Pretty Ears

not quite right, but it'll do ;o)

Presley loves to copy me and do what I am doing...whether that be putting on makeup, wearing high heel shoes, painting toenails, or wearing earrings. Last week, I saw her trying to put something in her ears. I told her no and to not stick anything in her ears and she began to cry and said, "I want pretty ears." Finally, I realized what she was doing. She had grabbed my earrings and was trying to wear them. Silly girl! Anyways, Joey and I decided to pick her up some clip-on earrings while we were out shopping this past weekend. It took us forever to find a pair that was small enough for her head, but big enough to not be a choking hazard.

She loves them and wears them all of the time...it freaks Joey out a little bit though because he says she looks too old for her age...and so it begins. ;o) lol.

A Weekend Alone

Fishing fun with the Boys ;o)

This past weekend Joey and I had a weekend alone at home while Presley spent the weekend with Sara. We had such a great time just sleeping in and lounging around. We actually stayed pretty busy. It was kind of weird just sitting at home without Presley there. We opted out of staying at a hotel because of the dogs. Friday night we went to Uptown and ate at an Italian Restaurant called Cremonas. It was a very quaint little place and the atmosphere was very romantic. The weather was beautiful so we sat outside on the patio which made for a great evening. On Saturday we headed to Grapevine Main Street. We did a little shopping and then had lunch at Weinberger's Deli. We continued shopping until well into the afternoon at Southlake Town Center. We also had a little time to visit Classic BMW...just to LOOK around. Saturday night we got together with some friends at Hacienda Ranch and then headed to a movie after dinner....we saw The Lincoln Lawyer. I don't think Joey and I have seen a movie, in an actual movie theater, since last year. It was a really good movie and we enjoyed it. Sunday morning turned out to be a cold, wet, and gloomy day so we didn't do much outside. We had lunch in Keller at Zoe's Diner and then headed to Sara's house to pick up little Miss Presley. She was a lot cranky and quite the big pill. I am hoping that she did not act like that while we were away. Sara said she was good, but you just never know....lol. ;o) Once we got Presley home she fell right asleep and I ended up having to wake her up at 5:00. She was tuckered out! Then, I put her down for bed at 7:30 and she slept until 9:00 the next morning!!! She must have partied hard at her Auntie Sara's house! Presley loves and adores her cousin Reid. When we went to Mooya's for dinner last night Presley looked at me and said, "Reid a coming?" She talked about him the entire night. I am not sure about everything that she was saying, but she kept saying his name and would ask, "where Reid?" I know that she had a wonderful time at Sara's house. They had picnics, went fishing, played till their hearts content, and Presley got to go shopping with just Sara....who spoiled her with clothes and sunglasses. ;o) lol. I think everyone in the Burda household had a great weekend and today we are back to our normal routine of life!

Fossil Rim

This past Friday, Joey surprised us by taking the day off! Wahoo!! It came at a much needed time. I still wasn't feeling 100%, but I knew I didn't want to be stuck at home all day. So, we decided to head to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center a few hours away in Glen Rose, Texas. I am so glad that we went! We definitely had to pack our patience with it being Spring Break and all, but it was still a great time! However, I don't recommend going over Spring Break by any means because it took us 4 hours to complete the 12 mile route.

Presley was a complete angel the entire 4 hours...but this might have had something to do with it ;o) She loved being in the front seat with us and helping her daddy drive.

This big guy was quite friendly and ate out of our hands ;o)
Presley's favorite...the "Gorrafffe" (I attached a video at the bottom of Presley's first encounter with a "gorraffe"...I could just listen to that little voice all day long :)
Beautiful Zebras ;-)
At the beginning of the route you are given a bag of food to feed the animals with. Presley loved throwing the pellets out to all of the animals.

One of the things that made this adventure so much fun is Presley and her absolute LOVE of animals. I had heard that taking a toddler was "pointless" because of their age and short attention span. Ummm, this was not the case with Presley. She was so good the entire time and completely involved in looking at the animals. She adores her dogs, Goose and Jester, and she adored every single animal that looked our way during the tour. At the half way point there was a look out point along with restrooms, a restaurant, petting zoo, and gift shop. We stopped to take pictures, eat some ice cream, and visit the petting zoo. Presley was thrilled to be at eye level with all of the animals, but I got a little nervous when she would put her face next to the goat's face (picture above)...I kept imagining him taking a chunk out of her cheek! eeek... So, giving kisses was off limits this time, but she still managed to have some lovely conversations with the animals. ;o)

look out point and eating ice cream...yummo!

This nasty thing on the left was, surprisingly enough, Presley's favorite animal! ick! It was also her word of the day, "Emu, Emu, Emu!"

She's almost as tall as a cheetah!

