Random Going Ons

I just wanted to post some cute pictures of the girls I've taken this month and comment on the going ons at the Pointer household!

Here's Pres having a "tea party" with some hot coco. She is very into tea parties lately! We had three pretend tea parties just yesterday complete with desert. And we always talk in our best English accent! My grandma would be so proud! And to hear Presley say, "daw-ling" is SO funny! Anyway, she loved having her hot chocolate in a real tea cup! I think I know what we're going to do from her 3rd birthday party!

Here' s Teagan's new look. She likes to give it to strangers to size them up. Strangers and her own parents, and anyone else she deems necessary! Very intense. She is learning so much right now! Talking and really understanding everything and knows what she wants (and gets rather ticked if you don't get the memo)!!

And just moments before the look above, this precious smiling face! By the way, the ouchey on her forehead was from Teagan and tricycle vs TV armoire, part II. :( Which is totally my fault.

This was fun but made me realize I'm not a good or patient teacher. We went on a "color hunt" to help Presley learn her colors. Big sister still doesn't know her colors!! But I swear this child has ADD. She couldn't pay attention to save her life! We went around the house with the grocery cart that Santa brought and gathered up all the orange things we could find. But she wanted to put everything in there. Not only that, but when we first started, I asked her what color something was and she got it right, and then I praised her, and then everything beyond that was that particular color. Did I over praise?? I was on a mission for her to learn her colors that day! Probably a bit over zealous to say the least!

Teagan is a climber!! She can maneuver chairs, stools, pillows, and anything else that can give her some leverage to get to where she wants to go! Mama's got to be quick with these two!

Making progress

As far as potty training, we are making progress!! Yay!!

Before, this is where she might go to take care of business.

But today I found her on the potty with the door closed (I guess she likes her privacy) taking care of business. I am so proud of her!! She's had several recent accidents after a good week of big girl undies, so I'm not sure what that's about, but I haven't made a big deal out of it and have just encouraged her to go on the potty next time. Anytime I ask her if she needs to go, it's an immediate "no". But I know the reminders help. We are getting there!! Amen!

Muscial Bed

The picture in the previous post also gives you an idea of how we sleep at night. Recently I've decided we play 'musical bed' all night (hence the reevaluating of the sleeping arrangements I recently mentioned).

Previously, it went Daddy, Presley, Mama, then Teagan. Then once both girls are asleep, I'd push Teagan in the middle and sleep on the outside, so then it was Hubby, Pres, Teggie, Mama. Then depending which side I needed to nurse on, Teagan would flop around on both sides of me throughout the night. So you would think that sleep would be getting better. However, as you can imagine, these two aren't getting any smaller. (Hubby and I aren't either for that matter!) In fact, they are growing like fertilized weeds!! So things are getting cramped anyway.

So now add the fact that Presley wants to start out on the other side of me. So recently it goes Daddy, Teggie, Mama, Presley. Then after the girls are asleep I'd move Presley into the middle and position myself on the outside. Well at some point in the middle of the night Teagan wakes up and realizes that Mama isn't right next to her and demands an position adjustment. So then Price pulls P over towards him and I snuggle with Teagan until she's back to sleep. That's a good scenario. If Presley wakes up in the midst, she'll make her demands and then we start all over.

And if all the above isn't enough to make you need a nap, this week Pres got sick in the middle of the night with an obvious stomach virus and vomited not once, but twice on the bed. The first time I heard it in my sleep and jumped up hollering for Price to turn on the light. He had no idea what had happened, and I'm still not quite sure how I heard it myself. Then we cleaned up Pres and stripped the beds down to the mattress cover and all got back in bed, almost to sleep, and wham, this time she pretty much threw up right in her hair. So off to the tub, while Hubby pulled the remainder of the sheet off. So me and Presley slept on the air mattress that was already blown up in the living room (story for another post) while Hubby and Teagan sleep on the bed without sheets! Snuggling with a kid that smells like vomit despite her midnight scrub is not so fun! Meanwhile Hubby is loving sleeping on the mattress with no sheets - yuck!!

Then the next evening Teagan got sick with the same thing. Her's lasted during the waking hours, hallelujah!! Thankfully neither one of them had it long and today their appetites are back to normal.

Tomorrow, dance class starts! Not for Pres or Teggie, but for me and Hubby!! More on that to come!

