8 months old

After only 2 weeks I fell off the weekly blogging wagon. My excuse for last week was a very long 6 day work week, I don't know what the excuse for the week before is. Anyways, in Alex news, she seems to have a new trick every day. She is so close to crawling, she does what we call "the inchworm" and can pretty much get where she wants that way but still looks like she's going to do some real crawling any day. She may be almost ready to crawl but we aren't ready for it, the house hasn't been baby-proofed and I'm not ready to have to vacuum every day. I guess there's no stopping her though! She's also finally started sleeping almost all the way through the night in her own crib... I think she was probably ready for this a while ago but I liked having her in the same room as us.
We also think she has more teeth on their way, she has been sticking her tongue out a lot, I think she likes to feel her gums. It's pretty funny, instead of kisses goodbye she gives Justin a goodbye lick in the morning.

Proud of herself that she can stand only holding on with one hand.

Singing to me while she plays with her favorite toys.

Really concentrating on trying to crawl. Soon enough baby girl, soon enough

2011 Week 2

This week Alex learned how to stand herself up in her crib, and she is very pleased with herself. Looks like our days of a non-mobile baby are numbered. She also has added lots of sounds to her babbling repertoire, her favorite noise of the moment being a sort of guttural grunt which is hard not to laugh at. She loves dancing to any music, although Justin is afraid that she's got my moves. Poor girl.

New Year

I've decided that I don't record enough of our memories so I'm going to try to update the blog weekly with a picture and a little bit of what Alex did that week. Time is flying by and she changes so quickly that I don't want to forget anything. Even if nobody else is reading this, at least I'll have a journal of sorts to look back on.
Here goes for the first week of 2011.
We had a wonderful Christmas and New Years spent with family. Alex got a million toys and clothes, but her favorite gift was a toothbrush that Grandma put in her stocking. Chewing on the handle feels great on her gums and the squeaking noise that it makes is pretty funny. Other than that, she really didn't need presents, but she did enjoy unwrapping and eating tissue and wrapping paper.
Our precious little girl rang in the new year with her first two teeth coming in. She has been a little fussier than normal but really has such an easy temper- we are so lucky. She has also become a wiggleworm and tries to roll off the changing table, and she has started doing a lot of babbling, mostly a gaa sound. She seems like she really has something to say and is puzzled why the rest of us don't understand.

Alex checking out the ornaments on the tree with a little help from Daddy.

YAY!! More presents = more wrapping paper

Story time. She loves reading, especially turning the pages.

Showing off the teeth!

Fun with jackhammer

Justin and my dad had a very manly day... we rented a jackhammer to take out a bunch of concrete in the backyard, and then later in the day Justin got to use his truck and a chain to pull some trees out of the front yard. Between the power tools and the 4 wheel drive, he was in heaven, although also pretty sore the next day.
The jackhammer was harder (and heavier) than it looked, the fence along the side and the back came out pretty easily but the concrete around the post for the solar panel was a little more difficult. We were able to take the solar panel down, but just can't get the pole out- we took out at least a foot deep of concrete and the thing still won't budge. Maybe we'll get used to having a big pole in the backyard, or maybe we'll add a tether ball court!!

This was the first try at the jackhammer.

It didn't take long for them to get the hang of it and take down the fence.

It looked easy so I wanted to try, but that thing was so heavy!!!!!

Mom took on the tedious job of taking out all the weeds in the backyard.

Wow! It looks so much better already! We can't wait for grass and a real backyard!!!

Memorial Day fun

Some people spent Memorial Day BBQing and relaxing. My dad and I spent the day doing some serious gardening. By the way, who knew gardening was such a workout?? It sounds pretty lame, but I really don't think I've ever been this sore in my life.

Our lovely front/sideyard before we got to it. You can't see the iceplant too much, but it was everywhere and had such deep roots. From far away all the wildflowers looked ok, but when you got a little closer they just looked overgrown-- some of the weeds were almost shoulder-height.

This was about halfway through. You can see all the iceplant that we tore out, it reminded me of seaweed. It was lucky for me that my dad came over at this point, my muscles were pretty much done and my dad was laughing at how I could barely swing the pick.

Looks a little sparse now but at least we're starting fresh. There was a row of lavender along our property line so I decided to keep that going, other than that, I left very little that was there before. The biggest negative to this is that now everyone can see how badly the house needs a coat of paint. Hopefully the "outside paint"pics are coming soon!

May updates

It's been quite a while since I updated the blog, but we've been busy between working on the house, working at work, and celebrating Justin's big 3-0.
Here's a peek at what we've been up to. Lots more pics to come soon, we've started doing some landscaping and my dad cut down most of the huge bushes in the front. It's a huge improvement already, we can't wait to get some paint on the outside of the house.

Almost looks like a real kitchen-- just don't look out the windows.

The Man Room. Justin did a great job of shopping on Craig's List for these chairs. Once we get a tv stand for this room, I don't think I'll ever see him again.

The living room. We are so classy, we even have art!

Hallway- there is finally light in this wing of the house!

The entryway. I had a very specific idea of the mirror that I was looking for and this wasn't quite it, but I gave up. I'm not as good of an online shopper as Justin, I just don't have the patience- shocking, I know.

The guest bath, new light fixtures and fresh paint.

The front yard before Mom got to it...

And after. Lucy helped too :)

We cleaned the brush behind the house and planted some roses. Let's see how long before we kill them.

Forgot to add this one

I couldn't resist this one. We were unpacking boxes and I heard a funny noise coming from the kitchen. I walked in and this is what I found...Tootie has always loved boxes, when he was a kitten we used to come home and find him in the Yahtzee box (he doesn't quite fit in that anymore). He is finally acclimated to his new home, he loves all the windows and finally being allowed to sit in them! He has decided that the guest bedroom is his, he loves the new bed and the sun that comes in that room. By the way, I almost came home with a dog this weekend. Justin wants a BIG dog, and I didn't think I did but I found a rhodesian ridgeback at Petsmart (they have those dogs for adoption there on the weekends). His name was Nashville and I though that name was fitting for us--- but I was going to call him Nash. Justin thinks it's too soon to be getting a dog but I think we're very close.
And I'm usually pretty good at getting my way ;)