Below is a video clip of Presley driving...can you tell that Joey is one proud dad?? hmmm...she will not be racing cars for a living, by the way. ;o) The other video is of Presley and her first encounter with a giraffe.

Slimy Book Worm

I found this awesome website the other day. I forget where or who I found it from, but it's great! It's called slimybookworm It's an online bookstore filled with titles for children 0-12 years old. It also has parenting books and toys based on popular children’s books characters. The best thing about this book store is that it is committed to improving literacy in children and cultivating lifelong Readers. It donates 20% of it's profits to fund literacy in the inner cities of the US and oversees. There is free shipping on orders over $45.

Have you ever seen a product and thought to yourself, "now, why didn't I think of that!" You know, kind of like the Snuggie. Well, here are a few of those products that I have come across through different blogs....
The Puzzle Pod
The Kiddie Catch All
Little Bits
Easy Lunch Boxes
These are, of course, just a few. I am sure that there are thousands of trinkets and gadgets that would fall under the, "now, why didn't I think of that" category. ;o)


Is anyone else bothered by the program Your Baby Can Read? It should be called Your Baby can memorize. This program bothers me because the children are not actually reading, but rather memorizing. I seriously doubt that a 6 month old who has memorized the word feet and then points to his feet would be able to read or even recognize another word in the same word family...like sheet. I also doubt that a 2 or 3 year old who recognizes the word pillow would be able to to read the word window. Of course, memorization or memorizing books is considered to be an early reading skill so I guess this program would benefit children in early reading skills, but I don't think that it focuses on developing reading strategies or skills of any kind. I don't doubt that a few of the children are able to read at age 3 or 4, but I think that that can be attained through a variety of reading programs and by just reading one-on-one with your child. Even Presley has memorized certain words or parts of a book (especially rhyming books) that I have been reading to her since she came home from the hospital. I don't know, just a random thought of mine. ;o) tee-hee

Painted Toes

Presley has a fascination with nail polish. She loves to get into the cabinets in my bathroom and play with my collection of nail polish. She likes to look at the variety of colors and organize them in different ways. She plays with them all of the time....well, until she threw one of the bottles on the ground and shattered it everywhere. Grrr. For some reason, Presley is drawn to toes.....especially when they are painted! When she was little she used to crawl over to her Nana's toes and touch them. I have painted her toes before, but on my own accord and it didn't go too well. Every morning Presley watches me put on my make-up and get ready for the day. She loves for me to put a splash of powder on her nose and cheeks. Today, I grabbed a bottle of pink polish and told her that I was going to paint my toes. She looked at me and said, "me too." I wasn't sure if she really knew what she was saying, but as I was painting my toes she bent over to look at my them and started jabbering away. I couldn't really understand what she was telling me, but I knew what she wanted since she kept holding her foot up to my face. When I was done with my toes I showed them to her and she said, "pretty." ;-) She quickly grabbed the polish and handed me the bottle. So, I decided to give it a try. Sure enough she sat back and put out her tiny little toes and I just painted away. I told her that they were wet and so we had to wait for them to dry. She sat as still as she could while I blew on her feet...she tried to help out with the blowing too. So, there we have it...Presley's first experience with Painted Toes. ;o) tee hee! Not the best picture, but I had to document the moment!

Presley and Some Thoughts About Next Year

Before my miscarriage, I was in the process of finding Presley a preschool to attend 2 days a week starting in the fall. We were looking at Lakeland Christian Academy and Trietsch Enrichment Center in Flower Mound. However, now that I have thought about it I have decided that I will most likely just work with her at home and look into preschools for when she turns 3. I will definitely keep our current weekly routine and activities the same for next year. I will continue in MOPS and Bible Study at Crossroads Bible Church which will allow for her to attend the moppets and bible study class twice a week. We will also continue Kindermusik and Winkids. She loves these classes and it gives me time to practice "circle time" with her. I like to guide her towards participating during circle time and these 2 activities give me the opportunity to do that. I am basically "thinking out loud" right now. ;-) If Joey and I are blessed with another baby then Presley will be a nice 3+ years old. I imagine that this will make it a bit more easy on me, but who knows??

Anyhow, I have been under the weather this week with a horrible cough and sinus infection. I am finally starting to feel better today! Poor Presley just sat on the couch and watched tv or played in her room with "Goosey Goo" while I laid on the couch all week...falling in and out of sleep. eeek! I felt like such a neglectful parent. Joey stayed home one day and came home early when he could, but he has just taken way too many days off of work within the past few months! Our 2011 hasn't exactly started off that great so hopefully the rest of it will get better....or maybe we can just fast forward to 2012! ha!

