Presley at 4.5

 How can she already be 4.5?? And looking like a teenager here!?! Presley continues to make us so proud every day! She is such a sweet little person with a huge heart! She loves to be around her friends and family. She takes such great care of all of us, especially Anna. She is the best babysitter and so attentive if Anna is crying while I'm cooking dinner - Presley is right there trying to calm her down and give her the pacifier.

She is going to preschool three days a week and has made some great friends in her class. She is very social once she is comfortable with people around her. She loves school and loves to be around other kids. She takes tap and ballet once a week and is really good. She is very excited for her recital this spring. She has the best manners and is very friendly and polite. 

Her favorite things to do are: eat out (anywhere, but especially Olive Garden), play dress-up, play Barbies or My Little Pony, read books and color. Right now, she's very into making books for everyone. She will have me staple the paper together and fold it like a book, then she'll put a title on it, color the inside with a story. I help her spell the words and she'll write The End on the back page. Today she started making a book for me of all the animals she can draw. I hope she never loses her creativity and passion for coloring and drawing. She loves to write letters or draw pictures to mail to all our family. 

She also loves to dance. I'll turn on pandora a lot throughout the day and she will dance like crazy to her Disney songs. She also knows all the words to most songs on the radio and her disney ones. One of her favorite Christmas gifts was an Ipod from G and D that had a lot of her favorite pop songs on it. I'll hook it up to the docking station and she just goes crazy. Anna just stares at her and laughs while she dances, it's very entertaining. 

She is very sweet and loving to both Anna and David. She loves having a baby around and really enjoys being my helper with Anna and David. She is very patient with David and loves it when he plays with her. She loves coming up with games and he will just follow her around and try to reenact what she's doing or playing. 

I can't believe she'll be starting kindergarten next year. I know she's ready for it and will thrive in school. She loves the instruction and knowing and following the rules. She loves to learn and has really enjoyed doing the preschool workbooks we pick up for her. She's already very good at phonics and spelling/sounding out words. She is very excited to go to a new school and start kindergarten. 

She still enjoys picking out her clothes in the morning. I try to guide her on some choices, then I let her accessorize. She usually has on a necklace, bracelet, sticker earrings and a headband by the time she's ready to leave the house. 

She loves to "surprise" me and Cameron by cleaning the house. If I even mention they need to pick up, she'll say ok mama, you go in the kitchen and don't look and she'll run around till everything is put away. She has such a sweet nature and giving personality- she makes me so proud!  I am going to miss spending my days with her next year, but I know she will thrive in school! Love you so much, Pres!

Anna at 7 months

Anna is growing up so fast! I can't believe she's already 7 months old. Guess it's partly sleep deprivation, but this 7 months has flown by!  

She is sitting up on her own now, eating jars of baby food and drinking from a cup. So far, she loves carrots and prunes, who would have thought! She's not too fond of other fruits, but we're working on it. She loves to talk and babble. I swear, she even tries to repeat our words. She will stare at my lips when I'm talking then babble off in her own words. She loves to screech, especially when she watches David and Prelsey running around doing crazy stuff. 

She's still not sleeping great, but she randomly will sleep through the night. She is taking some great, long naps, though. I'm thankful for those because they normally overlap with David's nap at least half an hour or so.  She loves playing with her toys these days and chews on everything. She still doesn't have any teeth, or signs of teeth, but that's nothing new in this family. 

She is the perfect addition to our family! Her smile is so big and contagious! I can't imagine life without Anna. She is such a fun, laid-back baby! We all love her so much. 

David Update

David is now 2 years and 3 months and has changed so much the past few months. I've been meaning to blog about him for a while... He has so many funny habits. My favorite thing he does is sing before bed. While it keeps Presley, Anna, and all of us awake... it's so funny to hear him belt out "Ba, Ba Black Sheep." He used to sing "Ba Ba, Ba Ba, I ne ne..." then trail off into "Mama, Dada, Anna, Presley, David..." He just this past month started singing it the right way, as best he can and it's precious. He also just started saying Presley instead of calling her Pre. He is growing up too fast!

His other favorite phrase is "Right Dere" when he's saying Right There. It's one of our favorite things he says.

His passion right now is "Dunk!" He goes to Dunkin Donuts with Cameron every Saturday and Sunday and the Dunkin ladies love him. He gets handed donut holes when he walks in the door. One the occasions where I go too, I'll stay in the car with the kids and the ladies send out donut holes to the car for him! It's pretty ridiculous, but he is Dunkin royalty! He will eat 2 large, glazed donuts before coming home.

