Lexi on the move! November 3, 2009

Lexi finally started to crawl last night…I say finally b/c cousin Mia has been crawling for ages now and I have been (not so) patiently waiting for Lexi to catch up. She turned seven months old last week and is thriving, of course! Here is a video of the big event…sorry it is a little long, but if you have kids you understand, and if you don’t have kids, you probably would have thought this was boring no matter how long it lasted!

Pictures and video August 28, 2009

I went crazy on youtube and added a lot of videos, so if you want to check them out. Here is the url for one of them and then I think you can get to the rest of them from there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFmBpI7R6Gs

One of the videos is sideways, so if anyone would like to teach me how to rotate a video it would be greatly appreciated, but you aren’t allowed to make fun of me, since I humbly asked for help.

I also added pictures to my shutterfly site. http://joeandibrandonandlexi.shutterfly.com/

Btw, check out my beauty blog at www.nwamotherlode.com

Happy 4th Birthday, Brandon! August 25, 2009

Brandon turned 4 years old today and I think, surely, someone has made a mistake. Just yesterday he was a baby that made me carry him everywhere and today he is a big boy starting his second year of pre-school and choosing to play with Daddy over me…it’s craziness!

We had his birthday party yesterday and it was a huge hit. His cousin Drew came in all the way from Dallas (Gigi came with him, of course) and while the boys played over the weekend Gigi and I nearly killed ourselves planning Super Hero Training camp for his party. When the kids got here, everyone recieved their uniform ( a mask and cape with their initial) and then we had to test their super-skills. First, they had to find all of the radioactive spiders that got lose in the house to test their spidey sense. Then we went out back for an obstacle course: test agility on the balance beam, then scale the tall tower and go down the slide, then climb through the bat cave, leap over tall buildings, run fast as lightening, swing through the swing, climb a rope ladder and finally, slide through the wall to the finish. After each child completed the obstacle course, some did it several times, we practiced catching bad guys with our webs by shooting silly string at ballons hanging from a string. It was a lot of fun and everyone passed! We had pizza and opened presents before serving a GIANT Spiderman cake that Brandon had requested. Every kid left with a Spiderman kite (so they could fly, of course) and a certificate of completion for finishing Super Hero training. It came out really well and was well worth the many,many, many hours spent planning.

Brandon’s real birthday is today and he also went back to school today, so we took cupcakes and got to go to Chick fil a afterwards. We also had a mini-celebration tonight where we lit a candle on the bottom half of the cake that was left (it was seriously a huge cake) and sang happy birthday again. School went well and we are just praying that we don’t have any problems like last year. He starts speech again on Thursday and I think Miss Dee will be happy to see him and impressed by how well he is doing. In the last couple of weeks he has started recognizing his letters and trying to read (early concept stuff, but still). I am excited to see how much he will grow and change this year as he gets older, but if he still wants to curl up in my lap every once in a while, that’s okay too.

Lexi in her party outfit

Super Brandon, Super Drew, Super Caleb, Churro, and Wonder Emily

Lexi and Ella playing together (or attacking eachother, it was hard to tell)

Hunting radioactive spiders

Caleb sliding down the tower reaaaaally slow

Emily leaping tall buildings

Caleb coming out of the bat cave

posing in front of Gothem

Brandon opening gifts

He recreated blowing out the candles b/c I was videoing and missed it…what a sport!

Brandon with his awesome Spiderman cake

Brandon with Mommy and Daddy…we were very proud of the cake and took a ton of pictures by it

Lexi just hanging out

I got tackled playing football

On the way to school

“I’m 4!”

Brandon’s birthday, take 2

Gigi got him an Arkansas football uniform…Go Hogs!

Yes, it was me! August 18, 2009

If you happened to be driving down Crossover today and thought you saw a crazy lady picking up papers on the side of the road and thought “Hey, that kinda looked like Andi,” you were right (but I am not doing court ordered community service, if that’s what you thought)! I left the house this morning to pick Brandon up from Nana Camp and didn’t get far before I saw papers flying off the back of my car. I pulled over as soon as I could and called Joe to find out if he had, by any chance, left his work notebook on the back of my car. Of course, he had and it was apparently filled with important papers. So, I had to walk down through the thick weeds in my cute, bejeweled flip-flops picking up papers and dashing into the road between cars for some of them. By the time Joe got there I had everything (special thanks to the good samaritan that grabbed the notebook) and I had started to see the funny in the whole situation.

Anyway, I mentioned that I was getting B. from Nana Camp. He just spent 5 days with Nana and Papa, and Uncle Brien, Aunt Kristie, Hattie Anne, Towle, and Baby Doke in Hot Springs where they were all crammed into the condo. He had a lot of fun, especially with his best buddy Towle and came back saying everything was “awesome”. I think he was defintiely ready to come home though, because when we got here he said “I love you , mommy and I love this house.” It was pretty cute.

Too cute!

Reece, Lexi, Drew, Carsyn and Brandon

this was right before she rolled over

Is that a bird?

