It's all good

Well it looks like we may have found the culprit to the no napping: 2nd year molar. She has one on bottom and the other one is coming through. This morning she woke up and said, "My mouth hurts, Mommy." So I asked her where it hurt and sure enough she pointed to the molar. I looked in and sure enough that molar is barely starting to come through, poor thing. The last 2 days she has actually asked to take a nap which is unheard of. So it's definitely causing her some pain and now that it's close to the surface she's extra tired.

Fortunately her crazy tantrums have lessened and she's being more like her adorable self.

She loves playing in the backyard and will ask, "Can I go play in the big backyard?" I'm not sure why she always says "big" but it's pretty cute.
She loves laying on the ground and rolling around, I don't know why or where this came from but the girls loves doing it.

Her little friend Gabe had his 2nd birthday party last weekend and the weather heated up nicely for it. They had it at the cutest little train place and the kids were in heaven.

We rode on that train like 10 times, she loved it.

Bria keeping Gabe from climbing on the tracks.

My little mother hen.

Erin and I with our babies :)

Birthday boy waving to everyone.

I think the summer weather has finally arrived, it's still not scorching but that is totally fine by me, I just wanted the sun to come out and it has. We've been going to the park daily and enjoying long walks, I just love it.

We started swim lessons this week and Bria has been having a really good time. The class isn't as structured as the one in Corvallis, but she still loves being in the water and hopefully she's continuing to learn from it. She does great at dunking under the water, jumping in, and swimming on her back. Her legs are constantly kicking and she's starting to get better at using her arms too. She definitely has a blast in the water.

Tantrums aren't forever right?

Last week was not such a good week weather wise so we've been kind of hanging out, wondering when in the heck our summer weather is going to arrive. The rest of the country seems to have hogged all the heat and is experiencing crazy heat waves...us, not so much. Last week I swear it was 60 and raining. I really shouldn't complain, especially being pregnant, but come on! I want to go outside, I want to swim, I want to use my a/c since this is the first time I have it!

Oh well, I just hope we have a very nice long fall.

Best seat in the house.

She sure loves her Daddy.

Bria is currently going through a no nap phase. She talks in her bed for almost two hours instead of sleeping. This wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't so flippin' cranky all evening long. Brian and I look at each other multiple times throughout the evening wondering what has possessed our toddler. We also panic at the thought of trying to handle 2 kids. Her tantrums are reaching toxic levels and she gets so angry for no reason, it's not fun at all. I just hope this phase passes soon and doesn't return :)

I whipped out the sidewalk chalk for the first time last week. I've been hesitant since it's messy, but we needed something to do and it wasn't raining at the moment so we hustled outside and drew on the driveway.

Dad even got a special parking spot :)

Bria thoroughly enjoyed coloring all over the driveway and asks everyday to do it again.

We attempted to remove Bria's bed rail last week because Brian thought she was ready. I don't usually throw my husband under the bus but he'll admit it was his idea and his doing, I didn't think it was time yet. Anyway, the first night or two she was fine, but the third and fourth nights she fell out of bed. One time she had some how fallen and rolled completely under the bed, her head was barely peeking out and it took some maneuvering to get her out. So, between that and all the potty breaks, I put the bed rail back up. We are all sleeping better...especially me since I was right ;)

We've had Sara and Gabriel with us for a few days and it's been a fun treat. I think Bria enjoys having guests over, although she is definitely more of a handful. She throws even more fits than normal which is just fabulous ;) It makes me a little nervous for how she'll adjust with her baby sister, I pray she does well because I'm not sure I could handle a newborn and a fit-throwing toddler.

This week we start swim lessons and I'm really looking forward to it. Not only will it give us something to do twice a week, but I think Bria will enjoy it and hopefully learn a lot. She sure loves the water!

Bria's hair

Bria was a bald baby for what felt like a long time. It's true she had a little peach fuzz, but since it was a beautiful blond, you couldn't see it very well.

Evidence of bald cuteness

But around 12 months old her hair started to grow, and it hasn't stopped (obviously). It has gotten crazy and I can't just not do her hair because it's all up in her face and stuff. Am I complaining? Hell to the no! I love it. I LOVE doing her hair everyday and she is so good for me, she'll stand on her stool in the bathroom and look at herself and play with hair things and such. Recently I decided it was long enough to try two little braids. She LOVES braids because Fawn (Tinker Bell's fairy friend) has one and so does Jessie (from Toy Story). So I braided her hair and oh man, you would've thought I got this girl a pony. She was OBSESSED! We had a playdate at our house that morning with about 5 other moms from our playgroup and I kid you not, she walked up to each mom about 12 times and said, "Look at my pretty braids!" It was also the first thing she said when each person would walk in the door.

