..::Got MUD??::..

This afternoon, the girls were playing outside and I noticed that Payton was playing in the dirt. She does this quite often as she likes to use a shovel and bucket...but never has she done THIS before!! After playing for awhile, she showed up at the patio door, saying "Num num num num!" and I saw her face. I immediately had to grab the camera!!

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And then later after dinner, the girls got oreo cookies for their family home evening treat and once again, her face looked like a muddy mess! At least it wasn't dirt this time!

Happy 4th Birthday Alexa!!

To say Alexa was excited for her birthday would be the understatement of the YEAR!!! She has been talking about her birthday since LAST November! Crazy girl! We've been counting down on the calendar for quite some time now and so she was absolutely elated, to say the least, to finally wake up this morning, on the anniversary of the day of her birth!!! I can't believe I have a FOUR year old! I know most of my friends from high school have kiddos MUCH older than Alexa...but it really just boggles my mind that my oldest baby is now a whole four years old! How did that happen???!!! :-)

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Anyways, we started out the day with chocolate chip waffles, a highly requested favorite of the birthday girl's!! Then she asked me if she could exercise! And, of course, Payton wanted in on the fun!! Nothin' like gettin' the blood pumpin' to get your party started, right??!!!

After getting ready for the day, Alexa got to go on a birthday errand to the post office to pick up her birthday package from her Gramma Jenny and Papa Ken. My mom had told her several days ago that something was in the mail and so I have heard non-stop, several times a day even, "mom, when is gramma jenny's present going to get here?"!! It's been fun!! :-) She was super excited to open it. Here's the video too, as promised Mom!! Enjoy!

Then it was onto the party!!! I think if Alexa could have invited every. single. person. that she knows, she would have!! We have been blessed with a lot of fun friends here, Alexa especially, and so it was hard to narrow it down! Here are the preparations for the party...can you tell Alexa is excited??? We took away nap time this week and so it was a looooooooong afternoon for the birthday girl before the party actually started!!

But FINALLY...it was time for friends to show up! And we had a great time! We played games, ate pizza, opened presents, cracked open a pinata and devoured cake and ice cream! It was fun had by all!!! THANK YOU to all of Alexa's wonderful and generous friends!

She was spoiled rotten!!! :-)

Drum roll please....here's the cake! She's been wanting a Dora birthday for pretty much the whole year and so I had a lot of time to think about what I was going to do for her cake. But when it came down to it, simple was what I decided. I think it turned out great though. She loved it and that's what counts, right?! And the bonus part...she gets to play with all the toys I used as cake toppers!!

And we can't forget the singing of the birthday song! I think this is Alexa's favorite part! Seriously. Her face lights up when she gets sung to, it's pretty cute!

Happy Birthday Alexa!

We love you so much!

...Just for Fun...

In all of the spare time that I have (chuckle), I've been having fun playing around with the editing features on www.picnik.com. Here are some recent photos taken in the past couple weeks.

I want to be...

I swear that my girls were born with the ability to walk in heels! From the time they both first learned to walk, they wanted to prance around in my shoes and the heels were always the favorite choice. Pretty darn cute, if you ask me!! :-)

[Payton: 18 Months]

On October 29th, Miss Payton turned 18 Months Old! The most exciting thing about this is that she is now old enough for NURSERY at church!!!! Yay!!! It's been a long time since I did a Payton update, not since she was 13 months old...so a LOT has changed. No longer is she a barely walking baby, but a full-fledged, running-all-over-the-place, talking toddler!

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We had her 18 Month Well Check and here are her current stats:

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25.4 lbs (64th percentile)

33 1/2 inches (90th percentile -

WHOA, where did that come from???)

Head: 47.5 cm (97th percentile)

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Some things that have happened in the past 5 months:

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*She had an urgent care and ER visit on 6/1/10 due to stomach issues

*She cut her first molar (left top) 7/22/10

*Started telling me she needed a diaper change by pointed to her bum 7/22/10

*Had her 15 Month Well Check 7/29/10: 23 lbs, 31 inches

*Her 2 bottom molars came through 9/4/10

*Her top right molar popped through 9/8/10

*Her bottom right lateral tooth finally came through 9/29/10

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She has started talking pretty much all the time. She's really in "parrot" mode right now, copying just about anything and everything we say. Most of it we can understand, or rather I can understand since I'm the one around her the majority of the time...but we do communicate rather effectively now, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it! Payton has just really grown up these past few months. She loves to torment her big sister and chase her around. They love to have races with their strollers and it's so much fun to see them playing together more and more.

I sure love my sweet girls!

On an Alexa note...the above picture was taken on October 24th, the day of Alexa's first Primary Program at church. She was sooooo excited to be a part of it and wasn't nervous at all. We'd practiced her little part and she had it memorized and just loved to be up there with all the other primary kids singing and saying their parts. It was so fun to sit back and watch her looking like such a big girl!

