Missy comes to visit!

Last week, Greg was gone to sunny California for an externship. To help me from going insane from being all by myself with two kids all week, I asked my cousin Mythanne to come and stay with us. She was a huge help and all of us had a blast hanging out with her.

We went to Amish country one day and Brinley got to decorate a gingerbread cookie. It was a lot of fun!







We also went to the park one day. Brinley is terrified of swings, so is was miracle Mythanne got her to swing with her for just a minute. I had to get a picture because it has never happened.





Julianne had fun sleeping in her car seat.


On our way to pick up Greg from the airport we stopped at the zoo. It had just stopped raining when we got there and was nice and cool. The animals must love that kind of weather, because they were so active! The lions were all awake and the tigers and leopards were walking all around. Brinley loved it!









Thanks for coming Mythanne, we miss you already!

We're still here

Wow! It has been a busy month for us! I can't believe how adding just one more baby to your life can make everything change and become more complicated. I'm hoping that things will calm down soon.

Our little Julianne is such a sweetheart! We love her so much and honestly can't imagine what we did without her. Brinley is starting to get more use to having a little sister. She loves her a lot and when we're in public she'll go up to strangers and tell them she has a little sister named Julianne and that she is a big sister now. She is so proud!


Julianne's first bath! She loved it.


Since having Julianne, Brinley has really started to exercise her independence. For example she wanted to dress herself the other day, this is what she came out in! It was so funny.

Baby Julianne is here

Our sweet baby Julianne was born on the 16Th of April at 2:12pm and weighed 6lb 12oz and measured 19 inches. I'm sorry its taken me so long to post pictures but we have had such a crazy week!

It all began Friday morning when my water broke. I went to my Dr. before going to the hospital and for some odd reason, not knowing before now, he discovered that the baby was breeched. Total surprise! So what I thought was going to be a normal delivery was now going to be a c-section. Because my water had already broke I started having contractions right away. At first they weren't too bad, but once we got to the hospital they started getting a lot more intense. I had to wait about an hour and a half before they could take me to the OR but it felt like FOREVER! I was having crazy painful contractions every 1-2 minutes. The Dr. checked me right before going into the OR and told me I was at an 8. No wonder I was in so much pain! Once we got into the operating room I finally got my spinal injection and all the pain went away! It was crazy because I could feel all the pressure of them pulling and tugging but no pain, then all of the sudden they dug down way deep and pulled our baby out!

When Greg and I first saw her we both said she looked just like Brinley, but now we are definitely starting to see her own little look coming through. So far she has been a wonderful baby! She is so content and pleasant.

We got to come home 4 days later, but on Wednesday when we went to get her bellyruben tested they told us it was really high and that we needed to take her back to the hospital. So Greg and I went to the hospital, they admitted us and I got to spend another lovely night in the hospital next to my baby under lights. Luckily after a night under lights they tested her again and her count went down. They took her out of her lighted bed and we waited another 6 hours for them to test her again to make sure her count was still going down and it was so they let us go home!

Things are going well now for us. Brinley is adjusting very well to being a big sister. Sometimes she can "love" the baby a little to much, but for the most part she has done great. My Mom has been here since the day before we had Julianne and has been a lifesaver in helping us out. As far as my recovery, it has been as good as it could be. It's a lot harder getting around, but I'm really not in any pain. We just feel so blessed that every thing turned out they way it did and that Julianne is healthy and doing well.

Right after delivery.


Greg and Julianne waiting for me to come out of the OR.


Mommy and baby after a long day.


Brinley holding Julianne for the first time.


Our first family picture.


Our awesome friends Bryce and Miranda.


Elizabeth and Julianne.


Brent and Julianne.


The day we brought her home.


In the hospital for the second time.


We love our little girls!

Happy Easter/Greek Fest

On Sunday we celebrated Easter along with our annual Greek Easter Fest! It was such a fun day and the weather could not have been more perfect. In the morning when Brinley woke up we told her that the Easter Bunny had come to our house and left her presents. She saw the Easter Bunny a week ago at the mall and did NOT like him at all. So when we told her that he had come to our house she started crying and saying "I don't like the Easter Bunny." We kept telling her that he came while she was asleep and then left, but it still took her a while to come out of her room and into the living room to see what he had brought her. When she finally came out she was very excited and LOVED all the candy!

Later that afternoon our good friends Bryce and Miranda came to watch General Conference with us and help make all the yummy Greek food. We ended up making baklava, pastitsio, cheese triangles, rice pudding, and Greek salad. It was yum yum yummy! After we were done making the food we had a few other friends come over to eat it with us. We had a wonderful time!



Baklava


Cheese Triangles, Pastitsio, Greek salad


Rice Pudding


After dinner. We hid Easter eggs in the back yard and all the kiddos got to find them. Brinley would pick up one egg, open it, grab a piece of candy and eat it, then go and find another egg. It took her a long time to get done, but she had a blast.

