{Family Movie Night} Monsters, Inc.

Monster's, Inc.

We had such a busy day this day. We had a play date at a friend's house and the kids got to decorate Halloween cookies. Alexis was thrilled, Paxton got orange frosting everywhere, it was a disaster. We came home and I only had time to give them lunchables for lunch. Then we were off to their dentist appointments. After the dentist I put Pax down for a nap and Lexi played with her barbies. I put together little bags full of treats for a Halloween party Alexis was invited to. I got her dressed as Rapunzel for the party and we were out the door. The little Halloween party was fun. We got home, made our movie night dinner quickly (our monster face pizzas didn't turn out too well.) We all got settled on the couch to watch a movie and my husband informed me that the Monster's Inc disk was cracked. Are you kidding me? So we weren't able to watch the movie. To keep the kids from having a complete meltdown, we told them there was a change of plans and we'd be watching Madagascar 3 instead. They were happy, and enjoyed watching it.

We are renting all the movies for movie night from Netflix. I'm honestly not very happy with ALL of the disks we've gotten thus far. All have been extremely scratched, or they simply just don't send out the right one. Frustrating. Cory put in a complaint this morning and we're hoping to have another Monster's Inc disk in a few days. They'll get to watch it then. What a mess. 

I've learned that I need to check the disk the moment I get it.

I've also learned that I need to plan movie night on days that aren't so hectic. 

=)

New friend, Halloween Party

I met a mama in my neighborhood who only lives a few blocks away. Her daughter is only a couple weeks older than Alexis! They invited us to her dance studio for a little Halloween Party. Alexis wanted to dress up as Rapunzel. We had a good time.

1st Dentist Visit

We finally have dental insurance! Wahoo!

I was told that a child's first dentist visit doesn't have to be until the child is 4. So with Alexis we decided we'd wait until then.

Then I was told that they recommend children come in after they have their first tooth!

Why do they change these recommendations constantly? I felt like a horrible mother and felt like I was way behind with both of them! Yikes! So Cory got us dental insurance and I made some appointments.

Appointment day came and boy was I dreading it. I tried preparing Alexis as best as I could, but the more I talked about it the more I could tell that I was scaring her, not good.

Paxton went first. They told me his appointment would be a whole hour long. That made me nervous. They had me sit in the chair and hold him in my lap. All they did was look inside his mouth, tell me that everything looked good, and to continue doing what I was doing as far as brushing them. 5 minutes, maybe, and we were done. What a waste. So my advice to other mamas out there who are hearing about these new recommendations....wait it out, unless you have a concern, I'd wait.

Alexis' turn came. I was more nervous for hers. We had a wonderful dental assistant who made Alexis feel really comfortable. I was impressed. They gave her some sunglasses and told her they looked like Rapunzel sunglasses and she was sold! She let the assistant do a FULL cleaning on her teeth. She loved it. She was talking their ears off, telling them her life story. =) The assistant told me that she was the best 3 year old patient she'd ever had, I was so proud.

She's got some great teeth too. The only concern the dentist had was that she has a gap between her 2 front teeth and there is extra tissue there. He said if it doesn't go away by the time she is 7, then they will have to remove it. 7 years old seems like a lifetime away, let's hope it fixes itself! =)

Preschool 2012-2013

I got Alexis' school pictures today! I just loved it so much. She looks so grown up.

Haunted Houses...in style!

This is becoming a tradition with our family, and I love it! Every year we rent a limo and it takes us to the top rated Haunted Houses in Denver. We buy the "instant access" or "VIP passes" to each one, so we won't have to wait in the 3 hour long lines (seriously, it's amazing!) My dad set it all up and got it all planned for us. Because the limo gave my dad the wrong price quote they threw in a premium bar for free! Did you just say free booze? Count me in! 

Here we are at the beginning of the night, getting into the limo. Sober.

(Aren't we a gorgeous bunch? You can tell we dressed nice for the occasion! Ha!)

After some tequila, whiskey and bourbon (that was all they had in the premium bar) We all started feeling quite excited for our first Hanuted House of the season... which just happened to be rated the scariest. 

After a few more haunted houses, and a few more drinks. =)

Aren't those pictures just lovely? 

We had a great time. Great laughs, and lots of screaming! I can't wait to do it again next year.

Pumpkin Patch

It dawned on me that we only had 1.5 weeks until Halloween. Where did this month go? Off to the Pumpkin Patch we went...

We went to Tigges Farm which is only about a 15 minute drive from our house. Love that. It wasn't very busy and they had ginormous pumpkins! Score!

I love that this place has so many photo opportunities as you walk back to the pumpkin patch. What a smart idea! I tried getting some pictures of the kids prior, but they weren't having it. They just wanted to get to the pumpkins. And by the "they" I really mean Alexis. =)

It was beautiful out! A perfect fall day.

We let the kids walk around and pick out whatever pumpkin they wanted. 

Paxton LOVED pushing the cart of pumpkins. That was the highlight of his day I'm sure.

On our way out I made them take a few more "photo opportunity" pictures. Luckily they were up for it.  A whole hour at the pumpkin patch and we were done. No crying, no melt downs, no stress. Perfect!

