Alexa shows off her dance moves! (video)

This is from last week in New Jersey... We were trying to get Alexa to do her latest trick: Raising her arms when you say "Touchdown!" She didn't oblige. But she DID treat us to a cute little two-step!

Back in Bethesda... We took Alexa to a park!

This park is near our house, so we can walk there. It was a little chilly out, but we took a few minutes for Alexa to run around and play. Her favorite thing is the SLIDE! Look at her! She had a ball!

Finally... Shopping! Alexa hits Short Hills Mall!

We wanted to check out the Apple iPad, so we headed to Short Hills Mall! Alexa got all dolled up for her shopping trip. But first, we stopped by the jewelry store where we got our wedding rings so we could get them cleaned and polished. Alexa loved looking at the pretty things in the glass cases! At the mall, Grandma E bought Alexa some bells and a cute hat, stay tuned for photos of it!

Alexa meets more cousins!

We went to visit my cousin Tommy today and Alexa got to meet a whole bunch of her second cousins! She also got to meet her Great Aunt Judy and her Great Uncle Jim. She had a ball! Here she is with Sarah, Matthew and Jameson.

Alea had a blast playing with her cousins. She kept putting a paper crown on Jameson, and then she pushed him over and sat on him! She reached out to give the kids hugs when we were saying goodbye. It was so cute!

Alexa's 2nd Thanksgiving

We went over to Aunt Missy's for Thanksgiving again and Alexa had fun playing with her cousins!

She also tried her very first cake ball! I think she liked it... We sure did! Yum! The cake balls were made by a neighbor of Aunt Missy's... Their company is called Sweet Jane Lynn. DELICIOUS! My favorite was the red velvet. SO GOOD!

Photo Day at Aunt Missy's (Updated!)

We headed to Aunt Missy's house today for photos! Her friend took some shots of all the kids and their Great Grandma, plus the whole family together. Can't wait to see how they came out! In the meantime, here are some shots of Alexa with her Daddy and aunt!

Update! Here are some of my favorite shots from the professional photographer! We started outside and took this great family shot of everyone. Beautiful!

Here is Alexa with cousins Samantha and Jason... So cute!

And here we are reading to Alexa. Her cousin found this book all about dogs and Alexa loved it!

On our way home!

We enjoyed our last day at the resort... I did some morning pilates on the beach while Daddy went running. It was a beautiful day and hard to leave. But we were excited to go home and see Alexa!

Meanwhile, back in New Jersey... Alexa enjoyed another play day with cousin Samantha!

Boat trip! Yay!

We had a wonderful day in the sun today... The wedding couple took all of their guests on a boat trip for some scuba diving, kite flying and lots of cerveza in the sun. What a great time!

Meanwhile, back in New Jersey, cousins Samantha and Jason played with Alexa at Grandma E's. Looks like they had a great time too!

Time for a wedding!

There were patches of rain, but basically another beautiful day in paradise! At 4 p.m., we gathered on the rooftop to celebrate the wedding of Connie and Steven, followed by an amazing reception. We had great fun. Daddy danced with me and was the life of the party!

Meanwhile, back in New Jersey... Grandma E and Aunt Missy took Alexa to a pet store. Alexa loves animals and it was too cold to go to the zoo. What a great idea! She watched the dogs and fish!

Off to Mexico!

Two of our friends are getting married in Mexico this week, so we left Alexa with Grandma E and took off for a fabulous vacation of sun and fun! Check out this resort... It's amazing!

This was our first time leaving Alexa and we were gone for 4 days and 4 nights. Turns out, she was fine! She played with her doll and stroller, ate Cherrios and had a blast with Grandma E!

Alexa loves slides!

These photos are from last weekend... We took Alexa on a walk to a nearby park. She loved seeing all the other (older) kids and playing on the jungle gym! She especially loved going down the slides!

All About Alexa at 14 months!

A little late on this post, but it's harder and harder to take these photos! Here is our cutie pie, who wanted to climb down the stairs and rip her number off. As always,  I can't decide which picture I like the best! Let me know which one you vote for!

All about Alexa at 14 Months...

• Alexa is climbing on and over EVERYTHING!
• But her latest favorite thing to do is sit. On anything. Mommy's head, a stair, a pillow, you name it.
• She also loves "walking" up and down stairs, as opposed to crawling. But she can only do this with help.
• However, she used the railing on the steps out front (during these photos) to walk down three steps all on her own!
• Alexa is now up to 6 words: Dada, Mama, duck, dog, uh-oh and her newest... BALL! It sounds more like "bowel"
• Speaking of all, Alexa can now raise both arms over her head when you say "Touchdown!"
• She also loves throwing or rolling her ball. She has several balls: a soccer ball, football and kickball
• Alexa loves putting things on her arm, like a bag or braclets. 
• And she really loves reading "Goodnight Gorilla"at bedtime!
• She continues to talk on her play cell phones... We swear she held it to her ear the other day and said, "Hello?"
• She STILL has only FOUR teeth!
• She's getting better at feeding herself with a spoon. She's now eating ravoli, breaded chicken and apples, and drinking smoothies!
• Alexa can stack her nesting blocks, but she likes knocking them down better. Sometimes she'll stack a few and then get impatient and knock them all down! She also can stack rings!
• She loves her new baby doll and carriage and took to her doll right away. It really surprised us how she immediately held the play bottle up to her baby's mouth. In the morning, she'll wake up her doll by taking her out of the carriage and thumping her on the ground. So funny!
• Alexa has finally graduated from her infant car seat to a larger convertible car seat. But for safety, she's still rear facing. At least she seems more comfortable in her new seat!

