Joseph's favorite fountain in Irving

I really liked this when we were first moving to Texas, and it still makes me happy to come see it.

Static electricity

Lexi has fine straight hair which is still too short to do much with, but it makes for lots of fun on the trampoline. On a side note, I love that it is January and we are out playing on the tramp.

A Sunbeam

Ready or not, Nicholas is one of our ward's new sunbeams.  He and his teachers survived the first week.  There is a little room for improvement.  He had a real hard time staying in his seat and he decided to take his shoes off.  He also lost or left his "I am a Child of God" crown somewhere.  

Over dinner he told me that he got picked to be one of the special helpers, but he didn't go help.  He informed me that he didn't help because he was "kind of too busy hiding."  I also found out that he pulled a Houdini and escaped away while all the children were suppose to be walking to class.  He was rounded back up and his comment was,"I just don't know what happened."  It is going to be an exciting year.  

 

I tried to get a nice picture of him before church, but this was as much as he was willing to cooperate.  He had all his cars lined up waiting to go to church.

Trip to the Tubes

One of my favorite parks/kid places is Irving Bible Church.  They have a big indoor play place, a nice gated park, and free internet.   I come here and always dream of the future when I will be able to bring my kids, sit on a sunny bench, and read a book or surf the web while my children magically entertain themselves.  Until then, I spend my time playing pirate, crawling around on my belly, changing diapers, and prying acorns out of Lexi's mouth.  She is such a little squirrel.  This is also fun, but not really a change of pace.  They were in a particular good mood on Wednesday and it was fun to capture a little bit of their sweet childhood.  

 Lexi made friends with herself.

 I taught Nicholas to salute.

 Nicholas sailed to tree island, monkey island (where we spotted Lexi the monkey), skull rock, and Mickey island.  Nicholas was either Captain Nicholas or Jack.  I was Captain Smelly Feet and I had to walk the slide plank quite a bit due to various serious infractions like touching the steering wheel or coming aboard with out permission.  I also came to an early demise when I was eaten by a shark, who later became Nicholas pet shark and swam next to the boat.

 Lexi little mullet makes me smile.   I love that a little bunch of hair on the top of her head pops up and blows in the wind when she swings.  I love its silky feel and will stroke it whenever I hold her close.  I also love how it sticks out after she goes down slides or swings on the swing.  I especially love it when it is at its fluffiest right after we have washed it. 

My kids love to spin!! Lexi would put up such a fuss when I tried to take her out.  Make sure to turn the sound up so you can hear her little giggle as she spins round and round.  

Meet Wilbur and Nicholas

Every year I get excited about carving pumpkins thinking that this will be the year that Nicholas will get into it.  This year we had long discussions about what we were going to carve into our pumpkins.  We read books about pumpkins.  We explained about jack-o-lanterns.  We took him to the store to pick out his own pumpkin.  We got the pumpkin home, washed off, and ready to be carved.  It was then that things begin to fall apart.  There was a big argument about whether Nicholas would get to hold a knife.  You can guess which side his parents were on and which side Nicholas was on.  After a lot of tears, we got that settled.  He resigned himself to only holding the orange scooper, which we told him was the most important part.  What little excitement he had left fizzled out when he discovered what was actually in the pumpkin.  At one point he actually gagged.  There was no way he was putting his arm down in that pumpkin and touching the pumpkin guts.  So we gave up and Joseph did pretty much everything to carve Nicholas' pumpkin.  In the end, Nicholas was only willing to stand by it and name him.  Nicholas is going through a phase where he will name everything Nicholas.  So hence, Nicholas the pumpkin became part of our lives.  After Nicholas was ushered off to bed, Joseph spent the rest of the night carving the spider pumpkin.  He named the spider Wilbur (after the pig in Charlotte's Web) and Nicholas was very excited to meet Wilbur when he woke up the next morning, though he thought Nicholas was a better name for him.

We Be Pirates

Our ward's trunk-or-treat was on Saturday.  We had a lot of fun dressing up as pirates.  In case you were wondering, Lexi was our treasure map.  I will have to post a close up of her outfit later.  It had to be alter because we had a cold spell.  Joseph asked when Lexi would stop being a prop and actually get a costume. I told him she could have a real costume when she is old enough to ask for one:)

This was the first time Nicholas has really gone trick-or-treating.  He went to ever car and would say, "Trick-or-Treasure."   He was a very polite pirate and always said, "Thank you."  He didn't eat any of his candy while we were there.  He was more interested in the Oreo cookies.   He ate 3 Oreo cookies and had three glasses of root juice making him the happiest boy on earth.  The other highlight of the night was decorating his little pumpkin with markers.  He took it very seriously and spent a good 15 minutes coloring it with various markers.  He was also devastated when he discovered he could only color one pumpkin.  

