Bunny Ears!

Presley has been desperately wanting to learn how to tie her shoes. In the last few weeks, she has been practicing making knots in everything!!! She knows how to even do a square knot. Anyways, this morning she runs out of my bedroom saying, " I need cloths on now. And socks and shoes. I know how to tie them now! I figured it out!" I think she was watching John get ready for work.

Anyways she comes out of her room dressed with her new mismatched socks and gets her new laces and starts with lacing her shoes. After that she tries tying them...it didn't go as planned for her. She has the patience of a Ragan...so she got frustrated real quick!

She asked for my help, so I put her in my lap and we started making bunny ears.

After about 20 minutes, she finally did it! She tied her first shoe all by herself! But it fell out...it wasn't tight enough.

We'll just have to continue our practice and have more patience! She got the determination so she'll conquer it pretty quickly.

Catching up on getting out...

This was the real first weekend that nobody in our household has not been since the beginning of the new year. So...we caught up on getting out! We went to the mall a couple of times, we ate Barbecue, Presley had a play date, and I got to catch up with friends!

FRIDAY, I took the girls to the mall during the day to get out of the house. Those two girls were all over the place! Understandably though....I tried to be as understanding as possible and not get on to them too terribly much. The had fun running around and being out of the house.

Here's Presley's looking all cute in the back seat.

And here they are having dinner...yep I said dinner. We went home for nap time and went back when John got home...he needed to look for a few things.

SATURDAY, Presley had an early morning play date with Cindel. Those two had lots of fun. They painted and did crafts with Valentine foam stickers and played with Cindel's toys. After the play date, we met John and Piper for some Barbecue and headed home to meet Xenia and Helena!

Juliet was surprisingly great around Helena, Xenia's baby girl. She pretty much immediately wanted to hug her and hold her. She kept patting her lap at Xenia telling her to put the baby in her lap. Xenia put Helena in the highchair and had a blanket on her lap and Juliet kept raising it up to look at her feet. She was sooo curious with the baby. She was really the 1st baby Juliet has seen up close.

Here's a picture of the three girls. I can't wait till a few years from now when they are having slumber parties! FUN FUN FUN!!!

For dinner, we invited our neighbors, Ivan and his son and nephew, over for hot dogs. It was a great dinner and the kids ate picnic style in the living room watching Robots and Scooby Doo while us adults had actual grown up talk!!!!!!!!!!!!

And SUNDAY! My car was an absolute mess with goldfish and pretzel crumbs all over. So we cleaned it out. It looks so clean inside now. Presley did most of the vacuuming. She was great too....she so small, she was really able to get to the spots I couldn't. How funny is that. Anyways, here's a few pics of her doing a great job!

After the car was clean and the car seats were back in the car, we headed to The Galleria. I needed to go to Williams & Sonoma for a new thermometer.

While I was in there shopping, John was walking with Juliet outside the store and he was looking at their windows. Take a really close look and see if you notice what the heart is made of....

I don't know how appropriate it is to have a heart of condoms like that in a mall. I am just glad Presley didn't ask what they were....she is way to young for that talk! If you look closely, you'll see one is missing. ?????

Welp, I hope you all had a wonderful & safe weekend!

Clean up, Clean up...everybody clean up!

Today was a great day. It started with a game of dominoes with Presley (The game was a little difficult, Juliet kept stealing our dominoes). Then we did some cleaning. We worked really really hard on the potty training thing with Juliet. It felt like she was on the potty half the day and only peed in it once. We had lots of accidents but she is learning that she really doesn't like the feel of wet panties. I think she likes to sit on the potty to read her books. And she refuses to use her small training potty. She wants to use the big girl toilet.

I got a lot done and the girls were a huge help.

They wanted to make some money for their banks so I let them help me with the housework.

Those two were so cute! They cleaned walls, baseboards, & vents.

Presley cleaned hers & Juliet's bathroom

And Piper tried cleaning her room.

Presley helped me do some folding.

And Juliet dusted the TV.

See, I told you. The were a HUGE help today. And they had fun and got along pretty well.

After all the cleaning, lunch, and naps we started dinner and they helped to prep the food and the table. Then we watched some TV and had a great evening.

G'pa turns the big 6-0!!!

This week we started our search for a new place to raise the kiddos. We visited Allen and McKinney so far. And they are just soooooo far away. Now, we are going to look more into Plano or Frisco. They both have really great schools. So now we are just researching neighborhoods, schools, & other stuff like that.

