Beach trip

A few weeks ago we headed down to the condo for our annual trip with the Swindells and some fun in the sun! I think this was Riley's seventh trip to the beach and Endsley's second. It's nice when the in laws have a place on the beach. Makes it super easy to go!:) The girls and I rode down with Nonna on Sunday. She came along to help babysit the kiddos. I bought a pop up potty and a piddle pad to take in the car. Riley did such a good job going potty. I was a little concerned, as this was our first road trip post potty training. She talked the whole way and couldn't decide which movie she wanted to watch. I can't count the times we switched from Barney to Elmo. I think she slept an hour out of the seven it took us to get there. Little E slept pretty much the whole way. I'm lucky to have good little travelers. Tol, Kelly and the boys made the trip that night as well. Jeremy joined us on Tuesday night. We had the best weather except for rain on the last day. That was o.k though. By that point we were pooped from being lazy for 6 days! It was awesome. We would wake up, have coffee, eat breakfast, go to the beach or pool, eat lunch, nap, go back out and then go to dinner. Can't wait to go back!

Here are Riley and Tol in the hot tub. Many hours were spent swimming and diving in there! Tol did all the diving for Riley's blue carebear that she would throw and tell him to go get.
Here are Yates, Riley and Tol in the elevator. Notice the hand holding. They held hands everywhere we went!

Endsley hanging out in the swing

Riley with her diva like shades

The little princess has it so hard!

Endsley's first time in the pool. She loved it!

Of course, I had to get a pic with her!

This was a first. She played in the sand willingly for the first time...ever. It might or might not have had something to do with Tol and Yates playing as well.

E's first time to sit on the beach. This was the only hat that Sandy could find for her to wear. It reminded me of Strawberry Shortcake:)

First time to play in the ocean and she would only get in with Nonna.

Jeremy and I

It was nice to go out to dinner in peace one night. Nonna stayed in with the kiddos.

Riley and I playing in the pool

We stayed in one night to watch the Titans game and eat pizza. Do you see the pizza all over my little cowgirls face?
Here is little Tol with his tat...
and Riley with hers

We went down to play with cousin Cole at his condo. They had the coolest kiddie area that we thought the kids would love. We were wrong. That trip was a bad idea. The kids were going crazy that day!

Riley and Endsley having a sweet sister moment

Singing Barney after dinner

After dinner we met up with these two. Linlee and Brandon happened to be at the beach for a business trip. Linlee is a friend of mine from college.

Fun times had by all!

This was taken right before we left. I just love the Swindell family's facial expressions.

There were a lot of funny moments, but this one stands out in my mind and I need to document. On Monday we put Tol and Riley on the bottom bunk to see if they would nap together. They did, so we thought we would let them sleep together at night, as they are both wild sleepers. We put a little Barney on and tucked them in. Not a good idea...they chatted for an hour. At one point I went to the door to listen. Riley was saying, "You see my big toe, look at my big toe." I went back to the couch to watch t.v with Kelly and fell asleep, only to be woken up by Kelly saying Riley wanted to sleep with me. Off to my bed we went. We laid down and Riley says, "momma, Tol touch my face like this. Tol rub my hair like this and momma Tol, he, he kissed me on my mouf. He kissed me on my mouf. He just kissed me on my nose and he kissed me on my mouf." Who knew you had to worry about these things with a two and three year old. No more bunk beds for them!!
It was a great trip. Can't wait to see what the kids do next year!

Big Ole

This is what Riley prefaces everything with. Literally. Examples...

*"Mama, I want a bite...a big ole one"
*"There's my church. It's a big ole church"
*As I am putting toothpaste in her tooth brush, "Gimme a big ole one"
*"Look at that big ole truck"
*Poop, I know it's gross, but we all do it. It's a big topic with her! When she goes, she is proud! "That's a big ole poop"
*She has a sippy cup with her name on it. She refers to this as her "big ole cup"

This is all I can think of at the moment. Just wanted to document because she says this all the time and we think it's funny!

Dancing Queen

Thanks to cousin Ashley, Thursday was Riley's first day to attend dance class! I am so excited, for myself and her! haha! I love girly things and love that she is of the age to do fun stuff. She was so excited to go, even though she had no clue as to what dance class was all about. She started crying when I left her, but it didn't last long. They have a television that you can watch them on in the waiting room. This place is no joke! The class is 45 minutes long and they practice ballet, jazz and tumbling. Riley was pretty much in her own world, just staring, moving her dot around, throwing it in the air...you know, exactly what she was supposed to be doing! She did do the hop and bear crawl. Her teacher said this was typical the first time. She said she had a good time and thought her teacher was pretty!

Here she is in her dancing gear minus ballet shoes. We still need to purchase these...

Not wanting to have her picture taken anymore

Running around after class

I think she's going to like this

She might like her teacher so well because she handed out suckers and stamps when class ended. The girl loves her suckers!

Watch out people...I think we may see her on DWTS one day...or whatever is on TV in 16 or 17 years!

