A better update...

Sorry about the short baptism update. I was in the middle of reading, Loving Frank. It an amazing love story between Frank Lloyd Wright (famous architect in Chicago) and Mamah Brothwick Cheney (a well educated writer). It was incredibly moving. I just couldn't put it down!

Here I go......

Me & Brian

Brian and I have been very busy for the past two weeks. It is good that it is rainy today because it is letting us relax and catch up on our sleep. After the weekend we had Reese baptized, Brian had to travel for work. Brian came back on Friday from his conference and I stepped onto a plane Saturday morning to attend a bachelorette party for two friends from high school. They are both getting married this summer so they had a joint party. It was a lot of fun. I got back on Monday (Memorial Day). Tonight Brian and I are going to dinner. We have been meaning to spend some time together, with out the kiddos, for a while now but just haven't had a chance.

Here are pictures from the bachelorette party.

Ange, Julia, Katie, Nuri, Mel & Me (all friends from high school)

Julia and me

Me and Mel

Braden

Braden is doing wonderful. Lately I have been working with him on using pronouns, which is going quite well. Reese is finally 'she'! He also doing more things, 'all by himself". I have been encouraging him to do tasks he asks for help with on his own with hopes that this encouragement of independence will lead to a little boy who will go the bathroom on the 'big potty'. He is NOT interested in it at all. Not one ounce of him wants to go anywhere but in his diaper. He is still our champion eater asking for snacks ALL day long! We have also recently bought our little pool for the summer and he is already asking to 'swim in the pool' every day!

Reese

All Reese wants to do is walk. She won't go with out holding on to you, but she wants to go. I thought she might be walking on her own by 10 months, but I am not sure anymore. She loves to play with her brother. He is patient with her, at times, and will share some of his toys with her. Her favorite stuffed animal is Braden's monkey. He is nice enough to let her play with it. She has been taking it to the gym with her which has made our visits much easier. She used to cry the entire time I worked out, but now she is fine. I have to look for her in the room when I get there to pick her up because you never know where she is playing. I used to just look for the daycare workers because she was always crying and they were trying to console her.

I hope you enjoyed the update and I will be back on sooner than later!

Reese's Baptism

We recently had Reese baptized. We were joined by many people from our family. We all had a very nice time. My brother Steve and his girlfriend Yi are her god-parents.

Our trip to Dewey Beach

We had a wonderful time in Delaware on our mini-vacation. We spent 4 days at a place on the water and were able to introduce Braden and Reese to the ocean. Neither Braden nor Reese liked the water, I guess it was a bit too cold.

Here are some pictures of our trip! (It is just a slideshow of pictures, nothing fancy. I just wanted to get as many pictures on here as I could in a short period of time. I hope you enjoy it.)

The test and a little catch up

Well, the test went OK. It was one of those tests where you have to choose the "best" answer. Those can be tough. It felt like I was giving all my best educated guesses. I have to wait 8 weeks for the results.

Now that the test is over and Brian has completed some big work projects we have decided to take a little vacation. We are going to the ocean on our first mini family vacation. Brian and I are so excited. We are staying at a place on the beach. We can't wait to introduce Braden and Reese to saltwater! I am going to bring a water bottle for rinsing out their mouths (right Dad?). We probably won't be able to go swimming, but I know we will be building sand castles and walking in the water.

So I am leaving again, but this time I will leave some pictures of our recent adventures. We call this the "big park".

Braden coming down one of the "big slides".

Braden, Bella, Gabby and Reese playing in our backyard. You can see our new climbing toy with a slide in the background.

All of us on the Thomas the Train train ride. Braden was very cranky during our visit.

Braden taking a ride in another train. There were NO smiles on this trip.

He was not in a good mood.