just because

I don't have a particular story to write today.  Lexi always says funny things, sweet things, and things that sometimes don't make any sense.  Anywho, I love all of her things.  Every word that she speaks, every inch of her being.  She is my sunshine & she makes me very, very happy.

fall pics

So, Lexi and I went today to take some fall pictures.  No bueno.  It was too hot for the outfit I had on her, the sun was too bright and too high, and overall neither of us were having it.  So, we will try again on a cooler day!  I did however get one photo that is a true representation of Lexi's, "I'm not happy face..."

fall

My favorite season is here!!  I have always loved fall for the cooler weather, changing leaves, decorations & yummy smelling candles, Thanksgiving, family time, football, but it is also the season of Lexi's birth!!  It is crazy that 4 years ago this month I had my baby showers, I washed all the itty bitty clothes, day dreamed about holding my baby, and just a couple of months later she was here and changed our lives forever. I love fall for so many reasons, but Lexi's birth is what I give the most thanks for!!

Happy fall to everyone!!

prayer

Lexi has the sniffles and I have a low grade fever. She says we are getting sick and she offered to pray for us...

"Dear God, please keep your eye on us and use your power to make us feel better. Please do whatever I say. Thank you, God. Amen."


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

3 squeezes

For the longest time while holding Lexi's hand I say, "I love you" and squeeze her hand 3 times, one for each word.  When we walk to her classroom each school day holding hands, I squeeze her hand 3 times.  Sometimes I say the words and sometimes I don't (I of course say "I love you" as I drop her off at the classroom door).  Lexi started squeezing my hand in return.  On Thursday, as we were walking down the hallway, we ran into a friend.  I was talking to the mom while holding Lexi's hand.  Lexi squeezed my hand 3 times before I squeezed hers.  I know she knows it means, "I love you" and I love how it is our little thing.  :)

ice cream surprise

I missed Lexi so much today while she was at school!  I had plenty to do...coffee with a friend, editing photos, and laundry, but I just missed my little sidekick.  So when I picked her up from school I decided to surprise her with an ice cream treat (perhaps I am still feeling guilty for having her hair cut off)!  Lexi is just sweet as pie!!

stokin' funny!

I've been meaning to blog about this for awhile now and just keep forgetting!!

Several months ago Lexi's dress was wet after we went swimming.  She said, "I'm stokin' wet!"  Of course she meant, soaking.  We thought it was the cutest thing so we did not put much effort in correcting her.

Somehow stokin' evolved and simply replaced the word, 'super.'  I really don't know how this happened.  Lexi started putting the word 'stokin' in front of everything she was excited about.  She says things like, "That is stokin' neat!"  "I'm stokin' excited to go swimming!"  It makes us laugh every time. Jason and I also say 'stokin' in place of 'super' as well.  :)

Another funny I forget to blog about is if something is inside out she will ask, "Will you inside this out for me?"  Ahhh, this girl is F U N N Y!  She makes me laugh all the time!!

haircut

Lexi had a major haircut on Friday.  While Michelle and I had the girls at the mall we talked about how long their hair is getting and how hard it is to work through tangles.  We decided it was time for both girls to get a fresh look...

We took the girls to JCPenney.  Addie received an adorable new look and Lexi received a botched up mess.  I asked the stylist to fix it, but instead he made it worse.  We left with a refund.

So, we headed straight to Tony & Guy down the hallway in the mall.  A sweet stylist helped us out and fixed Lexi's hair.  She made it look great and she didn't even charge us!  She was so kind and gentle with me and Lexi.

Lexi and Addie bounced around after their haircuts.  Once we got home, it was a different story.  Lexi cried about her hair being gone.  She said things like, "I'm mad at my hair."  "This hair is NOT beautiful or gorgeous!"  "Mom, I guess I'm not having a great hair day.  I want my hair back."  She stood in the closet looking the mirror while crying and used one of Jason's shirts to wipe her tears.  This went on for a few hours.  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry...I did a little bit of both.  Lexi truly was sad about her long hair being gone and I'm the one who decided to get it cut off.  It needed to be cut because it was so stringy, but I should have prepared her more for what was going to happen with her hair. Lesson learned for me. Hopefully Lexi's hair grows fast.  And no matter what, Lexi is beautiful because she has the most beautiful heart.

more proud moments

Lexi truly is growing up fast....in a blink of an eye. She has been going to swim class for a few months now. One time during class Ms. Cindy asked the kids to swim to the 5' sign in the pool. Lexi did it, but didn't like it. She thought it was too far. After that day she would ask me to tell Ms. Cindy that she 'did not want to go all the way to 5.' I did each time and Ms. Cindy said ok. Today though, on the way to swim Lexi said she wanted to surprise Ms. Cindy and swim all the way to 5. And, she did just that! Way to go Lexi!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

if you follow...

If you follow this blog will you leave a comment to Lexi about starting soccer?  She was super excited to play soccer, but as soon as we signed up she became 'scared.'  We are trying to comfort her and explain that it is not scary, but maybe we aren't saying the right things or saying enough.

Also, I print this blog into books for Lexi to have when she is older.  The blog book doesn't print comments, but I will write them in for her.

