Lately (in pics)

Here's a little of what we've been up to lately!

Is this not the cutest baby you've ever seen?!;)

Last week, we had a few days that were sub-zero with the wind chill.  We had a jammie day so we could stay extra warm!

Lex learned how to climb the stairs last week!  She just started out and climbed the whole staircase on her first real try!

Daddy's favorite time of day...bedtime!  He loves snuggling with his baby girl.

Alexis discovered the non-slip pad under our kitchen rug.  She flips it up several times a day!:)

We took this self-portrait the other day and it cracks me up how chubby my sweet baby's face looks!  I kiss those sweet cheeks ALL day long!:)

9 Month Doctor Appointment

Today was such a fun day!  We started our day with breakfast, some playing, and a nap like usual.

Then, Alexis got a bath!  This girl LOVES to get in the tub!

She just played and played.  I didn't take her out until she was shivering.:)

After lunch and another nap, we went to her 9 month doctor appointment!  She got a great check-up.  Dr. Landrigan was very pleased with all of her developments since her 6 month appointment.  She weighed 19 lbs. 8 oz. (60-65%), she was 27 1/2 inches long (50%), and her head circumference (75%).  She's beginning to shift towards the middle of the growth chart, which is what Dr. Landrigan predicted would happen as she got closer to a year old.  She had to get her finger pricked to check her iron level...she did not like that very much!:(  We are SO thankful for our healthy baby girl!

After her appointment, we did some errands and ate at Penn Station for supper.  Lex played with a straw for quite a while and was so good!  

What a Week!

Last week was quite a week for our little lady!  She really ramped up her "exploration" efforts around our house and learned some new tricks, as well.  This resulted in several accidents and I am VERY thankful that none of them were serious!  All of these photos are just from one day of our week!:)

This wasn't a big deal, but Lex sneezed while she was eating her breakfast and blew cereal everywhere!  It was funny!:)

One night Alexis suddenly decided that she would climb the stairs!  She climbed up the entire staircase several times.  The next morning I was letting her practice some more and tried to take a picture of her.  This resulted in this very blurry photo and my baby girl's first fall on the stairs.:(  I caught her before she fell very far, but her face hit the wall.  She got a nice bruise on her cheek!

You can see the red mark on her left cheek and the watery eyes from crying...poor girl!

Later that morning, we were getting ready to leave the house.  I was putting my coat and gloves on in the kitchen and I heard a very loud crash!  I ran in the dining room to find this!

Lex had managed to pull the corner shelf over and this glass urn slid off.  We are praising God that she did not get hurt AT ALL!  It fell right beside her, but she was perfectly fine.  Mama learned that I can't let this girl out of my sight for a minute!

Beauty and the Beast

Last Thursday evening, Linda treated Rachel and I to a night out at the Honeywell Center!

We went to see Beauty and the Beast.  The show was really awesome!  It was very well done and the music and choreography was amazing.  We all loved it!

Here we are before the show!  It was a very fun girls' night out.

A view of the stage before the show.  That just so happens to be Terry Stoffel standing up in front of us!:)

Alexis got to stay home with Daddy and Grandpa!  Here she is after her bath with her new slippers from Great Grandma Drewes.  So stinkin' cute!:)  It was a fun night for the whole family!

Alexis: Nine Months Old!

 

Our darling child is NINE months old!  Three-quarters of a year!  Holy cow!:)

 

She's getting so big and so busy!  She was standing up on the chair before I knew it!:)

 

Alexis, here's what you are up to this month:

