Go Get A New Baby Mommy!

Alexis has become obsessed with babies, and being a big sister. (We are not expecting!) All of this started at daycare when one of her best friends had just gotten a new baby brother. She saw the baby, and she wanted one too. And not just any baby. A baby brother, "that was cute and sweet!" So all she talked about was how she wanted to be a big sister, and asked if she could have one too. Everyday. So here's how one of those conversations went.

Alexis: Mommy, can I have a baby brother?

Me: I don't know if you will ever have a baby brother. We don't get to pick.

Alexis: Why not?

Me: God will give us the baby that is right for us. He will decided if you get a baby brother or a baby sister.

Alexis: Oh....Mommy, let's go get a new baby.

Me: You don't get them at a store.

Alexis: Ohhh...

Me: The baby will grow in Mommy's tummy. Just like you did. (I showed her a picture of me pregnant with her)

Alexis: You need to grow a new baby Mommy...Just go get one.

Me: Maybe someday.....

Truth be told, we can't wait to have another baby. In fact we were planning on having another baby by late May/early June of this year. But, due to insurance rules we had to wait to use our insurance. We always wanted our kids three years apart, but now they will be about 4 years apart. And we are finally okay with that. It's been hard to wait when we want another child so badly, but it will definitely be worth the wait when I hold that new baby in my arms, and Alexis will finally be a big sister. But until that day comes we are just thoroughly enjoying spending this time with our daughter, because even though it seems like such a long time away (especially since we aren't pregnant yet) I know how quickly the past 3 years have gone by, and this will be the last year (hopefully) only having our baby girl by herself.

Gymnastics...Take 2

When we still lived in Conway we took Alexis to one gymnastics class to see if she liked it. Before we were able to really enroll her in classes, we moved. Well, we are trying this out again, and we started tonight! I finally found a place with good references to take her to gymnastics. She has been begging to go to gymnastics class, and to do tap and ballet. She has been begging for a good 2 months, so we finally decided that it was something that she truly wanted to do, and got her started. I called yesterday to see if there were any spots left for her age group, and how much they cost. (Perk of living in the middle of nowhere....gymnastics classes are really really cheap!) Shle told us if we wanted to we could start her on Thursday night so we would get the whole month in. So today I signed her up for class, we bought a light pink leotard, and scooted her off to class. It. was. precious! We weren't allowed to sit in the same room with her because there is no room, but we could look in through a door, and Alexis had so much fun. She tried everything. Her teacher also alternated counting and talking in English and Spanish. Alexis counted along with her in both languages. :) She does, however, need to learn to wait her turn in line at the water fountain. Once she gave up getting a drink of water and ran to go play. My patient child :). But, it was her first class and she catches on to things quickly so I know it will be great. Alexis surprised us twice tonight. One, they were hanging from a bar and doing a flip. I told Michael, "She will never do this. She doesn't like to dangle, she won't hang on." And that little booger hung onto that bar so tight and kicked her feet back over her head! I couldn't believe it! Next, they were jumping on the trampoline for 10 seconds each. I told Michael, "I betcha she won't get down once her 10 seconds are up." And of course...she hopped right down once the teacher got to 10! I guess I need to have a little more faith in my daughter! The funniest moment of the night was a little conversation I heard between Alexis and her teacher. They were doing forward rolls down the mat, one right after another.

Alexis rolled onto her back and looked up at her teacher....

Alexis: "I can do gymnastics!"

Teacher: " This is gymnastics so you better get moving."

It was so funny. Alexis was having so much fun. I don't know if it was the picture that was funny, or the actual words, but I laughed so hard. She was apparently not suppose to stop and chit chat on the mat :).

It was a successful night, and she loved it. She was a little mad about the fact that we couldn't do ballet today too, but we told her we would go talk to the dance teacher next week. Her gymnastics teacher told me after class that she was very surprised that Alexis was counting with her in Spanish, and English for that matter, and that she did really well. She wandered around a little bit, but it was her first class and that was to be expected for her age. Her class is ages 3-6 so since she's not even 3 yet she is definitely the youngest in her class. The only reason they let her in was because she was potty trained. And, at a whole 26 lbs. she's also the smallest. I hope Alexis continues to enjoy herself, and if she doesn't....there's always ballet!

New Car!

Yay! We finally got a new (to us) vehicle! We got a great deal on a 2007 Envoy. I love it! I was however a little sad to get rid of our blue car, only because it was the car we brought Alexis home from the hospital in when she was born. But, even with the sentimental value we were happy to trade it in on the Envoy. It is much more reliable, and I don't have to worry about getting stuck anywhere. We think the blue car was beginning to burn oil, very slowly if it was, but I didn't like chancing it. So, we are very happy and excited and hopefully this car will last us a long time. :)

