Soccer, swim, dance oh my!

Last week Bria started soccer classes and this week she starts swim and tap dance. 

I know, I went a little crazy. But I want to figure our where her interests are so we can get her started young. I'm thinking dancing might be her thing so I'm anxious for tap to start.

She had a blast and soccer and felt like such a big kid. She is the only girl in her class but she doesn't even seem to notice, good for her! 

 Reese and I get to stay and watch...

When Reese turns 3 we are going to get her some classes too. It's just hard at age 2 because all the classes are parent participation and with me watching Penny 3 days a week it's difficult. Just wanted to clarify that I haven't forgotten about my youngest :)

Today Bria had tap dance and swim lessons. Yes, I piled it on this summer. And I'm glad. Bria loved taking tap and of course she is my fishy so loves swimming. When we asked her what her favorite activity is she surprised us by saying tap. So I'm going to make sure and get her into more dance classes since she enjoys them. 

Today I also turn 31. Bria has been so sweet and wanting me to wear a party hat and getting down birthday decorations and setting the table...she is a sweetie. Reese keeps saying it's her birthday...

Just keep blogging....

I have all these great intentions of posting often but life gets busy...and also our computer room is upstairs now so I'm rarely on it. I feel like I am constantly playing catch up which means I never take time to do our normal day to day journaling that I use to do. As a reader I'm sure you are grateful for the lack of boring posts, but I love looking back on what our normal routine was. So my goal is to be better about doing that, staring next time :)

Last week we met some friends at the Children's Museum. The Portland Children's Museum is amazing, they have so many fun areas for the kids to go crazy in. The only bad thing is trying to keep track of your kids while they run in different directions. Fortunately there were 3 of us Moms so we would take turns with different kiddos.

Reese in the water area

 I think of majority of our time was spent in the theatre. They have an adorable stage for the kids and even have a big curtain for the kids to open and close. Bria did a fabulous rendition of "Let It Go." I need to get that girl in drama, she lives for the stage...

Presleigh on vocals and Bria on drums

 Also, they have a face painting station for the kids to do themselves...don't know who thought of that but yeah:

 Reese loved it. My free spirited child is full of spunk and I love it.
Last week we also got to fit in some swimming at Randi's and the girls always enjoy that. So do I, it keeps them happy and active and we all have fun playing together.

Reese chillin' on the floaty

Another Beaver graduate!

My little baby brother graduated from OSU this last weekend and to say we were all proud of him is definitely an understatement.
There is a feeling you get when you hear pomp and circumstance play, such a powerful melody. Combine that with your little brother in his cap and gown walking onto the OSU football field and yeah, incredibleamazingawesome.

Cathing a ride from Uncle Kyle

We had a pretty big section of Lance Armstrong fans :)

Yaya and her Reese

After he graduated we all met outside for the obligatory pics :)

Proud of my little bro

Proud father

Father son

Husband and wife...

Sibling pics!

Proud Parents of the graduate

Nieces and nephew...and also a look into their future ;)

Super proud of you Lance, congrats on your 4 year degree! 

We spent a few nights there and the girls really enjoyed time with their cousins. It's always so fun to see them playing together and building memories. The girls also slept in the same bed which is a big deal since they have separate rooms at home. As it is, they come out of their rooms and talk so I was worried they wouldn't actually sleep.

I was partly right, they took a long time to actually go to sleep, but once they did, they slept really well. And I was able to get the sweetest picture of them...

Brian also got a nap in on Father's day with his youngest:

Aside from sleeping, since we clearly enjoy that...we also enjoyed the Jensens' backyard...

Jax and Kailey

The two littles waiting patiently while Aunt Jaime makes them dinner

My girls adore their older cousins and Jaidyn and Kailey are amazing with them. Kailey dressed Reese up as Queen Elsa:

Gosh I can't wait for our big family vacation in August!!

Family night

Last night after dinner we treated ourselves to a family ice cream night at Cold Stone. Bria surprised us by ordering cotton candy flavored ice cream, this girl is like her Dad in that she likes chocolate everything. But I guess she is more flexible when it comes to ice cream :)

 After our little treat we walked around a pond near our house and were very surprised at how relaxed the ducks were around people, it took a lot to scare them.

