Get ready tooth fairy...it's happening!!!

Bria has a loose tooth! Can't believe it's here, the time where teeth start falling out and the tooth fairy brings money in the middle of the night...

So far Bria is excited, but when she bit into an apple she freaked out. I think when the time comes to actually pull it out she is not going to be as excited. Praying we can make this first tooth experience a good one to set the standard for the rest. 

We have had a pretty decent winter. Mountain goers are not liking it but it's not so bad here in the valley to have it a bit warmer.

60 degree day in January? I'll take it!

 I've mentioned that Reese rarely naps these days, and that means when 4 pm rolls around she is pretty tired. Her and I were running errands and she nearly fell asleep as I pulled into the garage, so I set her on the couch and she requested some tv. As I was getting the tv set up I turned around to this:

 Apparently I was taking too long.

Have I mentioned how much my girls love their Penny?

 And they also request I take their pictures all day so they can look at themselves.
I have no idea where they get that from.

Sister my sister

 At times these two fight like no other, but that is normal when you spend 95% of your time with someone. However, I don't want my mind to always focus on the fighting. Funny how the negative stands out so much in our minds...

 No, I want to focus on the love between these sisters. Honestly, there are days were they play so well together that I don't even have to entertain them. They call each other best friends, stick up for each other when one gets in trouble, help each other find something, or just lay side by side watching the iPad.

Currently they are into playing princesses with Bria's dollhouse and taking turns being a dog. They love singing and dancing and putting on shows for us.

Everytime Bria gets off the bus from school, Reese opens her arms big and they embrace in the sweetest little sister hug you ever did see.
If I bring Reese to school for some reason, Bria introduces her to all her friends and brags about her cute sister. Then she tells me how much she loves when I bring Reese so she can introduce her to everybody.
I love how different they are...despite the parenting challenges that brings. Bria is my sensitive, thoughtful, and dramatic child where Reese is a goofball, independent, and cuddly. Actually, they are both cuddly but Reese spends a majority of her day trying to crawl on people and squeeze them to death. I call it cuddling :)
This is why I love having girls so much. When people hear that we have two girls, without a doubt they always ask, "Going to try for a boy?" I don't get all sensitive because I guess it's a valid question, but nope to the no. If we would have been blessed with a boy, we would've been thrilled to death, but no part of us is remotely sad or incomplete because we didn't have a boy. Truly and honestly, we LOVE having two little girls...yes they are dramatic and emotional and change their minds constantly, but we embrace it and love it!!
Plus, we get a boy fix with all our adorable nephews :)

Piling on the activities

This picture has nothing to do with this post other than to show Wreck it Reese is a real person...Off with their heads!

 I have started piling on the activities for the girls. I'm sure I'm crazy for it but I think it's so good for all of us. This time of year limits the amount of time we can be outside so we all go a little stir crazy. I thought if I had plenty of activities signed up for then we would stay sane...for the most part ;)

So, here is what we have:
Monday: Swim lessons
Wednesday: Swim lessons, Jump Rope club (after school club for Bria, SO CUTE!)

Learning the 'ropes' haha, get it? I'm hilarious. 

 Thursday: Reese-gymnastics, Bria-Zumba
And starting in February Bria will have a Science program after school on Thursdays.
So yeah, it's a lot, but it is so nice to have places to go and things to do. As much as we enjoy being home, we tend to get on each other's nerves so it's best if we stay busy part of the week.

My favorite way to do the girls' hair these days

My little gymnast!

Snacking while Bria is in Zumba

 *The room that Zumba is in doesn't have windows so I can't peak in very well :(

I've also been trying to run more since I jumped off that bandwagon awhile ago. I got discouraged with it for awhile and now that I'm eating healthy I am more motivated to run in order to FEEL good.
Reese loves it because we run to the park :)

Winter days at the zoo

I LOVE having a zoo membership. It's super convenient and any time we are feeling cooped up we can head over to see what all the animals are doing.
Nate and Amy were taking Charlotte for her very first time so we jumped on the chance to go with them. Bria and Reese enjoyed being the tour guides and promptly opened their maps. Just like any good tour guide, Bria showed us the restrooms first.

Charlotte loving it!

Charlotte had a fabulous time and was all smiles.

