Laughing Alexa

Green Picnic Napkin

Yesterday we went on a Memorial Day picnic with our neighbors, Brian and Cami, because we couldn't pass up being in the 85 degree weather. We had a good time eating, feeding the ducks, and playing bocce. Brian and Cami had this picnic set with some cloth napkins. The green napkin matched Alexa's outfit perfectly, so Brad decided to make her a bandana. She looked like an elf. Brian took a hundred pictures of Alexa (he's a photographer), and these are the highlights.

Healthy Eating, or What happens when Brad's in charge of breakfast

Uncle Brandon

Alexa's Uncle Brandon was in town to visit her last week. His first task was to teach us how not to pose for a picture. Check.








His next task was to have a great time with Alexa. Check. In fact, we were very impressed with how good he was at playing with her and keeping her from crying. Good job, Brandon.

Finally, he really loves his 8-8 Vikings.

Little Alexa

I could sit here all day and tell you how much fun we have at the Dbacks games, but I know what you really came for. So let's get to the pictures of Alexa.

My Pretty Girls

I wanted to show some great pictures of our smiley Alexa. She's like this much of the time. It's great.

We back the Dbacks!

We have really enjoyed being so close to some professional sports teams while we've been down here. We've been to a Coyotes game

(That's the professional hockey team here. No need to feel bad if you didn't know that.), a Suns preseason game, and to a total of eight Diamondbacks games.

Our first year here, we kind of were worried that we were the Dbacks' bad luck charm. When we arrived in Aug. 2006, the Dbacks were in the hunt to win their division and make the playoffs. But from the day we got here, the Dbacks went 16-31 (or something like that), and fell into 3rd place in the division. We went to 3 games that season; we witnessed 3 disappointing losses.

Last year, we went to 2 games, and despite a great season and an exciting playoff run, we only saw 1 win. This year, the tables have turned in our favor. We've been to 3 games already, and we've seen 3 Dbacks victories. We're convinced that Alexa is the Dbacks good luck charm.

In addition to the enjoyable wins we saw, one of the Dbacks' sponsors, Taco Bell, gives away free chalupas on the nights that the Dbacks score 8 runs. To our surprise and nourishment (?), the Dbacks have scored 8 or more runs at each game we've been to. This past Thursday, as the Dbacks scored their 8th run, this guy pulled out this awesome jersey and put it on. It was very funny, and we had to get a picture. We could have lost the game at that point and no one would have cared because they were still getting their free chalupas.

Go Dbacks!

The Luckiest

I know I'm a little behind, but I wanted everyone to know what a great job Brad and Alexa did on my Mother's Day gift. It was my first official Mother's Day, and Brad wanted to make it perfect. He did a pretty good job of making that happen.

Alexa was in charge of giving me the card. It was pretty slobbery by the time I got it.

Then Brad had me close my eyes while he got my gift. When I opened them, I turned around and saw a violin!!! I couldn't believe it. I have been wanting one forever and thought it would be a few years before I actually got one. Brad said he got a deal he couldn't pass up. I love it!

So, hats off to Brad for being a great husband and making my day very special.

Alexa had her Aunt Jamie, Uncle Mike, and cousins - Casey, Cory, Jessie, CJ, and Jake - come visit her from
Utah. We had a great time watching a
D-Backs game, bowling, and most importantly
SWIMMING! For some reason Jake wasn't in any of our pictures. We sure do miss them!

The Bumbo is Funbo

We borrowed a Bumbo recently from some of our friends. Alexa likes being able to sit up, mostly because she loves to see what is going on. It's when she can't see what's happening that she starts to get cranky.

She started doing this where she'll throw her arms out and throw her head back to look at the ceiling. We have no idea why she would do this because there isn't anything for her to see up there, just an ugly popcorn ceiling, but it was really funny, and she seemed to enjoy it.

She's just having a good old time.

The Bumbo is also what she sits in when we feed her. We introduced solids about 2 weeks ago and she's kind of getting used to them. Pretty much the end goal with everything she sees is to somehow get it in her mouth. So getting a little help with that is a good thing.

The look of satisfaction after setting a goal and reaching it.

So...I'm starting a blog.

Brad told me I needed to start a blog, so since I obey his every word, I decided to do it. This way, no one feels bad that we didn't send them pictures or anything.