Love.

I'm getting this one framed. I love her.

My Sunshine

I've been insanely busy since school started and I have not truly sat down more than about 30 minutes each night this week. The start of school is always a hectic time, but I know it will get better. My amazing husband has truly helped my survive this week. Him and the new pictures sent to me of my beautiful little ray of sunshine a.k.a my niece.

Oh my gosh, I just want to squeeze her cheeks!!!

I've kept this picture on my phone so I can see her everytime I turn on my phone. Is it possible to miss someone this much when you've never met them before??? It's killing me.

Alright, I've got just a few seconds to show you one more picture.

Yay! Noa's celebrating the fact that I made it through my first week!

I hope to post a couple recipes this weekend sometime between seeing Beth Moore and watching Mark in the firefighter combat challenge.

See you soon!

A Gorgeous Gal

I am proud to introduce to the world my beautiful baby niece, Noa Grace!

Isn't she just perfect in every way???

I am a glowing aunt!!!

Since she was born in CA, it will be some time before I'm able to meet her face to face, but I can't wait to see her and kiss those sweet little cheeks! I haven't been able to stop staring at the picture since I got it. What can I say, she's a Bennett!

You can be sure I'll add plenty more pictures as I get them!

Christmas in Ft. Wayne

After enjoying many Christmas festivities as well as a small New Years get-together at our house on New Years Eve with some of our favorite people, Mark and I traveled with the family up to Fort Wayne to celebrate one last Christmas.

This year was particularly fun for me because there were lots of babies around this year. The new addition this year was my cousin Andrea and husband Reid's new baby girl, Trinity. I've blogged about her before, but she has grown so much since then and she really is a doll baby. I got to spend plenty of time fulfilling my baby bug need by playing with quite possibly the sweetest baby. Trinity is so well-mannered! She'd just sit there on your lap chewing her fingers and giggling. She was so much fun to love on. I've included some pictures.

Mark with Trinity. This picture cracks me up!

Just chewing on those fingers!

Trinity with Grandma (her Great-Grandma)

All that partying caught up to her. Her head literally fell forward and stayed just as it is.

This year I made gifts for Taylor and Kayla. Since my camera was MIA until right before we left for Indiana I was not able to get any close up pictures of the gifts, but I do have a picture that I took of the girls holding their gifts. I got the idea from Jen. It's simply wooden letters from Michaels with scrapbook paper cut out with many layers of Modge Podge. Taylor has a striped letter and Kayla has flowers. They were a hit!
This was my first Christmas without Grandma Dorse. It felt very surreal for me that she wasn't there, but I made sure to bring chocolate covered cherries in her honor. Someone has to carry on the tradition!

That evening we went over to visit and celebrate with the Durick side of the family. Nick and Stacey brought over Jonny and he was tons of fun! He is getting so BIG! We'd love to see him become a linesman for the Bengals because they could definitely use him (probably as is), but I think his parents would prefer the Colts.

Hard to see but it's Nick, Matt, Stacey, Melissa, Jonny, and Londa

Jonny takes after me in the fact that he can't resist pushing buttons. We heard "Silent Night" played by this bear quite a bit.

Daniel and Grandpa who seems to have a headache from too many Duricks in a room at one time (we set the number over the top by being there)

Too goofy!

Trinity Rose

As I mentioned months ago, my cousin, Andrea, and her husband were expecting. Well, Trinity Rose has arrived. Actually, this is a little late in posting because I have been on vacation.

Trinity had a very rough start to life. After delivery, she heart rate dropped and CPR was performed before she even got out her first little breath. She went 21 minutes without breathing on her own before God finally allowed her to breath on her own! She was rushed to the Columbus Children's Hospital. Amazingly, she didn't display any of the problems that most newborns do when going that long on oxygen. She was held for many more tests, monitoring, and lessons on how to eat (she had some trouble at the beginning). After 13 days and 2000 miles traveled by Andrea and Reid, Trinity was able to come home last Sunday.

Today, I had the pleasure of meeting our little miracle baby! She is an absolutely doll and she is the most cuddly little girl. She is very alert and is doing very well! Here's some more pictures of my mom and Andrea holding her.

The World Welcomes Brayden

Brayden Andrew was welcomed into the world today by his mommy and daddy, Ashley and Drew. I worked with Ashley (and Drew) last year at PCA, but have actually known Ashley for quite some time now. I hope Ashley doesn't mind that I'm posting these pictures, but she's way too cute a momma and Brayden's way too cute a baby not to show him off!

Congratulations to the Beckett family and Happy Father's Day Drew. Brayden came just in time!

Visit their website for more updates. I've been following Brayden's incubation and Ashley's journey since he was a tiny peanut and I'm so excited that he's finally here

Baby Videos

Jen, Mark, and I were sitting around watching YouTube videos the other night. Mark always finds the really cute baby videos for me because he knows I love them. Here's two of my favorites that we watched. A lot of people have seen this first one. I had so many people tell me to watch this because they said I would think it was so funny.



The next one was one that Mark found and I think it's hilarious.

It's a Bouncing Baby Boy!!!

For quite a while, Mark and I could not decide on a dog that we both liked. We knew we were both "dog people" but we couldn't agree on a type of dog. About 2 years ago, we decided that we both would LOVE to have a bulldog and all of our closest friends know it has been our desire to get an English Bulldog.

As of today, I am happy to present the newest member of the Bennett family....Guinness!


We have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to present itself and as of today Mark and I are proud parents. I am definitely a proud momma!


Guinness has already met both of his Grandmas, his PaPaw Durick, Auntie Em, Uncle Chris, Aunt Jen, and Uncle Jon, and Aunt Darlene.
He was worn out!!!

(His pictures were also sent to Uncle Dan, his other Aunt Jen, and Jordan who couldn't be there to see him personally)

Christmas in Ft. Wayne

We went up to Ft. Wayne this year for Christmas since my Grandparents were not in Florida (due to Grandma's cancer). We visited both my Grandma and Great-Grandma in the hospital and both are making wonderful recoveries! This made for a good Christmas!

I also got to see my cousin Nick's baby boy. He was so adorable and I can see what people mean when they say the holidays are so much more fun with kids around. He was the center of attention and with good reason (he's ADORABLE!). I put pictures up of him in previous posts but I've included some pics of him at 3 months. WARNING: He's a chunk!!! Which makes him all the cuter. I've also put a picture of Nick holding John.

Christmas was great in Ft. Wayne this year. I really enjoyed the time with my family and Daniel even introdued me to Salad Fingers, which was by far the creepiest thing I've seen in a long time.

My final verdict on Christmas 2007: I am very blessed!

Bundle of Joy

So, yesterday I got an e-mail from my cousin letting me know that her and her husband, Reid, are expecting a baby!!!

She is about 8 weeks along and I could not be any happier for her! I love them both and I'm excited to watch as they embark on this new part of life.

Just for the record, that's 2 of my cousins now with children. My cousin, Nick, on my dad's side had a baby boy on September 1st, Jonathan Allen. My early predictions are that Andrea's baby will be a girl!