Life in the O house

Glam girl

2010-07-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

Wow, been a long time eh?

Sydney has always been a girly girl, but she is especially enjoying a new makeup kit she received and we play with it each night after Alex goes to bed. Here are some pictures of my "4 going on 14" year old....

She requested that her manicurist (me) paint her fingernails on her right hand purple to match the purple ring, and pink on the left hand to match that ring. She also put on lipstick and kept her lips pursed like this the whole time...it was so adorable. My little glam girl. ;)

And Alex sleeping, so cute....and quiet.

Syd pretending to sleep...

Parks and Recreation

2010-02-07T20:58:00.000-08:00

We had such a beautiful day in Seattle yesterday! It was 61 degrees according to my car, leaving me wishing for spring already.
We ditched our plans to go to the grocery store and headed to the park. This was the first time Alex has been to the park since he started walking. Umm wow, it's a whole different experience. The boy licked every park bench and pole he could find, chased away a couple dogs and attempted to flirt with some high school girls playing basketball. He had a blast! Of course Sydney loves the park too and has a great time running around and playing on the toys.

Here are a couple pics I took on my BlackBerry:

The kids on the slide. I love the way Alex looks at his sister.
Alex's new haircut. Pretty handsome huh?

Happy Birthday Alex!

2009-12-31T22:20:00.000-08:00

Happy 1st birthday to my wonderful little boy, Alex!

We had a little party for Alex at our house. I made him a train cake, and also made a clown smash cake. Quite a big project I tell ya, making your own cakes. But I still remember how much I loved it when my mom made my birthday cakes, so I want my kids to be able to look back at all their cakes fondly too.

Okay, enough with the chatter, here are the pics!

Alex is stoked about his new present!
Sister teaching little bro a thing or two about driving....
Alex clapping with excitement
Sister doesn't quite get the fact that these presents were for her bro....
Alex and his presents...
The adorable birthday boy....

I love this sequence of pictures....

Alex's very first kiss....
"Hey man, our hair kinda looks the same."
The girls
My loves
My little man has a thing for this woman, Nina, on "The Goodnight Show" on Sprout. When he sees her, he starts laughing, smiling, clapping and his 4th word was, "Nina." He just goes crazy for her, it's hilarious. The funniest thing was Christmas eve I stopped by my work to wish my employees a Merry Christmas and I had Alex. I was explaining to a couple of the guys that Alex loves this girl Nina, and I said, "Right Alex...Nina." He immediately starts smiling and screaming, clapping and saying her name, it was hilarious. Silly silly boy. Here's an excited Alex over Nina.

The kiddos

2009-12-13T21:11:00.000-08:00

The kids....

Alex's birthday pics coming soon.....

Halloween 2009

2009-12-06T23:38:00.000-08:00

Halloween pictures!
The kids had a blast, as did the parents and grandparents. A little rainy but still quite a bit of fun trick or treating.

I am blessed

2009-11-22T20:10:00.000-08:00

This has been an exciting week for Alex. He's officially walking (although pretty wobbly), he is clapping, signing the word "more" and even said "pizza." Wow, what a week! He is becoming quite the little toddler and I just can't believe how quickly this year has flown by. We'll be celebrating his 1st birthday in just two weeks. Wait, what?

Sydney has become quite the social butterfly. We've had four birthday parties the last three weekends, and she is so adorable with her friends. They always have an arm around each other and give each other hugs. Yesterday one of her friends referred to her as "Pretty Sydney." So cute.

It's definitely been an adjustment to go to work every day and "bring home the bacon"
while Anthony is home with the kids. I am sure he is still adjusting! It's most difficult when Sydney asks me why I have to go to work, or tells Anthony that she likes it when I am home. So yes, that is hard. I feel fortunate to not only have a job, but to go to a job that I enjoy (well most of the time, ha.) And my favorite part of the day is when I come home and Sydney runs to me with open arms yelling, "Mommy, mommy" and Alex is smiling and happy to see me. I am so blessed to have such a good man that is a fantastic dad and willing to put his career on hold for a while to raise the kids. And I count my blessings every day for these two wonderful kidlets we call Sydney and Alex who are just beyond amazing in my book. Check these two out....

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Happy 11 months Alex!!

2009-11-10T22:15:00.001-08:00

My little man is 11 months old already-how did that happen? I can't believe we will be celebrating his 1st birthday in less than a month. Which reminds me I have some planning to do...

Alex is close to walking, into everything, and just a pretty awesome little guy. We are so blessed to have such great kids. He is pretty much the exact opposite of Sydney-from how much he eats (he eats more than Syd) to how loud he is. He is ALL boy.

And don't worry-no Alex's were harmed in the shooting of the picture posted above. Sydney was standing off to the side, ready to catch him if he made a nose dive. It's all about safety people.

Ocean Shores

2009-10-21T20:41:00.001-07:00

I'm slowly catching up with updating the family blog here....bear with me.

A few weeks ago we took a trip to Ocean Shores with our friends. We had so much fun! The weather was terrific-it was low 60's and sunny-a bit windy but no rain so that is always a plus. September is always still pretty nice around here and it was great not having to fight the crowds at the beach.

We went with our friends Kristin and Mark (Cole and Brady) and Lisa and Dan (Samantha and Jake.) We left early to have a day to ourselves, and the rest of the group joined us on Saturday. We spent our time playing on the beach, swimming in the hotel pool, and more playing on the beach. The kids had a blast! They flew kites, played in the sand, rode bikes (kinda), drove the Barbie Jeep around (kinda) and just had a blast together. It's pretty awesome to have such great friends with kids that all get along!

The moms even hit up the casino on Saturday night. Definitely a nice getaway and we'll be making this a yearly trip for sure.

Pictures!

Coffee stop!

We're at the beach, woo hoo!

Sydney looks so grown up here...
The kidlets
Sydney has this thing about wind-she can't stand it. So we have to bundle her up and she's fine. Silly kid.
Flying kites!
Playing in the sand
The little boys had a great time

BFF's
More kite flying! And yes, you can drive your cars on Washington beaches.
Anthony and Cole flying a kite Alex taking a snooze.
Not surprisingly, the Jeep didn't go too fast
Dinner at the Pizza place
Me and my girls-I love Samantha. The girl can inch her way into any picture. One day I'll have to compile all the pics that she has scooted into. Hilarious!
My fave little man
And again-the shirt is really for daddy
Alex had a great time in Brady's tent. It was loaded up with a ton of toys, had great ventilation and kept him sand free for a bit
The Barbie Jeep on top of the Xterra still cracks me up
No luck with the fishing
These girls are such good friends
Sydney looks like a little old lady here-all bundled up, crossed legs, eating snacks and chit chatting away to nobody in particular.

Time for a dip in the pool!

Nothing cuter than a baby laughing....

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

The kiddos

2009-10-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

I love these two.

Sydney's 4th Birthday

2009-10-17T21:52:00.001-07:00

Sydney had a fantastic 4th birthday! We decided to go small this year and just had a few friends over for a birthday party. Her birthday fell on Labor day so we had bbq'd some burgers. Fun times.

Sydney woke up to her big present from us, her very own bouncy house! Sydney LOVES bouncy houses, like really loves them. We have it set up in our living room since we rarely use the room anyway. She was super excited and loved her gift.

I made Sydney's birthday cake this year. I took a cake decorating class through Wilton to prepare for it, and it was great! Sydney LOVED her Barbie cake and it turned out perfectly. I also made the cupcakes, and Sydney decided we needed Cars cupcakes too since the boys would prefer Lightening McQueen and Mater over Cinderella....maybe. ;) Oh yes, and the colored M and M's were a must. The only candy Sydney eats.

Me and my big girl

The bouncy house was a hit!

All decked out for the main event...

Blowing out the candles!
Opening presents!

The Princess castle pinata was a hit!
The kiddos!
Papa and Alex

And that is all she wrote-it's tough work hosting and taking pictures at the same time. :)

"We're twins!"

2009-09-28T21:47:00.001-07:00

Things have been pretty busy around the O house. Anthony is enjoying his stay at home dad gig, and the kids are loving having him at home. I am enjoying my job and as much as I miss my kiddos, I am happy to be at work and am blessed with a great job.

I have so many pictures to add...hopefully this week I will finally add Sydney's birthday party, rollerskating pictures and our trip to the ocean with our friends.
For now here are some pictures of my four year old and nine month old!

Oh, and stats for the kids-Sydney is 28 1/4 oz and 37 inches tall at her 4 year appointment. That puts her just under the 5th percentile for weight and 5th for height. Alex weighs in at 20 lbs 1 oz, putting him in the 40th percentile. I forget his height at the moment, but he is a shorty in the 15th percentile. His large noggin is what makes him look bigger than he is-it's at the 70th percentile. Gotta have a big head for all those big brains I say! The kids are both doing great. Sydney is happy to be back at preschool and still loving her gymnastics. Alex is crawling all over, and even started pulling himself up to stand recently! He is much more mobile than Sydney was at this age. His new favorite food is banana bread.

A couple pics of my sweet kids:

Having fun in the bouncy house. Alex thinks it's fun to lick the walls....ahh, 9 month olds.

I think Alex will be holding Sydney on his lap soon...lol. My kids in their matching jammies, I have a thing for matching jammies now. Sydney keeps saying, "We're twins!" Can Alex look a little more like his daddy or what???? Especially now with his new buzz cut.

Good times with a good friend

2009-09-13T21:31:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago we had my dear friend Carli and her husband and daughter over. Carli and I have been friends for twenty six years now...wow, that makes me feel so old. As little girls we talked about how one day we'd have daughters and they'd grow up to be great friends. They would play together, call each other on the phone and write letters to each other. (Hey, we didn't have any idea about e-mail and text messaging back in the 80's!) It was definitely super exciting when Carli announced she was due just three months after me. I knew immediately she'd have a daughter too and she did!

Last time Gracie came over the girls fought-a lot. They fought over toys, and what was most upsetting to Sydney was Gracie wanted to name White Puppy "Coco." So they went back and forth about White Puppy's real name...which is White Puppy according to Sydney. It wasn't the best visit so I have to admit I was a bit nervous about this trip.

Well the girls got along perfectly. They were old chums within two minutes and disappeared into Sydney's room pretty quickly. They came out wearing Sydney's dress up costumes and just had a blast together. Phew. And Sydney later told me that White Puppy's new real name is White Puppy Coco. Haha, there's my problem solver for you.

Here are the girls:

First day of preschool

2009-09-08T22:05:00.000-07:00

Sydney started preschool today! She is so excited to be back at school, she just loves it. Of course my little domestic goddess's favorite part is the dollhouse and the washer and dryer with attached iron. Wonder who she gets that from? :)

She looks like such a big girl and it happened overnight!

