Wells Roundup 2008

Well after the anniversary weekend, we headed off to Hords Creek Lake for the second annual Wells roundup. My parents and grandmother, Mamaw and Papaw went down to the lake early to camp before moving to the group shelter on Friday. It was exciting to see everyone and fun was had by all! See some pics below.We celebrated Dylan, Christyn and Brayden's Birthdays. Notice how close Taylor is to the cake......She did not take her eyes off of it!

Papaw with hair :)

Our Breakfast guests

The Wells Crew

Sixth Anniversary

Wow, the past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Jason and I celebrated our 6th anniversary over Memorial Day weekend at Canyon Lake. We stayed at an amazing place called The Rustic Ridge. If you ever need a moment to catch your breath, relax and enjoy nature, this is the spot. Jason found the Bed and Breakfast and all I have to say is, "Way to go honey, it was an amazing weekend!" There is a link to the website below. The owners, the Millers, really have a special touch and an amazing ability to make each couple feel welcomed. Thanks again Russel and Carol!


http://www.touringtexas.com/rusticridge/



We really enjoyed the peace and quiet. We woke up to deer in the backyard and got to fish in the pond. Jason caught a nice fish the first night we got there, and then he caught the BIG fish the next day. We even have pictures to prove it. There were some guard geese and ducks that roamed around. They were such a blast to watch. The brown goose had something for me I think because every time I walked out of the gate he put his head down and chased me. I guess my problem was that I ran, so he kept doing it. It sort of became a love hate relationship, just kidding he was my favorite! Here are a few pics.....

Front of Rustic Ridge

1st Fish-we thought he was one of the bigger ones until.....

Jason caught this one the second day!

Guard Geese

Strawberries anyone?

Lately when we go outside, Taylor has been finding these little berry/seed things that she calls "strawberries". She has a whole collection of them in her Barbie Jeep in the garage. The other day as we were loading up to go to town she ran out in the yard and I saw her stooping down and picking up something. She ran back to me and asked me if I wanted a strawberry. I said sure, go ahead and put them with the rest of your strawberries. As she she walking to the garage I noticed that these "strawberries" were bigger than the other ones. See the picture below.

Can you identify these "strawberries"? Take a closer look at the next picture....

If you still can't tell, well it's rabbit poop. Yup, our child picked up rabbit poop and called it strawberries. Well, at least she did not attempt to eat it. :)

Deja Vu...Sort Of

Taylor 12/22/05
Easton 5/5/08

The above picture is what greeted me the other day after I searched frantically for Easton all throughout the house. I turned my back for TWO minutes to drop some clothes in the dryer and he was gone! I headed first to our bedroom and looked around and noticed that the bathroom door was shut, so I thought surely he was not in there. I quickly surveyed the rest of the house and he was no where to be found. Seriously, how do you lose a 10 month old in your house? As I start to question my mothering abilities, I decided to retrace my steps. The second time I go into the bedroom I decide to check the bathroom. Wow, was I delighted to see Easton and then I remembered a similar scene with Taylor. I got the camera and snapped the shot and noticed that although the scene was very similar, Easton was not to be shown up by Taylor. As I got closer to him to clean up the mess, he frantically starts stuffing the little pieces of toilet paper in his mouth. Although this is clean and fresh toilet paper, I start to gag. It kind of reminds me of a cat that cleans themselves and then regurgitates a fur ball every now and then. Taylor was just satisfied with unrolling the roll and moving on to the next thing. Oh, how different they are from each other.

All about Easton

Easton is getting so big. He started really getting around lately. He follows me around the house now. I leave him in one room and turn around and he is right behind me. He is also a little escape artist. As you can see below, he can not be in the swing without the tray now. (Don't worry he is strapped). He leans over the side of the swing and tries to reach for toys.

He is also teething and loves his biter biscuits. Those are so messy, but the poor guy loves them so much I can not resist giving them to him. He has one tooth poked through, but I can't seem to capture it on film.

Now that he is getting around, he is into EVERYTHING!! I pick up his toys and the next second they are sprawled all over the living room again. And the movie cabinet, well that used to be very organized. After about the fifth time of trying to put the movies back in the right box and stacking them nicely, I decided it was a bit like shoveling a sidewalk while it was still snowing. So for now, I will resolve myself to being okay that the movie cabinet is a wreck.

