Iphone Dump

I don't know how it happens, but I clear my pics off my phone at least once a month and before I know it, all of my memory is full again because I take so many random pics throughout the day.  Here is a small dump of some of my favorite pics!

 

Josh works in Houston now.  Over an hour from home.  There were talks of moving to Houston, but we decided at this time, it's not the right thing for us.  There are too many things we love about College Station.  Yep, I said it, we love College Station.  If you would have asked me after living here for a year, I would have never thought those word would come out of my mouth.  I love that we have a small town feel, but it's not really a small town.  We are close enough to Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Dallas that we could easily drive there in a couple of hours.  My girl has a life here, her friends are here, our friends are here, our lives are here.  My sweet husband decided he didn't want to go most of the week without seeing his girls so he gets up while most people are still sleeping so he can leave the house by 5:30 or so each morning.  On a normal day, he leaves the office by 4ish and his home by 5:30 so he still has his evenings with us.  I will never be able to express to him how much I appreciate what he does for us.  Some nights, he gets stuck in meetings or has dinners or team activities so he doesn't get home until after Alex is asleep.  Those nights, I let Alex sleep on the couch until he can get home to carry her to bed.  One night she slept on me while we waited for Josh.  I love my sweet little sleeping angel!

 ok, this one is totally random.  Have you ever had a Honeycrisp apple?  If not, get yourself to the store and get one.  They are the best apples ever.  They are only in season for a few weeks of the year.  When they are in season, we like to cut one up for dessert after dinner.  Healthy dessert, yes please!

 My girl enjoying her apple!  This was a weird night for us.  We had an early bird dinner.  Josh was out of town and Alex and I were starving for dinner at 5 so we ate!  Then shared an apple!

 Alex has such a say in what she wears now.  She rarely goes a day without wearing something purple.  Her teacher actually asked me this morning if she has a closet full of purple.  Why, yes she does!  The girl knows what she likes!  She loves boots.  I found her these adorable purple suede boots.  A match made in heaven...even if they don't match her outfit!

 Poor Cooper, he puts up with so much.  Alex thinks its hilarious when we put things on him, like her sunglasses!  He just sits there and goes along with it.  I LOVE these sunglasses.  We were at Nordstrom one day.  Alex and Josh were walking around while I tried stuff on.  Next thing I knew, Alex was carrying a shopping bag with her new purple sunglasses she just had to have!  My child needed another pair of sunglasses like she needs a hole in the head.  She is up to 10 pairs now that she wears on a regular basis.  Sunglass hoarder!

 Dance is back in full swing.  At the end of each class they get a sucker.  My child always has to pick bright then insist on me taking her picture of her tongue!  It's turned into a game, we send a pic to Josh and he guesses the flavor.  Yes, we are crazy sometimes!

The Great Pumpkin Patch Express

Josh and I took a little trip last week.  We spent Wednesday walking around Round Top, then Thursday in San Marcos and Wimberly.  Josh's parents stayed with Alex, then took her to their house for the weekend.  We lined up a special surprise for Alex on Saturday.  My girl LOVES Snoopy and trains so we took her for a ride on the Texas State Railroad on a Peanuts themed ride.  The kids were encouraged to dress up so Alex used last years Belle costume.  It was so much fun!  We started the ride in Rusk.  We were able to walk around the depot until the engineer called, "all aboard!"

 

 My girl picked out a super cute pink engineers hat at the gift shop.  She proudly carried our tickets around until it was time to board.

 On the train ride to the pumpkin patch, they handed out bags and crayons so the kids could decorate their bags to use for trick or treating when they arrived.  As soon as we got there, she spotted Snoopy and took off to see him!

 A huge hug for Snoopy!

 The entire set up was great.  They had the pumpkin patch where everyone got to pick a pumpkin, a street front so the kids could trick or treat.  They also had carnival type games set up for the kids, a petting zoo, slide, bounce house, hay ride, a stage with a guy singing kids songs and a food vendor.

 Alex and Josh picked the perfect pumpkin then we took a hay ride.

 On the train ride back, they handed out foam sticker kits to use to decorate the pumpkins.  Then Alex turned the camera on us.  She loves taking pictures!

