Baby is trained

Potty training is complete for chunky baby! She brought me her baby and had me take it's clothes off, she then went and put the baby on the potty. So cute! I just can't get enough of her cuteness

Lunch with Sarah Beth and Alma

Today Alexis went to lunch with Sarah Beth and Alma. They are all within 6 weeks of age and so cute together. Really Julie, Erin and I went to Applebee's with kids in tow. We had Kaipo, Malachi, Isaac, Alma, Sarah and Alexis with us and we our food could not get to us fast enough. They finally brought us some crackers to try and get the 6 monkeys down off the walls, it worked for a little while. Oh well that is why we went to lunch and not dinner! The kids did have fun and hopefully Julie made the trek home in peace!

I knew Alma was taller then Alexis, but this shows how big the difference is!

Potty training

Well I wouldn't think a 16 month old would really be interested in Potty Training, but since Alexis is so smart she wants to start early. Last week I was getting her in the bath and her diaper was dry so I sat her on the toilet just for fun and she went pee pee. She thought it was pretty cool so we bought a potty chair. She loves the little potty and will go in the bathroom and carry it out into the living room. Well today she went in the bathroom and was sitting on it and I thought it was cute. Well she came out of the bathroom with a stinky diaper. I think I may have missed a golden opportunity! I am actually really bummed that I didn't take the time to take her diaper off and let her try. I have it in my mind that she is too young. So I am going to try real hard to watch her and let her try the potty more often. She is also trying real hard to pull her diaper off, she gets it down around her hips and can't get it any further it is funny to see her little bum checks sticking out over the diaper!

Santa came to our house

Santa came to our house Christmas Eve morning. We hadn't taken her picture with Santa yet, so we asked him to come over. Ben, Sam, Mallori and Ashlee also came over to get a picture with Santa.

We had a great Christmas Eve with Britt's family. We got a flag from Lim and Erin. A flag you say why a flag? Well Lim is in Iraq right now serving and protecting the freedoms of our country and other's in this world and he thought it would be cool to send us a flag. This flag is a special one though it was flown on a mission in Iraq. Along with this flag comes a certificate stating when it was flown, the mission and that it is presented to our family. It is very cool, Britt even got teary eyed. We had a great dinner and enjoyed watching the kids open presents and play with each other. Kids love chocolate fountains...at least the kids in our family do. They dipped and ate all night long. I also played Silent Night on the piano for everyone to sing to. I was so nervous, i just sat down without saying anything and started to play. I did OK! We stayed really late, but had a great time. Thanks Bergman's for a great Christmas Eve!

Today we woke and decided to give her a bottle first so she would be happy for presents. When I brought her out of her room she saw the lights on the tree and headed for it. She had that wonderful look of joy in her eyes, it was beautiful. She opened her presents and had to play with each one. We went over to Jen and Joe's to give Ashlee her presents and wish them a Merry Christmas then hit Grandma and Grandpa Martin's. They got us the Planet Earth series. If you haven't seen it and love our planet and the beauty that God has created for us then this is one you will love. We asked for it and have been watching it all day. Spectacular, I am so glad they got it for us! Alexis got presents too, but was so ready for a nap that she wasn't willing to even open them she just wanted to play with them once they were open! We again had a yummy dinner and enjoyed time with our family! Thank you Martin's for a great Christmas day! Oh yeah and it snowed today. Nothing stuck but it was sure coming down, it hasn't snow on Christmas for us since we moved to Washington state 20 years ago!

The reason for this goofy picture is because Alexis was looking at the pictures as we took them with the remote! She would laugh every time the picture showed up, so we made silly faces at her! We are at home now relaxing and spending some time together! We hope you all had a great Christmas and a safe one. We love you and are grateful for our Savior. Notice the matching jamas, I made them!!!

Christmas Letter 2007

It is Christmas time and I have not gotten our cards out…so this is what everyone is getting! Let's go green this year anyways! We have had an exciting year that started out in Mazatlan Mexico! Viva La Mexico! We had fun swimming, even Alexis, playing in the sand, shopping and eating. Alexis was perfect the whole trip so we decided to take her to Alaska this summer. Even though by the time Alaska came around she was walking, she still did well! Britt hit the Kenai River for fishing the second we got there and fished every night until the wee hours of morning(remember the sun is up for 21 hours of the day and then barely darkens the sky for the other 3) it was crazy to be up at midnight and look out side to see light blue sky! We saw moose and bears, not behind bars, huge salmon jumping up the Russian River. We nearly ran face to face with a Grizzly bear; fortunately he stepped off the trail about 5 minutes before we got there! Wild animals, no thank you. Alexis and I went on the Kenai Fjords boat tour. It was awesome even though it was rainy we still saw puffins and porpoises', sea loins and otters, another bear on the shore and the largest tidal glacier! The glacier was amazing, ice breaking off and waterfalls. There was icebergs floating in the water…titanic did come to mind and I did look for the life boats. Our captain even told us that he had to be careful of the ice. While we were boating so was Britt, he was halibut fishing, catching 30 pounders and up! Alaska is beautiful everyone should go, just be prepared everything really is bigger there, and driving between site-seeing takes so much longer!

