.washington trip-a day with holly wen.

.tj got called into jury duty the week i was there. 

.she got out of it monday and tuesday. but wednesday, they took her. 

.wednesday happened to be the day her hubby worked, as well as their anniversary. 

.i offered to check in on the kids that day, and if holly wanted to come hang out with me she could.

.soon after i sent that text i got a call. from holly. she wanted to spend the night.

.after a long evening of watching the spurs loose a game they should of won, i went to pick up holly.

.we headed home and b played with her until 11pm. 

.i sent them both to bed, because it was late enough. 

.when we woke up, h played with both b and dax for hours and hours. 

.than we headed to winco to get some delicious doughnuts. 

.than we got ready to meet up tammy schwanz for lunch.

.than we played on the playground.

.than holly and i went shopping KID FREE.

.than we grabbed burgerville, because you cant visit washington without stopping at burgerville.

.than we headed home and played some more.

.than i dropped her off around 6pm.

.can you tell she had a FUN day. we LOVEd having her. so i have to say a view things, as well as some funny quotes from h throughout the day.

.after i sent holly to bed, i heard her on the phone talking to someone. i KNEW it was her mom and dad, but i still sent her a text saying, "that better be your mom and dad your talking to and not a boy" lol.

.after h had played and played with both brooklynn and dax in the morning she sat down and took a deep breath....i said, "whats wrong holly? worn out?" she quickly responded, "yes, i dont know how you do this, im exhausted." welcome to mommyhood h. :)

.i was changing parker and holly says, "thats sick, i dont know how you do this job all day, they stink."

.b was compaining she wanted her paci the entire drive there i told her she couldnt have it right now because it wasnt naptime...i ran into tammys office to grab her for lunch, as i got into the car and holly says, "oh, by the way tash, brooklynn was crying so i gave her parkers paci"

.it is quite craZy watching holly with b. it use to be me buckling holly into her carseat and answering all her "kid questions" and singing in the car, and now she is helping strap MY kids into the car and answering questions and helping them stay happy. we had conversations and laughed. its so crazy how fast she is growing up and how loving she is to my kids. it was such a fun day with miss holly wen.

 .parker eating his doughnut for breakfast.

 .dax loving his too.

.holly and b enjoying theirs too.

.we wore h out.

 .we dropped off a shake for kyle (hollys dad) at the firestation. we even labeled it perfected "captain spoiled.

.thanks for the fun day h....i LOVED spending time with you.

.washington part two. priebe family arrive.chuck e cheese.

.i should be packing to head home tomorrow.

.but i am sick and tired of looking at 25+ pictures in my email to blog.

.so i figured i would crank out 2 blog posts and do the rest when i get home.

.so i had worked the whole last week at see's and seen some awesome people. sunday was a pretty chill day...my sister, natalie, drove up from coeur d'alene (YES i had to google how to spell that), anyways my sister came to visit for the week with her 2 boys. i had never met grayson and the last time i saw dax was almost a year ago.

.b and dax have had a blast. i am sorry in advance to jeff and natalie for my crazy-sassy-stink of a child for rubbing off on daxon. it was fun to see them interact. overall, they got along really well and would let each other know when they were sick of each other. daxon in a much nicer way then brooklynn.

.grayson is a tank. he is not fat, just SOLID. he is 8.5 months and parker turns one in a couple weeks (yes, i just wrote that, i am in complete shock, more than i was when b turned one). anyways he is as tall as parker, and weighs much more than parker. i guess thats what happens when you marry i guy who is 6'7" (yes, natalies hubby is that tall).

.daxson is hilarious. he is SUCH a boy and has SO much energy, but also is VERY VERY VERY smart. he is a singer. he sings the song "some nights" by fun...and its hilarious. he facial expressions and he just breaks out in dance. he can hold a conversation and understand what your saying and discipline. he makes me anxious for b is turn 3 and hopefully get out of her "attitude funk" and also start communicating more.

.well, we have had a blast with these guys. its fun to watch the kids, as well as natalie and i and how different we parent. i think we are both ready to get home to our hubbies however. its been a great trip, and we are thankful natalie would drive to come see us. 

.so when the cousins first met each other it was hilarious. b would follow dax around like a puppy dog and they were best friends (day one..as the days moved on, they were still best friends but fought more too). anyways. i have pictures and videos of the first half of the adventures with these guys. we went to the outlet malls in troutdale, we went to chuck e cheese. we hung out at home and let them play (it rained like every day we have been here except maybe 2). chuck e cheese we got 100 tokens and just played. the kids ran out of energy about half way through. so we played too. it was TONS of fun to shoot hoops, throw footballs/baseballs and play the kids games to score a bunch of tickets too.

.so here are pictures from half of our adventures. i would write more, but i REALLY need to go pack, run errands, see friends, and get to bed at a decent hour to wake up and get out the door and head to the airport by 5:30am tomorrow morning.

 .b got ahold of gma's reading classes...what a crack up.

 .all the kids fell alseep in the car...this is dax drooling.

 .parker boy.

 .parker and grayson playing.

 .b and those glasses.

 .another trip and parker sleeping.

 .b girl.

 .grayson and parker meeting for the first time.

 .daxson.

 .all this playing wears a girl out.

 .b girl.

 .how quickly she can change.

 .gma and parker.(my mom looks AWESOME for her age)

 .the boys playing.

 .b sleeping.

.grayson fell alseep like this.

 .the princess and prince.

 .parker boy.

 .grayson.

 .grayson.

 .the first evening together...adorable.

.dax and b playing.

VIDEOS:

.b and dax dancing.
(this is the first evening together, dax had his church shirt off and b INSISTED she have her shirt off too.

.dax at chuck e cheese.

.gma at chuck e cheese.

