The Elf on the Shelf

On December 1st, we had a visitor appear in our home. Overnight, with a little *elf magic*, our friend Mickey took it upon himself to create a little bit of the North Pole in our dining room. 

 

 

In the book, it states that no one is to touch Mickey the Elf or else his magic will disappear.  Owen was sooooooooooo excited to see a real elf and wanted to badly to touch him.  Owen asked Mickey very sweetly if he could get special permission from Santa to hold him. We went out to lunch that day and when we came home, Mickey was holding a cell phone and had written a note. It said that he called Santa and because Owen is such a good boy, he can touch Mickey.  However, Owen must be very gentle and he cannot drop Mickey!  So we are allowed to hold and play with our elf around here. :)

 

Our elf is very busy at night. He flies back to the North Pole and reports to Santa how Owen and Lexie have been behaving. Sometimes Owen tells Mickey messages to give to Santa. Sometimes Mickey writes notes to Owen and Lexie.  Owen looooooves to look for Mickey every morning because Mickey is always in a different spot, and sometimes he gets into mischief.  Here are a few examples of things he has done.

One morning he decorated our tree with Owen's underwear!  Yes, our tree is outside on our patio. With a very curious and busy 13 month old, for the protection of our tree and Lexie, we put it outside.

Another morning we discovered that he'd built a gingerbread house!  He has also spelled out the kid's names with cereal, rolled down the stairs in a roll of toilet paper, and played games on the ipod!

 

Every Sunday morning, Mickey likes to remind us (and our toys!) about the real meaning of Christmas.

 

 

We sure have enjoyed having Mickey around!  We can't wait to see what fun things he still has up his sleeve!

Lexie's 1st Birthday Party

We had a wonderful get together with friends and family at the "pig park" next door to our house.  It was a crazy time because exactly one week later, we moved to Carlsbad!  There was a lot going on, but I HAD to squeeze in a party for Lexie.  I love planning parties and it was so much fun to plan a girly party. Here are some pictures from the party!

 Here are a few decorations. I made a doile banner with a picture from each month of Lexie's life. It turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.  I loved how feminine and pretty it was.

Grandma Loretta, Lexie, and Great-Grandma Rita

As you can see, Lexie was super interested in opening her presents.  Not.

Liam, Owen, and Rylan

This will be a good one to bring out when they're teenagers. So precious.

At first, Lexie wasn't too sure about her cupcake. Once she tasted it, she warmed up to it very quickly.  She didn't go crazy and make a huge mess, but she did enjoy herself.  She didn't wear a bib and her sweater survived the ordeal, so that was good.

 

Thanks to everyone who came and to those who helped out.  I couldn't have done it without you!

Happy Birthday, Lexie!

 



ONE

This baby doll turned ONE on November 7th!!  I am still in shock.

On her actual birthday,while Owen was at school, I got to go outside with Lexie and have a quick photo shoot before her nap. I'm so glad I got to capture my sweet little girl on her first birthday!

She had her check-up a few days later and she is a tiny lil' peanut! She weighs 20 lbs 10 oz (63rd percentile) and is 29 inches tall (43rd percentile).

At 12 months, Lexie:

• says "mama" deliberately
• says "dada"... sometimes
• finds her belly button on command
• EATs anything and everything, and A LOT of it!
• feeds herself. She does not need any help, thank you!
• takse a few steps by herself
• claps her hands when someone sings, "If You're Happy And You Know It"
• DANCEs to any music.  Sometimes she dances even when there isn't any music playing. She's got her own rhythm. :)
• does a "happy dance". Whenever she is excited/pleased by something, she will start bouncing her upper body and/or kicking her legs
• clicks her tongue
• stands all by herself for a looooong time, lower down to a squat, and stand back up
• growls (it's usually instigated by Owen)
• squeals REALLY loud and in a VERY high pitch when she's really happy, which is usually in the bathtub with her brother
• squeezes/crawls into the smallest spaces, and then usually get stuck
• has 6 teeth - four on top and two on bottom
• chases her brother around
• stands in the bathtub, but quickly sits back down when I remind her to "sit down"
• LOVES her brother and gets worried about him if he is upset
• LOVES to play with daddy and lights up when he enters the room
• LOVES to cuddle with mommy and during the night will wake up if mommy is not next to her

Pumpkin Patch

Before Halloween, Owen's Pre-K class took a trip to the pumpkin patch and we made it a family affair!  I wish I'd dressed Lexie a little cuter because these are the only pumpkin patch pictures I got of her this year. Oh, well!  You can see that she is wearing red shoes. These are shoes that Rick found at a consignment store. They were okay, but kind of worn out. In the Halloween post, you can see how I painted these shoes green for her costume! That's why she is wearing green shoes with red soles in the pictures.  Anyway...