Weekend at the Hunting Cabin

We had a great Friday night camping out at the Johnson place. Jason and Taylor set up a trot line on Friday night and we checked it on Saturday morning and there were 3 catfish on the line. Our family pic only has two because when I was pulling up the stringer one got off. Not sure how, but I promise it isn't a story about the one that got away. It was about the same size as the other two in the picture.

On Saturday, Jason and Papaw worked on the hunting cabin. It is actually a 48 foot steel container that we are converting to a hunting cabin. They got one bedroom wall framed up and the bathroom framed up. I think it is going to turn out nice. We are excited for the next hunting season. Here are a few pics from the weekend......

Jason and Taylor setting up the trot line

Family pic with 2 of the 3 fish

Jason and Papaw working on hunting cabin

Latest Hair Fashion: Paper Towel Rolls?

Most people have heard about Taylor's hair cutting strike. So her hair is really long right now. Unfortunately, she has my hair and it won't hold curl very well. To make my life easier I have been pulling it up into a pony tail most days. Recently, I have been putting it in pig tails. Yesterday, Taylor stood up on her stool and said, paper towel rolls please. I did not get it, but she made it very obvious that she did not want a pony tail. Then she pulled out two clips and said, paper towel rolls please. I asked her if she meant pig tails and she said yes that is what I said. Some days I wish I had a tape recorder....

Our Splurge

I have mentioned that our debt snowball was on a steady roll in an earlier post, which it still is, just we took a little detour. Not a big one, but Dave Ramsey would probably be disappointed. Maybe not, we did have the cash on hand and decided to celebrate because we paid off one of my student loans. YEAH!!! So, our splurge was a camper. We bought it off of craig's list and have already enjoyed one family outing over Easter.

The camper is pretty cool, because it has three fold out beds that make you feel like you are in a tent, but you have all of the amenities of being in a camper. We will also probably be spending some time in it this spring while we build a hunting cabin. I will save that story for another post.

Here are a few pics....

Taylor-isms

I know, I know....I need to post more often. We have a lot of posts, just need to make time to post them. Here are a few funny things that Taylor has said recently.


#1 We were snake hunting and Taylor was in the car with Mamaw, and PaPaw walked up to the land owner to talk.

Mamaw said, "Poor guy, PaPaw is going to talk his ear off."

PaPaw finished talking about 5 minutes later and Taylor said, "Ah, poor guy his ear fell off."

#2 Taylor sneezed three times in a row and Jason said, "Bless you." Taylor sneezed again. Jason said, "Bless you." Taylor sneezed AGAIN and Jason said, "Mercy, Taylor you have the sneezes." Taylor said, "No I don't.....I have the bless yous."

#3 The wind was blowing, like it usually does around here this time of year. Jason was walking to the car holding Taylor and she said, "Whoa, Daddy you almost blew away." Jason said, "Yeah, I almost did." and then Taylor said, "And then we would have to go to the store and get a new daddy, RIGHT." We had to explain to her that she only gets ONE Daddy.

Our Cruise

Jason and I took our first break from both kids for FOUR nights. We went on a cruise out of Florida to Key West and Cozumel with Dr. Simpson, Patty and five of the office staff. The office set a goal and this was their reward! This was our first cruise and we loved it. In Key West, we took a fishing excursion and Jason caught a black tip shark and a few other fish. Me on the other hand, well I caught two small fish ten minutes before we headed to shore. I had fun though watching everyone else catch fish. In Cozumel we did a snorkeling tour. It was fun too. One of our guides swam down and brought up a sea turtle so that everyone could have a closer look. They are amazing creatures that really are very cute! Unfortunately we did not take that many pictures but some are posted below.




Boy did we miss the kids, but we did get to talk to Taylor a few times. She told me that she wanted to be out in the middle of the ocean with us. Overall, I think she had a fun time with her two grandmas and Nana. Even Easton survived without his favorite Momma around. Have I mentioned what a Momma's boy he is?

Well here are a few pics that we did take.....

Our Boat in the background....

Jason catching his shark Jason's shark

There were rooster's everywhere in Key West!

"My gum went bye-bye!"

