2 Years Old

Newborn Bria

1 year old Bria

2 year old Bria

The last 2 years of our lives have been flipped upside down, shaken, and stirred. I think back to the first couple weeks of Bria's life and remember how scared I was. Scared that something was going to happen to her, scared that I wasn't doing things right, scared that we'd never sleep again, scared that she would always cry, scared that I was a horrible mom.

But I also remember being completely and utterly enamored with our precious newborn baby. She was part Brian, part me, and 100% amazing. I was obsessed with watching her every second of the day, which is why we rarely left Bria with anybody, I thought it was my responsibility to know what she did every minute of the day. I didn't want to miss a thing. I remember her very first laugh, Brian and I thought it was the most magical sound we had ever heard and from then on it was our mission to hear that laugh as much as possible.

I remember that first summer with her and how I spent many of my days in the living room with her on a blanket while she talked and played. Sometimes we'd go in the backyard and she'd sit on a blanket out there and laugh while MJ ran around like a crazy dog.

Time kept flying by as we got to bring her to her first Beaver tailgator and dress her up in orange and black, we loved showing her off. Then came her first Christmas and I could barely sleep I was so excited. I loved watching her "open" presents and play with the tissue paper for long periods of time before realizing there was a toy in there.

Then came her first birthday. Such a huge milestone, we made it through the first year of parenthood! Bria wasn't quite walking yet and still didn't have much hair, but her blue eyes and big belly were irresistible. I remember thinking how smart she was (such a mom!) and so proud of my little girl.

Her second summer we went to the park a lot more and went swimming a lot too. Her hair turned even more blond and her skin a beautiful brown. I liked that she finally had a routine, she was taking 1 nap a day and sleeping for almost 2 hours. She always slept well at night (besides teething and sickness) and I was so grateful for that. It was a great summer and I felt confident as a Mom and loved the age she was at, she learned so much everyday and was talking up a storm. I loved that we could communicate with each other.

We made our big move up to Portland shortly after summer ended and it took awhile to adjust. Bria's second Christmas was a lot of fun and it was a blast watching her open presents. She didn't take a nap for 3 days straight and although it stressed me out (what's new) she did great. She loved all her presents and the next week was spent breaking them all in.

Now here we are, celebrating her 2nd birthday and I cannot even imagine what this next year of her life will bring for us.

To say Bria is the light of our world is an understatement. We absolutely adore her and kiss her constantly. She makes us laugh all the time with her animated expressions and crazy quotes. I'm not sure I've ever seen a little girl be so dramatic at such a young age. When she is happy she is beyond silly and she lights up a room. When she is sad/mad she is on the ground acting like the whole world is coming to an end. I guess I would be to blame for her dramatic ways, oops.

I am so genuinely proud of my daughter, she is so caring and grateful and I am just so incredibly proud of who she is. I love Bria so much and can't thank God enough for sending her to us, she is our biggest blessing and we love her to the moon and back.

Happy 2nd birthday my sweet Bria girl.

I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always,

as long as I'm living

my baby you'll be.

Fairies

Hallelujah for a 3 day weekend! We are just getting things ready for Bria's big party tomorrow. Her actual birthday is Sunday so I think Brian and I will take her out somewhere and just make it an extra special day all about her. Hopefully it's sunny and then we can take her to the park, she would love that.

If you didn't hear, Obama came to Intel, the very Intel campus that Brian works at. Unfortunately Brian didn't get tickets to attend, but he was able to go in a conference room nearby and watch on monitors. We've heard helicopters all morning circling Intel, it's pretty exciting stuff.
Fairies are also pretty exciting, they are Bria's favorite thing to play with these days. She carries around all six of her fairies and she can tell you each and every one of their names. We're on the hunt for a Terence fairy doll because Bria has a pretty big crush on him. Terence is TinkerBell's best friend (this is before the Peter Pan days of course).

