Lexi "Helping

we are in florida for the week but here is a quick video of Lexi "helping" me clean up after her soup

Christmas Morning

Cinnamon Buns, wrapping paper and Elmo... what more could a baby want out of one morning!? Lexi was up at 7:30 and was calm for about 15 minutes untill she got a load of what was under the tree! As soon as she saw the scooter it was all over! I had to drag Matt out of bed so she could unwrap her gifts but all she wanted to do was sit on the scooter! We finally got her going with the wrapper tearing and she was getting so excited for every present, it made my heart smile! She unwrapped the stuff dog from Grandma and started woofing and yelling "DOG", she opened the drum and immediately started banging away, and forget about it once she opened Elmo, as soon as she saw the box all we heard all morning was "MO MO MO MO". She has been climbing in and out of her new wagon all morning and on and off the scooter, I wish it was dry out so we could take her for a ride. Both her and Matt are tuckered out and lounging on the couch right now before we head out to the Ambrosetti's. hope everyone is having as nice of a morning as we are!

Christmas Eve

Tonight is Christmas Eve and I am BEAT! I made a big dinner tonight and it was edible if not yummy!! We had a roast candied yams mashed potatoes and green bean casserole (just like Mrs.Rieman used to make) and Uncle Jimmy's cheesecake yummmmm-my. Alexis went to bed early which worked out well for Matt and I because we had a lot of wrapping and toy building to do before morning. We watched It's a Wonderful Life, which I have never seen, and I cried like an idiot at the end... who knew? well I am going to go hit the hay and let my stomache digest the gigantic piece of cheesecake I wolfed down. Here are some pictures of everything before it gets torn apart in a munchkin tornado

Well it is 3:45 am and Lexi decided that it was time to wake up about an hour ago. We are sitting on the couch watching Elmo and she is pointing out the pictures of Elmo on her pants. As much as I love to wake up in the middle of the night I wish she would just go back to sleep. Oh, well I thought I would make the best of a bad situation and post a blog, because if I don't get one up soon I think Mavs might have my head. Well I hope you all are sleeping well having nice dreams about a magical place where babies sleep through the night. Here are some pictures of our middle of the night Elmo Party.

The Duggars had another kid. That woman's ovaries have got to be ready to give their resignation letters. "Dear Mrs. Duggar, We quit. We have been overworked to the point of exhaustion and can't do it anymore. We're packing up our eggs and moving on with our lives. Maybe buy a nice condo in FL, relax, spend the rest of our days on the beach. We've earned it.

sincerely,

your ovaries"

All kidding aside I am so glad when Alexis' bedtime rolls around at the end of the night because I am exhausted and she is a lot older than me and has 17 more kids than I do, She must eat like 30 power bars a day to keep her energy up. I love love love shower time because that is Mommy Time, how does she even take a shower with 18 kids running around? You know there are at least 3 kids banging on that bathroom door anytime she gets anywhere near it. Craziness. 18 kids... 18.

Internet?? I think not

Time Warner cable is really ticking me off. We pay way too much for cable and internet every month and we haven't had internet for almost two weeks. I have called them 4 times and they keep telling me there is a "white out" and they have people working on it. Forgive me if this is ignorant but this is their job, to fix internet problems, two weeks seems more than a little ridiculous to my for our internet to be down. A "white out" sounds like something that might be a common, easily fixable problem. Apparantly these people are just making sure they have great job security during the holiday season by telling all the customer service people that it should be back up by 6:00pm on any given night. Convenient that when it is not up at 6 there is no one in customer service to answer my call. Sorry for the vent I know no-one cares about my internet annoyance but that is why there have been no new pictures up lately. Thank goodness one of our neighbors has a wireless connection through someone other than Time Warner so I can weasel an hour or so a day to check my email... Whooooo thanks for being patient and reading all that whining. Here's a Lexi picture on our new bikes to reward everyone for being so nice.

Vain baby

Our daughter loves loves loves looking at pictures of herself... everyday we need to go through all of our facebook pictures of her, her baby photo album and whatever pictures are on my phone camera or computer. All day long I hear "Baby, pleeeease. Baby pleeeease. BABY PLEASE!" She calls herself baby. here is a video of her bugging Matt to show her a picture of herself on his computer.

Bike shopping

Matt and I decided to get ourselves bikes, or beach cruisers as they are called out here, this year. We went bike shopping yesterday and I think Alexis was more excited about it than us. She ran from bike to bike laughing and yelling "Ride, Ride, Ride!" she loved testing out all the stuff that was her size and we even went for a little cruise around the back of the store. I think we know what she will be getting for her birthday!!! Not the hot-rod, although she did love it I think it might be a little too Greased Lightening for a 2 year old girl. We would have to start calling her Sandy! haha

Afternoon Cuddles

After a lazy day around the apartment nothing makes me feel better than some couch cuddles with the munchkin!

