MJ and Drew

Nick's cousin MJ got married 4th of July weekend.  It was such a beautiful day and evening.  

I bought Wembley this 0 -3 months size dress for the wedding thinking it would be perfect (bought it before she was born).  She was drowning in it.

Briz and Ruby were flower girls.  I think they thought it was their wedding.

So  happy to be there.  I love weddings and seeing how happy they are on such a special day.  Plus, there was really good food.

Briz with all of these girls that she loves quite a bit.  

4th of July

My 4th of July was spent . . .

Nursing at the lactation office.

And taking Briz on a fun bike parade.

And that's it :)

But hey, at least I had a cute little buddy with me everywhere I went.

New House

So we bought a house.  It was a bit of a fluke, but it was such a great deal it was hard to turn down.  We closed on it on June 27, yes 2 1/2 weeks after Wembley was born.  And since then Nick and others have been working hard to renovate it.  Luckily everything has been mostly cosmetic, but man, it's a lot of work!  Here are some "before" pictures.

Family room

Kitchen

Laundry/Mud Room

Upstairs bedroom: Brizzy's room

Upstairs room: Wembley's room

Master

Living room/dining room behind it

Front of the house

Not featured: three car garage (woohoo!), bonus room, den, and the bathrooms.  It's on .25 acres and on a cul de sac that was once the street of dreams.  All of the neighbors are 60 or older and retired.  They are very excited that someone is moving in and have been putting a lot of pressure on us about the yard.  

I will post after pictures once there is an after :)

Worm

Wembley the Worm.  She looks a lot like a worm because she is very long and skinny.  I feel like I have now joined the club of Moms with lightweight children.  I thought Briz was a skinny baby, but there is a difference between having a skinny baby and having one that you're constantly fighting to keep their weight up.  It's extremely nerve wracking.

It has been a whirlwind the last few weeks trying to discover her nursing/weight gain problems.  At her two week check up, she weighed 6 lbs. 6 oz.  Her birthweight was 6 lbs. 12 oz.  The doctor was only slightly concerned and suggested I start pumping and supplementing, so I did.  A week and a half later, she was only 6 lbs. 10 oz. (right before her month mark).  I started to get freaked out.  What was once supplementing soon became full blown pumping and bottle feeding for a few days to try to get her weight up.  It helped, but I wasn't ready for that to be permanent.  I was frequently going in to lactation and then finally decided to just buy a scale,

We then discovered that she has a lip tie.  Not a tongue tie, just a lip tie.  I spent a lot of time consulting with lactation specialists who all told me I was a little crazy.  But finally after speaking with a specialist, decided to have it lasered.  I was extremely tense at the doctors and tried to not cry the whole time because the thought of my poor Wembley being in pain without me there made me want to burst into tears.  We got through it and it has helped.

She is now almost 5 weeks and is about 7 lbs. 10 oz.  She is still small and we are working on it.  She has a terrible sucking reflex (my only child so far that hasn't really cared or wanted a binky).  Feedings are exhausting because I am working my tail off to get her as much milk as possible.  There are times where I think I am a bit nuts for continuing to try, but I don't ever want to look back and think that I gave up too early, so we will see.  It has been interesting to say the least to try to get her to nurse well, start to pack up my house, and renovate a new house.  And oh yeah, I have another child on top of that!  Phew!  Like I always say to Nick, "Thank goodness she's cute!"

Watch Briz as She Graduates

About 10 days after Wembley was born, Brizzy had preschool graduation.  Luckily we had a lot of family in town so we were excited to show the wonder that is Nike Preschool.  Briz was pretty pumped to show off some of the songs she had been practicing.  I had no idea it would be as intense as it was.

It was held in the Stanford auditorium (which is in the Tiger Woods building; the auditorium being named after his alma mater).  There were about 100 kids graduating and about 1,000 parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, you name it there to watch.  We got there about 15 minutes early, and yet still made it just in time to sit in the second to last row.

When Briz came out in her Nike graduation gown (yes, she had her own graduation gown), she looked so proud.  The children did their class cheer, and then sang the four songs they had prepared.  They were accompanied by a live band, and had special lighting for each song.  The best one was the last one.  It was very upbeat and went like this,

"Watch me as a I graduate

As I march around the room

It's really great.

This is what I've waited for,

Now it's time to graduate!"

The song included bouncing - you could spot Brizzy's blonde curls bouncing up and down from about a mile away - marching, fist pumping, and of course, the robot.  This just happens to be Brizzy's favorite dance move.

They then had the slideshow, which corresponded with her yearbook.  The yearbook came in her brand new Nike backpack filled with Nike schwagg.  The slideshow began with a cameo from Phil Knight congratulating the preschoolers.  How can she not be successful in life now?

We went and picked Briz up and she got flowers from Papa and Nona, and Dad.  She was absolutely beaming, it was adorable.  We then took pictures of her in front of the custom backdrop the kids made.

After the pictures, we went outside where they were serving catered snacks and had bounce houses.  I was exhausted by this point.  Pops was less than impressed with the healthy popsicles.  When I explained to him that they don't serve anything with sugar at the school he looked at me like I was speaking Chinese.

