CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOG LAYOUTS, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

Sunday, June 28, 2009

MIA

I know we have been MIA for like a week. That's mostly because I have been sitting here....


My mom (aka Gramma) and I had a garage sale and I feel like I have spent way too much time preparing for that the past couple weeks. But thank goodness it is now over. We did okay considering we didn't even open for business on Saturday because the day started off rainy. It was nice to get rid of a bunch of stuff. Not so nice that we have lots of stuff left over to now pack back up and bring to the Goodwill. It was sad selling lots of Alexa's clothes and getting rid of some baby stuff....but not all of it, you know, just.in.case. :)

So since I have been so busy, what have my little children been up to these days?

Well, apparently Alexa has been reading up on wine. Which of course is essential for all two year olds these days.


Although she did help out lots for the garage sale also. She saved me lots of time by scribbling on every single little price tag we had. Such a helper I tell you, what would I do without her???


And Braden?

I guess he was busy learning how to walk along the ledge of our railing which I am sure is completely safe...well, safe enough for a second child anyway.


What a monkey!


Maybe now I can get back to normal life and watch my kids a little better, clean the house, do the laundry, cook healthy meals, showering, blogging, get back to Shreding...

Wait a minute, I guess after that last one garage sales don't sound so bad.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Monday, June 22, 2009

Slip-N-Sliding

We had a little water party this weekend at our house which ended up being a little neighborhood kids party. It's like kids can smell the fun from miles away. We had a couple pools, buckets, sprinklers and a slip-n-slide...which became an immediate favorite for the kids. It was so much fun watching them all run around screaming having a great time. How could I have totally forgotten how much fun a slip-n-slide is? After watching all the little kids enjoying it so much I was tempted to run out and get a bigger one or one of those 3 lane ones or better yet one of those huge blow up ones like on The Girls Next Door...you know when they have that big party at the mansion.

Anyone one watch that show?

No

Yeah, me neither.

Anyways, here's a few of my favorite pictures from the pool party.


Our next door neighbor, Svea. One of Alexa's best friends.

Downfall to being potty trained...swimsuit up the butt.



Somersaults

Then things started getting a little crazy. Although Alexa loved it! And I won't bring up the fact that at this point the "pool" at the end of the slip-n-slide was broken due to the fact that a certain someone well over 40 pounds decided to take a turn...or five. :)

Braden stayed far away from all the big kids and hung out in one of the pools with Daddy. He had a blast splashing and crawling around in there.


Sunday, June 21, 2009

The Best Daddy

Two of the best days of my life were the days my husband became a daddy to my babies.
I will always remember the look in his eyes.

Daddy and Alexa - October 2006

Daddy and Braden - August 2008

Matt - I love you for being the best Daddy our kids could ever have.

Happy Father's Day!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Flashback Friday

June 07
Alexa's first pool party at our house.



Take Two

We're on the second round of teeth for Braden and I think I can speak for both of us when I say we're not very excited about it. Poor little thing is having a rough time and my back is taking a toll too. My baby just wants to be held and I can't say no to that cute little sore mouthed face. We could tell they were getting close a couple weeks ago but last week we could actually see the bottom of the tooth right there at the gums so we figured it would be a matter of days before they popped through. However, we're still waiting. Come teeth, any day now! Until then I guess we will just keep putting anything and everything in the mouth to chew on..

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Monday, June 15, 2009

Summer, Summer, Summertime

A - I will never use Will Smith lyrics as a title again, I promise. It was for the hubby who actually likes that song...feel free to contact him directly and make fun. Unless this is a guy thing, maybe there are lots of other guys out there that like that song? In that case feel free to contact all of them too and tease away! :)

B - I know it's not "technically" summer yet, but that isn't stopping us from diving head first into summer fun. We have had amazing weather here the past couple of weeks and we are taking full advantage of it before it gets super, uncomfortable hot.

C - This post has a lot of pictures...sorry...it was a busy weekend and well you know, it's my blog so I can do what I want. Consider yourself warned. :)

Anywhooo, not that that's out of the way on to our awesome weekend. Seriously this past weekend was such a blast, it was the definition of summer fun! As fun as weddings and parties and all those things are, it is just so nice to have a weekend without anything planned or nothing that you have to do.

We started the weekend off with a pool party. The kids and I spent the majority of the day at our neighbors house hanging out. There was lots of splashing in the pool, running around, yelling, laughing...fun, fun, fun! Our (new) neighbors that we met a few weeks ago have two kids who are 3 1/2 and 2, perfect right!? They are so awesome, we have all quickly become good friends and see each other often.

Here are the girls playing away in the water. Mary Kate is almost exactly a year older than Alexa but they get along so well and have a lot of fun with each other. Us moms already decided they will be BFF. :)


Braden didn't get in the pool but had a good time crawling around in the grass and playing with toys. I think he felt much safer close to me and a little ways away from the girls!


Saturday we woke up early (of course) and just hung around playing at our house. I think the kids love weekends and having Daddy home to play with too. After Braden's nap we all got ready and went to the Baldwin Days Parade. I have to say that one of my favorite things to do with Alexa in the summers is going to parades. Last year we took her to one and she was hooked. We didn't know if she would be old enough to really enjoy it OR sit there that long...boy were we wrong, she LOVES them! She has so much fun collecting candy being thrown, watching the horses and waving to all the princesses.


After the parade we headed home and spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside. Matt and Alexa played with some new yard games we bought.

And Braden and I lounged in the grass, me lovin all over him and him lovin it up! :) Alexa and I also covered our driveway in awesome chalk drawings. Who would have though something as simple as chalk could make people so happy...and I'm not talking about just kids, I totally love chalk too!