:::More Halloween Fun:::

October was a busy month...full of lots of fun things to do for Halloween. On October 27th, we had my friend Kristy comer over with her sweet kiddos, Logan and Allison, to make Halloween Sugar Cookies. The kids, well Alexa and Logan anyways, had a blast! I think they consumed more frosting than anything, but they sure had a good time!! Even Payton got in on the fun!!

On October 28th, we went to the library for their special Halloween Storytime. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so no pictures from that. But then on October 29th, IHOP was doing their Scary Face Pancake Day free for kids 12 and under!!! Woohoo....I have a hard time passing up free things! So off we went to IHOP where I enjoyed some yummy pumpkin pancakes while the kiddos enjoyed decorating their scary face pancakes. Thanks Tiffany and Kristy for joining in on our fun!!

That same night, we carried on the tradition of making jack-o-lantern pizzas. Alexa had so much fun! I'm sure Miss Payton will get into these festivities more next year!! :-)

And then we had to carve our pumpkin! We waited until the last minute because it's still so warm here that we didn't want our poor punkin' to shrivel up before All Hallows Eve!! Alexa really got into it this year. She was digging out the guts and everything.

And here's our finished product. There were no pictures of the actual carving process done by a VERY talented artist (also known as YOURS TRULY!!!)....mostly because I'm not really enjoying being in pictures during this whole pregnancy process!!! But I was pretty pleased with the outcome of our cute ghost!

And last, but certainly not least, we attended a Quad-Ward Trunk'R'Treat at our church last night. It was pretty crazy with 4 wards being in attendance but the girls had fun anyways. And my oh my if I don't have the cutest lion and witch ever!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL!

(Pumpkin Decorating)

The girls each got to pick out their own pumpkin at the pumpkin patch and then decorate them. We figure paint is a safer option for at least the next few years!! I think Payton thought she could eat the paint rather than actually paint with it but I'm sure she had fun!!

[Pumpkin Picking 2010]

We went up to Phoenix this weekend for several reasons...to go to the temple, to spend time with family, to see some friends and to go pumpkin picking. We had a great time at the temple, a fabulous time with old friends from Kentucky (thanks Adam and Erin for a yummy dinner, it was great to see you again!), and enjoyed our time at Kevin's sister's house (thanks Georganna for putting up with us, especially since Payton got sick!!). We also had so much fun picking out our pumpkins this year, although we surely miss Huber Farms in Indiana!! Hubers will always hold a special place in our hearts...but Vertuccio Farms in Mesa was also fun. There were many things for the kids to do and we had a great time with Georganna and Joshua!

Can you Tell who Is who???

I haven't done a comparison of the girls in a loooooooong time. And lately, several people have told me how much Payton looks like Alexa did at her age...so I thought it high time for another comparison! Can you guess which is which? Once you've decided, click on the picture to see the answers in the bottom corners!!

::Cutie Pie::

This little lady sure loves the camera! She immediately says "Cheese" as soon as I pull it out!! We sure love our cutie pie!!

~~Helping Daddy~~

We LOVE our wonderful Fall weather here in Arizona!! It's perfect for getting out on a Saturday morning and washing the cars! Yep, that's right...it's the beginning of October and Alexa is STILL in a swimsuit!!! I LOVE it!

..::Silly Girls::..

Yesterday, when Payton woke up from her nap, I was busy doing something (I'm sure it was important!!) and so Alexa went into her room to keep her happy until I could get in there. And this is what I found when I finally got there!! Alexa had gotten a little chair from her room and climbed on into Payton's crib...silly girls! Apparently, Payton thought it was great fun too!!

And Finally...

I've updated the blog and added several new posts today. However, THIS is the kicker!!

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Alexa & Payton have something to tell ya'll...

Yep, you guessed it...coming to a hospital near us in April 2011 is Baby #3!

"Just like you, Mommy!"

This morning, as I was getting ready and doing my own makeup, Alexa decided she needed to do her own too and proceeded to choose which colors she wanted...purple and blue! Great combination for making her look like she had two black eyes, don't ya think??!! At least I managed to get most of the eyeshadow off from underneath her eyes before we ventured out of the house this morning!

~~CAMPING~~

This past weekend, Alexa got to go on her very first camping trip, with her daddy and her grandparents. To say she was beyond excited is an understatement. And to say Kevin was beyond excited is an understatement too!! I opted out for any number of reasons...the biggest being that I just didn't want to deal with Payton and all of us getting NO sleep because of her not sleeping!! Anyways, Kevin has been dying to go camping for a very long time and so he was very excited to move home to Arizona and be able to take his kids camping where he used to camp as a kid. So, on Friday, we loaded him and Alexa up and they drove down to Elfrida to meet up with Kevin's parents (thankfully they were willing to go since they have all the camping gear!!), and then drove up to Rucker Canyon. And I'm pleased to report that they had a fabulous time, as evidenced by the pictures! Maybe one day I'll even venture on a camping trip...maybe!! ;-)