Sunny Spring-like Saturday Family Fun!

Yesterday was so much fun visiting with Melissa and Matt that I decided that it would be fun to spend an afternoon… well at least part of one with Sara and the boys.  Lexi LOVES Brennen… (and Christopher too!) and as soon as I told her we would be going to visit them she never let a moment slip without asking WHEN we could leave.  We had a mid-tax season treat this morning of Daddy sleeping in and having breakfast with us before heading out for his day at work.  It was soooooo nice to have family cuddle time first thing this morning.  But after he left we headed to Sara and Chris’s place. 
I took photos of the kids throughout the day… it was so funny and as the day unfolded, I stayed longer and longer until both Lj and I were both exhausted even though she cried as we left… she wanted her Brennen!

A quick-study from Matt-Matt yesterday, Lexi was loving some Power Wheels… and again is practicing the new speech to YeYe… “YeYe… I need a Go-Cart!”  I have to admit she could use some driving lessons!


The 3-Amigos with Lexi’s Sissy Sara… Brennen looking so cute in his new hair do… he looks even more like his Daddy!
Then began the afternoon drama… when we arrived the vice president of Chris’s company and one of the engineers were there being tough guys with chain saws taking down a few trees in their yard where they plan to build in the future.  As I drove up, they were dropping a big tree where they would relocate.  We watched them work and work taking the tree apart for fire wood and then as we played with the kids they began working on a  particularly tough tree near the trailer.  If it were to fall the wrong way, it would take out the bedroom, master bath and part of the kitchen!  They were confident and began.  I was amazed as I watched my son-in-law scoot up a tree to tie a rope high up to control the tree.  What we did not expect came later…



Here is Chris driving the tractor trying to pull the tree over… it was a tough one though and just made him spin his wheels!  At this point the tree was cut to fall but was leaning to the trailer… so no one could go inside and we all began to worry.   Thankfully, they have insurance! 

The “pecking” order… Brennen… Lexi… CE!  running down the road as we stayed out of the way of the tree cutting!

Miranda (3 1/2 and Chris’s brother’s little girl) deciding that Lexi was okay so she gave her a kiss.  It was sweet!
Then Sara rescued the potty from the house and low and behold all of the kids had to go potty outside!  (Sorry Bren, I only got one shot and YOU were the one!
In the meantime… Chris calls in the professionals and they arrive to save the day. 



Only when I knew they would be safe could I go home.  I have to give out a shout out to Rick’s Tree Service for coming so quickly and not charging them an arm and a leg for a Saturday emergency service.  They barely made enough money for their service! 
Afterwards we left, but Lj was NOT happy about leaving her Brennen.  She cried until she fell asleep and then awoke once home to cry again for him.  She was a bear for the second night in a row of no nap!  Geoff came home a rescued me from whiney Lj and cooked dinner.  I was extra happy when he fixed me Geoff’s Outback Style Fresh Green beans!  Yummy!

and then… Lj fell asleep in her Daddy’s lap… so precious!  In the past few days we have learned, she can play with the best of the boys and come home and dress and be a pretty princess still insisting on sleeping in dresses!

Good-night, Princess Lexi Jayne!  Sleep tight!

Foto Fun Friday with Friends!

We’ve had some really busy days the past two days! Yesterday we had a school holiday and Lj and I had hair appointments near Melissa so I twisted her arm (it was really a tough job!) to let me and Lj come by and take some photos afterwards.  We ended up staying all afternoon and into early evening and had a blast taking pictures (well…. she did the taking!) all over the place.  I had asked her to take some 3 year old pictures of Lj because she takes such awesome pictures of Matt.  I even told her she could launch her photography career with Lexi’s photo shoot.  She does not give herself enough credit for her skills.  I have seen the photos at a quick glance but can’t wait to see the finished product.  Her blog and Facebook hints are amazing.  Lexi fell in LUV with Matt-Matt and was at his beck and call.  I only can wish she would listen to us as much as she did Matt-Matt!  She even told him she would be coming back to see him today.  It was too stinkin’ cute when on the last photos she took, Matt said “she could be my sister!”.  Coming from an only child and a boy of his age it was too cute!  He even took us for a ride on the Mule before we left.  She now wants a go-cart because Matt-Matt took her for a ride on his.  It was a fun-filled day with two very extra special precious kids!  I’d gladly take Matt-Matt as Lexi’s big-brother. 