• Your nine month well-check is not until the end of the month so we don't have your stats yet.  I will update when I get them.You are definitely a growing girl. **Updated: You weigh 19 lbs. 8 oz. (60-65%), you are 27 1/2 inches long (50%), and your head circumference is 45 cm (75%).
• Your 9 month clothes still fit, but you are starting to wear 12 month clothes that you got for Christmas.  You wear size 3 shoes and a size 3 diaper. 
• You took your first step!!!!!  One day before you turned 9 months old.  You let go of the recliner, took one step toward me, and plopped on your bottom.  I'm not ready for my baby to walk yet, but it's so exciting to watch you learn new things!
• You still have two teeth on the bottom.  Daddy checked today and it looks like one of your top teeth is getting close to coming through.  You have been drooling a ton and chewing on things some, but you've been pretty happy!
• You still nurse 5-6 times per day and you eat baby food for 3 meals each day.  You have tried some "real" food, such as bananas, green beans, mashed potatoes, tomatoes, rice, peas, bread, and cheese.  So far, you like most of it except mashed potatoes!:(
• You sleep from 7:30pm to about 7am.  You are still waking up once or twice a night.  We are really working on sleeping longer and hopefully straight through the night one of these days.  You like to eat around 5am.  You take a short morning nap and a longer afternoon nap.
• You have done SO well with your bottles lately!  You will take a bottle from Daddy before bedtime and you will even drink frozen milk!  This makes Mama SO, SO happy!:)
• You say da-da ALL the time!  You still don't say ma-ma...I can't wait to hear it!
• You have learned how to give a high five!
• You like to read books with us.  We have been reading Bible stories with you before bedtime and it's so sweet!
• You still like to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and you have added Little Einsteins to your tv repertoire.  You also like to watch your Praise Baby DVD.  You LOVE music!
• You love to play with your cousins and your friends at church.  It makes me happy to see you light up when Peyton, Zaya, or Lily come into the room!

Sweet girl,

I think that you are at my favorite age so far.  You are so sweet and happy almost all of the time!  You are very social and you love to be out and about.  You are Daddy and I's best girl and we love spending time with you.  Daddy wants you to sleep with us almost every night, but I insist that you sleep in your crib.:)  One of these days we will have a sleepover in our big bed and it will be so fun.  I am so, so thankful that I get to be home with you every day.  You are the light of our lives and you make us thrilled beyond belief!  We love you!

Love,

Mama (and Daddy):)

Happy Birthday, Aunt Michele!

Today is Aunt Michele's birthday!  She is 31 years old and she has decided to spend her birthday doing 31 (or likely more!) acts of kindness for other people.  That's just the kind of person she is...thinking about others on a day when it is 100% okay to just think about yourself!  She requested that other people also do something intentionally kind for someone else, as well.  When I was thinking about what that would be, I knew immediately that we needed to go visit our neighbors!  The people that live across the street from us are older and Mrs. Carpenter has Parkinson's disease.  We see them in passing a lot and have visited occasionally since we have lived here, but I have felt prompted to develop a deeper relationship with them especially since Alexis has been born.  I know that her little self can bring joy to people just by being present and I want to take advantage of that!  

 

I made some potato corn chowder and we took it over to them shortly before lunchtime.  We ended up visiting for almost an hour!  Lex got to play with their dog, Shadow, and Mrs. Carpenter held her most of the time.  Mr. Carpenter also held her and she didn't seem to mind at all!  He told her that when she is able to walk she can come over and help him pick up sticks in the yard.:)  I am so glad that we went to see them and I hope that we brightened their day a little bit.  We need to do it again soon!  I am thankful that my sister prompted me to do something nice for someone else today...it really ended up making me feel happy, too!:)

 

In other big news, Alexis decided that Aunt Michele's birthday was a good day to take her FIRST STEP!  She was standing by the recliner, then she turned her body to face me.  She let go of the recliner, took one step, and plopped on her bottom!  One day shy of 9 months old!  She sort of took another step in the kitchen after that, also.  I think she is still a ways off from walking, but it is crazy to me that she already took a step.  My baby is growing up SO fast!!!

