Summerlin Stories

Sweet Sissies

2011-07-07T19:58:00.000-07:00

The girls are so sweet together most of the time. Tessa hates it when Lyla is taking a nap and she always asks me when can we get Lyla up. They play well together most of the time, but it's always best if I'm in the room to prevent any fights over toy snatching. Tessa is really good at playing with the toy that Lyla wants and Lyla is really goood at wanting to play with whatever Tessa has:) My hope is that one day they will be best friends just like my sister and I are...

Last day of preschool...

2011-07-07T19:49:00.001-07:00

Tessa's last day of Preschool was a little over a month ago. She had such sweet teachers again this year... Tessa loved both Ms. Tonya and Ms. Belinda. Here are some pictures of her class as well as Tessa with her teachers on the last day of school. Tessa had some really sweet friends in her class... Parker, Hannah, Hadley, Braden, Greg, Macie, Izzy, Elle, and Katie to name a few. We will miss FBC Jenks preshool... Tessa will be in pre-k at Jenks next year and so this was a sad day for mommy to be closing this chapter of her life.

Cool Tricks

2011-07-07T19:46:00.000-07:00

Tessa always uses the term cool tricks... she got it from watching yo gabba gabba...they always say cool tricks cool tricks... Well this is Lyla's cool trick:) I had to document it because it's so funny and she does it all the time. She even cracks herself up:)

How do I have a 4 year old?

2011-07-07T19:12:00.001-07:00

Tessa turned four on June 27th. Her birthday fell on a Monday so we decided to celebrate as a family over the weekend. She had a fun birthday weekend filled with a trip to dixie cream donuts, swimming, sunday school, splash park fun, and of course lots of cards and gifts from family. She got her new favorite toy, Princess Celestia from Mimi and PaPa as well as some new princess barbies, mermaids, dress up clothes, and zooble toys. She had her birthday party at Tulsa World of Gymnastics. We had never been there, but had heard it was a fun location for a party. Tessa had fun except for a couple of outbursts from little injuries and her candle getting blown out by a friend:) Typical Tessa....gotta love her! On a side note....sometimes I get so stressed out with how emotional my child is, but I've just decided that I need to accept her for who she is and work with her on it as best as I can. ...it's not easy, but we're getting there:) All in all the party was fun and Tessa had lots of sweet friends come....Reagan, Olivia, Emma, Jackson, Hadley, Christian, Hannah, Braden, Kaeden, Addison, Brynlee, Lyla, and Parker were able to come. She got lots of neat new gifts ...lots of barbie stuff, princess toys, lipsticks, a purse, a tinkerbell toy, a new cash register, a stamp set, a game, a zhu zhu pet, and some squinkies... Tessa has been playing so much with all of her new things.... I love it!

Happy Birthday, to my sweet Tessa Claire! You have blessed my life for the past 4 years and I don't know what I would ever do without you. You are sweet, quirky, totally random at times, full of energy, fun loving, and such a huge blessing to your mommy and daddy. You love to swim, play games, watch my little pony, play princess, sing songs, dress up, cook, go to the splash park, play hide and seek, chase, be tickled, play kissee kissee, do art, watch leap, talk super loud so you're sure that we hear you, do gymnastics, and eat "banilla" ice cream. Your favorite foods are peanut butter sandwiches, butella (nutella) sandwiches, tomatoes, carrots, apples, strawberries, any kind of candy, and ice cream. You learned how to write all of your letters last year in pre-school and are starting to recognize and sound out some words...you even counted with mommy to 100 the other day (with a tiny bit of help:) Mommy and Daddy couldn't be more proud of the little girl that you are and can't wait to see what God has in store for your life:) We love you!

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

2011-06-20T05:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day to the greatest daddy! Our little girls are so blessed and love their daddy SO much. Both girls light up every time they hear the door lock click each evening when daddy comes home. They both say Daddy or Da Da as they get to the door as quickly as they can. Daddy plays so many fun games with them... kissy kissy; hide and seek; peek a boo; house; restaurant... Daddy lets them have lots of foods that Mommy tends not to like powdered donuts, chips, candy, coke, and crackers for breakfast. Daddy loves his girls and is such a hard working daddy so that mommy is able to stay home with the girls each day. We love Daddy with all our heart and don't know what we would do without him! Happy Father's Day:)

Princess Camp

2011-06-18T18:42:00.000-07:00

Tessa just finished up one week of princess camp. Olivia, Hadley, Reagan, and Halle from her dance class as well as a couple of Tessa's friends from church, Elle and Payton, were in her group. I was a little worried Tessa wouldn't love it because she was really ready for tap and ballet to be over last spring. I signed her up hoping she would want to go and I am SO glad I did! She had a total blast and couldn't quit talking about it all week. Each day they dressed up in princess dresses and a fun filled couple of hours playing dress up, doing dances, making princess crafts, and reading stories. On Friday they had a tea party with a "real" princess... at least the little girls thought so:) Tessa asked me everyday "Is today the day with the princess?" She couldn't wait for Friday to come! Belle was the princess that came to their tea party. She answered all kinds of questions that the girls asked, she read them a cute story, and sang them a pretty song. Tessa was a little star struck and was nervous to get near her. All in all it was a great time and now I have a little girl slightly obsessed with princesses!

Lyla's words at 14 months and more...

2011-06-17T18:16:00.000-07:00

2 of her favorite blankies

one of Lyla's cool tricks as Tessa calls them

mama, dada, papa, no no, mimi, nana...

ball~ means ball or balloon (she's quite obsessed with these!)

je~ yes

ul-la~lyla

melmo~elmo
na na ~ I want
babble~ apple
nana~ banana
gank ye~ thank you
oh oh~ uh oh
yeez~ cheeze
deta~ Tessa

She recognizes a whole lot of other words, but as for saying them this is all I can think of for now....I'm sure there are others that I forgot...I will add them on when I hear her say them. Her most used is Na Na.... she constantly is wanting something and she points to it saying na na:) Lyla's favorite thing to do is mwa...give kisses... She always leans in and makes the mwa sound... it's the cutes thing ever! She also adores her three crochet blankies. She has to have at least one with her most all of the time and she sleeps with all three... they are her babies!

Lyla's walking!!

2011-06-17T17:58:00.001-07:00

Lyla took her first steps at 12 1/2 months. I thought for sure at that time, she would be walking within the next couple of weeks. It wasn't just one or two steps... we have on video 12 steps in a row. The next day, she was right back to crawling. Then she adapted to a new form of crawl... Scooting like a monkey became her crawl. She realized she could get around pretty quickly that way and so she spent the next 2 months scooting everywhere like a monkey. During our trip to San Antonio, she really started to try her luck at walking again and the day after we got home she was officially walking! At 14 1/2 months old Lyla walks! She is such a cute walker...so tiny and petite. She almost always has one of her 3 blankies in her hand when she cruises around the house... She LOVES her crochet blankies to pieces, but that's a whole other story!!

trip to san antonio!

2011-06-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

It had been SO long since our last trip to San Antonio. Lyla has never been the greatest traveler and so that was our excuse. Finally we decided to break down and go. We chose to fly over driving because a 9 hour car trip with Lyla would have been a disaster! Flying was ok the first leg, but the second resulted in a major meltdown during take off and there wasn't much I could do because I had to stay in my seat. Lyla prefers to be held standing up, but that just wasn't an option. She screamed for about 10 minutes and then we were able to turn baby einstein on and she was fine. Tessa did great and can't wait to fly again in July!

We did so many fun things in San Antonio. We got to spend a lot of quality time with Noni and Poppa and Mimi and Pa Pa. The girls loved getting to spend so much time with them :) We spent Memorial Day at the pool which was fun to get see a lot of family friends. We also went to Kiddie park which I used to go to when I was little. Tessa had a blast riding all of the rides. Lyla only got to ride the carousel, but had fun digging in the dirt... she was filthy when we left! Josh and I got to go on a yummy date to Paesano's and shopping at La Cantera and Tessa got to go to her second cousin Abby's birthday party.

Aside from seeing family, our favorite was probably Sea World...we totally loved it! Lyla spent the day with Mimi and so just the three of us went. They have an awesome new sesame street kid's area with lots of neat rides and a great big splash park/playground. All of the shows were really fun too! One of our favorite parts was petting the dolphins. They came really close to us and one even spit water in Tessa's face! The sea lions were really funny to watch too and Tessa loved watching Daddy feed the birds! Sea World was a lot of fun and we can't wait to go back!

We had such a fun family trip home and we can't wait for our next trip home!!

Ballet Recital

2011-06-16T19:41:00.000-07:00

For the past year Tessa has taken tap and ballet. She met a lot of sweet friends in her class, a lot of which she will be at Jenks West with. Her ballet recital was so cute.. There was a girl standing on her number in the first performance so they were a little crunched, luckily she didn't freak out and tell the girl to move! She danced well and did a lot more of the moves than I thought she would. She was so excited to wear her pretty costume and she truly felt like the best ballerina that day... it was so cute:) The best part for Tessa was the trophy she got at the end... She was so proud of herself and we were too:)!

Mother's Day Tea

2011-06-16T19:31:00.000-07:00

Tessa had a Mother's Day Tea at her school. She had been singing these sweet songs for me for the past couple of weeks. Tessa loves to sing and she was so excited about her big performance! this is o one of them... (to the tune of twinkle twinkle little star) sometimes mom says don't do this, Sometimes mom says don't do that, still she loves me that I know, why b/c she tells me so, sometimes mom says let's do this, sometimes mom says kiss kiss! Her performance was classic Tessa... and Parker too:) Tessa was so into her singing that she didn't realize she lifted her dress up all the way... thank you to Christy who was sitting right near her for pulling it down! Parker wasn't feeling well and Kara and I laughed so hard at the faces he was making through the entire performance. My video was so shakey because I was laughing so hard. Tessa did such a great job and she was so cute! It was such a sweet Mother's Day gift:)

Lyla's first birthday!