And I surely love my dear friend Melissa and her kind heart. 

This precious little dress was a birthday gift from another extra special friend, Sharon.  I love it!!  It’s my new favorite on Lj.   She looks so grown in this picture…. where did our baby go! 

And here are some with Matt-Matt!  I can’t wait to see the rest!  I “stole” these from Melissa’s blog!  Okay… so we have the two most precious kids in the world…. no debating allowed!

I love this picture of Lj and Matt running off to play hide and go seek… although it gives me visions of her running off to get married one day!  Oh, yikes! 

And Lexi is now practicing her next conversation with YeYe… “ YeYe, I want a g0-cart!” 

Reading Robert Munsch Books Part 1

As a teacher I am amazed at Lexi’s ability to retell stories that she has read in her own words.  It also amazes me at how much expression she already uses while she retells her stories.  This video is just an example of how well she does.  I hope to record her “reading” Mortimer soon.  It’s our favorite by far.  I did get this video recently though of her looking through many of her Robert Munsch books that I have checked out from school.  We read them almost every night.  We also go online to his official site and read them as he tells the stories in his voice.  It is so much fun!

Sickly Runny Nose

Last week, Lexi had a viral infection.  She ran fever for 5 days and had this awful runny nose along with congested coughing and sneezing.  After a few days, I got my own version of it but it was more of a stomach virus.  Together we made one sick person!  I missed a few days of work and Lexi missed all three days of her preschool.  Sadly, it was the last week Ms. Aida (her teacher’s helper) was there.  Lexi loves her and mentions her every day now that she is no longer there.  I was especially touched to find a note that she wrote to Lexi in her Valentine’s Party bag.  I will keep it for her forever.

One afternoon when I got her home, I brought her some new books that came with puzzles and she sat in the floor while I cooked dinner and put one of them together.  Ignore the messy hair, Oreo mouth and the runny nose.  It has been a fixture in Lexi’s life since she began preschool.  I guess that is what happens when you are around lots of other runny noses all the time! And the hair… that is a new thing.  She is taking to the hair bows less and less even though she is still a toddler diva only wanting to dress in dresses ALL the time!  I did add the bow after I began to take pictures but had to bribe her to get photos! 

I love those little fingers and love to watch them work!  She is a great puzzle solver! 

Parsley in the nose Grossness

Pardon me for posting too much tonight… I’ve been a slacker and am trying to catch up with February pictures.

I took these pictures last night while Lj and I had dinner.  I have been on a cooking new recipes kick and last night decided to make Ginger Glazed Mahi Mahi and Sesame Noodles for dinner with garlic toast.  The recipes turned out great but of course, Lj only wanted to eat the toast.  She is discriminating though and only wanted the inside with no crust…  (I on the other hand loved it all… a little too much and must get off this cooking kick before I regain my 30 lbs back!)

Love those pony tails!  She requested them herself from Mom.  I love her hair but have to admit that I miss her shorter hair.  If she didn’t want a big pony tail in the “back” I’d have Cheryl trim her hair back to a bob.   

Don’t ya just love the parsley in the nostril?   Nice!  And I hate to admit it, I’m still missing those two teeth that she knocked out last month.  She is still as cute as a June bug but I miss those pearly whites!  But in the end, who could resist this darling little face!

Picture of Daddy…

Like I said earlier… the girl misses her Daddy.  This is a picture she drew last week of him.  I had to take a picture of it before she erased it!  I think the “multiple eyes” are his glasses and you can definitely recognize the spiky hair!  

