Gymnastics

We signed Alexa up for a gymnastics class a while back, and while it was rough in the beginning, she really ended up loving it.  The parents weren't allowed to watch the classes (hence the rough beginning) but they put on a show for us during the last class.  We were really surprised at how focused she was the whole time, but she did a great job listening to the teacher and ignoring us spectators! 

At the end of their performance, they were given "trophies" with their names.  The class was usually twice this size, but it did make the performance much quicker! It was really cute and they were all so proud- with good reason!

Easter

Easter was a lot of fun this year.  The girls got to do three egg hunts, and loved them.  Sadly, I only took pictures of the "real" Easter egg hunt, so here they are:

 Our Easter headbands made another appearance, and have officially become an Easter tradition!

 I was pretty proud of how my cake turned out since I've never done a basket weave before.

 And it is still pretty hard to get everyone acting normally/smiling/looking at the camera in the same picture, but we're getting better.....

 ....mostly!

Let's just pretend....

that I'm not a terrible blogger.  I mean, it's a little embarrassing...

Anyways, Alexa got a cookbook for Christmas, and in the last few months she has been having fun picking things out to make, and these are the only two that I've actually remembered to take pictures of.  A pink princess cake (the white thing on top is supposed to be a tiara)...

 And pretzel fairy wands.

There have also been unicorn horns, rainbow milks, and various cupcakes and muffins.  Kaelyn has certainly loved Alexa's culinary experiments!

The Busiest Week of the Year

Some one was very ready to get down to business!

 Alexa and Daddy have had fun with this joint gift, although Mommy seems to be the common target, and has the bruises to prove it!

 The day after we went to Zoolights at the National Zoo.  Mike and I agreed that the lights were more impressive at the Portland Zoo, but this one had a carousel, a slide for tubing and a train ride. 

 Then the next day was Alexa's birthday, and she loved it. We let her pick everything all day.  First she helped me make pancakes, then her birthday cake (chocolate with chocolate frosting and m&m's) then art time, then she and Daddy went to see Frozen (for the 2nd time) and for her birthday dinner she chose mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, grapes, and olives.  Then cake and presents. 

 This started happening when I pointed out to him that he was in the background of all these shots.

 And Kaelyn decided that she wanted to be a toy.  I guess all the packaging that she's seen me wrestle with the last few days seemed like fun!

Then the next day was our 6th Anniversary.  We did a little shopping, went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner and to see the newest Hobbit.  It was a great day to end a fun week!

December

A couple of weeks before Christmas we had snow! Mike was thrilled because the government shut down so he had a snow day from work. He and Alexa made a snowman (with a celery nose), snow angels and had a snow ball fight.  The next day we went out and went sledding, which both girls really liked.

 Alexa really liked helping decorate the tree, and the bottom of our tree was very well decorated!

 She is such an attention hog! She sees a camera and immediately starts posing.  Still have no idea where she got these poses from, either!

 Mid-jump, good job camera woman (me)!

 One morning when I went in to get Kaelyn up, this is what I found.  Luckily she was not messy, just naked!

 Kaelyn's first pony ride.  It was so cute watching her just lay across Mike's back as he tried to balance her there.

November

So, I was washing dishes and cleaning the floor while Mike was "watching" Kaelyn to make sure she didn't make a big mess.  All of a sudden he ran by me heading upstairs muttering something that I couldn't hear.  When I asked him to repeat himself, he yelled down from upstairs "The baby may have the bowl on her head" Sure enough, I looked over and Kaelyn had a bowl of yogurt on as a hat.  I haven't asked him to watch her while eating again :)

 All of my siblings and their families came for Thanksgiving, which was a lot of fun.  Sadly, these are the only pictures I took the whole time.  Which is a shame, because I made 11 pies, and I can't believe I didn't document it!

 Alexa and Kaelyn really enjoyed playing with their cousins, even if Alexa got distracted during football by piles of leaves!

Disney on Ice

During October we were also lucky enough to go to Disney on Ice, minus Kaelyn.  We figured she wouldn't really appreciate it, so instead it was 4 adults and Alexa.  We had awesome seats and Alexa was so thrilled to see all the princesses, and of course Mickey and Minny.