Sleeping beauties

I have all these amazing posts in my head but I can't seem to find the time to sit down and write them out. So I just don't post at all.

But I at least need to add pictures so grandparents and aunts and uncles can see the girls and possibly hear a little about what we are up to.

The fall weather has officially arrived and on Wednesday it poured nonstop. That is not an exaggeration. It wasn't just rain, it was heavy downpour ALL DAY LONG. So the cabin fever season has started for sure. 

School continues to go well for Bria and both girls are enjoying their swim lessons. Reese is definitely more timid and doesn't like her face in the water but her teacher is very patient and Reese does get better at every lesson. 

Sweet little Reese waiting patiently in line to jump in

Bria is learning the side breathing technique and is doing well. I think backstroke might be her favorite. I was telling her that she is a better swimmer than I am and she asked if I didn't listen to my swim teacher when I was little. :)

I think after this session of swim lessons are over I will put Reese in gymnastics, I want to try a few different activities to see what she is interested in. 

I will sign Bria up for more swim lessons and possibly add karate or something. 

Brian is busy with work but enjoying it. He is always working on special projects outside of his normal job, I admire his constant ambition and drive to make things better. It's quite impressive.

Things with me are good, I enjoy when I get the chance to volunteer in Bria's class. I get to work with reading groups which is a lot of fun and I like getting to know the other kids. After that I make copies and help her teacher with special projects. I might be weird but that kind of stuff is so much fun to me.

And one of my favorite parts of the evening is checking on my sleeping girls before bed...

Seriously, she is dead asleep. Have no fear, I took it off her head after I snapped the pic.

And I have to include a few cute ones of our little Penelope Josephine!

First time facing forward in our car and she was thrilled

Mischievous girl for sure!

Reese and Penny giving hugs

This week has seemed really long and for some reason kind of rough. Nothing specific but just one of those weeks where everything seems difficult and your children are testing your patience constantly. So, today I want to start our weekend off right. I'm taking my girls to Starbucks for a hot chocolate treat, then to the Dollar Store because I have to get stuff for Bria's Halloween party at school. Then after school the girls and I are going to see Box Trolls! Hoping this helps us bond and fills our love tanks :)

Tomorrow Grammy is coming up! She is staying the night so that Brian and I can go to a Halloween party. The girls are looking forward to some Grammy time and we are going to do some fun Halloween activities while she is here.
Also, Bria got invited to a Halloween party by her friend that she rides the bus with. She is also in Kindergarten but full day so they aren't in the same class. Anyway, Bria is so excited!!
It should be a good weekend!

Pumpkins

We made it to a pumpkin path and apple orchard last week, wahoo! That definitely made it feel like fall.

 First we went to an apple orchard with Randi and her girls...

 Her "thumbs up" thing was new :)

The girls ran around like crazy. Went all through the maze, jumped in the bouncy apple house, drank apple cider, ate apples that were ginormous, and just had a blast together.

 Randi and I got to sip on some warm cider and catch up on life...now that school has started we barely see each other so it was nice to get caught up on everything.

Last weekend we went to a pumpkin patch and invited Lance and Kayla to join us. We felt it was very necessary to introduce them to the world of pumpkin patches since that will be their life very soon :)

 The girls picked out their pumpkins, Bria found hers right away and didn't waiver.

 Reese on the other hand, made us walk all over to find the perfect one. Picky little thang ;)

 The girls played some games and went on the playground, then we headed home for some adult cider and relaxing :)

Run, Bria, Run!

I remember in elementary school being so excited for our annual jog-a-thon. Well now my oldest got to experience her very own and she was pretty excited about it. The school did a great job of getting the kids motivated and making it a lot of fun. 

All pumped and ready to start

Aunt Heather is so sweet and came to support her niece, while also taking care of Reese the whole time. Reese didn't want Aunt Heather to put her down and nearly fell asleep :)

Such a cutie

Marking off another lap

The track was pretty big so I was proud that Bria never got discouraged, she kept on running.

They only have them run for about 20 minutes and they just run as many as they can in that time. I think it was a perfect amount of time for the kids as some of them looked pretty exhausted :)

Hopefully it raised a lot of money to help support the school!

This, that, and the other

October is flying by just like September seemed too and we are getting into a pretty awesome groove. 

My days when I have Penny are definitely busier but the girls and I adore her so it's definitely a good busy. She is at the really fun stage right now where she is pretty content and go with the flow, no opinion yet :)

Speaking of Penny, is she not the sweetest?

Pure adorableness!

 In the morning we get up and the girls watch a little TV first thing, I think of it as their version of coffee because it helps them wake up. While they are doing that I drink my coffee and cuddle with them.
Then we do breakfast, play, and get ready for the day. We try to do some outside time as well and so far the weather has allowed it. Some days we do errands or go to the library, then we come back home for lunch. After that it's time for Bria to catch the bus and go to school!

 Once she is safely on the bus, Reese and I enjoy going for a walk/scooter ride.

 Reese and I do something together whether it's playing or running errands and then she goes to her room for quiet time. That's right, this little bugga' face rarely takes nap and prefers to just have quiet time...in which she completely destroys her room. It's like a tornado and bomb have gone off in there. Every.Day.

Either way, we each get a little alone time and we are both energized and ready to take on the afternoon...mostly ;)
When Bria gets home the girls get a snack and then we talk about school. They get to watch a little more TV to help get over that late afternoon hump, am I right? Then we do homework with Bria, then dinner, and the rest of our evening.
So that's us and our week for the most part. We did just start swim lessons this week and that is twice a week. I think it'll work out perfect, it's nice to have another activity to keep the girls busy so we don't get antsy. By the weekend we are ready to veg out!!

