Memorial Day/Gracie's Birthday

I am a huge slacker in the "birthday party" department, so when April invited us over for a Memorial Day BBQ, I asked her if we could tack on Gracie's party as well. Here are some pictures from the fun afternoon!

She looks so cute and excited :)

Eatin' a cupcake the Gracie way - frosting only.

Uncle Brad and Aunt April got her the coolest present! Her very own aquarium with two goldfish and a tiny froggy! She was SO excited!

I think this was her favorite present. A Dumbo dolly that she saw on our Disney Cruise. We bought it for her on the sly and smuggled it home without her finding it. (Pretty impressive, if you know how much Gracie is into EVERYTHING!) She was really excited when she opened it. It made me so happy.

The first BBQ of the season! Bring on the warm weather!

Baby Calli, Ryan and Val's newest addition :)

The hosts! They always have such fun stuff planned for us when we come over to their house :)

Janie playing with one of the animal decorations. April got her the cute dress for her B-Day :)

Some More...

Are you guys tired of my vacation pictures yet? This is kind of a journal after all, so I'm just going to keep posting 'em!

Zoe and Gracie in the Walt Disney Theatre waiting for a show to start!

On the water taxi to St. Maarten. Gracie had her mouth open in all the pictures :) They had Bob Marley playing in the taxi and it was just so stereotypical "caribbean" that it was almost funny. I really wonder if they listen to the same CD every single day to please tourists or if they just honestly breathe B. Marley.

Grandma Sue in the back and Daddy and Gracie in the front. You can also see our boat (the smaller one) in the background!

We left Janie in the nursery on the boat for a few hours during the morning and when I went back to get her, the family did this awesome sandcastle! Isn't it cool? The Tanners brought all sorts of cool sand building gear!!

Here's the fam (most of them) with their creation! We saw a couple of other people come and take pictures with the sandcastle :)

Here's Janie just hanging out after we got back onto the boat.

Gracie's trying to make a towel animal! She LOVED seeing the animal on our bed each night. The girls would gobble up the chocolates they would place on the bed and disassemble the towel animal in minutes flat each evening. :)

St. Maarten was really fun! The beach was very beautiful and the girls had a good time playing in the ocean. It was my second favorite day of our cruise (right after Castaway Cay). We had yummy coconut gellato and I bought a pretty necklace and black swimsuit coverup that will help remind me of the good times there!

More Disney...

Here are more Disney Cruise pics!!

This was at the character breakfast where we got to meet Goofy (Janie lovingly calls him Boofy) Mickey and Chip & Dale. All the pictures turned out blurry. This is the best one. Which is good because they adored Goofy :)

All the kidlets (minus Stanley) in the Alexander line. This is in the lobby with a cool statue of Captain Mickey at the helm. (A helm is a ship's steering wheel, right?)

Gracie with Minnie's ears on in the store onboard. They had some cool loot!

We celebrated Janie's birthday while on the cruise! She turned two years old! She got some really fun presents from her Grandma and Grandpa, and Aunties and Uncles. These glasses were actually a gift for Gracie, but Janie claimed them as her own, seeing as how it was her birthday and all! Our server brought out this huge piece of cake for her (we're talking like 6x6" here!!) She dove into it, of course!

Janie cuddling with Grandma Sue. Every morning when we would wake up she'd start calling, "SUE! SUE!" She loves her Grandma and we're glad they're back close to us!

Here's Papa Dave rockin' out to his new iPod that us and the Tanners got him for his retirement. I'm pretty sure he's listening to the Beach Boys here :) I loaded a bunch of music onto it and Andrea made three awesome home movies with their old family photos (with music!) that we put onto it as well. It was a fun surprise to give and I think Mom and Dad really enjoyed it! Now we just need to teach them how to navigate iTunes :)

Julie and Dad! Cute!

Janie's getting some Beach Boys action.

Here's our little fam with Captain Mickey! No, I'm not pregnant, I'm just a chunker, okay? I should maybe avoid profile pics from now on, hm?

In the lounge, waiting for dinner to start.

A pixie by the porthole!

More later...

Disney Cruise!!!

