And we have a baby girl!

Well, not US, but Monica & Mike do! :o) Got you a little excited didn't I? I am the proud Auntie of Miss Sierra Lee Bentz! She was born on Sunday, June 14th @ 10:11pm, 2 -1/2 weeks early yet perfectly on time. She was totally thinking of me of course when she decided that would be the day. I must mention how much I appreciate her for that because had she come on her due date, July 3rd, I may have missed another very important occasion for our family... Sean & Sara's wedding! Oh how I love when things work out just perfectly. What a load off! Thanks baby girl! Speaking of perfect, that she is! She came into this world at 6lbs 6oz 19" long with blonde hair and blue eyes. She wasn't wasting much time either. Monica started contracting Sunday morning on the way to church, timed her contractions during the sermon lol, was admitted at 4pm at 4cm and progressed so quickly... She was pushing by 8:30! My mom, who flew down there last Thursday and plans to stay a month, was able to be there for all of the excitement (as was Mike's mom). It's a good thing she went went when she did too! I made it to Las Vegas exactly 12 hours after she was born and my dear friend Jessi, taking an early lunch thank you, picked me up and took me to them. It was an extra special thing to celebrate my first mutual niece with Jessi, my friend since jr. high who is married to Mike's older brother! I spent Monday at the hospital with Mo, Mike & Sierra. Everyone was doing awesome and I was so blessed to be there and love on her! The new family of 3 came home late that night and we spent the next 36 hours enjoying Sierra and helping (I hope!) mom & dad adjust. They are naturals! Monica is a rockstar! She didn't even take the meds they offered her for the pain that next day! That I couldn't imagine lol. Both mama & baby are taking to breastfeeding like such pros too. Amazing. Wednesday morning before I had to fly home I got to help give her her first bath at home (which of course she screamed through like both of mine did too). It was a special time. Oh how I wish my sister & I could live closer, raising our kids in the same town, trading date nights, all those things you think of and take for granted when you are growing up! But even though we have many miles between us I hope I can be a big part of Sierra's sweet life. I can't wait for Olivia & Tavian to meet her! Time to get our webcams up and working! Congratulations Bentz Family!

Hope

This picture represents hope for me. I love to look at it. It humbles me and reminds me to slow down, live in the now, and love on those I love. Our dear friends Josh & Courtney lost their baby boy in April. I think it was a combination of my love for them and my love for my own children that created such an overwhelming, indescribable aching in my heart when I received that news. Any words I try to use to express that feeling simply falls short. For a week Quyen & I grieved with them before we were able to go be with them in Seattle and celebrate Kailen's life. It was a devastating day full of heartbreak as anyone can imagine but also it brought to the surface for me a deep joy that I seem to lose sight of now and then. I have been blessed by this incredible group of friends. They all came into my life with Quyen. Josh in fact was the one who introduced us. For 12 years they have been there for every part of our relationship and life together. We always make it a point to most all of us come together at least few times a year. Although it's not as often as I would like it is always the best company I could ever ask for. To have us all together in one place in support of Josh & Courtney was just really special. As the afternoon came to a close and the reception wrapped up Josh had requested us all to write messages to Kailen on the above pictured blue balloons. We stepped out into the glorious spring sunshine and after a few words from his parents we sent our blessings floating up to Kailen in the brilliant blue of eternity. Hope.

...and baby makes 5!

In early March we were very surprised to discover that I was pregnant! We had not expected that we would have anymore babies. Clearly God had a different plan for us and so here we are, now 12 weeks pregnant with baby #3! We were in fact so sure in our own minds that we had sold our crib last November and I recently boxed up the rest of our baby stuff including all of our girl clothes and sent them to my sister! This just makes me laugh. Now normally given my type A personality these factors would be cause for panic. But for some reason I have not a worry. I guess because I didn't expect to have this opportunity again I consider it a real gift to be going through it and am trying to really soak it in this time. For this same reason I want to experience things a little differently so I decided right away that I did not want to find out the sex... and Quyen is reluctantly submitting to my wish :o) I figure why not? We have a girl and a boy, whatever the sex of this baby they will shack up in the "girls" or "boys" room so we don't really have much preparing to do. Plus in our experience the babies have slept in a bassinette in our room for the first 3 months so there's no hurry. I'm sure we'll have plenty of help rearrange when we need it. So come November 11th-ish The Hoang's will be 5!

Olivia's 4th Birthday

Olivia's birthday week was a complete whirlwind! On Sunday we had returned from a long weekend in Seattle with our family and that Friday were expecting our good friends Rob & Robyn Riggins who were driving up from Colorado with their 3 kiddos to visit us for the weekend. It was busy but lots of fun. On Saturday we had a Tinkerbell themed celebration for O and her friends where we made "fairy princess tutus" for each of the girls. The rest of our weekend was spent showing our friends Spokane and enjoying the chaos of 5 kids under 5 in our home!