Playing at the Granets

The Granets

While we were in Elfrida, Kevin wanted to have Alexa experience some of the fun things he used to do growing up. So we played on the trampoline and we went to the highschool to shoot the basketball around and we also went up to the Granets (sp?)...a cluster of rocks where the Apache Indians used to live. There are holes where the Indians used to grind their corn. It's pretty cool and we had a lot of fun exploring, Alexa even liked to taste the rocks.

Walking, walking and more walking!

As we've mentioned before, Alexa started walking while we were in Arizona. She had taken a few steps here and there prior to leaving, but she really took off once she saw her cousins getting around so easily on two feet! And since we've been home, she's become so much more steady on her feet and now really prefers to just walk all the time instead of walk until she falls and then crawl the rest of the way...now she'll walk, fall and get up and walk again. It's pretty fun to see her growing and accomplishing new things. Here are a couple videos of her early attempts at walking and some cute pics too.

And she's WALKING!!

Showing off her skills!

More Walking

Playing with Ainsley

Alexa had so much fun playing with her cousin Ainsley. Ainsley has a fun bus push toy that Alexa loved to sit on while Ainsley pushed her around the house. We look forward to living closer to them in a couple years so that Alexa and Ainsley can play together all the time!!

Beep Beep

Playing in Grandma's Cupboards!

Once Alexa figured out the whole opening cupboards thing, there was no stopping her. She LOVED exploring in Grandma Mortenson's cupboards.

Traveling Fun...

Alexa was a great little traveler on our trip to Arizona for Christmas. She was such a big girl in her very own seat on the plane. She loved the armrests and kept trying to do up her own seatbelt. She also did really well in the car...and we spent a lot of time in the car!! We planned it so she'd be right ready for a nap as soon as we'd get in the car and then we'd just try and keep her entertained once she woke up. You can see she had her sleepy times, her happy times and her not so happy times. Kevin and I also enjoyed ourselves!!

Our Trip to Arizona

Our Happy Girl

Cute Christmas Cousins

What we'd give to know what Alexa is thinking in this picture!!! All dressed up! Giving loves!

Update on Christmas

Hello again....I finally have a minute to sit at the computer and decide which of the hundreds of pictures (literally - we took almost 200 pics) of our trip to Arizona that I want to post here on our blog. We had a wonderful time spending Christmas with Kevin's family in Arizona. Thank you soooo much to his parents for making it possible for us to come home...especially with their announcement that they'll be going on a mission this year and won't be around for the next couple of Christmases. It made it extra special knowing it might be awhile before we see them again! Thank you also to both Kevin's brother Duane and his family and Kevin's parents for letting us invade your homes while we were there. Alexa had a fabulous time with her cousins and exploring new surroundings. We've hit another milestone with her....she's now walking everywhere. We knew it would just take some visual encouragement from her slightly older cousins! Despite some bruised knees and bottom....she's loving her newfound independence. She still looks a little "drunk" when she walks but we think it's rather cute. We had a great time hanging out with family that we don't get to see that often and we really enjoyed being home in Elfrida where Kevin got to share some of his favorite things with Alexa...like going to the Granets (sp?). Travelling with Alexa went okay, we used curbside checkin for both our flights and it was fabulous - we can handle tipping a couple bucks if we don't have to haul our luggage or stand in long lines!!! We were even able to manage getting the extra seat on our row both ways so that Alexa had her very own seat which made the flights much more bearable. All in all, we really did have a great time and hope to see family again soon!

Christmas in Arizona!

13 Months Old...

Well, Alexa is 13 months old today. The one year mark has come and gone. We're in Arizona now so there won't be any pictures with this post but we'll add lots more once we get home. We're excited for Alexa's 2nd Christmas - technically anyways, but it's really her 1st that she knows what's going on. She's been having so much fun with her cousins here in Arizona and having lots more room to run (or still crawl - half walk) and play. We'll update more after Christmas. We hope all our family and friends have a very Merry Christmas wherever they are.

Christmas in Kentucky

Christmas has come a little early to us this year. Because we're leaving in the morning to go to Arizona for the holidays, we decided to have our own little Christmas here in Kentucky last night so that we didn't have to haul everything with us just to bring it all back. We had a great time. Alexa really seemed to enjoy the presents, opening them and looking at them and playing with them. We bought her this stuffed horse that says Kentucky on it because she's our Kentucky baby and she gave it a love as soon as she opened it up. That was amazing to us because she's not really into stuffed animals or dolls yet, or at least hasn't shown any interest in them until now and she loves her horsie. Anyways, we had a fun night and now are looking forward to spending the real Christmas with Kevin's family in Arizona! Merry Christmas everyone!!

Christmas in Kentucky

Happy Holidays!

Alexa all dolled up in her Christmas dress. We even managed to put bows in her hair!

Let me out!!!

I'm not an animal!! Please...no pictures! Peek!

Big Steps....

