We have moved

The move happened.
Last Friday was the first moving day. Lance and Kyle came up to help Brian and we were beyond grateful. I feel horribly guilty asking them to drive all the way up here and then I felt horribly guilty all day making them lift heavy things and work their butts off all day long. But they did it, with smiles on their faces and plenty of jokes to make the day not just bearable, but actually kind of fun...at times :)
I can't get over their strength and efficiency, we had everything moved over by about 5 pm that evening...besides a few boxes of kitchen stuff.
We made sure to take a Buffalo Wild Wings break half way through, 'cuz you gotsta refuel. And refuel we did.

BWW! (Kyle and Lance)

That night Grammy and Heather kept the girls at Heather's house for a sleepover and the girls were ecstatic. Grammy and Heather loved it too, accept they were both exhausted and decided they liked sleeping alone best. :)
Saturday my Dad, Anna, and the girls drove up (again I felt so guilty!) and CLEANED MY ENTIRE HOUSE. Seriously.
I was in shock. We scrubbed and cleaned and scrubbed some more. Anna had the bathrooms shining like they never had before and my Dad and the girls tackled the kitchen with ferocity. It was fabulous. We left that place sparkling clean and headed to the new place. I was so grateful to have that horrible chore done.
At the new place they continued to be superstars and set up my kitchen, computer, you name it. They were amazing.
Brian and his Dad spent the day doing last minute touch ups on the old house, doing cable stuff on the new one and tackling the disaster of a garage. Again, so grateful.
So the move went great and I was over the moon with gratitude to our families for lending a hand. We could not have done it without them, it was overwhelming and stressful but they helped me so much.
The next couple days consisted of me walking around aimlessly wondering what the heck to do first. Eventually I started kicking ass and taking names. Empty boxes were flying everywhere and I was organizing like Monica Geller.
It's officially been a week since the move day and the house is pretty well set up, besides the 4th bedroom. Yeah don't go in there yet.
I hung a few things today and last night on our date night Brian and I organized the garage. I know, we are crazy romantic. But hey, we enjoyed each others company and I'm enjoying parking in the garage...since it hasn't stopped raining all week. Grrr.
We are suppose to have internet next Tuesday. I miss the internet. But also? It's amazing how much I can get done without the distraction of pinterest, blogs, facebook, ya know all of that stuff. Currently I'm sitting in Starbucks using their WiFi. I kind of feel like I'm in college again.
So here's an update that will hopefully hold over the family until we get internet :)
And here are some pictures from my phone from the past week:

Slumber party at Aunt Heather's!

 And our ballet day today:

Can't get this one to stay still!

And then she was done with pictures, clearly.

So the moving thing...

We are currently renting the house we have been in for 3 years. We love it and we are getting a smokin' deal on it! Over the course of 3 years we have thrown around the idea of buying, we want to so bad but unfortunately our house in Albany that we sold a year and a half ago really hurt us. We were victims of the housing crash, bought at the wrong time and had to sell at the wrong time. 

So we are being patient and waiting until we can buy. For awhile I swore to never buy again, I was so mad at how much money we had wasted on the house, but that's life.

Anyway, the owner of our current house has decided to sell. He sent us a very nice email about how he wishes he didn't have to, we've been perfect tenants (if you know me, you know I was all proud when he said that), but his new job and pay cut in Utah has forced him to sell this house.

So we got to join the millions in Portland in search of a rental. Ugh. Holy cow the prices are insane. I was checking 3 times a day because good houses went fast. 

We found one that was absolutely amazing. Very desirable neighborhood, large, older so it had a lot of character, it was just perfect. The lady was a little quirky and didn't even have us fill out an application, she was going off of whether she liked us. She sent us a very nice email after about how she liked our vision for the house and would get back to us later in the week when the other 4 people had seen the house.

I thought we had it in the bag. I mean, we were charming and talkative and I appealed to her hippy side.

But apparently it was not meant to be. We got the rejection email and I totally felt like I got dumped. I wanted to know why she didn't choose us and what the other people had that I didn't. Seriously, I felt rejected.

