Recent Sayings and Doings of Alexis Part 2

More funny moments courtesy of Alexis:

Grandma was frosting cupcakes when Alexis came to offer her help and services. Grandma said, "Don't you think you should ask your dad if that is okay?" Alexis responds, "He'll just say no..."

When out in the garage at my folks house Alexis kept saying, "Mom, get the poo poo stick! Mom, hold the poo poo stick!" I had no idea what she was talking about until she went and tried to grab it herself... you know... the POGO stick!

Once again, running late to an event, David was driving as best he could when a voice from the car seat behind us yells, "Step on it Dad!" (note to self... remember this when she turns 16)
A cricket was on the patio while Alexis played outside with a friend. Alexis shrieked and threw her friend in front of her to separate her from the bug. Note to self... Alexis will use people as human shields...

While driving I ask Alexis if Timothy is asleep or awake. Most recent response: "He is having a slumber party in his seat". Apparently he was asleep.

Sitting in a waiting room full of "interesting" people, Alexis picked one out of the crowd that had triangle tattoos above and below his eyes. Alexis yells, "Look Mommy, A clown". Yep.. he heard the comment too!

A rude awakening

The south side hits again. I swear we have a huge red target on our house that says, "vandalise me!" or "cause trouble here!" Yesterday morning at 3:30am someone threw a rock through our master bedroom window. We have someone staying at the house while we are away and it scared them pretty good, since they were asleep about 3 feet from that breaking window. Their first thought was that someone was breaking in so they started yelling really loud to deter anyone from coming in. Police were called and damage was assessed. The funny thing is that the police asked if anyone had it out for us... did we have any enemies that might be targeting us... one would think with our luck, huh?

The rock went through both panes of glass and the screen. My morning yesterday was spent trying to get it repaired and for a reasonable price. Little did I know how darn expensive it is to repair a broken window. So $400 later, with increasing blood pressure, it is now fixed. If I find the person who broke that window I'd like to twist them in half. ARGH!

We also received a notice in the mail from HOA that vandals pretty much destroyed our community park. Concrete benches and tables were smashed into little pieces, drinking fountains destroyed, trash cans smashed, and the play equipment tagged and torn apart. What is the deal? Where are these kids parents? And what joy do they find in destroying things? I will never understand this! It makes me angry and confused at the same time. I cannot for the life of me see the logic in it. These are their things too... and yet they still destroy them.

Nonetheless, we move forward and look forward to the day we can attempt to sell our house and move far, far, far, away! Anyone house hunting? We'll offer you a GREAT deal!

Doing the "wormie dance"

Today was a fun and nice day spent with family. We made it to church on time and came home to a nice roast. Yumm! Everyone came over for food and we just hung out and had a good time. Ethan (my nephew) then asked my mom if they could go hunting for worms. Ethan has been fishing lately and needed more worms for bait. My mom has a worm compost pile so Alexis, Ethan and my mom all went "worm hunting". Apparently part of the hunt is a "wormie dance" in which you stomp on the ground to make the worms think that it is raining. The thought of rain summons the worms to come to the surface. About 15 minutes later they came in with a container full of worms. Who would have thought! Horray for the wormie dance!