I finally have a few minutes to post some pictures from our AWESOME Disney Cruise that we just returned from! I am so exhausted that everytime I sit down for more than two minutes I fall asleep. Traveling with children is probably the most tiring thing I have ever experienced. It was worth it though! We had a fabulous time and will enjoy the memories as much as we enjoyed the cruise. I'll let the pics tell the story...watch for more in the days to come.


Here are my little bed bugs in the hotel where we stayed in Orlando the night before cruising. Notice that there are no pictures of us actually getting to Florida. Going to the airport and flying with the kids was the definition of "CRAZY." Our bags were too heavy so we had to take things out of them and squeeze them into our already bursting carry-on backpacks. Janie was on this little leash thing that she hated and she was so angry about it that she just prostrated herself on the airport floor and I dragged her little bones around with the leash. People were laughing...it was kind of embarassing...man, I'm glad the traveling part is through.

Here's the fam with Grandma Sue wearing our awesome, Tanner-custom T-Shirts. I'll have to take a good pic of the designs on one of the shirts. They're really cool! They say "Alexander Retirement Celebration 2009" with a picture of a cruise ship on the front. On the back they have little stick figure people representing everyone in the family. They're darling!

Joe and Gracie with our boat, the Disney Magic in the background. I like this picture because it looks like Gracie is flipping me off, which is totally what she would be doing if she knew about said gesture.

It was so bright, she couldn't open her eyes :)

Notice the flat hair! The humidity totally skunked my 'do. :)

Unfortunately, it looks like every single picture we took of us with the characters turned out kind of blurry. I'm irritated with my camera because it didn't live up to it's price tag. Oh well. I'm having our big Nikon worked on this week.

Zoe and Taytem showing Gracie the finer points of the Nintendo DS. She was so into it!

At the sailaway party! Gracie loved the pompoms that they passed around!

We're finally onboard! We've been looking forward to this vacatin for over a year! :)

The girls looking out the porthole in our stateroom! This picture totally reminds me and Joe of an old picture we have of our labs and two cats looking out our front screen just like this. No more labs or cats...just two crazy nuts we call our children!

More pics to come...

Oh, and there was a complete LACK of Jimmy Buffet on the boat. I was seriously dissappointed. So Jimmy will be providing the soundtrack to the memories, if not the actual experience. :)

Halloween Cat

Here's our first attempt at posting a video on the 'ol blog! It's Janie singing "Halloween Cat" which I'm not sure is a real song...I think someone in the family might have made it up. She got a new stuffed black cat that she adores, so she's been walking around the house singing it all by herself! So cute!

Internet Junkie

Gracie is a total Starfall.com and Sesamestreet.com junkie! She hangs out on her grandma's bed and plays on the laptop :) It's too bad they don't have internet on airplanes...otherwise we'd be all set for our long flight to Florida.

Quote of the Day:
"Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks." ~Author Unknown

A 3-Year-Old's World

Today we were outside soaking up some sunshine and it was heavenly! Our grass hasn't been mowed yet this season and it has tall, lush, green spots where Reagan fertilizes for us. Gracie took of her shoes to feel the grass underneath her piggies and said, "It's like a jungle for feet!"

I thought it was such a great description. It painted a vivid picture for me of some huge feet walking around in a jungle all by themselves. :)

I love that my Gracie has such a wonderful imagination. She surprises me every single day with her beautiful view of this old world.

2nd Quote of the Day:
"My feet took a walk in heavenly grass.
All day while the sky shone clear as glass.
My feet took a walk in heavenly grass,
All night while the lonesome stars rolled past.
Then my feet come down to walk on earth,
And my mother cried when she give me birth.
Now my feet walk far and my feet walk fast,
But they still got an itch for heavenly grass.
But they still got an itch for heavenly grass. " ~Heavenly Grass, Tennessee Williams

The Binky Wars (Or Lack Thereof)

So Janie's on day 4 of operation: NO MORE BINKY!!! She is such a trooper, it is amazing. I'm telling ya, she is SO MUCH EASIER than Gracie was in almost every single way. The only time she has suffered withdrawls were day 2 and day 3 at nap time. Today she went down without a whimper. Aren't you proud of her? I sure am.