Emily Girard Norris

Welcome to the world Emily Girard Norris!! We missed Joe and Jess' latest bundle of joy by two days. We can't wait to meet her on our next trip to Rhode Island!!

tree time!

we had a very Norman Rockwell-esque Tuesday, Lexi and I baked cookies all day and when Matt came home we decorated our tree. Funny how Norman never painted the mess that surrounds the family activities, flour covered babies and tinsel and ornaments strewn about the house. I have a feeling that our well balanced decorating is going to be bare from the bottom 2 1/2 feet. Alexis has already started pulling all the ornaments off the bottom. She loved "helping" with the cookies so much I mixed some flour milk and and sugar in a mixing bowl of her own so she could make Lexi Cookies (my intentions may have been a little more selfish than that... after 4 hours of cookie baking little fingers get in the way a lot more than they help) after an extensive cleaning session almost all the flour and sugar and pumpkin puree is gone, almost. It was a fun day though, and Lexi loves her cookies!

Gobble Gobble Gobble

We went to Rhode Island for Thanksgiving and it was the first time we've been home since we moved out to California. We had a great week, lots of turkey, beef stew, crisp fresh air, crunchy leaves and family catching up! It took a few days to deal with the time change (it's a lot easier to deal with the time change coming out to the west than going east) but after a few days we were good and were out and about. I got my tooth put on 3 months after a root canal and died my hair brown (matt is not too pleased about the hair, but I am ecstatic about the tooth) the weather was chilly , freezing the first two days and only chilly the last 4. Lexi did great on both plane trips, she slept through the red-eye to Rhode Island and lasted really well through all 3 flights back to California. We had a great time and it was really nice to see everyone, I only wish we could have had more time!

nap time with Aunt Sarah and Uncle Steve

helping with turkey dinner

Insert Tool Time grunt here

.

fun with screens! here is our silly girl being just that!

I had a great idea a day late, I think Matt should have been Joe the Plumber for Halloween. It could have been the easiest costume ever, a t-shirt, jeans, and a plunger. I also think that Matt is rethinking his decision to marry me after I couldn't think of the name of a plunger and called it a "poop-sucker" in my frustration. poor Matt.

Boo!

Happy Halloween! I like Halloween... what other day of the year can you dress up and dress your baby up like anything you want and it be acceptable. Huntington Beach shut down Main Street and had every blow up maze, game, and jumper known to man set up allover the street, so we headed there since Alexis is too little for trick or treating. It was fun, very crowded but fun. Lexi was running around like a crazy baby, looking at all the kids costumes and all the dogs dressed up. She kept ripping her hat off (less wind resistance for running around) We taught her to say Bzzzz (do ladybugs even buzz?) someone asked me if I made her costume, I tried very very hard not to laugh, Martha Stewart I am not. Everyone out here dresses up! All day doing errands, everywhere I went people were dressed up, it really was fun!

So the thing that bothered me were the costumes these little girls were wearing, not little little girls but definitely pre-teen or just-teen. I couldn't believe the lack of costume, bandanas as shirts paired with micro-mini skirts - just what the heck are you supposed to be?- it was ridiculous. I can't get over it. when I was that age I always was a hippy, my dad's old navy dog tags, a green burlap vest, a tye-died shirt and a headband and I was good to go, I loved that costume. even as I got older in High School, the costume I remember most is when I was an M&M (Thanks for the memory Erin). Even in college when slutty clothes ran rampant I don't think my friends' and my costumes were every very revealing. I was a "frat-boy" one year, a (non-slutty) pirate one year and a devil one year and a football player with my old powder puff jersey. I was astounded by these outfits! Don't these girls parents look at them before they leave the house? Matt thinks they change once they get out.

Anyway we had a nice night overall, we saw a bunch of cutie pies in costumes running around. There was a real little munchkin dressed up as a pepper I thought it was just the cutest thing ever! and a bunch of tinkerbells and mermaids running around. All in all everyone under 12 and over 20 looked great the 12-15 year olds made me sad, they are still kids, why try and look so much more "mature"...

Pumpkin Patch Revisited

We went to Irvine Park Railroad pumpkin patch, and it might just be the best place on earth. Alexis loved it! There were a ton of kids around for her to run up to and say "hi".- I always feel so bad for her because she will say Hi to everyone she walks near and more than half the time they don't her so she stands there holding her little hands together and looking up with her big eyes and says "hi" in her little voice to no response. So I walk around all day greeting her back when she doesn't get an answer and I think half of Southern California must think I am some sort of crazy lady.- Anyway back to the pumpkin patch. It was especially nice because Jess and Nicky came down and played with us and the pumpkins! Matt also just HAD to have the hugest pumpkin known to man. If we want to put it on display we are going to have to build an arena sized stage for this monster! I haven't seen him so excited about something in a while, ear to ear grinning! There were a bunch of picture cutouts that everyone had fun goofing around with and a hay maze that I took Alexis into and we managed to find our way out the right way, instead of climbing over the walls of hay like she was so determined to do ( I just don't know why that child feels the need to scale any obstacle, chair or wall she comes in contact with, I swear she is a spider baby in disguise!) All in all it was a fun day and it did the trick, Alexis Matt and I all slept like rocks that night!

Sunny Skies

You know what the best thing about California is so far??? THE WEATHER. It is the end of October and I am going for runs outside, Matt is taking the baby in the pool, we drive with the windows down, sleep with the fan on at night and are wearing shorts on a regular basis. It's still in the mid 70's and not even a hint of a cloudy day! LOVING IT!