THERE SHE IS, MISS AMERICA

Well not exactly Miss America, but I was just as proud as I would be if it had been. (I could not make that sentence sound right, but hopefully you get the idea.)





Lexie was in her first pageant as a non-toddler, and she won!! She has mentioned a few times over the past two years that she wants to do pageants, and I said "we'll see". The past couple of months she has really talked about pageants, so we decided to go for it. I found a pageant in Siloam Springs that she could fit into her busy schedule. Lexie is fortunate enough to have an aunt that is a former Miss Arkansas, so Lexie went over and had Melonie show her how to walk. Lexie had so much fun practicing her walk, and her confidence really showed when she was on stage.



I asked her if we could make signs and put a picture of her face on popsicle sticks, but she said 'no'. There was a huge cheering section for her though. We took up a whole row. (20 people) Lexie has a lot of fans.

I would have been proud of Lexie even if she hadn't won because getting up on stage in front of a bunch of people is very hard. Lex really had fun, so I am sure we'll be doing this again.


WAY TO GO LEXIE!! WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!!!

Lexie and Brooklyn (her little sister)

Brooklyn was also in the pageant.

Cadence and Lexie strike a pose.

Beautiful sisters
Lexie won the 13-15 age category, and Brooklyn won the 0-11 months category.
(Lex looks so happy!!)

Lexie and her Poppy




Lexie and my parents
(Monte's parents were also there, but Monte took them home before I could get a picture.)




Melonie, Cadence, and Lexie

STILL NOT A FAN OF GRASS

When we went to the pumpkin patch in October, I couldn't get any of those cute, blissfully happy pictures of Carter with the pumpkins because he HATED the grass. Well, not much has changed in 4 months. Right before the ice storm we had a couple of really nice days. (Yeah, I know that was over a month ago.) Carter LOVES wagon rides, so I took him outside for a ride. (We do laps around the kitchen/dining room/living room when it's cold.) He had a blast until I took him out of the wagon to let him play in the yard. Hopefully when the grass turns green and soft he'll enjoy it more. He is definitely an outdoors boy though. It doesn't matter how bad of a mood he is in or how tired he is, if you take him outside he is a happy camper. On Valentine's Day we went for a walk to the end of our street. He loved it because I let him hold my hand and walk instead of putting him in the stroller. It took us a very long time- not because his legs are short, but because he wanted to pick up EVERY rock he saw. By the time we got back to our house, his hands were full of little rocks that I let him keep. I tried to show him how to put them in his pocket, but he wasn't going for that. He thought I was trying to take away his rocks.

"Yay, a wagon ride!"

"Wee, feel the wind blowing through my hair."

Carter loves it when the wind blows in his face.

The look of disgust returns.

He was trying to figure out how to stand back up without touching the grass. He would start to push himself up, but when his hands would almost touch the grass he would pull them back really fast. Then he would look up at me with a 'help me' expression on his face. I finally quit laughing and helped him up.

Shopping for Valentines

Yesterday when Carter and I were at Target, he got to pick out his Valentines. He got so excited when I took him out of the cart and let him down on the floor. Later my mom took him and Lydia on a walk through Target. It was sooo cute!! (Unfortunately I didn't get a picture. I do apologize for the picture quality of these pics. I used my phone. It does okay as long as the subject is still, but Carter is never still!)


"I get to pick out my own Valentines!"



"Hmmm. Let me take a closer look."



"I want Mickey Mouse."

You learn something new every day!

I learned something very sweet about my wonderful hubby.

One of Carter's friends had a birthday party Saturday. We were talking to a lady about her grandson that was just born a few weeks ago. The nurse at the hospital (not a local one) accidentally put the baby in the wrong bed, and brought the mom the wrong baby. The mom noticed, they checked the ID tags, and gave her the right one.

We were talking about how the only time Carter ever left our room was when they took him to be circumcised. They bathed him in our room and everything. Then Monte said he went with Carter to be circumcised. I thought he meant he went down to the room and stood outside the door, but No. He actually went in the room, and held Carter's little hand while he was having the procedure done!! He said he had to turn his head at one point, but never left him.

What a good daddy!

Girls Day Out

Lexie and I ended up having an unplanned girls' day on Sunday. We had so much fun and laughed so hard that I have permanent laugh lines now. It was so much fun to spend time with just her.
Every other Sunday, Lexie goes to church with her Aunt Angie (dad's sister). When she is there she helps with children's church by using a puppet. Her church had a special service on Sunday, so they needed Lexie to do her puppet. I have heard a lot about her act, but I had never seen it in person. I got to go and watch her perform. (Carter was not feeling well, so Monte stayed home with him.) All I can say is , "WOW!" Lexie is a very creative and talented girl. I thought she would do a good job, but I had no idea how good she actually is. I told her I think she's ready for Sesame Street :-)
I videoed it so Monte could see it, and hopefully I can upload it on here soon. Lexie is going to be in a talent competition through the church in Russelville in March. I can't wait!!


This is Starburst. She is a very hyper little thing. It is adorable when Lexie makes Starburst's head shake because those fuzzy little pigtails fly around.

Lexie and Starburst

After church, we went home to check on Carter and then Lexie and I went to the movies. Lexie has been begging me to hurry and finish Twilight so we could go see it. (She already saw it opening weekend, but she wanted to see it with me.) Let me back up a little bit... I got the book Twilight around Christmas. Lexie saw the movie and said it was good and she wanted the second book. I told her she should read the book because the book is always better than the movie. She was not a fan of that idea. A few weeks ago I asked her some questions about Twilight and she had no idea what I was talking about. (The movie leaves out A LOT!) The questions I asked got her interested in the book, so she decided to go ahead and read it. After she finished the book, she said, "Well, I liked the movie until I read the book." (She finished the entire series in 3 weeks!! For those of you that don't know, there are 4 really big books.) Well, I finished Twilight right before I saw the movie, so all the details were still fresh in my mind. (Literally right before, Lexie read the epilogue to me on the way to the theater.)

