Olive's 1st Birthday

We were in Utah for Olive's 1st birthday. Due to the fact that she came the day after Christmas, Oh, and the fact that I was a bad, lazy, lazy mom we didn't give her the proper celebration! This called for a serious party to make up for the lack of. We celebrated with a few of our friends here in Yakima. We ate Swig Sugar Cookies, Italian sodas, Birthday Cake Popcorn, and Olive ate a cake, well more like played in a cake. Bytheway making cakes is super overrated and extremely hard. Like I would rather run a mile over make a cake like that again and that's saying a lot. I loathe running. I think I will vow to buy cakes from here on out. The cake was cute but was it worth 3 meltdowns over? ...possibly.

I'm supposed to write a post about how wonderful Olive is and how glad we are that she is apart of our family. But truth is i'm having a hard time wanting to talk good about her when all she has done is cry at my feet for 3 days. I'm so over this thing called teething. Who knew my sweet angel Olive would turn into a spawn of Satan. The whole day I spent making food and getting Olive's party ready while she screamed, if only she understood that I was ignoring her, FOR her!

She's a pretty big show off!

Despite the hardships and near insanity of teething I love my sweet, playful, brave, crazy, fun loving, friendly little diva. People are constantly saying to me how happy and friendly she is, that's what sticks out in her most. Example: We went to story time at the library and within 3 minutes of arriving she was already sitting in the story lady's lap. Didn't even have to warm up. I smell a possible kidnapping in later years...kidding. She is so smart. She knows her body parts and has started communicating so much the last month. She shakes her head yes and no for things she wants. Our lives are a lot easier when she can show me, and shake her head at me so I know what she wants! She recently has an obsession with kissing me. She thinks it's really funny and she literally kisses me 15 times over and over all over my face. Dance Parties: I made a resolution to dance more, not really good dancing but just crazy dancing with Olive randomly in the day. Olive has joined in. She stomps her feet and lifts her arms and giggles. It's the best. I can't believe how much she has changed my life. I'm so grateful for Miss Olive. She truly does bring me so much happiness, I didn't know it was possible to love a little human so much. The weird thing is my love keeps growing like a weed field, but love is a lot healthier for you than weed. Anyways, Glen was the hero on Monday because he brought home Olive the best present....dun dun dun A SLIDE! Here's some awesome pictures of our celebration.

 Olive checking her cake out!

Dad helps her blow out the candle and she digs in!

She resulted to rubbing it on her belly. Didn't take any bites, just bathed in it.

 Our cute friend Leah

 Our adorable friend Miss Roxy.

 Olive is super excited about the slide Dad brought home. Way to go DAD!

 More of our amazing friends, McKenna and Natalie.

Mom trying to help Olive open presents.

 most everyone!

 The After Party.

 She couldn't get enough of the slide.

 1 going on 13.

 Her dad tortures her. However he brings home slides so we still like him :)

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY OLIVE! WE LOVE YOU! XOXO

Holiday Highlights Part l

Thanksgiving:

•   Bennions fly from Pasco to SLC. Mom is glad that Dad is joining this time for Olives 2nd flying experience. Olive is exhausted on the plane. Cries and becomes delusional but also very snuggly. 

• Land in SLC. Grandparents hug and love Olive, they forget about their child who yielded Olive. We eat at an amazing restaurant Cous Cous or something like that. 
• Pie Night at the Harlan's Wednesday night. Olive attacks other small children, continues to be a show off but we take pictures about it so it's ok.

Glen & Douger

Grandpa Neal and Olive

Aunt Barb & Olive

 Doesn't Olive look like she just got done beating someone up?

• Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Thursday is a gathering at a church in Lehi for a large Thanksgiving dinner with the Allen's for the first day of a reunion. 100 lbs of sweet potatoes are ingested...practically by one person who shall not be named (shifty eyes). Olive plays with cousins and meets her Great Grandma and Grandpa Allen for the first time. Olives Grandma Nae makes psychotic faces at the camera. :)

  

• 2nd day of the Allen Reunion. Gather for a large family picture. The chaos is absolutely beautiful! Trying to get 1 child to smile nicely is hard let alone 30+! We enjoyed a day full of dancing, eating, watching family videos and catching up with cousins which has been long overdue. Grateful for a beautiful reunion!
• Olive wears cute boots and a fur vest. She's a true diva.

• Fly back to Pasco from SLC. Hailey heads back to Kennewick to babysit cousins for 4 days! Olive parties daily with her new friends! Glen joined us and brought the real party!
• Watch Christmas movies and watch the Light Boat Parade in weather no one should endure. 
• Rode the Carousel of Dreams or something or other... I remember it was an inspirational name. It was really truly inspirational and a blast! It even had the tokens you could try and grab while going around.
• WE LOVE THE GOURLEYS!

