Alexis' 2 Year Appointment

Alexis was supposed to have her 2 year appointment back in May but because back in March Derek and I had both changed jobs his insurance took 90 days to kick in so we had to push her appointment back a little. Dr. Nagle was out of the office this week and didn't have any appointments until August but we got another pediatrician there to squeeze us in yesterday :)

Alexis came in at 23 lbs and her height is 32 1/4". She is obviously still on the small side: 3rd percentile for weight and 7th percentile for height. Of course her weight has always been a concern for me; I constantly feel like she is too small. I am so thankful that she has had such amazing pediatricians; Dr. Blackburn let me know that aslong as she is eating healthy foods and is growing at her own rate, which she is, that if anything we are lucky that she is so small, since so many kids now are overweight that of course in comparison Lexi looks really small. Anyone can attest to how much Lexi eats, she is just so active that she burns it off. I didn't realize the average weight for a 2 year old is only 27 lbs, so she is really not that far off. He said that Lexi will probably be 5'4 so she will be small, but I'm 5'4 and I think that is a perfect height for a girl ;) I kept thinking she was going to be much shorter but he seems to think that will be how tall she ends up being. She has great eye contact and reflexes and she is perfectly healthy. She got 1 shot and won't need anymore until she goes into kindergarten :) She also won't need another visit until she's 3!

That is all for now :)

Past Couple of Weeks

The past couple of weeks have been busy. On the 7th we headed to Las Vegas just for a couple of hours. We were picking up my brother's friend who was moving out to Utah; He happened to be in Vegas that day so we planned to drive down to pick him up. It just so happened that my friend Michelle was going to be in Vegas that weekend so of course I was excited to meet up with her. We got to Vegas at around 4pm, it was sooo hot atleast 110 degrees. We picked up my brother's friend at New York, New York and headed to Encore to meet up with Chelle. We stayed at the Wynn for my 21st Birthday, they were building Encore when we were there so I had never been. Encore is very similar to the Wynn and was just as beautiful; We meet up with Chelle and ate at a cafe there. It was nice to catch up since I hadn't seen her since right after Alexis was born when we went down to San Francisco. Alexis was being a little diva, the first 10 minutes we were there I had a least a dozen people come up and tell us how cute she was or just plain staring lol, she does love the attention. After our yummy lunch, Chelle had to go back to her hotel so we said our goodbyes and my brother and his friend meet up with us and watched Lexi for us while we gambled a little ;) We played the slots and didn't make any money on the first couple of times but we decided to give it one last chance. I found a slot machine and put in $3 and two vouchers for like 10 and 17 cents and we won $44 dollars! It was a nice little trip :)



This past Saturday we had Alexis' first pageant. The pageant was through Beehive Beauties and it was their American Summer pageant which is an all natural beauty pageant. I'm not into the whole make up thing so I was happy about that. There was a beachwear and themewear segment; For the beachwear we went with a pink bathing suit that had a little tutu on it, she wore pink and green flip flops and her sunglasses I put here hair in pony tails. For the formal wear segment the dress has to be red, white, and blue so we found this cute dress at Gymboree, she wore her white sandals, and I ordered a red, white, and blue headband from etsy with a little rhinestone piece in the middle. This being Lexi's first pageant I was obviously new to everything well you can pay for just the basic entry or you can add or buy a package with additional options, for example they have a program that you can buy and they have a front cover, back cover winner, calendar girl, themewear photo, etc. So if you want you can pay and submit a picture for those and if she wins they put her picture in the program, aside from the picture they already put in, and you get a trophy for that. We decided not to enter her into all of those because it can get expensive and since this was her first pageant we didn't know if she would like it. Well Lexi definitely loved it so next time we will probably opt for those optional prizes.

