2nd Playdate with Hazel

It's really special when Hazel and Alexa get together. After all, Rachel and I met Hazel's parents in the weeks before the girls' births. It's very interesting to see what each girl excels at, and how they are progressing. I would imagine that when they get to talking it will be hard to get a word in edgewise.

Father's Day (part 1)

We went to Papa and Mimi's house this past weekend to celebrate Father's Day, and we did so much, it takes 2 posts to cover it all. Papa cooked fajitas on his new grill, we opened gifts, and the kids enjoyed the swimming pool (in part 2) under the shade of the new patio cover! Alexa was really revved up and we got some great videos of her "walking" around. She was taking more steps than she ever has.

In this video, she takes several steps to me and then makes her way back to Papa.


You can tell in this one that she has a course in mind, but she just kinda gets distracted.
I think this is actually the most steps she took at one time.


She takes quite a few steps and lands at the recliner on this one.


Of course we had to end with one where she dives into her Mommy's arms.

Father's Day (part 2)

This is the second part, dedicated to the swimming pool. It was so much fun! Jordan and Ethan always love to see "Baby Wexie" and yesterday was no different. After we ate, it was time to get into the kiddie pool. This was Alexa's third time getting in a pool, all within the last week.


At first she was just kinda sitting there, enjoying the water.



Then the sharks (twins) started to circle.



The boys did extremely well considering they had been wanting to get into the pool the whole afternoon. They let Alexa have a few minutes by herself in the pool, so she could get comfortable.
They were, of course, testing the water temperature regularly.


As time went on, the boys made their way into the pool, one step at a time.


Eventually it was a free-for-all. The boys really loved falling backwards into the pool. Good times.



Alexa did pretty well, never really getting flustered. There was only one instance when she got splashed in the face that she looked to Rachel really quickly. She never cried though.


I think we have a little water-baby on our hands.



In this video, she wants to show Ethan that she can run with the big dogs, then realizes she might be in over her head. It's funny to watch.

Potty Time!

We decided to start trying to potty-train Alexa, mainly because she has started messing with her diaper when she needs to go the bathroom. She doesn't do it every time, but if you happen to see her little hands trying to tug at her diaper, it's a safe bet that if you put her on her potty, she will use it. I won't get too detailed, but she has used it for both #1 & #2, mostly #1.

The very first time Rachel and I put Alexa on it, we had just taken her clothes off so we could give her a bath. She's just sitting there looking around, and all of a sudden we just started hearing trickling water sounds; so of course we start cheering and clapping, doing our best to reinforce the behavior. It does play songs, but I hadn't put the batteries in it yet at that point. Now, it could very well have been a coincidence that she had to go right then, but we were proud nonetheless. From there she went straight into the bath. Once she got out, we got her dressed, played for a while to get her wound down, and then started getting her ready for bed. As I was waiting for Rachel to use the restroom before she put Alexa to bed, I thought it would be a good idea to try Alexa on the potty one more time. We went in, sat her on the potty, and sure enough, more tinkle in the potty. This time when we clapped, so did Alexa. She was so proud of herself. She even put the lid down and pulled the little lever to simulate flushing.

We can get her to use it about twice a day at the moment, but it definitely takes a keen eye to watch for her signals. We had to get some reading material, as is evident in the picture.

Hanging at the KC!

Yesterday we got to hang out at the Knights of Columbus pool with Grammy, BB, Meemaw, Pawpaw, Matt, and the Sears family - Christy, Cody, Ryan and Dylan. We had a blast! The pool is awesome - they have a large kiddie pool with a shade cover and a larger pool with a decent slide. The food is cheap and the beer is good - what more could you ask for?! We plan to be hanging there pretty often during the summer.

Here are a few pictures of Dylan and Alexa - they are getting really comfortable with each other. Alexa was studying him pretty hard. Dylan actually took her hand a few times - so cute. He's such a ham too! Every time I wanted them to look at the camera, he would look right at me and grin. I love it! Pretty soon they will be running around together - good times!

Cutie Patooties!

Alexa had to get her eyes dilated at the optometrist today. She has to wear an eye-patch a couple hours a day, alternating eyes each day, to strengthen her eye muscles. I like to say that her future's so bright, she's gotta wear shades.

Blowing the nose

K, so I forgot to include the funny video I took of the sweet baby on Friday. We were outside waiting for Daddy to get home so we could start our weekend when Alexa takes the polishing cloth I use to clean the camera and starts rubbing her nose. I've never seen her do this before, so I wasn't quite sure what exactly she was trying to do. Then I heard her make this weird sound, almost like she was snorting. I asked her "Are you blowing your nose?" and she just looked at me and smiled this huge smile and did it again. That's exactly what she was doing - imitating the action of blowing her nose. Cory snorts pretty loudly sometimes, so I really think she was imitating him. It is the funniest thing. This isn't the best video, but at the end you can hear her make the sound. So crazy kids pick things up so quickly!

Fun weekend...

I realize Cory already blogged about the pool, but I wanted to share a little bit about the weekend too. If the weather is nice and not too hot, my mom and Lexie will wait for me and Cory in the front yard. We got Lexie a cute Adirondack set and she absolutely loves it! Here's a pic of her out waiting for the weekend to start! Yippee!

Saturday morning, we packed up the family and made a trip over to the McKinney Trades Days. Since we are all up by 8 am every day, we decided to go ahead and start the day early - there were vendors that weren't even set up yet! It gets so hot, so fast these days, we didn't want the sweet baby to get too hot. We didn't buy too much, but we did find some cute things for Lexie. Below, you will see her modeling her new purse (just $1) and a set of bracelets just her size ($1) - it was fun purchasing her the "girly" things I thought I would never buy. Doesn't she look cute??


