Simply Lexie

This is going to be extra long and full of pictures…. we spent 2 wonderful weeks in California basking in the sun and enjoying the warmth and fun.

Friday morning Mike surprised us all with a trip to California.  So Friday the kids went off to their last day of school and I packed and cleaned and got us ready to go.  When they were out of school and we were all packed we headed on our way.  That night we made it to Las Vegas and stayed with the Messina Family.

Saturday morning we continued on our way and got all settled in.

Sunday night was the beginning of our fun… we went with Mike’s friend Dan to Balboa Island to watch the Boat Lights Show.  It was fun playing in the sand watching as the lighted boats floated by.  After the parade of boats we walked around the Island looking at all the houses decorated… One house even had a real Snowman made out of ice.

After much walking we finally settled into a bench to enjoy some yummy hot chocolate and gingerbread cookies while watching the Fireworks. It was such a fun evening.

Monday was the beginning of our Disney Adventure.  The parks were all decorated for Christmas and packed with people.

Alyssa loved the rides!  Our first ride was Winnie the Poohs Adventures.

Our next ride was The Haunted Mansion (all done up for the Nightmare Before Christmas)

We visited Toon town and played in all the houses

For the evening we headed over to California Adventure… while Alyssa, Brandon, Leah and I waited for Mike and Emily, we rode the the Carousel.  Alyssa loved every minute of it and wanted to do it all by herself.  She wouldn’t even let me touch her while she was going up and down on her fish.

Then it was time to go watch the Electrical Parade.

The next day we took a break from the parks and went shopping.

Then back to the parks again for the next two days (23rd and 24th)

Brandon got to be a part of the High School Musical Street Performance

They decorate so cute for Christmas…

Just as we left Christmas Eve we happened upon a short line to see Mickey Mouse all dressed for Christmas.

Then we made our way back to our hotel and had some tasty donuts.    Yum Yum!

Christmas day came and we had a little Christmas.  (We left our Christmas home) so we got each of the kids a toy from Disneyland.

Christmas Day we moved from our hotel to a house that we were doing a house swap with.  The home was beautifully decorated for Christmas It was nice to have all the comforts of home.  The next two days we took it easy and enjoyed the sun.

The 28th (Monday) we went to Legoland.  It was so much fun to see all of the cool things made out of Legos.

The kids got to go on a couple rides and had a blast.

Can you believe all this is made out of Legos.

The rest of the week we spent visiting friends and family.

Tuesday we connected up with Dan again and went to the top of the Disney parking structure where we watched Disney’s Fireworks and had hot chocolate.

Wednesday we visited with Danior Martin and family.  We went out to dinner with them and our kids loved playing with their kids and all their toys.

New Years Eve we spent out and about.  First we ended up finding a big Family Bash for the neighborhood we were in.  Then we headed over to My Aunt Paula and Uncle Bill’s.  The kids had a blast playing and Mike watched some football.  It was fun to see them and hang out. Just before midnight we headed home and had Ice cream then watched as the ball dropped .  Brandon was highly unimpressed… he said to me “It didn’t fall”.  He must have been waiting for it to hit the ground.

New Years day we went north and visited two friends.  First we saw the Martins.  Mike had a fun time chatting with them about Gina’s new book she wrote (Reads Like a Murder Honolulu).  Then we headed over to visit with Donna and Jerry Lewis and enjoyed visiting and watching more football.

And last but not least when your in Cali you have to hit the beach…. so Saturday morning we got all packed up and headed to San Clemente Beach to bask in the warmth before we headed back to the cold snowy world of Utah.

For Dinner before we headed home we ate at this fun little Creperie and ate their Challenge desert.

Buh-Bye beautiful warm sunny California!

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We began this Christmas season doing the 12 Days of Chritstmas.  For the first day we went to the Planetarium and saw “The Light Before Christmas”, then we went over and saw the lights on Temple Spuare.

It was cold!

