SCORE!

I have some random pictures from my phone that I wanted to post...

Playing with the babies at Bria's preschool one day

Queen Elsa hair

My darn camera phone, wish this wasn't blurry

A few weeks ago Brian and I went to two estate sales this last weekend and oh man did we score big time. I didn't take a picture of everything because some of it was not exciting to others, just us. My favorite score?

 TA-DA! I got this fabulous gold boudoir chair for $20!!! Can you believe it? I was ecstatic and it is currently sitting pretty in my room. Love.
Also we found this handy ottoman that's also in our room:

 I think it was like $30 or something?

We also got a 7 1/2 foot, prelit, predecorated Christmas tree for $45!!!!! That's how much we spend on a real tree each year. This one was pretty exciting. I never realized how fun Estate sales can be, especially considering it's kind of depressing to realize why there is an estate sale in the first place :/

This week has been pretty drab so far. First week out of preschool and I'm already going stir crazy in the house :)

My little graduate

 I think this picture sums up her excitement for graduating preschool. I was also excited, but maybe more in shock and a little sad she is growing so fast.
Some first and last day picture comparisons:

 And of course the little sister had to get in on the picture action :)

Just 9 months ago, crazy

 I was lucky enough to be teacher helper on the last day of school, it was a fun day and I spent a majority of the time snapping pictures of the kiddos.

Amelia and Bria

 Bria and Amelia would get mistaken for each other by the other Moms, it was pretty funny actually. Their hair color is so similar and so is their height. Amelia is just the sweetest little thing, as is her Mom.

Bria and Kylie

 Kylie and Bria go all the way back to their first year of preschool together, way back in 2012. Kylie moved to Bend for a little while so we were thrilled when she moved back a couple months ago.
Seriously, look at these little 3 year olds way back when!

 Alright, back to the current.
Here are so fabulous group shots of all the kiddos, such an amazing preschool class.

 Mrs. Biamont said over and over again how much she is going to miss this class, and apparently she doesn't say that every year. I don't blame her, they were a fabulous bunch of kids who were so close and played so well together.

It's definitely one of the reasons that moving was hard, even though we are only 13 minutes away, we are in a completely different school district.

 Mrs. Biamont. Words cannot express how much we love her and are going to miss her. Did I share the blanket story? Bria has a pink blanket that she sleeps with every night. Well one day for preschool they were to bring something very special, so Bria brought that.
Well, somehow when I picked her up from school we both forgot about it checking to make sure it was in her bag...
...fast forward to later that night and we couldn't find it anywhere. Bria was heartbroken and obviously had a hard time going to sleep, but eventually she did.
At 9 pm I texted Mrs. Biamont just to make sure it was actually at school and she said she couldn't remember...so she DROVE to the school and made sure it was there! Can you believe that? We picked it up the next day and all was well. I'm telling you, this amazing woman loves her kids and we love her.

Amelia, Ella, Bria and Mrs. Biamont

These two friends are hard to snap a picture of...

Presleigh and Bria

The diploma!!

Daddy was on a business trip that day which was sad, but we video taped it for him and Grammy and Heather came to watch our girl graduate.

Reese and Grammy

Bria doesn't seem nervous about making new friends in kindergarten and I pray she continues that attitude and carries it with her in life. Hopefully we still stay in touch with some of her preschool friends because they are adorable kiddos.

Summer hair cut

 I feel hilariously awkward posting a selfie on my blog, but I got my hair did and I am in love with it. Cut off 4 inches and did some warm lowlights and highlights. Feels fresh and ready for summer!

Have I mentioned how much I love our neighborhood and the trails and the parks? I really do, and as summer approaches I get giddy thinking about all the walks and picnics we'll do.

 While Daddy and Bria were running errands and spending time together, I got to take Reese to the park just her and me. She spent half her time in the swing and half of it in the sand. She was in heaven.

 Brian and I try to remember and spend one-on-one time with each girl. We can tell a difference in their attitudes when they start lacking in the quality time with us. Even though I spend my days with them, it's not all fun and games so I enjoy being able to just do fun with things with each girl.
Bria has finally gotten to the point where she doesn't have complete meltdowns when I do her hair and I am loving it. Doing her hair use to be WW3 and Brian would get so annoyed with me that I insisted on battling with it. But the hard work and endurance payed off. She still doesn't love the brushing, can't blame her, tangles hurt like a bitch. But overall she just goes with the flow.