On another note, here's a little website I like to peek in on from time to time. It has a bunch of printables and some cute activities for little ones. kizclub.com
Handwriting Without Tears...This is a great handwriting program that I love, love, love. It has such a great hands on approach to learning handwriting skills and I like that it focuses on fine motor skills as the basis of learning to write. It teaches number and letter recognition, color and shape awareness, and counting abilities. It also has a great pre-k program that doesn't seem to be overwhelming or frustrating for little ones.

Playing the Day Away- 22 months!

Today has been one of those not so good days...just a little "blah." ;-) However, watching Presley play always seems to bring a smile to my face. It is so fun to watch her grow and I love to see her develop in her play. Just within the past few weeks she has really moved into make believe play. She loves her stuffed animals and the child has more than a trunk full of them. She loves to set them up in front of her and read or sing to them. Joey started a bad habit of allowing her to sleep with all of her stuffed animals so now she fills her crib up with them every time she goes to bed. He sets them up all around the border of her crib, but as soon as he leaves the room she rearranges them. lol. The other day, I walked into her room to check on her during nap time and I found her in the corner of her crib surrounded by all of her animals. She was talking to them and singing to them. I flipped on the light and quickly captured this photo with my iPhone...she thought she was in trouble and that is why she is looking down...lol. She is so funny. I will hear her talk to all of her animals in the same way that I talk to her sometimes....and with the same tone of voice I use. I always use a disappointed tone when I tell her "no no." I can often hear her talking to her stuffed animals or one of our dogs in the same tone of voice..."noa noa" she says. She also comforts her stuffed animals. She likes to rock them in her rocking chair, read them a book, pat them on the head, and then put them down for a "nap." Today, she put her big bear down for a nap in the bathtub. She takes her animals everywhere with her and we rarely get out of the house without 2 or 3 in her hand. We had a constant battle of the wills a few weeks ago because she didn't understand why I wouldn't let her take her animals into the store or church nursery with her. She also got upset with me when I didn't let her huge Tigger take a bath with her. She now sits her animals up on her step stool in the morning to "watch" her take a bath. She also loves to play dress up. A few months ago she wanted no part of dressing up and she really didn't understand what it was all about. Today, she dressed herself up in furs, hats, heels, and pink crowns. She would dress herself up in her room and then walk out into the living room to show me what she was wearing. She would look at me with a big smile on her face, pet her fur wrap, and then say..."pretty." This past weekend, Joey and I took her shoe shopping...girl LOVES to shop for shoes. She walked into every store as if she owned the place. She knew exactly where to go and she knew exactly what pair of shoes she liked . She would have tried on every pair had we let her. ;-) By the end of the day, she proudly walked out of the store with 3 new pairs of shoes! As much as she loves to play with all of the things that are considered "girly." She also LOVES to be outside. Every night when Joey gets home from work she runs up to him and says, "go for a walk." We went for quite a few walks over the weekend and she just loves them. She would stay outside and explore in the dirt or rocks all afternoon if I let her. Today, I just sat back and watched her as she ran circles around me. It just made my day!!!

Eye Appointment-Update

I had another eye appointment today. Fortunately, they were able to run the tests they were not able to while I was pregnant. The tests showed that the blood flow to my eye is very good. In fact, it was excellent! He said that the amount of time it took for the dye to enter my blood stream and reach my eye was extremely fast...which means there isn't a blood clot somewhere else in my body (like the heart, brain, etc.) He also said that the clot looked to be about 80% gone! He suspects that my sight should return to that area of my eye because the clot occurred in the outter most layer. Yeah! With all of that said, he did find something (a very small spot) in my right eye. ??? grrrrr. He said he is not too worried about it and that it could just be the way my body reacts to different stimuli. I did ask him if it could be a tear and he basically said, "no, and stop making things up." ;-/ *sigh* lol. I tend to create problems when they aren't even there. lol. Oh, the joys of being me. Anyhow, like my dad said, "we are just going to take this as a blessing from the Lord and everything is going to be just fine." So, I am very thankful for the sight that I have and I will just praise God for allowing me to see what I do. ;-)

It's all in His Hands....

