Lexie's 2nd Birthday

It's hard to believe it, but Lexie turned 2 in November!  We sure love our Lexie and I love to throw parties, so we celebrated her birthday with lots of PINK and her favorite character, Minnie Mouse. 

Lexie absolutely loves shoes, and the day before her birthday I found some adorable puppy slippers that I knew she'd love.  I was planning on wrapping them up and having her open them on her big day, but she discovered them and insisted on putting them on her feet right then and there.  She wore those puppy slippers for almost 24 hours straight.  The only time she took them off (and it was forced!) was to take a bath.  She even slept in them the entire night.  That is dedication.

 

Here she is shortly after waking up on her birthday.  She's still wearing her slippers.

 

 

These were taken on her actual birthday.  She got an adorable little apron and a Barbie that came with a pretend pink camera. She was "taking pictures" all night!

 

 

 

We had a little party the following Saturday and invited family and a few friends from Nursery class at church.  Since Lexie is only 2 I didn't plan a lot of activities and it wasn't an especially long party.  I set out some toys, snacks and a craft table to make foam crowns and fruit loop jewelry. It was basically one big play date. It was so much fun to plan a very girly party.  I'd always wanted an excuse to use those cute polka dot balloons, and a Minnie Mouse theme was a perfect fit.  It's the little things in life that make me happy.

 

We also got the biggest and BEST surprise - my sister, Tammi, drove down from Utah for Lexie's party!!  We had no idea she was coming and it was SO MUCH FUN having her there!!!  Thank you, Tammi for coming down!  We were so glad you could be there!

 

Happy Birthday, Lexie Girl! 

You are growing up to be quite the little lady and we love you so much!!

Happy Birthday To OWEN

 

Owen is now 5!!  In the morning he opened his presents and we went to the donut shop.

 

Then we surprised him with a trip to Chuck E Cheese.

 

Here he made a bouncy ball with his new gross science kit.



 

Uncle Michael joined us for a special birthday dinner.

 

 

 

The following Saturday, Owen had a BOY dinosaur party!  There are about a million girls in Owen's class at church, so given the size of the living room, we opted to just invite the boys. (Although there were a few exceptions for little sisters and cousins). It was a lot of fun!

 

 The volcano cake - I told Rick what I wanted, and he made it happen.  :-)

 

McKennan and Owen- These two are becoming good buddies.

 

 

 Lynnlee and Lexie

 

 

Finding eggs on the dino egg hunt

 

Checking out their loot

 

 

Happy Birthday, Owen!!  Mom and Dad love you so much!!  You are so much fun to be around and you are so kind to others.  You always know how to make your sister smile and you are growing up to be such a smart, sweet boy.  No wonder all the girls want to marry you.  :-)

30, Flirty & Thriving

 Rick turned 30.  To commemorate the occasion, we celebrated Mexican style with carne asada and a piñata! It was definitely a day to remember.  Thank you to Rick's family for putting this fun party together!

Happy Birthday, Rick!  We love you!

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

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.

Bass Lake and a Birthday

In August we went on a much needed, very fun, week-long vacation to Bass Lake, thanks to Rick's parents.  Rick and his family used to vacation here often growing up but they hadn't been back in quite a few years. We had a blast!! We rode a jet ski, slid down a rock waterfall, went tubing behind a boat, hiked Yosemite, and swam at the lake.

 Arriving in Bass Lake after our long car ride "to the forest," as Owen referred to it.

 

Hiking on the trail to see the giant sequoias. It was very HOT that day and there were so many bees it was ridiculous! (Bees and I don't have a good relationship.) BUT it was really fun and we saw woodpeckers, squirrels, and even a deer!

Lexie lounging on the shore in comfort.

Owen swimming "all by himself!" When we first arrived to the lake, he was not confident in the water at all because he's only been swimming a handful of times. (That is SO SAD to me because that is the complete opposite of how I grew up!) Anyway, by the end of the week, he swam all by himself with his life jacket and now he loves to swim!

While we were there, Owen turned 4!!! We celebrated with an Avengers/Batman theme party!

The birthday boy, complete with bedhead

Rylan and Owen admiring the cake. Funny story about the cake.... we went to Vons to get a Batman cake, as per request, but the cake decorator wasn't scheduled to come into the store until the day after his birthday and they were all out of Batman cake decorating kits. The only Batman ANYTHING we could find was a light up action figure at CVS and after getting a price check learned it was $20!!! We did not want to spend an extra $20 just for the cake topper for his 4th birthday. Luckily, the store manager was really nice and without us even saying anything offered to mark it down 50% because it was another store's leftover shipment. Woohoo!!!

The fancy light-up Batman cake and a happy boy.

 

During the trip, Rick's toenail got caught on something and he didn't want it to split any further, so he used some pretty pink nailpolish to glue it back together. Chloe and Owen thought it was pretty funny.

 Owen and Lexie soaking up the sun.

 

The end of a long day at the lake. The kids would fall asleep within a minute of getting in the car to go from the dock to the house.

 

Our dock/beach area where we went almost every day. So pretty!

 

We had a great time and Owen still talks about going to the forest and the lakehouse. We can't wait to go back!! THANK YOU Loretta and Henry!!!!