if ever you need reminding

I found this blog and while reading it, with tears streaming down my face, decided that everyone needs to take a look at it. Stacy shows the most incredible strength in dealing with the death of her son. I know, death is not an easy subject to stomach. Let alone a newborn baby's death. But it is such a powerful, moving experience to read this blog. I know that I am so guilty of not living and loving each day to the fullest. I can't wait for Presley to wake up so I can hold her tighter and kiss her longer than I ever have. I have great faith in God that he plans everything perfectly. And sometimes we can't see His master plan for days, months, even years later. And I know that if Presley goes home to Jesus before I do, she will be held in the arms of the one who loves her even more than I do. I pray that I won't know that excruciating hurt. But reading Stacy's blog gives me hope that life does endure with the hope of Jesus.

three about me

I found this little survey, if you will, on another blog. I thought it was cute and easy to read, therefore I filled it out! I rarely post about myself so, why not? Enjoy! Oh, and they are in no particular order.

Three Names I Answer to:
1. Ashley
2. Ma ma
3. Baby (from my darling husband)

Three Places I Have Lived:
1. Winona, Mississippi
2. Bakersfield, California
3. Navarre, Florida

Three Favorite Drinks
1. Coca Cola
2. Sweet Tea
3. Chocolate milk

Three Shows I Watch (sadly there are many, many more. just ask my dvr!)
1. Modern Family
2. The Office
3. Project Runway

Three Worth Remembering Shows from the Past
1. Saved by the Bell
2. SNL (mid-late 90's)
3. Boy Meets World

Three Places I Have Been
1. Los Angeles (swoon!)
2. Las Vegas (double swoon!)
3. St. Lucia (triple swoon!)

Three Places I Would Like to Visit
1. Australia
2. New York City
3. Savannah, Georgia

Three Jobs I Have Had:
1. Manager at an ice cream store
2. Old Navy
3. waitress at Ruby Tuesday's

Three People Who Text Me
1. My husband
2. Karri
3. hmmmm....no one else really

Three Favorite Dishes
1. BBQ pork sandwiches
2. homemade cheeseburgers
3. Grilled Shrimp Caprese (from Olive Garden)

Three Makeup Products I Couldn't Live Without
1. Mascara
2. Eyeliner
3. Clinique moisturizing gel

Three Things I am Looking Forward To
1. Presley's birthday :)
2. My fabulous in-laws visiting this week!
3. Having another baby (distant future, folks!)

nothing new

There hasn't really been much going on in the Petty household. Just the everyday stuff. Presley just discovered door stoppers and she's in love! She will sit there and fling it back and forth until it comes off the baseboard. It's pretty funny how entertaining mundane things can be to babies!

The BIG birthday will be here before I know it and I'm procrastinating about making decisions for it. I have decided on a theme and place, but that's about it. I think we are just doing family as guests. I've gone back in forth in my mind on whether to invite a lot of people. I think it would be fun to have some friends that we have met through the Mommy & Me play group help us celebrate. But we have always just had family at first parties and ultimately Presley doesn't have a clue of what's going on! This party is for our memories. Presley can have her parties her way when she gets older....this one's mine! :)

This is an invitation idea that I've been eying. It fits the theme perfectly!

And finally, I can't WAIT to get my monogramming machine up and running! My mom got the software we needed so all that's missing is fabric, thread, and time to do it! I'm so excited. I've gotten some cute plain dresses for Presley and Kole that are just screaming for an applique to jump on them!

Presley at Ten months!

Holy cow! T E N months! Only 60 days until we have a toddler. Wow, that's a scary statement! Every month it seems like Presley grows leaps and bounds. This month in particular, I feel like I have a big girl instead of just a baby.

Presley is crawling like a champ. She is so much faster than you would think she could be! She also started, just in the last few days, cruising the coffee table and couch. She only goes up and down the side of the table where the couch is, because she likes to go between the two. She is really slow moving but I'm sure that will change soon!

Presley is eating almost everything that we do now. Crazy to think that my baby is eating the same as me! She will still do purees as long as they are thickened with baby cereal. Before Presley eats ANYTHING from a spoon, she has to taste it first. Meaning Mommy and Daddy can only put the food on her lips just a little bit, let her taste it, then maybe she will open up wide enough to take a bite! It's quite funny, until you need her to eat in a hurry!

She is in a size 3 diaper, 9-12 months clothes (some 12-18 mo, depends on the brand) and between a size 2 and 3 in shoes. The latter frustrates Mommy to death, because the 2's are too tight and the 3's too big. So, for now, we have been barefoot on most outings!

