Presley & Charlotte's Corner

Wagon Week!

2012-02-22T11:43:00.001-08:00

Last Week was LOTSA Fun!

A few very exciting events! (we call them events, but remember that we dont get out much!)

Last summer we called the city to ask to be put on their list of homes to put the "wheelchair" sidewalks on. You know, so they slope down and then Presley can get on and off sidewalks herself without injury or whiplash. Well while Mike was on the phone with them they also asked, "Well where do you all go from home?" Mike told them in the summer we drove to church and the park in her chair.......

WELL,

Dun Dun Duuuunnnnnn!!

They are now putting new sidewalk corners going from our house to church, THEN from our house going to the park!!! Can you believe it? A simple phone call, and a sweet person caring enough to go even further and for the city to do that for her! Appearantly they are putting them all over the city anyways but they start where they know they will benefit the most! So AWESOME Orem City is my BFF right now! We are sooooo Excited to try them out ALL THE TIME this summer!!! And Presley is so excited to be able to do it herself instead of letting me take her chair down the bumps! (which I still cant do it easy so its not very easy on the rods in her back!)

WE WERE STOKED Last Monday to wake up to this:

Presley got out there to see them doing it and she kept saying, "I gotta go help the truck! He needs my help!"

She loves to help!

This was a few days later when it was time to pour cement!

My C baby has grown UP this week!

She is so "helpful"

I will post more about her being helpful next week.

She also has decided that when Presley is not in her Bumbo, its free game!

She will scoot it across the whole room, climb in and on it and topple over it!

Another BIG EVENT this week was us pulling out the wagon!

Presley and Charlotte needed to mix things up a bit so when that happens I usually go in the basement and find toys they have not seen in a while.

This was their new toy this week!

I dont think we will be putting it away for a while now though. They usually dont sit SO close and they did and they interacted so cute with one another-besides the times the trach got pulled, but Presley just laughs and laughs saying NO NO CHARLOTTE, you are gonna go to time-out!!!

But ya they were in heaven!

This was the first day we pulled it out, (the wagon, not the trach) and this day they literally spent 2 1/2 HOURS buckled in there! We went from room to room exploring, They even ate in there. They played, shared, fought.....And both of them screamed when I got them out to do diapers! Like screaming with feet kicking. I know it seems pretty simple....it is not though, its a lot of work to haul everything around behind her and to even get her in there and sitting straight enough.....We all slept good that night!

This is what Harley does. Always. He follows us from room to room getting as close to the girls, but still being as comfy as possible ;)

Here was the Wagon Tea Party.....
Charlotte does this thing where she crawls up to you with her spoons and cups from the tea set and tries to feed you saying, "num num nums!!!" And then she takes a pretend bite too all the while making the lip smacking face like parents do when they feed their babies!

Harley is SO tolerant of Presley!

(not so much with Charlotte yet)

THATS RIGHT, Its Valentines!!!!!!!

(I love her pointy finger!)

Here is some of their Awesome cards and gifts from friends and family! The girls also got to get visits from both Gramma and Grampa's too!!!

Remember when I said they Fought in the wagon?

This was the fight.

It did not matter to Presley which bear she had, she was willing to compromise.

What did matter to Charlotte is that she got BOTH bears and Presley got none.

So I gave Presley her cupcake from Aunt Katie! (Oh my gosh, she LOVED that thing!!!!!-she ate quite a bit of frosting, good thing its "pudding thick"!)

"Wheres my cupcake????"

No way baby girl!!! You definitely dont need the sugar!

AWE KISSES!!! Charlotte gives the bestest little kisses!
She blows kisses too, with one pointy finger! They are so sweet! And when she wants hugs she crawls up to me and lays her head in my lap OR she will lay her head on her shoulder and say, "AWWWWWWWEEEEEE"
(which means, I want a hug!!!!)

And after she would steal both bears, she would hoard them and stuff them below deck where no one would find them! MINE!!!

And of course I would pull them out and give one to each of them, trading colors to see if that would make a difference. But nope, Charlotte wants both! And since she is stronger she would always end up with both! And then stuff them again under her seat!

The cycle continued!

Until finally I tightened her seatbelt, and stuffed one up Presleys arm so far back that Presley could feel it and know she was holding it but Charlotte could not reach it! SUCCESS!!!!!

Or NOT!

Charlotte wasn't havin' that!
(see how she is holding and pulling presley's hand away, thats what she does to get something from Pres. Presley is not as strong so Charlotte just moves her arms and gets what she wants! So we have had to work on Presley "holding tight", its good physical therapy! Maybe not so good emotional therapy? Me teaching Presley to not give it to her baby sissy........hahaaaa, ya maybe not so good. Ah well!
Charlotte is plenty loved!)

But Thankfully this week we have really been focusing on sharing! Because Presley, believe it or not, has a hard time sharing certain things....like her dad, with ME! ("Mommy, I dont think you and Daddy are best friends. I think I AM DADDY's Best friend! I dont want you hugging Daddy, or kissing daddy, or sitting by daddy!!" We call her the "Sayer of who's who's friends")

So we are trying to teach her sharing, which is harder when she is only around her grabby little sissy who has not gotten that concept yet! ;)

But my heart melted when Presley saw Charlottes above face and said, HERE BABY CHARLOTTE, I WILL SHARE WITH YOU, DONT CRY, BE HAPPY, OKAY???????

And my sweet little Pres handed Charlotte her bear

And happily watched as Charlotte stuffed it below her seat.

As you can imagine, every day the rest of the week was Wagon Day!

This time we tried something new. And Dangerous. (we live on the edge)

We stuffed the vent in the wagon and to keep charlotte from grabbing it (like she is in this Pic) we drove FAST!!!! And they both laughed so hard that Im positive they peed their pants....which is fine, cause they wear diapers.......

Look at Presley's face in this one! This is what was happening for over an hour. Screaming, mouths open, THRILLING!!!! I got my workout!

And so did Gramma!!!

And though our arms felt like they might break, it was worth it to see these two laughing and smiling for hours straight!

Afterwards Grampa Terry came over to bring the girls a Grampa Treat! Which for Presley, is almost always a sucker since its one of the only treats she can independently eat!

Grampa snuck Charlotte one! And I thought Id just get a few cute pictures before I took it from her!

(before she bit it!)

Well either it took me forever to take pics or she sucked fast, cause it was almost gone by the time I got it from her! Oh my gosh! Thats the last sucker she gets til she is older cause

Im kind of a freak about sugar for babies. And Choking!

But Charlotte Loved it that is for sure!

Saturday was SUNNY!!!! YEAAAAAAAAH!!!!!

That means we can get out!

And of course, being Wagon Week, we decided to make it possible to go out and about in the wagon!

Which is scary for me! Im so used to everything in its place on the chair! But this time it was me carrying Ambu Bag and Supply Bag, Daddy carrying Suction and Trach Supplies and Charlotte and Presley carrying the Vent in the wagon! PHEW, the things we do for our kids as parents huh? Well it was so much fun! And we felt so compact! It was so strange! We almost felt normal hahahaaaa! In fact, we felt so great we decided to walk to Zurchers Party Store and let Presley pick out a balloon! She chose the Zebra.....AND Frog. Well, being such a fast learner and having been really good at sharing this week, I decided to give her the option of "Sharing" and taking one of her balloons to her BFF Cousin Alyssa on our walk home. She chose to share! YEEEEAH!!!! So proud of my little princess! The whole way to Alyssa's house she kept saying, "Im going to keep my Zebra and I am going to share the Frog and give it to Alyssa okay mommy?" I was such a proud momma! She kept telling me how nice it was to share and how Alyssa was going to say thank you and be so happy to get a balloon from her!

Well, one thing we did forget was the spare batteries for the vent. So luckily it was a fast outing and we got home in time to plug this chick in!

Charlotte was so cute, and SILENT the whole walk. She could not look because the sun was so bright, so she had this stunned face the whole time, looking at the ground-It was pretty cute!

She loved sitting right next to her sissy though! They had a blast together!

(if you look real close you can see poor harley at the window waiting for his girls!)

This is the "I can barely see you" look

Sharing with Alyssa!

Dont We look SO compact? It was such a strange feeling!!!!

AWE What a fun day!!!

Since Charlotte was sitting in the wagon next to her, and I had to feed her, Presley wanted some too! I gave her some bites and had to capture this pic. EVERY time she eats or tries to chew or swallow she makes this face. Like she is not sure what to do with it in her mouth, but she wants to try!

So she looks at me with this very face and says

"YUM MOM THIS IS SO YUMMY."

and gags.
"YUM, ITS REALLY GOOD TOO!!"
gag again.

If she concentrates though, she can swallow it pretty good and kinda chew it. She is definitely getting better, and the more practice she has, the better she gets. I think when she is older she will really be able to work through it a little better.

She has interest in eating, but I think her mouth forgot a little, it does not come so natural so its like teaching her mouth to chew and maneuver food, which is hard to show her how to do ya know? :)

She is SO cute though, she tries so hard!

Im so proud!

Harley loves it when there is an open spot next to presley where she can pet her and rest her hand on him!

We had such a fun week! With BIG EVENTS as you can see!

These girls are the sweetest and we are lucky X100,000,000,000,000,000 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Im not sure how many 0's make a hundred Gazillion, but thats what I was going for!)

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Stationery card

2012-02-13T19:09:00.001-08:00

Sweetest Wishes Valentine's Card

Invitations, announcements and Valentine's Day cards by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

This Week :)

2012-02-11T21:32:00.000-08:00

It was a fun filled action packed week here!

Here is a little recap:

Presleys friend Kendra (mom of Presley's angel friend Kenzie), sent these cute little finger puppets to Pres and matching bracelets for Charlotte and her! So these have been a big hit this week! THANK YOU KENDRA!!! You have totally made her a happy girl! She felt so special!

She loved putting puppy in front of her eye for pictures....

Daddy watched the Superbowl with Charlotte. My first thought was "poor charlotte" but when I went in to see if she wanted to come with me she kept shaking her head no and leaning to Daddy! She is like her big sis! Doesnt matter what she is doing, as long as its with Daddy! :)

While Daddy and Charlotte did that, Presley got to Facetime Candace! She loved it and kept saying, "Is that you Can-can?" and she even said hi to JOE! (well, Clifford did anyways.)

We have been playing a lot of Ball this week! Presley loves sports! She and I take turns making hoops and throwing and catching the ball!

Harley did this a lot this week. Isnt he so soft and cuddly looking? Good thing you cant smell him through the screen. He needs a bath.

Charlotte is really taking an interest in Organizing! She pulls all of our sterile water inhalation bags out of the closet, and organizes them.....Out in the middle of the living room floor...everywhere.....all over! And look at how tough she is? Those things are heavy!

Charlotte has been VERY interested in babies for the last few weeks. If she starts taking off towards something I dont want her to get I say, "Charlotte go get your baby and give her kisses!!!!" She stops in her tracks, turns around, and says, "BAAA BAAAA!" (baby) and finds her baby doll and gives her kisses while making the "awwwwweeeee" noise. Oh my gosh, it is seriously SO SWEET!

Those are the "kisses". She was picking up this baby kissing her, then trading for that baby on the floor and kissing her, then trading again! Making sure they both got plenty of kisses!

In fact, that day she was VERY INTO babies. While I was feeding her all of a sudden she stopped and kept telling me, "BAAA BAAAA" I was like, "Bottle?" and she was so insistent on getting me to understand what she was needing to tell me! I was so confused and finally she reached over to the baby food jar she had been looking at and used her little pointer finger to point at the BABY on the JAR!!! I was like, "DANG, good thing I took that fish oil when I was prego with you, ya little smarty pants!!!! HAHAAAAA!" She was showing me the BABY!!!!! And once I realized and recognized she was so happy with me and herself!

But then she wouldnt eat. She was too excited to go give her babies more kisses.

(oh ya, and so I handed her the jar and this is what she kept doing...."BAAAA BAAAA!!!!"

Tuesday ( I think it was Tues anyways?) was a fun day! One of the highlights was we got to Facetime with our friend Silas who also has SMARD! Presley loved "meeting" him and his cute momma and their puppies! It was so much fun!

!One afternoon while my momma (AKA respit nurse Gramma!) was over helping me out......Nurse Gramma lost her PEN she was charting with!

"It was IN MY POCKET! Where is it!! Oh my gosh!"

She could Not find the dang pen!

We looked everywhere. Well, I didnt really look that hard. But poor gramma was looking everywhere!

I said, Just dont let Charlotte eat it!

Well, Gramma was baffled. It was lost.

"Presley have you seen Gramma's pen?"

ANYWHERE???

Okay, We did find it. Its in THIS very picture......Dont cheat.....Can you find it???

Look very closely.........

After a while, a long while Presley was bouncing around in her bumbo and lo and behold....

WE FOUND THE PEN!!!!

Somehow, When gramma leaned over to do something near Presley, for Presley, her pen slipped right outta her pocket and attached itself in Presleys hair!!!!! Presley didnt notice, and we didnt see it til Presley was bouncing her head around and the pen was flying back and forth!

This was an "I almost peed" moment.

We had SO many fun things this week! A lot of which deserve posts for themselves!

-Update from our Friends from our "Pennies for Presley" from Old Mill Elementary-

-Sending out Valentines for 2012-

-Gramma/Grampa weekend-sleepover while mommy and daddy got a

romantic weekend at Zermatt Resort-

-So much more!!!!!-

But today (Saturday) Mike and I got back from our little overnighter/date and it was SUCH A NICE day! So we decided to take Presley to see her "Bear"! Which she totally loved! And so did we!

It was during Charlottes naptime, so good thing she was so cooperative and slept in her stroller!

Presley ran races with mommy and daddy

She also met a few dogs-one of which was named, "Small Fry"-

and she kept following him saying, "Buh Bye Small Fry!"

Another dog she started chasing on speed 4 and the dog turned around barking at her and she was laughing sooooo hard! Poor tiny dog was protecting his owner from the girl on wheels!

Presley and Daddy have matching "Oakleys"

(they are THE bestest sunglasses for her because she always needs sunglasses in order to drive well out in the sun! So totally worth it for her, and so glad they make em for kids!

We found a beehive!

Oh ya, did I mention Charlotte's a Daddy's girl? ;)

And this is how much hair she has now.........Awe, its going to be so beautiful!

Okay! Back to the walk (dang blogger uploaded the last two pics in wrong order and I was too lazy to move em....though it probably would have taken less time than writing this whole explanation......hmmmmm, reconsidering.....)

Well! That was our day, our week!!!!

PS, She still is driving her "Farmer!" ;)

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Charlotte and Presley's "Compromise" (is there such a thing with a 10 month old?)

2012-02-04T21:14:00.000-08:00

Are you wondering how this little girl got 2 Camelbacks?

I mean, what in the world does a baby this small need two Camelbacks for?

This is a story of Charlotte, and the Camelbacks.

It all started one Saturday afternoon when Charlotte Mae was sitting minding her own business drinking Momma's Camelback.......(that she HAD to have)

PS THIS LITTLE CHICK WONT HOLD HER OWN BOTTLE, YET SHE TOTALLY STEALS MY CAMELBACK, POPS OPEN THE STRAW HOLDS IT UP AND DRINKS FROM IT EVEN WHEN ITS COMPLETELY FULL. BUT YET SHE WILL NOT HOLD HER OWN BABY BOTTLE?

