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