Presley turns 2!!!

Seriously where has the time gone?!

I am so not good at this blogging thing! But I am going to keep trying to get better, I promise!

Well a lot has happened since I last posted anything. But the biggest news would be that we now have a 2 year old in our home!! YEP, Presley turned 2 today! We had a birthday party for our little girl yesterday that was so much fun!

Presley and Daddy after a fun filled party

The birthday girl ready to party!

Stole all the suckers from the pinata

Since she has the perfect summertime birthday we always make a good party out of her birthday with a BBQ and all for our family and close friends across the street from us. The last 2 weeks leading up to her birthday have been extremely busy for me as I love to make all sorts of stuff myself from the party decorations down to her cake!

Birthday banner

Presley and her Olivia cake

We did an Olivia the pig theme and it turned out perfect! I was able to find all the party supplies at birthday express. I ordered her party dress from this cute etsy shop. (Which I must add was perfect in every way!) and I made the matching bow! And I made her super cute birthday banner (thanks to my fantastic cricut machine!)

And there's the cake! Man oh man cake making is so much fun, but SOOO much work! I don't know how cake makers can do this stuff day in and day out, I mean sure its so fun and rewarding when the product is all finished. But the work and HOURS it takes to get there are exhausting! I did a 2 tier square cake with white cake and a chocolate ganache center and covered in marshmallow fondant. And for Olivia I molded rice krispy treats and covered it in fondant as well. I was so happy with the finished look!!!!

Olivia the pig cake

Jeremy was in charge of the grill and made some great burgers and hot dogs, we had plenty of good food!

We also had a pull string pinata for the kids to do. And it only took 2 pulls and it opened, so unfortunately only Presley and her friend Cohen got a chance to pull the strings :( But of course the kids were all super excited to get their own stash of candy!

Presley and her cousin Kasen

Presley with mom and all her birthday loot

And then of course we had presents! And boy did Presley make out good! She has plenty of summer toys to keep her more than busy! I think that she along with all the other littler kids were super excited about the slide that Grandma B got for her, Presley was a bit impatient and would "help" push the kids down the slide so she could have her turn! (this is where I insert her "mean" nickname of "Helga"!)

What more could this adorable little girl have asked for for her birthday?! she had good food, fun, family and friends , (and presents galore!) It doesn't get any better than having the ones you love and care about around to let you know how much you mean to them, we are blessed to have such loving and caring family that surround us in  our daily lives!

I still cant believe that Presley is already 2 yrs old! Time really does fly after having kids! I am loving every minute of being a mom and cant wait until we have another one!

Presley is growing by leaps and bounds everyday! she does and says so many new things everyday!

Presley's stats:

• Diapers: Size 4 , but has taken an interest in the potty and likes to sit on it before we put a fresh diaper on (I also made her some super absorbent training pants we are going to try soon) <--- Presley had to try them on for size after I finished making them. She understands when she has gone potty in her diaper and will tell you she "stinky" and pinch her nose:)
• Clothes: She is a little thing so she can still fit into a lot of 18 month clothes. I bought 24 month shorts for her and they a a bit big in the waist and I bought 2T shirts so they will last a good amount of time. She also wears a size 5 shoe, but true to both grandmas chooses not to wear them most of the time.
• Likes: She LOVES Olivia the Pig (a bit obvious, I know) "No White" (we watch Snow White AT LEAST once a day, both at home and grandmas), Presley could spend all day out in the sunshine if we let her too! We bought her a swing for the backyard and that's all she ever wants to do!
• Words: her vocabulary is pretty good, everyday she says a new word, most of which are easy to understand, there are a few that we cant make out, but you can tell she definitely knows what she is saying. She loves to say "I love you", "hey! come back here!", and can say all of the dogs names from our home and both grandmas houses.
• Food: This is a tricky one, she is super picky! one night she may devour mac and cheese and the next day not want anything to do with it. She loves Milk, Mexican food, and fish (like her mom). likes "nacks" (goldfish, fruit snacks) and likes apple juice. She not much of a sweets eater which is fine by me!

So there is her birthday bash and a quick update on how she is doing.