There were several age groups and Lexi won 1st place in her age group! I went on stage with her during both of her walks and Derek told me she did the best out of the other girls in her group but of course I couldn't see the other girls because we were backstage but he was right! They had some participation trophies for the girls that didn't place and for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd they had bigger trophies, sashes, and tiaras. Alexis got a "Queen" sash, a tiara, a big trophy, and an elephant stuffed animal with a pageant t-shirt on it, the stuffed animal was her favorite part. Since Lexi placed at this pageant she qualifies to be in the year end final pageant in December! We are so proud of our little girl. Derek is so funny, now that he knows she had fun and that she did so well, he is wanting us to find more to put her in before the one in December so she has more practice. I've found a couple but most of them are not all natural and I am completely against putting make up, hair spray and using curling irons and all that. I gotta say there were a lot of wack jobs at this pageant; Moms that were waving and dancing around trying to tell their little ones when to do every move. I saw moms using curling irons on their little 2-5 year olds and to me that is just ridiculous; Way to start ruining your daughter's hair this early. I am fine with using curlers, without the hard plastic, on little girls, but curling irons is too much. Even if we put her in pageants that are not all natural we definitely will not be using make up on Lexi. Here are some pictures of her at the pageant.











A couple of weeks ago I applied for a position that I really want. I had a phone interview and have scheduled a final interview in a couple of weeks. I really really want this job; So hopefully I will have more to say on that in a couple of weeks.

I mentioned last time that I wasn't sure how I felt about Alexis' new daycare. Well I have decided I don't like it very much. I would consider myself to be a daycare veteran at this point, Alexis has been going to daycare for over a year now and she's been to 3 different ones so I am used to things being a certain way. All of the daycares she has been at always gave us a note at the end of the day with what she ate, when she napped, how many times she was changed, if she was happy or not, etc... This daycare doesn't give you any information, they always have a different teacher in her classroom and the classroom set up is kind of all over the place. I loved her last day care the way the classroom was set up all of the kids ate breakfast together at the table, instead of in the kitchen in a high chair. Also her other daycare had a separate playground for the younger kids that was very age appropriate, her new daycare's playground doesn't seem age appropriate. We will definitely be putting her at another daycare once we move to our new place.

Well that is all for now. Enjoy!

We Are Officially Half Way Trough 2013!

Can you believe today is July 1st!?!? I can't. The year has gone by so fast. I guess the older you get the faster time seems to pass. I can't believe I am 26, though it doesn't really feel any different than 25, it still feels weird to think that I am closer to 30 now.

This last week has been very busy and exhausting. I was training most of last week and it was a breeze, since I have worked at the OG before it was really just a refresher. We got to eat lots of food and try some yummy drinks :) Usually when you start serving you get started on 2 tables but myself and another girl that also has served at the OG got to start right away on 3, so that was nice it made a real difference on how I did today. I work dinner shifts the rest of the week and I'm off Friday and Saturday which is nice I just wish that I wasn't working a dinner shift on 4th of July :( but being new that's what happens. I am hoping that it will be really slow and they will phase me out early so that we can go watch some fireworks. Lexi absolutely loves fireworks so I really want to go with her to watch them.

We started Lexi at a new daycare today that is in between our apartment and work since I am not going to be working at the campus in West Valley this coming school year we took her out of the daycare she was at near to that campus. I am going to be at the Draper campus so that's why we were looking for a daycare nearer to where I am going to be. This daycare is smaller and I don't know how I feel about it quite yet since she was just there today but so far it seems pretty nice. For now Lexi will be going there 3 days a week once August rolls around and I have to do training for the school she will be going full time to that same campus or we may find something closer to where we end up moving.

Our lease at this apartment is up in July, we are paying month to month till August so that we can have time to find another place. We keep going back and forth on whether we want to try to buy a house or not. We don't plan to stay here for very long, just long enough for Derek to finish school so part of me thinks that we should still buy a house and not throw our money away but Derek feels like that won't be enough time to make it worth the hassle. Regardless right now we know we are not ready so we are planning on renting a home. Since Derek's company got moved to a building farther south unfortunately we have to move into Utah county, I like Salt Lake County ;), fortunately we are looking in Lehi which is barely into Utah county. Renting a home is going to cost us just as much as our 2 bedroom apartment and we are going to get so much more room and have a yard for Alexis, which is much needed. I am excited to start looking more towards the end of this month.

It has been so ridiculously hot! I hate the heat with a passion. I love the cold. I miss the wonderful San Francisco weather on days like today were it is over 100 degrees. I get off work after the car has been parked in the hot sun and feel like I'm going to melt the second I get in. We kept the apartment nice and cool though ;)and always have ice cold water so it gives me some relief.