2011-06-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

Lyla had a fun filled birthday week... we started off with Jack, Trevor, and Drew coming for a visit with Aunt Sissy and Nana. We had a fun, but crazy week! Lyla had her party on her actual birthday, March 17th. We had lots of friends over and celebrated Lyla's big day. She really had no clue what was going on, but she did enjoy her cake:)! She didn't get quite as into as Tessa, but she definitely liked it! Lyla is such a smiley baby. She loves to be held and is not very independent. It makes it difficult at times, but I know she won't depend on me for long so I try to cherish this time. She loves her milk and LOVES to be outside! She isn't walking yet, but it doesn't seem like it will be long because she has taken some steps....( little do I know:)!) She hates to be told no... she gives you a really sad face and then cries 5 seconds later. Her favorite word is Da da, but she also says ma ma and ball. She is obsessed with baby einstein and animals. She is my precious baby girl and I can't imagine the last year without her! Happy first birthday sweet girl:)

It's been a while....

2011-03-08T13:20:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since my last post..... In the last couple of months we have been up to our same old stuff. We had a couple of weeks at home due to a blizzard that hit Tulsa followed by more snow the next week. This Texas girl isn't used to the weather here just yet! We had so much snow this winter!!! Tessa loved it.... WEll at least for the first few days. She played in it quite a bit making snowmen, snow angels...we even made snow ice cream, snow cupcakes and snow castles. After 2 weeks of no pre-school, she was ready to go back and I was ready to take her! She got a little bit bored being home and not able to interact with her friends. I was running out of things to do for entertainment...so it was good for both of us!

Besides the weather excitement, Lyla is getting to be such a big girl! I can't believe my baby will be one in a week!!! This year has flown by....so much faster than Tessa's first year. Lyla is now 11 1/2 months and she is eating mostly solid foods and some baby food. Her favorite food is corn and of course the unhealthy things that Josh slips her on occasion. She loves to be held and played with... She really isn't very independent yet. She hates going to the nursery at church. It's gotten to the point where we just walk into the church building and she starts to cry. It makes me sad, but I know if I give in, she's never going to get used to being dropped off. She is a smiler and it melts my heart each time. Her favorite toy is her ball popper and she gets very vocal each time it starts up... She does her knee bounce and waves her arms in a circle... It's adorable! The cutest new thing she is up to is shaking her head yes. Whenever she's eating we say "is it yummy" and she smiles and nods and sometimes says "ya." We also ask her other questions like are you pretty, do you love mommy..... and it's so cute to watch her nod and smile. Her first word other than momma and dada was ball. She's still not getting close to walking. She has done everything else ahead of Tessa's timeline, but I don't think walking is going to be one of them. Tessa walked right at 13 months and I don't see Lyla getting there in the next month. My hope is by summer she'll be walking so it will be easier to play outside! Lyla is still a very petite baby. She's long, but really thin. I'm not sure if she will hit 20 lbs. by a year....it'll be close. She's off of bottles. A week ago, I never thought I would be saying this, but she's drinking all of her milk now out of a sippy cup! We have been trying to get this down for a while now, and momma has been frustrated! It finally clicked:) Lyla is such a joy and reminds me each day to slow down and enjoy each one because it goes by so fast!

As for Tessa, she's really doing well. She's totally given up naps this winter and has started going to bed around 7:00-7:30 and waking up around 6:30 in the morning. She is such a helper with Lyla always willing to play with her when I need to get something done. They really are so sweet together most of the time. Tessa loves school and is doing really well. Her teachers tell me she's very social, but also a good listener most of the time and doing great with all of the letter activities they are working on. About a month ago, I was stressing out because Tessa refused to let me work with her on writing letters. After some advice from friends, I decided to wait thinking she was just not ready yet. Over the past couple of weeks, she has really taken an interest and writes on her dry erase letter board several times a day. She now can write most of her letters on paper, but is having trouble with s, z, m, and n. What a difference a month makes! Tessa will be 4 at the end of June and so we enrolled her in pre-k at Jenks West for next year as well as at the church just in case. We're hoping she gets into the grace living center pre-k program at a local nursing home. If not, I'm not sure what we're going to do. Tessa's favorite new activity is puzzles. She spends at least 45 minutes a day working on her puzzles and she's getting really good at them! I love it because it's using her mind and playing independently at the same time so I'm able to get some things done! Tessa has come a long way in the last year. She has become such a sweet girl.. She is always giving kisses and saying I love you. She says the sweetest prayers and sings so sweetly. She is very interested in right and wrong and wants to do things right to please Jesus. It's so neat to see her growing up. I just love her so much!

Tutu Crawl

2011-01-22T18:34:00.000-08:00

Lyla had on her new birthday party tutu for fun a few days back and I took some pictures of her crawling around it.. They were too cute not to post:)

Wrestling

2011-01-22T17:50:00.000-08:00

Lyla loves to play in Tessa's bed. Tonight before bed, the girls were so cute... we read stories and then they wrestled. Tessa pulled Lyla every which way and Lyla just smiled and laughed the whole time. ...Forgive Lyla's santa jammies. All of her others were in the laundry room:)

New backpacks...

2011-01-22T17:37:00.000-08:00

We got the girls new backpacks... Tessa loved hers... Lyla, not so much:)

Lyla is 10 months!

2011-01-22T13:28:00.000-08:00

I can't believe my baby is getting so big! She's eating less and less baby food every day...she loves eating her yogurt with fruit, whole corn, black beans, peas, cheese, spaghetti, broccoli, and goldfish. I'm trying to give her more and more whole foods each week. I've made a point to not give her any sweets until her first birthday cake, but yesterday I caught Josh in the kitchen holding her while eating an oreo. She was staring at it so of course, Josh slipped her a bite... let's just say she loved it. Her eyes lit up and she looked at it like give me more! I was less than thrilled, but in his defense, it was only a tiny piece:)

She is typically a very happy baby...she loves playing in her room and Tessa's room. Her favorite toy is the busy ball popper and her favorite book is touch and feel farm animals. She lights up and laughs every time we read that book. Lyla is really clapping a lot these days. Every time she eats she claps and any time she hears music, she starts clapping too. She is an animal lover! She loves Ellie, our cat, to pieces...and when we go to the target toy section she loves looking and laughing at the "Fur Real" animals...they make noises and move... Lyla is still pretty petite, but pretty much true to size...not too big or too small. She is a good sleeper...typically sleeping from 7 pm to 7:15 am and taking 2 hour and a half, sometimes longer, naps each day. Some of her favorites.... mommy, the outdoors, playing on the bed, the weebles treehouse, her singing stage and piano, baby einstein and praise baby, animals, balls, and taking baths with Tessa. She is still pretty good about not getting into things she isn't supposed to although I have caught her pulling up on the toilet seat a couple of times. Eww...guess we're going to need to work on keeping that door closed!

All in all, she's a precious baby and we're enjoying seeing all of her firsts. It kind of makes me sad that this is most likely the last "firsts" I will see. We love you, little Lyla....you make our family complete!

Snow Day!

2011-01-22T13:11:00.000-08:00

Thursday morning we woke up to about 2.5 inches of snow. Tessa looked out her window as soon as she woke up and said "We got the BIG snow!" Immediately she was putting leggings, jeans, 2 pairs of socks, a shirt, a sweatshirt, a coat, mittens, her hat, and her boots...oh and her big coat. Even with a windchill of -1 degree, she was ready! We played for about 40 minutes in the front yard....just running around and making snow angels. The snow was too powdery for snowballs or a snowman. Then we came in and got warmed up and later in the morning went back out for some more fun in the backyard. Lyla joined us this time... She had been fussing all day and as soon as we went outside in the snow, she was happy....that girl loves the outdoors!

No fun!

2011-01-22T13:03:00.000-08:00

"Why did you put me down, Mommy?"

Poor Lyla has had a time of it the last few days:( She has not want to be put down at all and her lack of napping hasn't helped at all! At MOPS Wednesday they came and got me because she had developed a low grade fever. She had no signs of any sickness so I wasn't sure what was going on. The next two days were really rough on poor Lyla, but still no real signs of sickness. Finally, Friday night we noticed a big bulge in her top gum and so now we know the reason behind all of this... Her tooth is really giving her trouble! This morning we woke up and noticed the same thing on her bottom gum. 2 teeth at once = pathetic, sad, sleepy Lyla! I can't wait for her to feel better and so I can have my happy baby back!

Lyla at 9 months...

2010-12-30T11:38:00.000-08:00

Lyla loves to share snacks with you!

Lyla had her 9 month check up last week. Her stats are 86% head circumference, 56% length, and 24% weight. Tessa was a much bigger baby. She always was off the charts for her head, her length was always above 95%, and her weight was always in the 80th %.

Lyla is crawling all over the place, but not really getting into things she's not supposed to. She is definitely very manageable and stays in one area at a time. She always like to stay nearby Mommy. She is also pulling up, but not really starting to cruise around just yet. I'm not ready for her to walk yet, so I am not encouraging it at all. She loves to play with Tessa and be in the playroom. Her favorite toys are her activity table and these squeaky blocks. She got a new baby kitchen for Christmas and she has a lot of fun with that as well.

