Christmas Day

Christmas day had arrived and so did Santa! Alex had asked for a two-wheel scooter, a leapster, and a fish tank (among many other things!) But Santa was nice and brought her both scooter and leapster with games. But Daddy and Mommy decided to encourage her love of animals and learning and we got the fish tank.
She was so happy to get a fish tank, she is very appreciative and has thanked us repeatedly.


Christmas was very good to us as you can see by the aftermath!

At Christmas dinner, we celebrated at Aunt Barb and Uncle Tim's house. Not only did we celebrate christmas, but we celebrated the 5th day of Hanukkah. Jon's friend Ross, brought his menorah and Alex enjoyed learning about it all and lighting candles.

Christmas Eve!

We spent a lazy day at home making cookies and finishing up last minute details on Christmas eve! We went to church, where Alex was able to hold her own candle during the candlelight service. And after church, we went to eat at P.F. Chang's. But before all that Alex had a tea party. Normally the guests are her dolls or me. But she had a different kind of guest, Melissa her cat. They were too cute!


And here is a picture of Daddy and Alex at P.F. Chang's. She was using chopsticks!

Pops couldn't contain himself with all the fun we had and had to rest, but Alex couldn't leave him alone and made him a christmas tree complete with Angel!

Silly Christmas!

For part of November and most of December, Mommy has been sick and it finally got me and I have been in bed on-and-off with a sinus infection for two days. Well Nana was gracious enough to take Alex to school as well as take me to the Dr., and pick up Alex and take her home with her so Mommy could rest. When we picked up Alex today, she had to tell us about all she did and since I didn't pick her up at school on Monday I didn't see the cutest thing! All the kids had their reindeer hats on. So cute and silly! So here is Alex the red-nose reindeer!

Noodles!

This is a little late, but I had to include these pics. So every Thanksgiving since I have known David, it is a family tradition to make homemade noodles. They are a part of our meal, that's just it! It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without noodles!

But someone has to make them, so David and his cousin Jon (or affectionately-Bubba) decided they would do it. Alex had to help and of course I had to take pictures. What cheeseballs they are! Put up a camera and a cheesy smile comes with it! I didn't know Bubba had it in him, but Alex I know is well trained of course!

It's Snowed in Houston!

For the first time since Christmas 2004, it has snowed in Houston. Today it was just cold enough to let us enjoy some snow flurries. Alex went outside and caught snowflakes on her tongue, she said they tasted good. Like sugar!

Also, today Alex had her Christmas program at school. She did such a great job! It was her third year of this type of show, and all the years before she is picking her nose, checking out her friends, waving to family or blowing kisses. This year she did great, paid attention to her teacher and did all the appropriate hand gestures and sang! It was great! How great to be 5!

December.....So far!

We just received Alex's school pictures, and although she looks very cute in them. I just can't get past the background. But I thought I would share them with you.

We are trying to get in the Christmas spirit here. The tree is up and some decorations are out. Hopefully, the spirit of the holiday will fill me up soon. Just not there yet. I am sad that this weekend in Long Beach, I will be missing another Belmont Shore Christmas parade. I remember going to watch it in front of my dad's barbershop and always having a place to go to the bathroom. What a luxury!

Congratulations to Chastity and Jarrod (and big bro Mason)! Jude Emerson was born December 4th, 8 lbs, 18" long. He's too cute and can't wait to meet him in person!

Until I write again!

Cheer Camp!

I am so excited to post that Alex is attending a cheer camp tomorrow for the first time! She is so excited to go, learn cheers, stunts, tumbling and perform. I will post pics and hopefully a video. My little girl is getting so big! Wish us luck! Go Team!

Update: Alex loved cheer camp! I am so proud of her. She wanted to try something new and she has seen mommy cheering before in videos, so it was very intriguing. She was a little nervous about performing in front of everyone. But as you can tell from the video, she did great! I gave her a little tip, if she forgot a move all she had to do was smile. No one would notice! We asked how she liked it. She said she loved it! We asked her what her favorite part was.....EVERYTHING!

My Sweet Girl!

On Tuesday, David and I will be celebrating our 8 year wedding anniversary. Alex has thought that it is a great idea to have a wedding anniversary party for us. Any reason to have and plan a party! She is my girl! It is so sweet of her to love us that much to have a party for us.

We keep telling her that in 2 years on our 10 year anniversary, that is the big one. We will be going somewhere tropical and celebrating.....we hope!

P.S. To my wonderful husband - Happy Anniversary Sweets! I love you!

UPDATE: Alex did a wonderful job on our party. She made the cake, planned the menu, did the decorations, made the guest list. Really if she wasn't 5, and had money and could drive, she could have planned the whole thing by herself. But she did need Nana and Granny's help. She did get very angry with forgetful mommy when I forgot to bring her fancy dress with me, so she could change. I improvised and took some jewelry from Grandma's jewelry box and dressed her up. Complete with a fancy pin, bracelet, and clip-on earrings. Excuse the picture of the old married couple. We used to be so much cuter!

