Happy Birthday Bentlee!

Monday my little girl turned 3! I can't even believe that she is that old already! So Monday we invited a bunch of our ward friends over and then also Tanner and Lee and their two boys. We had a great time and Bentlee loved her birthday party. That is all she could think or talk about for a whole week before!

Luke cooked some really good hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken!

And then we sang to Bentlee and she blew out her candles. She was SOOO excited for everyone to sing Happy Birthday to her!

Here is Bentlee and her friend Kade enjoying the pink and purple cupcakes that I made!

And then FINALLY Bentlee got to open her presents (she had bugged me all day)! She was very spoiled and got lots of stuff, including this sweet tricycle from poppa Danny and me-na.

I have to say Marshall had a blast as well. He had a great time raiding the tables for leftovers.

And then he found the ice cream!

And life was REALLY good!

I just have to say that it was a really fun party and Bentlee loved having all of her friends there! I am so thankful for Bentlee and the sweet little girl that she is. Here are a couple of things she loves to do at 3 years old:

• ride her pink bike
• go to the park
• go swimming
• play with her friends
• eat (just about anything!)

She has also become very good at saying her prayers and lately loves to be thankful for daddy and his hard work.

Happy Birthday Bentlee, your family loves you!

Easter

This is how we spent our Easter, laying on the couch! We all got the flu bug that has been going around. Marshall had it Friday, I had it Saturday, Luke had it Sunday, and Bentlee had it Monday. So needless to say we all just stayed home from church and laid around all day. The kids did really enjoy their Easter baskets and looking for the Easter eggs though. I think we all had fun despite the sickness!

Marshall Walking!

Marshall just turned 11 months old two days ago and everyday he improves his walking. He has just recently started to let go of one thing and walk to something else all on his own. (Like from one couch to the other, etc.) Yesterday he took about 6 or 7 consecutive steps. He is getting so big and he's such a happy boy. Before too long he'll be walking all over the place! I'll take some pictures and post them soon. For now I'm going to say that I am CAUGHT UP! HIP HIP HOORAY!

General Conference

Last weekend we got to drive up to Utah with the Nelsons. Brett, Rocki, Brinlee, Luke, Bentlee, Marshall and I all rode up in the Yukon. We spent the weekend with Sherra and John and the girls. It was a ton of fun! Rocki and Brett and Luke and I were able to go to the Sunday morning session of conference and that was really neat. I love being in the conference center with all those people that believe the same way I do. It is so powerful! It was a great weekend and we were so glad that we went. Thanks so much to the Carter's for their hospitality. You guys are awesome!

Here are some pictures of one of my favorite activities of the weekend...

Even Mom got into it...

And Bentlee was a SUPER cheerleader! Her cousin Shayla taught her well! :)

The ZOO!!

Since we moved back down to Peoria, the kids and I have had a blast playing with all our friends that we knew when we lived here before. One of the fun things we did was go to the zoo. (My kids had never been and they LOVED it!)

Bentlee's favorite things were probably the monkeys, but she also really liked the giraffes and the elephants.

It's been A LONG time!

Okay, I know I've been slacking big time but I plan to be better in the future. Once I got behind it was really overwhelming to me so I'm just going to take it one step at a time!

Anyway, things have been pretty crazy with us lately, there has been a lot going on. I'll back track just a little...

Here are the kids in the new Sunday clothes they got for Christmas. Savanna got Marshall his super cute outfit and Santa brought Bentlee's dress.

In January Luke and Bentlee went to the annual Hoopes' boys trip to the monster trucks (Bentlee is the only girl that gets to go!) She absolutely loved it and still talks about the "monster trucks that ramped over the cars".

Unfortunately, on the way down to the monster trucks Luke rear ended a lady and totalled our camry (the good car!). But, everyone was fine and that is all that matters. I wish I had a picture to show but I didn't take any. They were able to put the car wreck behind them and go enjoy the monster trucks.

The month of February the kids and I spent the WHOLE month in Thatcher. We went down because sweet Grandma Carter had died. We went to her funeral and then spent the week with family. The Carters stayed for and week and so did the Tucson Best's. It was so fun to spend all that time with my sisters... and Vince! We went on a couple of really fun dirt bike/4-wheeler rides and just had a really good time. Here is some pictures from our trip to Frye Mesa...

Then after everyone left, I had to get busy studying. I had one more section of the CPA test to take so Mom and Dad helped me with the kids so that I could study. They are amazing!

The kids (especially Bentlee) loved getting to see baby Brinlee!

Marshall started crawling one day before his 9 month birthday. (He followed in his sister's footsteps and started at grams and papas).

After the funeral Luke had to go back to work but he came back a couple weeks later (Valentine's Day) to spend the weekend with us. We spend the day in Pima riding 4-wheelers and playing...

I took my test on February 27th and then we went home to start packing. While we were in Thatcher studying our renters moved out of our Peoria house and we decided that we were going to move back in. For the next two weeks I packed like crazy and Luke got ready to move into his NEW office! On March 12th Luke moved into his office and on the 14th we moved back down to Peoria.