Daddy's little helper

Tell me this isn't one of the cutest things ever...

Alexa loves helping us do anything around the house. She is like my little shadow if I am cooking or doing laundry or cleaning. The second I pull out stuff to start lunch or dinner she runs to the bathroom to get her little stool so she can stand at the counter with me. This picture was from last weekend. Matt was putting floor protector thingys (the technical term I'm sure) on our dining room chairs and Alexa goes running into Braden's room and a minute later comes out with his little toy hammer so that she can help daddy. It was the sweetest things ever. It's it crazy how some of the littlest things can make a parent melt?

All in a days work

We have yet another little overachiever on our hands. A kid that can't do just one new thing in a day or even two but this little guy thought he should do three new things yesterday. First off was pulling himself up onto his knees all by himself, very exciting of course. So maybe with all the cheering from his personal cheerleader (ahem....me) that's why he decided to just hours later pull himself all the way to his feet. He was so proud of himself that he kept bouncing up and down and smiling like crazy (which eventually lead to him falling back down, but give the kid a break it was the first time.) He looks like he's concentrating so hard....

Now today he already thinks he's a little pro, pulling himself up everywhere. See how excited he gets! I thinks he's happy to be able to get into all the toys without any help. It's officially time to lower the crib again, which you would never guess this, but it makes me a little sad...my little baby growing up. However I am happy that he is now venturing out a little to find his own stuff to play with and doesn't need someone constantly picking up toys for him to play with.

Oh yeah, and that third thing....he can now get from laying down to sitting up! I just amazes me how kids can learn so many new things in such a short time.

Wordless Wednesday

Alexa's dream day

Today we went to Toddler Tuesdays at the MOA. Why was today such a great day? Because today Dora was there! Alexa was SO excited to see her. I couldn't really figure out if she was expecting a real person (like there was) or a person wearing a huge 4 foot fake Dora head. Doesn't matter, she was super happy with what she got!

Here she is giving her a hug.

And it was very much worth the long wait it took to get there.

Since we were there we figured we would walk around and see what else we could find. (FYI - there are lots of pictures to come, we found a lot!)

A big moose Alexa was quite shy with, it took awhile to get close and even longer to finally give the guy a high five.

And Ming-Ming from the Wonder Pets! This time she didn't even think twice before giving a big hug!

Oh yeah, then there was Braden who maybe got a little bored with all the meet and greet stuff...he just relaxed in the stroller for that part.

Then we were off to Nickelodeon Universe. Now that Alexa is 39" she was able to go on some rides. She LOVED the swings!

And her and Gramma rode on Magenta...

She had a blast!

Braden too!

Two and a half

Yesterday we celebrated Alexa's half birthday...she is officially two and a half. What a big girl she is. We didn't actually do much, mostly just hung out and had a relaxing day as a family. After dinner though we frosted and ate some cupcakes.

At 2 1/2 here's a little of what Alexa is up to:

*She is completely potty trained (excluding night time)

*We are working on counting to 25, she can usually make it to 22 or 23

*She can recognize about 75% of the alphabet

*She also recognizes her name

*She is 39" tall

*Some of her favorite past times are - reading books, singing and dancing, doing anything outside, cutting paper, putting stickers on everything, helping mommy and daddy (cooking, laundry, fixing things, feed Braden, etc.), playing with her babies...

And here's some of her favorite little sayings:

"That's not suppose to happen"

"Sanks" & "Sank you" (for thanks and thank you)

"I love you the mostest"

"Hello sweetheart"

"Sure is bumpy out today" (when driving on a bumpy road)

"I'm not a ___, I'm a princess" (whenever you call her anything besides princess)

"That is fantastic"

"No way Jose"

"Oh my goodness sakes"

"Be with all the sick people and sad people and hurt people" (when praying at night)

"Hi little guy" "It's okay Buddy" "Hey little B" (she is an awesome big sister)

Flip flops = No good

This past Thursday after dinner we all went out for a walk. I'm not even kidding, less than 10 feet past our driveway Alexa goes running and trips and falls....FLAT.ON.HER.FACE! It was one of those moments where a mom's heart drops in her stomach. I don't think she laid there for more than a 1/10 of a second before I grabbed her and ran to the grass and just buried her face in my chest. I was SO scared to look at her and see the damage, and of course she was crying so hard. I can't even imagine what we looked like, here's a little synopsis...

Alexa: Screaming

Me: "OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH, NO NO NO" While holding her head in my shirt.

Matt: "Let me see her, give her here, let me see her face!"

Me: "NO NO NO OH MY GOSH!!"

Alexa: More crying

Thinking back we probably looked a little crazy, maybe.

When it was all said and done and we finally got a look at the damage it wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it was going to be. First of all she landed on her hands and knees first before face planting (in the middle of the road) and there was no scrapes or anything! And considering we both heard her face hit it really ended up not being too bad. She has a nice little scrape on her nose and a few little ones along with a bruise on her forehead.

What a little trooper she was, we went it and cleaned her up (with TWO Dora band aids) and then went back outside to play. She has been showing everyone her "owies" and telling the traumatic story to anyone who will listen.

Moral of the story: no flip flops while out running. (Which we should have known before, this is her first summer wearing flips flops so she is still getting used to them....now we know.) Also, no matter how bad my kids get hurt I think I will always take it harder than them.

The next day we went up to Gramma's house and man does Alexa know how to get sympathy. I left for 10 minutes and come back to find her with a box of band aids doing this:

She also now has 3 new pair of sandals, no flip flops.

