4th Birthday Party!

We celebrated Alex's birthday early this year!  Anyone who knows me, knows I start planning Alex's birthday about 6 months out!  This year Alex didn't really have much of an opinion other than she wanted it to be purple.  I threw the idea of a movie party out there and she LOVED it.  Since Brave was coming out a few weeks before her birthday, we decided to have her party early (on opening weekend)!  Instead of going with a Brave theme, we did purple, purple and more purple!  The theater was fantastic and handled everything!  All we had to do was show up with cake or cupcakes.  Of course, because Alex wanted purple, I picked up our own paper goods, but they would have provided them if I wanted.  We had pizza and cupcakes then got to see the movie.  My favorite part was the manager reserved 2 great rows in the theater for Alex's party!  We walked in right before the movie started and took our seats!  During the party they took drink and icee orders from the kids and delivered kids packs with popcorn, drinks and graham crackers as soon as they were seated!



the birthday banner I made!

 silly girl coyping one of the triplets!

 happy girl with her cupcakes!

I would totally do a movie party again!  In fact, Monsters University and the second Despicable Me come out around Alex's birthday next year! 

Father's Day

We had a great Father's Day.  I woke up early and Alex and I made stuffed french toast for breakfast!  Considering I didn't follow a recipe I think it turned out pretty good! 

Then we got ready and drove to Cedar Park so we could ride the Father's Day Flyer on the Austin Steam Train.  We rode it several months ago but Josh and Alex wanted to ride it again on a different car.  I knew it would be a fun Father's Day activity so the second I got an email about the Father's Day Ride, I booked our compartment!  We rode in a private compartment on the City of Chicago pullman car.  It is so much fun having a private compartment because Alex can move around all she wants and we can just relax!  We had a yummy lunch and dessert.  It was so much fun!  My girl shares her Daddy's love for trains!

Josh and Alex heading to our compartment

Alex took so many pics of us while we were on the train.  She actually did a pretty good job!

 Daddy and daughter with huge smiles!

 my girl!

 Josh and Alex after the ride.  The car we rode in was BEAUTIFUL!

It was such a fun day!  We are already talking about our next ride!  Next time we will probably do a ride out of Rusk...either the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown in October or Polar Express in December!

Weekend at the Lake

Thursday Josh headed to the coast for a fishing trip with the guys.  Since he was going to be gone for 3 nights, Alex, Cooper and I headed to my parents.  It ended up working out perfect.  I spent most of the week getting sick so it was great to be at my parents so I could rest and Alex could still have all the attention she wanted!  We had so much fun while we were there.  It was nice to sit back and watch Alex interact so much with my parents.

One of mom's friends has baby turkeys so he brought them over for Alex to see.  She held one for about 3 seconds then was happy just petting them.

 This pretty much described me over the weekend, no make up and glasses.  I'm still not feeling 100%, but much better.  I think I just had a killer sinus infection.

 Alex spent time swinging while singing Gloria.

 We put dirt in a jar for rollie pollies.  She added flowers and grass too!

 We spent tons of time in Alex's garden.

 My parents have spent so much time working on Alex's garden.  It is soo cute.  They have tons of plants, a little pebble walk way, lots of little decorative things and a sitting area.  Alex spent part of the morning dead heading plants and planting the seeds.  The garden is going to be over run with flowers before we know it!

 Alex and Popi spent time playing "baseball" with a ball scoop thing.  It took her a few tries to make contact, but once she did, she didn't want to stop playing.

Once she would hit the ball, she would drop the scoop and run the make believe bases.  Basically, she would just run around the yard and then head towards mom for a high five!

 Then of course a victory dance!

 All the "baseball" worked up an appetite so we had a picnic.

 Alex's favorite berry of the season...raspberries!

 One of Alex's favorite things to do is help Nomi water plants.  This particular watering session turned into my child running around without a stitch of clothing on in the water!

 Saturday night we ate dinner outside then roasted marshmallows!

 Can't forget this sweet boy!  He loves being at Nomi and Popi's!

 One of the best parts of being at Nomi and Popi's...sharing a room with my girl and waking up to this sweet face!  Her room has 2 beds in it and she insist I sleep in there with her instead of my room. :)

The hardest part of the weekend was missing this boy.  My parents lost their beloved Stoney on Memorial Day.  There was a freak accident he was unable to recover from.  It was such a sad day for our entire family.  Stoney was such a sweet protector of everyone, especially the kids in the family.  We waited a week to tell Alex about it because Josh and I needed time before we could work up the strength to talk about the death of a pet with her.  Last Sunday we talked to her about Stoney and read her a book called "Dog Heaven."  She mainly listened as we talked about how happy Stoney was in heaven.  It broke our hearts when she asked when he was coming home and we had to tell her he wasn't.  My sweet girl started sobbing.  She has spent a little more time with her stuffed dog we named Baby Stoney a few weeks before he died.  While we were at my parents Alex was making up nicknames for everyone and she said Stoney needed one in heaven.  I teared up and she looked at me with the sweetest face and said, "Mommy, don't be sad.  Stoney is in heaven and he is happy."  My girl always knows just what to say.

Destin

Please, don't faint...yes, I am blogging two days in a row.  Over Cinco de Mayo we went to Destin for a family wedding.  Our entire family had soo much fun!
We started our trip on a Wednesday, by driving to my parents.  On our way, we made a stop to drop Cooper off with my in laws so were so great to watch Cooper for 11 days!  I know Coopie loves his grandma and grandpa time!

