The Benders

Reese Garner Bender

2012-01-11T13:27:00.000-08:00

Reese Garner Bender
born: 10.18.2011
A baby, almost three months ago and just now blogging about it...

Well that doesn't sound like me, or truth be told this isn't surprising any of you!

7lbs 10oz. and 20.5 inches long

Yep, that's her dark hair and all. Lots and lots of dark hair! There is so much to share. She is the perfect addition to our family. We are loving our time with her. She is sweet and full of smiles (she started smiling at 2 weeks).
She battles with Colic and Reflux (...aaawesome) but "bless her heart" (as any good southerner would say) she tries so hard to not let it get her down. She will cry and smile all at the same time. She was blessed with lungs. She can wail and scream in a way that lets you know she is in pain. She is on medicine and it helps some. But she still gets the most precious squished, red face that goes silent right before she lets you have it. This usually happens when she is tired, in pain and offended that I might think she wants to eat or be rocked. She is easily soothed but the pattern repeats when she has another episode. You can just hear her tummy rumble and roll. A good burp or passing of gas usually follows. To which Amelia always announces with a surprised delight...."Reesie toot!"

She is a talker like her momma! She coos and smiles A LOT but also can coos in a way that sounds more like she is chewing you out and I think she is. I can tell her personality is a little stronger than big sis's.

I cant believe I'm subjecting myself to public humiliation but here we are baby voice and all.

Amelia is in love with her "baby Reesie." She has been amazing. That's not to say she hasn't tried to pull her off while I've been feeding her ("Reesie off, Reesie off... why do toddlers say it twice, unfortunately, child I heard it the first time) or accidently sat on her (I think it was an accident, she's not the graceful kind).

We've had our moments but I couldn't be prouder of Amelia. Its the sweetest thing to watch her love and care for her sister. It makes me so happy to know they have each other.

The other day she was in the swing and began to fuss. Amelia stopped what she was doing and went in there to help. I could hear her saying "Its alright Reesie, smile, Reesie, cheeses Reesie..." When I walked in Amelia has placed her lovie, 3 pacifiers, and a stuffed animal in the swing with her. I love listening to their conversations.

These days
Amelia is way into her babies. Caring for them the way we care for Reese. These babies are diapered, swaddled ("Momma, help Mia swaddle baby") and Amelia even feeds her babies the way I feed Reese. She is frusterated at her lack of milk production though and often asks me to feed her babies as she tries to shove them up my shirt, when desperate she does this to Kyle. She has also asked me to feed her and Kyle as well. I have walked in on her a few times with my pump and she is trying to pump milk from her belly button.

Here are a few of Reese over the past 3 months

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

this is mid stride

Jo, the only true ring around the rosier

We had a blast at the pumpkin patch this year. Amelia loved running around and being with her friends.

First day of Pre-School

2011-08-30T14:06:00.000-07:00

Amelia started pre-school today at the church. She did great! We went to meet her teacher last week and check out the room. She was already very familiar with the room because it's the same one she's been in for Sunday School for the last 6 months. She also knows that dad's office is literally around the corner about 10 steps away.

Girl has been all about her back pack but then today

mom: "Amelia, want to put on your back pack?"

Amelia: "no, mommy do it." "mommy, get it"

Drop off was very smooth. Amelia opted away from the class' chaos and drop off drama. She used the opportunity to snag some one on one time with the coveted baby in the class and the kitchen, so we snuck out too. She was all smiles when we returned. She saw Kyle and just pointed and said "dada!" but kept on playing, she has gotten used to him passing by. But when she noticed me she knew it was go time! She booked it to the door, running into a table, falling down (have I mentioned she isn't that cordinated?? She comes by it honestly, I never know where my bruises come from), getting up, waddling fast (which is her run) to the door.

Kyle said he is slightly distracted taking note of every cry to judge if it is Amelia's (it was not thankfully or I'm sure he wouldn't be able to help himself from peaking to see her). He reported that each time he walked by she was very content. She pretended to wash her hair a lot with a bottle of shampoo (as I've noted before she is really into good hygiene).

She is still reserved around her teachers and keeps a good distance from them. I'm sure she will grow to love them though. She loves playing in all the centers especially the home center with the kitchen, the books and balls. She mostly keeps to herself playing with various toys and offering an occasional toy to a friend if they are near by. I cant wait to watch all these relationships grow over time.

The teacher noted that she was "so good and calm." Its just a matter of time before she lets loose :)

We celebrated a great day by going to Chick-fil-a. Amelia was so excited that Kyle and I were both going to lunch with her. She insisted on using the adult fork and did well. She then climbed all the way up the play scape by herself (huge accomplishment, she is typically timid and requires company).

It was a good day, yea Mia!!!

goggles

2011-08-08T21:20:00.000-07:00

The other day while at The Malachowski's house Amelia found these pink goggles. She knew exactly what to do with them and did not see reason to ever remove them. They especially became handy during bath time to keep the water out of her eyes. This is the face she made at herself in the mirror for a good 5 minutes.

Thank-you Lauren for sharing your goggles.

That is one sick mullet, but what am I to do, I cant cut those curls are you crazy?

Apparently...

2011-07-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

clothing is now optional during nap time

When I opened Amelia's door this afternoon to get her from her nap I noticed on the floor her diaper and clothes (as she's pointing and saying "diaper, clothes"). There she was just wearing a smile. Luckily no accidents. She was so proud of her accomplishment.

I hope this doesn't mean she's a liberal.

At least we dont have to worry about her being a "Never Nude." (Arrested Development anyone??? all five of you???)

PS, she's so tall, I feel like she could just hop over (luckily she has my "hopping" skills, which means she aint getting Up and over anytime soon. :)

chicken wire hair bow frame & the best hot pads ever

2011-07-28T11:47:00.000-07:00

So I wanted to hang something above Amelia's changing table and I needed a place to put her bows. So I thought of this. At first I just was going to put chicken wire in a frame but it needed something more so I took a piece of fabric and used adhesive spray to the back. The picture frame I found for a few bucks at the clearance isle at Hobby Lobby. Then I painted it tiffany blue then a wasabi color and scuffed it up so the blue would show through. I then antiqued it with my favorite glaze (American Traditions in Raw Umber).

moving on

So I can be quirky and wait to purchase an item I need until I find "the perfect one." I have to love it! I will wait (years) and search (for the perfect item at the perfect price). I know that this item will be with me for the long haul and my home is too small to fill up with stuff I dont just love.

Lately, I have been checking items off my list.

And recently crossed off hot pads. I love the Home Goods (Marshalls) store and I found these for $7.

which means I can retire these

These look like something out of Edward Scissor hands kitchen...or mine.

Cooking inspired me to add an aloe plant to my collection of greenery :)

and on a second note I noticed a trend with my husbands closet...

more shirts are starting to pile up on the door (5) than inside. He had me cracking up when he placed the last one on the handle, I guess the top was full. I'm just glad they're not on the floor.

time with friends

2011-07-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

Settle down folks its not what you think (we aren't finding out the sex so you'll just have to wait with us, its only 19 more week...ugh).

A couple months ago (I'm real up to date) Amelia and I had the pleasure of hanging out with Cal (Julie and Rob Smith's son) on Tues and Thurs. We had a blast! Amelia adores Cal! These two had a blast talking and playing together. Amelia was ready to care for his every need and made my job a lot easier. I tried to get some video or them "talking" and playing but failed, I'll post what I did get but it just doesn't compare. Amelia is tricky and has let it be known that she is not a performer. BTW "boom" you hear me asking her to give Cal "boom." Kyle taught her to give daps and she kept doing it to Cal and he would just squeal with delight. The first video is a little short due to Amelia placing the lens cap on. Again not a performer.

Here is Julie and A. She has just "twisted" her arm to read her a few of her favorite books.

Here is a more recent picture of Cal with our friend Sloan (her son, Jake was asleep in the next room). Amelia loves her friends! She often still talks about Cal, especially when she sees a toy or the chair he liked to play with. Abby and Luke came to visit and she called Luke, Cal for the first day or so. She's got it down now! She is still talking non-stop about Abby and occasionally Luke. She calls Abby on her phone and was really excited to find her in our wedding album.

This was the shirt Amelia wore when went to see Luke in the hospital!

I found Amelia enjoying her old chair that we had out for Luke. Watching her get out was awesome! I was dying laughing (which she did not like) and she kept saying "oh..oh..no, no, no....help."

Luke and our house guest at the time Marcus.

"Marcus" was the first word Amelia said when ever she woke. Pretty sure he is her favorite! She would get nose to nose and just chat him up. He's clearly a great listener. He loves her as well, he was always right behind me when I went to get her out of her crib. He'd sit next to her changing table and they would be nose to nose for A to pet him while I changed her diaper.

She was so sad when he left. (She sat on the porch and pointed down the road and kept saying "Marcus." So she was thrilled when he and Jen returned a day later. Every girl wants a horse :)

We're gearing up to see Annie tomorrow, when Mike and Deb come to town!!

Amelia's new hat

2011-07-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

So baby A got a new hat. What can I say she L-O-V-E'S accessories. 2 things Amelia does that is OTT (chaddy 307 language for over the top).

1) sleep: girl sleeps 7pm-8:30am/ naps 10am-12 and 2-4. 2) how she loves to wear sunglasses, hats, bracelets and carry a purse which holds her cell phone and t.v. remote. She is hip like a rapper and wears glasses inside... more power to her and Kanye...

So when she found this hat at Janie and Jack I knew it was going to be part of our collection. She loves to show it off.

Here are few from Father's day where she insisted to wear this particular pair of sunglasses all day.

We cut up a bunch of Kyle's old ties and Amelia glued them to a tie cut out I made from a manilla envelope. It opened up and said "there is no tie, you're the best dad" super cheesy huh.

Amelia gave Kyle a Dallas Mavericks Championship T Shirt...Cause did ya hear we might have won The Finals, we might be the best in World!!! and some CD's he's been wanting...which might have included one that mommy has been wanting (the Head and the Heart) but no need to get picky. I heard them during SXSW and have been oogling them ever since.

Mom of the Year

2011-06-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

So I'm in the stage of pregnancy that makes sleeping a little difficult. Once I fall asleep (you know after the Braxton Hicks and cramping subside) I wake up around 3 or 4 to go to the bathroom and then sometimes never fall asleep. Hard to when something is constantly kicking or something else is constantly snoring (and I wear ear plugs, which is key to this story). So the other night was such a night.

I finally fall asleep around 6 when I decide to relocate rooms because continuously rolling my husband over on his side (this helps the snoring) has become so frustrating that I begin to envision rolling him off the bed. So dramatically enough to wake him I thrust off the covers, take my pillow and march (a few heavy exhales here and there) into the spare bedroom.

The next thing I hear is "MAAAAAAMMMMMAAAAAAA" I wake up and realize Amelia is up. I walk out the room and see Kyle is not in his bed and proceed to go into Amelia's room. I'm greeted with a big smile and a "hi." She starts "Jumping" which would look like bouncing to anyone else, but she calls it jumping. She comes by it honestly, my dad says its hereditary since I apparently dont jump high. So we walk out, look at the clock and its 10:30 AM!!!!!!!!!! Yep, pretty sure they give awards for stuff like that, great parenting.

Thank goodness she can entertained herself.

This morning we woke up a little earlier. She read her books and insisted to have mine too. I had to take a picture. If you are looking for a good devotional book I highly suggest this one, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. I'm on the bandwagon and I L-O-V-E it!!! Amelia must think its great too cause she tried to give it to my friend Julie as she was leaving several times today. And Amelia loves The ABC Bible Verse Book we read it multiple times a day. I wish I could say because she loves reading scripture but it probably has to do more with the fact that there is a dog or cat on every page.

SMART APPS, SNAPPS

2011-06-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

I have to tell THE WORLD about http://www.snapps4kids.com

This is a website that some with it moms put together to highlight apps that have been made for kids with special needs. Some of the families are some of my formers from The Rise School of Houston and you have to see what they've done. The special needs community is like no other community. They realize its hard and so when one finds something that works, they are quick to share and help others. Being involved in a close knit network like The Rise School taught me more to "share" than Kindergarten could ever take credit for. Its a beautiful community.The day one of our moms had an ah-ha moment and loaded up her ipod touch with pictures. Her non-verbal daughter now had an effective way to communicate that was easy to use and did not make her stand out in a crowd. We marveled at her genius and a few months later she found apps to replace big, bulky communication output devices. This caught on like wildfire and as apple products developed so did our kids. The ipad is about 1/12 the cost and size of the devices that were available to our kids. Now this is a common thing and great apps are everywhere. SO now some of these same moms have created SNAPPS 4 KIDS and it can be used as learning tools for all kids. It is the smartest and most necessary thing I've seen in a while for families with kids who have disabilities. I am encouraged by these moms drive to make things better for the masses. I am better for having known these families.

Love For 817

2011-05-31T20:27:00.000-07:00

I am watching the Mavs game right now (all by my lonesome, Kyle is away at a retreat). This means that I dont have him commentating (or sometimes yelling) next to me. He has the uncanny ability to say exactly what the announcers to about 3 seconds before they do, he wonders if he missed his calling. This is about the only time you ever see my calm and collected husband come undone. Needless to say these last few close calls have made for some tense moments in our household. We're very excited for the MAVS and feel that this is "our" year. I include us because clearly they wouldn't have gotten this far without us :)

So 817 is the area code of my hometown. You can tell I am clearly still attached because I have not lived there in over 10 years but still retain the area code. Cant give up my roots. I have been slightly nostalgic lately baking some of my favorite childhood goodies from some of my favorite 817 bakers.