On the second day of Christmas we got a present… such a fun family present.  First, for dinner we ate Baked Potatoes w/toppings.  Then the present was opened.  It was Mr. Potato Head set.  The kids had so much fun playing with them.

On the 3rd day of Christmas we had a fun building project to work on.  We got 4 Build-a-Bears!  One for each kid.  It ended up being quite the project for mom.

Brandon’s – Bob the Monkey

Emily’s – Sparky the Dog

Leah’s – Sarah Bear

and poor Alyssa’s bear has still not been given a proper name….. but they are all definitely loved!

On the 4th Day of Christmas we got presents again…. this time everyone had their very own present to open.  Each present was filled with books, wonderful books!

Day 5 of Christmas is where our Days of Christmas takes a drastic turn.  Mike started giving the family “puzzle pieces” (pieces of papers with clues on them) the week before and on this day he announced that it was the last puzzle piece.  It was time to piece it together.  It took us a few minutes but we soon figured out that the surprise was a trip to Sunny California!

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This year both Emily and Brandon had a Christmas Program that their class preformed in.

The Kindergartens combined to preform “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”. Alyssa, Leah and I went and watched Brandon’s program.

The first graders learned about many different cultures and how each one celebrates Christmas.  The classes combined to sing the songs and share all that they had learned… each child had a little part to share in the program.

Mrs. Bills (Emily’s teacher)

I did take video of both programs I just haven’t loaded them onto Flickr yet so…. you will just need to check back later for vidoe clips.

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December 2009

We hope this season finds you and your family well. We are doing well and continually growing. This year has been a fun adventure… and as always we enjoy and welcome new adventures. Just a few of our adventures this year were a new house, a new baby sister, and a new school!

Mike and I are in our 9th year of life together. I know I can say for myself that I have grown and learned so much from Mike. He is one of my dearest friends and I could not imagine life without him. He is always there for our kids and me; he is such a wonderful and caring dad. He makes our life the fun that it is!

Emily just turned 7 this month. She is so happy to be a year older and is more and more helpful as she grows. Her big adventure this year has been a new school, and all the new friends that come with it. She loves school! She loves her teacher! She loves her friends! She loves everything about school! When school started she was so excited to get to stay the full day of school and get to eat lunch there. She is still quite the bookworm and loves to play with Brandon and Alyssa, and (s)mothers Leah.

Brandon turned 5 last February and has followed right along Emily’s footsteps as to reading. He reads really well… however it doesn’t draw him in as it does Emily. He says it’s boring, but if it’s a good book … trying to get him to stop or put it down isn’t very likely. This year he started Kindergarten. He is thrilled to be able to go to school and play and interact with so any different people. He loves recess but most recently loves getting to play in the snow and build snowmen. He loves all of his sisters and is such a good brother. Over…

Alyssa is nearly 2 years old. She looks so much like Emily when she was that age. It’s so fun to watch her as she is learning to communicate. Her vocabulary is growing so quickly these days. Her favorite words are mom, umm, no, and peas (please). Please is by far her favorite I think…. cause she is so cute that no one can resist her sweet little smile as she says “peas”. Everything the big kids do she wants to do too. She loves to look at books. We often have quiet reading time when the kids sit down to read. Alyssa can often be found cuddling up with her very own book to look through. Soon enough she’ll want to know how to read too. (They grow up so fast!)

Leah was the newest addition to our family this year. She was born May 23rd. She is growing like a weed… at 6 months she rolls and coos and smiles at anyone that will sit near enough to her. She still has a lot of practicing sitting before she masters that one. She is our little blue-eyed baby. Her hair is a mystery to us though; depending on the light she is in. I have seen it look every color from red to blond to brown. I think we will need to wait till it is longer to know for sure.

But our most fun and exciting news of the year is our new house. We moved! It wasn’t far…. just three houses down the road, but a move is a move no matter how far. At this time of year it is wonderful to hear from so many of our family and friends, but Christmas is not the only time of year we are interested in hearing how your lives are going. If you feel the same… you can keep in touch with our family and happenings through our family blog. Visit us at http://www.lexielantz.com to see many pictures of all our adventures from the past year and forward into the New Year!

