Fall Fun

Can you believe it's almost November?!? I can't believe the fall season is almost "over", at least here in MN... before the chilly temperatures sink in, I thought it'd be nice to update the blog about our October fun!

A few weeks ago, Super Hubby surprised the kids and I with an adventure to a nearby pumpkin patch and harvest festival! As soon as we drove up, the kiddos were excited! Between navigating our way around the Corn Maze for over 30 minutes, to the wild ride on the "cow" jug tractor ride, and even an adventurous pony ride for our daughter, the kids loved every minute! Plus we got some cute pictures as well!!

My Corn Maze adventurous daughter :)
We went on a cow tractor ride and T-man was my riding partner
Bumblebee ready to ride her cow!
B LOVES animals and was thrilled when Super Hubby

said he would take her on the pony trail!

T-man lookin' for adventure!

The Babu Adventures

Our children's countdown began back in May as they awaited the arrival of their Babu. Months turned into weeks, and weeks then turned into days. Let's just say it was the PERFECT learning tool to teach my toddlers how to count. And in early September, the excitement could be felt in the air as my daughter could count on one hand how many days until her Babu would be at our house. Then the final day was upon us, the kids woke up, quickly ate their breakfast, and waited...and waited and waited... Bumblebee had gotten her little brother, T-man, to even take watch at the front window. And then it was time to go and pick up Babu! The kids were giddy with enthusiasm as we loaded into the mini van and started our adventure towards the airport.

Once we arrived at the airport, we had the adventure of parking and the riding on the tram towards the baggage claim area. The kids waited so patiently to find Babu in the crowd, then the people parted and we saw her! Babu!!!!

It was great and fun week with my loving grandmother. We kept her busy with Youth Board meetings, a pro-life organization meeting, fun family adventures and even a trip to the Mall of America aquarium! It was a lot of fun and we thank her for coming and visiting us!

The Mall of America aquarium was renovated and it was MARVELOUS! Note Bella is showing Babu how to swim like her jellyfish friends :)

T-man loved sharing seats with Babu during meal times!

The kids worked their chalk magic with Babu too!

All the kids getting ready for another adventure with Babu!

A Mini-Vacation

With a pretty chaotic summer, we were very excited for Labor Day weekend! We thought it was the perfect time to go and visit our family in ND. It was a lot of fun to be able to have a day of fun with them... Bumblebee says the most fun was swimming like Dorie from Finding Nemo. This was technically the first time they were swimming and the toddlers LOVED the water!

With their little swimmer vest swimsuits on, these kids were ready to swim with Daddy!

T-man wanted to "fly", so Daddy happily helped. Mommy was in shock and awe and how courageous my two year-old was! He loved every second in the air!

Baby M and Bella did not want to fly. In fact Monkey didn't really like the water at all, however Bumblebee had fun on the sidelines with Mommy!

Double Birthday Fun

This year's theme for B and T's birthday was Noah's Ark. Between their love of animals, Noah's Ark being their favorite bedtime story, as well as the Little People Noah's Ark set being their favorite toy, it seemed like an obvious choice for the double birthday fun.
It got only better when we asked our soon-to-be three year-old and our soon-to-be two year-old what they wanted for their birthday and they both said they wanted a goat. Well the real list from Bumblebee was, "A Goat, a cat, and a baby sister." However, we are not cat people, and we already knew we were going to be bringing a baby home and that's not much of a birthday gift in the first place. So a goat?? After some investigation, I found that Food for the Poor, a wonderful charity organization, has a way you can actually buy a goat for a family! And that's just what we went for. We asked all the guests to by-pass the toy section in Wally World, and to just bring a few dollars instead so that our kids could get the goat they wanted so badly. We also invited guests to dress up as their favorite animal as well. And let me tell ya, we had quite the zoo in the back yard, Noah would have been proud! After the Noah inspired games, we had our cupcakes, BumbleBee asked for her goat collection and then we did our annual blessing prayer over the two toddlers for wonderful health, growth in virtues, and fun adventures with family and friends. It was a wonderful birthday, and here are a few pics to check out!