I have no picture but sausage, cream cheese and rotel=amazing game time snack! We've been eating ours with tortilla chips but Kim Lawler (one of Amelia's fairy Godmother's...and mine) serves hers with green chilies, chedder cheese in a bread bowl, I am lazy and mouths around me might suffer. :)

My favorite cookies are Meltaways. They are goodness from Lis Buchwald's kitchen. Although I'm sure Paula Deen dreams about them considering they are the equivalent of baking a stick of butter and frosting it with cream cheese icing. Lis is one of my mom's dearest friends and might be the kindest person I know. I love my time with her because like her cookies she is just so sweet. I've been taking her cookie and adding different things, i.e. lemon zest. I want to try a raspberry jam and around Christmas maybe I'll get crazy with some spices...who knows how far I will take this

Mix 2 sticks of softened salted butter (yep, this is not low fat), 1 C of flour, 3/4 Corn Starch, and 1/3 Powdered Sugar (mix till it all comes together like cookie dough, so a few minutes).

bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes

Frosting

mix: 4 oz of Cream Cheese, 1/3 powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp of vanilla

let frosting set.

Mom thanks for texting me the recipe (that's right, she texts...email still a little tricky for her but texting she has down!)

Side note: Single Moms are super hero's. Every now and then Kyle will leave for 48 hrs or so and I'm always exhausted when he returns. I realize the key for a single mom is a great support team (which I have thankfully, Court is taking A while I work), planning ahead and the ability to function well on 6hrs of sleep.

I however doubt my ability to function on less than 8 which means I'll have to read about the end of the game tomorrow. goodnight

I have vaca pics to post in the near future, get ready to meet Santa Fe.

Oh Deer

2011-05-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

I recently told someone that it is never boring being a Bender.

And in that vein I'll give a quick update:

So Kyle totaled his car last Wednesday when a "deer hit him" on 360, he was going 60 and this beast of a deer walked away. SO we are down to one car and then yesterday my car died but Kyle was able to fix things with a new battery.

last weekend we went to the zoo with The Bourlon's and Amelia couldn't have seemed less impressed. Although she roared like a lion all the way home and snorted (kinda like a pig) the way Julie Anna taught her. She did like the train ride and getting to play with Jo.

kisses

Amelia in general is very shy and reserved in nature. It takes her a bit to get comfortable to cut loose the way she does at home. We think she's a riot, she is constantly making us laugh with the random things she does. Her new favorite things are to sing "oh-oh-oh" Beyonce style and she even does her hand and wrist the same. She doesn't perform for the camera so this is the best clip I could get, not her best but you get the idea

She also loves running around on our bed and doing somersaults. She is growing up so fast and doing so many "big" girl things! She eats with utensils (I'm not saying its a clean effort by any means but she refuses to be fed most times). She understands everything and is talking so much! She is very serious about her hygiene (teeth brushes, bathing etc...) she loves it! As well as cleaning, she cleans up after herself after mealtimes (which takes some time after her messy eating).

She's been taking swim lessons sporadically and getting good at kicking, splashing her arms and blowing bubbles. We went swimming at a friends house last week and she showed off her skills. Pretty sure she'd sink to the bottom if he let go but we're getting there.

She cant decide if she wants to drop her morning nap. If she doesn't go down she's beside herself from 10:30-lunch. Also she doesn't sleep near as good later in the afternoon and be toast by 6:00, although she revs up again when dad gets home (its the changing of the guards) and is a little delirious by bedtime. She wont then wake up till 9:00-9:15 the next morning.

So ~~I used to~~ (still do) rip magazine pages out of things that I love and file them accordingly in a notebook (something my mom does, the difference is she has volumes and then hundreds (not exaggerating) of magazines that she has yet to "go through." Although I love my binder of "one days" I have discovered the on-line version in Pinterest

I am loving it, once I figured it out (Poor Lindsey and I were trying to figure it out one day, I even enlisted my tech savvy cousin, Johnny, who is Lindsey's husband, Johnny pretty much created the internet (not really but I'm sure he could have if he wasn't 4 at the time or something close, he speaks 1's and 0's, ha it could be a pun...he speaks in code...:0 I'm laughing out loud to myself thinking this is a whole conversation that should have stayed in my head).

Easter

2011-05-02T17:05:00.000-07:00

I'm terrible I know. Its just that updating is so low on my list, if I could figure out a quicker way to do it, that would help. I'm sure there is an app for that. But I'm sure people's expectations of frequent posting have long since disappeared. Either way I dedicate this post to Amelia's Aunt Kari who has been dying for an update.

I figured I'd start with Easter. We had a blast this Easter! I spent the week leading up to it teaching A how to hunt eggs. Girl is a fast learner! Every afternoon we would go in the front yard hunt eggs and then color on the sidewalk till Dad got home. Here's a few from the practice rounds.

She picked up the concept immediately and has a great eye for the sport.

You can see here she's got a real future in egg hunting. The determination in her face.

Her love for the game helps too :) However, stamina not so much. She's a 3-4 egg hunter and then she is content to come sit in my lap and practice opening and closing them. She also stopped when the advance skill of picking up one egg before placing the previous egg in the basket caused her to topple over and spill her bounty. Maybe next year but for now Amelia you're a 1 egg at a time type of girl.

The big day came Saturday at Perry Park. We went with the Bourlon's to their neighborhood hunt. This event provided a couple of game changers that Amelia wasn't quite prepared for.

1. The Easter Bunny was there. She is very weary of large over-sized bunny prancing around, something about it was very unnatural to her...

Amelia meets the Easter Bunny from Morgan Bender on Vimeo.

2. The mass number of kids. She was unaware of the "race-factor" and froze to inspect the chaos.

She eventually picked up 2 eggs and then realized there were shiny things inside. This halted any further hunting. She was much more content to hold her shiny prizes. The guys pushed the girls on the swings and then they played awhile on the playground.

Court and the ladies

so serious

We then came home and planted an orange tree that we got the day before. It should start bearing fruit around September. I cant wait. Cuties are a favorite with Amelia and so I know she will die when she sees them blooming on her tree.

She wasn't as big of a help with the planting as I thought she'd be. She doesn't like to get dirty. She however has no problem getting wet. We are working on her pouring skills. She is content to just dump the water on herself (which she needs no help growing, she is currently in the 110% for height at 33 in and in the 95% for weight at 27lbs. She hasn't gained a pound since January. Which I'm skeptical about and have the most adorable naked pics of her swimming to prove it, unfortunately I just dont know how I feel about posting pics of her in all her glory)

While we were planting we got a surprise visit from our friends Leigh, Julia and a pair of adorable Easter bunnies who came to deliver Amelia an Easter basket. The basket she loved however still weary of the bunny and now concerned that it knows where she lives and that they can travel in pairs. I'm sure next year she will give a much warmer greeting.

The next day, Easter Sunday. After church we had the most amazing lunch at the Austin Country Club! I think I ate 5 or 6 courses.

Julia and Hannah dressed Amelia up with some flowers, I kinda think that she looks like she has Shrek ears.

Look at all that hair blowing in the wind!!

We came home and Amelia went swimming in her pool. She loves the slide that is on it.

There are so many more great pictures from this afternoon, next time I will make sure she is in a bathing suit so I can post them.

I'm going to make this post even longer and leave you with some of my thoughts.

1. I've had the stomach bug so I'm limited to broth and all I can thing about is

TACOS!!! I really want to eat tacos!

2. And its finally raining, what a blessing!

3. Bin Laden is dead. I'm so honored and humbled with the service of our troops. I'm glad that one's wicked ways have been stopped and I hope that this is the beginning of dismantling an oppressive group's evil, however it will never be natural though to celebrate someone's death, no matter how much pain they have caused.

4. I'm feeling terrible because I missed my grandmother's birthday and she is the most wonderful person you could ever know, and she never misses a birthday! Grandma, I am so sorry. I love you.

gotta go and call grandma

Fat Tuesday

2011-03-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

Last week was Fat Tuesday and in the Bender house we celebrate with breakfast for dinner (specifically waffles). Here's a few pictures from the festivities.

Harper, Jolene, Emrie and Gain brought their parents over. How cute is Harper in the rocking chair? The shopping cart was a big hit, I'm surprised I got a pic of Jo alone with it. Is that not the cutest smile ever! Emrie was ready (okay (817) people, Emrie is Blair Livingston and Kyle Wardlaw's little girl she's about a month older than A. Its been so fun to reconnect with them). And yes Gain is holding an Obama bobble head, which he call "O-ba-ma."

I've commented on Amelia's love for Gain. She took advantage of him wondering into the kitchen and cornered him. He was less thrilled to have so much of her attention, although he kindly gave into a hug when prompted by mom. God love her, chins and all!!!

Here she can be seen supplying Jo with chest compressions. Jo, un-phased with her friend's aid.

Amber, Blair and Brooke expecting very soon!!

On a side note, here are a some pictures from Amelia's first time drawing. Love that pincer :)

A bit of randomness for ya

2011-02-25T19:09:00.000-08:00

So I found this picture of me when I was near the age that A is now.

The quality of these pictures are so poor, I took a picture of them with my iphone, not even a recent iphone but 3G, not even a 3GS... you know the plain old iphone that does not have the capability to be on silent anymore. The model that rings in a capricious fashion and sometimes just vibrates for fun. I know I'm not the only one who will occasionally receive a voicemail 24 hours later.

I'm currently waiting for 1 of 10 bundt cakes that I am making this weekend (for the church, I'm not angry or stressed, which is when I usually bake in bulk) to walk itself out of the oven.

Here are some pictures from Valentines Day. My mom sent Amelia a package in the mail. This is her opening it in the morning. And again sorry for the grainy low pixelated photos.

She is getting a little too good at opening up boxes or anything with a lid and pulling out its ENTIRE contents. She loved her Elmo shirt and other clothes. In the last one you cant tell but she is reading the tag, you know we ladies are always interested in what size one buys for us. These are all 2T and fit well with a little breathing room (something she doesn't have much of in her current wardrobe). She loved the Elmo shirt. She's never seen Elmo but she loves this shirt. In the picture you can see the doll they sent her and the night time Violet. Big Violet is a huge hit with Amelia. It stays in the car and is her traveling companion, she doesn't mind riding in the car with Violet. So my mom knew nighttime Violet would be well loved. The red shoes she has on in the picture have squeakers in them. So with every step she squeaks. They are super cute (for the first 5-7 minutes, then they grate my nerves a bit) and she loves wearing them though and Georgie, whose main passion in life is to liberate squeakers from the toys that confine them follows her everywhere. Georgie is so confused. I should post a video. Georgie's reaction redeems the fact that my kid squeaks with each step, but hey I always know where she is, she isn;t sneaking up on anyone.

Winter ONE-derland

2011-02-20T19:59:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our party. Court and I decided to spare all of our friends a double dose of birthday parties and have the girls first birthday parties together! Our theme was Winter ONE-derland...obviously :) It snowed the day before and wouldn't you know, day of party...oh a bright sunny 70 degrees. Typical Texas. SO the s'mores buffet and fire pit wasn't quite the hit. We served white yummy goods (Powdered Donuts, Pirate's Booty, yogurt covered pretzels etc...) plus cookies and milk.

The sign said Happy Brrr-thday!

Amelia was working the crowd. She loves books and more the people that will read them to her. She spent a lot of the day looking a books and asking people to read to her. Who can refuse the birthday girl?

We can trace Amelia's love for Gain back to this moment.

Since Amelia hasnt had sugar I didn't want to overload her with a sugary birthday cake. So I found a healthy muffin recipe, (icing had plenty of sugar). I made Amelia a spin off of a carrot or spice cake with apricots, dates and cream cheese icing. We decorated with edible flowers. She loved it. Kyle finally had to take it away. Selfishly we wanted her to save us some, it was soooo good!

Happy Girl!

Sleepy Girl

She went straight to bed and opened up all her presents in the morning. To which she would like to say

Thankful girl

Holidays

2011-02-09T20:20:00.000-08:00

So its about time I post some pics from the holidays.

Thanksgiving we went to The Falls. Amelia had a blast hanging out with her cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Poor Amelia came down with fever just in time for Thanksgiving. Little did we know at the time what it would all snow ball into (intussusception). We thought it was her first ear infection (which ironically she is currently experiencing now). Amelia was feeling up to wearing the turkey shirt I made her. My friend Kristin, made one for her daughters last year, you have to see it ( lullaby lubbock). They are always making the cutest things and when I saw this I couldn't wait to make one.

We got to spend a lot of time with The Hammetts. We went to Sevies (apparently an institution where the "burritos are as big as your forearm). We also took a trip with them to Oklahoma (also known as "The Wheatfields") to visit the casinos. We didn't do bad. At the end we decided to each put it all on one game of blackjack. I doubled down, won 1 hand and doubled my $$. I barely know what I said.

Then Christmas Eve Party

This is from our annual Christmas Eve party with The Lawlers and The Russells. We've been getting together for the last 15 years and it is always a blast. This year Kyle was quite the winner at Left Right Center. Casey brought his new dog Molly and Amelia was spoiled between Aunt Kay Kay and Aunt Melania. The game for best baby present continues. Kim and Melanie always tried to out do each other with the best gift for Syd growing up. It got pretty crazy, life size Barbie and all.

and the other star Molly

And then Christmas day!

One of the best parts about Christmas was Amelia getting the meet Milan! Milan is the adorable daughter of my cousin Johnny and his amazing wife Lindsey. So these girls are second cousins? They LOVED each other! It was hilarious how excited they got when they saw each other. These girls cracked us up, they couldn't be different but yet were soooo much alike. They had all the same mannerisms, made the same noises...

More from the Winter One-derland party soon (who am I kidding, it'll probably be at least a week)

a spunky motivational speaker

2011-02-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

This was on my cousin's wife's blog. She always finds the best videos. Anyways, this girl has a career ahead of her.

Happy Birthday Amelia!

2011-01-19T07:36:00.000-08:00

SO yesterday was a BIG day!

BIG, HUGE!

Our little, but kinda big girl was a year old yesterday. We celebrated when she woke up

(before our 8:45 am WELL check dr. visit...ADD moment, I place WELL in all caps because it is a BIG, HUGE deal, as well as blessing to call her WELL. Long story short, Dr.'s have thought that A was sick, like really something scary sick. We have had many prayers and have seen them answered. A little over a week ago she received a clean bill of health from her cardio dr. and GI doc.) And we really haven't seen blue lips, rashes, whelps and hives in days. Blood clots are sooooo last year and she even fought off her first cold!!! I am so proud.)