She isn't the greatest eater. It's really hard to feed her baby food at times....she is a total wiggler. I know because Nana always loves to feed her grand babies their baby food and she never volunteers to feed Lyla when we're together:) I had to sell our old high chair and get a new one because she had already learned to stand up in hers. When she does eat, her favorite foods are yogurt with fruit, apples and chicken, and carrots.

She's such a sweet baby most of the time...very smiley and happy...but she is already starting to develop a bit of an attitude. We might be in trouble! She already screams when you take things away from her...does it happen this early?!?

She's a great sleeper most of the time. She sleeps 12 hours at night and takes 2 naps totalling 3-4 hours during the day.

Lyla seems to be somewhat quiet. She still saying ma, da, ba, and other syllables as well as an occasional squeal, but doesn't seem to talk all that much. Her newest thing is to sit on her knees and jump up and down swinging her arms in circles. It's so cute!

Lyla, we couldn't our lives without you. You are so precious and so much fun to watch grow up and discover the world around you.

My little shopper

2010-12-29T19:45:00.000-08:00

Last time we went down to Texas, my Mom and I were heading out to go to a couple of stores and so we gave Tessa the option of either going with us or going over to her cousin's house to play. She loves playing with Jack, so we thought for sure she would choose Jack's house. We were wrong...she chose shopping. We went to Charming Charlies and Tessa had so much fun trying on all the jewelry and then we went to Ulta and she tried out all of the different lotions. She had a lot of fun. She is definitely going to be our little shopper as she gets older... we might be in trouble!

Our Gingerbread House

2010-12-29T19:00:00.000-08:00

Tessa and I had a lot of fun making her gingerbread house this year.... It seemed like Tessa ate more candy than she put on the house!

Santa Visit 2010

2010-12-29T18:51:00.001-08:00

Santa Jammies from Nana

On the way to see Santa.... long day for Tessa!

no smiles or cries....

We planned a family outing to see Santa Clause at Utica Square skeptical of what might happen. The only year Tessa has sat on Santa's lap was an infant at 5 months old. Lyla has a bit of separation anxiety at times, so we weren't sure about her either. Tessa was psyched up and told me that she would stand by him and tell him what she wanted, but she didn't want to sit on his lap. When we got there, she didn't want to get anywhere close so we sat Lyla on his lap, snapped a few pictures, and left.

Christmas in Tulsa

2010-12-29T17:58:00.000-08:00

We spent Christmas in our home for the first time in our 7 years of marriage. It was such a relaxing day and so much fun to watch the girls light up with each surprise! The girls woke up around 9 and came out to see what Santa had left. Their stockings were full. Tessa most liked her Hello Kitty chapsticks and her sparkly necklace. Lyla loved all of her new pacis and rattles. Santa also left the girls an outdoor playhouse and a scooter for Tessa...Tessa has been cruising around the house for days on that scooter...Santa did good!

Next came blueberry muffins and celebrating Jesus birth. After breakfast we opened up the rest of our gifts. Tessa got a leapster and games from Mimi and PaPa and Lyla got a cute laugh and learn kitchen. The girls got all kinds of other neat things... A piano, trios, dress up magnet dolls, princess toys, a strawberry shortcake house, a phone, peek a blocks, make your own cake, blocks, lots of veggie tales and other disney movies, puzzles and probably more... I just can't remember. We didn't really give Lyla as much as Tessa because she is able to play with all of Tessa's old toys. It might be the only year that we are able to get away with that. I feel like our house is being taken over with toys... We had a great Christmas morning!

Next came nap time for Lyla and play time for Tessa. For Christmas dinner we roasted a chicken and had a potato casserole, salad, and bread to go with it. Josh is not into traditional holiday food, so we did our own thing:) By the end of the day we were all exhausted and stuffed! It was a fun day with our family of four!

Christmas in Texas

2010-12-29T17:51:00.001-08:00

( Horrible picture of me, but the only one we got as a family)

Lyla loving on Nana and Sasha

Tessa and Lyla with their great Grandma

Jack and Tessa with Poppa

/ Where's Trevor?

All year long we planned to make a trip to San Antonio for Christmas. The closer it got, the more we realized what a hard trip that was going to be for the girls, (and us.) Lyla is right up there with the worst ever traveler! We decided to meet dad half way in Dallas and celebrate there and that we would see Mimi and Papa another time. Our first night we did Christmas with Mom, John, and my grandparents. Tessa and Lyla got a mermaid pony castle, legos, a learning laptop, color wonder, a couple of movies, a pbk chair, and a busy ball popper. The next night we met up with Dad at Stacy's house. Jack gave Tessa a writing toy and Poppa got the girls a da do ta doo, books, a cash register, a baby doll, and college $ for their college funds. We had a fun visit! We went to Costco, the mall, the park, and did lots of playing at Sissy's house.

Tessa's Ballet

2010-12-29T17:45:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post a few pictures of Tessa the day she had her Ballet open house. She may not be the best ballerina, but she is definitely the cutest in my book:)! When I ask her if she likes ballet, she says she likes to watch her friends. I don't really think she is learning all that much, but when I ask her if she wants to stop ballet lessons and try another activity, she says no. She really does have fun and has made some really cute friends in her class! I think we'll finish the school year out and they we will try another activity out next year.

Tessa's firt movie!

2010-12-09T18:22:00.000-08:00

Tessa and I went to see her very first movie at the theater. I've been wanting to take her for a long time, but I wasn't sure she was ready for it yet. We went with our friends, Niki and Olivia. We brought lots of snacks so that if nothing else, at least she would have something to keep her occupied. We saw the movie Tangled in 3D. Tessa only wore the glasses for about 45 minutes so she didn't get the full effect, but you could still see everything without the glasses on. It was such a good movie. I think Niki and I liked it better than our girls did:) Tessa did pretty well overall. She asked to watch Mickey Mouse in the middle of it and sat on my lap for a little while, but other than that, I think she followed it pretty well and enjoyed it. I will definitely be taking her to more movies...It was a good excuse for me to get to go to the theater and I got to go with my favorite little girl!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-09T18:05:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving we headed down to Grand Prairie and stayed at Nana and Poppy's house. We had a fun time! As always, Mom does Thanksgiving up really big and fancy. Everything has to be just perfect! Stacy and I are wondering who is going to take over one day. We've both been spoiled and not had to do hardly anything to prepare for any holiday meals... Thanksgiving Day, Grandma and Grandpa, My aunt and uncle, cousins Mike and Chris with his wife and 2 little girls, and Stacy, Russell, and the boys came over. We had a full house!

My favorite part of our trip was Black Friday shopping with my mom and sister. We set our alarms for 2:45, but my mom was up at 1 in anticipation and I was up at 2 shopping on Amazon and walmart.com. We left the house at 3:15 and headed to wait in line at Target for the 4 am opening. I got a few toys for Tessa, a stick vac, some dvd's, and a camera. Next stop was Toys r us and then off to Macy's and Gap. We were home and ready to crawl back into bed by 7 am. Luckily Josh agreed to take the girls over to hang out with Russell and the boys so that I could get some rest....I needed it!

Family Pictures

2010-11-22T07:12:00.000-08:00

Our friend, Candice, did our family pictures at Woodward Park and Utica Square. Woodward is a beautiful park and the trees were colored perfect for fall and Utica Square is Josh and my favorite place to go to walk around and shop. It was a bit challenging to get good pictures between a newborn and a a preschooler. The girls smile great when we're behind the camera making faces and noises, but it's hard when we are in the pictures. All in all, I think they turned out really well!

Halloween

2010-11-13T19:49:00.001-08:00

Tessa making silly poses

Hudson, Chandler, Max, Parker, Lyla, and Tessa

For Halloween this year, Tessa and I made halloween pumpkin cookies. We rolled out sugar cookie dough and then iced them with orange frosting and halloween sprinkles. That night, Tessa dressed up as a fairy and Lyla was a little pumpkin. We went trick r' treating with the Sezates and the Studdards around our neighborhood. We made it to about 25 houses and then Tessa was ready to go home. She really enjoyed it, but I think she was tired from our long weekend of being out of town. She got lots of yummy candy and was very sweet to share it with mommy!

Silver Dollar City

2010-11-13T19:30:00.000-08:00

We took a family trip to Branson just like we have done for the past 3 years. We decided this year that Tessa was probably old enough to enjoy Silver Dollar City. We went on Friday morning and it was SO cold! We were pretty bundled up, but didn't even warm up until mid afternoon. It was a fun day. Tessa's favorite part was the big ball area where you can shoot balls through these mechanical contraptions and push balls up a levee. She could have spent all day in that area. We also rode a few rides. The tea cups and the elephants, she liked. The roller coaster and the boats, she was not as fond of. Those were the only 4 rides really for her age group. Lyla did well and stayed in the stroller trying to keep warm most of the day. The rest of our trip was fun. We went to the outlet malls, got to hang out with my grandparents one of the days, and ate out a lot. It was a nice getaway!

Pumpkin Patch

2010-11-13T19:13:00.001-08:00

PaPa and Tessa riding the camel together

Mimi and PaPa were in town and went to Carmichael's with us

Nana and Tessa at Pumkintown

I think our favorite thing to do as a family each year is to visit the pumpkin patch during the fall. Tessa has so much fun running around, we get great pictures, and it's so nice to be out with the weather getting cooler! This year we went to both Pumpkintown and Carmichael's. We have always visited Pumpkintown and Tessa really likes playing in all of th playhouses, sliding on the slide, and riding the ponies. At Carmichael's she climbed on pumpkins, went through a maze, fed a lot of farm animals, rode the ponies, and even rode on a camel with PaPa. We had a lot of fun at both and can't wait until next year to watch Lyla run around and play too!