(teee hee heee look at her overflow of H2O!!)

Okay, back to the story:

So she was drinking my Camelback. When Presley decided, its only fair that she get Daddys if Charlotte has Mommy's. So Presley started sippin' on hers too.

(PS those are Daddy's big hands, haha, not presley's)

SO Presley was minding HER own "biz" drinking hers...........

WELL, Charlotte decided 2 was better than 1 so she fought Presley for hers.

And won.

(Presley is smiling in this picture, but believe me their were growls and squeals and grunts and hisses when these two were fighting for em.)

(WINNER!)

But Presley being the good sharer she is, she decided thats okay!

"I will take Red, you can have Blue Charlotte."

Well nope, Charlotte wanted Red, no Blue, no Red, Nooo.........."whatever you want Presley, I want"

"Here, I will take BLUE......."

".......AND Red."

And that is how Punkin' got BOTH camelbacks.

Good thing Presley has her own childsize purple butterfly Camelback.

And good thing Charlotte only has Two hands.

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Her Version

2012-02-04T10:31:00.000-08:00

We are so incredibly lucky.

Our insurance this year again approved the synagis shot (RSV shot) for Presley. Its almost unheard of to get approved after they are over two. She got approved last year which was a miracle, and then again this year. Presley is not so sure if its luck though? See, the shot goes by how much you weigh-so Presley being about 35 pounds....well, its a freaking expensive shot and a big dose. Which means its A LOT going in. It actually ends up being 3 different shots in her legs.

Gramma, uh hum, our Respit nurse, gives her shots because she is a lot more forgiving to gramma. Plus I know my momma is a good poker because she has given me all my shots my whole life.

(which I get so anxious with shots too!!!)

So my sweet baby girl had to get her RSV shot for the 3rd time this year (her FEB dose) and this time I didnt really talk about it or prepare her before, but this is how it went:

Gramma shows up with 5 balloons, red and pink hearts. Doesnt say why she brought them, but I know its Gramma's way of saying sorry I had to give you these shots.

Presley gets excited! BALLOONS!

Gramma says, "Mommy has something to tell you Presley"

Oh great, leave it to me......heeehee. So I say, "Pres, Gramma's gotta give ya some medicine in your legs and you can help, or you can give Nala and Simba medicine while she does it, or I can hold you-its your choice"

I didnt have to say the word shot, I didnt want to say the word shot, but smarty pants knew anyways-which I knew she would. I just hate the word shot.

TEARS, SOBS, HEART RATE IN THE 180's, turning pale, sobbing, more pleading....."Mommy, Mommy, please just let me give myself my own medicine, I can do it all by myself mommy, please gramma (looking at gramma and feeling the cold alchohol wipe on her leg....) NO GRAMMA, I can do it MYSELF, let me do it myself!!!!!!! NOOOOOO NOOOOOOO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"

(She got the I can do it myself because last time I let her give a shot to Clifford after she got it, this time she figured she had practiced so she could do it herself)

My heart broken, I know, I hate shots too. I cant even tell her it would not hurt because I dont wanna lie!!!

I told her, "Im sorry Pres, I hate them too, I really am sorry, but this will keep you healthy and help us stay home this winter and keep you from getting sick and more yuckies"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

1, 2, 3.

She got 3 pokes and she was shaking and screaming to put her pants back on.

So once she got her pants on I sang her a song, she politely told Gramma Thank you and she was done.

Then she looked at Charlotte who was worried and said "Dont worry Charlotte, we are done and Im okay."

Then she told me, "Gramma bought me these balloons because I was SO BRAVE!"

And she really was. Its not fun to be expecting something like that! Its the anxiety that is the worst!

OKAY, so thats what happened.

Remember when I said we talk about our day and dreams before bed every night?

Tonight this is how THAT went:

"Presley will you tell me bout your day?"

"OH YAAA Sure! I played with baby Charlotte, and I built a tower, I got balloons because I was so brave......because gramma gave me shots and medicine in my leg...and I told her NO Gramma, you cannot give me a shot, I can do it MYSELF and you need to back off Gramma and give me my balloons. (which she totally didnt say) I said Gramma go sit on the couch and she tried to give me the shot but I said NO GRAMMA NO NO NO NO NO NO NO, And I kept telling her NO I DID NOT want a SHOT. And I told her I was going to do it myself, and I was SO BRAVE so then I did get the balloons and I had Gramma sit on the couch. (which she also did not do) And I did so good but Gramma is done giving me shots I do not want anymore okaaaaaaaaaaaay???!! And then I got a bath and......" so on and so on about the rest of the night. (all very controlled and stern)

She went on and on about it and pretty much made it out like she called all the shots. Im so glad she sees it that way. She told the story like things were under control thanks to her and she was confident and assertive and very stern. If thats how she see's it then thats how it happened, which she made it sound less traumatic and more like she was totally annoyed she had to get a shot. But she told us off and she came out okay And that's that! ;)

I love hearing her version of things! Sometimes its the same as what happened and sometimes its how she wishes it happened and sometimes it a dramatic version. She has such an imagination and its so fun as she is getting older and able more and more to express that.

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Presley's a big helper!!! (C's bath) and night time!

2012-02-01T22:06:00.000-08:00

-A few randoms-

70% of the time, this is where Harley is.

20% he is next to her with her arm around him.

The other 10% he is running away from Charlotte.

Presley is in a stage where she is always asking, "Can I come with you?" I think she is realizing she wants to be everywhere where you are and going where you are going and doing what you are doing. But with all her equipment, its just not possible to have her come with me to go potty every time. Or to help me fix my lunch. Or to go home with Gramma. If she is in her chair of course she can get around. But with Charlotte and just me, there is no way to have her in her chair all day. So this was one of those days Gramma Karen was over- and I was like, EEEEK I gotta give Charlotte a bath while Gramma is here! (like my last post said, I gotta take advantage of every chance I get! Or the chance might not come again for a while!) So I was scramming around trying to get C ready for her bath in Presley's shower. Presley said, "Mommy, can I help you?" I started to tell her no, when I was like, I am so dang sick of having to always tell her no. "YES YOU CAN!" Gramma grabbed the vent and bumbo- and dang it Presley helped give Charlotte her bath! She felt like such a helpful big sister! And she was! She splashed her and threw her the ducky and even lathered up Charlottes fuzzy hair with me!

Here she is holding the water

But holding it wasnt as much fun or as easy as splashing the water. ;)

After the bath I got her dressed in this cute little thing and I put the hood on and Presley said, "Mommy, Did you get Charlotte dressed in a TOWEL? Oh, Charlotte, I like your towel!" teeheeeeee!

She has a point, it kinda does look like a towel!

Grampa Terry came "home" (anytime someone comes over, especially gramma and grampa she says, "YOU CAME HOME!") and he brought her a treat! Presley loves to eat suckers with Grampa!

NIGHT NIGHT TIME

When Presley goes to sleep her routine is this:

Daddy goes in and talks about his day and Presley tells him about her day. Then Clifford tells about his. Then Presley tells daddy she is going to dream about a pony and he tells her he is going to dream about a Presley. She giggles and asks for mommy and tells daddy to go dream about Presley.

I come in. I lay by her. She tells me about her day usually goes like this, "I played with baby chaaaarlotte, I built a tower, I drove my chair and I watched Clifford and played with Lion King and Rhino and Clifford and now I am laying by mommy! Mommy, can you tell me about YOUR day now?"

I usually tell her, "I woke up at the crack of dawn, Fed baby Charlotte, I ran on the treadmill, then I got to play with Presley and Charlotte and build towers and.......(go into a lot more detail of the day) and now I am cuddling my Presley before we go to bed!"

Presley, "(giggle!) Oh thats great mom!!! Now can Clifford tell us about his day?"

Presley in Cliffords voice, "I Pwayed with baby Charlotte, I ran on the treadmill, I made eggs for lunch, I watched me on Clifford with Presley, I played with Tbone and Cleo and now I am laying by Presley and mommy"

Presley in her own voice, "Thats great Clifford, you ran on the treadmill, you did great!!"

Then me, presley and clifford take turns singing old mcdonald and we tell what we are going to dream about and then night night no talking!

And she tells clifford, "Clifford, dont talk or mommy will leave"

(oops, dont know where she gets that from!)

And then she lays there with her eyes squinted shut smiling from ear to ear! Trying to peek at me through her slit eyes!

EXACTLY LIKE THIS

(this was taken in the dark, in a real before bed moment!)

I love this girl! I love being able to lay by her and talk about our days and dreams!

I love that she has awesome Nurses and a Gramma that help us so much at nights with treatments and suction and feedings and also allow daddy and I to get some sleep so that I can be a good mommy and caregiver the next day and daddy can work and go to school.

And also so Presley gets good sleep too and stays healthy!

I love being her mommy!

And I love Clifford for taking such good care of her all night! ;)

GRATEFUL!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Charlotte's a good helper!

2012-02-01T21:21:00.000-08:00

So pretty much the only time I have to do any house work or errands or anything is on a day when I have a day nurse. This day I decided Charlottes laundry from the week HAD to be put away and her room needed some major cleaning!! It was so dusty, poor girl! But I cant really leave Presley downstairs while I dust and do housework upstairs, ya know? So I have to try and get lots done while I have the chance! Cause believe me its a looooong week in between the next chance I get to get out, or run errands or clean house! If I dont get it done that day, it does not get done til its 10x worse!

Charlotte knew the pressure I was under, so she decided she would help me out!

OOP, til she realized how fun a laundry basket was.....the next pictures would look really awesome if they were in a flip book! But you could just scroll down real fast and get the idea.....;)

MADE IT! PHEW!

Then BABY C decided to help me clean under the bed. Which is good, cause believe me she can spot the tiniest of tiny things on the floor. And from across the room she can see things under couches and beds, and in this case, cribs-that I would have never seen.....check it out:

YEP! There it is, right where I left it!!!

(thats not a joke, she drops all her binks in one corner of the crib every single morning when she wakes up. When we are out of binkies, we pull the crib out and grab the 10 that are piled up in the back corner under the crib.)

Charlotte LOVES to do somersaults! She gets to this position, and then I roll her forward! She laughs so hard and hurries as fast as she can to get in position again! She also loves checking out the world, upside down! I think she will definitely be like her momma and be taking up gymnastics when she is a bit older!

"READY MOM!!! ROLL ME!!!!"

Look at those tired blues! Truth is, she was SO TIRED that afternoon and I was keeping her up so I could clean her room since I had the chance! Sweet baby! I think she sighed with relief when I finally layed her in bed! BUT her room was clean and laundry done!!!

(of course its messy again now, but THAT day, it was all done!)

xoxo~m,m,p&c

A few Fun visitors before winter! (written in NOV 2011)

2012-01-30T09:43:00.000-08:00

This was written and put together back in NOV. but I JUST REALIZED I never published it!!! SO its like a hidden treasure, heehee!

ANNA, Aunt Christina, ASHBY's, and Katie

Presley and Charlotte have so many incredible people and friends in their lives! And we were so lucky to get to visit with some of them before November! Here are just a few of them....we will post more soon!

Anna-We love our little Lulu! She is an absolute DOLL! And her and Pres hit it off the 1st time they officially met! Anna is so sweet and caring with her! And very curious! We go to church together and Anna tells me one time, "Dont worry, if Presley needs to go to the bathroom during Primary I will show her where it is and I can help her." heehee, isnt that sooo sweet?! Only a true friend would say that!!! :) And she also tells her how much she likes her and wants to be able to play with her and invited her to her birthday party the first time she met her! Presley just adores her and the feelings are definitely mutual! She came over to give Presley some big hugs and play tea party with her before her surgery in Oct. She also gave her a big stuffed bear so she could cuddle it if she ever got sad or hurt after surgery! So SWEET!! Thank you Nancy! (Anna's wonderful mom!!!!)

Another Fun visitor Presley and Charlotte got was Aunt Christina!(Mikes little sister) Christina just got home from serving an 18 month LDS mission in Washington DC! So before Aunt Christina left Presley was not trach vented, not Gtubed, in fact she was crawling, walking and talking! I think Presley was actually in the hospital with RSV when Christina left-or complications from RSV, which was the beginning of this whole thing. Anyways, Aunt Christina was very worried about Presley while she was gone and Charlotte was not born yet! (or even concieved for heaven sakes!!)So it was really fun to get to see Christina and show her that though things are very different for our family they are wonderful and Presley is doing great! And cute baby C was excited to meet her for the 1st time! They had a tea party!

Candice! CAN-CAN!!! Presley LOVES her Candy! Candice has been like an aunt to Presley and has visited and helped out many times on random nights! We love her sooo much and we are sooo glad we got to visit with her and Brenda and Joe before November! They showed us some fun Youtube videos that we were crackin up at and Candace brought Pres a darling picture of the 2 of them for her dresser in her room! Presley cant wait to visit with her again in the summer! And Can-Can is getting married in August and guess what cute little girl is gonna be one of her flower girls........? YEP!! My PSG is gonna rock the isle in pink and black for her summer wedding! So cute! (good thing her chair is pink and black too huh Can?!)

I would normally put Katie with Alyssa & Ellie but Katie needs her own spot because I am pretty sure that she is one of Presleys bestest friends and I cant even pin point a time when they clicked! Must have been from day 1 because everything is "Aunt Katie" this and "Aunt Katie" that! She spots out cars on the road that look like Katies and she goes nuts thinking we are meeting up with her! Katie, Alys, and Ellie did spend almost EVERY Thursday this summer with us going to the park, aquarium, Farm, Dino museum and so on. She brings Presley cupcakes and balloons on a routine basis on top of being a working mom! So I definitely think this Aunt deserves her own shout out because Katie, You are an Incredible aunt and friend to my little Chicks!! Cant wait for next summer of fun!!!!

These last pics are of Presley a few sundays ago while she was waiting for Candace, Joe and Brenda to come! She wanted to sit on the couch ALL BY MYSELF and no one help her!! She she did, til she realized how fun it was to lay on me and Charlotte lay on her heehee! Charlotte didnt last long til she wiggled out, but Pres and I loved watching Clifford like this for a while! Its funny and so sweet how sitting on the couch is such a treat! And we are in a phase now where she likes to choose which couch in which room she would like to sit ALL BY HERSELF! We have a 2 couches in our living room, front room and basement so its like playing musical couches! Though its soooooo hard to get her down the stairs when I am alone so thats only been like 1 time haha! But she still talks about it! But usually we switch between our front room and living room and she just sits there and says, "Everything okay mom? Everything okay dad? I think I need to feed baby Charlotte a bottle all by myself. I think so." And she sits and pretends to be an adult on the couch. She is such a sweetie!
SOOOOO GRATEFUL for the most amazing WARD, FAMILY, NEIGHBORS, FRIENDS, People in our lives! I went to church today and the genuine love and concern people have for Presley, Charlotte, and us is amazing and appreciated! We feel so blessed and so lucky to have found such a circle of incredible people to call our friends and family! Thank you everyone!!!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Just another AWESOME day! ;)

2012-01-30T09:26:00.000-08:00

Winter days are kind of all the same.....OR are they?

Nope, they aren't.

I have 2 chicks who make each day a new adventure.

