oh...

and she also has for sure inherited something from the rice side...she sleeps with her eyes open. i do this too (as do lots of relatives if i remember correctly) but my eyes only open a little bit. alice's eyes are usually at least half way open when she's sleeping and sometimes she'll open them all the way and you'll see her eyes rolled back in her head. :) it's super creepy.

she did something today she's never done before, she sat in a restaurant high chair the entire time we were out! she did great! i'm so happy we don't have to lug that damn carseat around with us anymore.

and here's a pic from the other day just b/c i had to add one. :)

7 months

ugh, i can't believe this kid is 7 months old already! where the heck does time go? anyway, alice had her 6 month check-up a few weeks ago. all was well, except our GP was concerned that she wasn't rolling over consistently. ugh, i thought babies did things on their own terms. so anyway he wanted to see her again in 6 weeks. wouldn't you know that a few days after her appointment the girl started rolling all over the freaking place. she ended up getting a high fever for a few days from her tetanus shot and she still has a bit of a welt from that shot. poor kid. i think it was harder on me than it was on her. anyway, here are her stats. her weight is finally catching up with her height. probably because she's eating more now.

so what's alice up to now?

she already watches too much tv. hehe, no that's just her favorite toy. daddy even gave her her own remote! look how well she can sit now too. the only time she'll topple now is if she gets distracted by something.

she's quite the avid reader. give this kid a book and she'll keep herself amused for hours, i mean minutes! the only thing that holds her attention longer is her hands. she loves to sit and stare at them.

she loves to drink from big glasses, especially water. she loves the stuff.

what's the best way to keep her amused in restaurants?? give her a spoon!

i've already mentioned that she can roll over very well now, FINALLY. but i haven't mentioned that the kid is trying desperately to crawl. she can get going backwards, but she hasn't quite figured out the forwards thing yet.


and that's about it, or at least all i can think of at the moment. as for mommy and daddy, we've been getting ready for all the company next weekend. hopefully we'll be able to squeeze 19 people in our place for dinner next saturday. it should be much nicer on sunday at my in-laws house. the only downside to being there will be the massive amounts of cicadas that are out right now. damn bugs.

happy mother's day

for my first mother's day i spent a good portion of the day on a plane, but it wasn't all bad. we didn't have to leave until 3pm so aunt el had everyone over for mother's day brunch and swimming. the food was good, the company was great, and the best part was i had a reason to celebrate again.

the plane ride home, like the plane ride to phoenix, went well. alice was a doll, we didn't have one issue with her what so ever. she ate, slept, played, and laughed. what more could you ask for? in fact on our way out (we were the last to get off the plane) the stewardess even mentioned that alice was THE most well behaved baby she had ever seen on a 5 hour plane ride. EVER! she got similar compliments on the plane ride two weeks before that. i guess she doesn't mind flying, unlike her mother. so alice was well behaved, but i can't say that about everyone on the plane. we were flying into chicago from vegas...you do the math.

now that we're home i think alice is going through attention withdrawal. starting the day we got home i can't be two feet away from her, let alone in a different room, with out her bawling her little eyes out. ugh, separation anxiety sucks royally. not to mention i haven't had one night yet where i didn't have to go and pick the girl up and bring her to bed with us. like clockwork she'll cry at 1am and the only way i can get her to stay asleep is to hold her. and then when she's there she flops all over the place. or she'll have a night like last night and she'll get up at 1am so i'll get her, then at 3am she'll wake up wanting nothing to do with sleep until 6am. then she'll be up again at 7am wanting to eat. i tell you i just don't know what to do with the kid, and this all just started since we came home. she was a fantastic sleeper before vacation.

anyway, it certainly was a great trip, i just wish it could have lasted a bit longer.

try and make MY kid a cubs fan, will you.


alice and lisa.


there's nothing like cake to start the day off right.


passed out in tyler's arms. now what do you think about "woman's work"??

our only casualty seems to be alice's trusty monster. she had it in the airport in vegas, and i'm pretty sure i put it in her carseat with her. my only guess is that she kicked him out on to the floor when we were boarding the plane. whoever finds him in vegas, please take good care of him. *sigh* looks like i need to go and buy another one. it's more for mommy than for alice anyway. :)

ok, now it's time for some actual vegas pics

i have to say i wasn't incredibly impressed with vegas, especially during the day. unless you want to drink, spend ridiculous amounts of money shopping, or act like a fool it's not the town for you. it certainly is great for entertainment i'll give them that, but if we didn't have family there i probably would never go back.