Brinley opening up her egg.


Brinley with all her eggs in her basket.


John, Graham, Oliver and Brinley with their Easter eggs.


The Dental Men;
Brent, Bryce, Renn and Greg


The Dental Wives;
Elizabeth, Me, Miranda, and Emily. Three of us are pregnant.

Farewell to the Colony

I don't believe I have mentioned that we are moving, well I should say have moved. Last weekend we loaded everything up and moved to a new apartment up the road about ten minutes.

We started entertaining the idea of moving last August when we returned home from visiting Utah. When we first moved to our apartment there were 17 other dental student families that lived in our complex. It was heaven!! I felt like it was college all over again, except I was married. Well, each year more and more families graduated but no new families moved in. So each year our numbers went down drastically. I realized that at the end of this school year, because we are the only family in our year, we would be left all alone in this once friend field place. It was a really depressing thought. Anyone who has lived or visited the Colony knows that the only real perk for living here is the friendships.

Anyway so we began to look around. When we got back from Christmas vacation we found an apartment that was offering a HUGE awesome deal and we signed a 14 month lease. We decided that we should move before the baby was born and I'm SOOOO glad we did.

It definitely was bitter-sweet to leave our little home. It spite of all the negative things about the apartment we really truly LOVED living there. It was our first real home together and where we started our family. We made AMAZING friendships that will last forever and created some wonderful life long memories. The Colony for those reasons will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Our new place is WONDERFUL!!! We have lots more space than we did before and the best part is I finally have a washer and dryer and a dishwasher!!! I'll post pictures of our new place as soon as we get it all put together!

A big thanks to everyone who helped us move! Especially Greg's parents who came for 4 days to load and unload us! You guys are the best!

Brinley's two year old update

Now that Brinley is two, I wanted to write a little bit about what she does in this stage of life, mostly for my benefit so I won't forget.

Brinley is very fun and very busy. She has discovered her independence and is running sometimes a little to wild with it. She loves to color and write in notebooks. We are working VERY hard to teach her that she only writes on paper, not things like walls, wood tables, and our leather couch. Yes she drew all over my leather couch last week with a blue pen, still a touchy subject for me so I'll move on. She is SUPER social! Everyday she asks if she can play with friends and go to nursery. When we are at the store she always waves and asks people "how you doing?" Needless to say we make a lot of friends in public.

Her favorite toys right now are her slide, rocking chair, blocks, and baby dolls.
She also is obsessed with Winnie the pooh. She has a little stuffed Pooh bear that we have to take with us where ever we go. She also loves watching him on T.V.

Another thing she is BIG into right now is singing! This girl sings all day long. Her usual songs include popcorn popping, rock a by baby, the Winnie the pooh theme song, five little monkeys, and as of late the song "popular" from wicked. Last week our primary had a talent show so we took Brinley to it and one of the older girls sang "popular" from wicked. Brinley had never listened to the song before, but she was glued while the girl sang it. After the show and we were home, I was putting her to bed. Usually I sing her church songs before she goes to sleep, but when I started singing "I love to see the temple" she stopped me and said "I don't want church songs, I want popular song." So everyday since then we listen to popular at least five times a day.

A few other random things she does that I want to remember is she has become a major negotiator. Whenever I tell her it's time to leave somewhere she looks at me and says "only 5 more minutes." Or if she wants a treat she'll say "I just want one, just one." After I give it to her she comes back two minutes later and says "only one more mom, only one!" If I go in a room to check on her and she is doing something that she knows she's not suppose to do, she says to me "Go Mom Go, go out of the room." I guess she thinks she'll get away with it if I'm not there.

I honestly don't know what Greg and I did before we had this little monkey. She keeps us on our toes like most toddlers do, but we sure love her and love watching her personality develop.

This was the first time she ever fell asleep in a random part of our house. The only place she has ever fallen asleep is her bed or the car.


Here she is singing.


Here she is building one of her tall tall towers.


Eating a cupcake at her birthday party.


Rocking in her new rocking chair.

Happy 2nd Birthday Brinley!!!

Today my little girl turned two! I can't believe it! I know that's what all Mom's say but I really can't believe how fast the time goes. She had a great day filled with lots of birthday fun. This morning she got to go to one of her favorite places, nursery! Then we came home from church, ate dinner, and then Greg took Brinley to the park while I got stuff ready for her party.

We had a small birthday party with our dental student family. Brinley had a great time playing with her little friends, eating cupcakes, and opening presents. She got a lot of darling clothes, an Amish rocking chair and a slide!! I'm trying to download the the rest of the pictures but my computer is being dumb so I 'll so upload them later. Until then......Happy Birthday Brinley, we love you more than you'll ever know!!!!