Everyone woke up early Thursday to get on the road.  Alex was the most excited because I had all sorts of new car friendly activities to keep her entertained.  The biggest hits were Crayola Color Explosion markers, a magnetic Tic Tac Toe set and new apps on the iPad.  She did amazing in the car for the drive.  We stopped twice to eat and a few times for potty breaks.  She never fussed and slept for about 30 minutes.  Mom and I tried to sleep, but every time we'd fall asleep, Alex would poke us.

We spent Friday on the beach.  The day started off overcast, but cleared up after a couple of hours.  There were jellyfish everywhere so Alex was very timid about going to the water.  She finally gave in and had a blast.  She spent most of the time making sand castles.

my silly girl dancing on the beach

That evening we went to the rehearsal dinner.  We ate on a covered patio where Alex had a perfect view of the play ground on the beach.  Josh was so great to take Alex to play while I visited with family.

my sweet dad

My cousin, sister to the groom, made the beautiful wedding cake!  Here she is hard at work!

Saturday my mom and I went to Seaside to walk around.  My grandparents, aunt and uncle went as well while Josh, my dad and two other uncles golfed.  We had lunch and did some shopping.  We took a gelato break too!

Alex insisted she wanted Key Lime

after 2 bites she wanted to taste mine then decided she wanted to switch so she ate my blood orange while I ate her Key Lime

me and my girl at the wedding

Daddy and his girl

Michael and his beautiful bride!

Most people who know my girl, knows she will not just fall asleep anywhere.  She rarely sleeps in the car and just doesn't like to miss any of the action.  I think all of the activities finally caught up to her and she crashed on Josh at the wedding reception.  My baby was soo tired.  She even started snoring.

On Sunday my parents and I (along with 9 other friends) went on a jet ski tour to see dolphins.  It was the coolest experience.  We found several groups of dolphins and were able to get right next to them.  We spent 2 hours on jet skis.  Let me tell you, driving a jet ski on the ocean is a totally different experience that driving one on a lake.  My dad and I rode together and he was so sweet to let me drive the whole time.  While we did that, Josh took Alex to the beach.  That evening, Josh and I broke away for a fun afternoon.  His birthday fell on the day we drove back so I wanted to celebrate a little early.  I rented a convertible and we spent the afternoon driving around then went and had dinner.  We headed back to the condo so my parents could go to dinner.  Alex was still awake and hungry so we made her a quick dinner and she ate while we packed.  The next thing I knew she was out like a light with her food still in her hand.

Our drive home was uneventful and Alex was perfect again!  My girl was built for road trips!

End of School



Alex had her last week of school last week.  I was thinking I would have 3 days to finish doing things I wanted to.  Boy was I wrong!  I was at her school every single day for something and spent the rest of the time running errands for school related activities.  Tuesday she had group chapel, where the whole school performed together.  It was soo cute seeing her up there with all of her friends.  Wednesday we celebrated her birthday.  They spent the last 2 weeks of school celebrating the birthdays of the kids who have summer birthdays.  Josh and I took cupcakes for her class.  I had a little break before I went back up for their water day.  They had so much fun playing car wash with shaving cream!  We had her end of the year party on the last day of school.  I spend the morning picking up a gift for her teacher (who has a summer birthday), wrapping end of the year gifts for the teachers and kids and taking care of the food for the party.  I am so grateful to her teachers.  Alex learned so much in the last year.  She is turning into a little lady who loves to pray before each meal, help clean, she is smart as a whip and just so sweet!

I am so excited about our summer!  We have gymnastic, pre cheer, dance camp, vacation bible school and lots of play dates!  We have our first one tomorrow with a friend from dance.  The funny part is, Alex's friend Ava, has a little brother who is actually Alex's age.  Alex tend to gravitate to the kid who are older.  Most of her school friend turned 4 very early in the school year while her dance and gymnastics friends are all 5.



Long Lost Blogger

We are still here, alive and doing well. You know how you take a break from blogging, then a few days turns into weeks, months and so on.

I'll just skim, Christmas was great. We loved seeing the family. The end of winter and beginning of spring was just filled with school, activities and busy weekends.

Alex is still loving school. I can not believe she has 3 weeks left. Her summer schedule is jam packed with activities to make up for the lack of school.

Josh committed to riding in the MS 150, which he completed a few weeks ago. He rode a bicycle from Houston to Austin. It was such an awesome experience to be able to take Alex to watch him cross the finish line! We are so unbelievably proud of him!

We celebrated my birthday last weekend. We spent the day at josh's company picnic. Alex had a blast! Sunday everyone slept in until 9am, which is totally unheard of in my house. We spent the afternoon in Houston shopping and having dinner.

As we speak, we are on the road to Destin! My little cousin is getting married so the family is making the trek for the event. I am so excited for a little mini vacation. 9 hours in the car (so far) may be the reason I have time to update the blog!

We have super busy weekends coming up. Another wedding mothers day weekend, Alex's dance recital (and 2 birthday parties) the following weekend. June doesn't seem to be slowing down either. Josh has a fun work trip, I'm hosting a baby shower or my best friend (so stinking excited), fathers day and we are having Alex's birthday party early (in June).

Gingerbread Train

Alex and I had big plans to spend an afternoon making gingerbread people cookies...until I realized I didn't have a cookie cutter. We made 2 stops looking for a cookie cutter and had no luck. We did end up finding a gingerbread train set to make instead! Alex was sooo excited about making hers. Since there were 3 parts we each decorated one. I'm pretty sure Alex licked every single piece of candy before it went on her train. She ate just as much as she put on her train. It was such a fun thing to do together!