We have had so much fun watching Alexis grow up and learn to walk and start to talk. She is doing really good with mommy and no (loves to tell Rudy no). She also knows a secret language that she is keeping to herself; I have asked her to teach me but not getting very far! She walks around jabbering even ordered her own food at McDonald's! She runs and plays hide and seek still working on the hiding part though she just stands in the middle of the room and waits until you turn around.

Britt is still doing the car hauling. He is a nursery leader with me and is actually enjoying himself. He broke his leg in May; of course he was riding a motorcycle! He was running again 6 weeks later; you can't keep him down for anything. He is planning on climbing Mount Rainier this spring and has changed hobbies 6 times.

Alexis loves nursery and will cry if she doesn't get to come in with us. Not sure what our calling will be in the New Year because all of our kids move into the sunbeams class. We are still living in Bonney Lake and happy even though traffic is getting worse everyday. We have spent a lot of time with our family this year and have loved it. Christmas this year will be really fun because Alexis is old enough to open her presents so we got her lots of them! The adoption is almost finalized. It has taken way too long due to a bad lawyer and so the waiting it almost over. We should be done and have her sealed to us in early January. We are very excited.

I am loving being able to stay home with her. She just fills my day with so much joy. I have kept busy playing with her and hanging out with all my sisters. I am still taking piano lessons and am doing really well. I love being able to sit down and play Christmas music, it has really helped me fill the spirit this year, maybe next year I will be able to play while people sing without goofing up too much. We hope that everyone has a great Christmas and that your 2008 will be wonderful! We love and miss you all!

Grocery Shopping

Today Britt and I went shopping for food at Fred Meyer and Alexis was throwing a fit; even though she was riding in the car cart.  So Britt took her out to let her walk around; which works only when he is there because she wants to wander the whole store.  So onto the reason for this post, she was very cute as she went through the store she would pick stuff up that daddy gave her to put in the cart and I could hear her calling momma as she came to find me.  Seeing this tiny little girl carrying a box of garbage sacks was so cute!  She carried a two litter of pop to me.  She is awesome.  It was cute when we asked in the fruit roll up isle what snack she wanted and she grabbed the fruit by the foot (which she loves), then she grabbed the curious George snacks and that was it!  She watches curious George every day. I just love her. She fell asleep on the way home at 7:30 and so britt and I have had the evening to ourselves to watch the Biggest Loser Finale. We also put our tree up last night and she doesn't bother it all the time just every once in a while, which is good! I have one present left to buy and maybe something else for britt and then I am done!!!!

Reading Time

This is Alexis most favorite book right now. She will take all of her books off the shelf to find it and then will listen to me read it over and over and over! I think it is great to be able to read a whole page before she turns it!

This is great!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1416535746

This was emailed to my Husband So Funny!

I thought Jeff Foxworthy did Southern humor but he seemed to nail this one... The Pacific Northwest According To Jeff Foxworthy:
1. You know the state flower (Mildew).
2. You feel guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash.
3. Use the statement 'sun break' and know what it means.
4. You know more than 10 ways to order coffee.
5 You know more people who own boats than air conditioners.
6. You feel overdressed wearing a suit to a nice restaurant or to church.
7. You stand on a deserted corner in the rain waiting for the 'WALK' Signal.
8. You consider that if it has no snow or has not recently erupted, it's Not a real mountain.
9. You can taste the difference between Starbucks, Seattle's Best, and Veneto's.
10 . You know the difference between Chinook, Coho and Sockeye salmon.
11. You know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Haceta, Yaquina, Yachats, Issaquah, Oregon, Yakima and Willamette. (almost forgot
Ohanapecosh)
12. You consider swimming an indoor sport.
13. You can tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese and Thai food.
14. In winter, you go to work in the dark and come home in the dark While only working eight-hour days.
15. You never go camping without waterproof matches and a poncho.
16. You are not fazed by 'Today's forecast: showers followed by rain,' and 'Tomorrow's forecast: rain followed by showers.'
17.You have no concept of humidity without precipitation.
18. You know that Boring is a town in Oregon and not just a state of Mind.
19. You can point to at least two volcanoes, even if you cannot see Through the cloud cover.
20. You notice, 'The mountain is out' when it is a pretty day and you Can actually see i t.
21. You put on your shorts when the temperature gets above 50, but still Wear your hiking boots and parka.
22. You switch to your sandals when it gets about 60, but keep the socks On.
23. You have actually used your mountain bike on a mountain.
24. You think people who use umbrellas are either wimps or tourists.
25. You buy new sunglasses every year, because you cannot find the old Ones after such a long time.
26. You measure distance in hours.
27. You often switch from 'heat' to 'a/c' in the same day.
28. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit under a raincoat.
29. You know all the important seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Raining (Spring), Road Construction (Summer), Deer & Elk season (Fall).
30. You understood these jokes and will probably forward them
And if you dont understand ANY of these, then you dont live in WA!!!