Getting Ready and Going on our Yuma Adventure

Wow! How time flies. I am so far behind on blogs, but I want to include some fun stories, so I'll begin with our rush to prepare for Yuma... WARNING... LONG post...
David has his last two rotations in Yuma, AZ. We had to get lots of stuff ready for our adventure and have a clean house in the end for a friend that would be staying at the house for us. I am okay with getting ready to go away for awhile, but having a clean house in the end is a whole other ball game. I had to clean for about a day after we packed... with two kids "helping" all along the way. Not helping in the task was the fact that we had construction guys in and out of the house all day working on repairing the bathroom. But we got it done.
The day before we left our friends the Moore family had us over for a "post Christmas dinner". It was AMAZING food and wonderful company. It is funny that we can live somewhere and be in a ward for years and not get to know such amazing people until we have to leave. So sad, but we hope to keep in touch and repay the wonderful dinner when we return. David loves to talk and I think he misses social interaction because once you get him started it is hard to get him to stop. We left around 10:30pm but had a wonderful time. Thanks for not kicking us out Moore's... you have a wonderful family.
The next day it was off to Yuma. I don't know how, but David fit all we needed into the van. I used to mock minivans... until I had one. Our minivan is used more like a "covered truck" most of the time. We made it to Yuma without incident and the kids even did pretty good. Timothy just hates having to face backwards. He can't see anyone else so it makes him cranky. I can't say I don't blame him... I think I would be cranky looking at the back of a seat for four hours. Alexis had to stop every 40 min. to use the bathroom. That made things fun. But we made it! Yeah!
We brought in the new year in Yuma with family around the fire pit in the backyard roasting marshmallows. Alexis and Timothy slept through the fun, but that is fine with me. It was an uneventful but nice start to the new year.
Our adventure here is just beginning though. The second night here we thought we had an earthquake. The news interrupted programming to say that it wasn't an earthquake, but that it was YPG (Yuma Proving Grounds) testing bombs. They must have been HUGE bombs because they are at least 30 miles away and they were shaking the house. YPG is one of the few places where you will see "tank crossing" signs and warnings all along the roads stating, "Do not leave the road or you may be bombed". Apparently they are also moving the Miramar station from California to Yuma in the near future too. Because of the urban encroachment in California they need a deserted place to train and test... so where do they go.... Yuma of course!
Alexis also experienced her first week in Sunbeams at church. We were worried about being in a different ward with so many other changes. When we arrived we were happy to learn that my sister Katelynn teaches the sunbeams class. It was a much easier transition than we were expecting. When we asked Alexis is she liked primary she said, "Yes! They have an instrument in there!" Upon further questioning we learned that the instrument was the piano. Funny how she will say instrument instead of piano. She love to sing though. She will sing primary songs in the tub, while she is on the swing, doing a puzzle, coloring, eating... well you get the idea. She is ALWAYS singing, and if she doesn't know the words she starts making up her own songs. So creative!
While here we have also decided to find all the parks within walking distance to go to. My mom, the kids and I decided to trek to the first park close to us. We walked, and walked, and walked... and when we thought we were there it was one of those drainage fields... so we kept walking and walking until we found another park. Funny how when we drive there it seems so close, but when pushing a stroller with 80 lbs. of kids in it... it seems much farther away. The kids played for a bit and then we had to trek it back. It was a good walk but reminds me how out of shape I am in.
The next day Timothy was super sick. He had the stomach flu and couldn't keep anything down. He was not himself and all I could do was hold him and help make him comfortable. It is so hard being a mom with a sick kid knowing that there is not much you can do for them. He did get better though and his appetite returned within a few days... just in time for everyone else to get sick. Katelynn got sick next, then Alexis, then my sisters, then me, and then dad, David, and my mom. Imagine 5 people being sick at the same time with only two bathrooms. NOT FUN! Might I repeat, NOT FUN! There is nothing worse than having the flu, but then having the flu with a whole house full of other sick people is ten times worse. But... We did survive and are all better now. Whew!
Timothy is growing up fast. He is saying words now. The day after Christmas he finally said dad. David had been waiting for that and he finally got it. Timothy's words now include: Mom, Dad, Wow, Ouch, and Hi. He also loves the swings. He hadn't been in a swing before we came here but now we have access to a swing every day and he can't get enough of it. He just giggles when it tickles his tummy. He also loves the dogs. He will go to the window and watch for the dogs and barks at them. It is hilarious to watch. My parents also have a big fish tank that he loves to watch. We will set his chair in front of the tank and he will just watch them swim around. We definitely need to set up the tank at our house when we get back.
Alexis also has a new buddy. She follows my mom, "grandma" everywhere. The other day my mom was going to pick my sisters up from school and Alexis said she wanted to go with grandma to get some pizza. I guess she thinks every car trip with my mom ends up with pizza... at least in her mind. She is funny like that. So we made pizza instead. Alexis "helped" make the dough. I had placed the water and yeast into the bowl and was getting ready to add sugar. I turned around for a second and Alexis started pouring sugar into the bowl. I've never seen yeast rise like that before. What a good helper.
We are starting to settle in here. We are still looking for parks and things to do. We tried one park today that was rumored to have ducks to feed. Upon arrival we found no ducks so we went to play at the playground. After playing a few minutes they closed the park due to "human fluids" that needed cleaned up. Really? Are you serious? I don't even want to know... Ugh! Ick! Gag!
Ten weeks left... need I say more...

"Pre" Merry Christmas

Kathy making a "spider snowman"

Alexis waiting patiently to open gifts

Alexis stuffing her mouth with marshmellows off pretzel skewer

Snowman with sled

Alexis's fun little mallowman!

These blogs are out of order... but I just realized that I hadn't blogged about this yet... and it seems like it happened forever ago. I wanted to document for posterity's sake. :)

The weekend before Christmas, we celebrated with David's family in Phoenix. It was a great time. We were able to go one night to the Temple Lights. Alexis LOVES Christmas lights and she got her fill here. There were lots of people but that didn't seem to bother her. It was super colds too, but again, still didn't bother her. We were able to go with David's sister Kathy, her son Dahmnaic, and David's mom. It was a nice time and the display seems to get better every time. Timothy slept right through most of it, but that is good because it made keeping him bundled up that much easier.

