Happy New Year!

Can you believe that it is the year 2010 already? I thought we when we hit this year, we'd be living like the Jetson's with flying cars and such! :) I really wanted to do a year in review of pictures from 2009 for this post, but I can't find my flash drive that has all of my old photos on it. So, instead you get a cute picture of Presley and the promise that within the next few weeks I'll look for my drive and post them then!

We extended Christmas!

I was going to title this post "Santa came a day late". But I'm trying to be optimistic here, so it was changed. It just really hasn't felt like the joyous time of year it's supposed to be. Don't get me wrong...I know that Christmas is NOT about gifts, decorations and food. But it is about family and loving and togetherness. Not to mention the REAL reason for CHRISTmas....the birth of our Savior!

But even with me knowing all of that I can't help but be somewhat sad. My dad and brother were not able to be with us this Christmas and it felt like a huge empty void was there all day. Christmas Eve was my third night working, so I was exhausted on Christmas day and slept WAY too long....until 5 pm. I had wanted to get up earlier so I could help cook and get ready for everything. So since I slept too much, that pushed back eating and opening presents at my parents' house, THUS making it too late to come back home and do presents at our house and see what Santa left for Presley. Oh, not to mention that Presley was getting sick. She had a fever, was really fussy and wouldn't eat. I just felt like crying on Christmas night...so I did! I know that Presley won't remember any of this or even care....but I do and I just wanted it to be special.

So, Santa DID come a day late and drop of presents for Presley. We stayed dressed in PJ's to open our gifts, because that's what we would have done on Christmas. She loved all of her gifts, but the seahorse was her favorite. And she had a blast at bath time tonight with her new things!

Here is what Santa left for Presley

In case you can't see what it all is:
exersaucer, duck bath tub, bath toys, musical seahorse,
books, flower pacifier clip, and clothes.

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone has had a great day! Here are a few pictures from my parent's house! The one of us all together is from a few weeks earlier when my dad was home and we opened presents with him. The last one makes me laugh because Presley got a bow stuck on her hand and she was waving it around! It was so cute! ;) I'll post more later!

Christmas Cutie!

Nothing like some cute Christmas pictures of Miss Presley! Enjoy! =)

Presley at Six Months!

Half a year old! Can you believe it? Before we know it, June will be here and Presley will be turning one. I'll admit it makes me a little sad, but we have had such a great time watching her grow. She has definitely got her own little personality now! A funny, warm, loving personality! I can't wait to see her as an adult....I know she's going to be a phenomenal woman!

It seems like so much has changed in the past month.....except for Presley rolling over. She just won't do it! At first I thought that maybe she wasn't spending enough time on her belly. So we changed that and still nothing. I took away the wedge that she slept on, thinking maybe that made her stay in one position too much and still nothing! We even try to roll her ourselves on a blanket and you guessed it.....STILL nothing! I think that she just has no interest in it yet! But, Presley does sit up great by herself, except when she gets excited and pushes back and topples over!

We started solid foods yesterday! Yay! (I'll make a whole separate post on this later!) And I'm looking for a good sippy cup to start giving her.

We also moved Presley to the crib for the first time TONIGHT! (Again, I'll post more later!) Keep your fingers crossed that it will go well and she'll last the whole night in her big bed! She was a really good sleeper at night in her bassinette and I hope that doesn't change now. She normally goes to sleep between 9 and 10 pm and sleeps until 8 am. But, don't get too jealous yet...Presley is a cat napper during the day. Which means that she only sleeps about 20 min at a time a few times a day. This equals Mommy not being able to get anything done during the day! Not fun! But that's the trade off - good sleeper at night OR good napper during the day!

Presley has started doing these new precious things in the past month. She will reach out for you when you try to pick her up. And she buries her head in your chest/neck when you do pick her up...it's like she is hugging you! It is so sweet! I will miss these sweet moments when they are gone.

And finally, here are some adorable pictures for your enjoyment!

Santa was just so exciting!

Presley was so excited to meet Santa Claus...can't you tell? Ha ha! She fell asleep right before we went up to see him and I was really surprised that she didn't wake up when I put her down. Maybe she felt like she was being laid down in some soft pillows! Who knows!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

WOW! There are less than 3 weeks left until Christmas! Yay! Presley is going to have such a great time...she already is! She helped me decorate the tree last night. She sat in awe in her bumbo seat at the multi-colored lights! She loved looking at the ornaments too. She slobbered ALL over the mitten one that she's holding! She was such a good little helper!

We went to the Christmas Parade tonight and boy was it FREEZING outside! Florida is not supposed to be this cold! I felt like we were out on an arctic tundra! (I don't even know what that is, but it sounds cold enough!) We got bundled up and tried to enjoy it despite the cold. Presley was the cutest little eskimo ever!

