Presley's Blessing Day

Sunday was sure a busy day in our household! We decided to have Presley blessed at home instead of at church. We invited only close family (ie: parents, siblings, and grandparents) it turned out to be alot of people jammed into our house, but the company was great! Presley looked gorgeous if I may say so! My mom made her blessing dress and it was perfect in every way. I was so glad that she was willing to make it. Presley was so good too, about halfway through taking pictures (which of course my mom was in charge of, she has developed quite the talent in the photography department) after having her blessed she decided that she had had enough and fell asleep in my arms. I was alittle bummed because we werent able to get pictures of her with everyone, but what do you do right??? My grandpa did a great job blessing her. It was sure nice to have family share in this special moment in Presley's life. And nice to feel the spirit in our home.

Below is a beautiful picture that my mom took of Presley in her blessing gown.

Now we move on to the next few days, finishing up last minute things for Christmas! I made  A TON of banana bread for family, friends, and neighbors so I guess I better get those taken to their homes. Hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas to remember!

Tis the season

Well it's that time of year again, and this year is going to be a completely different experience. we are looking forward to Christmas with Presley this year and lets face it, it's totally self indulgent for us this year since she is so little and Christmas to her is just going to be a busy day seeing lots of faces she rarely if ever sees. But none the less we are excited for it. We have done some shopping for her and while in the toy store over the weekend Jeremy says to me "lets get out of this *@#% hole." I laughed and said that this was just the beginning! Year after year for the next while we will be making the dreaded journey into Toys R Us, Tis the season! :)

    Over the weekend we had my dads annual Christmas party, which is always fun and intimate. This year Colleen decided that the couples were going to decorate Gingerbread houses, what a riot this was! My Grandpa was the star entertainer of the evening, he could not for the life of him get his gingerbread christmas tree to stay up , and he broke it a few times! I have included a few pictures for your enjoyment!

 

Everyone had a great time making thses and here are the final pictures...


Jeremy & Cassie's house




Grandpa Burke & Grandma Kathy's house



Amanda's House

After building our houses we headed downstairs to open gifts. Presley of course got spoiled! We really enjoyed getting together with my dad and Colleen, my grandparents and my sister and her girlies.

Presley opening one of her gifts

New Bed

I thought that as babies got older things got easier, this is not the case in our household at the current moment! Presley has never been a fantastic night sleeper, but I must say I am not getting much sleep anymore :( She usually has her last feeding at 9 or 9:30 and goes right to sleep... great most of you would think, but then she wakes up around 12:30 and cries so hard and loud that I have to go downstairs to try and calm her down, by now she should not need to eat at night so I try my best to soothe her back to sleep, sometimes it works but most of the time not. I end up caving in and feeding her to get her to sleep only to have her wake again a few hours later and the cycle continues. So needless to say my new bed has turned into the couch or the floor in her room while she tries to catch some shut-eye in her crib. I am not sure what causes her restless nights therefore I see no light at the end of the tunnel. She has started teething and is cutting 2 teeth on the bottom. So we put baby orajel on her gums to help ease the pain hoping that's what is wrong. Then I wonder if the foods we are introducing are causing gas pains or something so we are going to hold off on that stuff for a few days and see how things go. And last but not least I am trying to get her accustom to not being swaddled anymore, I have tried leaving one arm out and am not sure if this is just TOO much freedom for this little one. I have had many conversations with her letting her know that mommy really needs some sleep but this little stinker thinks that I can run on just a few hours of sleep a night! I sure hope that things get better sometime soon! I told Presley this morning that its a good thing that she is so dang cute and that I love her so! Oh the joys of being a new mommy! (but I know I wouldn't trade it for anything in this world!)

Thankgiving and such

Well this year was our first Thanksgiving with Presley and we had a great one. We were invited to my grandmas house this year and what a sweet grandma she is, Due to Presley's intolerance issues my diet is VERY limited and my grandma did a great job at accommodating it. I was very appreciative of it! The food was as usual fabulous and the company was great, my great aunt was in town to celebrate with us. And I must throw in the fact that she was more interested  and excited to see Jeremy rather than me! I got the first hug from her and mention so and she said it was because Jeremy got a long one! what the heck! :) We then went to Jeremy's parents house for dessert. I made my first homemade apple pie (well almost all the way homemade, the crust we pre-made) and everyone sure enjoyed it! there was no leftovers! I am already planning on making another one or some turnovers for Jeremy and I to enjoy! I missed being able to see both of my parents on this day but we just cant be everywhere at once and they know that we love and appreciate all they do for us! Let me finish off this post with a few things that I am thankful for... I am thankful for the wonderful caring family and friends that are involved with our lives, I am thankful for a wonderfully devoted husband and our absolutely beautifully perfect in every way daughter. I am grateful for the life that we are able to live and the home that keeps us warm and safe. I hope that everyone took a moment on Thanksgiving to reflect on the good fortune that we have here. Most of all I am thankful for our lord and savior, without him we would not be here!

