Christmas

We had a wonderful holiday with our family and friends. Alex was a blast this Christmas-she was really into the decorations and opening her presents. She did tire of unwrapping after a while, though, so mommy and daddy had to finish for her. She got a ton of really cool gifts from everyone-we are so blessed! We started our celebration with Justin's family on Sunday and then were with my family Christmas Eve and Christmas day. My Aunt Judy and Sandy were up from Virginia so we got to spend time with them and we also went to Providence Place to visit my grandmother for a little while in the afternoon. It was a very enjoyable holiday spent with all those people who are so special to us! We hope everyone else had a great holiday as well!

Alex making her cookie monster face

Mom with her new reindeer candle holder Sandy and Dad (in the background) Aunt Judy
Alex and her cousin Nate having a conversation while sitting in the windowsill

Rob and Susan

Alex with her new baby doll in her new rocking chair-she was so excited

Her new art table. She loves to color and now she has a place just for that.

Cheesy face!!

She loves Papap's choo-choo train

Steve, Sheri, and the kids
John and Kalee
Reading with Papap and Grandma

Preparing for Christmas

We decided this year Alex might enjoy helping make sugar cookies. We tried getting her to help cut the dough out with the cookie cutters; however, she was not remotely interested in that. She did, though, enjoy the decorating part (especially the icing). We gave her the tub of icing just to see what she would do. She started by just sticking her fingers in it but quickly decided that was taking way too long so she picked up the tub and put it right to her mouth. She also thought shaking the colored sugar onto the cookies was pretty cool! You can tell which cookies Alex decorated because you can't see the icing through the all the sugar! What a blast! It's so much fun to be able to do these things with her now as she getting a little older. We even took her to see Santa which we thought might not go over well. She suprised us though. As soon as she saw him she was yelling "Hi Santa" and she had no problems sitting on his lap. As we walked away, she just kept calling "Bye" "Bye Santa". She did great!

Good Times!

This past Tuesday evening we went out for a nice dinner to celebrate Christmas with our good friends-Jen and Drue, Kristi, Lucky, and Mattson. Sean was supposed to come but ended up staying home because of not so nice weather conditions. It was a yucky night out-freezing rain and sleet. But we had a great time regardless. We made reservations for the Orchards for our own little private room in the back of restuarant. That way the kids could get down and play, walk around without disturbing anyone. When we first got there, Alex just cried and cried for whatever reason (we have no clue). Justin and I thought for a while there, we were going to have to leave because she wasn't going to make it through a long dinner. But as soon as Mattson got there, she cheered right up. "Mattsy" (as she calls him) saved the day!! We had a very nice dinner and only one more instance of crying. When the waiter brought the fried cheese (it has a special name but I can't recall what it is) and lit it on fire, she was not a fan!! But we got her calmed down eventually. The kids had a great time playing and coloring. They exchanged their gifts with each other and had fun with their new toys/books while we enjoyed some drinks, good food, and each other's wonderful company! It was a nice night and a great way to celebrate the holiday with close friends. We could not ask for a better group of friends-we love you guys!

Someone did not want to sit for a picture! She wanted down to play with her buddy Mattsy!

Look at that smile!

Jen and Drue

Alex loved her new Seasame Street coloring book!

Mattson opening his new Scooby Doo book. He loves Scoob!

Alex thought it would be fun to tackle "Mattsy" These two are so funny when they get together. They love each other to pieces!



Kristi and Lucky Mama and her baby girl! (even though she is quickly becoming a big girl). She's growing way too fast!

New Pictures

Not a whole lot to write currently but I wanted to at least get some pictures up for everyone to see. Life is busy, as usual. I have one week in at my new job and so far it's going well. Although I do miss everyone at the Center. I just finished my last grad class this week-yeah!! Justin is busy at work right now with it being the holiday season. At home, we're having fun getting ready for Christmas-shopping, baking cookies, decorating and just enjoying our time together as a family. Alex is loving having the tree and all the snowmen up. She is always walking around hugging and kissing the tree/snowmen decorations and saying "nice tree" or "nice snow".

New Discovery

Wednesday evening Alex discovered a new adventure. We were downstairs-she was playing and Justin and I were doing laundry. Next thing we know she comes running over and climbs right up in the laundry basket. She thought this was hilarious so for 10 minutes or so, she climbed in the laundry, rolled around, crawled back and did it all over again. Needless to say, it made it difficult to get the laundry folded but she was having a blast. Justin and I just thought she was too funny so we watched and snapped a few shots to share with you! Enjoy! (especially the one of her with underwear on her head-that was daddy's doing)

Justin's Birthday

Monday evening we celebrated Justin's birthday with my family. We had a nice dinner at Hoss's and then everyone came back to our house for cake and presents. We tried a new recipe this year-a lemon cake. It was very tasty! Justin got lots of nice things but the best part was just getting to spend time with the family. Alex had a favorite present-she loved the Mets hat daddy got. She has a thing for hats-she loves putting them on and taking them off daddy's head over and over and over again. Tuesday evening (which was Justins' actual birthday) our good friends Kristi, Lucky, Jen, Drue, and Sean came over for pizza. That was Justin's request-worked for me because I didn't have to cook anything. We had a great time celebrating with them as well. Mattson and Alex always have a good time together too. Mattson was so excited to get to play with "baby Alex's" toys and sit in her chair. He told his mommy he was going to take "baby Alex's" chair with him to Miss Gina's (that's his babysitter)-haha! We had a great time with everyone-both family and friends! Thank you everyone for making Justin's day special!