Well, Alexa has finally decided to start walking....almost. She's been cruising around furniture for months now and has had great balance for that long too but finally decided to take her first steps last week. We were over at my good friend Rachael's house for a playdate with her little guy, Nathan, and Alexa just decided to take her first few steps. I guess being around Nathan who is 4 months older was good incentive! Anyways, so she had taken a few steps here and there over this past week but still really prefers to crawl. I know she knows how to walk...she gets this gleam in her eye when I try to coach her to walk and then smiles and starts crawling, the little stink!! :-) But then again yesterday, at another playdate with Rachael and Nathan, Alexa took 6 consecutive steps. There must be some sort of magic at Rachael's house!! We haven't been able to get her to do that again...but I know with Christmas right around the corner and us heading off to Arizona, Alexa will want to be just like her older cousins, and will be walking circles around us in no time!!

Pretty in Pink

It's funny....when I was younger, I HATED the color pink. As I got older though, I came to accept that it was an alright color but since having Alexa, have come to LOVE the color pink. It is just the most perfect color for her. She is definitely a girly girl and will most likely always be dressed in pink the majority of the time! Yay PINK! Anyways, these two pictures were just too cute to not post!

A fun new trick...

One of Alexa's new favorite things to do is sit on the coffee table. It's almost like a new babysitter because she LOVES it and will sit up there for quite some time before getting bored. We tried catching her normal routine on camera, which consists of constantly moving around on her belly and doing circles, etc....but she decided to show off how well she can clap. She knows when the camera is on and purposely does something different!!

Cute, cute, cute!!

Alexa showing off her acrobatic skills! And her cute new pigtails that we can do now that her hair is longer!! We're really excited about that!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and even got to celebrate twice. On Thursday, we had all 6 missionaries serving in our ward over for turkey dinner. Elders Peralta and Calahan even made the turkey and it was mmm... mmm...good! He really did a fabulous job on it. We were impressed. Then on Friday, we celebrated at some friends in the ward and there were about 10 couples in all. There was a lot of food, a lot of people and a lot of fun. We had a great time and enjoyed spending the holiday with good friends we've made here in Kentucky!

She's got skills!!!

Alexa has discovered playing with balls. She was having so much fun and we're excited we caught it on camera. She just kept throwing the ball and chasing after it. She really does keep us constantly entertained with all the new things she's learning!

To all those who have "tagged" me....

Okay, I've been meaning to do this for some time now....I hate to be a party pooper but I just haven't had the chance to respond to anyone's tags. And I hope I'm not offending those who have tagged me by not passing it on. I've never been one of those to respond to chain letters/emails or anything of that nature so as much fun as it is to read about other people, I'm going to forego writing about myself. I'd much rather continue to use my blog time by adding pictures of my sweet little girl!!

Random Pictures - Oct/Nov 2007

Birthday Pictures - 1 Year Old!!!

Happy 1st Birthday, Alexa!!!

Our baby girl is no longer a baby....Alexa turned 1 year old yesterday, November 20th. She's such a little girl now. We've had fun doing birthday stuff all week. Seeing as every few years Alexa's birthday will be on Thanksgiving, we decided we'd better get her used to not always celebrating on her actual birthday and since her mommy gets a birthday week, we figured she could too!! So we've had friends over and have had cake and cupcakes and more cake...it's been a fun few days. Alexa loved the cake, she was covered head to toe in pink icing and chocolate cake! We've attached a few videos of the cake experience as well as many pictures for ya'll to see. We can't believe it has already been a year since Alexa joined our family but we are so grateful for the joy she has brought into our lives. We love her sooooo much and wish she could see her extended family more! Thank you to all those who have shared in her birthday, near and far!

woops!

This is how I found Alexa in her crib this morning. She slept fabulously last night - from 7:00 pm until 9:00 this morning. I had bought her some new jammies a couple weeks ago but they fit her just perfectly and since she still needed some more jammies, I bought some that were a bit bigger....I guess they're just a little too big right now!! I thought it was pretty cute though!

If you look closely in the 2nd picture, you can see part of Alexa's jack-o-lantern grin. She's had her two bottom teeth for some time but now also has her two laterals on top and one central. So she's waiting for one more of her top middle teeth. It's pretty much adorable!

Fun in the leaves

The beautiful fall colors are one of the reasons why we enjoy living in Kentucky right now. Alexa had so much fun playing in the leaves. It was hard to get her to sit still long enough to take a picture...she just wanted to go, go, go!

Flippin' Fun Fantastic Festive Fall Frenzy Festival!!!

Our wonderful friends Brinn King and Sarah Ripperdan threw a fall festival on Saturday night. We, as couples, each had to come dressed up and were given different highschool "themes". We had the Rednecks, the Cheerleaders, the Hunters, the Preppy/Jocks, the Nerds, the PDA couple (Public Display of Affection) (that was us!!), the Hoodlum's (sp??) and the Hall Monitor. As you can see, everyone did a fabulous job of dressing to the nines! It was a very fun night. We are so blessed to have a great group of friends here in Kentucky.

All ready for church...

More Halloween Fun!