You can see all the fairies lying in her stroller, this is one of the ways she totes them around the house.
Here's a funny video of her with her fairies. I can't get much of her on video these days because shortly after she realizes I'm filming she demands to see Bria, which is why she always disappears at the end of a video.

I'm going to try and get a few things done while Bria is still sleeping. I'll update on Sunday or Monday with party pictures!

Just some stuff

Happy Valentine's Day (2 days late). We took it easy this year and sat at home and watched The Bachelor :) I became addicted last season and am hooked. Brian's a good husband and made fun of the girls with me. Although most Monday nights he works to avoid the drama that is the Bachelor.

Bria got to wear her Valentine's dress from last year and I was so excited to put it on her, even though we didn't go anywhere.

Here she is last year:

My barely there hair baby :)

Whoa, someone got extensions ;) Or a crazy MacGruber wig. The Valentine's dress was still big enough on her to be a dress so maybe she can wear it a third year as a shirt!

Funny quotes:

Brian moved Bria's little Princess chair and apparently Bria did not like this because she said the following to him, in a very stern and enthusiastic voice:

"No Daddy! You're driving me NUTS!"

We died laughing. It was one of those moments where we should have maybe not laughed and told her that's not nice to say, but it was too funny.

Bria is starting to get pretty good at expressing her feelings. She was hungry as we were leaving Target and I told her we'd be home soon to eat dinner. I could tell this did not make her happy.

"Mommy, I'm gonna cry."

"Oh honey, don't cry. I'm sorry you're hungry, we're going home to eat dinner."

"Ok. I'm happy now Mom."

That's her thing, if you are able to calm her down she'll say, "I'm happy now."

However, this girl is DRAMA. With a capitol D. When something doesn't go her way or when she wants something: She will cry and throw herself on the ground.

I can't tell you what this does to my patience. I am working so hard to stay calm but it's so hard. Seriously, I think we're getting a glimpse into her teen years and I am beyond terrified.

We did get a fun little surprise this morning. It snowed! Like big HUGE snow flakes. When Bria woke up I went in and opened her window so she could see and she was so happy. I threw on a coat and her snow boots and let her run out back. She was in heaven.

She did not want to come back in but I'm a mean mom and didn't want her to freeze, plus I wanted her to have some breakfast. This resulted in a huge dramatic tantrum and next time I'll just let her play a little longer. Lesson learned.

Bria's party is on Saturday at my Mom's house and I got a bunch of TinkerBell decorations for it. I'm so excited, I think she is going to love it.

And for some incredibly exciting news, Lance is in the States!!!! He just arrived in Mississippi this morning and we could not be more thrilled. He should be in Oregon in about a week and a half or so and I just simply cannot wait. It's going to be so good to see him and give him a hug. It feels like I haven't seen him in years! These last 11 months went by kind of slow.

Alright, that's the update for now, happy hump day :)

Sunny days, sweepin' the clouds away

Oh how I've missed the sun and the park and having fun outside. Fortunately it was pretty sunny this last week and we were very grateful to spend some time outside. We went to a park one day and I think Bria was in heaven, and also wondering why it had been so long since we'd been there.
It's fun now that she is older and can climb things on her own and stuff. Last summer she was still mastering walking so climbing was quite difficult. Going to the park meant I did a lot of lifting...maybe that's why I was in better shape last summer?

Anyway, it was fun watching her run around and have a grand old time at the park. Can't wait for this summer when we can do it more often.

After the park we went to Trader Joe's where Bria happily pushed the mini-sized grocery cart around and I got to browse without a toddler whining to get out of the shopping cart, it was marvelous.

After nap time we read some books and played with Daddy (he worked from home), then we went for a long walk in the wagon.

We ended our day with a good old shower:

Princess Bria

Once our princess was snug in her bed, Brian and I watched a movie (The Social Network, it was good) and then played some Super Mario on the Wii. It was a fun day and a lovely night. Those are always very welcome here.

