"One More"

Preston's new favorite thing to say- "one more."  I'm not sure he quite understands exactly what he is saying, as he will say it several times in a row even after you do whatever it is he wants "one more" time.  BUT he knows if he says it, you will do it... even if it is only once!

This is probably one of my favorite things he does now- and it cracked me up the first time he said it.  I say it ALL the time when we read, watch something, play with something, etc. 

This is why this age is SO much fun!  New things EVERY DAY!

15 Month Update and More!

Preston has been absolutely enjoying every bit of summer.  Between play dates with friends and family, him and I have been grocery shopping, cooking, and, of course, eating lots of frozen yogurt.  The kid can't get enough fruit and with all of the new frozen yogurt places popping up, he is in heaven.  I am very happy to have a child that loves fruit as much as me, but sometimes, I wish he'd love his veggies as much! 

Tuesday was Preston's 15 month check up, and to be expected, everything went well.  He is still int he 25 percentile for weight, 50th for height, and 92nd, yes you read that correctly, for head.  I'm just happy it wasn't that big when he was born.  The doctor was very pleased with all of the above- and considering his head doesn't look abnormally big, so was I.  We discussed the fact that he will be rejoining the daycare scene in just a few weeks and reviewed our current preventative measures.  When we spoke with the pulmonologist back in June, it was decided that Preston would be put on "Flovent."  This is in an inhaler that he will take twice a day, everyday. Preston was diagnosed with Constrictive Airway Disease and the doctors are sure this is going to help keep my baby boy from most lung diseases this season.  We will continue to have quarterly visits with the pulmonologist to monitor everything going on inside this precious little boy.  I'm trying to have faith that the doctors know more then me and everything is going to be better this year.  With a couple of prayers to God and modern medicine, let's hope it all works out.

Back to his check up, she was very pleased with his iron levels (which required a quick prick to the toe-oddly enough that didn't bother Preston, the band aide afterward made him scream like crazy.  As soon as it was off, he was fine).  She was also VERY impressed with his vocabulary and talking.  I can't say I was surprised as he is a talker, but come on, that was to be expected with a mother like me:)  He's picking up new words weekly and LOVES to copy just about anything he hears (I'm still working on certain words in my vocabulary because of this). 

He had to get 4 vaccines, but luckily, our doctor was able to find combined, preservative free ones.  That means he only had to get "stuck" twice.  He cried right when he got the shots and fussed the way home, but after that, he was great.  Luckily for us, he has never had an adverse side effects from the shots (no fever, fussiness, etc.)  I was hoping for that again, and that is what we got!  Overall, great visit!

When Preston starts school, he will be taking only one nap a day from 12:00 to 2:30 ON A NAP MAT!  For those of you that don't know Preston well, THIS IS CRAZY!!!!  First he usually likes TWO 2 hour naps IN HIS BED.  The boy doesn't sleep anywhere else.  Because of the time, I've been working on moving him to one nap a day here and there.  He seems to do pretty well with it, as long as I can keep his very entertained until noon.  He will usually sleep for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours if we drop him down to one nap.  In fact, yesterday, he slept for 3 1/2 hours- it was great!  I can't complain, the kid is a great sleeper (now I should say- the first six months- not so much).  Now onto the nap mat... I've tried to explain to the director how crazy that is going to be.  She asked, "I mean does he ever fall asleep on the floor playing?"  "UMMM- NO!"  Preston will only sleep in his crib and he likes to put himself to sleep- not be rocked or patted.  He usually plays in his bed for about 10 minutes before crashing.  The director says I will be very surprised... I informed her, oh no, you will be very surprised.  We decided to just let them work on that with him when starts back.  Maybe seeing the other kiddos will inspire him (oh- I can't even type that without laughing).  I guess time will tell on this one.

