Brandon’s Christmas Program December 17, 2009

Brandon did so good in his Christmas program today! We could hear him over all the other kids. He started to lose interest toward the end, but over all he was very into it. I was waiting for him to smack the kid next to him (you’ll see why), but luckily he was too preoccupied with his own finger. Lexi loved watching the kids sing and was very good.

Side note: I did dress Brandon better than this, but apparantly he got hot and took off his cute sweater and his teachers forgot to put it back on. He is actually wearing the same shirt that he wore in last year’s program, that’s why it looks too small!

Lexi playing November 17, 2009

I am officially addicted to videoing Lexi! Oh, well! I need to get some video of Brandon too but he always want to run from me…I just have to wait out the phase. Anyway, here is a video of Lexi playing with the cookie cutters. I accidentally taught her how to take her bows and hats off of her head in the process but it was worth it.

At least she’s pretty… November 11, 2009

Lexi worked on drinking out of her cup for about 10 minutes before she finally gave up. It was really funny watching how her mind worked trying to figure it out. I tried to pick it up and give it to her (I didn’t just sit and laugh at her frustration) but she wouldn’t let me. She has a death grip and is very stubborn. She got Brandon’s spoon out of his yogurt today and was licking the yougurt off and I had to pry it out of her hand. Luckily, Brandon was busy on the playground or he probably would have freaked out. He is not into sharing with Lexi yet.

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.