Saturday was a day of festivities. We made some fun marshmallow snowmen and sleighs. Alexis loved eating the fixings more than anything else. I don't think she has seen or had so much sugar in all her life. Don't worry though, we balanced it out with salt too. After the sugar we made lots of delicious pizzas. They were SO good. Kathy and Daniel made an AMAZING southwestern-ish pizza. It had black beans, YUMMY chicken, lettuce, chips and some other secret ingredients. I have to get the recipe for it. It was even good the day after, cold!

Timothy had his first real experience with stairs. He made it all the way up the stairs by himself. He isn't so good at the whole down part though. He wanted to get into everything and eat everything. He may have even consumed one Marsha's earrings. David's sister Marsha decided to let Timothy play with one of her earrings and then it "disappeared". Not sure where it went but no one could find it. Guess that is one lesson learned by a "pending mother". Don't let kids play with small objects.

That night we had a pre-Christmas and opened presents with family. We told favorite Christmas stories and memories from the past. It was a nice time.

Sunday we attended church at David's folks ward. Their choir is incredible. I guess it doesn't hurt that the choir director has been at it for years and some of the choir members are voice majors at the university. It was a great choir. We were also able to visit with David's grandparents before leaving. It was a nice visit and fun "pre-Christmas".

- - -CHRISTMAS EVE - - -

Christmas eve was a nice quiet one at home. We wanted Alexis to understand the spiritual part of Christmas so we tried to read the Luke story of the birth of Christ. While we read it we tried to "act out" the story with her little nativity set. She wanted to play more than listen so we did our best to help her understand why we really celebrate Christmas. She seemed to understand and even talked about it later. Timothy just wanted to eat all the characters. That seems to be all he does lately... place EVERYTHING directly into his mouth. It was a nice quiet Christmas eve. Children sure bring the real meaning of Christmas into the home.

Merry Christmas Part 1

A thoughtful, but ANNOYING gift from David. I always misplace my keys/purse so he got me these "key finders" that you whistle and it beeps so you can find your keys. Only problem is that the kids laughing, the car humming, and about any other sound set them off to. Thanks honey! It was a super thought... we just need to design one not so sensitive!

Alexis modeling one of the many books she got for Christmas.

David helping Alexis read my hand writing.

Alexis Super Excited about opening a present.

Timothy with a bow on his head so excited to rip/open paper.

Thanks for the Aligator Grandpa & Grandma!

I really like this Christmas thing!

Timothy with Daddy on Christmas morning.

Wow! What a busy past few weeks. I am a little behind on posts so I'll start here.

Christmas was a great time. Alexis woke up and was so sure that there was going to be snow outside her window. I guess she thought that no matter where you live, that Christmas always meant snow. I guess you can't really explain to a three year old that we live in the desert. Maybe some day we'll live somewhere that snow on Christmas will be a reality. So what is a mother to do when there is no snow on the ground... distract with a bright tree and presents of course! Her expressions when she saw the tree was priceless. She was so excited!

Alexis wanted to dig into the presents but we had to show her that they all had names on them. She needed to look for the gifts with her name on it. She then proceeded to go through every present and spell out the names on EVERY gift. Imagine every name spelled out again, and again. A - L - E- X - I - S..... D - A - D - D -Y.... T - I - M - O - T - H - Y.... getting the idea? It was super cute though and she was very dedicated to her present distribution.

Timothy is now saying "wow!" When he saw the tree all lit up and the presents underneath he just kept saying, "wow, wow, wow!" over and over again. When he got on the ground he bolted directly for the presents. He was so happy to tear open the paper and the proceed to get as much of it in his mouth before I could catch him. Funny Kid. He had a wonderful first Christmas. I think Alexis wanted to play with his toys more than her own. Oh well. Lessons in sharing are a never ending task I guess.

After cleaning up the paper frenzy we had a nice breakfast and sat down to watch one of our new movies. Then our phone rang. My friend was having contractions 3 min. apart... and needed me to come get her daughter. What a wonderful Christmas present! What a reminder of why we celebrate. Maci came over to play with Alexis and they had a "slumber party". They both stayed up for hours in their beds and just talked and laughed with each other. Maci got a new sister for Christmas. I thought having a birthday any time in December was tough... but Christmas day... Super exciting though. It was a great time and I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas! Hooray for life, love and family!