This upcoming cruise is whipping our butts into shape! We're getting basically every aspect of our lives cruise-ready. It includes some (minimal) fat loss, new clothes, shoes, hats, practicing how to walk through an airport security gate, losing the binky, figuring out how to pull up underpants by ourselves (this one's Gracie's thing, not mine :), etc. I swear, we're going to have a meltdown when we get home because we'll have nothing to live for! Maybe Joe and I will just have to put a deposit down while we're onboard for our next cruise...that's just the two of us :)

Anyway, I'm bummed that I don't have any pictures to post. I need to get out that camera and start shootin'!

Quote of the Day:

"We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace." ~Aristotle

The Benefits of an iPod

There are many benefits to owning an iPod, not the least of which are: 1) storing all your music in one place, 2) the ability to take your music with you to ANYplace and 3) getting to listen to that great clicking noise that it makes as you scroll through stuff. But my favorite thing about my iPod is that it lets me rediscover music that I love, but haven't listened to in ages. Hence, the Nanci Griffith tunes on this here blog! CCR is another recent rediscovery. Love it!

Quote of the Day:
"He who sings scares away his woes." ~Cervantes

"He who whistles scares away his woes." ~Heather Alexander :)

The Price of Childcare = My Sanity

Going back to school this semester has been so beneficial for me. I feel like an actual adult person, not just a robot used to clean up spilled cottage cheese and change smelly diapers. My classes were actually fun and really interesting. So I decided that I'll keep on keepin' on and sign up for fall semester too. The catch is that the only classes they are offering in the fall that fit with my major require a prerequisite that I haven't taken yet. Which means that I need to take this one class in the summer to make it possible for me to continue being an actual adult person :) The OTHER catch is that the summer class that I need is during the day. They're not offering any evening classes in the summer. So I had to figure out a place for my kids to chill for a couple of hours each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. (Wow, this story is kind of long and boring. Props to you for getting this far!)

Researching childcare options is not only stressful, it's rediculously frightening and panic-inducing as well! Bonus! First I checked out the University's daycare option (normally for low-income parents, but not in the summer) and freaked out because it is such a hole in the wall that there is no way that I would allow my children to be in a building that old and decrepit for ANY amount of time.

Second I looked into KinderCare which is a professional facility that Myles actually attended when he was a wee one. Well, um, I'd basically have to be a doctor or something with a similar pay scale to afford the place. The cost PER HALF-DAY, PER CHILD is $35. That is a grand total of $210 per week or $840 a month. I mean, really, what do they do with all the money? I've seen the place and it's no Disneyland, which you could justify using as your daycare instead of this place, financially speaking. I was absolutely blown away. I'll tell you what...it makes me feel a bit more valuable as a stay-at-home madre. That's for darn sure.

So my right eye has been twitching non-stop for about 4 days. I'm not even kidding - ask Joe.

But, praise be to heaven, I was talking with Gracie's preschool teacher about needing childcare to fix my eye twitch when she said, very graciously, that she would be more than happy to watch my babies for me during the summer school hours. I cannot even tell you what a relief that is. She is fantastic. Awesome. Amazing. Perfect. Wonderful!!! It is such a blessing that she is just down the street and already knows and loves my Gracie. She has two kids, the same ages as Grace and Jane, so they'll be able to play together and have a whole bunch of fun. (sighhhhhhhh...........)

My eye stopped twitching, thank heavens.

Easter Happenings

As the girls hunted for Easter eggs I was impressed by how much CUTER it all was than I expected it to be. Gracie was absolutely delighted to search around the house for eggs that the bunny had dropped. She adored it. It was magical to watch, actually. Janie was pretty much along for the ride and the fruit loops and fruit snacks that the (extremely boring and mom-ish) eggs contained. My mom and Joe convinced said bunny to give in and get the girls a chocolate bunny each, but that was about the extent of the candy. Why do Holidays have to involve so much enamel-destroying sugar?? Yikes.

Silly Daddy

These two are like peas and carrots...

These two are like chocolate chips and cookies :)

Janie's lovely early morning hair!

I think the bunny over did it on the eggs this year!

I was talking with Grace's preschool teacher, Tecia, today and she was telling me about their upcoming "Safety Kids" program. This year it's about protecting their minds from harmful things. She's been teaching them to avoid unclean pictures, drugs, etc. and asked the kids, "What are some things that we shouldn't look at?" and one of the kids responded, "A dog going poo." I keep thinking of that funny, innocent comment and it makes me laugh every time, so that's the quote of the day.

