Sibling Love

It's amazing to me how almost instantly siblings bond. Now that Preston is getting older I'm beginning to see how my two compliment each other as well as how they irritate each other. Watching their relationship grow and develop before my eyes is such a special gift for me as a mom. Today I was so proud of Preston. Savannah had just whacked him with HIS new golf club and so she was sent to time out. Preston, seeing that his sister was upset, instantly forgot that he had been whacked and went all of the way upstairs to get her "B" lovey and delivered it to her in time out. He is such a sweet, sweet boy!

Well Visits x 2

Some nighttime silliness with daddy . . . Preston got these shirts out of the closet himself!

Let me start by saying THANK GOD Dave took off work to go with me to see Dr. Baker today! Whew! Savannah was an angel, but Preston was into everything. Those crazy forms took me forever to fill out and it was twice as hard since Preston was trying to color all over them. Anyway, they both got a clean bill of health! This will probably be the last time I post Savannah's stats online since it's not really nice to talk about a ladies' weight. :)

Preston is holding steady in the head percentile (95-97%), but dropped a bit in height 950-75%) and weight (75-90%). He is a whopping 30.6 lbs and 34.75 inches tall.

Savannah is still (and has been since birth) in the 95-97% for everything. She is 54.4 pounds and 45.25 inches tall.

Whew! No wonder I'm about to die running with them in the stroller!

Happy, Happy Birthday Preston!!

Sooo excited to wake up with balloons in his room!

Yesterday our sweet Preston turned TWO!! It's so hard to believe our baby is now officially a toddler. He is so full of energy and life in general that you just about have to laugh when you're around him. He is super, super independent and there isn't much that scares him either. But, he also has a sweet side. If anyone is crying or upset, he is the first one to rush over with one of his own comfort items to give away and with it comes a hug. :) Now that he has started being able to communicate with words, life is amazingly better for us all.

Preston's current favorite things are: balls, trucks, his paci & lovey, monkey, and doggie that he sleeps with . . . and of course "choc choc".

Happy birthday dear Preston, happy birthday to you!

Ready to dig into his birthday cupcake!

Preston we are so thankful for your sweet little life and for all of the joy you add to our home. We are excited to see what God has in store for you this year as you continue to grow. We love you!!!

Happy Father's Day & Happy Anniversary

Today is a super special day in our house. We get to celebrate Dave in a big way and thank him for being such an amazing dad and husband too. It's been 7 years since we said "I do" and I couldn't be more thankful to have such a supportive, loving, and devoted man by my side each day . . . and I couldn't ask for a better daddy for Savannah and Preston too. Thank you Dave for all that you mean to our family. We love you!!! Here's to many, many more exciting years together!

The Big Pool Party

On Saturday we celebrated Savannah's 5th and Preston's 2nd birthday!! It was such a fun day filled with family and friends. The day started with a family pre-party here at home. The kids were able to open their gifts from family and we enjoyed a Chick fil A lunch. Afterwards the kids had time to play with some of their new things while I prepared for the friend party at the pool.

Pawpaw and Preston enjoyed playing with his new bubbles inside. Then it was onto the automatic bubble generator outside!

All of our immediate family, except for Deborah who couldn't come. :(

Then it was off to the pool!!!

Two friends in a fish, Savannah and Anna Kate

Cake time!!

Preston enjoyed at least 2 pieces of cake and just as many juice boxes!

Thank you to everyone who came and made this such a special day for Savannah and Preston!

Creativity

Often times I wonder if my children will end up more like me, very type A, or more like Dave, very laid back. Sometimes I wonder if they'll be kids that love music, art, or maybe they'll enjoy sports. Right now only God knows what is in store for their precious little lives, but in the mean time I have to say that although Savannah may look like me and Preston may act like me, they both are already much more creative than I have ever been!

Take for instance this past Thursday. It was after dinner and I was frantically trying to get the dishes done while Dave was out mowing the yard. I sent the kids upstairs to get ready to take their baths. Now granted it was taking me awhile to wash the dishes, but they weren't alone forever. Suddenly I hear a crash upstairs. I yell up and ask if everything is okay and Savannah assured me it was fine. Then, just a few minutes later, I hear a huge crash, then silence, then sobbing. I ran upstairs to find Savannah sitting on a wet bathroom floor with a bloody lip! Trying to process everything I asked her what happened. Between the screaming and crying she said that she slipped on the floor.


