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Sunday, March 30, 2008

Alexis turns 3!





How time flies. Alexis will be turning 3 on April 6th. We decided to celebrate her birthday this weekend instead of next weekend, as many folks will be busy with their General Conference things. We invited 5 of her neighborhood friends as well as her family cousins. We had great fun! The theme of the party was princes and princesses. The kids were able to make crowns, play with cardboard swords and the girls got necklaces. We even slayed our home-made pinata dragon. Thankfully it didn't breathe fire...only candy. Alexis received many wonderful gifts and had an overall enjoyable day. Mommy and Daddy were pretty worn out after the whole ordeal, but it was fun creating that memory.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Messes and Easter




I had class this morning and there was an Easter Egg Hunt at UVSC about an hour after my class started. John took the kids to IHOP for breakfast while I was in class. Alexis and Drew had chicken and fries for breakfast, what a great treat!! Unfortunately when we read "fun, games & crafts, ages 2-10" we take that to mean that there will be something to do. We showed up at the starting time, which was 9 and sat around until the Egg Hunt began at 10. There is a pictures of each one of them just waiting for the fun part to begin. Drew did enjoy eating the frosting off the cookies while waiting. The games they had were for children of a much older age and those who brought about three more layers than we did. Once they started the hunt though, Alexis and Drew were all about it. Alexis filled her basket this year and Drew picked up a few as well. Overall they loved it, especially the part when they discovered candy inside the eggs!!

















Here's what happens when Mom goes upstairs for a few minutes to put the laundry away!! Cereal dumped all over the kitchen and two little cuties who admit to doing it!! Luckily they only dumped the remnants of cereal boxes that were already in the garbage. Downside: it was all real small and fine, sticks wonderfully to your feet!

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Princesses, Piercings, and Proud Parents.





Tiffani has bequeathed her power of bloggership over to her significant other for this week's posting. I have come to the determination that our blog so far has been a journal of our kids' lives, which is great but seems odd because all the people with whom we share our blog primarily know Tiffani and I and, secondarily, our children. I think that is just Tiffani's personality to not talk about herself or place herself as the center of attention. Even on her wedding day she was very uncomfortable being the big focus of the day. She prefers to work behind the scenes. I guess I tend to do that too to some extent. Well after all this, I will now post... more pictures of our kids!!! Maybe next week will be a John and Tiffani post. hee hee.

Tiffani and Alexis had a Mommy/daughter date this week. They went up to the Energy Solutions Arena (formerly known as the Delta Center) and saw Disney Princesses on Ice! All of Alexis' female cousins were able to go to it as well. Tiffani wanted to make this very special for her, so we bought her Minnie Mouse ears and she also got to go out to dinner before the show. Her favorite part of the show was a big dragon that shot fire out of his mouth! It is amazing how well she knows her Disney movie characters. Just the other day she was talking about a character on Sleeping Beauty and neither Tiffani nor I knew who she was talking about until she explained it to us.

Also this past week we got Alexis' ears pierced. This was a very difficult thing for her Daddy to agree to. Tiffani had hers pierced at age five and we had a long discussion about what age is appropriate for such a thing. So after explaining over and over about what happens during the piercing process, Alexis still persisted in her desires to "look like mommy." Alexis even watched the girl in line before her get her ears pierced and even though she cried, Alexis was not even the least bit nervous. The moment was heart wrenching for her parents, but she only cried for two or three minutes and then was as content as the day is long. She always reminds us to be very careful with her ears and to not play with them. One might think it would be the parents telling her that, but no, she tells us that. She also reminds us when it is time to put the medicine on them so that they don't get infected. Crazy girl.

Thursday, March 6, 2008




John had scouts at our house Thursday night and they were working on their physical fitness tests. One of the tests was push-ups - everyones favorite!! Drew got down on the floor and started to do push-ups with them, it was so adorable!! Unfortunately the camera was not there to catch it. This was our attempt to get him to do it again, as you can see it didn't work, but Alexis was doing her own version of them! Also, Drew's hearing test came out fine, he can hear perfectly out of both ears!! His speech and developmental tests came back as well and he's ahead of his age group in everything but speaking, and he's only a month behind there!! So, no worries! Drew went in to the Dr. this week for an ear infection and I hopped on the scale to see where I was. It has only been two weeks since my last appointment, and I've gained six pounds. Yes, you read right, six pounds!! I feel like such a pig, but the food that's been going in has been delicious! I'm sure it will all come off after the baby and some good feeding sessions, hopefully!! Alexis was scared of the monsters in her room and to help her feel better John told her that monsters aren't allowed in his house because he'd beat them up, he'd punch them. She agreed with him about beating them up and then said, 'but then you'd say sorry and give them a band-aid because that's naughty, we don't hit'.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Donuts




















We took them to Krispie Kreme a week ago for the first time, and they loved it. You can't tell by Drew's face though! That's his newest thing, giving crusties to anyone and everyone. He does have a great smile though. Drew was very disappointed that when he tried to reach for a donut in the case he couldn't get it, darn that glass. Alexis loved the flowers behind her, they both ended up taking one home, or I should say to the car, both were demolished by the time we got home!!

