Brianna's 6th Birthday Party

We had Brianna's birthday at the park. The theme was m&m's. There were over 30 kids there and over 60 people all together.

I baked 70 cupcakes. Cute but exhausting!


My mom had the the idea for this craft and prepped everything. It was a hit! The kids loved them and they were so cute!





Pin the m on the m&m.













Dad cookin the dogs.


Some of her many great presents.






D won the "Guess How Many m&m's In The Jar". There were 405 m&m's and she guessed 404 so she got to take the jar home.


The birthday girl!

The day Brianna was born

7:54am. It was all over. I looked at my new baby girl and my first words were, "She looks like an alien." NICE! I know. But there have to be others that agree with me that babies look like aliens when they first come out, all slimy.

We still didn't have a name. About four hours after she was born Danny walks into my room pushing our girl in her little portable bed and says, "Say hello to Brianna!" WHAT?! I thought he had named her without consulting me but he was giving a suggestion. He was outside the nursery waiting for her when a bunch of kids were walking by on a class field trip. He asked the little girls what their names were and one was Brianna. So my daughter is named after some girl who will never know. It's weird how it just fit her.

Brianna was born 5 pounds, 13 ounces. I remember one of her first days home just staring at her sleeping in her bassinet and crying. She was so tiny and helpless. I had never seen a baby that small before.

I wrote on my facebook status today that Brianna is the most beautiful girl I know, inside and out. She truly is! She love her brothers, she loves her friends, and she loves her toys. She loves to learn, to be read to, doing puzzles, eating sushi, playing soccer (although she does more counting the flowers than actually kicking the ball), doing crafts, fancy dresses, stars wars, dates with her dad, going to Bakersfield to see her cousins, staying the night at grandma and grandpa's, reading the Bible with mom over breakfast, being a princess, meeting new friends, playing video games with uncle Mike, picking flowers, playing Yahtzee, and cuddling.

I am honored that God choose me to be Brianna Christine's mommmy! The last six years have many precious memories. I look forward to a lifetime of more! Happy birthday princess Brianna!

I Wasn't Ready

It was six years ago, I was teaching second grade and decided to take a day off of school. I told my students, "I'm just taking a day off, I'm not having the baby. Mrs. Franco just wants to rest for a day. I'll be back the next day." I remember eating Taco Bell for lunch with Danny, my mom, and uncle Dale then driving to my doctors appointment for a normal check up. Normally Danny went with me to all my appointments (it was our first kid, by the fourth kid I think he only came for the ultrasound) but he had to go back to work so I went alone. After the routine blood pressure check and pee in a cup test the doctor came in to talk with me. He told me that I had preeclampsia and the only way to get rid of it was to give birth. I said, "Ok,when?" He said, "Today." My poor doctor wasn't prepared for my response. I began to cry and plead with him, telling him that I was not ready, my Lamaze classes were going to be coming up the next weekend, I would go home and put my feet up and do nothing. He explained, ever so calmly, that I'm not going to give birth right now and that it probably wouldn't be till the next morning. He left the room so I could make some calls. Of course neither Danny nor my mom were answering their phones. I left messages and must of been crying uncontrollably because when they listened to the messages my mom thought I had gotten in to a car accident and Danny thought that something bad had happened to the baby. When they finally called back and got the whole story they were so excited. Me? Not so much. Don't get me wrong, I was excited to meet our baby girl but I was scared to death to deliver her and just didn't feel ready.
I had to drive straight to the hospital. They had a hard time finding me a room. I told the nurses, "That's ok, I just come back tomorrow."
I couldn't even go home to pack my things. I called Steph because I didn't even know what I needed from home. Just three months earlier she unexpectedly gave birth to baby Kayley and knew what I was going through. I was so thankful for her. She also came to the hospital while I was in the beginning stages of induction. She says, "Ok, are you ready to learn how to breath?" So my first and only coaching on breathing during labor was taught by Steph. I remember thinking how silly it was. But when it came down to hard labor, it help tremendously.

I was going to post this tomorrow but remembered that all this happened on April 27. We didn't have a name yes and the last name we had been throwing around was Jillian. I remember being in the middle of strong labor and Danny leans down and tells me, "Jen, I don't want her name to be Jillian." I said, "I don't care about that right now, we can talk about it after she's born!" Jillian is a very pretty name and her initials would of been the same as mine but Brianna is definitely a Brianna and not a Jillian.