 Watching Home Alone in the car!

 It was CHILLY!

Totally worth it!

Christmas Card 2K14

For those of you who didn't receive our Christmas card, don't feel bad. We are poor so we can't send one out to everyone and their dog.

Happy Holidays!

Another year is gone along with another ½ inch of hair from Glen’s receding hairline. This year has been the epitome of change for The Bennions. Our little diva joined us December 26^th 2013 & since our lives have been a big carnival ride, stressful with the occasional throw up (we hate you returning stomach flu x4). Three days after Olive Rose Bennion was born we moved in with the Harlan’s. So much good food & sleep happened there.

Glen applied to Medical School this past year. He also received a few ulcers in the process. He received an interview & later an acceptance call to Pacific Northwest University. My favorite part of the story is when he received his acceptance call to Med School he was sitting on the toilet…true story ladies & gentlemen. When we found out we jumped up and down with joy, and cried. Glen had worked so hard. We sacrificed a lot of time & money and we were/still are so excited to be where we are at. We feel extremely blessed to have been accepted. We packed a trailer full of clothes, infinite amounts, & a few other things and headed for Yakima (gazoon-tight) Washington. We have had a busy and fulfilling six months here in Washington.

GLEN is the smarty-pants of our house! If he’s not talking about school then, well, he’s not talking, he’s studying. I once heard a quote “Medical School is easy, It’s like riding a bike. Except the bike is on fire and you are on fire and everything is on fire and you are in Hell!” Although this is one of the hardest things Glen has done I see his passion for medicine growing. His love for learning has deepened. He also loves “practicing medicine”. However, the last time he practiced the chiropractic part on me I got the wind knocked out of me and almost puked. But I think he will make an awesome physician J. In his free time, which is a rare commodity, he enjoys playing with Olive, eating good food (who doesn’t!), watching fail videos, playing videogames, and indulging in electronics and good style. I have to brag that he has done exceptionally well in his classes and has hopes of possibly honoring in a few. That’s impressive!

Hailey (ME) I have had a busy year trying to catch up with Olive. Recovering from childbirth is no joke and not for the weak of heart. I’ve stayed busy this year and between Olive, church, friends, book club, occasional housewife duties & shopping, I somehow fill the time. Notice there is NEVER time for making dinner. I’m looking forward to starting a Nursing Program this fall. Hopefully I will be able to keep up with Glen as he often speaks medical jargon. This year I enjoyed being a Cub Scout leader, diaper changer, cookie baker, bed maker, poop cleaner-upper, dessert eater, occasional exerciser, professional grocery shopper and Gilmore Girls watcher. Always remember, STRESSED spelled backwards is DESSERTS and this is not a coincidence.    

Olive Rose is a busy little bee. If she’s not terrorizing my clean house she’s sliding up and down the stairs, climbing in boxes, cupboards, chairs, you name it! She recently excelled in pooping in the tub, scratching her loved ones, climbing on top of our living room furniture, dancing on the table, and yanking glasses off faces…she’s a charmer. She calls everybody “DADA” (You’re not so cool anymore Glen!) and has a few words down like “UP UP”, “BA” (bath) & she even head nods when she sees something she wants to eat. I think she should be considered a genius by now. She loves to cuddle up on her parents lap and read a book. She wins us over by her constant giggles, snuggles and her kiss blowing (It’s quite adorable, sound effects and all). Olive experienced Disneyland for the first time this summer. Her parents especially loved the “Infant fast pass”! She also experienced her first camping trip this summer with her mom at MOM CAMP (17 moms 40+ kids), no men allowed. She enjoyed her views from the pack-n-play, and she loved hiking in a backpack. However, her moms back did not enjoy the hiking as much as she did. We are blessed with a beautiful, funny, energetic, and healthy little girl. We couldn’t be more grateful for the joy & laughter Olive brings to us!

We are truly grateful for our friends & family this Christmas season, and above all we are grateful that Jesus Christ is the real reason to celebrate. Much love and well wishes.

Love Always, Glen, Hailey & Olive.

Adult Advice

There are a few things I have learned in my few short years of adulthood and I just want to share them. I'm no God, I don't know everything and i'm far from perfect but there are things that help me stay happier.

