I Will Survive

Ryan left today for a 17 day trip to Dubai for school. He was so excited to go. I was not so excited for him to leave me. Being a single parent is no fun, especially when you have a baby who just can't get over a cough and runny nose and keeps waking herself up in the middle of the night. I am hoping my oldest 2 will be on their best behavior at all times (it's good to have really high goals, right?). So I will be ringing in the New Year by myself sleeping like a log (hopefully). I will survive (or at least that is what I keep telling myself).

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas and here are pictures from everything we did. I decided to do the 24 days of Christmas with the girls and I bought this cute stocking countdown to put clues to what we would be doing every day. The girls had a blast and couldn't wait to get up every morning and find out what we would be doing. My mother-in-law made these cute dresses for the girls.

Peyton decided it would be fun to put Alexis in the diaper box and push her around the house. Alexis enjoyed the fast ride.

We celebrated Christmas Eve a week early with Ryan's family and the kids loved playing the present game with their cousins. The each loved what they ended up with.

The kids also put on the nativity. Hailey and Alexis were angels and Peyton was the star.

My sister Becky had a beautiful baby girl named Julia on Sunday, December 20th. She was definitely the best present we got.

On Christmas Eve my whole family went to my cousin Nicole's house. We were able to take a quick family picture with my Mita (grandmother). We ate great food and enjoyed each other's company.

We also put on the nativity. Peyton was Mary, Alexis was baby Jesus, and Hailey was an angel. We had 2 Marys, 2 Josephs, and 2 baby Jesus.

On Christmas morning we went to my parent's house to open our Christmas gifts. The girls couldn't wait to see what they got.

Here we are with some of my siblings.

The girls got just what they wanted, a leapster for Hailey and a DSI for Peyton.

Alexis mainly loved eating the wrapping paper or anything else she could get her hands on.

Ryan's favorite gift was the nerf gun the girls got him.

He also had a great time playing Blokus with my family.

We had such a great Christmas and we feel so blessed to be able to spend so much time with our families. We can't wait to see what the new year will bring.

Busy December

We have had a very busy December so far so I haven't been very good about posting. So here are the things that we have done. At the beginning of December Ryan's dad took most of the grand kids to Disneyland for 2 days. We had a great time being with family and riding the rides. Thanks Dad for the trip.

Here are some of the kids jumping on Grandpa's hotel bed before we went to Disneyland the first day.

We had a Cardon Cousin party at my sister Christin's house where we made home made gingerbread houses and ate dinner. The kids had a blast and enjoyed eating the candy too.

My mom was nice enough to help Peyton with hers.

I got to help Hailey make her house.

My wonderful sister-in-law Ashley was nice enough to take us out and do a photo shoot for our Christmas cards. She did such a great job and the kids cooperated for the most part. My mother-in-law bought these dresses for the girls for Christmas. I just love them.

Alexis didn't want to smile for her pictures but she did like to stick her tongue out.

Thanks Ashley for taking such wonderful pictures.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a wonderful birthday today. When I got up Peyton played "Happy Birthday to You" on the piano for me. I loved it. Then I went to the gym and did my very favorite class. When I got home Ryan and the girls had made several cards for me and had 2 presents for me to open. I got a calendar and a bike trailer . I am so excited to use it. They also cleaned the whole house. After presents I got to go out to lunch with my mom, 2 of my sisters and my brother Scott. We ate and had a great time talking. I then went and got a hair cut and met up with some more family. Ryan and the girls took me to Dave and Busters to play games and then took me to Joe's Real BBQ for dinner. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband, daughters, and many other family members who made this day so great. Thanks for all of the birthday wishes from everyone. You made this a fantastic birthday.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We hope you had a great day. We had a wonderful time with my family. We enjoyed talking, eating, and playing outside.

Peyton and Hailey loved wearing the dresses Grandma Ferrell made for them.

We had great weather and were able to eat outside.

My mom did a great job hosting Thanksgiving this year and she was even able to spend a little time holding Alexis.

Alexis looked so cute in this dress. Thank you Jennifer, Deborah, Laura, Lisa, Amy, and Aunt Leslie for the dress. I love it. By the way, Alexis got her first tooth this week. I can't believe how fast she is growing. At her 6 month appointment she was in the 75th percentile in every category.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sacrifice

Over the past 6 months I have had to stay away from dairy because the doctor thinks Alexis is allergic. It has been such a hard thing to do since everything seems to contain some form of milk. I have been getting pretty good about not focusing on the things I can't eat and appreciating the things I can eat until the holidays rolled around. There are so many wonderful treats and foods that I associate with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas that have dairy in them. I have had to ask my family to make some changes to the food they are making for Thanksgiving just so I can eat something during dinner. I don't even like to think about Christmas eve and Christmas morning and all my favorite things I can't have. But in the end I always think about my beautiful baby Alexis and how much she means to me. She is way more important than my favorite foods and she is worth every sacrifice I have had to make. I just need to keep reminding myself so I can have a smile on my face and a good attitude over the next few weeks.

Halloween

Last week was filled with lots of Halloween fun. We started off the week with the annual Ferrell Family Halloween Party. The girls had a great time playing games, eating food, and hanging out with their cousins.

Peyton with cousins Alyssa and Makenna.
Hailey and Grandma Ferrell with their Mummy.

Toss the bean bag in the pumpkin. You will notice in these two pictures both Hailey and Peyton stick out their tongues out when they are concentrating. It must be a family trait.

Pumpkin Hockey

We all made Halloween themed food and the kids had a lot of fun eating the crazy food.

Bat's Blood (Powerade)

Rotting pumpkin (funeral potatoes)

Nose Blow Burritos

Toxic Waste (fruit salad)

Hairy Monster Fingers (garlic bread sticks)

Monster Brownies

Edible Eyeballs (pudding with candy)

Halloween Night we went over to my sister Christin's house and had dinner and then went trick-or-treating. The girls had a great time with their Cardon cousins and it was a great night.

The girls with Grandma and Grandpa Cardon.

My 3 cute girls.

Alexis as a Cheetah.

Hailey as Strawberry Shortcake.

Peyton as Kit Kittredge.

What a great week we had. Thanks to all my family for making it so much fun.

What A Doll

My wonderful and talented sister-in-law Ashley took Peyton out last week to take some photos of her in her Baptism Dress. Here are some of the beautiful photos she took. I can't believe how grown up she looks. As my mother-in-law would say, "What a doll!".

Saturday

We had a great day yesterday. The weather is finally starting to cool down and now we can start enjoying the outside again. When we woke up in the morning I took the girls outside for a bike ride. The girls enjoyed the freedom to ride around the cul-de-sac as many times as they wanted. After that my nephew Jaxon came over for a few hours and we played in the backyard for a while. Alexis decided she wanted to have some fun outside too so we let her have her first experience in the swing. She seemed to enjoy it but really all she wanted to do was chew on her toy.

Peyton loved pushing Alexis. At times I had to tell her not to push her so high but she was a great big sister.

Hailey enjoyed playing in the toy car and swinging too.

Jaxon really loves playing with the girls and he had a great time climbing the tree, swinging, and playing in the toy car.

I keep trying to get a picture of Alexis smiling but she seems to know when I have a camera in my hand because she just won't smile for me when I do. Oh well. She is getting so big and is getting such a cute personality. I just love days like yesterday.