Baby Charlie

This is Baby Charlie. He was found roaming the streets around our school this morning. One of the teachers picked him up and went door to door asking if anyone knew this puppy or where he belonged. They got nothing, so they started looking for a home for him. I went to the 6th grade room, and he ran up to me! This was the first I knew of this puppy. He was cute and I wanted to play with him so I asked if I could puppy sit for the rest of the day. She of course said sure, and I took off with him. My kids did really well having the puppy in class. Luckily, when they first came in and saw him it was their lunch time, and so it was okay for them to mess with the puppy. (We eat lunch in our classroom)Once I got them all settled and eating I told them if they couldn't leave the puppy alone during class time I was sending the puppy to the 2nd grade. They wanted that puppy in there so bad, it was probably the best they have acted since Christmas break was over. Maybe I need him everyday.... New class pet?? I doubt my principal would like that. Anyway, Michael's cousins saw him on my Facebook page, and wanted him! They are coming to get him on Thursday! So we are puppy sitting, and I'm having a ball. He is the sweetest puppy!! Alexis named him Baby Charlie, and he has slept most of the night. Alexis has been such a good helper with this puppy. He sat in her lap in the car, and was a little angel on the way home from seeing Michael at work. This puppy has been pulled on, drug around, and loved to death by this little girl. He is going to be a great dog! When we got home I put an old collar of Piper's on him to take him outside, and Alexis wanted to walk him. Since he is about 5 lbs., I let her. She was great with him. She walked him, and he went pee pee. She said, "Good boy Baby Charlie! Let's go inside now!!" She's given him treats, played fetch with him, and hidden his toys when she thought he "needed to stop playing and rest" She opened the huge bin of dog food, and filled the dog bowl to the top with food. They she tried to stuff the food in his mouth when he wouldn't eat. " He needs a snack Mommy, to get strong!" And, when he was crying in his dog house while I gave her a bath, as soon as she could she ran to his crate and said, "Don't cry Baby Charlie, I will come back to love you soon." It's been precious watching her be so careful and loving to this little puppy. I almost hate to see him go. Almost. If she's this much help with a new baby, then Michael and I will be in good shape! This sweet little dogs life has changed forever, and he is just soaking it up!

Christmas in Florida: Christmas Day

Oh good grief! I give up posting about this in detail. Long story short. We went to Animal Kingdom after opening Christmas gifts at the condo. We had a wonderful day, except Michael was a little sick, but he was a trooper and we saw pretty much everything we wanted to. Then we went to my grandparents for a few days, and we got to see my cousins, who had never met Alexis before, and she was able to charm them for hours :). We had a wonderful trip, and we have wonderful memories! I will post some pictures eventually. The End.
Whew...

Christmas in Florida: Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was much different for us this year. We had planned on spending most of the day at the pool. (It was heated) But, it was so cold that we didn't want to have to walk back to our condo wet, or eat lunch wet at the pool.So we just relaxed in the condo that morning. We ate lunch at Chili's, and then we decided to go back to Downtown Disney. We just wanted to do some more shopping down there. So we went, and Michael made a cute shirt at the t-shirt design place, and we ended up getting three. So yes, we were those people with the matching t-shirts the next day. :) I ended up (finally, I'd been looking for almost 3 years) getting a really good milk and cookie platter for Santa. I'd been looking for one that I could use for years with all of my children. I had a plastic one from Target that I knew the writing would all eventually come off. So, now we have a glass one. Then we went to Goofy's Candy Factory, and we bought our traditional snickerdoodle cookies (that Alexis and I normally make homemade). See, told ya it was different for us! And, we ate dinner at a sandwich place. Then we got home pretty early again. We got baths and set out our cookies and milk, and Daddy read The Night Before Christmas to us on the ipad. Then we went to bed (all of us) because we were exhausted and Christmas was going to be a very busy day.

Christmas in Florida: Magic Kingdom

We got to the Magic Kingdom parking lot about an hour before the park opened, which was perfect. We parked in the first parking lot by the gate, we were able to easily get a stroller, there was no wait in line for tickets, and we walked onto the monorail. When we were getting tickets the lady gave Alexis and Michael first visit buttons, and a tip on the parade that Santa Clause would only end the 3:00 parade. So that was the one we aimed for. When we got to the main entrance of the park (right when it opened) there was NO ONE there. We were very shocked as Christmas time is usually almost as busy as summer at the theme parks. We were sure that it would get busy in no time at all, but it never did. We walked on and off rides all day, we meet characters, and the only two things that we didn't get to do that we wanted to were Peter Pan's Flight, and Space Mountain because both of those lines were 75 minutes long. Everything else was about 10. Out of the character's we got to meet all three of the princesses that were there, Belle, Cinderella, and Jasmine. We were able to just walk right in to meet them, and as soon as we walked in the room Alexis started yelling, "Cinderella, Belle Mommy, BELLE, BELLE, BELLE!!" Belle was not meeting anyone yet, (We were third in line) so she came over to the line to talk to Alexis, and gave her a little special attention, and gave her a big hug! It was very nice of her to do that. Alexis was not afraid of the princesses...she was in awe of them! She walked right up to them all, but she didn't talk much. She just had a huge grin on her face, and a look of "I can't believe I'm talking to the princesses!!" It was so worth it, and of course no wait which made it perfect! Then we went over to the fairies. We had to wait a little bit for them, but not more than 15 minutes. Alexis' reaction was priceless. God bless whoever decided to put a video camera on the iphone 4 because Michael was able to catch all of her precious reactions. I may try to figure out how to post them on here from his phone. She was beside herself, excited to meet the people that plaster her bedroom and bathroom. She was so excited about meeting them all that she couldn't concentrate on the fairy that she was with, she kept looking onto the next fairy. Again, she walked right up to them, and was speechless. :)All in all, a perfect day. We rode all the rides we wanted (except the two), saw the parades, met characters, saw shows, and just had a lot of fun. We also saw them light the castle for Christmas, which was magical and beautiful, and we had to race to buy sweat shirts because it was freezing!! That we weren't expecting because the weather was suppose to be in the low 70's. I will post pictures of this later. All of the pictures are on Michael's computer, and I am writing this on mine. So, the next day was Christmas Eve...our day of rest.