1) Going the extra mile will probably give you blisters and make you sore the next morning. Sometimes it's okay to call it quits. Like today, it was Monday. By noon thirty today Olive had already pulled out every pot, pan, cookie sheet, bowl and anything else you can think of out of my kitchen drawers. She had exhausted every toy she had, she was sick of her string cheese (which she worships) and is teething (I think/am praying that this madness has an end) Instead of coming up with something creative or bundling up to go play outside I went into survival mode. I stopped trying to clean up after her, decided that we were having frozen dinners from Costco and that I would crack open a Pepsi even though I usually only treat myself on Weekends. Going the extra mile is only for certain days, like Friday.

2) Over the counter medications work. Certain people are always saying that we take too many medications, that it's all in our head...yada yada yada. Well I'm here to tell you that if you have a headache just take the dang pill. Why do we try to fend off a headache all day when the first 15 minutes of our day we can cure it? They work, take the pill.

3) Fake it until you make it-if you aren't feeling happy, fake it. If you're tired, fake it. I found that if I pretend than suddenly I'm actually feeling the way i'm "faking."

4) Eat Vegetables. They help keep you regular, we all need that.

5) Someone is happy with less than what you have. It's true. Don't think about this one too hard otherwise it can get depressing. Be grateful.

6) If a hair tie won't go around your hair 3 times throw it away. It's useless. Invest in good ponytails.

7) Just when you think you are done with dishes you are not. Turn around, there are still pots on the stove.

8) Home is where the ugly is. Really though, you should be able to be ugly/not get ready and feel comfortable. Refer back to today when Olive and I were still in our pajamas at 4:00pm.

9) Dance. I've tried really hard the past two weeks to not let a day go by that we don't have a minute dance party. Glen is sometimes home and sometimes he isn't but dancing really can change your day, plus you can pretend you already exercised for the day (high five!)

10) Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. It's not a coincidence people. Eat more dessert, period.

11) "Nothing haunts you like the things you didn't buy." Treat yo self every once and a while. It's good for the soul to splurge every so often. But not too often because that results in other issues.

12) Keep it simple. Keep it honest. Keep it real.

Wouldn't be a blog post without Olive posing.

RIP Warm Weather

Mother Nature is a total brat. We went from 69* to 34* in one day! ONE DAY! She wasn't even nice enough to slowly ease us in. Every single time it gets cold I kick myself for not taking advantage of the warm weather when I should have. Olive and I attempted to bundle up and play outside but that only lasted 8 minutes. Mostly because i'm a baby and I made Olive come inside with me. I love when I bundle her up. Too much poof for not enough baby! Christmas story kid right here friends! It's hilarious, especially when she can't get back up. "Help I've fallen and I can't get back up!" I laugh and then she screams so I help her up. All this chilly weather means two things. 1) Christmas Decor is up 2) Starbucks will be getting too much money from the Bennions. (I feel like the Lego movie dude. I've never been happier to pay 20$ for a cup of delicious!)

 With this beanie she looks borderline homeless!

We try to stay busy inside but all my tricks are usually used up by 7:30 am. Olives favorite things to do is to destroy my house along with my sanity. She's a pro. She recently is obsessed with climbing in drawers, cupboards, boxes, closets and of course the dishwasher. I swear she is half feline.

P.S. I swear that shirt isn't the only one she owns. For some reason every picture I happen to take she's wearing it! 

The "Take too Many Pictures Mom"

I'm going to be one. You know, "those" moms! The moms that are always in their kids faces with a camera. I finally saved for a couple months, splurged and bought myself a nice camera. I was tired of using my point and shoot and wishing I could capture a better picture. I love my baby. I love Olive too but my camera baby is precious also. So far the picture taking of Olive has started rough. By the time it's in focus and I get the light right Olive has already swatted at my camera leaving slobbery fingerprints down my lens. Twice. Twice that has happened, I've only owned the camera for 4 days so ya it's rough. She's just really fast. To get back at her i've been taking naked pictures of her to show her friends once she's in grade school, so yah Olive, back off girl! I'm excited to start having a nice blog with nice pictures. So everyone shout "hooray" cause from here on out it only gets better. (Insert blog post written 5 months from now saying "I'm the worst blogger ever!" here)

Here are a few of my "figuring out my camera" pics! Some are decent and others..not so much! We went out to this awesome tree farm or something or other and took some pictures in the leaves. I'm still learning but I love taking a picture and being happy the way it looks!

 Olive's ballerina pose!

 Baldie!

 She's like my cat, loves boxes!

 Little pirate. Aren't you proud i'm teaching her good oral hygiene. 

 My boo!

 This is concerned olive.

Olive thinks it's too early to have a Xmas tree up so she has been underrating it all week.

 Daddy and Olive playing in the leaves. We love him!

 Walking like a champ.

 Love you boo boo!

 Good little tree climber, it's ok you guys, glen was ready to catch her.

Successful week full of random pictures and a decent walk in the park!