I just love this little face

Gymnastics

2009-08-24T23:16:00.001-07:00

Sydney's been continuing with her gymnastics this summer and having a great time. She's been doing gymnastics for a year now and I am amazed at how quickly she catches on to new things, as well as how confident she is. She is still super shy when it comes to actually talking to the other kids in class, but she's not shy when she's walking on the beam or doing pullovers on the bars.

Alex loves going to gymnastics too. He always gets a lot of attention from the ladies, and he watches Sydney quite a bit. I have a feeling we'll be putting him in gymnastics next summer.

I love this picture-Alex watching his "sissy"
My little handsome guy-check out those top teeth! He's getting two more on top also, making it six total now!
Sydney doing what she loves most-the bars! And the trampolines of course

Silly faces

2009-08-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

Birthdays

2009-08-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we celebrated both my dad's birthday and my birthday at El Gaucho. El Gaucho just opened up in Bellevue and it's super nice. My brother works close by and was excited to take us as our birthday gift. Okay, so he also got me a Coach purse, holy moly! If you know me well enough you know I love me some pretty Coach handbags. Good work bro.

We had an excellent dinner. We took the kids-I know, weird huh? Apparently not many kids go to El Gaucho since we had the only high chair and booster in the restaurant.

Let me just take this opportunity to mention how amazing both kids were. We were there for nearly four hours. Alex sat in his high chair for the first two hours and just played, and spent nearly the rest of the time being held by Nana. I think he cried for four seconds when he saw me making his bottle.

I completely forgot to bring something for Sydney to play with and she did great. She played with her napkin, spoon, daddy, and we took a couple trips to the bathroom because she liked to twirl around in the full length mirror. She sat in her seat the whole time and I swear-I have no idea what I have done in my life to get such amazing, well behaved kids, but man-I love that we can take them everywhere and not have to rush out when they start acting up. I keep telling Anthony that this isn't normal but he doesn't believe me.

Anyway, we had a fantastic meal and I highly recommend the lobster mashed potatoes. Sooo good. Oh, and the Bananas Foster. Also so good.

Oh yeah-and remember that guy Sanjaya from American Idol? The one who had no talent but people voted for him anyway? His sister is the hostess there. She was on the show briefly too.

Pics of the evening....

The kiddos all dressed up and ready to roll
Mychelle and Trevor Papa and Nana
Anthony and Sydney
Alex and mommy

Back to regularly scheduled programming...

2009-08-19T23:11:00.001-07:00

Any day now.

So I used up all my allotted space for pictures on blogger, and although I have since paid the 20 bones for more space, I have not yet been allowed to upload more pictures. So I have many to add and much to talk about-will do so soon!

In the meantime, we are enjoying the remaining summer we have left. Sydney is thrilled about her upcoming birthday since she will be four here in a couple of weeks. Sadly she wants to dispose of all her clothes that say 2T and 3T since she will be four and all her clothes need to say 4 on them according to her. The problem is we finally made the switch up from 2T to 3T this past month. Bye bye clothes.

Kidding.

Alex has welcomed his top two teeth and is getting the other two on top also. He is pretty excited about this since he has been asking us nonstop when he can start eating steak, potatoes and pizza. The kid can pack it in and already eats more than his big sister. I give it six more months until he weighs more than her. Well maybe nine. I think she is only about eight pounds heavier.

And...I am going back to work! Some of you know that Anthony was laid off from his job at IBM this past spring. IBM chooses to outsource to India and a little place called Fishkill, New York where the employees make about 1/3 of what he was making. I had a great job opportunity presented to me and I couldn't pass it up. Anthony will be playing Mr. Mom for a while and working on some IT certifications, and I will be "bringing home the bacon" as Sydney calls it. I am pretty excited and looking forward to being back to work after three years of semi-retired life raising the kiddos. Although the 6am wake up time is going to be a toughie!

Stay tuned for a ton of summer pictures as soon as I can upload photos....

Fun in the Sun

2009-07-29T19:16:00.000-07:00

We've had some pretty nice weather lately, although today we crossed the line from nice to ridiculous. It hit 105 at our home just outside of Seattle-seriously. We Washingtonians are ill-equipped to handle this type of heat and air conditioned homes are the minority. Our house is currently 93 degrees on the main level, and 99 in the kids rooms. We have air conditioning in our bedroom so we've all been camping out in there and even having dinner picnics on the bed while watching movies. Sydney thinks this is the coolest thing ever!

Here are some pictures of our fun in the sun the past few weeks....

This was actually from our trip to Eugene, Oregon for the wedding. I just love this one of the kids-it shows how much Sydney adores her little brother. And of course he feels the same for Sydney.

We headed down to the valley last month to pick the last bunch of strawberries. My goal is to make some jam, although the berries are still in the freezer at this point. Sydney loved picking strawberries, so of course I had to go into the story about how when I was 12, my parents made my brother and I pick raspberries one summer. Aww memories. And I totally felt like my dad, telling stories of how he walked up hill both ways to school-in the snow. I think with no shoes too.

My friend Jackie and her family were up visiting from California so we had them over for a bbq the first week of July. It's so much fun to get the kids together. Jackie and I have been friends for 21 years now! Wow, that makes me feel so old. Here are the cute kids...
Greg and Jessica recently added a new family member to their family-a Maltese puppy named Juno. Seriously, she is the cutest little dog ever. Sydney is always super shy around dogs but she fell in love with Juno and did great with her. She now talks about her daily, has a dog toy for next time we see them, and has named one of her stuffed puppies Juno.

Sydney and Juno
A very washed out picture of Greg and Alex-but cute nonetheless
Pretty girls!

Mr. Handsome

Watching the garbage man
This picture cracks me up-I promise Alex swinging is not as scary as it looks. But he does love it.
We had a playdate at our house a couple weeks ago. The little boys loved the baby pool!
The big kid's pool
Come here Brady, let me give you a big hug-or actually, chew on your head for a bit.
The little kids with the big kids

Alex and Brady
Sydney playing dress up
More pool time
Soaking the feet
Alex enjoying more pool time
Cuteness

Alex and Nana We had a great time at a local festival a couple weeks ago. Sydney LOVED the bouncy houses so we went back three times to bounce. Hands down the best part of the city's festival
Even better than the motorcycles...
Sydney decided to ditch the dream of being a doctor for now and wants to be a firefighter.
Me and my little bubba

7 months old!

2009-07-15T12:23:00.000-07:00

My little man is 7 months old already. Wow. I know I say this every month, how time has just flown by, but it never ceases to amaze me how quickly time flies as you get older and have kids.

My favorite little man is doing well. He is such a happy and smily baby-just like his big sister was. Let me tell you how thrilled this makes me because I just assumed we wouldn't luck out in this area twice. It's so nice to be able to take him to Sydney's gymnastics, put down a blanket and a few toys and watch him play independently for 45 minutes. But when he starts crawling...oh boy.

He is rolling all over, scooting and it looks like he'll be crawling within the next month. He is my active little guy and I am just amazed at how quickly he gets into things. He has been sleeping really well. He is sleeping through his 5am feeding now and sleeps from about 7-8pm until about 7-8am. That makes me very happy. I took him for haircut number three yesterday since I have been calling his hair a "bouffant." The little guy has some big hair going on, I am amazed at how thick it is on top. He looks so cute with his "little man" cut. He also loves bath time. We now bathe Sydney and Alex together and they both love it. Alex just splashes, kicks and goes after toys the whole time. Sydney just thinks it's the coolest to have little bro in the bathtub with her.

He has been eating finger foods the past couple of weeks-Cheerios, Gerber Puffs and yogurt melts. I also tried some noodles on him and he definitely enjoyed those. He is also a big fan of the fruit-peaches, pears, apples, mangoes, plums, nectarines-you name it, he loves it. Although I have a feeling there aren't many foods he won't eat. So far peas are not a fave. And he does already eat more than his nearly four year old sister-I give it six months until he outweighs her.

I just love this little guy so much. His little belly laugh when you tickle his neck and belly, the way he lights up when he sees Anthony, Sydney or I. The way he just looks up to Sydney, watching her and smiling-you can tell he just can't wait to be running around with her. He just adores her. And his little flirtations with the ladies-smiling, then burying his face into my shoulder, and then smiling again. So cute. I am the luckiest to have such amazing kids.

Max and Bethany's Wedding

2009-07-10T19:37:00.001-07:00

We headed down to Eugene, Oregon the last weekend of June for the big wedding. Max and Bethany's wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was terrific to see the family, and I loved that they made the wedding their own. (Cinnabon instead of wedding cake-perfect.) Sydney was the flower girl in their wedding and she did well. Then again she's been in two weddings now so she is already a professional at age 3.
I still can't believe Bethany is married! I first met her at age 13, so in my mind she's still the giggly thirteen year old girl. Her and Max are a terrific couple and we are so excited for them.

The beautiful flower girl

Sydney and Bethany's twin sister Mandy
Mandy and her dad (uncle Terry)
Sydney and the ring bearer, Jed. Jed wasn't always a fan of having his picture taken. This was the best I could do of them together.
The bride and flower girl

The girls
Max and Bethany with what looks like their kids!
Syd and uncle Terry
The whole bridal party-sans ring bearer
Me and my girl

The wedding favors-candy!

The Cinnabon Alex in his suit. Although he was without his tie since apparently (according to Anthony) his neck was too big for the clip on tie.
Alisa, Eddie and David
Here comes the flower girl and ring bearer! And yes, I did tear up when Sydney walked down the aisle.

Happy couple!

The boys
Poor Sydney-Alex is tormenting her already by always pulling her hair
It's not easy getting a good picture of all of us

Pretty girls

Alex had his first taste of Cinnabon frosting-oh boy, he loved it.
Sydney helped Bethany throw the bouquet-and then cried later because she didn't catch the bouquet. Silly girl.
And they lived happily ever after....

Family Pictures

2009-07-03T22:34:00.000-07:00

We had some really great family pictures taken while we were in Oregon this past week.

Sydney

Pop-o and the kids
Pretty girls-Sydney and her Mam-o Our family
The whole group
Alex wasn't really feeling the picture thing-the only one where you can't really tell he was crying. Except for that tear hanging from his chin.
Us again
Sydney and uncle Andrew
Mam-o and Pop-o
Alisa and Eddie

A whole lotta pictures...

2009-06-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

So yeah-updating the blog used to be so easy with just one kid. Now it seems I have no time. And when I do have time, I choose to do other things. However if you check out some of my friend's blogs, you might just see what we're up to-like currently and not a month later. ;0

I have a ton of pictures so let's see how far I can get through them.