One is constantly coming up with the funniest stuff I dont even know what she is going to say or when and so every day with her there is some quote from her that could make me pee my pants at any given moment!

The other is growing and learning something new every single day, and she also just is such a little tease and has such a personality!!! REALLY every day is not the same. Even if it is the same. Ya know?

Chick #1

Any time she needs or wants something bad enough I tell her, "I will have daddy get it for us on his way home from work" Granted, I can do that, because the things she wants are: a balloon, batteries for a toy, something small and random. No biggie. We like giving her surprises so we are just glad she is still young enough to get excited over batteries or a balloon. (yikes for the days when she wants something big!)

Well she also has this thing where she is obsessed with 3 legged dogs. On Clifford they had an episode of KC the 3 legged dog and how the dogs accepted him and realized he was just like them even though he had 3 legs. I thought this is great! What a good message! Presley dreamed that night that Harley only had 3 legs. "Mom, I dreamed about Harley. And Harley only had 3 legs. I decided to go to the store to find him another leg so he could have 4!" I was like, "But if Harley only had 3 legs it would be okay, we would still love him." Nope, " Mommy, if Harley had 3 legs I would just go get him another one!"

Okay.

But thats been the dream she has had for the last few weeks. Clifford lost a leg in a few of them, but it was okay, Pres got him another one too!

Okay SO, finally to my point:

So I am putting her up in her chair this day (in picture) and I say, "Now Presley, you need to drive REALLY careful. Remember when you ran into the wall and hurt your leg? (that was a month or so ago)We dont want to do that again. We need to be safe."

Her reply was, "Oh MOM, Its okay!!! If I broke my leg, I would just call daddy at work and HE WILL get me an-udder one!"

GASP! (trying not to laugh)

"No Pres, Daddy cant just get you another leg!"

VERY REASURING Presley says, "Of COURSE he can MOMMY!!! Daddy can just buy me a new one on his way home from work! And if I broke my arm, he would get me an-udder arm too!!!"

I admit it is so cute and funny, but oh my heck!! I know she wont hurt herself on purpouse, she is much smarter than that. BUT Im a little worried she thinks we can just buy her a new one of everything! EEEK! So now we are working on learning to "Take care of the toys and body parts we have because Daddy cant just buy us another one of everything." and I guess I gotta stop telling her, "Dont worry Pres, we will get you a new one!" (whenever a toy gets broken or balloon pops or deflates)

Man, All these things I never knew I had to TEACH her! Im starting to learn being a mom is a lot of work! We work on manners, academic stuff, sharing, tantrums......there is so much!!! I hope I can keep up!

Anyways! Thats the latest on Miss P! :) Like I said, I never know what she is gonna say next, hee heeee!

Chick #2

Charlotte baby is SUCH A LITTLE TEASE!!

The other day she kept bashing her forehead into my nose and then acting bashful....I was like, "Wha???? Did I miss something?" She did it over and over and over! Finally she hit my nose so hard I thought it was broke! I looked at her and smiled and said, "Bonk"

SHE STARTED LAUGHING SOOOO HARD she was tearing up!!! She was like, "You finally got it!!!" Oh my heck, all that bonking was a game appearantly daddy and gramma karen taught her and I missed it I guess! But once I knew the game she was playing she was SO HAPPY and felt so accomplished! It was pretty stinking cute! Worth the sore nose! (side note: The next day Presley asked me how my nose was and I had forgotten about it. I asked her, "What do you mean my nose?" She said, "When Charlotte broke it!" I forgot I must have said something out loud about her bonking me so hard it felt like it broke!

---thats okay she said, "Daddy can get you a new one!" Oh man. hahaaa)

Charlotte is also SO thrilled to look out the window! We do it almost every morning before nap time cause Presley is driving during that time and I have to keep Charlotte contained so we kinda play on the couch to keep her safe til she goes down for a nap. Anyways she just laughs so hard when she sees people walk by or dogs or anything! Even cars! She is probably feeling the hermit craziness we are all feeling! "Is there really life outside of this house???!!!!"

Dont worry baby! Only a few more months!!!!
She also has been doing this thing where instead of dozing off when I rock her before bed she sits up in my arms and just laughs and giggles and hugs me and snuggles then looks at me and laughs and pats my chest and arms saying, "awweee Momma!!!" She giggles through singing time and diaper changes and then I lay her down in her bed and she looks up and waves (the backwards wave towards herself) and tells me, "Buh bye!" And then goes to sleep. AWE, melts my heart! I just wanna pick her back up cause she is so cute! When I tell her to say HI she bashfully tucks her head to the side with her ear on her shoulder like she is shrugging and smiles, "Haaaaa" in a whispery voice.
Oh my, I am in LOVE with this sweet baby! She is getting more and more fun by the second! And she comes up with new things too every day!

These two I tell ya, they are some CUTIES! Charlotte cant get enough of Presley and her accessories! Some day she will think its all old news. But for now Charlotte cannot be on her own for a second without grabbing at something of P's. Having a child with a trach/vent, Gtube, cough assist, chair....so on is a full time job. Keeping Charlotte away from her trach/vent, gtube, cough assist, cords and chair, IS MORE THAN A FULL TIME JOB!!! HAHAA! I dont know which is harder!!!
Charlotte is very interested in something every day. Yesterday it was her feeding pump and the buttons on that. Her goal was to get to the food bag and pump, no matter what she had to crawl over, under, around!
Today she didnt care so much about the food.
Today it was P's chair.

Presley kept saying, "Na na na na NO baby Charlotte, that is my ipad for my chair!"

Charlotte climbed onto her chair, I had to snap a pic before I got her off ;)

Presley is right in the middle of saying, "THHHHHat's mine baby Charlotte!!"

Playing dolls! They each chose one and they were happy with their choice! UNTIL they each realized they wanted the dolly the other one had!

UNTIL....CHATLOTTE wanted them all!!!

UNTIL....PRESLEY wanted them all!!!! ;)

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Matchy Matchy

2012-01-21T20:25:00.000-08:00

So dressing girls is incredibly fun to say the least.

BUT when you find a shirt in size 9 months and 4T that match, it is like GOLD I tell you. GOLD. I don't care what it even looks like! If they match, I buy!

These were the girls Christmas matching shirts and I will get as much wear outta them as I can haha!

(Presley absolutely adores when people match her, especially when its her baby sissy!)

We went for a walk around the house the other day. Charlotte does not walk on her own yet, so she rolled Presley while trying her darndest to hold on!

They have so much fun together! Whenever they actually do something together they giggle and stare at each other and give lovey eyes...Charlotte adores P, and Presley adores C.

(Side note, Charlotte has learned to whisper a few words-I think its cause she thinks Presleys whisper is cute so she sometimes imitates it....thats my theory.)

Come on Baby Charlotte, lets go! They were holding hands and just laughing like they had an inside joke.

I had to post this picture. Its one of Presleys "looks"

Enjoying the little things like this really make these wintery days so much fun!!!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Dolling up!

2012-01-20T21:18:00.000-08:00

Notice anything different?

How bout now?

Come on, I Can see it, Can you see it now????

Here?

How bout like this?

You GOT IT!!!

Little Miss got her makeup done!!!

Needless to say, she REALLY looks "bootiful"!

Little Miss Posing Poser Pres!

(eeeeh, and posing mommy too!)

Trust me, I didn't have to teach this chick a thing.

She is a NATUR-AL!

And I Saved the best for last.

KISSY FACE!!!!

SMOOOOOOOCH!

STORY:

So Daddy and Mommy were going on a date tonight. Charlotte went down for her nap. Presley was driving her chair. I told Pres,

"MOMMA'S gotta do her hair and makeup so Daddy can take me on a date tonight!!"

Presley said, "CAN I COME WITH YOU, I CAN HELP?!"

"Okay! Girl time!"

So I started off by doing powder.

Presley says, "MOMMY, ARE YOU PAINTING YOUR FACE WITH THE BRUSH?"

"Yep! I am! And now I am going to use this blush to make my cheeks pink like yours are naturally!"

"MOMMY, CAN I PUT SOME MORE PINK ON MY CHEEKS TOO?"

"Okay! Sure"

"I LOVE IT MOM! IT LOOKS SO BOOTIFUL!!!"

(batting her eyes and posing in every which way)

"It does look good on you Presley!!! You look like a dolly"

Now me putting on mascara, eyeliner, eyeshadow.....explaining it all and why I like it.

"MOMMY, CAN I WEAR SOME EYE DIDDOW TOO??"

"Sure! I guess so, why not!?"

"MOMMY I LOVE IT!!! WE LOOK SO BOOTIFUL NOW!!! DO YOU THINK HE WILL THINK I AM PRETTY MOMMY?"

"Who Presley?"

"HARLEY!!!"

(Harley walks in the bathroom to get my sandwich outta the garbage.)

"WHATS UP HARLEY?!"

Batting her eyes and giving her kissy face and flirty look.

"HE LIKES IT"

"MOMMY CAN I GET IN THE MIRROR WITH YOU AND SEE HOW BOOTIFUL I AM?"

"MOMMY, I THINK DADDY WILL COME HOME AND TELL ME I AM CUTE AND I WILL TELL HIM NO I AM BOOTIFUL AND HE WILL SAY OH YOU ARE BOOTIFUL AND I WILL SAY THANK YOU DADDY FOR SAYING THAT I AM BOOTIFUL!!!"

This went on and on and on! Pose after pose after pose! She loved being girly! She loved dressing her cheeks and eyes up! She could not wait to show off to Harley and Daddy! I was in heaven!! haha! My little princess! She even asked me to curl her hair while I was curling mine. She kept complimenting me the whole time saying, WOW MOMMY, YOU LOOK SO BOOTIFUL, IT LOOKS SO GREAT ON YOU! ;)

We were just 2 gals dressin up together! Momma and my baby....uh hum, I mean Big Girl!!

I cant believe she is getting so old!

Before I know it she is going to want me to doll her up all the time!

She is my "bootiful" girly girl!!!!!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Trip to the Salon! (My salon that is....)

2012-01-20T13:52:00.000-08:00

Presley LOVES to dress up, Loves attention 1 on 1, and Loves exploring our house since she cant do that part on her own. So needless to say getting her hair cut was such a treat for her! During Charlottes nap one afternoon back in November (I think), We -my mom and I- took Presley downstairs to my salon to get her haircut! She sat up in her Bumbo in the stylist chair and was so excited to spin and look in the mirror and feel super special and pampered. I think most of all she was excited to be in "mommy and daddy's downstairs".

Its not just for fun either, its SOOOOO much easier with her trach and trach tie to have short hair, otherwise it gets caught in it. And also it gets kinda matted when she lays down.

SO Practical AND fun & Gorgeous! BONUS!

Doesn't she look so old sittin up in that chair? ;)

BEFORE:

THEN Ta Da:

AFTER!!!

"yaya, I know, Im so awesome....." heeeheeee. She gained a little attitude in that chair.

She totally loved it and was so proud after of her "haircut"

Thats A LOT of hair!!!! Holy Moly!!!

(Im just gonna quit apolpogizing for not wearing make-up or looking presentable.....Lets be real here, Im not dressed in anything other than loungey scroungey 110% of the time bahaaa! So, just expect it. Im not gonna dress up for pictures around my casa-heehee!)

I had to HIDE behind her to even get my pic with her. I should post the one when she found out I was taking a pic with her!!!!

Complete with a bow!

And of course, like from the time she was 1 years old-She likes to show off her "hair-a" by turning her head like the above pic!

She used to walk around finding Daddy after a hair cut or style and say,

"Daddy, Hair-uuuh!!! Yook!! (look)"

While she cocked her head to the side to show off! Little poser from a young age!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Christmas, FINALLY!

2012-01-17T20:57:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve was a no-nurse night which equals loooooong night for momma! But it ended up being okay cause on Christmas I like to spend the whole day in Jammies anyways and Presley got to wake up to Mommy and Daddy and Charlotte!

So This is how our Christmas went:

Gramma Karen brought us over the Traditional Christmas Morning rolls and Sausage Quichey thing (we got our own this year, yuuuummmy!)

We facetimed with Gramma & Grampa Gleason and Fam

I didnt even wrap Charlottes presents cause I knew she would like this: Which she did. Just pulling it all outta the bag and trying to eat tags.

Harley and Clifford waited their turn.

(yes, clifford is wearing a diaper)

Please excuse my nastiness (remember, no nurse=no shower and no makeup or hair-doing....heheee)

Charlotte liked to help Presley open her gifts!

Gramma Karen and Papa Terry came by to spoil us!

Presley was VERY particular which present she opened when and from who. She wanted all the small presents from Gramma Karen first. No big ones til later...

Gramma & Grampa Gleason came by too!

This was a very special present to Presley from her friends at Old Mill Elementary. (She calls them her "new friends at school") Mrs. Smiths class (3rd grade) did something pretty amazing that deserves a post of its own so I wont detail too much in this one. But they raised almost $700 from a "Pennies for Presley" Drive that they put together! They donated it all to SMARD Research at Jackson Lab and it touched our hearts and impacted Presley in such an amazing way! She calls all those kids her New Friends. I am so grateful to Mrs. Smith and her class and the whole school who supported Presley and her friends! WE LOVE YOU!!! And Im gonna do a post on that!

Anyways, they sent her a gift, Tea Set!

Presley talks in a whisper right? Well she SQUEALED OUT LOUD when she saw this!

She has played Tea Party with it every day since. :)

Normally we dont have visitors in Winter. But Alyssa (Presleys BFF and cousin) made a special effort to stay especially healthy this winter so she could just see Pres on Christmas! She told me every day I saw her that "Mindy I am staying healthy just for Presley, I really am! I am being so careful and washing my hands and not getting sick because I just really hope I can just see Presley on Christmas." Well she delivered her present to the door Christmas morning (she lives a few houses down) and when Mike invited her in she and Presley both got giddy! It was so sweet! I am so grateful that Presley has a girl like Alyssa in her life. A friend for life. Who not only treats her so good, but goes above and beyond to make sure she is healthy so she can see Presley because she loves her THAT much. What a sweetie! Alyssa, you made Presley's day!

Mike and I are kinda loving our new Christmas Traditions! We have started to do our own thing since we cant really go anywhere and one of our new "thangs" is making fried ice cream! And YES Mike makes it better than Los Hermanos!

The Naylors gave Presley a baby doll that she absolutely loved! Look how serious-

I asked her to look for a pic and she couldnt she said. She "HAD to feed the baby so she could burp her and change her bum so she could take her nap."

Charlotte learned quick how to play the xylophone Gramma & Grampa Gleason gave her!

She is such a sweetie!

And rumor has it this baby doll looks like Charlotte....

You decide.

heehee!

Presleys other fav was her Fishing Game! She can really do it all by herself!!! (look at the tongue, you can tell she is concentrating) She loves it!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

We had a blast!

We loved the Chaos and wrapping paper everywhere!

We loved doing our own thing and enjoying every minute with our Chicks!

It was so much fun to drag out the present opening for a few days because they didnt want to open them all on Christmas. Presley liked to open one and play with it for a while. Then hours later open another. It took us a long time to go through all the gifts. But it made it so fun! I could see her enjoy and love everything.

She was so glad Santa was gone when she woke up-even more glad he left a few presents!

All in all it was amazing!

My favorite gift was the Day I got to spend with my family.

Every day is a gift.