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

This was the verse that I was lead to when I first found out that I was pregnant this past January. It is also the verse that has been "popping" up in my life every time I turn around...in church services, books I read, Bible Studies I attend, etc. Has that ever happened to you before? OR...Have you ever read a passage in the Bible, heard something on the radio, or sat in church where you felt like the words you were hearing were meant for you and you alone? Last year, I became involved in a bible study at a local church around the corner from my house. I had been looking for a Beth Moore bible study group and could not find one anywhere in my area so finally I came upon the "Crossroads Bible Church" website. They had several Bible studies going on and several Beth Moore studies. The one thing that I absolutely love about this church is that they open their arms and hearts to everyone in the community. It so happens that this church is also where I attend my MOPS group. I love the outreach programs at this church. They make it so easy for moms to get involved and stay involved during the day. They have different Bible Studies, mommy groups, and outreach programs during the week. These programs bring in women from different churches from all over Flower Mound. Last year, I did Beth Moore's Esther study, and then this past fall I did her Breaking Free study. I learned so much from both of these studies and grew so much in my faith. This semester I am doing one of her older studies called Living Beyond Yourself. It is a study that focuses on the fruits of the spirit. I wasn't thrilled about doing this study at first, as I wanted to do one of her newer studies...Daniel or Revelations. However, this study has been life changing and has met me right where I am today. The amazing thing is that each week has been perfectly timed with the circumstances surrounding my life. For instance, we studied love and joy during the weeks that I found out I was pregnant. We studied peace during the week that I was consumed with fear about the blood clot in my eye... and amazingly enough, this week, we are studying about experiencing patience and perseverance in the midst of difficult or painful circumstances! Talk about God's perfect timing. Again, I go back to what I have said before in a previous post, I know that there is a God because He has shown himself to me through the experiences I've had in my life. He has always proved himself faithful and good, and he has always made things beautiful in His time. I truly believe that God's hand is in every situation surrounding my life and that His plan is bigger and better than mine. Yes, Joey and I were very disappointed in losing another baby and things have been up and down for me emotionally. BUT, I also have no doubt that God knows what He is doing. I truly trust in Him and choose to wait on Him and His perfect timing. Right now, Joey and I are in limbo a bit. We will not be making any decisions concerning the future. We have decided to give it all to God and just wait. I will be seeing a specialist and getting lots of blood work done in the next month or two. So, we will wait to see what the blood test reveals before making any decisions about the future. Of course I have hopes, dreams, and desires, but sometimes those hopes, dreams, and desires need some tweaking....tweaking by God's mighty hand. So, I choose to just rest and trust in Him fully. I would ask for prayers, but I am not sure if I can be specific in my requests...sometimes what we think we want isn't really what we need. For instance, when my mom was diagnosed with Brain cancer we prayed and prayed that it was just in one area of the brain and that there was no sign of cancer anywhere else in the body. When really, we should have been praying the opposite. So, while I am excited to get answers to why I am miscarrying...I am also hesitant to pray for something that might be better off just left unknown. Would having no answers be better than having all of the answers? We, as humans, always want reasons and answers to everything. If we can't understand it then it's just a reminder that we are completely helpless, in need of God's help. Would having the answers as to "why" this has happened allow me to carry full term? Maybe, but maybe not. I carried Presley full term without any answers. So, it's like my husband says, "God is going to do what He is going to do, regardless of the answers we have or don't have." Simply put, but so very true! God is bigger than any diagnoses and He is certainly bigger than any unanswered questions. In the end, my response will still be the same with or without a diagnoses...stepping out in complete faith and trusting in Him. So, that is where we are today in regards to what the future holds for us concerning another child. ;-) It's all in God's hands....

Not So Good News :-(

Well, I have not so good news. I went to my OB appointment today where they were unable to find the baby's heartbeat. Because the baby had such a strong heart beat at 6 and 7 weeks, my dr is thinking it was due to a chromosomal defect. However, she is wanting to investigate my blood clotting episode further so she will be doing a panel of blood work on me in about 2 weeks. I am fully confident that God's hand has been on this pregnancy from the beginning. Although, Joey and I are very sad about this loss we still have hope. Presley would not be here with us now had it not been for the miscarriage we suffered 4 months prior. I am also very thankful that I switched doctors and that Dr. Flower's is determined to find the cause of my blood clot. I am, of course, praying that I don't have any blood clotting disorders and that this miscarriage was just due to a defect. I don't have much time to fret over this loss because I am scheduled for a D & C tomorrow at 1:30 (otherwise I would have had to wait until the 16th...NO thank you!) I am really trying to focus on the hear and now, instead of focusing on the what ifs and the might bes. The thought of having to go through this journey again is a little overwhelming, but I know that God is faithful and will bring us through. Thank you much for your prayers...they are always heard and felt! Please pray for a clear blood panel and that my D & C goes well without any complications!

Happy Presley, Happy Jesus

For the longest time I have been trying to get Presley to understand her "feelings". When she is happy I tell her that she is happy, when she is sad I tell her that she is sad, and when she is mad I tell her that she is mad. I have several books that explain feelings and show their facial expressions. For quite sometime now she has been able to communicate to me when she is happy. Whenever she feels happy she will wrap her arms around herself, as if she is giving herself a big hug, and say "hoppy." Now that she is older, I try to get her to realize when she is not happy. I always say, "a happy Presley makes a happy Jesus, and a happy Jesus makes a happy mommy." I guess I have said it quite a few times within the past few weeks because the other day while we were driving I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a huge smile on Presley's face. I said, "Presley, are you happy"? All of a sudden she says..."hoppy Pessey, hoppy Jesus." ;-)