Look Who Is One!!!

Tooth Count: Barely 2 (middle, bottom, front teeth are peeking through)
Weight:  33.4 lbs

Speaking:  Lots of "Ohhhhhhs," "Maaaa Maaa Maaas," and "Da Da Das."  My favorite thing about Lexi right now is the perfect little O her mouth makes when she finds something that interests her and the little giggle she gives when you give her something that pleases her.  Okay, I also LOVE it when she points her little finger at me.

Mobility:  She is a fast crawler.  She will stand by herself for a few seconds.  She is a pretty good climber and loves to be up high.  Her favorite thing is to climb up on the couch and crawl back and forth.  At each end of the couch, she will face plant into the arm cushion and giggle.  She also loves crawling on Nicholas' bed and all of his beloved blankets.

Favorite Foods:  Peaches, Grapes, Turkey Lunch Meat and Yogurt.  She just learned how to use a bottle about three weeks ago.  She loves that bottle passionately now.

Lexi at One:

• She is an opinionated soul.  She has a really loud constipated sounding growl that she will emit when she is displeased.  She will use this special growl when she has to wait for the swing, her bottle, her car, or anything else she really wants.
• She wakes up at 6:30 and takes one hour-and-a-half nap around 11.  She then goes to bed around 7.
• She loves to bounce and swing.
• She LOVES books.
• She HATES diaper changes.  She starts thrashing and moaning when we enter her room because she knows she either has a diaper change coming or she is going to be put to bed.

Lexi and Big Brother:

Poor little Lexi has been getting beat up lately as Nicholas tries to adjust to her new mobility.  He doesn't know what to do, because she won't heed his warnings so he just resorts to pushing or throwing things at her.  She keeps on getting large red marks on her head thanks to big brother.  If I didn't see what happens our conversation goes like this:

Mom: "Why is Lexi crying?"
Nicholas: "She got hurt."
Mom: "Did you hurt her?"
Nicholas: "No.  The block hurt her."
Mom: "Did you throw the block at Lexi?"
Nicholas: "Yeah!"

We have tried every punishment.  Right now, we send him to his room for five minutes for "bad friend behavior."  He has to play all by himself for 5 minutes, which is pure torture for him.  Then he has to think of something nice he can do for Lexi.  They have found one game that they like to play with each other.  They both think it is hilarious when they take turns spitting at each other.  I guess you have to start somewhere.

Birthday Celebrations:

We blew up the blow up mattress and let Lexi bounce around on it with lots of blankets and pillows!!  We stayed home and Lexi got to go down for a nap as soon as she wanted.  When she woke up we went to the store and then played outside.  She did a pretty good job at not eating sand from the sandbox and acorns from the grass.  My little Lexi is growing up so fast.  She had peaches for dinner, which are her favorite.  After dinner, Lexi opened presents like a champ.  Big brother Nicholas was happy to step in and help if she wasn't fast enough.  She then went with Papa to pick out some birthday ice cream.  She picked cookie dough and completely enjoyed it except for the chocolate bits.

Pumpkin Patch

We drove to a Pumpkin Patch in Flower Mound for playgroup.  This is our second year going there, but it was Lexi's first time.  It seems like just yesterday I was waddling through the pumpkins super pregnant.  Now I have this amazing almost one year old and a much more independent three year old.  Time goes by so fast.

 Nicholas was so brave.  He went through this huge blow up obstacle course and down the giant slide.  He LOVED it.  He just kept yelling, "Lets do that again."  He did it tons of times and even started sliding down on his belly.  He was the only kid in playgroup willing to give it a try.

 They had a whole house made out of pumpkins.  Lexi made friends with the scarecrow.

 Lexi loved the straw even more than the pumpkins.  She kept on putting it in her mouth especially during the hay ride.  People kept on tapping me on the shoulder to alert me to the fact that she was putting hay in her mouth.  I just let her do it because she was being good about taking it back out.  I was more worried about Nicholas who was trying to climb out of the wagon.  I am learning to pick my battles.

 She is so happy because she found a rock.

I took this picture for Joseph.  Joseph is so mad that all the merry-go-rounds are being removed from parks.