Parker Pearl's Newborn pics!!

I CANNOT believe I never posted all of these!! Such a slacker mommy! Poor second child :(

The AMAZING Britney with Tucker Images took these beautiful pictures of my little ladies! She does such beautiful work for weddings, maternity sessions, engagement sessions, the list goes on and on, go check her out!!

Now... on to the pictures... ENJOY!!!!

Digital slideshow personalized with Smilebox

Happy Easter!!

We had so much fun this Easter!! Now that McKenley is a bit older, she is starting to understand all the festivities and it was Parker's first Easter!! McKenley got to hunt Easter eggs with friends, her cousin Blake, and at school, the Easter bunny visited our house and left her some fun gifts, and both girls got to dress up in pretty dress and go to church on Sunday morning!! It was a SUPER busy weekend, but we had a BLAST with our family!! Here are some pictures highlighting our fun

Ready for the Easter egg hunt at school!!

Parker's first visit to the Easter bunny!!

Parker ~ gettin into the Easter spirit!

So blessed that the WHOLE family was together!! I love these people!

So lucky that these girls have such amazing aunts!!

My precious family!!

 

 

 And the egg hunting fun!!!

Love spending time with these ladies and our family!

Happy 2 Months... a little late

Its been 2 of the craziest, busiest months of our lives... and I don't see things slowing down any time soon!!! Our littlest princess has been with us for about 10 weeks now and we are having a blast with her!! (and yes, a bit exhausted as well, haha)

Here are a few of my faves from our 2 month photo sesh...

I'm in LOVE with those big brown eyes!!!

~ Parker is starting to enjoy her toys more and will sit and watch the lights and listen to the music for longer stretches of time... which is GREAT for mommy when she is trying to be productive :)

~ Parker's neck muscles are getting stronger and stronger!! She is able to sit and hold her head up on my lap and will tolerate tummy time for a longer period of time (still only about 5 minutes though, before she makes it clear she is DONE!!)

~ We hear ALL the time that she is "SOOO ALERT"!! Which is super cute, until you want her to be... not so alert, haha

~ Parker is DEFINITELY setting herself apart from her older sister. McKenley was always a pretty quiet baby... Lets just say, Parker's vocal chords are strong!!! 

Schedule:

We have been working hard on getting Parker on a schedule and SOME days, we are pretty successful!! During the day she eats pretty regularly, every 3 hours.  We let her "play" a bit afterwards and then, fingers crossed, she takes a nap.  She used to nap pretty well in her swing, but we haven't been as successful lately, and naps in her crib only last about 30 minutes... so basically, the little lady does not sleep much during the day :/ BUT, when I am at my break point of crying and exhausted baby, I try to remind myself that she is a pretty consistent sleeper at night!! I feed her and put her down at 8pm and she usually stays asleep!! I get her at 1130 and feed her again while she is basically still asleep and she stays asleep until about 5am!!! Its great to get a larger block of sleep makes all the difference :)

On the 25th, we went to the doctor to see how Parker was growing, here are her stats:

Weight ~ 11 lbs 3.5 oz (55%)

Length ~ 23 1/2 inches (95%)

Head ~ 15 1/4 inches (55%)

Diapers ~ Size 1

Clothes ~ mostly 0-3 months

Can't wait to see how our little lady grows and changes this next month!!

How to plant bulbs -- with McKenley and Mimi!!

This past Saturday, Daddy and Grandpa David laid the pretty hardwood floors in Parker's room (pictures to come!!). While they were hard at work, we had to keep the princess busy, so her and Mimi headed outside to plant tulip and daffodil bulbs so we would have pretty flowers in the spring (fingers crossed I don't find a way to ruin them!!). Here are some step-by-step instructions on how its done McKenley style!! haha

FIRST... you should make sure you are very educated about flowers and the bulbs... McKenley told me all about them :)

THEN... dig a hole and toss the bulb in!

 Make sure to cover up the hole.

 Its ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to stomp all over them to pack in the dirt... this was probably one of McKenley's favorite parts!!

 DON'T FORGET they need lots of water!!!

 This was her other favorite part...

 can ya tell :) haha

We can't wait until these bloom (again assuming my "brown thumb" doesn't find a way to mess them up before then!!) McKenley is going to love visiting them everyday. We love our little gardener and are so lucky her Mimi loves to do things like this with her!! Thanks MIMI!!!

Princess turns 18 months!!

Ok, ok, I know, I've been completely MIA in my blogging, but with a new baby on the way I HAVE to get back into my routine so I can blog as much for him/her as I did for McKenley!!!

So, what a better way to get back on routine than to celebrate McKenley turning a year and a HALF and to share all the amazing things she is accomplishing each and every day!

