Happy Happy Birthday Janie Dear...

I know it's been almost a month since Jane's birthday, but I've finally uploaded the pictures for your viewing pleasure! She's such a little pixie pie that I still can't believe she's a year old! Her birthday party was really low key and relaxed, which was so nice. Thanks to all who came to celebrate with us!


Daddy helped her open all her fun presents!

She LOVED the cake :) She got way messier than Gracie did, I think!

She's double fistin' it here :)

Auntie and Gracie-lou!
"The men" hangin' out by the food :)

Oh yeah...

I got a question from the "Jolleys" (I assume it's April, but I'm not sure actually) in the comments about where the music on my blog has escaped to. Well, I wasn't sure that anyone liked it, so I took it off. Give me a shout out if you want the music back...:)

Rockin' Out

Hey ya'll! A big THANKS to April and Andrea who were the ONLY peeps to give me suggestions (awesome ones, I might add) for my iPod. I'm still accepting suggestions, by the way, so feel free to leave some in the comments :) I'm rockin' out these days every time I have a spare minute...hanging out at the hospital today with Mom (she had her gallbladder out), doing some laundry tonight, getting ready for bed, right now while I'm blogging, etc. I only have earphones right now, so I'm just cruisin' around the house with them in feeling like an antisocial teenager :) I'm going to have to take Andrea's advice and get a few docking stations so I can be rockin' 24/7! My new favorite band is Coldplay - if you don't know 'em yet, I highly recommend you become familiar.

Mom's surgery went well today. I was so glad I could be there with her. Sri was awesome enough to watch my kiddos while I was at the hospital. I couldn't have done it without her. Mom's home now and doing pretty darn good! She's a trooper. Everyone who lives here in Lehi knows exactly what I mean and that's it's totally true. Love you mom.

Here are some recent pics...Gracie feeding the geese at Liberty park...Janie smiling her sweet, sweet smile...and a side ponytail pic (finally!). I hope you enjoy!!

Preschool Program

Gracie attended a spring term of preschool at our neighbor's house. She learned a letter of the alphabet each time she went and she just loved it :) Honestly, I don't know how the woman puts up with EXTRA children being in her home, but hey...to each her own. She is such a sweet lady and loves the kids so much. Here are a few pics from her preschool program. They sang Safety Kids songs (is that a blast from the past, or what??!!) and did dancing also. Mostly, Gracie stood at the front center of the stage and just grinned at everybody in the audience. I don't know where she gets her "center of attention, please" attitude...I blame April ;)

Thanks for all of the sweet birthday wishes yesterday! I had a really nice day! Joe took half the day off of work and we went to Mazza for lunch (delish middle eastern cuisine), tried to go to a Bees game (which didn't work out so well, but it's the thought that counts!), and I got to take a N-A-P while Joey watched the girls ("hallelujah chorous" here). In the evening, mom watched the girls while we got dinner at Cafe Rio and went to pick out my present from Joe...a new iPod! Woo hoo! It's my first ever iPod, so I'm all excited :) I'm an iTunes pro now ;)

So, my question for YOU is...what's the last couple of songs you downloaded to your iPod? I need some good suggestions.

Quote of the Day:

I think the worst time to have a heart attack is during a game of charades...or a game of fake heart attack. -- Demetri Martin

More San Diego Pics

Here are some more San Diego pics. I know it's been forever since I posted the last ones but life has just been kind of hectic lately...and I've been reading the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer...and I've been busy daydreaming about Joe being a vampire...JK.

Hat removal #1 of 856 :)

Asleep in the stroller at SeaWorld
Aren't they cute??
Seaport Village...one of Heather's favorite places.

Yes those are QTips. She's on the couch watching Clifford :)

Heather and the limescicle :)

Loving the sand!

Bathing beauties :)

Quote of the day:
"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." - Confucius

A Fast Year

My sweet little girl is a year old today! I am so amazed that a year has passed by so quickly. She still seems like a baby to me, but she's definitely growing up faster all the time. She's pulling herslf all the way up to standing now, she can do patty-cake (including the rolling and tossing in the oven :)), she's weaning, she giggles and plays peek-a-boo with her sister, she can eat anything she wants to now, and it's all just awesome! I'm so proud of her. Happy birthday sweet Jane!

Everything's pretty much ready for her party tomorrow...well, kind of :) I still have a bunch of laundry on the floor to wash and put away. And I need to vacuum, dust, sweep, scrub toilets, cut up fruit, pick up the cake and food trays at Costco (I hope everyone comes with a gigantic appetite), etc. But it seems like it's well on its way :) We might try to go to the library for story time today too. Gracie digs it.