.dax singing some nights.

i think the band fun has a new singer in their future.

more blog posts to come!!!

.wa part one.

.my goodness I have a lot to catch up on. 

.my washington trip is only 1 more day. CraZy. 

.so I'm going to do my best in not writing too much, but I also have to make sure I write enough for me to remember. 

.so continue reading, or scroll to the pictures. 

.the plane ride was great. I was shocked to be honest. We looked like a circus act coming into the airport. We had 3 suitcases, 2 duffel bags,  2 cars eats, 2 carry ons, 2 kids and 2 of us. We made it...barely. We told Andrew goodbye and he left an hour earlier than us for Texas and we ran the halls of the airport and watched the airplanes land and take off for an hour. The flight was completely loaded. Not one seat empty greeeeaaatttt. So I sat us in the back of the plane. A few rows up from the very very back but still close enough to bathrooms and flight attendants in case we had a breakdown again. Parker sat in his carseat by the window, and me and Brooklynn in the middle. Next to us sat down a sweet little old lady, who quickly pulled out he general conference ensign (church magazine)...I knew we were golden :)

.the first week I worked at sees about 25 hours. No I did not HAVE to, I wanted to. I have been having a hard time feeling self worth lately,sure a stay at home mom is hard, but I was lacking still with the whole self worth issue. Anyways.....I needed a bit of a break from my kids, and being able to keep all the money I earned was a little nice too :) after working those 25 hours I cried on my drive home. I felt horrible leaving my kids, and can't imagine having to ever leave them at daycare. I understand some situations you have to do so...and that's fine,I am not judging, but for me...I felt like a horrible mother. So fulfilling my self worth through working was not the solution. But I did enjoy working at sees and eating samples in the back :)

.b is learning that gpa McDonald teases to show he loves you. It's just what he does. Some days she will take it like a champ, other days...she cries. But Parker...he loves it. He laughs and laughs and thinks its the best thing ever.....and gpa McDonald thinks so too. They are buddies and its quite fun to watch. 

.i did get to sneak over and see Chelsie and meet chase however. Ad my goodness is he a cute kid. My kids ran around acting like wild animals that should of been on a leash. I also made my way over to my gloom friend Megan's house and enjoyed seeing her cute little family and our old old old friend crysta and her adorable little girl. I failed to get pictures, and regret that!

.while we are on the topic of regret, I also saw Tammy Schwanz, Trevor and Megan all at lunch, and AGAIN forgot to take pictures. My kids again were crazy everywhere and I was so embarrassed. 

.i snuck over and saw my Kirby family. I LOVE this family and enjoy spending time with them every time we get together. It's crazy that it has been over 3 years since I was their nanny....and how big h and k are. B fell in LOVE with holly....and the dog. H was amazing with b and followed her around and even took b outside to swing. Soon, we look outside and h had b all bundled up in a jacket she use to wear. It was adorable. At one point she brought Parker out too. I laughed when. Peeked outside to see Parker sitting on a chair watching h push b. adorable. I will have to steal the pictures Tammy took on her camera and out it on my Washington roundup post of everything I forgot :).

.anyways,  here are picture of this part of the trip. I have about 4-5 more to write and post pictures. But this will make my friends and family happy for now.

.these are not in any organized order....i dont feel like ME, MYSELF is in any organized order lately.

 .parker boy playing.

 .this girl has it figured out. holding one, pushing another.

 .tammy with parker.

 .the first couple of nights without daddy, b held onto her baby doll and cuddled it.

 .first day of 16 without daddy.

 .day1 of 16 without daddy.

 .all bundled up swinging in the rain...got to love pnw....love her blue eyes.

 .just swinging in the rain.

 .holly girl pushing b.

 .this picture makes me laugh out loud. not only because parker is checking us out over his chair, but how he is sitting so still and actually staying on the chair watching h push b.

 .can you tell how THRILLED she was to take this picture. she sure missed daddy.

 .oh, just rocking on a horse watching a movie with gpa.

 .another cuddling with her baby....she is going to be SO thrilled to see daddy tomorrow.

VIDEO:
gpa vs brooklynn
(when i took this video they had already been going at it for about 20 minutes)

.see ya in two.

.today we dropped off elder Westensee.

.or better known as uncle Evan.

.it was a hard day. I didn't cry like I thought I would, but I did get choked up and my eyes watered.

.its hard for someone you love so dearly, leave. Believe me. It's hard to say goodbye after vacation, stil for me. Just because you know the next time you see them won't be for a while. I go through this everytime saying bye to my family, especially when we moved to Texas.

.but this is Evan. Uncle Evan.

.evan who b grew so fond of and so close to while we lived to Rexburg. He watched Brooklynn more times than my sister that semester. B has such a love for her uncle Evan, and having to tell her, "give Evan a big hug and say goodbye cause he's going on a mission for two years" is hard knowing she is going to continually ask about him and "where'd Evan go"

(I am totally crying writing this)

.all morning b followed Evan around. And I am so grateful he let her. He hugged her, carried her, made her laugh and just cherished the morning with her. It was adorable and something I will always be grateful for Evan to take the time and do with his little side kick.

.we headed down to Provo to have pizza pie cafe as a family lunch before dropping Evan off. Than headed off to the mtc to send off our elder. We literally dropped him off at the curb. I do like the system more than going inside and making it total formal, but I also felt very rushed. But we got pictures and hugs.

As we were walking up to Evan from our car a lump formed in my throat, and my eyes filled with tears as b yelled, "bye Evan! Bye Evan" and reaching out for him to get a hug. I was so emotional and honored to be there to send off such an awesome young man. Although we miss him already we know the people in Argentina will be blessed by Elder Westensee.

.see ya in two Evan. I can't wait to see brooklynns reaction to have her buddy back!