Time Out!

Time out!



No, its not what you think. Its not the " time out!" that I am constantly yelling at my kids.....today I realized how important it is to take a time out for me.

Life has been nothing short of crazy around here lately. I have been home alone with a 2 year old and a 4 year old for over a week. The "new" house is a wreck with no end in sight and I am freaking out because our new little baby will be here in just a couple of months. These things have absolutely consumed my life, making me that "mean mommy" who is short on patience and always yelling at her kids. So, today I decided that I have had enough! While talking to a good friend today...in my freak out mode...she reminded me of what I have. I have a loving husband who would do anything for our family, 2 precious girls who are active and healthy, and roof over my head. Honestly, what more could I ask for? How selfish I have been for stressing out about these things. Yes it is hard to be alone with the girls...but they are little for only a short time and then they will grow up and want nothing to do with mom. Yes, the house is a wreck, but it is still livable and who cares if the floors are concrete and the fireplace is STILL half done...the beds are warm, the food is good, and roof keeps us dry. And yes ,the baby is coming soon....but all he needs to know is that his family loves him and can care for him, he will not care what the house looks like.

Today the girls and I took a walk to the mail box. We filled our pockets with "ear corns" (Acorns), looked at every pretty rock, watered all the wild flowers we saw, looked for snakes, and just enjoyed each other. I did not hurry the girls along or worry that we were taking too much time because I had things to do...I just enjoyed them. What a blessing!

Playing Catch Up!

June - We celebrated fathers day with a fun camping trip up at the "shed", near my home town of Rye. We brought the 4 wheelers and had a fun time riding and just relaxing with our girls.

July - Whew! What a busy month!

4th - We celebrated the fourth by attending the town parade in Monument. It was 2 hours long! The girls loved it, but were exhausted by the time we were done! Then we headed over to our good friends house for a BBQ. It is always fun to sit and catch up with friends! After a good long nap we all headed back into town for the firework show. Olivia has always loved the fireworks and Carley seems to enjoy them too. Carley now ask to see "popits" in the sky.

WE MOVED! WE are now residence of Castle Rock Colorado! It has been a long time coming and the house still has a long way to go, but we are here and working hard to make it home. We loved Monument, especially our neighbors, but I think we will love Castle Rock too!

We had a fun visit from my cousin Stephanie and her family. I was able to take the girls down to Pueblo so that we could have a picnic with them. It is fun to see every one "grown up"!


We took a little trip to Utah to visit my sisters Stacy and Amanda and then to attend a family reunion at Erics parents house. We had a great time at Stacys house! The girls loved swimming with the dogs and playing with baby Amy. They also loved to see aunt Mandy and dig in her purse for gum. The reunion was a ton of fun, especially since the kids are getting old enough to run around and have fun with their cousins. Plus it helps to have older cousins there who enjoy entertaining the younger ones!

Carley celebrated her 2nd birthday on July 30th. She is at such a fun stage! She still insists she is a baby but her tag line would have to be " I do it!" We all went out to Red Robin to celebrate. They brought her a huge ice cream covered in whipped cream and sprinkles and then sang her a song. You should have seen the smile on her face when they put that ice cream in front of her! She and Olivia will share a "flip flop" birthday party sometime this month.

August - For those of you counting I am now 20 weeks pregnant! It sure has gone fast! Last Friday we were able to get our 20 week ultra sound. After lots of waiting for the baby to show us the "goods" we learned that a new little BABY BOY will be joining our family sometime around Christmas! It is going to be different shopping for boy things! WE are excited an truly blessed to adding this little guy to our family.

Big News!

Baby Bringhurst #3 is on its way! We are excited to be welcoming a new little one to the family ( a little suprised, but still excited)! We are due December 23! So far I have not been sick like I was with the girls, so my vote is that it is a boy, but who knows!

What have we been doing!!!

Time sure does fly! The Bringhursts have been a busy bunch this past month. We celebrated Mothers Day and Memorial Day, we have been slowly moving things to the new house, and we have been busy trying to remodel the new house. All of this equals no time and no energy to update the blog. Enjoy the pictures from the past month!

My Mothers day presents!
Granma "doe doe" and Carley (look at that belly!)
Olivia and her teacher Mrs. Wendy. They were sad to see Olivia go!
Olivia and Carley enjoying the last day of school ice cream!
Olivia, Carley, and cousin Chloe enjoying the "house" we made for them over Memorial day weekend.

Tagged!

3 Joys
1. Nice Weather
2. My kiddos
3. My husband

3 Fears
1. My kids and power tools ( ok, so I just had a horrible dream and with the remodel it was way too real!)
2. Losing my loved ones
3. Snakes

3 Goals
1. Move in to the new house!
2. Finish the new house!
3. Sell the "old house

3 Obsessions/Collections
1. My kids must take naps!
2. I love ACE of Cakes
3. I/we collect old tin cups

3 Random facts
1. Once an owl flew through my windshield on Halloween night.
2. I was a park ranger
3. I cant stand the sound of someone running their hands on the material on the roof of the car.