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Christmas EVE!!!

2011-12-24T21:23:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve, AKA Jammie Day!!!

I picked out some dang cute Jammies for the girls to lounge around in today!

On the agenda for the day was: Hang out, Do whatever we wanted, Chill, watch a little Clifford (or alotta Clifford), Deliver all our Christmas Presents around the valley to some friends and fam!!!

First came the lounging, and the Clifford.

Alright, Enough of that, LETS get up and movin!!!
We got a fun visit from Annie, Chloe, Riley and Molly!!! But I totally forgot my camera!! But that was definitely one of our highlights!

Pink and Purple Clifford Tree! With lotsa presents ready to be delivered!!!

All the kiddies...Even Harley is looking!! This is the girls posing in front of all the presents we are soon to deliver!!!!

"Mom, we ARE going, we are going to see EVERYONE!!! C'wifford is SO Excited too Dad!!"

Uh, Oh, I think she is turning into a daddy's girl....;)

"Santa Clause is going to bring me presents, but then he will GO HOME huh Mom?"

"Can C'wifford say it??? Say HO HO HO C'wifford." Deeper whisper voice, "HO HO HO" Presley's voice, "OH THANK YOU C'WIFFORD, YOU ARE SUCH A GOOD HELPER TO SAY HO HO HO MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!"

I feel bad, I totally forgot about taking pictures til we got to Dawsons! So I didnt get any pictures at the first houses we took gifts to and said hi. Bummer!!!

Presley LOVED being the one to give the gifts though. She was such a cheerful little Reindeer! And Charlotte was so good and patient and smiley too!

Laura, Dawson, Allison & Kevin

Aunt Christina

Aunt Catherine, Gma and Gpa Gleason

Presley handing out gifts-She LOVED it so much that when someone gave HER a gift she said, ":Oh THANK YOU, Now I can give this to her!!!!" She loved giving!

Oh my sweet baby C was starting to get tired

But Pres was an energizer bunny!!! (or Reindeer)

Great Gma Varney

Once we got home though, Charlotte was ALL SMILES!!!

Awe, her bashful smile :)

Now we gotta make some treats and wait for SANTA TO COME!!!!!!

hmmmmm.....actually, Santa might be feelin some Harmons "Punkin" Pie says Daddy! (Yep, I think so!)

We better get to bed so Santa can come!!!!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

HOLIDAY LIGHTS & Santa's Reindeer :)

2011-12-24T20:25:00.000-08:00

Holiday lights, THIS WAY!!!!

Charlotte's all dressed up and ready to go!!! (actually, she was ready for bed, so she slept most the time!)

Can you tell the PSG is excited???

Introduction: Our Favorite Place in the summer is Thanksgiving Point at the point of the mountain. They have several, SEVERAL gardens, dinosaur museum, Farm, wagon rides, movie theaters, ice cream parlor, restaurant, shopping....so on, so forth. Anyways we are obsessed. And guess what they have for winter.....TA DA!!!! LIGHTS!!! And not just, oh pretty lights, but more like, HOLY MOLY LOOK AT THAT lights. So we waited in line, paid our car fee (its like 4 bucks for members per car) and we drove through!!!! It was AMAZING and so much fun for Presley (and Clifford) and Charlotte, and Mike and I too. Anyways, I wish you could see how awesome it was, but pictures just dont cut it. Especially if you are like me and have a super awesome camera you dont know how to use. ;)

It was not just lit up either...they made it so they were moving and active-so like these people below were iceskating across the "rink"

My little girly girl's FAVORITE part was below, the DINOSAURS.

Mine was these Reindeer, they were jumping OVER the cars!

Santa even waved at us Goodbye!

Then on the drive out they included the story of the Jesus' birth. Which made my night because it included the Real meaning of Christmas, which I feel is a MUST for children as small and young as mine who are just learning about Christmas.

And at the end was the Manger.

Then funny-after the Baby in the Manger there was a sign that said "Dont forget to see Santa's Reindeer on your way out!" Well, I read that out loud and though we were not planning on seeing them Presley got all excited and concerned saying, "Mommy, I GOTTA find the Reindeer, I GOTTA show them my GLOVES!!!!" So, me being me, and Mike being Mike, not being able to ever tell our princess no turned around to find Santa's Reindeer!!!!

We found EM!!!

Presley was soooooo happy, grinning from ear to ear and talking so sweetly to them, "mommy are they eating? They love me mommy!"

Ice Sculptures!

AWE!!!

"Ho Ho Ho, Who wouldnt know???? Up on the house, Click click Click. Ho Ho HOOOOOOOO!!!"

Who is that you say???

Prelsey, "Thats baby Jesus Mom!" (Yes, I know it may sound strange, but we tried to get her to drive the Angel, the Wisemen, the Shepard, but Nope. Presley wanted to drive baby Jesus."

The first time Presley has let me put gloves on her in almost her entire life!!!! I had to get a picture!!!! Arent they so CUTE!!!!!??? And she is wearing her Christmas Frog PJ's!

Then we had to get one more look at the Reindeer.

Then we warmed up by the fire!
(Although Presley are Charlotte were so bundled they were actually sweating and Pres couldnt even hold up her head well because she was cuddled up so much heehee!)

After Thanksgiving Point the whole way home Presley said, "Mommy, when the dinosaurs wake up in the summer I need to go see them because they will be SO excited to see me because I am wearing my gloves!!!!"

Then we decided this night was TOO fun so we stopped by the Shopping at the Riverwoods and saw their amazing lights up and down the walkways!

And the Provo Town Beach Resort is down there and wouldnt ya know it there were surfers, in the MIDDLE OF WINTER!!! So we took pics of the snow, lights and kids surfing inside the Beach Resort at the same time!

(Can you see em in there surfing?)

AND this is how much fun Presley and we all had!!!!

Next is Christmas Eve, bring it! :)

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Festival of Trees: Presley's Tree!

2011-12-20T21:29:00.000-08:00

WOW.

All I can say is Wow. Because have I got an amazing and inspirational girl I wanna tell you about.

So a few months back I got an email from a 17 year old named Kelsi.

Kelsi had been reading our blog-she found it through a friend of mines blog (Kendra, who's sweet baby Makenzie had SMARD as well.) Kelsi and her YW group had dedicated a tree to Makenzie who is an angel now. It was a beautiful tree and they did an incredible job! Well Kelsi and her YW group wanted to make and decorate a tree for Presley this year! So she emailed me and told us:

"Presley has inspired me. As well as the other YW in my ward. She is a strong, beautiful little girl. She is always happy and smiling. She is absolutely incredible!! ((: So with your permission we would like to put together a tree for Presley and to help fight for SMARD.

So will you please contact me and let me know if this is ok! ((:"

Of course this was okay! More than okay, We were thrilled and felt so honored that someone who didnt even know us wanted to do something like this in Presley's name. We knew Presley would absolutely LOVE it too! If you dont know what Festival of Tree's is, it is HUGE here in Utah. People from all over decorated trees with Themes and usually they are dedicated to someone or a group or something! So there are trees up there dedicated to Grandma's, Grandpa's, Friends, Kids, and so on. Most the time it is someone who has fought cancer or some kind of illness or disease, gone through something, or is going through something. Then the night before it opens to the public people can go in and pay big money for these trees-in an auction type setting I think-anyways, if Im wrong, someone correct me, haha, But the MOST IMPORTANT part is that ALL of the trees are donated then sold and ALL THE MONEY goes to Primary Childrens Medical Center. The place we called home from February-May of last year when our life changed. I am so grateful to PCMC. They took such good care of my little Presley and she is alive today because of them. They brought her in toys, blankets and gifts, music therapy, all kinds of things to make her happy as well as keeping her alive. I showered there, slept there next to her bed, ate there, sat there day in and day out and they went above and beyond to accommodate us as parents as well. And after intubation after intubation and surgery after surgery-gtube, trach, spine....she was still smiling, still my little girl-and we made it home. I am so incredibly grateful to them for taking such good care of her and us. Luckily we had insurance-but there are soooo many families who go through things like we did, even worse, and do not have insurance or the money to pay for it. They have the stress of that on top of the health and well being of their child. Im so grateful Primary Childrens does things like this to raise money and help their patients-innocent children-who need the medical attention, whether or not they can pay for it. Festival of Trees has a special place in my heart for those reasons and Kelsi and her friends and family decided to do a tree for Presley. I hope they know how thrilled and happy and excited we were and are!!!

So Presley got to meet Kelsi this summer a few times and Presley and her just CLICKED. They were instant best friends. Presley adored her from day one! So glad we got to meet her and we can call her and her family our friends!

So we were in lock down but when Festival of Trees time came Mike and I decided it was probably a once in a lifetime thing to be able to go and see a tree dedicated for HER! So we went the first day it opened and took PSG and baby C! Presley loved driving up and down the isles looking at the trees. Here are a few of our favorites!

Oh I forgot to mention, sometimes they have whole setups like this one, a whole bedroom set-Vintage Disney Mickey Mouse. Incredible. When people buy them they get everything you see on display.

Pretty amazing!

Mike loved this sports memorabilia one!

We met Kelsi and her mom and dad there so we happened to meet up at Presley's tree, so they got to see our first reaction to seeing her special tree!!!!

YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAHHHH!!!!! There it is, the pink and purple one to the right of Pres!!! And here she is with Kelsi! Because we had already seen quite a few trees before HERS I was pointing out the pictures of the people next to them telling her, "Look this is so and so's tree, just for her!" So when we got to hers and it was pink and purple and soooooo Presley she looked at the picture of herself and said, "Look Mommy, thats PRESLEY!! This is my tree!!" She was surprised and excited and could not take her eyes off it for a while. She knew Kelsi had done it for her so she was sticking to Kelsi like glue the rest of the time. She and Kelsi kinda wandered around the tree's and Pres kept telling me, "Mommy DONT follow us!!!!" BAAHAAAA!!! I had to of course for her vent and suction needs but I tried to be conspicuous. But she knew I was following so she would take off and tell me that "she wanted it to be just her and Kelsi!"

I love this one with her arm around Kels!

This is Kelsi's mom Traci and her Dad who are sooo awesome!! Such good parents to raise a 17 year old to be as inspirational and incredible as her!

Barbie presents under the tree!!!

Presley with Gramma and Grampa Gleason, who met us up there to see her tree!

My dolly!

They named it "Hope, Endure, Believe"

Grampa Terry, Great Gma Naugle, and Gramma Karen

HERE ARE A FEW PICS OF OUR FAM and FRIENDS in front of her tree that they sent us!!!!

Great Gramma and Grampa Varney

Berkley, Carter, Alyssa

Alyssa, Aunt Katie, Ellie

Kiliya

Katie and Cute baby Cohen

Belle

And when we got there it had already SOLD!!! We were so excited that someone was going to get to love this tree as much as we did and that all that money goes to PCMC!! What an honor!!!!! Someone out there has Presley's tree in their house!!!! How sweet is that!!!??!!

Thank you Kelsi, Traci and the Marcrest YW group!!!!!

The little Wockets! Look at their cute Butterfly wings!!! They are so adorable!

Dont these balls look like bubbles? So perfect!

Stay away Mom! Its Presley and Kelsi time!!! ;)

Yes, she is carrying clifford around heeheee!

Presley and this giraffe had a special relationship.

Isnt this snoopy one so awesome!! It was a ski theme and came with season passes to ALL the ski resorts around here....which are pretty awesome!

AND still to this day when we ask Presley which Tree is and was her favorite she tells us, "The pink Tree Kelsi made. Presley's Tree!!!"

This was the 1st time Presley got to meet Kelsi. Told ya they clicked. Presley wanted Kelsi to hold her hahaaa!

Kelsi, I just want you to know how much the tree and your friendship mean to us. We are so grateful that you did that for her and also for the other fundraisers you have taken on for SMARD Research. We adore you! You are an inspiration to us and are a great example to my daughters.

Thank you Kels!!!

SMOOCHES!!!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

GIVING THANKS!!!

2011-12-20T20:48:00.000-08:00

YAY! I am finally posting about Thanksgiving!! Its about time ;)

I finally was able to get pics off my hard drive so I have a lot of catching up to do.

For Thanksgiving-Mike and I decided on doing our own thing again so we didnt have to worry about illnesses. We miss our family when we do that, but we love so much doing our own thing too! This year Mike wanted to go to Park City and order a Thanksgiving Turkey dinner from Harmon's Grocery Store. Of course I thought this was a fabulous idea!!! I called a few days before to reserve our room. We usually stay at Newpark Resort but we kinda wanted to try something new since it was a holiday! So I called Hotel Park City and talked to them a million different times trying to figure out what kind of room would accommodate our situation the best. Well this last call I happened to talk to the hotel manager who was SO INCREDIBLY NICE and out of nowhere he offered to upgrade our room to a Cottage. BEST PART of that was that we actually pulled RIGHT up to the cottage, unloaded and no biggie! IT WAS AMAZING!!! Easier than loading up at home really! Anyways, the hotel manager also allowed us to check in early and check out late so ya, pretty much we were totally spoiled!!!! I seriously LOVED our Cottage!!!

Here it is:You go inside these doors and there are a few entries going to a few cottage doors.

We stopped by Harmons on the way up the canyon to pick up our dinner and in the parking lot Presley kept saying, "Mommy Im soooo excited to go to Park City!!!" And then she would see other people walking through the parking lot and say, "They are going to Park City too huh Mom???" heeheee! She was so excited and so darn cute!

We were packed so tight in the van I dont think we could have fit anything else ha!

Presley drove in and said, "MOM! I wanna sit at that table!!!" Who could blame her?

The view was gorgeous!

We had a bedroom and then the couch bed, We originally planned on all stuffing into the Master but all her equipment fit good in the living room so we kinda took turns sleeping by her on the couch bed.

That box has our Turkey in it.....yuuummmy!!!!!

Outside of the Master Bedroom Balcony was a 6 person hot tub....with an outdoor fireplace, Um can you say HECK YA!!!!

C baby was soooo good the whole time!

Dinner!! Mike's first time cutting a turkey! And their Pumpkin Pie was seriously out of this world.

AWE, this is so SWEET!!!!!! They just went back and forth holding each other while Mike and I were getting our food. They are such cute sistas!!!

Charlotte even got "Turkey & Rice" GERBER Stage 2.

The view!!

Traditional? Who us? Naaaah. We ate on the floor in the Cottage! HAHAAAA! Not our usual Thanksgiving, but I gotta say, we were together and we had fun and thats kinda pretty much all that mattered to us! ;) Notice our glasses with our Martinellis in it, mmmmmmm!!!! Fancy!

And of course, PAT PATS!!!!! Even on vacation we gotta do our treatments!!!

All smiles! This chick is seriously happy go lucky in almost all situations. She is such an angel!

She was so cute laying on this big bed all by herself!

NIGHT NIGHT!!!!

OPE, good morning!!!!

When missy miss woke up she said to be realy softly, "Mommy, I dreamed about you last night!" Aweeeeeeee, heart melt!

heeeeheeee, look at these two, seriously!!! They are besties!

This is Presley's famous "brushing her hair outta her face look"

WELL, that was it! Our Thanksgiving! Not the usual for us or for most people. And I thought I was going to be more bummed that we didnt spend it with family. But Mike, like usual, was right! Spending it together us four is all that really matters. Keeping our girls healthhy, especially the PSG is so important. And there is nothing wrong with doing things OUR way. :) And OUR way can be any way we want!!! Isnt it fun to be an adult? Have a family? Create our own traditions?

