Minnie Mouse

The daycare the girls go to had an Open House this morning. It's the closest they are going to get to Disney at least in the near future so here are the pictures I got with Minnie Mouse.

Avery's Fifth Birthday

Two weekends ago Abigail went to her friend Avery's 5th Birthday Party - a tea party hosted by Cinderella. Eight girls in their favourite princess costume and a whole bunch of birthday fun!

the perfect princess table complete with china

tea, in the form of apple juice

Enjoying Our New House

Saying goodbye to our old house was bittersweet for me - I was sad to leave the memories but excited to move on and build new ones in our new home. Here are pictures from the summer:

last object left to pack!

Abby saying goodbye to her pink room

For years before I'd even had children, I had dreamed of a beach-themed nursery for them. I couldn't wait to pull it together when we bought our first house and found out we were pregnant. Jake painted this ocean wave around the room and I bought turtle, octopus and fish baby bedding for Abigail. (I was trying to find a photo of the finished room but can't find one). Bryony used the room for a few months before we moved too. I was choked up leaving this room behind. I nursed them both in the middle of the night in here, stared at crabs & whales while I rocked teething baby back to sleep. It was the room with the most memories for me. It will always be the house I brought my daughters' home from the hospital to. I'm sure the new owners will paint over this as their first project, ha!

But, moving on, we spent the first two months in the new house enjoying the pool: 

And just playing in the family room on weekend mornings:

And, I only have a couple but these are the new house:

my new kitchen - Jake's going to paint the cabinets white like he did for me in the old house, not a fan of the distressed pinkish wood

and this is (was) the eggplant purple master bathroom - we immediately changed to blue

Our New Home

Just a quick post to let everyone know that the biggest news of our year is that we have moved! We are only about 4 miles from our old house, but we're in a bigger space (we were busting at the seams) and a nicer neighbourhood, and we have a POOL that we can't keep Abigail out of :) Jake & I always said we could only survive living in Phoenix if we had a pool and I'm not sure why we bought our first house without one. We love it so much - we're in it every day!

But we're also very busy - the new house had no kitchen sink, no light fixtures, no ceiling fans, no appliances and hundreds of projects for us to tackle. It's going to take quite a while to fix up but I am so lucky to have Jake who works so hard and is so great at this stuff, and who wants to make it my dream home for me. He is so productive that it is already coming together nicely - he hops right to it, while I take about four months just to pick a paint colour, ha.

So, pictures to come when we are all out of boxes. And, all friends and family are welcome to come see it for themselves and stay whenever they want now that we have a spare bedroom again! The door is open .....

Bryony - Eight Months Old

There she is! Eight months old. Hair has slowly grown back in - all blonde. Gaining weight. And waving! She loves to wave. But, JUST like her older sister, she is defined best by one characteristic: she's a HUGE eater. Her school report from last week looked like this:

7:40am drop-off
8:15am handful of Cheerios
9:10am bottle
10:20am fruit
11:00am school lunch - spaghetti & peas (she's the only baby in the room who has this)
11:30am nap
12:15pm bottle
12:30pm crackers
1:00pm mashed potatoes, water
2:30pm fruit again
3:45pm bottle
4pm pick-up

Here she is at home already handling her sippy cup like a pro:

And forget the high chair, she already sits at the dining table with her sister:

Don't be fooled by their size, these two will eat us out of house & home!

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I just finished this hugely popular best-seller.

I'll just say I fully agree with Amazon's rating of 3.7 out of 5 and leave it at that.

Bryony: Seven Months Old

Taken two weeks late but lovely photos of Bryony by the pool on Fourth of July:

Baby in a Sink