Birthday Celebrations Continuted...

We decided to celebrate Alexis' birthday over the span of three days since we knew today (her actual birthday) would be a crazy day for both Ben and I between work and teaching. We had a party for her on Monday night, followed by presents on Tuesday night, followed by...a regular old day today (scratch that...she got french toast for breakfast; that doesn't happen every day!)

It was so fun watching her open presents. At first she wasn't too sure what was going on...but as soon as the paper came off, and she realized there were new toys and books for her to play with, she was SO excited!!


One of Lexi's presents came gift wrapped from Amazon in a big blue bag. She was so curious to see what was inside, she basically crawled into the bag. Once she discovered it was a big yellow school bus, she couldn't get to it fast enough. I love the way she's hanging off Ben's leg, as if to say "faster Dad, faster!"

Baby Stella was a HUGE hit! I was afraid she was maybe too little to be interested in a doll...but she was so excited! Mind you, she had no idea what to do with it, but she couldn't stop laughing and talking to it. I couldn't have asked for a better reaction!

Thanks to everyone who made Alexis' birthday celebration so special. We are so happy to have such a spunky little girl in our family!

Alexis' FIRST Birthday Party!

Lexi's first birthday party...in a nutshell. Not much explaining necessary, other than the fact that I totally acknowledge having a big party for Alexis' first birthday was way more for me, than for her! She was so confused/tired by the whole thing, that we put the birthday girl to bed 30 minutes into her own party! Regardless, I had a great time planning it, and it was a perfect excuse to get together with good friends, and eat cake.

It's hard to imagine life without that little face!!

Jumping

My baby has never-ending energy. She is ALWAYS moving. These days her most favorite thing is jumping with Grandma!

Not in the Mood...

It was one of those days with the camera today...

Luckily she redeemed herself with a couple of cute shots!

TV Addict?

"Hey, look what I found!"

"I know what to do with this"

"Yum!"

"Wait a second, I need a dvd to watch."

"Let me just put it in the dvd player"

"No wonder it wasn't working."

"Sheesh, that was hard work. All for the love of tv!"

It's so fun watching Alexis learn new tricks!!
She's getting pretty good on her feet these days...which basically means I can't ever take my eyes off her anymore!

I can't seem to get enough of this little face!

(Thanks for teaching me how to make collages Vanessa!!)

Camping with the Fam

A couple of weekends ago we met my brother's family and my parents for a day of camping in Niagara Falls. We had originally planned on camping the whole weekend with them...and then we remembered we had a baby! I was NOT brave enough to spend 3 days in the wood with a very active 9 month old who insists on putting EVERYTHING in her mouth!
We ended up having a great day together.

There was lots of hanging out around the fire pit...with/without a fire...

Playtime with the cousins

Some intense games of horseshoe...

Yogurt time in the stroller

Not too thrilled about the peas...

But loving having company at lunch time...

And lots of yummy food!

How is she old enough to be doing this kind of stuff?!

Um, can someone please tell me where my little baby went?!

Where's the love?!

I spend all day, every day with this girl, and this is how she repays me!!

You heard it correctly...her official first word was DAD!

Where did the time go??

Six jobs
Five years
Four apartments
Three cities
Two degrees
And one teething baby later...

We went from this:

To this!

I can't believe we've been married 5 years today!!

Something New...

Our first time riding in a big kid swing!! Lex had so much fun exploring...

And my new favorite picture of all time. This is probably her most favorite place to hang out these days...

A new city, two holidays, and a couple of videos...

We finally made it Buffalo!! We were so sad to leave Phoenix, but have surprisingly loved our first few weeks here. I can't believe how friendly people are! I feel like we moved here and instantly had friends. Our neighbors are all super friendly, and there are lots of families with young kids in the neighborhood. Our ward is really outgoing, and people have been so welcoming. Ben has been working long hours (lots of 7-7 days), but no call yet, which is WONDERFUL! I'll take just about anything over 30 hour on-call shifts!

We (I speak for all of us...) love being so close to CANADA! We got to spend Canada Day in Niagara Falls with family. Lexi loved spending time with some of her cousins. She's really in to kids these days. It's super cute to watch her interact and be playful! Her cousins were so sweet to her; wanting to hold her and play with her! We attempted several photo shoots that weekend, with not much success!

(This one captures the moment perfectly!)

It wouldn't be Canada Day without the obligatory flag cake

Our patriotic Canada Day outfit!

We had a little better luck getting a few good ones the next day...

We bought a little wading pool for the backyard and have been spending lots of hot and humid afternoons outside playing. Lexi can finally sit up, so she seems to be enjoying playing a little more now. I bought her this little two piece swimming suit thinking the top was pretty long. But her chubby little tummy totally sticks out, and it is just TOO cute.



The 4th of July was relatively uneventful for us. This is the best I got of Lex in her festive dress.



I introduced Alexis to Gerber "puffs" today. Let's just say she hasn't really master the pincer grasp yet! We'll have to work on that one. And she was a little confused as to what to do with the puff once it was in her mouth. It was so cute watching her explore something so new!

Alexis has also been introduced to the art of knocking over towers. It's her new favorite game. Keeps her entertained for at least 10 minutes, and that's saying something...

Like I said, we've really been enjoying Buffalo so far. But it's not a perfect city, that's for sure! Ben came home from work yesterday only to tell me that someone had gotten their car stolen that morning, at gunpoint, in the parking lot of his eye clinic. Well, I guess it wasn't technically "at gun point" but the guy supposedly had a gun. He was nice enough to let the woman's child get out of the car before stealing it though. So that's a plus...

So, we take the bad with the good, and hope for the best! I'm really optimistic it's going to be a great three years. Oh, and I also hope we don't get our car stolen, by a guy with a gun!

The big 3-0

Ben turned 30 yesterday. I still feel like he's 25 and we just got married!

We threw him a surprise party last weekend. And I think we actually surprised him. So much so, that even after everyone yelled "surprise" he didn't know what was going on! Too bad the only real shot we got at the party was this...


Apparently I was really enjoying that root beer!

Also, note to self: throwing a surprise party is actually really hard to execute. Especially when you're bad at keeping secrets. And when you have a demanding six month old to care for. I probably won't attempt to throw another one for at least another 30 years!

I'm glad Ben was born. And that we're married.
So is Lexi.
We both thinks he's pretty great!

My family came to town last weekend for my cousin's wedding. We had a great time at the reception...the only part of the wedding we actually went to. Why didn't we think to get a babysitter?!



Our moving truck comes next Saturday. Our house is full of empty boxes I don't want to fill. Every time I look at my sister, I start to cry. Anyone who has ever lived near a sister knows how amazing it is to live close to your best friend. I really don't know how I'm going to get through these next few weeks...


On a lighter note..I love this series of pictures of Alexis waking up from a nap! (For some reason, the photo quality looks a little weird. If you click on them, they look better.)