First day of "school"

Monday was Riley's first day at MDO. She wasn't excited when I told her she was going that morning, but changed her tune when she figured out she got to take her very own "bap pap." (back pack) She has a sweet teacher who happens to know and live very to close to some in-laws. That makes me feel good! She acted like she wanted to be sad when I was telling her bye. That didn't last long. She quickly turned around to get her hands on the play dough on the table.
As for me, I planned on having a peaceful day. That was not the case. We had just gotten back from the beach the night before and I had lots to catch up on. Several errands and laundry that took two days to catch up on. Hopefully in the future I will take advantage of these days and do nothing but go to the gym and take care of Endsley, of course.
When I picked her up from "school" she was receiving a treat from her teacher. She had a choice between to pieces of candy. She quickly ate hers and asked me for a sucker. I told her that I didn't have one and she said, "Ms. Kim does." Ms. Kim told her that she could only have one at the end of the day. Well, she wasn't having any of that. She threw a fit! She kept saying, " I need another treat!" She has grandparents that give her "treats" all the time and as many as she wants. She doesn't know what this one business is all about. She followed me and cried the whole way out to the car. Very dramatic. Don't know where she gets that from! It was lovely!
Before the sucker incident she had had a perfect day!

Here she is getting ready to go

Her back pack is as big as she is

With her teacher Ms. Kim

This morning was her second day and I asked her if she was excited to go play with the kids and she said, "yes, I got lots of kids." I think she meant "friends."

4 months

Today Endsley is 4 months, 1 week and 2 days old! I really meant to write this on the day she turned 4 months, but we were leaving for the beach the next day and had company over that night, so it never happened. At her doctor visit she weighed 12 pounds 4 ounces! She has come a long way in 4 months! She had a slight fever that day so we decided to not get shots. We will be going back this week to get a few of those.

At 3 months she started rolling from her tummy to her back. Three days before the 4 month birthday she rolled from her back to her tummy! This is a month earlier than Riley. She will probably start walking at 9 months or something crazy like that. She coos and smiles ALL the time. She is such a happy baby and a complete joy to have in our lives. She can hold on to a teething or soft toy for a little while. Everything that is in her hands goes straight to her mouth. The girl loves putting those hands in her mouth. She is still sleeping 11-12 hours a night! Thank the Lord! She has been doing this since she turned 8 weeks old. She also loves to have a "lovie" touching her face when she goes to sleep, along with the paci. She likes her exersaucer a good bit. Today she started eating baby food. She has been eating cereal since the 3 month mark, so I thought we should go ahead. I decided to go with carrots first. Jeremy was under the impression that when she started with baby food that she would no longer take a bottle. Hmmm...you would think this was his first rodeo! Anyhow, here are some pics of the sweet angel over the past month doing some of her firsts and some just for fun!



Sitting in the exersaucer for the first time



After a bath

Asleep in the saucer (she was like this for just a few seconds)

Such a sweet and pretty little baby!

This picture should actually be the last. This is right after the rolled from her back to her tummy!

Getting ready to roll!

I think I can....I think I can...

Being terrorized by her big sister! It got quiet all of a sudden and that usually means trouble. This is what I found!

First time to eat carrots

Why are you doing this to me?

The mess wasn't horrible for her first time. I had a few spots on my white tank.

After her bath with a little mohawk

Playing with some of her toys

I hope the next four months don't go by as fast as the last. Love you baby girl!

t

Potty Trained!

I don't know why I didn't do this sooner! The princess was trained in 3 days! We used the bare bottom, three day method. The first day was great, besides being stuck in the house ALL day. There were no accidents. The rule was that we had to be confined to one area all day and the potty chair stayed in that area. Also, after she went to the potty I had to do a potty dance. She loved it for a while and then said, "No Mommy, don't do the dance." I guess I wasn't very good at this! There was a lot of Barney, Elmo and Dora watched that day. We did break to color and read books, but not much. The second day was the same as the first. We were allowed to go outside for one hour in the afternoon. She had an accident as soon as she got up that morning because she had worn panties over her diaper and did not want them to come off. Peed right in the living room floor! After that, things were going great. That is until we went outside. We had been playing for about thirty minutes and she said she wanted to go inside. The goal was to make it the whole hour, so I said we couldn't. Well, about five minutes later she climbed onto the swing set. Stood there and pooped right in the yard! I had to explain that we don't poo poo in the yard, only in the toilet. Her response, "Muffin poo poos in da ard." Of course! Makes perfect sense! The third day we were allowed to go outside once in the morning and we had to actually get in the car and go somewhere that afternoon for an hour. Our outing was down the street to Jill and Bill's. She did great! We were gone an hour and a half with no accidents! There have been a few here and there, but nothing to complain about! I am so proud of her! She did such a good job!!

Here she is on the potty chair

Thanks to uncle B for the redneck t-shirt. It says, "But DAD said it was o.k...PCB" PCB 09 baby!

So proud to finally wear Dora without a diaper! On a side note, I think she looks like me in this pic. Circa 1986

During our outing to Jill's, she promised to get Riley a treat if she poo pooed in the potty. There was a little fear of this. As soon as she did one day she looked up at me and said, "I need to call Jill. Where's my treat?" We called Jill that night and they had a full blown conversation about what the treat would be. She decided she wanted blue ice cream. Jill set the date for the next night at a local ice cream shoppe. They did not have blue, so she went with the cotton candy flavor and a fancy little cone. She loved it and Loves Jill and Bill! Thanks for being such great friends y'all!

Here she is with J Bird eating her cone

So happy that this is behind us!