This weekend was also Pea Soup Days which is our towns "town festival" which we never really went to before. We figured we would take the kids and see if there was anything fun going on. So we packed up the stroller and walked into town. We stopped at Subway and got lunch then went over to the activities. All I can say is we were so not impressed. We as in Matt and I not Alexa. She saw the rides and games and started yelling "It's the carnival, the carnival, I love it, fun!!" This may or may not have been influenced by Dora. Either way we were trapped, there was no way we could turn back at this point. So we bought some tickets and tried to look for the rides that looked the least likely to break down while we were on them.

Alexa saw the carousel and knew she had to ride on a pink horse. Fair enough, what could go too wrong with those. We made it through alive and she loved it...laughing the whole time.

We also went on the spinning strawberries, again it was a hit and we survived so, yay! Then Alexa saw the big blow up bouncy thing and wanted to do that. There was a slide and climbing thing and all of that in there. We totally need to buy one of these things! Ahem, Matt..... :)

After grabbing a bag of mini donuts to go we made our way back home. As much as we adults were not very excited about the "carnival" Alexa had so much fun and that's what matters right! Seriously, do all of these places smell like the combination of BO and cotton candy or is it just ours? I wouldn't be surprised either way.

And what is a better way to end the afternoon than stripping down completely naked and jumping in your neighbors pool? That is exactly what Alexa did. Why would she think this is appropriate, I have no idea. Good thing they like us! :)



Sunday night Gramma came down and picked up both kids and brought them home with her. Our goal was to get our house and garage cleaned and organized and we did it. Yesterday morning we couldn't even walk through our garage because it was so full and messy. We have slowly been dumping things out there and it was time to take care of it. We bought a bunch of shelving and cleaned it up. I can't even believe I didn't take before pictures but the transformation was amazing! It feels so good to have all that done...it's like we finally finished moving in, 3 1/2 years later! :)

Friday, June 12, 2009

Flashback Friday

There's a really cool park not too far from where we live that's called Teddy Bear Park. It has all kinds of cool things to crawl around in and big fun slides and a huge sand area and well you know...lots of BIG teddy bears! We love taking the kids here and since it was made for infants to about age 7 both Alexa and Braden enjoy it a lot. These pictures were from June 07 and Alexa was almost 8 months old. Gramma and Auntie Alaina took her for the very first time.

This is what Alexa did when you tried putting her in the grass until she was almost 1 1/2 years old. She did not like the feel of grass touching her! And this isn't even real grass at this park!


Gramma and Alexa

Alexa might not have liked grass but she loved playing in the sand...AND she didn't usually even try eating it (like someone else I know not that I would name any names Braden.) :)



We have gone a few times this year already but I haven't gotten any new pictures. It is a pretty popular place to say the least and during the day there are lots of moms and kids running around. So I have been busy trying to watch both kids going to different directions. Someday when we take Daddy with us we will be able to get some good pictures of them both having fun!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

New Friends

Yesterday started as yet another rainy day so I decided to take the kids to an Indoor Playground near our home. We have talked about going before but never went so I thought it would be a perfect day to check it out. It was pretty nice, not quite as big as I thought it would be but Alexa had a blast! They have a huge playground structure with swings and slides and tubes and all that stuff along with little play areas all around it that is set up for different ages...pretty cool place. Alexa found friends right away of course because you know her she is so shy. HA Don't you just love how kids can just go up to another kid and say "HI" and all the sudden they are new best friends!?! I also met a couple new friends and exchanged numbers and we're all excited to get together again...yay for play dates! :) I also found out about a new mom's group in our area and am very excited to check it out this summer. One of my new friends sent me their summer schedule and it is packed, so excited to have more options for all of us to get out and socialize!

Anyway, we were way too busy playing and talking so I didn't get any pictures while we were there. And since nobody likes a post without pictures I thought I would attach a couple of Alexa from a couple weeks ago. The girl's life is a musical, I swear! She's so funny, she walks around the house singing into one of her many microphones all day long sometimes! And yes, she usually has to have a "princess dress" on too! :)


Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Monday, June 8, 2009

Our Visit With Chuck

This past weekend was wet, cold, rainy and blah! We were determined to have some fun though so after a long list of possibilities we decided to go to Chuck E. Cheese's. Matt and I have been talking about how we wanted to take Alexa there for like a year and we figured she would actually be able to have a good time there now. Alexa was very excited. We talked about going all morning and when she woke up from her nap she jumped out of bed yelling that she was ready for Chuck E Cheese! We got there and it took me a good 20 minutes to get over how many germs must be crawling all over that place. Seriously, there were running nose kids all over the place. Apparently Chuck E Cheese's is not a place for a germ-a-phobe. But you know me...I'll do anything for the kids so I grabbed the germ-x and we had some fun. Alexa wasn't too into the games but once she found the big tube things that you can crawl up and around in...she was in heaven. (How often do you think people that work there crawl up there and clean and disinfect? Yeah, I didn't think too often either. UGH) Anyway I would be lying if I told you that us adults didn't have as much fun as the kids. Matt and I took turns hanging out with Braden and watching Alexa while the other one went and played skiball. Fun stuff.




Friday, June 5, 2009

Flashback Friday

I have never been a fan of pacifiers, nukies, binkies (whatever people call them) and we tried to not use them with our kids. Thankfully neither one really got attached so it never became a problem. In fact I don't think Braden ever used one. We would occasionally try to give him one and it's like he had no idea what to even do with it! Did we luck out or what? Neither one was ever a thumb sucker either, which is also a good thing since those you can't take away.

However, I think babies sucking their thumbs is one of the cutest things ever! I remember trying to make Alexa suck her thumb and I was SO excited one morning when she was laying in our bed and just started doing it herself.

Here she was, it was 2 days before she turned 3 months old....

Here she is again at almost 5 months.