What a week.. and its only Tuesday

So it has been a coupole of weeks... I have been staying busy at work and home. Quick update for all...
Last weekend me, Doug, Alexandra, Grandma Scheible and Grandma Thayer had Breakfast with Santa at Nordstrom. Alex was very good. She even talking to Santa about her Kitty-Cat. She didnt want to get close to him but everytime he was around she would point at him and say "Santa!".
A close friend of ours, Zach, was in a car accident Sunday evening on the southside. Some might have heard about it on the news. Wishtv had a video clip titled "Hit and Run Injures Hoosier Soldier". He was t-boned on the drivers side by another car and pushed off the road. He was knocked unconscience while the driver of the other car ran away on foot, leaving the car. Luckily there were two witnesses and right now investigation is underway to verify the person who was caught in fact was the driver. Zach has a broken jaw, broken pelvis, 3 broken ribs, bruise on his brain, broken clavicle, punctured lung and liver. Surgery was performed to fix the liver and lung, his spleen was taken out. He is in ICU and will stay there till at least Friday. He has a very long hard recovery ahead of him. Luckily he has a wonderful, caring and supportive wife that will be there through it all.
Please keep Zach and Kari in your thoughts and prayers.
Work has been extremely busy with the coworkers on vacation or out for medical reasons. I feel at one point Im all caught up and then someone opens the gates and more work floods in. Every year it seems to be hectic and stressful, but this year seems to be the worse so far. I will just be happy when it starts to slow down around February.
Today, with the ice and snow from the northside to the southside of Indpls, it toook me almost 3 hours to get home. There was more ice than snow on the southside and traffic literally creeped at 10 mph on 35. I didnt get home till 7 and of course my night has literally flown by. But now I get to go to bed and wake up to another rough drive into work tomorrow... from what I have been told, more ice is on the way as we sleep.

SO it tried adding pics and then it goes blank.. so ill try again later

Bla....

So this morning I woke to a very upset stomach. I debated going to work, but went on in. Well the whole time driving from the southside to the northside I thought I was going to puke. The state trooper me and three other vehicles followed the whole way cwouldnt go over 60mph. I even contemplated on turning around at a few exits. I made it to work, started my day trying to get my mind off my upset stomach. Before I had left I had told Doug I wasnt feeling well so didnt give him a good bye kiss. Later in the morning he told me he wasnt feel well either. So now Im thinking we have the flu or ate something bad. We had a great homemade meatloaf with potatoes and carrots. And it tasted even better this time. By 11am I could not focus anymore on work and decided to go home. I met Doug in the warm comfy bed where we both tried to nap. Why is it when your not thinking about sleep, you are so exhausted, have a hard time keeping your eyes open but when you lay down in bed you cant fall asleep? Yea well that was me. So for the rest of the day we laid in bed, watching tv until we had to get Alex from daycare. And of course Miss Alex was doing very well and had normal bowle movements...Sunday night she had diarhea, so we were worried she had caught something as well.
Well Im about to head off the bed, joining Doug. Alex went to bed early tonight only because we made her. Im starting to feel better, have even eaten some dry cereal. I had not eaten anything all day, so this was a good start. Im thinking everything will be better tomorrow. And Ill be back at work...yay!

Getting creative...

I am still practicing with my new camera. So here are a few pictures I took of Alexandra as I "allowed" her to decorate the tree.

Picture from Thanksgiving

A plate full of food for both...they ate maybe three bites each but drank 2 cups wach of milk....

Alex singing while playing in her food.... Lance enjoying my Eclair cake...mmmm....they ate their own bowl each and finished everyone elses bowls

Lance in time out after undecorating a christmas tree (again)

Alex in time out after standing on the desk writing with a permanent marker (luckily she didnt write on anything but paper)

Busy, Busy, Busy

Kitchen..im still waiting to replace the lights on the tree so its not up yet in the top corner of the cabinets

The fireplace...

Our house

Thats how we have been for the last couple of weeks. With the decent weather a couple of weeks ago, we hung up all of the christmas decorations, inside and out. Our living room, bedroom, kitchen, front room and Alexandras room all have a tree. Alex has been pretty good with the trees, only undecorated the tree in our bedroom with the help of Lance my Godson. I cooked, with the help of others, Thanksgiving Dinner. We had a house full of friends and family. I even cooked up three new recipes, including a Chocolate Eclair Cake, Apple Sour Dough Stuffing and Parmesean Puff Patries. Evertything but the pastry puffs went well. I will have to practice on those some more. We also celebrated my birthday as it was the same day. The big 2-8. But of course, just feels like another day for me.

