Chickfala

Pres proclaimed yesterday, "This is my favorite food in the whole world!"





It IS good, sista!

Yesterday after the girls woke up from a nap, they wanted donuts. Well the donut store had long closed, so I suggested Chickfala. There may have been some cheers! Or maybe that was just me! We hadn't been out of the house since Saturday and I was ready! Even if we did only drive through and come back home.

With all the cheers and 'the best food in the whole world' proclamation I thought it was promising that they would actually eat. (They haven't been eating that great afterall.) Well Presley ate one nugget and a few fries and Teagan didn't eat a bite.





And of course that dog was there waiting for a bite to fall, or for us to turn our backs so he can help himself right off our plates!

Homey don't play that.

Ying and Yang

The very next day after I wrote about Teagan, Presley pranced around the house before bed in this ensemble with her baby, her shopping cart and her makeup by her feet.



And I thought to myself, yet another example of how different the girls are from one another.

The next day, she got ready to do an errand and lunch at Chickfala and wore this.




I have to fight/bargain/supervise what she wears to school twice a week, so the other 5 days, I tend to get pretty lax. She still wants to always wear a dress or a skirt. She often tells me whatever I have picked out "isn't pretty" or "isn't cute". I think she's heard she looks cute while we're out and about one too many times...

Notice her backpack. Whenever we leave the house, she goes into her playroom to "pack up". This means she brings all this stuff neatly stuffed in a purse or bag - jewelry, makeup, babies, baby stuff, phones, sunglasses, cameras, hair assessories, toys, or any combination there of. Which all ends up in the car. I try to cut it down and just allow one or two things, but sometimes I humor her.

The other day I was putting makeup on and Presley asked me if I wanted to borrow her makeup because she "couldn't even see mine." I tried to explain that was a good thing and you want it to look natural. She said she liked hers better since you can see it. I think her motto is the bluer the better! Because this particular morning she got all dolled up and I took this picture by 10 o'clock.







Here's more examples of her girlie-ness.













And here's when just a good ol pair of jeans was acceptable.



Just look at those arm rolls!

Presley can write her own name and is learning by leaps and bounds! (This is back when she had impetigo - she's still quite the picker.) She does have a hard time with the letter 'S' and questions which direction it should start and finish.



She was the star student last week at school. One question she had to answer to tell about herself was what she wanted to be when she grows up. She answered 'a cupcake and ice cream maker'.

One last observation about Presley is her ability to try to get what she wants. She's a fast talker and can be quite manipulating. The other day, after I told her she couldn't eat some Fun Dip after breakfast (or was it before?), she snuggled up in her daddy's lap and whispered "do you want to be a good daddy or mean like mama?". Let me just say, he was mean like me, which resulted in Presley getting upset and choosing to talk back and be highly disrespectful which resulted in not getting to enjoy that Fun Dip for three whole days! Ouch!

Another classic example is one day her and Madden were racing to the back door because they both wanted to open it. Well Madden got there first so Presley quickly started swinging between the couch and table nearby and said "Hey Madden, can you do this?". Sure enough Madden fell for it and aborted his quest of opening the door to show his cousin he could indeed swing just like her. Then Presley jumped right back to the back door and opened it. It's amazing how her little brain works.

Anyway, back to present day. Unfortunately, both girls have a fever right now and it's been a lazy couple of days. Hopefully it's just a little bug and not a different strain of the flu! They seem to still have energy and are still eating okay. But nothing makes you feel more helpless than sick kids. :(

It's baaaa-aaaack

The sand in my house from this.

Embracing her inner girlie

Teagan is my non-girlie girl. (Which is just fine with me, mind you.) Not just because she doesn't particularly like skirts because 'they're not comfortable'. Although I get her to wear them sometimes with the ploy that she can wear it for a little bit and then take it off. Instead, she much prefers comfort over cute and would rather wear the legging with long sleeves or a hoodie at all times. This is a favorite outfit, for example.



When seasons change from cold to hot, she still wants all limbs covered if not layered at all times. Same goes for sleepwear!



She doesn't really care what she wears and gets dressed with ease. Now, she does raise a stink about her shoes every once in a while, only because she wants them to be comfortable.

When she plays dress up, she gears more towards costumes and not so much princess.





When she plays pretend, she is usually the mama, the teacher, or anyone else who is the boss.




She loves movies where the main character is a boy. And usually a boy who gets in trouble - Home Alone (1, 2, and 3), The Sandlot, The Christmas Story, The Little Rascals, Slappy and the Stinkers, and The Big Green, just to name a few!

Her favorite color has always been blue. She toots like a motor boat. (Seriously, like 200% more often than Presley. And it's not just air, it's stink too. )

She loves to play with her boy cousins.



Price has always said he had 'his son' with Teagan.

Well, this particular day she really embraced her more girlie side. The shoes, the stance, the singing, the assessories - it's a side we don't get to see ALL at once very often! It was a treat! It inspired this post!



I don't push girlie or tomboy. And I try not to label her as either. I love her just the way she is! Which, in my opinion, is a leader who is determined, persistent, true to herself yet practical, and sensitive but with a little bit of wild and a whole lot of ornery thrown in for good measure.

Sounds kind of like a mission statement....

Valentine's day

Last Thursday, the girls both had their parties at school. I got to join Pres for breakfast and Teagan for cookie decorating after lunch.







