Big girls update

Pin It Lexi Jade is climbing new mountains. She is finding her spice :) But in a very good way. She is venturing off in to the world of being a brave, big girl! Yesterday when it was time for the big hip hip hooray at the end of her gymboree class she ran and dove in to Miss Sue's arms so she would toss her in the air instead of Gymbo the clown. That was a big deal! Miss Sue just melted. She lets Miss Mackenzie take her by the hand and use her for all the examples at dance class. On our first day she wouldn't even let her help her with her forward roll. Now, she would rather just dance with Miss M the entire class. She can even hold her!
The newest thing is her potty! She LOVES her potty and she loves her panties! Problem is, she has no clue when the pee is coming and she doesn't know until it is pouring out! NOT FUN! So I let her sit on the potty absolutely any time she wants to but the panties, those are for very short periods of time right after I know she has just gone pee pee.
The first time I put the panties on her, she was right out of the bath, there was music playing and she immediately started dancing. Now, any time there is music playing she thinks she has to strip down and put her panties on before she can dance! So funny, this girl is all about doing things exactly the same EVERY time! The first time she used her new Dora colring book was on the tile floor, do you know that this little girl has to go to the exact same TILE (yes the ONE TILE) where she colored the first time, each time she uses ~that~ book!!! STRANGE!! OCD????? UHHhh ...just a little!
She is eating 10 times as much since her ear surgery! She used to eat 2 bites and be done, now she eats all day long! She is even trying new things, things that don't involve a green veggie or a sweet potato or egg! She was 22 pounds on surgery day. I am pretty she has gained weight since then.
Best of all, she is singing and babbling. I can hear more than just clinging pots and pans when she plays now. I hear babbling, something she wasn't doing before. At church last week she was singing during worship, made Bryan and I cry. We were singing ~Your love is strong~ and she was loudly saying STOOOOOONG, STROOOONG, STROOOOONG, it was the sweetest thing I had ever seen until this past Sunday.... She was standing in front of me, head barely peeking over the seat in front of us. She noticed a woman 2 rows up with both arms in the air during worship. She immediately got her arms up so high and swayed from side to side! It did bring me to tears, my 25 month old, learning about the different ways we can worship our perfect loving Father!
 Her words are still one syllable, but they are becoming more pronounced and they are louder. She is using a ton of new words (not that she didn't have 100's of words before, just only our family could understand them). The doctor said we should see a huge change in her speech in the next 3 months. I can't wait. There are times where she gets so frustrated with me because I have no idea what she is saying.

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Alex

Pin It Yesterday morning Big Sister Quincie's boyfriend left for Boot Camp! He's going to be a Marine. Alex holds a very special place in our family and especially in my life. You see I had a dear friend who lost her life to cancer 5 years ago. Before she died we were having one of our special mornings together, sometimes those special days were in the hospital, other times they were in her home. I have the most wonderful memories of those days, I tried to be there with her at least 2 or 3 times a week. Anyway, one of those days, she was telling me how blessed I was to have such amazing girls and that she wanted so much for her son to marry a girl like my Quincie and have a family like ours. She felt such peace about death but she felt such pain knowing that her boys would not have a mom at their wedding, about not getting to be a grandmother to their children, about not being able to share her own memories of her boys as babies with their wives and her grand kids.
   Well..... guess who her son is??? Yes~~ Our precious Quincie and her precious Alex have been dating for 3 years now and we just love this guy to death!

He is so incredibly sweet to our girl, so kind and loving to our family and such a delight to be around. He was quite the lost kid when his mom died. He had a great deal of buried pain and giant walls he had been building up through his moms very long battle with cancer. He was angry and he wasn't about to let anyone try to help him. I have to be honest, he was not the guy I wanted dating my daughter. Not that he was a bad kid, just not a happy guy.

Quincie changed all that. She showed him GRACE. She showed him forgiveness, she showed him HOPE. He began to shine, he didn't even look like the same guy. She helped him slowly but surely chisel down those walls he had been building all those years.

And once those walls had some cracks in them, he began to see light again. Hope in the distance. He let God back in. He grew. He was baptised (his Mom's biggest dream). He grew some more. He began to serve in the church...in children's ministries... he was sooooo good with the kids! And he grew some more. And he has continued to grow up into this wonderful young man right before our eyes.

Quincie is going to really miss having this guy around for the next 13 weeks. And another 4-9 months after his 10 day break! I have a feeling we are going to be seeing a lot more of our oldest Princess!

Alex we are so proud of you and can not wait to see all that God has in store for you in the coming years.
It is an honor to call you ~Our~ precious Alex now!
Note~
Right before I hit POST on this entry, Quincie sent me this this text. I wanted to add it here so I would  always remember how far this relationship between the 2 of them has come. I know Alex will want to see it too. I am as proud of my daughter as I am of Alex. You see when 2 kids are too young to be in a serious relationship their focus is so much about ME and not about what is Gods plan, or even the others dream. These 2 are now ready to let go and let God. Makes a moms heart feel super happy. (Can you tell I have a toddler too?) Here it is:
Mommy, I read Alex's contract today and it says he's enlisted for 8 years. Not 4 which is usual or 5 which is special for some jobs like presidential detail (his dream). After his active duty term, he goes in to the reserves. I've heard him talk about it before, but I didn't know it was set in stone like that. He's so brave. Quincie Pin It

The purse!

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Lexi LOVES purses! Wherever we go, she must have her purse! She has lots...LOTS of purses but this new one that my cousin Melynda sent her for Christmas takes the cake!!! It is so BIG GIRL, seriously, I'd like one! Thank you Daniel and Melynda for making Lexi feel so special. She absolutely loves her new purse and is the talk of the town when her tiny little self is toddling around town with this in hand!

It was a beautiful morning so we went out for coffee (for Mommy) and a donut (For Lexi).

She ate 3 bites! (Of frosting and sprinkles!)

Mmmmm

Mmmmmm

GOOD!

Then is was off to dance class!

Sorry,  no pictures from class today. Still so cute in her Dance leo

She also Loves jewelry!! (next is shoes....but for now she is OBSESSED with her UGG boots!

We have to trick her in to wearing anything but her UGGS! She has 2 pairs and she wants to wear them every single day. I really can't blame her though, they are very comfy indeed!

The beautiful cross Miss Jill got her in October.

And she loves Daddy's Guitar!!

I think I need to get her a pink one of her own!

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Watching Dora

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We have a little Dora fan in the house now. She actually seems to like it almost as much as Kai Lan. It is so cute how she likes to sing and dance along and if the big kids are around during the opening song she will summon them all to get singing by shouting there names! They of course jump right in and sing along, so sweet! This video was taken the evening of her surgery. It has only been a few days but we already hear a change in the way she talks and enunciates! Poor baby can finally hear! Thank you Lord!

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All Better!

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As of tonight the decorations are gone! It feels good to have everything back to whatever normal is.

Good bye tree.

Playing with her favorite friends Tolee, Rhintoo, LuLu and HoHo

She always has daddy fix the wheels on everything. There is a Kai Lan episode where HoHo gets impatient and brakes the wheels on Rhintoo's car. Kai Lan. Jen D, I a helps to fix them so now Lexi has to fix all the wheels in the house too! Jen D, I'm so ready to watch 275 repeats of Beauty and the Beast... So ready! :)

Helping Daddy fix the wheels on her PB shopping cart. This is the cutest thing ever, if you don't have one you might want to get one :)

I rarely post pictures of Lexi in the house because my house has such terrible lighting. I just felt I need to post some any way because I need shots of her playing with the things she loves. She is all back to herself tonight, happy and silly since waking up from a 3 hour nap around 1pm. She went to bed at 6 tonight so it might be a very early morning...... I should really get to bed just in case!

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Surgery update

Pin It We arrived at the hospital at 6:30, Lexi was scheduled for 7:30 surgery. Not sure what happened to that schedule but we waited in the hospital room until 9 am when they finally came in to get her! She was sooo good, seriously shocked by this. I know it was all God! Cassidy came to me last night and said, Mommy tomorrow is going to be different for Lexi, she's going to be calm and trust that things will be fine, I know she is! Well.... she was right, she was amazing. The nurses and staff were all just smitten with her, seriously she was showered with stuffed animals, bubbles, stickers, you name it. She let a few giant tears slide down her cheek in the beginning but with no sound or anything, tried so hard to suck it up, sweet thing. They did give her something in a syringe at 8:50 (thank you Daisy), and she did go off to surgery in the arms of her nurse looking confused and sleepy but without a fuss!
Next thing I know, Dr. M was there telling us the tubes were in! He said lots of fluid drained out and that she had enough wax up there to make  the candles for her next birthday! Gross~ Then the nurse came for us and took us back to her recovery room. Can I just say she was NOT happy!! That poison we use to put them to sleep really makes a sweet girl seem more like a ....well, sorta like there were a few toddlers having temper tantrums inside her and trying to get out!  Serious. So she screamed and cried and kicked and pushed and really had no idea who we were, she did the same thing all the way home. Then did the same thing in my arms for about 10 minutes and fell asleep! Good thing cuz I was starting to get a little tired of all that screaming! She has been sleeping since then and I am expecting my girl back when she wakes up.  Thank you for all the prayers and thanks to my Awesome Father for answering them!

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Tomorrow's the big day

Pin It Well, after 11 ear infections in 12 months and constant fluid retention in the ear, Lexi is finally getting tubes! It is a quick easy out patient procedure...however....Miss Lexi is TERRIFIED of doctors, doctors offices, and pretty much ANYTHING that is being done by a doctor or nurse. She has been this way since we met her in China, her medical day in Guangzhou was such a sad day for her. The only cries we had ever heard from her before medicals were when she had night terrors. She did not get any shots or have anything painful done to her but it was quite clear that she had been seen by doctors before and she was so so scared of them! She cried like they were killing her and up until this very day she still cries like they are killing her before they even lay a gentle hand on her!
Tomorrow morning at 6:30am we will check in to the hospital and at 7:30am she will get her tubes. If you listen closely, you will likely hear her screaming from 6:30 - 7:30 while we wait and for sure at 7:30 when they wheel her away in the wagon to put her under anesthesia. If you feel led, please say a prayer for our little sweetheart :) Thank you!

This was taken in early December before our temperatures dropped. It was only 20 Degrees on New Year Eve!!

By noon she should have this precious smile back on her little face!

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