Here are a few pictures to show you the great time we've been having the last few months!!

Summer outside fun!!

Loves her hats, Happy Fourth, first ponytail, helpin around the house, BOOMER!!

Accomplishments:
- TALKING, TALKING, and more TALKING!! After month of worrying, unnecessarily I might add, that our little one may never talk, its like everything clicked around 17 months. She went from staring at me blankly when I would try and get her to say "more" or "bye-bye" to trying to mimic everything Casey and I say... which is something we will now have to be careful about!! It's so fun to watch her work her mouth in a way to say "Deuce" or "WHOA!" and she gets so excited when she realizes she has successfully said a new word. She has started asking for things by name, "milk" and "snack" and definitely "Elmo"... which sounds a bit more like "Momo" :) We can't wait for her to start putting several words together!!

- Running, jumping, bear crawling, somersaulting, wheelbarrowing... this girl moving and grooving EVERYWHERE! We've been taking classes at the Little Gym and she soaks up all they have to teach her! She loves swinging from the bars, going upside-down, kicking the balls, and generally just exploring every inch of the place!
- She's beginning to pretend play... many of you saw the picture I posted on Facebook last week of McKenley "having lunch" with Monkey! She carries her animals around everywhere, reads to them, feeds them, gives them some of her milk and water, it is so cute to watch and it makes my heart at ease knowing she is going to be such a good big sister!
- Eyes, Ears, Mouth, and Nose, McKenley knows her body parts!! And even more entertaining is when she locates them on the dogs or mommy and daddy! 
- McKenley is learning more and more animal sounds all the time. It is the cutest thing to hear her version of what a cat says or to watch her make a "fish face" or a "bunny nose"... the girl loves her animals!

I know there are probably many more things, we are celebrating milestones with her all the time. This has got to be one of the most fun ages, she's turning into such a little clown and makes us laugh daily!

I don't have her stats yet because her doctors appointment is not until next week, but our little peanut is growing, but I doubt she'll ever be one of the bigger kids in the group. She is still wearing 12 month clothes and sometimes she can wear an old 9 month shirt!!
 
Food:
Our little "trash compactor" has now decided she has preferences on what she ingests... and boy are there A LOT of preferences!!! Her favorite things right now are cheese (cheese and more cheese), mosts fruits (LOVES grapes!!), crackers, ravioli or pasta in general, sometimes green beans, tortillas and guacamole (yes, shes her mothers daughter!!!), and eggs! Yes, you are right, you did not see any meats in that list! haha, our little lady has decided that meat is NOT on the top of her food list :) she'll occasionally eat lunch meat, hot dog, or chicken nuggets, but its very hit or miss!!

Sleep:
For the most part we are on a SOLID schedule!!! and I am loving it!!! (which is great since we have a new baby coming and schedules will most likely be thrown out the window) She takes about an hour and a half to two hour nap everyday between 12pm-3pm. Then she's up and moving until bed time around 8:30. MOST OF THE TIME, she sleeps for a full 12 hours and yes, has a wake time between 8am and 9am, LOVE that she sleeps in a bit :)

We are enjoying each and everyday with this little lady, I really couldn't ask for anything more!!! We are so excited how she takes to being a big sister and can't wait to see what all she learns next.

How could you not love this face:

Hoppy Easter 2012

Its crazy to think how much has changed since Easter last year!! Since a picture speaks 1000 words, here's 2,000 to show how much our little lady has grown!!

The top one is pretty much the best picture we could get of the two babies of the family, haha!! Things improved a bit this year if I do say so myself!! :) This may be something we have to try every year!

Blake & McKenley 2011 & 2012

 AHHHH!! These pictures make me smile! I can't believe how happy these two people make me!

Miss McKenley also got to visit the Easter bunny for the first time. I was extremely nervous she would freak out at the site of the life-size, furry bunny, especially since it was a bit on the creepy side, but she LOVED him!! She sat there for so long and even started petting him, haha!!

Turned out SOOOO cute!!

McKenley had a blast this Easter! She didn't get to do much egg hunting because it was like a MONSOON outside :/ I'll be super excited when her and Cousin Blake can hunt for them together.  

We were also super lucky to have most of Casey's family join us! His brother, sister-in-law, and cousin Andrew came in from WYOMING!! and came to Gigi's house to enjoy an Easter lunch with us! She had so much fun with them & really took to them fast, we were sad they couldn't stay for longer & can't wait to see them again! Hopefully it won't take 3 years until the next visit!! :)

Love spending holidays with my amazing family & McKenley makes them all the more special!

And a "Good Friday" it was!!

