Summer!!!

Wow it's been a while huh? Well lets see what have we been up to. It's summer(duh) and we have been outside quite a bit. We are growing a garden this year. It is actually growing too! That has never happened to me before. We have corn, broccoli, lettuce, onions, peas, carrots, green beans, strawberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkins, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, spaghetti squash and zucchinis. We also have 2 cherry, an apple, an apricot and pear trees in our yard so we get lots of delicious fresh food.
Last month Justin had to go to Oklahoma for an Advanced Oilfield Mathematics and Engineering class (ya I'm impressed too) He ended up failing it by ONE POINT! One stinking point. How sucky is that?! So he gets to go back in October. Anyway while he was gone Alexys and I spent a week in Vegas visiting Justins family. They had some fun new toys that Alexys just couldn't get enough of. Namely a trampoline. Her and Domminiq had tons of fun jumping. We also went to the dinosaur park. I didn't get any pictures for those of you who aren't familiar but trust me this park is AWESOME. There is a pond where you can feed ducks and turtles(we found that out when the kept coming up. Nobody knew they were there before) There is a splashy part that is pretty fun. But good laws THE SLIDES. These are the tallest slides I've ever seen in my life. They almost put 7 peaks to shame. I went down a few but got stuck. They are all twisty slides and I have too long of legs. Oh well still fun. We also got to go swimming in Jeff and Mandy's pool. We love to swim so that was pretty fun too. And it wore Alexys out. She napped for quite a while in her bathing suit. We took some cute pics of all 4 cousins together. None of them really wanted to cooperate though. We spent almost the whole time with Nadine and her boys. We just had a ton of fun.
The second week we spent at my parents house. They took us to the zoo! Alexys loves the zoo. She is an animal girl. She was overjoyed when the Tiger looked at her. We went into the little prairie dog holes and one of the cute little buggers tried to climb in with us. It was cute. My moms dog also had puppies. There are 7 of them and they are adorable. When we got there Ashlee handed one to Lex and she says 'Oh I lub them!' All she wanted to do after that was play with puppies. We always have a good time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. (I don't have any pics from my parents as my camera lost its charger. But we go back often so I'll have to upload some from there)

Alexys is 2!

Well Alexys had her second birthday March 14. I know, where did time go? We didn't really do anything (due to budget concerns and the fact that she got 2 first birthday parties) We got her a cake and she opened her presents from Tristan and Calvin and Grandma and Grandpa Stringer. Then we really just played the rest of the day. I can't believe how big (big in a not necessarily physically big as she was only 21.5 lbs at her 2 year check up) she is getting. She has got such a personality. She loves to jump off the couches onto her bum. She loves swimming, playing at the park and 'Maggie and the Ferocious Beast'. She talks like you'd never believe. She can say almost anything that is on her mind and say it clearly. She definitely keeps us on our toes. She is a massive daddy's girl. She can get him to do anything she wants him to do. (In fact she has also got him addicted to 'Maggie and the Ferocious Beast' He admitted that he watches it sometimes when he is alone) She loves to play with her friends Bailee and Emily. They run and spin and play together really well. And she adores her family. She asks constantly if we can call Grandma, Grandpa, Ashlee, or Tristan (they are obviously who I talk to most) I couldn't imagine life without her. Love you Peanut!

