This is nice

By "this" I mean, being a Mother of 2. This time around I am more confident and comfortable.

Reese is such a sweet girl and we love her to the moon and back. The transition from 1 to 2 kids has been a lot easier for me than from 0 to 1. I have been so much more relaxed and I have enjoyed the baby stage immensely.

With Bria I was so nervous and wondering if I was doing everything wrong that I didn't relax and just soak in the sweetness. Don't get me wrong, the baby stage can be hard. They can't communicate with you, their sleep is consistently inconsistent, and they need you for absolutely everything.

But it's also such a sweet phase. They are innocent, happy, and just want to be with you. I absolutely love the way Reese looks at me, it's a look of undying love and it makes my heart melt.

I don't have her on a strict schedule and when she isn't ready to go to bed I don't stress, instead I make her giggle and laugh and just cuddle her.

When her first tooth broke through I was excited but then really sad. That sweet gummy smile is going to change soon and that kills me. My baby isn't going to be a baby much longer and that makes me so sad.

I LOVE this picture, too bad it's blurry :(

I'm just glad that I have gotten to enjoy the baby stage this time around. Don't get me wrong, Bria was my first born and I did enjoy it, I was thrilled. I just stressed a lot and had a lot of anxiety which was hard. I also think it was hard being needed so much when I wasn't use to it. Now I love that Reese lights up when she sees me and always wants me to hold her. I'm relishing in it.

We sure love our girls.

School time

I've decided to start working on letters with Bria since she is having a hard time with them. I can't blame her, I haven't been teaching her in an interesting way so she has a hard time paying attention. She's known her ABC's for like 2 years and she can spell her name, but she can't identify all her letters.

I found an awesome website that has preschool lesson plans and I went to town. My goal was to do "school time" 3 days a week. Obviously not all day, but at some point in the day (while Reese is napping). You focus on one letter each week so they learn it really well and incorporate themes with it. I've had a lot of fun doing lesson plans on Sunday nights and doing little craft things. Bria is a cute little student and I will find her teaching her Jessie doll throughout the day. So far she knows A and B! C is next week :)

A is for Ark! She learned all about Noah's Ark and the rainbow

A is also for Apple, she made apples in the tree with paint and her thumb.

And this noodle necklace is just a fun craft we did :)

Noodle necklaces are the new thing

Sometimes while I am teaching Bria, this little cutie is hanging out:

She helped with B, B is for Baby!

I love how you can see my Bria Ballerina in the background

This is blurry because I thought she was falling and set the camera down, she wasn't though

My strong girl.

These days with my little girls are just flying by. I'm looking forward to the summer where we can spend lots of time outside playing.

Sisters

Almost 6 months ago our world changed, Reese Makena joined our family and we haven't been the same since.

I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed watching Reese and Bria's relationship deepen.

When we brought Reese home, Bria didn't want to share her at all. She didn't even like the Grandma's holding Reese, she wanted her all to herself!

Bria did so well adjusting and we were so proud of her. But then of course she started acting out. I don't know if it was the age or what, but she was ornery and did not listen very well at all. She was sleeping poorly (that also had to do with her being sick) and just being cranky and difficult. Fortunately, she didn't take it out on Reese and I am very grateful for that. I know it is hard adjusting to a baby in the house and things feel different, especially for a 3 year old.

But the last two months or so Bria has been AMAZING. She is so incredibly helpful with Reese and just so sweet to her. She baby talks to her all the time and Reese just eats it up. Bria will get her toys, sing to her, read to her, and talk to her. It is the most precious thing in the world.

Now I understand why people make such a big deal when their kids get along, it is almost magical to see that love and connection. So wonderful.

Bria thought Reese needed a headband on :)

And Reese, oh she just thinks Bria is the bees knees. She is so entertained by her big sister, she just smiles and squeals and giggles at everything Bria does.

One of her favorite things to do is lay in Bria's bed with her (video below). She gets the biggest smile on her face when I lay her down next to Bria. Bria always asks if Reese can sleep in bed with her and I love it. I tell her when Reese gets older she can...let's hope Bria still wants her to at that point!

"Oh boy, Mom's got the camera out again. Just smile Reese, it'll be over soon."

Reese is a lucky girl to have such an amazing big sister like Bria.

Smiles before our walk to the park :)

I think Reese knows how cool Bria is :)

My girls laying in Bria's bed together:

Pinterest has made me awesome

We had such a great weekend, it was been kind of busy though which is hilarious to me considering we didn't have plans until the weekend actually started.

• Friday night I went out with the girls (my moms club friends) to a Mexican restaurant for margaritas.
• Saturday we (me, Brian and the girls) went for a walk, my friend Tiffanie and I went home decor shopping, and then we had some friends over for dinner.
• Sunday morning I had coffee with my girlfriends (I did a lot of me stuff this weekend, Brian is super Dad, super husband, and super awesome) then we played in the backyard as a family (yay for sun!) and Brian went shooting with a buddy.

Phew, that's a lot to do in 2 days with 2 kids!

