TWO-TII-FRUITI

For Brynn's second birthday I went with a fruit themed party. Pinterest had so many cute ideas and although this was definitely not pinterest worthy I was really happy with the outcome.

We had planned on doing it outside by the pool and clubhouse at our complex but it ended up being such a stormy weekend so we decided to keep the party inside. So not everything turned out exactly how I wanted but overall I think it turned out pretty cute!

My mom made the cake and it turned out so cute! We were dying during the process though because we weren't quite sure how it was going to turn out. I was able to print the banner off of pinterest and cut some cupcake toppers with my silhouette. Thankfully Target had just put out their summer goodies in the dollar spot so I snagged a few ceramic pineapples to help with the decor.

Brynn loved having a party! We let her have a few sips of the punch we made and she was on a sugar high for the rest of the evening. She loved her balloons and presents but blowing out the candle was her favorite part for sure. She wanted us to sing happy birthday and blow out candles for the rest of the week!

They always say how fast the first year goes by but I say the year between one and two goes by even faster and is full of even more growth and development. We love our sweet two year old! She can be sassy but most of the time she is the sweetest girl you will ever meet. She loves playdoh, babies, and bubbles. Our favorite thing that she does is whisper "I love you" at just the right times. Random Fact: she is really good at sitting in time out, folds her arms the whole time and once the timer goes off she comes to you and says "sorry, happy girl" then gives you a big hug. She is potty trained and it's been the best thing to not have to change diapers these past few months. She loves Tangled and Beauty and the Beast. She loves to dance, sing wheels on the bus, and anything that involves water. We couldn't ask for a better toddler and can't believe how fast she is growing up. We are so thankful to be her parents. We love you, Brynn!

Introducing Dr. Brandon Schmidt, DMD

Well the day we have look forward to for the past 4 years has finally come! Brad graduated Dental School! We had such a great weekend celebrating him and all of the hard work he did to make it to this point.

On May 18th, we attended Brad's hooding ceremony! This was probably my favorite part of the weekend because it seemed much more personal since it was just the Dental School. It was a rainy and humid day but that didn't stop it from being a happy day.

Saturday was the actual commencement ceremony. I was dreading this day because it was supposed to be outside and last years ceremony lasted FOUR hours in the hot sun. Thankfully it was moved inside because of the stormy weather and a lot of the students from the other programs didn't show up so it ended up only being about 2.5 hours. I'm so thankful that my sweet friend was willing to watch Brynn at the last minute because it would've been a nightmare with her wanting to run all the stairs and with that many people around! 

I can't even express how proud I am of Brad. I love that he was able to achieve his dream of becoming a dentist and can't wait to see him succeed in his new career. I'm so impressed that he was able to balance so many roles while being a student. Dental school wasn't always the easiest for him but I'm so proud of him for pushing through and making the best of it. We are so excited to be moving on to the next chapter and have been enjoying all his time off before he starts working in July! 

April Recap

I can't believe it's already June and I'm just now posting about April. When you read the next few posts you'll realize why the blog got put on the back burner!

April was such a fun and busy month! We finished celebrating Easter and Conference Weekend. Brynn loved eating all the jelly beans that were in her basket! Girlfriend was pretty much on a sugar high all of April.

On April 7th we found out that we are expecting baby number 2! (more details here). So we spent the day trying to find a "big sister" shirt to take a picture and send to our families! Once we finally found a shirt we rushed home to take a picture while it was still light out but we got caught in the rain so just made the best of it!

Brad took his license exam for South Carolina and we were thrilled that he passed. We are so thankful that my mom came to watch Brynn so that I could be one of his patients. Plus we got to celebrate Brynn's birthday with a little party while she was still in town and my dad drove up so that he could be there too! See all the little details of her party here!

The following weekend Brad and I got a date night and attended his senior banquet where he won "most approachable" and "dad bod" award! It was fun to celebrate Brad and entertaining to watch all of his classmates.

I also got to babysit my sweet Ella for the day and brought Brynn along. It was so fun to see them play together. Ella taught Brynn the fun of playing dress up that day and now Brynn loves to put on princess/ballerina dresses and necklaces! Also, can we talk about how much Brynn looks like me in these pictures?! She's starting to look more and more like me!

And of course I'll end the post off by saying we spent lots of time at the beach! It's definitely our happy place and Brynn asks me almost every day if we can go there! Our little water baby is going to miss living here just as much as me!

March Recap

March really flew by! Let's be honest most of this year has flown because it's already almost time for me to do our April recap. So let's get to it.