So long Nike preschool.  Even though it was a bit over the top at times, I loved knowing Briz was being so well taken care of.  Now on to public education or as Pops put it, "It's all downhill from here."

Cute Cousins

Briz has been spending a lot of time with cousins this last month.

The weekend before Wembleys was born, she had a sleepover at Ruby's for her birthday party.  

Her cousin Dane came into town for a few days so she got to play with him.  And then her Cottle cousins came into town for the Cottle family reunion.

We went to central Oregon in Eagle Crest.  I had forgotten how beautiful it is there.  And I love the smell!  Unfortunately it wasn't this sunny most of the time.  It was pretty cold and rainy.

Wembley and I had a rough week, with finding out that I had a breast infection the night we arrived.  Then just as that was clearing up three days later, we got thrush.  I had found out right before we left that she wasn't gaining weight and I had forgotten a part to my pump (I was supposed to be supplementing). 

But Briz was in cousin heaven!  She just wanted to be with Libby and Kloey nonstop.  They were in their own little world.  But the power of being adored by her cousins definitely got to her head, and "mean girl" Briz came out.  It wasn't pretty.  

Every night all of the Cottles got together for dinner and whoever was hosting dinner had a chance to share some memories.  The grandkids also had a chance to ask Grandpa Cottle some questions.

The highlights were definitely Grandpa's magic tricks, and his story about Grandma Mary Lou and when they started dating.  It started with Grandma's nickname, "No Sex Olsen" and a dare to kiss her on the first date.

People got in some good Wembley cuddle time.  I love sharing my babies with people.  That was one thing that I realized after Holland died; how grateful I was that other people got to have their own special little moments with her.

And of course some family pictures.

All of the 2009ers.  The Cottles were busy that year.

Since the weather was sort of crappy, we did some indoor swimming.  

Briz also had to get in her own personal Wembley time.  She says that its her favorite thing to hold her.  It might be my favorite thing too.

Aunt Jacci made all of the girls special flower crowns.  It took like ten minutes of debating to convince Briz to leave it at Eagle Crest.

When we got back from Eagle Crest, we had more family waiting for us, to support us for Wembley's baby blessing.  Portia then stayed at Papa and Nona's for the next week.  Her and Briz got to have some quality one on one time.  And when I say quality, I mean mostly arguing and fighting.  I have a few pictures of the precious moments they were getting along.

Briz then had some more time with Ruby the night before MJ's wedding.  

Father's Day/Anniversary

Before I continue my posts about visitors and events, I have to remember of course some big events.  We realized that June will be a busy month for us in the future: Wembley's birthday on the 10th, then fathers day usually shortly after that, and then our anniversary on the 18th.  This year happened to be our 10th anniversary!  Yikes.  Luckily we planned ahead and went to Cancun last January.  Nick still managed to get me something: a new Mac computer!  I was shocked, stunned, you name it.  I was not expecting anything.  I am excited to use my old PC as our new family computer, so I can begin teaching Briz about technology (she still calls her notebook her iPad).  And now I have a computer that I can use for work (its really the gift that keeps on giving as I will use it as a write off).

I gave Nick his anniversary present on Fathers day, because it was a combined gift.  I don't usually like to do that, but this was a particularly nice one.  I got him a really nice road bike.  I normally try to save these kinds of presents for big events like birthdays or Christmas, but I wanted him to have a chance to ride some this summer.

Briz was ecstatic about fathers day, and pushed me to make him breakfast in bed.  I thought having delivered a baby I would get a pass, but that's what an overly enthusiastic five year old will do to you. 

Briz wrote down some things she loves about her Dad.  But as you can tell from these pictures above, they don't like each other that much.  I love how much Briz adores her Dad.  Nick loves his girls, and smothers them with hugs, kisses, and tickles nonstop.  

For our anniversary, Nick asked me what I wanted to do, and I said sleep.  It was really romantic.

Not many pictures

I am starting to gradually pick up my game with the pictures, but the first few weeks, I was a little busy recovering from surgery, in addition to about two hundred other things that I didn't take many pictures.

I was lucky enough to have a bunch of family come into town the last few weeks.  My sister Briawna came into town for the day of Wembley's birth.  I felt a little bad because Bri had mentioned how she had never been to anyone's birth and really wanted to.  Well even though she would have been able to, my placenta sort of ruined her plans.  She was still nice enough to come down to meet her and help take care of Briz.  She had a fun day spoiling Brizzy. It was a treat for Briz to have some one on one time with her aunt (normally she is surrounded by her own kids).

Next came McKenna and Dane.  Again no pictures.  She flew in last minute mostly because of her serious FOMO (jk, kind of), but also to meet her newest niece.  She brought along Dane, which was great, because his freakish ability to read really sparked some interest for Briz to try to pick up her reading game (Briz is slightly competitive).  

Next came Sierra and Tanner.  They came into town for the Oregon Epic Relay, but came just in time to meet little Wembles.  They got a lot of cuddle time and were constantly commenting on her size, as most people do.

She of course has been getting a lot of attention from Papa and Nona as well.

Next came the Cottles, but they deserve their own post.