So back to the awesome idea of videoing what our family looks like at 7 in the morning (before coffee...) It should be noted that we decided to celebrate in the morning at like 9pm last night as Kyle realized he wouldn't be home till after she went to bed. Why are we not planners?? Why?? We were up till 12 in the am because I decided she needed a birthday crown that I knew wouldn't stay on, I baked apple muffins, Kyle put together her new "grow with me trike" (that I happened to see on clearance at Home Goods yesterday and got an additional 30% off the clearance price AAAND had a gift card, I think I paid $25 bucks for it after it was all said and done, which is amazing cause at one point it was like $200...) did I mention she LOVES it!!!

Okay so on to the pictures and video, PS this is pretty authentic, no brushed hair, my eyes are barely open and my pj pants are awesome (try not to be jealous), Cara Govednik and I bought them from Old Navy when we were Sophomores in HS so no they would be impossible to find now and no its not the pants, my rear really is that flat, again try not to be jealous...It all sounded like a good idea at midnight, as most ideas do I guess.

She shoveled in blueberries by the handful as well as the eggs (special thanks to Wanda, Beyonce and Cheryl: the Charbonneau chickens). The muffin was a mild hit in comparison but still enjoyed.

So here is a video compilation of her special morning

Untitled from Morgan Bender on Vimeo.

Are you wondering how our Christmas and Thanksgiving went? I will time machine back another day because they are too great not too share.

All better

2010-12-14T11:37:00.000-08:00

So Amelia has spent the better part of the last 3 months sick. We're talking almost a third of her life here has been shadowed with croup, bronchitis, whooping cough, and now our most recent ailment...

Intussusception.

Yep, this was a new word to me as well. It means that ones intestines have "telescoped" on top of each other. It is found in a low percentage of kids, and typically before the age of one. It can be very serious and appreciated the rapid/ star treatment from the ER.

So the Thursday before last I found a blood clot the size of a quarter in Amelia's diaper. There were smaller ones as well with chunks of mucus that had blood in it as well. This set us on a path of many studies and tests over the next two days. It was very traumatic for Amelia but probably more so for mom :) After rounds and rounds of tests we were left with no answers, everything came back normal. Even her test for Intussusception. She was feeling better (she had 3 days of high fever, days of extreme lethargy, diarrhea, 4 diapers of clots etc...) but still wanted an answer for the clots. All we knew at this point is that they were coming from her lower organs.

So this past Friday we had some strings pulled and bypassed the 2 month waiting list for the GI (thanks Mike) and found out that she did have a milder case of Intussusception that corrected itself by the time we went to the ER on Saturday. The doctor looked at the labs and said she had a bacterial infection that caused her intestines to telescope on top of each other. She is at risk of it happening again till she's about two. We feel very blessed and know that it is because of so many prayers that she was healed. Thank you guys so much for checking up on us and lifting up Amelia in prayer.
Here are a few pictures from our adventure

This is during her 1st study, a Meckels scan. It was an hour long and she screamed herself to sleep after thirty minutes.

After the Meckel's scan, she's looking a little rough.

Here she is doing a puzzle in between tests. Her arm is wrapped to keep her from pulling at her IV.

Uh, I love that toosh!

This was the second round of tests. She is less "thrashy" because nothing is over her face. We played The Beatles Rockababy and sang "Hey Jude" to keep her calm. We also practiced finding "mommy's nose." A new favorite game.

I think she is going to be a southpaw. She didn't let having a club for an arm slow her down. She still crawled around, pulled up on things and played with her large nub. It was the least of her worries. This was while we waited for results.
The next day was so sad cause her IV was on her right arm and they had it wrapped to a board and not matter how hard she tried she could not get her thumb in her mouth. Which is what she does when she is tired. She would grab her right thumb with her left hand and try to force it in, so sad.
But now we are ALL better!

Helper Dog and Duchenne

2010-12-08T18:51:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we all trekked down/ over to Bellaire for the presentation of a helper dog to our good friend Joel Poysky. Joel and his family (James, Rachel and sister Hallie) are close friends of our from our time in Houston.

Joel has Duchenne, a type of muscular dystrophy that affects 1 in 3500 boys. It is the most common fatal genetic disorder diagnosed in childhood. These are hard words to write but I am encouraged to do so because most of you reading this have probably never heard of this disease and that is a problem.

Joel and other boys with Duchenne suffer from a lack of dystrophin being made in their bodies. This creates muscle weakness over time and many other health problems. There is an urgency for awareness, research and money to fund aggressive research so that a cure can be found. Life expectancy for these boys is around the late twenties, my hope is to have many more years than that with Joel.
He personally is doing great and although he tires easily physically and at times emotionally, he is perservering in ways that is a tribute to God's healing power. Joel is mentally strong and really understands his disability as well as who he is in Christ. He and his family are amazing.
James dedicates most of his time to researching, writing and helping the medical field better understand this disability. Rachel works endlessly fund raising as well continuously ministering to other families affected by Duchenne.

I have to clear up that this is different than Jerry's kids and fundraisers that you see many fireman doing. Its the step-child that unfortunately does not get much attention. Some boys who have Duchenne also have learning disabilities (dyslexia, dyscalcula, ADD) but no forms of mental retardation. Joel is the brightest most personable child I have ever met.

We are so thankful for the Poysky family and the blessing that they have been to us. We were so excited to hear that after a little under 2 years on the waiting list Joel was awarded a helper dog (Duchenne boys get to be at the top of the list b/c of their muscles degenerating and the need for assistance happens in childhood)!!
The blessing came because a Kroger in the area decided to donate one to a family and Joel was the closest in location on the list! This is a massive donation, the dogs are expensive ($25,000). This is huge because Joel's favorite thing in the world are dogs. He will go this summer for two weeks to be matched with a dog and then they will go through training, where the dog learns over 95 commands!!

To learn more you can go here....

http://www.parentprojectmd.org

The Check presentation!!

Joel and the spokesdog

Joel and his adoring fans. Rachel and the paparazzi.

Here is a video from the presentation. http://www.click2houston.com/video/25843371/

This is a video from when they visited the station.

August

2010-11-30T12:05:00.000-08:00

No silly not the month, the friend! I'm not that far behind.

Two weeks ago we went to Bellaire for our friend Joel's helper dog presentation (more on that later). We were able to pop in and hang out with the Scott Fam. Most of you know my friend Krystal, from high school. She has a precious 14 mo old boy named August.

August was quite the hugger. Amelia didn't mind as long as he let her play with her toys. Needless to say they loved each other.

New Hot Winter Trend

2010-11-21T20:49:00.000-08:00

A NEBULIZER, of course!

Breathing treatments are on the rage here at The Bender house. We had two weeks on and one week off and now we're back on. Dont be jealous. I'm just happy its only twice a day right now. I have to say 80% of the time she is great and allows me to place the mask on her for the entire dose (usually 8 minutes). The key is to sit outside with Baron in view. Any other combination will not work unless you sit with Luke, Court and Jo while all singing "row row row your boat" (in rounds) while subtly bouncing her. What great friends.

She wishes her feet could reach.

Texas Rangers, love em

2010-11-16T21:27:00.000-08:00

Kyle and I were fortunate enough to go to the World Series a few weeks ago. We wish the Rangers would have had more of our good fortune. However its the farthest our ball club has gotten and still pretty impressive for a team that was broke a few months ago.

Being a huge Rangers fan was naturally embedded into my childhood. For those who know me well they know Nolan Ryan is my all-time favorite professional athlete (disclaimer: behind Jeff and now James of course). I was a ballpark rat, we were fortunate enough to have season tickets growing up and so I was able to see him pitch many times including when Robin Ventura charged the mound and Ryan met him with a head lock and 6 shots. Pretty exciting (might have been what sealed it for me).

I definitely miss watching the players of the 90's... Jeff, Bobby, John B. (other John's we wont talk about), Rusty, Will Clark, Pudge, remember Micky Tettleton and his weird left-handed stance or when Jose Canseco played for us...comical. Darren Oliver is the only one left from back then... old man river. I'm deep in memory lane and the only one who will even care about this post is Melanie (which I should take the time to say thanks for always giving me your left over tickets growing up).

SO needless to say I was thrilled to get to go again with him involved in a different realm and to cheer on a long time favorite team. He's still so handsome.
Kyle and I took Syd and went to game 4. It was on Halloween so Kyle thought he might as well dress to support the team and embrace the holiday.

So proud!!

CAn you guys believe how grown up The Munchkin is?

Cowboy Stadium at sunset

Can you find Waldo? SO the costume was a hit. He was a celebrity. People heard he was around and came to "find" him. He was taking pictures with people all night. He had to finally take off the glasses and hat to try and "blend in."

Special thanks to Guy for getting us such great seats!

Halloween Party or Birrthday Extravaganza

2010-11-12T08:11:00.000-08:00

So this year we celebrated Luke, Doug and Kyle (Wardlaw)'s birthday on the 30th. A great excuse for a costume party and cake. I can not delay in showing off all the great costumes.

The Birthday boys

and the wives

(left to right) Mark went as Larry King but also got a lot of Harry Carey and Anderson Cooper.

Kyle and Blair were Mad Men (I'm embarrassed that I dont know the characters names but have decided after we finished Lost that will be our next series to start watching).

Austin went as House (Hugh Laurie) which he nailed with the cane, limp and direct sarcasm.

Ryan and Courtney were (obviously) Dwight and Angela, notice the cat!!

Jim and Brooke were cowboy and Indian or as I like to think Pocahontis and Borat at the Rodeo.

Melissa was my personal favorite, she was a Publisher's Clearing House winner! She had a huge check and everything. Piper was the cutest kitten ever!!!

Which brings me to Jo and Amelia (which I have no picture of). So Courtney made Jo an adorable skunk costume. (pictures she'll post soon, I think some are on FB) At first try the arms were way too small, but she remedied the problem and it fit perfectly. I should have learned from Courtney's experience but no I had Amelia try on the bumble bee costume for the first time as the party started. I have no idea why I was so shocked to find that it too was way to small. It being the first real project I have undertaken with a sewing machine and all. SO a little tip, when sewing gross grain ribbon horizontally across stretchy cotton it will negate the stretch, seems obvious now. Amelia's costume was not the only one in the families to not work, mine too was not without issues. I quickly threw together a gypsy costume. Kyle went with old faithful, cause nobody makes a better Waldo.

See Waldo in the back top right? Maybe you can spot him in some other pictures.

Pumpkin Patch

2010-11-09T18:24:00.000-08:00

Remember October? I barely do. It's a blur of orange and croup.

Bourlon's and Bender's took a trip down the road to the Pumpkin Patch to take pictures of the girls. It was the perfect opportunity to put Amelia in the adorable Halloween outfit that her Pa-Pa (Kyle's dad) bought her last year. The girls were mesmorized by the grass and not so much by the event of smiling in front of pumpkins.

Amelia showed off her new face. We call it the Bulldog.

The sound effects that go along with it, clinch the name.

She did pull out a few smiles.

These are the faces they stuck with. These two are quite the pair.

A week later we went back and met a few friends. Again, no smiles but it was later that day she began running fever and caught a cold that turned to croup that turned to bronchitis and eventually whooping cough (awesome!) We just now are feeling better.

These faces are so much better than a smile! I love them. She rarely pulls out the bulldog anymore (so sad). The Elvis is still a strong favorite though.

Group shots are the best! Moms make fools out of themselves trying to get everyone looking the same way at the same time and to smile on top of that! The day it works is the day I will play the lotto! Here are some of my favorites!

Starting with the best first (cause I base my entire meal around dessert).

Do you see it??? Look closer, right above Jolene's head. She is "2 seconds away from disaster." No one saw it coming especially Jolene. These girls are a little boring for Gain, they don't play catch, they just sit around.

Emrie says uh-oh, tumble... Piper down. Harper sustained no casulities in the stunt. Meanwhile Amelia and Jolene are captivated by a piece of grass and Gain perfects his model moves.

Just the ladies

Its not a party without a few tears.

Notice back left, Emrie...looking ever so casual. Love it.

and the best picture ever...

Charlie Brown! Is this not the best!? Katrina made him this adorable outfit, so creative.

A dad's attempt to dress his daughter

2010-11-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

I found some old pictures and remembered how I wanted to adDRESS this topic. First, you can always tell when Kyle dresses Amelia. I am going to start documenting these outfits. Sure signs that dad has dressed her:

An unsnapped (or 1of 3) onesie is involved with a pair of un-matching pants on top. There will be no dress, no stockings, socks, shoes, bow, hat etc... we are talking basics. Fundamentals here.

and why do the bloomers never make it back on after a diaper change, granted I'm happy that the diaper is changed but Kyle has a strict "that is an unnecessary step" rule against bloomers that cracks me up.

back in June I was cracking up when Kyle attempted dressing Amelia for the first time soon after she learned to roll.

not the best start...

"wear the shirt or eat the shirt, which did you want me to do?"

"you zurburt me, I pull your hair"

Dad is having a hard time dressing her because she has tricked him into delaying the effort with a few smiles like so. We are so easily distracted by her cuteness, the next thing you know you're cleaning the sheets because she was "too cute, to put the diaper on right away."

Its the textbook "drag back by the ankles and flip" move

"How's that working out for ya?"

The intermission to defeat... (notice though the bloomers have made it on)

Ah! Arm in and we now have a recovering nudist!
It only took 15 minutes.

Confessions of a SAHM

2010-10-26T22:03:00.000-07:00

Today our friend Julie came over after work to hang out and play with babies. Julie herself is 8 months pregnant and loves her some babies so we are a great place to come a get a fix. So the three of us sat (me, Jules and Court) and the babies played on the floor. Jolene was discovering the fun of packing paper while Amelia was engrossed by standing at the window. Girl has croup right now and has not seen the outside world in a few days, she is now pulling up on everything and was in awe of the view at 2.5 ft.

We're chatting about what Julie is in for when she asks..."What do y'all do all day?" A legitimate question right? I'm stunned? What did I do today? I felt like the whole day was gone and I couldn't remember what I was doing while time passed. There were things I planned to do, and some were done, the rest we're half done.

What I did today:

*I reheated my coffee 4 times, I eventually just put ice, a little soy milk and chai in it (which is what happens when its noon and I'm still not finished drinking it)

*Put a bra under the shirt I slept in and exchanged boxers for a pair of jeans.

