Welcome Home Uncle Kendall!

The night before we were picking up Kendall, we met Gwen, the kids, Nanny and Papa at the hotel Gwen was staying at. It had a a neat kiddie pool....probably one of the better ones I've seen.

This was Presley's first time swimming...She was so cute in her little swim suit. Because she is so tiny around the waist, the bottoms to her swim suit kept falling down so finally we just took them off and let her swim in her top and swim diaper. She was lovin the water...my little fishy!

Kali had fun playin around with Chris and hitting the ball back and forth with all the other kids.

Garrett and Gina havin fun in the pool!

I think Garrett was trying to get Uncle Kelly wet! Ha ha.

The next day was the day that Uncle Kendall finally came home from Kuwait. We met Nanny and Papa, Gwen and the kids at the hotel Nanny and Papa were staying at (because it was right down the road from the airport that Kendall was coming in to). Kali woke up with a fever this morning so she was pretty out of it the whole day. She just sat on the bleachers and laid on Papa's lap through the whole ceremony.

Part of the crew waiting on the guys to get there.

The proud Momma!

The lighting in this hanger was horrible...it looks like I poured yellow paint on top of Presley's head, lol. Just hanging out with her Daddy, waiting to see her Uncle.

HE'S HOME!!!!!!!!!!

After everyone got their hugs in and we headed back to the cars, Kelly and I took the girls home so Kelly and Kali could take a nap since Kali was feelin under the weather. While those two napped....Presley read a book to Bridget....

"Ok Bridget, I am going to read you a story! You are going to LOVE it!"

"Once upon a time.....

there was a little girl who had a great big puppy.....are you paying attention Bridget?

Look at the picture Bridget! Do you see the puppy?

Oh forget it.

I will give you kisses instead....

Isn't this better Bridget?"

After the other two woke up we headed back to the city and met everyone for dinner. Kendall picked Mexican (fine by me :)) and then after we (I) stuffed our face full of chips and salsa and cheese dip, it was back to the hotel for more swimming!



9 Months!!!!

The best way to describe you right now Presley is...HELL ON WHEELS!

You are currently.....

*still in a size 3 diaper

*wearing 12 month clothes

*wearing size 3 shoes (when you leave them on!)

*still only have the bottom two teeth, however I think you really really want to cut the top ones right about now because you are c.r.a.n.k.y and your gums are swollen

*you are becoming quite the little chow hound! There really isn't anything you refuse to eat. I hope you stay a good eater

*you are starting to stand on your own. Kali and I have both caught you standing on your own for a few seconds and then you slowly squat down on the floor

*you are walking around the furniture and pulling yourself up like nothing these days...won't be long and you will be walking all on your own. I swear if you could right now get up and run off, you would

*you have no fear! The edge of the bed, the dogs, the cats...nothing scares you.

*you are starting to dance when you hear songs

*you are a MUCH better stroller rider than before. I can now walk you down to the bus stop (3 blocks) in the stroller and you will not freak out at all

*you are letting anyone hold you these days

*you started saying Nanna

*you are still breastfed

*you could be surrounded be tons of toys, yet you will always go for the small piece of paper across the room or the coin that fell out of your dad's pocket.

*you have only slept through the night 1 night. I am hoping that this will change once your top teeth come in. But I have to admit, I absolutely love snuggling with you!

You have your 9 month check up with Dr.M in a few days and I will get your stats then! I can't wait to see how much you weigh and how long you are!

Spring Break 2012

Since Kelly, Kali and I all had Spring Break the same week (nice huh!) and C Rhoades was in town for the week we decided we were going to board the dogs here by the house and then go home to Arkansas to visit everyone. Presley and I left on Friday and went to Rogers and Kelly, Kali and C Rhoades head to the Fort.

Someone found the stairs! Since we don't have stairs in our house, she doesn't get the chance to play on them like every kid loves to do!

No matter how many times I pulled her from them, she was bound and determined to master them before we left. She made it to the 2nd step and then would scream because she didn't know how to get down.

I found one of my old Barrett's (pronounced BAR-ret) hee hee, and wanted to see if Miss Thing had enough hair yet to hold it...sure enough! Now as you can tell how times have changed because this itty bitty little thing was what everyone was wearing (back in the day) and now a days, the bows need to be bigger than the child's head!

side note: please only pay attention to the cute little girl with the precious little Barrett in her hair, and NOT to her mother who is wearing one of the many National Guard t-shirts she owns (all the exact same!) 

What is spring break at Bubka's house without chewin on some corn on the cob? She loved it! She carried that corn on the cob around all night.

See what all that chewin does to a girl!

After a few days of hanging out with Bubka, Grandpa and Auntie Annye, we head down to the Fort to meet up with Dad, Kali and everyone else.

Trips to see Gina Barrina are getting to be so much fun. Now that Presley is more mobile and likes to interact with other kids more her size, she is all about it.

Love these two!

Gwen had to work during the week while we were there so I told her to leave G-Money Cornbread home with us so we could run out to the campsite to see Nanny and Papa and this is how I caught him....how peaceful and sweet is this! Just want to go snuggle with this little guy.