My adorable little niece Harlow is turning 1 on the 4th :) I can't believe it! It feels like she was born just yesterday. I am so bummed we can't be there for her birthday; I am happy we got to see her and my family for Lexi's birthday. Hopefully we will be able to make it down there maybe in September.

I gotta say, I am so in love with Alexis. Everyday I am blown away by how much I adore her and how amazing and intelligent she is. I am so humbled by her love for me. There is no feeling in the world that compares to hearing her say "mami" and hearing that love in her voice. I always think back on that first moment we laid eyes on each other and I took a mental photo of it and can still remember how we stared at each other and I knew that she knew who I was. Love at first sight really does exist <3

P.S. Derek and I took Lexi to see Monsters University and she loved it; She kept yelling at the screen lol Really cute movie made me miss college life.

Nuevo

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I blogged.

Well there are a ton of new things going on. The school year ended on the 13th so I have been relaxing this past week or so and it's been so nice not to have to get up early to go to work. I miss all the kids but it's nice to have a break from the craziness. Lexi is not in daycare at the moment, since I haven't been working for the last week but that may change here pretty soon.

I have my orientation tomorrow at the OG (Olive Garden) I figured I needed a summer job, so I'm going to be a server at the Olive Garden in South Jordan. I was a server at the OG in San Francisco which was like 5 1/2 years ago, I really loved being a server so I'm excited. I will be at the Draper 2 campus in the fall continuing to be a teacher in training. I was asked to change over to the West Valley campus, not the one I was at this year, but we are probably going to be renting a home in the Lehi area since our lease is up in August and Derek's company is moving to a new building in Pleasant Grove. I really didn't want to move into Utah county but unfortunately we don't have a choice so that is why I asked to be at the Draper campus. I am hoping to continue to work part time at the OG once the fall starts.

My birthday was yesterday on the 21st, first day of summer, and longest day of the year :)I got a massage yesterday which was amazing but painful all at the same time. I have the worst knots on my back and am in constant discomfort/pain. The masseuse worked out a lot of my knots so I am in some pain but overall my back feels so much better; I really need to make getting a massage a regular thing. After the massage I got some yummy lunch at In n Out, it was soooo good. Later that night Derek and I went out for dinner and some drinks. I got this amazing strawberry mojito. Being 26 really doesn't feel any different than being 25.

Random off topic, but my brother was making fun of me the other day because I told him Derek and I are going to put Alexis in the Beehive Beauties Pageant next month. He thinks pageants are weird/bad so he was making fun; While he was strolling Alexis around while I was getting my massage the other day a lady told him how cute Alexis was (assuming it was his baby) the lady told him she should be in a pageant, when he told me this of course I had to laugh. So many people tell us to put her in commercials/pageants it would be a disgrace to keep her beauty all to ourselves ;) The pageant is July 20th at Weber State there is a beachwear and formal wear category. I hope she has fun with the whole pageant thing; I will definitely update once it gets closer.

Alexis had pink eye about 2 weeks ago, it took about 7 days for it to actually go away. I am almost positive that she got it from someone at daycare. When we picked her up from daycare is when I first noticed it and it only got worse. None of us got it, just her, but now it's all gone. Even with having pink eye she was just smiling and happy :) she's such a trooper. Alexis has been so wild lately and such a fun little girl. She has gotten in the habit of calling everything "mine" and is extra sassy! We haven't had Alexis' 2 year appointment yet; Derek's insurance is delayed a couple of weeks from kicking in so I am hoping within the next 2 weeks we can get her in because I am dying to know what all of her measurements are.

Random: I actually started driving Derek's car. We drove down to Southern California 2 weeks ago to pick up my brothers, we were briefly there for a day. On the way back I drove a lot of the way and once we got back drove myself to work for the last week and caught on really fast so now I am able to drive it :) I am sure I could have gotten a better hang of it before but I just didn't take the time, but I'm glad I did. On another random topic, there is a golf course right across the street from us and there is a trial that goes through it that I never really knew about. My brothers would take that trail to work everyday but I didn't know it goes as far as it actually does. Well today we decided to take a walk on the trail, Lexi came along in her stroller, well the trail is pretty awesome it's about 3 miles long. It was such a hot day but it was so nice to go on a walk and much needed, we walked 2 miles there and back so 4 miles total :)

I am in need of a vacation we are planning a trip to San Francisco mid August to see my friends :) I miss them, the city, and I know they really want to see Lexi. I feel like there is more I needed to say but it is getting late and I need to be up early so I guess we will stop here.