*I probably did the dishes and watch Court do them (we are convinced dishes are capable of reproduction)

*I swept under the highchair at least 3 times

*checked my email (nothing interesting except Abby's spam and emails from Joe Biden, how he got my address I am unsure, but I'm sure he has better things to do. Joe if you read my blog as well you should know I just delete them and you are cluttering my inbox)

*did some laundry (sort of: does dying onsies and trying to get stained clothes clean count)

*I stopped Amelia at least a dozen times on her quest to knock out her teeth. She is determined to pull up on moving things (girl likes a challenge).

* I rearranged some furniture

*Played the drums on an empty formula can with Amelia

*Cleaned toys

*read books that have no more than 5 words to a page

Lets see its easier to think about what I didn't do:

*shower (definitely didn't do that today), maybe didn't even brush my teeth

*I probably didn't get out of my pj's till after 12

maybe tomorrow

I've been convicted to use my time better. I am very thankful for this time that have at home with Amelia and realize I may not always have it. So I'm going to keep myself accountable to not be lazy (especially with my parenting). My goal is to engage Amelia better in simple meaningful activities, she is an active child and I realize I need to do a better job stimulating her and me, I only have 30 plastic bins of early childhood education materials. And learn all the things I said I would do if I had the time (like sewing, freezer paper stenciling, knitting). I dont plan on making any large changes, like showering daily but some baby steps would do me good.

Carmel, California & Milestones

2010-10-24T10:33:00.000-07:00

I feel like there are 100 things I could update you guys on. I'll start with some 9 month stats.

That's right, no typo, I have a 9 month old. She looks older, not so babyish and its killing me!!!! I realize I should start with some major 7 & 8 month milestones. This is long but the story at the end is worth it. Its total Bender luck.

7 months
* commando crawling on her belly
* She is flying around in her walker. She reverses, turn around in it and follows everywhere. We've been playing a lot of hide and go seek with her in it.
* she started clapping.
* her first tooth broke through on the bottom
* learned object permanence
* recognized herself in the mirror

8 months

* crawling on all fours

*waving bye-bye (Jolene actually taught her that, so cute)

* climbing over small barriers (like people laying on the floor)
* pulling up on things to her knees to obtain an object
* cut 5 more teeth (we have 6 now: 4 on top, two on the bottom)
* Her personality really changed from laid back observer to busy-busy bee. Always moving, changing diapers or clothes is a complete work-out. She is a climber and a diver...
* began moving around barriers to find a toy
* reproduces part of a game to continue playing
* walking when you hold her hands

Carmel

For the second year in a row we have visited Luke and Courtney in California during September. It is always a blast!Lets look at a couple before and after shots...

Here is Court and I last year

We are holding mangos because that was the size of Amelia and Jolene (says baby center) at the time (they were due the same day).

This was us this year...

A lot has changed since then, and its not just the shorter hair do.

Kyle and Luke last year...

and then this year they were packing a few extra pounds...

and for the group shot...

and this year we've added a few more players...

and they look thrilled!

The other fun thing about this year is that Lanie came with us!!! It was so great having her there and she came in very handy on the plane ride home! (Kyle drove back with Luke from Cali and Lanie helped Court and I fly home with the babies!!) Which brings me to the best story ever...AMELIA'S FIRST PLANE RIDE.

So when you are flying with a kid there is a little nervousness to the adventure. You hope they don't cry and annoy everyone or get sick etc... So Kyle and I are half way through the flight, really enjoying everything and are amazed at how smooth it has all gone. Amelia has been great, I even got her to sleep an hour in the Moby Wrap! She's making friends and wooing the crowd and staff. She is laying on her back on my knees and we're playing. She rips one and I lift the side of the diaper to see if it was a loaded one and Kyle and I see poop rushing out like a tidal wave. I close the diaper quickly and we laugh in relief at the disaster we avoided. We continue playing and I reach behind her head and feel that its wet. I then notice a few other odd things, like that my pants are soaked on the inside of both legs (knee to crotch) the length of Amelia's back which is also soaked...I lift her up and realized the diaper did not contain the madness and was spilling out causing her to drip everywhere (grossing out every passenger around us). Code Blue (or Brown) and we move into action... I wrap her in 2 burp cloths and Kyle carries her to the bathroom where a dad holding and infant, a seasoned father and a flight attendant greet him with laughter and willingness to help. This is far better than the looks I got. I was following them with large brown spots all over my white shirt and jeans. I get her in the bathroom and send Kyle for back up clothes. Girl has poop everywhere!!! In her hair, hands, legs, feet, on her FOREHEAD!! The flight attendant brought me hazmat gloves, a trash sack and a stack of paper towels. I strip her down and bath her in the sink with the hand soap. She loved it! I Kept having to press the thing for more water, and keep her from diving out! Dress her in new dudes and clean the bathroom. Kyle was able to find him a new shirt to replace his now very soiled shirt (thanks to our bag being a few pounds over he threw some of his clothes in the carry-on). I however, was not so lucky. SO what is a girl to do than strip down and wash her clothes with airplane hand soap and blot it dry with paper towels.

the girls love each other so much and always have a blast playing.

We went hiking and picniced on the beach

Thanks Bourlons for letting us come visit!

A few shots of A on the plane ride home which was great and involved less poop.

last final thought...RANGERS, can you believe it! I'm so excited I cant even take it!!! What an amazing year for a team that has been through a lot. This team has so much personality and tenacity! And side note upon side note, how amazing must it be to have Nolan Ryan as your boss...World Series here we come!

...whew I did it, massive post done! Katrina, yet another blog post gets crossed off the list.
coming up
pumpkin patch

waiting

2010-10-13T17:45:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I was doing my Bible Study and the truth of scripture hit me in a very hard way. One of the application questions was...

"Have you ever experienced a "water turning into wine" moment when God's power was made very evident in the life of someone else?"

Tears welled up in my eyes. Pretty regularly I used to witness big miracles! I'm talking huge, "water to wine" moments through my job working with kids with disabilities. Things that Doctors deemed impossible I was watching children achieve! What an honor! These were moments that could only be explained by recognizing the power of God! I'm talking kids once paralyzed, walking...children who were never expected to speak, talking intelligibly...children who were labeled Mentally Retarded displaying a higher order of thinking, problem solving, following directions, telling jokes. I had meaningful conversations with kids who have Autism and watched as they began to understand the correlation of emotions to actions! I loved my job, it was never mundane or routine, I never took these moments for granted. I drew near to these moments, to God and the work He was doing all around me. I pushed my kids hard for these moments because I knew with God all things were possible, and I knew that He had a plan for their lives and I couldn't wait to see what it was! We waited for one child to achieve a goal while another gave us hope with their achievement. These moments were frequent and I felt blessed!

Now I am without the frequency of these moments. I have moved away from my job to Austin and I stay at home with Amelia. This is what I've always wanted and I love it (I would never trade this), but I have felt over these last few months that something is missing in my life, I felt a void. There was something about working I desperately missed. Today I realized it was seeing these miracles, experiencing the work of God. I get to watch Amelia develop and its wonderful, it brings me joy and I cherish it, but I also expect it. What I miss is seeing the unexpected, above and beyond work of God and because of it I began to feel distant from him.

In the first half of John 20:29 Jesus asks "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Yes, Lord I have! I have seen You!
Then the gut punch...
the second says half Jesus goes on to say, "Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."
And then deflate like a balloon and realize that is where I am. I do not see, and I am fighting the anxiety of Satan to have the faith to believe. I'm waiting, and listening and praying for the voice of God. To give me direction in this new season of life. To know His plan for me. For so long, I've been praying for things I want...job, school, house and the last few inches of Amelia off my waist wouldn't be so bad :) (I mean honestly I just want the top half of my waist, you know the part that goes rogue after you have a baby to fit back in my jeans...that's all :)
So now I'm just waiting and it's no fun to do the things you're not good at. I'm not a patient person, it's why I dont like amusement parks. I'm not thrilled to wait 45 minutes for a 1 minute ride. Even if I love that 1 minute of jolting and extreme speed its not enough for me to remember past the agonizing dread of standing in the heat like cattle, in a line that looks like an endless paper clip.
It's like when we went to Disney World with Kyle's family last October, it was doable because we had the "fast pass." You basically make an appointment to ride and you get a ticket that allows you to bypass everyone else and get on quicker. We got to where we only did rides if we had a fast pass. I remember Kyle's little nephew yelling one time while we were in a backed up fast pass line "fast pass! fast pass!! I want a fast pass!!" He understood that the ticket allowed him quick access and was confused with the hold up. We laughed, cause it was funny, but that's me. Crying out, wanting to know what the hold up is. I dont want to wait I want the "fast pass." I dont really even know what I'm waiting for, I'm in the dark and sometimes I admit I wonder about God's plan. Will I like it? Is it better than mine?

I realized how small this seems when I look at people who are also waiting on the Lord. Like my friend Kara, who is faithfully waiting for the Lord to cure the constant migraine she's lived with for 8 years. Or my friend who has been praying for a better job and someone to share her life with. Or my dear friend Rachel whose 8 yr old son, Joel has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. She is waiting, praying, fund-raising money in hopes to find a CURE that will save (do you understand the power in those words, A CURE TO SAVE) not just her son's life but the lives of the other boys whose families she is constantly ministering to. She is Paul in prison trying to give hope and explain how good our God is to other families feeling persecuted. Blessed is Rachel and Joel who both believe when they can not see.

There are two sides to this analogy.
1. Our minds are feeble as well and can not understand the depths as to which God's all knowing, infinite wisdom can. We can not see the bigger picture like He can. His wisdom transcends all that we know to be relevant, like time. Our lack of ability to understand is what calls us to have faith. Like when Jesus raised Lazarus, 4 days later! Mary and Martha wanted to know where He had been, but we needed a grand miracle and this was how He chose to bring glory God.

2. The second is simple. I fuss like an infant, when I need to be getting ready, preparing myself for what God has for me and realize its worth waiting for.

Thanks for letting me dump my thoughts out into the abyss that is blogging, I thought I might drown in them if they stayed in my head.

Zeringue Family Reunion

2010-10-10T13:01:00.000-07:00

So over labor day we were able to visit with the ENTIRE Zeringue family (Kyle's mom's side) on Lake Granbury! It was so much fun to visit and catch up with everyone.

Amelia loved being spoiled by her aunts Katie and Kari. Her great-grandpa could always get her laughing. Aunt Katie and second cousin Lauren took on the task of feeding Amelia.

She talked and talked with her Gramma and found out just how silly her Pa Pa could be. He let her play with his hat and chain, she was in heaven!

This little girl is very well loved!

It was so great to see everyone and catch up. Thankfully the holiday season is just around the corner! See you all again soon.

life savers revised with walker

2010-10-04T22:04:00.000-07:00

So I have many friends who are prego my ego right now. I've had countless conversation about my favorite things that have helped me survive over the last few months. So I decided to make a post about it and that way all of you fantastic mothers can add your two cents in the comments section and help these mommas out. SO Abby, Julie, Megan, Taylor and Susan this is for you and your bump.

disclaimer: this is what worked for me and solely my opinion, I am by no means an expert just passing along what I learned and am still learning.

1. NUMERO UNO...The miracle blanket. This is sliced bread, washing machine, light bulb, the idea to ferment grapes, noble peace prize winning invention type of stuff we're talking about. Those cute sweet swaddle blankets were great to lay on the floor and have tummy time on but when it comes to keeping your baby swaddled none of these cut it for Amelia Bedelia. The Miracle Blanket gave countless nights of sleep. Yes it looks crazy when you wrap them up in a straight jacket of a thing but they love it and finally they are comforted so they can sleep!!! www.miracleblanket.com

Ask Deb, who used to walk for an hour with Annie in the Bjorn and then sleep on the couch with her till she woke up, no madam, miracle blanket was just that. Mike (her hubby) texted Kyle that Deb just woke him up to talk about what great sleep they were getting.

2. SWING, I have the fisher price lamb swing and liked it, but I wish I would have gotten the sweet peace (Graco), the graco car seat (and others as well) will snap right in, so you dont have to get them out when they fall asleep...genius, (not miracle blanket genius but close). That would have been nice, Amelia always woke up when we stopped. You can also plug your ipod in for music.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3692930

3. SLING/ BABY CARRIER, I got the serena and lily and loved it, but it didn't last long for my bertha a of a baby. I love the Bjorn, it fantastical. Any one have an adjustable sling recommendation?

4. Mobile, I love tiny love. I have their mobile for the crib which is great and has tons of great black and white images. Babies dont see color for some time. More about that here... http://www.babycenter.com/0_developmental-milestones-sight_6508.bc

The mobile's I loved were:

http://www.tinylove.com/toy.aspx?toyId=237&state=toyTypeId=13@elementId=0@ageId=0

and I also loved the clip and go stroller mobile...It also was great to clip onto the pack and play...This helped us eat out a little longer and made me feel good about stimulating her brain on the go. The music can be turned off as well.

http://www.tinylove.com/toy.aspxtoyId=42&state=toyTypeId=13@elementId=0@ageId=0

5. The Baby Bargain Book was very helpful to find out how other parents rated every baby product imaginable and to find out about safety ratings.

6. Diapers: when I tried cloth diapers (before our nomad lifestyle began), I really liked G diapers because you could use then as cloth diapers or put a flushable insert in) I also put a liner on top that I got from Nappy Liners so that I didn't have to mess with the poop. They are from the Mio Cloth Diaper Brand ( really liked these too, because the diaper is a liner that can be wiped down easily.

http://www.giggle.com/cc/892/c/692/Bambino-Mio.aspx

This website giggle is so fun.

7. Monitor, Okay I dont have a particular brand but I can say if you can splurge for the video monitor. We just borrowed an extra one that the Bourlon's had and it has changed our world. We are now better informed and know when to go in and when to let her work it out. And its so fun to watch them sleep, sounds boring but its fun to watch them roll around, talk in their sleep, eat their toes, talk to their hands etc... I'd check Baby Bargains Book for which one to get.