Her birthday is actually today, which this year happens to be fathers day as well! We spent the morning outside letting her play in the sun with her slide, pool, and toys and she had a blast. Jeremy is such an amazing dad to Presley!, it just warms my heart to see the two of them together, I love the sweet moments they have when neither of them realize that I am watching them. I couldn't ask for a better husband or father of my sweet sweet girl!

Blah...

Life is pretty good lately, but I am just feeling so blah all the time.
Maybe I am in some sort of funk?

The beginning of February I received the dreaded call... Jury Duty! :(
I kept telling myself that they would not need me. So called that Friday to see if I was to appear on Monday morning, sure enough I was.
I went down and sat in this teeny tiny room filled with about 25ish people. I felt like a sardine. They had us fill out a sheet about ourselves and then had us each a video that i assume wad supposed to get us "excited" to fulfill our civic duties. As we went down into the courtroom I kept silently hoping that they would dismiss me and I could just go to work for the day instead of losing out on my wages. Sure enough I was the first name called tone on the jury after a bunch of group questions. Lunch was on the nice gentlemen juror next to me which was super nice of him. We finished up our deliberations and were excused by just after 3. So now I am off the hook for at least 2 years!
It was a very interesting experience, but I am glad that it only lasted the afternoon.

In other exciting news P has finally decided to say mommy! She has known how to say daddy I have tried to get her to say mom since before she even ever said daddy. It just melts my heart to hear her say mommy.
I took her out in the snow for the first time last Sunday since here in Utah we haven't really had any snow this winter. I got her all bundled up in her snow suit and boots [picture A Christmas Story].



She would not walk on the snow unless I held her hand, wouldn't touch or pickup the snow unless I picked it up first. After 15 minutes she was more than done and wanted to go back in the house. And that was that!

I have also been working on hats here and there, since Christmas is over I haven't really had a lot of orders coming in so it has allowed me to organize all the yarn and patterns and I have made up some cute ones just to see what they actually look like. I made P a beret style hat the other day, and I must say she looks sooo cute in it! I am hoping that I will continue to get orders coming in throughout the summer. I have started sewing, I went out and bought myself a nice sewing machine and have been whipping up some super cute headbands. and I am hoping that those will do well through the spring and summer! I love being able to spread my love for handmade things to others and being able to make a bit of side money never hurts right?!?

I was contacted by a women yesterday through etsy that was inquiring about me donating one of my breast cancer hats to help raise money for research, you can bet that I jumped on that as quick as I could!
I have had 2 people in my life be diagnosed with this horrible disease, My grandmas sister unfortunately lost her battle to breast cancer a few years back, but she fought a valiant fight!
And my Mother-in-law is a survivor of breast cancer!
So this is something that I have a passion for as I see how hard it is not only on the person dealing with it but for the families as well. So in the next few days I am not only going to be making one hat to send out to this lady, but I am going to send 2 or 3 (per J's request) anything to help a wonderful cause!

So there is a quick update of our lives, until next time!

Getting even craftier

Alright so I must admit I have this disgusting new addiction to Pinterest as mentioned in my previous post. I have pinned a lot of things and spend all together way to much time on this site, it has come at the cost of me having all these "great ideas" for the home. I recently made some blocks with out last name and the year we were married. I had J cut the 2x4 for me into my desired sizes and then painted them black. I added scrapbook paper to them, then used my cricut machine and made my letters using vinyl. Super fun! I am pretty happy with the finished look, I think I just need to sand the edges a bit to give them a distressed look.

2nd project thanks to pinterest is this for valentines day. I can put this one here since J is not the blogging or reading type and so I know he wont see this. I loved this idea and have already started working on my list, it sure is hard to come up with 52 things to put in this. I mean I love J more everyday, but to come up with 52 is a bit of a task to say the least. I am also going to be taking a picture frame and inside there will be a sheet of pretty paper with lettering that will say "I love you because..." and then you use a dry erase marker and write a reason on it. I love it!!!