Friday, February 29, 2008

Off to the Zoo






It was a free day at the Zoo on Wednesday and it was warm!! What a great combination. The kids loved seeing all the animals, one problem we found was getting them to turn around to take a picture instead of looking at the animals!!! This last picture Alexis decided to pose for at the last second, right after I'd turned off the camera and another group was waiting for their turn, go figure!! Alexis was terrified of the big gorilla. She was afraid he would be able to get to us through the glass!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Let's see if it works!!

Because this is our first official post, there's a lot to cover but we're just going to go for basics! John is still enjoying his work and those he works with. Unfortunately he doesn't have much of an outside life right now because we're keeping him so busy! Tiffani is currently taking 12 credits at UVSC which leaves John watching the kids two nights a week and Saturday morning. The pregnancy is going well. We just had our 20 week ultrasound and everything looks great! Two arms, two legs, a brain, functioning kidneys, stomach and bladder! We did not find out the sex. We've decided to wait until birth day to be surprised. I am positive it is a girl and John believes, erroneously, that it is a boy. Alexis is also going for the girl.

Alexis is getting bigger and bigger. She acts like she is 2 going on 12. She promptly lets us know when we are wrong, which is frequently, and why. She is also fond of using big words like "impatient". I took her to La Casita with me and my sister Stephanie, they have great mexican food!! There was a fly on the wall and Alexis wanted one of us to kill it. We both declined and told her we couldn't reach it. When one of the cute Hispanic waitresses walked by Alexis asked us if the waitress could kill it. We told her that she was too short. This did not deter Alexis, she looked around the restaurant and found a tall waitress, who happened to be ours. The next time she came to our table Alexis asked her to kill the fly. She told her she couldn't either, as it was now on the ceiling. After she left, Alexis looked at me and said "Ready to go mom?" She was very disturbed there was a fly. We thought that it had been dropped, but when our waitress came back Alexis asked her if she could get a ladder and kill it. Needless to say it didn't happen. Alexis is very good at remembering things and she will pull them out at the most opportune time for her. We were driving home from Albertsons, we had just gone to get her a pink donut for Valentines Day, and I was talking on the phone to my dad. (We're not sure where she picked this up, but she informed me that for Valentines Day we had to go and buy a donut with pink frosting and sprinkles. We still haven't figured out where she would have figured something like this out, but we did it.) After I hung up with my dad, Alexis had to know who I was talking to and so I told her. She then went through a list of other people to see if I had talked to them, after I had assured her that I had not she seemed happy. About ten seconds later though she informed me that it was rude to talk on the phone while I was driving. I was somewhat baffled by this because we'd never talked about it being rude. She then continued to inform me that it was dangerous and I shouldn't be talking on the phone while driving!! Yes, she's two! After laughing, I asked her who had taught her such things and she informed me the Grandma Hakes said so. A few weeks prior Grandma and mentioned these things to her while they were out on a date! Mystery solved. Alexis has also learned how to use the computer. She has always loved to play games on the computer and we've always been obliged to play the ones that she wants and just be the mouse mover and clicker. The other day she asked if she could do it and to let her see that she couldn't do it and not have the battle anymore, I caved. She took the mouse fiddled with it for a minute and then was off. She can move it and click it all by herself! Even more impressive was the next morning when she disappeared and was quiet- Never a good sign. I went looking and found her in the computer room. She had started the computer from stand-by, opened the internet, found the bookmark for her games and then continued on. Needless to say whenever we don't know where she's gone, we look in the computer room first!!

Drew is doing well too. He's always getting sick and we can't remember the last time he wasn't sick. We know that his cold started in November and ended the beginning of February. He had cellulitis, which is an infection under the skin, in December (Christmas Day no less). The flu in January and pneumonia, a small ear infection and something in the RSV family in February. The poor kid. We had an in-home nurse come by about a week ago and test his hearing and just look him over basically. He failed his hearing test in the left ear and so on Tuesday we will be going for more testing. We're not worried about because we don't think he's really lost his hearing at all, but if he has he's adapted well and there's not much else that can be done. Because he's been so full of sickness he hasn't really tried new things. The last week and a half though, he's been doing all sorts of fun stuff. He's started making animal noises and he's very good at it. He has also started climbing on the couch, if we take the cushions off, and jumping on it. He loves to brush mommy's and Alexis' hair. It's fun to see him finally doing something other than sitting. We've loved it!! He loves being read to, especially books that have animals. He would sit and read all day, with us, if he could. He also has a good sense of humor. He finds the humor in everyday situations and will keep repeating them until he can't because he's laughing too hard. He can also climb down the stairs now!! He's been a very good little boy and he's so fun to play with.

We'll include pictures next time!