I finally got her calmed down and left the bathroom to pick up the toys in the workout room and found this soaking wet pillow pet crammed behind the treadmill. I went back to the bathroom and asked Savannah to explain why the lamb was soaking wet and hidden on the treadmill. It was then that I figured out exactly what happened. She said "we were playing slip and slide with the pillow, mommy". Apparently she and Preston were using the bath drum set to pour water on the pillow pet and then trying to slip and slide on the bathroom floor!! The first crash, she explained, was Preston falling, but the second time she slipped on the wet floor and hit her lip on the toy basket. Apparently she wasn't in too much pain because she was able to run and hide the evidence before going back to the bathroom to start sobbing. Gotta love the creativity of a 5 year old that turns a pillow pet into a slip and slide.

Happy 5th Birthday, Savannah!!

Yesterday my little girl turned 5! It's so hard for me to believe that it has been 5 years since Savannah was born, but what an amazing 5 years they have been. I've watched a very fussy baby turn into a little lady who is just full of life. Here are some of my sweet girls favorite things right now:

• Princesses, fairies, Barbies, and her doll house


• Singing ~ it's amazing at how she remembers so many songs just from hearing them in the car


• Talking about "B" and B's family. Everything we do B also does and experiences.


• Anything pink


• Being read to


• Going to church


• Family & Friends ~ she is always anxious to spend time with her family and friends!


• Making crafts and drawing pictures to give away

We celebrated with just the four of us by going to Chuckie Cheese and plan to celebrate with all of our family and friends at a pool party on Saturday!

Savannah you are such a special, amazing gift to us. We thank God for you and your love for life. We pray that the next year will be filled with exciting times as you venture off to kindergarten. We love you!!

A Long Multi-tasking Run Mess

This morning I decided to combine my workout with 3 errands. I loaded up the kids and gathered everything I needed . . . license, phone, staples reward card, credit card, coupons, etc and headed out for a run. I figured what better way to get some things checked off of the list than to combine them with a long run. While I was in Staples I looked down and saw that Preston had taken advantage of the pen Savannah brought along. Check out his legs!! Ahh!! I'm not sure if he's embarrassed and hiding his face in the picture or if he just hates it when I get the camera out, either way he makes me laugh!

Discovery Place ~ Kids

First activity, the firetruck!!

Today we took a field trip with the Marions to Discovery Place Kids Museum in Huntersville. The kids had an absolute blast playing in all of the different areas! There was a huge firetruck, airplane, grocery store, vet office, cafe, mechanic area, water play area, and the girls' favorite was of course the craft section!! We didn't even get to try everything before deciding it was lunch time. So we all piled back in the van and headed to the restaurant of choice, Chick fil A. It was a super fun morning and a great diversion for a really hot day!

Dance Recital 2011

Our little ballerina

Savannah and Lily

Preston is proud of his sissy

My sweet ballerina girl with her flowers

Today was finally the day of Savannah's dance recital!! We all got up bright and early this morning and headed to the auditorium for the big day. She was SO excited and I have to say that after doing his 6 times (for 3 years now) I was a lot less nervous about having everything perfect, being on time, getting a good seat, etc . . . but I am no better at making buns for sure. They did a tap dance to Ghostbusters and a ballet dance to It's a small world. Of course my camera battery died and I only got a few shots during the recital. Luckily I found an outlet to get a little juice in the battery for a few shots afterwards. :) We let Savannah pick where she wanted to go for lunch, and of course she picked Chick fil A! The employees there were so sweet and even gave her free ice cream for "dancing so pretty". I think the pink medal that was given to each girl and flowers daddy gave her were by far her favorite things!

Summer Has Begun!!

Over the past week, Preston's vocabulary has exploded!! Not only is he using more words, but he is stringing several words together. "I want juice" is his favorite saying right now, but he is finally regularly using phrases! Hallelujah!! Now, mind you, they aren't super clear phrases, but at least we're to the point of being able to communicate well. I love it!! He's also finally started shaking his head (really his whole top half) to say yes instead of gasping over and over to signal yes. I have to mention his favorite word right now is MINE. His progress just in the past week has been incredible!!

An afternoon snack . . . I guess I shouldn't have left him alone with pudding long enough to check my e-mail since he hasn't made much progress with eating pudding.

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Today was our first day at the pool! As expected, I had to be in the water and couldn't relax with a magazine (no, I didn't even bring one to read) but at least the kids had a blast. Right now only one local pool is open in the morning so it was super crowded! We did run into several girls from church so at least I had friends to chat with.

About 30 seconds after getting in the pool, Preston fell under! I called the swim instructor as soon as we got home to sign him up for lessons!

Enjoying a picnic lunch before heading home for nap time!