I was super down in the dumps that evening (starting my period did not help). So what do your friends do? They drop these off for you:

 Man I love my Buells. Amanda had Dusty pick these up while grocery shopping and then bring them to us. They definitely helped.
So we hit the pavement and I scheduled 5 houses in 2 days for us to look at. The 4th house was the ONE. It's fabulous. We walked in and instantly smelled the brand new carpet and paint. There's 4 bedrooms, fabulously large master bath and closet, and has lots of natural light. The downside? No A/C.
AHHHHHH!
This is going to be a huge deal in a few months when it gets super hot out, I think we'll be investing in some window units.
Moving day is this Friday. Packing is not fun, moving is not fun, unpacking is really really not fun. But we are looking forward to our new house, new neighborhood, and new journey. We are super close to Heather now which will be fun.
So this week I will be busy packing and then when we move it might be a little bit before we get internet.
That is our big moving news, in other news this cutie loves the johnny jump up that we borrowed from Jenny:

 Penny is seriously in heaven in this thing. She smiles and talks and jumps and is just so happy.

 Bria is thrilled that somedays she can wear her pretty spring dresses. We get glimpses of sunny, warm days and it is so wonderful.
Reese is still getting over her infections. That pneumonia really does a number on kiddos!

 Her coughing got so bad that she broke blood vessels in her face and had small red dots under her eyes and around her mouth. My cell phone would not capture it because it's a horrible camera.

 But it did capture her beautiful blues :)
Most of the week looked like this:

I don't mind the extra cuddles one bit! Although it was challenging to take care of her and Penny and Bria so by the end of the week I was a zombie. But now that she is on the mend and sleeping fabulously things are looking up. Just in time for the big move!

Get your Green On!

Happy St. Patrick's day everyone!
Brian and I don't usually do anything for this holiday but I enjoy coming up with green outfits for the girls to wear :)
On Saturday I went out with some girlfriends for green beer and fun. It was pretty low key but felt good to get out.

Me and Roxie

Amanda and Allison

Cheers!

Don't forget to wear your green today!

Arizona-The finale

Let's wrap up this Arizona trip since it happened awhile ago and I've been jumping back and forth between birthdays, sicknesses, and all that jazz. 

Shortly after our amazing family brunch on Saturday I took Bria to Bristols to play until bedtime. Saturday Bria was almost 100% better and she was dying to play with Bristol. From what Lanie told me, they played amazingly well together, no fighting, just playing. 

Coloring together

Saturday was also the day it POURED. Sweet Arizona, thanks. ;)

While Bria was soaking up her Bristol time, Jenny, Jax, and Grandma and I went to my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Barry's for quality time. It was so wonderful to see my Uncle doing so well, he recently had a heart transplant...scary stuff. It's been quite a long road for them and the day he got a new heart was a monumental one. My Aunt Cathy described it so well and unfortunately I did not get the articulate gene, but she said it was such a bittersweet day. The relief and joy they felt that Barry was getting a new heart, but the utter sadness for the family that just lost a loved one. We will forever celebrate that day and another family will mourn. 

Such odd emotions associated with it. We are truly grateful to that family.

Sunday morning we had a relaxing morning hanging in the backyard. 

I was mentally going through our crazy trip and how eventful it was. Even though it was traumatic, it was memorable :) Also, spending that time with Jenny and Jax was so precious to me. It goes without saying that seeing my Arizona family always fills up my love tank. But also getting that quality time with my sister and nephew was just priceless. Hearing Jax say, "Lou Lou" all weekend and teaching him fun little things to say:

Me: "Jax, who loves you?"

Jax: "Lou Lou!"

Me: "Jax, whose handsome?"

Jax: {pointing to himself} "Dis guy!"

Watching tv together

Having a tea party!

Rain rain go away!

And also, his love for Bria made my heart swell. He would say her name perfectly and often and I loved it. She loved bossing teaching him and playing with him. 