Enjoy!

We Have a 2 Year Old On Our Hands!

Our Lexi turned 2 on May 14th; I can't believe she is 2 already! We celebrated her birthday the weekend before with Derek's grandma/aunts/uncles and the week after her birthday, last Saturday the 18th we celebrated with my friends and family. My parents and brothers came out last Friday, we had a packed apartment. That night we went out to eat while my dad watched the girls (Lexi and Harlow). That night i had started baking cupcakes for the party, we ordered a jumbo one for Lexi from a cute little bakery near by. I forgot to take a picture of the ones I made for everyone else but they were strawberry and some vanilla ones with pink frosting and white pearls :) Saturday morning I did some last minute shopping for the party. We had sandwiches, potato salad, chips, and watermelon. 

We had Lexi's birthday at a nearby park; it had been raining the night before and even that morning. Lucky for us the weather cleared up and we didn't get any rain the whole time we had Alexis' party. We had the party in a covered pavilion, but there was a playground we were afraid we wouldn't be able to use, since it didn't rain the kids were able to play in it. Unfortunately Harlow had a cold the whole weekend so she didn't get to do much :( Derek's friend and his wife came with their little boy Gavin and Lexi had a blast playing with him. BTW Gavin was our choice for a boy name when we thought Lexi might be a boy, love the name! My good friend from work and her husband came so that was nice. 

I put together a "photobooth" i wish I would have had more paper because it didn't look as good as I had hoped, but it was fun to take some silly pictures with the props. The paper kept falling off because of the uneven surface, but we figured it out. Lexi wasn't a big fan of the photobooth but I feel like the balloons behind us may have been distracting her. Lexi did seem to like posing more with my mom lol she smiled for their picture together. 

Alexis is such a diva! I don't know if it was because it was past her nap time or what, but she was a real sass ass lol. All she wanted to do was play on the playground and all she wanted to eat was pickles. Lexi is probably the best eater I've ever seen and this time she did not care for anything but pickles. When it came time to eat her cupcake, she took a couple of bites but didn't eat very much of it. Lexi opened up her presents and I think her favorite was all the clothes she got. She tried to put on almost every outfit she got. Lately she has been doing that a lot, trying to put her shoes and socks on. My dad bought her a ton of clothes, my mom bought her a dress, my brother and his gf bought her a big wheel, Derek's friend got her a cute Disney princess drawing board/DVD/bubbles, we bought her an outfit, some musical instrument toys, and her new princess potty :) 

We want to start potty training next week, hopefully it goes well. Alexis looked so cute in her birthday outfit, especially with the little crown. I know she had a great time at her party :) The rest of the weekend we just hung out. Derek, myself, Angelique, and my brothers all went to City Creek downtown. City Creek was just being built when I graduated from the U and left so when we moved back and it was done I really wanted to go but just never got around to it. It is a beautiful mall, reminded me of Rockefeller Center on a warm summer day. We came back home Saturday night and played Fact or Crap till about 2am. The next day my dad left so we said goodbye and since my brother and mom were staying till Monday we went out to breakfast and in the afternoon went to nickelcade to play some games. We watched tv that night and went to bed early. Monday morning we said goodbye and they left. It made me really sad to see them go, we had such a fun weekend. 

This week seemed to drag but now that it's Thursday night it actually feels like it went by faster after all. For our 4th grade we had a culminating event of poems and songs that our students had learned throughout the year. We had our performance last night and I was on campus all day from before 8am till 8:30pm, I got caught up on a ton of grading so it was nice. I got so teary eyed when the kids performed; I think of Alexis performing once she gets into school and it makes me so emotional. Plus I love my kids and I love seeing how excited they get about performing. I am so thankful that I have Monday off; it is much needed. 

I am sure I have more to say but I think this will do for now. Enjoy! 

My Baby Is Turning Two In 9 Days!

I cannot believe Lexi is going to be 2! It feels like just yesterday I was holding her in my arms for the first time. I am so excited for her birthday. I am excited to see my family :) I cannot wait to see her in her birthday outfit. My little princess is going to love it.

