3 months old already! Where has time gone?

Presley is such a happy girl. She loves attention and gives the sweetest smiles to anyone who talks to her. She still loves to be held and will now follow people around the room as they move.

She has discovered her feet and loves to grab onto her toes. I LOVE her little fat rolls, they are so dang cute!

She is starting to give us different facial expressions when we talk to her....I love watching our kids grow and develop different skills. She is cooing and mimicking our mouth's movement and trying to figure out how the heck we make the sounds we do! It is so fun to watch.

The other day I went to get her out of the car and discovered her headband around her mouth. It explained why she cried the entire way home! A few days later I watched her grab her headband and try to pull it off but it ended up over her eyes instead. Poor thing.....I torture her to death with her bows, but she is so cute with them!

Madison was trying to calm her down one day and this is what I found. I think she might be a tad bit too young to play with a sword.....but hey, at least she was willing to help me out!

Happy 3 months mark Presley!

As I look over the posting I realize that Presley is in her carseat A LOT. I feel so bad for her but we are in the car the majority of the day. It's just part of being the 3rd kid. It also explains why she cries every time I put her into her carseat. She knows that once she's in it will be a while before she gets out again.

Catching up with Madison

The last few months have been incredibly chaotic for our family. Madison has had so much going on that the other kids and I are exhausted just driving her around! She's had school, swim lessons, piano, gymnastics and a few play dates. I didn't mean to over schedule us quite so much, but hey, it happens and next year I will be MUCH more careful in what I put the kids in.

Swim Lessons

She has been in swim lessons for the last month, she did 2 sessions and LOVED them. I'm so glad, I'm such a water baby that it would make it hard for me if one of my kids didn't enjoy the water.

For the first session she stayed in level 1 to refresh all of her skills. With us not having a pool she doesn't get to swim near as much as any of us would like. She did great! I love her swim instructor, the first skill she teaches the kids is the "recovery." I think that is what she calls it. Basically the kids have to learn to go under the water and then come up and float on their back. She says that if they know that skill they should never drown. Hey, I'm a fan, the last thing I want is to deal with the death of a child via drowning. Madison got this skill down pat last year and did great with it again this year.

In her second session she did Level 2 and was diving by the end. I was so proud of her, she was terrified of diving but thanks to positive peer pressure she was diving with the rest of them. She also began learning side breathing, front stroke and back stroke. She still has a bunch to work on to get really strong in level 2, but she did so well!

Random Story with picture

This is just a random story about her, but I love this picture and got a kick out of her creativity. She discovered this new show with a superhero named Spartacus in it. It's beyond cheesy, but whatever. She likes it.

Anyway, she put on her super girl jammies and her snow boots so that she could be Spartacus and save whomever around the house. Mostly she just ran and jumped off of all the furniture. Luckily I got a cute picture of her before she ended up in timeout for the aforementioned jumping off of furniture.

First Piano Recital

Madison had her first piano recital this past month. She has been in piano the last 6 or 7 months and is actually doing really well. I wasn't sure how quick she would pick it up, or really if she would even like it, but she loves it and, for the most part, practices without me having to nag her.

She got to play 2 songs and was able to memorize the first one but had the book open just in case she needed it for the second. She played "The Opposite Song" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." She is reading the notes on the staff and is able to play with both hands. I'm so proud of her.

She has a tendency to be silly, but she took the recital seriously and was very professional during her turns.

Of course I forgot my camera that records video, so I was only able to get still shots of the night. I was bummed about that but excited that the other 2 kids made it through without too many issues.

I'm a big boy now!

About two months ago Hunter decided he didn't like diapers anymore. I LOVE them....there's not much that I dread more than having to take my child in to some nasty bathroom to go potty. Ugh....the germs give me the willy's just thinking of them.

Anyway, back to the story, every time I would tell him that it was time to change his diaper or tell Madison to go potty he wanted to go potty on the real potty also. I would frequently go looking for him and he would have stripped all his clothes and diaper off and be wanting to sit on the potty. It was actually becoming a pain in the butt for me.




