Bria is 1!

I cannot believe it!  Bria is 1 year old today.  The past year went by so fast.  She is such an amazing girl.  She has no idea how much she is loved by all her family!

On Sunday, we celebrated her birthday.  We had over 20 people over in our house.  I've been hinting at a new house so maybe that will help.  That was a lot of people in our little house but we made the best of it!  Ryan smoke some pork loin like he has done every year for Evan's birthday.  Like always, it was delicious.  That really helps me out that he does that because then all I have to worry about is a salad, potatoes and a bread.  Make it a lot easier for me!  So we all ate a fabulous dinner.  Then opened presents.  Being a girl, Bria got a LOT of new and ADORABLE clothes.  She is very fashionable at 1 year old!  It's too much fun for mommy though! ;)  She got a picnic toy set and a tea party toy set.  Soon, I'm sure Bria will like them, but for right now, Evan is really enjoying them!  Bria also got a cute rocking horse.  G-Ma and G-Pa must have thought we needed two and that they couldn't share Evan's because we have another one!  I like giving them a hard time.  They will enjoy each having one of their own!  The last present Bria got was a Bitty Baby (made by American Girl).  Bria was cute when she opened up.  Her face lit up and she wanted to play with it so badly.  She likes how the eyes blink and she keeps feeling the eyes.  She was also giving baby lots of kisses!  It was adorable!  We also got quite a bit of money that we will put towards Bria's college fund.  Smart parents, I know. ;)

After we opened presents we moved onto the cake.  A girl from work started a cake business and made Bria's.  It was adorable, matched my theme perfectly and it was delicious.  When Bria was given her individual cake she started off really slow.  I didn't think she was going to get that messy.  After a few minutes she proved me wrong!  She was a mess.  The cake was a disaster and cake was EVERYWHERE.  Oh well, you only live once!  I was fun to see her having so much fun eating her cake.   After this, Bria had had enough.  Unfortunately, she had woken up early from her nap so she got grumpy a little early.  I put her down around 8:15 and she slept hard until 8:30 the next day.  She was all partied out!

Here are some of the things Bria can do/likes at a year old:

Eating only table food - she has been doing this for nearly 3 months.  She LOVES table food because she does not want to be fed.

She has 5 (almost 6) teeth.

She is crawling!  OK she just started this today and it is really slow going, but she's doing it!  Before she army crawled EVERYWHERE!

She can get herself back to the sitting position and she thinks she is hot stuff that she can do it.  She will do it over and over and over again and cheer herself on while she does it.  Quite cute.

She can start crawling while she is sitting.

Now that I'm off for the summer she is sleeping nearly 12 hours.  While working I always had to wake her up at the 11 hour mark.

Bria is trying so hard to pull herself up.  If something is low enough, she is successful.

Bria doesn't talk a whole lot.  She says the traditional mama, dada, baba, ect.  But she isn't a babbler like most babies.

Bria likes to scream (only at dinner time of course).

Bria is a Mommy's girl! :)  I like this.

Bria loves to have small toys to play with.  She likes to have things in her had all the time.  I gave her an old cell phone and you would think that is the greatest toy ever!

Bria likes to cuddle.

Of course, mommy loves her more than she will ever know!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY BRIA!

Until next time...

Seriously???

MY DAUGHTER WILL BE ONE TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY!  I cannot believe it.  It's like she's not a baby anymore! She is such an amazing little girl!  I cannot imagine my life without her!  We have been working hard on starting/finishing some house projects.  It always seems that we try to get one more project started and finished before a big birthday party.  With Bria's birthday being in the spring and the crappy weather we have had, that has made it a little more challenging.  Luckily, we didn't take on too much so we don't have unfinished work.  We decided to put up lattice work under our deck.  It used to be open and you would not believe the junk that accumulated under your deck.  By putting up lattice, we now won't have stuff accumulate nor will we see the mess. We already have up the lattice work and it looks SO much nicer already.  We are going to put a smaller scaled flower bed in front on both sides of the deck.  Of course that will be my job.  With it being this late, I don't know how much will actually get done this year, but hopefully we will at least have the landscaping part done.  I am so excited for her party.  I am getting a cake make by Jennifer Pelfrey.  She works at my school but makes AMAZINGLY CUTE cakes on the side.  I have never tasted her cakes, but from everything I have seen they are so cute!  I'm not really having one theme to Bria's party.  It's more like a spring theme.  Lots of pinks, purples, greens and flowers.  I got some cute plates and will get the balloons to match.  I know it will be perfect!