Kali getting ready to head down to the boat with the guys to try and catch something! It was sprinkling off and on and kinda chilly but that wasn't going to stop this little one from hanging out with the boys.

Papa, Kelly, Kali and Chris trying to catch dinner...ok just kidding about the whole dinner thing but seriously trying to catch something!

Chris caught a small bass

Back at Uncle Kendall's and Aunt Gawen's Presley was setting up post in front of the tv so she didn't miss an episode of Dora!

Poor Lily! She has the most concerned look on her face..

A little wrestle time with big cousin Garrett!

"Look Mom, I can reach these things that when I push them, they make noise!" Once she found that, she was all about makin some music for anyone who would listen.

Gwen and Gina were mine and Presley's lunch date to La Huerta's one day for some chip and salsa! It was so yummy. Of course the weather was beautiful so we sat out on the patio and the girls and Garrett played around. It was perfect. Great food, great company and we were outside so I didn't worry about Presley having a freak out. I just put her on the ground and let her crawl around.

She even got to try a chip! I think she like crushing them up in a million pieces more than she enjoyed actually eating them!

After lunch we took the kids out to the campsite because Nanny and Papa were having a cookout. We took the kids down to the little park they have there and let them swing on the swings and run off some energy. Presley was more about the recycled tire pieces and how they felt and tasted than she was about anything else.

goofy!

We all had such a great spring break that it was so hard coming home and getting back into normal life routine again. But then again after being gone for a week, it was nice to be back home, with my own dogs, in my own bed with my own family!

Sara and the Broomstick and Basketball

Sara's spring break was the week before all of ours so she came to the house and stayed almost all week. It was so nice having her here for a long period of time. I wish it would happen more often...but anyhoo...on facebook I had been seeing people standing their brooms up on their own. Something to do with the way the earth was facing or something like that...I really didn't care about that part just wanted to do it :)

So of course we all had to try. I got it to stand it up on it's own the first time, so did Sara and so did Kali. The next step was to see if while it was standing, could you kick your leg over it without knocking the broom over.....

And Sara did it!!! There is no way my leg can go that high anymore, poor Kali was to short and Kelly, well Kelly just kept showing us how he could kick his leg all the way up to the top of the door frame...ok so he never really hit the top but I will say, the boy does have a high kick! Any dance teacher would love to have him!

We were lucky to have some nice weather while Sara was here so I made the girls turn off the tvs and come outside and play some basketball with me.

We started playing Horse and then when we were done with that game we started making up words to play to....Dog, Bird...it was fun!

I kept telling Sara she should try out for Basketball at school. The girl made pretty much every shot. She kept telling me "no"....she would be really good though.

Kali and the Flu :(

Tuesday morning when Kelly took Kali to school she told him she had thrown up that morning and her stomach wasn't feelin to well. He told her to tough it out cause we have had episodes where she says that and then we go and pick her up from school and within an hour of being home she is good to go. So she went to school and sure enough started throwing up again at school so Kelly went and picked her up. She came home and was running a fever so she put her jammies back on, climbed into bed and we gave her some meds and she went back to sleep.

She couldn't keep anything down all day and her fever was staying the same. Wednesday she still wasn't feeling well so she stayed home from school and by the afternoon her fever had spiked up to 103. So I called her doctor and got her an appointment. Her doctor tested her for strep (negative) and then tested her for the flu (POSITIVE!) That's right she was positive for Type A Flu..wonderful huh. The poor kid looked like she was on her death bed and just had no energy in her. Her doctor started her on some meds and by Friday she was good to go.

Since she wasn't feeling well I wasn't even going to bother her with picture taking so I just decided to take a pic of her pharmacy she had going here at the house for herself...we had Gatorade, Tylenol, Tameflu, Anti-Nausea meds and some cool down strips for her fever. I was so glad that she started feeling better Friday because Sara was coming Saturday and we were going to Fort Smith for Spring Break the following week and I didn't want her to be sick for that. I pretty much kept her quarantined in her room the whole time she was sick because I didn't want Presley or myself to get it because I knew if one of us got it, we would be out of commission for a while and I couldn't afford that. But Kali did good about staying in bed and luckily no one else in the house got sick.

Kali's Haircut

Kali has been growing her hair out for a little bit now and it is getting pretty long. Long enough to throw up in a pony tail all the time...which is huge because for the longest time all she wanted was short hair..the shorter the better. So today I took her to Great Clips to get  her hair trimmed up so it would help it grow a little faster....She is like me, we love having someone shampoo our hair :)

while we were waiting for her to go back she found a Dora book and tried reading it to Presley..you can see how well that worked out :)

Once Kali showed Presley the pictures she was hooked. Kali is so patient with Presley it is the sweetest thing. She talks about wanting to be a teacher when she grows up and I can totally see that happening and Kali being an awesome grade school teacher.

The finished product! Since by the time we were leaving Great Clips, Presley was not cooperating so I didn't get to take a pic after they styled it but it is different! I promise. The lady who cut her hair took about a 1/2 inch off the bottom and added layers all the way around. It is really cute.