Alex and a few of her looks....

Well one afternoon I propped Alex up on the sofa and took a whole bunch of pictures as she is getting such fun looks on her face....

Here she is being serious and unimpressed with me trying to entertain her...

There is that smile I know and love....

Okay I am still happy Mommy but you are getting a little close with the camera and starting to show my double chin....

Thanksgiving = Pnemonia

So this year we were all excited for Thanksgiving to come. We had a big family day planned over at my in laws house for the entire family. Well two days before Sam got really sick so I ran her to the doctor and she had pnemonia. She also had a urinary tract infection and a virus. So basically it was the perfect storm for illnesses....She was miserable and obviously very contagious. WE got her on breathing treatments (we now own our own nebulizer machine) and antibiotics and a few other things. It took her almost a week to recover. However her and Dan missed our fun family day on Thanksgiving. Now don't feel too sorry for them Sam got her best dream day ever she got to watch a movie I had Tivo'd about Tinkerbell about 10 times (while I am sure Dan was about to stab his eyes out) and I brought Dan home all the fixings for a feast.... It was the first Thanksgiving I have been apart from Dan in 6 years.I missed Sam terribly too.. So Alex and I went over to my in laws but only for a few hours as we wanted to get home to be with Sam and Dan.

Alex all dressed up for Thanksgiving...
Alex and Mommy....
GG and Alex...

Uncle Erik and Kendall and Alex... These adorable cousins are only 6 months apart...Too cute!

Misc November Happenings

Well since I am still trying to catch up I thought I had to share these two miscellaneous pictures.

One afternoon while on maternity leave I was folding laundry on the bed and I had Alex sitting up there with me and within those 5 minutes of folding she so peacefully passed out...I put a blanket on her and ran for the camera as I loved the pose she was in. She looks like she is getting ready for her first OU football game. Now Dan may disagree and say her first TCU game but either way I think she is getting ready for football season..hahahah

Uncle Erik and Aunt Sarah gave Alex a beautiful onesie with her name on it and a matching designer burb cloth and a big. Needless to say she uses them all al ot..I just loved this onesie on her so I took a few pictures of her in it...

Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. The night before Halloween Sam and I went to a friend from her schools toddler party. It was a lot of fun seeing all her friends and spending time with the parents. What a cute idea!!! We decided that we didn't want Alex to be around all the germs since she didn't have any of her shots yet so she stayed home with Dan. Several of the hubbies were jealous that Dan got to stay home becuase it was during the time of the World Series..

Halloween night the whole family spent the evening over at Erik and Sarah's house. So much fun playing in their backyard for the afternoon, then dinner then trick or treating.

Cast of characters

Sam - Snow White (or she called herself a yellow princess)

Alyson - Blue princess (it has been a while I can't remember exactly which one she was)

Kendall - A ladybug

Alex - A pumpkin

Jammer- Ghostbuster

Erik - Superman

Dan - A Rangers Fan

Here are a few pictures from the evening..So much fun and so lucky that the whole family loves to get together for these fun occasions...

See you later honey....

And as I was calling bye to Dan as Sam and I left for a Halloween toddler party I didn't hear a response...This is what I saw as Sam and I peeked into the living room before we left...

Aly's Soccer game

So this Fall Aly (our oldest niece) was on a soccer team. So we were able to make it to a game right before Halloween. She did great!!! She is such a natural and looked pretty darn cute in her uniform. Sam kept asking us when was it going to be her turn as she was on the sidelines with us. So cute....So after the game her and Aly kicked the ball in the goal over and over and over again.

Here is our family of four cheering on Alyson at her soccer game!!

Here is Papa John (aka PI PI) giving some pointers after the game...

Sam finally got to go on the field and play and kick the ball in the goal. She was so happy and Aly loved showing her the ropes...They are such cuteness together. I love the fact that they will get to grow up together and the two little ones will get to grow up together as well...

A belt is a must have.....

Apparently to our 2 and 1/2 year old. One day randomly Sam started telling me she needed a belt for her jeans...I kinda blew her off as not sure where she was getting it from. We finally realized she was watching her Daddy get ready in the mornings and the last thing he does before leaving is put on his belt. So one day while out and about grabbing a few things I picked up Sam a belt. She got sooooo excited. So had to share a few pictures of her..

Pre-belt

Showing off her new belt..She is so proud of it... And it is pink and sparkly. What more could a little girl ask for???

Alex and Daddy....

Well these were taken right around Alex's 1 month birthday and I just loved them. They caught Dan and Alex bonding...

