Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet Little Alexis!!

Two years ago today this sweet little one was born into our family. I remember how tiny she seemed. In the picture above my hand looks so big compared to her teeny face. She was just such a sweet baby. I can't believe she's already 2!! Believe me, I've shed more than my share of tears today about the fact that she has grown up so quickly. She has brought so much joy, love, and wonder to our family and we simply adore our little Lex. I absolutely love this picture of the moment my kids got to see and hold their beautiful little sister. They were in awe: I have to admit that this day was so hard for me for many reasons and I just didn't feel up to my same old, same old usual birthday celebratory mood, plus I haven't been feeling too good for the last few days either. I'm usually super big on birthdays so it made me feel kind of bad that I just couldn't do it today. Skylar has been reminding me for the last couple of weeks that since it's an even year that Alexis should get a party. Um, yeah, poor girl, I'm sorry, but I couldn't manage that this year. Good thing you're 2 and don't know you're really missing out anyway, right?

Alexis did have a fun day though. She's starting to get the idea of birthdays so all day when I'd ask her whose birthday it was she would say "It's mine, Mom," and she would smile really big-a big "showing teeth" smile. After we took Kade to preschool, I took her to get her free Coldstone ice cream. I think she was a little surprised that she got to eat it all by herself-being the 4th, she's pretty used to having to share everything. After that we went to the grocery store and picked up some cake stuff and I let her pick out some balloons. She was just so excited to get balloons and probably would've been good with just balloons for her birthday. Isn't it great when they are so easy to please?After Ben got home we went out to eat at Olive Garden. Our kids love our tradition of going out to "restaunauts." We had a good time and then came home for cake and ice cream and presents. Alexis got beyond spoiled this year. I was especially glad that she LOVED her Cinderella/Belle doll that I actually got for her way back on my girl's Disneyland trip. She kept grabbing it and flipping it from Cinderella to Belle and saying "Oh look! Look! Look!" It was just too cute. She's all about princess right now & the kids all insisted on giving her something of the sort.
Alexis is just so fun right now. I wish I could bottle up every moment of all of the adorable things she does. Here's some our favorite things about our cute girl:

~ Alexis just loves her blankies. As much as I tried to stop it, she's a thumb sucker and loves that thumb and her blankie with it. Having had a previous Linus with Kade, we tried really hard to find a replacement blankie just in case anything happened to her beloved blankie. We couldn't find one anywhere! So we found a mini version, which we call woobie. At first she hated it but after blankie had a washing machine accident and got ripped, she decided that woobie could do in a jam. Now she likes to have both blankie & woobie at all times! We've created a blankie monster!

~Besides loving princess, Alexis is our princess. She's such a girly girl. She really, really loves to wear dresses and on Sunday when the rest of us can't wait to get out of our church clothes, she is prancing around showing off her pretty dresses and will not let me change her. She is also really into accessories right now and loves to wear bracelets, necklaces, and of course, a purse.

~At the same time, Alexis can hold her own with her big brothers and is just as daring as they are. She loves to jump on the bed, ride on the scooter, and even skateboard! She pretty much has had the same bruise in the same spot on her forehead forever because she always manages to land in that same spot when she's doing something crazy.

~Alexis is totally spoiled by her siblings. They pretty much give her whatever her little heart desires. She's pretty easy going for the most part but if she wants something, she's learned how to get it.

~Alexis is a little mommy. She loves babies! Everywhere we go she always points out the babies. Lately this just breaks my heart because she would be the best big sister to her little brother. I have some necklaces I wear that sweet friends have given me to remember Gabriel and many times a day Alexis grabs my necklace and says "Baby. Baby with Jesus, Mom."

~Every night after the other kids go to bed, Alexis loves coming downstairs to drink some milk and watch TV with Ben and I for awhile while she settles down for the night. For a long time we've watched Scrubs each night and she was so sweet at the end when the baby says "Buhbye" in the credits and Alexis would say it too. After that, she was good to go to bed. A few weeks ago we realized that she's probably getting too old to watch it and switched her over to Blues Clues every night instead. She's become a huge fan! Now instead of "Buhbye" we get to hear "Notebook!" We love our nightly routine of cuddling with Lex!

~ Alexis loves to sing and when she's playing alone she will sing to her toys. She has a song that she especially loves where she just sings "I'm happy. I'm happy." She plays really well by herself but loves playing with her friends and going to nursery. Her two favorite friends are Ane Maile, who is just her age, and Dylan Tong, who is 7.

~Alexis has totally gotten over her major mommy separation anxiety and loves babysitters now. She really loves her grandmas and especially loves Grandpa Bruce to gives her nuzzies. She's really ticklish and laughs like crazy if a nuzzie is even mentioned.

~Alexis is a jabberbox, but only with us. She is really quiet around most people but let her get comfortable and she as a thousand things to say. She can talk really well and we can mostly understand all she says but sometimes she breaks into long dialogues of complete gibberish and it's really cute to listen to.

~ Alexis loves to read! I often will notice she's been quiet for awhile and while this is usually a bad sign with most kids, it usually means that Alexis has just found a good book to look at. Sometimes she will just grab her books and read to us in her cute gibberish talk. The other day I caught it on film. Isn't she the cutest?:


We love you so much our dear sweet baby girl! You have the biggest, cutest personality in that little body of yours. You make us so happy and bring smiles to our faces, even on the hardest of days. We feel so blessed to have you!! We love, love, love, love you Alexis!!