Thanksgiving evening after dinner, Lance and Alex disappeared into our bedroom to watch cartoons, so we thought. It was when they both ranout into the living room with arms full of ornaments, laid them on the table and ran back into the bedroom. I followed to find they had undecorated the tree, laying every piece on the bed or floor. They somehow even got the silver star at the top of the tree down. After asking many questions and hearing a few confessions, we learned Lance shook the tree, knocking the star down from the six foot tree. Luckily all the ornaments are plastic and didnt have too many catastrophies. A few ornaments had to have the tops glued back on, but all is well. All we could do as parents was laugh (when they werent looking of course). Later that evening the kids then disappeared into the front room. When my mom came out to advise "Maybe you and Kari should take care of this one..." I knew immediately what was going on. I found Alex sitting on top of the desk writing with a black permanent marker while Lance was literally knocking the glass bulbs off the tree. This time we were not laughing. They were placed in Time-Out.

Front Room

Our bedroom tree

Alexandra's tree

And the tree in the living room

Happy 2nd Birthday Alexandra

Sunday November 16, 2008 we celebrated Alexandra's 2nd birthday with a "Finding Nemo" themed party at our home. Friends and family joined in the celebration as well. We had a great time. Alex received so many great gifts, including a huge dollhouse from Mommy and Daddy, many outfits from all, an interactive Panda bear from Nana and PawPaw, accessories for the dollhouse from Grandma Scheible, a Disney Princess coloring station from Grandma Thayer and many more presents. Before all the guests had left, Alexandra passed out asleep in her room watching a movie while sitting on her Pooh air mattress.

Happy Birthday to me!!

Boy am I spoiled?! Doug gave me my birthday present early this past Saturday. With Alexs b-day, thanksgiving, other b-days and holiday parties it would be rather difficult to schedule in my b-day dinner. We went out to a nice dinner at Famous Daves (love that place). We came home and he was too anxious to wait any longer to give it to me. He bought me a new Nikon D90 digital camera with 2 zoom lens. He presented everything to me in a carrying case. He said since he has so many hobbies, he wanted to give me a chance to enjoy my hobby, taking pictures. He also signed me up for a 6 week photography course. I am sooo excited to start learning how to take semi-professional pictures. I have started to use it but am still learning so some of the pictures arent that great..But practice makes perfect (and a lot of reading of the ver thick owners manual). The reason he gave my present early is because he wanted me to have it for Alex's b-day and Thanksgiving..and of course cause its hard for him to keep a secret...

Who you callin' four eyes?!

Guess who had to get glasses... lucky me. Gradually my eyes have been getting worse once I am away from a computer and at night. My eyes just dont focus anymore. Lately I have been catching myself squinting which then turns into a headache. So I went to the eye doctor and she determined my right eye is dominant. The prescription is a small one, as the doctor said, so glasses are not needed all the time. But it was up to me. If I wanted to wear them all the time or just when I needed them. For a few days I tried wearing them all day but just could not get used to it. So I have decided to wear them only when needing to look far away and at night. So now when leaving the house I have added another item to the list of what to remember.

My black frames

My brown frames

Please and Thank You

Dougs pumpkin

My pumpkin Doug let me carve this one too

Okay so Im finally posting pics from Halloween. Sorry. Halloween night went really well. Alexandra went as Little Red Riding Hood. At first she didnt want to wear her red cape but then changed her mind. Grandma Thayer came along for the walk. We also met up with Kari, Rick, Lance and Kari's nieces. Lance was an adorable, I mean, scary Dracula. The kids went door to door saying trick or treat. well everyone except Alex. She couldnt say it. So I had her saying Please and thank you. There were only a few houses she didnt want to walk up to because they had some kind of large statue of a ghost or vampire or witch that scared her. Sometimes she would go when Lance held her hand. After a couple of hours we headed back to the house to hand out our candy.

Get this. It's past 9 oclock. We just get Alex into her jammies, settled down about to put her to bed when Lucifer starts barking madly at the front door. I look out the window and see kids. Doug opens the door and there are kids still trick or treating. Parents are sitting out in their truck in the middle of the road waiting for them. Doug gives them some candy and they are on their way. What the heck? Hello? There is a designated time frame for trick or treating for a reason. Some parents just dont think about others. And not to mention, the kids were rude. Doug specifically hands them teddy Graham crackers for their little sister... As Doug is handing them to one of the kids, the kid snatches it out of his hand, then tries to take the other candy that he was still holding onto... and noone said thank you...

Little Red Riding Hood

Dracula and his girlfriend Red

The first house we went to

Notice Lance in the back.. he was snatching more candy from a kids hand. I was laughing (bad Courtney, bad)

Daddy didnt want to walk anymore

Grandma Thayer decided she wanted a free ride so kicked Alex and Daddy out of the wagon

Lance was such a gentleman and held Alex's hand because, he said, "she is scared".

