50 Little Fingers & 50 Little Toes

Isn't it great when you find something that you're not really looking for, especially when that something is super awesome. Like a super awesome friend.

Not too long ago I met a new friend, Shannon through blogging (she was the one that knew my step-sister in real life and through her we had met through blogging somehow...crazy.) Anyway, she is definitely super awesome. She has a daughter who is almost exactly Alexa's age and twins (boy and girl) who are just a little bit younger than Braden. Perfect? I think so. The girls get along so well (which is a huge relief considering that doesn't happen all the time.) It gets a little crazy with the five kids all together but it's so fun. And to top the whole thing off Shannon and I get along great too, it's so nice to have another young Mama who understands you and can sit and chat for hours even over the sound of 5 little kids yelling. She's super cool and is pretty much my new best friend...whether she likes it or not. :)

Here are her twins, are they not so adorable!?

And Braden is like, "Wait a minute, there's two of them?" Or maybe he was thinking, "Hey, I never once took a bottle for my mom, but watch me take theirs, won't she be surprised."

Here's the girls, so cute!

They even learned to do the Umpa Lumpa dance from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was pretty dang cute.

I Still Can't Believe She's 3

Last week we took Alexa in for her 3 year physical. She was pretty excited about wearing a gown for the occasion. And when my 3 year old girl gets excited about wearing an ugly hospital gown for a doctor visit...well, I know we are in big trouble. This girl is going to be expensive as a teenager. Time for Matt to get a second job. (Just kidding honey!) Anyhoo, back to the visit with the doc. Can I just say how much I love our pediatrician!? Are they all this good? Our kids love him so much that Alexa runs up and gives him hugs when she sees him. Although, he was never the one giving the shots, hmmm.

Here's the stats at 3 years old:
Height: 41.8 inches - 99+ percentile
Weight: 41 pounds - 98 percentile

So not only does she act like a 4 1/2 year old, she is about the size of one too. It's kind of funny, some people flat out don't believe me when I tell them her age. It's like I have a big conspiracy so somewhere down the road I don't have to pay full price for her meal at Applebees or her ticket price to get into the amusement park. Maybe I need to start carrying her birth certificate around with us. :)

A little bit about Alexa's life at the age of two:

I think we were pretty lucky to have skipped a lot of the whole 'terrible twos' and tantrums, buuuuut we did get right into the sassy threes and had (have) some problems with listening. For the most part she is the biggest joy to be around. She makes us laugh all day long and no doubt puts a smile on our faces whenever we see her. We could not have asked for a better little girl.

There was so many things that Alexa learned to do over the last year and I think that she is most proud of this:

But I am definitely most proud of this:

Alright threes, here we come. Bring it!

Five Question Friday

Alright, how excited is everyone that it is Friday!?! I would be a lot more excited if my husband wasn't gone hunting all weekend but that's okay, I'll get over it. Anyway, today I am joining in on Five Question Friday hosted by Mama M again. Here goes...


1. What is your dream job?
A party planner! You know when people actually have enough money to spend on someone to plan a party for them, I want to be that person they call. Birthdays, showers, WEDDINGS...I love love planning and organizing so I think it would be SO much fun! Of course (since this is all hypothetical) I want to be a party planner to the rich and famous so I can put together million dollar weddings. Ahhh just the thought makes me all happy inside.

Something a little more realistic would be - an L&D nurse. I have really been thinking a lot about going back to school once Matt is done with his schooling. I fell in love with the idea after having kids, clearly it's not a glamorous job but I think it would be fun. I LOVED all my nurses when we had our babies, I seriously cried when I had to leave the hospital...both times. (I'm sure that had nothing to do with pain, drugs or hormones though.) :)

2. What song could you play over and over?
I can't even pick one song, besides it changes almost daily! I love almost any type of music and listen to it all. If I had to pick a song I never want to hear again, it would be the entire CD that Alexa got when she went to Vacation Bible School. Every time we are in the car (which seems to be a lot) we have to listen to it...I wish I were kidding when I tell you we have listened to those songs probably about 800 times each in the past 3 months! Good CD but there's sometimes truth to too much of a good thing!

3. Do you prefer to talk on the phone or text (or email)?
All of the above. I love to talk so it doesn't matter how it comes out. :) I usually type how I talk so there are lots of likes, ughs and totallys....because apparently I am either stuck in the 80s or a Valley Girl. (Not really either one I just get super enthusiastic about things!) :) But on a side note, you guys should see one of ours neighbors....now she is living in the 80s...hair, clothes and all!

4. What is your must have beauty product?
Chapstick!! I'm pretty sure I have talked about it a couple times before about how addicted to that stuff I am. But also, I won't leave the house without mascara on. I have white eyelashes and eyebrows, and although it comes in handy when I haven't plucked for 3 weeks it also makes me look almost albino when I don't have anything on.

