Halloween

This was Alexis' first Halloween celebrated in the United States and her first time going trick-or-treating!  We started off the day by visiting Red Butte Gardens with the cousins:

 

In the afternoon we took Alexis trunk-or-treating at a local elementary school.  She was a ladybug, of course; her favourite!

She loved picking out the candy and putting it in her pumpkin bag.  Grandma Susan was there dressed as a witch, as well as Teisa (geisha), Alisi (Strawberry Shortcake) and Keana (strawberry). 

I think Alexis' favourite part of the whole night was getting to eat her candy at the end.

 

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This morning before church we carved our pumpkins (we don't have church until 11:00am).  Alexis thought it was fun, but didn't like touching the pumpkin guts.  She was more interested in watching and examining everything.

Can you guess who carved each pumpkin?

(Mine is on the left, John's is on the right).

We also got Alexis a helmet (with the Disney princesses on it) to go with her new bike.  We want her to be in the habit of always wearing a helmet.  So far she loves it.

Singing with Princess Punzel

Alexis' favourite movie at the moment is Tangled.  She watches it almost every morning.  So she was ecstatic to get two Princess Punzel (what she calls Rapunzel) dolls for her birthday.  One of the dolls sings a portion of a song from the movie and Alexis loves to sing with her.  It is too cute:

Happy Birthday Alexis!

Today, Alexis turned two years old.  We cannot believe it!  She is the sweetest, most adorable, and well-behaved toddler we know (we just got lucky, we are not that great of parents).

Alexis woke up to her brand-new comfy chair and some puzzles.  She quickly settled into her chair to watch Princess Puznel.

She also got to go to McDonald's for the first time to get a Happy Meal and play on the toys there.

She loved it!

After such a busy birthday weekend, it was a pretty low-key day.  But we had fun spoiling our Lil' Missy.

Important note:  Alexis is almost fully potty-trained!  She has just graduated from princess panties (pull-ups) to wearing big-girl panties during the day and almost never has an accident.  (She still wears a diaper while she is sleeping.)  Yeah Alexis!

Alexis' Birthday Weekend

Alexis was so lucky, she celebrated her birthday over the course of a fun-filled weekend.  It all started with Nana coming in town on Thursday night.

Alexis' birthday ladybug costume from Nana:

At the park with Nana:

Aunt Kelsey and Aunt Christina arrived on Friday.

Saturday morning was spent at the park:

We were trying to tire Alexis out so that she would take an early nap, since her party was scheduled during her normal nap time.  It worked!

While Alexis took her early nap, we prepped all of the food for the party:

 

On our way to the party we drove up Millcreek Canyon to look at the beautiful fall leaves:

The party at Sugarhouse Park:

 

Singing "Happy Birthday":

 
Having fun with Daddy on the big toy:

I love this picture.  It captures perfectly just how excited Alexis was to get, not one, but two Princess Punzel dolls:

She loved her new bike too:

 

Cuddling with Princess Punzel on the way home from her birthday party:

We were able to go to church before Nana and Aunt Christina had to fly home.  Later that night we celebrated Alexis' birthday again during family dinner.

 

On our way to church:

Alexis got a hold of Nana's glasses during Sacrament meeting and wouldn't give them up!

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Alexis during family dinner:

Aunt Kelsey was able to stay until Monday.  We went exploring at This is the Place Park:

 

 

Alexis riding her very first pony:

What a fun birthday weekend!

Piano Girl

Alexis loves to play the piano with Grandma.  Her favourite songs to play are "Popcorn Popping" and "Book of Mormon Stories."

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So loved

Alexis is so loved . . .

While we were out to dinner tonight, Christina realized that Alexis was on the screen of three out of our four phones (mine, Christina's and my mom's.)

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The only way to get Alexis to take a church picture today was to let her hold a dinosaur.  What I didn't realise was that she wanted to take a picture with each individual dinosaur, so we ended up with about 20 pictures.  It was so funny to see her go and pick out each dinosaur and then set them down in a row on the chair after each picture.

We took Alexis to the park yesterday morning.  She had a ton of fun, as usual.  We are loving the nice weather.

Hogle Zoo

We got to go to the zoo today with some of Alexis' cousins (Keana and Lilly).  Alexis had so much fun. Her eyes were practically popping out of her head the whole time. She couldn't believe all of the animals she was seeing. It was really fun to watch.

Alexis riding the train around the zoo:

Looking at the monkeys with Keana:

Watching the elephants:

There was a mommy elephant with her baby and the baby was learning to do tricks.  It was so cool to see the elephant do a hand stand and shake it's head on command.

Alexis loved riding the carousel.  While we were waiting for our turn she told me that she wanted to ride the giraffe.  She didn't want to get off when our turn was done.

It was so cute to watch Lilly and Alexis run around together.  They were holding hands the whole time.

We had so much fun.  Thanks cousins!

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Yesterday, we took Alexis to Temple Square.  Grandma came too.  Alexis had a lot of fun running around and was very excited to see the temple (we recently learned about temples in Family Home Evening).

It was cold, but sunny. Alexis hates to have the sun in her eyes (she always yells "it's bright, it's bright!"), so she wanted to wear her sunglasses.

Alexis and Daddy in front of the temple:

Alexis seeing the Christus for the first time:

Added 20 October 2011:

We drove by Temple Square today and Alexis (with no prompting) pointed out the window and said "temple, temple."  It made us so happy!

Snow!

We have had awesome weather since we've been in Utah. It has seriously been sunny and between 85 and 90 degrees everyday.  We knew a storm was coming this week, but we had no idea that it would snow!  On Monday, it was still sunny and 90 degrees, and then it started to cool down on Tuesday  and Wednesday and today (Thursday) it was snowing.  This is the view outside of the house:

The snow isn't really sticking, but still.  It's snow!!  I am so excited to be in Utah for the winter.

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This weekend was General Conference, so no church picture . . .

But we took a drive up City Creek Canyon on Friday for a picnic lunch and this was our view:

The leaves are just starting to turn.  It was a beautiful drive.

We drove all the way to the top and then stopped to have some lunch.  It was about 90 degrees (F), so the cooler canyon weather was nice.  Alexis of course had to touch the water.

We've been in Salt Lake for a little over a week and so far so good.  We're pretty much over our jet lag and I've almost finished unpacking our suitcases.  Alexis is successfully sleeping in her "big girl" bed and has gone swimming everyday that we've been here (except for Sundays).  She is in heaven with all the swimming and playing with her cousins.  Next on the list is getting her back in her "big girl" panties.