No Cavities!!

Gracie had her first dentist's appointment today! She did FANTASTIC! All the assistants were impressed with how well she did and how cooperative she was. She even got X-Rays of all her teeth and there's not a cavity to be seen! Yay! She got her teeth cleaned and brushed with flouride too. What a trooper!

She was so tiny in the huge chair. It was cute :)

Here's Gracie and the Doc! He's such an awesome dentist.

Janie hasn't been doing so hot. We took her to the doctor yesterday and she has double ear infections and the sore throat from HE(double hockey sticks). We got her antibiotics yesterday. I actually got the meds from the pharmacy and gave her her first dose in the car. I just want her to feel better. She seems to be on the upswing, thank goodness.

I have my little skit/play in class tonight and I'm kind of nervous. I think it will be fun but I'll be really glad when it's all over. :)

Quote of the Day:
"Even when freshly washed and relieved of all obvious confections, children tend to be sticky." ~Fran Lebowitz

Cavities Galore!

I haven't been to the dentist in about 8 years. Wow. That's a really long time. Anyway, I wanted to bleach my teeth for our upcoming cruise and Tawny was awesome enough to send me some bleach. All I needed was some bleaching trays. So I bit the bullet and made an appointment to see the dentist. Well, I couldn't just go in there to get trays, I had to have an actual check up. Dang it all! I had 6 cavities!!! Thursday I went and had 3 on the left side filled and today I had 3 on the right side filled. (I'm nothing if not symmetrical.) And now I'm cavity free! Wahoo!! (But I'm still numb all the way to my ear on the right. Oh well...it keeps me from shoveling food into my face for a few hours :))

Quote of the Day:
"Every tooth in a man's head is more valuable than a diamond." ~Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, 1605

Silly Gracie, Silly Janie

After I bathed the girls this morning I let them run free to dry off and get back to nature. After a few minutes I asked Gracie, "Where's Janie?" and she answered, "Maybe she went to Costco."

When I found said exhibitionist she was taking a bite out of Joey's deodrant stick in the bathroom.

Wow.

Today is an awesome, normal day!

Quote of the Day:
"The Act of God designation on all insurance policies... means roughly that you cannot be insured for the accidents that are most likely to happen to you. If your ox kicks a hole in your neighbor's Maserati, however, indemnity is instantaneous." ~Alan Coren, The Lady from Stalingrad Mansions, 1977

Happy Birthday Sweet Davey

Davey's birthday always sneaks up on me. Tomorrow my baby boy would be five years old and starting school in the fall, raising hell with his sisters and looking more and more like his daddy. It surprises me how sad I get around his birthday, even with the time that we've had to heal and move forward with our family life. In a way I'm glad that I still go through hell every year. It reminds me that that piece of my heart is still there, even though it's broken.

While we were shopping last week, Gracie spotted some solar garden lamps and thought they were really cool. So we got one for Davey's grave for his birthday. We've been wanting to get him one for a long time, so it was the perfect present. As I was lying in bed today thinking about the solar lamp I started thinking about what gifts my little son has given to me. They are many, meaningful and shape and enrich my life each and every day.

The first gift that my son gave to me is a deep and abiding gratitude and testimony of the Plan of Salvation which our Savior made possible for every person on the earth. We can live with our families, our Savior, and our Father forever if we will cling to the gospel and it's teachings. What greater gift is there than to be with your family for eternity? None. I cannot wait to hold my baby boy again. And I know that I will. That is truly amazing.

My brother-in-law Ryck gave the benediction at Davey's funeral wherein he thanked the Father for the Spring season and the hope that it gives to us in the Resurrection. I think of that prayer every time Davey's birthday comes around and Spring is on its way.

The second gift that my son gave to me is a firsthand knowledge of grief that allows me to relate to others as they experience trials. This is truly a gift, even though it sounds a bit daunting. Hard times expand our capacity to feel. The Savior experienced each and every pain and trial that every man and woman will suffer. His capacity to feel what we have felt is all-encompassing. We can ask him for comfort during trials because he KNOWS what we have felt. I feel like a gained a little bitty piece of that knowledge myself. I feel more in awe of my Savior because of it.

