Sunday, November 24, 2013

Bring On the (Not so) Terrible 2's!


My baby is two! TWO! I can hardly believe it! We are so grateful for our spunky little toddler. She brings so much joy and laughter to our home! At two years old, Presley weighs 25 pounds (27th percentile) and is 34.75" tall (75th percentile). Her noggin is 18.5" around. She may be a lightweight but there's a whole lot of personality in that little body! Here are some of our favorite things about Presley:

  • Presley talks, A LOT. I'm always surprised when I get around most other kids her age and they don't talk nearly as much. It makes her seem older (which makes me a little sad) but, it sure makes things easier for us! She really communicates well and has an expansive vocabulary. She uses a lot of 2- and 3-word phrases and is starting to use complete sentences like, "I need it," and "Momma, wake up now!" She has no problem saying what she means. 
  • She is very polite. I very rarely have to remind her to say "please" and "thank you" and she'll say "excuse me" if she needs to get around you. She also like to wish folks a "good morning" and tells me "thank you" after I've changed a poopy diaper.
  • She LOVES to sing and dance. She's started singing along with me and it's pretty darn cute. She'll sing-a-long to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree, the ABC song, Jesus want me for a Sunbeam, and If You're Happy and You Know It. She also loves the song I Love to See the Temple, but she hasn't started singing along with that one yet. We discovered The Freeze dance at our library's Music & Movement class and we do that dance at least 5 times a day. She also likes to dance to Katy Perry's, Roar (the lion song) and to Shake, Shake, Shake (her) Sillies Out.
  • Presley started saying her morning prayers by herself (most days). In her first prayer, she asked Heavenly Father to bless her Auntie Ashley, Uncle Jay, Uncle Braden and Baby Tripp. It was short and sweet but she remembered some of her favorite people!
  • She's sleeping in a toddler bed now and it took a couple of weeks for her to adjust. She likes to sneak into our room in the morning and yell, "Boo!"
  • She has ZERO interest in potty training. If you ask her where she's supposed to go potty, she'll tell you her "elmo potty" but she has no interest in actually doing her business there. She'll sit on there and pretend but, no action.
  • Presley is a natural nurturer. She loves taking care of her baby dolls and wants to make sure Jeff and I are both okay when we are not feeling well. It's amazing to see her developing this talent so young.
  • She knows all of her body parts, most of numbers 1-20 and her colors too. I'm pretty sure that she says the wrong thing sometimes just to be a stinker ;)
  • She still sucks her thumb and is attached to her lovie blankies. Thankfully, there are two blankies so that they actually get washed (one at a time).
  • She is a big fan of the iPad and knows how to use it better than Jeff does ;)
  • She loves her nursery class at church and the lady that does singing time there. She practically leaps out of our arms at the end of sacrament meeting to get to nursery.
  • Her favorite color is purple
  • Her favorite movies are Toy Story and Tangled. We think she has a crush on Flynn Rider.
  • Presley loves having her toenails painted, usually a shade of purple.
  • She loves to cook (for real and pretend), play with play dough, wear dress-up shoes and accessories and take care of her babies.
  • While Presley eats pretty healthy most of the time, she also loves chocolate milkshakes, french fries, and cookies.
She really is a very special little girl and we are so grateful to have her in our family. It is my great privilege to spend my days playing with and caring for her. She's my best little friend.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Baby It's Cold Outside

It was date night with Daddy and we decided to explore Watters Creek. We were lucky to get there for their Christmas kickoff celebration. It was so much fun and so Christmasy! It was a chilly 34 degrees and we enjoyed listing to the live carols, seeing the elves and others in costume and eating some delicious food!



It's been so cold here--a new sensation we've really enjoyed just before Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Looks Who's 2!


I can hardly believe my baby is two! Since Daddy had to work on her real birthday, we decided Saturday would be our day for celebration. I was so excited to surprise her with her birthday gift--we stayed up late setting up her little kitchen and the new "market" area in her playroom!




P wasted no time and started playing with her new things right away. She was so excited to prepare each of us a plate. She;s been using her play dough lids as plates and was happy to have her own dinnerware!




Then we convinced her to unwrap the two big presents in the room, which she was also excited about.


She quickly found the cookies and got to work!


Presley was especially excited about her shopping cart from "Dammy" and "Dampa-fader".



She filled that thing up and went for a stroll. It makes us laugh because she looks like a little homeless lady carting along all of her belongings.


P has a mild obsession with Toy Story and was very excited to open a box full of her favorite friends from her Auntie Ashley, Uncle Jay and cousin Tripp.


We had a few friends over to celebrate that evening and Presley was very excited to find a "hebban" to add to her outfit.



We had a little party full of Presley's favorite things--purple balloons, pizza, baked Cheetos puffs, suckers, oreos, and ice cream.


 I had good intentions of making her a fancy birthday cake but decided it was not worth staying up all hours of the night for. So, we combined two of Presley's favorite things and got an Oreo ice cream cake! And none of it got thrown away!


Presley and Riley had fun eating, jumping on the trampoline, and running amuck through the house.


Kennedy was the clean up crew and was very happy to sample the goodies left behind on the other kids' plates.


I think we managed to make our sweet little girl feel happy, special and loved--which means the day was a success!



Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl! We love you!

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Presley's First Haircut

With her second birthday fast approaching, I decided it was time to even out my Sweet P's little locks. The sides were much longer than the back so, we had a little trim. She did awesome and was excited to have Momma cut her "harn". I ended up taking 1-2 inches off the sides to make it even and she ended up with a cute little bob.


Friday, November 1, 2013

Happy Halloween!

We sure had a lot of fun at our Halloween festivities this year. Presley was especially excited about her Jessie costume---she is *obsessed* with Toy Story. We think she was the cutest little Jessie ever!

We kicked off Halloween week with our ward's trunk-or-treat. Presley was so excited to get dressed up and carry her Elmo bucket around!



 Our ward did a family dance before the trunk-or-treating started and Presley was in awe of all of the kids in costume. She also loved busting a move with us! She loves to get her groove on!


This is Presley and her BFF, Alexandria. I think she was a little confused to see her as a monkey.


We had been practicing saying "trick-or-treat" and have been reading some Halloween books to help her try and understand what would happen. She didn't really seem to impressed with the trick-or-treating part of the evening…until someone put a sucker in her bucket! She loves suckers!



The next night we carved our pumpkins. Presley loved her little pumpkin and was pretty excited about Daddy's "big punting wis tees"




The night before Halloween we had the Copelands over to decorate pumpkin cookies. The sprinkles were a big hit...


…and Presley loves any excuse she has to eat frosting!


On Halloween, we had our dinner, got dressed and hit the road as soon as Daddy got home.


We walked a few houses,


and then went back for the bike (much more efficient)!



We made it 26 minutes trick-or-treating, when P realized she had a sucker in her bucket and she was content to go home, eat her sucker and pass out candy. Oh yeah, and eat donuts--a must on Halloween!


Cutest little Jessie EVER! Yee-haw!


Happy Halloween!