Siesta Scripture Memory Team: Verse #2

Yahoo!  I made it to verse #2!:)  I think I've got verse #1 memorized pretty thoroughly, but I'm praying that God will help it to remain clear in my mind while I add a second one!  I picked my verse for today because I struggle with worry in general and I have especially been "concerned" about our upcoming women's retreat.  The last time I left Alexis for a weekend she basically drank no milk.  I am afraid that will happen again and I will either feel super guilty the whole time or I will end up having to come home early.  I really don't want either to happen!  I have been praying about it for months, but I know that I am still struggling daily to leave my worry at Jesus' feet.  I'm going to recite this verse every time I think about it:

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34

When I read this verse, I instantly think about the lesson in our Beth Moore study about the Isrealites and the manna.  God provided manna for them and told them to gather only enough for each day.  If they gathered too much, it just rotted and got nasty.  He wanted them to learn to trust Him to provide for their needs each and every day...and not worry about tomorrow!

Sunday Twins

On Sunday, Alexis and Lillian planned to wear their matching dresses from Grandma Barkley! 

Lex was getting a little frustrated with her dress while she was trying to crawl, so Daddy tucked it in for her!  Ha!:)  This picture of the girls isn't very good quality, but it documents their cute outfits at least!

Warm Days in January

For the past several days, we have been enjoying unseasonally warm days!  It got up to almost 60 degrees two days in a row.  We took advantage of the warmth and took Alexis for a walk in the woods!

Jim stopped by and went with us on our walk.  Lex loved being outside!

Daddy had to feed his deer!

Mama and baby girl!  I got to try out my new boots that Mom got me for Christmas.:)

Lex helped Daddy take his tree stand out of the woods for the year.  This weather was such a treat!:)

Lately (in pics)

Here are some photos of things that we've been up to lately!

Lill and Lex played with the kitchen together in Grandma and Grandpa's new playroom!

Somebody discovered that she can walk underneath the kitchen table...she likes to hide!:)

I wrapped Lex in Daddy's warm-from-the-dryer sweatshirt.  I think she liked it!

It happened...she discovered that she can unroll the toilet paper!:)

Surprise!  Such a sweet face.

Snack time with Hadley and Emme in the nursery!

My car needed an oil change so we went to visit Tyler at Johnson's.  Aunt Kate just happened to be there, too!

This sweet girl pooped out at the end of our Walmart trip!

I just LOVE when Lex smiles through her binky...I will miss that sweet look someday!

Siesta Scripture Memory Team: Verse #1

I'm so excited!  Several of my Bible study girls and I are participating in the Siesta Scripture Memory Team on Beth Moore's blog!  On the first and fifteenth of every month, we have to choose a verse from the Bible to commit to memory and post it as a comment on the LPM blog.  At the end of the year, the goal is to have memorized 24 new verses!  God is already using my first verse to teach me to rely more on Him.  I have been worrying about building up my frozen milk supply so that I have enough to leave for Alexis while I am away at the women's retreat in February.  I have been struggling to get ANY extra ounces each day, even though I am pumping 2 or 3 times per day.  I decided to memorize this verse yesterday and focused on practicing especially while I was pumping.  I know that I need to trust in Him to provide for Alexis' needs and this verse reminds me of that.  Anyhow, when I went to bed last night, I had THREE extra ounces of milk to freeze!  How awesome is God?!  Having said all of that...here's my first memory verse for 2013!

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

New Year's Eve

On New Year's Eve, we had Michele and Shane and the kids and Chad and Chanda and their kids over to hang out!  Jon and Nicole and Emerson weren't able to join us this year because Nicole was sick.  It was a fun night!  Everyone left by 10pm, but such is life right now with our little ones.  I wouldn't change it for anything!:)

The sweet kiddos...Hadley, Jocelyn, Lily, Peyton, Alexis, and Zaya (this picture is terrible quality, but I had to include it!)

Our little family!

Lill playing in her pj's!

Bryan, Jocelyn, and Zaya playing

 

2012 was a pretty amazing year for our family.  We were blessed abundantly and got to meet the greatest joy of our lives...Alexis!  Our goals for 2013 are to pay off one of our two remaining student loans and to enjoy each and every moment with our sweet girl!