Daddy's girls

This picture is kind of old (notice the pacie) and I snapped it from my phone before bed, so the quality isn't all that great, but I LOVE this picture! Presley likes to watch something on youtube on our phones before bed. Every once in a while Teagan will catch her a glimpse or two. This was so cute how they snuggled into Daddy's arm!

There have been many series of requests on youtube. First it was "row, row, row your boat", then "ABC's" (pictured here), then it was all things "choo choo soul", then "puppies" (the Siamese cat song from Lady and the Tramp), then it was "paradise" (the pure imagination scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), then all things "strawberry" (strawberry shortcake), and now she's requested Mary Poppins, but we haven't even opened that can of worms yet.

Recently however she's rekindled her love of books and we've been reading the Tales of Peter Rabbit, which are longer stories and her attention and listening skills have pleasantly surprised me! I was beginning to think she was ADD like her Daddy! :) Teagan also really enjoys books, but she's so independent it's hard to read them to her when she wants to be the book holder and the page turner... We are looking forward to story time at the library starting up the end of this month!

Look-a-like?

Everyone always says how much Teagan looks like me. I don't see it as much as everyone else says, but I do a little bit. I took a picture of a picture (with my camera phone so not that great of quality) that my grandmother has in a frame of me when I was about a year old. I can see the resemblance a little bit here...

Teagan in an old fashion dress standing on the table. (Don't try this at home!)

Me in the 80's, obviously!

A great shoot to share!

Just before Thanksgiving, I had the pleasure to shoot a family at the Old Cotton Mill in McKinney, TX. It is a really neat place to have a photography shoot. It does cost per hour however. So this shoot was a fast one. I was so impressed with how the kids smiled and behaved so well and how the pictures turned out! Mama ordered a really big print (24 x 30) to go in her house and put one on her Christmas card!! These are two of my favorites!

(This is the one they printed big!)

Miss Teagan

Teagan wanted some blog love from me too. So this one goes out to my baby. Here's a little somethin' I think she'll like!

Teagan is currently teething her big, giant molars. Ouch!! She's been a bit fussy to say the very least. But mostly just when she is tired. Probably not the best timing, but we have also been working on weaning at night. I was so tired (literally) of nursing her all night - whenever she happened to roll over or change positions! And so we began dropping all the middle of the night feeds, but if it is after 7 - 7:30, I'll humor her, just so we can all sleep in a little longer.

Well the absence of 3 or 4 "feeds" (using that term loosely here), was not happily met in the middle of the night. Let's just say, this wasn't the face we could barely make out in the dark.

Yeah, or nothing like this either.

It's gotten A LOT better, but she'll still fuss here and there. But those first couple of nights, WOW!! She would get all sweaty and hot during her fits, even. Hubby said with that will, she's bound to be successful!! She gave it all she got, but I stood firm! And we have endured it - all of us! Presley the other night, in the wee hours, told her "that's enough!" So we are on the road to sleeping through the night! Yahoo!! After we have kicked that habit, we are going to reevaluate the sleeping arrangements! Lots of changes for this family this year, and it's only mid January!!

Teagan has also blossomed in her vocabulary recently!! She can say almost anything you ask her to, and she is articulate!! She's now putting two words together. This morning, when Presley woke up, she said, "Hi Weegie!" to which Teagan responded, "Hi Sister!" which sounds like "sissy". And she is quite the social butterfly in public. She'll give random folks a big, loud, "Hi!" And then bask in their attention - a chip off her sister's block for sure!! It's funny!

Other words she says - up pee (please), ice, mama, da, ba (bath), mo (more), boo (book), eye, no (nose), chee (cheese), dow (down), I know there's more, but I can't think of them right this moment. Yesterday, she learned to take her diaper off, so no more running around in just her diaper. She's gotten so much better when I leave her, but still gives whoever is watching her a run for their money!!

Come to think of it, she gives me a run for my money!! And I love her so much for it!!

Chocolate Chip Cake recipe

As requested, here is the Chocolate Chip Cake recipe.

1 yellow cake mix
1 cup milk
1 pkg instant French vanilla pudding
1 cup oil
4 eggs
1 6oz pkg chocolate chips
1 block German chocolate bar, shaved (reserve 1 tbsp)

Mix all ingredients except reserved tbsp of shaved German chocolate together. Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 350 for 50 - 60 minutes. Cool in pan on rack for 15 minutes. Invert onto plate.

