Hunter John, 4 years old!

When you ask Hunter what his name is he says "Hunter John Davis Bendheim".  Hunter is the cutest looking kid around.  He's got white hair, the bluest blue eyes, long lashes, and a happy smile.  He is so rough and tough.  He does flips in the pool, flips on the couch, and would probably attempt a flip on the grass if I would let him.  He learned to ride a bike right before he turned four, and is a fast pro at it.  It took him one try to learn and he hasn't looked back.  He is playing baseball this fall and likes it fine, but wishes he didn't have to hit off a T.  He begs me to do gymnastics.  He runs around the house punching, kicking, and karate chopping everything in sight.  Hunter is definitely our energetic boy.

Hunter started preschool with Mrs. Jennifer at The Creek this year and he loves it.  He's going 3 days a week, and during the fall he would complain on the days he had to stay home.  He says he loves everyone in his class of all boys and one girl, but he hasn't attached himself to anyone.  Or I should say he doesn't talk about anyone in particular, or ask for playdates with them.  At church he is in a class of all girls and one boy.  None of my friends have boys Hunters age, so he doesn't have any built in playdates.  I feel like I need to make an effort to find friends for him.  Luckily he's got Rocky close by in location and age.  Sometimes though, Rocky prefers to play with Caroline.  I'm sure that that won't last through all the years though.  I'm excited for Hunter to start TK at Guin Foss next year and meet some neighborhood kids.

Hunter is quick to cry when something doesn't go his way.  His favorite phrase of disappointment is "Darn it", and I think it's adorable when he says it!  My mom says he's emotionally immature.  Probably so.  He definitely reminds me more of Luke than Joshua.

Hunter and Caroline have been sleeping together every night for close to a year now.  Caroline sleeps in Hunters bed and neither one can sleep without the other.  It's cute.  I wonder how long it will last.

I started Caroline on piano this winter and Hunter expressed interest too.  He's done great and is catching up to her quickly.  He amazes me with his ear.  He sings songs from church or the radio in tune better than any of the other kids.  Yesterday after I taught piano, I heard Hunter humming the tune of a song that a student had been working on.  My prediction is that he will be our best musician.

I feel like with homeschooling Luke last year, and then having Redge this year, Hunter hasn't been focused on enough.  John has been making an effort to play and read with him a bit in the mornings.  We love Hunter, and I think he's going to be a fun kid to watch grow up!

Favorite Food: cereal
Favorite Color: red
Favorite thing to do: watch tv
Favorite person: Rocky
Favorite place: Hawaii
What do you want to be when you grow up:  a Cheetah
I am happy when: it's my birthday

Last thought... Hunter has a nose like none other.  I eat anything and he can tell me what it was based on my breath.  No sneaking snacks around this kid!

Joshua - 10 years old!

Favorite Food: Donuts
Favorite Drink: Soda
Favorite Treat: Ice Cream
Favorite thing to do: ride horses
Best Friend: Jacob Erard
Favorite Movie: Big Hero 6
Favorite Book: The Chronicles of Narnia
What do you want to be when you grow up: I want to work at Daddy's work
Favorite sport to play: Horse back riding
Where do you want to go to college: BYU Provo
What is your best quality: my personality

The big boy is 10 years old!  He is definitely seeming less and less like a kid to me.  He can't give me hugs and cuddles like the little kids do, even though he tries.  Joshua is responsible and dependable.  He is smart, I don't have to help him at all with school, or studying.  He gets great grades.  He isn't a model citizen in class though.  His teacher is often sending home notes that Joshua was disruptive in some way or another in class.  Mostly he has a hard time sitting still and being quiet.  I see this in church.  He's way to big to walk around the pew during sacrament meeting, but he still tries to do so.

Joshua is friendly and makes friends where ever we are - the park, vacation, etc.  He is very confident around adults and even gave a toast to Aunt Candy this year at Alisal.  There is no way I would have ever done that at his age.  He is very social, but doesn't ask for play dates.  He plays well with his siblings for the most part.  However, he can at times be very mean and beat up on Luke.

Joshua is still a slow mover, and because of this he wasn't able to do baseball this season.  He didn't seem to miss it at all.  Never voiced that he wished he could have played - even while we were attending all Luke's games.  He has been doing Taekwondo and really loving it.  Maybe it will teach him to sit still and be quiet.

Joshua thinks he is an expert in all fields.  Sometimes he is but usually he isn't.  It drives me nuts when he will state an hypothesis as though it were a fact.  I have to remind him he doesn't know everything.  However, when I have a babysitter come over it is nice to say - just ask Joshua, he knows everything.  I'm so excited for the day when Joshua does all my babysitting for me!

