Girlie

During naptime/quiet time one day, Bria came out of my room (sometimes I let her go in our room as a treat) and said she had gotten all ready for her date night and looked pretty like me. 

My heart melted.

She had put lipstick on, jewelry, and my heels. Love it!

FABULOUSSSS!!

 It's been awhile since I've done an update on what Bria is doing these days so I will try to jot a few things down.

• Definitely becoming more independent, she buckles herself in the car (sooo convenient!) and refuses help...even when she is having a hard time and getting frustrated. 
• Listens and obeys...this comes with the stipulation that she is 4, so she does have her moments, but for the most part she does what we tell her and I am very thankful for that, it makes things a lot easier

•  Loves making new friends, she makes friends everywhere she goes and it's so fun to see her be outgoing. I'll have to ask my Mom but I'm pretty sure I was shy.
• Can show signs of ADD with how random she is, especially when she is with her friends and can't seem to focus, I think she gets too excited!

• Is so sweet with Reese (most the time) and is willing to help, she also does almost anything to avoid Reese crying, even if it means giving up a toy...Reese has her wrapped around her finger!
• Favorites: imaginary play with little figurines (usually princesses), watching Justin Time and Little Lulu (an OLD Disney thing, she is obsessed), her pink blanket (of course), being scratched, playing with friends (namely, the Buell boys and Bristol), and family movie nights.  

She has such a personality and we always look forward to what crazy things she is going to do and say next :)

Bucket 'o strawberries

Last week was the Rose Festival parade in Portland and even though Brian was going to be gone (drove down south for a funeral) that day I really wanted to take the girls. Fate was on my side because not only did Marna come up and stay the night (yay for date nights!), Amanda generously shared tickets with us to a personal grandstand area with free food and stadium seating. 

I'm not very good at confidently navigating my way in downtown Portland and trying to find parking, so we took the Max (train)!

They really were thrilled, they just didn't know I snapped the picture

 The stop we get on the train is perfect, it's almost empty and we have our choice of seats. Slowly but surely it fills up, and fill up it did. I wish I took a picture of how crowded it was. Let's just say that is the only time you can't have a bubble when it comes to strangers.

Still happy though

 It's about an hour ride into Portland and I wasn't 100% sure where to get off, I asked some people that seemed to know the area better and they offered their advice. It was very nice, but I wish I would've listened to myself and gone with my gut because we got off about 5 stops too early...on the wrong side of the river. I realized this about 2 minutes after getting off the max so we had to wait for the next one. Finally it comes, we get off on the right one and I am still a little lost. We asked, they answered, we walked and finally found it.
The first thing we did when we got in was get the girls ice cream. They deserved it 1,000 times over. I could not believe how good they were through the whole ordeal, they were seriously a dream, patient and quiet and fabulous.
Reese promptly made a ginormous mess with her cone (at least I was smart enough to get her vanilla) but I didn't even care, she deserved a treat.

Reese loves her 'Manda

We had fun and the girls loved the parade. It helped that the Buell boys were there and Grammy, it's always nice to have so much help!

On Sunday Heather had a great idea to go pick strawberries at this festival, the girls had a ton of fun.

Ridin' the pig

 

Reese was hamming it up for everyone on the hay ride

We got a huge bucket of strawberries and oh my they are delicious!! I froze a bunch of them and have been munching on the rest, apparently I am the only one who likes strawberries in my household. I thought Reese did but she is on a strawberry strike currently...and anything that isn't milk or crackers, grrr.
So yeah, it was a great weekend jam packed with fun.

It was sunny...

...for a little while. Now it's back to rain so lets reminisce about the time when it was hot and fabulous. We made sure to take naked baths outside on the big blue bin:

 And get donuts with our friends:

 Brian and I went to a BBQ with friends and had a smashing good time :)

Now we are counting down the days until Vegas (it's in the triple digits there, yikes!) and then Iowa.

Catch up

I need to play catch up on this blog, I keep falling behind! 

Last week Bria had her last ballet class.

 She loved it and we will do another dance class, but I think the next activity will be swim lessons, for both girls. We need to get Reese in the water more, she is definitely timid.
Later that day we went and got Bristol for a sleepover! Bria was of course thrilled and couldn't wait.

Putting on a concert

Reese wanted to be like them :)

 When Brian got home we took them to a park with a splash pad and they had a blast.

 After we got ice cream...

 ...Bristol got strawberry flavored and Bria just couldn't understand why she wanted that, haha. My fruit hater!

All ready for bed!

 Bria is already asking for the next sleepover :)

Peas

I was starting to lose hope that our peas were going to produce...beans. This photo was taken May 6th:

And this was taken yesterday:

 They have grown a TON! But we weren't seeing any peas, it kept growing up and out but no blossoms or any sign that eventually we would be able to eat peas from it. Until yesterday...we have a few buds that aren't just leaves, they are flowers where the peas will come from. YAY!!!!! I'm pretty ecstatic.
Our carrots are doing pretty well, but I'm just judging that from the green stems and the fact that they are getting taller, hopefully the actual carrot is growing beneath the soil.
I had to snap this picture of Bria:

 She's chillin', reading Star Wars...naked. I think her future husband will appreciate this picture.
Amanda introduced us to a new/fixed up park in our town and yesterday I took the girls there to enjoy the splash pad.

 Apparently the word hasn't gotten around because we were the ONLY ones there. Which was totally fine with me, it was relaxing and enjoyable :)

 Not to mention we had a blast running in the water, well Bria and I did, Reese stuck her finger in. She isn't really my water baby :)
But she is my sweet sleeper!

Her naps have been from 1-5 lately!!! Unreal.

My oldest with her friends, Kenzie and Sophie.

I'm obsessed with baby feet

 Today we are getting ready for a sleepover! Bristol is coming over and the girls get to have another sleepover, they are so spoiled. We are just trying to soak up every bit of them before they move.

Best laugh

I seriously love her laugh, can't get enough of it!

My girls love cuddling

Love Reese's cheese face in this picture :)

And no, we did not plan the stripes, we are just cool like that.
Reese loves Bennett, and since she can't pronounce it correctly he is lovingly nicknamed butt :)

My girls are aggressive when it comes to guys!

This weekend we headed down to Albany for Kayla's graduation party. I cannot express how proud I am of her, it is such a huge accomplishment to finish college. Not only that but she did it in 4 years while working, dating a military man, planning a wedding, getting married, and still making time for family and friends. She is nothing short of amazing. Welcome to the OSU Alumni club Kayla!!

Lance and Kayla, adorable

 They had a bunch of fun games set up and the weather was fabulous. Bria is now obsessed with badminton, which she refers to as goodminton.

My girls and I in a rousing game

Kayla and Bria

It was a lot of fun and a perfect end to our weekend. On the way home we stopped and got Blizzards, it was simply divine!