I definitely think so!

GRATEFUL:

I saw so many Grateful lists. Facebook had em every day in November which was super fun to read everyones lists and uncommon things you normally dont think of. I couldnt bring myself to make one. Not because Im not grateful, but because I am SO GRATEFUL and I couldnt bear to forget something. And I cant pinpoint any one thing. I am grateful for everything and everyone. Im so grateful. Im overwhelmed with emotion when I think of how blessed I am. I guess the best way to put it is that I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father and for His Son and for the Gospel. Everything I have is because of them. And I am so happy and grateful for my life. My Family.

xoxo~m,m,p&c

LAST Tuesday!!!

2011-12-04T13:15:00.000-08:00

I HAVE SOOOO MUCH TO BLOG ABOUT!!! Some Really FUN things!! Thanksgiving, Festival of Trees, Presley's haircut, lots lots lots.....BUT dang it, I'm waiting on Mike to download my pics to his computer (cause mine is a little ghetto. And then he can then put em on the hard drive so I can access them!) SO I decided to blog Last Tuesday.
Last Tuesday was nothing big or extreme...to most people. But for Presley and Charlotte and I it was pretty dang exciting!
First you have to understand it is kind of hard to get Presley up in her chair and let her go independent around the house sometimes when I am the only one here with both chicks. (especially lately with Charlotte ALL OVER!) I gotta be careful cause Presley, like any other 3 year old gets hyper and into her own thing and could possibly run over a toe, dog or baby....so we are pretty cautious. ;) But Last Tuesday we made an exception to the rule. And I pretty much held Charlotte for like 5 out of 5 1/2 hours she was in the chair. :) Presley was SO excited she had just gotten her KidWalk. (a little gait trainer/walker) And she wanted to do ONE thing all morning..."Walk in the kid walk walk and follow baby Charlotte around" She said. So how could I say no to that? After the kid walk (which is a lot of work and exercise for her) she wanted to keep her independence going and get in her chair! Eek, I tried to distract her by saying, Okay Okay, I will take you to ANY room in the house you want, THEN we will get in your chair if you aren't tired...thinking I was being tricky and she would be tired and wanna chill after. So she chose to go up to Mommy and Daddy's room. Then she said, "Okay, NOW I am ready for my chair mom, you said..." One rule I have with Presley is that if I say something I WILL do it. I dont ever want my kids to think Im full of empty promises (and same goes for empty threats. So I put her in her chair and took the challenge! Watching Charlotte AND Presley while Pres is in the chair is hard. BUT when the day was done, I was tired, Presley was satisfied and Charlotte was giddy as usual. So it was worth it!!! So I really mean it when I say It is the little things that mean a lot in this house! :) Here are our pics of the day!

(kind of in backwards order)

Presley also got to see her day nurse who went on Maternity leave to have an adorable baby! We had a few things for her baby that she came to pick up! Here is a pic of her waving at her through the window when she was in her truck leaving!

This is one of the two views I saw A LOT that day....Presley leaving to go "get somethin, Ill be right back, call me if you need anything!!!" She'd say....

A few seconds later returning saying, "Im back!! How did you do!?" (I guess she hears that a lot!)

Charlotte drove her little stroller for the first time!!! SO CUTE!!! She loved that it rolled and she could take steps with it!

Charlotte likes to get in the tumble position! I think she is planning on standing up in the middle of the floor soon!!! YAY that she is able to and YAY that she is such a determined chica!!!

Gramma brought us a bag of lettuce cause Presley told me, "Mommy your tummy hurts and you really need to eat cause you are sooooo hungry. You need to make a salad Mommy." And after I ate she said, "See mommy, Dont you feel better now?" She really takes care of me ;)

Presley looking at Gramma Karen through the Window! She was stoked to see her!

This is from when we went up to my room. Charlotte observed from the doorway and Presley was on my bed when I vacuumed my room! WOW!! I vacuumed with the girls and no nurse here! This really IS a big day, hahaa!!!

Presley said she wanted to take a nap on Mommy and Daddy's bed....so she pretended to sleep for a second and then said, "K MOMMY lets go back downstairs and get in my chair now!"

Presley getting to play on my bed! Awe, its the little things!

Charlotte taking things off shelves!

She must have thought she was pretty safe under the table! hee hee!!!! (actually Presley was in the kidwalk at the time!) But Charlotte loves to hide in closets, under tables, and in any small places! I think we will be building a lot of forts in the near future.

This girl loves to pretend to sleep! But does not ever take naps for real.

One of our awesome night nurses made these boots for Presley to jeep her feet warm over her dafo's! OH MY GOSH, SO CUTE!!! And Presley loves them!! She told me they are "SOOOOO BOO-tifull!!!"

Here is a pic of them rolled down and one side up. Options! YES!

THIS is Monday, the day before! THE DAY SHE GOT HER KID WALK! Which came at the perfect time cause as Charlottes been walking along furniture lately and crawling away Presley has been saying, "Mommy I want to walk with Charlotte, I want to follow her, Mommy I can walk all by myself!!!" Then she makes walking motions with her feet and hands and bobs her head back and forth....Pretending to walk. So TA DA, the kid walk got delivered and Presley was shaking she was so excited, "MOMMY NOW I CAN WALK AND FOLLOW CHARLOTTE And TEACH CHARLOTTE HOW TO WALK!!!!"

-YES YOU CAN PRESLEY!!!!!- You go girl!!! ;) Since a week ago she has already learned to use her arms and legs in ways she has not been challenged to in a long time. So grateful for her new kidwalk!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

YOU are SUCH a CUTIE!!

2011-11-23T20:30:00.000-08:00

Daddy's Girl!

Its not every night that Daddy gets to spend a lot of time with Presley and Charlotte before they head to bed. Mike is an incredibley hard worker: Works full time at an incredible company, school to finish his degree, does pretty much all our grocery shopping...Sometimes he does not even get home til its Treatment time or one or both have fallen asleep. But the nights he is home, He is Home. And he is giving them one on one time and so much attention. He is not afraid to help with treatments or give baths, or lay by Presley if she needs cuddle time so she can fall asleep. He is so amazing! Tonight it like a little slumber party! Presley got to play in her big-gurl bath forever (one of her FAV things to do!) And then daddy danced with her before she got into bed...And then they sat and did hair and chatted! Daddy did Presley's, Presley did green bear's. Presley chose bows for both her and green bear-which matched. And with a comb taped to her hand she just brushed and brushed while Daddy brushed and brushed hers. It was pretty dang adorable! And baby Charlotte was not left out...She got dolled up too and just enjoyed watching!

Look at her serious-ness....so concentrated on getting it right. :)

She tells me, "Look at Green bear! Doesnt she look Booot-i-full!!!??!!"

Ya she does!

And baby C has always got smiles for me!!! My sweet chica!!!

Something else I wanted to jot down is Presley's new thing: So it all starts with me, when ever I get a little frustrated with this little chick I tell her in a stern and joking way, "Grrrrrr....you are SUCH a CUTIE!!!!!!" Its just become habit I guess that I hardly notice it, and I dont do it all the time, cause I dont really get frustrated like that much with her (little angel, wink wink!) Anyways, The last few days her thing is Growling at me and getting real close to me by moving her neck in this serious manner and saying, " MOMMY YOU ARE SUUUUCH a CUTIE!!! Mom, YOU REALLY ARE SUCH A CUTIE PIE!!!!!" Hahaaaa! She thinks she is totally telling me off........and I just cant help but giggle! I ask her, "I am???" She says, "YES MOM!" (all sternly and serious!) And I say sweetly, " Oh THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH Presley!!! You are SUCH a CUTIE too!!!!" And she gets all cute and bashful suddenly and says, "Thank you sooo much mommy!! And baby Charlotte is a cutie, and daddy is a cutie, and Harley is my sweet boy and he is such a cutie too!!!!" And by this time she is squealing with delight about all the cuties!!!

I have to laugh because she is seriously the sweetest little girl but there are times she gets frustrated like any normal 3 year old. She will throw tantrums. She will get mad and scream or cry to get what she wants. But THIS is her new way of kinda getting her anger out, but it turns nice real fast because she knows cutie is a good thing! I love it!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

I think we have a theme here.

2011-11-20T20:28:00.000-08:00

So I was just about to post some pics of Presley in her coat today all bundled up and a friend of mine pointed out I may have a theme here.....(thanks nancy heeheee!!!)

"I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU!!!!!"

"AWEEEEEE MOM, I CANT PUT MY ARMS DOWN!"

Presley wanted to go for a walk around the block before her bath tonight so we BUNDLED the girls up and I was laughing so hard cause when she was laying down in her coat she told me, "MOOOOOM, I cant move my arms!!!!!!" I almost peed my pants cause I realized she looked like Ralphy on Christmas Story :)

But during the walk I asked her if she was warm and she told me, "Ya think so mom! Im soooo warm mom, just one hand is not warm! But Im good!" (Her driving hand!) It took real talent to drive her chair bundled as much as she was. :) My chick's got talent!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Play House

2011-11-20T19:46:00.000-08:00

Presley's Favorite thing to do lately is play with her house.

She can do the wash, put the baby to bed, (or usually the elephant), the phone rings, computer works, and she can even flush the toilet! (her favorite one).

She likes to play with her animals in it more than anything.

Oh this is how Harley is 99% of the time. Always guarding Pres. (For instance, we had just had someone knock on the door and he rushed over to her, thats what this pic is)

Back to playing.....Lion King answered the door. "Hello, knock knock, who is it? Yes you can come in, come in and say hello to me Elephant.......Whats going on?" Thats kinda how their conversations go.

Or she tells me, "Mommy, YOU play the Elephant and the Elephant says, Knock knock, can I come in...okay?"

So then I say that.

And she says just like she was surprised as ever, "OH HELLO Elephant!! Come on in! We were just about to have a tea party!"

Look at her eyes.....oh I love her!!!

"I SEE YOU MOMMY!!!! I'm just in my house!!! You can come in!"

This girl has got the BEST manners. The most creative and wild imagination! And the sweetest & most innocent way of saying things. I just cant get enough of her.

This is kind of off subject, But Mike and I went and saw the new "Twilight" movie on Saturday night together. And I so love those movies. Probably for the lovey dovey reasons! Anyways, you know that, "AWWWWWEEE" feeling of wow, they are sooooo in love and so have such a great life together.....! I left the movie not wishing for "THAT" in my life. I left thinking, "Dang, Mike and I still have it. And my girls are the most perfect little angels. And I could never wish for anything more because things are pretty darn great how they are!" I know, Im mushy, But I love feeling like I love my simple little life. Im so grateful for my sweet hubby who I feel those goosebumps for still. And Im grateful that I know he feels the same about me, our girls and our life. Which makes it that much better!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Windows

2011-11-20T19:14:00.000-08:00

Do your kids ever do this???

Wait for it.....

I know I should stop her, but first I gotta get some pictures!!!!

OH MY Cutie!!! She loved the COLD window!! (it was raining) She first just rubbed her cheek on it and smiled at me, then out came the tongue...

And when I went out to get some pics she thought it was sooooo funny!

I love the squished nose!

Teeheee heee!

If you are like me you are probably thinking grooooossssss!!! Cause Im a germ freak. But luckily the windows were just cleaned and I waited a week to post this so I could be sure she didnt catch something crazy...I was afraid Id post it and then a few days later be like, Dang, you know how I let my kid lick the windows......well........

hahaaaaa!!!! I love this girl!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Charlotte's Room

2011-11-12T20:19:00.001-08:00

This might be a very weird post to people who don't know me haha! But just a warning, this is all things that might bore the average person reading this! Im on this kick lately where I want to REMEMBER EVERYTHING!!! In fact lately I have been writing in a planner the cute things both girls do and say every day so I dont forget the little things.

But I was looking at some old pictures of Presley and she was in her old bedroom, the one she was in before HEART 2 HOME built her addition onto our house. And It was soooo weird looking at her old bedroom. Remembering her walking around in that room. And climbing on her rocking horse all by herself....it was a flood of fond memories and I wanted so bad to step inside that picture and take it all in! Its crazy how slowly things change...or quickly things change, and how we forget how it looked and smelled and felt back then? So crazy! Anyways, I thought it might be fun to take pics and remember how our rooms, and home was during this stage in our lives! I think it will be fun years from now to look back and see how it looked! And I just wanna soak everything in of this whole motherhood thing! I just absolutely LOVE being a mom, love this stage and ages of my girlies. Anyways, I have already posted about Presleys new Beautiful room and living room and bathroom downstairs-so lets take a peak and here is Charlotte's bedroom next to ours!

I'm sure other moms out there have felt this way too, but when I found out I was having a girl I was like, I HAVE TO GET EVERYTHING NEW for Charlotte because all of my nursery stuff is PRESLEY's!!! I dont know if I can call the nursery "Charlotte's". Its Presleys!! OF course I couldnt really do that haha. Its not really cost effective....so I spruced it up a little and added to it and finished it off and made it more C's. And of course once Charlotte came, it SO became hers!!! All the way! A part of it will always be Presley's too! But I love that it really is SO HER (Charlotte). Presley's new butterfly room IS SOOOOO HERS. SOOOO Perfect for her. They both have their very own special little places that are THEM. (I know, I sound like a weirdo hahaa, maybe some people know what I mean haha! I'm just rambling!)

Anywho....This is the crib set that I worked my little butt off saving for when I was prego with the PSG. I worked 40-50 hours a week when I was prego to get the bedroom (uh hum, along with all the clothes...) set I wanted, and I definitely dont regret it! I love it as much today as I did 3 1/2 years ago when I bought it!

This cute little picture frame on top of the shelf has no pic in it yet haha, but It was special made to match Charlottes (formerly Presleys) Daisy Garden Bedding. Pottery Barn, my best friend when it comes to bedrooms. Its so perfect-I love when you find the smallest things that make the room complete. For me, this picture frame was the finishing touch when I was prego with Charlotte! Silly huh? I found it on Etsy! This lady painted it special to make it match the bedding! And I still dont have a pic in it! But I just adore that frame! Also on the shelf to the left is Charlottes video monitor so I can watch her while she sleeps. I got used to using one with Presley and I could never have a sleeping baby without it now. You know how when you have a baby you wake up in a panic and have to rush in to feel them breathe? Well I think I do that x100 because of the whole SMARD thing. I'm paranoid. And now when I wake up in the panic I grab my monitor and watch her breathe on video.....I dont have to leave my bed! ;) Though sometimes I do still. Or I send Mike in too. Or he goes in on his own....we are both pretty paranoid. Anyways, Video Monitor=Much better rest!!!