Girls “best” Friend

Tax season is beginning to take its toll on me and Lj.  She cries daily for her daddy when we come home so we’ve been doing all kinds of things to keep her busy.  Sable has become a little bit of a substitute even though most of the time she does not really enjoy the attention.   She’s much too old now to appreciate an overactive toddler dragging her around the house.  Before she got sick last week, they played bubbles.  I got some really cute pictures of them.  When Sable was a puppy she LOVED bubbles and liked to try to “eat” them!  This was only a glimpse of days gone by.

Happy Valentine's Day!

There's nothing better than a Lj Hug!

Valentine's Day 2011 began bright and early this morning!  Lexi headed in to Mom and Dad's with Valentines and flowers for Mom.  This was overshowered by Mom and Dad's Valentine's Day gift for Lexi... a Zhu Zhu hamster complete with the princess carriage. Lexi was in heaven when I left her for work this morning. 

After work I ran into Wally World and tried to buy some cut and bake chocolate chip cookies for us to make for Daddy.  Somehow with even the few items I had, the cookies did not make it to the car! Once home I realized this and debated... no cookies for Daddy or cookies from scratch.  I was already planning on making a nice Valentine's Day dinner of Parmesan crusted Talipia and was not sure if I could pull it all off.  Well, I just threw caution to the wind and cooking we began.  We needed to do something special for an extra special Daddy!  We managed to be taking the last cookies off of the pan as Geoff came home and the talipia was almost finished cooking!  Whew! Never mind that it is almost 8:30 and he has not tasted one cookie... he likes his cookies NON-warm... contrary to most of us other people!

But backing up a little bit... as we came home I pulled up to the mail box and pulled out a card for Lexi.  It was from Ye Ye and Grandma.  As she opened it she took a deep breath and said "ahhh... It's beautiful!!!!".  It was so sweet!

After dinner, we brought Lexi out her card and presents from us.  She covered her eyes and peeked!  LOL! Then when we finally gave her her presents, she exclaimed in complete joy "oh, my goodness!" Her Daddy had picked out a cute little pink sock monkey and a few other things.  It amazes us how excited she can get.  She is such a joy and we are reminded every holiday big or small how much she has brought to our lives.

We read Robert Munch's "Andrew's Loose Tooth" and "Mortimer" before Geoff took her to her room to tuck her in.  That's where they are now... and here I sit, fulfilled with love and joy for my precious family.  It was a great Valentine's Day and a great way to start a week. 

Lexi-isms!

I have been a blogger slacker lately and I do miss posting my little stories of Lexi.  So I’ve got a running list of things that she has done or said lately and thought I would use my time to blog while I'm heading to Orlando for a tech conference.

Week before last, I bought some Rice Krispie bars for her lunch.  They now make them with a big white spot so you can write their name on it so I wrote “I love you Lexi” on it.  That afternoon I was asking her what she ate out of her lunch.  She didn’t know what Rice Krispie bars were called since we had not had those before so she says “I ate my Lexi”.  

New things coming out of her mouth…
* “but, but, but, but… I really want…(insert what she wants to do).” 

*  She carries on conversations with her blankie regularly.  She even lays it on top of her and giggle and say “stop ticking me blankie!”.  Every day when she sees it, she says “I missed you blankie!” One day this week she was carrying around her blanket and trying to open something  and needed two hands so she puts the blanket down and says “hold on a minute blankie.” 

We’ve been reading a lot of Robert Munsch books and have been going online to listen to him read some of his own books.  One day last week, she wanted to listen to him as soon as we got home.  She kept begging to listen to the “man” and said “Mom, can you get your computer?”  I was trying to cook dinner and told her she had to wait.  Later I hear, “I’ll get it, I’m STRONG!”  It took a few seconds for me to figure out what she was talking about so I had to tell her NO you can’t carry my computer! 


*  One of my favorites is every morning she comes to our door  and says “I haff a go pot-ee!” 