{Family Movie Night} The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid! I can't believe that I've only seen this movie ONCE! And it was a long long time ago and I didn't remember anything. I was just as excited as Alexis was to see this one.

I am really loving this movie night thing. I am however finding it harder to remember to fit it in every weekend. Especially this time of year when everything starts becoming so chaotic. I'm hoping I can stick with it. It's fun! And my kids love it.

Going to the chapel....

My brother and his new fiancé came over the other day. They said they wanted to come over to see the kids. I just knew that there was a hidden agenda. Cory got my hopes up and got me thinking that maybe they were going to announce that they were pregnant! Everyone knows how badly I want a niece or a nephew!

I was right about the hidden agenda, but not so right about what they were announcing.

They came with gifts. We love gifts.

Alexis opened hers first. It was a giant cookie. GIANT. With the words "Will you be my flower girl?" frosted on.

She could have cared less about being a flower girl and wanted to dive right into that cookie. We let her. The cookie really was delicious - not that I had any of it. ;-)

I opened my present next. And this is what I saw...

A BRIDESMAID! I get to be a bridesmaid! I was thrilled. And what an adorable and creative way to ask! Loved it.

Paxton received a stuffed animal and he was asked to be the ring bearer.

Cory didn't receive anything, but he was asked to be a groomsmen. Apparently my brother wasn't into the whole gift giving thing. Men.

Our whole family in the wedding party, we are so excited. I'm even more excited that my brother has chosen such a great girl to join our family.

P-Man

He melts my heart. 

He is 17 months old today. 

He loves cars, trains, dinosaurs, pushing carts or strollers, screaming as loud as possible, and tickling. 

Isn't he so handsome? 

He drives me crazy! I never knew a 17 month old could wear on my patience as much as this boy does. He is into everything - e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g! I just don't remember Alexis being that way. He is so destructive, chews on anything and everything (caught him eating sidewalk chalk a few days ago, lovely!) He won't sit in the cart at the grocery store, he doesn't want to be held and he hates cuddling. He is busy. So busy. Most days, I can't wait until his nap time, for the break. 

I wouldn't trade him for the world. =)

The end of an era! Well...kind of..

When Alexis was about 20 months old we went to downtown Denver to eat dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with my parents and my brother. We were celebrating my dad losing a ton of weight, and what better way than eating some cheesecake! Ha! Cory and I got there early and wanted to walk around and do some shopping before dinner. We didn't realize how freezing cold it was going to be that day. We get out of the car and realize not only that it's coooold but that we didn't bring a coat for Alexis. (Aren't we great parents?) We decided that we'd jump into the first store we came across and buy her a blanket to wrap her up in. That store just happened to be Ross. It was busy, really busy. I saw a bin that was full of $5.00 blankets, jack-pot! I grabbed one, paid for it, wrapped my girl up to keep her warm, and we went on our way. I never paid any attention to what was actually on the blanket. For whatever reason, Alexis had this huge attachment to this blanket. At dinner she wanted to hold it the whole time. That night, she wanted to sleep with it. It was a few days later when Spongebob Square Pants happened to come on the TV and she kept pointing to the TV and then to her blanket that I put the 2 together. I let her watch it, realized it was way too adult for a 20 month old and turned it off. But it was too late... she was obsessed! She named the blanket "kiki" and it went with us everywhere. And I mean everywhere! My biggest struggle used to be trying to figure out ways to secretly get it out of her hands and into the washer. Over the past 6 months I've noticed that she doesn't want to bring it with her when we go places. She doesn't need it with her when she plays. In fact, it just laid in her bed all day long and at night she never once asked for it. I decided that I would give it one last washing and pack it up for good. But I realized that I never took a picture of her with the blanket! I thought I needed just one picture, so she'll always remember the story about her "kiki". I had just finishing washing it (and her sheets, that's why her bed is bare!) and snapped a picture of her with it. Because I brought so much attention to it for this picture, she now says that she needs it! Ugh.... luckily it's only at night time. But we are slowly and surely getting away from the kiki. She's growing up.

Tiny Dancer

So much for blogging every day. I couldn't even make it 3 days. Ha! Who was I kidding?

Today I want to talk about my tiny dancer. Alexis took her first dance class when she was 2 1/2 at a studio that didn't care if she was potty-trained or not, they were also super cheap. It only took me a month to realize that super cheap also meant super crap instructors! So I pulled her out of there and decided to wait until she was 3 (and potty-trained) to start again.

January I signed her up at a studio that I had heard great things about, and they didn't disappoint. We've been with them for 10 whole months now and we still love it. Her teacher is wonderful, and I think that helps a lot. I love watching her dance. Doesn't every mother enjoy watching their child do the thing that they themselves were so passionate about? I danced from the ages of 3-17, it was my love, my escape, it brought my heart so much joy. I secretly hope that she'll love it just as much as I did. Her teacher let me come a few minutes early during last weeks dance class so I could snap a few pictures of her. Of course she wasn't in the mood and refused to listen to me. This was the only one I got that was some what decent. It's not a technically good photo, but I do love that I captured her just being herself. My little dancer, oh how I love you!

