Audrey's Baptism

This past week, my oldest neice, Audrey, turned eight. My Dad, Karen, Cheyenne and I drove to Florida for the occasion and we had so much fun. For Audrey's birthday, Andrea (her mom) told her she could pick anywhere she wanted to eat and she chose Ryan's, haha... we had had enough of buffets, so we went to her second choice which was Arby's. It was fun. Dad and Andrea went up into the attic and pulled out their jumperoo for Cheyenne to play in, and her feet barely touched the floor, but she was able to make it bounce and she loved it! It was so exciting for me to watch! For the baptism, I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and I made Audrey a "Holy Ghost Bag" with a bunch of stuff in it about the Holy Ghost. For example, I put in lip gloss because the Holy Ghost speaks to you, a blanket because the HG is a comforter, and a ruler because the Holy Spirit is a teacher, and a flashlight because the HG lights your way, etc... Anyway, Audrey was sitting on the front row and Austin was on the second. The room was pretty full of people from the ward, etc. Anyway, I pull out a bar of soap, and start talking about how you have to keep your thoughts clean and your body clean so the spirit can dwell in you and Austin yells out, "can she use that in the shower or the tub?" HAHA, it was so funny and cute, mostly, I was surprised he was listening! Anyway, the last thing I pulled out of the bag was snickers, because when the HG guides you to make good decisions  your friends may "snicker" at you and try to tempt you to make a different choice.  Austin runs up to the front row where Audrey is and says loudly, "Audrey, there's so many, that's so big, you have to share Audrey!!!" It was hillarious! Anyway, the baptism went well. The water was really cold and Audrey looked very shocked when he pulled her out of the water, but she went under without a problem. After the baptism Audrey wanted to go to the Asian Buffet, so we all went there and it was pretty good (my family loves the buffets, if you can't tell). Then Audrey, Austin, Aaron, Cheyenne and I all went bowling. We had so much fun in Florida and we are going to go back with Jeff too in April for Spring Break, unfortunately Aaron will be deployed probably when we go, but we are hoping it will be warm enough to visit the beach next time! 

Sleepyheads 2

My favorite thing in the whole world is when I am looking for Jeff and I find him like this. Luckily I get to see it about everyday:) Last night after I watched the Bachelor and the City, I went in to get Cheyenne to feed her and Jeff was on the very edge of the bed sleeping so still, and Cheyenne was sprawled out in the middle, it was the cutest thing I had ever seen, I wanted to take a picture, but I didn't want to wake Jeff, but here is another of the cute times I have caught them snuggling asleep:) Love it.

The Many Faces of Cheyenne

I just thought these pictures were so cute and funny, I had to share.

ECCHS vs Hart County Basketball

These are pictures from the Hart County game. It was so close and we ended up winning by a couple of points in overtime to win region! The team is doing so well, they are 20-4 and have won the last 14 games in a row! They are ranked top 10 in the state and have region playoffs starting tomorrow. If they win on Tuesday then they go to state for sure, and they are playing the last place team in the region, so they probably will:) There is one really good kid on the team named Rod Rucker and he scored 38 points in this Hart County game and got 18 rebounds, I think he leads the state in rebounds as well. Jeff says he is getting looked at from some major D1 programs. He and a couple of other guys are also really good at dunking so that makes it more fun for me to watch. Anyway, Jeff is having so much fun coaching them and he is learning a lot from the head coach Larry Brown. He played at Georgia and also played in the Super Bowl for the Tennessee Titans several years ago. He has been a great mentor for Jeff. I am so excited to watch the rest of their games and hopefully they will win state!!!

Ryan's Valentine Celebration

My Dad and Karen are here visiting us.  We decided that we should go out to eat before Saturday since restaurants are always so crowded on Valentine's Day.  My Dad LOVES buffets so we all decided to go to Ryan's. Jeff got done with practice early and we all left to Athens (the closest Ryan's). We punched in Ryan's into the GPS and were on our way. Unfortunately, Tom Tom brought us to a closed down Ryan's, and to make a long story short we drove around Athens for about an hour looking for a Ryan's to eat at.  When we finally found it, it was worth it! We all ate about twenty plates full and Jeff is still feeling sick:O) Anyway, here are some pictures from our early Valentine's celebration. Cheyenne was so good the whole time, because it could have made the situation much more stressful if there was a crying baby in the background.  But she just waited patiently until we found Ryan's so I could feed her.  Despite getting lost, it turned out to be a great date and a fun excuse for me to get all dressed up:) Oh and Cheyenne's shirt says, "I love Daddy"... so cute...

