The girls big day out

Yesterday was a busy day for me and the girls - Emma and Avery in particular. Their preschool held a "Meet the Teacher" drop-in during the morning so we spent some time in both of their new preschool classrooms. Avery will be in the 2's class this year and attending three days a week and Emma will be in the 4's class attending four days a week. Both of them immediately ran to the toys and started playing. I don't think they should have many issues getting adapted this year! I am looking forward to some one-on-one Eden time a few mornings a week.


Last night was also the start of the dance year for both girls. This is Avery's first year of dance and I was a little nervous wondering how she would react once we got there.

The girls are both in combination dance classes but different classrooms. Avery is with 2-3 year-olds and Emma is with 4-5 year-olds.

Here is a picture of Avery in her tap shoes while running back into the classroom after a water break. As you can see by the expression on her face, she had no qualms starting dance. She ran in there by herself and had a great time.

The girls discussing their dance classes after finishing for the evening...

Both of them did well all day and I was really proud of them. They should have a great school year!

A tomato's life cut short

I learned earlier this year that Emma was a raw tomato eater. Once I picked up that tidbit of information, I quickly determined that growing a tomato plant would be a fun activity for us this summer (even though I do not eat raw tomatoes). We purchased a plant and potted it in a container in our backyard. We finally have a few tomatoes popping up and we had one small tomato that was actually ready for picking.

Emma did the honor of picking the first tomato since it has been considered "her tomato plant" from the start.

And wa-laa...our first homegrown tomato! I was looking forward to serving it on a salad for dinner or something like that. Unfortunately the tomato met an early demise at the hands of Avery. As she and Emma were playing on the porch today, the tomato was too tempting and Avery decided to take a little bite out of the new tomato sitting on the ledge.

At least one person in our family was able to enjoy the fruit of our tomato labor!

Eden Presley at 1 month

Well, an entire month has flown by since Eden was born! I am totally copying ideas I have seen on other blogs where moms document each month with a picture and the date, but I thought the idea was cute and would make it easy to pull pictures for her baby book.

Eden still generally sleeps a good part of the day in between feedings and diaper changes, however today has been the exception to the norm. She has been awake A LOT today and has been wanting to eat all of the time! I am guessing maybe she is going through another growing spell.

So we put on one of our cute outfits that we haven't worn before and took a bath to pose for a few pictures.

And in between picture time, Eden enjoyed her swing. This is by far her favorite activity so far! Notice in the picture how she is staring up at the corner of the swing? She just stares trying to figure out where the music is coming from!

Of course, she has been modeling all of her hats, flowers and bows lately. She seems to like the hats more than the hairbows right now.

Her brother and sisters are still doting on their newest sibling. They all take time to give her sweet kisses and hugs. They haven't show any animosity towards her at all (yet!) and are just really fantastic helping out with Eden.

So you know I am not completely Eden focused, here are a few photos of what her big brother and sisters have been up to today.

Ryan came home from school put on this "Indiana Jones" get-up and decided he is selling movie tickets (he stars in the flick as well) for $.01.

Emma and Avery enjoyed tuna fish sandwiches for lunch today. Am I the only person that thinks that is weird? I just didn't realize small children generally appreciate tuna fish at an early age.

Anyway, Emma wanted her picture taken with her dog.

And this is the face Avery makes when she wants to give you a kiss! I'm not sure exactly where she picked up the fish kiss face but there you have it.

What's up?!? Eden's point of view...

"My hair! It sticks straight up!"

" My mom tries to hide it sometimes with big bows or hats, but she is going to have to learn that I don't really care for them that much."

"I like my hair just the way it is and I am not at all embarrassed!"

Second grade, here we come!

It's hard to believe but Ryan's first day back at school is today. Second grade - wow! He was a little slow waking up this morning but once he got going he seemed almost excited.

He'll be riding the bus home this afternoon so I can't wait to hear all about his first day in just another hour!

Just another laid back day

Eden is growing quickly. She already seems so much larger than she was just a week ago!

These pictures are from yesterday during one of her awake periods. She is so very sweet and we have been enjoying every minute with her!

I am going to attempt to take a photo of all four kids together later. I'll definitely post if I am able to achieve such a task!

Sitting pretty

Emma is participating in her dance studio's Nutcracker this December and had a costume fitting this afternoon. She is going to be a mouse this year.

Anyway, her dance studio is located right next to Doodlebugs, a local children's boutique in Lexington and they were holding their end of summer sidewalk sale today. So we stopped by to see if they had any good deals going on.


Oh my goodness! They had all of their gift items and the rest of their summer clothing marked 75% off regular price! Needless to say, I am a sucker and so I snatched up all kinds of things for the girls wardrobe for next summer.

I was able to find matching Kate Mack swim suits for all three girls (in three different styles) which I was very excited about. The price was the best - I paid $12.50 for each bathing suit (normally $50)!

