The One with Easter

We celebrated Easter down in Corvallis with Grammy. We drove down Saturday and stopped by to see the Bauer's on our way. Had to get my Charlotte fix!! And apparently so did Bria :)

4 months old and cute as ever!

The first thing the girls wanted to see when we got to Grammy's was their new bed. Grammy found a daybed and wanted to get it for the girls to sleep on when they come down to visit. It was a successful purchase as the girls were thrilled when they saw it and despite bedtime starting off rocky...they slept all night in the same room! 

Clearly Bria runs warm whilst sleeping

In the morning they got to search for Easter eggs outside in their PJ's, each girl got 10 eggs and had a lot of fun finding them. We didn't have to help too much this year, they are getting good at this egg thing.

I've got my coffee in hand, no one will get hurt

 We want to do a picture of the girls on Grammy's bench each year, I just love Grammy's yard! However, we might have to switch benches at some point, they are getting so big!

2014

Past Easter's:

2012

2013

And let's look at our family pictures from all the Easter's since we had Bria, sounds fun right? :)

2009 (Bria was about 4 weeks old)

 

2010

2011 (Pregnant with Reese)

2012

 

2013

And this years:

2014

Back to what we did for Easter...after the girls found their eggs and opened them up to see what goodies they had, we died some eggs. This was our first year doing it and the girls enjoyed it quite a bit.
Then we got ready for church and headed out for another egg hunt, a brunch, and Easter service.
It was quite exhausting keeping the girls happy, behaved, and obedient.
This is a picture when we first arrived at church, before we had even gone inside:

 Notice the look on my face? I'm already done with my "terrific" two year old who was overtired and couldn't hold her s**t together. I'm a nice Mom huh? Just keepin' it real. I was tired and desperate for my girls to just behave!!!!

 They had fun finding eggs and ate a ton at the brunch, this foolishly made me believe they would behave during the 1 hour service.

 Brian and I took turns taking Reese out and finally I just stayed out with her because it was getting ridiculous. Bria did pretty well and behaved thankfully.
We left church and I was emotionally drained and ready for a stiff drink.
But the girls needed to run some energy off before we loaded them in the car.

 Bubbles to the rescue!

Once we packed up we headed to my Moms for a delicious late lunch/early dinner. Then to the Jensen's for a cousin Easter egg hunt.
This is usually the part where I post pictures.


Blerg.
I didn't take a one :( I forgot the camera so the ones at Grammy's were with Heather's phone. I'm bummed but I think Schuyler may have saved the day by taking a picture or two, and maybe a fabulous video that may or may not include a dance solo by yours truly.
Maybe.

Daddy Daughter Dance

Brian and Bria went to a Daddy/Daughter dance at a local high school the other night. It was a fundraiser put on by the wrestling team and I thought it was such a cute way to fundraise. 

I got Bria all dolled up and then I of course had to take pictures.

Bless her heart, Reese wanted to join in on the pictures. In her dress and pj pants and all :)

So sweet

Love

Her perty hair

They went to Mcdonalds for dinner with our friends Nate and Gracie, who are the ones that told us about the dance. Then they went and danced their tushies off ;) Brian said they had a blast but unfortunately Bria's tummy was hurting. Not sure what caused it, but they eventually had to leave because she wasn't feeling good. Brian was so bummed because he knew she would've loved the disco ball once it got dark. Next time ;)

I love that my girls have a Dad who not only takes them to these kinds of things, but enjoys it and wants to do it. Bria loved her date night and felt very special. 

Back at home, Reese and I were beautifying our nails :) It's always nice to have one on one time with each girl, you can tell they love it too.

Thank you guardian angel

Guardian Angels.

They watch over us and keep us safe. I am so grateful for Reese's guardian angel.

The other night she took a tumble down the stairs, all the way down the stairs. She was wearing my high heels and attempted to walk down the steps with them on. Every girl knows that's a hard feat!

I was in the front living room and saw nearly the whole thing. I relive those few seconds every hour on the hour and it will haunt me. The stairs are carpeted which helped soften each blow, but the very bottom is hard wood and her head hit hard at the bottom, face first.

She cried for a good 5 minutes and we watched her like a hawk to see signs of a concussion. Kayla was staying with us that night and there was definitely a reason she was there, we are so grateful to her. About half hour afterwards she still hadn't walked, just cuddled with us and started falling asleep. We were debating taking her in when she threw up all over me. All over. Kayla and I started cleaning up and Brian rushed upstairs to get more clothes so we could take her in. She threw up again and we rushed to Urgent Care. Kayla stayed home with Bria and not only took care of her but cleaned up all the vomit and our clothes, did dishes, and cleaned the house. Can't thank her enough.

