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!!!!!

Stay tuned....

I have lots to catch up but unfortunately not lots of time. So bear with me. We took over 200 pictures during this past week's events (surprise, surpise!), so that's a lot of uplaoding, editing and sorting! But no worries - Alex's First Christmas, as well as his Baptism will soon be shared here...I will say, that aside from the stomach virus that was passed through my family, everything was so wonderful and we feel so blessed to finally have a lil one to share this season with!

Fun in the snow

Alex is 23 weeks old today. Since we got a huge snow storm a couple of days ago we decided to take him out to play in the snow for the first time.

We made sure to bundle him up so he would stay warm enough. It made us laugh because he really can't put his arms down - we tried, but just like in Christmas Story, they sprang right back up!

Once outside, Alex made a snow angel and was just so comfy laying in the snow. He is our snow angel, for sure!


I think he had fun!

Then and Now...

OK, 2 posts in one day! I know, that NEVER happens. But this will be a quick one I PROMISE! I just had to show you this...

On the day that we brought Alex home from the hospital (he was 5 days old), K gave him sleeper sack. Since we did not think of bringing a go-home outfit with us into the hospital (yes, so NOT like me!) we dressed him in that sack. Needless to say, it was HUGE on him.

Well, this week we took a picture of him in it now. Just look at the difference! he looks like a completely different baby...

Then
Now

My bday re-visited ;-)

So my bday was great this year! How could it not be, enjoying the best gift I have ever received! I put a bow on Alex's head to be even cuter. God, I love him!


Jay and I both worked a half day and then we went to lunch so I could get a pizza burger. It was as yummy as I remember it being from when my dad use to take me there years ago. Then we went to cut down our Christmas tree. Now, the weather that day was a very strange 50-something degrees. So I wasn't sure what to dress Alex in to make sure he was comfortable. THANK GOD I went with my gut and bundled him in the big cozy snowsuit my parents bought him - it was SO WINDY which made it oddly cold. The poor lil guy! We borrowed this backpack thingy to carry him in which he LOVED! But the wind was so strong he had tears rolling down his red cheeks and bubbles coming out of his nose and mouth - YUCK! But he was a trooper. And after a few minutes the wind did die down a bit.

After we found our tree and Jay did the manly thing of cutting it down, we headed back to take some family shots by the famous candy cane. This candy cane measures your kids so each year you can compare. Alex stands just over 2 feet. I wonder where he will be next year!

By the end of our trip to the tree farm, Alex had had enough. But Mommy was not done. I wanted to get one more picture in the Sanata sleigh. After this, we left and Alex knocked out in the car.
When we got home, we put up our tree, decorated it, and put it up again. Yep, you read that right - we had a hard time getting the tree to be stable and straight this year. We thought we had it but then minutes after decorating it, it began to fall. Luckily we were there to catch it. So we fixed it, well sorta - it still leans slightly to the right. But it's stable now and that's what is important.

Every year Jay and I get an ornament that symbolizes that year for us. Last year we actually got 2 ornaments - one was a Las Vegas sign since we did our 2 IVF attempts in Vegas, and the second was a big star - to symbolize our future child thru adoption. The thing is, we didn't do our 2nd IVF transfer until after the New Year, so we had no way of really knowing that our child would come to us thru adoption. Maybe we did know...maybe part of me has always known. I do know now that we were always meant to be adoptive parents. This year's ornament is Alex's Baby's First Christmas. I just love seeing that on our tree!

We got a note card from K the other day and in one part she wrote "He (Alex) was always intended for you. Everything turned out the way it was suppose to be." She truely feels, as we do, that from the moment Alex was conceived, he was meant to be our son. He was brought into this world for us. It feels so good to know that K feels that way, too! I hope she has a wonderful Christmas and that the New Year brings her lots of love and happiness.