WHY AM I YELLING????

This is by far one of my favorite videos of Alexa! She gets in these moods where she "tells" us exactly what she's thinking and she's VERY adamant about it. Definitely in your best interest to listen to what she has to "say" especially when she's on her very own "soap box"!!! It's pretty funny...she sure knows how to make us laugh!

Take Me Home, Country Roads...

Picture it, Sicily, 1912...okay, not really...but how 'bout Leavitt, Alberta, Canada, 1980, and I (Collette) am standing in the center of my Grandma Leavitt's kitchen table, singing "Chunky" Roads (aka Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver). It was my favorite, or so I'm told. I could barely talk but apparently could sing this song!! I don't remember being such a ham (I guess we know where Alexa gets it though!!), but my Grams did record it for posterity so I know for a fact that it actually happened. I'd be singing for everyone to hear and then would say "evwebody cwap" and then would start singing again.

Well, since we live so close to West Virginia, I really wanted to go there (for those of you who are not familiar with the song, it is about WV) and when my mom found out we were going, she insisted that I HAD to sing the song again. So here it is...American Idol, here I come!!! JUST kidding!!

Spring Break 2008 - West Virginia

Springtime Fun!

Last Friday, we had some very beautiful, almost summer-like weather AND Kevin had the afternoon off from school....so we took advantage of both and went to the park. Alexa had sooo much fun being outside. She gets quite upset now when we have to go back indoors. We're definitely looking forward to more days like this one!

A late Easter entry...

I forgot I took this video of Alexa checking out her Easter basket on Easter morning. She was still in her just waking up state where we usually cuddle for a few minutes before she's ready to eat breakfast, but as soon as she saw the little shopping cart, she wasn't content to just cuddle on the couch!

Happee Easters!

I know it's a few days late posting the Easter pics....but better late than never!! We had a wonderful Easter. It's such a great time to remember the sacrifice our Savior made for us and a fabulous time to spend together as a family. Alexa was definitely more into the whole celebration part of it this year. She enjoyed meeting the Easter Bunny, seeing the floats at the parade and opening up her Easter basket on Easter morning. And I enjoyed my Easter lillies that Kevin surprised me with! Flowers twice in one week, how lucky can I get??!!! Happy Easter everyone, we hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Easter Parade

I took Alexa to the Frankfort Avenue Easter Parade with my friend, Waveney, and her kids. It was cold that day, but we had a fun time and the kiddos got a ton of candy!! So much for buying Easter candy!! We'll know for next year!

Birthday Week Finale

Thank you to my wonderful husband for making my birthday week a fabulous one. He left me notes each morning and then surprised me with a real date on Saturday night. We went to a fancier restaurant, Porcini's, on Frankfort Avenue. It's one we've been wanting to try but needed a special occasion to justify it! Turning 30 was definitely a special occasion!! Anyways, the food was great and my date was everything I could ever ask for. I love you, Kevin!

16 Months Old!!

Well, we have a full-fledged toddler on our hands. Alexa turned 16 months old today and she's such a little girl. It seems like only yesterday that I was holding her for the first time, yet it feels like she's always been a part of our family. We can't imagine life without her. She keeps us very busy and very entertained!! She's walking, running, climbing, talking and hamming it up!! As of today, she's able to say many things...to an extent anyways, mostly I just understand her....for example: zooz (shoes), peez (please), ite (light), hi, bye bye, ba-ba (baby), mama, dada, dis (this), uhzat (what's that), oh yeah. She's definitely getting quite the vocabulary and even though it's still limited, she understands sooooo much more! She makes us laugh all the time and then realizes she was funny and so she laughs herself, it's quite cute! We hope you all enjoy the pictures from the last few weeks!

Random Pictures

Happy Birthday to ME!!

I have had THE most wonderful day!! Turning 30 has never been so fun! Okay, so I've never turned 30 before but if I were to do it again, I couldn't imagine a more perfect day, despite the incessant rain! It started out with my fabulous friend Waveney taking me out for brunch. After some tasty stuffed french toast at IHOP, we came back to my place and my friends, Rachael and Erin, showed up with some birthday treats/surprises. We had a fun visit while the kiddos played and then my friend Amanda came over in the afternoon. She bought me a super cute skirt that I can't wait to wear! Anyways, all day long, I had phone call after phone call from family and friends, not to mention emails and cards. Thank you to everyone near and far who shared in my big day! You all are wonderful!