As you can tell I've been pretty active with my Moms club and I'm enjoying it so much. It has been a long time since I've had such great girlfriends and I've missed it immensely. It makes a huge difference when you have girls to talk to and vent with and do all the things guys would rather not do :) I'm very grateful for my girlfriends, I think I'll have to do a little post dedicated to them and their coolness.

Another thing I've been doing lately is Pinterest. You've heard about it right? If not, you must go learn all about it because it's life changing. haha. No seriously, it is. I've gotten all sorts of crafty and I am loving it. I am doing more craft stuff with Bria, more crafty decor (yay for saving money!), and even cooking a little more (not sure Brian loves this since he prefers mac 'n cheese but whatevs).

Do you want to see some of my new stuff?

Ok :)

I'm pretending you said yes.

This is a fun project I did for Reese's room. Butterfly footprints. Not only is it adorable art, but now I have the girls footprints :)

Little Reese's feet

And Bria's :)

I got this little picture from a blogger giving out free printables and then framed it. That awesome yellow vase use to be clear (dollar store, holla!) and I painted it yellow. Thanks pinterest, my husband was super impressed with me and my skills. Can't blame him. ;)

Our room is black/white/grey/yellow so it fit perfectly.

My super awesome cousin Lanie printed this off for me and I just happened to have a frame that worked perfectly. It's on the other side of our window in the bedroom and I can't tell you how much I love it. I love it to the moon and back. haha. I'm so corny.

But seriously, I love this because we say this to Bria all the time.

I've mentioned how I'm getting crafty and organizing toys and stuff. Well, since our kitchen has so much storage I turned a lower cupboard into a craft cupboard:

One day when we own a house I'm going to put shelves in the playroom and these will all be lined up.

This perty shelf system is from Ikea. The super adorable polka dot bins? Target. Clearance.

So yeah, I'm feeling like I may actually have a little bit of craftiness in me after all.

Photo-shoot time

Now that we have a good camera (thanks Heather!) I need to be better about doing photo-shoots with the girls because I always cherish the pictures. Well, I cherish every picture but photo-shoots force you to capture that age a little better.

So I grabbed Reese the other evening and did a little photo-shoot. She was pretty tired because she only had two short naps, that didn't mean she was cranky. It just meant I didn't get my smiley pictures!

"What did you put on my head Mother?"

So, we're gonna do round 2 soon, but for now I'm still happy with these pictures. Plus it was fun just to play around with the camera and with iPhoto :)

"Ooooh!"

"Throw your hands in the air, hands hands in the air!"

Precious.

Bria's like me...

...she can quote movies like it's nobody's business:

First watch this:

Then watch Bria replicate it :)

Cough cough

It seems we are still recovering from our horrible colds. Is that possible?! Reese still coughs at night, like a lot, and during the day, her nose is still a little runny, and Bria's nose runs too. What the heck? Oh, and Brian has another cold. Maybe by summer we will get rid of all this stuff?

Reese is still growing fast though. She has found her feet and loves grabbing them. She's getting better at sitting by herself and just started making the "bah" noise (video at the end). It's so adorable and we love hearing her talk.
She is such a sweet little thing, I always get comments on what a good baby she is. She just goes with the flow and I love that. I hope she is always this way :)

She shocked me this morning when she put my finger in her mouth (that is a daily thing) and I felt a sharp tooth. AHHHHHHH! Her first tooth broke through at 5 1/2 months, oh my goodness! Brian and I were in shock for like an hour which seems silly, it's just a tooth. But it's just further proof she is growing up way too fast for us. My little baby isn't going to be a baby forever? What?!

Bria has been sweet as pie lately, I love it. I let her paint her own toenails and then mine the other day. I've been trying really hard to let go of my aversion to messes and let Bria do things on her own. It's hard, but I can see such a difference in Bria, she has more confidence and enjoys doing things herself. I was actually quite impressed by her work:

I mean, she may not be ready to graduate from beauty school yet, but it's good for a 3 year old!

We just had Bria's 3 year appointment last week and it went awesome! She is a superstar and acing all the little 3 year old stuff. Her doctor was especially impressed by her vocabulary and talking in general. She also said, "Watch out, she's smart which will make the 3's a challenging age!" Oh goody, thanks doc ;) She scored superb on all her skills, motor, vocab, etc.

Bria has some pretty extreme eczema on her inner elbows and hands/wrists. Her cheeks have a little bit too. Dr. Sara gave us a prescription for a steroid cream that will help get rid of it, I'm so happy about that because we've been battling that for months. Hopefully we just have to use it for two weeks and then Eucerin will do the trick after that, or Vaseline.

I was all into figuring out a remedy for Bria's eczema that I completely forgot to ask what percentile she was in for height, so I'm going to find a chart and line and see. I even forget how many inches she was, but I do know she was 30.6 pounds.

After the appointment I took the girls out to lunch at Baja Fresh with my friend Tiffanie and her daughter Makenzie. They were little angels and it was really nice. We even braved going to Marshalls since it was in the same little shopping center. It was a fun little excursion.

Reese talking: