Better Late Than Never!

Sorry this post is about a month late. We've been super busy at the Noel house these past couple of weeks.

Well, this is what Presley would have been for Halloween...a little piggy. I say "would have" because 2 days before Halloween she got her very first stomach virus. It was horrible! I was hoping that she might start feeling better in time to go trick-or-treating, but she was so wiped out from being sick that she had absolutely no energy. To top it all off, Blaine got the same bug and got sick on Halloween night. It was not a good couple of days, but thankfully baby #2 and I didn't get it.
I was so excited about her being a little pig because her costume was super cute. At least we have a few pics to share. Hopefully next Halloween will go much better.

First Family Vacation

We took our first family vacation (and our last as a family of only 3) a few weeks ago. Presley had really started noticing and taken an interest in all kinds of animals, so we thought it would be fun to go down to San Antonio for a few days and take her to the zoo and Sea World.

We decided to leave Austin right after lunch so that Presley could take her nap during the drive down there and wake nice and rested for our day at the zoo.

Well, that didn't exactly happen. We left on time, but for the first time ever Presley did not take a nap. She has never skipped a nap, and will always nap in the car if we're going on a long trip. But she stayed wide awake the entire time. We pulled into the zoo parking lot knowing that we had a ticking time bomb that would explode at any minute.

First stop...zoo gift shop. It had been in the 50s when we left Austin, but was nearing 80 degrees in San Antonio when we got to the zoo (who knew the temperature could be so drastically different just and hour and half away???). I had packed all long sleeve for Presley so we had to buy her a t-shirt to wear. The last thing we wanted was for her to be tired, cranky, and hot.

The first animals we saw were pink flamingos! Presley really liked them, but I don't think she believed me when I told her they were birds.

Next stop... get Presley's blood sugar up to buy us a little more time before the bomb went off. A strawberry popsicle did the trick beautifully! Presley loved it and when she was finished we were on our way to see more animals.

We stopped to see several animals along the way, but nothing compared to the hippo exhibit. Presley could have stood here all day and watched the hippos and fish swimming in the tank. I bet we spent at least 20 minutes in here (which was great because it was indoors and air conditioned).

She did not want to leave! It took a lot of convincing to get her to go back out to see the rest of the zoo.

Mommy and Presley by the lions.

Presley and Daddy...I love this picture!

After about 2 hours at the zoo, it was time to go check in at our hotel and have some dinner. We made it about 3 miles from the zoo when we looked back and saw this:

Our hotel was about 15 miles away, so she got about 20 minutes of sleep. When we woke her up she was not happy! Kaboom...the bomb finally exploded.
She cried the whole time we were checking in, all the way up the elevator, and for quite a while after we got in our room. We decided the best thing to do would be to call room service and order dinner in the room. To go out would have been a disaster, and I would forever feel guilty for the poor people who would have to sit next to us.

So we ordered Presley a hamburger with fruit. While we were waiting for it to arrive, Blaine went down to the hotel lobby bar and ordered Pres a Shirley Temple. She had never had one before but she loves cherries. When he walked back in with her bubbly pink surprise the tears instantly stopped and were replaced with a huge smile. Sure enough, the drink was a hit and she was instantly happy! We had a super peaceful dinner in our room.

Cheers to our first family vacation!

After dinner, we headed outside for a walk around the resort. We ended up at one of the restaurants by the pool. We sat outside and ordered coffee for us and chocolate cake with ice cream and milk for Presley.

This trip was all about Presley, so why not have cake and ice cream at 7:30pm!

She had a blast devouring her cake!

Day 2

We woke up early, went out to breakfast, then headed to Sea World. We thought if we got there right when they opened that we would beat the crowds...we were wrong. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes (with a very patient Presley) we finally got into the park. First stop....gift shop to buy another t-shirt since Mommy doesn't know how to pack very well.

Not sure what we expected, but Sea World did not have as much to do as we had hoped. Most of the shows didn't start until later in the afternoon when Presley would be napping. It's a great place if you have older children, but not too much to do with a toddler. We were thinking about leaving when we spotted the dolphins.
Jackpot!!!

Presley LOVED the dolphins! They came up close enough to touch. I'm pretty sure she would have jumped in with them if we had let her. We stayed there for quite a while. It must have been our lucky day because right next to the dolphin pool was a huge indoor aquarium. After seeing how much she loved the fish and hippo exhibit the day before, we knew she would love this too.