We leave for Nashville one week from today.  I am very excited to get there, but dreading the flight.  Brad and I have been coming up with several strategies to use while in the air.  Food, drinks, books, iTouch, singing, and toys are definitely on the list.  I guess it will be 2 adults to 1 little guy- but that's how it is at our house- and most of the time the little guy wins.  It will be so wonderful to spend time with the Gray family for a long weekend.  We haven't seen any of them since the wedding, which also means they have not met Preston.  He is at SUCH a fun age, and I can't wait for him to see everyone.  I have SO many wonderful memories from spending summers there as a little girl.  I'm looking forward to going back and remembering them as well as introducing Preston to the same ones!

Here is a picture updates of some of July's craziness.  I haven't been really good with the getting the camera out lately, but August should be better!


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The weekend of our second anniverary, Preston spent some time with the other Emerson's.

He loved Ava's kitchen... we found him a cute little garage type thing in lue of getting him his own kitchen!

Yay for Aunt Candace's yummy food!

Early morning bed head!

One Sunday morning, Brad and I decided to take Preston out to the Emerson family ranch.  He was very impressed by everything out there- a whole new world to him!

Hello Mr. Cowboy- are you real?

Here, Dad, I can do this for you.

Just some everyday fun at the Emerson house-

Say WHAT?  You want me to eat all of that?



He sits in these chairs backwards every time!



Playdate at Logan's house!

He has become VERY obsessed with taking his shoes on and off (of course with my help which can get pretty boring pretty quickly).

Playdate with sweet Caroline!

Bubbles with Dad!

Pool playdate with Maddox, Braden, their mommies, and Leigh!

YAY mom- it's been a great summer!

Little Giggles

This was my precious boy on the way home from a play date with Logan!  I was trying everything to keep him awake on the 15 minute ride- and peek-a-boo is always a winner.  HOWEVER I couldn't get the even more hilarious laughter because I was driving (I mean he almost couldn't catch his breath he thought it was so funny).  When we pulled into the driveway, this is what I got.  LOVE his laugh!!!  I wish a simple game like this made me this happy!

First Comes Love, Then Comes MARRIAGE

Two years ago today, I walked down the aisle to meet my very nervous groom!  UUGGHHH- I cannot BELIEVE it has been that long.  I know SOOO many things have happened to us in this time, but it still feels like that amazing night was yesterday.  We honestly could not have asked for a more perfect wedding.  To this day, we both say, it was the best evening we have ever had (mind you Preston was born in the morning, so I'm not neglecting that moment).  In honor of this, I have decided to look through all 700 and something pictures of the wedding.  Before that, I would like to give a brief timeline of our crazy, eventful, and fun lives in the past TWO years:

July 2009- We were MARRIED!!

August 16, 2009- We found out we were pregnant!!

August 17, 2009- I started my first year teaching

September 2009- We moved in with Brad's Meme while we waited for our house to finish being built.

October 2009- We bought our first house.

November 2009- We found out we were having a BOY!

January 2010- We bought our first car together!

April 2010- We had our BABY BOY!

July 2010- We celebrated our first year of marriage

August 2010- I started my second year teaching

December 2010- We celebrated our first Christmas as a family.

April 2011- BABY BOY turned ONE!

July 2011- We celebrated our second year of marriage

SO- if all of that can happen in two years, I can't wait to see what the NEXT two years have in store for us.

4th of July Karma

Being the wonderful mother that I am, I did not take one single picture of Preston on the 4th this year.  Technically, last year was his first time to experience this holiday, so that one was more important... but I still feel a little bad about not documenting this day (even though it was very low key).  We started off the morning bright and early at 6:30 (thank you so much Preston for being so eager to wake up to celebrate).  We joined the "other" Emerson's (Candace, Justin, and Ava) for lunch at one of my favorite places- the ever-classy Spring Creek BBQ.  Why <you might ask> is that my favorite place? 1. BBQ and mac n cheese (I shouldn't have to list any more to be honest) 2. We had a gift card because of some school fundraisers we did this year 3.  You get your food immediately (we can get in and get out without a fuss)  4.  You never have to wait  5. Their rolls (or as they like you to call them "warm fresh bread,") are dy-no-mite!  6.  I could go on for quite sometime, so I'll just leave it at that.

