20 Months!

 My sweet girl is growing up!!!!!! and with that comes new milestones and new challenges. Her vocabulary is expanding daily...even more so than before. It seems, just within the past week, she has added 2-3 words daily. She has also been big on learning names this past week. It all started with "PoPo." We prayed for him every morning when he was sick and she just caught on to his name. Then, a few weeks ago Reid came over to play and she caught on to his name. However, the biggest "jump" in remembering names came last week while we were in San Antonio. Presley caught onto names very quickly and started remembering faces. Sara has been trying to get Presley to say her name for months! Finally, while we were in San Antonio she said it! Now anytime she sees a picture of Sara or a picture of anyone with short brown hair she says "Sarrrah." It is quite cute. She also learned to say cousin Ellie's name, but refers to her as "ewwie." I tried to get her to say grandpa, but it came out "pa-pop." I also tried to get her to say Elizabeth, but it's a bit of a long name. I have been pulling out pictures and pointing out different family members, but she is having difficulty with some of the names. She almost has baby Logan's name down. A few days ago, I showed her a little video clip of her cousin Cooper singing in his Christmas program and now she knows who "coopa" is. ;-) tee-hee. The funniest thing is that she calls a banana a "nana" so we will have to do a little transferring of names....kind of like we do with the name "Goose" Ha! She finally calls the puppy by his real name, "Jester"

The BEST thing about all of the name learning is that she has learned the name "Jesus." The wonderful thing about this is that she picked up on his name through a song. One of my piano students, Gretchen, gave Presley her first Bible called, "Baby's First Bible" when she was born. She loves this book and always looks through it. At the end of the book there is a page with children sitting around Jesus and when we get to this page I always sing, "Jesus Loves Me" or "Jesus Loves the Little Children." So, without pounding His name into her head, she still picked up on the love of Jesus in this book. Whenever she wants to read this book she says "Jesus" and runs and gets it. Melts my heart! I always wonder if I am doing a good job teaching and parenting Presley...this is just proof that these little ones pick up on everything!

Presley is also becoming more independent which means that she is also more interested in doing things on her own. She is very interested in the potty....one of the reasons for buying her the Potty Elmo. When she was 17 months old I bought her a potty seat to put on top of the toilet. We have been practicing "just sitting" on the potty for 3 months. Now, she knows how to put the potty on top of the toilet. She also tells me when she has gone "poo-poos" in her diaper. She will also grab her diaper for me and say, "diaper." I have taken the approach of "slow and steady" wins the race. I will spare you of any philosophy I have or any information about the books I have read through. We are basically just introducing "potty time" into her daily routine so that when she turns 2 it's already a part of her day...per aunt Sara's advice. ;-) I read that the hardest time to implement potty training is 24-36 months...the easiest being 18-24 months or 36-48 months. I decided upon the 18-24 months of age.

Eating habits have definitely changed. She now refuses things on a daily basis. She used to always try things, but now she clamps her mouth shut if she is not in the mood to try something new. If I haven't already introduced it to her then it's a real battle....except for when we are at a restaurant. She will eat anything when we are at a restaurant...probably because she knows she has "choices" at home. My bad! Anyhow, one day she will love bananas and the next day she will refuse to eat them. One day she loves spinach and the next- she hates it. We have had 4 battles and each turned out the same...Presley giving in. :-) I have heard that it is "just the age" so I am trying to keep an open mind when I am dealing with her eating habits. One thing I have done is cut out her snacks...and if she does have a snack then she has fruit. I also give her small amounts of a variety of food which seems to help! Today for lunch she had 4 banana bites, 3 raspberries, a cookie cutter sandwich, and half a slice of pumpkin bread. She ate all of it....a big deal since she has refused to eat bananas for the past week! Live and learn, I guess.

All in all she is still a very good little girl, but there are definitely challenging moments. Some days we battle from the moment she wakes up, but the majority of the time she obeys and is very well behaved....I will spare you any details about the challenges. :-)

Christmas Favorites!