Kendalls Baptism

Also in later October we were able to help celebrate our youngest niece Kendall's Baptism. She did great and looked so cute. It was so nice to have the whole family together for the celebration. The kids all looked so cute dressed up. Again Alex did great and slept through the whole service and Aly and Sam got to play in the kids room until the actual baptism. As I have no idea how Sam would have done had we needed her to sit still through the whole service....eekkkk Could have been disaster. Then afterwards we had a super yummy lunch at a yummy restaurant near church.

Sarah, Erik and Kendall
Erik with my (I say that but really they are our parents) parents and Kendall
The two little cousins Alex and Kendall!!!

The two older cousins Sam and Aly...

Pumpkin Patch and Alex's 1 month birthday

So Alex turned one month and was doing great!!!

Here are her statistics:

Weight 10.2 90%

Height 21.8 95%

Head 15 90%

So she is moving right along and eating well and sleeping a lot still at this point..

So we met my folks for lunch one day in Allen and accidentally stumbled across a pumpkin patch so took the opportunity to let Sam play and take some pictures... She was very mesmerized by the dried corn on the ground...Have no idea why that was so interesting to her.

Also the girls wore there Big Sister Baby Sister Shirts and they looked so cute in them!!!

They have their names written in smaller print around the pink circle... Sam loves to wear that shirt...

The Bows are back and here to stay!!!

So with Sam I never really put a lot of things on her head or in her hair and trust me I am paying for it now. She won't keep anything in her hair because she is not used to it. So I always told Dan if we have another girl I am going to put all kinds of fun things on her head...I have not gone too crazy but I bought a few fun things for our little Alex.

Here she is at 3 weeks old..such a cutie!!!

Binky is gone!!!!

So we realized Sam was getting a tad old for her binky and every time she got sick seemed to become more co-dependent on it. So we didn't do anything about it until after Alex arrived. We started dropping hints that only babies had binkys, etc.... So one night she was getting ready for bed and didn't ask for it so we went to put her to bed and she started asking for it then. We had to tell her they all were in the trash. She didn't quite understand but didn't fuss for too long. Then the next morning she went looking in the normal spot (the freezer) for her binkys and I had made sure to take them all out and hide them. She asked for it a couple more times but then was done. So thank goodness we can now say she is binky free...yeah

And so far Alex has not been a binky kid. She has taken it maybe twice...Hmm that will be nice not to have to break her of that habit...

Now you see it!!!

Now you don't!!

Sam's first haircut

So Alex was about 2 weeks old and I was back to driving and really wanted to spend some time with Sam out of the house just the two of us. So we went to get her first haircut one Saturday morning...It went about as expected Sam didn't want to get in one of the fun chairs so instead sat in my lap. She didn't cry or anything just wasn't being super cooperative. I literally had them just even out the back of her hair so not a lot of length off as her hair is still all coming in but was tired of the V in the back of her head. So literally it was two snips and done...

So after her haircut they really wanted to make it a good experience for her so she got a glittery star put on her face..She loved it!!! and a balloon....

After the haircut we went to the park and played on the swings and slides, etc...It was a great Sam and mommy morning...

Alex at Two weeks

Well I am finally getting the hang of this being back at work thing and being a mom. It is tough (a few meltdowns here and there) but totally worth it when I come home to my beautiful girls every day. I am going to try over the next week or so to get all caught up on everything as I have lots of pictures and random stories etc....

The first few weeks home with Alex were extremely challenging....However it really had not a lot to do with the fact that we had a newborn. We were somewhat prepared for that part... What really got us was all the sickness that hit our house. First the week Dan was home with me he had horrible allergies which then turned into a horrible sinus infection. Then I came down with a cold and sinus infection. And then Sam came down with a bad case of sinusitis or whatever a bad cold in a kid is...So after those 4 weeks of illness we were much happier. Also Alex was a trooper and didn't get any of it. She was able to stay healthy until almost 3 months old around Christmas time and got a cold. We were lucky that it never got to the bad RSV part just a cold and I was very diligent about sucking out her nose every hour or two..Poor thing but she made a pretty quick recovery.

So in all the sickness we had Alex's 2 week progress report. She did great...

Weight 8 lbs 8 ounces

Height 20.5 inches

Head 14.3

They were very happy with her weight gain as at two weeks they should be back to birth weight and wow this kid blew that away... When we brought her home from the hospital I started calling her pipsqueak but let me tell you that didn't stick too long...

Here are a few pics of the adjusting going on at our house..Sam adjusted super well and her nurturing side came out right away. She even likes to share her toys (for the most part) with Alex. Here Alex is just 2 weeks old and Sam is giving her the board game piece from one of her games. I always find toys on our near Alex...So cute..

Dan trying to figure out how to hold both of the girls at once...

Sam tickling her sister...