one of the days we were there aunt el took alice and matt and i got a room at the mirage. why did we stay there? well there is a little cirque du solei show there called LOVE that we wanted to see. it was incredible. and you don't need to waste your money on the closer, more expensive seats either. the "cheap" seats had the best view in my opinion. anywhere else and you'd miss things that were going on unless you were constantly moving your head. it was definitely the best $250 we spent the whole trip.

we also went to see a titanic exhibit at the tropicana. at the beginning of the exhibit you are given a boarding pass for one of the actual passengers of the titanic. it included lots of info on that person including what class they traveled, who was with them, where they were from, etc. at the end you're supposed to find your passengers name on the large list and see if he/she survived (i'm happy to report that both matt and i did. matt's person was one of the rare 3rd class males that survived). it was neat to see all kinds of artifacts from that great ship. the most interesting part was getting to see the personal items they traced back to certain people, the best being a clarinet from one of the men in the band.

our last night there matt and i and a bunch of his cousins went downtown for the night. the locals tend to bypass the strip and head downtown to fremont street and the older casinos and bars. there are still lots of tourists, but it certainly has a different feel than the strip. we hit a few bars, had fun, had drinks, watched the light show, saw some really bad live music, and i won 4,528 pennies. heh. i only played the penny slots and up until that night i was down $3. luckily i'm smart enough to walk away when i'm on a roll. it certainly ended up being a night to remember.

the bellagio and caesars palace.


the entrance to the bellagio.






the botanical garden at the bellagio.


the paris hotel.


the only good thing matt and i had at dinner our night at the mirage, strawberry shortcake.


she was so tuckered out.

vegas, baby!

ok, henderson is more like it although we did visit the strip and downtown as well.

matt has lots of family in the vegas area, some that i had never met before, so we decided to stay with matt's aunt el and uncle rich. she has pretty much a whole "wing" of her house set aside for her guests so we were pretty comfortable there. aunt el's granddaughter marissa had been excited for months for the baby to come and stay. had alice been in a good mood when we got there i'm sure she would have pounced on her earlier than she did.

tyler, aunt el's grandson, was one of alice's favorite people. he's incredibly hilarious.


after dinner the kids pounced on alice. literally.


marissa and alice. marissa spent the night four times while we were there. i think she was very sad to see us go.


yay for in ground pools! alice really liked the water (she got in all the way eventually) despite the fact that she despises baths. she spent nearly an hour in with us. i have to mention how crazy matt's relatives are (ok just about anyone in vegas). most of them won't go swimming unless the pool is 90 degrees!


oh, and matt always told me that whoever says "it's a dry heat" is nuts because 100 degrees is still 100 degrees so i was expecting not to feel a difference. boy is he wrong! it was in the hundreds while we were in vegas and every time i found out what temp it was i couldn't believe it until i saw the thermometer. it really does make a difference when there isn't much humidity in the air. just for the record.

the grand canyon and the car ride to vegas

as i mentioned before alice was sick our last day in tucson to our first day in vegas. of course she'd get sick when we're spending the longest amount of time in the car. doesn't it always work out that way?? needless to say we had to do a few impromptu full outfit changes on the backseat of the car. poor kid. at least this time we had a cloth diaper underneath her in the carseat so we didn't have to wash that again. so we brought the bug with us to vegas...do you think we passed it along to anyone there?

my little papoose. it was freaking freezing at the canyon.


alice looking a lot like her cousin amanda.


the fam at sunrise.


i love baby feet.


do you have any idea how many pics like this i have from the two weeks we were on vacation??? way too many. oh and no those aren't battle scars from kaylee, alice likes to inflict pain on herself. daddy started calling her scar because by the time we got to vegas she had four scratches on her face.


here's your dam picture!


ok ma, no more pictures!

the grand canyon

there's not much to say about a big hole in the ground, except that i'm very glad we made a detour on our way to vegas to stop there for the night. i couldn't spend a weekend there, but a day was perfect. so now i can say i've seen the grand canyon. :)

Tucson: part 5

overall our time in tucson was wonderful, but too short. i wish we could go back and spend some more time with rae and my beautiful niece kaylee. oh, and i guess mike too. heh. that being said, here are some pics that wouldn't fit anywhere else.

EDDIE!!


PORKCHOP!!


rae performing their nightly ritual, "baby cakes".


sometimes i wish i knew what they were thinking.


mmmmm, tasty.


one of the 24 hour flowers on mike and rae's cactus.


i love this kid.


daddy reading "baby cakes".


alice found her feet after she saw kaylee with hers.


awwwww.


do i really need to say anything about this pic??



miss you guys.