* The other was calling her Sunshine and she said “I’m not Sunshine, I GIRL!”.  

* In the car she says “Daddy, do you have long arms??”  She does this because I tell her I can’t reach you.   She also tells me how strong her daddy is.  

This age is so much fun but three is certainly  an age of independence.  If we hear, “I can do by myself “ once a day, we hear it ten!

How in the world am I going to make it until Thursday night and not see this sweetie??

Our Little Birthday Baker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday was Lexi’s 3rd birthday… ALREADY!  I will post some pictures tomorrow but I had already been working on this post.  On Wednesday, we came home and made cupcakes for her to take to school.  She had a blast and I let her do as much as I could without giving away too many Lexi germs!  I wish I could have captured her reaction when she saw them after the finished baking.  She and I were busy little cooks but gracious it was loads of FUN!

2011 Brings the end of the Twos and 2 teeth…

I know… weird title but so true!  We are so close to Lexi turning 3 years old that it amazes us and yet takes us by surprise at how quickly time has passed!  It’s almost been two years since we took her in our arms and held her for the first time.  It seems like just yesterday, I was planning like mad for her 2nd birthday party going way beyond what I needed to do.

Well, last Sunday I got a call that school was cancelled due to an incoming “ice storm”.  We rarely get these kinds of school closings.  We all knew that it would turn out to be little or nothing but who can balk at an unplanned holiday??  Well, had I been able to change our circumstances I would have!  That night Lexi had one of her “sleep-walking” episodes.  Usually she just sits up in bed and cries and fusses and never wakes up.  This time though she “walked” on her knees and out of the toddler bed onto the hard floor!  Geoff saw it happening and tried so hard to run to her before she fell but it was too late.  She busted the skin and bled a little but never opened her eyes and just settled right back down when I rocked her. 

But then when morning came, she announced that her tooth was loose.  How loose?  Very loose!  More loose than I could take. So we called the dentist and they asked us to come in.  I took her for her appointment first thing in the afternoon.  Once there, they decided to go ahead and do the cleaning that we had planned for in a few more weeks.  During that exam Lexi cried buckets of tears and they discovered a cavity on the right side with the tooth in question.

When the dentist looked at her x-rays he determined that to my worst fears her tooth had broken at the root and had to come out.  He said they would fill the other molar too that had a cavity.  They had me sign an agreement to let them put her in a papoose during treatment if necessary.  At this point, I was a shaky as a leaf and knew full well that I would not help being with her.  So the nurse told Lexi that if she would come with her she would give her a princess ring.   She ended up with TWO!!!

An hour later, I was chopping at the bit to see her and know what was happening.  That’s about the time they called for  Lexi’s Mommy.  The dentist met me at the door and explained that the cavity was all the way to the root. Honestly, this was not a surprise given her teeth have so much missing enamel.  Sure it had only been 6 months since her last exam but with no enamel to protect a tooth, it’s easy to see. They had to take out the root and put on a silver crown.  *Sigh*  I was just devastated.  But the good news was that she was doing really great!  No crying, no fretting, just a perfectly mannered little 2 year old that shook her head yes when the nurse offered to hold her hand.  No papoose… no restraining… just good little Lexi.  So brave and strong.

After he left with my permission to cap the molar, it wasn’t long before he appeared with more news… this time worse.  The tooth that was broken at the root was “fused’ with the one next to it at the root so she would have to have TWO teeth removed. There was no choice really and I really already knew that the the two teeth had fused together but didn’t realized just how much.

A little while later they called me back and brought our little precious Lexi to me.  Her cheeks were rosy and she was chomping down on some gauze where they had removed the teeth.  They again told me how good and brave she had been and how she had never cried.  They said she was the best 2 year old they had ever worked with.  Lexi just seemed stunned but never complained.  She wanted to see her Daddy but that was about it, oh, and of course she wanted to finish watching Cinderella on her DVD player in the car. 