I am really into making homemade items lately, if only I had more time on my hands to do more! I love that you can personalize it more. Now i just need to figure out what to do for Presley for this valentines day. Sadly enough it lands on a Tuesday and that is my night to close at work so we will have to do our own thing on another night. That's all for this post.

{notice that I posted a lot sooner than usual? GO ME!!!}

2012 here we come!

Ok ok I know I have been a little.... well..... lazy when it comes to this whole blogging thing! I know some of you may just check this out here and there to catch the newest pics of Presley (hey and if the hubby and I make it in a shot too) I havent posted on here since September so I am sure that alot has happened and for sure Presley has done some pretty cool and fun stuff in that time.

For Halloween we decided to go with a costume that suits her natural red hair so we picked out Raggedy Ann. She sure looked cute. Thanks to my mom for taking her pictures for us! We carved a pumpkin with her this year too, this is a tradition that I would like to keep with until our kids get too old ;) 

Christmas seemed like it came and went this year. Presley made out pretty well with Santa Claus and all. Santa brought her her very own kitchen set equipped with all the cooking utinsels and food a little girl could ever want (which makes our living room and constant tornado effect of food strung everywhere!) She got new clothes and lots of new toys sure to keep her very busy for a long time coming.

As for J and I...

J is loving his job that he switched to back in may, he seems so much more happy, although I am not a fan of or use to having him work overtime, but the extrra money is helpful to say the least!

I have been keeping very busy the last few months theres no doubt about that! I have been doing really well with my little side business. Now that Christmas is over I have slowed way down which leaves me feeling super unproductive, but has allowed me to take a few moments to get some things done around the house as well as being able to hang out with Presley a bit more which is a win in my book! I have found a new obsession with this website. And Jeremy thinks I am going to re-do the whole house bacuse of this! (ok in my book, just need the cash flow to do it!)

I am not the resolution making type but I have a few things that I want to work on....

1. Being a better General Manager (hopefully I will be able to work more from home!) I need to be more on top of my paperwork and getting it taken care of on time.

2. Taking more pictures of us as a family. (I seem to never be in the pictures) :(

3. TRYING to blog alot more (its a fun way to chronicle our daily lives)

4. and most important! Be THE BEST mom and wife that I can be!

so here is to a wonderful 2012 to everyone!

Utah State Fair

  Jeremy and I started going to the fair a few years back, I had volunteered to work a few hours by standing by the Great Clips race car. And Jeremy was nice enough to stand there with me, afterwards we were able to enjoy the fair. We hadnt gone the last 2 years. So we decided to go this year to take Presley to see the animals and of course we had to indulge in ultimate fair food! Strawberry funnel cake and fresh lemonade! yes please!!!

Presley seemed to have alot of fun. We took her into so the pigs, cows, sheep, goats, birds, and rabbits . They had an Emu there they were trying to name too. Jeremy tried to get her to pet a few of the animals and she would give a very cautious pet follwe by a quick pull back of the hand a very persistant "no" head shake. After each pet we made sure to purell her hands, those animal are very dirty!

 They also a a sealion show with 3 sealions. They had them do all sorts of tricks, balancing balls on thier noses and doing handstands on one flipper. they even made a conga line! I think that Jeremy and I enjoyed it more than Presley, she was to busy watching all the other babies and kids around her! We also went and checked out the butter sculpture of the year, this year they did a tribute to prince charles and kate. So silly!
   The fair is always an interesting adventure! you could hang out there all day and just people watch! All in all we had a great family night out. So long summer days! (I am not ready for that dang W word, but I will gladly take a nice long fall!)

its been some time

Well I guess that I really have been slacking when it comes to this blogging thing! I  haven't blogged since July. Our lives are not all that exciting and I just don't think that I am that creative as a writer like others but I try my best =)

Presley is developing such an amazing personality! Here is a list of some of the new things that she is doing and some of her favorite things.

Books- I have always been an avid reader, Jeremy, not so much. But Presley LOVES her books. I try and pick up books for her all the time, we keep them in a tote that grandma made for her. She just loves to go pick them out one by one and bring them to you to look at (and sometimes read to her) she gets your attention by growling at you. I take it that in Presley-nese this means "read to me please!" This is then followed by her taking the book out of your hands and chucking it across the room, next!

