A blog post of epic proportions....

As you can see, I haven't blogged in a few months. So here is the biggest blog update ever known to man.  Enjoy. You might want to go take a bathroom break before you start reading, and get something to snack on.

 

 Let's start with Easter. Here's a picture of the fun Easter crowd we had at Mom & Pop's. Notice the beautiful flowers as a centerpiece? We got those at Pike's Market! We love going there. Easter Sunday dinner was one of the best meals I've ever had.... I love Mom's cooking! It was a beautiful day for eating outside. 

Easter family pic:

I love this picture of Grandma & Brielle:

My friend, Shay from college came to visit me over Easter weekend. She had a long layover on her way to Europe, made even longer by spending the weekend with us! We loved having her around and spent a lot of time talking, laughing and eating. Here we are in downtown Seattle:

Of course we went to the Cheesecake Factory with Shay...we both love Cheesecake and can't get enough of it! I had to take a picture next to all the cheesecakes...I have this same pic when I was 9 months pregnant with Brielle, so here I am again!


Baby B and I love visiting Jeff in his office.  I especially like stealing candy from his candy bowl (which I provided and keep stocked...yum!) Brielle loves to play with Jeff's Fidelity items like this squishy Fidelity Bull toy.

She also likes to assist Jeff in his work.  Here she is inspecting Jeff's work for errors...of course he makes none! He loves working at Fidelity and is doing well as an Investment Representative.  He's gotten lots of compliments from his boss and higher-ups lately.  That's my man!

I've been teaching a musical theater class for 5-7 year olds on Mondays.  It's been fun to be teaching again and I love these cute kids.  Here I am at our recital for Alladin. Now I am teaching a class on Disney's The Jungle Book. This is the perfect age for acting like animals! It's been a blast. 


Brielle joins me until class starts and I take her to a daycare next door.  Can you spy a baby in the classroom?


Speaking of theater....I went and saw Claire perform in her 8th grade play.  She had the biggest part! I couldn't believe it! She played a fabulous reporter, was very loud and confident on stage. That's right, our shy Claire was dynamite on stage. I have a feeling the tradition of high school theater will keep on going to the last Bates kid!

Marie graduated from BYU! Hurray for another Cougar in the family! She majored in Social/Cultural Anthropology and got a job leading the children's program at Thanksgiving Point. Go M! Most recently she's been driving elementary school students around the farm on a huge tractor as she's in charge of giving the field trips there.  Is that fun or what?



This may be old news to some of you, but if you haven't heard...I'm pregnant!

That's right! These two babies will be a year apart.  This picture isn't as accurate anymore, the numbers should now read 8 and 5 months respectivly.

It came as quite a shock, and yet planned at the same time.  I felt for many months that there was another baby that needed to come to our family sooooon...turns out I was right!  I wasn't sure I'd be able to get pregnant again, so it is such a wonderful thing. 

It has been quite a rough couple of months though.  I think there is a reason the natural body doesn't normally create a pregnancy so quickly after childbirth.  It has been quite a hardship on my body in addition to full time nursing.  I've been quite exhausted and recently proclaimed "I'm hibernating." I've spent quite a lot of time napping when Brielle naps and laying around as much as possible.  In addition to regular morning sickness, I've had a little baby that has needed constant care and it has been rough.  I'm finally getting some energy back now, but I have realized this pregnancy will be much different and I need to take it easy this time around. We find out next week if the baby is a boy or a girl! We can't wait!

This is how I change dirty diapers. Seriously, this isn't a joke.  My pregnant nose can't handle it! ha!

 

I saw this cartoon on Pinterest, and thought it was applicable to me.  I am a sucker for pregnancy cravings. I have legit cravings during pregnancy! But I've never made Jeff go to the store in the middle of the night....yet!

 

I see this sign below everywhere here in WA.  It cracks me up.  You get special, close parking spots if you have this type of car! Do these special parking spots exist in other parts of the country? They certainly didn't in Texas!

 

 Spring has arrived in Washington, and it has been absolutely lovely! The cherry blossoms on trees have been in full bloom. I love Spring so much.  Here is our beautiful tree I got to walk under every day to get to our apartment.  There's something so romantic about these trees, I love them. The blossoms don't last long, so I enjoy every sight of them.

 

I've enjoyed putting Brielle in poofy Spring dresses:

She's enjoyed feeling grass for the first time.  It's so fun to enjoy all these new things through her eyes.



Our lease on our 1-bedroom apartment ended the 30th of April. We searched and searched for a new place to live!  We wanted a 2-bedroom place with a garage that was close to Jeff's work.  Through a true miracle, we found it one week before we had to move! It was an incredible (and stressful) turn of events. But it all worked out, and we are happy to be in a slightly bigger place.

Baby B helped me pack. 

 

Here's our new place! It is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo in Bellevue.  We have neighbors above and below us.  That garage door you see is ours! I love being able to walk right into our place...no stairs. It is 900 square feet, with a good sized patio that we can put our grill and patio chairs on. Best of all, Brielle has her own room! (for now). This has been great. It's not fancy, the walls have weird paint colors and the kitchen is small, but the view, great location and garage make us so happy.  We feel so blessed to have found something that works so well at this stage of our lives.

 

 

We love the windows in each room.  There is just forest behind us, so we get a wonderful view every day.  I told Jeff the other day I felt like we were camping.  I wake up to birds chirping, crisp forest air and the sound of wind blowing through the trees every day.  It's great since I'll be home a lot with two little ones.


And now I have this mess to deal with.  Moving is such a pain! We only moved a few miles down the road, but of course you have to pack everything up and unload.  I have a feeling I will be unpacking for a long time with Brielle around.  Daily chores are harder with a baby around...I wonder why? :) I can't wait till we are settled and it feels like home.

 

You made it to the end! How's that for a random update of everything that has been going on the past few months? Life's been good to us.