5. What is your favorite Michael Jackson song?
Although I am not a huge fan of Michael Jackson the person, he had some awesome music! I love all his "oldies" but I think I am going to pick....hmmmm, lets see, ummmm....this is a hard one.....ok, got it. Man In The Mirror.

Have a FABULOUS weekend everyone. We are suppose to have temps in the 60s tomorrow and I am almost dying with excitement! :)

My Favorite Things

Braden is now a 14 month old who is running all over the house, feeding himself and starting to hit. (ugh) I feel like I am losing my baby, all those "baby" things are happening less and less and it flat out makes this Mama sad. Don't get me wrong, I love many of the new things he is doing and the growing independence but there's so much I miss already. Some things I don't want to forget:

*Open mouth baby kisses (does it get any better than that?)

*Holding a cuddly baby who tucks his face into my neck as I sing him to sleep at night.

*Baby sign language. So cute. My favorites are please and milk.

*A chubby dimply baby butt running away from me while getting the bath water ready.

*The way he says "Ma-MAH" - the MAH part is loud and high pitched.

*Nursing. I can't believe I am saying this or the fact that I am even still nursing in general. It seems the past couple weeks he has started to lose interest, only really wanting to nurse at night. I will miss it when it's over.

Wordless Wednesday

Is This Real life?

Alright people, we've all see this video on YouTube before, right?



So when I realized Alexa was about to turn 3 and it was time for her first Dentist visit, my irrational fears kicked in. What if they medicate my baby and she doesn't think she is in real life anymore? Or on the way home she tries climbing out of her seat screaming?

Ok, really that just shows you how crazy I am right there. Obviously they wouldn't do that to a 3 year old, besides she only has her baby teeth and they are straight as can be. And honestly I didn't really think that would happen but I was a little worried about how it would go. So we have spent the last month of our lives talking about how cool our Dentist (forgot her name) is and reading Dora Goes To The Dentist. Because what Dora does, we do.

Everything is all fine and dandy until we are on the way there and all the sudden someone doesn't want to go anymore. Oh and the fact that we were going there straight from her school Halloween party that was complete with loads of sugary treats. What was I thinking?

So, we get there and after a few minutes of "being shy" I finally talked her into sitting on my lap and then we could lay in the chair together. After all was said and done she actually did pretty well, only a couple of times did she say nope to opening her mouth...can't blame her, that polish stuff is gross. But she let them do everything they needed to do and even got (us both) a free up and down ride on the chair....twice.

All clean!

Another funny little story...the assistant that was cleaning her teeth said a few different times that if she opened up really wide then she would get a treat when she was done. Every time she said that Alexa would yell "CANDY?" I was like, "Seriously we don't give her candy very much at all, I think she's just a little sugared up from the 3 cupcakes she just had."

277 Treats & 1 Trick

Halloween could not have been more fun! (Ok, it could have been a little warmer and a lot less windy but that's just minor.) I never really got into Halloween before we had kids. I liked dressing up in college and handing out candy to kids when we bought our house but for me, I could have gone without it. Now, it ranks up there pretty close to Christmas! It was so fun dressing Alexa and Braden up and taking them trick-or-treating, they both loved it.

Here they are, Halloween children of 2009:
The Butterfly Princess & The Ducky

We spent the day at the MN Zoo. They were handing out treats and had the place all fancied up for the day. The sun actually came out for awhile so we were able to go outside and see some of those animals and play on their big playground.



Pretty sure this one is the cutest ducky that has ever hatched.



And of course later that night we got all dressed back up for trick-or-treating around town. We were kind of excited so we got all ready then had to sit around waiting for it to get dark so we could go. It took a good 5 houses for Alexa to get the hang of things. The first few we went to she was "too shy" to say anything but a few more down she was telling us to "stay here" so she could go up to the house by herself. She was so excited, she would walk up to the house and knock and yell trick-or-treat to everyone, then she would get her candy and say "THANKS" as she walked away. There were several people that said she was the best mannered kid out there...which isn't too hard to believe considering at one point as we were waiting at a door Alexa got pinned to the wall from other (bigger) kids pushing their way to the front. That didn't make Mama very happy, I was about ready to give them a trick of my own....just kidding, of course. (But not really) We stayed out for about an hour and a half and I think the kids would have been fine going more except we stopped at a friends house down the road and ended up staying there for the rest of the night. Operation Candy was a success and the guys at Matt's work will be excited to see all the goodies they get tomorrow.


Oh yeah, the trick....

We were walking up to one house and some punk kid came jumping and yelling out of the bushes with some huge fake ax thing and a mask on, I don't think it phased Alexa one bit but I can't really say for sure because I was too busy screaming and peeing my pants. (Just a little) :) I only share because after the fact it was kind of funny and you can have a laugh at my expense. You're welcome. :)