A recent trip to Edmonds Beach with the kiddos-and by recent I mean sometime in June

Our first swim in the pool

Alex modeling his new bathing suit
Sydney just loves the pool
Alex loved his first swim-and his faux hawk!

Sydney really really wanted to wear her old jammies she found. They were size 12 months and actually they did fit-the neckline was just way way lower than normal. We decided to cut the feet off so she could still wear them-and my crafty hub made slippers out of the feet. These are her current fave jammies right now.

Swing kids
Alex hanging in the swing.
Each year we do the Susan G. Komen 5k in honor of my mom who lost her battle to breast cancer 13 years ago. This year we had even more family and friends turn out which was awesome!

Here are Trevor, Sydney and Nana
Many of the group
Trevor with our aunts (my mom's sisters) Cheryl and Char. Char is now a 20 year breast cancer survivor. After my mom was diagnosed at age 38 with breast cancer, my aunt Char went to have a mammogram and she was also diagnosed with breast cancer, at age 37. She always credits my mom to saving her life as she would never had gotten a mammogram that early on, especially with no previous family history.
Me and the bro
My little girl and I. I love that Sydney and I do this walk together to honor the grandma she only knows through stories and pictures.

Team Wallene

Most of the group
Sydney with Papa and Nana
And it's just not a family event without some celebrating.
Sydney and her new bff Lindsay. Lindsay is the daughter of my cousin Kristy's friend Mel. Sydney just loved Lindsay and keeps asking me when we're getting together for a playdate with Lindsay.
My little man...cheerio hanging out of his mouth and all
I just can't get enough of those big blue eyes and those cheeks!

Sydney blowing bubbles for Alex
We had the family over to celebrate Trevor's 25th birthday-okay not really-35th actually. He just THINKS he's 25. We also celebrated Father's day.

Sydney really wanted to swing with Trevor

Alex and Nana
Trevor and his girlfriend Mychelle and Alex
Trevor is totally comfortable with holding a baby-can't you tell?

Trevor and Syd waiting patiently to dive into those cupcakes.

Alex with Nana and Papa

I took a picture or twelve of the bro with the kids, but didn't take one of my husband with the kids. Nice. Happy Father's day honey!

Taking daddy to his favorite Greek restaurant to celebrate Father's day.
Sydney and her new doll
Sydney is definitely a daddy's girl
And my momma's boy

Six months!

2009-06-16T23:50:00.000-07:00

My little baby is already six months old-wow. Time flies even quicker with the second child. Alex is such a delight. He is just the happiest baby and smiles all the time. And the little guy loves the ladies already. He does the big grin, buries his face into me, and then gives the ladies another big grin. Love it.

He weighs in at 16 lbs, 10 ozs which puts him in the 30th percentile. He is 25 1/2 inches long, putting him in the 12th percentile. Yup, he's short! He makes up for it with his head size-can't remember what it is but it's the 70th percentile. Fairly certain it's for all those brains.

He has two teeth now, both on the bottom. His new favorite food is mango-just made him some tonight and he went wild over them. He also started eating Gerber puffs and Cheerios and he's pretty excited about those too.

He's also figured out the sleep thing, hallelujah! He goes to bed between 7pm-8pm. Wakes up around 5ish for a bottle and then goes back to sleep until 8am or so. Takes a two hour nap at 10am and then again around 2pm. Yesss. This makes mommy very very happy.

He's just into everything, it's amazing. I could have put wine glasses in front of Sydney at this age and she never would have touched them. Alex is quite the opposite and is always grabbing my glasses and reaching for things. We never really baby proofed with Sydney-have a feeling we'll definitely be doing that very soon!

Here are some pictures of the little guy-and of course Sydney too. The best big sister ever. She is such a big help and I love that I can send her into Alex's room when he has woken up. She sings to him, plays with him and reads him stories. My little mommy is just the best little helper.
Alex's six month portrait

Big sissy Sydney

The loves of my life

Alex's first full haircut and other stuff

2009-05-29T23:32:00.000-07:00

Today we took Alex to get his first full haircut. Mam-o did some side trimming two months ago, but the kid was definitely in need of a new 'do. And I had two people offer to take him to get his haircut-so I got the hint. ha.

The "before" shot

"Wait, I'm kind of attached to my shaggy hairdo."
What do you think?
Fun with a little spike up front
Alex and his big sister. Sydney keeps saying, "I love Alex's new haircut!"

Alex's first time riding in the shopping cart like a big boy. He loved it! He received so much attention because he smiled at everyone who looked at him. I think he's pretty proud to be sitting up in the cart so well, and proud of the new haircut.
Alex is doing great. He can sit up by himself unassisted for quite some time. Here he is last week.

He also has his first tooth! The first one popped up in the past couple of days. He's been drooling like crazy for the past two months so we knew this was coming.

Alex is still a great eater. I am making all of his baby food, and I am really enjoying it. I have the Baby Beaba babycook which is the coolest thing ever. I love making batches of food when I have time, and it's all automatic so I can walk away for a while and the steamer turns off by itself. So far I have made apples, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, squash, peaches and pears. Alex loves it all-with exception to the peas. I don't blame the kid on that one, gross.

And here are some pictures from the past month that I have been meaning to add...

Carrie and her husband had us over for dinner one night a couple weeks ago. Besides having the most beautiful home ever, they had this awesome trampoline which a certain someone LOVED!
I love this picture-Carrie holding Alex while Sydney is bouncing around.

So much fun!
Carrie had fun with Alex's hair. And Carrie is quite possibly Sydney's new bff. Sydney adores her and talked about her for days. Alex's new nickname is Scooter. He's not rolling over but scooting-everywhere. You lay him down and he scoots up a few feet within minutes. Here he is, after scooting up about 6 feet so he could spin the wheels on the motorcycle. Anthony was so proud.
And my multi-tasking girl trying to ride both the Mercedes and motorcycle at the same time.

Greg and Jessica had us over for dinner this past week. Both the kids ADORE their godparents, so they had a great time. And of course we adore them too.

Sydney and her favorite person Greg

Alex and his favorite person, Jessica
Sydney and her other favorite person Jessica
Cute
Jessica made the cutest hat for Alex-he loved it!

And finally a video I took when Alex first started eating food. Here is his first banana. He excitedly screeches each time he gets a bite. He doesn't do this as often anymore, but he is still pretty passionate about his food. I love this clip. This was taken at the end of April.

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Cannon Beach

2009-05-27T10:54:00.001-07:00

We enjoyed a terrific Memorial Day weekend with Mam-o and Pop-o in Cannon Beach, Oregon. Sydney enjoyed her time with her grandparents and had fun at the beach (once she got over her fear of the wind, silly kid) and Alex had a great time just taking in the sights and sounds.

The hub and kids at Subway on the way down to the beach
My favorite little man showing off his shoes
So excited to be at the beach!

Daddy and Alex-nice blanket Alex!

Alex loved the water fountain

Flying the kite
Sydney enjoyed cleaning off her shoes almost as much as she enjoyed the beach
Mother and daughter
The Tillamook cheese factory
I love this picture-Sydney had to push Alex around the whole time, it was adorable. Obviously Alex loved it!

Mmm...ice cream
The Tillamook Air Museum

Sydney finally enjoying the beach-and she had a blast.

Stomping on the volcano/castle was so much fun!

Never a shortage of practice balance beams

Goofball

Alex loved cuddling with Mam-o
Thirty seconds later

Nothing better than a Starbucks kid's hot chocolate for the ride home

What a great trip we had! We just love the beach.

Pictures of the kidlets

2009-05-12T16:41:00.000-07:00

Reading Alex a story-one guess on who bought Syd this book...

How cute are these two?
Alex at 5 months old
Sydney thought it was fun pretending to be a stuffed animal-Alex did not.
Syd riding her bike at the park
Alex snoozing-the stroller knocks him out every time.
Last week we celebrated Mother's day at Sydney's preschool. We enjoyed a snack, made a craft, and the kids sang a super cute song to the moms. Definitely need to get Sydney to sing it on camera. Here I am with my darling daughter.
Kristin and Cole
The craft
And the chives Sydney planted a while back-my present. She was so proud!

Sydney's Gymnastics Show

2009-05-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

I didn't forget about the Disney pictures-it's going to be pretty time consuming and I promise I'll do it soon.
Very soon.

In the meantime, Sydney had her gymnastics show last night and she did so well!!!
It was a bit interesting how they ran this show. Last year for ballet, the studio rented out a theater and the girls rehearsed their number for five months. Each class had a few minutes to show off their skills and yes, it was pretty good.
This was quite different. Everyone showcased what they've been learning, all at the same time. They moved from station to station and showed off the balance beam, floor routines, trampolines, etc. I will admit it was a bit chaotic. You missed out on the other girls because you were paying attention to your little one the whole time.

Anyway, Sydney showed off her forward rolls, handstands, climbing up the wall ladders, bars and rings and balance beam. She did so well and made everything look so easy! She had a blast and just loves gymnastics.
Here are the pictures from the event:

Sydney sporting her new gymnastics outfit. So excited!

Sydney and her coach, Annie

This probably won't come as a surprise, but I was the first parent to put my child on the mats for the picture. Sydney was so proud of her medal-"I got a medal, I got a medal!!!" We heard this all night long.

Syd and I
We took Syd to McDonalds for a celebratory ice cream cone. This has now become tradition since we took Syd out for ice cream after her first day of preschool. There was a woman eating an ice cream cone also and Sydney said, "She's eating ice cream! She must have done a good job too!!" Perhaps we should take her out to ice cream for more than just celebrating. LOL
She ate the whole thing-first time ever in finishing a cone.

And a few videos

First off-and grandmas-close your eyes for this one. Sydney is Miss Independent. She likes to do even the highest balance beam by herself and always tells the coach, "No, I do it myself." Here's Sydney doing it all by herself-until she gets in trouble anyway. This makes me laugh and freak out all at the same time...

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And Syd accepting her medal and certificate...

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Disneyland!

2009-05-03T23:44:00.000-07:00

We're back from our girls trip to Disneyland! We had a blast. I have so many pictures to post and it will probably take me hours so here are a couple to tide you over until tomorrow or so....

The little girls
All the girls
And our silly girls

Scott's birthday

2009-04-26T23:04:00.000-07:00

This weekend Leiann and I went to my cousin Scott's 30th birthday at the Wilde Rover Irish Pub. I don't even remember the last time I have actually gone out so it was a lot of fun. It's hard to believe Scott is already 30-it seems like just yesterday he was sporting curdoroy overalls and buckets on his head. Oh yes, time really does fly by the older you get.
Here are some pictures from the event.