I also picked up a couple of cute outfits for Eden to wear during the rest of the warm months and of course had to immediately change her into something new once we got home to take a few pictures.

Hence, the mini-photography session pictured above. These were three of the best pictures from the 4o-something I snapped today! And Eden played along pretty well and I was able to take some pics without witnessing a meltdown on her part.

Chalk families

One afternoon the kids were coloring with chalk on the driveway. Emma and Ryan both created artwork representing our new family of six. Emma's family interpretation looked a little more like the talking M&M's from commercials.

And Ryan's family picture is a rosy example of how we wish we were at all times. Stick skinny and do you notice the big heart floating over us? Both pictures were very sweet and made me smile each time I walked outside until it rained today.

And what would the day be without the daily dose of new Eden pictures!?!

As usual, she is fast asleep in most of these!

Except this one - wide awake in the baby swing (with the crazy hair going on)!

I had to snap this one because I knew after I dressed her in these froggy p.j.s, it would be the one and only time she would fit into them snapped shut!

Eden's room decorations

The room decorations I ordered for Eden's nursery are already complete. Both of the artists completed both projects so quickly and I am really pleased with how they turned out. I think these will look so cute hanging in Eden's room!

The bow holder pictured above was painted and designed by Jessica at the Unique Bowtique.

And this sweet canvas was painted by Lindsay at Paint Me a Picture. Lindsay went out of her way to get all of these colors matched perfectly to Eden's bedding. She even made a trip to Lowes to get the exact paint match for the light blue walls we painted in the room!

Both of them were so helpful, nice and obviously fast producing their fantastic work. I can't say enough about both great Etsy shopping experiences!

Eden update

I can't let another day pass without posting a few more recent pictures of Eden. The newborn baby phase goes by so fast and their features change and fill out so quickly.

I was able to get Emma to pose for picture with Eden - it's not that hard to do!


And then I took a few of Eden awake by herself. The awake time is sometimes hard to come by right now, so I try and snap a few pics here and there.

Eden had her two week doctor's appointment today. All is well. She is obviously not having a problem putting on some weight. She now weighs in at 9.81 and is in the 88 percentile for her age and weight. She is 21 inches in length and is in the 71 percentile for length.

Her next appointment isn't until she turns two months. That seems like such a long way off although I am sure it will fly by!

Family picnic at the park

We brought the kids to our favorite deserted park (we were the only ones there) again and enjoyed a picnic lunch outside dining on my favorite sandwiches and pizza - Schlotzskys!

The kids played on the play equipment...

and napped...

...ran around sporting muscles and no shirt...

...dug in the sand (Emma designed a fabulous sand cake)...

...played in the water...

...slid down slides...

But the best part of all...I had told the kids we could stop for ice cream on the way home. And what appeared magically at the deserted park but an ice cream truck! How perfectly planned did that appear!?!

So we all enjoyed some ice cream before herding the kids back home!

Daddy's little girl

I don't think I had posted any pictures of Michael with Eden yet, so here is one that I took a couple of days after Eden was born.

It's hard to believe she is now over two weeks old! She did really well last night and went right back to sleep after her feedings. The weekend has been such a big help to me and has allowed me to catch up on a little of my sleep!

Tonight we are taking all of the kids to church together for the first time. I'm sure that should be fun! But we need to get the kids back into the routine of things anyway. Ryan will start CCD classes again soon and it is a big year for him since he will be making his First Communion. I can't believe he is old enough to be doing that already.

Let me say it again...I love Etsy!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been busy trying to get Eden settled into our house by getting her wardrobe in order and decorating her nursery. I chose the Kimberly Grant bedding pictured above before we had Eden as a gender neutral choice. We painted the walls of the nursery a very light blue called "Beach House" and set up the bedding. It doesn't look quite as busy as it does in this picture and the light blue offers a nice contrast. I wanted something with the greens and blues mixed in with brown so this pattern covered all of the bases.

As you can see, it is not the most feminine design but I thought if we had a girl, I could make it more girly by adding the wall hangings and decorations with a feminine touch.

I found this handpainted canvas on Etsy and e-mailed the artist to see if she could do something with Eden's bedroom colors along the same line.

And then I found another artist on Etsy that makes these adorable custom bow holders. She is painting one for Eden's room using sage green and brown colors and it will be personalized with her name "Eden Presley."

You would think with this being my third daughter I would be all set in the wardrobe area. However, this is the first warm weather baby we have had so all of my newborn and 0-3 clothing items are for the cold winter months. So I have been picking up a few things here and there.

Things such as this much needed hat with a custom made bow! Isn't it too cute!

And then I found another person on Etsy who was selling this package deal of hat, bow and personalized onesie. So the onesie will have Eden's name on it once complete.

As I have mentioned before...I love Etsy!