The day that we went to McKinney and Allen, the girls were understandably tired & grouchy from being in their car seats. So we stopped by the park and let them out. And they took off! We always keep park toys in the trunk. You never know what the weather is going to be like here. This time, the girls decided to play with their balls.

The park was fun. John and I enjoy watching them running and playing and laughing and smiling. It's great!

*

Saturday was my dad's 60th birthday! My mom invited us over for burgers and cake.

The girls had a ton of fun with all those pups. Piper wasn't sure of them at first. She want to hold one, then she didn't want to hold it. She eventually did hold one on her lap...but then another one would come over and try to climb on her and freak her out a little bit.

Here's the cake I made my dad. It's a Chocolate Fudge Truffle Strawberry Cake. It's so rich and yummy!

Here's the girls with their daddy watching Snow White.

Here's the puppy that was annoying Piper when she was trying to hold another one.

I have yet to figure out how John can manage to sleep through the loudness of my family. He was sleeping good too....snoring and all. I am so jealous! I am sure though that his tiredness is due in part to him still being sick.

We didn't dare to put 60 candles on his cake. Only six. My mom did however get out about 60. I think she was really expecting my dad to blow out 60 candles.

*

Sunday, or actually all Saturday night, Presley threw up all night long. She and I ended up sleeping on the couch surrounded by towels with her throw up bucket beside her on the floor. Her symptoms were really familiar: Bilateral abdomen pain, fever, vomiting, etc. So I got her first pee of the day and we took her to the Urgent Kid Care Center. Sure enough, she has another UTI, and she'll be on antibiotics for 10 days.

While John was in Target getting her meds, Piper was practicing driving and primping in the mirror...just like a girl!

And this morning, Presley is back to aggravating her sister. So I know that the medicine is helping her to feel better. And I think John is also feeling better this morning.

Welp, Presley is setting up a game of dominoes for us and Piper is giving her a hard time....she keeps taking a handful of dominoes and running. And of course Presley is yelling at her. So I better run before one of them get hurt.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Oh & I didn't hear any gun fire this weekend. :) YAY!

More of the Same.....

Well, last night I made my rounds around the house and checked the windows & doors, turned out the lights, shut of the TV, grabbed my phone, purse, keys, camera, chap stick and put it all on my nightstand. I shut my bedroom door and locked it (the girls were already all snug in my bed). And I went to my bathroom to brush my teeth and pee.

And then it happened....
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!!!!!!

There were eleven of them this time. I got my phone and called 911....again. They asked what my emergency was and I said, "More gunfire." and then she asked if I was in danger. My response is, " I have no idea! How am I suppose to know, I am at home alone with my two young daughters, I am scared, the shots sound like they are in back yard, my husband is in New Jersey, and this is the 2nd time this weekend that I have had to call 911 for the same thing. So, I am sorry, but I don't know if I am in danger." Her response, "Okay ma'am, I'll report it."

I am telling you, if I had somewhere to go over the weekend that I could trust to be safe & if I weren't so scared to of walked out to my car at night (now), I certainly would've have been there instead of here. I think I aged 10 years from being a worry wart as soon as the sun went down.

I finally fell asleep pretty late last night.

BUT I am feeling so much better today....but I still haven't lost focus of wanting to get out of our newly sucking (in the gunfire kind of way) neighborhood.

JOHN IS HOME! And the poor thing came off the plane looking so tired and sick. He's been trying to kick a sinus chest thing since the end of the year and can't get over it. I called the doctor and asked the nurse to call in some meds for him.

The girls had fun at the airport. Touching everything and running all over the place and eating snacks out of the vending machine.

I am so glad John is home. He was missed a bunches by me and the girls.

Girls eating vanilla cookies from the vending machines. That was a treat for them. Piper kept saying, "more, more, more." She thought it was pretty cool how things fell from the vending machine isle thingy.


See....touching everything!

YAY!!!! The moment we've been waiting for all weekend!!!

Tonight, John and I spent about an hour on the computer looking at houses.
The search is on!
***
Oh, I nearly forgot a cute story about Presley over the weekend.
Well, she has still been on her schedule so she goes to bed early and has been waking up about 630 everyday this weekend. And I have been too nervous to go to bed on time, so I stay awake until I can no longer hold my eyes open. Well, yesterday...Sunday morning, she was already playing dress up by 730 AM. And she brought me this Bell tattoo to put on her. I told her no and to wait until at least 8 and let me sleep for 30 more minutes.

