Independence Day

Happy 4th of July!!!

I think every day is Independence Day for Alexa!! She loves to do things herself and test her mom and dad's limits pretty much all the time these days!! But oh how we love both of our "independent" little girls!!

We've had 2 days of fun celebrating the birth of our nation. Because of a forecast of rain for today, we moved our BBQ to yesterday afternoon. We all ventured out to Sarah R.'s parents' place and had a great time, great food and great conversation with great friends!

And, since it's tradition in our family, I HAD to make my flag cake! It's the 7th year that I've made this cake, I've been doing it since the year I met Kevin and I love it. But I think this year's cake is my favorite...

And here's a closer look! I really outdid myself!! ;-)

We topped the evening off with fireworks at the waterfront. I'm soooo glad they were doing them both nights as it's raining tonight and we wouldn't have gone. At first, Alexa wanted to go home when she heard the first booms...but we preoccupied her with guessing what colors each one was going to be and by the end, she was saying how the fireworks had helped her calm down!!

Then this morning, we started the morning off with red, white and blue pancakes (blueberry pancakes topped with whipped cream, strawberries and more blueberries)! Alexa LOVES pancakes, so these were a big hit with her.

Then we headed over to our community 4th of July celebration with friends - the Sonicos, the Tafoyas and the Curfews. We enjoyed browsing through the various booths and Alexa had fun in the jumping castle.

And we OF COURSE had to get a funnel cake! Last year, we had gotten THE biggest funnel cake and the Curfews who ordered theirs right after us, got one about 1/2 the size of ours...so Brittany was determined to get even this year. And lo and behold...ours was 1/2 the size of theirs!! Still tasty though!

We then enjoyed a vintage car parade to finish off our festivities! We had a great time and are so thankful for this country that we live in and the freedoms we enjoy. Happy 4th Everyone!

And Happy Canada Day a few days ago to all my Canadian peeps!!

Punkin' Girl

WOW...little Miss Payton is 2 months old! These past several weeks since she joined our family have gone by so quickly! We had her 2 month checkup this morning and these are her stats:

12 lbs, 12 oz (95th percentile)

21 3/4 " (25th percentile)

For comparison purposes, Alexa's stats at this age were 13 lbs 6 oz and 23". What a chunker she was!! :-) And here they are, both at 2 months. They are definitely sisters, and both definitely my daughters!!...but there are differences as well. I can actually see some of Kevin in Payton...yay, he really did have a part in all of this!! :-)

Anyways, Payton is such a joy. She has really started to smile now, just in the last couple days, which is so fun! She still isn't on much of a schedule at night but we're working that. She's growing like a weed. It's actually been quite hard on me as I've already had to put away several clothing items that she's grown out of. They really don't stay little very long, do they??!!!

One of my new favorite things is that Alexa calls Payton "punkin' girl". Apparently she hears me call both her and Payton "punkin" so often, that she's taken to saying it as well. I frequently hear her saying to Payton "it's okay punkin' girl" or "ohhhh, punkin' girl", or something else along those lines. It's pretty darn cute if you ask me!!

Alexa is a great big sister, she loves Payton so much!

Happy 2 Months Punkin' Girl!!