Friday before last (aka, Good Friday, haha) McKenley's Mimi, Aunt Rachel, and Aunt Katy, and I loaded up and headed to Fort Worth for the little princess's first trip to the zoo!! She has started to take such interest in animals of all different kinds, we thought it couldn't be better timing. It was a bit on the crowded side because all the schools had out for Good Friday, but since its such a big zoo, the crowds weren't that bad.

McKenley had THE BEST time!!!! She couldn't stop staring at all the animals. She would point and point and make the only animal noise she knows, "ruff! ruff!" -- and no, they weren't all dogs, haha.

First stop, PRIMATE HOUSE!!

The gang!

Loved standing at these exhibits and "talking" to the animals!! haha

Had lots of fun playing with the fun souvenirs!

 On to more fun in the African Safari!!

 We were actually in front of the lion exhibit when he started roaring!! In all my years of visiting the zoo, this was the FIRST time I'd ever seen the lion roar!

McKenley was SPEECHLESS!!

 She loved the penguins!! I think they reminded her of watching Happy Feet! haha

 FISHEES!!! She loved all the bright colors, Casey says now we need an aquarium, haha!

 Last stop... Flamingos!!! And boy were they entertaining!! They were making so much noise and we even saw some of them fighting!!

Thanks Mimi for taking us to the zoo!! Can't wait to go again :)

And can you believe, that was only the FIRST part of our day!!  As we left the zoo, our little adventurer didn't even make it out of the parking lot before she passed out!! We headed back to Mimi's house and decided to take our adventures to Southlake Town Square for some shopping! Of course McKenley got a treat from her Mimi, she said it was a "pre-Easter gift" an adorable stuffed chick that baby LOVES!! Aunt Rachel got a dress for graduation and we had a great afternoon walking around and enjoying the weather!!

Finally, we were off to dinner! It wasn't the smoothest experience, but all in all, McKenley LOVED the Mexican food (like her mommy), the company, and most of all the live band!! She danced the whole way through dinner.

I have to say that I am so happy that I have such a trooper for a daughter. She was in great spirits all day, no matter where we took her! We were EXHAUSTED by the time we finally got home! But we sure did have a "Good Friday"!!! :)

Beautiful Bluebonnets!!

I was so bummed that I didn't take McKenley out to the bluebonnets last year! But, things were a bit crazy around here at that point in our lives, so I can't be too hard on myself, haha

I took McKenley to two different fields here by our house. First, we went to a field in Frisco by the JCPenny Headquarters building. I had no idea this field even existed, but they were beautiful!! A few days later, we headed towards Little Elm to the field at the Mt. Zion cemetery. No, we did not go romping around through headstones to get the pictures!! haha. This was a separate part of the cemetery area, it was a field of bluebonnets and these gorgeous yellow flowers throughout. Supposedly, those yellow flowers are overtaking the bluebonnets and aren't good, but they sure were pretty!!

Here are a few of my favorite pics from both of the fields:

A few from both fields

This one shows the blue and yellow perfectly... needless to say, she was NOT cooperating!!

Of course she tried to eat them!!

Can't wait to make this a tradition we do every year! The bluebonnets are here for such a short amount of time, I was so glad we got to enjoy them this year :)

Spring is here & things are a changin!!

Welp, it has happened! One of the things that I have been dreading the most... 

McKenley has officially weaned herself to only one nap a day!!!! AHHHHHH! 

I was really hoping I could put this off for a few more months, I don't know why I am so surprised that our little princess had a different plan in mind, we all know she's been this way from day 1, LITERALLY!!! haha

I had just gotten used to our routine of two naps a day, scheduled all of our activities around the 2 nap schedule and now all of it needs to change. Ohhhh, the things we'll do for a good nap :) 

So, "officially" (because we all know a schedule with babies is never official!!) her new schedule is as follows:

8:00am - McKenley wakes up

Within 30 minutes of waking - Breakfast

9:30 - 10 - Mid-Morning Snack

11:30 - Lunch

12:00 - fingers crossed 2pm - the ONE nap of the day!!

3:30 - Afternoon snack

6:00 - Dinner

8:00 - Bedtime

Whew!! Makes for a busy, and sometimes very long day! I am very excited though, that we have a little more time in the morning to do some fun activities like Babies and Books at the Library that used to conflict with her morning nap! 

And that's NOT where the changes end!!! As of last Thursday, this house is OFFICIALLY bottle-free and formula-free! Our little princess is becoming such a big girl, drinking only from a sippy cup with whole milk at meals! It was so liberating to pack up the bottles! No more cleaning all those tiny parts every night, we're LOVING it! 

Casey and I are constantly amazed by how smart she proves to be everyday! She changes so much, right before our eyes shes becoming such a little lady with the cutest personality! Can't wait to see what changes she has up her sleeves next!

And now for your viewing pleasure, a few impromptu photos of our little angel enjoying the spring weather!!