Leaves are falling all around...

...On the housetops, on the ground.

Leaves are falling on my nose,

On my head and hands and toes.

Who doesn't love playing in piles of leaves??? Alexa & Jonny sure do!

Miss Alexa looked like a LION when all was said and done!!

Earlier in the day, we ventured to the zoo as we've been enjoying some unseasonably warm weather! As always, we enjoyed looking at the animals and Payton even got to experience her first swing ride! She loved it. You can't really tell from the video, but she was laughing and having a great time! Anyways, we hope this weather lasts so we can enjoy more fun outings!!

For Gramma Jenny!!

Happy Birthday Gramma Jenny!

We love and miss you too much!

Love,

Alexa & Payton

Picture Fun

As you've probably noticed lately on my blog...I've been having fun playing around with my photos. This is no exception. We took the first photo after Alexa's first Boo at the Zoo, so we repeated it again last year. But we didn't park in the same spot this year and it was a cloudy day the day we went to the zoo and so it just didn't happen. But on the morning of Halloween, my wonderful friend, Amanda, took our family pictures downtown. As we wrapped it up and were walking back to the car, I snapped the last picture as Alexa and Kevin had walked on ahead. I thought it showed the transition though...first she can't walk, then she's still pretty little and tuckered out after walking through the zoo, and finally, she's such a big girl now! I can't believe my baby is almost THREE!

Halloween Finale

I got this cute idea from my niece, Brianna...aren't these pizzas so fun??!!! Alexa made hers all by herself and was soooo proud of it. We were invited over to some friends' house for dinner last night after trick-or-treating, so we made these pizzas for our dinner today to complete our Halloween festivities. What a fun way to top things off!! Thanks Bri for the idea!

Halloween 2009

We've had a lot of Halloween fun this year! Boo at the Zoo, our ward Trunk'r'Treat...and now actual Halloween! Alexa was so excited to show our neighbor, Jonny, her costume. Here she is knocking on her first door! Aren't our little ladybug and football player so cute??? And we can't leave out the baby ladybug and the baby lion! Adorable!! We love having such fun neighbors!

And we concluded another fun family tradition...trick'or'treating down Hillcrest Avenue. Everyone on this street, both sides, go ALL out for Halloween. Thousands of people head here for their Halloween fun...and it just happens to be in our neck of the woods, so we don't have to go far. It's sad to think that it's our last time....sniff, sniff!!

Our fun little family! Everyone LOVED our ladybugs...their costumes were a hit!

And of course, couldn't resist seeing how things have changed. From a lion, to a chicken, to this year's ladybug...what a cute girl we have! Halloween is so much more fun with kids!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Trunk'r'Treat

We had our Trunk'r'Treat at our church tonight. Alexa wanted to wear a "princess dress" this morning when we went to the Y and I knew she wouldn't want to change into her ladybug costume for the party. So...I quickly fashioned a crown out of cardboard and tinfoil and voila...we had ourselves a princess. Once upon a time we had an actual cute little crown...but it met its maker not too long ago...thus the homemade version!!! Alexa didn't seem to mind. She really loves this whole candy thing...we're going to have to ration it after Halloween tomorrow!

Anyways, we had a great time.

And the best part...

Bishop Lee got Kevin to wear this fabulous wig for their part of the trunk'r'treat. Not exactly sure what they were supposed to be...but I laughed pretty hard when I saw this picture, so I had to share!! I love you babe, this is a great look on you!! :-)

{Jack'o'lantern Fun}

One of our favorite fall/Halloween activities is carving our pumpkins! We don't quite trust Alexa with a long sharp object as of yet...so she gets to paint her pumpkin. Anyways, Kevin and I collaborate on what design we want, he cleans out the pumpkin and I carve it. We make a great team!!

I'm not a big fan of spiders...but I thought this little guy turned out quite nicely!!

Payton: 6 Months!!

Really??? Has it already been 1/2 a year since this sweet little girl joined our family???!!!

What would we ever do without her?!

We had her 6 month well check this morning and everything went great. Payton received 4 shots today, 2 in each leg, and took it like a champ. She didn't even cry for the first one! Her stats:

18 lbs 9 oz (90th percentile)

25 1/4 " (just under 50th percentile)

head: 17 1/4 " (90th percentile)

She's growing well and is right on track for all her development. A few things about her:

She's wearing anywhere from 6 - 12 month clothing.

She loves her paci.

She's rolling over all the time.

She's sitting pretty well on her own.

She is itching to crawl...I know it won't be long now!

She loves to be held.

She loves her big sister and enjoys watching everything Alexa does.

She gives the best smiles to her daddy.

She sleeps pretty well at night - bedtime 7pm, wakes once usually during the night and up for good around 8am.

She's still taking around three, 1 hour naps a day.

She loves to "talk" when she's tired.

Her favorite thing is to blow raspberries.

She's starting to eat solid foods now.

She is loved beyond words by her mommy, daddy and big sister!!