8. Sleep Sheep, so cute and sounds like a great idea but we switched to a sound machine that doesn't cut off. Bed, Bath and Beyond ($20, works like a charm). I think the sleep sheep will be fun for her later.

9. Boppy, love it. Sophie, she really started using it and loving it around 5 months.

http://www.giggle.com/p/24497/c/565/cl/612/Sophie-The-Giraffe.aspx?&s=2&keyword=612

10. Beaba Baby Cooker, love it, love it but not necessary you could just steam and then puree in a food processor, immersion blender, blender etc...

http://www.giggle.com/search.aspx

11. Diaper bag, I have a few great ones, Kyle has a messenger bag from Columbia, I typically use a stork sak one, but I'm kinda wishing I had one of those that also has straps so it can be a backpack as well.

12. Pack and play. Chicco/ Graco pretty much the same, although I feel like the graco ones are a bit easier to put together. I would prefer the ones with a bassinet, but if you dont need that then the Phil and Ted Traveller or the Baby Bjorn one are pretty amazing. Very compact, light easy to put together for a hefty price. Check ebay, they were super cheap at Costco one time.

13. These Medela steam sanitize bags were awesome for sanitizing bottles super quick in the microwave. One box lasts months

http://www.giggle.com/p/18197/Medela-Quick-Clean-Micro-Steam-Bags.aspx?s=1&keyword=what+happened+bag

14. I've heard people like Itzbeen to help keep track of breast feeding, diapers and all the others stuff, but there are also great apps for that.

http://www.giggle.com/p/20579/c/562/cl/635/Baby-Care-Timer.aspx?&s=2&keyword=635&itemFilter=4294966975

15. NoseFrida, this thing is awesome. Recommended by our pediatrician (who I'm sort of obsessed with and drove back to Htown for our 6 month appointment. As I've blogged about before they have the best resource website). I had the hardest time getting the snot out, Georgie chewed up our snot sucker from the hospital, big mistake...huge! Dont loose that one, nothing on the market compares...except this odd contraption

No the snot does not go in your mouth! You just use the suction, silly.

okay that's all I can think of right now, what else do you have people???

*****Pam reminded me about the walker! Amelia loves her walker and races all around in that thing. She has learned a lot about problem solving with that thing; running into the wall, backing up and turning around, moving around barriers...I love development!

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2835095

Second Half of August

2010-10-02T13:37:00.000-07:00

Continuing in the effort to catch everyone up on the life of The Bender's we will continue onto the second half of August, I dont know maybe we'll get to September, "I just dont know if there will be time." Keeping up with us can be as difficult as being us. Things are starting to slow down and come together though. We are back from Carmel (pictures to come) and gearing up for next week. Kyle will be in Atlanta and so I'm going to spend a few days with my Grandparents.

We got to see a few folks while we were in Houston. Abby got to practice feeding a baby, Amelia put her skills to the test, gotta get ready (February will be here soon Abigail!!!)

We stayed with the Poysky's for a few days. Joel and Hallie (really Rachel) kept Amelia for me while I worked. Amelia loved being with the big kids. They were so great with her! Hallie even shared her Hawaii dress with Amelia (pictured above). Joel Happy late birthday!!!!

Catching up with baby Gordon! We were so excited to meet baby Hannah Noel! Amelia couldn't take her eyes off Hannah's big brother Caleb! She was really excited he let her play guitar with him.

Hello Annie Lynn Turner!!! We've been waiting for you! Amelia couldn't keep her hands off Annie, she was giddy over Mike and Deb's bundle of JOY! We also were able to catch up with Nichole. Amelia loved having some time with Mijo.

We also were able to go to dinner with Brett and Caleb. Brett worked with Kyle (and married us, 5 yrs ago!!). Caleb was in the youth group and last time we saw him Kyle was taller, not the case anymore. Their family means so much to us and we jump at the chance to get to hang with The Hurst Fam (Kellie and Sarah we missed you).

This was the day that we moved. Amelia loved move day! She had the entire house to zoom around in her walker. She would chase the guys moving us squealing the whole way. She would follow them as they moved boxes into the truck and then she waited at the door for them to return, to follow them again. She was so excited to see that they came to Austin to move everything in. Well September will have to wait till another time...

August (or the 1st half)

2010-09-23T14:07:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty bad at uploading pics from the camera and blogging. I'm going to try and do a decent recap of our last month or so. So much has transpired in our lives and Amelia is changing so fast that it is making me sad. So let me take you back to August, yes August. For those who really know me it is no surprise that I've been hording sharable moments as far back as this.

Kyle's parents and nephews came through town and we got to share a few meals with them early in August. Amelia is tasting a lemon for the first time. I was anticipating a sour face and was shocked when she couldn't get enough, you would have thought we gave her ice cream! Crazy kid.

Olivia Patterson!!! Finally Amelia was able to meet Olivia, precious daughter of Kevin and Rebekah. The live in D.C. so it is not often that we get to see them. Olivia is about 2 mo. older that Amelia and cute as all get out. She looks just like her dad and who knew Kevin would make such a cute girl. For those who aren't familiar with the Pattersons let me introduce you. Kevin and Kyle are both from The Falls and roomed together all 4/5 yrs of college. Kevin is a guy who I have at least 2 dozen gut busting stories on, but not wanting to type all day I will just share 1 and add that he was the drummer of their band (Tuesday's Anthem) and refrain from the joke at TA's expense that I would normally add here.

Kevin broke at least 1 window in every house he lived in during college, he kept the one glass guy in CS in business. His roommates kept a total of how much money he had spent on replacing windows up in the house. This was in Kyle's room, he cocked the BB gun and pulled the trigger...nothing happened and my responsible husband mocked him for his stupidity and Kev confident that the gun was empty proved it by shooting it again, this time glass instantly spidered.

Kevin and Rebekah the last time they were in town.

This time we grilled out with friends.

Caleb is the big brother of this pack of girls (really just Maylee's, she is on the far right and is often thought of as Amelia's twin). Amelia like her mom probably just forgot something in this picture, or she got caught fixing her hair. Amelia was way into Micah and his beard.

whew I'm done for now. Picnik made this so easy though! Kristen your insight to these cute collages has made my day!!! You are the most blog savvy person I know! Who knew you'd turn out to be so "techie." PS you've been holding out, what crafty business do you have up your sleeve?

remember this wedding

2010-09-13T15:07:00.000-07:00

poor Jen. We returned these props right?

Micah? I'm not even going to ask...

Um, Robert and Kara where are you?

Katrina, why are we so pale?

The 7 reasons why we can never return to this Country Club. Note that only Brad has his eyes open in this picture.

I have no recent pictures uploaded onto my camera but maybe later this week. I just saw these and remembered at least a dozen priceless moments, half of which can not be put down because they only leave us wives wondering if there might be something seriously wrong with our husbands. Every wedding ceremony we all get through without ruining and or laughing is yet another miracle.

Our little fish

2010-08-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

Our little fish

Untitled from Morgan Bender on Vimeo.

All Caught Up

2010-08-09T19:59:00.000-07:00

So I've been a little sloppy of a blogger. It easier for me to use photos off my iphone than to download them from my camera and post. So I have left many memorable moments unblogged! (gasp here). First off there is Fourth of July. Amelia and I went up to Oklahoma for the Johnson Family Reunion. My amazing cousin Emily came up with the great idea of playing "Minute to Win it" games. It was so much fun.

Amelia is growing up too fast for our liking. Around 5 months she started feeding herself her bottle (when it comes to food she will find a way to make it work). She started sitting on her own a few weeks later. She loves her walker and zips around all over the place in it. She loves looking a books, listening to music and swimming. She has started solids and loves everything orange and protests everything green (although she will still eat it, but verbally abuses me and eventually spits it back out letting us know she's had enough). I had to include one of my favorite pictures of Amelia in one of her cloth diapers. This is when I had the grand idea of doubling up the cloth part during the night. You can see how thrilled she was with my genius idea, we decided on disposables for night time.

We've been so busy this summer swimming and playing with friends and family. Amelia has a ton of precious friends here in Austin that she will get to grow up with. We enjoyed many swimming play dates over the summer and sadly, due varying nap schedules, I have few pictures to share of all the adorable punkins. If you can only imagine 6 girls in this season's best swim wear with Caleb and Gain. Its kinda like a SI's baby swimsuit edition, you know with a ton of rolls. Amelia is a very strong swimmer, mainly because we hold her up but she does kick and pull her arms like she's Michael Phelps. Kyle's parents took his nephews to San Antonio for the week and stopped by for a few days. Amelia loved spending time with her Grandparents and especially her cousins. They give her fits of laughter with all their goofy faces, voices and dancing. Her Gramma gave her a lemon to lick and she LOVED it, not on sour face, she just sucked the thing dry! She would not let go of it! Not sure what this means. She also got to meet Aunt Kim, Uncle Marvin (Kyle's Aunt and Uncle) her second cousin Jackie.

Ah it feels so good to be caught up!

On your Mark

2010-08-05T09:42:00.000-07:00

Well hello there!

I know she's suppose to be sick (believe me the laundry tells the story) but girlfriend sure is surprising when she's under the weather. Not sure she's able to lift her "big booty, big booty, big booty...ah yeah big booty" off her legs but she's working on it (really I'm not sure if she is, she seemed very content in that position). Her arms will give out and she'll face plant and then look at me as if I pushed her.

sick baby

2010-08-04T12:17:00.000-07:00

So Amelia has been sick the last few days. She hasn't been able to keep anything down. I think I took like 5 showers yesterday and quickly turned the bathtub into our feed/ play area. When she was awake (which wasn't often) we would play and I would feed her in the large jacuzzi tub. I put the Bumbo in there and some of her plastic toys. We consulted our favorite website (our pediatrician's in Houston) for some guidance. It has been such a great reference and cured all her health ailments as well as saved us from many co-pays. So I thought I would pass it along. It also is great about placing important health info on their home page. Click under health topics to find an extensive list.

http://www.bluefishmd.com/index.php?s=health_topics

looking really sick

lounging with some reading material

putting her best pitiful face for dad

Our Hippie

2010-07-21T09:35:00.000-07:00

These are a few cute shots from the other morning. Amelias is a true Austinite, look at her in her Tyler's shirt. The search committee that hired Kyle gave this to her (along with so many other really great items in this huge baskets. I felt like a celeb. receive swag...life with Kyle will sometimes do that...you know he was in a band...maybe you've heard of it...Tuesday's Anthem...no, never heard of it???) -one look at that sentence proves my ADD (which reminds me of a funny story, I'll get to that later). Back to cute chica in the tie dye.

she is working hard to balance herself. A few things to note: her eyes are blue and her hair is red! And the folds!! Precious baby fat I love. I keep telling her to stop growing! I want her to stay this age forever! But she already ignores me and is growing well. Matter of fact Kyle started calling her Amelias (plural) a while ago and now I've started doing it. My friend Julie (who is a funny one) said something to the effect of "yeah, because its like there is more than one of her, so she's plural" I about fell out laughing, yep our subcontous must have picked up that.

Okay so this is her starting her "roll." She is rolling to her back and and rolling to her tummy! (PS.ADD.-this is how I will from now on address tangents in my blog, there is the most annoying car alarm going off, one of the reason its so annoying is because I'm hearing it through Amelias baby monitor, she's sleeping. Another reason its annoying is because Kyle just came inside with grease all over him and turns out he's the culprit. He's trying to replace his car battery and some how the way he is going about this task produces the alarm instead...hmm)

Oh I love this face!!! She's bracing for another roll. (PS.ADD-my mechanic's situation is getting worse and my baby is starting to jabber). She has been rolling over for quite sometime but NEVER in my presence. Kyle had seen it many times, when I get her in the morning her rolling abilities are obvious. So this was the first time I'd seen it first hand after almost two weeks after acquiring the skill.

In this picture I think she looks like her cousin Kolter. You can see a lot of Kyle's mom's side in this one. This post has taken me forever to write. About 30 minutes ago my mechanic finally woke up my baby, so we had some cereal and got dressed for the day. (PS.ADD- I got a pedicure and I'm becoming obsessed with the color, OPI Cajun Shrimp).

Hudson Ellis Tomcheck

2010-07-19T14:43:00.000-07:00

I FINALLY got to meet Hudson when we went home for The Fourth! Hudson's dad, Guy has been one of my best friends since 6th grade. When we were in Middle School we would always get each other hats and shirts for each others birthday (we were cool and up on the latest fashions so this consisted of a lot of Stussy, Yaga and Mossimo...before Mossimo became cool again for Target). But the best gift has definitely been Christen, his wife! She is great and my family adores her as much as they do Guy. She was instantly adopted into the family and years ago would keep Syd while my family was out of town. Sydney ended up being their flower girl. It had been years since we had all seen each other. Christen and Hudson came over for dinner and later Guy joined us. We had a blast catching up and playing games, Guy impressively kept my entire family awake till about 1am (minus Amelia Bedelia).These were some of my favorite pics from the night.

Hudson Ellis Tomcheck!
Precious!

He loved Amelia's toys.

Especially Amelia's bow.

Sweet Kisses!

Christen and I with the kiddos
They loved the idea of taking a picture, they were obviously really in to it.

The Ol' Jumparoo

2010-07-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

So a couple of weeks ago my dad put together this jumparoo contraption for Amelia. Needless to say she loves it! She is figuring out how all the toys work and is even beginning to imitate others playing with the toys. So the first video is of Amelia in her jumparoo.

Untitled from Morgan Bender on Vimeo.

This next video is a little more exciting. This is Amelia's friend, Piper who clearly understands the essence of the jumparoo. There is quite a contrast between the girls abilities to "jump." Piper is a riot, Amelia will learn so much from her, the first of which might be to jump. I'm not holding my breath though because it is a skill I have yet to master myself. Matter of fact I often get a lot of grief for my lack of jumping abilities. Maybe if I too had a jumparoo I would have more than the width of a credit card between me and the floor when I jumped.

Piper jumparoo from Morgan Bender on Vimeo.

like a can of biscuits

2010-06-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

Uh, love them rolls!!!! I was laughing with someone earlier this week about how when I take of Mia's diaper all these rolls just fall out and they referenced that it was like popping open a can of biscuits!!! Hilarious, and so right on.

