Little Fishy

Hali is officially a swimmer. This girl loves the water and learned how to swim all by herself this summer. She has always swum with a life jacket and one day I decided to take it off of her just to see what she could do. I told her to swim to me and she did it without a problem. No swim lessons or anything she just figured it out and is really good at it. Once she gets her goggles on she becomes fearless in the water. We even had to buy her some princess dive toys because the second time we let her swim without her jacket she just started diving into the water from the steps. She was beyond excited when I told her about toys that stay on the bottom of the pool for her to dive down to pick up. The girl can hold her breathe for such a long time. She will jump off the side and swim to the steps without coming up for air. Hali also loves to swim like Ariel and do front flips underwater. Sometimes I get nervous because she is so brave in the water. I have always wanted my kids to be good swimmers because I am kind of paranoid when it comes to kids and water. We are just so proud of her and can't believe how fast she is growing up.

Our Little Presli is One!

I can hardly believe we are already to this day. One year ago today my heart was both aching from the passing of my Grandpa Barney (one hour before I gave birth), but also exploding with happiness as we welcomed our sweet Presli into the world.

Presli has been a great baby from the second she was born. Great eater, great sleeper, and just all around happy. In fact the first night we had her home my mom was here helping us. That morning she came in saying "I'm sorry I didn't get up to help in the night, but I never heard her". Our reply was "neither did we" as she was still sleeping in her bed next to ours. She slept about 6 hours a night almost every night from the time we brought her home until six months (not sure what happened there, but she figured it out about three months later). She has always been so happy, mellow, and just easy going. The older she gets the more spunky and girly she is getting, but I think a lot of it comes from her sister's example. Hali has sure taught her how to hit the highest pitch scream possible and she is very good at it (they both are)! Here are some more fun things Presli does.

*Presli loves to talk on the phone, and pretends anything in her hand is a phone.
*She isn't talking a lot, but will occasionally say hello, bye-bye, uh-oh, mama, dada, and baba.
*She HATES to get dressed or have her diaper changed. The second she is on her back she is trying to roll over to get away while screaming the whole time.
*She loves to have baths with her sister.
*She has figured out how to torment her sister by taking whatever Hali is playing with and crawling away as fast as her little legs will take her.
*Trav and I fight over who gets to put her to sleep because she is SO easy. Just give her the binki, her tag blanket and she rolls over to her side and goes to sleep.
*She only has 3 bottom teeth (that she got at about 10 months old). However, I see 4 on top all working their way out (she has been feeling them too!)
*She is Mama's girl!
*She LOVES playing on mom and dad's bed with her sister. She just giggles, and rolls all over.
*She like to eat anything she can gum, but hasn't got to try a lot of real food because of the lack of teeth. Presli is done with baby food, and whenever she sees me get it out she shakes her head no. She turns her head away from me until I shove some in her mouth so she knows it tastes ok. We will both be happy when she gets more teeth, it will make meal time much more enjoyable for both of us.
*Presli's current tricks are giving five, shaking her head no, dancing to music, spitting when you say "Ew gross", riding on her sister's back like a cowgirl.

*She is not really interested in walking or standing, but I'm sure she will figure it out eventually.
*Presli's nicknames are Sessie Bean or Lillie Bean. When she was born Hali couldn't say Presli and instead said Sessie, Lillie is her middle name, and the bean just kind of went along with both I guess.

We just love this girl more and more everyday and can't imagine our lives without her. Happy 1st Birthday Sessie Bean!

We are having a party for her tomorrow so I will add more pictures later.

OCTOBER 2009

San Diego Trip

When Presli was just two weeks old we headed down to San Diego for the annual October trip. We had a lot of fun just relaxing, and spending time together. Hali loved playing in the sand on the beach and being around all the other kids. I enjoyed relaxing and bonding with my new baby. Hali got to go ice skating for the first time, and Travis competed in the San Diego Classic triathalon with Logan and his brother Tyler while we were there.

Presli One Month Old

So far... she is a great eater, a great sleeper, she loves her baths, and we just love her!

