Harper took lessons at Jan Thomas again with Ms. Morgan, who he loves from his 2013 lessons. He is really quite the fish and can swim across the pool mostly on his own and can dive in (sort of). He got to go down the big slide, that always looks so cool!
Brendan and I celebrated our 5th anniversary in Reno by going out to our annual dinner at Harrah's, while the aunties and uncles watched the kids. Evidently Bryn hated the bath and screamed like a banshee while John and Stacie tried to calm her down. One afternoon Chris, Stacie, Brendan, and I escaped to the beer fest in downtown Reno, it was SO MUCH FUN! Bryn hung out on my back in the ergo and was such a trooper. Auntie Casey picked us up and took us to Chris and Stacie's house so they could change before we went to a magic show with big cats (tigers). Well as they were changing Stacie wanted a new tag taken off a shirt and my brother used his super sharp knife to cut it and accidentally cut Stacie's hand! There was lots of confusion and blood, but it was bandaged up and we headed to the show. Logan was picked to assist the magician, boy was Harper jealous. I had to take him outside for a few minutes to get him to calm down. Talk about raw emotion;) Afterwards we realized that Stacie's hand was pretty bad, so Aunt Cathryn took her and Chris to the ER. She ended up with lots of stitches and a big scar, but luckily not a cut tendon.
Bryn and I took another trip up to Reno later that summer and got to hang out with some additional family in town, including Naomi and Josie and Auntie Carlotta. Lots of fun and laughter with everyone. Chris, Stacie and I got to do a mini pub crawl in mid town...very fun! Since I was still on the no dairy/no soy Stacie found a really yummy restaurant called Grateful Gardens that we visited a few times.
My parents condo in SLO was pretty much ready by the end of Aug, so we took a trip for the weekend there before I went back to school. There has been a ton of work done and looks so nice. The location is great too, kind of the middle, right between downtown SLO and close to Avila (about 10 min or less). We just relaxed (as much as possible with 2 little kids), enjoyed the weather and went to the beach.
At the end of summer it was time to wish Miss Bryn Charlotte Happy 1st birthday! We threw a birthday party at home so the kids could swim. The theme was "You are my sunshine" and it all came together nicely. Bryn had just started to take her first steps the week before, and soon after was walking all over the place. I found a good dairy and soy free cake mix, so I made her smash cake myself....she LOVED it, since it was her first time with cake and chocolate! Thanks to all the help and all the friends and family who were able to make it out!
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| Not a fan of the balloons in her crib |
Harper got his 1st haircut in Aug, we were sad to see his curls gone, but it was time, the hair was unruly and once in awhile he was being confused as a little girl;) He was so patient and didn't flinch. My hairdresser Toni did the honors and even gave him a tip at the end because he behaved so well:)
I decided to teach a different prep this year since I had taught 10 years of Spanish 1, I needed something to refresh me! So I took on Spanish 2 along with my Spanish 3 classes. It is a lot more prep this year but definitely was worth it. I am never bored and the kids are all good:) It is so different prepping for a new course when I have 2 little kids at home compared to the the days I was single and could use as much time as I wanted to prep! I feel like I am always go go go from waking up to going to bed. Sometimes I don't even sit down until after the kids are bathed and in bed...exhausting, but as most of you know there isn't any other way. My parents still come to watch the kids on Mondays, so that is always nice to not have to get the kids ready and drop off at Tia's. They go to Tia Gracie's on T/W/TH and I can't believe how truly blessed we are to have her care for our kids. She is absolutely wonderful:)
Brendan still had Fridays off so it is Daddy Friday every week. Grampsy usually joins them on Fridays for breakfast at the house.
Halloween was even more fun this year since the kids could both walk around the neighborhood, though Bryn didn't understand the concept of walking up to the doors and Harper was more than happy to take a handful, since everyone in our neighborhood offers the bowl instead of just handing out a candy or two:( The whole family got into the spirit with Harper as Peter Pan, Bryn as Tinkerbell, Brendan as Captain Hook, me as Wendy and Gracy as Tick Tock Croc.
My dad celebrated his 70th birthday with a nice backyard party hosted by my mom with food from the local Mexican restaurant in Kingsburg and it was delicious! Friends came from all over, even one from high school who lives in Sacramento.
