Alexa Joy at 1 month!

Our sweet Alexa Joy turned ONE MONTH old while we were down at KALEO this summer! She has been quite the world traveler, even at 4 weeks old...
We are loving life with our 2nd little miracle... She has a look and a personality all her own and we just love it! People tend to say she looks a lot more like her Mommy... So it's fun cause Joel and I both have our own little mini-me's!

Here are some fun facts about our 1-month old...

• Loves to be swaddled all the time!
• LOVES to be held and cuddled as much as possible...
• Hates to be cold, even for one second.
• Will always let us know right away when she has a dirty diaper.
• Is starting to like her baths...though she wasn't so sure at the beginning!
• Loves tummy time and is developing some very strong neck muscles!
• Enjoys her big sister, though can sometimes get overwhelmed with all her "love" :)

We thank God for our little Alexa Joy! She has definitely brought JOY to our lives!

Ellie is 23 months!

Aaaaah! That's right! Ellie is 23 months old!!! How did this happen? My "baby" is now a little girl... She gets more fun by the day and you can't help but LOVE this little personality!
As you can see...we have a very smiley toddler. She is a very happy girl and is at her most fun stage yet... She is also quite a bit of work these days as she tests boundaries, exerts her independence and has more energy than 10 college students combined! :)

Here are some other fun facts about our almost 2 year old!

*After spending almost 2 weeks with her Grandparents in Kentucky after Alexa was born, she has developed quite the southern accent! She now pronounces down with two syllables, and says "baby" with quite the southern drawl! It's pretty cute.

* She is in LOVE with her new baby sister (if you hadn't caught on to that in previous posts!) and wants to be with her every second of the day. No jealousy here...just more love than the baby can handle! :)

* She's become obsessed with brushing her teeth!

*Puzzles are one of her new loves.

*She is starting to sing lots of songs... Two of her favorites are twinkle twinkle little star and "No One" off of the Chipmunks the Squeakuel CD. We've heard that CD about a zillion times!

*Nana J is teaching her her address and how to spell "HOT" and "COLD". A little speller already at less than 2 years old. Today I heard her practicing her numbers in spanish! Thank goodness for a Grandma who was a kindergarten teacher for 30 years! :)

The list goes on, but those are a few of the highlights...

Loving life with our two girls!

back from hiatus...

Sorry that it's been so long since you've seen a post from me! It's been a BUSY few weeks, to say the least... On Alexa's 2 week birthday, we left Manhattan and started our trek to KALEO - our student summer program down in Gulf Shores, Alabama! We spent 15 hours on the road the first day...took a day to recuperate in Kentucky with Joel's family and then drove the other 12 hours down to Alabama on day 3. All in all, it was a great trip!
Here are some of the most recent pictures of our sweet Alexa Joy! She is changing by the day... These pics make her look like a little redhead, though her hair really isn't red at all... It was pretty dark when she was born and it's turning to blonde very quickly! She is a really good baby, now that we've started to figure out how to get her to sleep at night! We had a few rough nights of 2 hours of sleep or less. Whew! Never had those with Ellie, so it was good for me! :)

Alexa is a very content little lady... she LOVES to be held and cuddled. She's got beautiful little "piano fingers" and pretty lips! Those seem to be the first two things that everyone comments on about her! That and the full head of hair that she has already! :)

And as you can see... Ellie still LOVES her sister! She's the first person she asks for every morning and she gives her a million kisses, hugs and fist pounds a day. We have to be careful or Ellie will be putting a blanket or pillow over her head (very affectionately, of course!) or laying ON her with all her weight. Ha! She also is constantly wanting to cram a binky in Alexa's mouth, or pounding on her back like Mama does when she burps the baby. Ellie is already such a wonderful and motherly big sister... It's adorable to watch!

We continue to feel so blessed with our two little beauties! We've been lucky enough to have the help of both sets of Grandparents since the baby has been born. Joel's parents will leave this weekend and then I am so thankful that I'll still have the students around to lend a helping hand!

We're having a great time down here in Gulf Shores, despite the effects of the oil spill... YES, oil has hit the beach, but thankfully our students still have jobs and have only lost a few hours thus far.

I also got to celebrate my 34th birthday while we were down here in Alabama! It was a wonderful day and I felt spoiled by Joel and the other staff and students at the program... They are all too good to me! The below picture is of Joel and I at a surprise lunch that the staff threw at our favorite Mexican restaurant in town... I made Joel get under the hat with me! Is he cute, or what? :)

We have LOVED getting to live with all of the students in the same hotel. It's kind of like being back in the dorms again! This next picture is of Alexa and I having lunch with some of the girls at the program. It's SO nice to just have to run down the hall or down the stairs to get to be with everyone. It really is Joel and my favorite time of the year! We'd still live in the dorms with everyone if we could. And we love having our girls grow up around all of these wonderful college students!

So that's a little update from our corner of the world... We will be here until July 3rd and then we hit the road again! More to come soon!