Taylor's new thing is chewing gum. She loves it and often asks if she can have a piece of pink chew gum after an event, such as gymnastics or school. One day on our way home from gymnastics she asked for a drink of water. I gave her some and then after a moment she started crying very loudly and saying something about her chew gum. I asked her to calm down and then she got these big huge tears in her eyes and cried, "My chew gum went bye-bye." I asked her if she spit it out. She said, "No, I took a drink of water and it went bye-bye." Bless her heart. I had to explain that she swallowed it and that she could have another piece. Now if she asks for a drink when she is chewing gum, she makes sure to keep the gum between her teeth. :)

Daddy's Work and First Aggie Photo Shoot

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Jason usually goes with me to pick up Taylor from Mother's Day Out. We usually take Daddy back to work and head home. One particular day Taylor said, "Daddy, do you have to go back to work?" Daddy said, "Yes I do." After a pause, Taylor said, "Because you forgot your money?"

We attempted to have our first Aggie photo shoot the other day. The kids were less than thrilled, but I sure did have fun! Here are a few of the pics....

No More Bumbo

Easton finally figured out how to get out of his Bumbo seat. I was kind of heart broken by this because it sure has been handy. The bumbo got some bad press not long ago, because some babies fell out of the seat that was on a raised surface and fractured their skulls. It clearly states on the back that the Bumbo is intended for the floor. Well, I can't say that we were perfect, because we often put it on raised surfaces, but we were right there. We used it to feed Easton because he was not quite big enough for his high chair. In fact, we had it sitting on the table the first time he decided to make his escape. Luckily, I grabbed a leg and Jason caught his arms. The next morning, I put him in it on the floor of the bathroom while I got ready. I turned my back and then all of the sudden he was on the floor. He didn't even cry, just proceeded to play with his toys. I decided that it probably wasn't just a coincidence and put the bumbo away. Goodbye, we will miss you!

"Jesus can heal her...." and "That's Awesome..."

Monday morning, Taylor, Easton and I were heading to MOPS when I called Grandma Cinda to see how her morning was going. It wasn't going to well because she was sick with a sore throat and headache. When I got off the phone I told Taylor that Grandma didn't feel well. She said "Awww, poor Grandma," and then after a moment she said, "Jesus can heal her, right Mamma." I told her that she was absolutely right and maybe we should pray for her. She wanted me to say the prayer, so we stopped and asked Jesus to heal Grandma.
At the bed time prayer Taylor asked Jesus to watch over Grandma and help her to feel better. How sweet is that?!

Tonight, as we were getting the kids ready for bed, Jason mentioned to Taylor that Easton was handsome. He asked her where he got his good looks and after some prodding by Jason, Taylor agreed that he got them from his Daddy. Then Jason told Taylor that she sure was pretty and asked her where she got her looks. She said that she got them from the changing table. WHAT?!?!?! Jason told her that she got them from her Momma and Taylor said, "Yea, and that's awesome."

A few recent pics.....

Jason and Taylor after a hard days work!

"Um, Sis, what are you doing?"

Taylor feeding Easton

Easton's beard after Taylor fed him.

Ferber Method or Not to Ferber

So what is Ferber, you ask? Most of us that have kids, have heard of the Ferber method of putting your infant to sleep. Richard Ferber, the genius of this advice, suggests putting your baby to bed awake and allowing them to soothe themselves to sleep. Supposedly, after a long, soothing bedtime ritual, you put your infant to bed and leave them in the bed for longer periods each time until they learn to fall asleep on their own. I have a few beefs with this method. One, did this guy ever really perform this "cry-it out" method wih HIS children? Also, were his kids as determined as ours are? Second, anything LONG and soothing with a three year old around is nearly impossible!

Easton is not a good sleeper, anytime, anywhere. Taylor absolutely spoiled us because she was such a good sleeper. She slept through the night at six weeks, usually 12 hour stretches, and took three to four hour naps during the day. Well, Easton is....different. He does not sleep! So needless to say I have been sleep deprived for nearly 7 months now, and I just started enlisting Jason's help about a month ago. That hasn't exactly gone over too well, but he pulls out his "super Dad" shirt and rocks Easton on the second shift of the night. Thanks babe, we all love you!

The NEVER Ending Stomach Bug

Wow, I am so glad that we only decided to post once a week. Obviously, it has been longer than a week since the last post, but we have an excuse. Well, actually two and a half weeks worth of excuses. We mentioned earlier that Taylor had the stomach bug after we returned home from skiing. Despite all of my cleaning and lysoling of everything, Jason got the stomach bug 6 days later. Poor guy was a champ though. He spent most of the night sick and only went into work a few hours late and worked all day. By Friday, Easton had the bug and boy did he have it bad. He had some sort of stomach upset for 10 days. Yes, I did say TEN! Of course by Monday I had it, too.