Happy Halloween 2008!

This year Alex chose to be a fairy. This isn't the first time she chose a fairy. I admit I do try to persuade her. Last year, she got really excited to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz (partly because of me and the thought of red sparkly shoes). But since she had been a fairy 2years prior, we decided to change it to a different type of fairy. She had talked about being a Rose Fairy Princess, whatever that is! But mommy and Granny made sure that she became a Rose Fairy Princess, complete with roses and a crown of flowers. It's so great that Granny can sew costumes for us! We love her for that and so many other reasons!

UPDATE: This year we followed tradition and went trick-or-treating with friends. It is so great watching the girls run up to every door with such enthusiasm and running back to tell us what kind of candy they got. This year Alex thought some of the houses were spooky. I don't quite understand that considering everytime we go to Walmart or Lowes or any other store that carries decorations we have to look and find all the spooky things. But another great year of trick-or-treating! Can't wait till next year!

Picture Taking!

So I decided to practice my photography skills today. I had decided I wanted to go and take pictures somewhere with a neat background. Well I thought about Old Town Spring. They have really old buildings and cool places to take pictures. I took a change of clothes for Alex and she was really into the whole idea. 87 pictures later, I have about 3 usable photos where she is not gritting her front teeth. I felt like a stage mom, and I didn't want to be that way. So here they are! I will also post one of her gritting her teeth. Enjoy!

Gritting Teeth!

Big Girl, Big Words

My daughter has the best vocabulary. She uses big words all of time, and in the correct way. Tonight she told me, "I am glad God made water for the earth, so we wouldn't be parched."

You gotta love her!

Fashion Runway Party!

Alex had her birthday party on this past Saturday. We had postponed it due to Ike, so we were anxious to have it! We chose a Fashion Runway party. Daddy constructed a runway and I went all out on decorations and accessories. The girls had a great time, especially when they found out people were taking their pictures. They all really got into the runway show and changed their outfits numerous times. It was lots of fun. We did their nails and they got tattoos(if they wanted them). Lots of feathers from boas....all over the house!

Our little mermaid!

Alex started swim lessons this summer at a local swim school called FINS. They have been so great, and have really gave Alex a lot of confidence in her swimming. She is learning back stroke and free-style, perfecting her side breathing has been the task lately. If you didn't have to tell her to breath while swimming the length of the pool, she wouldn't.

Hurricane Ike!

On the early morning of September 13th, Hurricane Ike hit the Gulf Coast of Houston. As they say here, we "hunkered" down at David's parents house with their 3 cats and our 2 cats and our dog. After the storm, we went home to assess the damage. We were afraid that the giant pine tree in our neighbors yard would fall on our house, but we were lucky. We had minimal damage, our back fence fell and our mailbox. It was bound to happen from all the times that David has weed whacked the pole.

We stayed at David's parents house until Saturday, one week after the hurricane hit. We were on generator power from Saturday till about Wednesday morning at 3:45 AM. The generator kept the refigerator cold and the fan going. We were also able to watch t.v. Our power was restored on Saturday at about 11:30 AM. Our animals were so happy to go home and Alex was excited to play in her room. It was nice to have somewhere we could stay cool and have food to eat. You really appreciate all you have when these things happen.




Our front tree had some branches down, but really we were lucky. Our neighbors had both trees fall and toward their house. Our neighborhood is about 30 years old and has old trees, and a lot of them fell on houses here.

We are now going to work on getting our fence put back up, so Roxy won't go find a new place to live. David put up a new pretty mailbox on Sunday, now we won't have to go wait in line at the post office.

All-in-all, we have been blessed by the limited damage and a lot of great people around us for support.

Celebrating Alex's Birthday!

So on Alex's birthday, we celebrated with family. Dinner and cake made especially by mommy! Alex opened presents which included her ultra-special "mitchie boots" and her pink acoustic guitar. I thought I would share some pics from the day!

Happy 5th Birthday Alex!

Today my baby turns 5, it is one of the happiest and saddest days. I can't believe she is that old. It seems like yesterday, my baby was just learning to crawl and walk and talk. Now she's a mature and beautiful 5 year old. Happy Birthday baby!

Happy Birthday David!

Yesterday was David's 32nd birthday! Alex and Nana made him one of his favorites for his day. Cookie cakes with frosting! Just wanted to share some pics and say Happy Birthday! I love you!

Adriane


Update: We had dinner at Steamboat Steakhouse for David's birthday. Here are some goofy pictures of Alex and her crazy grandma's and David and his mom!