I tag: Shannon, Erin, Alysa, and Erica

Its been too long!

I can't believe that it has been over a month since my last post! We have had a ton going on!
Eric is still working in Aspen during the week, so the new home remodel is going slower than we had hoped. We try to give it our best every weekend though! We would like to move in by Memorial weekend....No, things will not be completed, we just think that they may go a little faster if we are up there all the time and may be a little easier on the girls if they have all the comforts of home. Our "old" house has been on the market for almost a month now and we have only had one showing (ugh) Hopefully things will pick up! This past month was full of birthday celebrations. April breaks the bank as far as birthdays go! We celebrated my bro-in-law Ryan and nephew Preston on the 1st, my sis-in -law Alysa on the 3rd, My Dad Howie on the 8th, my nephew Parker on the 24th, my si-in-law Erin on the 27th and My wonderful husband Eric on the 29th (whew!) It was fun to eat cake and party with the family!
The weather is finally starting to look like spring! Yea! The girls love to be outside. We have spent many an afternoon digging in the sand, going on walks, or playing at the park. You would think I would have a picture (which I did take some) but when I turned on the camera I found that Olivia got a hold of it! There were lots of pictures of her feet, or the mess on the floor, a couple of the dogs, but none of the pictures I had previously taken. Lucky for me I dont keep a lot of pictures on the camera!
I am sure that May will bring us lots of adventures ( I promise pictures too)!

Cake any one?!

I love April fools day! It is one time of the year that you can do those silly things you normally wouldn't dare. This year is no exception! Since Eric is out of town and my little ones just don't understand the concept of April fools day, I had to look beyond the walls of my home for a good prank. I am good friends with a lady who is 9 months pregnant and already has 6 children, so I approached her on Sunday and asked her if I could bring her a meal on Tuesday April 1. She of course was delighted. So, I made them some Orange Chicken, Rice, a salad, and a very special cake! (see the picture below!) Yes, it really is cake... I think the paper lined box and scooper put this one over the top!

Denver Zoo

It was such a beautiful day that we decided to put on the shorts and visit the zoo! We had a fun time with Shauna, Chloe, Emily, Erin, Ellie, and Benson.
Here is the group stopping to enjoy a snack at the zoo. Emily, Olivia, Chloe, Ellie, Carley, and Benson. No trip to the zoo would be complete with out an ice cream cone!

Tagged (continued)

Favorite Song: Wave on Wave by Pat Green, he is not my favorite artist, but I love this song!
My Job: Mommy Favorite Author: I don't really have a favorite author, but I love to read western history and apparently this guy is a western history writer.

Favorite Dessert: Chocolate Eclair Cake Picture of Me: This is me after a long day of traveling, holding my new niece Amy.

Tagged

I have been tagged! Shannon tagged me with this fun get to know you with pictures. but because I am computer illiterate I have to post this in 2 posts because I dont know how to make it let me put more than 5 pictures. So if you know how help me please!

Any way, here it goes!

Favorite Color: Green
Favorite Animal: Well if you know me you know that I like animals, I just don't love them touching me or licking me or climbing on me. But I do think that all puppies are cute and will even hold one! Bad Habit: Procrastination

Favorite Food: Tamale, although I would not eat this one!
Favorite Hobby: Anything Crafty

More Easter fun!

I was a super slacker with the camera this weekend...I missed so many opportunities for a cute picture.
Erics parents and little sister Lindsay came out for the weekend. Although I didn't take a single picture to prove it, we had a fun time! We started by going out to dinner at Beau Joes pizza on Friday night and then attending a Eater Egg hunt (we missed the hunt part which caused a ton of tears on Olivias part) on Saturday morning. We did our own things for most of the afternoon, which included a super long nap for the girls while Eric and I worked on the new house remodel. The family gathered together at the new house for dinner and relaxing later that evening. It was a nice visit. Olivia and Carley always look forward to a visit from their "Grandma Chicken", Grandpa Twinkie, and Auntie Lou Lou.
Easter dinner was held at our house. Even though it was freezing we had a great Easter Egg hunt. Carley, Emily and Benson aren't in this picture because they just can't stand still for that long!

Easter

I can't believe that I didn't get any pictures of my girls in their Easter dresses. They were so cute!
Easter morning started with the hunt for the baskets. It was so cute to see how excited they were as they came down the stairs!
Olivia was the first to reach her basket. She got a new pair of "puddle boots" or at our house they are MUD boots. She absolutely loves them and even had to wear them with her Easter dress to church! It was too cute! Carley loved that she got an entire basket of candy. She would put a piece in her mouth and say "mmm mmm Yummy!"
Olivia is modeling her new boots.
I asked Eric to watch the girls and make sure they didn't eat too much candy while I fixed a nice breakfast. Eric dozed in his chair while Carley ate almost her entire chocolate bunny! Needless to say, she was a bit wild at church!