When she got up at 630, so did Piper, so I moved to Presley's room to continue my sleep.

Anyways, I fell back asleep...it was a weird sleep. Like I was asleep, but since I knew I needed to supervise the girls, I wasn't in a deep sleep...make since? And don't worry about the girls not eating......Presley knows when to go into auto pilot and I tell her the night before that if she gets up before me then she is allowed to have a yogurt until I cook breakfast.

I wake up with Presley standing in the doorway almost in tears begging for my forgiveness. I was so tired, I couldn't even speak, so I just stared at her. Which made her beg harder for my forgiveness. I had an idea what she had done. So I asked her what was wrong with her arm and she wouldn't show it to me. She came closer and told me to forgive her first. And I asked what I was forgiving. She so did not want me to see that arm. Anyways, she finally held it out but didn't show the part that she thought needed to be forgiven. I told her to turn her arm over.

She had put the tattoo on herself. It was upside down and diagonal...kinda not all there...poor Bell was missing an eye and some hair.

Presley then started to beg me to take it off. I told her no. She made a big girl decision to get a tattoo without input from an adult (and w/o seeking professional help a.k.a MOMMY) so she needed to live with it for the day.

When that was all going on, I was picturing her as a teen that just came home from being with all her friends taking turns to get a ridiculous tattoo.

I told John that if that ever really happened, I'd make her get a job to pay for the removal of that tattoo.

It's Been A Loooong Girls Weekend

We took John to the airport on Friday. He had to fly to New Jersey to do some work for a few days. And boy oh boy......it's been a long weekend. The girls and I miss him bunches! I think Juliet is trying to figure out how to ask where he is......she has gone to the frig a few times today taking his picture off of it and carried it around saying "daddy, daddy". So I think that is a sure sign that she misses him.

With John being out of town, I have caught up on a few chick flicks when the girls went down to bed. I watched "Wedding Daze" (it was crappy), "27 dresses", and "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2".

Friday night I had a heart palpitating scare! After my chick flick, I heard about 20 gunshots over a span of 15 minutes. I was terrified! They sounded like they came from my backyard! I shut off the lights, checked on the girls, locked up the house, called 911, called John (at 1 a.m. New Jersey time) and couldn't fall asleep until 3 a.m.. That isn't the norm for this neighborhood. Scary. Anyways, that was just the lil push I needed to get motivated again to get the house up on the market. I was googling houses for sale the next day.

Saturday, Juliet and I were watching cooking shows on PBS and I swear I felt like I was in a Max & Ruby cartoon. She would look at me and point to the TV and say "Hot". She did that every few minutes for about 30 minutes. Then she'd go to the stove and touch it and say "Hot". It was pretty funny.

And over the weekend the girls stuffed bears. Those bears haven't left the girls sight since they've made them. They love those things!

Sunday, we went to the park, went to Walmart, and had dinner at Los Lupes. YUM!

Here's some pics from our weekend.

Bear time!

Park pictures

We went on short hikes on the trails and the girls enjoyed a snack.

I have no idea what Juliet was doing when I took this picture. It's funny though, what ever she is doing.

Juliet is posing. :)

Juliet cannot help herself. She can't resist digging in the dirt and rocks.

And Presley led us on a little adventure.

We were hunting for walking sticks. Piper kept trying to pull up tree roots and would get so mad when they wouldn't come up.

Presley was our hiking leader and kept turning around telling Piper to quit being so slow.

Yum! Valentine heart snack time! I felt bad they didn't get to go to Ryley's party.

I love it when they are sweet to one another!

Those eyes are still BLUE!!!! YAY!!!

Here's the smile that get almost anything.

Here is Presley trying to tickle Juliet's neck and aggravating her.

Juliet telling on Presley, showing me what she did to her...

And tonight, I peaked in on the girls playing. Their new games is "mommy & baby". Presley is the mommy and Juliet is the baby. When I peaked in on them, Presley was warming up a bottle in their kitchen, then she checked it on her wrist to make sure it wasn't hot, then she shoved it in Piper's mouth.

For a bed time snack, he girls wanted some strawberries. Here's a crazy one that was in the pack. It's a crazy Siamese strawberry.

I am SOOO HAPPY tomorrow is Monday and we get to go pick up John from the airport! Very excited!