Jenks Dance Homecoming Parade

2010-11-13T19:10:00.000-08:00

Tessa and I got to ride in the homecoming parade for Jenks High School this year with her dance class. She had fun getting to wave and blow bubbles to the crowd:)

New Milestones!

2010-11-13T18:45:00.000-08:00

One of many hugs from Tessa

Lyla loves to smle!

Playing with Tessa's big girl toys

Starting to sit really well

Lyla is growing WAY too fast! She has hit several milestones in the past couple of months. She is a bit ahead of Tessa on most things so far. Lyla started sitting at five months....Tessa at six. Lyla started crawling at 7 months....Tessa at 8. Lyla really didn't ever rock or crawl backwards like Tessa did. She just started crawling right when she was able to get up on all fours. She had a couple of weeks with some falls, but by 7 months, she was crawling all over the place and she's getting faster everyday. It's so cute to see her following behind me and peeking her head around the kitchen cabinets to see what I'm up to:)

Around 7 months she first said MaMa, but once she learned Da about a week later, all I hear is Da Da Da Da. I think she's forgotten she knows how to say Ma. I try to practice with her, but she just smiles and says Da:)

The last major thing that has happened are Lyla's two bottom teeth. She first started getting them right at 7 months....Tessa didn't get her first tooth until 11 months. They didn't really cause Lyla any troubles which is good....just more drool, but we're used to that!

Now, Lyla is almost 8 months old and is such a sweet baby. She takes 2 good naps a day and usually goes to bed around 7 and wakes up around 7:30 with a couple of cries in between. She loves to play with Tessa and watch her Praise Baby DVD's!

Lyla's favorite snack

2010-09-22T11:29:00.000-07:00

Lyla's new favorite snack is her baby mum mum. She just loves sitting in her high chair while we eat snacking on her mum mum. It dissolves in her mouth as she sucks on it like a puff. She's also loving her new high chair!

Tessa, my Tinkerbell

2010-09-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

Tessa got a special surprise after school today! She loves Tinkerbell and so I thought she would like to have the new movie, Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure. We had fun watching it together. She requested popcorn and plums and to be dressed up as a princess so that's just what we did:)!

My Little Cook

2010-09-21T14:53:00.000-07:00

Tessa has become quite the little helper in the kitchen. She loves to help make cookies, dinner, and even help wash dishes. Hopefully she'll still like to do the dishes in a few years when she can really help me out!

Bed Time Story

2010-09-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

Tessa's bed time routine involves brushing her teeth,...which she is so much better at than she used to be!...story time, prayers, and kisses.

Lyla at 5 months...

2010-09-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

Lyla is growing up so fast! In her fifth month, Lyla learned how to sit on her own. She's a little bit wobbly, but it won't be long and she will be able to sit up and play for long periods of time. She still loves to be on her tummy. It's almost impossible to change her diaper. The moment I lay her down on her back, she's already trying to roll over onto her tummy. Same thing in the bouncy chair...this baby HAS to be strapped in or she's out on the floor in a matter of two seconds. I think she is going to be active like her daddy!

She is still sleeping really well. A lot of mornings I don't even know when she wakes up. I go in there to check on her thinking she's still asleep, but she's in there just talking to her paci. She is such a sweet baby and loves to smile and laugh!

She has really gotten good at eating her baby food. She usually has rice cereal with applesauce and bananas for breakfast; a vegetable puree for lunch and another one for dinner. I've started making homemade baby food. It's so easy and I just make extra to freeze in ice cube trays for later. So far I've made sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, potatoes, butternut squash, pears, pineapple, and bananas. I just mix it with a little bit of pumped milk and blend it up. She loves it so much I'm having to make sure she's still getting enough milk too.

We love our baby Lyla! She's cute as can be and it's so fun to watch her grow up and learn new things.

Tessa's first day of school

2010-09-16T08:58:00.001-07:00

This is Tessa's second year to go to our church's preschool. She absolutely LOVES school! She has two new teachers this year...Ms. Tonya and Ms. Belinda. They both seem really sweet and I know it's going to be a great year! Tessa is the youngest child in her class, but you would never know it. She's a busy bee...loves to play and has always been ready to learn new things. Having a late June birthday, she's always going to be one of the younger ones, so it's probably good for her.

Only one friend from her class last year is in her class this year...Macie Drue, so she's going to get to make some new friends this year! Her best buddy down the street, Parker, is in her class as well as a new friend from her ballet class named Hadley. There are also a couple of friends from her Sunday School class that she will get to know better and a little boy named Greg who we have played with a few times.

I'm so happy that Tessa loves school! It makes it so easy to drop her off and leave her for a few hours knowing that she's going to have a fun time with her friends. She asks me "Are you going to leave me" and unlike most kids, she really does want me to leave her:)

All night long!

2010-08-12T19:45:00.001-07:00

After 4 1/2 months, Lyla finally made it through the night without waking up! She has always been a really light sleeper and woken up several times a night wanting to be comforted back to sleep. After my sister's advice and encouragement, I decided to let her cry each night for up to an hour every time she woke up. She never quite made it to an hour, but she came close a couple of times. It was so hard to listen to her cry, but I knew that was the only way to get her to sleep better. Each night got better and better and by the 5th night, she started sleeeping on her tummy and made it through with only one small wake up. By night 7 she slept perfectly all night long! It's such a relief to have your baby sleeping all night...it's right up there with potty training!

Daddy...

2010-08-12T19:32:00.000-07:00

Tessa LOVES to play with daddy. The second he walks in the door Tessa shouts "DADDY" and it's non stop for the rest of the evening. They are SO loud together....sometimes a little too loud!:) Josh asks me if Tessa is like this all day, and she's not. Thankfully, she's a lot more calm when it's just me around otherwise I don't think Lyla would get any sleep during the day:) I'm glad they have so much fun together...Tessa loves her daddy!

Lyla's first food....

2010-08-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

At Lyla's 4 month check up, Dr. Raley told me to go ahead and introduce solids whenever we were ready. I was definitely not in any hurry to start baby food, but I thought maybe it would help her sleep better at night if we filled her tummy up more. We decided to start with oatmeal mixed with baby milk. The first couple of times I gave it to her, she gave me a look like ... "What is this you're putting in my mouth!?!" It was super messy...she pretty much spit it all right back at me. I had to keep the spoon in her mouth in order for her to learn to swallow it. Now, she has it every day after her afternoon nap and seems to really like it. I'll probably wait a few more weeks before we start trying fruits and vegetables.

Play Play Play!

2010-08-11T13:42:00.000-07:00

Lyla is at such a fun age! She loves to lay on the ground with toys all around her and play. She rolls all over the blanket and plays with her different toys. She also loves to play in her bouncy chair....she'll have fun for 30 minutes or more sometimes! The excersaucer is another toy she'll stay in forever! I usually put her in this while I get ready in the mornings. She still likes her playmat but now that she's rolling she runs into the sides of it which frustrates her.

I remember this age with Tessa... It's so fun when they gain a little independence and start wanting to play with toys!

Drooly Baby!

2010-08-11T13:37:00.001-07:00

Why is it that I have the drooliest babies? Tessa soaked through at least 10 bibs a day for I don't know how many months and now Lyla is following in her sister's footsteps. People always say oh she must be teething, but I don't know. Tessa didn't get her first tooth until she was 11 months and the drooling began around 4 months. We'll see with Lyla. She is definitely a drooler!

Trip to the Aquarium

2010-08-11T13:23:00.001-07:00

After living in Tulsa almost 3 years, we finally made it the Oklahoma Aquarium! Tessa had fun running around looking at all of the different exhibits. Her favorites were the jellyfish and she also liked the shark tunnel. We went on a Friday which was not the best day to go...it was packed. We went again the next Tuesday with a few friends and it was so much better. The kids ran from one tank to the next without worrying about losing track of them. The kids had fun and wore themselves out and us moms got an escape from the heat!

Three years old...

2010-07-29T13:22:00.000-07:00

Tessa, where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday, you were the baby in our family, and now you are becoming the big girl. You have brought so much joy to my life over the past 3 years and I never knew a mommy could love her baby so much until I had you. I can't imagine my life without you! You have taught me so much and continue to do so every day. Thank you for being my little tooneroona.

Things you are up to...

You Love to play with ....
Ponies...(my little ponies) Starsong and Rainbow Dash are your favorites!
Strawberry Shortcake
Color Wonders
Your little sister!!! You're always up for entertaining Lyla with rattles.
Dress up clothes

~You're becoming quite the fishy in the swimming pool. You love to swim with your floaties!
~You love to watch DVD's...mainly just switch them out every 5 minutes.
~Your favorite shows on tv are Ni Hao Kai Lan, Olivia, and Wow Wow Wubbzy.
~You love when Daddy lets you sip his coke.
~You love to dress cute...you tell me "I'm stylish"
~You always want a bow in your hair and you even call the little bow on your panties a hairbow....you say the hairbow goes in the front:)
~You're starting to be a bit bossy...we're working on that!
~You get a quarter in your piggy bank each night that you had a good day. Since we started this, you've had a lot more good days!!!
~You're still a great sleeper and napper.
~ You hate the garage door and the air conditioner noise...it scares you every time.
~ You love to talk about ballet and do tooneroonas, but you also seem a little ton-boyish...we'll have to wait and see on that one...
~ You love to go to Target and Reasors....You're getting so easy to shop with, which is a HUGE change!
~You love to play in my make~up and put on my necklaces.