I'll post some pics later today unless a toilet swallows me up while I'm trying to scrub it clean ;)

Side Ponytail

I wish I could post a pic of Gracie sporting her side ponytail (think 1988 here) but I can't find my camera case with the spare battery in it! Sheesh! She looks so cute. It totally reminds me of the girl in Napoleon Dynamite. LOL.

Well, yesterday the girls and I got a bit of sun out planting flowers in our garden. It was a lot of fun! We got a clematis, a bleeding heart, some beautiful purple cala lillies and some coral carnations for the yard. I also got some carrot, radish and butternut squash seeds to start a vegetable garden, but I haven't figured out the logistics on that yet. It was so nice to be outside. Oh, and I cleaned out Gracie's sandbox and refilled it with new sand. Phew. It was a full day. It's nice to have days where you accomplish things, isn't it? Being a mom with babies, days don't feel very full of "accomplishments" if you know what I mean.

Janie woke up at 4:30 this morning throwing up. I'm not sure if it's something she ate outside yesterday or if she's got a bug, but she's just pitiful. I think she's on the mend now though. She ate some toast earlier and has kept it down, so that's a start. I just felt so bad for her this morning, heaving away. She's so little and so sweet. She doesn't deserve to feel icky. She's going to be the big "1 year old!!" on Friday. Wow. Time has really slipped away.We're having her birthday party on Saturday and I still haven't decided what to do for food...I better start thinking about that I suppose ;)

The girls are sharing a room now so Joe and I have an office!! Woo hoo! It's so nice. There's a big box of toys in here and Janie crawls around while Gracie draws and does stickers at my craft table. She's there right now saying, "Beware the jaberwocky, beware the jaberwocky, beware the jaberwocky." LOL. Joe's been reading that to her each night. I think it's kind of scary for a toddler, but hey, who am I to judge the literary preferences of Miss Thang?

Let's go fly a kite...

Or NOT. I saw a lady in our ward out flying a kite with her kids and it looked like lots of fun, so I decided to buy one at the grocery store today for Grace and Jane. We took it out to the park behind our house and tried to fly it but everytime I'd start to run away Gracie would absolutely freak out. I'm talking serious, blood curdling tantrum here. It was SO weird. There was no one else in the park. Just us. It was so frustrating I finally just folded up the kite and dragged my poor kids back home. I don't know what got into her. We decided to do sidewalk chalk instead. Phew. I'm tired.

No pics today of our "fun" kite adventure, obviously (eye rolling smiley emoticon needed here).

Fun In The Sun!

We've been in San Diego on vacation for about a week! It was a lot of fun, but also a great learning experience...it being our first time traveling with the girls. In most ways it was WAY HARDER than being at home, but the awesome sights, warm weather and many Kodak moments were worth it! Our very favorite thing was SeaWorld, but we also went to the Wild Animal Park and the San Diego Zoo, both of which were very cool as well. We spent half a day at the beach and that was fun too. Janie ate TONS of sand and tried to eat a bunch of seaweed too, but I tried to keep it away from her :) Gracie liked to be held by her daddy over the waves and we collected a few shells and pretty rocks too. Needless to say, we're glad we survived the drive there and back without bloodshed :) Here are some fun pics to give you a taste of "Alexander Vacation v.1.0)

This is the half second that Janie actually wore her hat the entire trip. She didn't like it at all and kept pulling it off :)

Touching the Starfish was her favorite activity of the day at Sea World.

That's a big walrus swimming round and round his tank. He was HUGE and SOO COOL!

Isn't she a vision in lime? I think she's absolutely the most darling child ever created.

Self explanatory :) This was at the Zoo.

This was the coolest thing at the Wild Animal Park. At the top of the pic is the mother with a nursing cub, and other cubs lower in the pic. The dad is just out of the shot, asleep on the hood of a Land Rover that is in the lion's territory. So Cool! I just loved how close we got to the lions. NEAT-O!

These were foot massaging chairs, but I think Gracie just liked them becaue they looked like Zebras :)

Zogle Hoo

Meg and I took our kidlets to the Hogle Zoo today. It was such beautiful weather! Here are some pics of my girls...

