Turtles in a half shell...

TURTLE POWER!

One of Bria's best friends turned 5! Bennett celebrated at this awesome sports place and the theme was Ninja Turtles-loved it.

Amanda is Queen Party Planner. She will hate that I said that because she is the most humble person you will ever meet, but whether she likes it or not she knows how to throw a party!

Her and Dusty made all these decorations and it was awesome

I love the labels, so creative :)

 Dusty use to be a preschool teacher and so obviously he is amazing with the kids. He had them all lined up and paying attention as he explained the obstacle course...oh yeah he also created this super obstacle course that the kids loved.

 They all received medals after they finished-totally made their day.

 And of course the pinata was a huge "hit"...get it? I'm so awesomely corny.

Rolling around the ginormous balls

Green cupcakes rock

Such a great birthday party for Bennett. He is Mr. Sports so this couldn't have been any more perfect for him. Plus all the kids passed out from exhaustion that night, score!

And then she ate it...

...on the pavement:

 Ugh.
Watching your child fall is never fun. You want them to be tough so you try not to freak out and freak them out, but you want to save them.
I've gotten pretty good lately about waiting for their response and just politely asking if they are okay. It's worked really well, Bria is getting pretty tough and only cries if she is really hurt. Except for maybe when it comes to changing her earrings, she is still a little sensi about that :)
So she was riding her scooter down hill which is pretty daring for her and we were super proud. Then it happened...the speed wobbles. She was just going too fast and the scooter couldn't handle it and just crashed. Watching her little body flail was heartbreaking but I quickly reminded myself to stay calm as I ran to her. I scooped her up calmly in my arms while I sat with her, waiting for her to move her hand so I could see the damage.
I was relieved that everything seemed to be surface level, nothing deep. But her face was pretty scraped along with her shoulder, hands, and knees. Pretty much everywhere you would expect. It was her right side of her body that got the impact. Her handle bar was bent in half so we checked her body to make sure it didn't puncture her somewhere. She was shaken up and crying, but calmed down pretty fast. She kept saying, "I tried to be brave but it just hurt I couldn't stop crying."

It broke my heart to hear her say that and we kept assuring her that she was very brave. Especially the next day when she got right back on her scooter!!! I was so ecstatic and incredibly proud that she got right back on that horse.
I think she enjoys her battle scars a little bit, she feels tough. When she went to preschool the next day all her little friends ran over to her and exclaimed, "What happened?!" She is definitely soaking up the sympathy she is getting :) And we are applying Neosporin daily to hopefully have it heal faster and avoid scarring.
On the positive side, at least it didn't happen right before school or family pictures right?

Littles

Super fabulous weather here this week, sunny and sometimes warm. We've gone to the park every day so far and I'm loving it. 

Our days with Penny are so fun, but also make my day very busy! Especially Mondays since I have to get all the kids out the door for Bria's preschool. And we moved further from her preschool so the commute is longer.
But when my sister asked if I could watch Jax for half the day you can bet I was going to say hell yes! Jax and Jenny came up last Wednesday and stayed the night. Always love having them here with us, such a comfort and happiness that family brings. It was also Jaidyn's birthday so we face timed her. Cannot believe my niece is 13!!! She is a teenager. Such an unbelievably sweet teenager, I know she won't give her parents any trouble...right Jaidyn? ;)
That day was also nice and sunny so we took Jax and Jenny to our new favorite park: Pirate Park. It's the best park ever and we are in walking distance to it. LOVE.

The kids had so much fun on the swings and Jax was so ecstatic to be running free. Every once and awhile he would do this hilarious happy dance, that kid kills me.

Thursday with 4 kids proved to be crazy and chaotic, but in a very good way. Loved watching my girls with Jax and loved hearing him call, "Yu Yu!" when he needed something. His smile melts me every single time and I ask him every hour if I can touch his eyelashes. Sounds weird but seriously, they are like 7 inches long. He obliges by smiling and coming over so I can touch them.

Sometimes I just stare at him.

A lot of time I just stare at him.

It was a little cold out but they still had fun in the backyard together for awhile. That was a good chance for me to feed Penny and put her down then pee...cuz that was really my only break for the day ;)

Then at 5:01 pm I had wine. That was nice.

Let it shine

I'm a control freak when it comes to dressing my kids and doing their hair. I don't want them to look like ragamuffins and I enjoy getting them ready for the day...if they do just as I say with a smile :)

Lately I've been better about letting their little light shine through...aka Bria dresses herself and Reese wears a cap all the time.

