little Hearts hold Big Hopes

Today, we had Lexi's 9 month follow up appointment with her cardiologist, Dr. J.. Let's just say it wasn't the news we were expecting to hear or had hoped for. Lexi's pulmonary valve has gotten worse since our last visit and Dr. J. feels that the pressure is too high for her heart to maintain. She is now scheduled for another heart catheter procedure on Sept. 27th. At that time, they will try and balloon the valve back open and hopefully, reduce the pressure on the valve and in her heart to a more tolerable and livable gradient. Of course, this news breaks our hearts but I think what added to the pain was that she was SO good the whole appointment and cooperated with every test and every person (these are 2-3 hour appointments). She was so proud of herself for being such a good girl and then the devastating news came at the end and it tore me apart. We hope and pray that God blesses her little heart with relief and makes this next procedure as successful as possible.
She was so excited for her EKG she couldn't stop wiggling.

Getting Bigger . . .

Baby Girl #2 and mommy are growing bigger and bigger every day. In fact, so big that mommy has been getting a nice dose of heartburn during the middle of the night. And this Big Sister is making sure all of baby sister's gear and equipment work properly.

Mommy's wonderful friends hosted a baby shower for her and baby sister this weekend - so more pictures to come soon.

Showered with Love

Having Alexis has brought so many wonderful people into my life and I honestly can't imagine my life now without them. Two of my dear friends hosted a beautiful shower for me and our littlest baby girl today and a couple other friends who couldn't be there to help were there in spirit to help make it very memorable. It wasn't a large shower and that is exactly how I wanted it - but I felt so showered with love just being with such wonderful girlfriends that I have made all because of having Alexis. Just another instance of, it isn't always about quantity and the number but most of the time it's quality that counts. I am so thankful that these ladies have entered my life.

All of my favorite foods were served for lunch!

The sweets that we've been enjoying most the last 8 months!

The hostesses: Melissa and Cortney

Girlfriends: Luna, Claudia, Cortney, & Loren

Summer Birthday Fun

The summer birthday parties have began . . .we made our own little ponies at Isa's partyall the girls with their glasses after pin the tail on the pony (Olivia, Isa, Sophie, Lexi, & Lizzy)it was a morning party so we celebrated with strawberry donuts (Isa's favorite)our little friend Nicky turned oneto help him celebrate we attended his pool party and had a splashing good timethe girls enjoying one last dip in the hot tub

Getting ready for Baby Sister

Lexi attended a class for soon-to-be siblings at the hospital. The kids learned all about babies and their new roles as brothers & sisters.

learning how to feed and help bathe their babiesher very own "Big Sister" backpack

making a bib for baby sister

music time - learning songs to sing to our new baby

decorating a picture frame for Lexi and baby sister's 1st picture together

Summer Activities

This is a little bit of what we have been up to this summer. . . we have been trying to keep ourselves busy and cool!hanging with Ronald after a Mended Little Heart meeting at the Ronald McDonald House
Story & Craft time with Ms. Angie - we make a craft based on the stories that the teacher readslistening to a story about rainwe made rain makers to use while doing the rain dance (in hopes that it would soon rain here-it hasn't rained since April)
Swim Lessons with Ms. Katie - Lexi has come along way since May when she took her first "preschool" swim lessons with Ms. Megan. She is doing such a great job that we decided to enroll her in another set of lessons the end of July.
learning how to enter the pool using the ladderpicking up rings from the bottom of the poolthe last day of swim lessons we always get a treat with our report card
Playtime with Lizzy & Sammy (our friends that live in the neighborhood)Lexi and Lizzy painting while Sammy is nappingand we always find time to play at the splash pad (it's the Arizona playground in the summer).
Thursdays is movie day - our local movie theater shows kid's movies every weekday morning for $2/person. We bought a summer movie package and have been enjoying lots of movies and popcorn. (I still need to get a good picture of Lexi and her friends at the theater.)