Icing:
1 tbsp reserved shaved German chocolate
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Mix together and sprinkle over cake.

This cake is a crowd-pleaser!! And I love recipes that basically you dump all in and bake. Easy prep time! It also travels well! Also, today, I made it from memory and left out the instant pudding (shows you how good my memory isn't) and it still tasted great!!

We had a visitor...

I haven't even been able to tell you who came to visit us New Year's Day night. Mostly because every time I sit down at the computer, Teagan gets mad - it was a busy Nov and Dec, and apparently I have scared my child!

Here's a hint!!

We were finally visited by The Pacie Fairy!! She came and gathered up all Presley's pacies and took them to the babies that need them. She did leave some exciting gifts behind - play-doh, Mary Poppins, big girl undies, and candy! Hubby and I both are so pleasantly surprised just how well Presley has coped. She has boycotted naps, so at night she goes to bed really well. And for 3-4 days she would wake up at 5 am or there abouts, and cry for it. She still will ask for one here and there throughout the day, but she knows what the answer will be - there are none, you're a big girl, the pacie fairy came. Any person we see, both known and unknown, she wants to tell them about the pacie fairy coming to visit. She is no longer obsessed with everyone elses pacie. When we go visit Willa and Dovie, she doesn't immediately give them the shake down to find theirs like she would before. Or if she does happen to cross it, she will give it to my sister. Granted, they don't take the same kind as she did. Madden does however, and she did give Madden's bag the frisk at Chuck E Cheese the other night, but didn't come up with it. So even her pacie-stealing skills have diminished!

The Mary Poppins movie was a big hit! So we have pretty much had round the clock Mary Poppins time. We all enjoyed it at first. The songs are good, Hubby thinks Mary Poppins is "hot", and Teagan will have brief moments of engagement. Hubby wanted to watch football yesterday and she about laid out! And I am literaly singing "it's a jolly holiday with Mary" in my sleep!!

Here's a picture to commemorate such a giant leap in Presley's growing up!

Christmas Festivities

I know it's a bit late, but...

On Christmas Eve we went to our church's Christmas Eve service of carols and lessons. Then drove over to Aunt Shelly's. We opened PJ's, took a bunch of pictures, ate dinner, sang happy birthday to Jesus, played some Christmas charades, and then drove two sleepy, worn out kids home.

Before church the girls all dressed up!

All the cousins with their PJ's on.

Back at home, leaving cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer. The girls tested the carrots to make sure they were suitable for guests, even four legged ones!

It was so much fun watching the girls open presents and see gifts from Santa waiting.

Here's Teagan with a Christmas fav, a new flip phone.

After we opened gifts here, we went over to my sister's house to exchange some gifts with my nieces and nephew and mimi and papa.

We dressed these three up in princess clothes! I like Teagan's expression, she's not so sure about Madden dressed up like a girl, but we couldn't resist!

Chloe, the only niece/grandchild for eight years or so, waited until we all got there to open her presents. I think she wanted all eyes on her like we've done most of her lift on Christmas morning!!

Here's Dovie and her mama. Her Christmas PJ's are under the giant bib - she's a spitter!!

Here's Willa, she just got her doc band on Christmas Eve, so they decorated it with some Christmas stickers.

All in all we had a great holiday season and felt blessed to be around all our family! I look forward to next year!!

My family's card

This year we went all out with our Christmas card and continued our tradition of pink instead of traditional Christmas colors. Two photo shoots later, and lots of debating on what pictures to use, we made some decisions and went with these!

Front:
(It's an accordian fold, so it has four panels, "Wishing you..." was the very front when it was all folded up.


Inside:

Oh and Teagan is only 14 months, I got my child's age wrong on my own card! My bad! It was a long and busy December!!

Proud Grandparents!!

Here are two cards I did this year for two sets of proud grandparents!!

Presley and Teagan's Honey and Papa send out this card...

Front:
(It's a tri-fold, "Three girls..." is the very front once it's folded up, and "...and a boy" is the inside fold once you begin to open the card.)

Inside:

And Lolly and Grandad sent out this card of their beautiful grandchildren!!

Back:

Front:

Sweet sisters

I love when I catch the girls being sweet to one another. We were driving home from Target the other night and this is what we saw...