She is so laid back, just lounging. She will also raise up her feet and grab her ankles when I wipe her hiney, so helpful this child.

Helping Jen clean up. Again, so helpful!

Okay before you judge...we couldn't help it. The restaurant had a mustache quarter machine. And this is what came out. And it's good for her self esteem to realize she's still super cute even with a stache. Dont think Hitler, think Tom Selleck. But not from Macgyver but as the cute doctor Monica dated. Was he a dentist or optomologist? I cant remember.

Hopefully we can take some pictures of Amelia swimming and load them up. Not sure how but we haven't documented any of her previous swims. She is still getting used to the whole pool thing, she doesn't hate it but I get the feeling the jury is still out for her. She's on high alert the whole time, checking it out.

Where Are We?

2010-06-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

I've been avoiding this post because there are so many mixed emotions behind them.

We have transitioned from being Houstonians to Austonians...Austinites.... What do you people call yourselves?
It happened so fast, I'm still trying to process it. Long story short Kyle accepted a position at Westlake Hills Prysbeterian Church in Austin. The story of how it all came together is another example of God's amazing love for us as well as his sense of humor.
Got to love that. You know, I'm pretty sure every time we confess an absolute (i.e. I will never live in Houston...almost 6 years later), He writes it down (grinning to himself, going okay, we'll just see). We used to love High School and say that we would do anything except Middle School. And wouldn't you know that is exactly where The Lord has turned our hearts too. Yep, Kyle is the Middle School director and loving it. They are precious. So God, I'm also NOT going to win the lottery!

Where are we in Austin you ask? In a little slice of Heaven called Lost Creek Blvd. in Westlake. We still have yet to sell our house (prayer request). So we were hoping to find a place to crash for a few weeks so that we weren't paying a mortgage and rent (we want to rent till we decide which area to buy in). And a friend of family in the church offered up their home. It just so happened that they are on vacation June and July, so here we are house sitting enjoying the pool/ spa, patio that overlooks the beautiful hill country, our own private balcony, garden, workout room, maid 5 days a week etc... I definitily feel spoiled. It's not all roses though, they are redoing some of the hardwood flooring today which is extremely loud (imagine living on a jet way). But we just relocated to the west wing of the home and now can barely hear them :) he he he.

I will now leave you with a funny story. I laid down with Amelia this afternoon to take a nap. I must have dozed off before her because I woke up to her eating my nose. She had scooted over to me and decided my face looked tasty. She is into putting everything in her mouth including her feet. If I lean over she will grab my face with both her hands and open her mouth as wide as possible trying to fit my entire face inside her mouth. She thinks its really funny.

The view from the backyard. So far I'm loving Austin.

Little Cubs Fan

2010-06-06T11:09:00.000-07:00

Last night Amelia got to stay up a little late and attend her first baseball game! We bent the rules a little since our favorite player James Russell was in town. This season James was pulled up to the Major's and even pitched opening day for the Cubs! We couldn't be prouder of him!! Abby and Shaun got to come with us and it was a perfect way to spend our last night in Houston! We're heading to the afternoon game to hopefully see the lefty pitch!

Is she not the cutest little cubs fan ever!

Amelia watching the game! We've explained that the only time we can root against the Astro's is when the Cubs come to town.

Proud brother Casey roots James on as he walks out.

Casey and gf McCary.

After the game James got to meet Amelia.

James' littlest (but still kinda big) fan! It was so fun to see James pursuing his dream. He said it's been crazy but that he's having the time of his life. Remember when we were little and knew you as Jamie?? Now he's signing autographs (that was my favorite part, watching the kids come up to him, just in awe, so excited to meet him). PS how much does he look like his dad? Apparently he's been getting that a lot lately. I couldn't find any of the great photo from '88 with the mullet but this one is good too.

wait here's one...love it!!

long lost photos from the iphone

2010-06-02T21:27:00.000-07:00

So pitiful

Kyle as where's waldo There's a 9lb baby in there

Amelia's new noises

2010-05-31T14:50:00.000-07:00

Amelia has learned to make raspberries with her lips.

Untitled from Morgan Bender on Vimeo.

4 months

2010-05-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

Amelia is 4 months old now! Crazy, partly because most people assume she is at least 6 months old. I understand the confusion, girlfriend weighs in at 17lbs and measures a lengthy 26.5 inches long. I don't want to brag but the doctor did say she was officially "off the chart." Then showed us the chart. We've decided to go ahead and live the NBA lifestyle now and bank on her supporting us later. We're thinking a couple of Escalades, with shiny rims should do it.

She is the sweetest thing. Very laid back. We know if she's crying that she's hungry or ready for bed. Instead of crying she prefers to yell at us. Its her baby talk but louder with a more demanding tone. The face is the best part. She is enjoying bossing us around before we can really ground her for it.

Like I said before growing is not her problem. She is wearing 6-12 month clothing. 6 month fits her best but onsies and stuff she needs the length of the 12 month. I can tell buying clothes for her will be an ordeal.

She eats 5 times a day 6 ounces. She has some reflux but it hasn't slowed her down. She is a tough little lady. She doesn't cry when she gets immunized. Her face does turn red as it scrunches up. It then will return to color and she usually then glares and grunts at the nurse. I imagine it compares to baby cussing, I'm certain she is deliver a choice word or so. But who wouldn't recover quick with thighs like that.

She is jabbering more and beginning to laugh. Earlier today she laughed when I said the word "foot." In the moment I would say other words and nothing then I'd throw "foot" in there and she would just crack up. Who knows.

She has began kicking up a storm in the the bath tub. I have a video I'll try and post soon. She likes sitting in her Bumbo and playing with crinkly baby paper. Everything is going in the mouth and she is constantly drooling!! Her favorite thing right now is her hands. She is always leaning forward, trying to pull up and eat her hands.

This is the routine:

Here she is with one of her favorite teething toys. It's so cute, it's a crab and the eyes are a squeeky button and the large round thing (supposed to be claws) are rattles. The legs are great teethers.

You can see the drool glistening all over her face!

And then she gets greedy. Wants her hand in there too, of course!

Then the switch to the much preferred hand. Why even bother with the toy. The other day she hit herself in the mouth good with one and oh she was so upset! I think it hurt a bit emotionally :)

All the Single Ladies

2010-05-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

This is a whole bunch of random photos of Ama and her besties over the last few months.

Some of the pictures are cropped to much by the program. So here are some in full view

Sip and See in Colleyville

2010-05-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

Over the Easter weekend Kim Lawler and Melanie Russell hosted a Sip and See shower for Amelia. These two women mean a lot to me, they aren't just my mom's good friends but they have become mine as well. They became surrogate parents to me 20 years ago and they remain close family still. We keep in touch texting, trading recipes and jokes. They crack me up. I look forward to Christmas Eve dinner every year when our families come together and celebrate, they are a party, they are full of life. That is a separate post in itself. All that to say they love Amelia! They have been dubbed as Amelia's fairy godmothers. The shower was at Kim's house over Easter weekend. This was incredibly special because I grew up in Kim's house when it used to be the Bishop's home. Ally and I ran all through there growing up, making up dances, cooking, swimming and having sleep overs. So it was fun to be back in this home. I'm not sure how but Kim, Melanie and my Mom all managed to escape the camera. So here are a few shots of the day.

An evening with the Benders/ Zeringues

2010-05-13T12:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures that Katie sent me from Easter weekend.

There are a few from Amelia's Sip and See in Colleyville. I'll post more from the shower soon.

Amelia update month 3

2010-05-02T14:32:00.001-07:00

Also for those who are reading this waiting for Amelia update its coming soon. I have a ton of pictures to sift through of her and her friends.

Amelia is over 16lbs these days. She is around 25 inches long. Kyle and I like to describe her as WNBA big (which she was first referenced by from Luke Bourlon). She is smiling and has started jabbering. She spent last weekend with Jolene who jabbers all the time. Amelia would just listen intently with amazement at all the sounds her small friend was producing. We all did, its pretty adorable to hear. Amelia came home and all of a sudden began babbling herself. She even gave two hearty laughs the other night. We have no idea why I was just sitting there, she looked at me and started laughing. We got so excited, it startled her and we haven't been able to do anything (we've tried all kinds of ridiculous things) to reproduce it. All in due time. Everyone always notes how alert she is. She is tracking and following voices very well. She loves watching others including Georgie. She is going to be right handed. She uses her right hand to grab and hit the toys above her. She is sitting in her Bumbo and holding her head up well. She loves tummy time and has accidently rolled to her back twice. She can grab both your hands and pull herself up to a sitting position. She then needs your support to maintain it. She is obsessed with her daddy. She loves to smile and talk to him. Her favorite time of the day is when we go for a walk. She loves being in her stroller but not her car seat. Her sleep schedule seems to change weekly. Se was sleeping 9-11 and then till 9-10 am. She now has added another feeding around 6 am. We still cant complain. It is nice that she is putting herself to sleep. We swaddle her up and lay her in the crib, then she's out (with some help from her sleep sheep and mobile). Her eyes are the brightest of blue and her reddish hair gets lighter everyday.

This is from the other night, she kept trying to roll over. She never came close but put forth a lot of effort. She was flailing around.

Happy Birthday Grandma, Grandpa and Milan Olivia!

2010-05-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

I realize that today is May 2nd. Which means it is my grandpa's birthday. Which also means I missed my grandmother's birthday (April 22...ah). I love you guys and cant wait till I can see you guys again. I cant wait till the 4th of July. I have been fortunate to have the most amazing grandparents. They have 3 kids, 13 grand-kids (plus all their spouses) and 7 great-grandchildren (the 7th one arrived April 30th). They are filled with so much love and are constantly pouring into each of us. That's a lot of family to connect with but they do. They put us all first and spoil us each, making sure we know how much we are loved. They have been married for over 55 years. Their love for the Lord and each other has been a source of encouragement for not only us as their family but their church as well. Side note about my grandparents there is pretty much nothing they cant and dont do. They are both the hardest workers I know. They just painted their house (I wish they lived closer because grandpa can build or fix anything and there isn't anything my grandma doesn't know how to create). We love them very much!

I couldn't finish without bragging on my cousin Johnny's arrival of his daughter Milan Olivia Nguyen. She is gorgeous, she could be nothing but because her parents are the most beautiful people ever. She arrived April 30th at 10:20 pm via.... water birth!!!! And that is just one of the reason's Lindsey is so amazing! Kyle always tried to convince me to do a water birth, it would not have worked but it was a nice thought! Milan is 6lbs 11oz. and perfect! I can not wait to get my hands on her. I love that Amelia has a cousin her age! Congrats Johnny and Lindsey, love you guys.

What grade are you in?

2010-05-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

Today at church a woman asked me what grade I was in. I was holding Amelia and not quite tracking with what she meant. She noted my confusion and immediately explained that she works with teen mothers and was wondering if I was getting all the resources and help I need. I replied that I was nearing my 30's and that my husband was the guy on stage. Then I was kicking myself, could I have just scored babysitting, formula and diapers???? Anyways its wonderful to know that programs like hers exist. Its funny to think of me trying to obtain a fake ID to prove I'm in high school when in high school I had a fake ID to prove I wasn't (just to be honest, I never used it).

Today was Senior Sunday at church. It's my favorite Sunday at our church. This is the Sunday that Kyle leads worship with the youth band (they are incredible!!! So much talent in these young kids). Don't be jealous TA but they're pretty good. Different seniors give a sermon each service and its amazing how much wisdom they deliver. Their charges to the congregation are always inspiring. This is also the Sunday that Kyle dresses up. Notice I said "the." He's even been known to wear a tie in years past.

We are going to miss this class. They have come to mean so much to us. Kyle's breakfast club is graduating this year. He has been meeting with them each Thursday morning before school since they were freshman. They started the Bible study when they were in 7th grade with Luke (MS director on the far right). They are neat crew. They have wrapped our house, covered Kyle's car windows entirely with post it notes, thrown his car into neutral while he was driving countless times and many other infractions along the way. We will sleep better at night knowing their away at school ;)

From Left to right:

Travis (ACU, youth ministry), Andre (LSU, architecture), Kyle, Cooper (whose last name is Cooper, which I found out today his first name is Ryan actually it's Matthew Ryan. Everyone has called him Cooper for the last 4 years, we were all shocked to find out his first name was not Cooper. Colorado, business), Josh (UT, Engineering), Luke (MS director), Andrew (Mizzo/ Menorah A&M, running for president 2032).

How GREAT they are

2010-03-31T21:40:00.000-07:00

So this was a month ago but still worthy of posting because they are that special!

Here are pictures of Amelia meeting her great grandparents and other special friends and family.

Sweet kisses from Big Pop!

Whose got ya?

Nona feeding Ama

Getting some love in her sweet hat.

We also got to introduce Amelia to Kyle's grandparents and aunt as well.

Great Granny, Kyle, Amelia and Aunt Patty

Granny holding Amelia after our drive into town.

What a sweet picture

Even Georgie got a little lovin

Amelia also got to meet some very special friends.

She is showing off for Aunt Kay Kay and Uncle P Diddy!

Melanie has her here and I think she's sucking her thumb!!

Momma Mia has a big grin for Carley

Amelia thought her dad was tall. She is getting some air here with Jeff!

The munchkin with the monkey!

Ama meets Lauren for the first time. (Had she been awake at least) She's very comfortable with Uncle Breece, more so than he probably is. It's just like cradling a football right?

Jason is telling her how happy he is to have some one the take to all the pixar movies now that Sydney is "grown up".

Here she is with Haley (so funny I keep wanting to type Uncle Jason and Aunt Haley, basically right?). Amelia's thinking Haley kinda looks like the judge from American Idol. Amelia, I was thinking the same thing! We already read each others minds, so in sync!

Happy Birthday Allyson

2010-03-29T19:56:00.000-07:00

Allyson Elaine Bishop Winslow!!!!

Happy Birthday!!!!

Today is not just Ally's birthday but it's Ally's special birthday! Because today she is 29 on the 29th!!!! I hope your as excited about this as I am! This is it today only when the importance of your birthday is like square rooted or something!