The Axtell Clan

Christmas in San Antonio was CRAZY, but so much fun. On Friday, we had family pictures out at the Dominion. It went surprisingly well considering we had 8 little ones to work with. ;-) Christmas Eve, we went over to my Grandma's house and had a Bill Miller's Dinner...to everyone's liking, of course! Then, we opened up all of our gifts. This was the first time we have opened up all of our gifts on Christmas Eve! Our tradition usually holds, we open 1 gift Christmas Eve night and the rest on Christmas Day. It was complete craziness watching everyone open up their gifts at the same time. Complete craziness...just the way I like it! ;-) Ha! I have never seen so many toys in all of my life, but it was great fun! On Christmas Day we had a lovely dinner that Jean prepared ALL.BY.HERSELF! She made everything! Everyone was impressed and it was by far one of the best dinners I have ever had. Woo-Hoo Jean! I am pretty sure that everyone went home with some new recipes in hand to add to their collection at home...the cheese squares being the biggest hit of the night!  On Sunday, we were able to meet Christy and the family out for lunch at Alamo Cafe...Presley's first visit to the cafe! yummmo! Sunday evening we were able to get out for a date night...thanks dad! It was a great Christmas and we were completely exhausted by the time we got home on Monday. Thankfully, we flew and so we got home early Monday morning which left us the entire day to just relax. Presley went to bed at 6:00 and didn't wake up until the next morning at 9:45! Today, we are trying to get back into the routine of things and Presley is trying to get used to playing by herself again :-( Here are a few of my Christmas Favorites...

Miss Cranky Pants

Love this sweet photo

took her a few days, but she finally learned how to do it!

 taking a walk with "pa-pop" and reading her new book

 My most favorite picture EVER! I love everything about it. Reid, just like his dad, is trying to get his point across to his cousin and Presley is taking it all in....she thinks he is so funny.  Sara and I have noticed that all of the younger kids love the next oldest one. For instance...Logan and Reid adore Corbin, Presley adores Reid, and Grant adores Presley. It's very cute. ;-) Originally, I ran into the house to grab my camera because Sara told Reid that Presley was a little scared of being on the swing so Reid put his arm around her with his hand on her lap. It was so cute! By the time I got back with the camera they were both in a very silly mood.

Bath time with the cousins...Presley likes her bath time and she was very cranky taking a bath with her cousins. However, she managed to have a little fun by splashing them! :-) lol

 My sweet Grandma Cose...still young at heart ;-) 

The Many Faces of the Season...

The Captured moments of the season! ;-) Raise your hand if you had similar feelings this Christmas holiday...

All done...dont' let the door hit ya on the way out ;-)

Presley's Fall 2010 Scrapbook!

Below, you will find Presley's Fall scrapbook that I finally finished. Yeah! I had so much fun working on this book! ;-) I designed a few of the pages from scratch, but I would say that 80% of the book is composed of pages that I saw, tweaked, and scraplifted. :-P

fall 2010

Click here to view this photo book larger

Christmas at the Gaylord Texan 2010

I am on a roll...2 quick post in one day! Yesterday we headed to the Gaylord Texan to enjoy some family Christmas time. Every year the Gaylord Texan has a beautiful Christmas display and various "Christmasy" activities going on. We were not as impressed by the holiday decor this year as we were last year so we were a little bummed. It was a quick visit, but still fun. Here are a few pictures from our afternoon.

Elves were part of the theme this year. They had an elf maze for the kids to find there way through.

Double Sweetness ;o)

The Gingerbread house was still a hit...but still not as good as last year

CHOO-CHOO! Presley loves her trains...

...but not as much she loves her rock ;-)

1st Dress Up

 For Christmas, Nana Burda got Presley a trunk full of dress up clothes. At first, Presley wasn't too sure of what to do with everything. For the past week I have been leaving the trunk open in her room so that she could have the opportunity to explore it freely. Finally, Presley started "testing" the items out. A few days ago she came walking out of her room with a pair of the high heels on and a wand. She ran up to me saying, "shoes, shoes, shoes." It was very cute! As I sat there praising her beautiful shoes, she pranced around the house with a proud look on her face. ;o) I am just loving this girl!