We got home and I tried to explain what had happened but she just doesn’t get it.  She thinks the dentist cut her teeth out and she still doesn’t understand the Tooth Fairy.  The Tooth Fairy did come but she could really care less.  The shiny coins are just more toys.  Geoff and I are just so upset about the loss of the teeth than will be missing for 6-8 years!  Her smile is different and now she has a silver crown on a molar that is visible when she laughs.  BUT she is still our Lexi Jayne and if the only problems we encounter with her are teeth issues we will be blessed.  There is so much wrong in our world and so many more things to worry about that a few missing teeth during childhood are not so bad.  She has a little different look but she is still our beautiful Lj. 

We kept her home today to monitor her for pain and such.  She did very well and we plan to send her back to school tomorrow.  As for the daggone tooth fairy…. I hope that little rascal stays away for many, MANY more years to come!

Here’s a before smile from this January…

And a smile after yesterday afternoon…

Still beautiful and still so precious to us all!

And to anyone who wants to contribute to the future “Lexi needs braces” fund… just email us!  The dentist assures us that as soon as the permanent teeth come in, he will refer us to an orthodontist!

Honestly and seriously, we expected this.  We know her teeth are missing enamel and are hard to care for.  We hope and pray for healthy permanent teeth but are realistic that with missing teeth there will likely be shifting that will cause problems later.  It can’t be any worse than my issues growing up with too big of teeth for my little mouth. (yea… just let Geoff tell you I have a big mouth and I have a dentist ready to back me up!!! LOL!!) I am just thankful to our Lord above that she was as strong as she is and that he was with her yesterday as she endured a LOT more than most adults could in one day and still was kicking and ready to go!

She’s our little precious for sure!

T’was A few Nights After Christmas…

Okay, so I know I missed posting about Christmas.  We’ve had so much fun with Lexi this year that we just could not find the time.  I wanted to the other day but found myself updating Windows Live Writer instead.  So here I am tonight.

I just pulled back the covers in the bed to take time to blog and what do I see… princess high-heels starring back at me!  But where is Lj???  She apparently left a calling card for us!  This morning I took her to SC to meet Ye Ye and Grandma Smith approximately halfway until we can join them this weekend.  I remember Lexi telling me this morning, “no shoes in the bed!”.  LOL!  She fooled me! 

So this afternoon I got a call from Grandma S asking me to be on the lookout for pictures in email.  Well, we got the cutest pictures!  And they all had the time of their lives this afternoon playing in real snow that was left over from Sunday!  On Sunday when we began to have some snow flurries, Lexi ran to get dressed warm and announcing that she wanted to build a snowman!  We laughed because we knew that the flurries would only last a little while. 

Today her wish was granted as she was able to make a snowman with Ye Ye and Grandma in SC.  They had just enough almost melted snow to make one poor pitiful snowman but to Lexi it was priceless. 

She was even able to throw a snowball or two…

Just look at our girl with her mittens so excited!

And then the mad little Lexi after she had to come inside and pitched such a fit that she landed in timeout on the stairs.   (she turned away from the camera when being documented! LOL!)

But later all was okay when she baked Christmas cookies with Grandma and even licked a few for good measure.

They called us tonight and the little she-devil told us immediately that she wanted us to come get her but then quickly ditched us to go play with Ye Ye.  She is such the manipulator!  I’m so worried about the damage that she will withstand until we get to her this weekend ----- NOT!  I’m not sure who will have the most fun, Lexi or Grandma and Ye Ye.  All I know is that in the background I could hear her singing in her microphone that she got from Santa… “old McDonald had a farm…”.

The sad thing is I think it is her Daddy that is suffering the worst!  He came home and turned on her newest favorite show “The Fresh Beat Band” and watched it as if she were home… uh-huh????  This gives new meaning to the age old question which came first?  The chicken or the egg?  In our case, the child or the parent?? Or perhaps it is just that children (as I’ve always thought) keep us young. 

And yes, we do miss her very much!