Fabulously dressed for a trip to Target

 I still did their hair because I can't completely let go!
This last weekend the Bauer's came up to see our new digs and I was in Charlotte heaven. Amy and I took her to the Rack and I got to play with her:

She loves me :)

 But also thinks 23 pictures is enough.
Seriously, she is adorable and wrinkles her nose when she smiles which just melts me. And she smiles so much!!

Captivated by her Daddy

Also she is the teeniest thing ever and I could just eat her little toes! But I won't, don't worry.
I will however, hog her and hold her and kiss her and cuddle her as much as I can.

How am I doing that??

So I take pictures with my phone. Shocking I know.

And then upload them here.

Sometimes when I go to upload them there are crazy awesome animations and I have NO idea where they are coming from. 

Like this:

Why is it snowing on my daughter during her nap?

How did it know to do hearts right here?

Crazy right?

Not even close to what I saw today when I went to upload from my phone. Prepare yourself for the most random of all things.

A photobomb that is so wild and crazy, you will be in shock:

?!?!?!?!?

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!

Dying

You guys, how is this happening?!?!!!!!!?

I think I won the lottery or something.

Connected once again...

...and it feels so good.
On one hand I have enjoyed being disconnected from the tech and social media world. I spent way less time on my phone, zero time on my computer, and much more time cleaning, organizing, and being a mom.
The girls and I did makeovers on each other, put on dresses and then they were my little models...

 I spoke in a fancy British accent and they did WHATEVER I told them to do. So that is AWESOME to learn I can manipulate when I sound fancy and sophisticated.

"Be pensive."

I seriously had them do the most random things, and they did it.

Hair and makeup courtesy of Bria and Reese :)

Dancing, which they call getting married

However, there are a few things I really need to get done that involve the internet, like maybe possibly figuring out school for Bria. Yeah, Kindergarten is happening next year so whoa.
Alright, this internet thing is still exciting so I'm gonna go google all the random questions I've had in my head for the last week...

We have moved

The move happened.
Last Friday was the first moving day. Lance and Kyle came up to help Brian and we were beyond grateful. I feel horribly guilty asking them to drive all the way up here and then I felt horribly guilty all day making them lift heavy things and work their butts off all day long. But they did it, with smiles on their faces and plenty of jokes to make the day not just bearable, but actually kind of fun...at times :)
I can't get over their strength and efficiency, we had everything moved over by about 5 pm that evening...besides a few boxes of kitchen stuff.
We made sure to take a Buffalo Wild Wings break half way through, 'cuz you gotsta refuel. And refuel we did.

BWW! (Kyle and Lance)

That night Grammy and Heather kept the girls at Heather's house for a sleepover and the girls were ecstatic. Grammy and Heather loved it too, accept they were both exhausted and decided they liked sleeping alone best. :)
Saturday my Dad, Anna, and the girls drove up (again I felt so guilty!) and CLEANED MY ENTIRE HOUSE. Seriously.
I was in shock. We scrubbed and cleaned and scrubbed some more. Anna had the bathrooms shining like they never had before and my Dad and the girls tackled the kitchen with ferocity. It was fabulous. We left that place sparkling clean and headed to the new place. I was so grateful to have that horrible chore done.
At the new place they continued to be superstars and set up my kitchen, computer, you name it. They were amazing.
Brian and his Dad spent the day doing last minute touch ups on the old house, doing cable stuff on the new one and tackling the disaster of a garage. Again, so grateful.
So the move went great and I was over the moon with gratitude to our families for lending a hand. We could not have done it without them, it was overwhelming and stressful but they helped me so much.
The next couple days consisted of me walking around aimlessly wondering what the heck to do first. Eventually I started kicking ass and taking names. Empty boxes were flying everywhere and I was organizing like Monica Geller.
It's officially been a week since the move day and the house is pretty well set up, besides the 4th bedroom. Yeah don't go in there yet.
I hung a few things today and last night on our date night Brian and I organized the garage. I know, we are crazy romantic. But hey, we enjoyed each others company and I'm enjoying parking in the garage...since it hasn't stopped raining all week. Grrr.
We are suppose to have internet next Tuesday. I miss the internet. But also? It's amazing how much I can get done without the distraction of pinterest, blogs, facebook, ya know all of that stuff. Currently I'm sitting in Starbucks using their WiFi. I kind of feel like I'm in college again.
So here's an update that will hopefully hold over the family until we get internet :)
And here are some pictures from my phone from the past week:

Slumber party at Aunt Heather's!

 And our ballet day today:

Can't get this one to stay still!

And then she was done with pictures, clearly.