Greenwood cop passing out candy...Why did us adults say to each other when he pulled up with his lights on "What did we do?" ..... guilty conscience???

"What's My Name?"

I cant believe I forgot to share this....
So sometime a few weeks ago as I walk into daycare to pick up Princess Alexandra, she comes running as fast as she can to me. As she is running, normally, she would say "Me-Me!" or "Mommy!". Well not this time. I hear "Caurney" out of her little mouth. I just stood there in shock as one of the daycare ladies asks "Did she just call you Courtney?" Yep, she sure did.. and then it started... from then on at least once a day I hear her call me "Courney". Everytime, I will either ignore her until she says "Mommy" or I will ask her "What's my name?" .. sometimes I will get an immediate "Mommy" with a lil smile... and sometimes she will continue to call me by my name until she finally answers correctly. I wont let her continue to talk until she says it correctly. So now instead of calling out "Doug" all the time to Daddy (which of course he is gleaming from ear to ear because she passed that stage), she is now calling my name. It is cute at the moment because she will have this high pitch in her voice and she has that "not so innocent" look on her face... because knows what she is saying and she knows what she should be saying...

Picture Time!

Okay so I had some time at work to upload some pictures. I dont have all the pictures available here so there are more to come. Alexandra loves bubbles!

I asked Alex to smile and this is what I got.. what a smarty pants

Cousin Ethan and Alex. Giving out kisses before we left Aunt Ashley and Alex at the Light the Night Walk downtown

She was so bored sitting during a wedding reception
Look Me-Me! Grape! Past the bored-stage, starting to get tired so Mommy had to cuddle her Baby Doll

Pictures....

I have lots and lots of pictures to share. I would love to post them and have tried, but for some reason as I upload it times out and doesnt upload. So I will work on getting the pictures uploaded another time when the internet isnt so slow....

Punk-in Patch!

So it is Sunday evening and the lack of sleep over the weekend has caught up with me. Friday night my dad took Alexandra to spend the night with him. Alex, Papaw, Me-Maw and Ethan went to the Whitewater Valley Railroad in Connersville. There they rode a train to a pumpkin patch. Doug and I went birthday shopping for her and out to dinner. Saturday we didnt sleep in much as we had a few errands to run before Alex came home. Saturday evening Doug and I went to Tom's Halloween party. We had plans to dress up as gangsters. Doug had a costume that had a mask and blow up shoulders to make him look beefy and muscular. Yea, well while putting air into the shoulders, it blew up. He tried wearing the outfit without the shoulders but the jacket was so big and the mask didnt fit well. So he didnt end up dressing up. But I did dress up as a mafia chick. We stayed at Toms with a few friends till about 2:30 in the morning. Sunday we woke up and went to Watermans Fall Festival where we rode horses, went on a hay ride, and picked pumpkins in a pumpkin patch. When we got home and put Alex to bed for her nap, Doug and I fell asleep for a nap. Doug is now at his softball games while Alex and watch Dora and start to wrap up the weekend.
I thought I got enough sleep over the weekend, but apparently not. After I woke up from a nap, only because Alex woke up, I have been struggling to stay awake. I am so ready to take a bath and go to bed. I hope Alex wants to go to bed early.

Guess Who....

Just an update since the last time... We are set for Halloween, all three of us. Alexandra will be going as Little Red Riding Hood. We at first wanted a little devil costume, but everyone we found she would have to wear something on her head (hood with horns, headband with horns, etc). Knowing Alex and her temper when it comes to messing with her hair, she will not keep anything on her head. She will for a moment and then take it off. So when we were at target a few weeks ago we found Little Red Riding Hood. Yes she has a cape with a hood, but if she doesnt wear the hood up, it doesnt really matter as you can still tell what she is suppose to be. I found a cute lil picnic basket at Flower Factory, along with her black shoes and white tights. We were also thinking of bringing Lucifer along as the Big Bad Wolf, but Im sure Lucifer will want to eat the pointy ear and long tail we try to put on him. Anyone have a wolf we can borrow for an evening?
Doug and I were invited to a Halloween party this Saturday and advised dress up if you want. At first we werent going to, but as we were out and about looking for Alexandra's b-day decorations (which we didnt find what we wanted), we ran across several costumes we like. So we decided to dress up. We are going as a couple, dressed in the same motif, but Im not spilling the beans. I plan to take some pics and post them after the party. Then you can check our costumes out.... by the way, the costumes are nothing too extravagent... It's just exciting for Doug and I because, in the 11 years we have been together, we have never dressed up together for Halloween.

It's that time of the year again

Just around the corner will be Alexandra and my birthdays along with Christmas soon after that. Every year we always have someone asking us "What do you want" "Give us some ideas". Well of course right then and there we can never come up with ideas. Its always later on I think to myself "I would like that". So I decided to keep track of lists for each of us on here. At the moment I could only think of a few ideas for us three but am sure as the days go by a few more will come to mind. I plan to keep the list updated for each of us.