Outside- Presley loves to be outside. I try to take her for a walk at least once a week, we go a good distance and she talks, yells and simply kicks back and enjoys the scenery. I love it when I look down and she has both feet up on top of the tray part. She must be comfy that way.

Talking- She sure has lots to say these days. The most popular word is daddy, she even calls me daddy. I have tried to no avail to get her to say mommy and she just insists daddy is the word for all! She does say baby, and thank you And endless amounts of gibberish, case in point the other night I was making dinner. I look down to see what she is doing and she is talking up a storm with my birth control pill case like it is a phone! I love this little girl ♥

Laughing- She has developed quite the laugh the last little while. It is deep and growly like, almost evil. My friend was watching her the other day and said that she couldn't get her to laugh normal. I told her that the laugh she uses is her normal laugh!

lunch/dinner time have been hard around here. She is so particular about what she will eat! She still very much prefers her food not so chunky so we are still using her baby processor. And this kid will NOT have anything to do with milk! cow or pumped! so I am still having to breast feed morning and night. I thought for awhile that I would never want to give it up but I am SO done with it now! We have an appointment with her pedi middle of this month and this is like #1 on my questions list!
 She is a great sleeper, She still takes 2 naps a day. But I think this may be coming to an end soon. I am not sure at what age they go down just once a day, yet another question on the list.

   As for myself I have found a new and exciting way to make some extra money for us. I love to knit and crochet and have taken a new interest in hair accessories. So I decided to open an etsy shop click here I have done pretty well so far. I have also been contacted by a few local photographers who have purchased some of my hats for props. You should check them out here, here, and here. The first one is my moms business, she does great work, if you ever need a photographer I would use her! (I'm not partial/ biased or anything :P)  I love that I am able to share my talent with people and its something that I can do at home while I chill with Presley so it doesn't take time away from her.

here is one of my crochet works on my beautiful Presley!

   Jeremy has been busy getting parts ordered for his truck since her drove it to work one day and a few guys he works with  didn't bother to have him move the truck before they started painting, resulting in white over spray all over it! So my work has become the hub for truck parts....ugh are we done receiving parts anytime soon?!?! :)

  As a family we are doing really great! My sister had her beautiful baby girl Burkleigh a few weeks ago, everything went perfect and mom and baby are doing great, After going to the hospital to see her on my way to GNO, when I got home I told Jeremy "You know how usually if you hold a baby it makes you want another?.... Well not me!" I am perfectly happy with Presley for now. Our good friends just barely had their baby about 5 days ago so we went to the hospital on Sunday and saw them, then on Monday we went over and we held her, when we got home I asked Jeremy if it made him want another one and his reply was just as mine was. "Presley is good for now" We both want more kids, but we feel like things are just perfect how they are right now =)

So there is an update for ya, I hope to get better with my writing skills so I can blog more. Hope that everyone enjoys the last official summer holiday weekend! ( I won't, I have to work)

Blessed

Today I am feeling very blessed. I was at work today and cutting a girls hair, she had another lady waiting in the waiting room for her holding a little baby boy, for some reason I kept watching her out of the corner of my eye, a little while later I realized that this woman was deaf. It hit me right then that as this sweet baby was babbling that this lady could not hear the wonderful sounds of a babies laugh of even cry for that matter. It seems like there are so many people that take the everyday things for granted. I hear people all the time tell their children to be quiet so they can finish talking or whatever and wonder would they miss that sound if it was suddenly taken away from them??
   I am going to try my hardest to be the best parent that I can be, after all I had a wonderful teacher growing up! I happened to keep some old school notes to friends and going back and reading them I sure made my life sound bad sometimes, but now looking back and trying to remember what was so awful, you know what??? NOTHING comes to mind. I had a wonderful childhood! I
  I never want to say to anyone that MY CHILD will NEVER act/say/do that because there are no guarantees with this parenting duty I have taken, there is no handbook or "parenting for dummies" book. So we are left to figure it out one day at a time. I just hope that Presley always feels the love that we have for her. I also am so blessed to be living in the day that we are.
 Case in point: Presley has her 1 yr shots which included her first MMR shot, they told us to watch for a fever since it was a live vaccination, so for the next few days we watched and nothing... PHEW! Well today I received a call at work from mom telling me that Presley just threw-up her lunch and was running a high fever so I bolted out of work and made an appointment and took her in. Turns out that she is just having some side effects of the MMR. So they gave her some Motrin to help the fever.... Wholly cow, worst experience ever!!! The nurse had me cradle her and she started to give it to her, first off she wouldn't open her mouth for it, she was able to get some in her mouth and Presley would not swallow it, she gave her more and she started to gag on it and then tried to throw it up, her tummy was making weird sounds along with her throat and it freaked me out!!! I guess that the nurse figured that she had got enough down her after all that (seriously it was about a 10 min ordeal) so now we have the joy of giving her medicine for the next few days to keep the fever low and just need to be on the lookout for any developing rash. I am so glad that we have the convenience of modern medicine because heaven knows that I would be a nervous wreck if I had to live back in the day without all the technology and modern conveniences that we are blessed with.