This next year Joshua will be changing schools for 5th grade.  He has been upset over this, but I know he will adjust just fine.  I can't believe that in 8 short short years Joshua will be serving a mission and then out of the house.  I'm over half way through my years with him at home, and it's gone by way to fast! He is going to change and grow up so quickly.  I wonder if next year he will still be trying to hug and cuddle me?  My mom says she laid in bed with Redge until he was 15.  I could see Joshua being like that.

Love you Joshua!!

Hunter John, almost 3 1/2

I can't believe my baby is going to be 4 this year!  I still look at him as my baby.  He also loves to be my baby when it suits him.  He will say that he can have a baba because he is my baby, or he gets to cuddle me because he's my baby.  He is very affectionate, and I love his hugs and cuddles.  They are the best!  Hunter is tough and full of energy, he thinks he is invincible.  He tells me constantly how he will defeat bad guys.  I think he honestly believes he could.  He loves fighting with swords and learning Luke and Joshua's taekwondo combinations.  He is well coordinated and willing to try anything.  I would say that he is our most athletic child.  Hunter is constantly jumping on everything, hitting and kicking the walls and anything else I let him.  This spring he broke Luke's Cello by jumping/falling on it.  That cost me $1500.  He broke his arm this fall on a bounce house.  He's so tough that it took me 12 days to figure out it might be broken.  He cried so much when it happened, but then he fell asleep and didn't complain about it again.  Finally Kelsey Billings said his arm looked bowed, so I took him in and sure enough it was broken in two places, already starting to heal.  They put a cast on it to make sure he didn't break it again.  He is so tough, he just falls and gets up, blood bruises and all.  Sometimes he needs a kiss, but that is it!

The past 6 months he's been very tearful.  He cries everyday over not getting his way.  He can also tear up in a sensitive way very easily.  He will start telling me about how something is going to make him sad and his eyes start watering.  He also has a crazy gag reflux.  If someone's face is dirty or if they are eating sloppily he will start gagging in disgust.  He's gotten close to making himself throw up as well.

Hunter speaks perfectly.  Better than Caroline.  He knows right and wrong and if anyone (including myself) does something wrong he makes sure they get the proper punishment.  He, however is very slow to listen and will say "I don't want to" when asked to do something.  It's only when punishment is coming that he will listen.

Hunter doesn't have any friends that he plays with.  At his age it's too much work for me to have friends over, I still have to police too much.  Luckily he's very content playing with siblings and their friends.  Caroline has started not wanting Hunter to play with her when friends are over and will shut her bedroom door.  So soon I will have to give in and let him have his own friends over to play.  He and Caroline sleep taught every night and they both love it.  He has learned to love princesses from Caroline and says if we have another baby we should name it Prince Charming if it's a boy and Sleeping Beauty if it's a girl.  He has also picked up the leg lift while kissing from princess movies.  He lifts his leg behind him every time he gives me  kiss. He's so cute!

Hunter loves Macy, our dog, so much.  He is constantly loving on her or tormenting her.  He starts tearing up when I say I want to get rid of her.  He lets her in the house all the time, feeds her, kisses her, hugs her, and kicks and hits her.  Hunter also loves to help me in the kitchen.  He always pulls over a stool to help with anything I am cooking.

I miss last year when Hunter and I had three morning together every week.  This year has been a lot more of me telling him to go play or watch a movie as I've been busy with Luke's school.  It makes me sad that we've lost that time together this year.  In September Hunter will start preschool.  He's very excited to go be in Ms. Jennifer's class.  I'm not looking forward to my mornings alone next year.  It will be so strange to be all alone for 9 hours a week.  I haven't had any time completely alone for 10 years.  I'm not looking forward to it, and will definitely miss my little buddy.


Questions Answered by Hunter
Favorite Movie:  Power Rangers
Favorite Food:  Bananas
Favorite Color:  Red
Favorite Thing to Do: play power rangers
Favorite Treat:  M&M's
Best Friend: Rocky
What do you want to be when you grow up: A Missionary
Why do you love Mommy:  Because she's my best friend

Caroline Margaret is 5!

I can't believe my little girl is 5 and will be starting kindergarten next year! Caroline has a wonderful imagination.  She plays better than any of my other kids.  She is a leader of creative play with friends, cousins, and siblings.  This also makes her a great mess maker!  She throws endless tea parties and picnics all over the house.  She takes her babies and animals on walks, and loves to play dress up and barbies.

Everyday Caroline askes me who's coming over, or who's house she's going to.  It drives me nuts. Sorry little girl, you can't have a playdate everyday!  Her favorite friend to play with is Gentry Johnson.  Cousins Livy and Rocky, and Hannah from preschool are also top choices.  Sadly she still lists Elsie Erard as one of her favorite friends too.  The Erards moved away last August, basically making the worst decision of our lives!