The ride was so great, Alex is already asking to go back next year.  The Texas State Railroad has several themed rides (a Peanuts Halloween, Easter and Valentines ride along with a Polar Express ride and all the regular excursions).  I have a feeling there will be many more train rides in our future!

First Day of Pre K

Alexandra started Pre K today!  I thought I was ready, but last night I realized our summer together was over and I got so sad.  We had such a great summer and now as I sit here in the empty house, it seems so quiet. 

She woke up so excited about school which made drop off a little easier.  Josh took the morning off so he could be there for first drop off.  She was ready half an hour early!  She will go to school 4 days a week this year!  We have a super busy weekly schedule lined up, but I know keeping her busy will help prepare her for a longer kindergarten day next year.  In addition to pre school Monday-Thursday (9am-1:30) she will stay an extra hour for "stay and play" on Tuesdays.  She begged to stay the second half of school last year so we told her she could stay this year.  But because she has a busy schedule, we are only doing it one day a week.  Wednesdays she will go straight from school to dance at 2:00, a little break, then pre cheer at 5:15.  Thursday she has gymnastics at 4:15.  We have Fridays completely open!

Just for memory sake, a few things about Alexandra...
She has been very adamant, she wants to go by Alexandra at school
She LOVES purple...so much that her new school clothes are all purple!
She is very vocal about what she gets for lunch.  We made a special trip to the grocery store where she got to pick out things for her lunch.  (she picked pineapple, cantaloupe, oranges, baby carrots, grape tomatoes, hummus, pita chips, green veggie chips, turkey, cheese sticks, gold fish shaped bread and black olives)
entering pre-k she knows all of her letters, upper and lower case, she can count to 100, she has some sight words memorized, she can spell and write her name and she can sound out many words to write them herself.

She has one friend from last year in her class so I am so excited that she gets to make new friends, but still see her other friends on the play ground.  I can not believe my girl is already 4 years and in pre-k.  Wasn't she just a little baby in my arms the other day?

Ita and Ito's

We headed to Dallas for the weekend. We drove up Saturday and went straight to my grandparents house. My parents, aunts and uncles were there. Grandma made her yummy enchiladas for lunch and the guys helped work on their storage shed.
Alex was very shy when we first got there. She would barely leave my side.

After she got a little food in her tummy, she opened up a little. It was a beautiful day so we spent most of the afternoon outside. Alex found pecans, watered plants and just played around.

Alex and Popi found a caterpillar. I so proud of my girly girl, she held it!

On our way out, I pointed out a stone to Alex that had Hudson's handprints on it. She put her sweet little hands on his prints, it was soo cute and sweet

Later that night we went to my best friends for a pumpkin carving party. Pumpkins post will come later this week!!

Family Fun Day!

We had such a fun Saturday! Alex has been asking to go bowling so we decided to take her today! She LOVED it! She bowled with bumpers and a ramp...and she beat me...TWICE! Kind of embarrassing, but still fun!




We went to Fudrucker's for lunch and had cookies when we were done. Alex wasn't ready to go home so we went to Toys R Us to look around. I figured it would be a good time to get Christmas ideas! Alex loved trying all the bikes out. She was soo good and never asked for anything until she saw the Calico Critters Manor. She tried picking up the box and said we needed to go pay. I have a feeling this will be on the top of her Christmas list this year! It's perfect because there are soooo many accessories that go with it so we can continue to add to it!



Alex still wasn't ready to go home so we went to Barnes and Noble. We sat and had coffee (and milk) then we played with the train table and read some books!

I love days we get to spend as a family doing fun things!

Total Randomness

I have thousands of pictures on my phone. I never take the time to upload them, so here goes!

several weeks ago Alex was running down our driveway and tripped. Her poor knees were bloody! In true Alex dramatic fashion, we had to bandage them up!

I don't even know where we were, but I love this picture! They are soo cute!

Alex loves collies. Every time we go to Hobby Lobby, we have to stop to see the dog statues. The collie always gets a kiss. They are down to one collie statue and she is worried someone will buy it!
She LOVES putting on lip gloss. She walks around with pouty lips for at least 10 minutes after applying gloss!


