January

 January may have started off badly with Bentley in the hospital, but it ended wonderfully! It did take Bentley a while to get back to the way things were. She wanted to go back to school so badly and she actually only missed a couple of days after the break. She started with a couple half days at school to ease her in, and I carried her backpack into her classroom to help her out. The first time she went back I got to watch her receive such an unbelievably warm welcome from everyone! It was the sweetest thing to watch as everyone exclaimed, "Bentley's back!!" Her friends ended up helping her carry her backpack after school to our van. Sports took a while for her to get back into, but eventually she was able to get back to her normal self again. 

It was a big year for her as she moved on from primary to YW! She went to the Temple/Priesthood Prep class which helped prepare her for the temple. We got her to get a temple recommend as soon as she could and decided for her very first time going, we wanted to go with her and do baptisms ourselves as well. Jeff was able to baptize Bentley and me. It was such a special experience and honestly so much fun! Everyone was so sweet and excited as we told them it was Bentley's first time and the matron even came to talk with us. There was a nice man who was thrilled when we said we could baptize some of the names he had in his hand. The spirit and peace I felt was so strong that day, and I could tell Bentley felt it too. We ended the night with ice cream of course!

Bentley also had another new event - her first school dance! Her best friend decided to ask a boy to the dance and, since she didn't want to be a third wheel, she decided she would ask someone too. She's not boy crazy and told me Truett was just a friend, and I wasn't worried one bit. She wrote him a little note that said "Will you go to the dance, yes or no" and in brackets wrote "you can hang out with Jax." It was adorable. I told her we could have everyone at our house beforehand for pizza, to play ping pong, and hang out and then get ready for the dance and I'd take them all there. It became a really fun night and I even stopped at Mr. Puff's after school for donuts. The boys were so nice and Bentley had a great time getting ready with Madi. After the dance she raved about how it was the second best night of her life (after the Taylor Swift concert)! I was happy she had such a great time. I also had to post a picture of her adorable alien she made for school. She did it all herself!

Deacon got Dragon of the Month for a second time and I was so excited for him! I'm also never surprised...he is literally the sweetest, most thoughtful boy. Leo continued playing basketball and I started to see a lot of improvement. 

Boston and I hung out a lot. I took him to the play center at the mall, got him McDonald's and he enjoyed our new bed! Jeff and I splurged and got a new one finally. We went all out and got one with a remote control to put the head up and down. 

Boston started swimming lessons and was a little nervous at first, until he realized it was so fun! He looked forward to it every week and it was really fun to watch him run and dive for things in the water, making sure he got all the blue things before anyone else. He also loved going down the slide. 

Jeff and I went out to a Brazilian BBQ restaurant for Angie's birthday and it was a good time, although we decided we'd rather not have to cook our own food! It was nice to hang out with everyone, especially because we hardly see them anymore, as they are always on trips! 

Bentley and Deacon's birthdays were obviously in this month as well, which I will write about in the next post.