Big Girl Month

May was a BIG month for Brynnli at our house.

It marked 11 months since we started potty training and are FINALLY finished.

She got a new big girl princess bike with training wheels and can ride it all by herself.

Brynnli took swimming lessons and is now swimming all by herself!

And...she graduated from preschool....oh wait...did I mention she was in preschool? Since September I have been telling Brynnli that as soon as she would poop in the potty I would let her go to big girl school like Carson does. So finally....end of March she was potty trained enough to start in April. So for two months she went to preschool. It was awesome. All her friends were in her class, taught by a friend from church. She absolutely LOVED it. I'm so sad it's over. This was the first day of school and then the next.....I don't think there was a day when she didn't wear a dress or skirt to school....this girl is fancy. Day of graduation, Brynnli came out so shy and was nervous you could tell but too cute singing all the songs with her class. Brynnli was so nervous she kept playing with her dress and effectively flashed all the parents at least six or seven times. Her teacher in this pic is whispering to her to put her dress down...

Brynnli with her teacher and her best friend Izzy

What a big girl. We're so proud of her.

Slumber Party

We had the Wernli girls over this weekend for a slumber party while their parents went out of town for a wedding (and for a much needed break from twin babies and toddlers...). The kids had so much fun. We played outside, ordered pizza, watched a movie, went swimming.....they are so cute. And where was Cole may you ask? Maybe someday we'll do this again but with his two friends, the Wernli boys (in five years or so...) but this time he mainly hungout in his highchair or crawled around after the kids and had a blast.

I said to Rick at one point this weekend, "see, we could have two more kids....." I'll let you guess what he said.

Meet Our little characters

"Mommy, come meet the characters."This is what I"m asked pretty much on a daily basis or multiple times a day when we have characters at our house from Disney, Superhero world, or anywhere else you can think of. Our kids love dressup. I love their imaginations, not so much the mess the imaginations make sometimes.....Want to meet them?

"Movie stars"

"Snow White and her prince" (Cole wasn't in costume, but has a promising career as one of the dwarfs I think)"Tinkerbell" at the front of the parade....doesn't she look familiar? Sometimes I get bored of just watching....."Mickey and Minnie" (and Cole sitting on their lap)Just tonight we were visited by "Rapunzel and Manpunzel"(sidenote: the costuming department aka. daddy tied pajamas together to create this look of long hair)

The characters are sleeping now, but will be back tomorrow for sure!

Mom's Day

Ahh Mother's Day. Dreams of a day off, sleeping in, breakfast in bed, perfectly dressed and behaved children, a clean house, just to name a few. Dreams, that is exactly what they are. The reality? Sick kid up all night before, kids up at 6:30 (husband still at work....), total disaster of a house........need i go on? I just laugh it off because as an adult, there really is no day off.

All joking aside though, I couldn't find more joy doing anything else. These little sweeties are what makes life great. Okay, them and my wonderful husband who cooked and cleaned for me today so I could play with them, which is really all I wanted to do for mother's day. I've been having fun finding matchy match clothes for Brynnli and I lately while she'll still let me. I feel like I owe it to her since she might not ever have a sister to match with.....so I made us some matching skirts to wear...hehe (she was excited about the skirt actually, just not having her picture taken...EVER)
We had Rick's parents over in the morning for breakfast before church, Rick cooked and did a great job!

And of course I"m so thankful for my awesome mom, I can't imagine what kind of person I would be without her example. Yay for moms!!!

Breakfast with Carson

Carson's preschool had a mother's day breakfast today, which was so fun. It was so special to spend some quality time with him, what a sweet boy. They sang us a cute little songwe ate breakfast together and Carson made me a cute little necklace.

Can't believe this little boy starts Kindergarten in the Fall.....does anyone know how to freeze time?

Easter and Egg Hunts

I spent so much time this month thinking about how excited I was for us to wear matching outfits to church and what we were going to eat, and then I realized I had completely lost the meaning of Easter itself. I LOVED talking with my kids about Jesus and all he has done for us, and hope I can teach them to remember what's really important in addition to all the fun stuff. It was a really nice day, good family time, good talks in church, and good food and family.

Then of course there were the usual festivities leading up to Easter, egg hunts at school, and at the park, which Rick got to come to, which was so nice. Last year me and my prego self lugged the two to the Easter stuff solo....not nearly as fun.

30?

When did that happen?

It's funny how in my head I'm still stuck at 21, like when I see people and I'm like, they're not that much younger than me, but yep, they are. I remember when Rick and I first got married we had some friends who were approaching 30 with three kids and I remember thinking....man are they OLD. They were so fun, but I thought their life was over. They went to bed early, rarely went on dates.....oh wait....that's my life NOW. Except, oddly, I am very OK with that. I don't feel sad that I'm 30, I feel like, well, I am married with three kids, it's about TIME. Now maybe all those moms at preschool won't look at me like I"m CRAZY when I say I"m 29 with three kids:). I"m ready for 30. And most the time I secretly like sitting around in my jammies watching movies on the weekends....

Anyways, so for my 30th we had a lowkey day. I got up and the kids opened my presents.I went and got my nails done and then stopped by Brynnli's school to help with her Easter party (did I mention Brynnli started school? That will be a another post....)We had a blast at the pool and had strawberry shortcake for dessert (my favorite....since I dont' actually like cake much)It was a great day.

The next night Rick and I headed out to see the play Wicked and have dinner at Chima, a Brazilian steakhouse. Rick's parents rushed back from out of town to babysit, since I'm too neurotic to trust any teenager with all three of our kids:) Thanks Tolberts! We had a blast, but forgot our camera....so we took this one when we got home. What a great birthday! Did I mention Rick got a cruise for his 30th birthday? Just sayin..... mine will be coming soon I'm told....once Cole's older and...We're waiting for our cruising buddies the Wernlis who just had twins to come!!