After lunch, Brad, Preston, and I went on a search for a new angel fish.  We have one, but Brad has been insistent on the fact that we need two because the first one needs a friend (I'm guessing the eight other fish don't do the trick).  Oddly enough, every time we go to get one at either Petco or Petsmart, they are always sold out.  This is very strange to me as I didn't know there were "popular" fish- but I guess I don't know much about anything to do with fish, so that would make since. 

We stopped and rented  "Little Fockers," to watch once our little- um- Preston went to sleep.  We came home played, ate dinner, then put my little nugget to bed.

We started the movie (which I would like to point our here is OK, but definitely nothing compared to the two previous movies in the series).  Around 9ish the fireworks around us started.  The city fireworks were held on Friday (the 1st) and honestly considering we are in a major drought right now along with being IN city limits where it is illegal to set of fireworks, I wasn't expecting them.  I know, I know- I should have known, but I guess I was in extreme denial that anything was going to wake up my child.  There were several loud pops that I swore were going to wake him.. but nothing.  Then, at about 9:45, right as our movie was wrapping up, things got a little crazy!  All of the sudden what sounded like a machine gun was exploding on our front porch... and what do all people do in the moment they think there is a machine gun on their front porch do?  Well they open the front door on the front porch of course... Thank GOD is was not in fact a machine gun OR on our front porch for that matter.  BUT it was a lovely set of black cat fireworks some punk kids sat off right in the middle of our street.  Of course, by the time we got out there and realized what the heck was going on- there was no one except for all of the other neighbors on their front porches in their lovely jammies.  I immediately ran back in to look at the baby monitor because I just knew that HAD to have woken Preston up... but NOPE... little man was snuggled in a little ball in the corner of his bed.   Now how is it that sometimes a simple flush of the toilet can wake the child but not the next world war on our front porch?  CrAzY- now I'm not going to complain because I don't know what I would have done with a screaming child at that time...

After we calmed down a bit, Brad and I did what all normal couples do in a situation like this, we had a stake out.  Yep, you heard me correctly.  We turned off all of the lights and sat in our dining room peering through the windows just waiting for those kids to try and come back.  During this time, I decided to blame it all on Brad because of a little thing I like to call karma.  Yes, I knew Brad in high school and I also knew this was very likely something he did back then.  For boys, this is the ultimate excitement.  Unlike us girls who got our thrills NOT from setting dog poop on fire on someones front porch, but instead from giving other girls snarl looks for looking trashy (when, in all actually, she was probably wearing something I too had in my closet from a Wet Seal Clearance sale).  Anyway, of course Brad had pulled this firework prank, only with several more fireworks and as he described it, even better.  I asked him in that moment if he now regretted doing that to the people.  His response.. "No, they didn't have a baby.  If I didn't have a baby right now, I wouldn't care."  Really?  So unless you have a child under the age of 2 or 3, you deserve to have the sh- I mean- crap scared out of you?  That was pretty much Brad's point.  So as we sat on the floor of our dining room ridiculously waiting on these children to come back by (and now I wonder what would we have even done if we had caught them?) I said, "If this was you, would you come back by?"  "No."  We then decided the 5 minute stake out had become pointless and turned on just about every outside light we have just to send a clear message to these young Brad's- we're home and we will catch you next time. 

As I'm sure you guessed, nothing happened for the rest of the night.  A few fireworks were sat off here and there around the neighborhood, but nothing that caused too much concern.  Looking back, this night has really got me thinking about Karma... it is definitely something I believe in both the good and the bad.  All I have to say is, can't God just forget about all of the bad BRAD (well, I guess me too) did as a teenager and focus on the good?  Lord knows I don't want to have to make up for all of my husbands crazy antics, but I guess, at this point, I have no choice.  So bring on the karma, bring on the next generation of smashed in mailboxes, insanely loud fireworks, and don't forget, toilet papered houses...