Card Shark

The Easter Bunny brought Alex a pack of cards to play Go Fish and Old Maid. They are Disney Princess cards, so she loves them. I'm afraid we've created a card shark. We play Go Fish every night before bed. When she wakes up in the morning, she crawls in our bed with her deck of cards so we can play again. She is getting very good at Go Fish. I love it because she is learning to recognize her numbers and is sorting the cards into pairs on her own. She ask for a card by the number and princess name. We don't play Old Maid as much because well, Alex isn't fond of the Old Maid. It's Ursula the Sea Witch from the Little Mermaid. If she gets it, she puts it back or starts crying. Josh and I can't help but laugh. Last night we made her play it, but she and I were on a team together. I was trying to show her the Old Maid isn't that bad. Just because you start off with it, doesn't mean you will keep it. I think she is warming up to the idea! We are working on holding the cards so other people can't see them, she tends to lay all her cards on the table face up! She will try to get anyone to play with her. While we were at my parents she had Josh and Popi playing with her, then Shannon and Neal. When Mandi and Nathan came over for game night, we all played Go Fish first!

First Trophy

Alex had her last day of soccer a few weeks ago. (Yes, I know, I'm so far behind!) By the last 2 weeks, she was over soccer. She would look for any excuse she could find to sit in my lap. The only reason she went to the last class was to get her trophy. She decided she HAD to wear a tutu with her soccer shirt, shorts and tennis shoes. Alex loved her trophy, she didn't even care that it said Alexander Stafin! Now we get to wait for a new name plate to be printed!

Right Out of a Movie

...A Disney movie that is. We were out looking at plants one day and Alex spotted some birds. She started talking to them. She called them and called them, but they never came. She came to me a bit sad asking why the birds would not land on her hand. It was at that moment, we decided maybe she's seen a few too many Disney movies. Namely the princess movies. We had to explain to her that birds and animals really don't land on your hands. I was worried watching Enchanted a few weeks later would confuse her, but she seemed to understand it was a movie and not real life.

I don't think it helps that the squirrel and birds that are almost always at our feeder are getting used to us and rarely leave when we go to the window. Our new friend Sunk the Squirrel (as Alex named him) has become a regular guest at the bird feeder. It is nothing new to go to bed with a full bird feeder and wake up with it pretty much empty. If we open the blinds he just looks at us. One day he even hopped up on the window ledge and just looked at Alex. Today I glanced out and saw Sunk making a move for the food. I opened the blinds and he ran away.

A few minutes later I looked out again and spotted him lounging on a branch, watching us. I guess he was trying to figure out if he should make a run for the food again.

I guess he decided it was safe so he hopped back up and went to town!

At any given time I can usually see a male and female cardinal and now 3 little birds. With the new addition of a hummingbird feeder I'm expecting more traffic around here. I caught a glimpse of a hummingbird having a little taste when we got home! I looked out earlier and saw 3 birds and a squirrel. Like I said...straight out of a Disney movie!

Birthday Celebration(s)

Yesterday on my actual birthday, I woke up to a kitchen decorated with balloons and streamers, gifts and a hot cup of coffee! Alex and I met Josh for lunch, then Josh came home early and made me a cake! We went to dinner then came home and had cake. I had 4 birthday cakes. I loved it because each one was different. Chocolate/chocolate, chocolate/vanilla icing, white cake/strawberry icing and white cake/white icing! I really don't have a favorite type of cake, I love them all!

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My delicious white and pink cake Nomi and Alex made!

The yummy chocolate and white cake Terri made!

I didn't get a picture of the gorgeous cake my cousin, Mallory, made on Easter!

I was totally spoiled for my birthday this year! I had 4 cakes over the span of a week! I usually have no idea what I want for my birthday, but I actually thought about it and put together a little list this year. I got everything I wanted!

My super sweet husband ordered me a MomAgenda! (I may have provided specific instructions for color, inscription and inscription color! I have the aqua with my name in silver!)

Green Thumb

I've never had much of a green thumb, but lately I've been really into planting things! Our house was fully landscaped before we moved in and we planted a few flowers each year for some color. We did a few things the last few years like plant 2 crepe myrtles and line the beds with stone, but plant wise, we didn't really do much of anything. I was sick of one of our main beds in the front so a few months ago I ripped everything out and cut the rose bushes down. I dug up the roses and moved them back.

You can see in the picture below they were planted at the front of the bed which left a gap behind them. (the bed to the left in the pic)

Here is what it looked like for at least a month. It was almost empty, except for the rose stumps I moved in front of each trellis. They didn't do anything for a few weeks. I picked the wrong time of the year to chop them down!

About a month ago my mom helped pick plants for the bed. Here is what it looked like the day it was planted, before I mulched it.