This is her closet and her hutch.....Aaahh the hutch......Thats got a story of its own! Lets put it this way-I thought my baby needed it. I needed it. Mike wasnt sure. Actually Mike was VERY sure I didnt need it. Gramma Karen saved the day. She knew we needed it hahaa! And I love it soooooo MUCH!! I love having a place to put all the little things!! It was a must! And THANK YOU Gramma for spoiling your girl and both of mine!!! This hutch means more than what it is, just because of the story behind it! ;) Remember that day? wink wink! On top of the hutch on the left is a very special angel that was given to Presley by a sweet mom of an Angel, Jenny. Jenny loved angels, which was not a coincidence, because she was one. Jenny used to come in to my salon and I always did her hair. She was so bright and had a beautiful spirit that shined through! She had cerebal palsy (I think???). But anyways, her body did not cooperate with her mind and she was in a chair. Of course this was when I worked and I did not have any idea that I would be caring for such a special girl as well. Anyways, I loved Jenny. So much! She passed away I think not too long after I had Presley. When Presley was 2 and got the rsv and our world was changing, Jennys mom sent Presley this angel. It lights up and she told me it was very special to her. So I called it her guardian angel and I put it up on her shelf looking over her bed for when Presley returned home from the hospital. It faced her crib since then. When I found out we were prego and we were not sure if Charlotte had smard or not I decided to keep the angel in the nursery when Presley moved downstairs. I needed to feel like it was with the baby at the time ;) Its so sweet, it lights up and really just means a lot to me that it was Jenny's. Also on top of the hutch is a picture of Jesus' arms around a young girl. Given to me by my sister in laws mom, Jan. I love that picture-It means a lot to me too! I know more times than I know angels have wrapped their arms around my Presley and carried her through some hard times. I like that picture to remind me of that. The statue on the other side is of a mother holding her new baby....need I say more? :) Can you tell everything has a story with me? I really like things that MEAN something to me. Also on the shelves of the hutch are a few tea sets-I used to collect Tea sets when I was younger, I passed them on to the girlies. Which is perfect right now because EVERY day we all have a tea party together with her Disney Princess Tea Set. Oh! And the changing table of course......

Charlotte I must say, is one lucky chick! She has got soooo many clothes! Thanks to her big sis Pres! I think I have only bought a few outfits, but Presley passed down some pretty dang cute clothes for her baby C! And the closet in here still does not have closet doors! Funny story is that we DO have them They WERE painted. But the paint dripped. Mike is a perfectionist and when he remodeled this room himself he would not put on the doors til he sanded em down and repainted them. Well, That never happened! haha! Which is fine, cause I only remember every blue moon they are missing! Its been almost 4 years and our doors are still in the garage! But it helps me keep her closet clean and organized! I cant shut the mess away! ;)

This cute little sign I got from I think the hospital gift shop when I was prego. It says "A baby fills a place in your heart that you never knew was empty." Guess what. This is SOOOOO TRUE!!! And not only the first time, but the 2nd time too! I am so blessed to have filled my heart with the two little angels that I have now!

AWE!!! I didnt like this glider when we got it, but its grown on me. I rocked Presley in this thing. I rocked her when she was born. Rocked her when she was healthy, when she was sick. And really sick. Sang and read to her in it. When she was trached we still rocked her every night to sleep in this chair before we would let the nurse watch her at night. And now I rock my baby Charlotte in this chair. She giggles every single night when we sit in it after getting her jammies on and diaper changed. She knows whats coming! First its OLD MCDONALD HAD A FARM....then TWINKLE TWINKLE, Then its I AM A CHILD OF GOD. Then last is YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE. She giggles and coo's at me cause its our thing. She cries if anyone else tries to do the bedtime routine with her. Its not the same. My cute little momma's girl likes our Thang! And sometimes (2 out of 3 times) we sing to Presley over HER video monitor while Pres is downstairs waiting for me to come back down. (I can talk to Presley through her monitor...we are big into monitors in this house if you cant tell. Presley will say, "Mommy will you watch me on the "mommo-tor" while you put baby Charlotte to sleep?") But its nice because then I can still do Charlottes bedtime routine and give her some 1 on 1 time while knowing Presley is okay, and also being able to talk with her from upstairs til I come back. -Charlotte goes to bed a lot earlier than Presley so once Charlotte gets her night time stuff done, Presley gets her some 1 on 1 time with me before Daddy comes home and then she gets some Daddy time before the nurse comes! I am loving that we are finally getting into a routine ;) Anyways, this was a long explanation about my glider eh? Like I always say though, this is our journal-and I just ordered my last years worth of blog posts into a book, and Im realizing how much I need to record these things! So when I ramble, thats why! Its cause I am a rambler by heart

-and Im writing from my heart! :)

This DREAM sign was the perfect find for me when I was preg with P. I got it at Thai Pan and it just so happened that I was in love with the song"Dream Big" by Ryan Shuppe and the Rubberband -which has now become our Theme song at our house. It wasnt til just a few weeks ago I finally got the Daisy Garden Hanging things that are holding it up in this pic, my mom spent some good time hanging those up for me-and the vinyl lettering below it says, "....as big as the ocean blue". If you havent heard that song, look it up. Its the most beautiful song. And I thought it fit perfect for Charlottes room still because I want her to know that she can Dream Big!! It might just come true!!!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Provo Canyon-Leaf Hunting

2011-11-06T18:43:00.000-08:00

Earlier in October we were sitting around on a Saturday afternoon, not really knowing what to do.....Mike and Presley came up with an idea of going to hunt for leaves!!! So of course once you put the idea in their head that is all she could talk about! She was SOOOO EXCITED to go for a drive up the canyon and find leaves of all the colors! (Falls are gorgeous up Provo Canyon)

So we bundled up for the cooler weather and headed for the canyon-which is two minutes away by car haha! So its not like we had to go far. But we searched for the perfect hunting grounds and we parked and headed out for our adventure!

Presley had so much fun looking for which leave was the BEST of each color! She got Yellow, Orange, Green and Red too.

And Baby Charlotte was a sport through it all, she ended up falling asleep for most of it.

But Presley was Thrilled beyond belief to find all the colors she was hoping for! And she could not wait to take them back to show Gramma Karen and Papa Terry who were babysitting her that night while Mike and I went on a date! I love this face because it shows her mood that day-YAAAYAAA! I GOT MY LEAVES!!!

We stopped by Bridal Veil Falls to see the water too! Presley is in love with waterfalls, we wanted to turn around for family pic but she was not happy about that!

Im know, I know, Im wearing flip flops...I always do. I cant stand shoes. I just need something I can slip on and off. But I pay the price with nasty feet that need pedicures more often than I can get haha! But good thing is that Mike is usually always giving me gift cards for pedi's cause he thinks my feet are gross! HAHAAAA, sorry!!! I try, well, sorta. ;)

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Park City!!! (back from AUGUST)

2011-11-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

Hmmmm..... Cant remember the exact date, but does it really matter? Probably not.. ALL I know is sometime around the end of August/beginning of Sept. or mid Sept...or something....We took a little overnighter to Park City~~And this is me posting about it finally! (Remember this is a "journal" so though its old news, it needs to be recorded!) And also, Im going to be doing a lot of that this winter when there is not much going on-I need to catch up from our Awesome Summer of Fun!!!!

OKAY! So Mike and I LOVE Park City. We love vacations in general. But since becoming a little more medical we have toned it down a bit! Our FIRST ever overnight trip with Presley to somewhere besides Primary Childrens.....(though PCMC is only 20 min from Park City!) was to our FAV resort in Ski Central! It was sooooo nice to get away, though it was really just an overnighter! But we made the most of it!

Mike and I have this thing-we like to pretend we are spur of the moment. Sometimes we are spur of the moment, but a lot of times we Plan on being spur of the moment. This trip, REALLY was Spur of the Moment. We didnt have a nurse Saturday night so We literally called the resort on our way up to reserve a room. :) It was so much fun to feel like, we are all "growed up" now and we can do what we want!!! (hahaha, its just nice to feel like we can do fun things with Presley-though its more work with all the equipment, its SO worth it!)

Our Favorite part about NewPark Resort is the Suites have private hot tubs on the balconies!

Which we didnt put Pres in this time only cause it was too cold in the morning when she woke up, but Hot tubs and swimming are GREAT therapy for children with low muscle tone.

This is our room, kinda messy by the time we got pics. And we have already stayed there a few times so we didnt really take pics of the whole place, but we wanted to show you why we have to get the suite when we take Pres :) We have a lot of stuff!!! Especially adding in all of Charlottes stuff too! There is a bathroom and Laundry Closet Room thing down the hall too. And a storage closet big enough to store her chair....and you have seen her chair :) These rooms are made for skiers and boarders with a lot of equipment!

We have a lot of Equipment too, ours is just medical!

Presleys Favorite part of it was "Climbing the Stairs" at the Outlet Mall. She would drive her chair up the ramps next to the stairs and she told me MOM!!! I AM CLIMBING THE STAIRS ALLLLL BYYYY MYYYYY SELF!!!!!!! YAAAAY!!!!! And Presley was so stoked to sleep in the BIG BED with Mommy and Daddy and Baby Charlotte and T BONE!!!! Until Charlotte kept her up half the night cause she was not comfy in my arms and Presley in the morning said, BABY CHARLOTTE, YOU WOKED ME UP. YOU NEED TO SLEEP and STAY SLEEPING til its MORNING. Finally I barricaded Charlotte in the Hallway with my body and she played up and down the way long hallway til we couldnt take any more and we gave in and woke up! Dang it, we wanted to sleep in, hahaaaa!!! Guess you dont do that on vacation with kids!Especially Trach Vent Dependant kids and little babies who have a lot of energy!!! PS we totally missed our French Toast Breakfast being delivered to our room cause we were rushing to check out!! Dang it! Next time we will plan better!! (And it was KNEADERS French Toast too!!!!)

We did some shopping at the outlets trying to find outfits for family pictures, and just walking around on Saturday. Then on Sunday we went to the PARK SILLY SUNDAY Market where they were having a Farmers Market and Festival thing. There were belly dancers (Presleys FAVORITE! They even danced right up to her and said hi to her) And there were all kinds of booths and entertainment! It was super fun! And it was up and down MainStreet in PC so there were tons of shops and so many interesting people. You always feel like you are gonna see someone famous when you are in PC. Well, we didnt. And quite frankly I never have! haha!

I so enjoy just spending time with my hot hubby and my super cute girllies! I feel like we dont get a lot of time just to ourselves with nurses helping us and family and such so every once in a while a little 24 hr getaway is nice. It gives us a chance to feel a little privacy again, and spend time together which is priceless! :) Im so glad we went last minute! So grateful for my sweet little family! So gratful Presley and Charlotte are apart of our little family! And so grateful we have nurses that helped us get some much needed sleep the next night!!!!!!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Rootbeer Scavenger Hunt!

2011-11-06T13:16:00.000-08:00

You might be wondering what in the world we are going to do to keep things interesting around here now that its cold and sickly? Well its winter time. Hermit time. Locked away, wasting away time right? WRONG! We decided we needed an adventure! Mike LOVES him some rootbeer! Ever since traveling to a few places for work and trying out Micro brewery rootbeer from the tap he has had this Love for rootbeer. I know, I know, its silly-but all rootbeers DO taste different and he is bound and determined to find the best. He has tried it from all over the country and yesterday we decided to check out a few places that make their own rootbeer around here! So we packed everybody up and hopped (and rolled) into the van and we headed to our 1st stop...Hoppers in SLC. Mike went in, got his poison and we headed off to the next stop! (by this time Presley was bored and asleep and Charlotte could barely keep her eyes open, but me and Mike felt super awesome! haha! Im so glad we are both dorky and love last minute weird things...) Anyways, Next stop we headed through the canyon to go to Park City.....We stopped off for lunch at Kneaders for me and Cafe Rio for Mike and mixed a bottle for baby Chick and pushed Run on the food pump for Big Sis and then went to World Market where rumor has it that they have a fridgerated section with lots of variety of rootbeers....(they may not have been fresh from the tap but it gave us variety!) Anyways Mike picked himself up 5 different kinds there so it was worth the stop. Then we went to MainStreet old town Park City and went to Wasatch Brewery. Fresh from the tap. YIPEEEEEEE!!!!! Dorky, I know, But whatever, it gave us something to do for 4 hours-Presley watched Aristocats a few times and Charlotte and I got to play in the backseat...and we got OUT of the house and the drive home from PC was gorgeous! So all in all we had a fun little family outting!

~We even thought we should get some sorbet to clean our pallets between rootbeers so that each kind had a fair shot.~

The Verdict is in! Mike liked Wasatch & Hoppers-I liked Bulldog!! Mission Accomplished! OOOOOOH but the Old Town Saspirilla was DELISH too!!!!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

HALLOWEEN Chicks!

2011-11-01T12:19:00.000-07:00

We had an awesome Halloween! Its kinda bittersweet cause its our last real holiday we spend with friends or family and marks our beginnning of a hermit life haha! But its okay, it was worth it last year and hope this year treats us well as well! (like the healthy kind of well...)

Sometimes I am a last minute costume getter but this year I had planned ahead so I could pick out the perfect costumes for my girlies!

~CHARLOTTE~

Charlotte was my little Bumble Bee.

IT was so perfect for her dainty little self! She is seriously the sweetest little thing ever-and though Bumble Bee's themselves are not as cute and cuddley as my little Bee, they make sweet honey! And she is definitely my sweet little "Hunny!"

Plus she is DEFINITELY MY BUSY BUSY BEE!!!

She was so funny when we put her in her costume! At first she didnt notice it, though it was a lot harder for her to scoot and climb! Soon though she just layed there in it waiting for me to take it off so she could get busy again!

And of course her FAV place of the day was still perched up at Presleys tray!

Look at those adorable legs and toes!

~PRESLEY SUE~

Now lets be honest for a sec. If I was to choose the

costume that Presley truly wanted to be I would

had her be Emily Elizabeth from Clifford.....but I was

not creative enough to make it girly enough so she

decided on Rapunzel!!! Who she only knew from the

one time she watched the movie Tangled, but I thought

it was perfect cause she kinda looks like her! And She

LOVES towers so making her chair into a tower was

the coolest thing for her!!!

And we spent Halloween afternoon watching Tangled

to break in the holiday!!

She absolutely loved her "purple gown" as she called it! We got some pics before we added the wig-and I looked over and Harley was playing with the wig! (in the pic doesnt he look a little embarrassed??)

Look at her adorable leggings and ballerina toes! I sure love em!!!

So cute, when I was trying to pose Pres on the couch Harley kept jumping up and laying right on her dress. He is either really protective, or was possibly a little jealous cause HE wanted to be the princess!

Alyssa and Ellie and Aunt Katie came to visit and that totally made both my girls days!

In fact Presley and Charlote got to see ALL their cousins and all but one of their aunts and uncles and both sets of Grandparents for Halloween, which is perfect cause we are hiding away for winter! Starting Nov. 1st!

Alyssa was Tinkerbelle!!

Ellie was Princess Laya, oh my cute!

Presley was our door answerer, treat passer outter most the night.....I think opening the door and seeing this smile would be Treat enough for me!!!!

She would watch out the window and say, MOM THERE IS TREATERS COMING, HURRY WE GOTTA GET THE DOOR MOM, HURRY!!!!

And when they left she said, THANK YOU and SEE YA, and YOUR WELCOME!!!! To everyone!

She even did a little trick or treating of her own! We went to Barbara's house and Ella's house-She was not good at asking for a treat, just wanted to show off her look and wanted to take off! In fact at Ella's house we almost took off without the treat hahaaaaa! But she loved it!!!

Tristen (her cousin) was her trick or treating partner! Before she got in her chair she was shy, but once she got up, she was like, "LETS GO TREATING TRISTEN!!!! COME ON I WILL SHOW YOU HOW I DRIVE!!!"

T was the cutest little Chief I have ever seen!!!!

When we got back from "Treating", Daddy was done with the Tower for the chair and Charlotte went to bed! We kept the party going by taking the tower for a spin on the patio!!

BEST DADDY EVER AWARD GOES TO MIKE FOR GOING TO SO MUCH WORK MAKING THE MOST INCREDIBLE MOBILE TOWER A PRINCESS COULD ASK FOR!!!!!! Thank you DADDY!!!!

Gramma Gleason dressed as a witch and Presley loved her hat!

Presleys cousin Belle was a

sparkley Butterfly!

Aunt Cassie, Christina and uncle Ben were Minions (from Despicable Me) and a Newsie!

And Mike and I were boring!!!!! I mean.......Mike was a Tower Builder, and ummm.....I was a Bum!!! I mean, Victoria Secret Model (baahaaahaaaa look at my "Pink" shirt.....) Next year I wanna go all out and do the smokey rootbeer and spiderwebs and maybe Mike and I will dress up too!!!! Anyways, we had a BLAST!!! Hope you all had a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Today!

2011-10-28T19:14:00.000-07:00

I usually dont blog the day of but my cute nurse could not come in tonight and no nurse night=blogging! Anyways-We had a fun day! Its one of our last days before cooping up for the winter so we had to do some fun things!

First, Presleys AMAZING, Gorgeous, and incredibly inspiring friend Kelsi came to visit! She is doing quite a few things to raise awareness for SMARD Research! And Presley has a special little bond with her so she just loves her visits!

"Pwessley LOVES Kelsi!"

After our visit from Kelsi, we headed up to the Aquarium to "see Nemo and Dori cause she is sooooo cute!" (I told Presley she could do anything she wanted today and she chose the FISH! Which is good cause its indoors!

Gramma Karen was not working today so she got to come with us as Gramma and it was so fun! The best part was Presley drove SO WELL around the people-even through crowds. And Charlotte showed a lot of interest in the fish, especially when I was holding her! So that was super fun!

I have similar pictures when Presley was little of her on the frog with me and in front of the fish! She was a tiny bit older but its fun that we have been coming here for that long and I still enjoy it! I think its cause I see it through my girls eyes and every time is different for them! They notice new things and understand more each time.

Charlotte does not normally lay her head on my shoulder like this unless I am rocking her to sleep, so I was in heaven with her head bobbing up and down in my neck cause she was getting sleepy! I think I carried her 3/4 of the way through the aquarium cause I could not get enough of her. (Guess her sleeping through the night now leaves me craving more cuddle time with her! )PS Dont mind my nasty face in this pic, I had to post though cause I love how she is nuzzled in my neck awwweeeee!!!!

My mom and girlys in front of "Nemo and Dori"

They wouldnt look at the same time! Story of my life haha! Too busy looking at each other....and Presley saying, "Oh baby Charlotte I Love you soooooooo much, you are my big girl!!!" :)

Presley watching the sting rays

Charlotte was holding my hand when I finally put her in her stroller and when I let go she held her hand up FOREVER waiting for me to hold it again.....Oh my gosh, she is seriously so incredibly sweet. Just this little dainty little princess.

The Penguins were my Favorite! They were so cute hopping in and out of the land and water!

That was our day! Thank you to my mom for taking even her days off to help me! There are things I absolutely need to do and cannot do alone-Dr's appointments for me, Charlotte and Presley....Grocery shopping, errands of any sort, cleaning my house, working occasionally and so on. The list goes on. I cannot even take a shower without a nurse there. And I have amazing nurses that help me, including my momma, but then EVEN on her day off, she will help me take them places to give her experiences. Even walks to the park are a two person job. And my mom, no hesitation quit her regular job to help me with all of these things that were a must and also the things that were optional. She is an incredibly selfless person and Im so lucky!! And so are my girls!

THANKS MOM!

Charlotte:

My baby girl is pulling up to stand and walk along furniture!!!! Dont get me wrong, Im soooo happy she is healthy, soooooo happy she is strong and curious and determined...But she is my last and Im supposed to be able to soak it in a little longer right??? Oh how I love her super sweet personality!!! Her kisses and hugs!

If she is crying for me while I am doing treatments all anyone has to do is bring her by me within arms reach and she holds me! Kisses me and hugs me and she is just fine! She just needs to be touching me! Oh I love that sweet girl! She makes me feel so loved!

She laughs before bedtime when she is really tired and I am putting on her jammies and changing her diaper....she giggles cause she is soooo tired and she is so happy to rock in her chair. She looks at me while we rock and giggles at me with this high pitched girly giggle. And sometimes I start laughing out loud (oops) and then she laughs louder and I get louder and we are both full on laughing at each other laughing! Seriously such a mommys girl! I SO Love it!

She loves the dog more and more each day! Chasing him trying to pull herself on to the couch to get to him and if she happens to brush her hand across his paw she squeals SO loud!!! And bounces so fast like she wants more more more!!!!!

She is such a patient baby! If she cries it is for good reason-hungry, tired, or wants me to hold her (my favorite reason of all!)

Presleys cute sayings of the week:

"Is everything okay MOM? Can I call gramma to see if everythings okay?"

"Oh ya! Really? I just love her cause she is soooooo cute!"

"Harley is naughty mom, Harley is naughty......Look at him, he is such a good boy!!!"(I always call harley a naughty dog in a happy tone-she thinks its a good thing!)

She makes deals with me, " If you do _______I wont cry. Mom, if you do _______ I wont cry......Okay......Im going to cry now.....WHHHHAAAAAAAAA" (Real tears, real elevated heart rate, then I give in and the tears evaporate like THAT!)

"Leave the door open mom!!"

When I rock Charlotte to sleep on the nights mike has school til late I take the video monitor to watch P, and she screams the whole time unless I talk through the monitor to her and sing her and Charlotte the lullabies. Last night however, she sang to us, and it was soooooo sweet. And when I came down she said, "Did you hear me Mom? I sang to you and baby Charlotte cause I love her soooo much! And I love YOU soooo much Mom!"

PRESLEY KNOWS EVERYONES FULL NAME:

"Presley Sue Gleason"

"Charlotte Mae Gleason"

"Mommy Sue Gleason"

Michael Sue Gleason"

"Harley Tater Tot Gleason"

(Oh wait, guess we need to work on daddys! But for now it is too funny to correct! We just laugh and laugh at things she says!"

Oh by the way, She is 3.

Charlotte is 7 (months)

Mommy is 4

Daddy is 5.

Presleys mom is Mommy.

Mommys mom is Gramma Karen.

Charlottes mom is Mommy.

Daddys mom is Mommy. (baahaaaa)

And Harleys mom is Daddy.

And "Clifford" reads the best books and says the best prayers!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

FARM DAY #1 MILLION AND 2! Spooky Halloween FARM!

2011-10-22T20:38:00.000-07:00

The FARM. The Farm will never get old! Even if we have been a million times this year it is still one of our most FAVORITE places to go! I told Presley we were going and she couldnt stop talking about the COW! And no, not the REAL cow..........................----------------->

This COW.

We went with some of our Best buddies, Annie&Riley and Chloe&Molly. We Always have a blast with them! Annie and I have been like sisters since we were 3, we danced together and did gymnastics and we always imagined having girls because we were the only girls in our families.....Guess what??? Now we have 2 each! And we LOVE to get them all together! 4 girls is quite the bunch! And Chloe and Pres are finally to an age where they enjoy each other! The whole time at the Farm today Chloe kept telling and asking Presley, "Presley, do you wanna come with me to the pigs?" ( or the buckets, or the horses, or the pony rides!) And then Pres would say YA and off they went together! I loved watching them interact! That was my favorite part!

They had it all decorated today! For Halloween. So although we have been a million and one times, we have never been when there was a graveyard in the garden or witches and facepainting and spooky bowling and spider toss and trick or treating and, and and............ There was so many fun things to do! And dumb me forgot to dress them in orange! We were gonnna put them in their costumes but Presleys was sleeveless and eh, so Ya, everyone was in orange and black and Presley and Charlotte were sporting their brightest pinks and purples hahaa!!!!

This was the girls picking out their ponies for the pony ride!!! Riley got some pics for us of Pres riding so he'd better send em my way soon, hint hint!!!! ;)

Presley has a few boyfriends. She is a gorgeous girl! I dont blame her, I liked to date around too. But Riley, well Riley is one of em! She sees him and she blushes and smiles shyly at him, its really sweet! I think its cause he is just so darn sweet with her and talks to her lots. She adores him, we really love our friends for treating Pres so well!

This is Annie, Riley, Molly (charlottes age) and Pres and Chloe

And US. Of course no one is looking besides Mike and I hahaa! Isnt that how it always is? We took like 10 pics and in every one of them either Im begging the girls to smile and look or Mike is or Im fixing my shirt or Presley is crying or Charlotte is blinking or ....heeeheee, But I gotta say, I even like those ones cause it shows how it REALLY is! But I tried to pick one where most of us...uuhh hummm Pres....are looking! ( In this she is saying that she "wanted a treat because Chloe got a sucker so Presley needed a sucker and Presley wanted to eat it and open the sucker all by myself. And Presley wont cry." She is such a negotiator...!)

Loved our day! Its sad to see summer coming to an end and some of our adventures slowing down, but the thing that makes being cooped up all worth it is the amazing time we get to spend as a family during the good months. I feel so blessed we got this summer! And I cant wait for many many more!!!! I think through the winter I will have to post about all the fun stuff we did that we didnt get a chance to post about to remind me why we stay hermits and are so careful! But I have some fun stuff in store for winter too-here at home! xoxo~m,m,p&c

ZOO DAY!!!! 2011 baby!!!

2011-10-22T20:11:00.000-07:00

(blowing the animals kissses...actually just the elephants!)

AWE!!! Look at this cute momma and her handsome guy!!!

2 words for you.

ZOO. DAY.

(And you have to do the punctuation's like that so you know this is serious business.)

Yes, thats right, we have been waiting for the day to come ALL YEAR LONG! We wanted to go the most perfect day....And weather wise we hit it right on! It was perfect temp for the zoo! Not too hot, not cold. Like the 3 bears, it was JUST RIGHT! YEEEEYAAAAYAAAA!!!! ( in the words of PSG)

We kinda decided last minute to make a run to the zoo. And the Zoo is kind of a tradition for my bestie and I to go together in October. Well, it kinda just turned out that way haha! But it IS NOW!!! I deem Octobers ZOO DAY MONTH!!! (hear that Allison, you better mark your calendar for 2012!!) My mom had the day off so as Gramma with no charting she got to help take us to the zoo with Allison, D, and Laura (allisons momma)!!! And we are soooooooo glad we got to! It was so much fun! It was perfect for Halloween because our 1st stop, the GORILLAS, I thought we were gonna die. Not even joking. I guess they must have been playing a game-but we were paralyzed with fear (well, I was.) When the humangous gorillas started CHASING each other gnashing their teeth at one another throwing stuff everywhere in their cages. I seriously felt the earth shake as they were barrelling around in there. I was squeezing Allisons arm (she might have bruising.) and I told her, "this is it, we are going to die, but I cant stop watching." I cant describe it, so I will just leave it at, THEY WENT INSANE AND I THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO BUST THE GLASS. Or we were going to witness bloodshed. Allison, as we walked away said, "Oh no, Mindys gonna be talking about this for years to come."

hahaaa, she is right.

Pres was not scared though. In fact, she took my hand and said, Mommy the gorillas are not scary, they are silly. Oh phew, glad Im the only one traumatized. My biggest fear used to be birds. Now-they are tied with dang gorillas.

Moving on..... This is our GROUP ZOO SHOT!!! Everyones gotta take a shot in front of the Hogle Zoo sign!

This was Presleys favorite thing at the zoo! She loved the carousal!!!! Every time around she pointed at Allison and Gramma Karen!

Why did I get SO LUCKY? This girl was an angel, seriously! She loves outtings! She is so patient and just loves the ride in the stroller. Every once in a while she wants out for hugs, but other than that she is the most patient girl I know! I feel bad, cause she really has to be sometimes! But she is such a good baby! As long as Im right there usually. ;)

Allison&Dawson, and Me and my chicas!

This was Presleys face when she 1st saw the elephants, her favorite!

She kept saying "I wanna ask the big elephant if I can give him a hug." I told her he was TOO BIG to hug but she could blow him a kiss. So she did. Then she said, "Then I wanna ask baby elephant if Presley can give him a hug too?" (thinking he was smaller so he must be small enough.)

The baby elephant was playing with a ball. And Presley loved it! Out of nowhere she said, "The baby elephant is tired, he is going to take a nap." I was like, "haha, youre so cute, elephants dont take naps...." Then sure enough....

The baby elephant plopped down and looked like he was gonna take a nap.

What is she, the elephant whisperer? Then she said, "Night night baby elephant, I see you later."And we drove off. She was pretty stinkin cute with those big guys!

She loved just taking off following Allison and Gramma and Allisons mom (as she calls her, heehee!)

At the giraffes Presley said, "Mommy, do you think the giraffe is a boy or a girl?" I said, "I dont know, what do you think?" She said GIRL. Then she asked,"Mommy, what do you think her name is?" I said, I dont know, what shall we call her?

She said, "hmmmm, I dont know, maybe she is a boy?"

Then she turned to Dawson and asked him, "Dawson, do you think the giraffe is a boy or a girl?" And Dawson responded, " Hi Pres!" (he is 1) He is SOOOO STINKING SMART AND CUTE though and though him and Charlotte and betroved (hm, spelling?), Pres and him have a blast!!!! ;)

Her face when she was watching the giraffe, who was pretty darn close.

PS The giraffes are my FAV. (my mom says when I was little the giraffes at this zoo reached over the fence and stole my bag of popcorn, so that must be why sub-consciously they are my FAV.)

D riding the carousal.......not sure what animal he was riding, but he took what he could get! It was UEA so school was out and it was packed! Presley loved watching him go around this time cause she watched this go round!

And we gotta give a shout out to the G-ma's for not only coming with us and enjoying it with us, but for helping us out soooo much with the kids!!! They are all quite the handful on outtings like this, so its nice to tag team!!!!! THANKS LAURA AND MOM!!!!

So just a recap:

Most terrifying moment and my FAV-Gorillas taunting each other.

Pres' FAV-the elephants

Dawsons FAV-carasoul, im guessing! and the monkeys?

Charlottes FAV-when I held her while steering Presley ----and giggling at me giggling at Presley who was saying the most funny things on her in breaths when I was bagging her almost the whole way home because for some reason she wanted it and I was tired and sometimes I laugh when im tired.

Grammas FAV-finding zoo animals in the gift shop for Pres!! (finally!!!!! PHEW)

Allisons FAV-me. haahaaa, just kiddin, probably the gorillas too, and dang the penguins we never saw!!!!

Lauras FAV-the Monkeys....."Do your ears hang low do they wobble to the floor...!"

Okay, redo, that may have been the funniest song-and thank goodness for the caffeine!!!