Playing soccer with Daddy

Alexa and Daddy have been practicing kicking the soccer ball. They went and played in the big field near our house on Thursday, when Daddy and Alexa were home for the holiday. Today, they showed Mommy some moves. Alexa kicked the ball! Or, er, rolled it. But she was having a blast! (Side note: Alexa stayed with a babysitter for 3 hours today and didn't cry at all! What a big girl!)

GIVEAWAY WINNER IS #7!!!

I just wanted to thank all my wonderful readers who entered my first giveaway. I ran the random number generator and lucky #7 was picked! Congratulations to Sharlene! I will contact you to get your info. In the meantime, start working on your Shutterfly Photo Book!

Alexa's new rocking giraffe!

This is Alexa's holiday gift from mommy and daddy. Sure, we'll put it under the tree. But since she still doesn't know the difference, we figured why not let her play with it now! She was a little shy at first, but now she loves climbing on and rocking! She also loves pushing the buttons to play music!

Awww... Alexa has my smile?

From my mom... She saw this picture of Alexa from a while back and it reminded her of a picture of me when I was 2 years old! Do you see the resemblance?! Stay tuned for a side-by-side of Alexa and her Daddy. We're heading up to his mom's next week and will scan in a few. I guess Alexa's our baby!

Time change caught up with Alexa

In her highchair. During breakfast. She's snoring! Seriously, if she was this tired, why did she have to wake us up at 6 a.m. this morning?! Kid needs to learn how to sleep in. Funny thing is that after her 20-minute catnap, she woke up and upon discovering that there was still half a muffin in her hand, proceeded to stuff said muffin in her mouth, along with other items on her tray. As my friend Libby said, "Sometimes you just need to rest up to finish your meal."

Alexa is already hitting the books

Gotta study hard for daycare! Not really. Here is Alexa before school, reading one of her favorite books. This book was a gift from her friend Catherine. Meanwhile, Alexa is sporting a cute T-shirt that was a gift from her friend Kaitlyn. Alexa is so lucky... Just 1 year old and she already has several lifelong friends!

Shutterfly Photo Book GIVEAWAY!

Alas, despite my most awesome Shutterfly Photo Book party (see post), I have at few promo codes left over for FREE 20-page hardcover 8x8 Photo Books. So, I am doing my first-ever giveaway!

To enter:

1.  Follow my blog. If you're already a follower, thank you!

2.  Leave a comment about what kind of photo book you'll make.

3.  If I don't already have your e-mail, let me know in your comment how I can contact you if you win!

Entries accepted until Sat, Nov. 13. Winner announced on Sun., Nov. 14! Happy Photo Book dreaming!

GIVEAWAY CLOSED. STAY TUNED FOR THE WINNER!

Shutterfly Photo Book Party!

This is pretty cool: I was selected to host a Shutterfly Photo Book Party! They sent me red Shutterfly balloons, an assortment of Shutterfly holiday card samples, a wooden easel to display one of my photo books, two packages of Worthers candies, Shutterfly tote bags and promo codes so that each of my guests could get a FREE 8x8 photo book and 10 holiday cards! Here's how it all turned out:

I invited a few mom friends over for a play date with wine and snacks. We had a great time while Alexa played with Avery and Kaitlyn! They played with Alexa's kitchen, her new doll and stroller and on her new piano! (Oooops, the piano is a Hanukkah gift from Grandma E and Pop, but we opened it early! Busted!)

Alexa surveyed the damage at the end of the party... My friends who came sans sons said it would have been a lot worse with their 14-month-old boys running around and that our girls were quite tame. Tame? Really? They all drank out of each others sippies, wanted to play the piano at the same time, regularly ran from room to room... It was all I could do to keep up with them and STILL stip my Prosecco! Sigh. Good times.

UPDATE: Here is the holiday card I made and ordered from Shutterfly!

Seasonal Chic 2010 Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Our little WILDCAT!

Every Saturday, the Northwestern folk here head to a local bar to watch the game. Today, we happened to be in town so we took our little Wildcat to watch (part of) the game! She was all smiles, and cheered and clapped -- for both teams! She also gave everyone high fives and LOVED being the center of attention, i.e. running to the front of the bar where there is a big TV and then turning around, all smiles, and waving at everyone watching the game that she was standing in front of (under, she IS kind of short). Diva? I think so...

Alexa's new baby doll and stroller!

Alexa got a very special birthday gift from her great grandmother! A baby doll, with a bottle and pacifier, plus a beautiful pink and red baby carriage! She immediately hugged the doll and started giving her the play bottle. And she has been having fun pushing her doll stroller all around the house!

As I was looking for reviews of the Corolle carriage, look what I found! Check out who else owns the very same doll carriage... Suri Cruise! How funny.

Our little MONSTER!

I forgot about these photos... Took them last Saturday after Kaitlyn's birthday party. Alexa ran around in the back yard before we went on a walk. She loved playing with the leaves! We have a lot of them!

Alexa has a horsey toy!

Remember a while back, Alexa played with a ride-on horse at a birthday party? My mom found one on eBay for $10! She bid on it and then forgot about it. And it turned up on our doorstep! It's an antique, but it still rolls. And that's all Alexa cares about!

Our little MODEL!

Both of the wonderful photographers who have taken photos of Alexa are now showcasing shots of her on their Web sites! Of course, we're not surprised. She's so cute!

Amber from Little Moon Photography features this photo of Alexa in her baby slide show:

Erin Nephew Photography also features a photo of Alexa on her gallery page! Actually, she features several shots of Alexa's friends Avery, Ella and Brandon too... Because they are all such cute babies!

We have another photo shoot coming up with Erin this weekend. We can't wait to take some Fall and holiday photos! Stay tuned to see how they come out!