Yum Yum

As some of you are aware, I am in love with Post's Alphabits (yes bits, not bets) cereal. Love Love Love it. Back in the day, yes back in the day, like the 80's back in the day, I remember waking up Saturday mornings, making a bowl of Alphabits and sitting down to my favorite cartoons. The best part is when all the cereal was gone and left is the sugary milk to wash it all down. Mmmmm....Growing up and becoming the more mature woman I am, I dropped the "kiddie" cereal, eating only the healthy kind. When I was pregnant, I ventured out on a trip to Wally-World with one thing in mind,Alphabits, bought it, went back to work and started feeding the face...boy was I surprised to find that Post changed the ingredients to whole grain minus the sugar (something about being healthier)... let me tell you what... there is one thing to learn in life... Never mess with a pregnant womans food..especially if she is craving that and that only. Since then I could never look at a box of Alphabits in the store the same.
Well this weekend I was out and about in the local Walmart and ran across Alphabits again, only to notice they changed the look of their box. After my mom convinced me that they taste like the original, I trusted her, buying a box. Mind you, I advised her if it was the same nasty healthy crap as before I would be feeding it to the kid. Immediately reaching my vehicle, I took a taste test and guess what THE ORIGINAL INGREDIENTS ARE BACK! THEY RELAUNCHED WITH A NEW LOOK AND ORIGINAL TASTE!! Im super excited and am pleased to share my discovery with all. So next time you see me in the grocery store, bet you will find a box (or two) of Alphabits in my cart.
And yes, you will be proud to know I put my selfishness to the side and shared this magnificent cereal with my daughter. Which of course she loved and asked for more.

"Shoe please"

I just wanted to share something exciting (at least for Doug and I) that happened over the weekend. Alexandra put on her own sock and shoe... and she put it on the correct foot. I was totally shocked when she called my name into the room, asking for "Help please". She had just put on one of my socks and was having difficulty putting on the other. I asked her if she put the sock on by herself and she said "Yes". After we put on her other sock I told her to go show Daddy. And she did... "Daddy, Daddy, Look Sock, Sock". Then Sunday morning she insisted having her shoes on with her pjs. We didnt want to put her shoes on because she would then want to go outside. It was too early and chilly to go out and play. We kind of ignored her requests. I think she gave up on us and decided to do it herself. She put on her right shoe on the correct foot, but having trouble with the left. Thats when she called for me asking "Shoe please". So of course I had to put it on. She also knows how to get the knots out of her shoe strings. Which surprised me as I was dealing with a triple knot on one of her tennis shoes. She completely unknotted and untied her other shoe while waiting on me.

My First Haircut/Trim

Last weekend we decided to get Alexandra's hair cut. Its still slowly growing and looks like a mullet. Its not as bad as it used to be, but Im impatiently waiting for the hair on top of her head and sides to get longer. She has natural bangs that were getting a lil long and the back of her hair was growing unevenly. We took her first thing after breakfast last Sunday to Celebrity Cuts for Kids. The morning is her best time, so we wanted to make sure she was in the best mood ever. As we are walking in, we are stopped by a screaming crying boy that is being held down by his parents while getting his hair cut. Great! Perfect! Just what Alex needs to see before she gets her first hair cut. Of course Alex being the nosey one she is, walks up to the little boy, checking him out with a very puzzled look. We were able to distract her away from him to the toys, slide and other car chairs. She was able to pick out her own movie, which of course Disneys "Cars" was chosen as its one of her favorites. She also chose the pink Barbie jeep to sit in. As she watched the movie, the stylist put on a cape with a mermaid. Alex then started whining and lightly crying, reaching for Daddy to get her out. She settled down once the movie started and she had her paci and beary. She did really well, allowing the girl to trim the back of her hair and bangs. At first the stylist wanted to put layers in her hair, but I decided against it as I want her hair all one length. Plus its already thin enough. She also allowed the girl to blow dry her hair. She picked out two hair barretts that were placed in her hair. Over all she was perfect compared to some nightmare stories I have heard (and seen). It was not a long amount of hair cut, just mainly trimmed to get everything even. Now we are hoping this might boost her hair growth (but i have heard that just a myth).

Definitely time for a trimWaiting to leave, eating her "pish" crackers and watching cartoons

While waiting for the screaming kid to be done, she sat in some of the chairs. I thought PaPaw would like to see his granddaughter in a tractor She decided she wanted out, looking at Daddy and saying "Down"

Daddy keeping her entertained.

Starting to look like a girl and not a boy

Awwww pretty girl. We kept telling her how pretty she was. As she would say "Im preetty"

See the tear in her right eye? aaaawwww