This is what I get for telling my child to get dressed. She loves to pick out her own clothes, socks and shoes!
She is such a sweet mommy to her babies. Here she is consoling Ariel telling her the mean sea witch won't get her!
Naps are pretty much a thing of the past. She will nap one, maybe two days a week. The other days she has quiet time in her room. She usually pulls every stuffed animal out of her closet!
Slight obsession with bandaids. Sometimes it's just easier to give her the box and let her go to town!
She loves asking how to spell things. Here is our family members names. She would not take any letters from her name to make other names so we have Alex, osh (Josh), jmi (jamie), cpr (Cooper). She is excellent at finding each letter and putting them in order!
Meet Froggy, Alex's new favorite baby. I got to drive around with him buckled in the car seat while Alex was at school one day.
Ice cream following a mommy/daughter date night at Chickfila!
Alex and Froggy waiting for flu shots yesterday.
Sharing a pancake breakfast with her Cooper dog!
Dress up time for Ariel!

The Fall Lineup

I feel like since Alex started school we haven't had a free moment! Since she was going to be in school 3 days a week, I didn't want to over-schedule her so I only signed her up for dance. She goes straight from school to dance on Wednesdays. I figured if it became too much we would see about changing to Monday or dropping dance all together. So far it has been great! Of course as soon as school started she asked about gymnastics too. Our gym typically doesn't have Friday classes, but so many parents from our school asked about it, they added 2 classes. Unfortunately we waited too long and didn't get in the class with all her friends, but that may change in a few weeks. I heard through the parent grapevine one kid may drop out and we are first on the wait list for her spot!

Alex loves her dance studio and the teachers adore her! Last year she was the youngest in her class of 2 year olds, this year she is still the youngest in her class of 3-5 year olds, but you would never know watching her. She can keep up with the older girls. I love that she is in class with a friend from last year and one of her class mates just started too! It is soo cute watching the 3 sweet girls hold hands and giggle together.

In the 3 short weeks Alex has been in school she seems like she has grown up so much. She has sweet little friends she talks about, she sings songs I've never heard, she tells me stories about her days. She has also pretty much stopped napping. I am lucky if she naps 1, maybe 2 days a week. It's kind of nice because instead of napping as soon as she gets home from school, we get to spend time together!

Wild Oak Ranch 2011

As part of our parents Christmas present, we told them we were taking everyone on a family vacation...but they'd have to wait until summer! We took both set of grandparents with us to Wild Oak Ranch in San Antonio. We (Josh, Alex and I) went last year and loved it, but we thought it would be so much fun with the grandparents too! We had 2 connecting room, one with a full kitchen. I spent the week prior planning meals, grocery shopping and packing. Josh worked a half day Thursday and Nomi, Terri and Ray drove to our house. We left soon after Alex got out of school. Once we got to the resort, we had dinner and Josh and I went to the grocery store for the cold stuff. Alex was spoiled rotten with both sets of grandparents there. She even slept in bed with us the first night! Popi met us there on Friday.

It was a perfect vacation for multiple people. We had plenty of room between both rooms and having the kitchen was a life saver because we could cook pretty much every meal there. I LOVE that the kitchen was stocked with all necessary utensils. The only thing I took was an extra pan because I knew cooking so many meals in the room for 7 people would be a little difficult with the 3 pans the hotel provided.

We spent our mornings in the room taking our time with coffee and breakfast. We went to the lazy river for a few hours then went to the room in shifts for lunch so someone could hold our cabana and Alex could get in a nap in the room with someone with her. We had a prime cabana with 6 lounge chairs, shade and a lazy river entrance.

We spent our afternoons floating the river, reading books and napping by the water! It was PERFECT! Friday night was a movie under the stars. They showed Tangled, which is an Alex favorite! Grandma and Nomi liked it too! Saturday night we did dinner at the restaurant on the property then went to the fire pits for smores! I LOVE how kid and family friendly the entire resort is.

I met a really sweet mom who happened to be from Bryan! Crazy small world! Alex also made friends with two boys from Houston. She enlisted them to help her make princess sand castles. They were soo cute with her! We had so much fun and are talking about making this a yearly trip!

Alex getting in a little nap on the way to San Antonio

Nomi, Alex and Grandma post breakfast, playing in the room

Ray and Josh catching up over coffee

Terri and Ray floating the river

Daddy and his girl!

our little river entrance from our cabana!

Josh relaxing!

a little break from floating

our perfect cabana!

Nomi and Popi

me and my sweetie!