Alexa's 2nd Birthday!

I can't believe my little baby is 2 years old! It kinda makes me sad that she is growing up but at the same time she is getting more fun every day. I think she kinda got the concept of it being her birthday. She would walk around singing "Happy Birthday" (sort of:) and she can say "I two". And boy did she love opening her presents. It's amazing how quick kids learn that the day is all about them.

A few updates about how Alexa is doing. She had her two-year checkup and as I expected, she is tiny. She is actually in around the 50% for her height at 34 inches and only the 10% for her weight at 23.6lbs. She still absolutely hates the doctor though. For some reason she still screams from the time they call us back until we get back into the car. She is starting to able to sing some songs (or parts of them:) and is saying two and three word sentences. And the biggest news of all...we are officially Potty Trained!!!! Yay! I started about 3 weeks before her birthday and after 7 accidents on the first day I almost gave up. Then by the second day (and 5 more accidents) I was ready to cry but I knew if I gave up I would have to repeat those 2 horrible days all over again so we kept at it. After her nap on day three something just kind of clicked and she started going every time I put her on the potty. We still have our occasional accidents but we did go for 9 days straight with no accidents...and then we had 3 in two days:( But over all I would say she is doing great. Anyway, on to the pictures...

We did a tea party theme since Alexa loves playing with her tea cups. My cakes didn't turn out quite like I had invisioned in my head...

Alexa with Aunt Jo Jo, Kate and Graham. Alexa is crazy about Jo Jo!

Alexa with her little buddies who came to help her celebrate turning two.

Trying to figure out how to blow out the candles.

Alexa was all about eating some cake. As usual, she was the last one at the table and then (even though there was still a lot of cake on her own plate) she went around to all the other kids plates and ate some of their cake since there were gone. What is it that makes every one else's stuff look so much better than your own even though it's the same thing?

Alexa went crazy over her Veggie Tales coloring book. That is her favorite "toon" right now and she started jumping up and down and yelling "Tale Tales", which is what she calls it.

The girls were patiently waiting for Alexa to hurry up and open her next present.

I don't know what it is about turning two but suddenly Alexa looks so much older:(

Beautiful girl!

Our first semi-warm (or at least not freezing) day and of course we had to go outside and take pictures:) Alexa loved touching the snow with her bare hands. And yes, finally the snow is gone!

Christmas 2009

We had such a fun Christmas this year! Alexa really got into it and had so much fun opening her presents. When she walked down the stairs her face lit up and she said wow when she saw her table and her stroller. After our little family Christmas we flew to Arkansas the next day to be with Nic's family. Sadly, Nic's parents didn't get to be with us because Nic's grandpa passed away a few days before Christmas. It was so good to spend some time in Arkansas though with Nic's brother and sister-in-law and Alexa's cousins Ryan and Emma. Then we went to Kentucky to spend a few days with my family. Alexa really enjoyed being around her 10 cousins.

We had so much fun but it's been such a cold, long winter that I can truly say I'm glad the winter season is finally over and we are ready for spring!

Daddy is reading Alexa the true Christmas story

Alexa's Christmas "loot"

Alexa couldn't decide what she wanted to play with first so she held the stroller while she sat at her table.

Alexa loves having a tea party

She was really getting in to it after a few presents.

Pausing between presents to play with her new toys.




Having fun in all the paper.

"Finally, mommy and daddy let me eat chocolate!"






We've decided Alexa is going to be a bag lady when she grows up since her favorite thing to do is load her stroller up with trash and junk.

Alexa with her cousins Ryan and Emma...we miss them so much!




Alexa was in love with Ryan and Emma's dog Marley. Daddy wants to get her one but I had to veto that...I'm the mean one:(

So cute!










Alexa loves her big cousin!

The girls talking to Mawmaw and Daddy Bob via web cam

Poppy reading the Christmas story to all the grandkids.

Alexa was fascinated by all her older cousins.

