Hey Baby Bee!

Merry Christmas Little Bee,
This is your almost 1st Christmas!! It was a great one! I am feeling much better than our last chat. I must say, having you in my tummy makes my feelings change quite often!

Well my to do list has actually helped me make LOTS of progress. We are now much more on our way to being prepared for you. Here are some recent developments.

Pick a theme and purchase fabric Done! Here is the "theme" so far with the fabrics we bought!

Create your bumper, sheets, and crib skirt ...Partially done! The blue fabric is all cut and the rest of the cuts are ready to be made!

Pack hospital bags... that can wait!

Buy a car seat or car seat cover We bought you the cutest car seat with 2 bases! Even better!

Wash and organize clothes... paritally organized..

Purchase needed clothes.. We bought you a few cute things from Target! I cannot wait to see you in them.

Purchase 1 box of diapers at a MINIMUM

Finalize your name.. touchy subject.

Write sub plans.. I have a week still!

Write sub cheat sheet on how to be mommy .. See above

Purchase covers for boppy, changing pad, swing, and cosleeper (or somehow trade for boy ones) I did get boy boppy covers from a great friend! and a portable swing for a great price. I still want a full size swing and I think we will put BLUE blankets in the cosleeper sissy used since you will only use it like 7 weeks! :D

Replace carpet.. They are coming on Friday!!

Clean out your closet and move stuff upstairs

Pick up cradle.. Talked to our friend we should be picking it up next week!

GET a diaper bag and changing mat .. We have a little time!

Everything else! Will fall into place!

With that said, I am very excited for your arrival! Especially now that you have a 905 survival rate outside my tummy! I remember when we first found out you were in there and I was TERRIFIED I would never hear that kind of percentage rate! But you are one tough cookie and now you will be making your arrival withing just a few more weeks!! And to top it off... your grandma and grandpa will be driving down when you come! That will be VERY helpful for mommy since she hasn't ever had a 2nd baby before!! :D

I love you little man! I cannot wait to meet you and see your sweet little face!

Love, Mommy!

59 Days Please!

Hey Handsome,

Mommy just keeps on crying and crying. I feel like you are coming so soon and we are no where near prepared. At this stage with sister we had it all planned out and ready and all we needed was her. If she had come early we would have been just fine. I feel like a bad mommy for not having anything ready but I barely ahve time to breathe( and you are not making that very easy either). However, I am hoping if I show you the long list you will feel bad for me and stay in there 59 more days!

To do list:

• Pick a theme and purchase fabric
• Create your bumper, sheets, and crib skirt
• Pack hospital bags
• Buy a car seat or car seat cover
• Wash and organize clothes
• Purchase needed clothes
• Purchase 1 box of diapers at a MINIMUM
• Finalize your name
• Write sub plans
• Write sub cheat sheet on how to be mommy
• Purchase covers for boppy, changing pad, swing, and cosleeper (or somehow trade for boy ones)
• Replace carpet
• Clean out your closet and move stuff upstairs
• Pick up cradle
• GET a diaper bag and changing mat
• Everything else!

I love you baby and I cannot wait to meet you. But PLEASE stay put long enough for mommy to get most of this stuff checked off her list.

See you in 59 days! ;)
Momma

How many names??

As a child my dad always sang this song to me...

It went "Hey Dawn Dawn, What you gonna call that pretty little baby? I think I'll call him Immanuel." I never knew where it came from. In fact I thought he made it up. Anyways it's pops in and out of my head every once in a while. Turns out is is really a song about Mary that my dad just plugged my name into.

I was raised Baptist and our church always sang traditional hymns. There is one that I have always loved that goes "Immanuel... God is with us" It has also always popped in my head. I never realized that Immanuel is a combination of 2 Hebrew words. Immanu which means is with us, and El which means God. But once I knew that I always had a place in my heart for the word. I am a hugggeeee music lover so a song popping in and out of my head is rather normal.

So now that I am pregnant with our first son, this word, Immanuel, has been EVERYWHERE. I cannot escape it.