The Shaggy Red Rug

 Sadly, I am sitting on the couch looking at my daughter in the monitor as she cuddles away with her stuffed Elmo that I am guilty of buying for her yesterday afternoon.  I say this because I can't stand Elmo. I don't know why? There really is no rhyme or reason for my dislike. I am just completely and utterly annoyed by him...his voice, his color, the way he looks...pretty much everything about him.  I feel about Elmo the way most feel about Barney. I actually don't mind Barney too much...oh, who am I kidding? He bothers me too, but the shaggy red rug bothers me more. I even made it a point to never allow my child to watch him on tv. Anytime we watched Sesame Street I would turn it off as soon as the red shaggy rug showed his face.  As much as I don't like Elmo, one would never think so by the attire in Presley's  bathroom.  Let's just say, options are limited when you are looking for a bath mat at target! Anyhow, a few weeks ago while we were shopping, we passed by a stuffed Elmo in Toys R US. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, my child yells out, "Elllmo." You can imagine the horror I felt as we passed by 10 stuffed Elmos in a row and all I could hear was, "elllmo, elllmo, elllmo" coming from the mouth of my sweet little girl. I was flabbergasted...WHERE, HOW, WHO? For 2 grueling weeks, I tried to find the culprit. Then, FINALLY, a few days ago while Sara was visiting I figured it out. I was in the middle of explaining my Elmo dilemma when all of a sudden I heard, "na-na-na-na...na-na-na..it's Elmo's world."  I swung my body around, only to find a tiny blue phone sitting all by itself in the middle of Presley's room. Presley loves phones and she loves to talk on them. If there's no phone in sight then she will make do with whatever is in her hand. Yesterday, she improvised and used a french fry to do her phoning on. So, WHO is the culprit that snuck this shaggy red rug into my house? Great Granddad and Barb...they are the ones that are guilty of giving my sweet little girl this fancy little talking Elmo phone last year for Christmas. grrrr. Be afraid....be very afraid!

Fast forward to today. I broke down and bought my child an Elmo yesterday afternoon....for reasons I will discuss one day, but not today! ;o) Last Sunday we had our "Home Team" Christmas party. When we picked up Presley from the babysitter's house she was sitting on the couch watching an Elmo movie. The babysitter said that Elmo was the ONLY thing that got her to stop crying! WHAT? This can not be! ugggg. Then, on Thursday, while we were checking out at the grocery store Presley looked up and saw a huge Elmo balloon hanging above the cashier lane. My daughter kept repeating herself saying, "Elllmo, Elllmo, Elllmo." The cashier looked at me and I looked at him because neither one of us saw an Elmo...great, no there's Elmos running around in her head. Finally, we both looked up and saw a huge Elmo floating above the register. grrrrr.  So like I said, I bought Presley an Elmo yesterday afternoon. She does everything with it...she eats with it, feeds it, slides with it, and now (much to my dismay) she sleeps with it! I even woke up to the sounds of my darling daughter calling out, "elllmo, elllmo, elllmo" over the baby monitor this morning. This evening she dropped "bear bear" (her lovey) on the floor and picked up Elmo to sleep with! AND NOW, sadly, SHE IS CUDDLING with him. ;-( My fault...'tis true. ;-( Oh well, "my name is Becca and I'm an elmophobic."

...who wouldnt' be? just look at the photo of him above! How is that NOT scary to little kids...he's frightening!

If You Give Presley a Cookie...