Bria is STILL NOT CRAWLING.  It drives me crazy.  She is a pretty content little girl but doesn't like to be alone.  This means I don't get much done.  I will admit, since she can army crawl, she is much happier because she can explore a little bit.  I keep thinking any day now because she will get up on all fours and start to move her arms.  I swear my heart drops every time she does that because I keep thinking this is the time!  It's going to happen.  Then she drops to her belly and continues to army crawl.  The good news is she is getting up an all fours more and more frequently.  So maybe any day now?  I know Evan started crawling a little late.  He was about 10 months.  Bria has taken late to a whole new level!  :)

Evan is such a fun and loving little boy.  He is always on the go!  I swear this kid is a genius!  Since he was two years old, he has been able to name his letters, shapes, colors, numbers, count to 20 (we tend to skip 13 or 14 though).  This summer, I'm hoping to teach him his letter sounds.  I know that seems awfully advanced for a 3 year old, but I'm not kidding, he is already so interested in it.  He is constantly asking what does this start with?  He learns so fast so I'm sure after a couple of weeks of working on it he will have it down.  That's about how long it took him to learn his letters!

I am so excited.  We only have 5 more days of school.  I will then have two more work days.  So 12 days from now it will officially be SUMMER!  I can't wait to spend time with my kids.  It will be so much fun to be around them and do things with them all the time!  Especially getting outside!

Until next time...

Joys of napping

Sometimes I think Evan is at the age where he can stop taking naps.  He is never grouchy at our scheduled "nap time."  (I'm BIG into schedules for the kids.  You name it, it has a designated time).  I know not everyone is like that but I honestly think it makes parenting a little easier.  When one of the kids starts to fuss or get grouchy, all I have to do is look at the clock and I immediately know what is wrong and fix it without having to guess.  So back to Evan.  Occasionally, I will let Evan stay up instead of napping.  I always pay for that choice.  It never fails, about 6:30, the tired stick has hit him and I am being punished until 8:30 (which is his bedtime), if we make it to then.  Today, at his babysitters, Evan was the movie picker.  That is a BIG deal.  When you are the movie picker you get to pick the movie that everyone else has to watch during rest time.  Well, if Evan is the movie picker, that usually means NO NAP.  He gets too excited and wants to watch the movie. Well, tonight was absolute chaos.  From about 6:30 until 8:00 (I couldn't take it any longer), Evan cried.  I had set up the pool so he could play earlier.  He got out his tools and helped Daddy with the deck.  He played football.  Yet, when it was time to clean up, this is what I heard in the middle of all his screaming and tantrum throwing.  "I never get to do anything.  I never, never, never get to do anything I want.  I didn't do anything tonight.  It's not fair."  Oh geez.  So apparently, I'm a bad mom and I made him sit in the middle of the yard with Bria while I went around and played all night.  I had so much fun playing tonight! :)  I know it's just him being three and trying to see what he can get by with but it is so tiring. 

On to Bria.  Bria is STILL not crawling.  I tell you, that is one lazy girl!  Tonight I actually thought she was going to take the leap into crawling.  She was up on all fours and then lifted her arms to do the motion but then immediately went down to her army crawl.  At one point I even saw her get up on all fours but then straighten her legs so she was on her feet.  I was completely shocked.  Maybe we'll skip to walking?  Doubt it. 

Bria's first birthday is coming up in 3 weeks from today actually.  It just doesn't seem right!  She's not a baby anymore!  I've had fun planning her party.  I got invitations out today.  I have the decorations bought.  Ryan's in charge of cooking because he will smoke something.  I'm sitting pretty good.  Of course, I'll have to clean like crazy.  It's horrible of me, but I am holding off doing a whole lot of cleaning because I'll do it again in a week or so.  I'm keeping things picked up and am spot cleaning.  I'm just too lazy to do it when I'm going to do a DEEP cleaning soon.  (See my previous post about someday.)

Lot's of exciting things going on!  Only 10 more days of school and then it's summer.  I can't wait to spend all my time with my kids!

Until next time...