Leiann and I before heading out to the bar. We decided to take some updated pictures since we've lost 70lbs between us-just about 35 lbs each.
Leiann
Me-I really like this picture, with the exception to the lip gloss on my front teeth. Nice.
Cuteness
Me and two of my fave cousins, Scott and Barb

The birthday boy!
Kay, Moi, dad and Trevor Me and the bro

Another cousin shot I love the face

Awww And the boys in the family

cars cars cars

2009-04-23T23:53:00.000-07:00

Some families like to hike. Ours likes to visit car dealerships.
You see, Anthony and I are both car enthusiasts and mostly the German type. We've always enjoyed checking out cars. We'll spend an afternoon checking out the newest BMW models at the dealership, or sitting in all the Audis in the showroom. We rarely miss a car show-car enthusiast heaven!

Today we were at Costco and they had a new Chevy Tahoe parked inside. We took a peek but of course the doors were locked so we couldn't see much. I turned to Anthony and said, "I know what we can do this afternoon-go look at the American cars." He had the same thought. We never check out the American cars so this was a whole new adventure for us. And Sydney is always up for anything, she DETESTS going home. She loves to be out and about. And well Alex-as long as he has a bottle and binky he is good to go!

First we stopped at the Audi dealership to get the Beamer washed up (we get free car washes for life) and of course went inside and sat in all the cars. (My favorite is the Audi Q7, his is the Audi A5.) They all practically know Anthony and Sydney by name since this is a regular stop for daddy/daughter day. And we've purchased three cars there.
Then we headed over to the GMC dealership to check out the Denali. I have to admit I am not normally an American car fan, but if we ever did buy American, the Denali or Tahoe would be my choice. They are pretty sweet. In fact I drove one because the salesperson was practically pleading with us to take it out. Oh if I must. Truth be told I love taking cars out for test drives and like to drive a little crazy to really "test" the car. It freaks the salespeople out a little bit too. We went home with the same cars we started the day out with, and no-the Q7 is still on the top of my list. As much as I want to support the good ol USA, I just can't see myself driving a big American rig. Not my style. Now the Q7-so my style.

Okay, enough of the car obsession-check out these cute pictures of the kids today.

Alex in Anthony's lap during the car wash
Mmmm...yummy teething ring
How's my driving mommy?
Anthony and the kiddos testing out the A5

Here comes the sun

2009-04-22T22:49:00.001-07:00

Okay so we haven't had sun for a couple days now, but we did-for a few days at least and it was great! And supposedly it's coming back soon.
I have to say that I truly love being home with my kids. And the sunny days where we can spend time outside make them all the better. We've been eating meals out on our deck and getting a lot of playtime in outside. Sydney loves being outside and Alex is already a fan too. Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying the sun earlier in the week.

Alex enjoyed his time in the bouncer on the patio
Mr. Smiles
We set up this "tent" thing to play in and provide a bit of shade for the little guy-Sydney enjoyed playing house in it. Here she is painting the walls.
My little bubba enjoyed his first ride in the swing.
Here's Sydney cleaning her playset-where does she get this from? Oh that's right, Jessica.
And the kiddos

Happy Birthday Nana!

2009-04-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrated Nana's birthday with a trip down to Greenlake. We took a little walk around the lake and enjoyed a nice picnic lunch. The weather was pretty nice too and the place was pretty busy-nothing like a little sun to get people out of their homes-with their dogs. Wow we saw a ton of dogs. Sydney was in heaven. The girl loves her doggies, even if she won't get too close to them.

Here's how we prepared for Nana's birthday-Anthony and Sydney made gingerbread cookies for Nana-her favorite!

We made cookies in the shape of hearts, dresses, handbags and shoes! Perfect. Check out Sydney's decorating technique....
Papa and Nana with the kiddos
The stroller always knocks Alex out
Swings are the best!
The grandparents with the sleepy boy
And two of my most favorite people ever

Alex at 4 months

2009-04-16T22:02:00.001-07:00

Today we had Alex's four month appointment. How is it possible that he is already four months? And do I ask that every month? Probably.
Our little man weighs in at 14 lbs 7 ozs and is 24 1/2 inches long. This puts him at the 30th percentile for weight and the 25th percentile for height. His head is in the 70th percentile-big head to hold all those brains! He's doing great and the doctor answered ALL my questions ( I always ask a ton) and gave us some advice regarding the sleep situation. The boy is a dream come true-so easy going, he is literally content just hanging out in his swing, bumbo or bouncer for long periods of time. He only cries when he needs something and he smiles at us most the day. He's just a happy kid. The sleeping thing though-oh boy. Hopefully we'll get this down soon so mommy and daddy can get some uninterrupted rest!

We also started feeding Alex rice cereal and oatmeal about a week and a half ago. He is a big fan of eating and seems to enjoy his food. I am looking forward to introducing him to veggies and fruits here soon. I am going granola and plan on making all his baby food. I know huh? So unlike me. I love the idea of feeding my son "real food" while saving money.

Here's a video of Alex eating his rice cereal-you might notice he's a bit passionate about his food....

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Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T23:40:00.000-07:00

We had a terrific Easter this year. The Easter bunny left the kids some nice things in their Easter baskets. Alex received some toys and binkies, which he always loves.
The bunny must know Sydney pretty well because he gave her cupcake holders, cake mix, frosting, princess toothpaste, a princess wand, Dora band-aids, M&M's, a chocolate bunny and a Cinderella costume. Sydney loved everything. She spent most the morning playing with the cupcake stuff, and asked me if she could open the cake mix. We will definitely be making cupcakes asap. And the girl loves toothpaste-she loves to carry it around and pretend it's a microphone.

We went the the Easter service at our church in the afternoon and brought my dad and Kay along. Afterwards we all went back to our house where Trevor joined us for enchiladas and chocolate pie for dessert.

My little princess
Sydney loves her gifts from the bunny
Alex loved his toys

Our family
The grandparents with the kiddos
Sydney talked uncle Trev into playing Legos
Sydney and my bro
My sweethearts
Nana and Papa hooked us up with these cute outfits for the kids. My dad is known for his Hawaiian shirts, so it's no surprise that he bought Alex one. And if it was up to Nana, Sydney would wear dresses every day so she bought her a beautiful dress.

I've decided self portraits are always the most flattering pictures, so here you go....

And Sydney took this one of Alex and I

Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-11T22:57:00.001-07:00

Kristin and Mark hosted the 2nd annual Easter Egg Invitational at their house today. It was great fun for all! The kids had a great time playing, finding Easter eggs, decorating cookies, and even more playing. The kids always have so much fun together and it's been fun watching Jakey get into the mix too now that he is older.

Pictures from our day....

The dads hiding the eggs. Seriously, Dan holding that pink basket makes me crack up every time. More so than Anthony carrying Sydney's for some reason....
The kids getting ready to rumble...I mean find the eggs
And there they go!
There was an egg spotting so the kids all ran for it...
Decorating the cookies

Umm...I highly recommend NOT using blue decorating gel
How cute are these too?
So I had this brilliant idea of getting the older kids to sit on the couch, and to put the younger ones on their laps. This is how is began.....Jakey was not having it and I had to bribe Cole with an M&M
This is what we ended up with. Okay, so not exactly what I had in mind but cute nonetheless. We'll try this again next year-where we'll probably have all three younger bros trying to get away.
And I just can't resist.....
And Alex and Brady bonding...as only two baby boys can

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Beautiful weather

2009-04-06T21:42:00.000-07:00

We went to St. Edwards Park in Kenmore today with the usual suspects. We hadn't been to the park before and it was pretty cool. The park is gorgeous with tons of grass everywhere, and great play structures. The kids had fun as always, although there were some minor issues with Sydney getting sand in her shoes. Mental note-socks with shoes, the girl doesn't do well with any bit of sand getting in her shoe.

Couple kid pics:
I wonder if I will ever get a picture of all the kids looking at me AND smiling? Nah.
The girls
For some reason Sydney loves to lay on soccer balls

Check her form-watch out Beckham!
More soccer And Mr. sleepy pants. He was awake for about 20 minutes of our park adventure.

alex

2009-03-30T16:31:00.001-07:00

Alex has been fighting a cold all week. It started with a running nose and sneezing earlier this week, and now he is up to the yucky cough. Poor little guy. He just smiles on like nothing is wrong. Sydney was acting sick but then isn't sick-who knows.

Today we broke out the exersaucer for Alex, and he loved it. We actually tried a couple weeks ago and he just fell forward-now that I think about it, maybe he was just tired. Whatever the case, he is enjoying it now and Sydney patiently waits for her turn when he is done. We'll have to dust off the Jumperoo soon too.

Sydney getting in on the photo opp
Look at me Ma!
Hey, I like this thing!
Yummy, and I like to eat my hands too....

My loves

2009-03-28T21:48:00.000-07:00

Words cannot express how much I love these two.

The Easter Bunny

2009-03-26T22:40:00.000-07:00

Sydney has been looking forward to visiting the Easter bunny at the mall for weeks. She's talked about it excitedly, remembering that just last year he brought her a really great laptop computer in her Easter basket. And M&M's. And the girl loves her M&M's.

Fast forward to tonight. We go to the mall to visit the bunny and get a picture. Sydney's super excited and says she can't wait to see him. We walk towards him, and she waves. Then we get about 10 feet from him and she panics. She begins crying and clinging to daddy. I try to coax (bribe) her into sitting on his lap but it's a no go. She wouldn't go near him, just waves from afar. So this is the picture we got of the event:

Alex loved the bunny. He spent nearly ten minutes on his lap while I was attempting to bribe Sydney. We even got some smiles out of him after the official picture was taken. The official photo turned out pretty good and he looked right at the camera. This was my quick attempt for blogging sake.

And here's Sydney ten feet away from the bunny. All smiles until she had to step within 9 feet of him.

Oh well, there's always next year. In the meantime we have a picture of each kid as an infant with the Easter bunny. Check out Sydney at 7 months old:

You've got mud on your face, a big disgrace

2009-03-25T21:23:00.000-07:00

Today as I was walking by the bathroom I heard Sydney singing, "We will, we will ROCK YOU!"
While going potty. Hilarious.
Sydney's new favorite song, thanks to a Superbowl commercial from Wally World.
And it's now on my Zune as she perfects every line of the song in the car. She's definitely my little rocker girl.

Five years and two kids later....

