Playing at the Park

A special treat for Lexie is going to the park.  And there's an amazing one not to far from where we live.  She was so excited to be meeting Savannah and Faith there and everyday she kept asking if today was the day we were going to play.

These two girls don't see each other a lot, but play like old friends every time they are together.  Lexie was showing Savannah how to climb the rock wall.

Savannah returned the favor and showed Lexie how to slide down the pole.

They followed each other up every ladder and tried every piece of equipment they could get their hands on.

Lexie liked climbing over the cargo net and hanging from it.

Lexie showed Savannah how to walk the balance beam like a gymnast.

We ended our day with some bubbles!

It was a little hard for Faith to keep up with Lexie and Savannah because they didn't stay in one place for very long.  She finally got to have some fun with them when it was bubble time.  Hard to believe that Lexie is so much older than Faith because they are the same height!

It was a fun day for these little girls to play together and the mommies to catch up.  Hope we can do it again!

Let's Go to the Beach

The weather has been so bad this summer that we've hardly gone to the beach.  We decided one day to take a chance and go.  It wasn't a perfect day, it rained and it was very windy, but Lexie loved playing in the sand.

Eric took Lexie to test the waters.

It was very cold, but she wanted to go in.

Lexie was not afraid of the water or the waves moving her around.  She enjoyed every minute of being in the water.  This was so different from the last time we went to the beach.

She was laughing and playing, instead of screaming to get out.

And then she wanted me to come into the ice cold water.  How could I say no to my girl?

Lexie wanted to practice swimming with me.  She did pizza arms and ice cream scoops.  She wanted to do chop, chop timber.  Those swimming lessons sure paid off!

Even though I'm not too fond of the beach, I would do anything for my Lexiebug.  Hearing her tell me that this was the best day ever, made the ice cold water feel a little warmer.

Our best day ever ended when it started to get rainy, but for the short time we were there, we created wonderful memories.

Nana didn't go to the beach with us, but she did come with us to Lexie's swimming class.  She was very impressed by how well she did.  We celebrated her birthday at Farrells.  Lexie was the winning bidder of the ice cream auction.  She got a chocolate sundae for 50 cents.

We went to visit Nana so Lexie could give her the picture that she drew for her.  Of course, Nana spoils her and gives her chocolate.  That's why Lexie loves going over to her house.

Just a crazy thing that Lexie likes to do.  She loves to line things up.  One day, I walked into the bathroom and this is what I found!

Summer Goals

One of our summer goals was to finally take Lexie to see a movie.  We didn't know how long she would be able to sit so we decided to go to the $1 movies.  She loves the movie "Rio" and we were going to see that until we got to the theatre and the line went out into the street.

We didn't think Lexie's first movie experience should be in a crowded theatre sitting in the front row, so we went to Plan B.  We ended up paying regular price and decided to see "Brave".  Lexie sat through a lot of previews.  She loved seeing "Finding Nemo" on the big screen.  She was pretty good for the beginning of the movie and ate her popcorn and lots of snacks.  Then she started to get restless and wanted to move around.  I took her outside for a bit and she wanted to go back in.  She had a hard time sitting on her seat.  Because she's so light, the chair kept flipping up, so I had to put my leg on it to keep it down.  She sat on Eric's lap for awhile.  Overall, she did better than we thought she would.  She seemed to enjoy the movie and only was scared at one point.  

I've been collecting recipes from Pinterest.  One of my goals was to actually try a new recipe each week.  I made Lexie these cute hot dogs.  She calls them octodogs!  

Another goal was to help Lexie with her swimming.  We love our pool and Lexie loves swimming in it.  It takes awhile to set up and fill with water, but it's so worth it when we see that huge smile on her face.  She will stand by the pool and keep asking if she can go in.

Lexie's daddy enjoys the pool also!  They have so much fun in the water together!

Her swimming has really improved because of the pool.  

Our Little Fishy

At the beginning of the summer, Lexie started her swimming classes.  She would barely put her face in the water.  On picture day, they had to dunk her into the water to get an underwater picture.  At that time, she wouldn't open her eyes.

At the end of the summer, the Pisces in her took over.  She has become a little fish.  We had about 19 pictures to choose from on picture day.  It took us a long time to pick these three!

At the start of her 2nd swim session, Lexie was put in a beginner class with Uncle Zach.  She was eventually moved up to the next group with Uncle Kyle.

She is still learning to watch what she's supposed to be doing.

She spends a lot of time playing and making smiley faces at her friend Tyler.  Poor guy, he probably didn't enjoy having a 3 year old taking swimming lessons with him.

Making rocket arms to push off into the pool.

Love that little bottom!

Uncle Kyle is showing Lexie how to do ice cream scoops.

Lexie needs to work on her kicking.  She tends to forget to kick and will just float along in the water and wait for Uncle Kyle to pull her on the barbells.

Lexie's favorite part of class is when she can jump into the water.  She gets upset if they don't get to do that.

Uncle Kyle always tells her to jump in, feet first, but she tries to dive in.

Even though these swimming lessons were a bit pricey, I'm so happy that we went to Leahi.  Lexie has learned so much in just 2 months.  The most important thing is that she's not afraid of the water.

Lexie's Blooming!

After two months of watching the little sprouts emerge from the ground, Lexie's sunflowers were in full bloom.  It's been exciting to watch them getting bigger each day and to see each new flower open up.

Just like her flowers, Lexie has grown up a lot this summer.  She is now fully potty trained.  We thought getting her to stay dry at night would be our biggest challenge, but within a week, she was sleeping through the night with a dry panty.  She has even surprised us by going to the bathroom by herself.

Lexie is still a munchkin.  She's barely 24 pounds.  This dress was given to us by my cousin several years ago and those are Miss H's sandals from last summer and both fit her perfectly now.  I guess it's good that she's so petite because she really looks great in her clothes!

Lexie is now going to gymnastics class by herself.  She is learning to listen and follow directions.  I have to keep reminding myself that she is only 3 years old and her attention span is not so great.  She tends to get very distracted.  We always have a little talk before class and she usually remembers what I tell her, which is to sit by her coach and not by this other girl in her class who tends to play around.  Lexie is really strong on the bars and does a great backflip by herself.  She still doesn't understand how to go to the different stations by herself, so that's something we need to practice at home.

Our little dog, Gohan, has become a real grump and he is always growling at Lexie.  It's sad because she loves him and wants to pet him, but he's old and doesn't want to be bothered.  He's already bitten her toe, so we've had to lock him up in our laundry room.  And Lexie felt so bad for him and kept asking when we would let him out.  She didn't want to sleep the other night until she got to see him.  And whenever we're shopping, she always wants to buy something for Gohan.  This girl has got such a kind heart.

We are constantly amazed at how she can teach herself new things.  All summer I've been trying to teach her the sounds since she can recognize capital and lower case letters.  She didn't want anything to do with it.  I put an app on the ipad called StarFall, which has little games for each letter.  She plays it everyday and now knows about half of the sounds.  She did this all by herself and she's even able to write those letters by herself too!

Lexie is extremely sensitive.  For someone who can be sassy, she gets embarrassed easily.  If she does something hurtful or makes a bad choice, she feels really bad.  She will run to another room and just start to cry.  We're trying to teach her that if she does something well, she needs to be proud and not embarrassed.  And if she does something wrong, she needs to learn from it and do better the next time.  

Lexie is a daddy's girl, but I can see these two butting heads as she grows up.  Both are very stubborn!  Lexie loves her daddy and they always have so much fun together.  He always knows how to make her laugh.

Happy Birthday Daddy!!  The best birthday present was spending the day with his Lexiebug!