Tuesday:

The kids slept until 7:30! That's like winning the lottery in the Andrews household. Since we had no where to be we stayed in our jammies for a few hours. I sorted through the laundry and realized I had 11 loads to do. How does it add up to be so much? Got the kids dressed. I took a shower (already better than yesterday!) I got the kids set up in the living room playing with toys and watching Dora and I started scrapbooking. I've been working really hard to try and catch up with my scrapbooking. It's taken over our formal dinning room table. Made the kids some mac n cheese for lunch and put Pax down for a nap. He fought it for about an hour. That boy has been refusing to sleep lately, I'm not sure what's going on, but I hope his need for rest comes back soon! While Pax napped Alexis and I started talking about her birthday party. I can't believe it's only a few months away. 4 seems soooo old to me. We've decided on a Rapunzel theme and I put in a call to our rec center in hopes of renting out one of their banquet rooms. Our neighbors "boo'd" us. Being "boo'd" is leaving 2 bags of treats on your front porch with a little poem about being boo'd, they ring the doorbell and run away. Fun! I finished up the laundry and Pax woke up from his nap so we went to the dollar store and got some treats of our own so we could go "boo" some of our neighbors. I had a lot of fun with it. We had Big City Burrito for dinner, gave the kids a bath and put them to bed. I'm glad this day is over......

Monday:

This week is Fall Break - NO SCHOOL!

I had every intention of waking up early and getting ready. Ha! Instead, I slept until the kids were up, rolled out of bed and threw on the first thing I saw in my closet. I did brush my teeth and my hair, but that was the extent of that. I got the kids dressed, fed and loaded them in the car. I had to run to the bank to deposit some checks. The closest bank is 30 minutes away. I hate getting checks. Then I took Alexis to dance class. My good friend Jen and her daughter Allie no longer are dancing (they moved) so it made for a very long and very quiet dance class. I miss her. After dance I had to meet a client to get her her pictures. We just happened to be right next to Culver's so I went through the drive-thru and got us a quick lunch. The rest of the day we spent at home. Playing with toys, playing on the iPad and watching some Spongebob. Tater-Tot Casserole for dinner and then 1 amazing Bronco game! A good Monday.

Where have I been?

I feel like I am falling off the wagon here with blogging. I started this because I really wanted to document my children's lives. I don't know why I find it so hard to sit down and just type out what's going on in our lives. I need to start making this a priority and not let it fall to the waste side. SO... I am going to start blogging every single night for the next month. They say it takes a month to form a good habit, so here it goes...

This past weekend was pretty low-key, which was exactly what we needed. On Saturday Cory let me sleep in! Wahoo!! I can't even remember the last time I was able to sleep in. It felt good. When I finally dragged my lazy butt out of bed I got some Starbucks. Oooh Starbucks - how you make everything so great. (side story: Lexi now says "mommy, do you need some coffee? will that make you better?" HA!) We all got ready. And by ready I mean we all threw something on, brushed our teeth and called it good. Lazy I tell ya. We went to Panera for lunch. My favorite! We realized that we still haven't bought our Halloween costumes yet, so we made it our Saturday mission to find them. It was at Halloween store #3 that we got lucky. Alexis is going to be Jessie and Paxton is going to be Rex from Toy Story. So naturally, Cory and I are going to be Buzz Lightyear and Woody (Alexis is upset that I'm going to be a boy. She thinks I should be Belle. So sweet of her to want me to be a princess!) We came home and put that crabby boy down for a nap, he went down easily. Success! My parents came over a few hours later and picked Alexis up and took her to see Finding Nemo 3D. I've been obsessed with looking at different home decoration projects on Pinterest and really wanted to go to Home Goods. So I brought my 2 favorite men with me (probably the 2 worst people to take shopping...ugh) and I was able to get a couple of things before I started hearing the long sighs of my husband. haha! We hit up Qdoba for dinner. They gave Paxton a balloon, which kept him entertained for a loooong time. Came home and shortly after our lil Alexis came home too. I thought she would have enjoyed the movie more, but she didn't really seem to want to talk at all. I think she was tired. We put the kids to bed and had some alone time. Perfect Saturday. I could really use more of these in my life.

Sunday I had a photoshoot for a friend of mine's family. There was 9 of them, I was nervous. It's hard to direct that many people and to have that many people look at the camera all at the same time. But it was a total success and somewhere during that 2 hour session I got my love for photography back. It's been missing for about 6 weeks and I'm SO happy that it has returned. That afternoon my brother and his fiancé came over and asked all 4 of us to be apart of their wedding, so exciting! I edited a ton of pictures. Took the kids out and took some Fall pictures of them (pictures below) and watched some Breaking Amish (seriously love that show). And then just like that, the weekend is over.

This next week is Fall Break for Alexis' school. All we have is dance and gymnastics. I think we'll be having a laid-back lazy week. It'll be nice not having to wake up early, getting everyone ready and out the door. It will truly be a break and I'm looking forward to it! =)