And a Kindergartener was Born!

Presley started kindergarten this year! I cannot believe my baby is all grown up! It feels like just yesterday that I was teaching her her colors, shapes, ABC's, & 1,2,3's as a 2 1/2 year old in the kitchen of our old house. She has always been pretty confident, but on the day she started school, she found a renewed or bolder confidence with in herself!

She saved me from crying when I had to leave her. I was really prepared to cry a river. But seeing her so happy and knowing how much she wanted to be there. And, well, her confidence....I didn't cry at all! I knew she'd be safe and she was somewhere she wanted to be. It wasn't anything like when I put her in Montessori school when she was 2. She cried and cried and would not let me go when I would drop her off. I use to sit in the car and cry before driving away. The hormones of being pregnant with Piper may have helped those emotions be more intense. Yeah, this time around wasn't anything like that!

I just know she is going to have a great year!

There she goes. My big brave girl!

Piper was so sad to see her sister go to school. Presley has lived with out Piper before, but Piper has never lived with out Presley. She cried when we dropped her off, saying "I don't like Presley going to school, I want to go get her back!" Oh my sweet Pipey!

All she wants to do is hold her big sisters hand. When she was walking with her, I heard her tell Presley that she loved her.

Me too....I wanted to hold her hand too. I was scared to let her go. I had to beg her to hold my hand too. She really didn't want to. She kept telling me that she is a big girl now and she didn't need to hold my hand anymore. I just told her that she may not need to hold my hand, but I still need to hold her hand.

And there she is. We made it to school! Deeeeeeep breath!

Look at her go.....

Piper had to steal one last hug!

Presley busted me peeping in on her from the hallway. See her waving?

They hosted a BooHoo Yahoo Breakfast for us parents in the library. That was really sweet...too bad the coffee was blah!

After dinner, we surprised Presley with a "1st day of school" celebration!

Happy 1st day of school to YOU!!!!

Summer Time Memories!

I am just now, a month late, getting around to updating my blog. I've had this one in my drafting folder for a while. Blog spot likes to give me a hard time uploading pictures. And then I had another wonderful neck strain that took me off the computer for about a month. So here I am, doing some updating!

We had an amazing summer! We had so much fun with the girls! They are at the absolute perfect ages right now! We also had some pretty big events occur in the girls lives. And Presley got ready for Kindergarten!

Presley got her big girl booster seat! Here she is trying it out in Babies R Us. She is still one pound under, BUT she's getting too tall for her car seat. SO something had to happen here!

We took lots of trips to The Cherry On Top ice cream parlor!

Presley learned to ride her bike with NO training wheels!

She also learned to fall AND get back up! Very important!

The girls had lots of play dates with Miss Maddy! Who now lives in Temple. :(

We spent most of time at the pool! FUN FUN FUN!!!

Did I mention we had fun????

We had several picnics there!

Relaxed and took breaks from the sun.

Presley learned to swim, climb the pool climbing wall, AND dive off the diving board!

The girls had their 1st ever slumber party! We painted nails, had a pizza picnic, and an amazing breakfast buffet full of the best breakfast foods!

Piper got sent to the corner for the 1st time. I think this will only work this one time! After the initial shock of being put there, she wiped away her tears and started horsing around in the corner.

We took trips to the Zoo. Here is one with Meagan when her sister was in town.

On one trip to the zoo, we got to eat breakfast in the new savanna. We went with Stephanie and Cindel on this day.

And we took our 2nd trip of the year to Fredericksburg to visit with family and spend 4th of July there. It was a wonderful trip! Pretty relaxing too. John and Robbye and a cookie cook off. Here's John's monster cookie eating Robbye's.

The kids had soooo much fun chasing baby chicks around!

It rained so much while we were there. We tried escaping the rain, so we took a trip to San Antonio. And the rain followed us there. That's okay though, we still had fun!

We took the kids to the River Walk and to the Alamo!

We ate at my favorite restaurant in San Antonio. I just can't ever remember the name of it!

And Presley lit her very 1st fire work...under the watchful eye of her Pops.

On the 4th, we went to the town parade. It was the most perfect & charming country town parade I have ever seen!

And that night, we watched the fireworks that were near by!

Also this summer, Presley started tennis and fell in love with it!

While Presley played tennis, Piper hunted bugs and tried copying what Presley was doing on the court.

We rode around town on our new toys! Those are the best bikes in the world! They are so fun to ride!

The girls had so many play dates this summer. The even met one of their newest friends at Pump it Up. They loved playing with each other so much that we even met up for a 2nd and a 3rd play date!

