that!). I can remember when she was a baby thinking that this day would never come... but it did and way too fast!!

We celebrated her Birthday with a Pinkalicious party. It's odd to think that you may not have ever heard of the book Pinkalicious since it is read not less that 3 times a day in this household. If you have a little girl its a must read, so check it out! Gracie invited 4 friends over to decorated crowns and wands, play the typical birthday games with a Pinkalicious twist (cupcake, cupcake, yum instead of duck, duck, goose, pin the heart on the necklace instead of pin the tail on the donkey), read Pinkalicious and decorated cupcakes. It was a lot of fun.

Pinkalicious Decor

Not one of those balloons survived the entire party, I swear the wasps were popping them!

We started with 12, there were only 6 by the time the party started!

Silly Faces

Love this action shot, it was an intense game!

Later that night when Jake got home we gave her our present, a scooter. She loved it, can you tell?

After a Wonderful (ha, ha) McDonalds dinner (Gracie's choice) we came home and enjoyed some Pinkalicious Cake

We are so grateful to have Gracie as part of our family. She is such a joy and a blessing to us. In honor of her 5th birthday, here are 5 things about Gracie:

1. She is a go with the flow kind of girl. I love this about her. It makes my life so much easier!

2. She still loves to hum and now has started singing quite a bit. She never knows the words, but that doesn't stop her from belting out a song anytime, anywhere! I've had to stop her couple of times in sacrament meeting even. Her favorite song to belt out lately is "All the Single Ladies" the chipettes version of course.

3. She has a very tender heart. If she happens to catch anything even a little violent on TV or somewhere she is instantly concerned and leaves as quickly as possible.

4. She hates Funder (thunder). There is nothing Fun about Funder! I've bonded with her in this aspect. I was extremely afraid of thunder when I was little, so I never turn her away during a storm!

5. She can handle her big wheel bike like nobodies business! She has a sparkly pink princess bike but she prefers the radio flyer big wheel. Her favorite trick is to go as fast as she can then turn so sharp that she skids around in a circle. It's pretty funny to watch.

Happy Birthday Gracie, We Love You!!

Happy Mother's Day

I love Mother's Day! Probably because I am a Mother and therefore get treated special all day long. A guilt free pass to having to help with dishes, change diapers, make dinner, or eat healthy! The gifts are wonderful as well. What says Mother's Day better than toilet paper tubes, paper plates, hand prints, messy paintings, and flowers of all kinds! This is just some of what I received this year. Brynlee also brought home a hand print flower on a paper plate made into a wall hanging from church. It is hanging in my kitchen at this very moment.

Probably the best gift was that Jake didn't have church meetings Sunday morning. He's in the Bishopric of our ward, so that leaves me to get myself and the 3 girls ready for church by 8:30am. So, having him home before church made for a much less stressful morning! We even had a moment to snap a few pictures! Jake also made me breakfast complete with a cup full of dandelions freshly picked by the girls and on Saturday I got to go pick out some hanging flower baskets and flowers for pots. Our porch is now nice a springy!

I am so grateful that I can be a mother, especially to these 3 sweet girls. Some days can be long, but the years go quickly it seems. I look forward to many more years of hand print flowers and toilet paper tube crafts. Why is it that those things are so much more precious than diamonds or pearls? Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's! Especially to all the Mom's in my life!

Spring So Far

Spring so far started with Jake's birthday. He turned 34! Happy birthday Jake, you're the best!

Then we got some surprise visiters, the Tanner Family! We LOVE the Tanners! We met them while we were all living in Montana. At the time they had 4 kids and we had none. Now they have 6 and we have 3! We quickly became great friends and love any time we get to spend with them. Here are Brynlee and Gracie with Justin and Jayce... we've already planned the weddings!:)

You know you're good friends when someone will drive hours and hours and then as entertainment you can sit in the messy garage on camp chairs and watch the kids play!

I just had to put this picture of Jadan and Lydia, it was just too cute.

We've been enjoying the nice days that come here and there. Here are the girls having some fun with bubbles the Easter Bunny brought.

Speaking of Easter, we went up to Rexburg, ID for the Easter weekend. My sister Claire lives there with her hubby Derrik and my Mom, Dad, Chloe and Camille came down from Montana. We had lots of fun staying in a hotel, swimming, shopping, movie and conference watching and bowling! Unfortunately, my camera died after only getting a few bowling pictures. So this is all I have to document Easter!!

