Birthday Video

She’s 2!!!!

Last Sunday was Alyssa's second birthday. She got to celebrate all weekend... presents every day starting Thursday so she wouldn't be overwhelmed, opening everything all at once. She got lots of great gifts from a bunch of people.

• An Elmo toy and a couple of kids music CDs (thanks DD!)


• All kinds of learning tools... flash cards and workbooks and letter puzzles. She'll be the smartest 2- year- old ever! (Thanks Amy!)


• A laptop for the car that lets her color with water. Yay, no mess! (Thanks, Pam!)


• A super cute bumblebee game and magnetic princess storybook (Thanks, Alli!)


• Frog tub squirters and a set of vehicles to be strung like beads (and yay, there's a "Stoo Bus" in the mix!) (Thanks, Ashie!)


• A wood "paper doll" set and a set of wooden food that can be cut... it actually sounds like you are cutting fresh vegetables because of the velcro! (Thanks, Tula and Poppie!)


• A cute outfit from her friend that she has yet to meet (Thanks, Kristina and Audrey!)


• A slide that has been in the house for the last week, along with a cool playhouse and a huge set of food and pots and pans. (Thanks, Grammie, Grandy, Mommy, Daddy, Tula, Poppie, and Mama!)

She had a great time opening presents and being the princess for the weekend. She had some of her favorite foods for her birthday dinner (corn on the cob, mac and cheese, hot dogs, melon, you name it!) She loves her playhouse and slide so much! We used to get a "Hi!" or "Good Morning!" when we would get her out of her crib after a nap or in the morning, but now all we get is "House?!" She just can't wait to play in it! Thanks to everyone for the great gifts... I can't believe it has already been 2 years!  Check out this Snapshow...

Help!!!!!!!

Please vote for me here... I entered a contest for a design challenge over at http://www.freshnestdesign.com with pictures of our recent update of the paint in the dining room and guess what!?! I am a finalist! Please click the link and vote for #1 Jennie so we can win a toddler bed for Alyssa! If you have a blog and wouldn't mind a shout... please post a link as well! Thanks for the support!

VOTE HERE!

A New Car (Well, really a truck!)

The lease is up on my car, so we've been talking about what to buy to replace it for almost a year. We had settled on a Trailblazer (or something similar) because we'd be able to get a break through Mike's job. He spotted a trade-in a week or so ago and snatched it up! We signed the papers on Thursday afternoon in the fastest deal I have ever participated in (Mike had most of it done ahead of time... I just had to sign). 15 minutes later we were switching my stuff over. Take a look at my new "car!"



It is a 2006 GMC Envoy with lots of bells and whistles... sunroof, leather, power seats, 6- disc in- dash CD changer, chrome wheels, running boards... I love it so far! It is super fun to drive. Alyssa also loves it because she can see so well out of the windows. She is seeing things that she could never see before because her head sat just under the window base in the car. All weekend she has been asking to go in the "new car." What a treat not to have to drag her!

It will be so much nicer on long car trips!

A Fun Week (or so)!

We've been busy lately... a week ago we helped throw a shower for our friend Kimmie who is expecting her first baby in July. I made most of the decorations, and we all helped with the food. Alyssa loved all of the little kids and even managed to jump into a group of girls to get her picture taken with them. She wants to be included in everything! Kimmie got tons of nice gifts and we all had a great time!



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We also enjoyed Mother's Day... Mike and Alyssa gave me some beautiful pink roses and some yummy chocolates and other goodies. I got to pick out some plants for the front of the house (Mike planted them, too!) and then we went to my parents' for the afternoon. We had a super delicious lunch and enjoyed just hanging out. We even took Alyssa to the Lake Benson Park. What a fun weekend!

The following pics are from a few weeks time, and the skinned knees were a while ago... her first! She has been such a big kid lately that she is all dirty when she is done playing outside. The roses are the ones I got for Mother's Day... so pretty! And look who likes con on the cob! This was her first try at it last night, and she wasn't about to let me get away with cutting it off for her when we were eating it off the cob. "Me do it!?!"

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Baby Pool

We got Alyssa a baby pool last weekend. She loved it! She loves to use her watering can and beach toys and pour water from one to the next. She also likes to splash, as long as her face and chest don't get wet! Is is possible for these things to be hereditary? I have always hated to have my face wet. It is always the first thing to hit the towel when I get out of the pool.

There was a bit of an air-retention problem with the first model, but she had fun with it anyway. There are lots of pics... please feel free to stop the slideshow at any time! We had to get her a new one this past weekend... I'll get more pics of that one soon!



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P.S. I am LOVING the warm weather! Thank heaven for Spring!

Leaps and Bounds

Alyssa is changing and growing so quickly these days... she keeps amazing us with her physical capabilities. In the past couple of weeks, she has learned how to climb the ladders at the playground (a huge development... think how physical you have to be to pull your body weight up by your arms. Maybe she'll be a champion rope climber like Tula. Right, Mom?) Just yesterday she decided it is fun to run... fast! She started racing back and forth across the downstairs and yelling "Mommy! Look! Fast! That's Fun!"

I got such a kick out of that and was thinking about this kid that we saw this weekend. He was beyond tickled with himself to find that he had an audience to watch him jump up and down, about 2 inches from the ground. I think he was similar in age to Alyssa, possibly up to a year older. I spent a few minutes trying to show Alyssa how to jump and wondering how to explain something so simple when the vocabulary is so limited! She must have understood me because she was able to jump by the time Mike got home from work! I am so impressed!

Over the weekend I decided to paint Alyssa's toenails. I've been thinking about it for a while. I just didn't think she'd sit still long enough to get them done. I was wrong! She was so tickled that she asked me to do her fingernails, too! I painted my own to match, and although her fingernails need to be redone (apparently the quick- set polish is not pool- resistant even after they feel dry... the paint peeled off by itslef within a half hour), here are our matching toes. Beware... graphic images (if you hate feet, and you know who you are, sis!)