2009-03-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

(on our balcony at the Edgewater)
Anthony and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary this past weekend. I know, I can't believe it's been five years already! We stayed at the Edgewater hotel in Seattle. We had a very romantic dinner at...Dick's Drive In. Hey, the burgers are awesome! Greg and Jessica gave us a nice bottle of wine we enjoyed on our balcony at the hotel.
It was great having time to ourselves without the kiddos, but of course they were still the main topic of conversation.
How far we have come in five years. We're still in the same house, but I think that's the only thing that hasn't changed. We've changed cars, changed careers and have two kids. Wow, we've been busy.
Happy five year anniversary to the hub! Love you.
And thank you to Greg and Jessica for giving the kids another fun sleepover. Lucky kids!

And a picture of the big day- March 20, 2004 in Sausalito, CA

Bethany and Max

2009-03-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

We had a great visit with Anthony's cousin Bethany and her fiance Max this week. They live in Oregon but were flying out of Seattle for their spring break trip to the British Virgin Islands. (Lucky ducks!) Sydney looked out our front window a hundred times, waiting for these two to arrive. She has been so excited to see them, especially since she will be the flower girl for their wedding in June and gets to wear her princess dress.
Here are a couple pictures from our visit:

Sydney and Bethany
We figured since Max is an architecture major, he'd be great at building houses and towers with Sydney's legos. We were right!
The happy couple made a quick trip up to Canada since we are just an hour and a half from the border. Check out the matching tees!

Cute! And some pictures of Alex. He has changed so much lately. This past month he discovered his hands, let out his first little laugh and began reaching for things. He is such a happy and content baby and just smiles at us all day long.

Cuteness

2009-03-17T22:55:00.000-07:00

Anthony and I discuss nightly about how lucky we are to have the most wonderful kids. Oh yes, and they are pretty darn cute too. We are forever laughing at things Sydney says, and smiling and "awww-ing" at how adorable Alex is. Sydney is such a good big sister to little Alex. She loves to sing and read to him, and he just smiles adoringly at her. So cute.

Get ready for some cuteness....

Sydney took this picture
And this

And Sydney and Anthony heading off to the preschool's "Dad n Me Science Night."

And a video of Syd entertaining her bro-check out his smiles

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We're back!

2009-03-17T12:12:00.000-07:00

We arrived back into Seattle last night...to rain. I miss the sunny 65 degree weather already.
We had a nice time with Mam-o and Pop-o and poor Sydney wasn't ready to come home. She kept telling me she wanted to stay with Mam-o. Aww.

Here are a couple pictures of the kiddos on the plane. Alex decided to stay awake for all but fifteen minutes. He just hung out and looked around.

The kiddos cuddling up
Sydney and Anthony had to get up for a potty break so Alex stretched out on the seats. He loves blue puppy already!
And right after I took this picture I looked out the window and saw a plane going the opposite direction. Ummm..is that normal? It wasn't that far away, in fact when Anthony came back I pointed out the black smoke from the plane going the opposite direction. He was quite surprised as well. According to him two planes don't travel in opposite directions at the same altitude. And he took flying lessons a while back so I consider him an expert. :) Anyway, scary.

We're in sunny California!

2009-03-15T21:47:00.000-07:00

We decided to make a last minute trip to California to celebrate Mam-o and Uncle Andrew's birthdays this weekend. The weather has been pretty great for our trip-mid to high 60's. We think this weather is pretty darn nice considering we just had snow a week ago in Seattle.

The kids did great on the airplane ride. Sydney kept busy writing in her notebook and eating peanuts. Alex slept all but 10 minutes of the ride, which was great. So not stressful!

One of our first stops was Pop-o's office. We had to visit the girls at the office and I needed some eye assistance. Sydney also had a quick eye exam. She sat on Thang's lap and read off the letters from the wall. She did great! Her eyes look terrific, luckily she hasn't inherited mommy's incredibly poor eyesight.
Sydney working at Mam-o's desk
Pop-o put Sydney's one year portrait on a big canvas in his office. I have to admit this is one of my favorite pictures of Syd. Here she is posing with her picture.
And doing a little more posing...
We went to dinner at Claim Jumpers...mmm. Here is Alex with uncle Andrew and Anthony

We visited uncle Andrew's new pad. He moved into a really nice condo with the coolest community area. Check out this pool area!

Sydney hanging out by the pool

Sydney and Anthony. If you squint really hard you can see blue puppy back on the lounge area from the previous picture. We barely avoided a minor disaster when we got into the car and realized blue puppy was nowhere to be found. We finally figured out where he was so I ran and grabbed him. Phew! Seriously, I don't know what we would have done if we lost the little guy. Sydney adores him.

We did some shopping at a new outdoor shopping center called the Fountains. I loved it! They have some really nice shops and although it was a smidge windy, the weather was nice for some outdoor shopping. Here is Sydney showing off some cuteness in Sur la Table.

She loved the zebra and giraffe at Z Gallerie.
Sydney proudly wearing her new Roxy hat mam-o bought her. She looks very Californian! Well kinda-I don't know what it is about some of these Californian women, but I saw more sequins on pants and shirts than I have ever seen before. Wow.
One of my fave new pictures
We met up with my friend Jackie and her family. They live about an hour away so we try to meet up each time we come down. She has four kids-I know! I think two kids is difficult at times. Her kids are adorable and very well behaved too. We planned on going to Mike's incredible pizza which was kinda like Chuck E Cheese but way cooler. Apparently everyone in Sacramento thinks so too as the place was packed! We decided to just head to the mall and play and grabbed some dinner afterwards.

The kiddos
Sydney and Kaitlyn
So cute-Josh, Jackie and Gaby
Jackie needed some baby cuddle time
Joseph and Ellie
Anthony and Alex

Considering Alex looks just like Anthony and Anthony looks just like his dad, it's no surprise these two look a bit alike.... Opening presents! Pop-o got Sydney a little something at the store so we wrapped it too so she could share in the present delight. She couldn't wait to open her gift.
Mam-o and her new iPod
I've never seen this man before in my life.

Uncle Andrew bought Sydney a really cool bubble wand. She ran around and popped all the bubbles. Aww, three year olds and bubbles. Great combination.
We made a special lasagna dinner for the birthday duo. Sydney was in charge of the cupcakes.

mmm...cupcakes.
Mam-o gave Alex his first haircut. His hair has always been shaggy over his ears so we decided to trim it a bit. Check out the before...

I know it looks like Mam-o is cutting off Alex's ear here, but she really isn't.
And after! The new and improved Alex. My handsome little boy!

Slumber Party!

2009-03-08T22:51:00.000-07:00

Alex enjoyed his very first slumber party with big sister Sydney at Greg and Jessica's house last weekend. And judging by the way he slept (which was way better than he sleeps at our house by the way) he had a fun time! I am sure he received lots of cuddles and love from Jessica, while Sydney played with her b.f.f. Greg the whole time. How lucky are we to have these two in our lives who love our kids so much? So incredibly lucky.

Here are a couple pictures of the fun times:

Greg with the kiddos
Jessica and Alex. Check out the 'do and his shirt-"I may be small but I am still the big kahuna." Love it.

My hunk-a burnin' love!

2009-03-01T21:24:00.001-08:00

Those cheeks, those dimples, those eyes. This little man makes my heart melt.

Alex's two month appointment

2009-02-23T22:04:00.000-08:00

Alex is now two and a half months old! What?
Today we went for his two month doctor appointment. He is doing really well and the nurse described him as "sturdy." Our doctor was impressed with his shoulders and said he'd make a great linebacker one day. Yes, Alex is a very healthy eater. He is right on track with his development and even flirted with the doc and a couple of nurses. That's our boy.

He weighs in at 12 lbs and 9 ozs and is in the 50th percentile, his head also falls in the 50th percentile. He is 22 1/4 inches long which falls in the 10th percentile. Our kids have been blessed with good hair but definitely not height. It will be interesting to see how tall he becomes. We have quite a few shorties in our family and the only one with real height is my dad at 6'1. Since my mom was just under 5'2, that height was obviously negated.

Here's our sturdy linebacker:

That smile just melts my heart
And sisterly love-Sydney just loves Alex so much. She has been doing so well with him. Today she heard him cry in his crib so she ran to the bathroom to get her step stool, put it beside the crib and sang him songs while turning on his music mobile. What a great big sister huh?

Getting some cuddles in this past weekend
Alex knows he has the best big sissy in the world

Sydney really wanted Alex to sit with her and watch tv today so we propped him up and they had a great time.

Sydney's forced smile
I love this picture

Cousins

2009-02-22T11:10:00.000-08:00

The kids and I met up with my aunt Sue and my cousin Barb's kids this week at the children's museum. The boys were on their mid winter break. Sydney just loves her cousins, she looks up to them so much. And her cousins are great with her. They held her hand and patiently waited for her instead of running off and exploring the next exhibit. Alex slept in the baby bjorn the whole time, he just loves that thing. It was nice because I got to catch up with my aunt Sue, who I just adore.

I love this pic of the kids

Jared reading stories to Sydney and Colin

A couple pics, a couple vids

2009-02-19T22:41:00.001-08:00

More cuteness from this past week...

Think he looks like a mini Anthony or what?

Sydney and Alex

Sydney loves taking my camera and taking pictures. Normally I find about 30 pictures of her blue puppy, her toys, the couch, daddy, etc. Here are a few of the pictures I found on it this time-she's already mastered the self portrait at three. Love it.

My superstar. She loves to perform, here she is standing on Alex's bumbo, not an easy task as you can tell.

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A video of the happy little guy

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The Park

2009-02-19T22:29:00.001-08:00

Last weekend the fam headed over to the park. Sydney brought her scooter so her and daddy scooted around the park while I loaded Alex into the jogging stroller and walked a few laps around the park. It was a bit on the cold side but it was still fun nonetheless.

Pics from the trip to the park...

Getting ready to scooter!

Alex all bundled up. And his favorite thing lately, chewing on his hand. Much more convenient than a pacifier.
Cuteness.
More cuteness.
Riding in the stroller puts Alex right to sleep.

And speaking of the park, we went to the park a couple weeks ago with our friends. The temperature hit almost 60 so it was a pretty nice visit.

Sydney
Little Dane digging the ducks.
It is nearly impossible to get a picture of Garrett actually looking at me. You have to be quick and apparently I am not. Here is the cute little guy.
Samantha wasn't really liking the ducks. We had a bad experience last time we were at this park with some crazy Geese so the girls were a bit skiddish. Jacob on the other hand slept right through it all.
As did Alex

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T23:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!
We enjoyed a delish heart shaped pizza tonight from Papa Murphys-it just doesn't get any more Valentiney than that folks. Red crust and all.