Flashback Friday

With all the pictures this week of Braden and Kylie hanging out I thought this would be a fun Flashback Friday. For those of you who don't know...Braden and Kylie were born less than 24 hours apart, same hospital, same doctor, pretty much right next door to each other. Pretty cool, huh!?! It was so fun being pregnant with my sister-in-law (Shari) and it was very exciting that they were born so close too! It has been fun watching little cousins grow up together, I can't wait until they are running around.

Here's one of the last meetings all safely tucked away in our big bellies.

And here are the little peanuts just hours after being born.

Here they are not quite a month old.

And this was just last week! What a couple of cuties!

Hanging with the babies

Since Alexa was at school today my mom and Kylie came down and the four of us got to hang out for the day. Braden and Kylie were way cute...they held hands a little and talked a lot.

We started off at, you guessed it, Target! (Of course, right!?!) Here's the babes chillin in the carts. This is were they were holding hands, but of course wouldn't once I got the camera out. Don't they look like such big kids? Oh and don't you love Braden's new shoes, very cute. This is the first time he has ever worn shoes! I'm not a huge fan of baby shoes, there's really no reason for them so I just don't buy them. Baby toes are so much cuter, don't you think? :)

Then off to Subway for lunch. I think they both have their tongues out in this picture, funny.

And of course diaper change time in the back of Gramma's car.

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around downtown Stillwater. They both finished the afternoon falling asleep in their strollers but apparently I didn't get a picture of that. You'll have to just take my word that it was super cute.

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Today we met up with ours friends Jess and Lucas and went to Como Zoo. We had so much fun! The kids got along great and had a blast chasing each other around the whole place. And although we didn't see any bears we did see lions and tigers and lots of other animals. It was like the perfect day too, not too warm and not too cool and for the most part it wasn't very busy. (There are a lot of pictures but there were so many cute ones it was hard to narrow down!) :)

Here's Alexa and Lucas - could they be any cuter!?! They should for sure be boyfriend and girlfriend...not only do they get along great but they would totally be the pair voted "cutest couple" in high school!

At the seals...I was off nursing Braden but I think they even got to see them get fed.

Not sure what's going here, I think she was maybe trying to pull the penguins beaks off. They were getting a little crazy by this point. :)

So cute!

Alexa got home and told everyone the zebra "smelled like poop" - I had to agree.

One of Alexa's favorites. I told her that this one was the baby and she kept asking me "where is the baby?" I think she was confused about how something so huge was a baby.

Also one of Alexa's favorites, she is always talking about lions...and I have no idea why. So she was excited to see some, from a distance of course. And we couldn't quite tell if the female was pregnant or just on the heavy side, I think pregnant.

I think Braden had a pretty good time too. He didn't say much but he likes sitting back and people watching.

On our way out we stopped by story time with this gorilla. As you can see I'm not sure how interested either one really was.

Seriously, they are adorable!

We're still here

I know, where have I been huh!?! We had a fun, fairly relaxing weekend. Saturday we went and watched my little sister at her dance recital and Alexa L-O-V-E-D it! Seriously, I was a little worried about having to leave with her or getting her to sit still (because that does NOT happen...ever) but the girl was in AW! She had so much fun watching all the girls dancing and when it would be Alaina's turn she would get so excited and yell "Alaina, it'a Auntie Alaina, Mommy I see her!" It was adorable! It makes me even more excited for her to start dancing herself. I asked her if she wanted to dance like that too and she said "YES!" I think she thinks you get to wear the cute fluffy little dresses all the time...we'll deal with that when the time comes.

Anyway, then it was back to Grampa and Gramma's for pizza and hanging out with the family. Alexa ended up staying there so Sunday was spent doing lots of Spring cleaning. Like major Spring cleaning. It wasn't very fun but it's always nice when you're done and the house is totatally spotless.

And you know what? I didn't take one picture all weekend! I can't even believe it, I think I actually went 5 days without taking pictures...this has to be some kind of record for me. So, since it just kills me to post without pictures, I am adding some from yesterday. We went up to my mom's house to hang out with Kylie, my niece who is staying there this week.

Here's Braden (in orange for Stellan who had surgery yesterday.)

See his two new teeth? He loves showing them off now.

Kylie and Braden playing, aren't they just simply adorable?

Alexa and Gramma.

Wordless Wednesday

Flashback Friday

Alexa at 3 weeks old.

We were trying to get her footprint to put in her first year calendar.

Doesn't she look so tiny in Matt's hands!?!

My favorite things

I am going to start blogging some of my favorite things about my children. They are just going to be cute little things that they do/say/have at the moment that I don't want to forget years down the road. (Not that I would ever do that, but you know...just in case.) So really you don't have to read any of the entries titled "My favorite things" because they are for me, unless you want to of course, then feel free.

*I LOVE when I pick up Braden and he sometimes puts his little heel into the small of my back. He usually does it when he's really cuddly or really doesn't want to be put down and he mostly does it if he wakes up at 4am and I come get him to feed him. There's just something about it that makes me smile.

*I LOVE when Alexa falls asleep in the car. She is just so busy and active that she doesn't have a lot of time to sit and actually cuddle anymore. However if she falls asleep in the car and I pick her up she will wrap her arms around my neck and bury her face in my shoulder and it just gives me a few minutes of snuggling with my "baby" girl. So sweet.

At the Park

I had the camera this time...WITH the battery! :)

In this picture Alexa was bringing over a band-aid she had found, I had no idea that's what it was....completely disgusting! We had the "don't ever pick up band-aids" talk.