summer fun!

Well it seems that summer is in full swing now and the weather has been downright HOT! This 4th of July we spent it with Jeremy's family and had a nice BBQ followed by a great fireworks show put on by Jeremy, Josh and Josh. Presley got her first try at a sparkler! She loved watching the fireworks go off and kept saying "whats that?" one of her favorite things to say at any and everything, followed by a quick in and out arm movement.

The day before we went to my families property up big cottonwood canyon and had a nice dinner with my dad and Colleen, as well as my grandparents. We went on a nice walk through the area and just enjoyed what our wonderful mountains have to offer, which is amazing beauty. Presley seems like she will for sure take after mom and dad in her love for the outdoors too. It is sure nice to be able to get together with family and enjoy one another's company.

 We also just got back from our first official camping trip as a family. And boy did I underestimate just how much work it was to take a 1 year old camping! Presley is in the works with the whole walking thing so she was either in our arms in her playpen or strapped into her stroller, and by the last day she had had it with all that so I ended up mopping the trailer floor so she could crawl around and play Presley style for awhile.  I do have to say that she did awesome though, we kept her on the same schedule for naps and bedtime so it wouldn't mess up the home routine and she slept pretty good in her playpen every night. She woke a bit earlier and would stand up on her tip toes so she could see us and make sure that we were awake. We also bought her a cute little bike helmet so she could ride the 4-wheeler with us, and she loved it! Thanks to our friends for letting us borrow their baby carrier, what a great thing to use! (see pic above with the 3 of us on the bike)
 Presley got to finish up each night with a bath in the sink. She was such a good little camper! We also went down to upper box creek so the guys could do some fishing. Jeremy caught an itty bitty fish and we showed Presley, She reached out to touch it and I pulled her back (too many germs and nothing to wipe them away with). I felt a little like a bad mom when Presley woke up with pink cheeks and nose and her eyes a bit swollen, I totally spaced putting sunscreen on her one of the days :(  baby skin is super sensitive! Presley got a pretty good look at her first deer just by sitting at camp. Papa went for a walk and the boys decided to try and scare him, instead they ended up scaring a deer out of the trees and it made its way right through our camp!
  Presley is also getting the hang of walking pretty well. She walked the length of our trailer a few times. She also seemed to have a pretty good appetite while camping, but who doesn't?? Oh I almost forgot Mollies story...
  We get to our spot and we are not even there 15 minutes, I look over at Mollie and she had something on her side. I call her over to me and see that her whole one side is covered with COW POOP! She found a mighty fresh pie and thought it was great smelling and rolled in it, So Jeremy and I had to give her a makeshift bath to get the stench off her, stupid dog! The whole time we were there it seemed like 1 of the 5 dogs was eating some cow pies. Malcom ended up throwing up twice, once in the trailer and once in the truck. Again stupid dog!
 It was a great 4 days spent in the outdoors, besides the rainstorm that came through once a day, oh and the hailstorm that came and interrupted Presley's afternoon nap. It was nice to spend some much needed time together as a family. How I love the summer and what we can do with it! I Hope that we are able to do a few more summer activities before it comes to an end.