Here are two of my favorite Valentines-check out Alex's expression. Apparently he was NOT a fan of the red crust.

Valentine's Day Party!

2009-02-12T12:53:00.000-08:00

Today was Sydney's Valentine's day party at her preschool. It was great because the moms were invited to party with the kiddos. The kids frosted and decorated heart shaped cookies, they listened to a Valentine story, sang us a couple Valentine songs and even had a heart scavenger hunt. The kids also made each other valentines so it was fun to get home and look at them all. Sydney also made Anthony and I a card and a heart magnet with stamps on it. It's so cute and looks terrific on our fridge. I just love all the fun things she makes at preschool. She is always so proud of her creations and I love hanging them up in our home.

Here is Sydney decorating her Valentines. I dug out my stamps and found some Valentine stamps so we stamped cards, she colored in the hearts and we attached lollipops to the card.

All decked out for the day:
Making cookies! Sydney dumped three little containers of sprinkles on hers-mmm.
Cole and his cookie
The kids all making their cookies
Rosalie-who was in the toddler class at the community college with the kids last year.
Rosalie and her mom Nancy
Kristin and Cole
Sydney and I

Passing out the Valentines

Two Months

2009-02-11T16:29:00.000-08:00

Alex is already two months old, where has the time gone?

We were at the doctor's office last week for Alex's cold and the little man weighed in at 11 lbs and 7 ozs. He's gained five pounds in 8 weeks! He is definitely a good eater.
He's a good little boy too. He's very happy and is a pretty easy baby. He still sleeps about 19-20 hours a day and is our little cuddle bug.

Two month picture:
And here's Sydney wearing the same shirt at ten months-yes, ten months

Happy Birthday Jackson!

2009-02-07T23:22:00.000-08:00

Today Sydney, Alex and I went to Jackson's birthday party. Jackson (Jessica's nephew) turned 5 and we celebrated his birthday at a local gymnastics center. The kids had a blast! Sydney's favorite thing was the inflatable slide, but she did spend some time on the balance beams and jumping on the trampolines also.

Here are some pictures of the kiddos:

The birthday boy:

Sydney enjoying the slides
Walking on the balance beam
Jackson and Sydney-how cute are they?
Jessica held Alex nearly the whole time-the boy was in heaven! He loves his Jessica.

It's not a party without a picture like this... Alex and his bff
Jackson and Jessica
Jackson and Grandma (Jessica's mom)
Tonight we went to Blazing Onion with our neighbors (and friends) Steve, Tomoko and Justin. We really enjoy hanging out with them and don't get together near enough. We had a great time and spent about 2 1/2 hours at the restaurant. We enjoyed chatting with them and Sydney and Justin enjoyed hanging out. Alex enjoyed sleeping nearly the whole time. ;)

Sydney and Justin

Pizza night!

2009-02-05T18:39:00.000-08:00

Last night we had Papa and Nana over for Pizza night! We made individual pizzas so everyone could put their own toppings on their pizza. Sydney loves this! She actually ate a lot of the pizza too-perhaps we need to do this every night??

Papa and Nana with the kids

Kid Pics

2009-02-02T19:15:00.001-08:00

A couple pics of the kiddos today....

Alex-who we think looks like Anthony, my brother Trevor and Anthony's grandpas
Sweet and Sassy Sydney
Remember when I used to update this several times a week???? Me too.

I feel the earth move under my feet...

2009-01-30T10:36:00.000-08:00

We had an earthquake this morning! It happened at 5:25am and I was awake, thanks to the little man. It was a small one-only a 4.5 magnitude. I was feeding Alex in the chair and it felt like someone was kicking the back of my chair, but more of a circular motion. I only felt it for about 10 seconds. Everyone is fine and the rest of the fam slept right through it.

What's been going on here...

2009-01-26T13:20:00.000-08:00

Everyone's sick in the O house. Sydney has the worst case of the cold, Alex is doing the best. Actually, so far Alex really isn't sick unless you count a little stuffy nose that started today. We've gone through many boxes of tissues the past few days-and only one or two have been used on the noses, the rest are purely for Sydney's enjoyment. Yes, it's still fun to take out all the tissues from the box. Although now she uses them for a bed for her babies and other fun things. Ahh Kleenex, another company stock we should probably invest in.

Other than that, the kids are doing great. Alex and Sydney have decided that taking naps at the same time would be a sanity saver for mommy and yes, it truly is. The kids take naps together for about 2-3 hours each day for the past week and a half or so. Heaven! I can get some stuff done or take a nap myself. Alex is sleeping better all the time which also helps in the sanity department.

Here are some pictures and a video from the past week...

This picture was taken while Mam-o and Pop-o were here, and somehow I missed the cuteness. Think these two have the same smile?
Surely CPS will be coming to my door shortly after seeing a picture of my newborn sitting in a Bumbo on the counter...I promise I was right there the whole time. Do you think Alex gets bored of all the pictures I take of him? The expression says it all.
Even better, my three year old feeding the newborn while both of them sit on the counter. And Sydney really does enjoy feeding her little brother, really. She has a cold and isn't feeling so hot in this picture.

And a video of Alex smiling! Ignore me making super annoying baby noises to get my child to smile again. Yes, I am one of THOSE moms! haha.

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Six weeks!

2009-01-22T20:43:00.000-08:00

Alex is already six weeks old! He is doing great. He has been working on his sleep and sleeps for five hours in a row at night now. He usually has a couple two hour sleep sessions, does a five hour and then back to two. My guess is he is sleeping about 19-20 hours a day now, sometimes even more. Yesterday it was about 23.

He started smiling this past week too, which is just the best. I love his little smiles! He is our good little eater and like my ob/gyn said, "Looks like he has the eating thing down." Yup. Anthony weighed him and it looks like he is about 11 pounds.

Sydney is doing really well too. She absolutely loves preschool. Thank goodness the teacher sends weekly updates because this is the info I get from her:
Me: Sydney, what did you do at school today?
Syd: Play with toys.
Me: Oh, what toys?
Syd: Lots of toys.
Me: What songs did you sing during circle time?
Syd: Lots of songs.

Wow, it's like she's a teenager already. It's like pulling teeth!

She hasn't gotten into too much mischief lately, besides putting butter and pancake syrup in her hair. According to her, she just wanted to see what would happen. FYI-it's a pain to get it out and requires a bath to wash it out. These little activities tend to happen when I am taking care of Alex. Hmm, interesting.

David and Beverly spent the holiday weekend with us and it was nice to have them here. Sydney had a great time with her slumber parties and keeping tabs on Pop-O. "Where'd Pop-o go?" was commonly heard. The grandparents also took Alex duty each night which was wonderful. It's amazing what a full eight hours of sleep will do.
I have about a zillion pictures to post so here we go...

My wonderful kiddos
Anthony and Pop-o with the kids
Three generations
The girls-Mam-o and Syd
Another one of the cute kiddos
All decked out in her winter attire
We went to the Children's Museum-Sydney's favorite thing was hopscotch

I love her expressions
Mam-o and Pop-o with the little man
Sydney getting ready to head outside

Alex is psyched to wear his bear outfit. Probably his last, it's just about too small!
Aren't they cute?

Alex does so well at holding his head up so we tried the bumbo and he did great. Checking to see who is bigger
We made personal pizzas for dinner one night. Sydney loved making her own and she helped with all ours too.

One month old!

2009-01-07T21:24:00.000-08:00

The little man turned one month old today! Wow, I can't believe how time has flown by. It feels like maybe two weeks.
He's still nicknamed "Squeaky boy" because he squeaks, groans and makes all kinds of noises all the time. It's pretty funny. He's been doing well at holding up his head, although he started doing this in the hospital. He is a strong little guy. Anthony weighed him on the home scale last week and he was approximately nine pounds. He is a great little eater and I am betting he outweighs his big sis in two years-okay, maybe two and a half. He had already outgrown several of the small newborn sized pajamas.
He's been such a terrific addition to our family and we already can't imagine life without him. I just love that little personality-and those dimples, aww. So cute.

Alex and Sydney

Goodnight.

First day of preschool

2009-01-06T16:52:00.000-08:00

Today was Sydney's first day of preschool. She has been looking forward to this day for quite a while and she's been pretty excited. The past week she's been telling me about all the friends she will make and all the playdates at Cole's house she wants to have. (She finally decided our house might be okay for her new friends too.) Even though she is a bit shy and quiet, she is my social butterfly. She loves her friends and apparently she is thinking about expanding our social circle.

She did great! I dropped her off at school and she was quickly taken away to read stories. I barely got a kiss from her before she ran off. Phew, no tears! She had a big smile on her face when I picked her up and she told me she loves school. When I asked what she did her response was, "I played with toys." Wow, so detailed. I finally got it out of her that she played with the dolls, the kitchen, she sat in circle time and sang songs. She cannot wait for school on Thursday! And yes, I will admit I did tear up a bit driving away. My little girl is growing up so quickly. I look at Alex and think that this was Sydney in what seems like just a year ago. She has become such an independent, social little girl and I love it. I am so proud of her.

Pictures from the first day of school...

Traditional first day of school picture
My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades!
My cutie pie
Sydney with her teacher

Hanging out, listening to stories while waiting for all the kids to arrive
Kristin and Cole
Cole and the teacher (Sydney and Cole are in the same class)
After school with the younger bros-can you tell they had a ball?
Kristin and I took the kiddos for lunch and ice cream afterwards to celebrate the first day of school success.

The kiddos

2009-01-02T20:56:00.000-08:00

A couple pictures of Sydney and her favorite little man, little bro Alex...

Proud big sister

Giving Alex a kiss after his bath
Sydney's job during Alex's bath time is washing his feet and brushing his hair after his bath. She's such a great little helper!
He might look a little bit like daddy...ya think?

The past week or two in pictures....and Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T20:45:00.000-08:00

We've been pretty busy in the O house. Having two kids is just a smidge more difficult than one. Just a smidge. Okay, I am lying-it's a lot more difficult. I barely have time to check my e-mail, let alone respond to them and update this blog.

The good news is that Alex is doing better at sleeping. He is sleeping by himself for a couple hours at a time which is great. Last week he would only sleep for extended periods of time on us which makes it a bit difficult to get things done. He's more alert every day and his favorite past time is staring at the ceiling fan and watching his big sister. Oh yes, and eating. This little man loves to eat, the exact opposite of Sydney. He still squeaks and is a little loud at times. I never realized how quiet Sydney was as a baby until I heard Alex cry for the first time. Wowzers, indicator that he will be a loud child one day? Maybe.