David's favorite toy right now is any car/truck/motorcyle (momo)/train/ and his Mater. We gave him the Mater for his second birthday and he loves to ride it around in the house. He just grins and takes off.

This sweet man has so much energy and definitely keeps me on my toes! He loves to eat and we're working on getting him to eat more protein and calorie-dense foods to help him increase weight. At last weigh-in, he was 24lbs. We just discovered he loves jerky! Who would have thought... he still doesn't eat many sweets. He only likes m and m's, will eat a bite of a cookie, no milkshakes or ice cream. I think he'll eventually like sour things like his daddy. He still sleeps pretty good and takes a daily nap.

He is talking more and more. He repeats EVERYTHING that Presley says! He follows her around and will pretty much do anything she wants- put on shows, sing crazy songs, play dogs/animals, anything. He pesters her like a good, younger brother should, but they also play so well together and have so much fun. I'm so glad they have each other. It's pretty obvious Anna can't wait to get in on the action with them.

David still loves her so much and gives her so much attention. He hugs her constantly, kisses all over her and loves to make her laugh. He's going to be such a great big brother and I know he and Anna will be just as close as he is with Presley.

He loves to throw the ball with me or Cameron. He's got a really good arm and is definitely a lefty! I can't wait till he can start playing sports because he is very coordinated.

We love you so much, David!!

More Christmas Pictures

So, I completely forgot to wait on Emily's Christmas pictures before I did my post.

The big slumber party the night of Tim and Debbie's party. Max and Olivia got to spend the night and watch a movie before bedtime.

 Family picture!

 My cousin Brittany was AMAZING with Anna. She would literally jump from me to Brittany. Brittany was the only one who could calm her down if she was crying or anything. It was so sweet!

And her husband, Sam, had the same affect on Anna. They are her #2 Mommy and Daddy.

 SO Sweet!

 Grandkids and great-grandkids with Pop

 My siblings with Aunt Black and Aunt Joanie, my Grannie's sisters. It is always so great to see them. They remind me so much of my Grannie. I wish Grannie could have met Cameron and my children. I know she's watching over us and is thrilled to see us all together. 

 Mallie and Dallie with their grandbabies

 And Uncle Tim and Debbie with all the babies!

Anna and Nora with my cousin's baby, Jovi

 The Godfather 

 All the kids lined up in age order, just like we did in front of Grannie's shed every year!

 Karleigh and Olivia, my cousins who Presley loves!

 More pictures from Amelia's baby shower

Dallas- Post Christmas

After Kentucky, Cameron flew back to Colorado and the kids and I flew to Dallas with Amelia and Daniel. I was SO grateful they were on my plane!! They were so helpful with the kids and all our luggage!  We had a fun time in Dallas and Mallie and Dallie's house. The kids go to play a lot with Liam, Bryn and Nora. 

I don't think Presley let Amelia relax one second on that flight... she took advantage of having a teacher next to her and asked Meha to help her with her preschool workbooks. 

We made homemmade pizzas for dinner one night with Mallie...

 Emily brought over lots of toys for the kids. David enjoyed this new workbench and tools.

 

Presley being goofy

Auburn was going to the National Championship game in Pasadena and Cameron and I just couldn't pass up this opportunity... so, my parents and Emily and Nick kept our kids so we could go. I am SO grateful to all of them for allowing us to get away for a few days and watch Auburn play. It was an awesome vacation!!

Met up with some of our best friends from college- Bert Bean and Lindsey Henig

Been out of college for 10 years, but you wouldn't know it... packing our cooler for tailgating.

 After dinner Sunday night, we walked through downtown Pasadena. This was the ESPN Gameday set next to City Hall. 

 Sunday after I landed, we went to Santa Anita horse track to watch some races. It's a really nice track with beautiful scenery!

 

While we were gone, we could not have asked for better babysitters! Nick took Presley ice skating after they saw the movie Frozen. She loved it and thought she was the Frozen princess! 

Sweet Anna was right at home at Emily and Nick's!

 

I wish I had more pictures from our time in Dallas, but we were so busy! David had to go to the ER in Kentucky on New Year's morning with croupe. His breathing was so horrible and I'm so glad we took him that night- thanks to Mallie for catching it! We had to fly later that day, which thankfully, didn't bother him. However, the next night, I took him to urgent care and he had an ear infection. So, we didn't do a whole lot while we were in Dallas the first few days. We tried to take it easy and let him get better. We had a great time and always love getting to see all my family and great mommy friends there!