Saturday, November 22, 2008

Family Pictures

In preparation for sending out Christmas cards, we had my good friend Rachael take some family pictures. Here is a sneak preview of our photoshoot. Alexa wasn't so much in the mood to have her picture taken, so we had to bribe her with a giant lollipop. I think we got some good ones though...thanks Rach for helping us out with this! You are the best!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Stats Update

We had Alexa's 2 year check up this morning. She is currently weighing in at 28.6 lbs and is 34 3/4 " tall. She's in the 75 percentile still for both - which means she's a little tall for her age. Apparently, she got a bit of her daddy's height and we hope it stays that way!! Anyways, she's healthy and developing fabulously...even doing a lot of things that 3 year olds are doing. The doctor was impressed and I was so proud...because, OF COURSE, it's all my doing, right??!!! :-)Just kidding, she's just a smart little girl and I'm so grateful she's a part of our family!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Birthday Girl, Part 2

The Birthday Girl!!

Well, we've had a fun day. Alexa and I went to Target this morning where she insisted she was "hungy" (ever since I stopped once and got a soft pretzel there, she's remembered and always says "hungy" as soon as we get to Target). But since it was her birthday, I decided to indulge and we shared a soup bread bowl (yes Target has soup bread bowls, who knew???!!), which was quite delicious and then came home for naptime.

Once Kevin got home from school, we had dinner, more singing, blowing out of candles, and eating of cake. And then, of course, more presents. My family had sent gifts that had arrived earlier this week and so I saved them for today. Here are a few videos of the birthday festivities.

This first one is just to go along with Alexa's Spongebob birthday theme.

Here's the actual birthday singing with all her friends. She really did turn two, the candle is a #2, it was just turned sideways from the view of the camera! She had us sing again after this video was taken. She could have had us sing all night, she loved it!

And this is for my mom and my sister, Jenn. They sent gifts for Alexa that I saved for today and I wanted them to share in her excitement. The purse was a big hit, as you'll see! All the gifts were...thank you so much for spoiling her! Jenn, she wanted Dora to go to bed with her tonight and got really upset when I wouldn't let her stay in the crib!

A few tidbits about Alexa:

She loves to be silly. I can make her giggle by just saying something in a high voice or dancing a funny dance. She absolutely loves music and dancing. It doesn't matter what kind of music, she just loves it all and will get her groove on whenever she can. She LOVES her "lello yammies" (yellow jammies). They are her favorite. She is very much a mama's girl and would be content to just sit in my lap with her lovies all day if I would let her. She absolutely LOVES Spongebob Squarepants for some reason and knows all the characters, their homes, their places of work, etc. She also loves Dora and Diego. She gets so excited when her daddy gets home from school. She loves to tease and get a reaction. She is very attached to her lovies and her thumb. We'll have to work on the thumb thing one of these days but for now, I'm not too worried about it. She is very sweet and always asks me if I'm okay. She'll say "peez" and "tane too" for everything. She loves raisins right now. She loves to be in the car and will usually ask first thing in the morning if we're going in the car. She has the sweetest smile and I love the way her eyes light up when she grins at me. She is the center of our world and we couldn't imagine life without her!

Happy Birthday Alexa. We hope this next year is just as fun as the last two have been!

We love you!

Birthday Girl, Part 1!

Happy Birthday to our sweet little Alexa! She turns 2 today! I can't even begin to express the joy and love she has brought into our family these past two years. I have been so emotional the past couple of days (I'm sure part of it is the pregnancy), but it really does amaze me what a miracle having a child is and I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday! We welcomed her into our lives on Monday, November 20, 2006 at 6:59 pm, after 12 1/2 hours of labor. She was so tiny and perfect and I was so glad to finally have her here.
These past two years have been so fun. We've had our difficult times, our sick times, our grumpy times, our crazy times...but we wouldn't trade any of it. We've grown so much and learned so much and our lives have become so much richer because of this precious little girl.
Last Sunday, we had a little birthday dinner for Alexa. It was a Spongebob Squarepants theme since that is her most favorite thing right now. I spent hours on a Spongebob cake for her and wondered "what was I thinking??" as my hand kept cramping up...but the look on her face when she saw it, and the fact that she had to show her friends the cake very first thing when they arrived, made it all worth it!!
After Alexa's nap on Sunday, she enjoyed some pre-festivity cuddle time with her daddy while I got the birthday preparations ready. I'm so grateful for the wonderful father that Kevin is and for how much he adores his little girl. I know that they will have a special relationship forever!
And here are some pictures from the festivities. Alexa's favorite people were in attendance..."the guys" (aka Olan & Quincy Carter), "Nay-Nay" (aka Nathan Ice) and "Kar-kar" (aka Karter Graves), along with various parents of said kids! We enjoyed homemade pizza and snacks in Bikini Bottom style. (For those of you who are wondering what "Bikini Bottom" is, that's where Spongebob lives!!).
Alexa then had fun opening her presents, or rather, all the kids had fun opening the presents! Alexa didn't seem to mind though and was so excited for the wonderful things she received. Thank you everyone, you all spoiled her rotten!!
Our place isn't that big, but the kids had fun chasing balloons around and running up and down the hallway. We really had a great time celebrating Alexa's big day! Thank you to everyone for sharing in her special day!
We'll be having a little family dinner tonight and will post more pictures then! Happy Birthday Baby Girl, we love you so much!!