Dress up fun

One afternoon Annadele wanted to play tea party, and so Sarah thought we should dress up for it. We ended up not playing tea party, but having a fashion show with the misc. stuff in the dress up box. Although for Annadele, this is her purple princess butterfly outfit that she has to wear everyday.
A friend of mine recommended that we check out Fancy Nancy from the library. She said because my girls always look so nice and fancy she thought they would enjoy it. Oh how Annadele is my Nancy. She is only two and 1/2, but we had to do beauty parlor today, and I got to trim and paint her hand and toe nails. I couldn't stop at just her toes, but her hands had to be painted also.

Alex's 1st birthday

Alexandra had her 1st birthday. I can't believe it has already been a year since she was born. Mark really wanted to have a birthday party for her even though we had celebrated it in Utah. He had a work event going on the weekend of her birthday, but we decided we would celebrate it in October. But on her birthday we were invited to another little girls birthday. A co-worker of mine had her little girl Azalea on Sept 23rd and I had Alexandra on Sept 24th. They are one day apart. She invited us to Azalea's birthday party. It was really nice. Thanks to her parents they had it at the M Resort at the studio B buffet. It was really good. Crab legs, shrimp, lots of variety. Rated one of the best buffets in vegas, I found out later. It was fun to see Alex and Z interact with each other. One of their friends even had a daughter Annadele's age. Except for it being nap time, the girls and I had a good time. Mark was even able to make it for the last 20 min., and glad he did.





So last week we gave Alexandra her party on October 8th. It was so funny because if you asked Annadele who the party was for, it was for her. She was very excited. I got the house cleaned up, and I tried to reuse some balloons we had but the place I went doesn't sell the helium separate I would have to rebuy my balloons or buy new ones. I opted for no balloons. It is only her first birthday. She isn't going to rememeber. It was funny because Adele was worried we weren't going to have enough food. I was worried we would have too much. Plus there was no room in the fridge for left overs. She was trying to talk Mark into going and ordering more food an hour before the party. I had already talked him out of only making one pan of ziti instead of two. In the end, I was right. We had plenty of food. The hit was the egg rolls Tony was frying as people were arriving. I think every one had a good time. And people actually showed up. Although I did call everyone we had invited Thursday to find out if they were coming or not, so I knew how much food to prepare for. Annadele still thinks the presents are hers, but I guess that will come with time.

Play time and visits

I totally missed posting in July. I kick my self because I didn't even take any pictures of the 4th of July. It was Alexandra's first, and I missed it. We went to one of my old co-workers Angelica Hopgood's house. She has a daughter born the day before Alex's (even though she wasn't due til 2 wks after me). We just hung out and talked and ate food. It was low key. We were just glad to be invited. On the way home, we found the perfect place to watch the fireworks. It is really close to our home, and every where we looked we could see fireworks. The best part about it was no traffic. I think we plan to make it a traditional place to go.

My girls have been having a great time playing with each other. They built this tower of blocks one morning. I thought it was great team work, and pretty creative.

For Big Mommy's (Adele) birthday we went to eat at her favorite place when she comes to Vegas, In-N-Out. She wasn't there in person, but she was thought of and loved from afar.



I just love to see my two little ones play and make each other laugh. Plus they are so great when they are clean.





Adele has given Sarah a couple of the American Girl dolls, and gave the baby to Annadele. She had sent the matching pj's awhile ago, but they were too big for her. Now they fit, and I had to get a pic of Mommy and baby. It was freaky how much the baby doll looked like Alex when she was 4 or 5 months old.


One thing I have been doing with my girls is taking them to the library for story time. They had a special performance with Jim Gill that I took them too. We all had such a good time. I even had to buy one of his cd's, and a book. I told Sarah I would buy both, but the book she would have to wait to open at Christmas time.