Here's their valentines they gave out to their class with suckers. The templates were free from Florabella if you liked their facebook page. Alison liked it for me since I couldn't be a fan myself.

Front:



Back:



Today we had an impromptu cookie decorating party of our own with Monica and her boys.











Here's one I snapped of Levi.


Thanks for sending me pics, Monica! (I'm totally camera-less right now! My little one is broken and my big one is in the shop. And my phone's camera is not serving me well lately!)

To complete the day of fun, love, and good cheer, we grabbed a bite to eat at Chipotle and took Mav to his second week of obedience training at Petsmart. Like I told the class during introductions, we were there so we can have more peace at home.

Here he is sitting on my foot during class.



And the girls loving on him.



Hope you had a wonderful valentine's day, too!

IMAX and science

On Sunday we decided to get out and enjoy the pretty day. Price has been wanting to go to the planetarium. So off we went to DFW.

First we saw the IMAX, Monsters Under the Sea. It was pretty good, about prehistoric animals in the sea. All that intellectual stuff really hurts my brain! Seriously!



The girls were so funny in the theater! It truly was a realistic experience for them, as evidenced by these comments:


"If I get off my chair, am I going to fall in there?" and "Are those monsters going to eat us?" - Presley

"Is the water going to get up my nose?" and when the scene ended by the sea creature eating 'the camera', "Did we just get eaten?" - Teagan

But by the end, they were both 'needing to go to the bathroom'. Which basically means, let's blow this joint.

We took the opportunity a few times to talk about patience.

Alison and Jay and the girls met us afterwards and we had time to walk to the planetarium and enjoy the outdoors.




The girls wanted to ride these 'big rubber duckies' so bad. But we had no cash and it was a great excuse and we stuck with it. Next time (maybe)!







The planetarium was a little bit of a let down. In retrospect we should have nixed on it and gone through the exhibit 'dinosaurs unearthed'. We might even go back to see that since we didn't have time on Sunday. They had one real-boned dinosaur up outside the exhibit and a couple other fake ones that moved and roared.

All in all, it was good family fun!

Letters

I don't know what these things are called. It's magnets and you can create lots of fun stuff.

Teagan made a letter.




Presley likes to make 'circus tents'.




They are unfortunately hard to keep all together. So after they play with them I find them all over the house for the next couple of days. Small price to pay for fun!

Bath time

Previously bath time at our house was reminiscent of one of my favorite poems growing up from the book A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein. I actually remember the librarian reading this to my class in elementary school. I never forgot it!

Crowded Tub

There's too many kids in this tub.
There's too many elbows to scrub.
I just washed a behind, that I'm sure wasn't mine.
There's too many kids in this tub.

As the girls got bigger and bigger, the tub got smaller and smaller and one day that poem popped into my head! I realized, there was no more room for me!





So now this is my view! And I enjoy watching them play together! Sweet sisters!

Still

Maverick is still on my nerves. Actually, probably even more on my nerves. But. At some point in the early morning hours Mav, as stealth as a cat, gets on the bed and snuggles up to my legs. I honestly don't even realize he's there until I see this.




And then my nerves straighten out and me and him are at peace. Even if it's short lived.

We started obedience class this week, so we are hopeful...

At home

Y'all. We've been at home for like a solid 7 day week! Presley is feeling better, but still weak and fatigued. That flu is no joke. Poor child.

We've made the best of it though. I did a whole load of just pajamas. That's a whole lot of lazy right there!

We've had tea parties.







We've blown our nose. A lot!



We've played with playdoh.








And while big sis was resting, me and little sis had some fun. We drank hot chocolate on the front porch while we enjoyed the snow.




We ate icicles. (Which was great because she had bit her tongue, and we just snagged one from outside!)





We built a mini snowman! Sister came out, but she didn't last terribly long. Neither did Daddy because he was a little under the weather too. :(



*********
I started this draft this past Saturday. Later that day we broke free from the house and went to the grocery store, with everyone else in town!

Everyone is feeling better now. I've got a touch of the sniffles now myself! Today, Price let me sleep in and then brought me breakfast in bed - an egg sandwich and coffee! Love you, babe.

Here it is another snow/ice day! Last night we went and stocked up on our family fun supplies at Target. Movies, playdoh, klenex and some bread and milk.

Wondering if we'll be able to get out there and play today. So far there isn't much to play with....

Three words

On. My. Nervous.




Like a teacher told me in high school, "you're cute, but you're gettin' on my last nerve".

Sicky

I've got a sick one on my hands. Presley started with fever on Saturday evening and on Sunday she was out for the count most of the day.



I've got a sick one on my hands. Presley started with fever on Saturday evening and on Sunday she was out for the count most of the day. A trip to the doctor on Monday confirmed the the diagnosis of the flu. But it was too late to start any meds.

Here we are on this morning, Wednesday, watching cartoons on the couch. We've basically moved from the bed to the couch and back.



Her nose is still running, no appetite, low grade fever, and coughing. :(

Teagan said it good this morning. "Big sister is sick. Little sister is not sick." She cracks me up when she refers to herself in third person! She's seen all this catering we've been doing for Presley and this morning she had her jump rope in her hands and then put it on the coffee table and says, "mom, can you hand me my jump rope?". Of course, baby!


Her self portrait.

Let's hope both sisters feel better soon!