Birthday Boy is 4!

UPDATE: Birthday Photos Have Been Added At The End Of This Post! I know grandparents will appreciate this!!

Bentley Terrell McIlwain is 4 years old today! He and I just ordered this together from Target.com:
He really wanted the Miami Dolphins, but after I "measured him up" (that's what he told his daddy) the Dolphins uniform was going to be too big.

Then he had banana pudding for breakfast! Hey, it's got fruit and milk in it huh?

He is excited to know that yes, it is his birthday ALL DAY LONG!!!

We are taking him to that place "where a kid can be a kid" tonight for supper and birthday cake and then he is off to Toys R Us to spend some birthday money.
I'll add pictures from all that later tonight.

He has discovered he loves Moon Pies. He was eating one yesterday after lunch and did this:
He said, "Mommy, if I do this with my eyes (he was crossing them) it looks like I have two Moon Pies". I think he was just fishing for seconds. Ha Ha!

Here is Bentley and "Green Bear". They were resting a little and he thought his "Green Bear" might be cold and put him under the covers with him.
This picture shows the two sweet faces I get to see all day while big sister Cecily is at school. JennaBeth is big enough now to actually get on the floor and interact with her brother, which he loves. Bentley is so sweet with her. This picture was taken yesterday. Bentley on his own told me, "Mommy, I'm gonna share some of my trains with baby tister." I prasied him for sharing and they went on playing. After a little bit, this is what I heard from the kitchen, "Oh no,no, Jenna!" He said to me, "Mommy, I'm through sharing now!" When I asked him why he told me, "Because. Now she's eating and slobbering all on my trains. I'm through sharing now."

Bentley is also quite the character these days.

In the above picture he has part of his Mr. Potatoe head on his face! He really has such a fun loving personality and he gets really silly sometimes.

He loves his daddy! We went with the Senior Adults one day to Babcock Ranch. Bentley had such a good time seeing all the animals and wildlife. He would have nothing to do with petting the baby alligator though!

I love this picture of my little beach bum. He did not want to get in the water on this particular trip to the beach. There was lots of sea weed and the waves were really strong that day. He tells us now when we talk about going to the beach that he doesn't want to go the one with "all the sea weeds on it".

I love that we have this picture. After the birth of Cecily in 1997, she was a little sick and things were a little crazy in the hospital. In the midst of all the "stuff" we never got a picture of her as a newborn in the hospital with both me and Mike. We have pics of her with each of us but not with both of us. The same thing after Bentley was born. Somehow we left the hospital without one picture of the whole family. We managed to get this one after JennaBeth was born.

Bentley did really well. We had a sweet lady in our church that had Bentley stay with her. Ms Lena took such good care of him and gave him that special attention he was needing at the time. She brought him to the hospital each day to see his "baby tister". He was really curious about everything and trying to figure everything out. The second night we were in the hospital and he was there during one of JennaBeth's feedings. Bentley was sitting in the hospital bed beside me with JennaBeth. I got prepared to nurse JennaBeth and Bentley teared up and said, "Oh no, no Mommy. She's gonna bite you and hurt you." My heart just broke. He just did not understand at all and was about to cry!

These last two pictures are some I took of him on our very last day together before JennaBeth was born at a local park. We went to McDonald's and got happy meals and took them to the park for a mother-son picnic. I then waddled around the park as he played.


I tell you, it has been a wild ride with Bentley Terrell!! He is allllllllll BOY! I don't know where all the energy comes from. But he is a JOY! He has such a sweet nature about him at times that will just melt my heart. And then there are days that I'm ready to ring his sweet little neck!

However, I am so excited to watch him as he grows into the young man God is molding him into.

Heavenly Father,
Thank you so much for this sweet boy you have given to me for a little while. What an honor it is to be his mommy! Please continue to watch over him and care for him both when my eyes are on him and when they are not. I pray that one day soon he will come to a saving knowledge of you and live his life faithfully serving you and loving you. I pray now for that special young woman you will one day bring into his life. May he love her and cherish her as Christ loves the church. And if marriage isn't in your plan for Bentley, may he faithfully pursue you all of his days in a way that honors and glorifys you.
I love you,
A Very Proud Mommy

We headed to.....

for supper. Bentley was enjoying his pizza.

While JennaBeth was stinking the place up with cuteness. The place which by the way had a zillion kids in it! Yes, we ended up going on a night when a local elementary was having a fundraiser night at Chuck E Cheese! Joy, joy!

Here's the birthday boy with his big "tisters", or the "old" baby sister (Cecily) and the "new" baby sister (JennaBeth) as Mike calls them.

JennaBeth is quite the ham for the camera these days! It's a wonder she doesn't go blind from the camera flash!

Chuck E even brought out Bentley's birthday cake for him and sang happy Birthday to him! He thought that was sooooo "aweshum".


Chuck E and the family...

JennaBeth was very interested in those fuzzy hands!

The cake that still has the boy up at 10:48 pm!!! :(((


JennaBeth says, "I'm ready for my bite of choco cake!"

After supper, Bentley went across the road (thank goodness it was just across the road, because it was pouring down rain when we left) to Toys R Us and shopped with his birthday money. He got two Speed Racer sets and a Tractor Tippin set from the "Cars" movie.


He had a really good time and when I asked him as we were leaving Toys R Us if he had enjoyed his birthday he said, "Yes Mommy, for willy, will". (really, real)

Now to wrestle the chocolate cake high into his bed!!!

Blessings,

Jennifer