Alexa's First Christmas

This was actually not only Alexa's first Christmas, but it was also Dylan and Jack's first Christmas! It was such a wonderful day. We are truly blessed to have such a great family. Here are some pics from Christmas day...

Me, Alexa, Aunt Christy and little Dylan

Alexa spending time with her Papaw (great grandpa)

Having a laugh with Meemaw (great grandma)

Grammy helping Alexa give baby Jack some love pats...

Do you like my antlers?

I want that celery stick...

Dylan, are you tired? Do you need a kiss good night??

I think you do...

A new Milestone!

Alexa started doing something really cool about 2 days ago...she has started to clap her hands! It's the cutest thing! She puts her little hands together and claps away! She's been watching a video of children playing and I guess she has picked it up. She just started doing it out of the blue. Luckily I caught it on tape. I was feeding her dinner and she suddenly clasped her little hands together. Her daddy was out of town, so I knew I had to get it on tape. I think she understands what it's called two because I'll say "Alexa, clap!" and she'll start clapping 90% of the time. So neat when she learns new things. I wonder what the next thing will be...

First Halloween Costume

The first year has many milestones, some that you may not realize are going to be important. For me, one of those is Halloween. Once you start looking for costumes and whatnot, it really gets fun. This picture is from some we took at home.
We sent out announcements containing a couple of pictures from this set.

One Strong Baby

One of the things we've learned is that a baby does not a weakling make. This girl is strong! In this picture, she had just stretched after napping in my arms, and there was no straightening her out; not right away at least. She's at the point now where when you're holding her, she has the strength to push off on you and almost out of your arms. It's really amazing to watch her strength increase. She can cut off circulation pretty quick if she gets latched onto a finger, especially when she's feeding from a bottle. She has also started to swing her arms, various toys in hand, and with a lot of force too. When she starts swingin' you better watch out! She also kicks like a mule so I think we might have an athlete on our hands.

Alexa rolls over

Today was a special day. Well, more special than usual since every day with Alexa is special. Today, after limited coaxing, Alexa rolled from back to front! She got rolled over, surveyed the lay of the land, and began to reach for the closest toy. It was great. This video was maybe the third time she has rolled over and I was lucky to get it on tape since she's not exactly doing it all the time. It's pretty tiring for her at this point, either that or we just so happen to try it just as she is getting sleepy. We are trying our best to enjoy these things as they come, but we can't help but think about the next milestone or little bit of progress.

Funny little things she does...

It's so crazy how her little personality is growing every day. She's such a happy little thing - always smiles when we look at her. Although, her habit of studying people before she cracks a smile hasn't changed one bit! We always have to tell people not to get their feelings hurt when she doesn't respond to their "ooh's and ahh's" with a smile. It may take her a few minutes to get used to a new face - actually, who am I kidding?? It can take her hours! She's extremely aware of her surroundings and lets us know in a hurry if she's not okay with the current situation!
She's growing so fast. We find ourselves already saying that we don't want her to grow up! She's so cuddly now too. I love to hug and squeeze her real tight and shower her with kisses. She used to just laugh when I did it, but now she has taken to grabbing my head by my ears and/or hair and shoving my nose or cheek in her mouth!! Then she throws her head back in laughter! The oddest thing, but it's so cute! I absolutely love it! I feel like it's her way of kissing and hugging me back.

A little over 4 months and changing fast.

Rachel and I often had curious thoughts, wondering how any children that we had would "turn out", just as any future parent might. It's only natural to wonder what you're capable of producing. We feel very blessed to have a healthy and beautiful baby girl that is growing and changing daily. Just in the last week she has started to discover the fun of shrieking and laughing in conjunction. Rachel gets her worked up with smooches and Alexa gets so excited she can't hardly stand it. We might have our first roll over from back to front any day now. She is currently enjoying tummy time more and more!

Alexa and Dylan

This picture was taken during Alexa and Dylan's first family vacation in Granbury, Texas. We were out on the balcony enjoying the evening with all the little ones and we decided that Meemaw needed her picture taken with the two babies. Dylan was a riot - he couldn't keep still if we paid him! He was all over the place. What made it even funnier was how Alexa was reacting to the whole thing. She sat there staring at Dylan as if to say "You, my friend, need to calm down". Can't wait to see these two grow up together!

Papa and Mimi and the Boys

No, it's not a new band-name. It's my dad, Penney, and Alicia's twin boys. Papa and Mimi are really loving life now that they have 3 grandkids to dote over all under the age of 4! It makes for an increasingly fun time every visit we make to the house. At first, the boys just wanted to know one thing about the baby asleep in the car seat; "can I touch it?" That made for a good laugh. Next they wanted to give her sugars, which was a very cute scene. This pic required steady hands and a lot of luck!

Papa

Having a new baby enables you to spend more time visiting with loved ones. It's one of the cool things about it. In this pic, we have 3 generations. This is one of those images that we will look back on with fond memories.

The Beginning

Well, this marks the beginning of our family blog. There will be a learning curve since we have never done this sort of thing. We hope to keep it interesting, not that it could ever be boring with Alexa around. All in all, this should be a good current events resource for all things Lewis family.

It's baby time!

After many months of anxious anticipation, it is time to leave the house for the last time as "civilians". We're off to join the ranks of the elite club known as parenthood. We are comfortable that all the necessary preparations have been made. It's a great feeling to have so much loving family to help us embark on such an important journey.

Next time you see us, we will be three.

Shower ~ March 30th

My best friend Eleni Tsaloufis and our neighbor and great friend Teri Minson threw Cory and I a wonderful shower on March 30th. We had such a wonderful time. They did such a great job with the decorations, incorporating my honey bee theme!

It turned out so great! We had so many people - the house was packed! My friend Micheal even drove all the way from Tyler to attend. We had such a great time. We will never forget it.