Wonderful Long Weekend!

We had a great long weekend! Nomi and Popi came to visit us and we hung out and played games! Alex was worn out from their visit, she took a 2 hour nap as soon as they left. When she got up, Josh was cleaning out garage so I took Alex outside and took some pictures. I'm working on the invitations for her 1st birthday party so I took a couple of hundred pics trying to get the perfect one. Here are a few that I love! I'll share the finished invite after they go in the mail in a couple of weeks.

These next 2 are my favorites! (they were touched up with photoshop, which I am learning to LOVE!!!)

Pool Party!

We went to a birthday party for our friend Tyler at his parents house in Spring. The house was beautiful and the pool/backyard was AMAZING!!! They had a diving stone, slide with fire features, lazy river with waterfalls, a grotto and a very shallow beach like entry to the pool. Alex LOVED the water. I bought her a ladybug float she can sit in that has a sun canopy at Target earlier in the week and it was perfect! She just kicked her feet, smiled and squealed. The water was a little too cool for me but Alex didn't seem phased by it but we only let her stay in for a little while because I didn't want her to get too cold. We are now very excited to start swim lessons in 3 weeks!

BTW, they were in the middle of having their landscaping done, that't why all the plants in the pics are still in pots!

Making Music

Alex loves playing with the piano. Josh holds her and she bangs on the keys! Today while she was playing, she pulled up to piano bench and got her little hands on the keys and had a blast banging away! Maybe she'll be a musical prodigy! LOL!!!

A few pics...

We took advantage of the beautiful weather last night and sat in the front yard while Josh did some work in the garage. Alex is getting braver about leaving the blanket and exploring the grass and driveway.

She fell back while she was on her knees and Cooper brother was there to cushion the fall!

I have been trying to get a pic of the tooth, I finally got it! If you click on the pic, it enlarges it and you can see the little snaggle tooth! The second one hasn't come up enough to see it in the pic.

The Little Things

Little things make me realize my baby girl is growing up right before my eyes. I am getting a box of clothes together to send to my best friend's niece who just had a little girl. Going through all of Alex's old clothes just saddens me. I can remember her wearing each little outfit and looking at them now, they look so tiny. I finally decided it is time to move up a size in jammies. Her 9 month stuff is just a little too tight in the length. I loaded up the girls today and we went to the Carter's outlet. I walked in and looked at all the adorable snap up footed jammies at the front of the store, then I realized, they only go up to 9 months. As I made my way to the back of the store for the "big girl" jammies I thought there had to be a mistake. They looked HUGE! Now, I know they go all the way up to 4T but how can my sweet baby be in the style where the size range goes from 12 months to 4T? We no longer get the sweet little footed jammies, now it is the zip up jammies with the rubber grips on the feet. So, I got 2 pairs of footed jammies and a couple of short/pant/tee shirt pj sets.

She is getting so independent. It seems like in just a matter of days, she went from pulling up to stand every once in a while to now pulling up on EVERYTHING from the wall, my legs while I'm standing and Cooper if he sits still too long. She is now always standing in her crib when I get her up for the day or from a nap. She is getting more confident walking while holding onto something or someone. She is very much a social butterfly. We walked down the street the other day so we could return a few gardening tools and I wanted her to meet Alex. Joan opened the door and Alex immediately held her arm out and leaned to her so she could hold her. This girl has never met a stranger.

Tooth #2 cut through the gums yesterday!!! She now has both lower central incisors.

Baby, you are not supposed to grow up this fast, can you slow down just a little bit and let me savor the last 2 months of you being my baby before you turn 1?

Before and After

Terri and Ray came down to visit and help work on our yard. We decided we wanted to add a stone wall to our flowerbed and create a new bed on the side of our house. After 2 days of working our butts off we finished! Josh and Ray did all the hard work and they did an amazing job! I was the gopher, running all the errands while Terri was Alex's personal entertainment! While the guys worked on the new bed, I was in charge of shoveling the mulch out of the truck and filling the front beds. Let me just tell you, 1 cubic yard of mulch is A LOT! It filled pretty much the entire bed of the truck. I am so lucky to have such wonderful in laws who will help with anything we need. Alex loves having them here, she is showered with attention and loves every second of it!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

A few more pics of the front!

In LOVE!!!

Let me add to that...I'm in love and clueless. I have been checking many many online stores every couple of days to see when my camera would be in stock. Well yesterday I checked Ritz and they had it! I immediately picked up my phone to see if the local store had it. THEY DID!!! My wonderful husband agreed to going right after work to get it! From there, we went to World Market, then out to dinner. I could not wait to get home to play with my new toy. Here comes the clueless part. I am usually pretty good with figuring out gadgets and stuff, but hand me a fancy camera and I'm lost. I went through everything in the box and actually pulled out the instructions to start reading them. Insert the battery; check, insert the SD card; check, attach the neck strap; took a while, but check, turn the camera on; got that...then I just got lost. I can take a picture in the full auto mode, but when it comes to ISO, adjusting the brightness, image effects, and so on, it's like reading Chinese to me. Luckily the store I purchased my camera from includes 18 free classes when you buy a camera. They go over EVERYTHING you would ever want to know...FOR FREE!!! I'll be signing up for the next class. Until then, I'm happy using the auto focus, ISO, and everything else setting!

Here are a few pics from my new camera!

Alex holds her blanket up to her face when she is sleepy

bed head at it's finestmy big girl watching Cooper