We had so much fun at the movie. We were the people that I hate in the theater. We could not stop laughing. No it's not supposed to be a funny movie, but the facial expressions they had Edward and Jasper making were completely ridiculous. We still imitate them, and it makes us laugh just as hard.

My opinion of the movie: a disappointment. I LOVED the book. I am not into vampires and werewolves or anything dark, but this book was great! It was basically a love story between a human and a vampire. Forbidden love! I liked the movie okay, but I don't think the director did a very good job. (Again, what was she thinking with the stupid expressions?) So much of the emotion and details were left out. I am hoping New Moon will be better since they are using a different director. But I can't criticize the movie too much because it did turn out to be very big bonding experience for Lexie and I.

Ice Storm 2009

We were very fortunate during the ice storm. The most we ever lost power was for a minute. The most we were inconvenienced was that our Tivo kept resetting every time the power flickered. (BooHoo- I know.) Luckily we do not have big trees close to our house, so we didn't have any damage. We were very blessed. There were so many people that lost their houses, cars, pets, and even a few lost their lives. I have heard several people talk about how they still don't have power. (My sister just got hers back Tuesday evening.)

Monte's parents stayed with us a few days while they were without power. I know it must have been hard for them being displaced without notice, but we enjoyed having them. I was sad when they had to go home. It was so nice getting to spend time with them, and they got to see Carter play in his element. (They also got to watch Lexie read. That was how she passed the time.)

Here are a few of our snow pictures. Like I said before we were lucky, so it actually was very beautiful here. It looked like what I imagine Narnia looks like.

Our one and only little tree

My second home :-) No, I didn't drive when the roads were icy. Monte went for me. He is such a wonderful man!!

Our house

Unfortunately we didn't get one when it was snow covered. This was taken after everything started to melt.

Halfway through basketball season

I haven't updated about Lexie's basketball season because I don't have any pictures. Our camera had a problem right before Christmas, so we had to send it off to be repaired. Hopefully, we will get it back soon. I tried to get a few pics with the camera I keep in the diaper bag, but it just doesn't do well with action shots and the gym is kind of dim.

I can't believe her season is halfway over. I love watching her play. She is quite entertaining!! Most of the teams are pretty evenly matched. We either win or lose by a few points. But there are two teams that are in a league of their own. They both have a girl that will probably being playing in college and the WNBA.

Game 1- Win!

Game 2- Lost by 1 point. Lexie is a defensive player. That is why it is so fun to watch her. She becomes a completely different person when she steps on the court. In real life she is a very sweet, caring, giving person, but when she steps on the court look out. Well in this game, she fouled out. Not only that, but she got a technical!! I think Lexie gets more pleasure out of ripping the ball out of someone's hands than making a basket. Maybe basketball is how she relieves stress.

Game 3- Loss-- Played one of the really good teams. I think the score was 150-4. Just kidding, but that's what it felt like.

Game 4- Win!

Game 5- loss--We played the other really good team.

Hopefully we will get our camera back before her season ends, so I can share some pictures. I will try to update after each game because there is usually at least one funny story, but I can't remember after a few days.

What do I miss most about living in California?

THE WEATHER!!!

Our cup (toybox) overfloweth

We had Carter's party on Sunday. It was so much fun!! Carter got some really great toys, and he loves them all. He is getting really good at playing independently and entertaining himself. He has also become a walking pro. It is still adorable; he looks like a little monkey walking around.

I just love this picture of Lydia. She has some really funny expressions.

He was sooo tired. He only got a 20 minute morning nap, and this was way past time for his afternoon nap. He was in a really good mood for the entire party. I was pleasantly surprised.

His smash cake.

The birthday cake

Lydia's cake was so delicious and beautiful, I knew that I had to have the same bakery do it. I think the girl was about to kill me when I ordered it: "I want this from this cake, and this from this one, and can you do this, too?" I am very happy with how it turned out.

I thought the lion on top was amazing and the monkey sitting on the edge was so cute. I wish I was that talented (or even half that talented).

"Mmm, that was good. I think I'll have some more."

"Yay, nobody is taking it away."

I wasn't going to let him eat the whole cake because I heard that it would make him sick. He was eating it slowly, so I decided to start cutting the big cake. I guess when he saw I was distracted he dug in. After only a couple of minutes I looked up and he had eaten this much....

Carter definitely got my sweet tooth! He loves cake. In fact, the next night I sat down with a piece of the cake. He looked up and saw me with it. His eyes lit up and he started squealing. Uh oh, it was almost time for him to go to bed, so I put the cake away. He threw the biggest heart broken fit I have ever seen. The next day I shared a piece with him, when it was all gone- same fit!!

Still our LITTLE buddy

I took Carter for his checkup today. He is still hanging around at the bottom of the percentile rankings. He weighed 19 pounds and was 28 inches long-- 5th percentile for both. (He lost a pound last month when he was sick, so that didn't help.) The doc said he is doing great!!

We had a small birthday celebration last night. I made Carter's favorite dinner: baked ziti. Then we had cupcakes. His real party is Sunday. I can't wait!


12 cupcakes!



He shoved a whole cupcake in his mouth!!!



"Yay! Presents."

Oh, and teeth #7 and 8 were through this morning when he woke up.