Sydney is doing really well with Alex. Last week she was asking if we could leave him at home while we ran errands, but this week she is asking to bring him everywhere-definitely a good sign. She loves to help and is doing very well at being patient while mommy and daddy tend to Alex. She has also been working on her whistling and she is doing it! There are some real whistles coming out of her which is impressive. She has been getting into some mischief too. She put small pieces of kleenex up her nose to get the boogies (in her words) and after attempts at blowing them out and even using tweezers, I had to resort to having my three year old pick her nose to get them out. Nice. She gave her baby doll a toothpaste bath (her head is still sticky) and she broke her Dora umbrella day two when she sat in it while open so she could drive her "car." Luckily daddy fixed it. Okay so nothing major but definitely a new thing for her. She's pretty sneaky!

These were taken when Alex was nine days old-he's changed so much already! Man he has good hair. My kids have definitely been blessed with the good hair genes. Thank you Papa!

Think they look alike?
So cute, they're even holding hands
Check out Alex's face! He's totally smiling at one week old and showing off his dimples. So cu-ute!
We had so much snow the past two weeks, and this wasn't the worst of it! It snowed more after this. My four wheel drive SUV even got stuck on our little hill. No good right before Christmas!
Check out Frosty the snowman!
Our house

Anthony's Ferrari. Hey it could be, you'd never know if it was (or wasn't!)

Making Christmas cookies with daddy
Alex meeting his new friend Annika, who is six weeks older than him. Alex wasn't in the mood to meet new friends and cried pretty much the whole time. Apparently Annika found the crying to be soothing and passed out shortly later.

And with that I wish everyone a Happy New Year! 2009 has been good to us. Our family is now complete and during the wee hours in the night I've had plenty of time to reflect on how truly lucky I am. Not only do I have two great kids and an amazing hubby who is the most wonderful dad, but I have fabulous friends and family who make me happy. I have a house, two nice cars (hey, I'm a car girl), I get to stay at home with my kiddos every day and really, everything I always dreamed I would have when I reached my thirties. I really am blessed and I don't always take the time to realize how truly lucky I am. May everyone have a blessed New Year.

Our Christmas

2008-12-31T20:06:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas. We celebrated Christmas eve with my dad's side of the family at dad and Kay's house. We started the day off with bowling, definitely a fun tradition for us. The kids love it! Okay, and the adults too. It was fun for everyone to meet Alex and Sydney was spoiled with a pile of gifts she received from great aunties and cousins. Somehow I forgot my camera ( I know!) so I have no pictures. Believe me though, it was a fun time had by all.

Christmas morning was the best yet! Sydney understands the whole Santa thing so she was so excited to see what Santa would bring her. We left cookies, carrots and milk out for Santa and the reindeer the night before, along with a thank you letter. It was fun to see the crumbs Santa and the reindeer left, and Santa even wrote a message back to Sydney! The phrase of this year's Christmas is, "That's exactly what I wanted!" Sydney excitedly used this phrase upon opening her Dora fishing pole from Papa and Nana and her Dora umbrella from Santa. Yes, we did contribute to Dora's record profits again during this gift giving opportunity. My child has more Dora than I have blog posts...seriously.

Alex hung out with daddy and in his swing while we opened gifts and let out an excited "squeak" while we opened his gifts for him. He was pretty excited about this Christmas too. Sydney was a bit disappointed she didn't get to see Santa on Christmas eve, but there's always next year I say. Speaking of next year, she is already making up her list of what she wants from Santa next year. She wants a puppy-a real one. Although her puppy of choice is red with pink polka dots.

Anyway, enough with the wine induced rambling (my first glass in 10 months, happy new year to me!)

Sydney's gifts from Santa-a Dora umbrella and a Dora bike!
My sweet blessings
We had our first white Christmas in 18 years!
Opening presents!
Sydney loves her new Dora robe...I wasn't kidding about the all Dora Christmas.
A gift for Sydney and daddy-love the Muppet Show!
Alex with his blue froggy from auntie Alisa, although we call it his cookie monster. He loves this thing, and held onto it for quite a while

Sydney wondering what to open next

This was actually week two of the snow so although we were getting tired of it, we knew it'd be disappearing soon and we had to take advantage of the sleds Papa brought over. Beats sliding down the hill on cardboard!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T23:31:00.001-08:00

Christmas with the fam

2008-12-23T15:37:00.001-08:00

This weekend we braved the snow and headed up north to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family. The roads were a bit tricky on Sunday and we saw quite a few cars in the ditch on the drive up and down. I will admit-not a fan of driving in the snow so I was a bit nervous. Luckily Anthony is an expert (ish.)
We just don't see this family often enough and we always have a great time at our get togethers.

Pictures from our day...
My brother Trevor, Sydney, Anthony and my cousin Kristy
My cousins Molly and Mical
Nana with Alex and Sydney
Kristy and Cheryle
Kay, moi, Cheryle, Cheryl, Kristy and Char
Sydney and my uncle Craig, who Sydney called "Uncle Greg." Yes, she's a little in love with Greg, can you tell?
Trev, me and Kristy
This is the moment where my bro decided he wanted kids. Okay, totally kidding. I wish though!
My cousin Molly had never held a baby before. Alex won her over-he slept for an hour on her.
Kay, my dad and aunt Cheryl
All the fun wore Sydney out. She passed out on Nana before we left.

Snow day!

2008-12-15T14:29:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we woke up to four inches of snow! I don't know who was more excited, Sydney or Anthony. Okay, so probably Sydney. She loves the snow and since we only get snow once or twice a year (and sometimes not at all) it's a big event here.

Making a snowman with daddy
The finished product-Sydney is so proud of "Frosty."
Giving the snowman a hug
The street didn't have much snow on it so Anthony and Sydney decided to slide down the front yard
Wheee!
And the cutest little man in the world, otherwise known as "Squeaky boy." He squeaks a lot, especially when he cries.

Sydney's favorite toy is her cones. She runs around them every night, and her and Anthony have a good time making up fun games out of them. Here is Alex getting in on the cone action...

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We're going good!

2008-12-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

Everyone is doing great in the O house. Alex is such a good baby. He's not a fan of being changed (he dislikes being cold) but other than that he only cries when he is hungry, needs to be burped or is requesting a diaper change. He's already been holding his head up a little bit and even semi-smiled at Sydney this morning. He loves to stare at her, it's really sweet.

He's sleeping about 21 hours a day, and his favorite place to sleep is on daddy. Last night he slept for nearly six hours in a row on Anthony! It was four hours the night before. Holy moly. Now if only he would sleep that well in his bed.

Here's what we've been up to since Tuesday when we came home from the hospital...

Tuesday was Anthony's birthday so we celebrated with Mam-o's homemade cupcakes. Sydney ate three cupcakes-well, licked the frosting off of three. Here she is double fisting the cupcakes.
Opening a birthday present from Mam-o. I didn't get a chance to get a present for Anthony, but lucky for me he considers Alex the best birthday gift ever. Phew! ;) Mam-o and Alex
We're all a little sleep deprived at the O house
Helping feed Alex. Alex is mostly breastfed but we have been supplementing a bit with formula. Perfect solution for a few uninterrupted hours of sleep for me.Alex's first bath at home! Sydney was so excited to help with Alex's bath. She's such a great sister.
Sydney picked out the pink bunny rabbit towel for Alex for his first bath. This was actually Sydney's first bath towel too!

Not sure if he was crying because he was cold or because he was wearing a pink bunny towel... Sydney was so excited to brush Alex's hair. Check out how blonde it is!!
Big sis and little bro

Welcome to the world Alex Christopher

2008-12-09T22:02:00.001-08:00

Welcome to our family Alex Christopher!

Our son chose to arrive a few days early, making his entrance on Sunday, December 7th at 10:12am. He weighed in at 6lbs, 7ozs and 20 inches.

He looks almost exactly like Sydney when she was born, just with lighter colored hair. And he has dimples! I love dimples so this was pretty fun to see.

I started having contractions early Sunday morning but they were pretty far apart and I fell back asleep. At around 4:30am I woke up again and they were pretty steady at 8 minutes apart. They were painful but didn't really start hurting until a couple hours later. I woke up Anthony around 6am and called the hospital to see if I should come in. They recommended I come in so we called my dad and Kay to have them meet up at the hospital since we had Sydney with us.

The contractions continued every 6-8 minutes, however I was not dilated at all so there was talk that I might be sent home. I was not thrilled with this idea, especially since the contractions were getting stronger. Alex began having heart decelerations each time after a contraction and this concerned the nurse and doctor. Thank you Alex-an hour later we were in the operating room and Alex made his debut! Beverly was still on her way up from California so Anthony and Kay joined me in the operating room while my dad took care of Sydney.

Alex entered this world with a very loud cry-in fact that is just the way he cries apparently, he is definitely not a quiet kid like his sister. He looks so much like Sydney it's incredible. I can't wait to see if he changes quite a bit or continues to look like his big sister.

He has been an eating champ-breast feeding has been going really well. He sleeps about 23 hours a day so far, I have forgotten how much newborns sleep! Sydney is absolutely in love with her little brother and actually held him the first day more than I did!

Okay, I will stop rambling and show some pictures since I am very much sleep deprived right now and can't keep a train of thought to save my life at the moment...

Waiting to meet little Alex

The nurse gave Sydney a "big sister" bracelet
Here he is!
Alex has been blessed with good hair, just like big sister
I love this expression on his face..."What the H-E double hockey sticks is going on?"
Nana was in the operating room with us. Mam-o was in route from California so it was nice to have one of the grandma's with us.

Meeting little brother for the first time.
The grandparents just can't get enough!

Papa and Alex
First bath
I still can't get over how much he looks like Sydney. I will have to show some comparison shots in a later post.
Mam-o meeting her grandson for the first time
Our family doctor came by two times to check on Alex. Sydney adores her and talks about her often.
All this excitement wears a kid out!

Sydney and Alex with Jessica Uncle Trevor looks pretty comfortable holding Alex, huh? Trevor and Alex actually have the same hairstyle too-pretty cute.
Lisa, Jake and Samantha came to visit us! Jake was napping but here are the girls with Alex
Sydney just loves her brother
Greg and Jessica with their godchildren. Like the hold Sydney has on Greg? She was attached to him the whole time, she just loves him so much!!
Jessica is Alex's favorite already. She filed his nails for us, something she used to do when she was Sydney's nanny.

Brady and Alex, new best friends. They are just five weeks apart.
Going home!

Proud big sister and Alex

Good times with good friends

2008-12-06T20:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we headed over to Samantha and Jakey's house for a playdate-the last one before the little man arrives and we have six kids between the three of us! Oh my, getting the kids together and even dining out used to be so simple.