It started when I had a dream that we named him Immanuel. This was odd to me because from very early on we have had our baby's name picked out. Lennox Bentley Benke. I kind of blew it off. But it has reoccurred. Reoccurring nonsense dreams are very common when I am pregnant and don't cause any alarm.

As we are entering the Christmas season, the name Immanuel is being said almost every church service. Again, this is nothing new. I mean after all Christmas is about the birth of Jesus... who is... Immanuel. So again alone this would mean nothing more than that we are entering the Christmas season.

This led em to do a little research. Was Jesus named Jesus or Immanuel? So after I did a little searching I sorted it all out. The angel told Mary to name the baby Immanuel. She named him Jesus after the angel came to Joseph and told him they would name the baby Jesus. Immanuel meaning God is with us because he would be here in the flesh. Jesus because he was the savior. And at that time.. names meant who the person was.

With all of these occurrences, I have been contemplating if I am supposed to name Lennox Immanuel. I wouldn't make it his first name, but maybe his middle name. I completely adore the name Bentley and love it next to Lennox. I love to say Lennox Bentley. So I was thinking I should add the Immanuel to the end. Lennox Bentley Immanuel! Not too shabby until you add the last name. 4 names??

So yesterday I told my best friend all about it. We text back and forth about the pros and cons of the name Immanuel. Our conversation ended with me saying I was going to wait until after Christmas to decide since I would not hear the name as much after the season was over.

Then I talked to Jacob and he said that he didn't mind if we replaced the Bentley with Immanuel. But like I said before... I LOVE Bentley. So we just said oh well, we will wait.

So this morning... We went to church at 8:15 a.m. We talked about the name a little bit but it was constantly in my thoughts. Again, we said let's just wait and see.

We go in and open up the bulletin. Guess what the theme of the service was?? Obeying God even when it doesn't amke sense to you! That's right. 4 names DONT make sense to me. So was excited to hear which bible story they used to explain this topic. Any guesses? The story of Joseph. How he was to wed Mary but she was pregnant when they went to get married. So he had to trust God. And an angel came to him and said that they would have a baby! (Jesus/Immanuel) And the pastor hit on several points about trusting God and being obedient to what is best.

As he was talking I was doodling the name.. Lennox Bentley Immanuel Benke. I just kept writing it. Then I wondered what his initials would be. L.B.I.B. Suddenly I realized... That is the word BIBLE spelled backwards minus one vowel. {On a side note, Lily's initials are LMB which basically spells lamb minus one vowel.} I felt completely positive at that moment that Lennox should have 4 names. Nothing is set in stone at the moment but I just needed to write all this out. Since it is constantly running through my head.

COMMENTS PLEASE!!

Lennox Bentley Benke

Hi handsome!

Momma and Daddy have been super busy lately and I haven't found any time to write. You are growing so fast and time is just flying by! You will be here in 15 weeks! Momma has still only gained 5 pounds but you are definitely growing and healthy so I am not concerned! I think I just had a few extra pounds to begin with!

Well, back on the 27th of September we found out that you are indeed a little boy! We couldn't believe it! We thought for sure you were going to be a girl! It took the ultrasound tech a looonnggg time to get you to prove momma wrong. But finally she (Pam) did it! She used a different kind of ultrasound and instantly we knew!

October has came and gone since then. We decided on your name for sure. We bought a couple outfits for you. We bought sister a big girl bedroom and a puppy. We have just been doing as much as we can to prepare for your arrival. We get to see you again on the 22nd and we cannot wait!

We were hoping we would get to see you yesterday when momma had to spend the day in the hospital. She had a hypoglycemic episode (almost fainted) and had to go straight to the hospital. After 6 hours they found out it was just that momma ate a muffin for breakfast and her body didnt like it. But, we did get to hear your heart beating for 2 hours and heard all your moving around in momma's tummy. Well, momma heard it. Daddy napped. But we also got to see what the room you will be born in looks like. It is all getting so real!