That sucked

Last week we were all very sick with colds and it was horrible. Bria and I didn't leave the house and Brian worked from home a couple days to rest and help me, which was awesome. Brian and Bria got hit pretty bad, especially with a cough. Bria was such a trooper during the day, I would lay on the floor or couch and she would play and read right next to me. She even slept pretty good due to our diligent bedtime routine of medicine, vapor rub, and her humidifier.

This week we have just been trying to recover, I've been so tired and unmotivated so we've barely left the house.

Bria and I did go for a long walk the other afternoon before nap time and it felt great to get out, we both needed some fresh air. Yesterday we ran some errands and then I took her to Barnes and Noble where we got a hot chocolate (at the adjacent Starbucks) and then read a bunch of books. Bria got a new TinkerBell book that she is in love with because it has a story all about Terence, and my little girl has a crush on Terence (tinkerbell's fairy friend). Anyway, it was a good morning and I'm glad we're finally getting out of the house.
Bria's birthday is in a little over a week and I am soooo behind. I wanted to get plans and everything settled last week but that cold threw us through a loop and I've been so lazy trying to recover. I cannot believe she turns 2, I'm going to have a 2 year old. Gah!

I should probably start a blog post for her 2nd birthday because I've been taking so long to do things these days that maybe I'll have a chance at it being ready by her birthday.

And since I have hardly any pictures from the last two weeks I'll share a video. It's Bria singing the ABC's again but I think it's funny how she adds "and" in a few places, plus her facial expressions are too funny. She's my little character!

A new baby!

While we were at the cabin we got some pretty exciting news. Brian's sister, Sara, had the baby! It was the fastest labor ever, so fast there was no time for an epidural (she's a rock star). But he came into the world safely and is precious.

Gabriel, 7lbs 14oz 20 inches long born on January 28th (Grandpa's birthday, Brian's dad's)

Daddy and Gabriel

We are just thrilled to pieces and wish we could hold him so bad! Brian's mom flew out the next day and she gets to stay there for 5 weeks, we hear she is currently loving her grandson and all the time she gets to snuggle with him :)

Welcome Gabriel, can't wait to meet you! Good job Jon and Sara, he is just adorable.

Cabin Fever

So we went to a cabin this weekend, it was my friend Erin's Grandparents cabin on the McKenzie River. The cabin was so nice and cozy and the fire was going all weekend which I loved.

We drove down Friday and went for a nice walk on a trail. Bria is pretty funny, she was in no hurry, she enjoyed looking at all the trees, and branches, and leaves and took her sweet little time. While Gabe took off and walked faster than I do normally! So while Bria and I were in back I decided to do squats so at least I was getting some exercise ;)

The kids getting ready for bed.

Saturday we headed to Mt. Hoodoo to go sledding. We actually didn't go to Hoodoo, it was right across from there, but they have a great little hill you can climb up and go down and tons of little hills.
We stopped by Sahalee Falls and it was so pretty.

Us

The Woods'

Bria was not a fan of sledding at first so she just rolled around in the snow.

And tackled Daddy :)

Finally Daddy made a tiny slope for her and had her go down like a slide, which she liked. Then we put her in the sled and did it and she still liked it. So we gradually moved up to a bigger hill.

She's definitely my cautious one! But I'm glad she warmed up to it and she was having a blast.

We ate our lunch, drank some hot chocolate, and hung out on the back of the Woods' truck.
We finally packed up and headed back to the cabin so the kids could nap.

That evening we all hung out and relaxed and Sunday morning we packed up and headed out. It was a fun way to spend the weekend and a nice little getaway.

And the kids were zonked out ;)

Here are some fun videos from sledding:

And here is one of Brian and Jimmy sledding down the big hill. Brian is first in the orange coat and Jimmy comes after him. After watching Brian go down you can see why Erin and I opted out ;)

We had a great time. We did however come back with colds which has not been fun. My house is an absolute mess and I'm not sure when I'm going to clean it, I'm too tired and sick and so is Brian. All our energy is going into taking care of Bria, which I haven't been doing while I've been writing this blog so I better go! Happy Wednesday :)