Caroline loves preschool and is perfectly behaved there.  She is a model student, aside from the fact that her brain just isn't ready to learn.  She can draw all her letters, and is an awesome artist.  She can probably give the names of 3-5 letters (I'm being generous with that range), and cannot count past 12.   Having said that, in August she couldn't count past 3.  She is socially and emotionally, and age wise ready for Kindergarten, but academically she is just not there.  It's going to be an interesting year next year.  You know they expect the kids to be reading by the end of the year.  Who knows, maybe it will click in her brain sometime between now and then.  My mom says Robin was the same way.  That is the beauty of homeschooling (which I am not doing with her next year), you can take each kid at their own pace, and if they aren't reading by 1st grade, it's ok.  It will happen when they are ready.  Too bad it doesn't work that way in public school.

Caroline loves to wear pretty dresses, jewelry, and make-up.  She is growing her hair as long as Rapunzel - but cries every time I brush it.

Caroline is not confident.  She is shy and reserved in new situations.  In comfortable surroundings she's a bossy leader.  If a stranger adult talks to her, she just smiles back silently.  She is also more sensitive than her siblings.  If I scold her, she often runs to her room and cries herself to sleep.

My relationship with Caroline has greatly improved over the last year and a half.  She is not as defiant and we are able to have more positive moments in our days.  It has been a blessing having her as our only girl because it gives her and I the opportunity to bond in that.  I love our little Miss Caroline.

It's Great to be 8!

Luke Christian Davis is turning 8 in six days.  I can't believe he is that old.

Luke has great rhythm, which manifests its self both in dance and his music.  Last may he went to my cousin Redge's wedding and had the whole dance floor under his spell.  He was dancing up a storm with tons of strangers, and captivating everyone with his moves.  He is definitely the life of the party.  Luke plays piano and started cello lessons a year ago.  He memorizes songs after playing them once, always has a steady beat, and his note reading skills stink.

This second grade year I have homeschooled Luke.  So many things led to this decision.  It started with the fact that he still wets his pants and wasn't staying dry at all in 1st grade.  I have no answers for this problem, even 2/3 through our year at home together.  He goes in phases of doing great staying dry, and then having accidents daily.  I keep telling myself that there is no way he will be 12 and wetting his pants.  Though, I'm sure when he was 4 and doing this I would have said to myself "there's no way he will be 8 and still wetting his pants!", yet here we are.  Secondly Luke is the master of emotional manipulation.  He has learned how to control his teachers and peers with his emotions.  It was a behavior that had to be fixed.  One story is that his 1st grade teacher asked him to do something he didn't want to so he ran out of the classroom and hid. Not OK.  He's immature.  He still is.  However, at least with me he can't get away with any of his manipulating efforts.  Finally he was a little behind on reading and writing.  This year at home he has done amazing academically.  He has benefited tremendously from the one on one attention.  He has loved the enrichment classes he as taken through our charter school.  He has also loved sleeping in every morning.

Being responsible for his education has been a huge weight on my shoulders.  It has been emotionally draining to work with him for hours every day.  It has also been hard accepting that I just have to give up on other things in my life.  All that said, if he doesn't homeschool next year I will be sad.  I am excited about the things we learn together, and I am excited that I get to share so much with him.

I'm sure my other kids have suffered because of the time I've focused into Luke.

Luke is goofy, and silly, he's always talking in some strange voice, and often when I have him read something he sing reads.  All this drives me nuts, but it makes him crack up.  He is a horrible tease to his siblings and him and Caroline really don't get along at all.  He's in a hard spot because every child fights with Luke.  It is partly from his place in our family, but I'd say mostly because he spends so much time bugging his siblings.  Outside of the family, most kids and adults love Luke.

Luke still has the personality where if he's on, he's amazing.  On the way home from Disneyland the other week, he was going on and on "When I get home, I'm going to pray to Heavenly Father and thank Him for this amazing world we have.  I love our world.  I love our house.  You are the best mommy every.  Thank you so much for taking us to Disneyland."  and on and on and on - to the point where I want to say "OK, OK I got it Luke" but don't because they are such good sentiments.  Two years ago there were a lot more of moments like that with Luke, where he was up, happy, and completely grateful and complimentary.  The past two years have been more of the pouty Luke.

Luke is the only child I can't send out of the house with confidence.  Joshua and Caroline I know will be respectful to people, and obedient to those they should.  Luke is a wild card.  We are working on it all.

Luke is excited for his birthday, no amount of celebrating will satisfy him.  He wants the world.  He is excited to be baptized.  I think he understands what baptism is.  He has the answers, just not sure it's sunk in.  Luke is definitely the "it's not wrong if I don't get caught" type.