Thanks for the ZOO DAY guys!!!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Its that time again! Back surgery #4

2011-10-16T19:12:00.000-07:00

It was that time of year again. Back surgery, Expansions of her rods in her back. The rods that were placed in her back in May of last year have to be expanded every six months or so as she grows. And after a while they will take out all that hardware and replace pieces of it when they can no longer expand the ones in her anymore. The first surgery was a nightmare. She was in so much pain. Crying uncontrollably and complaining about how bad her back hurt. She woke up from the anesthesia crazy upset and we felt so bad for her. It was so sad. Nothing I could do but dope her up and hope she was not too traumatized. The 2nd one went a little better. That one was the 1st "expansion" of the original hardware. She still was in pain but instead of being hospitalized a little under a week, we went home the next morning. A 28 hour stay. Record. The next one-so the 2nd expansion but 3rd back surgery was WAY better. I asked them not to give her Versed (the drug that makes you "forget" things) and she woke up so happy and bouncy and more herself! That stay was 11-12 hours, we didnt even stay the night yahoo! This time was the 3rd expansion, 4th back surgery and I dont know how they could get much better than this! I asked them not to do Versed again and she drove herself to the OR. We kissed her and away she drove with the anesthesia dude Dr. Tanner (who was awesome) to the operating room where they were going to give her an IV and knock her out. I was stressin what kind of freak out was going to happen after the initial seperation from us and stressing how upset she was going to be when she woke up. Because not only were they not giving her the "forget it all" drug, but they were knocking her out with IV and not gas. So this was super scary for me thinking how upset she was gonna be. After 45 min in surgery they came and got us and things went great the Doc said. They came and got me to meet her as she was waking up and I was clenching her "blue bear" whom she told me she had to have with her when she woke up. EEEEEK, I was soooo nervous, was she going to be mad at me? Bawling? In pain? ARGHHHH, I was just glad she was waking up and the surgery was over. Well I get to her "area" and I asked her nurse, "has she been crying? Is she upset?" And the nurse was like, "Nope, she hasnt cried or really been upset, she is just waking" PHEW. So I go hold her hand and I ask her, "Presley are you okay? Do you remember anything? Does your back feel okay? Do you need anything??????" She looked up at me through the slits of her eyes and says, " UUUUMMMM, Well, really? Ya Im okay, Presley drive all by herself (referring to when she went to the OR with Dr Tanner) and Presley no cry, but then Presley got sad and the boy was nice, and Presley wants to drive all by myself again and go home now." It was pretty dang cute the way she slurred all the words with her groggy little voice, I should have taken my camera. And then she asked me for medicine and I was sooooo grateful she is finally to an age where she knows what medicine is and when she needs it. Anyways....She did amazing! She said the most hilarious things, which makes the whole experience a little bit better than it is. The worst part was stupid me forgot how bad she reacts to Loratab and it was worse this time. She gets MOODY and ONRY and will not sleep. So she was very moody. The doctor came in her room when she got to the trach/vent unit (thankfully we didnt get stuck in the PICU) And he was like, "So the plan is to keep her here to observe and make sure things are going okay and then she can probably go home in the morning." I think I stopped him mid-sentence and was like, "UUMMM, No. We are probably going to be going home tonight.....we have everything at home so if she is taking her feeds well and pain is controlled there is no reason to stay right? I mean she is trach/vented, we LIVE in a freaking hospital at our house.....:) heehee" ( I did laugh at the end) And he was like, OH Okay! PHEW. Probably being around trach/vent and kids like my Chick he probably runs into a lot of moms who wanna run the show. Ya, thats me. So guess what? They got our RX's ready and she tolerated her food and we were out in.....dunnndunnndunn duuuuunnnnn not 11, not 10 but 9 hours!!!!!! Thats right, we were out the door by 6:15 and Presley drove herself out on speed 3 hahaaaa! Looking at her drive out you would have never guessed she had just gotten back surgery! Maybe an Xray, not back surgery. She was so stinkin cute! Her new thing is saying, "Oh ya really??? Oh Okay, that is a great idea!" and that is exactly what she said when I asked her at 6:00 if she was ready to hop in her chair and drive outta there!

This was on the way to the H that AM (with blue bear)

This was just in our little "waiting room". (I dont like the public waiting rooms so we usually just stay in the little consultation rooms)

Doesnt she totally look like, "yayaa, I got this"

About forty five min. or so after surgery when we got to her room on the Lpod (trach/vent unit) She was rolling over hiding from the camera so we are lucky we got this one!

In the words of Pres, "Ope, Im ready!" In this pic she was on her home vent and she was holding the H's vent squeezing the artificial lung making the vent beep cause the nurse had to check on all the beeps and Pres thought that was hilarious. Look at her look to the door for our sweet nurse to come in...

YIPEEEE "Oh ya, really??? Haha, she was ready to go! And her shirt says, "Fun to be me"

It sure is fun being her momma too! :)

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Chick-e-dees!!

2011-10-07T10:24:00.000-07:00

I just have not been so good at blogging lately! But I am happy I have not had time! Sooooooo much better than having too much time right? I need to set a goal to do a post at least once a week if not more though even if its without pictures because this is their journal! The only place I am recording things (Besides their scrapbooks) So I gotta do it!!! We got family pics done a few weeks ago! YAY! Our first time since.....well, ever! The only other time we got kinda family pics was when Pres was born and We got some cute ones with just her. But now we have our baby C! So we got some pics coming! YAY! A few days before pictures I went to find a perfect spot to have them taken. What better place than the place we have spent all of our outtings this summer! Thanksgiving Point! So we explored the Big Gardens, which were GORGEOUS! But then I decided on the little Gardens up by the water tower. It was more simple to do pics. But here is a few pics of us exploring them......(my camera died so my mom has all of the good ones dang!)

Here is my chick before we headed out, she now climbs out of the carseat, bumbo and bouncer and swing! She is supposed to lay there and "coo" I thought? Hello, she appearantly did not get the memo that the last baby is supposed to grow sloooooooow!!!!! (frown) I want to not miss a second and I feel like she is going to be getting married like tomorrow!!!!

I tested Charlotte in the grass to see if it was a yay or nay!

YAAAY!!!!

In fact she LOVED how it tasted too! (eek!)

LAST week we decided to do a last minute overnighter to Park City to our favorite resort, Newpark Resort. I totally love that place. Its huge rooms and huge beds and a nice kitchen and your own hot tub on the balcony and its pretty affordable for how nice it is and how many people you could fit in there! I need to do a whole post on that little trip because there was sooooo many cute fun things (simple) that made it so memorable and fun for us and the girls!

Okay now here is the latest:

PRESLEY

Quotes

ME:"Presley do you wanna take off your sweater, are you warm?"

PRES:"Ummm, ya, I wanna take off my sweater....

Wait, NO, Presley leave sweater on....

WAIT, NO, Its okay Presley, we can take off your sweater......"

(I reeeeallly need to stop talking in 3rd person around her, but when she does it its soooooo funny! You would think she had a split personality!)

Later:

PRES:"Mommy, I need you to please take a pic-pur of me so I can show daddy at wooook cause Presley looks cute."

Later again:

PRES:"Mommy, can you get me my Rhino-korus and Lion King so I can show Aunt Christina Please?"

Another:

ME, finding Charlottes binky behind Presley in her bumbo: "Presley how did you get Charlottes binky?" (Presleys bumbo is way up off the ground so Charlotte and Pres have no way of exchanging items...)

PRES:"Oh, uuummmm, Baby Charlotte give it to me and so I put it in my mouth and it tasted good so I hid it in my pocket."

ME: "But Presley, how did you reach it to get it from Charlotte, you are so high?"

PRES: "Oh its okay mommy, I just took it out of Charlottes mouth and put it in my mouth-And I like it."

hmmmm, that explained nothing, but she sure does have an imagination.

She always says, "OOOHHH YA!!!!" For everything! She screams and giggles "YAAAAAY" when we get somewhere or she gets something..She got that one from me, so when I say, "YAAAY" she tells me, "No mommy say YAAY, I say YAY."

Charlotte

Charlotte is momma's girl, that is no news. But lately when I do stuff and leave her with my mom (even if Im just going to the bathroom or doing someones hair down in my salon) She screams this high pitched crazy scream and when I pick her up she kinda looks back at my mom and smirks at her....she totally knows. haha! I think its adorable, but my poor mom has to watch her for presleys back surgery next week and Im a little worried...

She climbs on and over EVERYTHING! If She climbs over my legs she pulls herself up onto her feet and DIVES forward!

She has to move ALL the time! She is so busy and has so much to see!

Whats harder than a kid with a circut and attached to a lot of cords? ANSWER: Fighting off a kid who loves to chew and pull on circuts and cords!!! She is sooooo obsessed with cords! (probably like most babies) but we just happen to have a LOT of cords!!! :)

She is learning to sleep alone! YAHOOO! I never did it with Pres, but with Charlotte she does not get good sleep at all! Night or day. She wants to be held all the time, which I totally LOVE and dont mind! But If Pres needs suction or food started or probe changed or...(I could go on and on) then there goes the nap! So we finally gave in and I decided to try the "cry it out thing" which I hate the idea of. So I had to really ponder if I could do it, And I decided I couldnt.....but I did it anyways with the thought, "If she cries more than 15minutes its over...So I read her a book, sang her song 3 times, then put her in her bed awake. (who woulda thought?) Well she cried for 8 minutes and fell asleep. And since that she didnt even cry for naps either! This is such a blessing because I was really worried she was getting overly tired and not able to sleep even at night. Now I feel so much better knowing she is getting rest and I can hopefully plan it around treatments so Charlotte can sleep while we do those! YAY!

They always warn you babies like the fruit more than the veggies. Not my Chick so far at least. She loves all veggies! And I just started bananas and those were Presleys FAV and my FAV and she thought they were so nasty! She gagged a few spoonfulls and spit out the rest haha! Today was day 2 of nana's and she ate them sooo much better!

There is so much to Charlottes personality that I just cannot describe or explain. She is such a little sweetheart. Just a cuddley little girl who makes us all so happy! I can already tell what a blessing she has been for us and Presley and how these two are just meant to be sisters. They have a bond that I can feel so strongly but just cannot describe or explain. People who are around them might be able to see or feel it, but I just feel so lucky to have these cute chicks! They are my little sweeties!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Scootin'

2011-09-14T21:10:00.000-07:00

She is only 5 months old. Aren't I suppose to be able to baricade things? Isn't she supposed to play on the ground with a rattle or something? How bout naps...don't they take naps? Let me anzwer for MY 5 month old....NOPE!!!

Or as Presley now says to everything, "NO WAY!"

HAHAHA!!! Seriously I thought I couldnt giggle any more-Presley cracks me up! Nope! This chick is just as much of a spunky monkey as her sister! This little 5 month old scoots across the room like a little catipillar...A much faster, cuter catipillar! She SCOOTS! Like WHAM, she is across the room in seconds! And her little face she makes while doing it is PRICELESS! She is so dang deteermined. And she sets her sights on something and doesnt take her eyes off it til its in her mouth. She love love loves books! So here is a pic I took-I tried to baricade the toy shelf so she would bonk her head on it. Charlotte gets OVER the baricade and THROUGH the blanket and UNDER Nala the Lion King plush and gets to her tiny books she is taking off the shelves in this picture. I am in love with this girl. How did I get so lucky? She and her sister just make my heart melt at a glance. "GOT IT!"
xoxo~m,m,p&c

Some of PSG's friends

2011-09-05T11:46:00.000-07:00

"Lifes journey is easier when you hear a friends footsteps beside you...."
We just want you ALL TO KNOW how much we appreciate you supporting us and Presley! In every way that you have! Whether it be phone calls, letters, smiles and waves, bracelets, building us an ADDITION (wow!), prayers...especially prayers. just everything. We are truly grateful and hope that someday somehow you know just how deep our grattitude is. Thank you! And thank you to all of you who have been just the most amazing friends/family to us. I just cannot even imagine my life (our lives) without you all. We have so many people in our lives who truly care and understand and try to understand and we just appreciate you in our lives SO MUCH! We feel so lucky! SMOOCHES!

AND NOW FOR OUR BRACELET GALLERY!!!!!!

Cooper!! He is just the cutiest little cutie sportin him so Pres on wear! (Thanks Joey!!!)

THE ENGLANDS!! Our cousins (on mikes side!) Thanks Kim for sharing this pic!!

The Listons! Tara, Nakota and Mark!

My nephew Tristen and his momma Steph! T, you are a stud!

Kayryn and Wendy, gorgeous gals sportin their bracelets! THANKS!!!

UMMM, HELLO! Look at these dolls! Presleys friends Lily and Hallie-I swear I think they could be sisters with Pres sometimes!! They are so dang sweet too! Thanks Ali and Josh for posting!!

Amandalyn and Alyssa! These two decorated the cutest envelope and Presley LOVED it!!! Thanks cute girls!!!! xoxo

This is from MJ and Brenda! We are so lucky to have friends like them! Incredible women!

MJ AND BRENDA! We love you guys!!!!

Thank you again everyone!!! PS if you have sent me $ and you have not recieved your bracelets yet PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!! (mgleason84@gmail.com) I would hate to think any got lost in the mail, but I do mail them out as soon as I get the money paypal or cash or check or whatever so you should all pretty much have them by now if you ordered anytime before last thursday-so Please let me know and I will get them out to you!!! I dont want anyone to not have them if they ordered! :) Also if you havent sent a pic yet, you should, our collage is lookin pretty dang cute and Id love everyones pics on there!!!! THANKS so much!!!!!

We just got word last week that the Jackson Lab and our little smard community has raised $58,000 for SMARD Research!!!! And every penny counts!!! HOLY MOLY that is incredible and we are so grateful for everyone who has been working so hard on helping our kids!!!! There are not words to express! Thank You!!

xoxo~m,m,p&c

Now, a word from our Pres.....

2011-08-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

Someone wanted to say THANK YOU......

Gramma Karen and Papa Terry

Harley Dog

Baby Charlotte's toes
Baby Charlotte's hands

Baby "Chalotte" aka Chicky aka Mini me (1 million dollars.)

Fighting SMARD w/ cupcakes (see, fighting SMARD can be fun!!!)

Kimmy and Lys!

Silas' Buddy Braydon

Can-Can (Candace)

Silas' Gramma Suzanne

Grampa Bernie

Presley loves when she gets a card in the mail and I tell her its for braceets! She says, "Pressy put in the smard jar all by self!!!!!" She even has to put the checks in before I cash them. This is a pic of her 1st donation that came from Taysen and Melodie-since then we have had to get a much bigger jar.....THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH SOO SOO MUCH for helping us raise money for smard research for Presley and for all her sweet friends all over the world!!!! I am gonna post some of our SMARD friends in one of my upcoming posts! You will love seeing their darling faces! So inspiring! Truly little warriors!

And thisAWESOME PIC is the Hunter Family!! Liz, Randy, Austin and Lexy!!! We loved visiting you with you guys!!!!!

And even if your pic is not on here we still wanna thank you for your support!!! But DO send a pic still, heehee! Puleeeease!!!
THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH, So much. I cannot say it enough. You are all STARS! (If you have gotten your bracelet and not sent me a pic, DO! I would love to put you in our collage we are making for Presley! If you dont wanna be on the blog just let me know, otherwise Id love to put you on here too! THANKS TONS!) Facebook tag me in a pic or email me or send a hardcopy in the mail or whatever you want! :)

xoxo~m,m,p&c