We went and saw my Grandpa at the gravesite and had an emotional time there. Bria loved looking at all the beautiful flowers people had left for their loved ones. 

Eventually it was time to head out, our hero Chelsee came and took us to the airport and we were very grateful to her. It gave us more time to catch up with her and man I love my family!

We made sure to have plenty of time in the airport so we weren't running and sweating by the time we reached the airplane.

And we had time for these!!!!

Cheers!

Cheers!

We are already planning our next trip, this time with Jaime and maybe minus the kiddos. :)

And also, pictures with our cousins and aunts, what the heck is wrong with us?! Wet get too busy talking and apparently to take pictures. Super mad at us.

Arizona Part 2

Alright, so I left off on Friday where Bria was napping and I was chatting with my amazing cousins and Aunt. After they left I headed to Old Navy since Bria was still sleeping and I needed to get her flip flops. Obviously she didn't have any in her size since we don't need flip flops for awhile in Oregon.
After she woke up and we got some food in her, Jenny and I took her and Jax to the clubhouse for swimming. I think that helped a bit, although she spent most the time in the hot tub :)

Is this not so sad? Ugh, damn scorpion!!!

 Jax was so much fun to watch, he was jumping in the water, sticking his face under, and just having a blast.

Getting ready for the twisting double axle dive

So happy to be in the water!

Once we got back to my Grandma's we had some exciting visitors...Bristol and family!

 Bria and Bristol looked at each other for a few seconds, I think they were in shock to see each other finally. They chatted for awhile and then Bria needed to rest awhile.

We had fun watching these two:

Brinley and Jax the blur!

Hugs!

Bria actually slept great this night and I was very grateful for that! Saturday was brunch day, my aunts and cousins came over and we all got to hang out and eat delicious food. Jenny and I talked about how wonderful it was to find out how similar we are with even our extended family. Anxiety runs deep :)
Connecting with my Aunts and cousins and sharing stories was such a treasured event for me. I think I rested a little easier knowing I wasn't the only one with massive amounts of internal guilt and anxiety...not that I wish others to suffer with it, but ya know, it's good not to be alone.
I'm starting to think one visit a year to Arizona is not enough, definitely need two :)

She turned 5!

Let's back up a few weeks and share Bria's 5th birthday, because 5 is HUGE! 

Can't believe that it was 5 years ago when Brian and I first became parents. Bria has taught us so much and we adore her. 

So we wanted to let her know how special she is by throwing her a big party at one of her favorite places: Outdoors In

Basically it's a big park indoors, because we live in Oregon and we gotta have that.

Her request for a theme was rainbows. She also loves My Little Pony right now so it was kind of a Rainbow Dash themed party. She loved it and I didn't have to spend too much time creating festive decor.

Table cloth attached to a cloud with a cut out of Rainbow Dash, easy peasy!

The big play equipment

Weston and Bria love the stuffed animals

One of the fun interactive games

Slides!

Playing dolls

Reese spent most of her time eating :)

Bria and her friend, Meaza, from preschool

More eating

Slide!

So many people came to help celebrate and we are so grateful. Nate and Amy drove up from Salem with their newest addition: Charlotte! We were thrilled to pieces they took the time to come up. It was so much fun catching up, cuddling Charlotte, and watching Nate play with all the kiddos. He is so good with them!

Beautiful baby girl Charlotte!

Excited about the candles

She's 5!

Grammy and Tracy

Charleigh can eat too :)

Add caption

She spent most of her time in the imaginary play area, surprise ;)

Bennett Boo!

Nate sang his little one to sleep

How peaceful does she look?!?!

The Bauers, family of 3!

Excited about her presents

Me and my girl!

B likes present time :)

Reese lives dangerously

At the end of the night when everybody is gone, you have to tidy up a bit. Which includes a little spot cleaning with the broom. Bria LOVED this part.

I felt bad she was mopping after her own party, but gotta teach 'em young right? ;)

It was a very successful party. I loved that the kids could all run around, play and have fun while the adults got to chat and relax. It was perfect.