A fun surprise!!

Okay, so I've FINALLY found a few minutes and some energy to sit down and update our blog. Between Christmas, this pregnancy, a new calling at church, illnesses (Alexa, Kevin AND myself), and just every day life...it's taken me awhile to find some time to tackle this daunting task!! So get ready to sit tight, you may want some popcorn or something to snack on cuz it's gonna be a long one...bear with me!!

On December 17, 2008, we flew to Canada and surprised my family. My little brother, Sam, got married on Dec 19th and when he had first gotten engaged, the price of tickets to Canada were just way too expensive. But about a month later, I was checking prices again and lo and behold...they were almost 1/2 the price they had been. So we decided to bite the bullet but thought it would be fun to surprise everyone since they all thought we for sure wouldn't be able to make it. And boy was the month long of keeping it a secret well worth it...the reactions were great...lots of tears, hugs, screams, more tears, more hugs...you get the picture!

Here we are starting off on our journey! Alexa did so great on the plane. She had her very own seat this time (that we had to pay for anyways) and she loved the snacks provided, the portable DVD player (a must for any parent traveling with a toddler), and riding on the tram "choo-choo" at the Houston airport.

We went first to my sister, Jenn's house, where we planned on staying (even though she had no clue!!). Alexa immediately fell in love with her cousin Max (in a purely platonic way of course!!). She LOVES boys, just gets along better with them for some reason, and so I knew this would happen. It helped immensely to have someone to play so easily with her while we were there. Both Max and Norah became Alexa's new best friends!! They all played so well together!

As I mentioned before, the reason we went was for my little brother's wedding. I'll post on that next so as not to take away from his special day in this novel of a blog post!!

Here is Alexa giving Grandma and Grandpa Baker their Christmas present from us.

And us saying "Cheese" for the camera!

I absolutely LOVE this picture. You all know that Alexa loves shoes. Actually, "loves" might be an understatement to how she really feels about shoes...anyone's shoes. Here she had gotten a hold of my dad's slippers and obviously was having the time of her life!!

Another fun part of the trip was getting to see one of my best friends, Stacey Gibb, whom I hadn't seen in almost 3 years. She had been pregnant with her first the last time we saw each other and now she's expecting her third...wow, time flies when you're having fun!! Anyways, we enjoyed a fun afternoon with the Gibbs and it was so great to meet her two little ones, Lucas and Chloe and for her to meet Alexa. I think both our pregnancy brains got the best of us because we didn't think to take pictures of all of us. Oh well, maybe next time...in another 3 years! :-)

Just a few pics of our fun times. Alexa wanted to go to bed with Max and Norah every night instead of in her own bed. And Max loved his Uncle Kevin!!

On our second last night there, we had a family dinner at Jenn's and my little sister, Benita, brought Santa hats for us all. If you look closely, you'll notice Alexa is NOT in the picture...she apparently had an aversion to Santa hats that night and kept hiding behind the corner and trying to take everyone's hats off. Silly girl!

Me & Benita...good times, good times!!

I can't post a picture of our trip to Canada without commenting and displaying how freakishly cold it was. The temperatures plummeted right before our trip (how fabulous!!) and the snow continued to fall, and fall....and fall!!! Just take a gander at these pictures! The first is my sister's neighbors' yard. Kevin thought it was insane how much snow was piled on their patio table set!

And this is Jenn's backyard...again, Kevin found it crazy how much snow was on the car. As you can see...there's not a footprint to be found in said snow. It was too darn cold for anyone to go out and enjoy it!

And this is my favorite...Jenn's neighbor across the street had snowman, snowman, snowman, who once was tall, tall tall...but in the sun he melted, melted, melted...and very quickly came to an untimely death. Poor snowman!

On our last day prior to flying home, we went to my sister Katrina's house in Airdrie. We even coerced my newly married brother and his bride to come join us since we didn't know when we'd be seeing them again. (Actually, no coersion was necessary since I'm his favorite sister!!!). :-) Anyways, here is Alexa with Katrina's little Lenaia. Notice the shoes on both of them!

My sister Tausha also came out and here is Alexa playing with both her girls, Mikayla and Madison.

And finally we got some pictures with my little brother! Alexa also decided to make herself right at home in Trina's pantry!

And here's us with the new happy couple. Congratulations Sam & Clarissa!

Grandma Jenny couldn't get away without some one-on-one time with Miss Alexa. They would dance and dance all over the place and Alexa loved it!

Back at Jenn's that night, Alexa and Norah had so much fun playing peek-a-boo/hide-and-go-seek in the front closet.

I even got to spend some time with another one of my best friends, Nancy. She's fabulous...thanks for keeping our secret Nance!! We had a great time seeing you and thanks for spoiling us as well!

We had a great time in Canada, despite the frigid temperatures! :-) We enjoyed visiting with family and friends, 7-11 slurpees (trust me, they're just better in Canada) and most especially being there for Sam and Clarissa's wedding!

Phew...you made it!! Pat yourself on the back! :-)