Princess BumbleBee eating her cupcake!

The Crowning of Princess Bumblebee; please note her princess stance and excitement!

My BEAUTIFUL decorations on the cupcakes! Animal edible figurines! I was thrilled with the final product!

A Semi-Disney Invasion

This summer, our family seemed to catch a bug that we just can't shake. I blame the imagination and inspiration from Disney Magic... since this bug has captured the hearts of my sons through Disney Cars and my daughter's mind and heart of being a princess.

At the beginning of summer, we, like many families, were thrilled to go and preview Disney Cars 2. Now granted, our kids had never sat through an entire movie NOR had they seen or known about Cars 1, but SuperHubby and I decided to take the risk and take the kids to the local movie theatre on a blistering hot 100 degree day. They had never seen a movie on a HUGE screen like this one, but there we were all alone in a wonderfully air conditioned theatre when the Disney castle came on screen. Our kiddos gasped with excitement and our tiny tike M was already asleep in his Daddy's arms. The whole movie experience was perfect and exactly what this tired mommy was in need of.

After the movie, Super Hubby even surprised the toddlers with a trip to Wally World where they could pick out a Disney Car matchbox car as well! The kids came home and played for hours (ok maybe only 45 minutes but it did seem like hours with the quiet playtime). Ever since that fateful Saturday afternoon, our children, specifically our sons, have spent hours playing and crashing their toy cars.

T-man sharing with his little brother. Do they look alike or what?!?

Meanwhile another fun event happened this summer, our so-loved babysitter, Ash, was crowned Princess of her town. This was super exciting and we couldn't be more happy for her! But the most joyous of the Allex clan was our daughter, as soon as I told her about Princess Ashley, Bumblebee immediately started jumping up and down with giddyness. This summer, Bumblebee and I even went on a special girls date to go and see Princess Ashley at a town ice cream function. And did we have fun! Bumblebee even got to take MANY pictures with all three of the town's princesses! She was so excited and came home to tell her brothers all about her adventure.

One of B's highlights of this summer was when Princess Ashley came to B's birthday party and presented her with a little B sized Princess Crown. Bumblebee loved it so much that within the month, we had to replace it due to a "much loved" instance of Princess twirling and then becoming to dizzy and squashing it. However after the tears were dried, Bumbleebee got to pick a crown that looks much more like Princess Ashley's.

This summer, Bumblebee has been "in training" as a Princess, as she shares her joy of dancing throughout the house, singing as she helps with laundry folding, or continues to share with her loyal subjects, her little brothers. Bumblebee has also commanded us to have another subject soon, but this time she says "I love my brothers, but I want a sister. We need more pink!" Well, we aren't sure what we will be surprising her with at this moment, but either way, it seems the princess has spoken about the needed pink in the Allex household.

Princess BumbleBee looking very exciting!

Summer Time Fun

Over the past few months, our little household had many exciting adventures. Celebrating our toddlers birthdays, watching the curiousity and growth of our youngest son, dancing around in bedrooms, having family visit us, a mini vacation to visit family, plus the exciting news of a new blessing of a baby (due on Easter of 2012), it has been a crazy summer to say the least.
I must have been crazy for dreaming of a nice, calm and relaxing summer with three children under 3 years-old. However, the blessings of this summer included watching Bumblebee and T-man grow in their sibling-friendship, and then seeing them include their little Monkey brother in all the fun. As B says on a daily basis, "Mommy, I love my best friends!" It's such a wonderful thing to witness, to be able to watch siblings share and give each other hugs on a daily basis.
But as much fun as I got to view under my roof, I will try my hardest to post photos and stories up that happened these past few months! So have fun reading on!!

Back from a loooong drought

We have been a busy bunch in the past few months. Having time to type at all has not been on the front burner... we've had two wonderful C.R.H.P. retreats, two confirmation retreats with over 100 youth, a mother-daughter fashion show, and a father-daughter dignity ball to put on for our parish as well! Plus there was Ash Wednesday, Lent, Easter packed in there too! It has been a busy few months!