We are still trying to decide what your room will look like. We have had several ideas but nothing is permanent just yet. Hopefully we can figure it out in the next 15 weeks. AND, we found out Aunty Toya is having a lil' boy too!! So excited for you to meet her! Momma misses her a ton and now I miss her even more because we are both having baby boys within 8 weeks of each other! So exciting!

Well handsome, momma has to get to bed. You are dancing around and it isn't very comfortable when I am sitting up. So, off to sleepy land I go. Ready to fall asleep to the rythm of your movement and dream of your sweet little face. See ya soon!

Love,

Momma

We are having a....

Baby! :)

We know you are a baby! And on the evening of the 27th, we will know if you are a boy or a girl! How exciting. I have thought you were a girl this whole time. We could not find a girl name for you so we figured... you must be a girl. But, today that all changed. We thought of a girl name that Momma LOVES. So, now you will most likely be a boy! ;)

So if you are a boy you will be Lennox Bentley Benke. Lennox is the name of a world champion boxer, an Olympic athlete, and a character in Macbeth! What a strong name! Bentley is after Dierks! He is a country singer who is from momma's home state of Arizona. You will have to look him up if you are Baby Lennox. (Knox)

And if you are a girly bee, your name will be Everson Bardot Benke. Maybe Eversyn.. Everson is because Mommy and Daddy love the name Evvy for when you are young but want a more mature name for when you grow up. Bardot is from Brigitte Bardot, a French model/actress most popular in the 60s. She is a beautiful, confident woman.

Your big sister is named Lillian Monroe. Lillian is a name momma always liked. Momma discovered that name at around 14 years old when her mom's adopted mom passed away. As it turns out her name was Lillian but momma didn't know it because she went by her middle name Maureen. Monroe came from Marilyn Monroe. Another beautiful confident woman from around the same time frame.

Which ever you are, a little man bee, or a little lady bee, I cannot wait to see you on the 27th. Be ready!

Love Momma Bee

15 weeks!

Hey little bee!

You have been in momma's tummy now for 15 whole weeks. As it turns out you will have lots of friends just a wee bit younger than you. I love hearing about other little bees growing in their momma's tummies! So exciting!

You are one active little bee. Right when momma lays down to sleep you start partying in your little hive. I do not mind though. It makes me dream of the day when you will join our family. I had a dream last week that you were kicking so daddy looked at my tummy to see your kicks. Suddenly we could see your legs. I told daddy that we shouldn't be able to see your legs and then we could see your face and body too. I started to get nervous but daddy said it was ok. So I said ok. But then... you came out of my tummy! You were the size of a full term baby even though you were only 14 weeks. I didn't know what to do so I started nursing you so that you wouldn't have trouble when you were full term. Silly dreams!

We have your name picked out if you are a boy and pretty much if you are a girl too. If you are a baby boy your initials will be L.B.B. And if you are a girl your initials will be L.P.B. Momma still isn't sure if she really wants to know which one you are. Daddy is the one keeping momma strong. While I want to know just to know, it won't really change anything.

This Friday we are headed back to the dr for our 4 month appointment! Can you believe it? I can't! Momma's students still do not know about you. But if you keep growing they will know very soon! ;) Love you little bee!

~~First family photo~~

~~08/20/2011~~

Love,

Momma Bee

Your home is growing!

Hi Lil Bee,
 

   We are so excited to see your home growing! That means YOU are growing and healthy! Yay for a healthy little bee!

   Lately people have been asking momma where her bump pics are? Until now, your home was still hidden. But as we approach the second trimester it has risen to just below my belly button. It is definitely showing now! It rose so high it is pushing my oven timer out! Just like when your big sister was in there. Here is a picture of mommy this morning at 12 weeks and 2 days. Excuse the messy bathroom! You don't like the smell of ANY cleaning chemicals at all. So, mommy "is forced" to let the bathroom get dirty. ;)

Momma loves you lil bee!

<3 Momma