THE MONTH OF MARCH BLOG...

I know it's been forever since my last blog. IT'S BEEN CRAZY AROUND HERE!
Paul finished the office (and it looks beautiful!) Alexa is eating faster and faster...I think that she can move on to #2 foods now! And Sam is growing up so big, she's really good with her baby sister Alexa. She's been our little helper when Paul and I have to get things done.

But at the same time...she's really growing fast into her teenage skin (even though I really have 3 1/2 more years until she's ACTUALLY a teenager) and testing out the rebeling a little bit. Ugh...she's just my mom's payback for all the hardtimes I gave my mom!
So here's all the exciting things you missed this month:

PAUL FINISHED THE OFFICE AND IT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL! I AM SO SUPER LUCKY TO HAVE A HUSBAND THAT'S HANDY! NOW I KNOW NOT TO COMPLAIN WHEN HE WANTS TO SPEND 2 HOURS AT HOME DEPOT! OR THAT HE NEEDS SOME TOOL THAT DOES SOME LITTLE THING ON THE CORNER OF SOMETHING... LOL!!! HERE ARE SOME BEFORE AND AFTER SHOTS:

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER


I'm gonna have to postpone what the office looks like now with all the furniture because my desk is back to being a mess. I've got to sort and purge a bunch of stuff I don't need. But here's some pics of the walls and I kind of splurged on the papertrays since I found out that I can get them wholesale from www.displaydynamics.com.


I love paper, always have and always will. Paper for some strange reason, makes me happy! 20lb text, metallic, vellum, smooth, 105lb cover...whatever!!! LOL! Yes, I'm one of those crazy women who get really excited over texture and patterns, and how it feels when I open up nice packaging...what a FREAK! But it's who I am and I'm happy to say that I'm doing what I love!

As far as home life...it's great!
What's been going on in the world with Sammie Drew:
Sam did her own shoebox report...all on her own (that means I didn't take over and do it myself)

She also had a choir production at school:



And Paul and I have been spending some family time and brought Alexa to the park:


Alexa is slowing getting too big for her chair. She's not not crawling yet, I'm thinking that her fatso-fatso thighs are weighing her down, because she actually can move backward when she pushes with her arms! ha ha ha
And who doesn't love board books! Paul and I went crazy and bought $80 worth of board books...And she obviously loves them!
(click image to enlarge)
...AND THEN...Tomorrow is Paul's birthday! We're celebrating at Spaghetini's in Seal Beach. It's going to be the first time that we will have a babysitter for an outing TOGETHER! I can't wait to have the night with him and our close friends.

BATHTIME cannot move to Stage TWO

OK...so the tub that I got "supposed to" easily transition from baby to toddler in a seated position. However....I cannot get this girl to SIT for her bathtime! Heck NO! She wants to lounge and enjoy it! I think that we have another water lover in our home. This is absolutely great! I love that she loves her bathtime. She soaks it in and just enjoys every minute of it. Especially when her ate(big sis) is in the room. This time Sam took pictures of her.
Sometimes Sam will go over board and mess around..then there's me all serious mode, all I'm thinking is to get this bath over with. Grumpy as heck (I purposely cropped the ugly, "I'm tired Sam...and I don't want to smile" pose of me.) Then when I actually go through the pics...I just melt. Sam's getting really good at taking pics...even with her hand-me down digital.

Sam took one of my favorites. Alexa is grabbin' for the florescent lights. Sam took what I see and experience when I give Alexa a bath. And I know that I'm complaining about Alexa's unwillingness to go to stage 2, but then I see these pics and I want her to stay in that stinkin' tub until her legs are hanging over the top! I don't know what the heck I'm in a rush for anyway...stage 2 means me bending down and getting all cramped up!

And when she's done...she becomes a nun (is how Sam describes it). She's all in a good mood, ready to take a bottle and go to bed. Which I pray that she's so comfortable that she'll actually sleep through the night. SEVEN MONTHS and this girl is not ready to go 8 hours without a bottle! Maybe that's why she's so fatty fat! : )

Then it's off to her room to oil and aquaphor the crap out of her! She suffers from a mild case of exzema, so after baths...it's aquaphor time! And of course after that...it's ONESIES! ONESIES! ONESIES!ONESIES! ONESIES! ONESIES!ONESIES! ONESIES! ONESIES!