You're truly becoming sweeter every day and I can't wait to see what God has in store for your life. I feel lucky to be your mom and I'm so glad you're my baby!! Thanks for being our sweet girl. We love you way behind the back:)

Lyla at 4 months...

2010-07-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

Lyla is getting to such a fun phase! She's develolping quite a personality and it's so cute to see:) She loves to be held and stand straight up on your legs. She just looks at you and grins and makes little cooing noises. She loves to giggle and is finally starting to laugh when you tickle her. She is rolling over the second she gets put down on her tummy. She talks outloud especially in the car on her way to sleep. She unfortunately is not sleepin all night. Other than the sleep issue, she's a pretty easy baby. She loves playing with her sister and watching all she can do, she's a drooler and loves to chew on toys, she she loves to focus on the tv when it's on, she has fun in the swimming pool, and she loves her exersaucer!

She's mostly a momma's girl right now. I have to enjoy it while I can, because I know that won't last for long. Josh was watching the girls the other night while I went to bible study. I came home to Lyla screaming at 9 o' clock and he said she had been that way for a while. I picked her up and held her for a couple of minutes and put her in bed and she fell right to sleep. Josh wondered how I did that... I guess she just didn't want to go to bed without seeing her mommy:)

4 months has come and gone way too fast!

Lyla is getting big!

2010-07-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

Lyla started out so teeny tiny! She was 7 lb. and 18 inches. All of her percentages were so small... Her head was at 8% and her length and weight were both in the 20's and 30's for percentages. Every where I go, friends always say how petite she is and little. I thought so too, but she is definitely growing up! By 4 months old, things have definitely changed! Her head went from the 8th percentile to the 97th percentile! Her length shot up to 98th percentile and her weight at the 48th percentile. She's a long skinny baby with a rather large head! She's so cute though...and a really good baby! The 10 weeks of coclick every single evening was not a whole lot of fun, but other than that, she has been a really great baby!

Kiddie Park

2010-07-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

This summer, we went to the kiddie park in Bartlesville. We went last summer for the first time. It's a really fun place for toddlers with lots of old fashioned rides. It has boats, cars, swings, a carousel, a couple of small roller coasters, a train, and a ferris wheel. Tessa LOVES it! It's cheap entertainment at only 25cents per ride! This year we went with Tessa's friends, Hudson and Parker. Lyla was a trooper and hung in there for most of the evening. She started getting fussy every time we we were near the roller coaster. It was loud and creaky, and there was lots of people screaming... She was not a big fan! It was a late night ...we didn't get home till 11 and we had church the next morning. We had fun, but it will be even more fun when Lyla is able to enjoy it too!

Tooneroona

2010-07-24T13:43:00.000-07:00

Tessa's favorite word as a two and a half/three year old is tooneroona. She loves to do tooneroonas in the living room or just about anywhere. She calls her pretty dolls tooneroonas too. Her definition of a tooneroona anything having to do with ballet. It's really cute and though I know it won't happen, I hope she never stops using that phrase!

Happy Camper!

2010-07-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

Tessa went to Happy Camp this summer so that she could get away for a while and have some fun with friends. She had so much fun! They had a different theme every day ...watermelon day, water day, bear day, orange day, hat day... She loves her friends from school and had a great time!

Fourth of July

2010-07-24T10:39:00.000-07:00

For the fourth of July we headed down to Dallas. We spent the first day with Noni and Poppa. Noni hadn't met Lyla yet, so that was fun for them to get spend some time with the girls. The rest of the weekend, we spent at Nana's house. We saw my grandparents, Nana and Poppy, Sissy and Russell and the boys. We had fun hanging out. Tessa enjoyed the boat a whole lot this time and really got into swimming in the lake. She didn't treat it any differently than a pool...she and Josh were all over the place. I stayed on the boat with Lyla ...I'm not much of a lake person anyway. It was a fun weekend and great seeing everyone!

Tessa turns three!

2010-07-19T13:49:00.000-07:00

For Tessa's birthday this year, we decided to have a joint birthday party with her best friend up the street, Parker. Their birthdays are only a week apart and we have the same friends that we wanted to invite. The party was across the street from our house at the splash park. It was fun for the kids, but very hot!!! I think next year, we're going to have to find a cooler place for a summer party! Lots of friends came and Nana and Aunt Sissy, Jack and Trevor were there too.

Tessa got so many new things for her 3rd birthday that she has loved playing with! She got a new princess bike with training wheels from Nana and Poppy. She got an art easel from Mimi and PaPa. She got a princess cash register from Sissy, Jack, and Trevor. She got Legos from her great grandparents. And college money from Noni and Poppa. We gave her an aquadoodle, a my little pony carousel, Tinkerbell, Toy Story, and Strawberry Shortcake Movies, and a new snap and style doll.

Tessa had a fun day on her actual birthday. We went swimming, went out for lunch and then made cupcakes with sprinkles for that night. It was a fun day!

Swimming Lessons

2010-07-19T13:40:00.000-07:00

This June we put Tessa into a two week swimming lesson class at ORU. A little background information....Tessa is not much for baths... she HATES getting her hair wet, pretty much screams the whole bath. Needless to say, we don't enjoy bathing our child. So...we weren't so sure how swimming lessons was going to go. Day one was not so great. Tessa had 4 other friends in her class and 2 teachers. Pretty much all of the kids in her class and the younger class right next to her were screaming the whole hour. Tessa actually wasn't that bad, but I didn't feel like she was going to learn anything in that kind of environment. My 2 friends, Jessica, Tricia, and I were all about ready to pull our kids out, but we decided to hang in there to see if it got better. I'm so glad we waited, because it ended up really helping Tessa get used to the water and not be afraid of getting wet. She learned to float on her back, with help, jump off the diving board, kick, blow bubbles and had a great time! Now when we take her swimming, she wears her floaties and I feel pretty confident in her to be on her own as long as I'm watching. She is all over the pool swimming around and the best part of all is bath time is no longer an issue!

Breaking old habits...

2010-07-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

In the weeks following Lyla's arrival, Tessa met two big milestones! First we went to the dentist like she has done since she was one. The dentist mentioned it might be a good idea to go ahead and take away the pacifier, which Tessa oh so dearly loved!! I knew this wasn't going to go over well so I decided ok, cold turkey, let's do it. It was a Tuesday morning so I took it out of her backpack and so her first experience sleeping without a paci was going to be at nap time at school. I thought it would be easier on her at school...sort of like I just forgot to put it in her bag that day. BAD MOVE! I got a call around nap time from her teachers asking if I could bring her paci up...she was having a major meltdown without it. I told them that we're trying to give it up and so they said ok, we'll just help her deal... That night Josh slept with her on the low bed and she asked for it quite a bit, but made it through without it. The next couple of nights were a little better and better and she never saw the paci again!

Second milestone was about 5 weeks after Lyla's birth... Tessa yelled out one night "I need a new diaper" after I had already put her in bed. I went in and checked her diaper and it was dry so I asked her if she needed to go potty and her answer was yes....anything to get out of bed! I took her to the potty and she sat and sat and sat. 20 minutes later when I was about to make her get back into bed, I heard what was music to my ears....she pottied! I decided right then that we were going to go with it and have potty boot camp until she was trained. The first few days were NO fun at all. We stayed home and I asked her every 15 minutes to try. Each day got better and better and we went longer stretches between tries. She did great and of course I was so glad to have that behind us!

Lyla's arrival

2010-07-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

Lyla Jane Summerlin was born on Wednesday March 17th, 2010 at 2:37 in the afternoon. I was induced at 8 am that morning. and had pretty strong contractions up until I received my epidural at 1:30 pm. Needless to say, I was very ready for my epidural! Unfortunately, the medicine didn't work nearly as well as it did with Tessa. The anesthesiologist had to keep adding more and more medicine because I was still feeling pain. Finally, 15 minutes after he had the epidural as good as he could, Lyla arrived! She was completely healthy 7lbs even and 18". She was such a pretty newborn, we all thought...very dainty:) The hospital stay was good, but tiring! We were all ready to come home!

At home waiting for us was Nana and big sister, Tessa! They greeted us when we arrived home Friday at one in the afternoon. Tessa was very sweet and wanted to hold Lyla. The very next day, Lyla saw her first snowstorm!

From the start, Tessa has done really well adjusting to having a new baby at home. She never acted jealous or had much trouble adjusting. In the first few days, Josh and Tessa spent a lot of quality time together so she didn't feel left out. Lyla brought home a big pony Starsong doll with a paci and a bottle for her big sister. I think that helped Tessa like Lyla even more!

Baby Wywa

2010-03-01T00:04:00.000-08:00

I'm almost 37 weeks pregnant so I guess Lyla can make her appearance any day now. Tessa seems so ready to be a big sister, but I don't know that she really knows what is about to happen. She loves patting and kissing my tummy, she tells me she can't wait to be a big sister like her friend Jordan, and she names all of her babies and her new care bear Wywa...her version of Lyla. The next few weeks are going to be so exciting for us as a family and definitely life changing. It's so crazy to think of our lives with more than one child, but in the same way I know as we grow it will be hard to think of the times when it was just the three of us. Tessa, you've been our baby for 2 1/2 years and you always will be no matter what. We love you more than you'll ever know and nothing will ever change that!

"szit ready yet"

2010-01-26T11:54:00.000-08:00

Tessa's new phrase ...she combines it and is to make a word like szit and says "szit ready yet?" She says this ALL the time! In the mornings I usually ask her what she wants for breakfast...her reply is "szit ready yet?" Last night I was making a cake to surprise daddy with for his birthday. She saw me put it in the oven and one minute later she was asking her new favorite question..."szit ready yet?" She ended up asking me about 10 times and then started to throw a fit until I walked her in the kitchen, opened the oven, and showed her that the cake was not ready just yet.