So, after a few weeks of this happening I decided it was time to potty train the kid. If he was that interested then I was willing to go through the torture of potty training. The hardest part is finding a period of time where we would be home for more than an hour at a time. Once I decided to become 100% anti-social for a few weeks we started the process.

Dare I say it? We have success! I have a big boy now! And oh, my goodness, a little boy in his unders is about the cutest thing ever!!!! His favorite are his Elmo, but he will wear spider man or another Sesame Street character in a pinch. However, he will let me know that they are not his first choice. I tell him to get over it and if he doesn't have accidents then he will be able to wear whatever ones he wants. I'm such a sympathetic mommy.




The unknown result of potty training is that he pretty much refuses to wear clothes anymore. This is what he looks like at home all day long. I don't even care anymore. As long as he will wear clothes without a battle when we have to go out then I'm not fighting that battle. Besides, he is just too freakin' adorable to put into words going around all day in his unders.

I'm so proud of my little guy!

Catching up with Hunter

Hunter is starting to get quite the personality lately. For so long he has just followed Madison around and copied her as she plays. He is now coming up with funny things all by himself. Here are a few of his funny moments.....

Hunter got a 4 wheeler for Christmas this year and a dart gun for his last birthday. Being a boy he ended up putting the two together and this is the result.


The funny thing is that both Ryan and I have some serious hunters in our extended family, so of course I get a kick out of Hunter acting out hunting. Especially since there is close to a zero percent chance of his daddy ever taking him hunting.

He also recently discovered toothpicks. Whenever we go out to eat Madison looks for the toothpick dispenser and gets one for everyone in the family except me (I think it is beyond tacky to pick your teeth in public) and Hunter thinks it is so fun to put them in his mouth. He looks like such a southern boy, because many southern boys I have known chew on toothpicks all day long. I don't know if it's a southern thing or if I just mostly notice it when I am in the south, but he looks so adorable with it at the side of his mouth all day long.

It amazes me how every once and a while the kids will do something and it will hit me how grown up they are. Or they will exhibit a behaviour or mannerism that will be more adult than child. His toothpick habit is one of them for me.

Enchilada Recipe

Ok, since this actually turned out yummy and a few of you asked me to pass it on, here is the recipe Lindsay passed to me for Chicken Enchiladas. She made them for us after I had Presley and Ryan begged me to get the recipe.

If I can make them taste good anyone can, even Ryan liked them-and he's my toughest critic (which ticks me off to no end since the boy can't cook anything that isn't a pre-packaged frozen meal).

Start by making Cafe Rio's chicken

1 small bottle of Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing

5 lbs of chicken (I stick mine in frozen)

1 T Cumin

1 T Chili Powder

3 cloves of garlic

Cook all items in a crock pot for 4 hours, shred the chicken and let it cook an hour longer.

This makes a ton, I used about half for the enchilada recipe and froze the rest.

I also made it the day before and stuck it in the fridge and then warmed it in the microwave when I was ready to assemble.

Enchiladas:

Ingredients: tortillas, 1 can black beans, chicken, green enchilada sauce, Hamburger Helper's Cheesy Enchilada, cheese, lettuce, sour cream, avocados, olives and salsa.

1. Make the Hamburger Helper Cheesy Enchilada package

Only make the rice, do not add meat or make the topping sauce

2. Simmer the black beans so they are hot. Also, since I COMPLETELY forgot this step, I realized it makes the beans a little softer.

3. Fill the tortillas with rice, beans, cheese (if you want extra cheesy enchiladas), and chicken. Add to 9x13 pan. Once assembled, top with green enchilada sauce and cheese.

4. Cook in oven at 350* for about 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is super melted.

If you want you can top the enchiladas with lettuce, olives and avocados.

Serve with Sour cream and salsa

We have tons of leftovers and I will enjoy eating them for days to come.

I've got mad skills

I can suck my hand.......

I can fall asleep sitting up.....