Weighing in at 16 pounds… August 13, 2009

Lexi had her 4 month check up last week and weighs 16 lbs and is 25 1/2 inches long. The nurse asked how tall Joe and I are and then said that she thought Lexi might be tall like her daddy. How weird would that be? I have come to grips with Brandon getting taller than me someday, but my little girl…that just doesn’e seem right.

Catching up July 17, 2009

 

In an effort to post more often, I am not writing much but putting up a lot of pictures. These are from 4th of July weekend when Stephanie  and her family came to see us in Arkansas (someone actually came to see me…gasp!). Also, there are some pics from Hot Springs, where Joe’s parents just bought an awesome condo on the lake. The rest are just miscellanious pics of Lexi because she is adorable and everyone should see that!

Brandon likes to help me do laundry now…he is very helpful!

Lexi is getting so big!

Toby likes his new dog bed!

Lexi played with her doll while she watched me make dinner.

Lexi and Nana (sorry Nana got cut out but this was the best pic of Lexi of the bunch)

Brandon and Daddy driving the boat…

…before Brandon tinkled on me and then passed out.

Nana and Papa’s fancy furniture in their new condo (haha)

All of the “D” kids…Lexi refused to turn her head

Sky thought the fireworks were too loud so she wore headphones…Brandon just thought they were cool.

Me and Brandon at the 4th of July parade

Mia and Lexi loved the parade

People in the parade were stopping to look at Lexi b/c she was so cute!

Red, white and blue!

Uncle Gerrit joined in the kids in the pool…it wasn’t white trash at all!

Watching fireworks in the back yard…they were going off all around us.

That’s embarrassing July 6, 2009

Here is a little back story to set this up: When Brandon goes to bed, Joe kisses him goodnight and usually pokes Brandon in the face with his evening stubble, so we talk about how Daddy has a beard but Mommy doesn’t (thank goodness).
Soooo…last night Brandon came up and laid his head one my bare legs (you may see where this is going) and then jumped up and looked at my legs and said “Mommy has a beard?” Of course, he was referring to the stubble on my legs that my wonderful husband had been too nice to point out, but my 3 year old son had no problem with. He asked me how I got my beard off and I told him I shave, sometimes! In my defense, Lexi screams her head off the second I get in the shower so I usually have to rush…at least that’s the excuse I’m using right now.

Where’d the time go? June 25, 2009

I’m a little frustrated b/c I wrote a huge long post but when I added pictures somehow I managed to delete everything, so, I am going to recap quickly with bullet points since Lexi needs to eat soon.

–I wrote a post about Lexi’s 2 month birthday but never got around to posting pics…basically at 2 months she weighed 13 lbs 2 oz (95%) and was 23 inches long (75%). She is a chunk and is growing out of all her clothes.

–Lexi is smiling and laughing and Brandon loves when she smiles at him.

–We had cousin camp last week…sorry I didn’t get to see anyone, but we had 2 more kids and one less adult than last year and it was exhausting. Please don’t be mad!

–I posted a photo book at joeandibrandonandlexi.shutterfly.com. I think I know how to do this now so I will post new pics.

–I have started writing the Beauty Buzz segment for nwamotherlode.com so check it out.

Lexi’s crying so my time is up, but I think I hit all the major points..,Check you later! 

Chillin’ by the pool!

Mommy and Lexi (in her new swimsuit)

It’s hard to catch her smiling!

Brandon and his BFF Caleb

Carsyn and Lexi

Happy Father’s Day!

Lexi got all dressed up for Brunch…she hated that skirt!

My Roller Derby B-day June 2, 2009

I went to Dallas last weekend to celebrate my 30th birthday (better late than never) with my family and friends down there.  Out of all the birthdays I’ve had, this one I had to celebrate twice! Thankfully my fun and creative sisters came up with a great theme that took the sting out of the big 3-0. We had a seventies themed costume party at a skating rink!  It was so much fun and hilarious watching everyone try to skate like we did when we were kids. and being suprised by the people that took to it right away (I’m starting to think Joe has been sneaking out and practicing). Unfortunately, I was too busy catching up with everyone and falling on my rear to take pictures myself, so I don’t have any to post but you can see the pics Stephanie took on my Shutterfly share sight http://joeandibrandonandlexi.shutterfly.com/. Sorry there are so many, but I don’t know how to edit them before putting them up.  Anyway, thanks to everyone that made it out and I missed those of you that didn’t!

Dumb Idea May 19, 2009

I decided to teach Brandon how to do a somersault tonight…after a failed attempt at explaining it to him I figured a demonstration was needed. I am here to say there is an age limit on somersaults! I’m not sure when I passed the point of being able to propel my body head first across the floor, but I assume it was a long time ago, because I have seriously hurt myself. Now every time Brandon does a somersault (or his version anyway, since I quickly gave up on teaching him) he lays on the floor for a minute saying “Ow, ow” because, clearly, that is the way it is supposed to be done. So, for those of you I will be seeing this weekend, if you catch me rubbing my neck or oddly only looking to the left, you will know why and you have my permission to laugh at me behind my back…I would, if I could turn my head that way.