Alexa's first Christmas Eve!

Alexa with her mommy and two aunts... All ready for Christmas Eve!

Our family's tradition is to trim the tree together. Since my sister and her husband and my mom just arrived late yesterday, we waited and decorated the tree together Christmas Eve. Look at our nice tree!

Alexa with Mommy & Daddy in front of our fabulous tree!

Alexa with her Mommy, aunts and grandma!

Alexa with Auntie Kelly and Uncle Ben!

Another family tradition is our Christmas Eve poker game! Here is Alexa giving Daddy some advice on how to play his first hand. It must have given him good luck because long after she had gone to bed, Daddy won!

Alexa hangs out with the family

My whole side of the family has not been together since my sister Kelly's wedding in July 2008. So this week was a wonderful gathering for us!

Here we are having breakfast pancakes and passing adorable Miss Alexa around for everyone to oooooh and awwww at. She love the attention!

Daddy's little girl!

Daddy is off of work and home for the holidays, so he's gotten to spend a lot of time with Alexa this week! Here is a wonderful collection of pictures of Alexa with her daddy. Below pictures taken this week.

Alexa in my Boppy pillow!

Alexa can now hold her head up pretty well, so the next step is for her to sit up on her own! Of course, she still hasn't rolled over. But that's coming.

In the meantime, Alexa likes to practice sitting up in my Boppy nursing pillow. Here she is this morning! What a cutie pie!

And here she is a week ago...

Click HERE for a video from Daddy's iPhone.

Look Ma, no hands!

Who's taller: Alexa or the snow?

The snow stopped this morning, so after Daddy went out to shovel, we decided to measure! Alexa was 23 inches long at her last appointment and a rough measure with the measuring tape shows she's about the same, maybe 23 1/2 inches long.

How much snow fell? Well, according to the National Weather Service the total snowfall in Bethesda, Md., was 24 inches! So the answer is that the snow is taller than Alexa!

Daddy and Alexa on the walk Daddy shoveled.

Here we are in front of our snow-covered house!

Here is the dive that Daddy shoveled. What a good job!

Mommy and Alexa walking through the NIH park.

Alexa slept the whole walk!

Alexa with Daddy and Grandpa at lunch! After a few errands, we headed home.

Here is Alexa later during her bath... Eating her hands!

Alexa's first SNOW STORM!

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland outside! This is what our front yard looked like at about 9 a.m.

Our back yard by this afternoon...

But let me go back for a moment and tell you a little bit about waking up this morning. It was wonderful! After going to bed at 11 p.m., we woke up on our own at 8 a.m. Alexa, who went to sleep at 10:30 p.m., had just slept THE WHOLE NIGHT!

Now, technically, sleeping 6 hours counts as sleeping through the night. But, seriously, I need 8 hours to function! She slept 9 1/2 hours! So I slept longer than I have since before she was born!

And the best part... She didn't wake up crying. She was awake and happily hanging out in her crib. I walked into her room and was greeted by a huge smile! Here is Alexa this morning enjoying her chair - and watching the snow outside!

Around noon, we ventured outside to check out the snowfall. Our street was covered!

Here is Alexa with her Daddy and Grandpa at the NIH park near our house. The field was a vast expanse of snow!

We walked on the path to town... There were a few people out, but for the most part, the streets were deserted!

Luckily, our favorite Italian Market was open, so we got some cappuccinos!

Alexa stayed toasty warm in her new snow suit!

But the journey wore her out, so she took a nap with Grandpa!

Bumbo! We are soooo getting one!

Shhhhhh! Don't tell Alexa, but this is going to be her Christmas present from Mommy & Daddy! A bunch of the ladies from my mom's group got together today to hang out at one woman's house and Alexa got to try out her son's Bumbo seat! She loved it!

This seat, made from foam, was great because it allowed her to sit up. And she couldn't get out! Add the tray, to hold her toys, and it's a great place for her to "hang out." Love it! We are soooo getting one!