So after a very long two and half weeks, we are all back to 100%. Thank goodness.

Potty Talk

Taylor has been potty "training" for quite some time now. In fact, we started working on it before Easton was born, which turned out to be a mistake because she reverted back to not being interested at all when he came along. I think we FINALLY reached the plateau thanks to being able to hang out with older cousins over the holidays. Thank you Quaid, Noah, Jaci and Jaden! She had the whole tee-teeing thing down for a long time, but she would hold her #2, for lack of a better word, until she got a diaper for quiet time or bed time. I had such a hard time keeping my patience and staying "positive," as all the books suggest, when I could see her anguish, but she just refused to go.

Fast forward to the Christmas holidays, and all of the sudden going #2 in the potty is the new thing. You should have seen the celebrations at our house when she did the deed in the potty. An outsider might think we had won the lottery with all of the whooping and hollering and dancing going on. Not only would Taylor dance and sing, she would yell, "AND I get TWO skittles." Oh, how this precious child loves candy.


I never really thought about the repercussions of all of the celebrating at home behind closed doors, until we went on a road trip to New Mexico. On the way home, we stopped at a gas station and Taylor had to potty. So we made the trip to the restroom and she sits down and announces very loudly that she has to poop. Thank goodness it was a single bathroom. So, trying to stay "positive," I plaster on a smile and tell her great, well lets go and get it done. As we are exiting the bathroom, Taylor did not forget our home celebrations, and promptly starts singing at the top of her lungs that she pooped in the potty and she gets TWO skittles! It was embarrassing, but I was still one proud Mommy. So I quickly made it to the candy aisle and purchased the treasured skittles.


Her next little celebration took place at her cousin, Reagan's, first birthday party. The party was at Grandma's house and she announced to everyone that she had to poop. So after the deed, the celebration wasn't quite as loud because the room was full of people, but she did have to go tell her Uncle Justin about pooping in the potty, all the while he is trying to film his daughter opening her presents. He told her good job while trying to hide the chuckles. Thank you Uncle Justin!

Taylor's Prayer and Easton's foods

About six months ago Taylor started to say the bed time prayer and then all of the sudden she stopped and requested Daddy to say them. We kept asking her if she would like to say them, but her response was always the same-no she wanted Daddy to say it. Recently, she started to say them again and boy do they melt our hearts.

Here are some of the recent things that she has thanked God for:

• A wonderful day
• Mommy, Daddy, Brother, Taylor and their eyes
• The clouds
• The snow
• Everyone's safety
• Sledding
• Her Big girl bed

She is growing up so fast and really learning how to speak her mind!

Easton is growing fast as well. His bouncy seat about hits the ground these days. He is starting on some foods. We have tried green beans and peas. He LOVED the peas. I am not sure if he really even tasted them because before I could get the spoon back to the bowl he was holding his mouth open for some more. I hope he does not turn out to be a picky eater like his sister.....

Stomach Bugs and Big Talk

We made it home from Ruidoso in one piece. Well sort of, Taylor got a stomach bug that hit about 7:30 yesterday morning. I thought we had escaped the bug that threatened to spread through the family until Taylor came bounding out of her room, laid on the floor and then you know what happened next. I was counting down the hours, hoping the 12th one would come in a hurry. Between cleaning up, sterilizing, washing hands, trying to keep Taylor away from Easton, my wish came true. Jason called and told me he was done and would be home shortly. Taylor asked for a cheeseburger and because she had not eaten since the night before I thought we could honor her request. So we sat down to eat at about 6:00ish and Taylor just sat there starring at her burger and talking her daddy's ear off. I asked her why she wasn't eating her burger and this was her response, "I have no intention of eating this burger." I don't know where she got this, but it was hilarious and so fitting. She eventually did eat part of it around 7:30, exactly 12 hours after her first vomiting episode.

Now, hopefully the rest of us won't get it......

What A Year!

Wow, what a year 2007 was! We added another family member. We survived Taylor's terrible two's and potty training. We started our debt snowball on a steady but long roll. Jason's practice grew by leaps and bounds. I got the hang of staying at home with the kids. We were truly blessed in 2007.

We are looking forward to 2008! We thought we would try to start a blog to help keep family and friends informed of what is going on in our lives. At the very least we would like to capture our kids comments/activities as they grow and change every day. Our goal is to post at least once a week, maybe more if possible, but we are trying to be realistic here. :)

Wish us luck, and we hope you visit often!

The Alexanders