Leaving for Clinicals

Well, today is the day. I leave this morning (very early as you can tell by early this post is being written). I have to be in West Chester at 8:00 this morning to start my 5 week clinical rotation on campus for my graduate program. I will leave early every Monday morning and be home Thursday evening. I'm not looking forward to being away from my baby and Justin but we'll get through it. It's only 5 weeks-I can do anything for that long. I will be staying in a hotel with 3 other girls and working in the campus speech clinic from 8 to 2 each day. My posts and pictures will probably be few and far between over the next 5 weeks but I'll try to keep everyone posted as much as I can. Maybe I can even get Justin on here while I'm gone too-we'll see!

Birthday Celebration

Well, this was a week of birthdays. After having Alex's big party on Sunday, we also celebrated my birthday on Wednesday evening (which was actually Tuesday) with the family-mom, dad, Rob, Susan, Grandma, and Aunt Joan. We had a nice dinner at Red Lobster and then came back to our house for ice cream cake and presents. We had a great time celebrating with everyone as always. Alex was hamming it up as usual so here are some pictures of us but mainly her! :-)

Birthday Bash!

Sunday we had a party to celebrate Alex's first birthday with our family and closest friends. We had 37 people here and it was a great time! We had lunch and enjoyed the beautiful day. Alex opened her presents-well not really. She didn't really understand things so Justin and I opened while she crawled around and every once in a while showed some interest in something. She got a lot of really nice things-tons of clothes, toys, videos, books, and swimming pools. Her uncle Rob and Aunt Susan got her a wading pool and Rob got in it with her. She had a blast and has been in it every day since. She loves it so much that she gets very upset when it's time to get out. We had an Elmo cake that our friend Debbie Guyer made. Alex had her own which she initially was very careful with but eventually dug right in and had it everywhere. It was a perfect celebration. Thank you everyone for coming and joining in the day with us. We can hardly believe our little girl is 1 year old already!

The big day!

Well, tomorrow Alex will be one year old! It's hard to believe how fast this past year has gone. We are so blessed to have such a beautiful daughter. We have loved every minute of watching her grow and learn this year. Tomorrow we'll have all of our close friends and family over for a big birthday celebration-we were very busy today getting ready. My brother and sister in law (Rob and Susan) stopped by with a special surprise tonight. Rob made a slideshow of Alex's first year. It was so special-I cried through the whole thing. We'll have it playing tomorrow at the party. And if I can figure out how to load it on this page, I will so you can all enjoy it too!

Alexandra

Just thought you might want to see a few updated pictures of our little cutie! She loves her new sunglasses that Grandma got her! And she is really into this little game-we say "How big is Alex?" and she throws her hands up in the air and grins from ear to ear.

Hard at Work!

So Wednesday afternoon Kristi calls and invites me over to go for a walk and then have dinner. She said she wanted to cook me dinner since Justin was working that night. Then she proceeds to tell me that she wants Jen and I to help her rip down wallpaper in their bathroom. Ulterior motive for inviting me to dinner, maybe?? Anyway, we got there and it was pouring down rain, so we forgot the walk and just got to work on the bathroom. Lucky was a little surprised when he got home and found a mess in his house. So we ended up working all evening but took a much needed break for some crab legs and green bean casserole. It was an enjoyable night even if we were working our butts off. Lucky and Drue entertained the kids for us.

Playing with Friends!

Today we had Shelley and Dillon over for a play date. Kristi and Mattson punked out on us but we had a lot of fun anyway. Alex and Dillon played for a while and then we went to eat lunch at Big Oak. Alex loves it when little friends come over to play. We'll have to do it again sometime and maybe Kristi and Mattson will join the fun!

Father's Day!!

We had a really nice Father's day. We spent it with my family-out to eat at the Italian Village and then back to my brother's place for cake and presents. Alex gave her daddy and Pappy Yocum some very nice gifts. It was great to be with the family to celebrate Justin's first official Father's day together.

Bath Time

Alex loves her bath time. She has so much fun splashing in the water. She is into hugging her toys and stuffed animals these days. Here she is hugging her little ducky. She even says "quack quack" when you ask her what ducky says (or at least something close to that)-it's so adorable!!!

Friends!

Today our friends Kristi and Jen came over with Mattson. Kristi went for a pedicure while Jen and I watched Mattson and Alex play. They always have so much fun together. We enjoyed lunch together out in the beautiful sun before the kids had to go down for their naps! It was a fun day!

Hershey Park!!

On Wednesday (my first day of summer vacation) we left Alex with Grandma and Pappy Yocum and had a day of fun at Hershey Park wih the couples-Jason and Ang, Marty and Hope, and Doug and Cressa. The weather was perfect and we had a great time. We hit up a lot of the roller coasters (and we even got Ang on a few-she loved it!) and then went to cool off at the water park. We had tons of fun but by the time we got home at 9:00 we were all exhausted!

Isn't this cool?!?!

Ok, Becca...here is your first official post. See how easy this is??? I really think you are going to enjoy using this. Just a couple minutes on here...and all your friends will be up to date on Alex. :)