Post for Brandon

The whole point of this post is to make our brother-in-law Brandon jealous that we live in Albuquerque. He served his mission here and misses it.

Last Friday we went out to dinner at Dion's a yummy restaurant here in ABQ. It was my first time going there and... IT WAS DELISH!!! No wonder Brandon loved it when he lived here in ABQ.

Here is a picture of Lexi sleeping in the car on the way to Dion's. As yes she choose all her own accessories and put them on herself.

Our weak attempt to get a family picture at the restaurant. I just love Lexi's face!

My AMAZING sandwhich. It really was fantastic!

Sean and Lexi's pizza. (Don't you wish you were with us Brandon?)

It really was tasty!

Avery didn't get to eat any pizza but she was good company!

And just to make Brandon jealous here are some pictures of Sean and Lexi in their matching New Mexico Zia shirts...

In case you didn't know the Zia is the symbol in the middle of the shirt. It's huge here in New Mexico. It's on EVERY THING!

We miss you Brandon! Come visit us SOON!

Movie Monday

Avery Has Teeth

Yesterday when we were at the pumpkin patch I realized that Avery has two little teeth poking through her gums. I never would have guessed because she didn't cry once all day. She is such a happy baby and is all smiles even while teething!

I think Avery might teeth like Lexi did (get several in at once and done my 13 months).

McCall's Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we went to McCall's Pumpkin Patch out in Moriarty, which is over on the other side of the Sandia mountains from Albuquerque. It was about an hour drive, maybe a little less.

We thought Lexi would have a blast and we were so excited to go. Reality: Lexi was a pill!!! She was excited about all the fun things we did there but never wanted to leave what she was doing to go try something new. She couldn't handle the transitions. I'm not sure what her deal was, she is normally not such a beast.

The first thing we did was let Lexi ride this little Cow Train. And then she never wanted to leave it.

There were so many neat things. A little western town, a cannon for blasting pumpkins into the sky, lots of food, hay rides, a corn maze, petting zoo, tricycle races and so much more but we didn't do most of those because Lexi was just too difficult.

Lexi actually like this.

There was a crazy fast slide through this little hill. Lexi loved it.

Avery was an angel! She never fussed once. She just sat in the stroll contently! I love this baby.

Finally a real smile on her face. All it took was a pumpkin!

Last year we got great family pictures at a pumpkin patch and this year I had vision of all four of us smiling sitting on some hay with pumpkins all around us. It didn't happened. That's life with a two year old.

So excited to get some of her own pumpkins.

What a face!

Best Friends

I've been trying to teach Lexi that Avery is her best friend. When I ask her who her best friend is she usually now says Avery but still says, "Daddy" or "Addie" (her cousin) sometimes. I'm so excited that my girls have each other. They really do love each other.

Here are a few pictures from this past week...

And incase you're wondering, no they don't always match. But I love it when they do!

Potty Training Diaries - First Day = Last Day

We decided that we weren't ready for potty training. So we're taking a break from it. Every time I asked Lexi if she needed to go potty, she got upset and said no. She never actually used her potty, just had accidents on the floor. She did however go through her entire nap without an accident in her underware.

Anyway, it was too much stress plus I just bought her a huge pack of diapers from Costco. So I'm not in a huge hurry right now.

Our First Balloon Fiesta Experience

Saturday was the official start of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. We didn't get up at 5 am so that we could make it to the park at 7 am. We just got up at 7 am and went to a field a few miles from Balloon Fiesta Park. It was still a great show. We watched from the back of our van as 500 hot air balloons slowly filled the sky. An amazing site!

Lexi LOVES seeing hot air balloons in the sky all the time (one of the best parts about living in ABQ) but seeing hundreds all at once was so exciting for her. Avery even seem to like watching.

Her is a balloon with a Zia on it. I took a picture of it for my brother-in-law Brandon.

This balloon landed right in front of our van!

Lexi even got to touch it!

A Pepsi balloon. Friday (I think) is special shapes day, where all the crazy, fun, nontraditional balloons go up.

A flying pig.

Another one landed right by our van. It's in the process of being deflated.

This fish one landed across the street from our van. Balloons really were just landing EVERYWHERE!

Two bumble bee balloons.

The fesivities have just begun! There will be hundreds of balloons in the sky all week! Looks amazing right? Well anyone is welcome to come on down and see it next year. (Hint. Hint.) We would love visitors!

Lexi Lately

Last week we got Lexi some new Fisher Price Little People sets. We got an amazing deal on Craig's List. We got her a school bus, princess castle with a carriage and a ABC zoo. Originally there were going to be her Christmas gifts but we didn't do a good enough job hiding them. Oh well. She loves them! And Avery loves watching her playing with them...

(Look at Avery sitting!!!)

Last week Lexi got sick. The poor thing lived off of Popsicles and Pedialite for days. Here she is laying on an air mattress watching Elmo.

We keep talking about Halloween around here and Lexi is starting to get excited. On October first I decided to kick off the month with some Halloween art work (ghost).

The ghost artwork was following by ghost pancakes.

Lexi is kinda obsessed with pancakes right now because of this book. And every time she eats pancakes she says, " I'm sticky. I want need bath. Bubble bath." You can guess where she go that idea from (the book).

*And a side note, Lexi is finally able to sit down and let me read her a whole book now. Before she would want to hold the book and just look at the pictures but now she loves listening to me read. It's so fun to read to her. I want to run out and buy a whole library!




And today...

I decided to let Lexi run around in some Minnie Mouse under ware and a t-shirt. It's crash course potty training for us. We really don't know what we're doing. So far Lexi hasn't actually used her little potty. She had one accident this morning in the dinning room. I couldn't get to her fast enough because I was feeding Avery. Right now Lexi is napping. She refused to use her potty before her nap and also refused to wear a diaper. So we'll see what I find when I go wake her up.

Avery Update

Avery is constantly growing and changing (like all babies do, but it's just more exciting when it's your baby). Just within the last week every has been a real chatter box! She is always making noise and I love it. She is also getting really good at sitting up by herself. Yesterday, I tried to lay her down in the tub she wouldn't. She kept trying to sit up so finally I let her (I kept a hand of her of course). And of course Avery is still the smiliest baby I've ever known!