Sydney was so excited and looked forward to this day all week. She talked about "My Santha's house" (Samantha) and all her fun toys in their toy room. These kids just love hanging out together! Although it was a little different-normally it's either all three running around or Sydney and Samantha palling around together. Yesterday it was mostly Cole and Samantha, and Sydney played a lot in Samantha's room. She loved pretending to sleep in her big girl room, and at one point I hadn't heard from Sydney in a few minutes so when I went in to check on her, she was reading a book to Jakey. It was really sweet.

Here's a picture and a video of the kiddos-

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My little bride

2008-12-03T14:27:00.000-08:00

Today Sydney and I headed over to the bridal shop to try on flower girl dresses for cousin Bethany's wedding. They didn't have the exact style we were looking for (the flower girl dress that matches Bethany's dress.) We did try on another one for size though and Sydney loved it. She just kept smiling at herself in the mirror, twirling around. She loves dressing up and looking like a princess.

My eyes teared up when she put on that little dress. It's probably just pregnancy hormones...okay, who am I kidding-it's totally not. All I could think about was one day in thirty years or so when she finishes medical school, we are going to be trying on wedding dresses for real. If I am tearing up now, what kind of mess am I going to be when it's the real thing? Oh boy. Anyway, here are a couple pictures from our bridal store stop...

My little princess

Bethany's dress and the flower girl dress that matches-these dresses are even way more gorgeous in person!

O Christmas Tree

2008-11-30T22:42:00.000-08:00

Today we ventured down to the valley to find the perfect Christmas tree. We live just a couple miles away from some local farms and we love it. It's great for fresh produce during the summer, corn mazes and pumpkins in the fall and Christmas trees in the winter. With all the housing developments going in around us, it's nice to see farms still exist-and thrive in our area.

It was the perfect day to search for the perfect tree. Fifty seven degrees-wow, when has it ever been this nice going into December? Umm...never. After scouring the tree farm for the perfect tree, we found it! Last year we bought a huge tree and it was really just way too big, it took up half the living room. This year we decided to go much smaller and it's a nice, manageable size.

Here are the pictures of Christmas tree hunt 2008:

This is such a cool picture-there's a skydiver behind Anthony and Sydney with a beautiful view of the Cascade Mountains
Off to find "the" tree
Sydney loved the "Sydney-sized" trees

The classic O fam shot
Where did she learn these poses? In front of "the" tree
Look at that determination, future firefighter maybe? Anthony let her hose down the tree stand and well, just look at this picture. I think she had a good time.
And the decorating...Sydney loves this nativity scene my Aunt Sue bought her last year. She loves to re-arrange and line everyone up. Her favorite is baby Jesus.
Anthony and Sydney found Dora candy canes at the store. Yes, Dora really has taken over the world.
Candy canes make this girl silly
These candy canes will last for years. The girl takes two licks and she packages the candy canes back up. She's not really a candy girl. Now a cookie and M&M girl, that's a different story.
Putting on the angel
Sydney chooses an ornament every year. This year it was a John Deere tractor she bought with daddy at Lowes, one of their favorite stores. She says this is her very favorite ornament.
Putting on the ornaments. We actually had extras since this tree was so much smaller than last years tree. The important ones are up though, including all the ones Anthony and I have purchased together since 2001, our first Christmas together.
And a picture of our stockings. Yes, there is one for the baby too. I scoured the internet to find stockings that matched ours since the company that makes them changed their designs. I found it though, and it arrived just in time for Christmas decorating. I'm a little in love with our stockings. The lettering is an iron-on from Michaels craft store.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-28T18:56:00.001-08:00

I can't believe Thanksgiving has already come and gone. It's almost 2009 already, wow!
We had a really nice Thanksgiving. We went to my aunt Char's house and had a great time. The older I get the more I realize just how blessed I am to have such a terrific family. I love having my aunts (my mom's sisters) in my life. My aunt Char is so much like my mom so it's just wonderful to spend time with her. Dinner was great and socializing with the family was even better. And it's just not a family event with this side of the family without busting out some dancing. I don't know what it is but we do this often. And I love it.
Sydney spent nearly the whole time petting their dog Sasha. She loves dogs so much. I actually forgot my camera-I know! I hardly ever do that yet I have done that a lot lately, hence the few pictures. My uncle Craig took some great pictures so hopefully I'll be seeing those soon so I can post them.

And now on to Christmas! Anthony actually has three days off-in a row! Today was a nice lazy day, it was great! The rest of the weekend will be spent getting our Christmas decorations put up, and going out to get a tree. Our Christmas shopping is pretty much done, with exception to a few things for the stockings. We definitely did not go crazy this year like we normally do, and I feel really good about that.

Okay okay, and because it's just not a post without a picture-here's Sydney a couple weeks ago making brownies with daddy. She just loves to bake and cook with daddy and mommy. Okay, mostly daddy.

Umbrella ella ella

2008-11-21T22:39:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we met up with our buds Samantha, Lisa and Jakey at the UW bookstore for toddler story time. It was packed and a little disappointing-the storytime consisted of two books and twenty minutes. The kids did get water and animal crackers though, possibly the highlight of the story time. Samantha and Syd didn't even notice the stories going on. They sat up in front at a table and colored, ate their snacks and chit chatted the whole time. It was like they owned the joint. The girls are just so much fun to watch together.

Afterwards we enjoyed some yummy Mexican food and Kristin, Cole and Brady joined us for lunch. Mmm, Mexican. Okay, so this might have been the highlight of the trip for me, but for Sydney it was all about Samantha's umbrella. Sydney is obsessed with umbrellas and has been asking for one for months. It's definitely on the Christmas list for Sydney.

All three kiddos

Check out Greg and Jessica's blog for some super cute pics and stories of Sydney's day with her bff's Greg and Jessica. Sydney is one lucky kid.

Gymnastics at the O house

2008-11-21T20:55:00.000-08:00

Gymnastics is still going really well for Sydney. She absolutely loves going to class each week. Her favorite part of gymnastics are the rings and bars. She also loves the trampoline and running around with the other kids. I really enjoy watching her, she improves each week and it's great to see how much she has progressed the past couple of months.
Although-my only beef is the chatty moms. Now don't get me wrong, I too love to socialize (just ask my teachers who made mention of it on my report cards as a kid) however I'm there to watch my child and I really enjoy watching her. Today I missed her first forward flip on the bar because Chatty Cathy next to me was chatting it up. But I was lucky enough to hear all about her real estate woes and all about her kids. I just don't get the parents who go there and don't pay attention to their kids at all-their on their mobiles or reading the latest People magazine. Should these parents be watching their kids? Isn't that the point of the parent viewing area? But I digress.

So the hub decided to build Sydney a balance beam and bar for home. Well, I think the plans are still in his head for how to build it, but we have a temporary fix for now set up in the family room.
Here's Sydney on the balance beam and bar... she does this nightly now.

(Don't try this at home folks)

And she is definitely her father's daughter. She was so excited to ride her motorcycle and wear her helmet.

Happy Birthday Cole and Samantha!

2008-11-14T23:35:00.000-08:00

Cole and Samantha both celebrated their 3rd birthdays this past week. Lisa had a birthday playdate at her home last week, but unfortunately Sydney and I were both sick and we missed it. Since Sydney doesn't forget a thing and kept asking me 100 times a day when the birthday party was, we decided to have another birthday party playdate at our house. She was parked in front of the window 30 minutes before they were to arrive, and she would have been there two hours earlier if I hadn't made her do other things-like eat breakfast. She was so excited!

She helped me plan the day-she decided her and her friends would eat chicken nuggets, strawberries, grapes and bananas. She also decided we would do a cake instead of cupcakes this time. It was adorable, my little girl is a little planner like me already!

Anyway, the kids had a great time. You can tell by how many toys are spread out throughout the house. The more toys, the more fun they had! Jakey had a great time too. He is such a big boy now and enjoyed playing. He's no longer the baby of the group!

A picture of the birthday kiddos in front of their cake...
Happy birthday Cole and Samantha!

And a couple random pictures from the past week or so...

I moved furniture and toys around in our family room this past week. Now I remember why I never put the chair here before...this took 4.3 seconds for Sydney to figure out.

Like our Halloween decorations? I tried taking them down right after Halloween but Sydney really wanted to keep them up for her friends and protested. So I kept them up. The day of the party I plugged the lights in and she told me, "Mommy, Halloween is over." Oh boy, my three year old already thinks I am soooo uncool.

Wearing daddy's safety glasses...

And the reason why a three year old still needs help getting dressed- pajama pants on the head and shirt on the legs. Silly kid.

Dress up

2008-11-10T20:01:00.000-08:00

Sydney has discovered that dressing up like a princess is pretty fun.
Cordelia and Ivy bought Sydney a Barbie outfit quite a while ago. It's been hanging in her closet for over a year until recently. Really I just wasn't sure she'd be into the whole dress up thing...I was so wrong. She has worn her Barbie outfit all day long, even insisting on taking a nap in it today. Tonight Anthony and Sydney ran out to the store and Sydney wore the outfit. She loves this thing and is now saying that Santa might need to bring her more dress up outfits. Like her pajamas and sparkly shoes too? Now this kid has style.

Fun times with Mam-o

2008-11-05T13:08:00.001-08:00

Sydney had the best time with Mam-o this past weekend. She enjoyed trick or treating with her, but especially enjoyed spending every single second with her-no kidding. I think Mam-o had a total of five minutes to herself all weekend. Sydney has always loved Mam-o but she was attached at the hip to her this weekend. At 6:30 the first night Sydney asked, "Is it time to go night night yet?" I am fairly positive my child has never said that before, nor will she ever again. She was so excited to have a slumber party with her Grandma that she couldn't wait to go to bed! Mam-o always reads her a lot of books and these girls just have so much fun. Sydney wanted to take Mam-o to her room to play quite often and only Mam-o could feed her meals and help her with the potty.

Some pictures of Mam-o time...

Blue puppy is very well loved. Poor guy, Sydney uses him as a pillow every night so his stuffing was just about gone. Mam-o brought up her puppy stuffing supplies and the little blue puppy is good as new. Here are the girls stuffing blue puppy.
Hanging out in the baby Papasan. We have pulled out all of Sydney's baby belongings for baby bro and she has really enjoyed them. Will she even be able to share with baby brother when he arrives? She loves sitting in this thing while watching tv, this along with her Bumbo. She loves her Bumbo and sits in it every day.
We used watercolor paints for the first time. Sydney is still enjoying her painting very much and we now paint a few times a week. Thank goodness for washable paint!