Halloween Weekend

We had a very busy holiday weekend! Friday night we were the hosts of an adult halloween costume party, which was pretty crazy! Let me just say that being the sober one among 20 something drunk people does not equal a fun time. Although watching drunk people act like total idiots without even knowing it was entertaining it's not so entertaining to see your house be destructed. Our poor carpet was the victim to drunk dancing, luckily the stains seem to have come out nicely. I am not sure that we will be the hosts of another drunk party again.
   I was told that night that we had officially had a party at our house and that we should be proud of it. Let me rewind just a bit and say that I had a lovely chat with a police officer in my driveway, he told me that they had recieved a few calls about the loud music and people in the backyard. He said if he had to return that I would recieve a ticket, so I went back in the house and told everyone that we had to tone things down.
     It was fun this year to dress-up, Jeremy had chosen to be the Mad Hatter so I decided to follow and be the Queen of Hearts. I did both of our make-up and must say that it turned out very good, everyone was tripping out over my lips.
     Saturday Jeremy paid the price of the previous nights fun, so Presley and I drove down to my dads house for their Halloween party. I finally got to meet Colleen's kids (I know kinda sad since they have been married for 5 years now), we had navajo tacos and then there were games for the kids to play. After there we were on our way to my mom's ward party, we visited for a bit then came home. We had no trick-or-treaters come to our door either :(

     Sunday we had birthday parties for Alyssa and Jordan, and visited with Jeremy's family. All in all it was a great holiday weekend, And Presleys 1st Halloween!

Our Lil Stinker

Mad Hatter & Queen of Hearts

4-month Well Child Exam

3 shots :(

Today was Presley's 4 month check-up, and we all know what that means... MORE SHOTS :( Jeremy wasn't able to come with me this time, but thats alright since last time I was the one that had to stand and comfort her while they gave her the shots.(He can't stand to see Presley hurt, like I can??? Well someone has to be the brave one!) Anyways she is doing remarkable! She now weighs 13lbs. 9oz. (49th percentile) and measured 24in. long (40th percentile) I had so many questions for her pediatrician, which by the way, we love love love her! She gave us the ok to try rice cereal whenever we would like to. And good news in my diet, I am able to try putting soy back in as long as Presley is ok with it :P

beautiful baby

Presley also has learned the fine art of rolling and thinks that she is pretty neat in doing so! Sometimes she can't get back to her back and she looks like a beached seal, hahaha! She is such an amazingly happy baby.

3 month photo album

Make a photo album

Now I know that Presley is already just over 4 months old, but I wanted to share the photography work that my mom has done of Presley. All the pictures are done by her with exeption of the last page family picture.

Kiddos

Over the weekend I had a very funny converation with my niece that is in 2nd grade. I was sitting in my in-laws van feeding Presley. Mykenzei got in the van and I was asking her about school, she then told me that I could feed Presley in her carseat. I told her that I couldnt because Presley doesnt eat from a bottle. At this point you could see the wheels turning in her head, she then said that maybe she drank from a cup. I was unsure what to say so I decided to plead the 5th and just looked at her and smiled. She then asked me if Jeremy knew how Presley ate and I told her yes. A minute later my mother-in-law came to the van and Mykenzei asked if grandma knew and I told her yes. When she got in the van she started to expain to Mykenzei that Presley ate from my boobies (hahaha) still looking confussed I decided to tell her that Presley eats like baby cows and other animals ate from their mommies. That seemed to make sense to her, she then asked if Papa knew. She said that she wasnt going to tell her mom though, when we told her that she knew as well she seemd so shocked that everyone knew how Presley ate! When we got back with the rest of the family we told her mom that she had just learned how Presley ate. Mykenzei looked at her mom and said that she should do that with Kasen. She then told us that when she has a baby she isnt going to do that, she is going to give them a bottle. A few minutes later she decides to add "thats gross anyways!" The things kids say sometimes is hilarious!

           On a side note towards the end of last week Presley learned how to make spit bubbles and has now made this her favorite pasttime, grandma was able to snap a picture of her this morning in the act. How I love this beautiful child!

Nebo Loop Ride



 The gang: Myself, Jeremy, Cary, Trish, Kelly, Gloria, & Jerry 



Sunday Jeremy and I went out for a motorcycle ride thanks to his brother Josh and girlfriend Leslie. They watched Presley for us and allowed us to use Josh's bike so that we could go on the ride with Jeremy's Parents, Aunt and Uncle, and cousin. We took the back roads for more of a scenic ride, the mountains were very pretty with all of the trees changing to the beautiful fall colors. I have to say that I am not a fan of riding on bikes though :( the seats are not too comfy and I found myself shifting around alot due to the fact that my butt was sore! We came home very exhausted since we had to battle some wind (I found myslef holding my helmet alot because it was too big to begin with and the wind was so strong that it kept shifting around) All and all it was a good time, and I enjoyed spending time with Jeremy.

                   

Nebo Loop

Nebo Loop

Presley is growing too fast!

 Life around here since Presley has been born seems to be on constant fast forward! With each and every day Presley seems to be growing right beofre our eyes. Its so exciting to see her doing new things but at the same time it makes me sad because before we know it she will be talking and walking everywhere! Today as I was fixing myself some breakfast I had her laying on the floor and when I looked down to see what she was doing she was on her side trying to figure out how to get on her tummy all by herself (usually Jeremy or I are helping her from back to tummy) I had to take a few pictures of her trying, so I will share them with you.

Time to get with the times... I guess

Well I have decided to take the plunge and try to become a blogger, we will see how long this lasts!!! Anyone like to place any bets??? I figured that since not everyone does the facebook.com thing that this is a great way for family to keep up with our family. I am making no promise however that this will be updated as often as it should be for my intrest in it may decline, but I will do my best