 And because she sets such a great example for her sister, Reese is pretty good about letting me do her hair. They know the routine: get dressed, do hair, brush teeth. So I don't get too much resistance.

Penny Jo sporting her baller hat

We planted our little miniature garden finally, a little late in the game but we did it. Just snap peas and carrots, hoping our carrots thrive more this year. Our backyard gets more sunlight in this house than our last one did so I'm hoping.

 We've also been doing fun things like celebrating Dusty's 30th by going to the Clubhouse for dinner and drinks while the kids got to run around and then take rides in the golf cart.

 I think we need to make this a weekly tradition because it was very stress free. We ate outside and the kids could safely run around while we at in peace.

 The kids could not get enough of the golf cart, a few of the adults took turns taking the kiddos around which I'm sure was the kids favorite part.

This week is also Bria's last week of preschool. So expect a very sad post about that. I love watching my kids grow, but I still have the right to get nostalgic and cry when my first baby girl graduates from preschool and enters into the world that is public school.
Ugh. I'm gonna go cry.

They just keep growing and stuff

Kids, man. 

They do a lot of growing. Sometimes I cry just because I can't believe they aren't newborn babies anymore. I'm that typical Mom that is in awe of the speed at which kids grow and our life in general.

However, I'm not going to focus on that right now.

I want to focus on how fun the girls are at these ages. Because let's face it, in a year or two or ten I'm going to be weeping for the days when they were 5 and 2. We are soaking it up. Soaking up our family time and embracing this stage in our lives. 

I love that our family is complete and our journey has moved on to the part where we do fun family vacations together, family walks, family camping...well the camping will happen this summer.

As the girls get older it's easier to enjoy and relax a little more. I don't think that's the case for everyone, hell, some days it's not even the case for me...but for the most part it's nice to hang out with the girls instead of change their diapers and pray they don't wake up when someone shuts a door or sneezes or something. We get to do new things now that they are old enough to enjoy them, like camping or hiking.

 We took Bria camping a few times over her lifetime, but Reese has yet to go. Reese's first summer she was still crawling and it did not sound appealing to camp on dirt with 2 kids, one who would need to somehow be contained in a mildly sterile climate and also provide some sort of entertainment.

Last summer I think we were still scared at the idea of camping with 2 kids. But this year we are ready...hopefully :) Worst case scenario we will have "funny" memories to laugh on right? Obviously I'm most concerned with the sleeping thing, cuz you know I love me some fabulous sleep.

 Another right of passage with kids is Disneyland, and that is in the works for later this year. October or November-ish. I think the girls are at great ages, they both love Disney characters and oddly enough Reese is not afraid of mascot type things, she gives Chuck E. Cheese a hug with no reservations...maybe I should be concerned.
Bria showed us she will love the roller coaster rides on our trip to Great Wolf Lodge. She loved the slides and some of them were pretty fast and dippy.

 It also helps that Heather will be joining us on this family adventure. She requested many years ago that she attend the first Disneyland trip :) It will be nice that the adults out number the children, the odds are in our favor.

 So yeah, lately I've just been enjoying our family and loving where we are at. Of course, this weekend I was a little bit of a bear and overcome with frustration due to the massive amounts of fighting and not listening between our girls. But whaddya do? I blame it on PMS, freaking period.

Moms rock

I had an incredible Girts Night Out when my Mom and sisters came up for a night, it was legendary people.

It's hard to put it all down into writing just how fabulous it was, and we didn't take a ton of pictures...so basically just take my word for it. We are hilarious and it was awesome.

To start things off right, we had dinner at Departure. It's a fabulous chic restaurant on top of the Nines Hotel in downtown Portland. Wouldn't it you know that the Spurs were staying there, ya know, the professional basketball team. No big deal. 

Alright so maybe we didn't dine with them, or even see all but one of them, but hey...it was still super cool.

Kayla and me

The food was incredible. Seriously out of this world. And the drinks were not too shabby either. And what is a girls night out without getting hit on? Jaime had a guy buy her a drink and then was too shy to show his face at first, haha. We were cracking up. Not sure if he didn't notice our wedding rings or if he just didn't care, either way it was nice of him. 

We went out on the deck before heading out and I never tire of seeing the Portland skyline, gorgeous.

 We went home for more fun and chatting then all went to bed and called it a night. We needed our beauty sleep because Saturday we shopped all day long. From 11-6:30 we were at the stores doing our part to contribute to the economy. It's a tough job but someones gotta do it.

It was a wonderful weekend that ended too soon, but what is left are fabulous memories and a big dent in our purses ;)