We had the Sorenson's stay with us on their way to Cailfornia, and then again on their way back. Mark went all out for breakfast. He had Emiko help him make cat head biscuits and gravy. It was yummy! They did a great job. : )









On their way home, they stayed again. I took them to M&M world. We saw the 4 floors of the store, watched the little movie they had, and then it was time to go home. I would have liked to show them a few more places, but everyone was tired and worn out. Three days of Disney Land and they had had enough. That just means they have to come back to visit again. Mark made a delicious dinner of prime rib, mashed potatoes, veggies, rolls. Sarah and I had made cookies the night before. I don't think any one went hungry that night. Kimi and I stayed up way to late that night chatting, but it was so fun to have girl time. It took me a couple of days to recoup, but can't wait for another good time at our reunion.

Sarah had a birthday shout Hooray!!

We celebrated Sarah's 9th birthday last week. It was a busy day, but I think she had a great day. She was going to have her party at a bouncy house and then decided to make it a swim party. The girls met at Jen's house. Mark, his niece Rachel, and his mom all went swimming. I decided to stay home with the girls so they could get a nap in, and then pick up the pizza later. (Little girls with out naps makes for a very long day.) The girls came back to Jen's house to play games, eat pizza, and have donuts. Sarah's sisters love her so much they just wanted to be in the middle of it all. Sarah isn't a big fan of cake so she decided she would rather have donuts instead. Her mom and her saw this idea on a show. Krispy kream donuts didn't have the strength to hold and kind of got smooshed together. But they still tasted good.


Later that night, we ate at the food court of the Santa Fe, and then went bowling. Rachel is on a bowling league back in New York, so she kicked our butts. But we all had a good time. We ended the day going to Cold Stone for ice cream. We dropped Sarah off at her mom's. And a few hours latter, Mark dropped off his parents, and niece at the airport. It was a busy day, but a good one.

Alexandra turned 9 months on Friday. She is growing and developing too fast for her mama's sake. She is crawling all around and standing up. Not really cruising yet, but I am sure that will come. She has 7 teeth and 2 more coming in. She just started saying mama. I love it. Now I am trying to get her to say dada.
Alex and Annadele are great daughters. I love to see them interact with each other, and make each other laugh. Annadele has eczema all over her body. She loves to be in the water, but I think I need to limit how much she is in the pool. We bought a kiddy pool to put in our back yard. She would want to go outside and help water the plants, and then start undressing her self right outside so she could go in the pool. We emptied out the pool so she can't go in to try to help her skin. The sad part is that we just got a membership to the YMCA across the street which has a great pool. We went for the first time on Friday, but I don't think I can go back for a few days until her skin is looking better. The poor girl has scratch mark all over her body. I have a cream the doctor gave me, but it seems to work for a little while and then it comes back. I bought her a good lotion, and I am trying to moisturize her twice a day. I hope it helps.

Just got great news from Mark. He passed his series 65 test. I am not sure what this allows him to do (something with investing), but I know he is the first person in his office to complete it and pass. Everyone else has failed thus far. Go Mark!!!

The fart stirkes again

So Mark and I are in Sam's Club, and he likes to get a drink and a hot dog. It is cheap and easy. I am off shopping while he does this. He is just leaving putting the condiments on the dog, and he leaves a silent but deadly fart. A woman just purchased a hot dog and is coming to put condiments on her hot dog. She sniffs the dog, and smells something noxtouis. She smells the dog again, and then throws it away.
What am I going to do with my man? He tells me the story, and I am laughing so hard I am crying. Poor woman will probably never buy a hot dog from Sam's Club again, and all because of my husband.

Cruise pics

I tried to copy at least 20 other photos. But it didn't work. I will try again later.

Crusin

I can't believe it was just a month ago we were on our cruise. I think for the most part we had a good time. Unfortunately for me, I got sick right before we left, and didn't fully recover until after I was home. So we left Las Vegas Saturday morning to ensure we would be to the dock Sunday morning. I was hoping by having all of that time on Saturday we would be able to jump start our vacation and relax and have fun. Well, I was relaxing, or more importantly just trying to breathe. I was so congested I couldn't breathe out of either nostril. I have had colds before, but this was a doozy of a cold. But at least it wasn't the flu.:) Needless to say, I wasn't sleeping well, and Sat. night Annadele wasn't sleeping well either. The one nice thing is that Mark was able to see his college friend Maria. He took the kids so I could try to take a nap. What a good husband! They went to a mall that was near by, and Sarah and Annadele tried on hats.