Presley turns 1

It sure is crazy to think that a full year has gone by and that Presley is now 1! We had a big bash for her first birthday, We had both sides of the families come to celebrate with us. We had a BBQ and Jeremy was the cook (and he did a great job, it was a lot of burgers to cook!) Everything looked and went just as we wanted it to. I had such a fun time making her birthday cake (something I plan on doing each year for sure!) I made her a 3 tier white cake with raspberry filling and decorated with fondant and to top it off I made her pink elephant made of fondant as well to top the cake. It turned out perfect if I may say so myself . 

I also made Presley her own smash cake and she wasn't too sure if it so we stuck her finger in it. after that she loved to grab a big handful of the whipped icing and squish it in her hand, when we tried to get her to taste the frosting or the cake she did her usual stick her tongue out until it falls out of her mouth and off her tongue!

Presley got SPOILED for her birthday from everyone as well. She got lots of clothes and some toys. We decided to get her a water table for outside since she 

a) loves being outside

b) loves the water       

I think her favorite toy was a big purple ball from Nana and Poppi!

We set-up a big inflatable water slide for all the kids to play on and they loved it.

I wanted to make her a onsie as well with a 1 on the front and ruffles on the bum, with my moms help we did it and it was just what I wanted! (thanks mom)

I also spent a good amount of time putting together a sideshow showcasing Presley's 1st year of life. In doing so I have decided that each year I am going to make one of these so we can see that changes and milestones that she reaches throughout her life

Putting together and hosting a birthday party is sure alot of hard work, but is worth every moment and memory it creates. I love to see the smiling happy faces of our nieces and nephews and love being surrounded by loved ones to help create many happy memories for Presley. As a mother I strive each and everyday to give Presley all that she deserves in this life and to help shape her into a beautifully caring and loving person. I hope that up to this point we have done so.

Some of the things that Presley is doing right now are as follows:

1. loves to say "ooohh baby" to everything

2. love to whisper "whats that?" as she points at anything

3. uses Mollie as her personal mountain to climb over and rest on

4. has become a VERY picky eater! bread and fruit are our fail safe!

5. loves to climb the stairs as soon as the gate is left open

6. loves to play in the water and be outside

7. her fav. shows are Olivia, Franklin, and Miss spiders sunny patch friends

8. has not lost her rhythm to music and dances when any music comes on

9. and last but not least, LOVES her MOM and DAD so much ♥

(that's a ditto from mom and dad too)

It's been awhile

Where has the time gone? It seems like I have been slacking in the update department to here we go 1 month all in one post. Lets see last post was all about Easter so since then we have celebrated a few things. My birthday was the end of April, we went out to dinner as a little family, the usual meal is ALWAYS Red Lobster, but I wasn't feeling it this year so we ended up at Training Table  (due to the absence of dairy for so long). It was a nice night. Then we had Mothers day which turned out to be quite the rainy day (as if we haven't had enough of this wet stuff!) This was my 1st real mothers day too. I took myself out shopping for a new spring dress, which I have been unable to wear just yet. Then we had Jeremy's birthday to celebrate, he wanted to go to Cracker Barrel for dinner so again our little family went out to eat, we had a nice time. I also made his birthday cake, I was practicing for Presley's cake. I made a white cake with raspberry filling and covered it in fondant. I had to think of some sort of theme or design for it and came up with a green bay packers cake, the colors weren't true green bay colors but hey it was my first time and I think it turned out pretty good for never having working with fondant before. Hopefully Presley's cake will turn out just like I want it too!



don't mind the lumpiness!

I had 2 days off in a row so on Friday I took Presley to the rec center and she had her first encounter with the pool. She loved it! we went with my friend and her 2 little ones. The rec center has an awesome kiddie pool area and Presley was crawling all over the place! She loved being able to make big splashes too. This is for sure something that I want to make sure I do alot with her this summer!

