Birthday fun!

I really wanted to catch up a little more from Alexa's birthday-- a quick snippet didn't really seem to do it justice.... we had a crazy couple of weeks around the time of her birthday (Brooks' wedding, bachelor and bachelorette party, Mark's dad's birthday, etc) so that whole time seems a little like a blur. One of the highlights for me was getting to see my mom for a little over a week to help us celebrate Alexa turning one!

On Alexa's actual birthday, her daddy got to take the day off and spend it with us! We had a lot of shopping to do for her party, so she came along for the ride. We had gotten a shirt that said 1st Birthday and bought her a Pink crown to wear-- she even wore sunglasses around! She knew she was cute!



We had a cupcake for her around 10:00 at night, so needless to say, she was pretty grumpy! We got a few good shots in before bedtime!





And the grumpiness starts...


Her actual party was the day after her birthday at her Bamma and Papa's house. I wanted to do a party for our family and close friends-- sounds pretty easy right?? Well, not when you consider Mark's family alone bring about 35 people along with it! So add in the friends and our own family and we were expecting around 50 people! It was crazy and I don't think we'll be doing it again anytime soon. We planned a luau (Mark's request) and wanted everyone to dress in the Hawaiian clothes. We had tons of food, and I made a hula girl cake. I think it turned out to be quite the success!

Dancing with Charley (her cousin)...



The cakes- one to smash, one for everyone else!



We weren't sure how Alexa would do with the cake- she hasn't ever had sugar like that before... SHE LOVED IT!!!


She was on a sugar high while opening gifts... it was pretty funny-- she couldn't get them open fast enough so she would use her feet! She got WAY too many toys, but we sure appreciate them all!






One year of precious, amazing memories down... countless more to go. I knew having a baby would change my life-- I never thought it would inspire me to be the best I can be.

A night without Alexa...

Mark took Alexa home to Woodbine until Monday, so I am faced with the first time I will be away from my little girl since she was born. Well, that isn't exactly true, about 3 months after she was born, I spent the night in a hotel in Jacksonville and was away from her for like 12 hours. But this will be the first extended time away from her ever... and I'm not sure what to do with my time. I'd like to say I have books I've been meaning to read, or hobbies to do, but I really don't. I'd love to catch up on her scrapbook, but the pictures I ordered haven't come in yet, and I don't really have anything new to try... which leads me to the discovery.....

I'm beginning to get a little stir crazy in my stay at home mom job. Don't get me wrong, I love it so much and wouldn't trade it for anything... but I don't really feel like I have much of a life apart from my daughter. I really need to get involved at church or volunteering or something, but it is hard since we don't know how long we will be here in Atlanta. I guess I just need to find a new hobby and wait my time out... I am going to try a new church tomorrow here in Atlanta so maybe that will be a good place to start.

Anyway...
I do have some news about Alexa... she is really starting to walk well and learned two new signs, "milk" and my favorite "love!" Now she can sign love to me!!! That is pretty fun. I'm so glad I decided to teach her signs- she seems to really enjoy communicating with Mark and me and it is fun to let her communicate what she wants. We only have a handful more that I really want her to learn (thank you, please, sorry, help and potty) but I'll keep working with new ones as long as she wants to learn.

A year later...

So, I have done a horrible job at keeping up to date with my blog. I can blame it on a lot of things, but it really is me just forgetting over and over. I thought about trying to catch up on everything that has happened, but really, how do you catch up on six months of a newborn's life? So, instead of doing that, I'll just go over some highlights and then just start again from here.



Halloween-- Alexa was a bee (obviously), I was the flower and Mark was the beekeeper. I made my costume and I think it turned out ok! It was a lot of fun to go trick or treating with Alexa- I can't wait until she is a little older to really enjoy it!

Crawling! Alexa started crawling officially on Thanksgiving- she was a week shy of 8 months. Once she decided she was ready to start moving, she didn't stop! She had a busy eighth month: got her first tooth, said dada for the first time, starting pulling up and cruising around. Plus Christmas came during her 8th month and Santa brought her a fun house to play it and she ended up with WAY too many toys from all her family and friends.


Mama, puppy, and fish were the next words to come, although she is still hit or miss on a lot of words. She babbles constantly and loves to laugh!


Her first birthday was a blast... check out the pictures on my picture page- we were so excited that Grandma Cindi got to celebrate this special day with us!

We are now temporarily living in Atlanta for Mark's work. He moved up here in December and Alexa and I joined him in March. We are hoping to stay here as long as possible, but things are still up in the air. Alexa has handled the transistion really well- she doesn't even seem to notice anything is going on! It is hard on me to be away from our friends and family, but we are enjoying all that Atlanta has to offer. We've been to the GA Aquarium three times, Stone Mountain twice, Zoo Atlanta once and even a Braves game with Bamma and Papa (Mark's parents) I'll post some pictures to these outings soon.

Alexa is so full of life and smiles... I truly think she is the best baby in the whole world! I WILL keep this blog updated because I think that the gift that is Alexa needs to be shared with as many people as possible!