So, I know this is my 3rd blog post of the day, but I have to write this down before I forget! Yesterday was our Kindermusik Christmas Party and it was also, what I like to call, the battle of the food day between mommy and Presley. Just within the past month Presley has become more independent. She doesn't like for me to brush her teeth, brush her hair, feed her with a spoon, or break up her food into bight sized pieces....she can do it herself! She even feeds "Goose" on her own now.Yesterday was one of those days that started off rough. Everything was a "battle" from the moment she woke up. I know I've blogged about Presley's new found love for cookies before and how they can affect her little personality when she eats more than one. At the Christmas Party we had a book exchange and refreshments...mainly cookies! For the book exchange, Presley received a lovely book called, If you Give a Mouse a Cookie. As soon as she opened the book she said, "cookie!" I think she repeated herself at least half a dozen times in the span of 30 seconds. Thankfully, we had refreshments a few minutes after the book exchange. I must admit that the cookies looked delicious and so I grabbed 2...one for me and one for Presley. I sat down on the ground with Presley, laid out two napkins, put a few "crumbs" on one napkin and put what was left on the second napkin...thinking it would be FOR ME ;-) Presley was not amused! While I was talking to a friend sitting next to me Presley managed to swipe the bulk of the cookies. grrrrr. She left the crumbs for me as she quickly stuffed the bigger pieces in her mouth. I should have known better. We left shorty after we had our "refreshments." Of course, Presley proceeded to ask for "more cookies" over and over again. On our way home, I stopped at Rosa's to get us some bean and cheese tacos knowing that I needed to have something on hand that Presley would eat. I knew from experience that if you give Presley a cookie she will refuse to eat ANYTHING else for the remainder of the day. After her cookie bash during Thanksgiving she refused to eat anything I put in front of her until the next day when we had Mexican food for dinner. So I was thinking that I was being a smart mom by stopping and getting Rosa's for lunch. UMMM...not so much. As soon as we got home I gave Presley her lunch...it consisted of a banana, a glass of milk, and a bean and cheese taco. She ate 1/2 of a banana and then continued on her rant of "cookie, cookie, cookie." I politely told her that there were no more cookies and she needed to eat her lunch. She proceeded to scream, yell, and cry. She flat out REFUSED to eat. I stood my ground though, and she went to bed at 1:00 with only milk and 1/2 of a banana in her tummy. She has always been a fairly good eater. She doesn't always like everything I give her, which is fine, but at least she always tries everything I put in front of her. However, on this day, she was just being stubborn and relentless...testing me I am sure. Anyhow, after a 3 hour nap and an empty tummy she woke up pretty hungry. So, what did I do? I reheated the extra bean and cheese taco that was left over from lunch. I provided nothing else for her. I will tell you that the look she gave me was priceless...she was not amused! We sat there for 25 minutes...no t.v., no dogs to eat her crumbs, and no mommy sitting next to her at the table (I was on the couch). 25 minutes in, I FINALLY saw her slowly reach for a bite...bringing it close to her mouth and then quickly pulling it away, bringing it close then quickly pulling it away again. She stuck her tongue out and dipped the piece of taco onto her tongue...as if she had never had one before! FINALLY, she took a bite and then ate the ENTIRE taco....looking over her shoulder all the while to make sure I wasn't watching. She really didn't want me to know that she had folded. Mommy-3 Presley-0 ;-)

Why I Believe...

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God -Romans 8:38-39

As you saw in my post yesterday, this past weekend we celebrated Christmas with the Burdas ;-) It was a great day and even more special because Joey’s dad was able to come home from the hospital. Yeah!! Last Wednesday, he went into the hospital because of a blood clot that they found in his lung. It is so amazing to see how God worked in this situation. He went in to see a dermatologist for a rash and ended up with a scan of his chest that showed he had a Pulmonary Embolism in his lung. As most of you know, Pulmonary Embolisms are very dangerous because they can pass through the heart or brain and cause immediate death without having any knowledge of ever even having one. They are literally described as silent killers because usually a person that has one feels fine and completely healthy…. which is why 100,000+ people die every year from the effects of a pulmonary embolism. Very scary! So, we are very thankful for God’s protection over his life.

It seems like every year God brings me back to reality…the reality that He is good, the reality that he is sovereign. Last year, I had these same “feelings” of thankfulness when I was in the hospital with an ectopic pregnancy and when Elizabeth gave birth to a very pre-mature Logan. Every year I am reminded of God’s love and provision for my family. I love that I am able to see God’s mighty hand at work around me in everyday life, but I am even more grateful that I am able to see Him work in the lives of those I love. Many times I get caught up in everyday life and miss out on seeing God’s goodness at work around me. It is very easy to miss…especially when I am so caught up in my life. The closer I am in my relationship with God, the more of HIM I see daily.

A girl in my Bible study asked us all the question, “how do you know there’s a God.” I am always baffled as to how one can ask such a question…especially with all of creation staring them in the face each and every day. It’s always hard for me to answer that question… I know there’s a God because He has shown himself to me through the experiences I’ve had in my life. However, if one does not have a relationship with Him then I doubt very much that they would be able to see the fingerprints of God in their life or in my life experiences, for that matter. God has never been a “religion” to me, but rather a relationship. It is because of this relationship that I am able to “see” Him work in my life and the life of those around me. So many times we look at death as if it is something that happens to everyone else but us. I know for me, before my mom died, death never seemed a reality. Now that she is gone, I wake up to the reality of death every morning. Rarely do my feet hit the floor in the morning without the realization that this day could very well be my last day on earth.