*The first picture cracks me up because she wouldn't cooperate for anything. Guess she wasn't in the mood today! Notice the tape on the sign? Yeah, that still didn't keep her from ripping it off the chair! So this is what we got.*

~Cute pics~

Our nephew Jaden thought Presley was trying to be Mickey Mouse in this outfit!

Presley LOVES to climb in the bottom of her exersaucer. And then she sits
there and cries when she can't figure a way out of it!

Here is Presley standing up for the first time in her crib!
Sorry for the horrible quality. It was taken with my cell phone. My friend says she looks photo-shopped in!

And I leave you with a sweet girl after breakfast one morning!

file under "hope this is easier the second time around"

We went for Presley's 9 mo. check up, Dr P. asked how she was doing with food. I told her our little food schedule and Dr. P was really surprised at how much formula Presley was still drinking. Keep in mind that not too long ago we were told that 24 oz was the minimum that Presley should be taking in. So, what did we do? Increased her intake so that she was drinking about 5 bottles of 6 oz each. That equals 30 oz, not bad right?

Well, apparently it is! Dr. P thought that Presley has had good weight gain because of her formula intake, not because of her food intake. So, insert that old saying "darned if you do, darned if you don't" here. She told us that Presley would probably would need to be on the "next step" formula even after she turned a year old. She would most likely only need a cup a day of it, but still. This is not something your check book wants to hear! I was looking forward to making the jump from $25/can to $3/ gallon in whole milk!

We dropped one of the bottles so Presley is drinking 24 oz again in hopes of her appetite picking up. Some days it seems like she eats better than others. This has been Presley's theme since the beginning- she could care less if she eats or not. We have been pushing table food because Dr. P said she really needs to be feeding herself at this point. And again, some days she cooperates with this and others, not so much. She doesn't do too well with textures. I'm not sure why. If anyone has any good suggestions on meal ideas I would LOVE to hear them!

Below are lists of food that we have tried.

~YAY~
cheese toast
grilled cheese
yogurt
pizza
ANY kind of roll!
crackers
shredded cheese
chicken and dumplings
chicken wings
coleslaw
french fries
sweet potato
mashed potatoes

~NAY~
avocado
grits
oatmeal (packaged)
spaghetti
watermelon
carrot cubes
apple cubes (Gerber graduates) this surprised me

my apologies

for being the worst blogger ever! It's not that a TON of things haven't been happening...it's that a don't have a ton of time to write about them. I do this blog for a few reasons, but the most important one is so that I can look back years from now and relive these moments. Well, one can't do that if it's not written down! So, here is a recap of the last few weeks.

WE HAVE A CRAWLER! Presley started crawling "for real" last week. She will still sometimes army crawl if she needs to get somewhere fast. But for the most part she crawls like a big girl. This happened when, of course, Presley was at Nana's house, away from Mommy and Daddy. I cried that I didn't get to see it first. But that's what happens to a working mother...you can't be there for every moment. And it just about kills me. every. single. time.

STANDING UP! Presley will try and pull up on everything in the house. Which is cute in theory, but when your house is a baby death trap, it makes Mommy gasp and hold her breath virtually all of the time. (Ok, so I'm being a tad dramatic, but our living room is awful. We have 2 "pretty" shelves that need to be babyfied and our coffee table is deathly!!) Presley will also stand on her own for a few seconds at a time. And she loves to walk with you if you hold her hands!

TOOTHIES! Presley is cutting a tooth and let me tell you it is not fun! She is just a little more fussy during the daytime, but she's been waking up a lot at night. Tylenol and Orajel have become Presley's new BFF's! I hate to see her go through this because I've had my fair share of toothaches and they hurt! I can't even imagine having a tooth break through gums. Ouch! I think we get teeth when we are little so we won't remember it!

HOPPY Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! Hope your day was as fantastic as ours was! We went to church this morning. It was such a good service. We went to the early service so we could get home and finish lunch before it got too late. We still ended up eating at 1:30 or so!! Oh well, at least the food was delicious!

The Easter Bunny came yesterday and left a basket for Presley. He knew she would be getting up early today for church, so he was really nice and gave it to her sooner so Mommy could take pictures! ;) Gotta love that bunny!

This lasted on her head all of about 1/2 a second! I've learned to keep the camera in my hand ready to take a picture the moment I sit her down!

One of my favorites!

Presley decided that picking up eggs was no fun, so she just sat down and

started pulling all of the grass out of her basket! Silly girl! :)