nothing much new to report over here, but i thought i'd check in.
i'm currently in bed, with laptop, watching double dare on tv. i didn't even realize this show made a comeback. i'm about 2 minutes in and i'm kinda disappointed.... where is marc summers? where is the giant ear with ear wax? i miss the early 90's. ***revisiting to say, "THERE'S MARC! ok, this isn't as bad as i thought."

presley starts "ultra" at church this wednesday evening! it's a fun thing at our church is doing for the kids (ages 3+), they will learn bible lessons and do fun activities. they had a kickoff event last wednesday night with a HUGE bounce house obstacle course, cotton candy, popcorn, sno cones, face painting....
presley was in heaven. she got some cotton candy, and after she ate that, we didn't see her for an hour. she went through the bounce house over and over and over. eli ate a whole bag of popcorn. i didn't even realize he liked popcorn. ha. it was a really fun night. i love watching my babies have fun.

i mostly opened this blog to give you some more presley-isms. they're piling up over here.

at her school, there is a ramp you walk down to go inside. it's a pretty long ramp, and there is an iron fence on one side with a handrail. every day, and i mean EVERY DAY, she touches the hand rail and says, "this is for grandma's, so they don't fall."

one thing i really love about her school is that they provide breakfast, lunch, and snack. at home she eats like 4 things, so i really love that she is trying new things (vegetables!). last week they had lasagna for lunch one day. i asked her if she liked it and she told me she LOVED LASAGNA and asked if i would make it for her. so guess what i made for dinner tonight? while she was eating it she pulled out a noodle and said, "i don't like this. this wasn't in my school lasagna." i told her that there were definitely noodles in her lasagna at school, but that she couldn't have any bread until she ate all her lasagna. then she said, "i'm frustrated...i'm really disappointed." randy and i were really trying to keep straight faces, but then she said, "mommy, i'm just jealous." HAHA WHAT?!? randy was like, "ok, now you're just saying words, you don't even know what you're talking about." and i was like, "i love lamp?'

this one is from awhile back, but there is a commercial that comes on during the day about wrinkle cream. i wasn't paying attention to it, but she sure was. "mommy you need that for your frinkles." frinkles, huh? well, ok. thanks, girl. but she made it up to me by telling me that she loved my "memaws". let me translate that from presley to english... moles. memaw=mole.

lastly, she's been 4 for a week. literally, 8 days. and every day. every single day. yall, every day, she asks "when am i gonna be a teenager?" someone send help. am i gonna survive?

and as for my sweet second child... he's just as silly and sweet as ever.
always dirty, always eating, always one shoe off, and, of course, always copies every single thing big sister does... really, am i gonna survive?

happy birthday, presley!

my baby girl is 4 today. i can't really put my emotions into words, but i am gonna try.

presley is my sweet, sassy, stubborn, strong-willed, smart, funny, silly, loving, and BEAUTIFUL girl.
she makes the best faces, so full of emotion... from fighting mad to smiling and "sparkling". she sings songs, and prances around constantly. she praises Jesus. she throws tantrums, and toys... but she also gives out the biggest puckered up kisses you've ever seen. she is momma's girl, no doubt, but she needs her daddy just as much. she is her brother's keeper...and also his boss. she is actually the boss of this whole house, and i have a feeling it'll be that way until the day she moves out.

these past 4 years have been some of the HARDEST, and most stressful years of my entire life. but man, they sure have been fun. and rewarding. and so.full.of.love. my heart just bursts at the seams for this sweet child of mine.

we had a fun day celebrating sweet presley.
the day started with ballons and cinnamon rolls. we also measured her to see how much she's grown in the last six months (about 2in)!

after church we thought she might take a nap... but she wasn't having it. she was definitely tired, but when i told her to go get in bed she started crying and wailing "but i'm in a good mood!" with tears gushing out. yeahhh... that's not working sister. so instead she flopped around in her bed for an hour. when we asked what she wanted to eat for her special birthday lunch she said, "HOTDOGS!". i asked her if she wanted me to make hotdogs, or if she wanted to go out to eat. she said, "hotdogs at a restaurant! and then they will sing to me." i told her they don't sing at the hotdog restaurant (five guys!), and asked if she would rather go eat pancakes (her favorite) instead. NOPE. she said we could just sing to her when we got home instead.

*side note: how is she my child? when i was a kid, i had a LEGIT PHOBIA of being sang to in public on my birthday. introvert since birth, i guess! but for real, my parents knew not to tell them it was my birthday when we went out to eat. if we heard them start singing in the restaurant, my dad would nudge me and say "here they come!", even though it was for someone else, and i would nearly cry. i also got panicky when having my birthday party at the skating rink and they called out for the birthday kids to come to the center of the rink... nope, not going. sorry.

after lunch we came home and sang happy birthday and let her blow out candles one more time. then she opened a few more presents and spent the rest of the evening playing with her new toys.