Luke is still very much a little kid.  I'm not sure if it's because of his size or immaturity.  He fits easily in my arms or on my lap.  Giving him a good cuddle or hug still feels like one from an old toddler.  Because of this, I don't really feel like he's growing up too fast, I more feel like "I can't believe Luke is old enough to do that!"

I have no idea what the next 10 years will be like with Luke. I can't predict how he will be as a teenager.  I do know that he will always keep us on our toes!

Accomplishments

I'm laying on my bed with no energy or desire to resurrect myself to clean my kitchen counters or floors, or even unload and reload the dishwasher.  I need to go to the grocery store, and I just can't find the will or energy.  If I hadn't had to go replace a $1500 cello today (because Hunter broke it beyond repair), I think I would have tried to talk Kelsey into coming over and doing all my work for me - or at least run to the store.  But because of my recent spending, I can't justify paying Kelsey for doing something that I am so capable of doing.  So after picking up pizza from Little Ceasars for dinner I was thinking about how I'm so worn out, but have accomplished nothing to show for my day.  I hate how so much of what I do cannot be measured for satisfaction.  It makes me feel so unaccomplished.  So I thought, I need to write down my accomplishments for the day, so that at least on paper I can feel like I've done something, even if there is nothing physically in my house to show for it.

Today I wanted to clean my kitchen, do all the kids laundry, grocery shop, and bake some sheet cakes for Luke's baptism next week.  None of that was done.  Today I ran my 5 miles, showered, taught 1 piano lesson, homeschooled Luke, and drove to Lakewood to buy a new cello.

Not a great list, but it's a list to show something was done.

Caroline Margaret - the 4 year old update

As I type this post title I can't believe that little little Caroline is already 4 years old.  I remember so well posting about her in the hospital just after she was born.  It's amazing how fast time goes by.

My last update on Caroline was full of her difficulty.  I am so excited that today's is going to be so much more positive.  Caroline, by far, has been my most difficult child.  We have definitely not gotten along for a while, and she really was what made many of my days just unbearable.  However, these last few months have gotten so much better.  I am enjoying spending time with her, and look for opportunities to!  She is more reasonable, and even more obedient.  She is just a happier person.  My mom would say she's always been adorable and happy - and I'm sure that is true.  She's always been a gem to everyone but me.  In October I sat in her parent teacher conference at preschool and Mrs. Jennifer was telling me how well she does in class, and I just started crying.  I was just so glad that at least for 6 hours a week she was somewhere having positive interactions with people and flourishing.  Only 3 1/2 months have passed since that conference, but I don't think I would break down in a conference today.  Home is finally a positive place for her.  YEAH!!

With friends and family Caroline is still a boss and a leader.  She loves to direct everyone.  She loves babies, pretend or real.  She loves all homemaking play things.  She is a great independent player.  I never worry about her getting bored.  BUT - she still gets into everything with Hunter.  Somedays it's their mission to do as much havoc as they can while my back is turned.  She's mischievous and tries to get anyone younger than her to do naughty things.  She will tell friends and  younger cousins 'say no to your mommy', 'go get those cookies', or any other naughty thing.

In public Caroline is very shy and reserved.  She will hide behind my legs, hold my hand, and not want to do anything alone.  It's interesting how she can be so assertive and reserved at the same time.

For Caroline's 4th birthday I took just her to Disneyland.  We had the most fun.  It was the first time I've ever done something one on one with Caroline, and it was the best.  We spent the morning in California Adventure, had lunch at Ariels Grotto - where she got to meet all the princesses.  Then we headed over to the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, where Caroline was made into Princess Belle.  She did not say a word during the entire makeover.  The fairy godmother was talking to her the whole time.  Every time she asked Caroline a question, she turned to me to see how she should respond.  Depending on my prompt, she would then either shake her head no or yes, always with a huge smile.  When the make-over was complete she got her picture taken and then headed over to once again meet the real princesses.  She felt just like a princess and it was such a fun day for the two of us!

Caroline is not my most scholastic child.  I still can't get her to count to 5 without skipping 3.  She doesn't know any of her letters or numbers by sight.  (to make sure I was writing accurately, I just called her over to quiz her, I pointed to the letter A and asked her if she knew what letter it was.  Her response was '4'.)  But she does have an amazing imagination.  And she could probably also babysit herself and even Hunter too!  She's even started potty training Hunter for me - without me asking her too.  She just takes him to the potty and get's him to go.  Hopefully the learning catches up in the next year.

Caroline loves pink, princess things, Elsie, Gentry and Livy.  She's a great at giving cuddles.  She always falls asleep on my lap on movie night.  She's has a beautiful sheepish smile.  She hates getting her hair combed, loves getting her nails painted, and is obsessed with chapstick.

I am so glad to have Caroline as my girl.  I'm grateful she's ours and am excited for all the fun we get to have for the rest of our lives!