Another cute thing she is saying is "you'll never find it now." She loves to watch Dora and that is something the Swiper says. If I ask her to give me something that she's holding she'll attempt to hide it and then say "You'll never find it now." I have to keep myself from laughing when she says that since she's really not obeying:)

One more thing I thought was cute happened yesterday. Josh had been gone for 7 nights to China. Tessa and I went to the grocery store last night to get some things before he got home. On our way to the store Tessa said "Where'd Daddy go?" I thought that was so funny...she's usually such a daddy's girl, but for the past 7 days she had made no mention of where daddy was. It was like it just hit her after a week that daddy was gone.

Oh...one more thing,, my mom always calls Tessa by her first and middle name, Tessa Claire. Last time we were visiting her Tessa corrected her and said no It's Tessa Woo Woo. I guess we've called Tessa, Tessa Loo for so long that Tessa thinks that's her name:)

Play, play, play...

2010-01-22T11:31:00.001-08:00

Tessa playing with her Snap n' Style dolls

random picture of Tessa

My little Cinderella

Princess Tessa

Snow White

Tessa has really enjoyed dressing up and playing with her new toys. It's so fun to see her using her imagination. She loves to be a princess and dance on the fireplace while we sing songs. Her favorite song is as she says Happy and you Know it. She is also enjoying her princess and pony books, dolls, and ponies. She is becoming such a big girl!:(

Christmas Pictures with Mommy

2010-01-22T11:19:00.001-08:00

One of my two favorite little girls....

I love my Tessa!

Tessa holding her favorite present...she couldn't wait to open that pony!

Tessa playing games with Mommy

Tessa and I rarely get a picture where she is looking at the camera with a smile on her face so I had to document this! Tessa was so excited about Christmas this year...

she new she was getting my little ponies and she just couldn't wait to open them. We also tried this year to talk to Tessa about the baby Jesus and the Christmas story. We bought the Little People Nativity Set and she really enjoyed playing with it. I don't know how much she got out of our talks, but she does seem to understand that Christmas is Jesus' birthday....that's a start:)

Christmas in San Antonio

2010-01-22T10:52:00.000-08:00

Tessa and one of her cousins, Kylen, playing his DS

bounce house slide

Mommy and Tessa playing computer games

Tessa playing dress up with Poppa

We stayed for almost a week in San Antonio. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone. Josh's younger brother and his family were there so Tessa got to play with 2 of her cousins, Kylen and Keegan. She got to see Mimi and Pawpaw and Poppa, Noni, and Aunt Rachel. Tessa went to her first big bounce house and had fun playing with the big kids. We did some shopping, went to Chuck E Cheese, and just hung out. It was a fun trip! Josh and I also got to celebrate our 6 year anniversary. We went to dinner at PFChangs and then went to see the Blind Side. It was so fun getting to go out on a date....I think it had been a year since our last.

ess

Christmas in Grand Prairie

2010-01-22T10:35:00.000-08:00

Opening presents with Daddy

Tessa feeding her new baby

Tessa and her great grandma

On the first end of our trip to Texas we had Christmas with Nana and Poppy. Tessa had a lot of fun. We went to the Prairie Lights and drove through and Tessa rode on the fastest carousel I've ever seen. We opened presents with Tessa's cousin and the rest of the family. Tessa got a Pony house, a baby doll with outfits clothes, color wonder books, snap n' style dolls, a big green chair, and a dress up outfit. She really enjoyed opening presents and was very excited about Christmas this year! I wish I had more pictures with Nana and Poppy, Sissy and Jack....:(

Road Trip...

2010-01-22T09:57:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year we headed to San Antonio. It was a long trip, but we broke it up by staying a couple of nights in Grand Prairie on both ends of the trip. Tessa did great in the car. She enjoyed her books, movies, and of course, her ponies. She's so cute with her glasses. She likes to wear them every time we get in the car:)

Santa on the Roof

2010-01-22T09:48:00.000-08:00

Our friends, the Hedgecocks, invited several families over from our church for their annual Santa on the Roof. Santa walked over the roof of their house and called each child's name and dropped them a goody bag. Besides the frigid temperatures, it was a lot of fun. Tessa seemed to really enjoy seeing Santa, but of course, wouldn't let him hold her in a picture.

Trick or Treat

2009-11-02T19:26:00.000-08:00

This year Halloween was a lot of fun! We had a full day! Tessa woke up and had a runny nose and I was afraid she was coming down with a cold... Luckily, it turned out to be just a runny nose and nothing else! We started out our day at the pumpkin patch. Poppa had been in town all week so he tagged along with us. Tessa played in everything, touched all the pumpkins she could, and even got to ride a pony. She enjoyed that! Next we went to McDonald's and ate lunch. Then it was home for a few minutes and off to the Kirk's Trunk or Treat festival across from our neighborhood. (The site of their new church in the works.) Tessa loved that! It was her first taste of filling up her pumpkin. Then we came home for a nap, dinner, and dress up. We headed out trick or treating that night not knowing how long it would last. About 30 houses later and a full pumpkin, we decided to come home and pass out some of the candy we had bought. It was such a fun day...Tessa can't quit talking about it.

Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-02T19:17:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite thing to do each year is to take Tessa to the Pumpkin Patch. We have been every year since Tessa was born...we usually try to go every weekend we can in October. It is so fun watching Tessa run around....She loves it:) She gets so excited seeing all the pumpkins!

Videos for Daddy

2009-10-09T18:40:00.000-07:00

Josh went to Shanghai to work for a couple of weeks and so Tessa, Toby, and I packed up and headed to Texas. We went to Grand Prairie for half the time and San Antonio the other half. It was so fun seeing everybody. Tessa got to see all of her grandparents which can be kind of confusing for a 2 year old remembering 8 different names. Nana and Poppy; Noni and Poppa; Mimi and PawPaw; and Grandma and Grandpa. She did pretty well and really only mixed up 2 of the names. We missed Josh while he was away, but got to talk to him every day. We didn't do a whole lot on our trip. It rained the WHoLE time we were gone it seemed. It was just nice hanging out with everyone.

video with Great Grandpa and his glasses

Tessa talking to daddy:)

Kisses

2009-10-01T06:56:00.000-07:00

The past two nights when we have put Tessa to bed she has said the sweetest thing. After we read her a story and said prayers, we gave her a kiss and told her we love her.....then Tessa said "I want more kisses:)" ......So sweet!

Two nights later, we had already put her to bed and we were in our room getting Josh packed up for his trip to China. A few minutes later we hear Tessa over the baby monitor saying "I need more kisses." She loves her kisses!

Dance Party

2009-10-01T06:53:00.000-07:00

Each night we have a new thing Tessa likes to do. We know it's time when she starts saying "dance party." She stands up on the fireplace mantle...she calls that her stage...and she asks us to sing. She uses her play-do roller and she bangs on the bricks and dances....really just bounces. When we're done with the song, she gives us a standing ovation. It's so cute and fun to see her doing things like this and using her imagination more!

BTW: the orange pants are what she calls her pumpkin pants. She is going to be a pumpkin for halloween and that day I tried on her outfit and she refused to take her "pumpkin pants" off. Good thing we didn't have to go anywhere that afternoon!

Nana's visit

2009-09-29T14:37:00.000-07:00

Nana came for a quick visit last weekend. She had seen us 2 weeks earlier when we went down to Grand Prairie for Labor Day, but she had a free ticket she needed to use, so up she came. Crazily, she noticed such a huge difference in Tessa over the course of 2 weeks. Tessa was so much more playful with Nana than she had ever been on any of her visits. They even got to have sleep overs at night:) Tessa has graduated to her big bed and so when Nana came to town, they slept one on the top twin and one on the bottom twin bed. Nana said she woke up and Tessa was just staring at her. We had fun while she was in town. We made a few new hair bows for Tessa to match some of her fall clothes. We went on walks and to the park, we played, went to the mall, and just hung out. It was a fun weekend!

Tessa is so blessed to have such loving grandparents!

Trying to become more domestic....

2009-09-28T14:13:00.001-07:00

My mom came in town for the weekend and we decided to take advantage of Tessa being in preschool Thursday morning. We went shopping for my Christmas present...a little early.

My mom has always wanted me to sew. She is a really good seamstress herself and she tried her best to teach me, but I was just never interested. My 8th grade home-ec project was a baby doll dress. I always told my teacher that I needed more time to work on it so she would let me take it home. Of course, that meant my mom did most to all of the work:) She always told me when I was ready that she wanted to buy me my first sewing machine. I don't know where it came from, but I finally got the urge to sew. I've been wanting to find a hobby that I can do in all of my free time ;), so I thought sewing might be a good thing to try.

I practiced a lot over the weekend. My mom showed me the basics of my machine and we hemmed a pair of pants together. I haven't decided what my first project is going to be.... I need something really easy so that I don't get frustrated or feel like a failure:)

Thanks Mom...hopefully I'll be half as good as you someday:)

Making Pizza.....

2009-09-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

We had a MOPS playdate at Whole Foods and Tessa got to make her very own pizza. It was fun and the pizza turned out really yummy!!!