  

 We also went to one of our favorite car shows this past Saturday (the weather was actually nice for a change) Jeremy went early with his bro and 2 friends and Presley and I went later on with my friend and her little boy. Presley loves to be outside and had fun playing both on the grass and on her blanket. My dad and Colleen came and visited with us for a bit too. After the car show later that night we had a BBQ at my sister-in-laws home so all in all my one Saturday off in a long time was very fun!! oh and in Presley news, pretty sure that she TRIED to take a SIDE STEP! This makes me sad and happy at the same time! She is growing up so fast and I want her to stay little forever. Presley has become a very efficient furniture walker. Case in point below....

she rounded the corner by the lamp to get what she wanted

here she comes with her prize

all that work for my BC pills

    On a side note my mom had to go in for a minor surgery last Thursday, they thought that she had a blockage in her heart and that that's what was causing her chest pain and low heart rate (40) so they went in and checked and all is clear, they now believe that it was her medicine that was doing it so they took her off and will check her in a month to see. I sure hope that that was the problem. My mom has endured so much bad health that she deserves to be healthy for the rest of her life, I love her so much and appreciate that she watches Presley for us while we work, without her we would be in big time trouble! So a BIG THANKS to you mom! we love you so much!

     So for now there is our life for the month, lots of exciting stuff is to come with her birthday right around the corner and all the summer fun that I hope we get the chance to do this year since Jeremy has switched jobs (this is for sure for the best of our family though, and he seems so much happier there)

Easter

Yesterday was Easter, this year it was pretty low-key, usually we go from here to there to everywhere to see all the family, but this year my dad's parents were supposed to be gone on a cruise [grandpa Burke's eye injury changed that plan] so there were no plans with that side. My dad and Colleen came over on Saturday to visit and give Presley her Easter gift from them (a cute little spring dress and a lamb) My mom didn't set anything up for Easter either. And Jeremy's family didn't do the usual this year since all her grand kids weren't going to be there.

   So we woke up and I fixed a little Easter breakfast for us, we had orange rolls, eggs, and sausage. Presley has become quite the picky little eater as of lately and is not a fan of eggs currently. She does this silly thing where she will let you put it in her mouth but if she doesn't like it she will continue to stick out her tongue like a dog until it falls off. So the rest of the afternoon we did nothing [well I should say Jeremy did nothing, I on the other hand got busy in the kitchen and prepared 2 weeks of lunch and dinner for Presley.]

       My mom called later and invited us over for dinner, it was yummy! Thanks Mom and Don for having us over, they also got Presley a little gift, they got her a cute summer outfit and a cute peter rabbit cookie with her name on it. After dinner my grandparents came over for strawberry shortcake. Then we went over to Jeremy's parents to have a little Easter egg hunt

Oh I almost forgot, the Easter Bunny came to our house this year! Presley got some good stuff, She loves books and the Easter bunny must have known! She loved how the eggs made noise when she would shake them (money inside) and loved to pull the grass apart all over the house. It was a good weekend! Jeremy had a blast at the dunes, after all that is a yearly tradition for him to go to the dunes Easter weekend with all the crazies! he always comes home beat out from partying it up all night! But I am glad that he has something to look forward to that he loves to do, and it helps keep him out of trouble (at least as far as I know.) So there you go, a quick look at our 1st Easter with Presley.

I just happened to stumble upon a new blog the other day, I was looking at who my followers followed and tada! I have found this blog to be very inspirational, although there is lots of sadness to it, I think that this family has amazing strength! turns out they lost their princess to SIDS when she was only 4 months old :( It has really made me make sure that I spend every chance I can with Presley and to make sure that I tell her throughout each and every day just how much her mommy and daddy love her. Life is a strange and wonderful thing and you never know what will happen.
        
    Hold your loved ones close and tell them how you feel, you never know what will happen. I had a hard time sleeping last night though because although I have thought about SIDS alot before, after reading her blog somehow it made it more real [crazy since i dont know this person personally] I kept waking up to make sure that I could still hear her breathing through the monitor and when I couldn't I would go in her room to make sure. My heart aches for that family, I wish that no one had to go through putting their baby to rest, it's just NOT fair!