Thanks for the help, blog followers!

preschool 2012-2013

Lexi started her third year of preschool yesterday.  This year she is going Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.  We believe it will be good for her as well as me.  I'll have more time to get work done and Lexi will learn more in order to prepare for kindergarten.  It's a win win.  Lexi knows 8 kids in her class of 13.  Her teachers are Ms. Julie and Ms. Ann.  Lexi's report of preschool yesterday is that she REALLY loves it!

Yesterday on the way home from school I told Lexi that I missed her.  She replied, "Well mom, you should have read 'The Kissing Hand' then."  They read that book in school yesterday and Lexi explained to me what I needed to do when I missed her.

Today on the way to school Lexi asked me what I was going to do while she was gone.  I told her how I needed to work on photos.  She said, "Don't forget to clean the house!"  Lexi also picked out a set of trees on our way to school and said, "We could take pictures by those trees.  There is some good light."  :)

This year Lexi has decided to carry her own lunch box and backpack.  In the past, she may carry one or the other; certainly not both and she would not actually wear the backpack.  She is growing up so fast!  

Below, the first set of pictures were taken before school and the second set was after school.  I told her we could go for ice cream or a cupcake after school.  Lexi requested a cake from Whole Foods.  She picked carrot cake and we all loved it!

The next set of pictures are from the second day of school.  Lexi wore sneakers and shorts without complaining since fitness is on the Wednesday schedule (this is HUGE because Lexi only likes to wear sandals or boots with dresses).  So proud of my big girl!!

family vacation

We had a blast on vacation!  Every single bit of it was perfect.  We drove to the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort on Monday.  We arrived in the late afternoon, checked in, and went straight to the pool.  We picked the perfect time of year to go...the same week as school starting.  So, the resort was empty.  We basically shared the large pool area with 7 other families.  It.  Was.  Perfect.  Lexi absolutely loved the water slide.  She seriously went down the slide about 200 times while we were there.

One day Jason left to have lunch with some of his old co-workers who moved to Austin.  I took Lexi to the spa to have her nails done.  She loved it! 

After a lot of pool time we had some down time in the hotel room before heading to dinner.

Lexi fell asleep on our way to Wal-Mart.  We had to get more sunscreen and stuff for lunches to eat on our patio.

Lexi loved the special vacation treats...and so did we!

As written in the post before vacation, Lexi convinced us to let her bring 4 babies.  She actually took A LOT more than that.  She had her 4 babies packed and then she packed a million barbies/dolls into a basket.  It was so cute so we let her bring the basket.  It didn't take up a lot of room so we figured, why not?  Lexi did great the entire trip.  When it was time to get out of the pool or go to sleep, she listened and never put up a stink.  This picture is from the first night.  Jason and I told her to go to bed and we were going to have a glass of wine on the patio.  We had the curtains open so we could see her, Jason opened the vino, I closed the sliding glass door and we heard a lard "click."  The door locked.  We tried to explain how to open the door, but Lexi just couldn't get it.  Later we found out the way we were explaining was not even the right way to unlock the door!  Thank goodness we had our phones outside with us.  We called the front desk and someone immediately came to our room and let us in!  Lexi didn't panic and tried her best to let us back in.  After we figured out the door we went back outside and when we came in we found our bed like this.  :)
Everyday Lexi applied sunscreen to Barbie.

This girl can swim and loves it!!

One down side to going to the resort during the first week of school is that the horses and ponies are not available for riding.  It is their rest week.  We really wanted to take Lexi on her first pony ride this trip, but it just couldn't happen.  :( 
The last night we went to The Oasis.  We love that restaurant.  The views are simply breath-taking. I am pretty sad I only have iPhone photos from our trip.  I have a point and shoot camera already on my Christmas list.  My fancy camera is just too much to carry around and I certainly don't want it around a pool.  :( 
One of my fondest memories from this vacation will be floating the lazy river with Lexi and Jason.  Lexi would always have her feet crossed in her own tube and we would talk or just relax.  We just floated as a family.  There wasn't much silliness or playing around, we just had conversation.  Our daughter is old enough to float a lazy river, talk, and listen.  It was awesome. Lexi and I left the resort on Friday and drove to Houston to see family.  Jason flew to Lubbock to work the TECH game.  On Sunday, Jason flew to Houston to be with us and we all left on Monday.  When Lexi and I arrived in Houston on Friday, we went with Kim to pick up Cooper from school.  I cannot believe he is in the 7th grade!  We also waited at the bus stop to see Jackson who is now already in 3rd grade and Brady the kindergartener get off the school bus!  Lexi brought her camera to capture the boys getting off the bus!!  That evening Kim and the boys came to mom's house while Jeff and Jason worked.  Chip surprised us by driving in also!  Sarah stayed behind to do some family stuff with Preston, but she surprised us by flying into Houston on Saturday evening!  We had a great time going out to eat, cooking out, playing cards, and going to Kim's favorite store, "Lush."   We were gone for a full week and had a blast the whole time!  Lexi started the 2012-2013 preschool year today.  That post is coming soon.  :)