In the mean time not much has been happening, just working a lot. Alexis is loving her daycare so that's always good. Derek is working a lot and he seems to be enjoying his job. We got to see Holly a couple of weeks ago :) it was nice seeing her since it had been a while. Lexi really missed her auntie. Derek and I are both excited for her to move out to Utah after graduation so we can spend more time with her :)

The last week Alexis had been throwing up in the middle of the night; It happened 3 nights in a row. I felt so bad for her :( She hasn't done it for a couple of nights so I'm hoping it's passed. I'm not sure if I mentioned this in my last post but the first week Lexi was at her new daycare she had 2 incidents. One of the days I picked her up she had some scratches on her cheek and they said they're not sure exactly what happened but it happened while she was playing. Well I took her home and cut her nails just in case she had just scratched herself. Well the very next day I pick her up and she had the same kind of scratches on her other cheek. Turns out she was playing with a doll and this boy wanted it and he tried to take it from her and he scratched her! I was pretty pissed, this had never happened at her other daycare, and even though I like this one better it was pretty upsetting. I told the teacher in the class that they need to keep an eye on her so it doesn't happen again. I put some Neosporin on her scratches and it's all better now. I guess the older she is getting the more accidents she will undoubtedly have.

On Saturday Lexi was trying to stand on one of her toys and it slipped out from under her and she fell on her face pretty much; She had a bloody nose, a fat lip, and a scratch on her chin :( Poor baby cried so bad but we gave her some Tylenol and stopped her nosebleed. She doesn't seem to mind the bruised lip; Her scratch on her chin is still pretty red but I'm sure it will go away.

I've been meaning to share that I've lost 5 pounds in the last 2 weeks :) I know it doesn't sound like much but to me it is. Last week I lost 4 pounds and this week a little over 1. I was hoping I'd lost another four but I had like 3 "cheat" dinners and was not able to work out really at all this week. I have been eating Progresso Light soups for lunch and for snacks at work I've been eating carrots and apples and drinking lots of water. The soups are like 180 calories so it's helping a lot. I am hoping for another 4 pounds this week :)

I always want to write more but I am tired and don't have much to say but I am sure on my next post I will.

Enjoy!

Is It Really April Already!?!?

I cannot believe how quickly this year is going by already! It feels like Christmas just happened and now we are already past Easter. April is one of my favorite months, even though the weather hasn't been so nice but I guess that's April showers for you.

Alexis will be 2 in a month! I can't believe how quickly these last 2 years have gone by. Lexi is growing up so fast and it makes me sad to think of her getting older this quickly. She is still very petite for almost being 2. We ordered her invites on Etsy and I added some rhinestones to them, I think it makes it perfect; I'm happy with how they turned out. I will be sending the invites out this week and will also be ordering her dress and crown :) I am so in love with the little dress. Since Lexi's birthday is during the week we decided to have her party that weekend at a local park. My parents and my brothers are all coming out :) I am excited to see my little niece Harlow.

Aside from Lexi's birthday coming up, we've just been really busy with work. The last day of school is June 14th so I am thinking of looking for a temp job for those 2 months I won't be working until the next school year starts; I'm still not completely sure yet though. Derek is doing amazing at his job :)

We put Alexis in a new daycare :) I liked her old daycare but Derek and I bought felt that they weren't spending enough time academically stimulating her. The location also was not ideal now that we have both changed jobs and it got really expensive. So we looked at a couple of different ones and found one that is on the way to my work. It's a newer daycare and it is less expensive but so much better than the last one she was at. The rooms are organized really well and they let us know they do really well with helping to potty train, which we will be starting on right after she turns 2. I thought she might have a problem adjusting the first day but they told us she did great :) I love this place!

On another note, a while back we were really looking to get into a house but had decided not to pursue it because we don't plan to be in Utah for more than 4 years and didn't want the hassle of trying to sell it. However as of late we've thought about it a lot and don't want to throw four years of rent away when we could be investing it in a house. We are wanting a townhome and we went to check some out this weekend and I completely fell in love with one of them so we are hoping by October/November to hopefully be able to purchase :)

Here is a picture of Alexis' invites :) I think that is all for now, enjoy!