 In fact, the girls had to run screaming towards them to even get them to walk briskly towards the water.

 Now we are enjoying a lazy Thursday, and since it's Thursday that means I have 3 girls...

This is what it would look like if I had 3 girls...good thing I just get to borrow Penny a few days a week to get my baby fix :)

Soaking up summer

 I am grateful that June has been so fabulous here in Oregon, it's making it so much easier to soak in all the summer stuff we want to do, especially since this marks the countdown to Bria entering school which will be a big change for us.

We are so use to having no limitations on vacations, now we will be among the mass and vacationing whenever school is out.

 We are visiting parks daily and sunscreening up our Oregon pal skin, lightening up our winter dark hair, and building our flip flop calluses. It's heavenly.
As much as Bria enjoys playing outside, she has always loved imaginary play and recently started getting a lot more into crafts. Just this morning she wanted to make Reese a birthday hat...

Birthday hat and carrots, what more could you ask for?

Reese's birthday isn't for a few months, but Bria was insistent on throwing a birthday party and Reese happily volunteered.
This weekend is a pretty eventful one as we are headed down to Albany/corvallis for Lance's graduation!!!! The second Beaver graduate in our family and I am over the moon excited. Cannot wait to watch him walk and receive the all coveted college diploma. Pretty proud big sister right here.

Swimming

My friend, Randi, has a pretty great pool and have welcomed us to come enjoy it any time. The girls LOVE swimming so they get pretty excited when I tell them it's a swim day :)

They heat their pool to a nice 80 degrees so even if it's not hot outside, we stay warm in the pool.

One day I braved it and took all 3 girls (Penny included), usually I like to go on a day I don't have Penny so I can relax a little, although who am I kidding? Swimming with kids is just no where near as relaxing as pre-motherhood pool lounging. It's still pretty fun though.

They all fought over who got to push Penny around

Bria spends more time under water then above it.

Lunch time!

The two littles

Pretty awesome pool!

My little fishy

Chillaxin

Not only do we get to enjoy their pool, but the Buell's have a neighborhood pool they invited us too, and Penny's family has a neighborhood pool as well. Pretty excited we have some swimming places to go to this summer, my girls live for the water!

Nighttime trained

Reese has been potty trained for a year now which I love of course. She has been wearing pull-ups at night which we refer to as her night time underwear, NOT a diaper :)

Anyway, she was starting to stay dry about half the time so we decided she was ready for regular underwear at night. So we of course take her to the bathroom before bedtime around 7:30 pm and then when Brian and I went to bed (usually around 10:30 pm or so) we would take her again. She us dead asleep when we go to take her and barely wakes up, but goes potty and then snuggles back into her bed and drifts off to sleep and stays dry all night long. It's been a week of complete dryness! 

Awesome sauce.

Last weekend we had some fun visitors stay a night. Brian's coworker and his family are moving back from Japan to New York and stopped by Oregon to get cars and drive across the country. Bria was so excited to see Liam and Cloey!

Sweet Cloey girl (she will be 4 in August)

Going for a walk

Silly Liam

We had a great time visiting with them. They stayed in a hotel this whole week and will be leaving tomorrow so we get to have one more BBQ with them tonight.

My girls are going through a bit of a fighting and screaming phase and I'm about to pull my hair out. I really, strongly dislike the screaming and fighting. And I probably don't help matters when I yell but seriously, how are they going to hear me if I talk normal? Their screaming reaches the next street. Ugh. Ready for this next phase of loving sisters to appear.

Reese and Penny playing dress up

We've had a pretty low key week and will get to enjoy one more before all Bria's activities start. She's doing soccer, swimming and tap dance lessons. Plus, we are headed down to Albany next weekend for Lance's graduation party (another Beaver graduate, WAHOO!!!), then camping at the end of the month, and well it's going to get crazy summer up in here which is exciting.

I love her in a ponytail

For now we will enjoy the slow pace and do lots of swimming and park going.