Love,
Michael, Lexie, Emily, Brandon, Alyssa and Leah Lantz

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There has been much that has been happening here in our world.  Most recently Emily turned 7 years old.

It was a great time.  We went out to lunch and she wore her birthday crown from school.  People were great about wishing her a happy birthday cause it was written across her forehead.

She loved the attention and gifts and the family that came and shared in her special day.

This is one of her favorite gifts she got (no it’s not real)… it’s a remote control puppy that she named Lucy!

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K… here we go again! Who is who AND who looks alike?

I tried to collect pics from each child around the same age. Good Luck!

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I really felt like blogging tonight… like it’s been a long time… and I need to update.  But I really have nothing to say.  No new pictures.  Why then do I feel so strongly to update the blog???

Brandon finished up his fall season of Soccer.  He loves every minute of the games and practices.  Mike also enjoys being the assistant coach (that just kinda happened last minute), but they have both enjoyed it so much.  Brandon scored 2 goals and a few near misses.  He was a great team mate and was always improving. I do have a couple pictures of his last couple games.

His coach was a fabulous coach.  He made it so much fun and made them all feel so special.  He made a certificate for each team mate and this was Brandons.

Brandon was sad to see his games end…. he asked me what he get’s to do next.  To which I stated he get’s to go to school and do homework.    Next spring games will start up again and he’ll be ready and waiting.

All the kids are growing so fast!

Emily is 2 months away from turning 7…. and that is just one year away from 8 and being baptized.  She loves school and loves to read.  She’s great at blocking out all the comotion and drawing herself into any book she picks up.  She really is such a good big helper when I can get her nose out of a book long enough.  If it were up to her she would read every minute of the day.

Alyssa is starting to find more use for words.  Not all of them are clear but there are her constants and each day she is adding new words and practicing them all.  She is a big girl now and wants no help from either of the big kids.  So we hear alot of screeching and wailing from her.  She love her baby sister E-ahh, and anytime she get’s a chance she’s helping in anyway she can…. wiping her face, not letting her put her thumb in her mouth, wiping her face, stealing her blanket, putting her pacifier in her mouth, taking her pacifier back out so she can put it back in her mouth.  Such a big helper.    And so very busy.

Leah is almost 5 months and growing so big.  She loves to smile and coo at anyone that will sit close enough to her.  She’s still got her blue eyes and light hair… everyone that sees her is just in love with her.  She may just end up taking after her mom with the light hair, light skin and, and light eyes…. we’ll just have to wait and see.

I suppose I was able to find enough to talk about to justify a post.   Maybe I was just feeling so blessed in my life right now and had to let it be known.  I have the most wonderful family.  I have the perfect husband (Mike may not be perfect but he’s perfect for me).  I have good health, great neighbors, great friends… but most importantly (to me) the knowledge of a loving Heavenly Father that knows me and blesses me continually.

I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I love knowing that I can be together with my loving husband and kids and all my family forever!  Not just til death do us part but forever.  I count my many blessing and chalk this up as #1.

Life is good … LIFE IS GREAT!

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I was looking through all of our old pictures and ran upon this video (it’s a little slow to load… but well worth the wait) 

not so big kids

It was just so adorable…. it got me thinking about how often I have just videoed my kids now to document how cute they are.

So here are the results of some more recent videos…  (click on pics to get to the video)

Alyssa

SLOW!!!

Emily, Brandon, Alyssa, and Leah

Alyssa and Leah playing

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There is a competition for a Prize for the person with the most blogs out there with this link….so just add it to your blog!

This is for my cousins’s little girl who has Leukemia. A friend has started a fundraiser to help; go to adashofseason.blogspot.com to read about it. All you have to do is post Taylie’s website on your Facebook, Twitter, and Blog.  Then tell her about it…, and $2 (for each place) will be donated to Taylie and her family!

http://www.tayliebug.com

So go out and place it as many places as you can!  Thanks!

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