Gobble Gobble!

Poor Presley...her first Thanksgiving and she wasn't even allowed to join in the festivities. Although she got a taste of turkey and all the fixins in the womb last year, it's just not the same experiencing it first hand! ;) Next year, she'll be 17 months old and will definitely chow down on some of Daddy's fried turkey and Mommy's desserts!

We had a great day! Presley got to see her Granny and Grandaddy again...and boy did she enjoy that! She just smiled and smiled at them. Their isn't anything like great-grandparent lovin!!

I am so thankful to have a beautiful, healthy daughter and a sweet, loving husband. Not to mention the best parents anyone could ask for! And such an awesome extended family! I am so blessed! =)

Presley at Five Months!

No matter what we do, Miss just keeps growing and growing! Five months old....goodness where did the time go? Here's what Presley's been up to-

Presley is such a nosy rosy! When she's eating a bottle, you pretty much have to follow her around with the bottle because she is too busy looking around and checking out what everyone else is doing to eat. And if I'm trying to nurse her...forget about it! She's not even interested in eating whatsoever. Oh, she's such a mess! I have never, ever seen a child that is so social this early on. Just take a look at the other picture below of her in her chair....she's trying to see what's on the paper that is laying beside her!

She's still "talking" up a storm. She will pretty much have a conversation with you! You can start talking to her, then she'll talk, then you can say something else to her and she waits for you to finish then she starts up again. It is the cutest thing!

Presley has rolled over only a few times, since I made the big post about it. I know she can do it, she just doesn't want too! I think that she will be "tripoding" soon. That's where a baby is basically sitting up on their own, but they have their arms out in front to help support them. She can pretty much do it now...she's just still really wobbly! Presley also found her feet about 2 weeks ago! She LOVES sticking them to her mouth! There is a picture below of her eating her feet! LOL!

Little Miss has also started to be VERY unhappy with strangers. She cries and cries if someone she isn't around regularly tries to hold her. I thought that "stranger anxiety" didn't occur with babies until around 8 months, but boy was I wrong!

Her weight today was 13 lbs and 14 oz. She seems much heavier than that though! She normally drinks (if she's taking a bottle) 5 oz roughly every 3 hours. And at bedtime she takes her big bottle of 7-8 oz. All this food is starting to pay off...because Presley is not lacking in the fat rolls department!!

you know you have a wonderful child when...

even though they are sick with snot pouring out of their nose, they still give you a big smile!

That's right, Presley got her first cold. She woke up yesterday coughing and it progressed to sneezing and a runny nose. Her temp had been just like a low grade fever, but last night she was 101. Poor baby! She looks like she doesn't feel good at all, but she is pretty much still her happy self. She's only been slightly fussier than normal. We gave her some tylenol last night and propped her up in the bed to help her breathe better. She slept great! I hate seeing her like this, but hey, we went FIVE months without getting sick and that's pretty darn good!

I knew I wasn't crazy...

Forever ago, at our last Mommy & Me playgroup, I asked the lactation consultant if she thought Presley's frenulum was short. That's the little thing that attaches your tongue to the base of your mouth. You are considered tongue-tied if it's too short. Well, she looked at it and didn't think so, but she suggested asking Dr. P, our pediatrician for a consultation for a feeding evaluation from speech therapy at a local hospital. I really felt that something wasn't right about the way Presley STILL didn't latch well while nursing and you could just literally pull the bottle right out of her mouth. She had no grip on it whatsoever.

So me being the good mother that I am, I procrastinated and waited until Presley's 4 mo checkup to ask Dr. P about it. Instead of just calling her oh so long ago and asking for the consult. Anyway, Dr. P took a look at Presley's mouth and agreed that something was off about her sucking. She said Presley had good control of her tongue in the back, but didn't have any suction in the front of her tongue. So she decided to do the consult to see if there was anything they could do to help her get it together.

So, fast forward to Friday and we had our visit with the speech therapist. She watched Presley eat a bottle and suck on her paci. The therapist right off the bat said, "Yeah her sucking is really disorganized." THANK YOU PEOPLE! I've been telling you that something wasn't right with Presley's eating!! The therapist is going to be seeing Presley twice a week for therapy in order to help her sucking. We didn't set up a definite time because she needs to get a game plan together of what exercises she could do with Presley. I asked her if she thought that this would help Presley nurse better and she said "hopefully"!

I'll take hopefully! :)

I fell really bad that I didn't call Dr. P sooner to get the ball rolling. But, Presley's a HEALTHY girl, so it's not like she suffered from it!! And it's just the beginning of a long list of regrets I'll have as a parent...because I won't do everything right. You just do the best you can and hope for the best! Oh, and PRAY... a lot!

