The Jacob & Shayla Bentley Family: Letter to My Missionary Part... who knows? + [Photo OVERLOAD]

Sunday, February 24^th, 2013

My dearest brother,

I can’t believe that you had to go in for an MRI and I had no idea about it! Oh my goodness! I am so sorry to hear about your slipped disc although I am not sorry to hear about the remedy of needing to get a six back and work out your lower back muscles. That means that I can actually give you some useful advice!

Some of the most effective methods of strengthening your abs and core are to do exercises like these:

[Insert lots of information about fitness and specifics of exercises that I didn't want to include on this blog for my general readers! If you want to know just let me know and I will share with you!]

There are a lot more than just these that I have listed but this should give you a good reference for getting started. I have personally done all of these exercises and I know that they are effective and useful. I hope that you can find something in all of that that will help you out!

As for us…

This was a pretty great week! We stayed busy and worked hard and played hard.

Jake is still gearing up to go to WSU and he is more actively pursuing a new position with the church. He is trying to apply for multiple jobs in hopes of getting at least one of them. We could use some more income right now and so I am hopeful that the Lord will lead us in the appropriate direction. Jake is still focusing on getting better at doing push-ups and can now do 30 in a row.

I have been working very hard on getting things back into shape after being sick. I scoured the house on Wednesday for hours and hours to get it clean. I have a lot of homework that is due by midnight tomorrow and so I am going to have to work hard but I think that I can manage it. I fell at Step on Saturday and rolled my ankle. I have been hobbling around but I really don’t think that it is that bad and hopefully will be 100% again within a few days.

Abrielle celebrated her 4^th birthday yesterday! Woohoo! I can’t believe that she is 4! We had a wonderful day celebrating with her. She got pancakes with applesauce and yogurt for breakfast and then she took a REALLY long bath. We just let her play and play. I was moving pretty slow because of my foot and Nathan needed a nap so she decided to watch Toy Story 2 on our bed. Once that was over we hit the road and went to Toys R’ Us. We let her walk through the whole store to look at the toys and she finally settled on some LaLaLoopsy stuff. (I’m not sure if you know what that brand is…) Basically we were able to get her 2 large doll playsets and 4 little dolls with accessories for only $32! Thank you for sales!

After Toys R’Us we went over to the Chinese Gourmet for “lunch/dinner.” Abrielle loves that place and we let her eat whatever she wanted. She got jello and mac and cheese and pizza and mandarin oranges and she even tried the octopus! I have some fun pictures that I have attached for proof. Nathan was trembling with excitement about all of the yummy food and we spent a good deal of time there laughing and having a blast.

After Chinese Gourmet we took Abrielle to Kangaroo Zoo. It is a place in North Salt Lake that has lots of giant inflatables. Nathan was pretty nervous about it at first but quickly got into it. I can’t believe how much energy those two have! They lasted for well over an hour before they were both tired and wanted to go home. Nathan crashed on the way home but Abrielle decided she needed some chocolate milk, to play with her toys, and watch Aladdin before her special birthday could be over.

Nathan is finally better and not coughing. I think he will actually get to go to nursery today! Hurray! He has been a bit clingy lately but I think he might have some teeth coming in so that is explainable.

Today we are celebrating Abrielle’s birthday with the family. Make your own pizzas, jello, sweet potato fries, and then cake and ice cream at Grandma and Grandpa Dunford’s. I’m making a chocolate peanut butter crock pot cake for Abrielle’s birthday and Grandma is making the traditional Carob cake. She is really excited to continue her festivities and I hope that dinner will be delicious!

OH OH OH! We also got to go see Zac’s opening night of Fools at Bingham! He did such a great job and we really enjoyed the play. Zac is so talented and adorable and I am very happy that he has found something that has made him so happy.

I hope that your back gets better soon, dear brother, and that you can press on with the work. I love you so very much and I hope that my letter will help you out in any way.

Lots and lots of love,

Shayla