Boppy Love

We've had Alex's Boppy's in her closet for several months. Lately, she loves playing on them. I took a ton of pictures of her playing on them earlier and it just makes me think back to when she was a tiny little thing on them! I went to see a friend and her new baby earlier this week. He was so tiny, I forget how small Alex used to be. He had just gone in for his 2 week check up and was about 8 pounds. When we brought Alex home from the hospital she was 5 pounds 2 ounces. I just can not imagine Alex being that small again! Where did the time go?

The first picture in each set, Alex was 2-3 months old...the second ones was today, almost 17 months old!

Let It Snow...

I've been so jealous all week seeing pictures on facebook of all the snow the other day in Dallas. Today, I saw pictures of the snow in Houston. I've been patiently waiting for our turn. There was snow in our forecast today. It was supposed to start around 8am...nothing. Finally around 12:30 I looked out and saw huge beautiful flakes falling! I grabbed the girls hats, gloves and coats, threw on some shoes and a coat, got them bundled up and grabbed my camera. The girls barely noticed it was snowing, they were just excited to be going outside since we've been cooped up all week. Nothing is sticking but it's still great to look out the window and see snow falling! I love it!

running around like a crazy person!

this would have been so much cuter if there was snow on the ground!


Abby enjoying the snow

So Much to Say

I've been a horrible blogger. I hate going so long between blogs because it feels like there is just way to much to talk about.

I'll try to keep it short.

Rewind a week...on Thanksgiving we spent the day at home! We got up and decorated the Christmas tree. I had this vision that it would be so much fun and Alex would enjoy it...not so much. She was interested in the ornaments for about 2 minutes then decided the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade was much more interesting.

Alex and Daddy putting the first ornament on the tree.

Alex had the need to touch, poke, shake, and man handle every ornament so to teach her to be gentle with them we told her we only kiss them. Kinda random, but it worked so here's my sweet girl giving an ornament a kiss!

When the tree was done, we headed outside do put up some lights. Josh did the lights on the house, I did the lights on the little shrubs and Alex kept herself entertained with the light clips.

My parents came down Thursday evening and we relaxed a bit. Josh's parents came down Friday morning. We had lunch+dinner=linner around 2. We had waaaay too much food for the 6.5 of us. Alex had already had lunch and woke up from her nap just as we sat down. We let her sit with us to eat, but she wasn't too interested. She ate a little but not too much, she was rather picky. I realized I didn't take any pictures while both sets of parents were here, so there are none to share! :( My parents left Friday afternoon and Josh's left Saturday morning. After they left, Josh went to play golf and Alex and I went to do some shopping. It would have been better had I not walked around Hobby Lobby for half and hour carefully selecting the perfect color ribbons, bow and gift tags to coordinate with my wrapping paper only to get to the register and realize I left my wallet in Josh's car. So we left Hobby Lobby empty handed. We went home got grabbed my wallet, went to Target, Bed Bath and Beyond and another Target. We stopped for a little mommy/daughter lunch at Chick-fil-a, then headed home so Alex could nap. I relaxed and watched a movie. It was great to do nothing! We went to dinner with some friends that night then Sunday I finally went to see New Moon. I liked it much better than Twilight, but like always, I liked the books much more. I have the urge to re-read all the books...we'll see!

So...my week has been a little hectic, hence the lack of blogging. My friend Sheena asked me if I could watch her son Monday-Thursday this week and Monday-Tuesday next week. The lady who watches Kyler was out of town so I said yes. I was a little nervous about having all three kiddos here so my mom was great enough to come back down Monday afternoon and stay until Wednesday afternoon. I LOVE YOU MOM! Man, three kids are tough!

From left to right, we have Kyler (11 months), Abby (15 months) and Alex (almost 17 months)! 3 kids all within 6 months of each other...crazy! I am so used to the girls, that throwing a third kid into the mix really threw me for a loop. Not to mention, I've had Abby since she was about 6 weeks old so we have our routine down pat. The first couple of days were hectic. I'd find poor Alex sitting in her closet with a book just to get a little bit of quiet time. I really think Josh may have come home to find me curled in a ball in the corner of the room crying had it not been for my mom. Today was probably the best day so far. Kyler and Abby took their morning naps so Alex and I got to have some time to play, just the two of us. All three kiddos took their afternoon naps at 1. Alex was the first one up around 2:45 then the other two woke up about an hour later. It was great to lay on the couch and rest a little while they were all sleeping. I think it kept me sane! All in all, it's getting easier, I know I'll be able to get through the two days next week.

With all of this going on, Alex cut another tooth so it brings the count to 12. We are now just waiting on the 2nd molars and vampire teeth! She also was way spoiled by Nomi being here. She woke up in the middle of the night Monday and ended up sleeping in bed with Nomi. Tuesday she woke up at 5am and went back to sleep in Nomi's bed. She woke up last night, I rocked her and put her back in her crib. She cried for a few minutes then went back to sleep. I don't want her to get in the habit of sleeping with us.

I am looking forward to doing some Christmas shopping in Austin this weekend and seeing Shannon and Neal on Saturday!