This past fall semester I attended a Bible study by Beth Moore called, Breaking Free. I have done this study before, but she updated it this past year and it was just as amazing as it was 10 years ago. Never in my life have I learned so much about myself and my relationship with God and others. In one of the lessons she asks the question, “when is God’s presence most present in your life”? I can honestly say that the time He is most present is usually during the most difficult times in my life. I can also say that God’s presence was felt most in my life the moments before my mom passed away and the days after. My mom went into a coma a few days after my dad’s birthday in early March of 1997. She didn’t pass away until a month later on April 7^th. That month was probably the most excruciating time in my life…ever. I can remember literally begging God to take her home in peace. I remember begging Him to allow us one more coherent moment with her. Did he provide? Absolutley!!! ;-) Not only did He provide, he exceeded! My mom was not able to communicate very well because of the location of the brain tumor. She knew who I was, but was unable to remember my name. I remember she used to point to me and say, “the middle one.” The last few days of my mom’s life I was able to see the presence of God surrounding her. It was truly a beautiful thing. She had difficulty speaking and difficulty getting out the words she wanted to say, but at no time did she ever have difficulty re-sighting a bible verse she memorized or a hymn that she knew by heart. There were two hymns that she sang in her last moments awake… Trust and Obey and My Jesus I Love Thee. In Presley’s room sits a memory board I created before she was born. On this board are several photos of my mom and a copy of the hymn, Trust and Obey. In my room, next to my bed, I have the words from the hymn, My Jesus I Love Thee. As powerful as the words are in these two hymns, nothing is more powerful than the fact that my mom was able to sing them with complete joy on her face and without faltering. The fact that she chose to sing verse 3 of the hymn, My Jesus I Love Thee is not “luck, fate, or a coincident.” It was not a coincident that she used her last coherent moments to give God the glory and it was not a coincident that I was able to sit before her on that very day and hear those words come from her mouth. They are the words I shared here on my blog just a few months ago...

"My Jesus I love thee...I'll love thee in life, I will love thee in death, And praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath; And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow; If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now."

It is because of moments like these that I can say...... That is why I believe. That is why I know that there is a God and that is why HE is more than just a “religion” to me. That is also why I give God the glory when He, and He alone, provides for my family and those I love.

I love on Sara’s blog that it says…

I do not have a religion made up of rules.
I have a lifestyle of faith, joy, hope, and belief.

'O Christmas Tree...Round 1

We had a wonderful Christmas Round 1. ;-) It was such a great day and I absolutely loved watching the kids open their gifts...especially Cooper. I've never seen so much excitement in one kid. Presley was very much into her gifts this year...not so much the opening up of them, but she definitely took the time to play with each one. In fact, it was hard to pull her away from one gift to get her to focus on the next one. She has really enjoyed each and every one. It was definitely one of those holidays that will be etched in my memory for life. Good times were had by all...just see for yourself...

And it's the man of the hour...lol ;-) We were so thankful to have Joey's dad back at home with us after having been in the hospital for 3 days! We were all so excited to celebrate Christmas together. ;-) God is good and we are thankful for His protection over Popo!

Sweet boys...Jester asleep in my lap and Cooper givin him some love....like he needs any more lovin ;-) rotten pup!

Presley LOVES, LOVES, LOVES the kitchen that Nana and Popo got her :-)

Cooper blowing his train whistle...he was SO excited about EVERY present! I was getting excited just watching him. lol

Presley is terrified of dolls. She hates them, to put it mildly. I think they are too life like, but after a few minutes of watching from afar she warmed up to this little crawling baby from Great Grandma Barb. ;-) Thanks to Barb, Presley has gone from complete hate to complete fascination...now if she could just get the darn thing to clap. lol...

She loves her new book :-) We read it EVERY morning, day, and night!!Two little posers ;-)

"ahhh, run for your life"...
until next year ;-)