When we returned home, we had to get the house ready because we were getting the carpets cleaned - so fun. We planned to spend a few hours at the mall so the carpets could dry. Here's a very cute picture of Daddy and Alexa. She was just posing for the pictures this weekend! I don't think she knows how special she is to have such a wonderful daddy. She'll find out soon enough though...

Here are some more pictures of Lexie before we ventured into the pool on Sunday at Aunt Lynette and Uncle Ron's house. We thought she would want to sit in her float before we tried to put her in the water. Grammy wisely suggested this as to not introduce her to too many new things at one time! Anyone who knows Alexa knows that she likes to take her time and check things out - she's not the type to just jump into things.

Posing with her purse. Doesn't she look so cute?

First Time Swimming

Today we went to visit Uncle Ron and Aunt Lynnette at their home in Colleyville. They have a pool and this was the first time Alexa had ever been swimming. Of course this meant finding the perfect thing for her to wear, as well as being stocked up on sunscreen and all the other things you must have when you go to the pool. We had Alexa try on her sunglasses a few times at home so she would be acclimated to them and wouldn't try to take them off.





She definitely enjoyed herself, once she got comfortable. She was a little weary at first but when she would see me swimming out in the middle of the pool she was pointing and yelling a lot.



She sure was a handful in the pool; she kept trying to lean all the way forward to see under the water. It was a great time and I'm sure there will be many more aquatic adventures in store for her.

Brandon Byrne's Wedding

On Saturday, the family journeyed to Austin to witness my cousin Brandon get married. We left shortly after noon and arrived just before 4 pm. Alexa did very well on the drive down - her longest drive thus far! We made sure her tummy was full right before we left, which worked out great because she happily played with Nana for about 30-45 minutes and then took about an hour nap. The last hour or so she got a little tired of being in the car seat, but my mom did a good job of entertaining her which made it much more bearable for the little one and the rest of us!

Here's the view from our room at the Hilton in downtown Austin. My aunt made reservations for us -thankfully this was where the reception was. Alexa soon found her favorite past time - looking out the window and waving at the cars below. So cute...

The wedding was at 7:30 at St. Mary's Cathedral and we were of course, late. The parking was not the easiest to navigate, but we got there at 7:32 and they already started! Which would normally be great, but they locked the doors as the precession was already headed down the isle. There was a large group of us waiting to enter and it started getting hot, fast. The poor baby started sweating. They let us in a couple minutes later.

It was a beautiful ceremony and Alexa did very well. She wasn't loud at all - maybe a few laughs here and there as she played with her purse she got for her birthday. Oh, and of course she had to talk to everyone behind us - kept them very entertained! This was a Catholic wedding, so it ran about an hour. Keep in mind, we usually start our bedtime routine with Alexa at 7:30, so it's already 0ver an hour past her bedtime. We were just waiting for her to meltdown after staying in a car seat for over 3 hours and only having a couple of hours to unwind. I was hoping that she would take another nap before the ceremony, but no dice.

The church was only about 6 blocks from the hotel and she fell asleep just as we were pulling up - with valet traffic, it was about 9 pm at this time, but she woke up and was ready to go on!

Here are some pictures we took in front of the fountain in the lobby - you can tell how tired she is! Poor baby, but what a trooper!

By the way, my friend Teri bought her this dress for her birthday - it has little bumble bees all over it! So fitting! It was the perfect outfit!

My mom, my cousin Jamie (brother of the Groom) and us...

The happy couple. Her name is Mariangela, by the way, and she is the cutest thing!
I think we'll be great friends after they move to Dallas.

Alexa and her Great-Grandmother - doesn't she look great! I thought she looked so beautiful. She is doing so well. We are truly blessed!

Alexa, me and Brandon

So Alexa, miraculously was able to fall asleep - have no idea how as there was a live band! We couldn't believe it! We took the stroller to the reception, obviously, and were armed with her favorite blanket she sleeps with (her Meemaw and other Great-Grandmother made it for her), some milk and she went right to sleep! Just in time for me to enjoy my dinner - at 10:30 pm, by the way - yes very late, but the wedding was so beautiful you totally forgot what time it was. Alexa also made it easy to forget how late it was as she stayed up until about 10 pm.

She woke up just in time to cut the rug with her daddy!

So cute! I loved it! He danced with her for about 2 songs...

Mommy got a couple of dances in too!

My grandmother, my aunt Ruthie (mother of the groom) and me...

The morning after... she went to bed about 1 AM and still woke up at 7 AM with a smile! How did we get so blessed with this wonderful, happy baby?!

Trying to get in a little exercise after breakfast - walking up and down the wall...

One last look out the window before we depart...

Waiting for the Valet and looking cute!

Home finally! She went straight to her chair and took a load off!

I think this is when she realized what a whirlwind of a trip we were just on - this was only 3:00 pm. Poor thing!

She did so well though! We stopped for breakfast on the way out of town, again we had to make sure her tummy was full! She immediately took a nap for a little over an hour. She then played for a little while and the slept again until we got home. We were like is this a joke? She must be saving it all up for our trip to the Coast in September...

Michael Busby's SMU Graduation

Michael is Cory's youngest cousin - their mothers are sisters -and he just graduated from SMU with a degree in Economics!! It's so weird because when Cory and I started dating, Michael was 12 years old - can you believe it! It was so great to be able to celebrate such a milestone with him. He has turned into such a wonderful man and it's a blessing to have such a great family. SO... Congrats Michael - looking forward to see what the future has in store for you!

Alexa and Ryan posing by the fountain.
(for those of you who don't know, Ryan is Cory's first cousin...)

She's not so sure about this anymore...

Silly kids!

We went to Campisi's afterwards and Alexa drank from a straw for the first time!
Growing up so fast...