My favorite...

A lot of people would say that their favorite part of raising a child is when they are a baby.  You can hold them all the time.  They sleep...a lot.  There's nothing better than holding your infant while they sleep, occasionally giving a grin while dreaming.  I agree, I love this stage.  Next to that I love it when they are between 1 and 2.  It is amazing the things that they are learning and picking up by watching you.  Bria is at that stage.  She moves a lot and there are times I just want her to stop because I can't catch a break between cleaning house, doing laundry, getting lunch/dinner ready, etc.  You know, the typical "Mom" stuff.  But even with all that said, I just love to watch Bria.  She is just so funny.  At nearly 14 months, here are some of the new things I have seen her doing:

She will now grab shoes, no matter who's they are and try to put them on her feet.  She figured out what they are for.

Any time she hears music, no matter what kind, she busts a move.  I call it her little seizure because she has everything wiggling at the same time. :)

She is using forks and plates.  Although, most of the time she just hold the fork, she tries a lot and occasionally will get lucky and get something on it.

She LOVES stairs.  If we are getting ready to go somewhere, we go upstairs to change her diaper.  When we come back down, we won't put the gate up because we are leaving.  If I have to put her down in the kitchen to gather, it's like she just knows the gate isn't up and makes a run for it.  Many times, she will already be upstairs before we realize where she has gone.  She gets the biggest kick out of it.  She is almost getting the idea of turning around to go feet first when coming down.

If I ask her, she can tell me where her eyes and her mouth are.  If I ask her where her eyes are, she will play peek-a-boo.  If I ask her where her mouth is, she will make the Indian noise.

She is still eating a lot, sometimes far more that what Evan eats at a meal.

She is just starting to let go of things while standing.  She will stand for a couple of seconds, realize what she is doing and then grab on to the couch again.  At least she's moving in the right direction.

She says Uh-Oh to EVERYTHING.  It is too cute.

She tests me a lot.  She will go to see if the pantry is open.  She will open the door, if it opens for her, she will look at me like, "Are you going to come lock this on me like you always do?'  They same is with the dog food.  She will go over to it and sit and then just wave and smile and me.  If I turn my back, she starts reaching for the food.  I'll turn to look at her again and she will wave and smile.  She knows she's not supposed to but just can't resist the urge.  I don't want to pick it up because I want her to learn to leave it alone and that it is for the dog.

Overall, she is the best little girl I could have ever asked for.

Now to Evan, he's quite an amazing little boy as well.  We recently went to the dentist.  This was his first visit ever.  He is sometimes scared of things at first.  They took him to his own room all by himself while I was getting my teeth cleaned.  I was so amazed.  He did all by himself and they all said he was the best little boy.  I was so proud of him.

We recently did a "stay-cation".  Ryan wanted to go somewhere, but I decided with Bria still so little I didn't really want to travel.  Besides, we went to Florida not too long ago.  While on our Staycation, Ryan and Evan painted Evan's club house.  It's not a much better blue than the purple it was before.  What were the previous owners thinking...purple with boys?  Anyway, Ryan and Evan also camped out in our yard.  It was quite the experience, from what I hear.  Bria and I slept comfortably in our beds, IN the house!  :)  Finally, last Friday, we had an Evan day and took him to Adventureland.  We left Bria with G-ma and G-pa.  I was very surprised by how much we could actually do with a 3 year old.  We did most of the rides other than the roller coasters.  Evan was having so much fun and did some really fast rides that made me feel about half sick.  I think Evan just enjoyed having some alone time with both mommy and daddy.  Which, he is going to need from time to time.  I think it will get easier on him once Bria gets a little older and a little more independent.

Lastly, I'm so excited that my brother got engaged.  Christine is an amazing girl and perfect for my brother.  It's quite amazing they ever met considering she is from Virginia!  I am so excited to welcome her to our family and cannot wait for the big day which will be October of 2012!

Until next time...

Long time, no see!

Things have been CRAZY in the Pfantz household.  Since the middle of June, we have literally been busy every weekend. I had a bachelorette party one weekend, Rose Festival the next, a wedding the following weekend, followed by our anniversary, then another wedding.  Next weekend we have yet another wedding then I think we might actually be free that weekend.  Knowing us, something will come up though.

Back to our anniversary.  We just celebrated our 5th anniversary.  I cannot believe it has been that long already.  It has been an amazing 5 years.  Especially since we have to beautiful children.  Ryan got me a gift.  I know what it is, but am not letting the cat out of the bag until I get it.  I was supposed to get it on our anniversary but something happened and now I have to wait until the 15th of July.  It has been very hard waiting...

The kids have been great as usual.  Evan went through a funk recently where he was mean and nasty all of the time.  I don't know if I just came down on him or what but he finally broke out of that.  Since we broke that he has been his amazing little self again.  Last night, he decided to play America's Got Talent.  He LOVES that show.  He got out his microphone and started singing songs to us.  Ryan and I would occasionally give him an X just for fun.  After he would perform we would have to give our feedback just like the show.  He was having so much fun and was wanting to play it again this morning.  It's just not the same when I am the only judge!

Bria had a rough week last week.  She got bit by something.  Her eye started to swell but it wasn't that bad.  After her nap, her eye was nearly swollen shut.  I loaded up the kids and raced to Urgent Care to have her looked at.  It was so bad.  The next day it looked even worse.  Through it all though, she never fussed once.  She was a very happy little girl.  I was very lucky for that!

This past weekend, my parents watched the kids while Ryan and I went to a wedding.  My dad needed to run the camper since we haven't used it this year.  So what does he decide to do?  He loads Evan up and takes him for ice cream in a big old camper.  Then that night, they "camped" out in the drive way.  Evan loved every minute of it.  I think G-pa did too.  The next night, Daddy had to camp out with Evan.  Evan tried to convince my dad and Ryan that they could all sleep out there and G-pa would be in the middle, but they didn't go for it!  I wonder why! :)

That's all of our updates for now.  Until next time...