   So I thank this woman for sharing her grief with total strangers and making everyone more aware that things happen that are out of our control, but the one thing we do have control over is making sure that our loved ones know how much they mean to us.

Our beautiful Presley, We Love you SO much!

Breastfeeding

So I have been going strong with this whole breastfeeding thing and I am loving it! When I went to my first Dr. visit when I got pregnant with Presley one of the questions that was asked was if I was going to formula feed or breastfeed. I told Larsen that I guessed that I would give breastfeeding a try. Never did I think that this would be something that I would become passionate about, I have dabbled with the thought of looking into becoming a lactation consultant as I now know first-hand how challenging it can be (especially with Presley's milk protein intolerance issues) As we are approaching Presley turning 1 I am faced with new challenge of weaning and as much as I thought that I would be excited for this day when I would be done breastfeeding it is now becoming reality and I am no where near ready to start weaning her. I have thought about cutting out her afternoon feeding and replacing it with a bottle even if I am home with her so I would only be breastfeeding morning and night, but I just cant seem to do it. I have so much milk stored in the chest freezer, I'm talking like 300 ounces! that needs to be used [after all it is liquid gold] I didn't pump for nothing! So I guess some decisions will need to made in the next few weeks.
   I can't beleive that here in a few days she will be 10 months old, just a few weeks back I was thinking to myself that Presley has been in this world as long as I had carried her in me, life truely is amazing! She is also becoming more daring and adventurous, she is pulling up on all of the furniture and thinks that she is just so neat! our end tables and coffee table now look bare as she thinks that she needs to touch everything on them so we have had to move it all. Just today she has started to transition from the end table to the couch and back, its so fun to see her learn new things, but makes me sad at the same time. I was reading parents magazine at work yesturday and came upon a quote from Sharon Ozborne it said something to the effect of  " our children are basically on loan to us, its our job to raise them into adulthood, so cherish the time that we have with them while they are little because they are only little for a short while." I loved this thought mentality. I do my best to spend as much time playing and exploring with her each and everyday.

Springtime

 

Well we had a nice few days last week that actually made me feel like we were officially on our way to fabulous spring weather, and of course in Utah fashion I woke up to snow on Sunday morning. Seems to be pretty common every time general conference is going on that weekend inevitably has to be crummy, whats the deal with this???

   I had to snap a few pictures of our backyard, the snow is so beautiful to look at when no one has touched it, the trees looked so neat with all the heavy snow making all the branches sag. Jeremy had to go out and knock the snow off some of them as he was afraid the heaviness of the snow would break the limbs. Now of course every ones poor bulbs that had started to pop up and the flowers that bloomed must be a bit confused with this white stuff.

Easter is late in the month this year which seems so weird to have it at the end of April. I got what I thought was a great idea  a week ago to try my hand at making Presley a crocheted Easter basket. I thought it would be cute if I could make it look like an Easter bunny, the project came out just the way I had envisioned it. I put the finishing touches on it today, I am excited for all the holidays and to be able to teach Presley why we celebrate the holidays we do. I believe it is important for childrenEaster is to know the meaning behind holidays and that they have way more purpose and meaning than just getting "things" I really want Presley to not be selfish or greedy as she grows up. I hope that I will be able to be the mother to her that I know I want to be. I want to instill in her the values and characteristics of a kind, caring, loving woman.

It really is amazing how much life does change after having babies, all the things that seemed so big now mean nothing. I have learned that as moms we become very selfless. My most important job is to make sure that Presley gets all the time and attention that she deserves [they only stay little for a short period of time after all] And I must find time to devote to the amazing husband that I have been blessed to have. I wonder how I managed to not get overwhelmingly bored with so much free time before Presley made her way into our hearts and lives, I ALWAYS have something to do, and if I don't give me about 1 minute and I will think of something that needs to be taken care off. There really is not enough hours in the day to accomplish every thing. So that means sometimes the house is a bit messy, but like I said those things seem not to matter as much as the time I get to spend with this amazing little human being that God has blessed us with. Easter is a great holiday and really shows how amazing life is. I am thankful for the gospel, God, Jesus Christ, and family and friends in my life.