Catch up from the week

For Family Home Evening this week we went to the Zoo Lights with Erin and her kids and Grandma Shirley. We had fun even in the cold. It was it the low 30's! We bundled Alexis up in coats and fleece blankets, gloves(which she kept on the entire time) and a hat! She could barely move in her stroller it was funny. She loved the lights and really loved it when we turned her loose and let her run around! Anyways we are trying to make a effort at have a planned family home evening so that we can teach Alexis. Our Bishop counseled us to make sure we are teaching by the spirit so that is our goal for the new year, to have family home evening and teach by the spirit.

I should also mention that we had our finally home visit for finalizing the adoption! It has taken so long(thanks to crapy lawyers who took our case when they don't do adoptions) but now we are in the final stretch. We are waiting now for the adoption investigator to write up her post-placement study and send that to our attorney. Then they will call us, if I don't call them first, and schedule the court date. The court date will be quick too, they are held every Friday at 9 am and take 10 minutes. We just have to schedule them by Thursday for the following week. We are very excited to take her to the temple and have her sealed to us. Once we find out our court date we plan to go to the temple 1 week later. So all our friends and family that want to go will get 2 weeks notice. I wouldn't have it any longer though.

So on to our attorney, Joni from the adoption inv. told us that she has never seen this attorney do an adoption(every adoption in Pierce County goes through her). I was really mad that they told us the do adoptions when they don't. I am going to tell them a few mean things after this is done and then let them know that they will not be receiving anymore money from us because of their mis-handling the adoption and for even taking a case that they don't know how to do. So i have learned a lesson and so will they. I am also going to tell them that if they ask for more money that I might just get another attorney and sue them. Joni told us that they have charged us more then this adoption should have cost. So anyways just had to get that out.

This year Britt is going to help plan and buy the gifts we are giving to others. Usually I do it all and then hear him complain because he doesn't like my gift. So what a relief that he wants to help instead of hinder!

We got the whole family (execpt chad and lim)together for family pictures it was fun! They turned out pretty good with all the kiddos! My daughter was the crabby one.

Silly faces

Notice her tongue...she can roll it!

Found these pictures

I snapped this today she has been a beast to get to sleep the last few days.
I found this on my camera when I downloaded the pictures, Alexis is holding Emerie, her new girl cousin. So now she has 3 girl cousins.

These are the sleeping in the high chair pics from the other day. I wish she would go to sleep this easy all the time tonight it took 3 hours to finally get her to sleep, at least i hope she is asleep.

Clarify

I guess I may have not been clear on how we know Ashlee! She is our neighbor across the street! I didn't think about how many people may look at our site and not know our neighbors! So while I would love to claim Ashlee because she is super cute, she is not ours.

p.s. Britt wants me to say he hopes a bun is in our oven soon!

Alexis was very funny today. She has been fighting her naptime with extreme crying and throwing her body around. So I didn't force her nap today and during dinner at my parents she was sitting in the high chair talking and eating and all of the sudden her head start rolling and her eyes were closing. It was so sudden that we all just stared at her all covered in green peas and sleeping with her head slumped over on the side of the tray. We quickly grabbed our cameras and snapped a few shots in, then carefully wiped her hands and face and laid her on the couch. I guess that will teach her to not take a nap…or did it teach me. She was running around her as happy as can be until 11:30pm when I finally got her to slow down and go to sleep. So tomorrow I will probably try a different approach to the nap!

Also I finally got to the chiropractor. I woke up Saturday morning without the ability to turn my head to the right. I am not exaggerating either…I had to turn my whole body because it felt as if there was a flex straw in my neck that only went one way. I suffered through the weekend and found out that I have a bulging disk in my neck. He said that there is no know cause for this debilitating condition (ok that was my description of it because I felt disabled). So hopefully I will be feeling better after Tuesday's appointment.

So I have been feeling very guilty because I never got Alexis in to the photographer for her 1 year pictures, but today as I was thinking about it I realized that I had some exceptionally cute pictures of her at the park that were taken just a week or so previous to her birthday. So I am going to have a bunch printed it up and call myself done with that task. I really am relieved too! It is Crazy how getting a kids pictures taken can become such a heavy brick on the shoulders. Done with a check mark! Now I just need to get my Christmas decorations up, hopefully tomorrow won't bring almost 4 inches of rain so I can make it out to the garage to get them.

Crystal, Britt and Ashlee

Here we are with Ashlee! She is 3 days old!