Presley's First Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRESLEY!

December 20th, 2008

We had a "Gingerbread House Decorating" themed First birthday party for Ms. Presley! We decorated Gingerbread houses -adults more so than kids- but everyone seemed to have a great time. Our house is now a living toy box. I was needlessly worried that my daughter, being born so close to Christmas, might be a little bit neglected. Never fear, though, she is still completely Spoiled!

The cake was interesting - not as messy as it could be. I'm pretty sure she didn't think that she was allowed to be sticking her hand in the middle of a cake. She was a little suspicious that this might be a trick. : ) That, combined with the fact that she doesn't really like sweets yet, made it pretty tame cake eating. She enjoyed it a little bit more once we cut off a piece of the cake for her.

This expression was her general theme of the whole day - she LOVED it all!

Let's be honest. The bows, tissue paper, bags, and wrapping paper were almost as much fun as the things inside of them.

I am not exactly sure if it was the appeal of the bag or if she just wanted to get away from all the excitement for a minute.

Here are a couple of the Gingerbread houses.

I love the front porch evergreen trees on this one.

The front porch, chimney, and second story window of this house are all custom built...

And this was her at the end of the day.

She is always still awake when we put her to bed, but that night she couldn't keep her eyes open.

SHE'S WALKING!!!

We tried to capture it on video, but I guess she's not ready to perform for the world. She is standing really well now and will walk for 4 or 5 steps before giving it up to crawl. Crawling is still the preferred method of transportation since it gets her there much faster, but she working on it. She started walking the day before her 1st birthday.


Since there is no video, I'll just put a cute picture of her standing and going for the 3-point shot...

(It has been a really busy few weeks...I'm going to try to do a little each day to try to cover it all.)

Santa!

Presley was able to go and visit briefly with Santa before Christmas. I don't think she got around to telling him what she wanted - she was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing! She didn't cry, though, so they were able to quickly snap a picture.

ELEVEN MONTHS!!

Somehow, we must have written her birthday down wrong. Or maybe it's not already really November. Surely, there is no way that this girl is a month from being 1 year old! But apparently she is!

We tried to take some pictures out by the pond near our house, but it wasn't really working out. The setting was nice, but it was a bit cold. So we finished off with some pictures inside. : )

Having a birthday feast...Dakota's nose constantly alternates between checking the highchair or checking the ground! It's a tough job, but he seems to enjoy the fringe benefits.

Bath Time

We have moved to sitting in the big tub (and crawling around in the big tub). So to keep her from flying backwards or falling to the side and smacking her head, we got these cool tub bumpers!
They're helpful if for no other reason then to make me feel better! I don't have to freak out every time she leans to the side to grab a toy. : )

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Pumpkin Patch a few weeks ago to take some pictures. It was a really sunny day so most of our pics are of her squinting against the sun. She seemed to have a good time, though. This pumpkin patch is right around the corner from our house and they have all kinds of fun stuff. There is a hay ride, a maze made out of hay, pumpkin launching, and lots of other cool things. Maybe next year we'll be able to participate in a bit more.

Trick or Treat!

Presley's First Halloween didn't go as smoothly as we would have hoped since she was suffering through a round of the stomach bug. Because of that (and because people tend to believe that we are going to eat the candy instead of her) we had to be a bit choosy as to where we went Trick-or-Treating. So if you're limited, you need to pick the right house to visit. Luckily, we went to Presley's Aunt Kim's house where she racked up lots of goodies. I mean, food and a new car? Does it get better than that? I would have settled for a snickers bar. Obviously, my expectations are too low!


Presley admires her new wheels!



Even on Halloween, you need to check the nutritional facts before just diving in...

Happy Halloween!

Presley celebrated her first Halloween as Strawberry Shortcake! She didn't seem to mind the costume - the big floofy hat caused her to be a little off balance, though.

Presley's 1st Carved Pumpkin. We put a little "PJ" in the corner for her. : )

October 20, 2008: 10 Months Old!

Of course we are posting pictures from her big day! This time, instead of the usual pajama picture in the chair, we ventured outside!

Although she did well with the sign, I knew it wasn't going to last - so most of the pictures are without.

And where do the fabulous go on their 10 month birthday? Does it get any better than a walk around the neighborhood?

...Her future's so bright that she has to wear shades. : )

TWO TEETH!

Alright. It's taken us quite a while to get these teeth so we are going to celebrate each and every one. Here is a pretty good pic of her two bottom front teeth.

Great Minds Think Alike...

Swinging!

We found a great new park near our house where we can take Presley to go swinging. She seemed to really enjoy it so we will probably be going there more often!

We're not 2-percenters!

Win or Lose, we have to be looking good in our game day outfit! How could anyone not support the Aggies when their fans are so adorable!

-even cute from the backside!

9 Months!

Presley is 9 months old! So, of course, we had to take the 9 month pictures. I tried taping the sign behind her since one of my biggest problems is usually just getting her to not eat it. That seemed to work fairly well, but you can see on the last picture that she was bored and had already moved on to more exciting things....

:)

Tooth-ing

Well, after 6 months of people telling us "blah,blah, since she's doing such-and-such she must be teething" - it's finally true! : ) At this point, I think there's only one, but who knows. It's her front bottom tooth.
She's still been in a great mood,though. (When is this girl not in a great mood?)

But she's been chewing...

and biting...

and sucking...
on just about everything! : )


We've almost reached the 9 month mark and have a doctor visit next week so then we can get her latest stats!

Bathtime!

Presley loves bathtime! And then one of her favorite parts is being wrapped up in the towel right after her bath. She gets a huge grin on her face every night.
Notice how her buddy Dakota never seems too far away?
: )

Best Friends?

Ahh....

And she's UP!!

Presley has been pulling up on things for a couple of weeks, but has really got the hang of it now. Although she is getting super fast on the crawling scene, she likes to stop every once in a while now and see what's going on above that 1 foot mark.