I had so get some pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses! As you can see No one was in the mood to take pictures, including me. This was after a long day of church on a fast Sunday, everyone is hungry and tired... can you tell?

Thanks for peeking:)

Christmas Part 2...Hey, better late than never!

Yes, I know it's March!!! I do have a good excuse... somehow all (by all I mean every digital picture we've ever taken!) our pictures disappeared from our computer! It was not a good feeling! However, my Brother in law saved the day and found them...they had been moved probably by some click happy girls trying to find their "puter games"! But all is well, we have them all back and now for Christmas Part 2!!

We headed up to Billings to be with the entire Bennion Clan!! We don't ALL get together very often so I was so excited to be able to spend sometime with everyone. We all joked in the days leading up to everyone's arrival that with that many people and especially that many kids gathering in one place for several days, people were going to get sick!!! Boy were we Right! I think 20 of the 24 people got the throw ups... our kids got it twice, Gracie had croup, and Lydia, we found out after coming back home, had a horrendous double ear infection!!! Needless to say Motrin and hand sanatizer was in high demand at the Bennion household! My favorite quote, "It's like it doesn't matter how hard you try or how much you sanatize, it's in the air!" - Chloe, referring to the fact that there was no avoiding the inevitable sickness. Even my dad and Jake got sick, seeing how I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen either of these men get sick, it's saying a lot!! Despite the fact that everyone had a designated "throw up bowl", 1/2 the people were on the verge of passing out during our family picture, and we may never want see each other on Christmas ever again, we DID have a GOOD time. Proving that you can do anything when you're surrounded by the people you love!:)

The night we arrived Santa did too! Bringing Christmas Jammies for all!

It wouldn't be Christmas Eve without the Nativity... which has been officially passed to the grandkids!

Christmas Morning... is there anything better?!!!

Walking ponies, princess dress ups, zhu zhu pets and More!

While we were there my 2 older sisters blessed their babies. Aren't Connor and Sophie precious!

Grandma Bennion got all the grandkids Christmas outfits ... matching of course!

Crafts!!

Male bonding

Well there you have it, Christmas part 2! By the way Happy St. Patricks Day!

Christmas Part I

I hope everyone had an excellent Holiday! Ours had it's ups and downs but mostly ups!! Christmas started early for the girls since we were going to be in Montana for Christmas and Santa knew that some of the presents he was planning on bringing would not be easily transported back home! So the morning we left for Montana the girls woke up to find their stocking filled with things for the long car ride and and letter left from Santa himself!

They were so excited about the stocking stuffers I had to read the letter twice before they realized that the letter was telling them to go downstairs where they would find this....

Don't you LOVE it!!! Okay so imagine that it's not in an ugly unfinished basement and that the walls and table are painted super cute, and there are curtains on the window...these were all part of the original plan but this was a difficult project to work on without the girls finding out about it!

Jake really gets most of the credit, he is so good to put up with all my grand ideas that usually mean he works really hard and I reap the benefits. It all started when I saw a kitchen set in Pottery Barn magazine that I just fell in love with. Well of course it was all outrageously expensive and I could never imagine actually buying it...but making my husband make one was still an option! Jake agreed to do it and I think I LOVE it more than the girls. I honestly cried when I saw it all together for the first time thinking about not only our kids enjoying it but hopefully our grandkids!! This was certainly a labor of Love:)

It didn't take long for before the girls were cooking up a storm!

Jake built this entire stove from scratch and it's my very favorite piece!

This cabinet is one that was at Jake's house when he was growing up. It was a dark stained wood so we just painted it to match!

Jake also made the fridge from scratch...I LOVE how much storage he put in it!

I was so proud that we were able to do this whole thing on a budget. Like I said Jake built the stove and fridge so that was the only wood we bought. The handles on both of those pieces are made out of PVC pipe we had laying around and the sink was made with a bowl purchased for a dollar at DI. As I said we got the cabinet from Jake parents. The highchair is an old highchair Jake's dad actually ate in as a baby. Jake took it apart and put it back together nice and sturdy and cut the legs down. The table is an old table from Jake's Grandpa Smith that we also cut the legs down on. The 2 (soon to be 4) little folding chairs are old primary chairs Jake's parents picked up for us and they are covered in Wal-mart fabric. Even the rug under the table was half off at Target!! All in all with paint and everything we figure we spent $150-$170! Sure beats Pottery Barn $1000+ price tag!!

I love that each piece has a story! Thank you, Thank you a million times to Jake who worked so hard on this in his few precious moments of spare time, I Love You!!