Treasure Chest

I was tearing my room apart this morning trying to find my passport. No, no, I haven't resumed my CIA activities. Joe asked me to get all of our passports in order for our family trip a year from now, with the Alexander clan. I just had to tell you how funny it was, applying for Janie's passport. Name - Jane Eleanor Alexander. Date of Birth 5-9-07. Height-. Hmmm. 2 feet, 4 inches. LOL. Isnt that so funny? I had a good chuckle :)


Anyhoo - one of the places I looked for our passports was my cedar chest. That thing is packed full of memories, I'm tellin' ya. Well, I don't think Gracie had ever seen it open. I don't think she knew that it DID open and you should have seen her face. "It's a treasure chest!" She exclaimed. She nabbed Davey's blanket and ran away with it. LOL. I feel bad, bad because my first impulse was to scold her for taking something of Daveys, but I held my tongue. It was just so cute to see her eyes light up with the prospect of "treasure" hiding in Daddy's room. (It's definitely not "Mommy's room," that's for sure. Everything is "Daddy's" nowadays. She adores him, as she should.)


Here's where I wish I was today...Kauai with Davey :)

The Big 30!

Happy birthday to Joe, happy birthday to Joe, happy birthday dear Joey, happy birthday to Joe! My hubby turned 30 yesterday commencing the "rest of his life" or so we hear :) Is youth really gone at 30? Leave a comment and tell me how you feel...

Joe's birthday was pretty low-key, I suppose. I hired a dancing girl for the morning, we flew to New Zealand for Lunch and had Joe Josts in his new M5 for dinner. Um, No. Actually, Joey had to work so the girls and I met him for lunch up by his office in Magna. We gave him his present there too. We got him a digital picture frame for his office...A really nice one with a brushed nickel frame. I think he liked it! After he came home we put the girls to bed and Mom listened for them while we went to dinner and a movie. We saw Leatherheads, which, despite it's negative reviews, was pretty darn funny, we thought! It had kind of an "Oh, Brother" feel to it...kind of.

Anywho - today will probably be low-key as well. It's general conference weekend, so I should probably delete my "dancing girl" comment from above. Hmmm.

Silly Gwama

Mom took this picture at her work. She stuck her fake mustache (ask her about that!) on Gracie's beautiful pic and here ya go...it looks like she's got her finger up her nose, but she's hiding it with her honkin' mariachi mustache:)

Not much is going on in our house today. Meg and her cute kiddos came over for a playdate and I have my first book club meeting tonight at the clubhouse in our subdivision. I'm leading the discussion, so I'm a little bit nervous, but it should go pretty smoothly.

I better get back to washing grapes and worrying about the book club!

A Blast From The Past

Here's an old pic that I love...

Par-Tay!

On Friday, we invited all the cousins over to decorate Easter cookies and have an egg hunt in the back yard. It was so much fun! The kids did an awesome job on their cookies...many sprinkles gave their all that day in the name of good, messy, fun. The egg hunt was really fun too...for some reason I don't ever remember doing an egg hunt when I was a kid. Wierd. Uncle D and Tawny were here too, which made it even more special. Gracie absolutely loves "that guy." ;) She keeps saying, "I want to go downstairs and play with Uncle D." Poor thing.

Happy Birthday Sweet Davey

Our son Davey would be four years old today. It was a deeply wonderful thing to have his birthday fall on Easter. The life and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ, is the greatest gift that our Father in Heaven has given to us as his children, and the hope that Easter brings into my life is nowhere more recognized than when I think of my sweet, perfect son. I'm humbled when I think of how innocent he is and that he is mine. I can't wait to hold him again.

It was a really nice day today. We spent the morning visiting with Dennis and Tawny and then went to the cemetery. Reagan came along with us :) We spent some time there and Gracie had fun blowing a bunch of bubbles. (The easter bunny brought her bubbles in her basket.) She learned how to do the entire process...dip the stick thinggy, blow through the hole, dip the stick thinggy again. It was fun to see her figure it out and have success blowing bubbles...it's the small things that touch a mother's heart, isn't it? Like finding a basket of flowers at Davey's grave when we got there to visit him, and knowing that someone else thought of him today too...

Meet Reagan...

He's our new doggie!! We adopted him on Saturday from a family in Provo. He belonged to their oldest daughter, who is off at college now. He's the most awesome, sweet, mellow, soft dog ever! Come on over to our house and meet him! He is a four year old, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and he's named Reagan because he is the kind of dog that the Reagans (President Reagan) had in their family.

Here's a couple of pics...

We also dyed Easter eggs to eat this week and Gracie just loved it. She and her daddy did such cute eggs together! Here's a peak...

Gracie's just learning how to give a thumbs up. Isn't it cute?

Quote for today:

“And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!” (D&C 76:22).

Swashbuckling Duck

Gracie likes to say "silly words" with her Daddy sometimes before going to bed. Usually, they're gibberish, (which is, itself, a silly word, come to think of it!) but sometimes Joey teaches her funny words that actually mean something. That's how Gracie came up with "Swashbuckling Duck." That's what she said she was a few nights ago. I just can't get over it. So cute.