I didn't get a picture that day but she requested them before bed that night after bath time and I couldn't tell her no.

She slept with them all night.

I can't get over how big she looks.

Now the braids are cute, but they get pretty messy after her hair dries since not all her hair reaches to the braid, so the next day I tried a different braid, the french braid. I am brave.

She actually did pretty well for me. I was going to try and braid them all the way down but she was getting antsy and I'm still new at french braiding someone else's hair so I just called it good half way down.

I really liked how it turned out and I'm just in heaven doing her hair.

Love it.

It's a good thing I like doing hair since we'll have two little girls soon. Although I told Brian he needs to learn a simple hair clip, it's a requirement being a dad of two girls :)

So now the debate is when to trim it. I refuse to get it cut, but I'm wondering if I should get it trimmed, just a tiny bit to keep it nice and healthy. I'm PETRIFIED of cutting off her curls, of cutting off hair that has been there since she was born, of cutting off the adorable white blond hair she had last summer. I'm very scared. And do I really need to take her in or should I brave it and have my Mom help me? I just don't know what to do. Maybe when she's 3 I'll be ready for a little trim. Ugh, I just don't know. I mean, what if we trim it and those curls are gone forever?!

Well, I'll make that decision later, but for now I'll enjoy her growing hair and coming up with new do's :)

It's been 5 years!

Brian and I have been married 5 incredible years. It hasn't always been easy, but it's all been worth it. It's nice to know that at the end of the day, my best friend is by my side.

We celebrated our 5 year anniversary at the beach. It was AMAZING. First, Aunt Heather was kind enough to watch Bria for us and we are incredibly grateful. We really needed time to be just us, especially before little girl #2 comes along and our lives double in craziness...and happiness :)

So we dropped Bria off early Saturday afternoon and headed over to the coast. We decided on Seaside since neither of us had been before, we didn't have hotel reservations or plans at all, we were just going with the flow and it felt awesome. I really enjoyed being spontaneous and not having set plans or a place to be at a certain time. We rolled into Seaside and stopped by a few hotels to see our options. We ended up staying at the Shilo Inn that was literally on the beach, it was fabulous, and pretty inexpensive. Our room was small and didn't have a view, but we really didn't care because we spent most of our time out and about. Once we dropped our stuff off in the room we went on a stroll on the Promenade, which was right outside our hotel. I'm telling you, we found the best hotel to stay at. We stopped and had lunch since we were starving. We found a very delicious Hawaiian burger place and got a drink:

Shirley Temple please :)

I devoured my Teriyaki burger and was ready for more walking. We spent hours walking into little stores and looking at trinkets and such, it was fabulous. We even went in an arcade place and played a bunch of games which was so much fun. I beat Brian a few times at skee ball (that was our favorite game, we're so old school) and I even beat him at air hockey (although later in the night he would beat me pretty bad at it). We won some tickets and used them to get Bria a few prizes, it's nice she is at the age where a little American flag and parachute guy make her ecstatic :)

We decided to head to the beach since the weather Gods were smiling down on us and not raining.

Not only was it not raining but the temperature was actually pretty comfortable. We didn't even need jackets!

We of course dipped our feet in the freezing cold Ocean. Once your feet get numb it's all good.

I can still see my feet :)

The back of our hotel (and many others)

After we soaked up all the beach fun, we headed back to our room to get ready for dinner. We ended up going to a little restaurant right down the street (it was so nice walking everywhere). It was a little spendy but it was our anniversary so we splurged. However, Brian's steak was cooked incorrectly, TWICE. The waiter was very nice about everything but it was a little frustrating. They did comp us which was very nice, our expensive dinner ended up costing the same as our lunch! I ended up getting dessert since I wasn't enjoying all the drinks Brian was :) I got a delicious marionberry crisp (my favorite!) that hit the spot.

After dinner we went and played miniature golf, and even with my big belly I won! It was only by 1 so it was a really close game, but it counts :) We walked around some more and then stopped by a bar where we stayed for awhile and played Scrabble. Brian had never played before which I couldn't believe, he's pretty smart so I was nervous, but I ended up winning. I think the 3 beers he had didn't help his game :)

It may sound lame that we played Scrabble, but we seriously had a blast and lots of fun inside jokes were made. It doesn't matter what we do, we have fun together.

Afterwards we decided to play a few more games at the arcade, then got ice cream and headed back to our room. It was pretty late and I was getting tired.