We got to the dock, and registered to board the ship. Then we had to wait for the ship to be ready to board. It was rainy and cold. I got a kick out of all the people wearing flip flops and shorts. The first thing you do when you board the ship is go to the buffet area, and have lunch. They don't have your rooms ready yet, and it allows them time to get the luggage to the rooms. Plus after waiting a couple of hours to board, most people are hungry and ready to eat. I will refrain from posting most of the pics of food. But if you want to see it go to Mark's facebook page.
I think the first thing we noticed was all of the pink dots on the boat, and then the lido deck.

It is the same place as the buffet area. It was nice with the pool and the big screen. In the morning, they would be playing world news, and at night they would feature a movie.
Tuesday was our first day at port in Cabo San Lucas. We had scheduled a driver to take us around the town.

The binki

After two days in a row of having Annadele throwing a fit because we weren't letting her have her binki (after she had gotten out of her crib because it is only for sleeping times), we decided to get ride of it sort of. It is something that needed to happen sooner than later, but it has been a rough couple of weeks since we did it. The second day Mark and I looked at each other, and said lets do it. Maybe a cruel thing to do, especially when we cut the tip off right in front of her. But I let daddy be the mean guy.
The consequence of it has been her sleeping habits and ours for that matter. The first week I think she woke up almost every hour or two, and needed to be held and comforted. I felt like I had a new born again, but at least dad can help out with this. Even her nap time was affected by it. But I am glad to say that I think the roughest part is behind us. Which is good since we will be on vacation next week. Now Annadele just wants to hold her binki. This is fine with me as long as I don't have to try to find it in the middle of the night. She still wakes up sometimes, but I am glad to have my little girl back and not a little monster.
The next new thing will be moving her into Sarah's room, and moving Alex into the crib, but that will have to wait for a couple of weeks. Mexico here we come. We are so excited to be taking a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. I am a little nervous how Annadele and Alex will do, and me for that matter with sea sickness. But hopefully we will have a great time. Need to book a couple of excursions. If nothing else, I know I will be eating good food that I didn't have to cook or do the dishes. Yay!!!

Birthday and umpa lumpa

Annadele turned 2 years old on March 9th. She is such a delightful daughter. I love seeing her grow and develop. One of her favorite things to do when we go to Walmart is to see the fish. So we thought we would add to our family and get some fishies. We have one red, one blue, two sucker fishes, and one frog. It has been fun for the whole family to watch them swim around and interact with each other. And I am okay with it as long as I don't have to clean the tank.



We had a great time seeing family in Utah. The time is always too short. It was hard to leave not knowing when I will be back, but greatful for Manda and Myndie for letting me stay with their families. But life goes on and I needed to be here to see Sarah do a presentation for school. Her class had to invent a candy machine. The teacher had the kids pretend they worked in Willy Wonka's candy shop. So for a few minutes she is a umpa lumpa (?). Her project is called the wheel of WOW. I think the class had a good time creating their inventions, and then presenting them to their parents.

Happy Valentine's...I'm Back

Ok so it has been exactly a year ago since I have blogged. I hope that will not be the norm, and I am going to try to make it not. My intent today is just to get on and start this up again. Some day soon there will be a very long post to recap 2010. But my father-in-law is coming tomorrow, and I need to get some things done that I wouldn't normally worry about.
The Andal's are doing well. Alex just had her 4 month appointment last week. She is 14 lbs 5 oz. I have no idea where she is because my doctor doesn't tell you, but she seems healthy and doing well. They say she should be turning over by now. She has done it but only a few times. I guess I need to give her more tummy time. She is a sweet thing, and usually fast to give a smile.