Winter 2010

Okay, so I'm not the world's best person about updating my blog so a lot of these pictures are from before Christmas. We've had such a busy few months with all the holidays and everything that I just kept forgetting to update but it's finally here:) We really had a blast over Christmas with Alexa this year. She had so much fun opening her Christmas presents and screamed when she came down the stairs and saw her table and chairs and her doll stroller. I'm still trying to figure out where Nic saved all those pictures so I can put them on here too:)

Nic and I just had a wonderful weekend away in Gatlinburg with our Lexington friends. We hated to leave Alexa but we enjoyed getting away for a couple of nights and Alexa had a blast with her Grammy and Poppy in Georgetown. We weren't sure we were going to get to go because Alexa got sick a couple of days before our trip. It was the first time since we've had her that she has ever been sick so it was a little interesting. I just hope we don't get to repeat that again any time soon. As soon as we got home from our trip we started potty training the next morning. Let's just say that has probably been the most stressful and frustrating thing that Alexa and I have been through together...even more than going from a bottle to a cup:) Alexa is finally in Big Girl panties!!! Yay, I didn't think we were going to make it! After 7 accidents the first day I almost quit and I totally understand why people do, but she did go in the potty 3 times so I decided to press on. We had 4 accidents the second day, one the third day and by day number four it just clicked and she didn't have any accidents. I know we still have a long road ahead of us but I can't believe she is doing so well. I think I might actually survive this:)

It's hard to believe but Alexa is turning 2 this month! It kinda makes me sad but she is getting more fun every day and talking so much more so it's easier to communicate. I'm not sure what we are doing for her birthday yet but hopefully it will be a fun day for her.

Here are some pictures from the last couple of months. For some reason they uploaded in reverse order and I didn't fool with fixing it so the newest ones are first.

Alexa is trying to figure out her new toy shelf...in her new panties:)

Alexa decided she needed all 12 pairs of her new panties on...at the same time!

I had to help her a bit but she got them all on.

Alexa's new pigtails at the bottom of her hair.

She looks so grown up with her hair like this:(

Alexa's first snow-angel

Alexa is thinking "I'm a tropical baby, I'm not made for this!"

In the airport coming home from Christmas with her doll

Alexa and Santa...we had to stand in line for almost 2 hours for this!

Cutie-pie with her hair bows from Aunt Lanette

Modeling her outfit I made for her.

This is our new fun game...

At Wild Lights at the Zoo...the weather was really nice this day.

At the aquarium in the Zoo.

Chillin' out in her wagon...what a way to see the lights.

Daddy and Alexa on the carousel

Alexa is enjoying the light show...her arms look so long:)

Alexa's first haircut...I can't believe how much it's grown since then!

Alexa Playing The Harmonica

She's played with it a couple of times the last 2 weeks, but today is the first day that she finally figured it out. She's a natural!!

Our Anniversary As A Family!

I can't believe it's already here but Tuesday, October 2oth was the one year anniversary of the day Alexa came into our family. It has gone so quickly but at the same time it seems as if we've always had Alexa. I can hardly remember what my life was like before we got her. The last year has been amazing and we just feel so blessed and lucky to be the parents of this beautiful and energetic child. She is so full of joy and life and keeps mommy and daddy quite busy:) Alexa has changed so much in the past year. You forget how much until you start looking back at pictures and videos and then you think, wow...were you really ever that small and that bald?:)

We had a fun day celebrating with Alexa. Daddy of course had to work so Alexa and I went to the library for story time and the weather turned out so beautiful that when Daddy got home we had to make a trip to the playground. Alexa is getting so independent now and loves to go up the steps and down the slide all by herself which of course kinda scares me. After the playground we had planned to take Alexa to this nice Vietnamese restaurant in town and of course when we got there they had a sign on the door that they were closed that night due to equipment failure. We were so disappointed but wound up just going to our favorite restaurant so it was fun. We will take her to the Vietnamese restaurant next week. We got Alexa a small cake which she loved and kept saying her favorite word, "more". She didn't like the icing on her hands though and kept trying to wipe her hands off. That evening we sat down and looked at Alexa book of our adoption journey. Nic took off work the next day and we made a trip to the Zoo to enjoy probably the last day of really nice weather.

Here are some pictures of our day:

Alexa is enjoying her cake very much!

She was not loving the icing on her hands but she kept saying "more"

Daddy's little girl...learning how to use the computer.

Daddy pushing Alexa in the swing...her favorite part of the playground.

Going down the slide all by herself.

Chillin' out on the bench in the play area.

Checking out the pond at the park.

Trying to be a big girl at the top of the playground...scary!