 

**warning! : i'm officially in the FUNK.

if you have been reading or if you know me at all, you know the funk.

my parents and sister and her kids left yesterday afternoon and my house is just so quiet. 

the whole crew got here on thursday afternoon, and we got lots of quality time together which made for some pretty great memories.

friday we celebrated our sweet girl's 4th birthday with a unicorn party! everyone headed down to the pool and splashpad while i stayed back and got the decorations and party set up. i ordered a HUGE 30in pizza, made rainbow cupcakes, and, of course, dippin dots!

presley got lots of american girl doll accessories, lots of unicorn stuff, and other fun toys. she didn't stop smiling the whole day!

her real birthday is in FOUR days....and i'll probably cry all day. ha.

saturday we woke up and headed straight for murray family farms. it was stone fruit season, so we picked peaches, nectarines, and everyone's new favorite fruit--the pluot! it was HOT, but so fun. we pretty much had the place to ourselves, so that made it even better. we are already planning our next trip for october and hoping steph and the kids will come back and go with us!

after all that fun, we dropped all the kids, randy, and my dad off at home and my mom, sister, and i headed for the outlets. i loved every minute of that trip... we needed some big girl time! while we were gone, dad cooked gumbo (best dad everrrr!). it was the perfect ending to a perfect day! 

sunday morning, dad, steph, randy, and i went for breakfast at 24th st cafe. mom stayed back with the kids like the saint she is! don't worry, we brought her back some crepes. it was amazing, just like the first time...and i will glady go back again, and again. the rest of the day was spent lounging around. sunday night we played heads up until we laughed so hard, we cried. jayden also taught me how to floss and shoot. and yes, there are videos, and no, you won't see them until my funeral. 

monday was a big day for us! presley started PRE-K!!!

she didn't look back when we dropped her off, and she didn't want to leave when i went to pick her up. she was BEYOND tired (during nap time she "rested with her eyes open"). i tried to ask her how her day was, but she said, "i can't tell you because then it'll make me tired." but she loved it, and was excited to go back again today.

monday night we went back to moo creamery for dinner. i'm just gonna go ahead and put this on the official record by saying THIS IS MY NUMBER ONE FAVORITE HAMBURGER I'VE EVER HAD. and if you know me, you know i'm very plain and eat only ketchup (and lettuce and cheese) on my burger... so it's not some crazy over the top burger...it's the MEAT. it just melts and now i'm craving it again. ugh. randy and dad had bacon love ice cream, and mom had coffee toffee and they all loved it. i had my plain jane vanilla with hot fudge sauce.... and it was everything.

yesterday was rough watching them leave. i cried, and i sulked, and all the crying and sulking has continued on today. and will probably continue on for the rest of the week, because i just can't shake the sadness very easily. (sorry, randy.)

so this weekend was fun...we finally WENT somewhere we've been wanting to go!

last week randy told me the astros were playing the dodgers in LA, and he was thinking we should go see them play, and get a hotel room in LA for the night. umm YES! so after thinking it over, we decided a day game would be best for the kids sake, and bought tickets for sunday. we also decided we would spend saturday afternoon in santa monica at the pier and beach and stay the night there instead!

we left for santa monica around 11 on saturday, and it was smooth sailing until we got to LA, which is typical. we finally made it to santa monica beach, and it took FOREVER to find a place to park and figure out what in the world we were doing. we finally made it to a parking garage probably around 2:45. we made it to santa monica pier and i immediately felt like turning around and leaving. there were just soooooooooooo.many.people. and the kids were in bad moods because they were hungry. so we ended up eating at bubba gumps.

anyway, after lunch(which ended up being our dinner), we got presley a cotton candy and high-tailed it outta that place. we might try to go back this fall on a weekday in hopes that it wont be so crazy. i just hate crowds. hate hate hate.

our hotel was nice, and eli had no problem going straight to sleep in his pack n play. presley on the other hand stayed up until after 9 and woke us all up at 6am sunday morning.

the astros game was both kids first sporting event ever! they did OK... we made it three whole innings! presley ate an entire dodger dog, and eli dropped his sippy cup at least 12 times into the row in front of us (i'm sure they all hi-fived when we left).

we made it home safely and have just been spending this week getting ready for our guests coming this weekend!
monday was full of errands and our to-do list was long. our first stop was target, followed by dollar tree, michaels, and finally, walmart. we got to target and headed straight for the handsoap....
annnnd then it got interesting.
so picture this... i took the stroller in, because we didn't have a lot to get and presley can stand on the scooter board on the back instead of sitting. eli sits in the front, facing out, so i can't really see him while i'm pushing. while on the handsoap aisle, presley (my tiny teenager) thinks she needs to smell every bottle, which, ok, isn't really smelling them, just sniffing the plastic and saying it smells like whatever is on the outside of the bottle--"mommy this smells so good, like pear! mommy this one smells like fish! mommy this one smells like water! eli smell this! eli smell this!". i had to tell her about 38 times to put the soap back and stop giving it to her brother. annnnyway, i finally get my handsoap and we grab a few other things, and make our final stop on the birthday card aisle. we take our time here, presley loves to pick up cards and "read" them. about 10 minutes later i find the card i want, and go to put it in the stroller and that's when i see it. i had to double take, honestly.
are you still picturing this? good. picture my sweet precious son...covered.in.handsoap.
somehow after all that time, he still had a bottle of handsoap and had somehow got it open and got it ALL OVER HIMSELF. and he is just rubbing it in on his legs like lotion. yall, we had to have passed like 10 people, including people who worked there. not one person could give me a "hey, your kid is taking a bath up there." or "you're gonna pay for that soap right?". nope. no one told me. no one even gave me a weird look. so i put the soap on the ground of the birthday card aisle (after i took a pic, duh.) and drove my handsoap scented stroller straight to self checkout. seriously. our FIRST stop and my kid is up to his ears in handsoap. literally. so i take him out to the car and start getting after his legs with baby wipes, only to have it start suds-ing up on me. i finally found a crumpled up burp rag in the bottom of his diaper bag and at least got him less wet.

and i'll end this with some jokes presley told today.

"hey eli, i'm gonna tell you a joke!
what if an o-plaid lived in the water with a boat, and a fork was cutting it? ahahahhahahahahahaha"


"i'm gonna tell you another one.
what do lips go on red foxes? ahahahahahhaahahahahah isn't that funny eli?"