Sweet Girl

2009-09-28T11:46:00.001-07:00

Tessa is becoming such a sweet heart....I just love her more and more every day! She tells us all the time I love you and she's always wanting to give us hugs. I just love my little Baboo:)

She is becoming much better about playing with her toys. She likes to play with her dollhouse, her dolls, her kitchen, her shopping cart and stroller. She loves to make food for us, play with play-do, loves to color and do art, enjoys all things active, she's really into a lot of the toys I got her to play with as a baby, but never did....her activity table, shape sorters, ring stackers.

She is becoming so verbal. She's always had a lot of words, but is now talking in phrases and able to tell us her feelings more. She knows her letters, colors, numbers into the teens and seems to pick up something new everyday.

She still loves her milk; a.k.a pie shake, her paci-fier, her weedabutter (peanut butter) sandwich, her vitamins, cheese, tomatoes, peaches, and bananas.

She is definitely still a strong willed child and has her share of fits, but they are starting to get shorter and she is able to listen to reasoning better.

She is such a precious little girl and I wouldn't trade her for anything!

Mimi and Papa's visit

2009-09-28T11:41:00.001-07:00

We had such a fun time with Mimi and Papa in town! We didn't do a whole lot, but it was so nice getting to hang out and see Tessa interact with them. Unfortunately, Tessa doesn't get to see them as much as we would like, but you wouldn't know it by the way she loved on them. She enjoyed having Mimi and Papa around! Mimi played computer games with her, we took walks, we went to the zoo, ate a lot of yummy food, read books, played with a new sticker book, climbed all over the couch and made tunnels.....lots of fun stuff! We can't wait till Christmas to get to see them again!

Sucker as we call it

2009-09-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

Tessa is absolutely in love with her paci-fier/sucker, as she calls it. I had gotten it away from her during all waking hours and she's only been allowed to have it at night time and naps since she was about 18 months. Well, after dealing with fits for the past few months and sometimes out of control behavior, I thought I would try letting her have it. Amazingly, the child is so calm and almost fit free when she has it. I know there are a lot of opinions out there about toddlers with pacifiers, but I've decided to choose sanity and give in to the sucker at least for now. We don't give it to her at all times, but whenever I see any sort of distress and she asks for it, I go ahead and give it to her.

Labor Day weekend...

2009-09-08T13:28:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we spent with family in Dallas. We stayed at Nana's house (my mom) for the first couple of nights. We didn't do much of anything, just hung around and had lots of family over. Tessa of course had fun seeing everyone. She especially liked the stairs! She went up and down so many times! Sunday, we went to Carrollton to see Josh's side of the family. His brother and family live there so Josh's parents, Mimi and Papaw, met us there. We got to meet our new neice for the first time. She's precious! It was fun as always getting to hang out and catch up.

Pick up line

2009-09-08T13:25:00.000-07:00

At Tessa's preschool, you don't have to get out of the car to pick up your child. They will put them in the car for you when you drive up. Today when I went to pick Tessa up from school, she was sad and teary eyed. When she got in the car, she kept saying "I found you, I found you." I thought that was sweet...she was looking for her mommy:)

Tessa's first day of preschool

2009-09-01T12:16:00.000-07:00

Today I dropped Tessa off for her first day of preschool. She walked right in the room with no problem. Usually when we drop her off in the room across the hall for Sunday School she cries for a few minutes, but not today. She must have been ready! Her teachers are Ms. Ann and Ms. Melinda. They are both really sweet and I know that Tessa will grow to really love them. When I picked her up she couldn't stop telling me all of the things she did. She definitely remembered her friend from Sunday School, Jackson....She said his name about 5 times. She told me she ate apples and they were good....I've never been able to get her to eat apples:) She said she played and moved. She said she colored and played with blocks. There was more...I just can't remember it all. In any case, I think she's definitely going to have a fun time this year!

Kiddie Park

2009-08-22T17:36:00.000-07:00

My brave girl on the Ferris Wheel

Mommy and Tessa on the carousel

Tessa getting stickers from the clown

Riding the horse drawn carriage

Riding on the boats...

This is Tessa in her car

This is all of us on the train

This weekend, we went to the kiddie park in Bartlesville. We had a lot of fun! I was shocked at how well Tessa did:) She rode on things I never thought she would have. We didn't make all the rides. There were several that we decided would be better next year when she was a little bit bigger. She did ride the boats, the ferris wheel, the carousel..which almost made me puke it was so fast, the swings, the cars, the trucks, the horse drawn carriage, and we all rode the choo choo train. Tessa did get in trouble on the boats because she wouldn't keep her hands out of the water. They kept chasing her boat and putting her hand back in, but my little strong willed child was not having any of it...she wanted her hand in the water! I was just glad she stayed in the boat...I was worried she might try to jump in mid way through. We had to have a little talk after the boats were over about how we need to obey:) All in all, it was a lot of fun and we will definitely be going back next summer!

Preschool

2009-08-19T07:55:00.001-07:00

We just found out that Tessa is going to get to be in our church's preschool this school year! I am very excited because I think it will really help her to gain some independence by not being with mommy all of the time. While it is only 1 day a week, she will also go to the Kirk mornings for moms 2 days a week and be in a different class than me. I'm hoping that this will help prepare her for our new arrival next spring!

Big Girl Bed

2009-08-13T06:19:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday night, Tessa was a bit unhappy. She was having a bit of a temper tantrum and refused to get in her crib. She was saying big bed big bed. I asked her if she wanted to sleep in her big girl bed and she immediately stopped crying and said o.k., pink bed.

Tessa started up on the top bed and went right to sleep. I hadn't planned on moving her to her new bed until this winter, so I haven't gotten a side rail yet. I was pretty nervous she would fly right off that bed. We left the bottom bed pulled out just in case and sure enough when I went to check on her about 2am, she was on the bottom bed. I guess it didn't bother her, she didn't make a peep.

5 days have passed and she is still sleeping in her pink bed and refusing the crib. I only wish she would be that decisive about potty training!

Breakfast

2009-08-04T05:57:00.001-07:00

This morning when Tessa woke up, I went in her room to get her and the first words that came out of her mouth were...." Hungry.......Crackers, Pancakes, and Cheetos." Then on our way to the kitchen she said "ice cream cone." What a healthy eater I have! I thought that was funny:)

Poppa's visit

2009-08-03T15:36:00.000-07:00

Josh went on what is becoming his annual trip to Colorado and I stayed back again this year to be with Tessa. I wasn't really looking forward to five days alone so my dad decided to come up and stay with us while he was away. We didn't do a whole lot, but just had fun hanging out. It was nice to have an extra set of hands with Tessa seeing that I'm in the tired stage of the first trimester. Dad of course did our yard, we went on lots of walks, played at the park, to the zoo, shopping and some other stuff. Tessa enjoyed having her Poppa around and so did I!

Zoo day!

2009-08-03T15:32:00.001-07:00

Saturday, my dad and I took Tessa to the zoo. It was her very first time to go. I've been meaning to take her for the longest time, but every time we planned to go, something came up or the weather was no good. Anyway, Tessa had a blast! Her favorite exhibit was the monkeys. They were really putting on a show for us:) She also loved the carousel and the the choo choo train. We had a really great time and are planning to buy a zoo pass so we can go back a lot more:)

Tessa riding on the giraffe

Tessa riding the rhino...she loves the carousel!

Tessa feeding the duck....he came close!

Tessa and Poppa on the train

Tessa waiting patiently for the choo choo train

Be you

2009-08-03T15:31:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things Tessa says is "Ah be you" That means hold me. I'm not sure why she says it since she can say both hold and me, but that's what she says in her pathetic voice when she just needs her momma.... I love it!

Visit from Poppa and Noni

2009-07-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had Tessa's Poppa and Noni in town from San Antonio. We had a lot of fun:) They got in on Thursday and we just hung out and ate dinner. I made a new recipe...green enchiladas, mexican rice, and guacamole and I think it was a hit! We took Tessa to the splash park after dinner and just spent time catching up. Friday morning, after Dad did some yard work, we went to several antique stores in downtown Jenks. The best one we found was River City Trading Post. Becca and I bought some really cool antique windows that we later decorated with scrapbook paper. It turned out really cute...I love them! Thursday afternoon while Tessa napped, we went shopping for the scrapbook paper and some other fun stuff for the house. That night we went to the Riverwalk and ate at Los Cabos. It was so hot, but fun! Saturday, we headed to the mall for Tessa to play on the "een ground." Of course we did some shopping too while we were there:) Friday afternoon, we all rested some and then we ordered pizza for dinner. Of course, dad had his usual hot oatmeal cookies after every meal. He has come to expect them when he comes for his visits:) Sunday morning, they headed out to make the 9 hour trip home. It was great having them. Tessa really enjoyed playing in the hole, horsie, and hand jive with Poppa and dancing in the kitchen with Noni. She really loved and now misses both her Noni and Poppa!

4th of July Trip

2009-07-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

So this year, we decided to head down to Grand Prairie to celebrate the 4th. It was kind of a last minute decision. My sister was all but begging us to come and I know how much my mom loves the 4th...it's her second favorite holiday to Thanksgiving. We loaded up Thursday afternoon and made the 5 hour trek. We watched lots of movies and her and daddy created the woodpecker game. Friday morning we got up bright and early and went down to the lake. We spent the morning on the water in the boat. Aunt Sissy tried to tube with Tessa, but Tessa didn't especially like it. ( I knew she would be scared out of her mind, but we gave it a shot:) ) Daddy did some crazy tubing too. We also went to the Joe Pool beach area to cool off for a little while. Friday night we had the whole family over for dinner. Mom made Lasagna and Grandma brought her famous chocolate cake. YUMMY! It was so fun hanging out with everyone. Saturday morning we decided to all go to the pool. Tessa kind of had a hard time at first getting in, but warmed up to the water after we broke out the toys. I think she was having thoughts of the lake the day before which pretty much freaked her out! Jack swam in his tube like a little fishy. We had fun just hanging out. Saturday night it was dinner and then off to watch the lake fireworks. Tessa's great grandpa, kept the kids entertained while we waited for them to start. All in all it was a fun weekend and we're glad to have made the trip!