Just as Alexa needs her onesies, I don't know what I'd do without Sam! I raised such a helper : ) I love that she loves her sister. Giggles at Sam, constantly smiles at her, wants her attention and does the Arsenio Hall raising the roof move when she sees her sister.
ALEX LOVES SAM
&
SAM LOVES ALEX Thank god for that, because I just wouldn't know how to handle sibling rivalry. That's definatley gonna be a new one for me that I'm not looking forward to.

Another Monday is upon us...BOOOOOO!
Next weekend is another wedding convention. This time at the Anaheim Convention Center! I'm excited to go and get more orders!!! That way, I can quit my real job...and then...Mondays won't be so blue.

"LEXA! LEXA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!"

How can you resist this face? Paul and I were trying really hard to get her to smile with all gums, because pretty soon, she's going to have teeth, and that precious gum smile will be no longer...she's growing so fast. I still can't believe that 7 months went by that fast. She's got a bit of a cold, so she's been in a bad mood lately. Not too many smiles lately. boo-hoo...the best part of her being under the weather is that her naps just got 1 hour longer! She actually takes an hour and 10 minute nap now! LOL

Today, Paul installed the bamboo floors in the office and it looks awesome! He's just got the floor boards, stairs and furniture left. I won't want to go back to DENSO at all. This week went by too fast. It NEVER goes by this fast at the "real" job.
I can't wait until it's all done and the furniture goes in there. It's gonna finally look like a studio! : ) I'm sooooo lucky to have a handy-man as a husband!

Tomorrow, Eleanor and I are gonna go dress shopping in LA : ) I can't wait to tag along and watch her try on wedding dresses : ) I'm really happy for her. I'm gonna be doing her invitations and I'm excited because she gave me free creative reign over it. Look at meeh...too excited to use colors other than green and pink! Not that those are bad colors, it's just the most popular and every other bride uses them.

So another late night on the computer. Just enought to take a small break to tend to my blog (as you can tell I tend to the blog late nights, because that's the only time I can get away with doing it!)

Another weekend is here! Thank god!

7 months already!!!

I can't believe she's already 7 months old! That went by too fast. It doesn't feel like that long. On the 3rd we had guests over. Tina brought her 3 week old baby Olivia, and Alexa looks so much bigger than her. She's growing so fast. Her thighs are HUGE! Check 'em out! Seriously...we only feed the girl solids at night and the rest of the time she only drinks 5 ounces! I'm not complaining...chubby is always good in my book for babies! I absolutely love chubby babies. I can smoother the crap out of those cheeks...AND LOVE IT! She's getting really spoiled by dad. She has to be held to be put to sleep and she can't really stand to be in her exer-saucer for more than 15 minutes. So it's getting harder for EVERYONE in the Alicante residence! She needs constant attention, and forget about leaving out of her sight. She gets really pissed off when you do that. It's hilarious to me. Paul is stuck with his 3 girls that he has to deal with. AND WE ALL NEED ATTENTION! LOL! Sam has been so good with her. 'Lexa really loves Sam. Sam makes her laugh so easily. It's nice to know that Sam loves Alexa more then is jealous of her. You can see where Alexa gets her color. Definately not from me. Sam's got my color and Alexa got Paul's lack of color. : ) We I look at myself hold her in front of the mirror, she doesn't really look like my baby. But when Paul holds her, it's definately his child! I got lucky with Sam...she's my mini-me! In all ways...she's been bringing home talking slips from the teacher the last 4 weeks! What can I do? She's social, just like me! She doesn' t have a problem being confident when she speaks. I love that about her. But it doesn't help her conduct grades. That doesn't count for college anyway right? (small print)

Today at Target (our fave store) Sam and I went easter shopping. It's gonna be Alexa's 1st Easter and we've gotta take pictures with pastel dresses, eggs, baskets, green grass, and flower hats to our hearts content! Look at Alexa's face, oh my gosh...too funny! I know that years from now, you're gonna ask me 'what the heck was I thinking'...but for now, I'm gonna take advantage of how cute and ridiculous this hat is, and just soak up the fact that every time this hat is on your precious little head, your dad and I can't stand how adorable you are.

AND OF COURSE...we have to have a matching sister flower don't we?! Equally as cute..the only difference is that Sam is completely aware of just how ridiculous this is and STILL does it! LOL! These hats were SO worth the $2 in the dollar section!