Our adorable giraffe...aka Presley on Halloween!

Presley's first Halloween was a success! Everybody had such a great time. We got Presley dressed in some warm clothes and then put on her giraffe costume...got a few pics and she was out like a light. She feel asleep without being rocked or sucking her paci, which NEVER happens people. So she was definitely warm and toasty AND exhausted. Three out of the four pictures posted...she's sleeping in!

Kameron was a GI Joe, Jaden was a (fire-breathing) dragon and Kole was a witch. But not just any witch, a good witch! We drove the kids over to some friends houses' first and then we went walking around the neighborhood. I left Presley with Jeremiah instead of taking her with the other kiddos, because honestly there would have been no point to it. She was so hungry and tired that traipsing her around the street in an animal outfit would have been just cruel. So stay home with her Daddy she did!

One last cute picture:

What a difference a year makes...

This is what Jeremiah and I woke up to one year ago today-

And this is what we woke up to today-

I wouldn't have believed you last year if you told me that I was going to have beautiful daughter and a wonderful husband by this time. Well, the wonderful husband part I already had....but not the daughter! I never thought I could love someone so wholeheartedly. When I think back on all of the issues with my pregnancy and the parvo virus exposure and how there was a chance, albeit a small one, that we could lose the baby we had never met, I think about how incredibly blessed we are! We have had one crazy, roller coaster of emotions kind of year, but all in all I wouldn't trade it for anything!

rolling, rolling, rolling

Ladies and Gentlemen.....Presley rolled over for the first time today! Yay! She's such a big girl! Who knows if she'll start doing this all of the time or not! These are some pictures that our friend Karri took. Here they are in succession!


and TADA! she's done!

Presley at Four Months!

FOUR months....that's 1/3 of the year! Yikes! This is going by way too fast! Can we please slow it down a little? Presley wore a festive shirt in honor of Halloween coming up. I told her we didn't have to do that, but she insisted. I'm raising quite the little fashionista, no?! ;) But she is mighty cute in it! And she is wearing blue jeans for the first time. Too cute! They were a gift from her Aunt Karri and she loves them!

I know I'm 5 days late in posting this, but at least I'm within a week! We had her 4 month checkup and shots today. She weighs 12 1/2 lbs and is 24 1/4 inches long! She is slowing down in the weight department and shooting ahead in the length. She grew 3 inches in one month! Dr. P wasn't too concerned about her weight...she is gaining steadily and that's all that matters. Presley did really good with her 2 shots. She cried for about 5 minutes and then was done! I gave her some Tylenol beforehand, so maybe that helped!

Presley now reaches for toys at midline...which is fancy-schmancy talk for if you put a toy in front of her face, she will reach for it! She also is starting to bring every toy to her mouth and give it some sugar! She is still drooling like CRAZY and sucking on those fists! She most recently found out that her thumb detaches from the rest of her fingers and she can nibble on it separately. I tell her that we can't do that and take away her thumb and put her paci in her mouth! She promptly responds by spitting her paci out and sticking that thumb back in! She's a smidge defiant!!

She is laughing at us more when we talk or act funny! Her laugh is just the sweetest thing and of course, we can't get it on video because she has a radar that tells her to stop doing whatever she was doing when we bring it out! No rolling over yet...but she's getting there. She likes tummy time a little more and she is pushing up to see what is around her. I think she'll be rolling within the next few weeks. She's kind of wobbly when we sit her up...so we have to assist her still. But, all in due time she'll figure these things out!

pumpkin patch!

My mind can't believe it is fall, but my body sure can. It was FREEZING outside today when we went to the pumpkin patch...hence the breakout of the jackets! So we didn't get any cute pictures with Presley's adorable onesie that said "My First Halloween". Hopefully we can look back on these pictures and realize that it was Presley's first pumpkin patch experience...hopefully being the key word! Presley picked out her own pumpkin to have (see photos 1 and 2). In the second one, she is trying to look at it! She kept getting closer and closer to it. I thought she was going to try and chew on it! She probably would have at least drooled on it! :) Jaden was such a good baby-holder. He held onto her tight and she sat up good for him! I was impressed on both their parts!

Tomorrow is a big day....Kole's 3rd birthday party and Presley is FOUR months old! =)

talking to her birdie

Presley LOVES her bouncy seat! Here she is talking to the bird that is on it. She sounds like a cat and it is the most precious sound ever! She starts talking and gets louder and louder. I don't know who she gets that from! ;) Jeremiah, I think! Ha ha! Enjoy the cute video...