5 1/2

I was a little late in getting Bria in for her 5 year check up, mainly because she is all caught up on her shots so I wasn't in a hurry.

Once she learned there were no shots she couldn't wait to go. 

 She is now 44 1/2 inches tall!! According to their predictor chart she will be about 5'5! I don't know how that thing works or how accurate it is, but it has something to do with the fact that she is currently in the 60th percentile for height. I was not surprised that she will be passing me in height. :)

 Her eyes and ears checked out fine and all is well.

Bria is quite the amazing little girl, I know I am bias and that's okay. We were reading a book the other day and it was talking about how God gives everyone special talents so we were discussing what she though hers were. She said being helpful and kind. I agree kiddo. I rely on her a lot through out the day for help and she is always willing to, in fact there are a lot of times where she randomly asks what she can do to help. Her preference is to help in the kitchen so when I tell her to clean her room I get the normal kid reaction of, "Ugh!"
Bria feels so deeply. I think I wrote about her hypersensitivity awhile back and that is definitely a trait. When she is happy she is HAPPY and crazy and beaming and nearly shaking from excitement. When she is sad, she cries and cries and can barely talk. When she is frustrated she screams and is hard to calm down. When she notices others are sad she takes that burden on.

The other day she came and sat with me on the couch with small tears in her eyes saying how she didn't want to hurt our feelings. There was no incident she was speaking of, she said she just didn't want to see our faces when she hurt our feelings. She continued crying and I felt so bad. We talked through it and eventually she felt better, but that is a pretty normal conversation to have with Bria.
Her vocabulary is very fun to listen to and I'm impressed at the words she uses at times: nuisance, delightful, distinguished, etc.
One evening her and Reese were playing with Brian and Bria apparently felt left out and came out crying to me. We sat on the bed and talked about her feelings and she said, "I'm so sad, Daddy replaced me in his heart with Reese!!" When I told Brian that he about cried. We consoled her quite a bit and got her to feel better. But it shocked me how she described what she felt was happening.

So grateful for my sweet Bria and her ability to tell us her feelings :)

Welcoming the rain...which, like, never happens.

We don't have AC and it's been a hot freaking summer so when the rain came for a few days we welcomed it with open arms and rain boots.

 The girls were more excited to go puddle stomping than to run in the sprinklers in the summer.

 And with fall weather upon us, it called for a Starbucks date with my youngest while Bria was at school. Reese got a much deserved cake pop:

 We also went to Target and Old Navy to walk around and she seemed to have a blast. I loved not having anywhere to be and being able to just let her lead the way.
Also, I got to wear these beauties and that was pretty exciting...

Bria has been doing really well in school in seems, I guess I should wait until after conferences to confirm that ;) But she seems to enjoy it and does a pretty good job of relaying her day and most of the stuff they do. I think she is really excited to read and loves when she recognizes words while we are reading books. Looking forward to seeing her progress.

Waiting for the bus

So excited for school!

Happy 3 years of life my little baby!!

We celebrated Reese's 3rd birthday on the 21st of this month.
It was a day filled with family and cupcakes and presents...perfect for a three year old.  Grammy hosted a beautiful outdoor party for her where we all got to enjoy the weather and each other.
As I looked around the table at all these family members there to support our little girl, it reminded me of that amazing day 3 years ago that she came into our lives.

Our sweet Reese's pieces woke me up around 2am with a contraction and by 6:13 am she had made her debut. Brian and I looked at each other for the next few hours because we could not believe that just happened. Our family raced to our side to help however they could and couldn't wait to drive up and cuddle the newest addition.

So you can probably understand why I was a little nostalgic as I pictured my brand new baby in my head, the one that looked like this:

...and now I was looking across the table at this little girl:

 When did this all happen? When did my little newborn who constantly wanted to be held and cuddled...turn into this feisty and spunky 3 year old who still wants to be cuddled and held?

 She has been talking about her birthday for the last 10 months and when it finally came she got all shy.

Despite her hiding behind us during the song, she enjoyed herself immensely and had quite a few treats.

Reese,

My sweet girl, you have brought so much joy and laughter to our little world. You are always ready to have fun, even if it's at your sisters' expense. Your laugh is just the cutest. I wish I could explain it, but it's too cute to even describe. Never lose that sweet belly laugh!
You are becoming quite independent and demand you put your shoes on by yourself even if you're screaming and getting frustrated because they won't go on...because you're trying to put them on the wrong feet.
A few nights a week you find your way into our bed in the middle of the night, sometimes I let you stay there for a few hours to get in some extra cuddles until I finally move you back to your room because you have managed to take up the whole bed.
You love playing dress up and currently your favorite thing to do is pretend to be a dog. I'm going to be honest, it's not my favorite but fortunately Bria likes it.
You and your Dad get so goofy it can drive me crazy at times, but I do love that bond you guys have always had. You both have a mischievous grin and wild sense of humor that you have people laughing (sometimes nervous laughter) wherever you go.
You adore dogs. ADORE. Any time you see one you say in the cutest baby voice, "Oh sweet puppy you're so cute!" We are trying to teach you to be a little more timid around dogs to prevent you ever getting attacked by one. I do love that you assume all are loving though.
Bria has started school and at first you were pretty sad but I think you are adjusting nicely. You're excited for when you finally get to go to school.
Reese, I love you so much. Sometimes when I hug you I don't want to let go. You request cuddles on the couch daily and it's so precious. Please always be confident in who you are and know you will forever and always be loved by your Father and myself.

Love you Forever Reese,
Your Mom