Tree Time

We pulled all of the Christmas stuff down from the attic last night. We were planning on doing all the Christmas decorating this weekend, but since we go to our parents house for Christmas and they come here for Thanksgiving, they wouldn't be able to see the house all done up, so we are doing it early! I wanted to get the tree up without decorations so Alex can get used to having it in the living room and we can start working on limitations with the tree. I decorated her little tree while she was napping yesterday and when she got up, I showed it to her and let her touch it. I pointed out Frosty and the butterfly. She will now gently point to the correct one when I ask her to. She was playing with her snowman that sings Frosty the Snowman today and said Fraaa-teee! Baby Girl loves Christmas just like her mama! We put the tree up after she went to bed and set out a lot of other decorations. This morning before we got her up, Josh and I turned on all the decorations that had lights, went into get her then brought her out to the living room so she could see everything lit up before we opened the blinds and turned on the main lights. She just pointed and oooh'ed and ahhhh'ed. I can't wait to actually decorate the tree tomorrow night! It is my favorite thing to do.

So far, Alex has done good with the tree. One toy ended up under the tree and she had to go explore!

She hung out in the corner behind the tree for a while

then decided to lay down on the tree skirt!

it kinda makes me think of this picture from last year!

ICE!

Saturday we took Alex to the Gaylord to see ICE! It was all Grinch and Who-ville! It was so cold but amazing! We bundled up in the blue parkas they provided. Alex's was HUGE on her. The arms extended about a foot past her fingertips and the bottom of the coat touched the ground...she looked like a little penguin walking around. We carried her through the majority of it because it was just easier, plus she could see everything better. At the end they had 4 slides made out of ice. We saw a man go down with his kid in his lap so I headed up to take Alex down. When we got up there, they told me I couldn't go down with her in my lap, so instead of causing a stink, we skipped the slide. Alex loved it...but I think I enjoyed it way more than she did. I LOVE Christmas and all things related. The atrium of the Gaylord was beautiful and they have so much stuff you can do. There was a little shop to make Gingerbread houses, Santa was there for pictures, there is a HUGE Christmas store. They also had different activities like breakfast with the Grinch and milk and cookies with Mrs. Clause. If we had planned it right, we would have done one of those activities, but we weren't sure what time we'd be heading up there and Alex only napped for an hour in the car so she was ready to go after a while. We definitely want to go back next year!

waiting in line on Daddy's shoulders

Alex loved the snow in the first area

my little penguin

The Stafins

Thanksgiving (#1)

We had our first of two Thanksgivings today. It was with all my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. We rent a facility every year because there are usually around 30 people and it is just easier than having one person volunteer their house. There were 7 kiddos, Alex being the youngest. She was great the entire time, just walking around looking outside through the floor to ceiling windows. After lunch, she finally got to go outside and play. She had the best time just walking all over the place, picking up leaves, sticks and flowers and stepping up and down from curbs. We tried taking her back inside a few times and she would just scream and cry until she could find someone else to take her back outside...which was never too hard. She loved watching all the big girls play and do flips on the bars.

Alex was not happy I took a dandelion away from her

Alex and her Popi
picking up leaves

sweet Peyton

the big girls (Chloe, Jaylee and Kylie). Alex was always under foot

Busy Little Bee!

It seems like in the past few days Alex has just exploded doing so much stuff!

She has know where her tummy and head are for about a month or so, but in the last two days, she learned nose and ears.

She still isn't speaking much but on rare occasions when you aren't expecting it she will repeat something clear as day. So far we have heard, ball, yum yum, yeah (she says this one all the time), Cooper, Daddy, all done...and more, but I can't think now.

She is obsessed with phones. If my phone rings, she runs over to it until I pick it up. She loves her play phone and will hold it up to her hear and just walk around the house. When we were at Josh's parents this weekend, Ray was playing with Alex and his phone rang. Alex picked up a sun glass case that was kinda shaped like a phone and put it up to her ear.

She is getting very good at putting stuff away. She isn't perfect, because she makes huge messes, but every little thing she puts away is one less that I don't have to put away.

She loves bags. She will walk around with her purse, a little makeup bag, or pretty much anything else that opens and she will fill it with her toys.

She learned how to unscrew bottles, which I almost found out the hard way. I was in my bathroom and she was playing in the drawers, found a little travel size shampoo, took it in our room, unscrewed the top and had it all over her hands. Thankfully I saw her before the hands went in her mouth.

She still loves her music. She will go into the living room, point at the drawer where we keep the remotes or point at the TV and start dancing. It's her cute way of telling me to turn on the tunes. If we start singing Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes, she will find her puppy that plays it and push his paw until he starts singing that song, then clap for herself.

She loves bossing us around. Yesterday we were all on the bed and I kissed Josh. She came up to us, turned our heads away from each other and put her head between ours. If I'm holding her and kiss Josh she will lean in and kiss the both of us so it's like a big family kiss. When Josh is holding her and I lean in for a hug, she will give me a quick hug then push me away from them.

She loves playing with her stacking rings. She can put all the rings back on the pole thing in order from largest to smallest! She is getting good at stacking her little people blocks and getting the little people to sit in the wagon, see saw and carousel.

She is starting to climb. I went in her room today and found her with her torso on the ottoman and her legs on her glider, kinda stuck, not knowing what to do next. She is constantly trying to climb on top of her bigger toys, the couch and her glider.

We are heading to Dallas tomorrow so we can go to ICE! at the Gaylord with Josh's parents and dinner afterwards. Sunday we are doing my family Thanksgiving with my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Speaking of Thanksgiving, I've got to work on my menu. Our parents are coming to our house for Thanksgiving. THEN...we get to haul out the Christmas decorations! I CAN NOT WAIT!