We wore these kiddos out...usually we go to a few animals since it's a lot of walking, but we couldn't skimp for Charlotte's first zoo experience. So all over we went!

And we ended our fabulous zoo trip with an elephant ear. Of course, I'm still in the middle of the whole  30 so I just salivated as I broke pieces off for the girls.
I was informed that Charlotte passed out afterwards for 2.5 hours so mission accomplished! .,

Baby cuddles

We went down to Albany this weekend for a sibling date night...turns out sickness got most of my siblings so it ended up being a Holcomb and Armstrong weekend! Lots of Ames cuddling ensued...and picture taking...

"Another picture Aunt Lulu?"

Big strong boy!

"I lub naked time!"

The girls had fun playing with his toys and attempting to touch him every chance they could. So we shipped off to Grandpa and Grandma's house for the evening, sleepover at Grandparents house are the best! While the girls were soaking up love and candy, we went to the movies, American Sniper. So good, so sad, so worth it.

Always love a weekend with family :)

Reminiscing

Brian and I were talking about how fun it is to go back and look at old blog posts. It's fun to see the girls as babies and to see what our day to day looked like. At each phase of parenthood you kind of think it will last this way forever, good or bad. You can't see an end to the early morning wake up calls even on the weekends, or the bed time that mysteriously drags on by your wise 5 year old. You also believe that your kids will forever be ecstatic when you walk in the door from being gone (whether it was 10 minutes or all day, you get the big hugs that say, "I missed you more than life!") or always want to spend time with you.

Blogging has been my way of holding onto those moments that don't actually last, even though we believe they will when going through them. 

While I haven't been the best blogger lately, I will keep going because it has been such a great way for me to journal. And to share our life with family we don't see everyday.

There is no point to my rant, just thought I would share what was in my head :)

Speaking of reminiscing, how did this cutie:

...turn into this young girl?!

Mind blowing!

And also, my little sister had her first cheerleading competition. Sheesh, I'm feeling really old. She did awesome and I was so happy with how the cheerleading program is still doing so well at good ole' West A :)

Reese with Kailey, cheering Aunt Abby on!

Reese and Jax, is there anything cuter than tiny tots holding hands?!

So proud of you Abby! Can't wait for more competitions!

Yep, I totally made a huge sign for her, she was appreciative and embarrassed at the same time, mission accomplished!

And with that, goodnight!

The week after...

The week after Christmas included some downtime and some busy work. Brian didn't have to go to work much which made it feel like a family vacation and the girls and I really enjoyed it. 

We helped celebrate Charlotte's big first birthday!!! Nate and Amy went all out for their little girl and we were excited to spoil this sweet little girl. 

Bria was obsessed with "helping" Charlotte open presents :)

The parents and their 1 year old!

 We also did some of this at times...

 ...and this...

Taken at Ikea :)

 Then New Year's Eve came and we went to Scott and Randi's for our traditional friend's New Year's Eve party, we made it until 10:30 pm this year which is super late!

Girls and I in the car waiting while Brian picked up the Buffalo Wild Wings, yum!

All our sweet kids!

 

Me, Tiff, Amanda, and Randi

 There was even a little performance!

 And of course some selfies...

These two can be pretty cute together when they get along!

The hubbies, and Scott's oldest son, Jake.

Charleigh and Reese nearly passed out, poor babies were exhausted

We went home and put our exhausted kids to bed at 11 pm then we stayed up until midnight, kissed, ate lentils and went to bed. We are crazy! :)

This week has been so busy. In addition to having sweet Penny here, school started back up, swim lessons started back up (twice a week), I volunteered at Bria's class on Wednesday, Reese had gymnastics on Thursday, and I'm helping in Bria's class again on Friday. All that plus Brian and I started doing Whole30...which I will explain later because it's awesome and life changing. We are completely changing the way we eat for the better and it feels really good.
Anyway, I'm ready for a relaxing weekend and a little breather!
Here are some pictures to catch up the grandparents:

My little pot belly gymnast!

Starbucks family date

 I went down and saw this sweet face:

Blue steel like whoa

"Oooh, good point. Milk it is."

 And this girl is getting so big...

"Come on Lulu, let's go!"

Bria and her handsome Weston

Cuties!

Love her

 And a perfect way to end this post, goodnight!