Needless to say, I didn't go back to work and felt bad for telling the kids I would be back and that I wasn't having the baby. It all worked out beautifully though.

Brianna

Brianna told me today:

-she wants to pick out her own clothes and do her homework by herself because she wants to be a big girl

-when she grows up she wants to be three things: 1.a house decorator 2. a rock star and 3. an artist.

I love my girl!

so many little things to catch up on

Brianna lost her first tooth last Sunday morning, then she lost the actual tooth. Thank you daddy for finding it. She said later that day, "We'll see if the Toothfairy is real. If she leaves me money then she's real and if there's no money then she's not real." So funny. I hear that kids usually lose their bottom teeth first but she lost one of her top teeth.



Sunday was a fun filled day for Bri. After her first tooth coming out she worked at the Girl Scouts cookie booth for the first time then went to a bowling birthday party.











It was cute dressing all the kids in green yesterday. I had to take pictures. I took like 6 pictures. The kids had to all take turns holding Caleb. Here are three of them.







I'll have catch up on the other little things tomorrow.
I'm trying to put a video of Caleb crawling but it's not working. I'll just have to post it on Facebook instead.

Tea Party and Make Overs

So I kicked the boys out of the house today (except Caleb) and Brianna had two of her bestest friends over for make overs and a Tea Party. She has been wanting to have a tea party for a really long time and thanks to grandma she has a tea set. We spent all morning cleaning and preparing. Brianna set the table herself.



When Ashley and Kayley first arrived the girls did their own make up.




Then put on some fancy dresses.



And enjoyed a tea party. We didn't really have tea because no one there liked tea, so we had pink lemonade. We also ate pb&j sandwiches in the shape of stars, mini turkey and cheese sandwiches, baby carrots, lots of fruit, and cheez-its. For dessert we had mini cupcakes and jello with Redi-whip. Not knowing if I was going to have any dessert Chelsie brought the best cookies in the world, her and Kevin's homemade chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. We mom's ate them all, don't tell the girls.





After we ate and drank "tea" the girls put on some more make up,





played a game of freeze dance,






and colored!






Caleb and his girlfriend Katelyn got to hang out,



and I got to hang with two great friends!



I have no idea why I look so tan. It won't be long before both these gals pass me up. They both tan beautifully. I usually just turn a darker shade of white.

It was such a fun afternoon for the girls and the mommies!

Oh yea, did you notice Brianna's tooth that is about to fall out? Her first loose tooth!

Ten on Tuesday

1. My best friend's parents gave me a digital camera. They are so awesome! So I've been trying to be camera happy.


2. We went to Chic-Fil-A last Friday night for their family night. It was a lot of fun!





3. Danny got sand for the fish tank and ended up having to take the fish out while the sand settled in the water and he put them in our bathtub.


4. I decided to not eat certain sweets (candy, cake, cookies, ice cream, soda) until my birthday. It's been hard to get my sweet tooth fix. I'm just trying to help my body shed some pounds. The bag of Kettle BBQ chips that I had no self control over is not helping. Those are soooooo... good!!!!

5. This morning Brianna came in to wake me up and told me that she already brushed her teeth and got dressed so she didn't have to do it later. I later told her that the red tank top wasn't going to keep her warm (the truth was it didn't go with the pink skirt). So we picked out a different shirt and put some tights on and she looked so cute. Here's a picture of her tonight with Daniel.


6. I've been finding a lot of good blogs lately from moms. All these ideas to make my family healthier, greener, smarter. It can get overwelming thinking about all the changes I would like to make. I've decided to just take one or two ideas and try them. I'm trying to not feel horrible that I don't already do all these great things and not compare myself to other moms.

7. I really hope that I can somehow get Daniel in preschool next year. He so wants to be in school!

8. I had planned on weening Caleb in about a month and a half but he doesn't really like to eat that much food and won't drink out of a bottle or a cup. Things may not go as I planned.

9. Matthew ALWAYS is sucking on his two fingers. I'm starting to worry that his two front teeth are pushing forward.



10. I watched Food Inc. last week and it messed me up! In a good way I suppose. Anyone know where I can buy grass fed beef?