Welcome Kate!

Kate Bentley(not sure of middle name?? Rick)

Born January 30th at 12:45am
19 1/2" Long
6 lbs. 14 oz.

Mom and baby are home from the hospital and doing great. The pictures are adorable. She is very cute and we are lucky enough to see her tomorrow night.
Love Steve (for Rick and Marisa)

Change to Posting Process

Famsters,
With the increasing amount of garbage (I don't mean Richards posts) that has donned this site, I have modified the posting process. I am sure that the email address that we all have been using to post somehow got sold to advertising. Anyway, I have changed the posting email address. If you want to post by Email, you need to use the following: thebentleybulletin.?@blogger.com. Replace the question mark with the furry animal that James frequently becomes(you know, rhymes with shnookie :) and you can post. You can always post by logging on to the blog as well. This posting email can be changed as often as necessary, so if need be I will do it again so that we can avoid the smut.
Happy blogging, Steve

Their personalities shine through their words

Will and Emma both had a tooth pulled at the dentists this week. Emma's was lost. She painstakingly wrote a note to Glenda (who happens to be her special tooth fairy) explaining the dilemma.
After two nights of having Will's tooth and Emma's note under their pillows with no response from the tooth fairy, Caroline, followed by Emma and Will, burst into her parent's bedroom this morning to ask,
"What is up with all the tooth fairies these days?" Emma reasoned,
"She is probably just behind schedule and overworked. Maybe she'll bring our money tomorrow night."
To which Will said,
"That's good because maybe she'll pay interest!"
p.s. Glenda did manage to arrive with a disclaimer,
"Tooth fairies with new babies only work the day shift."

I'm a day late, but here is my article

Today is beautiful! After three weeks in the 50's and 60's we've hit 70 degrees and it feels like spring. Now I know those "low" temps don't sound scary to you who are freezing in the North Country, but to those of us who live in cement houses with no heat and with 80% to 90% humidity it felt COLD. I piled on as many layers of clothes I could and did a lot of baking. Hopefully it will stay in the 70's and not jump to the 90's immediately. The locals tell us that they haven't had a cold spell like this since 1993.
The cold, and sickness that have come with it, have really dampened our temple attendance. Last Saturday neither of our excursion groups came and during the week we've had to regularly cancel at least one of our sessions because of no participates. Hopefully, things will pick up soon. I'd much rather be busy than sitting around.
During this month we've said goodbye to two faithful temple patrons. Maria Elena Lara Sanchez,the paralyzed woman I told you about a year or so ago, who would come weekly to the temple passed away. And Br. Tomas Cabrales died unexpectedly, but peacefully, in his home. Both Brother and Sister Cabrales have been temple workers here since the temple opened. They are the parents of nine children and celebrated their golden wedding anniversary last year. Like Grandpa Bentley, he had diabetes and had gone blind. He had also had his toes amputated, but he would still come with his wife twice a week and participate wherever he could.
Both Hna. Lara and Hno. Cabrales examplifiy for me the words, "enduring (well) to the end".
I've just finished reading for the second time, Bonds That Make Us Free, by Terry Warner. I recommend it to any of you who want a soul searching read.
It has been fun to visit with so many of you via our computer cameras. What an amazing technical world we live in.
Much love to each of you, Mom and Grandma

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Wow, I'm really slow in getting these important dates posted. The days just seem to slip by me.
Two big ones this month:
Joshua David turns eleven on the 28th
AND Marisa assures us that
Kathryn Wendy (Kate) will arrive on or before the 30th!

Hopefully everyone has made a resolution to send monthly articles in to the BBB. Dad and I sure miss the kid's quotes and news. Much love Mom
p.s. I promise an article myself this afternoon.

Our Christmas Break

We have had the BEST time together this Christmas.  It's been a really fun time doing all kinds of silly things.  Christmas week we had rain the whole time so we stayed at home playing games, watching movies, and making gingerbread houses.  :)  Christmas Eve we went to a big party with ward friends.  Santa Clause even showed up with presents for all the kids.  Kaitlyn was in heaven!  She talked to Santa on his lap and got a special present she kept talking about.  Liza on the other hand is deathly afraid of the big man and screamed the whole time. 

Christmas morning!  We had fresh cinnamon buns right out of the oven, egg sausage casserole, and fresh fruit.  YUM!  We had the traditional stockings set up and then took turns opening presents.  The girls were so happy with every little thing that it took the entire day to open the presents because there was a solid hour between each thing.  Christmas night we had a dinner at the ward that the bishop threw for who ever wanted to come.  It was such a nice time with a big dinner, Christmas movies, and good friends. 

Christmas isn't the same without family and having all of you around so we went to Dave and Karalee's house to get some family time!  We love to be with them and we re-enacted the Nativity story and watched Annie and Warren Miller   Good times.  Then we drove up to see my friend Alisa in Lansing and spent a day with her.  It was a really nice small trip for the weekend. 

New Years Eve we had another great party at some friends house and Kaitlyn actually stayed up the whole time.  Today's been kind of exciting with the repercussions of the lack of sleep.  We went swimming today and had another great dinner with some ward friends.  The girls are really growing up and starting to love (and hate) playing together. 

Liza is really growing up.  She seems to love extremes.  She's happy or sad, hungry or full, laughing and then 1 second later crying.  She is always entertaining.  These last couple weeks with Dad home has solidified her "Daddy's Girl" status.  it's amazing that I can try feeding her something and she'll refuse it, but I'll hand her over to Zach and she opens wide. She loves the bathtub, ducks, YOGURT, her baby, fruit, and hoarding food whenever possible. (like mother, like daughter).  She's finally wanting to read books and sing songs. 

Kaitlyn is starting to be SO big it takes us by surprise all the time.  she's saying funny things and asking real questions.  Zach just told me that tonight when he was telling her a scriptures story about the Saviors crucifixion she was really paying attention and listening and when he said Jesus died, she asked "am I going to die?" and Zach got to teach her about the plan of salvation.  This is melt my heart stuff.  Her favorite things are playing house and being a Mom to her babies, making cookies, watching Little Einsteins, and giggling. 

We have had a really fun time but it wasn't without a lot of missing all of you. We've been thinking of you and hoping your christmas was just as wonderful.  We lov eyou all and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Love, the Canadian Christmas Clan