The girls took a trip to the dentist office. Not a fun one at all....both girls need work.....

And to end the summer, we finally got to meet Presley's new teacher! And we ran into our neighbors at the school too! Those 4 girls also love playing together!

It was a wonderful summer! I can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings!

I Feel Like A Complete Failure!

So I took the girls to the dentist yesterday. A new dentist. We had to switch due to our insurance. They both had been to their old dentist regularly...they've had cleanings, xrays (Presley has, Piper hasn't), fluoride treatments, and all of that good stuff. That dentist would give their teeth a thumbs up and a good job and a NO CAVITY sticker! Then they'd get entered in a drawing to win a bike.

Sure there there visits where they said they were just watching a spot on Presley's teeth and sure their was her diagnosis that she has no adult lateral incisors in place, but we knew all of that. We know of all the thousands of dollars that we'll have to spend when Presley is a pre-teen to fix her smile so she'll grow up with no kind of complex due to her teeth.

And we've always been pretty strict with their diet. They rarely get juice, they are even hardly milk drinkers anymore...so rarely even have chocolate milk. I buy the sugar free orange cups and apple sauce, they eat gold fish not potato chips. I have given Presley a few sips of Sprite....she says it burns her mouth so she ends up emptying her cup for water. So they don't drink coke or a little bit of tea with their sugar. AND they only get cookies, cupcakes, pies, and other sweets like that on special occasions. We even go as far as to not share spoons and forks ever since I saw this article when I was pregnant with Presley that mom and dads can transfer bad cavity causing germs to their kids when you share utensils. So we don't!

So how does this happen?
How do they go from having a pretty great diet & hygiene to walking out of their new dentists office with dental work hoovering over them in the near near future???? I don't get it! I just don't get it! They brush every morning and every evening. I go in and brush after they have brush. Of course, I have problems with Piper....her mouth is smaller so she fights me and won't open up and then I have to threaten to just have all of her teeth taken out, but I get the job done.

I was horrified when they told me my kids had cavities. I never ever expected to hear that! So I questioned and questioned! I told them my kids don't eat lots of sugar filled stuff nor do the miss brushing their teeth when they are suppose to. I keep up on that kind of stuff. They said perhaps the sugar breakdown from the carbs they eat is creating the bad sugar bugs in their mouth combined with the possibility that they inherited my bad luck in the teeth department. I have had lots of work...weak teeth!

So was the other dentist just not doing her job and not "watching" those spots like she was suppose to? It's only been 8 months since their last visit. 2 months over due....but really!

Piper has 3 fillings to be done and one sealant & Presley has 4 fillings and 1 sealant. And when her molars finish coming in, we'll seal them too. They said all of their cavities are just on the chewing surface and not deep, but still!!!!!!!!! And they want to take action on Presley's teeth because they have to keep them in there for as long as possible due to the spacing issue later. Oh and Piper has to be sedated due to the fact that she won't allow them anywhere near her mouth and that anesthesiologist doesn't take insurance...that alone is $850!

Because my kids have cavities, I have felt like a failure for the last 24 hours. And I have been on a teeth brushing frenzy with my kids. Poor things have had theirs brushed after every meal and snack today.

Does anyone else have this problem??????

Oh Maggie Belle!!!!!!!!

Our Maggie Belle is such a spoiled girl! We took her to Pet Smart for a doggie outing and decided to get her nails cut and painted. A Doggie Spa day! I think she loved it! While Maggie was getting pampered, the girls picked her out a new hat and t-shirt to match. I think Maggie loved it too! She didn't even fight me putting it on her.


While we were at Pet Smart, we picked her a few more new toys.....she wasted no time ripping her chicken open! It took about 15 minutes and she had the head ripped open!



Oh Maggie Belle!!!!!!! We Love you!

Introducing The Next BIG Tennis Star!!!!!

Today was Presley's 1st day of tennis!

She had it all, the skirt, the top, the hat, the moves.....she totally rocked that court!

Best thing about her tennis class is that she actually LOVED it and wants to keep going back! I LOVE her competitive spirit, it makes her challenge herself all the time!

Piper isn't enrolled in the class, but she wanted to dress up like she was.

This was Piper's favorite part of tennis....drinking water from those little paper cones that would fall part on you and get your shirt all wet!

Presley taking control of the ball

Piper watched her big sister and gave it a try!

Piper being mischievous with another paper cone cup full of water

YAY!!!!!!!!!! She hit it!

It was a great morning at the courts!