We decided to do things small and more relaxed for Thanksgiving. Since I have the whole week off we headed over to San Luis Obispo. We took lots of walks and cooked some new recipes for Thanksgiving, all of which were yummy. We headed back Fri night and on Sat morning my mom hosted a brunch with Chris and his side of the family. I found an easy recipe for pumpkin spice muffins without egg and they were a hit with Hudson, who was recently diagnosed with an egg allergy.
Through the fall Harper played soccer with other 3-4 year olds on a team. They practiced every Thursday and played every Saturday. It felt like all of Fresno and Clovis were in this league as the fields were crazy filled with families and we saw lots of friends out there. Harper ended up on a team coached by our friends Kristi and Sue. It was quite interesting to see the sport at this young of an age. There were lots of tears and meltdowns. We had to teach Harper not to push others when they took the ball, but to try to get it back lol! It was fun (but lots of work) and we will do it again next year.
Christmas was spent here at home with lots of family. We did our annual Christmas Eve paella dinner at our house, followed up with Christmas crepes at Erin's. I was so excited for the crepes since Bryn and I couldn't eat them last year...they were delicious as always. We had plans to go to Kingsburg to have Christmas dinner with my brother and his side of the family...but they all came down with some horrible illnesses including bronchitis and croup, so they opted to go back to Reno early:( The 4 of us still headed down there and had a lovely dinner and stayed over so we could let the kids get to sleep and not worry about driving home late.
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| Harper got to ride in the Fresno Christmas Parade with his Uncle Oliver, who was grand marshall |
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| Bryn "loved" Santa:( |
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| Grandpa helping dress Bryn |
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| Two peas in pod |
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| Very serious discussion with Santa |
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| Exercising with mom |
For New Years we had decided to go to SLO for a few days, but my mom came down with something and in the end I was too lazy to pack all the kids up to head over, so we stayed in town. We are hoping to get over to SLO soon! NYE Grandma Donna came over and watched the kids for awhile so Brendan and I could go out to an early dinner. We were back by 730 and ended up asleep way before 12 lol!
The rest of vacation was filled with relaxation, organization, doctor appointments and hanging out with the kids:) One day Brendan and I both were free and the kids were with Tia, so we went to the shooting range (I want to feel comfortable shooting a gun) and lunch at Castillo's. Both were a hit.
A few months ago Bryn was referred to a pediatric ophthalmologist for her "lazy eye". She actually has "esotropia", which is cross-eyes due to her farsighted vision. The dr. will have her try glasses to fix it (and if they work she will wear them for many years until puberty most likely). Obviously it will be difficult to get her to wear them, but we won't fight her and will try to have her wear them when she is distracted (eating, playing, at the park) and just keep trying until she keeps them on more and more. Worst case scenario if glasses don't work would be surgery. She has some cousins who had this condition as toddlers, so crossing our fingers for a good result from glasses:)
Harper:
40 lbs
chatty as ever
Harperisms:
Harper: Jesus' dad was David
Me: No, it was Joseph...his great great great grandpa was David (kinda)
Harper: oh, well my grandpa is David too, so that mean Jesus and I are special and smart
Me: Do you know who Jesus' mother was?
Harper: Mary...she used to have a little lamb
Me: Harper, we are going home, Grandpa is at our home right now
Harper: Which Grandpa?
Me, Grandpa Dave, my dad
Harper: He is my Grandpa, he is mine, I own him!
*This was with his Tita Aimee (my good friend)
Harper: So, how was your year?
The other day after losing my phone on a walk Andrea and I drove around looking for it while Harper was in the backseat...we finally saw and heard it ringing:) Afterwards this is what Harper had to say:
I can hear well with my bat ears
I can see super well
I'm a bat
I'm an expert
I'm an expert at smelling
Bryn's poop, even a nugget
Bryn:
24 lbs
16 teeth (getting her 4 cuspids in currently)
chatting lots, most of the time not comprehensible
"Brynese":
words: mama, dada, nana, kitty (tyty), Gracy (cycy), down, thank you (teetoo), up, Harper (said it twice), What's that?, throw, cookie, baby, sings rock a bye baby to her dolls
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