But now we are in the full swing of Spring and Easter timies! Finally seeing green grass, hearing birps chirping, feeling the warm sun, it finally feels like spring in Minnesota! We can play soccer, basketball, attempt to grow gardens too!

Between these months, we have had constantly growing toddlers, and a baby who wishes he was big enough to play with his big brother and big sister. I'm trying to enjoy every second with these little faces as I watch them grow before my eyes! I can't believe my two and a half year old is speaking sentences, singing songs, and being a good little leader for her brothers to follow. Meanwhile, there's a wonderful little one and a half year old who is running around, dancing in little circles, and singing his heart out! I can't believe how incredibly blessed we are to have three healthy, beautiful children. Well now that it's setttled down on our home front, I can pick back up on the tales of the busy Catholic home!

A few weeks ago, we celebrated our son's baptism. We had lots of family and a few friends come to our parish, where we presented our son to our Church. We were so excited when we arrived and our daughter, Bumblebee, decided that she wanted to lead our family in prayer. LOVE it!

Not only did she start with the sign of the cross, she asked Mommy to pray for different family members and friends. It was too cute!

The readings for the mass this day was also perfect for our son's baptism, Matthew 3:13-17... all about the Lord's baptism.

Our monkey and Mommy

The godparents, SuperHubby and myself with Monkey and the awesome Fr. David blessing over us.

Crazy-ness

Crazy-ness has ensued in my life the past few weeks, between preparing for the CRHP retreat in Feb., the National March for Life for the archdiocese this past week, two confirmation retreats in March, then a so I apologize for the lack of blog entries.... so I'll try to catch up in life....


BumbleBee:
*The picture to the right is of my little curious daughter; recently, she was able to grab a couple of chocolate chips while Mommy was changing Monkey's diaper... the evidence was all her over face. I couldn't help but laugh...

* She LOVES to color and work on some great crafts... but more on that later...












T-man/Tiger:
* He wears his sunglasses every where... mad scientist or super hero hiding his identity? Not sure...
* Recently this little man has sprouted up 3 new teeth and has become very vocal about his life, which is wonderful!
* Tiger LOVES to run around the house and burning energy with dancing from Veggie Tale songs.

My Monkey

* At 3 months old already, his wonderful personality lights up the room!

* He LOVES to smile, giggle, and now blow bubbles with his cute little mouth

* This little man also really enjoys trying to hold himself up in a standing position while Mommy or Daddy holds his sides... can you believe he's already trying to be a little man??

* His tummy time is going great, he loves to roll onto his back when on his tummy, with little smiles after this big accomplishment!

Christmas 2010

Unforunately, this post is one without pictures of Christmas. As I was uploading my pictures, I found out that someone had accidentally erased ALL my Christmas pictures, and left me with a few pictures of feet, the ground or the ceiling...which leads me to believe it was my beautiful BumbleBee who wanted to be just like her mommy and capture the moments with mommy's camera. :) Gotta love it! Actually it's quite sad since I had taken some ADORABLE pics over Christmas...

But back to Christmas! I will say that there was a chance we were going to be snowed in due to the "Snow-nami" that came by Thursday afternoon through Friday morning... however SuperHubby being so committed to the holiday spirit made sure we were able to get out of the driveway and street. After five hours of driving, we made it to Fargo for the family Christmas Eve, full of yummy foods Grandma Ellie made everyone, and lots of present opening that followed. The mounds of presents were overwhelming, and even though the family agreed on drawing names for one gift per person, it seems everyone's generosity was overflowing! BumbleBee, Tiger, and Monkey received so many beautiful presents! Between LOTS of art supplies, fun Little People sets-Noah and the Christmas Navity, and even rosaries, our children were truly blessed with lots of wonderful things!

We love our family so much and are so glad to have them.