Graham is 13 Months and BIG NEWS!

Our sweet boy, Graham, is 13 months old today. Time is flying by! He's growing like a weed and eating like crazy. Just for breakfast he had scrambled eggs, a whole banana, vege straws and milk.

Plus, we are so happy to share that Graham is going to have a baby BROTHER in late August!!!! Woohoo!

We are so excited to meet this little on the way and introduce him to his big brother, Graham.

Graham turns ONE today!

Our sweet boy turns one today on February 23, 2015. I cannot believe it has been a whole year since we had him. So much has happened and changed but the year has been the fastest of my life. We had a little family dinner to celebrate Graham's first year!

This was Graham's face when we sang Happy Birthday to him!

Graham had to have a picture taken under the table, of course! 

It is an Alexander tradition!

Graham is WALKING! He is so cute! He walks with his arms above his head we think because that is how "Papa Joe" and his daddy have taught him as they hold his little hands.

Graham is talking up a storm. We don't know what he is saying just yet but he sure does have a lot to say. He does say, "hey!" and he says it so clearly that someone in the grocery store asked me, "Did your baby just say hey to me?"

In the pic below Graham is sitting on Papal Avery's rock in the front yard. Walking in the ice and snow was not his favorite!

He absolutely loves his Pooh Bear and sleeps with him every night. He has created two games on his own. One where he throws his ball against a cabinet and it comes back to him and the other where he throws a marker to me and I throw it back across the table. He loves doing both of these and just laughs so hard. He loves music and sounds and tries to imitate them. He also likes to shake his little head and dance. He's growing and is curious. He has a big smile when he sees you and big sparkling blue eyes. Corey gave him a hair cut and I think his little head looks like my Papal Avery.

Please say a prayer for my Papal Avery and our family as he is very sick and in the hospital.

Graham, we love you so much. You are such a wonderful gift to us. We pray that as you start a new year and continue to grow that you would know Jesus personally.

Graham is 11 months old!

 Our sweet, vocal, curious, active Graham is now 11 months old. He is nearly walking with just one hand being held and has an amazing belly laugh. He has so many teeth and can eat many things from the table. He loves bath time now as you can see in one of the videos below. We had a wonderful time in New Hampshire with his Sylvestre cousins and lots of snow and COLD (-15 degrees!) weather. He got to ride the tractor with his daddy. He seems to really pay attention to music and tries to sing along even to the hair dryer, kettle and his Aunt Bekah's violin :). He sounds pretty good to me!

What a blessing this little man is to me and his daddy and to so many others. As Corey says, "We love the Grahambo!"

I will remember all the laughs from this month. He is so giggly especially with Corey. He's such a precious boy.

Pray that our little Graham will keep his laugh and the bright light in his eyes no matter what happens in his life as he learns to cling to our sweet Jesus.

Christmas 2014

We had a quiet Christmas this year.
Christmas Eve we spent the night with The Humphrey's eating amazing southern cookin' and being with extended family. I've spent many, many hours in their home in middle and high school and many since then. They always spoil our little Graham!

On Christmas we spent the morning at home with Graham. It was nice to have a lazy time just the 3 of us. I attempted to read from the Jesus Storybook Bible, "He's here, He's here!" to Graham about Jesus coming. I had to skip a bit for his 10 month old attention span but he heard most of it :).

Then we went down to my parents for a little while before loading up to go and visit my Papal Avery.  Bradley and Crystal also went. We took him Christmas yummy food and spent a while with him, sang Christmas carols and he opened some gifts. He wasn't feeling his best but it was a nice time to be with him. He has told us many times that if he got anything for Christmas, he would get an orange and a peppermint stick. He's spoiled us grand kids our whole lives.

I've also taken advantage of the time off work to catch up with friends. I had a Hannah dinner with college friends. That always includes Crystal, Brooke and Kristin. It was long over due and we spent hours just going around sharing our hearts over a meal.

The day after Christmas I got to see some wonderful New York friends. Sandi Taylor and her girls were in Charlotte visiting her mom. Plus, the Burke's stopped by and I got meet their adopted son, Beniah! On my way home I stopped by Concord Mills to catch up with the totally amazing Tracy Thornton. I sure miss those two friends and mentors. I hope to be like them when I grow up ;). They were brief visits but mean so much to me to stay connected to them even though I don't live in NY anymore.

I got to catch up with some UNCC friends this past week. Clay, Pamela and I survived being French majors at UNCC, studied abroad in Limoges, France at the same time and traveled all over Europe together. With me living in NY, Clay in Texas and Pamela in Chicago, it has been so hard to be all together the last several years. We finally made that happen.

Also this past Saturday morning Heidi, a friend Campus Outreach/UNCC days, came for a visit as well and got to meet Graham. Such a fun couple of days catching up with some wonderful friends!

On the Sunday after Christmas we cooked a big Christmas meal together with my brothers and their wives (Jeff, Jenn, Bradley, Crystal) and my parents. Jeff and Jenn spent Christmas up in Ohio with Jenn's family. It was nice to finally be all together for our Christmas. After eating we opened gifts and had yummy dessert. Graham got spoiled once again with some fun toys and cute sleepers.

 YUM!

Graham being twins with Uncle Jeffrey and Papa Joe! Silly boys!

Notice Bradley's sweater insert like cousin Eddie. The tree on the car and he's holding National Lampoon's Christmas vacation. "It's the gift that keeps on giving all year round, Clark." That movie is my family!

Baby's First Christmas!

Christmas means a lot to me. Growing up, both sets of my grandparents would come over in the morning as we opened gifts. Then we would have lunch with the Alexander's. At some point late afternoon we would join my Drake grandparents for supper in the house we now call home.

I've been thinking a lot about how chaotic the holidays can feel. This year was much simpler and I hope to keep it that way and to celebrate what really matters. Less running around, worrying about gifts and things. I really just want to soak up the people. I'm not sure why I was thinking about this but on Christmas morning I kept thinking, "We only get a certain number of Christmases." It is true. While this season can be overwhelming and take a lot out of us, I want to savor these memories. My Paw Gene got 96 Christmases. My Papal's had 87. My Nanny got 72. My cousin Darin got 37. I've had 36. My dad's had 67. Graham's had 1.

Christ the King as our Emmanuel, God with us. This is what I hope to remember on this 36th Christmas and always.





We are excited to celebrate and spend time with the Sylvestre's in a couple weeks! Bring on the New Hampshire snow!