Yep, she loved watching all the fish and even got to see her first shark! I think we might have a future marine biologist on our hands.

We stayed here for a little while. But guess where we went next...

You got it! Back to the dolphins!!!

We stayed here for the rest of our time at Sea World.

We had so much fun on vacation with our little Princess. We decided to make this an annual trip. Next year, we'll be taking two kids on vacation...we can't wait!

Pumpkin Patch

We made our annual trip to a pumpkin patch again this year!
Presley loves pumpkins and had a blast playing around all the pumpkins in the patch. She even did a great job posing for some pictures for us!

All of our hard work practicing a "pretty smile" has finally paid off. How cute is she???

All the pumpkins were a little overwhelming. Not sure if Presley knew what to think of all of them, but she had a blast walking around playing with all the pumpkins.

We have a winner! Looks like Pres found one she likes. Can't wait to carve it into a jack-o-lantern for Halloween night!

New Dance Class

Presley is now a dancer!

Since the day I found out we were having a girl, I have been waiting to put her in ballet. I took ballet for 8 years and loved it. I was really excited to learn that a little ballet studio, only 3 miles from our house, offered a dance class for kids Presley's age. Her class is called "Dance With Me" and it's a Mom and Tot class to help with primary dance skills before going into the actual ballet class (which she can star in February)!

We took a trial class a few weeks ago and Pres loved it! It's every Monday at 11:30 (which is perfect, because Monday was our only free day). We went to the dance shop that weekend and got all her cute little ballet gear. I wasn't sure if they even made ballet shoes in her size, but sure enough...they do!!!

She might just be the cutest thing I have ever seen!!! I wish she could wear this everyday!

Our little princess is a gymnast, swimmer, and now a dancer too!

Pumpkin Painting

Ya-Ya came up to Austin this weekend for a visit! Since it's almost Halloween, and Presley is still too young to carve a pumpkin, she bought her some small pumpkins to paint. She even brought her a little orange apron to wear while she painted the pumpkins...isn't she cute??? It was so much fun and Presley did such a great job. I think this might have to be a new yearly tradition.

Presley getting ready to paint her first pumpkin.

Getting a little paint on the brush. She was surprisingly neat and organized while she painted. I wonder where she gets that from?

Concentrating hard on her masterpiece.

Getting a little help from Daddy on her next pumpkin.

One of the beautiful pumpkins she painted (this is the one she painted with Daddy).
I have a feeling we will be doing a few more of these before Halloween. This was such a fun project for Presley. Expect to see a few more arts a crafts posts soon!
Thanks, Ya-Ya!

New Swim Class

Blaine took the morning off work to go to Presley's new swim class last Thursday. About 4 weeks ago, she was moved up to the next level class. The last couple of months in her old class, Presley had started to get really frustrated. She was so far ahead of the other kids and just kept throwing herself underwater so she could swim all by herself. Even though she was a little young, her instructor suggested we go ahead and move her up to the next level. I was a little worried because she is the youngest one in the class and I didn't know if she would be able to keep up. To my surprise, she was still the most advanced...even in the new class! While so many of the other kids are still afraid to get their face wet, Presley is plunging herself underwater and swimming a good 6-8 feel all on her own. She can hold her breath for about 7 seconds and LOVES to be underwater!

Presley getting a little instruction from her teacher, Ms. Bonnie.

Back float time! She's learning how to breath through her mouth when she rolls over on her back. This way, when she is swimming underwater she can come to the surface, roll over on her back to take a break and take a few breaths without getting water in her nose.

Practicing her kicking while she swims. I love how you can tell from Blaine's cheeks that he is also holding his breath while Presley is underwater...so cute!

Yep, that's Pres underwater picking rings up off the bottom of the pool! She's the only one in the class that can do it and it's her favorite part!!! I can't emphasize enough what a little fish she is!

A Pretty Day at the Park!

A couple of weeks ago we had our first nice weather weekend. By nice, I mean lows in the high 60s and highs in the low 90s with a gentle cool breeze. It was by no means a cold front, but it was such a nice break from the 100+ degree weather we had been experiencing for the last few months. We decided to celebrate by going up to the park after breakfast to let Presley play in the "cooler" weather.

She is getting so big! I can't believe she can walk up the playscape and go down the slide all by herself!

While we were at the park, there were a couple of families flying a kite. To our amazement, Presley pointed at one and said "kite!". We weren't sure how she knew what it was, but she was fascinated by it. She and Blaine sat and watched it for a while.

Our beautiful little girl!