Happy 6 Months Sweet Pea!!

Sunday Best

Since we were all dressed up today for church AND we had a little extra time this morning...I figured it'd be a good time to take some pictures. I thought Alexa looked so grown up in this adorable dress I found at a consignment sale! And since she loves to pose these days, it wasn't hard to get her picture taken!!

She wanted to pose with mommy!!

We couldn't leave Payton out. She was already in her carseat when we took the above pictures before church. So I snapped a few really quickly right when we got home. I love pictures of Kevin with our girls!

{Huber Farms}

As I mentioned in my previous post, we made our annual trek out to Huber Farms to get our pumpkin. We LOVE Hubers!! And even though it was a super chilly, rainy morning...the scenery was beautiful and good times were had by all! We go first thing in the morning as to avoid the crowds that are sure to come and we arrived under very ominous looking skies. But our hopes were high that the rain would hold off until we'd picked THE perfect pumpkin! Alas...they were dashed. As soon as the tractor dropped us off in the pumpkin patch, it started to rain on us. So we hurriedly chose our pumpkins and ran to the shelter of a nearby tree to await our tractor.

Alexa picked out her own pumpkin and then helped us pick out a cute little pumpkin for Payton back at the farmer's market. Our perfect pumpkin weighed in at a whoppin' 30 lbs!!!

Yowza...that's our biggest by far!!

Over the years, we've enjoyed this family tradition of ours, even if it is more expensive than a quick trip to the local grocery store. And it's so fun to see how Alexa has grown! From being non-existent, to me VERY pregnant with her.

And then to see her grow into this sweet (almost) 3 year old is crazy to me. I can't believe what a big girl she is now and I can't believe this is our last trip to Huber Farms. It's bittersweet for sure.

And I just had to include this picture because Payton's lips are just too perfect and sweet! She was such a good little baby on our cold, pumpkin picking morning. It's too bad it was too cold to take her out of the baby carrier, otherwise we would have taken her first picture with a pumpkin of her own. I guess we'll just have to start a different tradition with her next year!

Happy Fall ya'll!

THIS we will miss!

The beautiful Fall colors here are definitely a sight to see! I'm so grateful our last year here, that the colors were so vibrant. We had such a dry summer last year that it seemed once it got cold, the leaves just fell off the trees and no changing of the colors really happened. But this year...WOW! It's beautiful. I definitely will miss the blooming flowers in the Spring, the lush green in the Summer, and these beautiful colors in the Fall. (Won't miss for a second though the Winters here!!!)

We did our annual trek out to Huber Farms today to go pumpkin picking and these were the sights pretty much the whole way there. It was a beautiful drive!

Comparison

I sure hope the girls don't resent me in their teenage years for all the comparing I'm doing of them. Really, it's just in looks...they are both their own individual people, with their own individual personalities...they just look so much alike, and yet NOT alike at the same time. And when I put Payton in something that I so clearly remember Alexa wearing, it's all I can do to keep from immediately searching through the old pictures we have on the computer to find Alexa in the same thing. I really look forward to seeing how these beautiful girls of mine grow and change as the

years go by.

{Boo at the Zoo}

We took the girls to 'The Largest Halloween Party' at our local zoo tonight. It's a family tradition and we're going to miss it since this was our last. Hopefully our new zoo next year, wherever that might be, will do something just as fun. Anyways, this year both our girls are ladybugs for Halloween! And I have to say that they are the cutest ladybugs I've ever seen!!! We're looking forward to more Halloween festivities so we can dress them up some more!!

Seriously...I just can't get enough of these cheeks!! :-)

The Neighbor Boy

Honestly, what would we do without Jonny most days??? Alexa absolutely adores this little man! I had to add this picture because I stole it from Jonny's mommy's blog and I thought it was so cute of the two of them.

Homeward Bound

This past weekend, we were able to fly home to Arizona for two purposes: 1) to see Kevin's family (the last time we were there, Alexa was barely walking!!!) and 2) to start the job hunt process (yikes, can you believe graduation is JUST around the corner??!!!). It was a super busy and tiring trip but also a lot of fun and quite productive as well!! Here is our little miss on her very first plane ride! As you can tell, she was lovin' every minute of it!! :-)

Alexa had so much fun with her cousins this time. Two years makes a HUGE difference in the development of toddlers!!

The year Alexa was born, 2006, she also had two cousins born on the Mortenson side, Ainsley and Amelia. And it wasn't planned but they all were named with names starting with "A"....hence, the Triple A's!! It will be so much fun to see these three girly girls grow up together!

And 2009 was also a big year on the Mortenson side! FOUR babies joined the ranks! Hadley started things off back in March, then Payton made her appearance in April, followed by Eli in July, and Bryant wrapped things up nicely in August. What cuties they all are!

And we couldn't leave the hot mamas out!! I'm so blessed to have such wonderful sisters-in-law (you too Georganna!!)! Thanks ladies for all you bring into my life and the lives of my children! We look forward to living closer to all of you soon!!