My most favorite part of the day was spending time with my two most favorite people in the whole wide world! Kevin and Alexa had scoped out a fun little Greek restaurant on Frankfort Avenue last week and so Kevin took us there for dinner. He said Alexa picked it out especially for Mommy's birthday! Kevin also surprised me with the beautiful tulips you see below and two very funny cards, one from him and one from my sweet baby girl! We enjoyed a yummy dinner and then came home for some family bonding time before Alexa went to bed. I am truly blessed to have them in my life. And to top it all off, Kevin made me a cheesecake (my fave) which we enjoyed a nice slice of this evening. Mmmmmmmm, I'll probably dream about it tonight!

Alexa was very excited for her Mommy!

Enjoying some family bonding!

Thank you again to my handsome husband, my darling baby girl, and my wonderful friends and family. You all have brightened my day and made this a very Happy Birthday to me! Go Thirty!!

Pre-Birthday Celebrations!!

As many of you know, I am hitting a pretty big milestone tomorrow....yeppers, the BIG 3-0!! Now, I have absolutely NO problem turning 30 as it means I get another birthday and I LOVE birthdays! AND... my life is sooooo much better at 30 than it was at 20!!! Anyways, my girl Nancy from Calgary came to visit me (she leaves tomorrow morning) and we have been having a grand time. Her birthday was March 6th and so we celebrated for her and then she's been spoiling me for mine. It's been fabulous. Nancy....a quick shout out to you...THANK YOU so much! It's been so fun having you here. We're all going to miss you! On Friday night, we went to the Michael Bublé concert. This is us being...well..."us" right before we left for the concert. Nancy is friends with the guys in Naturally 7 who was opening up for Michael Bublé and so we were able to get tickets on the floor, row 14!! It was awesome. Thank you to Rod for that!! Anyways, if you don't know who either Michael Bublé or Naturally 7 are, you NEED to check them both out. It was an AMAZING concert!! We had so much fun. Naturally 7 on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6RkXM4dIos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5MkNOXSdkA Here are a few pics of our evening:

The boys of Naturally 7!!

Us enjoying Naturally 7! Yes, Nance blinked but doesn't her eye makeup look amazing???!!! :-)

Ahhhh....Michael Bublé, he's definitely one of my new faves!

And us again, this time enjoying Michael Bublé!

And here we are with the group. They all signed my CD and then they even sang Happy Birthday to me! It was so fun. I'm kicking myself that I didn't record it on my camera but oh well! Thanks to Hops for getting the other guys to do it! Nancy is super jealous since she's the one that's friends with them and they didn't sing her Happy Birthday even though her birthday was just a couple weeks ago!! Tee hee hee! Anyways, it was such a fun night and a great way to kick off the birthday week celebrations!

Snowy Day!

Winter Storm 2008

This is by far the most snow we've seen since moving to Louisville almost 3 years ago. We were spoiled with our first two winters here but have now had a more typical winter so far this year. It's pretty humorous to us though to see everyone's reaction to weather like this. For those of us from Canada or have lived in Canada, this is NUTHIN'....but to the majority of Louisville-ians (native and transplant), this is insane. The roads get pretreated ("brined") about 2 days prior to the anticipated snow, people stock up on food, sand, shovels, etc., and schools/businesses get cancelled before a single snowflake falls from the sky. We just sit back and chuckle! Anyways, I digress....we took Alexa outside to experience the snow firsthand for the first time. We aren't well equipped in the snow apparrel, but we seemed to do okay. And as long as Alexa wasn't in super deep snow, she seemed to enjoy it. We'll post a couple of the videos so you can share in our experience!

Tackled!

Get him! Got him! Good! All tuckered out!

Playing with Daddy is fun to do, fun to do, fun to do...Playing with Daddy is fun to do, to do, to do, to do!