Here is what it looks like now! Everything is rooting and growing! The roses are coming back and there is great color in the bed now! The potato vines will continue to spread and the Mexican petunias will end up being a few feet tall!

This is one of the other beds. I love how it looks when everything starts coming back! My new trellis for the grape tomato plant. We have a great little space behind the Mexican petunias so I use that space to plant a few little herbs and veggies. I have pot in the back yard with basil, dill and cilantro. They started out in the front and I guess the wind carried some of the seeds because I now have sprouts of all three in the flower beds! In addition to the grape tomatoes, I also have a few jalapeno plants!

Our porch stays pretty shady so I get to plant a few shade plants too! We have a pot on each side of the door. Each one has caladiums, coleus and fox tail ferns!

We found some wall planters while we were at Crate and Barrel yesterday. We've been talking about getting some for the front and we happened to run across these on sale! I planted them while Alex was napping. These have a spike, caladiums, coleus and potato vine. I love the little pop of color they add to the porch!
My next project is the back yard! We have a total blank slate to work with and I'm excited to get to work back there!

Happy Easter!

We had such a fun Easter! We spent a week at my parents house since Josh was out of town for part of the week. I have lots of pics to share, but I'll just do Easter for now! Saturday we took Alex to see Grandma and Grandpa. They hid eggs for her and as soon as we walked in the door, she grabbed her basket and said, "Let's find eggs!" She had tons of Easter goodies in her baskets. She got a cute little princess accessories set.

We went back to my parents that afternoon and Alex got to color eggs!

Sunday morning we got up and Alex found more Easter baskets! This kid was spoiled rotten by the Easter bunny!

After we got ready we drove to Dallas to see all the family. We did two egg hunts, one for the little kids and one for the big kids. Alex found WAY TOO many eggs. Josh had to follow her around with her big basket so she could dump the eggs into it when her little basket got too full! We had such a great Easter weekend.

Picture Dump

I have tons of pictures from this month that I haven't posted, so I'm just dumping them all in one long post!

Josh's company had their fun run a few weekends ago. This is Alex's 3rd fun run and our 4th! The first one we did I was pregnant! It seems like a lifetime ago now! Josh ran and I walked with Alex in her stroller. Josh did his 5k in just over 30 minutes! I'm proud of him since he hasn't run since last years fun run! Alex had so much fun after the walk was over playing with all the other kiddos!

Later that day we went to lunch with Nathan, Mandi and Mark. The boys went to Champion Firearms while Alex and I went to Petco. They were doing a pet adoption and we saw the cutest beagle/basset mix. I swear, if we didn't already have a dog, he would have come home with us! When we got to Champion, we waited in the car for 20 minutes for Josh to finish doing whatever he was doing. I even threatened if he didn't hurry, we'd go back and get the dog! haha! He was actually buying me a little gun. He has several that he likes to shoot, and I've shot a few, but I don't like anything that kicks hard so he picked out a Ruger Mark 3 for me. I don't know much about it except that it is smaller, easy to handle and doesn't kick much. We headed to Nathan and Mandi's to shoot. We've never taken Alex out when the guys are shooting or if Josh goes to the gun range at the lake house, but we decided we'd start letting Alex be there. Josh is HUGE on gun safety. He wants to teach Alex to shoot when she is older. Who ever was shooting was a good distance from the group and we made sure every one had ear protection in or on. Alex loved wearing Josh's ears! She actually cried when she had to take them off! I had fun shooting, but quickly realized I was not dressed properly for shooting. I was wearing 5 inch wedges outside on an uneven ground. Alex and I didn't stay out too long, but it was fun to shoot a little!

We have been spending so much time in the front working on the flower beds. I pulled everything from a big bed in the front and left it completely bare for several weeks. When my mom was here a few weeks ago, she helped me pick all the plants and plant them. Alex LOVES being outside working in the dirt. We've been making trips to Lowes several times a week to get little things to add here and there! I can't wait to start on the back. I really really want to build a raised bed along our fence to plant herbs, fruit and veggies next year! We have a little area in the front that isn't too visible from the street so I planted some jalapenos, dill and cilantro. We also have pots with dill, cilantro and basil in the back. I even planted a little grape tomato plant since Alex and Josh LOVE them! We also want to add a bed or two in the back since there is just a big fat nothing there now. One will be Alex's bed where she can pick what she wants to plant!

My girl is getting much better about eating. She is starting to eat more meat on a regular basis. She is also loving on her veggies. I was peeling carrots yesterday and she picked one up and ate it. She ended up eating pretty much the entire carrot. She loves salads and seems to eat them better if I let her help prepare them and pick what she wants in hers. It's usually a mix of greens, tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers!