Alex's 1st Christmas

Our Christmas celebrations started a week ago. It started with a stomach bug that went "thru" my family - first, my sister's house, then I got it, then my brother's house, then my mom and Gramma, and yesterday Alex became the next victim. So since Nana was sick yesterday and couldn't watch Alex, I had to stay home. No complaints here though. And then Alex got sick so I stayed home again today. Again, no complaints from me...I love being home with him! And being home has given me some time to upload and edit the over 200 hundred pictures from this past week! And of course, take care of my lil man, who is, by the way, a trooper and doing much better already! However, our big plans to go to a friend's for the New Year's Eve celebration has quickly come to a halt. We are disappointed but will just have to ring in the New Year with a quiet evening at home.

So, back to Christams - where to start???? I really am overwhelmed by everything we did this past week to celebrate Christmas...and by all of the pictures we took. I started narrating all the events and included some pics but it was getting too long and I figured you all would rather just see the pictures. So here we go:

This is of AJ all dressed up in his Christmas best on Christmas Eve night. Isn't he just so cute in his vest and tie?! Too bad he peed thru it pretty early in the night! Oh well.
Here's AJ is with his some of his cousins on Christmas Eve:


It was a long day, but so much fun!

Christmas morning we woke up to this cutie... He is such a morning baby! After his series of BIG stretches, he is all smiles!

This is one of my favorite pictures taken on Christmas Day:

Here's one of Alex sleeping in his bouncy seat with a few of his favorite new things. Not sure if you can see it here but his eyelashes look so long in this picture! So beautiful!
Here's one of the family shots we got. We were all laughing - just overflowing with happiness.
I had planned on making this post be more mushy - about how happy we are, how blessed we feel, how much more Christmas meant to us this year. But really, there are no words to describe that well enough. Those that know us well see it in our eyes, in our smiles and they hear it in our voices, in our laughs. We are forever changed because of Alex. This time last year we were at such a different place in our lives...mourning the failed IVF and preparing for our final attempt. Look at us now - A FAMILY! And we could not be happier!

I hope everyone had a MERRY CHRISTMAS! And to all of you wonderful people still waiting for your baby to come home to you - BELIEVE that it will happen. I know it's tough, especially during this time of the year when the focus is all on children. But your time will come. I hope our story gives you hope and encouragement and I look forward to hearing your stories next year!!!!!