My baby girl is 2 today. Yep, already. I could've gotten a picture with her all cute and clean, but I love the chocolate frosting on her face (with the obliterated cake remains in the corner of the picture. She searched only for frosting after awhile.) 

So far I know that: 

she loves her siblings, all of them. She asks for Keith when he's at school and is excited to get him when school's over. 

She has a great sense of humor and loves to tease and play games.

She is agile and loves a thrill.

She likes to sing and dance.

She's very bright and observant.

She LOVES her daddy. A lot. 

She is competitive and will sometimes only do something for me if I ask Keith to do it after she says no.

She's very independent and stubborn. She prefers to do things on her own when she can. This is possibly why she can already dress herself when Keith could not at this age.

She's VERY verbal and loves to talk. A lot. Unfortunately.

She's goofy and likes to make people laugh.

 I love her and she makes me laugh. She is so much fun and I'm so excited to see how her personality will continue to develop. 

Paul took this one about a week ago. She was just tuckered out. It was only about 6:00 pm.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXA!

Coolest present ever:

I meant to post this LONG ago but kept forgetting to take a picture of it. 

This was Paul's Mother's Day gift to me. 

It is the most awesome, thoughtful gift he's ever given me. 

I love my hubby and all four of my crazy kids!

my earliest walker?

 I went to get the crying boys out of their cribs to find this:

pulling himself up on things to stand already. . .wow. i'm pretty sure this is before either of my other two.

Life without internet...

has been really tough. i'm not a fb addict or anything like that, though, i admit, i probably spend a little more time than necessary on it. but what i discovered is that i have SO much information and do so many things on my computer! i pay bills, i keep my recipes (which i discovered i don't print out often enough), i talk to distant (and not so distant) family members, and i look up answers to questions about almost everything! it's been a very LONG 4 weeks while my computer's been away getting fixed, but i'm still grateful that at least it broke the day BEFORE my warranty expired. plus, all the time away gave me time to spend with my husband, do quite a bit of reading, and just generally enjoy being disconnected for awhile (i know, i know. i said it drove me crazy. . .but it was also kind of a relief in a way.)

so, be prepared! i'm behind on pictures an info, but i'm going to try to catch up and jump back into the blogging world. well. . .maybe wade, but i'm giving it a go!

night time adventures

Labor Day Camping 2010

So, the annual West Family Campout was last weekend (or rather Labor Day Weekend, which was the weekend before last I guess technically). It was a lot of fun, though I'll be honest, camping with 3 kids 2 years old and under (2 still nursing) was not exactly my idea of an ideall camping trip, and it's definitely not on my to do list anytime soon. Fortunately though everyone loves my kids so I didn't have to hold them ALL the time, though I couldn't let them roll around on the floor since, well, eew.

It was pretty uneventful as far as camping goes, but Rachel came with us which was great. I always love spending time with her, and all the West family members made it except Shawn, which is to be expected with his busy flying schedule. We did get to see him just last Friday night though as he was in town, which was nice.

My kids got filthy, but seemed to love just about every minute of it. Nights were rough for pretty much everyone. As in true camping tradition, I didn't sleep almost at all the first night. The other two were better than that, but for such a large tent we were oddly cramped between children. :)


Alexa loved the dirt and the marshmallows. She was truly disgusting for most of the trip, but at least her hair was cute, haha. I'm just glad it was out of her face or it would've been SOO gross!

Cousin Kimber really loved her little cousins.







Alexa loves dolls or barbies or anything that can be called "baby"













Uncle John took the kids rock climbing.

Keith was fine at first...













 then he looked down...











then he froze. But daddy and a cousin came to his rescue. I think he still enjoyed himself and isn't scarred for life, but we shall see. :)

Totally gross...

But I love them anyway. :)