April and Brad recently took a weekend in San Diego and brought us back an awesome bar of fancy, pantsy soap :) It has a palm tree in it and Gracie just loves it, so I thought I'd order her some more. I went online and found a distributor (almandersalley.com) and bought 3 bars of really fun soaps. I also got a grab bag pack of the heels of soap loafs, which was way cheap, but fun because we get to try out the new scent and Gracie gets to see the different designs. Thanks Auntie Ape! We love you and your cool ideas!

We went to the aquarium today and the girls had lots of fun. Janie was soo good. She just tootled around in the little umbrella stroller and was happy as a clam. We also got a bid on fencing, made copies for Sunbeams, returned a movie to the library, got some essentials at the store, and we're adopting a dog tonight. Shezam!

Quote of the Day:

"I've been using some fruity soaps, Maggie." -Finn, Waking Ned Divine

I'm So Glad When Daddy Stays Home

Grace and Jane are growing so fast...I know that sounds so cliche, but sheesh, it's true. Joe stayed home today because he can barely speak. He's been sick with a terrible cold. He walked Gracie to preschool and it was so sweet to see the two of them headed down the street, hand in hand. She learned the letter "P" today and made artwork of a letter P with pretzel sticks :) I love all her little art projects so I've hung a display in her room with clothespins on a string. She can change out which art she wants to hang. She really loves it. I just rigged it up yesterday and when she saw it she gasped, "(Gasp!) There's my papers!" Anyway, I'm pretty sure her Pretzel P is headed for the next available clothespin!

Janie is just happy as a little peach. Mom just fed her dinner and each time she would take a bite, she'd go, "Mmmm." Then another spoonful..."Mmmm." So cute. She's loving her new exersaucer (as is Grace, as you can tell!!) and jumps and jumps and jumps. Good thing it's got shocks...otherwise I'm afraid she's be bored with it. It's the jumping she seems to like better than the toys...go figure.

It's getting sunny and warm(er) the last few days! We definitely have spring fever and can't wait to be outside all the time. Meg and I can't wait for our kids to play outside more. I think I'll go to Home Depot and get a patio umbrella so she and I can sit in the shade and drink margaritas while the kids duke it out over sand toys. LOL.

Oh, by the way, have you ever walked over a sea of Grape Nuts? My feet had an unfriendly encounter yesterday afternoon...thanks to Grace. She's discovered the joy of dumping out an entire bag of...say...anything handy...goldfish, craisins, grape nuts. The Grape Nuts were definitely the worst. I keep cramping up when my foot is imbedded with a jagged breakfast nugget. Yowza. It's kind of like gravel, but with spikes.

Quote of the Day:

"Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half." -Gore Vidal

Back in Biz!

I don't know if anyone even wants to read about our daily lives, which may be described by some as "seriously boring" but I have a strong desire to get this blog up and running again! I can't believe that my last post was almost a year and a half ago...wow. So much has happened since then! We live in a new house, with a new arrangement, have a new baby and Joe is at a new job. Hmmm. I'm probably leaving out one or two "new" things that are pretty darn important, too!

Anyway, Brad's sister Jen is my blog-idol :) She is the best blogger in town and I just WISH my blog was as beautiful as hers! That just isn't going to happen. :) But I do want the grandparents of my two beautiful babies to be able to see pictures of them more frequently. The Alexander grandparents live too far away, and I know that the Gentry grandparents just plain love pics of the girls, so that's the point of this blog! :)


Here is one of my favorite recent pics...

Quote:
"I’ve been married a long time...and I’m just starting to scratch the surface of what women really want. I don’t know, but the answer probably lies somewhere between chocolate and conversation. " -Mel Gibson

Testing, Testing

Boy, oh boy, it's been a long while since I last posted! This is a test to see if I can upload pics again.

Gracie Meets Bridget

Yesterday I got an official complaint from Gracie's AUNT APRIL that I hadn't posted in forever, so I decided to get my act together and take some dang pictures! I've been a slacker, I admit it! Well, Gracie finally noticed Bridget (my stuffed cat pillow that I've had forever) on top of her toy box and she pulled her on down yesterday. It was so cute :) She likes to lay on top of her and squish her head, as you can see!
Not much is new in our household! Everyday I spend just picking up after Gracie. Joe calls her the "Queen of Chaos" and it totally fits her. I swear. All she does is pull things off shelves (as she's doing right now while I'm at the computer) or empty drawers. Yesterday she disheveled Joe's stack of comic books and magazines that he keeps in the bat cave. What a mess. Then she emptied my nail polish drawer. Sheesh. I seriously can't keep up. Oh well! I give up! :)

Quote of the Day:
"Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home."
-Bill Cosby