Sunday morning we slept in until 8:45 am (funny how sleeping in is very different once you're a parent) and then checked out and got some breakfast. We stopped by the outlet mall and got Bria and baby girl #2 some adorable clothes at Carter's. Then we headed home. We had wanted to go to the beach one more time but the rain was in full force, and it was all the way home.

It was wonderful coming home to our Bria and she was very happy to see us :) She had a blast of course and slept in the big queen guest bed, such a big girl :)

We had such an amazing time, it really reminded me that we need to go on date nights and mini vacations more often. Life gets so busy and we tend to make excuses about money or such, but it's amazing how refreshed we both feel.

We're definitely going to need our "us" time once we have 2 kiddos!

Bria Boo

• I call her Bria Boo sometimes and she's started doing it too when she sees a picture of herself, it makes me giggle.
• Bria cut a 2nd year molar awhile ago, I don't know exactly when. I noticed it 2 weeks ago and it was already half way in, maybe that explains her crazy behavior.
• She has been waking up completely dry for a few weeks now, we might be done with Pull-ups at night! She's been potty trained since December but we do pull-ups at night. I think she is ready though, she even woke up the other morning at 5:30 am and told me she had to go potty. I took her and then put her back to bed and she went back to sleep, beautiful :)
• Bria's hair is getting really long, I'm getting close to wanting to trim it just a tad but I'm nervous. I don't want her curls going away!
• She's obsessed with her Daddy, she's in love with him. I can't blame her, he's pretty neat.

• She has her good and bad days when it comes to playing/sharing with other kids. It's an exhausting battle. The other day when Lanie and Bristol came over, Lanie and I got so tired of telling each girl to share that we just gave up and let them duke it out, it was nice.

Adorable cousins chasing bubbles together

Wish this wasn't blurry, it's a face of pure happiness :)

• The other night during her prayers Bria started praying so I just listened and she said the sweetest thing: "We love Mommy and Daddy and MJ and baby sister." It made me melt.

• When someone asks her how she's doing she says, "Well, I'm just doing good." It's hilarious and always gets a good laugh.

• If she asks for something (like candy) and I say, "No but we can have an apple," she says, "Well, just a cookie." Smart girl.
• On 4th of July at the Jensens BBQ she asked for M&M's and I told her no, she said through tears, "Well, I want to ask Grandpa."

• The other night she wanted to play dress up and I was so excited, I've been waiting for this stage!

• I'm so glad my sister gave me her girls' dress up clothes!

My girly girl :)

• I got her a TinkerBell bedspread from Target and she loves it. I love it too. I was going to get a duvet cover but it was getting way too hard to find and they are kind of spendy so I found a great deal at Target on a comforter and snatched it up. In the winter I will just add a nice warm soft blanket underneath the comforter.

So excited about her new bedspread.

So that's about all the updates I can think of. I'm going to go put my feet up, what is it about being pregnant that makes your feet hurt all the time? I seriously want to soak my feet every day, and get a massage, and a pedicure.

Let's hope Brian reads this and gets the hint ;)

Patriotic Pictures :)

We love America!

I just wanted to post our pictures from the 4th because we had such a blast. Oregon usually delivers the same weather for the 4th: Hot during the day, freezing at night when it's time for fireworks. This year was no different as evident by our jackets in the later pictures :)

The Jensens had a sweet pool and Bria LOVED it, she went in there twice that day, despite her blue lips she insisted on swimming for a long time.

She ate watermelon! I snapped like 10 pictures because I was so excited she was eating fruit.

And how American is that picture? :)

We had a rousing game of baseball where we learned Jaidyn is an awesome hitter, she got the first home run!!

My man up to bat

Watching the game excitedly.

Loves.

Cassidy had her hands full with Bria and Jaime's neighbors daughter, Hailey. She's a great little babysitter.

"I love the USA, what more can I say?!"

This picture should be at the end but I really don't want to fix it now, so just pretend this is the very last picture. Bria was not a fan of the fireworks this year, we couldn't even get her to look at them. She hid under the blanket all cuddled up because they were so loud, and I think she was tired.

Back to baseball. This is when Jaime gave my husband the camera.

Me up to bat.

Bria girl and her Aunt Jaime.

Grandma Anna and Bria (what a cheese face!)

Bria swimming:

It's crazy that the 4th was a week ago, whew! We are enjoying our weekend currently and I'm sad it's already Sunday. We have plans to go look at a stroller that was posted on craigslist, it's a sit 'n stand which I think will be our best bet at keeping both girls contained. I would really like a double jogging stroller so I can go running and get back in shape, but I'm not sure it would get used as much as the sit 'n stand.

Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment and I'm looking forward to it as always :) I actually have lots of pictures from the last few days so I'll update with those soon.