Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Backyard Bash

 It's always fun to have friends over!  We had Vanessa and Max over to play and have pizza and it was quite a fun afternoon and evening!

It was quite a hot day so we had the kids play inside until the sun wasn't blazing into the backyard and then it was perfect outside!

Jill and her two sweet kiddos!

 Tessa had quite a time playing in the grass and watching all the big kids run wild!
 We had pizza for dinner and I had made the dough earlier so Riley and Vanessa could make their own pizza.  We had a kids cheese pizza and a mama's pizza with artichokes, lots of yummy cheeses, tomato, and basil!  It was delish! 

We had a fun dinner on the patio and then of course it was popsicle time!
 Love these kiddos!
 What a cutie!
 All the kiddos...we couldn't leave Miss Tessa out although she was wondering where in the world her popsicle was! :)


Sunday, September 9, 2012

Nut Tree Fun

 The weekends are always the toughest when Jason is gone.  That's just supposed to be family time.  I try to keep us busy but sometimes need the motivation.  This Sunday we went to church and then came home for lunch and naps...I was thinking of taking the girls up to Nut Tree but also needed to do some grocery shopping.  Just as we left the store Ashley texted me and said they were heading up to Nut Tree...perfect...just the motivation I needed!

So we met the Burrells and the Fields up there and had a great afternoon / evening of fun!

We headed to Peets first...where I had to get an iced Pumpkin Latte because it was quite toasty outside!

Blake and Riley...could they be any cuter?
 Then we headed to let the kids ride play and ride the rides!

Me and my girls!
 The Burrell Fam!
 Sara and Ella!
 Miss Tessa got to go on her first carousel ride and she LOVED it!
We ended up having dinner there with the Fields and it was a great end to the weekend!
I'm so thankful for good friends!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Gig 'Em

 Are you ready for some football?

These girls are ready for some Aggie Football and our first season in the SEC! 

Whoop!







Saturday, September 1, 2012

Tilden Park

 A bunch of our friends were planning a trip to Tilden Park on Saturday and that sounded like a great adventure for me and the girls!  Tilden Park is near Berkeley and is BEAUTIFUL and HUGE!  

Somehow I managed to get myself and the girls ready and out the door rather early because I planned to stop at Safeway to pick up lettuce and celery for the animals and I wanted to get a Pumpkin Spice Latte to kick off fall!  Okay..it was a little before fall but it was a cool crisp morning! :)

I have to share this story...Riley is VERY into being just like me and one of the ways she does that is by being a mommy to her babies...either Sally or Coco.  So on this particular day CoCo was her baby of choice and she had CoCo safely buckled in the extra carseat in the car and had brought her stroller as well.  I knew we were just going to run into Safeway quickly to grab the few things we needed so as I was getting out I gave Riley the verdict that CoCo would not be going with us on this trip and I assured her she would be fine in the car.  Well...I got out and got Tessa out of her carseat and a few minutes passed so my brain was onto something else and Riley was fully prepared to take advantage of that.  When I went around to the other side to get Riley out she said "Mommy...when I was little and you just needed to run into the store real quick did you ever just leave me in my carseat?"  Of course I responded with a gasp and "of course not honey...you can never leave a baby in the car."   Well I walked right into that one...her response was "well then I can't leave CoCo in the car"....wow.  Well as much as I had to hand it to her for completely planning to school her mom I put my foot down.  She didn't take it well, insisted she was a "real" mommy, and continued to tell me how it just wasn't fair!  That whole incident made my decision to treat myself to a Pumpkin Spice Latte even more justified!

After all of that we made our way to the park and met up with all of our friends!

Sara and Damon had picked up donuts for everyone so we scarfed some down before heading to feed the animals!

Quinn, Riley, Ella, and Blake

The mamas...and the babies!

They kids had so much fun feeding the cows...they giggled the whole time!


 Such a pretty place!
 After feeding the animals we headed to a playground area to have picnic lunches...the babies sat together and played and ate!