Tessa's two year well check

2009-07-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

Tessa went to see Dr. Raley for her 2 year well check. She is still my big girl! She was 36.5 inches which puts her in the 96% for height and she weighed 28 pounds 8 oz which puts her in the 74% for weight. She is starting to thin out. She hasn't even gained a full pound since her 18 month check up. She weighed 27 pounds 10 ounces back in December. She did really well at the doctor, better than ever before!! Best of all, we had no shots this trip!

Nana's Visit

2009-07-01T07:36:00.000-07:00

Tessa's Nana came in town for the big birthday weekend. Tessa really enjoyed her visit and I can tell that she is really getting to know Nana well. We did a lot of fun things. Of course we had fun on her birthday, we also went swimming, on lots of walks, to the playground, shopping, and just hung out in the backyard with her new water table that Nana brought. We had a fun time:) I'm just so glad that Tessa and Nana had some quality time together. It's so fun to see Tessa really knowing and remembering who people are that she doesn't see on a daily basis. I think Nana liked that too!

Birthday Girl!

2009-07-01T07:25:00.000-07:00

Tessa had a really great birthday! We started the day by opening a few presents at home. Tessa really liked her sunglasses from Mimi and Papa! Next we went to pick Nana up at the airport. Tessa was really excited to see her:) From there, we all went to Toys R Us and picked out a new bike that Mimi and Papa had sent us a gift card for. Tessa really likes it and we have already gone on several walks with it:) Next we went to the mall so Tessa could play while we picked up her cookie cake. Then it was home for lunch and naps. When Tessa woke up, we assembled her bike and then it was party time! We had a few friends come over with their kids and we had dinner and cake. Then we went to the splash park and playground to play. Tessa had a really fun 2nd birthday!

Rainforest Cafe

2009-06-25T18:05:00.000-07:00

Rainforest Cafe was a lot of fun for Tessa! She loved looking around the gift shop and playing with all of the animals while we waited for our table. Once our name was called, we were seated next to the elephants which put on a show for us about every 10 minutes. We also got to get up and walk around and visit all the different aquariums and animals throughout the restaurant. It was a lot of fun!

Vacation...

2009-06-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

This past week was our summer vacation to Nashville. Originally, we were supposed to meet our friends from South Carolina there, but because of Josh's army situation, that ended up falling through. We decided to go with my grandparents since they still had the room available. We were a little nervous about the 10+ hour drive with an almost 2 year old, but it really turned out to be o.k. Tessa watched far too many dvd's and ate a few too many snacks, but without that, I don't think we would have made it. We did some fun things while we were there like go to the Opryland hotel, tour The Parthenon, eat at the Rainforest Cafe, shop at Opry Mills, walk around downtown...in the 100 degree weather, swim at the condo, and eat A LOT! It was fun getting to spend time with my grandparents:)

Jenks Riverwalk

2009-06-14T14:28:00.000-07:00

Last night we decided to take Tessa for ice cream at the Riverwalk. We hadn't been there in a while, so we thought it would be a good night for that. Besides having to look for a parking spot for like 20 minutes, it was a lot of fun! Tessa had chocolate swiss and sweet cream with oreos ice cream. Surprisingly, I dripped more on me than she did on herself. After we ate our ice cream, we walked up and down the river. Tessa wanted none of sitting in her stroller! She was walking like a big girl:) You always know when she enjoyed herself by her reaction when it is time to go. She threw a fit when it was that time, but thankfully got over it pretty quickly.

Two more weeks....

2009-06-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that two weeks from Saturday my baby will be two. Though the past two years have been totally crazy for our family, they have been the best two years of my life. A lot has changed since Tessa's arrival... Tessa, you have lived in 4 different homes in your short 2 years and attended 4 different churches...that might be a record! We're glad to finally be settled and we promise to stay put for a while:)! Tessa has been such a blessing to us and I never thought I could love her as much as I do.

Things you love.....
Your sucker which you're only supposed to have at bedtime...you're a little sneaky at times!

Read books... Favorites are This Little Piggy, My Baby Elephant, and Toes Ears and Nose.
Pet/Hit Toby and Ellie... they're not really all that fond of you, but you don't know that:)
Empty out select drawers

Watch Little People, Pooh, and Barney
Play in your sandbox and water table
Kick and throw the ball
Play "I get you" with daddy
Go to the park
talk about Jack

Things you like to eat....
Pancakes
Cookies (nilla wafers and animal crackers)
"Snackies" (Pretty much any snacky cracker)
grapies and blueberries
corn
guacamole

whole tomatoes
ice cream

Macaroni and Cheese

Cake

Tessa has quite the vocabulary. She is now starting to put words together to make phrases. She is also starting to remember family members names. By 18 months she knew all of her letters and sounds...not in ABC order, but she was able to recognize all of them and sound them out. She can count to 14 in english and 8 in spanish...not sure how she learned that. It was so funny the other day I had to stop and listen and I said to myself...is she counting in spanish? Sure enough she did it again and I couldn't imagine how she picked that up... She knows most of her basic shapes and colors and loves to do puzzles. I think she is going to be one smart cookie!

Though Tessa seems to be becoming a "big" girl, she still seems like a baby to me. I remember working with the older ones and young twos just last year and thinking how big they seemed. Now that it's our turn to be that age, she just doesn't seem all that big. I guess it's safe to say that no matter how old she gets I'll always think of Tessa as my baby.

Company coming.....

2009-06-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

This is Tessa right before Nana, Sissy, Jack, and Trevor arrived. She was SO excited they were coming! Her and Jack are finally at the age where they play so well together. I was in real need of a break because of my darn foot still not letting me walk. I knew that Jack being here was going to occupy Tessa a lot! The first couple of days of the visit we just hung out at our house. The kids went to the playground a few times and we visited the splash park. I really thought that Jack was going to love the splash park, but he was hesitant of it just like Tessa. They still enjoyed watching the water and playing on the playground anyway. Day 2, Nana and Sissy took Jack and Tessa to the pool and I stayed home with Trevor. It was Tessa's first visit to the pool this summer and it showed. She was not really all that excited about getting in, but boy when it was time to leave, she did NOT want to go! That was fit #1. On Day 3, we all went to Incredible Pizza to let the kids play some games. Tessa was a bit scared of riding the toddler rides, but she did like the games. We stayed for about an hour and when it was time to go came fit #2 and it was a BIG one! She has a hard time leaving places that she likes... Overall, we had a fun time and it was so nice having them here. We can't wait until they come again!

Frustration!

2009-06-01T07:55:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday, I went to the dermatologist office to have the 2nd of my two moles removed from my foot. I have had these moles all of my life, but for some reason the dermatologist said they needed to come off. Since this mole was on the bottom of my foot, I decided to take it real easy this time because the last mole on my toe kept me limping and in pain for about a week. Well taking it easy has taken on a whole new meaning. It has been 5 days since I had the mole removed and I am still not able to walk! I have been using crutches to get around, which has helped, but it's almost impossible to do anything with no hands. Needless to say, I am SO frustrated and can't wait for the skin to grow back so that I'm able to walk again. Poor Tessa has not had the greatest momma lately. You really take for granted the ability to walk....I know I'm going to appreciate it so much more when I'm off and running again!

Splash Park!

2009-05-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

We all went to the splash park across the street from our house for the first time today. Tessa wasn't so sure about it all just yet:) There were a lot of big kids there that she enjoyed watching. She's just not quite brave enough to really play:) In any case we had fun and will definitely be there a lot this summer!!!

First Trip to the Dentist

2009-05-24T18:49:00.000-07:00

Tessa had her first trip to the dentist this past week. She is only 23 months, but her teeth seemed long overdue for a cleaning! For some reason, Tessa just hates brushing her teeth. Josh and I have to chase her around the house and then we catch her, we have to pin her down in order to get the tooth brush in her mouth. She wiggles around the whole time and usually screams and cries. Even when I am able to get the brush in her mouth, her bottom teeth don't get much attention because she has this trick of putting her tongue over her teeth to where I can't get to them. Needless to say, Tessa had what I thought was some major decay on her teeth!

Well when we got to the dentist, I told her all of my concerns and kind of prepared her for what she was about to see. She looked around for a couple minutes and said that Tessa had no decay, just stained teeth. She said that some kids are prone to stain and Tessa must be one of them. That was a BIG relief for me! They sent me to the waiting room so that they could polish her teeth and make them look pretty:) Another mom was sitting out there with her kids and said Wow, someone's not happy. I told her that would be my child. Tessa was back in the back screaming bloody murder the whole time. All was well when they brought her out though. She had a purple kitty cat with whiskers, a smile on her face, and sparkling teeth!

New Niece and Nephew!

2009-05-23T16:43:00.000-07:00

This is me with my newest nephew, Trevor. He is 4 weeks old and such a cutie! He is my 6th nephew!! He has an older brother named Jack, that Tessa just adores. Everywhere she goes she calls the boys we see Ah Jack:) It's really cute! We're excited to have them come visit us in 1 week! Like I mentioned earlier, Tessa has been the only girl born into our extended family until 2 days ago! Adelaide Kate was born and we can't wait to meet her:) I'm really excited for Tessa to have a little girl playmate:)