New Carpet

It's been quite some time in coming (4 years actually since we moved into this house), but we finally did it...we had new carpet installed in the bedrooms! Our house now smells like new carpet...and it looks really good too. We had to clean up all the rooms, and help move all the stuff off the floors...but obviously it won't stay clean for too long...Alex already has a good jump at putting his toys all over his room.


You can also see in this next picture our September project (and some of the carpet too) where we installed a new vanity in our Master Bathroom. Two sinks! what a concept. Now we can brush our teeth at the same time when getting ready for bed at night :)

Sea World "Adventure"

On Saturday we went to Sea World with the kids. It seemed like a great situation. My school paid for the tickets via "FAU Kid's Club" and even chartered a bus to go up to Orlando. Sounds great right? Well, we had to get up at 3:30 to make it to the school by 5:00 am. We left at about 6:00 and things were okay until Alex woke up an hour later. He's normally a good natured kid that sleeps well. But he's been sick all week with a cold and he's never been one to sleep on our shoulders. So he started crying and crying for the remaining 3 hours of the bus ride. About 2 hours into the crying Erin turns to me and says that her tummy hurts. I quickly handed Alex back to daddy and began searching around for a bag, a good idea but just a few seconds too late. That's right, Erin threw up all over her clothes, seat, pillow and blanket! (Let's just say I got a new pillow out of this.) Now, we've had a couple of plane rides that have been doozies... but I have to say that this trip may have topped them all. By the time we got there and I had rinsed out all the affected clothes and things and taken them back to the bus, it was almost 11:00 am. We hadn't even entered the park yet and Jared and I were absolutely exhausted!

This was before we entered the park (Erin ran away from the picture)

Erin was really a trooper. She wanted to walk the whole time and besides the incident on the bus, she had a lot of fun and was a very good girl all day.

Riding the carousel was a highlight for Erin as well as petting the stingrays. She also kept asking to see the sharks and was really excited to walk underneath them in the shark tunnel.
I said that I like the dolphins because they look so happy.
Erin said, "I like sharks because they look so mean." Go figure.

We got to see 5 different shows and they were really amazing. Whenever they would do a trick Alex would yell "Wow!" and start clapping. I think I would like to be a dolphin because they do so many fun things. A sea lion wouldn't be bad either, except for the barking. One of the coolest shows was called "Pet's Ahoy" and it was basically a set of a town on stage with a whole bunch of little doors that animals would run out of. A cat would run out of one door, climb across a rope, press a lever that would trigger something else, then run into another door. Then another animal would come out and do something else. There were dogs, cats, ducks, birds, a rat, a skunk and a pig. I don't know if my description does it justice, but I have never seen anything like that before.

This is a good representation of how tired Alex was all day. My conclusion? Sea World is really fun if you are 3 and a half or if you are 31. It's not really that fun if you are 1, have a cold, are really tired and want to run around or climb the steep steps during a dolphin show but can't. Oh, and it's not all that great dealing with a kid like that either. Being stuck on a bus going 45 mph for over 4 hours while everyone is glaring at you for not being able to shut your kid up? We don't plan on doing that again anytime soon. Other than that, Sea World was great!

Scrabble

The other day, Erin was trying to teach Alex about all the magnetic letters we have on the fridge. She was holding the letter "E" and saying "Alex, this is E. Can you say E?" He started saying E over and over again. That night when Jared and I were playing Scrabble, Alex climbed on the chair, looked at my letters and said, "E, E, E." I was amazed because I really did have three E's! However, I realized that he really can't recognize the E, he just thinks that anything that looks like a letter is E. Now he'll pick up any one of those magnetic letters and proudly say "E".

That same day I was so happy and surprised to walk into Alex's room and find all the books on the shelf and toys put away. I came out and said thanks to Jared. After a bewildered look from him I realized he hadn't cleaned up. So I asked Erin if she had done it. She said, "Yes, come see!" Then she began telling me everything she put away. I asked her why she cleaned Alex's room up and she said, "I didn't want him to step on all his toys." The other day at the park someone commented on how well Erin takes care of Alex. I just said, "Well, somebody has to." Erin really is a great sister to Alex.

Here are some pictures of the kids chasing each other last night (okay just Erin chasing Alex). The weather has been so beautiful lately. Ever since November started it's been like one of those perfect spring days after a long winter... only it's like a perfect fall day after a long summer.

Halloween

Halloween 2007

Halloween 2006 - They haven't changed a bit. Actually, I was amazed to see how much Erin has changed this last year. She's becoming such a big girl.


At our ward Trunk or Treat


Erin and Clara. Clara is one of Erin's best friends from church who also goes to preschool with her.


Cute Giraffe

Alex and Daddy

This is our pumpkin that we carved when our kids were really tired, but it was the only time we could do it when we were all together and awake. I think it's probably the cutest jack-o-lanterns I've ever done.

Erin named our pumpkin Ed and then took the marker and said, "Mommy, what letters spell Ed?" So all our neighbors knew his name too. Erin is getting really good at writing and figuring out what letters words start with. I tried to explain "phone" to her today but eventually gave up after she looked at me and said again that phone starts with f... (duh, mom)

Alex's Birthday

So Alex's first birthday was pretty uneventful, but it was kind of funny. I didn't get home from class until 7 pm and we were going to have cake then, but the kids were so tired. Erin said, "Mommy, I'm weally tiwed (really tired)" and I asked if she was too tired for cake (thinking any kid would stay up for that). To that she said yes and proceded to find a comfy spot on the futon and fall asleep for the night. We decided to just have the cake with a very tired Alex instead. Here's what happened...

Here comes the cake (what is that thing?)

"First you strap me into the high chair and then you plop this thing on my tray... with fire on it!"

"Stop the torture and get me out of here!"

We tried again the next day and he did eventually eat his cake and like it (though the candle thing still freaked him out the second time).

And he made a nice big mess (you should have seen the seat of his high chair!)

Happy First Birthday Alex!!!