Addi and Tessa!
 After lunch and playtime we headed to the steam train and it was so fun!  I snuggled up with Hannah and Gavin and Riley rode with Ella...and they squealed with glee as we went through the tunnels!

 It was a fun day and Riley literally crashed on the way home...mouth wide open drool coming out crash!  That was after she assured me she wasn't tired..hehe!

We went over to Tim and Ashley's for dinner that night so the fun didn't have to end!  Ashley cooked a great meal and the kids played...it was a super fun day!


Wednesday, August 29, 2012

8 Months

 Well the time sure is flying by!

Tessa is 8 months old and she's weighing in at 14 lbs........  She is wearing 3-6 month clothes, still some 0-3 and fitting into some 6-9 month.  She is wearing a size 2 diaper and now fits into size 2 shoes!!!  Shortly after we got home from our travels I took her in for a weight check and she was back up to the 4th percentile and everyone was happy!  They said to just keep on doing what we are doing!  So her schedule is still the same...she nurses in the morning, after her morning nap, after her afternoon nap, and before bed.  She gets a 4 oz bottle around 12:30 and a 2 oz bottle after her dinner.  She's still eating yogurt for breakfast and a veggie/fruit combo for dinner.  She's now eating 5 cubes of food and acts like she would like more but if I give her more she ends up spitting it up so her eyes are bigger than her stomach!  I just started giving her puffs and she loves them.  It's a little tricky for her to get them in her mouth but when she does she chews them right up and she makes the cutest little face!



She got her first tooth, her bottom left, on August 7th and immediately started working on her second bottom tooth which finally popped through on August 23rd.  Her first tooth didn't really give her that much trouble!  She had shorter naps one day and was really chewing on her paci so I stuck my finger in her mouth and there it was!  Her second tooth gave her much more trouble with sleeping and she had a horrible runny nose!  I was so ready for that tooth to pop through!  I don't see any new ones yet but I'm sure more are just around the corner!

Because of the teeth her sleeping has been a little off!  She did great the whole time we traveled and it didn't take her too long to adjust to the time change when we got home.  Thanks to a REALLY late night getting home (1:30 am) it actually helped the girls get back on Pacific time.  She was waking up at 5:30 for a few days but just eating and going back to sleep until 7 and eventually I was able to cut that feeding out and she was back to her normal routine!  Since she had been doing so well on our trip I planned on moving her into her room with Riley when we got home.  I napped her in their during the day but the first night I put her in their to sleep it didn't go too well!  I don't think it had much to do with the crib as it did with her getting that second tooth!  She actually didn't even wake Riley up but I moved her into the front room around 4 in the morning and when Riley woke up she was SOOO sad Tessa wasn't in there...she is such a sweet big sister!  I figured once we made it through this tooth we would try again.  Well then she started a new silly thing!  When I would lay her down she figured out how to get herself sitting up and she would clap for a little bit and then she would start getting ticked because she was tired but she couldn't lay down!  Physically she could do it but it just wasn't connecting mentally!  Some days it was taking her an hour to go down for a nap and this caused her to start waking up several times a night...I would lay her down, she would sit up and get ticked, repeat, repeat, etc.  Between the sitting up thing, the runny nose, and the second tooth it was a rough week for Miss Tessa!  With Jason having an upcoming TDY I figured we would try again because I could let Riley sleep with me and get Tessa used to the crib.  The first three nights were still rough for her and then I was worried about Riley getting to used to sleeping with me so I put them in the room together and just tried it.  Tessa woke up at 11:30 so I fed her and she went right back down and slept until 7:20...a success!  The second night she woke up at 11:30 and I fed her but then she was back up at 4:30 and was waking Riley up so I had to move her to the front room and she got herself back to sleep!  We're making progress but we'll see what the next month holds!  As for naps she's still taking 2 naps if we're home all day and since we are back from our trip and have a busy schedule she's having to adapt and sometimes taking 3 naps if 2 are short while we are out and about!  She's a happy girl regardless and will sleep when she gets real tired regardless of where we are!

