cleaning up halloween, and decorating for christmas

alex has been wanting to get out the christmas decorations for weeks now - even before halloween happened. so finally, now that halloween is over we got out christmas. john has even hung the outside lights already - they look great. alex has been having a whole singing animatronics holiday show already and the elf on the shelf (Chocolate Chip) is out and about. this week, alex had a dentist appointment with Dr. Harter - her new dentist. so far so good, her teeth look good. we also had alex's first parent teacher conference this week - and alex is doing very well in school. she's good at math and art and is really improving with her rhyming. she has learned to read quite a few words and is very social at school. on sunday, we went to abbey's 2nd birthday party. alex got to see her cousins and had a lot of fun with peter and owen. and of course she enjoyed a slice of cake :)