Ally is not just an ordinary friend (not that any of my friends are). She is my oldest friend. How old? This old

V-Day at Camp Longhorn after the second grade.

Ally has been in my life for over 20 years!!! I get extremely sentimental when I talk or think about our friendship. Ally and I became friends through our moms who became good friends. She was warm and easy to get to know. She was kind and sometimes shy. Ally was there when I broke my arm ( I wont go into the story, but she knows its a good one and plus Abby will vomit if she has to hear it one more time), Ally was so brave as we were growing up. I was not. She gave me endless encouragement as I struggled to do many things (jump off the blob: about 5 years of encouragement, water ski: she is an amazing water skier and slalom...I finally got it, there when I chewed my only piece of gum: for her and abby's birthday party, every time I got up to bat or serve.) Ally always had confidence in me and thought the best of me. That is her gift. She sees the best in people and naturally bring it out. She is selfless and always has the interest of others at heart. There isn't a person on this earth she has crossed wrongly. She pours her heart into whatever she does. She has done many amazing things: marathons, nursing school, law school just to name a few amazing things.

I'm really sorry that all of our middle school pictures were too blurry to post. There were some good ones!

The thing that I love about our friendship the most is that the Lord has always been at the center. Ally fell in love with Christ I'm certain at birth. The baby next to her in the nursery is certain to be in Heaven as anyone else who has stood beside her. She always knew the love of Christ and relished in it. Ally reminds me of the St. Francis Assisi quote; "Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words." At an early age the Lord used Ally in my life. She invited me to vacation bible school and it was there that I knew and understood for the first time who Christ was how he died for me. My life was never the same. She has prayed for me countless times and I for her. I know many probably has a similar story of how the way Ally cares for them or lives her life pointed them to Christ. She has always been my lighthouse.

And Ally is really funny. We have had some of the best times goofing around. None seem to make since now in hindsight. But the vague sense of high pitch chipmunk squeaks seem to ring a bell.

Happy Birthday Julie Anna

2010-03-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Julie Anna

I love to sit here and wonder how JA is spending her birthday. Is she sailing on the Kobi Cat, helping her husband build a trailer, working as the new CEO of Text Pal, Student teaching or pouring into Young Life. One thing we love about Julie Anna is how well she lives life. She is always up for an adventure. I've never seen her face without a smile on it. She is on the go, taking on many different roles and executing them with grace. She allows the Lord to love her well, pressing into him, so that she may in turn love others from the same vein.

This was Julie Anna on her birthday 2 years ago. Ryan surprised her by not only proposing but having a party waiting to celebrate every occasion.

on a side note I'm getting my hair cut on Saturday and I was thinking of bringing back the bangs. Not after seeing this picture, I remember now why I always grow them out, stapling them to my head with a dozen bobby pins waiting till I can tuck them behind my ear. And yet without fail every 18 mo. or so I do it again, as though I never learned. Not this time bangs!

We love you J. Anna

The Man, The Myth, The Legend

2010-03-20T08:32:00.000-07:00

Today is Kyle's 29th Birthday!!

We have had so much fun celebrating the life of Kyle today. I braved the world today and we took Amelia to Discovery Green (a park). Hammett and his kite joined us to make the day very comical at least. Hammett and Kyle looked fabulous flying their rainbow colored kite together. This is no ordinary kite (meaning not in the shape of a diamond) it flies so fast. I almost injured 3 small children (it lands with a purpose and a loud thud). The day was full of laughter (most stories my husband wont let me post but at one point the foam cooler lid flew off and stuck to a large rear end of a shocked African American woman. Her reaction can not be posted but her husband had to peel it off and hand it to Kyle). Even the city got in on the action and gave Kyle a wonderful gift by way of a parking ticket.

(this was written on yesterday obviously, but I just didn't have the time to stop and post)

If you know me then hopefully you know my better half. And you know the statement is true he is truly my better half. Kyle simply makes the world better. Everything he does seems to be full of intention and grace. Kyle is a rare find, his antics and humor bring us just as much joy as the wisdom and insight he always seems to provide. Your love of knowledge and truth is to be admired. Your relationship with Christ bleeds over effortlessly into the lives of others bringing glory to God and comfort as well as challenges to those around you.

Kyle loves well. I should know because I have never had a day in our marriage where I have had to question this. It can be seen clearly through our conversations, his encouragement of my dreams, and the way he leads us confidently towards a life that is full. You are my best friend and the funniest person I know (even funnier than myself, because I think I am really funny). I always feel safe and secure within your leadership. I am so thankful Amelia has a father like you. I love the way she turns towards your voice and smiles. I also love the effort you put into getting another smile for a good 5 minutes afterwards. She has your affection and will always know how deeply she is loved by you and our Savior. We thank-you for making our lives fun and thinking outside the box! You dream big and I have no doubt you will achieve all you desire.

I know Kyle loves to hate when I "put his business in the street" but I cant help but share all the wonderful things about Kyle. Kyle cares genuinely for his friends and family, if he says he's praying for you, he is and he is fighting on your behalf. So here is to Kyle embarking on his last year in the 20's. (Kyle says the thirties are the new twenties anyways).

so handsome

did I mention he is a sick bassist in a sweet band, and yes that is Lyle Lovett in the background.

This is a man who knows he's in for it, he's already comparing prices on ponies.

She takes care of him too. Here she is putting him to sleep.

Kyle always takes care of things, working without complaint. He fixed a flat tire on this car 4 times in a span of a month. Twice in one trip. PS thanks Kyle for doing our taxes, could you imagine me trying to do that..."um, lets just round here and call it a day."

Did I mention he's a party? I mean who else will dress as Waldo and go around hiding in public? The best Halloween ever!

Happy Birthday to you!!!!

Side note: Here's a picture of Amelia at the park in her new dress from Julie Anna and Mrs. Hammett. She almost looks little here, but dont be deceived she still big)

March 18th

2010-03-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

The March 18th what a great day! It's the day after St. Patty's and the day before Kyle's birthday. This day has always been special because its Abby's birthday. I have loved getting to celebrate this special day for the last 17 years (that will make you feel old). Who can forget all the meals and the infamous AB birthday party celebration. Krystal, didn't you dress up as The Beast and didn't Bethany Williams paint herself blue? Ah what commitment to the day.

Happy Birthday Abby!!!! I hope that you have a day as wonderful as you are.

All pictures will sadly be blurry because I was too lazy to scan them and just took pictures of them with the i phone.

high school...chubby cheeks.

Our sophomore year of college (I think). When I decided to transfer Abby came to Abilene to help me move out. She also took me to my first "party" at A&M. Who knew that it was at my future husband's home.

road trip to New Orleans.

This was such a special weekend when Abby got married!!!! I was honored to stand beside you and have you next to me.

Love you!!!

Guess who else is unlucky

2010-03-17T11:17:00.000-07:00

When Luke and Courtney were driving Kyle around helping him set up for his proposal to me they asked him and important question. From what I understand the conversation went something like this...

Bourlons: "Bender, you know you are marrying Morgan Johnson, she has the worst luck ever. Your done for."

Kyle: "I know, I'm screwed"

You see everything always worked out for Kyle with ease. He skated through life doors opening as he went. Then we got married and sure enough it happened as they predicted. Almost 5 years later today and Kyle is sitting at his desk this morning with staph!

Like my friend Allison suggested he needs a 4 leaf clover.

I am home recovering. I went home in dramatic fashion of course. The IVs I was receiving were very strong and shredding my veins so they would switch arms daily when it got red and swollen. Well my last nurse blew 3 IV's the last she was certain was in. I begged the difference and asked to see the charge nurse (I found a new assertiveness). She assured me that the IV was fine. 30 minutes later my right arm had doubled in size and broken out in a rash. When they informed me they would have to try another vein I informed them I was refusing treatment till I saw my doctor. LUCKILY... my biopsy had just returned and I was free to go. So today I sit with my poor arms all bruised up but feeling very lucky to be home recovering with my family.

Diagnosis: "You're just really unlucky"

2010-03-15T08:56:00.000-07:00

I've heard that a lot lately. Not really the answer you want from your doctor, but it's what I've been given by two different ones now. Nor did I really need a doctor to tell me that I was unlucky. After 28 years I am well aware that there is no four leaf clover in my back pocket.

What is it this time you say? Well lets just say that I am writing this post from my new home room 524 at Memorial Hermann Hospital. How did I get here? Let me take you back a few weeks to me getting Mastitis (common breast infection) in both breasts. The remedy to solve most of these is hot compresses, massaging the area and to continue feeding. Not so much for mine. By last Monday I had to go in and get an antibiotic because I was in so much pain. I mean crying pain. The week went on and it got worse. When I would feed or pump the pain elevated me to sobbing and I'm sad to say at times violently cursing. I was in a dark place. Recovering from the C section was nothing compared to this.

Friday I reached the end. Amelia had an ultrasound appt. in the med center at TCH (texas children's hospital) so we went early so I could pop in my OB's office across the street and get some stronger meds (so I thought). Kyle dropped me off and took Amelia to her appt. My Dr. took one look, her jaw dropped and she said I would have to be admitted into the hospital. She explained that I had an abcess and staph in the right breast. I asked how this happened and she said it was extremely rare, that I was just "unlucky."

From there it was chaos, I had to run over to TCH, feed Amelia (with the good one, while I could), realize that we weren't leaving and had no food for Amelia. We called Nichole to go to our house defrost milk, and bring us some bottles. I was scheduled for an invasive surgery because the people who did the procedure I needed were off on Friday's. I went to the Breast Cancer Center and had an ultrasound. This was excruciating but being there really put things in perspective, the women I was around were strong and dealing with more demons than I. I knew my situation ( I hope) was temporary.

We finally got good news in that my doc (she's amazing). Got someone to come over to do the procedure, so I would not have to have an invasive surgery where I would be put under but a more minor procedure, where I would be awake. Then we got delayed by insurance...naturally. **Remember I'm
"unlucky"** Kyle's church just switched insurances and we didn't have a cards yet. I wasn't able to go for the procedure till 6 pm. This all started at 9 am! I was in so much pain by then and it only got worse. The procedure was quick (8 minutes or so) but pure misery. They punctured a hole, extracted what they could and put in a tube to drain the rest.

Kyle and I thought we would be home in the morning but we are still here. Hopefully I can go home today. We are waiting for the biopsy to return.

Kyle and Mia in our new home. The hardest part of this has been being advised to stop breastfeeding. Amelia had to start taking formula yesterday and it broke my heart. I know its not a big deal but to know longer be able to feed her breast milk makes me sad. I hated the process but loved being able to feed her in that way. Its hard for me to explain really. She has done really well with formula, but I still look at it as the enemy because it replaced me and I did not have the chance to choose formula, but many dont so I'm trying to move on (it really sounds like it huh :)

They feed people this? In a hospital (this is definitely not the labor and delivery wing I was used to with the amazing catered food). The turkey and "summer vegetables" were rubber. The jello looking thing is a cranberry concoction. I was fortunate to have some great food brought in (thanks Ryan and Krystal). Luke ordered us pizza one night and even surprised Kyle with 6 pack of St. Arnold's. I think Court has a picture of them holding the girls, eating pizza, drinking beer and watching the game. You'd never know we were in the hospital. We had no plates so we found some sterile bed pans. Hey you make do. Here is Luke and I eating salad.

The Bourlon's came down and the girls finally got to meet! Joley is sitting in Mia's bouncy seat. Notice that Joley's arms are inside what usually goes around Mia's waist. We weighed them and Joley is now the size Mia was when she was born. Amelia is 13 lbs now, Joley 9.

Having the Bourlon's here was a blessing. It helped take my mind off everything. It was good to have good friends around while dealing with the chaos. I was thrilled to finally meet Jolene!!! I just didn't think these would be the circumstances. She is precious. Absolutely adorable. I loved hearing her little noises and seeing all the faces she makes. It was so much fun having the babies, I miss them both so much. Both girls were so good! They are both such great babies. They just hung out and the best was the few times they did fuss, it sounded like they were just protesting back and forth together. I'm sure we'll get more of that as they get older.

They are the best of friends. Mia's giving her a kiss! Or Joley is head butting her, either way...best of friends.

Ryan, Krystal and August stopped by yesterday and brought us some edible food. August spent most of the time flirting with all the nurses. Here he's being rocked to sleep.

Speaking of friends. Thank-you for all your encouraging texts, calls and visitors. Many didn't know I was in the hospital and I'm sorry for not calling and telling but I just feel a little silly. Plus I didn't think I would be here for so long. Anyways I really have appreciated your encouragement.

P.S. Mia was cleared by the doctor and did not contract Staph (huge sigh of relief). All this has seemed daunting but I just have to pause and I think of a few people I know right now battling far worse. They are so brave!

Oh Happy Day

2010-03-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

I have some time on my hands right now (more about that later) so I thought I would update the blog with the cutest pictures ever! Some of you have already seen these on Kyle's facebook but for those who have not here ya go. These pictures are from last Monday. She woke up smiling and cooing from her nap. She had a lot of fun on her activity mat looking and even grabbing at a rattle.

First real intentional smile (captured on camera).

My favorite moment ever, this is when she started squeal/ laugh.

Now my real serious face.

Smiles and more cute faces

2010-03-09T08:55:00.000-08:00

Amelia has been doing lots of smiling. Most of it is still reflexive but we've had a few intentional ones here and there. This one is while she is drifting off to sleep. Its amazing how her smile melts us.

This picture is not a smile but her expression is equally adorable. She is a little surly about the outfit "Grammy Grace" has put her in. "Grace" is what we've been calling my mom as of late. She has never been a graceful one (remember the coming home video when she runs into the fence???). She was here last week and she always seemed to be dropping things, running into stuff etc... So we got in the habit of calling her "Grace." Who knows if it'll stick, but its the name at the moment.

This last face is her "what you talk'n 'bout Willis?" face.

Birthday Wishes

2010-03-09T08:34:00.000-08:00

This was awhile ago but its too cute to not post.

I think she really looks like Kyle in this picture.

Birthday Wishes for Grandad!