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. There hasn't really been anything going on lately! Just the day to day working and taking care of our family. We were supposed to go to a corn maze this past Saturday, but by the time we got there, it was closed. Hopefully we can go this weekend. I also want to take Presley to a pumpkin patch and get some pictures of her picking out a pumpkin. Ok so it will more likely be me picking out the pumpkin and sitting Presley next to it for a picture, but still, it will be a memory! Other than that, Presley is growing like a little weed...she'll be FOUR months old on Sunday.

first boo boo

Here is Presley's first boo boo that she has ever gotten....well, that left a mark at least! Ha ha! I've accidentally dropped the phone on her head while feeding her! I can't believe I actually just admitted that! I'm good Mommy other than being clumsy, I swear!

But today's incident was not my fault! Our nephew Kameron was trying to calm her down while I was changing her diaper. He was holding a book over her head talking to her about it, and it was working until he dropped it on her head! Poor thing let out this blood curdling scream and I knew she was definitely hurt. Poor Kameron was so sorry...he kept telling Presley "I didn't mean too"! He's so sweet! He gave her a kiss and told her he was sorry! When all the redness went away, I noticed that that stinkin' book left a mark on my baby! So here it is in all it's glory!

cuteness overload :)

Here are some pictures I took of Miss Priss today! She's getting to be such a big girl! I know, I know...I say that every post, but I seriously can't believe my baby will be 4 months old in 2 weeks! Ahhhh! Where does the time go?

Presley was trying to eat her shirt in the second picture, but she couldn't quite get it up to her mouth! So she settled for smiling at Mommy and drooling! You would think that she is cutting teeth already, by the way she drools CONSTANTLY! If we don't keep a bib on her, that sweet liquid sugar just comes pouring out all over the cute outfit Mommy picked out! As one of our friend's little boy put it "she's bubbling over"!

Presley's first mini vacation!

Presley had her first out of town excursion last weekend to Panama City Beach. My parents own a timeshare there and we all went down for a quick get away. She was such a good girl! We went down to the beach late Saturday afternoon and she sat under a shade canopy in her bouncy seat and slept a little bit and then enjoyed the scenery! The next day, Presley and I stayed in the nice, cool condo when everyone else went down to the beach again. We both took a little cat nap! And then later on that afternoon we went to the kids pool and Presley sat in one of the chairs with her Papaw. Isn't she so cute sitting in her seat with her hat on like a big girl?

I really wanted to take her into the pool, but by the time we brought her down there, the water was too cold. I would like to take her to the beach again before the warm weather fades away, so we can dip her toes into the water! I think she's really going to like the beach in the Spring time, when she's older and can actually enjoy it.

We went out to eat at The Treasure Ship on Sunday night and our niece and nephews loved it! There was a pirate who came around and talked to them and made balloon animals. Presley really enjoyed it...she slept through the entire thing! Ha ha! We left on Monday to come back home. It was a short trip, and we really enjoyed ourselves, but I think we will save the big vacation get away for when Presley is a little bit older!

Presley at Three Months!

WOW! Look at this big girl! Look at that double chin! Ha ha! She is definitely getting some fat on her now. It's about time! I added the pictures of Presley at each month to the right side of the page for everyone to see her at different months and how she's grown. The picture labeled "Brand New" was one we took as soon as we got home from the hospital...so 2 days old technically.

Presley can now suck on her fists, reach out for things (and occasionally grab them!), blow some bubbles, drool like CRAZY, and coo/babble a bit. She has only laughed out loud a few times and it is just precious when she does it! I can't wait for her to start laughing and talking more...of course then we'll wish she has an "off" button to push! ;) She got weighed today and the grand total was.......11 lbs, 5 oz. That is 19 ounces gained in 17 days! YAY PRESLEY! I'm so proud of her! :)

We also went on our first "play date" today with a new friend named Piper. She's too cute and I think Miss Presley and Miss Piper are going to be great friends! Of course now their play dates consist of them sitting in their carseats sleeping and Mommies eating lunch and talking! But that will change soon enough! There will come a day, very soon, when I won't be able to contain Presley in one spot!

WiLd hAiR!

Presley definitely has her daddy's hair! LOL! It is slightly wavy when it's dry, but it gets super curly after a bath, as evidenced in the pictures above! It's turning a lighter color too! Maybe Miss Priss will have blonde hair like her Mama! ;)

And of course she's doing her favorite thing as of late...eating her fists!

Presley and her Moby!

i L.O.V.E. wearing my baby! And clearly Presley loves being worn! Ha ha! We went walking the other day and she completely fell asleep right in her Moby wrap. I just adore the picture of her all snuggled up to me! I cherish these moments, because I know that there will come a day when she will be too busy to be cuddled with and loved on. :(