 

Holding hands. Melts my heart. Every. Time.

Even though Lexie is totally closing her eyes, I love how Owen is being so sweet with Charlie.

 

 I love how this one shows Owen's crazy energy and Lexie's calm, go-with-the-flow demeanor.

So sweet.

 

 

And here's our own little pumpkin.

 

 

Happy Halloween!

Our Iron Man and Pumpkin had a great time trick-or-treating!

A Week in Pictures

 

 

 

 

This pretty much sums up the last week for us. One minute she is her happy self, and the next she is so sad. This poor little girl is getting in FOUR teeth on the top all at once, and I know it is hurting her.  Bring on the Tylenol and popsicles! Hang in there, Lexie. It will be over soon.

The Cheap Way

A few weeks ago, Lexie fell down a few steps outside and got this little beauty.  Poor baby.

 

We were feeling pretty sad about it until I noticed something.  Lexie has a little cyst on the left side of her forehead. Her doctor said it would either go away on its own or she could have it surgically removed when she got older.  You can see it in the picture below.  It's the little shadow above her left eye. It looked like she had a little extra bone there or something. I just figured that as she got older, her hair would probably cover it.

 

Anyway, so after her bruise healed, I notice that her cyst is completely gone!!! She must have fallen right on it!!  This is what she looks like now:

 

So there you have it. The cheap way to get rid of a cyst.

Happy Birthday

to me!!

 

My boys made me this beautiful birthday banner. :)  I got to have the whole morning to myself to do whatever I wanted. It was heavenly.  That night my mom watched the kids and Rick and I went out to dinner at Walt's Warf in Seal Beach. Then we walked around on Main Street and got a delicious cookie dough brownie for dessert. We were going to go to a movie, too, but having kids makes us tired so we called it a night.  We're getting old. :)  It's funny how as you get older, your idea of a good birthday drastically changes. It was a wonderful day spent with my little family and it couldn't have been better.

Primary Program

Owen participated in his first Primary Program at church!  He looked so handsome on his big day!  Sitting up in the choir loft away from Mom and Dad was too intimidating, so Mommy sat with Owen the during the whole program. We rehearsed his speaking part many times at home ("I came to earth and received a body.")  He had it memorized and was ready to go!  However, when it came time to speak into the microphone with about a hundred people watching him, it was a little too overwhelming.  Owen was so brave, though, walking up to the microphone and standing up to face all those people. Way to go, O!!

 

Owen was a great singer and his favorite song from the program is one called, "Gesthemane."   It is a really beautiful song and I can see why it's his favorite. Good job, Owen! One Primary program down, eleven to go! We are very proud of you!

New 'Do

I love it.

Announcement

We are moving to Carlsbad, CA in November!

Rick got accepted into the RN program at MiraCosta College and will be starting school in January.  Rick and I drove down to Carlsbad over the weekend to check out some places to live, and we fell in love with a condo.  It will be an upgrade from where we are now and we are very excited about it!  We looooove the Carlsbad area and feel so blessed to live there!



We are very excited about all of the new adventures we will be having, but sad to leave our home. We have lived here for most of our lives and we have so many wonderful memories here. Most of all, we will be sad to leave our families and friends.  However, now you ALL have an excuse to come out to Carlsbad!

And I'm sure in no time, we'll be able to give you the grand tour of this place, which Owen is very excited about.

 

It's not Disneyland, but it will have to do. :)

I'm in trouble.

Heaven help me when this baby girl gets old enough to put mascara on those beautiful, ridiculously long, eye lashes.

I think I might need to lock her in a tall tower like Rapunzel until after her teenage years are over.