A weekend of Uncle Bone, Julia Anna and Tia/ Gigi Lanie Lu

2010-02-25T17:05:00.000-08:00

A few weekends ago The Hammett's, (Uncle Bone) and Julia Anna came to visit. Amelia loved spending time with them both. How cute is Julia Anna!

Not only did they treat us to Mexican food but Hammett also gave us a wonderful lesson in the proper way, "the only way" to fold a t shirt. Julia Anna (who apparently does not have superior folding skills, she is not allowed to fold Hammett's t-shirts) snapped some photos of our session. I was awarded "most improved" and Kyle got the "Heart and Hustle" award!

The key is to use a magazine as a base to fold around.

We learn the error of our ways...a crease down the front! Kyle reports that all his t-shirts (98% of his wardrobe) are from Northgate Vintage and therefore have no crease because they are so old and worn.

and then came Sunday and with it Tia Lanie Lulu. We got to meet Dave (who I called Nate, he said I could continue to call him Nate. Yes, he is that cool).

"I hear you have some cute nephews???"

When Lanie came I was asleep on the couch, I thought she was by herself so naturally I did not bother to clean. Dave was such a great surprise and now we're way past the shower or get out of my pj's stage! Next visit we might side/front hug or let Amelia spit up on you, we'll see what comes naturally. Either way we cant wait to see you guys again!

okay here are a few random pics, that are too cute to keep to myself.

I just happen to catch her sockin it to her papa!

"This is my 3rd bath today! Later my mom would learn that I am sick with a tummy bug and she will endure one more vomit shower and I will get one more bath. I love bath time, so really that's my motive here."

Uncle Breece made sure she would be cool by giving her some great Hurley gear.

Later Skater

One Month

2010-02-21T17:53:00.000-08:00

Happy One Month Amelia

Last Thursday (the 18th)

We celebrated One Month. What a month. Kyle and I have loved getting to know our precious little girl. Some of the things we've learned about her and ourselves are as follows:

A little about Amelia: She has a host of nicknames. We mainly call her Amelia but you can also hear us calling her:

Mia

Ama

Monkey

Chunky Monkey

Momma Mia

Punkin

Button

Grandma

Amelia is a pure joy. Kyle and I feel very fortunate to have such an easy baby our first time around. She came to us weighing 9lbs and measuring 21 inches. She has since then grown to be 22 inches long and now tips the scale at 11.4 oz. Having such a healthy girl has made adjusting to a new schedule easier. She eats and sleeps wonderfully. She makes the cutest noises when she sleeps, purring, high pitch squeals and grunts. And she's got so many faces! My favorite is the one we call "Blue Steel" we have yet to be able to capture it on film but we're trying.

Things Amelia loves: Us obviously, baths (she doesn't cry, we assume this only means she loves them), being swaddled, light, Georgie kisses, her boppy, eating, bright colors that move, the noise "shhhhhhh" and a moving car.

Some things I learned: I've learned how to clean upholstery, to swaddle, to do many many things with 1 hand, make diaper wipes, the fine line of too much bouncing after a feeding, to not lay her down and change her diaper after a feeding, decipher between the "I'm hungry" cry and the "I'm really sleepy cry." Who knew we could love something so much. She has taught us patience and shown us an incomparable joy. The Lord truly gives the best gifts and Amelia is just that. I love our moments in the morning. Sometimes I read to her, introduce her to our favorite music (this sometimes includes making her baby dance with her arms: She loves The Beatles, The Boss and David Crowder) tell her how much we love her and how God loves her even more. We adore every inch (and every chin) of her!

Things Amelia does not like: getting dressed and when we have to put medicine on her face or bum.

Some of you have gotten to meet Amelia and know how laid back and sweet she is. She cant wait to meet the rest of you, hopefully soon. Here are a few of the outakes from our 1 mo. photo shoot (over a few days and outfits).

all 22 inches

What do you mean this t-shirt's too tight!

This photo needs a caption...any suggestions?

Not in the mood for photos

And one from Georgie

We made it!

2010-02-21T12:16:00.000-08:00

Kyle left Saturday morning for a retreat and Amelia and I were left to fend for ourselves. I could tell that this situation concerned Amelia a bit so we called for back up! Abby came to our rescue (Nichole was detained by another round of a sinus infection)! Abby put together Ama's activity floor mat and we gave that a whirl.

Abby and Amelia

What are these things?

Stimulated

A little over stimulated

I also introduced her swing to her a bit ago and she loves it. I'm introducing her to an old favorite band Eisley...and she's out.

Abby thanks for the company and help!

Life is good with Gramma

2010-02-19T20:40:00.000-08:00

Fans of Amelia so sorry for the delay in pictures! It has been a crazy week and we can barely keep our eyes open! Here are a few pictures from a few weeks ago. Pam came in town and got to spend a week with us. There are so many more to post but that'll be another day.

(I need to upload her 1 month pictures!)

Quick Update: This last week kicked my butt! We celebrated our first sick trip to the pediatrician. Girlfriend proved that she is truly our child by acquiring her first respiratory infection and tummy bug, she's a Bender. So much for staying healthy inside the compound, "darned if you do...darned if you don't." We are recovering. Mia had more baths on Wednesday than she has had in the previous month. I have washed every towel in the house at least twice... you can never have too many towels I realize. Spit up can double as effective hair gel as well.

But no worries she is not losing any weight, girlfriend tipped the scales at 11 lbs and 4 oz. So all that to say my sweet, laid back, good sleeping baby has been an angry raisin whose sleep is anything but predictable. We feel very fortunate that this is a phase and not a way of life.

Now to Gramma. This is one of my favorite photos of Gramma and Amelia because she has a perfect lil grin. You can tell she loved having Gramma visit and cant wait for her to come back. I know Kyle and I sure miss having her around. We dont seem to be averaging near the same hours of sleep and the house isn't quite carrying that freshly clean smell.

We aren't eating as well either - mama's meatloaf, chicken vicent, peanut butter blossoms, so good. Kyle and I also go on our first post-baby date. It was sooo nice to get out of the house and my pajama pants.

The week went by way to fast with Kyle going back to work and us getting a night out, Gramma's visit flew by. That just means she is going to have to come back and spend another week with the three of us. Pam having you around for the week was a dream, thank-you so much for spoiling us with wonderful meals and extra hours of sleep we miss you tons.

Sweet Amelia on Gramma's shoulder.

3 generations!

Amelia and August

2010-02-14T16:59:00.000-08:00

Ryan and Krystal came over for the Super Bowl and Amelia finally was able to meet August! He is 5 months her senior and being the older wiser one of the two he had lots to teach her. Here are some of my favorite picks from the night.

We took about 50 photos but this was as good as it got. I love this picture because you can see the red in her hair. Yep folks her hair is getting lighter and a little redder, its sooo cute! We were Skyping with my grandparents the other day and the first thing my grandmother said was "what color is her hair?" I said well its a little darker on top, lighter on the sides..." and she said well it looks red. I need to find some old photos of Breece when he was born, his hair was red for the first year and half of his life before turning blonde. So who knows she could be a strawberry blonde :)

"Hey girl, check out my sweet abs!" He is clearly rooting for the Saints, channeling the culture.

Date Night, Valentine's Day: the movie

2010-02-12T18:10:00.000-08:00

Kyle and I went to see Valentine's Day. There were so many story lines I feel dizzy. Overall I give it a C+. There were some really great parts but because there were so many moving parts there was a lot of "blah, blah, blah" in between the really cute ones. They could have cut Topher and Anne H. storyline and the "Taylors." But some really cute, well written funny parts, nothing too memorable to mention (only b/c I cant remember). Okay I know you dont come to this blog to hear my Siskel and Ebert. Giving you what you want..... Amelia new to this world has lots of questions.

Where am I going dressed like this??

You said my hair is what color???

You call this a hat?

mom, your comments aren't that funny...stop, you're embarrassing me

A little spotlight for Georgie

2010-02-12T17:34:00.000-08:00

This post is for Ryan Ewing who was a little nervous about Georgie's lot in the family since Ama has arrived. Ranger, anytime you and Megan would like to come and give her some extra attention feel free :) Amelia would love to meet you all too.
So Georgie girl is a wonderful big sis but like all siblings gets a little jealous at times of the new kid on the block. She has tried to wiggle between the baby and I a few times, which has been proven hard to do because this is usually when I'm feeding (or she's feeding, not sure which is correct). Not sure if she's jealous or hungry herself and a little put off thinking that I've been hiding food under my shirt all this time! So I'm attaching some of the more recent pictures of Georgie and a video of her "getting the mail." For those of you who have not met Georgie, she's full of personality. Julie Anna Hammett said it best once when she said of Georgie "it's like she's human, if she began to talking right now it would not seem weird."

When we explained a baby was coming!

her sight concern that a baby was coming.

She too is a Harry Potter fan. She thought the series wrapped up nicely and cant wait for the movies!

Oddly one of her favorite toys are the rubber sleeves over mechanical pencils. She could play with them all day. Once Nichole was dog sitting and kept taking them away from her (for fear that she would choke, obviously, makes sense) and she kept whining at her. We forgot to explain.
I have saved the best for last!!!

Georgie Gets the Mail from Morgan Bender on Vimeo.

Pictures I've been meaning to post

2010-02-02T16:53:00.000-08:00

Georgie is wonderful with Amelia. When Amelia takes a nap Georgie will usually find a spot near by to do the same. She is the first to come and get me when Amelia begins to stir and fuss. She often then rears on her hind legs and tries to peak over.

This picture and the next are from Amelia's first bath.

One of her favorite spots to take a nap.

My mom spent all of last week with us helping out with Amelia and around the house. This is Amelia sleeping through the vacuum! Thanks mom for everything! Today was my first day all by myself with Amelia. Whew... anytime you would like to come back I'm ready :) It went really smoothly. I just keep imagining Amelia looking at me and questioning my credentials.... "who said you were ready to fly solo?"

Nana and Amelia celebrating my mom's birthday. Amelia's not much for cake...yet.

Amelia finally was able to meet her Aunt Sydney. Who knew this meeting would involve so many costume changes. I will have to post pictures later of the photos shoot Amelia persevered through. Syd did not feel that her wardrobe was "cool" enough. She plans to remedy that.

This is one of those unscheduled baths because I just upchucked all over my mom, picture. Thank you Nana for cleaning me up.

This is my favorite pictures. Sydney earning her stripes. Sydney is the same age I was, when she was born. It all comes full circle. "Front to back, Munchkin, front to back." :)

Nana admiring Amelia

This is right before they had to leave and began fighting over who got to hold her last. It was a struggle. I dont remember who won, just happy the baby wasn't dropped :)

Amelia, are part of a crazy crew. Notice the wreath my mom put together to go over Amelia's crib. We think it is beautiful!

Since it was a given that my mom or Syd would not wake until noon, my dad enjoyed the mornings with Amelia.

"Grandpa" had his work cut out for him balancing his two little girls (Amelia and Little Bit). Making sure neither got jealous.

About to head to the pediatrician. This is when Kyle refers to Ama as an "angry raisin."

Little Miss Pukes A Lot

2010-02-01T15:04:00.000-08:00

So there are so many things that I could update you guys on. The past two weeks have been full of so many unique experiences and emotions. I am learning so much, for instance there are what I call "sneaky stretchmarks." These can be defined as the stretch marks one acquires underneath the belly (hidden from the normal eye). They are misleading, they can make one believe they have escaped this feared part of pregnancy due to superior genes. So now that my tummy is disappearing I discovered a beautiful set of matching strechmarks! I feel like a victim :)

But the the title story is of Amelia's talent to unload everything I put in her belly back onto me with style and grace. Three times now after feeding she has looked up at me with the most endearing eyes and projectile vomited (with impressive range) ALL over me and anything within a surrounding area. The first time she was sitting in her boppy in front of me. I was just talking to her, admiring this precious gift from God and then...BLAW, BLAW, BLAW, BLAW. All over herself, the freshly changed sheets, and me (take note I was at least two feet from her mouth) The second time (my personal favorite), I'm holding her and 5 times she launched her assault all over, again me and a new victim Georgie. Georgie was COVERED and quickly jumped into action to help the situation by cleaning up the mess on the floor. The third time came later that evening and by the second launching I had made it to the shower. Now people, I'm not talking spit up, we're talking pints here.

Now no need to pity her, she does all this calmly without a hence of pain or discomfort. Even covered in her own vomit she looks peaceful and perfect. After much research we learned this is due to her "overeating" in a single sitting. Which only further proves two things, she is truly an American and my child. I'm sorry I have no photos to document the occasion, I'm just now that together yet.

Our Genius

2010-01-24T20:32:00.000-08:00

Sun, 24 Jan #2 from Morgan Bender on Vimeo.

I was telling Kyle about the pediatrician (I think Brazelton) who was proving newborns ability to learn by teaching them with minutes to imitate sticking out their tongue. Kyle doubted me and so here is the video of his experiment. I love that not only was I right but I also get to display Kyle's baby voice! Two victories within one!

Amelia Comes Home

2010-01-22T16:36:00.000-08:00

Amelia Comes Home from Morgan Bender on Vimeo.

Amelia

2010-01-19T22:14:00.000-08:00

We have had the best time getting to know her. She has been such a great baby. And we are loving every minute! Here are some pictures of the first 24 hours of Amelia.

She is so strong, she picks her head up and looks all around, mainly looking for lunch. She is very alert.

Her hair is very light on top but dark in the back.

Hi dad!

exhausted...both of us

big healthy girl. 21 inches long

Fun times with Grandma and Pa Pa Bender, and Aunt Katie and Uncle Derek.

Hi Grandpa, I heard I was almost name Roberta Pauline

Uncle Breece

Hey, you're August's mom!

Amelia and some Gigi's

Kyle getting a little help from Grandma who has yet to pick out a name :)

Kyle was only expecting 1 dirty diaper the first day and was in much disbelief when his daughter kept needing to be changed "What...no there is only suppose to be 1." He is becoming a pro and is taking to timing himself.

This picture just cracks me up with her hands raised. "wasn't me"

We have a few more pictures from Aunt Katie's camera of the MDPC crew that we will be posting later. But thank-you everyone for your well wishes, prayers and love. We cant wait for you guys to meet her, she's so much fun.