The third gift that he gave me is a greater appreciation for my other children. I remember writing an email to my work friends right after losing Davey explaining what had happened. One of my friends responded back that he had gone home that night and held his babies tightly and thanked God for them. That made me feel so good inside.

The fourth gift (men, just skip over this one...) was that Davey prepared my body to have my girls. My Mom had 4 C-Sections to deliver her babies. I was always worried that I would have the same. C-Sections are so hard on a woman's body. My little guy was a mini-might...just under 5 pounds. He paved the way for me to have easier deliveries. I am so thankful for this.

There are many, many more blessings which have come into my life because of my son. I could never list all the ways that having him has changed me. But as I look back on his birth and death, every year I have a new appreciation for him. What an amazing blessing he has been to me. Happy birthday sweet Davey!

Quote of the Day:
"Where, when my aching grows, Where, when I languish,
Where, in my need to know, where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand? He, only One."
~Emma Lou Thayne, Where Can I Turn For Peace?, Hymn 129

The New "Look"

Joey's mom called me yesterday morning kind of worried about us because I hadn't updated my blog in a while :) I thought that was cute. I guess I am kind of addicted to blogging and sharing our family secrets with the online world...JK.

Here's a new picture of Grace sporting her new "look." For example, if I say, "Gracie, how are your altoids doing today?" This is the look she gives. Or, "Hey Gracie, can you come and put away all these toys you got out?" Same look. She gives it whenever she 1) Doesn't understand what you said and will reply "What are altoids, Mom?" or 2) She doesn't want to understand what you said and will reply, "Clean up my toys, Mom?" It's actually a really funny face and it makes me chuckle whenever she does it. I thought it was pretty lucky that we got it on the camera!

Do you like her pants? They were hand-me-downs from the Tanners that had a little hole in the knee so I patched them up on the back and put cute flower patches on the front. I was really proud of my domestic prowess :)

Quote of the Day:
"I don't like that man. I must get to know him better." ~Abraham Lincoln

"Wii want to play" too!

Remember those first Wii commercials with the two Asian missionaries saying, "Wii want to play."? What? They weren't missionaries? I swear they were in suits with nametags. Anyway, Wii want to play too!

We got our Wii about two weeks ago with part of our tax return and have been loving it ever since. Joe's completely addicted to (and totally awesome at) Super Mario Kart and Mario Galaxy and while I'm not endowed with awesomeness as Joey is, I have tons of fun trying. We also got Super Smash Bros. and Endless Ocean. That last one was my pick and so far it sucks big time. It got great reviews, but the one time we've played it, it's been snoozer boring. Next I want to get Lego Star Wars, but maybe I'll let Joe pick 'em from here on out :)

Gracie loves racing with her daddy on Mario Kart. I'm not sure why she's so somber in this picture...but I thought that Joey looked cute.

Quote of the Day:
"It is one of man's curious idiosyncrasies to create difficulties for the pleasure of resolving them."
~Joseph de Maistre

Ouch!

I seem to recall posting some similar pictures of Janie sporting a goose egg not too long ago. Hmm. Last night she took a header down the stairs and wacked her head really hard on one of our wooden spokes on the banister (they're square at the bottoms, where she hit). She immediately had the largest goose egg I had ever seen. We took her to the after-hours clinic at our Peds office and they said it didn't look like she had cracked her skull and that she'd be fine. Poor thing. They even measured it :( That's when you know an injury is approaching"nastyville" they bring out the tape measure...


This was after we got home from the doc...it was already starting to look better. It stuck out almost an inch from her head last night.

Here is her today. It's getting really dark, but it's only sticking out about a half an inch now. The pictures don't do it justice. It's much darker and MUCH puffier than the flat pictures make it look.

Quote of the Day:
"Spring is not the best of seasons.
Cold and flu are two good reasons;
wind and rain and other sorrow,
warm today and cold tomorrow."
~Author Unknown

I love this quote because we have all had a horrible cold AND are sad that it snowed all day and night yesterday. We have Spring fever so bad it's tangible. We all want to be outside in the sunshine. : ( Rain, rain, go away...