She started clapping this month and it's seriously the cutest thing!  Jason and I were out shoe shopping while we were in Arkansas and all of a sudden she was clapping...that was it!  Now she does it all the time!  She's trying to figure out how to wave too but she doesn't quite have that down yet!

She loves to swing at the park!  The first time I put her in the swing was one day after FitMoms and she absolutely loves it.  She's starting to get some spunk too because she throws a fit when it's time to go and I pull her out of the swing!

She is starting to interact more and play with Riley!  Their favorite thing to do together right now is for Riley to build a tower with her boxes and Tessa knocks them down! 


Well this month she is officially crawling.  She started with this scooting army crawl while we were in Arkansas and now she can crawl on her hands and knees.  She still chooses the scooting crawl because it's faster but she can do it the right way!  She is pulling up on everything and loves to be standing upright!  Coming home from our trip was a reality check because how I did everything before we left didn't work anymore.  Before we went on our trip I would plop her on the floor of our bathroom with some toys while I took a shower...now she's crawling to the shower and trying to pull up on the shower door!  So I got my baby corral gate out and the big pack 'n play and she has safe areas she can play if I need to do something!  She likes to bounce in her bouncer and will still play in the exersaucer but she just loves to be on the floor playing and moving all around!
 Eye on the prize girl!
 She's still a vocal child and everyone comments on how "boisterous" she is!  HaHa!  I can't wait to see how her personality unfolds...she is happy, sweet, loving, loud, daring, and just the cutest little thing ever!  

Here's the comparison pic of the girls!
















Sunday, August 26, 2012

Girls just wanna have fun!

 In an effort to stay busy, have fun, and keep Riley's little mind off of her Daddy being gone we had an impromptu play date with two of her best gal pals after church on Sunday!

These three are so cute together and they had a blast!

I caught them in the bathroom putting lip gloss on...not just on their lips though..on their eyes too! 
 The amount of dress up outfits they went through was crazy but all in a day's fun!  They all got married and had babies, they formed a band, the played Barbie musketeers, and made cookies!

 I had seen this idea on Pioneer Woman to make handprint cookies and thankfully Tessa took a really long nap to make it possible!

I made the cookie dough while the girls were playing and then they each got to make a cookie with their handprint.  

I made several egg washes for them to paint the cookies before we cooked them and then they decorated them with icing and sprinkles after they cooled.
 Sweet friends!
 Watching a little Barbie musketeer!
 Tessa finally woke up to join in on the fun!
 Love the dog pile in the princess dresses...the squeals of laughter were the best!
 Serious decorating faces!
The day wouldn't be complete without a little sword fighting!
Love these girls and their sweet friendship!

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Farmer's Market Fun!

 Jason left in the wee hours of the morning to head to South Dakota for 30-45 days.  I knew Riley would be better off if we had a really busy day so Ashley had asked if we wanted to head to Davis to run and go to the Farmer's Market.

That sounded like a good idea and it was a ton of fun and kept Riley's mind off the fact that Jason was gone.

We put Addi and Tessa in their little workout outfits and cute tennies...having girls is so much fun!

Riley is such a touchy feely girl...she's always got her hands all over her friends.

Addi got pretty ticked a few minutes after all of Tessa's touching and loud talking...they are so funny!

 We ran in the arboretum which is beautiful and then headed over to the park to let the kids get out and play before we grabbed some food!

 Tessa LOVES to pick up leaves and of course try and put them in her mouth.  It's so fun to watch her little hands figure things out but I have to be on guard for the moment she tries to put it in her mouth!
 After some playing we strolled through the farmer's market and got some goodies!  Tessa conked out and Riley cuddled up next to her...so sweet!
 We ate some big 'ol corn dogs for lunch...pretty much made that run we did earlier all for nothing but oh well...they were good!
It was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun!