Christmas: A little late

I just wanted to share a few pictures from Christmas quick and give a little recap of what happened after all the drama.
Before we went down to Vegas, I did my traditional baking that I do every Christmas, but this year was a little bit more elaborate. Jaron needed to take some goodie plates to about 20 different places so that added to the amount we needed for friends and family. So all in all, we put together 38 plates. It was a crazy amount and we had plates of goodies everywhere. I didn’t get to even deliver all that I wanted to my friends since we left for Vegas on the 12th. Sorry if you didn’t get one.
Christmas this year was so much fun because all of my siblings were together. My mom wanted to start some new traditions so we all came up with one. Christmas Eve was busy but we had a great time. Christmas morning we did things a little different and cooked and ate breakfast before we opened presents. After that, Mindy’s son, Austin got sick and threw up on my dad, which made things a little different. He was able to open his presents but then his dad had to take him home. Lexi loved all the wrapping paper to play with and loved all the new toys. I surprised Jaron with a Wii and a Wii Fit and he was pretty excited.
The day after Christmas my whole family went to the temple. My brothers were going through for the first time so it was great to be together. We ended up staying down in Vegas until January 5th because my cousin Alex went through the temple for the first time on January 3rd so I wanted to be there for that. It was crazy coming back to Utah with mountains of snow, freezing temperatures, and unemployed. Jaron was unfortunately laid off from his job the day we left to go down to Vegas, which was why we were able to stay in Vegas for as long as we did. Overall Christmas was a great break and fun to be with family!

Only a few of the 38 plates we made for Christmas
An up close view of the 10 different kinds of goodies
All the girls in their pjs
All the guys in their pjs
Jaron's funny reaction when opening his gift from Santa
Austin trying to hold Lexi

Hawaii didn't exactly happen!

Well, Hawaii didn't turn out exactly as we had planned. We arrived in Hawaii long enough to eat breakfast and lunch, and drive back to the airport. Let me explain:  I had gotten the flu on the way down to Vegas and was throwing up the entire way down. Lexi had diarrhea but seemed to be getting better. Jaron and I flew out on Sunday the 14th and I still wasn't feeling great but I figured I would be better soon since it had been two days since I had thrown up. Lexi stayed behind with my mom in Henderson. We had a 5 hour layover at LAX and about an hour before we got on the plane to fly to Hawaii, my mom called and said Lexi was throwing up and she wouldn't eat anything. My mom called her home teacher, Jim Cavalieri, which is a long-time family friend, retired paramedic and fire chief to come and give her a blessing. He told my mom too she wasn't dehydrated but to keep checking her. Once Jaron and I got to Hawaii and were driving to our hotel, my sister Mindy called and said my mom took Lexi to the emergency room. I was a wreck of course and when I got a hold of my mom, things weren't good. The doctors tried to get an IV into her and were unsuccessful after trying multiple times. She had been poked in both hands, arms, wrists, ankles and then they tired to go into her bone in both her legs. They warned my mom that that was going to hurt her a lot so my mom and Thomas left the room. They were still unsuccessful so they put a feeding tube in her. You can only imagine how I must have felt hearing all of this and I was thousands of miles away. We tried to sleep that night but it didn't work so well. We got up early and called to see how she was doing. Lexi was sleeping a lot and would just cry when she was awake. I felt like a terrible mother being in Hawaii so Jaron and I decided to take the next flight home. The airlines of course charged us $300 to change our flight and it wasn't until 6pm that night that we left. We were having a hard time even enjoying the scenery, but we did go down and walk along the beach. Once we got on the plane we actually flew to Dallas and had a 3 hour layover and then flew to Vegas. So needless to say we had been on 4 airplanes for a total of 15 hours over two days time. All flights in and out of Hawaii are over night too so we had had hardly any sleep. Because of that I couldn't really recover from the flu so I threw up on the plane flying home. Finally, what seemed like an eternity, we got to the hospital and I was able to comfort and hold my little girl. My mom said Lexi’s whole attitude changed when we got there and she finally did start eating again. It was a very slow process and the doctor wanted to keep her over night so overall she was in the hospital from Sunday night to Wednesday. Lexi is doing great now and she recovered well. She had multiple bruises and cigarette lighter looking burns on her legs, but overall she is doing fine. She is very close to crawling and has almost 5 teeth. Jaron and I were sad to leave Hawaii but we were so happy to be with our little girl!

Our one Hawaii picture eating breakfast trying to be happy. Look at my enourmous pancakes that I hardly made a dent in!
Lexi in the hospital crib
Her cigarette lighter like burns 
A small example of her bruises

Thanksgiving and my birthday

     Even though my name was misspelled the Snickers cheesecake was fabulous! 

Now that we are back in town, my laundry is done, and everything is unpacked I can finally report what has been going on. We went to California for Thanksgiving to stay with Jaron's parents. We had to break up the trip so we stayed with my family for a night going down and coming back. We had a great time in California and it was fun to see Jaron's family. His sister Shelly and family came from Arizona and his sister Nicki and family were there. Nicki lives in Riverside, which is thirty minutes south of Jaron's parents house. We went there for Thanksgiving dinner. Dinner was very filling and it was great to visit with family. 

Saturday was my birthday and we all went to Balboa for a frozen banana. They are dipped in chocolate and then rolled in toppings. They are pretty yummy and a fun experience. We went to Corona Del Mar beach with his sisters and their families. Lexi has never been to the beach and she loved it. She liked putting her feet in the sand and in the water. The water was pretty cold however but she didn't complain at all. It was starting to get pretty cool and we were starving so we decided to leave. We all tried to get the sand off our feet using baby wipes, which didn't really work, so we walked back barefoot to the grass. Jaron wanted to take me out for my birthday so we went to the cheesecake factory in Fashion Island. It was fabulous as usual. They also brought out a piece of cheesecake with a candle and wrote my name in chocolate around on the plate. It was a Snickers cheesecake and it was "delish"! Lexi slept the entire time we were at the restaurant so it was kind of like Jaron and I were on a date. 

Jaron and Alexis on Thanksgiving Day
Brammer Family: Brady holding Talmage and Nicki holding Ella 
Turley Family: Chad holding Carter and Shelly holding Brice 
Grandma Rime, Jaron, Me and Lexi, Brady and Talmage, Nicki, Dianne (Jaron's mom) and Ella sitting in Balboa in front of the frozen banana stand
Rime family at the beach
Alexis's first time in the ocean
First time at the beach
Alexis's new flip flops 

Rime fam

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The cutest little fairy!

Alexis was a fairy for Halloween and we just thought she looked adorable. Our ward party was on October 8th, which we thought was very strange, so we decided not to post the pictures until Halloween. On Halloween we dressed Lexi up and took her to my school that I taught at. They had a parade so we watched that for our Halloween excitement since we weren't taking her trick or treating. I also saw lots of my kids that I had taught the last few years so that was fun too. 

Jaron and Lexi with a few of the students I taught a couple years ago

Pumpkin Patch

After Lexi's "audition" we hung out with Jaden and Stacy for the rest of the day. Stacy has always wanted to go to a pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkin to carve and since I had never been to a pumpkin patch we thought it would be so fun to all go together. We decided to go and eat at The Pie for dinner before going. For those of you that don't know, The Pie is a very well known pizza place in Salt Lake where everyone graffitis on the walls. Using Jaron's GPS, we actually found one closer in South Jordan. I had never been so it was a great experience and the food was fabulous. After eating we had a great time at the pumpkin patch. The patch was huge and we looked at A LOT of pumpkins. Many were rotten so Stacy was having a hard time finding one. Most looked perfect from the front, but their backside was icky! It was super fun to go even though in the end Stacy decided to just get one from the store!

Stacy and Lexi holding a pumpkin that is just her size

Daddy trying to make Lexi sit on a pumpkin

Our little family

Walking in the enormous pumpkin patch

Jaron, Me and Alexis, Stacy and Jaden

Our little model!

A week and a half ago, Jaron needed to go to Draper so Lexi and I decided to drag along. We called Stacy too to see if she wanted to meet up for lunch. Well, after going to Zuppas with Stacy we decided to go to the South Towne Mall. We hadn't been there for very long and decided to share a frozen yogurt. We sat on a bench in front of it to eat it when this lady came up to us. She went up to Lexi and went on and on about how adorable she was. She asked how old she was and if we had ever thought about putting her in commercials or catalogues. We told her, people have told us we should but we haven't ever done anything about it. She said she was a talent scout and worked for a talent management company. She gave us her card and asked us if an agent could call us. We said sure. Well, to make a long story short, they called us and we made an appointment for last Saturday. We went up there and I have to say, I wasn't really that into it. There were lots of people there and I just didn't feel like this was something we wanted to get Lexi into. I am sure if we really invested the time and money into a portfolio and such, Lexi could definitely get a "job". However I don't want her in that kind of industry so we decided against it. Lexi still looked adorable to go up there so we took pictures. Even though they aren't professional, we think she still looks as cute as ever! 

A little Vegas

This past week Lexi and I flew down to Las Vegas to stay with my family for about six days. Jaron had to fly to Texas for his job and I didn't want to chill at my house by myself. I was a little nervous since I had never flown with a baby. The hardest part of the flying experience was going through security! I decided to take her carrier and stroller so it would be easier to get around. When we got to security I had to take off my shoes and her shoes, take her out of the carrier to send it though along with the stroller. I also had her huge diaper bag and my purse. Then as I proceeded through security I beeped. It apparently was my earrings, so I took them out while trying to hold Lexi. She will grab anything within reach so as I was trying to hold her along with my boarding pass, she began crunching it. It was a little crazy to say the least. Lexi was great on the plane however and slept the entire way. When we got there my mom and Tyler picked us up. My cousin was blessing his baby so we had to rush to his church to make it. We actually got there 20 minutes early. I knew I needed to go change Lexi's diaper since we had heard some wonderful sounds coming from her bottom in the car. My mom and I went into the bathroom and to make a long story short, she had a nice little blowout all over the back of her clothes. I got out my trusty Tide-to-go and cleaned it the best I could. She was a little wet from the water I used but I figured it was the best I could do!

It was very fun to be home and just hang with my sis, mom and bros. My dad was in Alaska so it was kind of a girls weekend . . . with my brothers!  The highlights of the trip were Golden Spoon, shopping at the Outlet Mall, having lunch with my fam at my mom's school, shopping with Melissa, and seeing some of my really good friends from high school. It was so fun to see Amy, Melissa, Jill and Emily. I haven't seen Emily in at least four years so it was great to catch up. We had a great time just laughing and sharing boy and kid stories. It really made me miss having close friends. Thanks girls for getting together with me, even though you just did it a few days before! 

Lexi's little outfit she wore on the plane and had her blowout in! :)

Grandma reading to Austin and Lexi before bed

Me, Emily, Melissa and Ryan, Jill, Amy, and Austin and Alli in front (Lexi was already in bed)

Story time

    

Daddy reading to Lexi

Part of Lexi's bedtime routine is story time. She doesn't always look at the pictures or really even pay attention, but I think it is very important. I have hundreds of books from teaching so I have a very wide variety to choose from. Jaron is reading one of my favorites Fancy Nancy, which is a such a cute book. I highly recommend it if you don't have it! 

Nice Weather!

     

Lexi in her stroller    Mommy and Lexi

We try to go on little walks every once in a while when the weather is nice. We have had some cloudy days which have been great to go out in. Lexi loves going outside, especially in the stroller. Even though she doesn't look very happy, she really does love to be outside!