Two month update

Cheyenne had her two month appointment on Monday. She had been sick with her first cold for a few days before, so she wasn't feeling great. Then she had to have her shots and it was the first time I ever saw her cry with tears. It was very sad, but cute at the same time. The doctor said that she was still very healthy. She was 23 inches long and 11 lbs 13 oz! She is growing like a little weed! Love her. Oh and in other good news, Jeff started training for the half marathons with me! I am so excited, he usually hates running, but I am getting him used to the idea, and I know he will be good at it. Anyway, just had to update the stats on Cheyenne's height and weight... we love our little chunky monkey:)

My running partner

I have finally chosen a race to train for.  I want to run a marathon, but I can't find any ones close in August or September, but I still might do it if I find a good one.  So in order to keep my motivation, I picked a couple of races to train for.  I am going to run a half marathon on May 16 in Summerville, Georgia.  I may be able to do another half on June 27th in Seattle if we end up being there on that date.  Also, there is a half on June 6th in Kansas City which is right by where my sister lives, so it may be a great excuse to visit her.  Then there is a marathon July 24th in Salt Lake City.  All of the races except for the one in Georgia would be so much fun, but are probably not very likely to happen due to lack of travel funds, hahah.... but if anyone else wants to join me in the Summerville one or any of the others please let me know, and then they will be more likely to happen!!! I had to post this cute little picture of Cheyenne in her jogging stroller, because as I have been running I look down at my bundled up little angel and she makes me want to run faster!  I loved having an athletic mom growing up and I want to be a good example to Cheyenne of taking care of my body and enjoying being physically active for my whole life!  I think that is why we are supposed to have kids to motivate ourselves to be better people and to learn to serve!

Proud Parents

This was so exciting for me because Cheyenne so far has kind of been this little adorable "blob" that I take care of.  I say "blob" because she didn't quite seem like a real person yet.  She didn't interact with me or seem to understand any of the world around her.  Well in the past week or so she has really started to "see" me and make eye contact with me.  She has also started to begin to respond to me by smiling while she is making eye contact with me, I love this!  I have tried to get her interested in objects, but have not been so successful.  She has a pink bouncy chair and I have noticed this past week she has started to actually focus on the little hanging toys, although she has made no effort to touch them, she gets really excited when I spin the noisy ball tube, or crinkle the noisy wings of the butterfly.  Anyway, last night I was changing her diaper and I have these noisy wrist straps.  I have strapped them on her before and she seems to like that, but I put them in her hands and she grabbed them!! She was holding on tight and I moved my arms and told her to shake them and she did it!  I know this is so lame, but I was so so excited.  I told Jeff I felt like crying because I couldn't believe she could hold an object.  Man if I get this excited about her holding something I wonder how I will react when she starts to wear make-up or date!  Anyway, this was a super exciting thing, so I got it on video...

Nashville Tennessee

We went to Nashville for Jeff to attend the AFCA coaching convention.  Jeff's parents came with us and then flew out of Nashville back to Bellingham, we miss them already!  The first day we got there we drove through Franklin because that is supposedly where many of the stars live (like tim and faith).  We didn't see any famous people there but we did stop at an awesome high school.  It was huge and the facilities for athletics were amazing!  Then we got to Nashville and drove around touring the town.  The next day we walked around downtown and went in some of the "Honkey Tonks" and listened to some live music.  Unfortunately after that we had to take Connie and Frank to the airport.  That night Jeff went to listen to some speakers at the conference and I walked around hoping to find some famous coaches.  I saw tons of coaches, but no one that I knew.  The Opryland Resort where the conference was held was also amazing.  We also got to see Cosper who is the head football coach at Kearns High School where Jeff and I coached last year.  It was so great to see him as well as Coach Rickerts who Jeff taught with at Taylorsville.  It felt like we had just seen them yesterday, and it made me miss Kearns and all the awesome people who worked there. While we were there we also visited the Opryland Mall, drove down Music Row, went to Old Spaghetti Factory, and got to relax.  Jeff got to listen to lots of great speakers including Joe Paterno and Nick Saban.  On the last day of the conference he also saw Urban Meyer at a resturaunt and got to shake his hand as he congratulated him on his season.  It was a fun trip and we were so lucky to be able to go:)

Baby Blessing

Jeff blessed Cheyenne on January 4, 2009. What a great way for Cheyenne to start the new year, with a Priesthood blessing from her dad!! I love the gospel so much and we are so blessed that we can all be sealed together for eternity, I can't imagine spending eternity without my family.  The blessing was awesome and it was such a spiritual experience for our little family.  The picture at the top is Grandma and Grandpa Bennum, Jeff and Cheyenne.  The next picture is pretty much all the men in our ward, minus about 5 people.  And the last picture is Jeff, Cheyenne and I with Coach Miller (the head football coach at Elberton, and the reason we came out to this little branch in this little town), his wife Linda and their adorable two-year old daughter Kylie.  Another HUGE thank you to Jan and Dean Hurst (my mom's cousins) for the Adorable blessing dress:)