But most of all, I can charm my parents with my heartbreakingly cute smile.

I'm so in love with this little girl it's not even funny.

On your mark, get set, go....

We officially have a 2 wheel bike rider! We are so proud of our big girl. She had lots of help learning from her daddy, her aunt Aunna, her uncle Phillip, her Papa and her Gigi. Mommy did NOT help because I decided that learning to ride a bike was a job best taught by her "daddy" (what I really meant by "daddy" was anyone but me because I had absolutely none of the patience needed to teach her how, nor did I have any desire to do it. I figure I do all the homework, piano, and never ending questions during the day while he's at work so I should get out of this one thing).

Poor Hunter was so distraught over Madison learning to ride a bike on 2 wheels that he kept saying "bike, Hunter's bike, bike" over and over. I don't know if he wanted me to push him, put his bike on the pavement, or take a picture of him on his bike? Or maybe he thought this bike would turn into a two wheeler? Or maybe, my best guess yet, is that Madison would not let him on the pavement when she wanted to ride her bike. I can't confirm that, but I that would definitely be something Madison would do.....

Going, going, gone....

Getting a baby to sleep without rocking them, or placing them in the swing to do the job for me, is a tough one. Presley is super tough because she's a snuggle bug and she loves to be held, and I love to hold her, so we are finally starting to figure it out to where it is a little less difficult for both of us.

The problem is that once she is asleep she is so dang cute that I want to pick her up and hold her.

Yep, I bet you are still wondering why we have had issues........

Ready for Church

A week or so ago I finally got everyone ready with enough time to get a picture of the kids before we left. This was the best of the lot, but I still think Hunter has a goofy face. He's starting to get tired of me getting pictures of him. I'll get one picture, barely, and then he goes "All done." Nice.

Aren't they cute? I love, love, love Presley's dress. You can't really tell, but it is so floofy (not a real word, I know, but the only way to describe it!). She absolutely hates it and it is next to impossible to get her buckled into her carseat, but it is so dang cute! I hadn't put her hairbow on yet for the picture, and that does complete the outfit.

This picture is my kids and their personalities to a T. I love it. They crack me up with their funny faces.

Whatever it takes.....

You know how every kid has something that makes them so happy and for the life of you you can't figure out why?

Hunter likes to floss his teeth.

Seriously, the kid loves to floss. He would do it all day long if I let him. Whenever he goes downstairs to forage for food while I'm getting ready I yell to him that he can floss his teeth and he'll come running back upstairs.

He does a really good job too.

I think he takes after his Aunt Alyssa... she flosses 10 times a day.

Sibling love

Here are all three of my kids together.

Sadly it's the only picture I have of the three of them without anyone else in it. The great thing about blogging, especially when I am semi caught up, is that I am able to know where I am lacking in my picture taking....I will be getting more sibling pictures from here on out.

Madison loves being the mom of Presley...Hunter and Presley are going to grow up thinking they have two moms. I keep telling her that certain things are mommy jobs but it just makes it worse, she wants to be the mommy so bad. She'll tell me, "But mom, I'm the big sister, I want to help." We'll see how she feels when she's older and I start expecting more things from her.

Hunter still gets so excited when he sees or hears her. When we are in the car and she fusses Hunter will tell me, "Mommy, baby Presley crying." Yep, I hear it too, dude. Thanks for the heads up.

He still doesn't know what to do with her. He'll come up to us and ask to hold her, so we let him and he'll just look at her for a minute and then poke her. Then he says "All done."

Mostly they love giving Presley kisses. This little girl gets a million kisses a day. The kids will come up to her when she is sleeping and wake her up to give her kisses. I get it, I do, I love kissing her cute little cheeks too, but sometimes I need to get stuff done and I need both hands to do it. If it was up to me I would sit and hold her all day long. As it is I do that most of the day anyway. I get a short amount of time where my baby will love me unconditionally, when that time is over I can get all the housework I want to do done.