Brynn and I started the month off by going to celebrate Dr. Seuss' Birthday by attending a reading by Charlie the Riverdog at one of our local libraries. Brynn loved the dog from afar but had NO interest in getting close to that poor mascot. We tried to enjoy the nice weather as much as we could. The weather has been a little bi-polar here. Brad and I FINALLY finished a rocking horse that was given to us well over a year ago and Brynn has loved riding it and calls it a "good boy" haha. Also, I got a facial and it was amazing, seriously fell asleep in the chair. I might sound like a snob but I really love being pampered.

We tried to make the most out of spring break. Brynn of course got sick and the weather was pretty crummy. But we did eat some yummy food and explored our future hometown.

Would we really live in Charleston if we didn't take advantage of all the beaches nearby?! Trying to squeeze in every beach day that we can before we move to the mountains.

We celebrated St. Patricks Day, and by "celebrated" I mean I put a green mustache and green dress on Brynn, snapped a few pics, removed all things green, and then went about our day as normal. Such a fun mom, I know. haha.

Brynn transferred to her big girl bed and LOVED it. Seriously does so well in it. She hasn't even gotten out of it which was my biggest concern. That girl thrives on routine and schedule.

We ended the month by doing an Easter Egg Hunt and Brunch with some friends from our ward. March was a fun month but April definitely topped it because Brynn's SECOND birthday!

February Recap!

I really need to be better about blogging more frequently because I forget about a lot of things. It's a good thing I utilize instagram pretty frequently because it's the only way I remember what has happened.

February started off with Brynn having yet another virus. Have you noticed a trend yet?! That girl seems to catch every single illness out there. Her immune system is going to be (better be) amazing by the time she enters school.

Brad and I actually got a sitter and snuck off to see The Greatest Showman. Oh, how we needed that date night. And as soon as the movie got over I wanted to go back and see it again and again! The Superbowl happened and I can't even tell you who won (without googling it). But I can tell you what happened on This Is Us. Anyone else obsessed with that show?!

It rained A LOT. Which is not a problem for us because we happen to have a toddler who LOVES jumping in the puddles! We made SO many sugar cookies. We made some to give as valentines and just because we found an incredible sugar cookie recipe that we can't get enough of! Already planning on making Easter cookies!

Honey and Dude came to visit us and we had fun taking them to all of our favorite places! Honey even watched Brynn so I could get screened to be Brad's board patient (can't believe he will be taking his license exam in a few weeks!) We also got family pictures done! Can't wait to share those on the blog! They are my most favorite ones yet!

Valentine's Day 2018

Holidays are one of my most favorite things in life so as a wife and mom I always like to go all out! As soon as February 1st came around I put out all of our Valentine's Day decorations. Brynn loves to help me decorates so I always let her help. It takes a lot longer but I enjoy seeing her get excited about things I love too! We even decorate her little kitchen area for all of the holidays, I just can't help myself.

I knew I wanted to make Valentine's Day cookies for all of Brynn's little friends so I tried out a new sugar cookie recipe! It is the absolute BEST! This is the first time I let Brynn help me make cookies so it took a lot more patience on my end but she loved it and had so much fun and now whenever I pull out the kitchen aid she runs over and says "help me" haha.

So we made cookies to deliver to all her friends and of course since I love pictures I had to take lots of her in her Valentine's Day colors (3 outfits, not my plan, just what happens when you have a newly potty trained kid -_-)

I'm excited to start traditions for each of the holidays because I feel like it makes it more exciting! What are some of your favorites for Valentine's Day? I'm always looking for more ideas!

January Recap

I really wanted to make my blog a priority this year because I've been feeling like I need to be better about documenting our lives (I take way too many pictures, no problem there) but somehow I always forget that I have this little space here to actually write things. I think it intimidates me because I'm not a great writer. Not that I should feel any pressure because I'm pretty sure my mom is the only one who read this thing! (Hi Mom!)

Before I got too far behind I thought I would do a little January recap! January was a crazy month. Brynn was sick for the majority of it but we did manage to have some fun! We got a southern snow storm and enjoyed the fun that snow brings for a few days, took a little day trip to Hunting Island, celebrated Brad's 31st birthday, and potty trained Brynn (Brynn was so ready to be potty trained so it was actually a really easy process) I'm totally expecting our next kid to give us a run for our money because Brynn has seriously been the easiest kid. Better knock on some wood fast! haha.

I still can't believe it is already March. This year is already flying by and I know it will only continue to do so as we have big things coming up. In April Brynn will turn 2, May Brad will graduate from Dental School, June we will make our big move, and in July Brad will start his job! It's just blowing my mind thinking about all the changes we have coming our way but we couldn't be more excited! Hopefully I'll do better about keeping this space updated!