A little update

Okay. First of all sorry to those of you who actually read what I have to say. I don't really have much lately. Just trudging along and hoping spring comes soon. We are tired of being inside all of the time. And to top that all off I can feel spring in the air and the snow is melting rapidly. Soon it will be enough gone that Alexys will be able to walk in it and not lose her boots. I'll update you on whats been going on with us. We are very lucky right now, not only does Justin still have a job but he just got a raise. (It may only be 2% but still a raise) I am doing well in my class (yes only one class, trying to ease myself into school) I aced my first test and currently have an A. Alexys has been growing and maturing right before our eyes. Every time we see my parents or Justin's parents everyone is just amazed at how much more she can say. She is stringing sentences together and can repeat EVERYTHING we say. (Not always a good thing. The other day Justin dropped something and let "damn it" slip. Well the rest of the day if Alexys dropped something or saw something spilled it was "damn it" I tried and tried to explain that it is a bad word and we are not supposed to say it but there is not really much reasoning with a 23 month old) She got sick for the first "real" time this last week. I have only had to take her to the doctor for her not feeling good twice before ant they found nothing wrong. Well on Sunday Alexys was cuddling with Justin on the couch while I was cooking dinner (that should have been our first clue) Justin called out to me that she felt really hot and we should take her temp. So I grabbed the thermometer and took the temp. When I read it I almost passed out. It was 104.6. So I turned off the stove and we went to the ER. The doctor couldn't find anything visibly wrong so she got the lovely experience of having blood work, a chest x ray, urine analysis and a strep culture. (As the Dr. told us that a fever that high is usually something) To gather urine they had me put a little baggy that stuck to her girly parts on. She really didn't like this and would not pee. We actually sat in the ER for about 4 hours simply because she wouldn't pee. They ended up almost putting in a catheter but just as the nurse went to place it Alexys let her bladder go. There was a puddle the size of Utah Lake on the bed under her. She got new jammies from the hospital (because she soaked her clothes) and wouldn't take them off for about 2 days. We also got to see a life flight helicopter up close and personal as they had landed to pick up a baby but had to wait to be refueled. The pilot let us look inside and opened up the doors to show us all the gadgets. Oh ya they found nothing in all of these test and sent us home with the diagnosis of a viral infection. When we first got there we had a male nurse taking care of us. He absolutely loved Alexys. When it was time for him to go home he asked if he could take Alexys with him. I love it when people comment about how well behaved she is. And, well, she is. Anyway I was able to keep her temp down all the next day but Monday night about 2 Justin woke up to her feeling hot again. This time when we took her temp it was 106.8. So again off to the ER. This time I stayed home as I had only had 4 hours of sleep the previous night and had only been asleep 2 hours that night. (I have had a bit of insomnia lately) Well I might as well have gone because I just sat up waiting and worrying. Luckily they were only there for about an hour. This doctor diagnosed an ear infection and gave her a prescription for an antibiotic. It is now Wednesday and she is feeling fine. No fever or anything. She is, luckily, a very healthy little thing and bounces back very well.

Okay so it's been a while since I've posted anything. I left my camera at my parents house so didn't have it for Christmas. Alexys got major spoiled again (shocker) She got a kitchen from G'ma and G'pa Stringer, a digital camera from G'ma and G'pa Baker, a bike, a chair, a stuffed monkey, a baby playset (from Ashlee) a cute princess tent (from Brady and Danielle) and a bunch of other stuff.
I started school on January 5th. I only have one class this semester. It's a required computer class. It's all the financeing I could get because I decided a little late to go back.
As for everything else it's just life as usual.

First Snow

On Tuesday after Aris's blessing it just happened to snow for the first time. This was the first snow that Alexys remembers. She loved it. We went out just before it was getting dark (it had been snowing all day long) It was so fun to watch my baby so fascinated with something. Especially something I hate so much. She kept taking off her gloves and saying "owie" when her hands got cold. I accidentally left my camera at my parents house, too, so as soon as I get it back I will put up some pictures of us tramping around the yard.

Baby Blessing

This past Sunday Colby and Cheryl had Aris blessed. Me and Alexys were able to go down. On the Saturday before We all went up to Temple square. We went out to eat first and ate for way too long. By the time we got to see the lights we only had about a half hour to do it all. And all of the visitor centers were already closed. Ashlee, Danielle, Dad and I had waited at the car trying to bundle up Alexys while Colby, Cheryl, Amalia, Mom and Aris went ahead. We finally made it to the temple grounds and ALL THE VISITORS CENTERS WERE CLOSED!! While we were waiting around to find each other Dad took Alexys to go see the sights. Ashlee, Danielle, and I were just hanging out. Ashlee and Danielle were both doing the potty dance. We were laughing so hard I was afraid Ash was going to leave a puddle in the middle of the sidewalk. We had so much fun that night.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we went to my grandma's house. There are always tons of family members there and the turnout was, I think, 35. I was so proud of Justin. We got in the day before and he actually talked to my family and had dinner with everyone without having an anxiety attack. He did take a while to him self playing games on his phone while my brothers and dad watched the Jazz game. Then on Thanksgiving day spent the whole time at my grandma's. He did have to leave early as he had to work early(3 a.m.) the next morning. Alexys and I stayed for a few days to go shopping on Black Friday. I found a lot of good deals and got most of my shopping done in one day! Yaay!!!! Ashlee and I went to Wal Mart at 1:30 a.m. on Friday morning to make sure we knew where all of the things we wanted were. Colby, Cheryl, Brady and Danielle met us there at around 3:30. By the time Wal Mart let us take our stuff and check out (at 5) we had gotten everything we needed. We were out and on our way to Shopko by 5:15. We quickly got the things we needed and were at K mart by 6:00 to see there opening. We then stopped and had breakfast before heading over to Roberts Craft and Burlington. That makes a total of 5 stores in 3 hours (and no none of them were close to each other) We had so much fun. (Probably made more so by us 4 girls being tired and goofy as all get out)

Oh and just as a footnote I have always been totally against shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. I had so much fun that I think I will make it a tradition. So next year if we have Thanksgiving in Vegas Nadine, Mandy, Tristan and Kelly you guys better be ready to pull an all nighter and shop. (ok I'll let you take naps but we will be at the store by 3:30 a.m.)