33 months & 33 weeks

Today, Lexi is 33 months old and baby girl #2 is 33 weeks in utero. Just a cool fact that I thought I would note. I am going to try and get a picture of the two (oops, I mean 3 of us) together in the next day or three (keeping with the wild 3's).

Summer 2010 Vacation ~ San Diego, CA

We decided that a little seaside get-a-way was necessary before the next addition to our family arrives. We are very lucky to have some really nice friends who happen to live in San Diego and who invite us to stay with them whenever we are in the area. Our friends have 2 girls ages 7 & 5, and all the girls play so well together (Lexi loves the big girls and they love to "mother" her). So we packed up the car with our beach chairs, sand toys, and flip-flops and decided to get out of the heat for a few days. Here are a few highlights from our little adventure.
Friday, June 18th: We went to Balboa Park with Reinet, Corain, & Klarissa (our friends that we were staying with). Every time we visit San Diego we try to go someplace we haven't been before. It was a nice sunny day to go explore such a beautiful area of San Diego.Our ONLY family picture from the trip!Lexi and Mommy enjoying the pretty flowers and cool, summer airCorain (with the panda bear), Klarissa, Lexi, and Daddy riding the train at Balboa Park
Saturday, June 19th: Time to head to the beach . . . thankfully our little beach babe was excited about the beach this year. Last year she wasn't so fond of getting dirty in the sand.ready to build a sand castleposing for mommy in the beach chaircollecting sea shells with daddylook at those kissable lips!Lexi had so much fun at the beach and kept asking to go back every day!
Sunday, June 20th: Father's Day! We took the dads out to brunch at one of our favorite places to eat in Del Mar. Afterwards, we played in the park near-by.Daddy pushing his little girl on the swing with the ocean in the background - you couldn't ask for a better way to spend Father's Day! And a mother couldn't ask for a better daddy to her children. Thanks for being such a great dad to Lexi! She may only be two but this girl knows she has daddy wrapped around her little finger. :)
Monday, June 21st: Potty Party at Disneyland! (see next post)
Tuesday, June 22nd: One last trip to the beach with our friends before the drive home.
Corain and Lexi playing in the lagoon at Torrey Pines beach.
It was a great trip to California and we wish we could visit more often. A huge thank you to our friends for opening their home to us and entertaining us. Corain and Klarissa asked if Lexi could come stay with them and I know she would love to if her parents would let her.

Potty Party at Disneyland

It was the big day! The day she had been waiting for since she starting making her peeps in the potty. Just waiting to tell the princesses what a big girl she was. Since we already had the trip to California planned we offered a day at Disneyland for her reward to get her potty trained because nothing else was motivating her. Well, it worked like a charm and if we started to have a little trouble we just called up the princesses and told them we couldn't come. Anyways, here are the details from the "best potty party ever" at the "happiest place on earth"!The very 1st ride was the "tea cups" (same as Disney World in February)!trying to get into Alice in Wonderland's housenext was "poke-ee-oo's" ride - we read about him almost every nightthis girl loves her pickles - she wouldn't even share with mommy & daddyit was finally time to see the princesses - waiting for the show/dance to beginfront & center - as close as she could possibly get to the princessesafter the show we met Snow White and told her we wear big girl panties nowringing the bell on the pirate's shipWild Toad's ridestanding next to the dwarfs - closest to Dopey (Lexi's favorite dwarf)
It was a great day at Disneyland. We ended it with the fireworks show and we all were pleasantly surprised to see Dumbo flying in the air during the show. Walt Disney sure does know how to make dreams come true!

Big Girl Bed!

There have been a lot of changes in Lexi's life in the last month (potty training and school) and she has handled them all pretty well. Today, we did the third and final transition, which was set up her big girl bed. Obviously, the biggest change will be when we bring her baby sister home. But for now, she is getting accustomed to life as a big girl and a preschooler.Helping daddy build the bed"I love my big girl bed!"1st night in her new bed