Calling All Noels!

Larry, Bethany, and the kids recently made the trip to Texas to see everyone. Baba and YaYa also came up to stay with us since it was Blaine's birthday. This was the first time we have all been together since before Presley was born. We took the opportunity to take some family pictures.

Pres had so much fun playing with her cousins and it was really great to see everyone again. Hope we get to do it again next year so Baby Beckett can run around and play too!

Movie Night with Daddy

Presley recently had popcorn for the first time!
We gave it to her after dinner one night and she absolutely loved it. She's also started watching movies (her favorites are "Finding Nemo", "Toy Story", and "Cars"). We thought one night, as a treat, she could have a special movie and popcorn night with Daddy after dinner. She chose the movie "Toy Story"and her and Daddy shared a bowl of popcorn while they watched it. It was so cute!

Looks like we will finally be getting some use out of the media room. Can't wait for our next movie and popcorn night!!!

Presley's Garden

Since we had a really warm winter, and spring is just around the corner, we decided to go ahead and replant our garden this past weekend. Presley had so much fun helping us pick out all the vegetables and herbs, so we thought she might like to have her very own plants. She got to pick out two pots and two packages of seeds at Home Depot.

Since both Blaine and myself definitely do not have a green thumb, we decided not to pass this trait down to Presley. Before planting her flowers, we had a little lesson on how to make plants grow. Since she can already read and spell the words "sun" and "water" we knew she would pick this up pretty quickly.

She loved making her little book and was so excited to start planting her flowers!

Getting ready to plant her seeds with Dadda. She picked out two kinds, marigolds and sunflowers.

She had so much fun watering her plants that we decided to let her help us with the rest of the garden. Her new favorite phrase is "Presley do it!", so without any help from us, she wanted to water the tomato plants all by herself.

Here's what Becks was doing while we were in the yard. We bundled him up and brought his swing outside. Sweet little boy slept the whole time while we worked in the garden.

Presley decided that since planting and watering were so much fun, she wanted to try raking too. You go girl! This may not always seem like fun to her so we will take the help whenever we can get it!

We had so much fun spending the day outside together working in the backyard. I can't wait for all of our veggies and herbs to start growing!

Ash Wednesday

This was Beckett's first Ash Wednesday and our first time to go to church as a family of four!

Presley has never missed going to church on Ash Wednesday and this was her third time to receive ashes.

Our sweet little boy celebrating the start of his very first Lent.
We can't wait for Easter!!!

Beckett's One Month Birthday!

When Presley was born, I made a birthday cake for her every month on the 18th until she was one! It was so much fun making a decorating a new cake to celebrate each month she got older. Each cake had a theme to go along with whatever holiday or season went along with that month.

Well, now it's Beckett's turn! I'm so excited to start doing our monthly cakes again. Since his first month birthday was in February, this cake's theme was Valentine's Day. It was strawberry with chocolate frosting...yum!

Dadda and one month old Beckett!

Momma and the birthday boy!

Dadda and Presley about to enjoy Beckett's cake.

Here's what Beckett was doing while we celebrated his birthday!

Happy one month birthday, sweet boy!

Okay, I can't resist...since we didn't have the blog on Presley's one month birthday, here are a few pictures from her party.

Happy Valentine's Day

Now that's Pres is getting a little bit older, I thought it would be fun to do some real Valentine's Day activities with her. We couldn't fit them all into one day, so we started on 2/13. She had a blast using the little conversation hearts and had even more fun eating them!

We started by sorting all the colors.

Then we counted how many of each color we had.

We talked about perimeter and going around a shape...

...and we talked about area and filling in a shape.

She did such a great job gluing all the hearts down by herself!

On Valentine's Day morning, Presley had one of her favorite breakfasts: heart shaped french toast and strawberries!

We also baked and decorated a cake for Dadda, but Presley and Dadda both got a piece before I could get a picture of the cake. They definitely have a sweet tooth in common!

Presley and Dadda

Presley and Momma

Mmmmmm...cake!

Think she liked it?

Little brother and big sister!

Swimmer of the Month!

Our little swimming super star got "Swimmer of the Month" for February!
We are so proud of her and all here hard work. There was even a write up about Presley in the Nitro Swim newsletter. Here's what it said:

Miss Presley joined Nitro in August 2010 shortly before her first birthday. Once she became acclimated to the water, Presley's participation and willingness to do class activities vastly increased. Through Parent/Tot 1, and now in Parent/Tot 2, Presley has bloomed into this superstar! Over the holidays, she was able to do entire 30 minute one-on-one class with Miss Bonnie, while mom was able to sit outside the pool and watch -- successful submersions, floats, kicking, recoveries and more. How special to see this little girl who we've watched grow up, and is now two and half, be able to achieve so much and be so happy about it! Mr. and Mrs. Noel have played a crutial role in Presley's time at Nitro with their consistency and encouragement -- the Noel family has missed a total of six lessons in the 18 months they've been enrolled. We're anxious to meet their new addition and get Presley ready for Nitro 1 this summer! "At only 30 months, Presley is demonstrating a vast number of skills -- she holds her breath for over 15 seconds, flies across the water in her "Tinker Bell" float and can jump in to recover to the wall," Miss Bonnie said. "It is her love for the water and her eagerness to start her class each week that is truly priceless."

She was so excited to see her name on the board!

Can't wait for summer so we can show off all our new moves at the pool!