Urgent Care was packed. But with a head injury they get you back right away. Once in the room we talked to the nurse a little and then she left and we waited for the doctor. Reese fell asleep for about five minutes and then woke up and threw up. I went and got the doctor who called the Pediatric Hospital (OHSU) and then felt we should go there in case a CT scan was needed.

So we headed to the hospital. Again, we got back to the room right away and the doctor and nurses were asking us questions when Reese threw up again.

That's when the doctor said, "Please let me do a CT scan."

Brian and I said, "Absolutely."

With an adult they usually don't hesitate to do a scan, but with young kids they do it cautiously due to the radiation. However, there was no way any of us were going to rest easy with the current state of Reese. Not only was she falling asleep and vomiting, but the bump where she hit her head was not very large. Which raises concern as to where that blood is going.

The doctor went to go order the CT scan immediately and that's when our emotions finally caught up with us and the adrenaline kind of dwindled. We realized how serious this all was and were terrified. All the "what if" scenarios started entering my mind and I couldn't push them away any longer. What if there is bleeding on her brain? What if she has to go into surgery? What if there is swelling or brain damage? What if our Reese never fully heals and she is never the same? 

We went back for the CT scan and Reese did great. I got to stay in the room with her and she had her blankie covering half her face. She looked at me for the whole 2 minutes it took and I sang to her and smiled and acted like this was totally normal. It took everything in me not to lose it.

We walked back to the room in constant prayer and Reese fell asleep on me in the bed. The doctor came in minutes later and said that her and her supervisor looked the xray over and they did not see any bleeding on her brain. The doctor let us know that the radiologist still had to look it over and give the final word, but she wanted us to know that things looked really good.

Huge sigh of relief. Many prayers of thanks to God and Reese's guardian angel. 

We had been on such a whirlwind of emotions and it felt so amazing to hear such good news.

Her diagnosis was basically a severe concussion. We stayed at the hospital for a few hours, Reese slept the whole time and Brian and I sat in near silence. I think it was very surreal for us.

Heather came right before we got discharged and helped lend her love and support. We had been talking to family on the phone and getting so many loving texts from everyone. It was truly amazing to feel support and love from so many people. 

Reese slept with us in bed that night and it was very comforting to feel her cuddled up next to me. She woke up in the morning hungry, thirsty, and ready to play. I was in shock. Just hours before she was out of it and in so much pain, now she was nearly back to her old self!

Again, many prayers of thanks were said.

Now the hard part is keeping her low key and calm...that's hard for any 2 year old let alone my busy Reese! But we are managing. She is definitely stir crazy, I'm just grateful to have her back to her old self. 

Thank you God and guardian angels for looking out for Reese and comforting us. We love our little girl so much.

The Tulip Festival

 In Woodburn there is a tulip festival every year and even though I have lived in Oregon my whole life I have never been.
Last week Amanda and I took the kids and made the drive...and I'm so glad we did.

Not only was the weather perfect, but the rows and rows of tulips were unbelievable. It was so gorgeous. My camera just doesn't do it justice, so trust me when I say it's breathtaking.

Bria and Bennett

Wes and Reese...clearly the younger two are hard to capture :)

I think Amanda got one of all of them looking :)

Big shoes to fill

 My girls were so not in the camera mood. Some days they hate it, some days they love it, and other days they are blah about it.
This day they really didn't want anything to do with it...

 Seriously, you would think I was torturing them! Sheesh, can't a Mom try and capture some memories here!?!?!
We did have a good time despite their lack of picture taking attitude. It's very apparent that this place is family owned (at least that is my assumption, I could be way off) because they are just the sweetest. There are a few things you can pay money to do but there is also plenty of free stuff...

The kids had so much fun running through the tulip rows, swinging, going down slides, and going in the shoes for a ride. The farmer who drove them around in the shoes was the nicest man. First off we were $1 short and he said no worries, second he rescued Reese. Halfway down the road we saw him stop and get out and go get Reese. I felt horrible that the ride was cut short but was pleasantly surprised when he sweetly carried her to the front and finished the ride with her on his lap. It was the cutest thing. When the ride was over and he pulled up I could see him talking to her and helping her put her shoe back on that had fallen off. I thanked up profusely and he assured me it was no problem and that he volunteers at Head Start in the morning. Bless that mans heart.

It was such a good day and man did we wipe those kids out!!

At least the youngest two anyway, Bria and Bennett sat in back together laughing the whole way home.
Such a happy day.

Grateful for sunshine

 It has been so sunny here lately and it feels wonderful. We are all very grateful for the vitamin D and time spent outside.

Last week we went to the park every day and Penny got in the swing for the first time, she loved it!

 This picture expresses how us PNWers feel about April sun:

Pure happiness

 We are truly enjoying every minute of it and taking full advantage. Our backyard at our new house is quite large so it's been fun to go out there and let the girls run free. All this sun is making me very excited for our summer, hoping it's a good one :)