Easter Eggs (or balls if you are Carley)

We decided that tonight would be a great time to color our Easter Eggs. Olivia and Carley loved it! Olivia loved to experiment with double dipping the colors and Carley loved to watch us take them out of the color and she loved to THROW them into the color. It was a little bit messy, but so much fun!

Utah

My twin sister and I had the opportunity to go visit our little sisters, and new niece in Utah over the weekend. It was a nice break from the regular routine. Thanks to Eric for stepping up and watching the girls over the weekend, he did a great job!
Our new niece, Amy, is way too cute! She was 2 1/2 weeks old and is an amazing baby! She already follows your voice or face around the room, holds her head up, and intentionally smiles!

Stacy and Amy
We could not resist having a little "photo shoot" with Amy. This one is cute!
One of the many attempts to get the smile on camera...it's blurry, but there is a smile!

No more Mud!

Well at least on the walk from the car to the door! As the weather is getting warmer, the ground here is getting muddier and there was a good size mud pit right in the path to get to the house. So, on a nicer day, I decided to make a new path. I started with a shovel, removing about 4 inches of dirt, 2 feet wide, but was quickly reduced to using an old spade that I had found because the ground was still pretty frozen. It was a work out! In my work I discovered an old path that had been covered and there were some nice rocks that I could use for my new walk way, so I didn't have to use the pavers I had bought from Home Depot. I am not completly done yet, but I like the results so far!

Our new niece!

My sister Stacy finally had her little baby today! Her name is Amy Marie and she is a doll! She weighs in at 8lb 2 oz and is 21.5 inches long. I can't wait to see her in a couple of weeks!

I'm 30!!!!!

February 21 was my birthday! I turned 30! I really cannot believe that I could be 30. I can remember when I was like 12 and I thought that when I would be 17 that I would be old. If I only knew! The birthday celebrations this year have been put on hold until at least next weekend. Eric is working out of town in Aspen and was MIA for the big day, and I had a 104 degree fever and a diagnosis of the FLU and bronchitis! YUCK! I just hope it is not a precursor for the next 30 years! Luckily I have the BEST dad in the world, who came up, medical mask and all, to help me out with the kiddos so that I could get a little rest! Thanks Dad, I love you!

Today I am feeling better, not totally recovered but better. The girls have been running fevers for the last 2 days so I am treating them to their doses of Motrin. Kids are tough! Both of the girls whine only when the medicine wears off and then run around like normal when the fever is down. It reminds me that I am not as tough as I used to be!

I have officially banned scissors!

I love my Olivia, I really really do.......I do not love her obsession with scissors! Olivia and scissors have quite a history together they have cut a blanket I was making for a gift, numerous papers (bills etc), her own hair, her barbies hair, her stuffed animals, a patch of carpet, her little sisters hair, and last but not least, today she cut a pair of jeans off of herself. Yes, that is right ...she cut a pair of jeans off of her self! I promise I have been a responsible adult with the scissors. I have hid them, locked them, put them up high , all to no avail. Olivia, as it turns out is also a monkey, a locksmith, and has the super power to see scissors anywhere they are hidden. They have been retrieved in the back of the cabinet, that is over the fridge, which you have to scale across the stove to get to; they were broken out of the craft room by using a broom handle to unlatch the high lock I thought would do the trick, and they have been seen and taken from the top of the bathroom mirror, where they were totally out of sight! So back to the jeans. I was getting ready for my day (which means shower and get dressed as fast as you can so that nothing crazy happens) when Olivia comes to me, jeans hanging, and tells me she cut her jeans. I look down and to my surprise Olivia had cut both legs of her jeans lengthwise from her hips to her ankles! Not that it is OK, but I am relieved that they were an old junker pair.

On a side note I was talking to my sister tonight asking her advise on a 2 day or 4 day pre - K program....we talked about it a bit and then I told her of our latest scissor incident....she suggested the 4 day!

Olivia, the Diva

Olivia is now 3 1/2 and has become quite the little diva! She is a great little girl, we love her energy (most of the time) and have fun with her imagination and her new found love of anything princess. Here are a few recent pictures of my little divas in the bath.

Childrens Museum

Denver has a really great childrens museum. This is the 2nd time I have taken the girls and they have loved it each time. Everything is just their size and they are allowed to touch anything they want. It is great to let them explore like that and experienc things that would normally be off limits. We love it so much that we bought a season pass, so if you want to go call us, we are always up for a visit!