St. George 2010

Every Martin Luther King weekend we meet some of our favorite people in St. George for a long weekend. I always feel guilty because we only have to drive for 2 hours to get there and they have to drive for 5. Unfortunately there is no better "middle" to meet in. Plus we are able to use a family house so we don't have to get hotel rooms. It works out really well.

We have a few traditions that have developed over the last 4 years. Amy and I always get a day to go shopping, we always get a babysitter and drive to Mesquite one night for a crab leg buffet, and we play as many games as we can fit it. Funny enough, as the kids get older it's harder to get enough distraction free time to play, so we end up staying up all hours of the night playing Mexican Train, Blokus or Settler's of Catan. We LOVE to play games with these guys. We will forever be in their debt for introducing us to Settler's, it has become our favorite game to play.

We actually got a group shot this year....of course we had to pick THIS year, when I was 7 months pregnant, to finally get said group shot. Go figure.......

Madison and Adi are the only girls between the two of us (well, now there is Presley too, but at the time there were just the 2) and they had so much fun playing together this year. They are a few years apart but ended up doing really well together. Other than playing with Adi's Barbies their favorite activity of the trip was playing "Airplane" in the golf cart at the house. It was hilarious, but we didn't mind a bit. We took the battery out so they couldn't go anywhere and they played to their hearts content. Amy and I got such a kick out of their game that we snapped a bunch of pictures while they played.

Amy and I both had little boys in November of 2007, we were actually due the same week but Amy ended up having Davis a few weeks earlier than I had Hunter. It's always fun to see how similar/different they are since they are so close in age. Here is a picture of Bennett, their oldest boy, Madison, Hunter and Davis. Bennett is so helpful when we all get together, it makes it a ton easier on us parents.

Carson, their second boy, doesn't like his picture taken so I snapped one when he wasn't paying attention. He played really well with the younger kids too. Madison gets a kick out of playing the older boys and being introduced to the games that they play since most of her boy friends are her age or younger.

Here are our two little guys. They have grown up so much over the last year. I was a little worried about how Hunter would do with another kid his age, but he was nicer than I thought he would be.

We can't wait until next year! When we were leaving Bennett said to all of us that he wishes that we could get together like this more often. I think so too. If only we lived closer to each other.....

Disney on Ice

Now that I have finally finished 2009 I can move on to some of the fun things we have done in 2010. Whoo Hoo!

Back in January we took the kids to Disney on Ice. Madison was so excited. We had taken her to Princesses on Ice a few years ago, so she knew just what to expect.

Here is a (semi) family picture. Ryan was taking the picture so he wasn't able to be in it.

We got to the Thomas & Mack Center an hour early so that Madison could meet the live princesses. We were quite confused by the advertisers definition of "Come early to meet the Princesses" that was put on the ads. This is what they actually meant by "meet the princesses":

We waited in line for about 20 min, snapping pictures along the way of the princesses dresses and such (anything to keep Madison from complaining about how long it was taking).

Once we got to the head of the line this is what we found.......

... A roped off area where one of the princesses stood and waived to the kids. I'm sorry, but this is not my definition of "meeting a princess." She was so disappointed! You can see her off to the left of the picture waiving to Cinderella.

Once the show started Hunter was enthralled. He liked it more than Madison did. She was such a stinker so I didn't get any pictures of her during the show, plus she was sitting next to me and so I couldn't get a good angle with my huge ol' tummy in the way.

He kept pointing to the show and laughing, he was captivated. It was fun for him. I still think he liked the princesses more than the Cars characters.

The light up spinny toy that the kids got provided much of the entertainment. They both loved to light the toy up when it was dark. Hunter kept his finger on the button almost the entire show, it was funny.

At the end he clapped away for the performances. He is so dang cute I can't even stand it.

Madison is cute too, but I didn't get very many pictures of her. That's what she gets for sitting next to me and being a grump.

A Milestone...Farewell 2009

I have hit a milestone on our blog.

I have finally caught up enough to say farewell to 2009.

It's about time.