HALLOWEEN

This year for Halloween Hali was a lady bug and Presli was a little leopard. We went trick or treating at daddy's work (Kolob Care Center) and then went to the ward Trunk or Treat. Hali caught on quick to the trick or treating concept. She loved holding out her little pumpkin to get candy inside and made special requests for suckers quite often.

The best picture we could get of the both of them.

Showing off her cute little tail.

Quick update

I think it is about time to put an update on this blog. However, I know most of you have already given up on me. Thank you all for your advice for the computer. Unfortunately there was not much we could do to save the pictures. We took it to three different people to see what could be saved, however, we had no luck. On top of the computer crashing our hard drive was just overall bad (which contributed to the fact that we couldn't get much back) so we need to get a new one. I can't blog on my computer for two reasons 1-there are no pictures on it,, and 2-because it is so messed up it won't let me log onto blogger. Overall, it could have been much worse and I still have all of the pictures of my girls, but there are a lot of pictures that make me sick to think I have lost. Some of them being my monthly pregnant belly pictures of Hali, and the many trips Travis and I went on before we had kids. So that's that.

Enough about the computer I am now moving on. Because I hate doing things out of order I have decided I am just going to do monthly posts that go back a while just because there are too many important things that happened that I would hate to skip over. So stay tuned I promise there will be something worth looking at here soon...

I'M DEVESTATED!

This is an understatement to what happend to us two weeks ago. Our computer crashed and we lost EVERYTHING including almost all of the pictures of the 6 years of our lives together. Luckily I do have all of Hali's first six months and was very good about blogging many important events in her life, but still there are tonz of pictures that I will never see again. I cried for days and still have a hard time when it is brought up. The reason I am sharing this is if any of you happen to come across pictures of our little family I would love it if you would share them with us. Let me know, and let this be a lesson to you all to back up your pictures.

Five Months Old

Our little Presli is already 5 months old, time is flying by. She is such a fun little baby who always has a smile for you, we just love her so much!

PRESLI FACTS at FIVE MONTHS OLD

*You know Presli is mad when she starts blowing raspberries when she is crying. It is often to her detriment because it is just so cute we often watch her cry a little longer than we normally would.
*She loves her binki and won't go to sleep without it.
*She likes to suck her thumb, but has recently found that she loves to suck on her big toe even more.
*She loves to roll to her stomach but has forgotten how to roll to her back so she gets stuck and very frustrated.
*She still LOVES to be swaddled. A lot of times she doesn't like to sleep in her carseat because she has to much room. So now we tuck the blanket as tight as we can around her so she feels that comfort.
*She is sleeping in her crib now (I like to keep them by me for the first few months). However, our great through the night sleeper has now decided to wants to see us in the middle of the night at least once and sometimes three times. Little stinker!
*She loves her sister, and smiles and giggles at everything she does.

She just went to the doctor last week (for her 4 month) and here are her stats:

Weight: 12.56lbs (11th percentile)

Length: 24.75 (47th percentile)

She is a little bean long and skinny. Very fitting considering we often call her Presli Bean. She brings so much joy to our lives and always has a smile for us. We love you Seslee!!

This was the first time Hali ever asked to hold Presli. It lasted about as long as it took to take the picture.

Presli with some of her friends.

She has always loved cuddling with her daddy.

Finally sleeping in her crib

St. George Parade of Homes

This has to be my favorite room of the house. One day my girls will have a room that looks something like this one.

I would love to do laundry in this beautiful room

This is the room that can either be opened or closed off by the barn door, such a cool idea!

Beautiful master

I want that bathtub!

I wish I could say this is my house, but it's not. It is however, two lots away from my house, and the house my father in-law 'Hoopes Construction' built for the 2010 St. George Parade of Homes. This is his first time ever doing a Parade house and I think he started out with a bang! As you can see it is BEAUTIFUL. The pictures speak for themselves, if you love the French country style then you will appreciate this house. There were a lot of very talented people who worked together to make this house happen. Shawn Patten was the architect who came up with the clever barn door idea, Dan Hoopes the builder made it all happen, and Herritage Home and Garden were the decorators who added the beautiful details. These are only a few of the pictures taken from this house so to see more go to hoopesconstruction.com. Oh and if you are looking to build a house, get a lot by us we would love to have you as neighbors, and Cottam Fields is a great location, we love it!