December

Well, another month has passed without a blog post. Not that there wasn't a lot to write about, but like most people in November and December, we've been busy. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Oklahoma City. So thankful that Alexander was cleared for soft solids and we could go see all the family. It was great to meet Marcus' future in-laws and see the aunts, uncles and cousins dote over Alexander. He hammed it up over lunch while stuffing himself with mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. That boy can eat.

GG and all the great-grandkids

The end of the semester has also been busy for Jason and Stephani. Stephani finished her final on December 13th. The next day, Alexander saw the surgeon and was cleared to eat all foods including crunchy things again. The TTU students went on break officially on December 15th. Alexander has been having fun at school with Christmas parties. He's loving dancing and running around. He and Sampson are better friends all the time. He's a little more talkative and definitely more active. He also seems to love making people laugh.

We are excited for Santa to come and get to spend the holiday with both sides of the family. Alexander will finally get to meet his 1st cousins! Should be fun to see all the kids playing together. Not sure what Alexander asked for when he saw Santa at school this year, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was food related. His teacher had to give him a graham cracker so they could get the picture without him crying or running away.

Merry Christmas!!! And Happy New Year from the Biggs to your family!

Palate Surgery

Well, it hasn't even been one week and I am going to put pictures up. I'm amazed.



Monday, November 15th, we finally had the cleft palate surgery. It was originally scheduled for October 13th and after two reschedules, we were all ready. Surgery went well.



Lots of thanks are in order: Thanks Nana and Bumpa: for keeping Alexander out of school for a week so he wouldn't get sick; school: thanks for helping us out; Nana: thanks for stocking the freezer with post surgery meals; Aba and Grandma Ruby: thanks for babysitting Sampson, being there for us and helping out after surgery; Greg: thanks for being the best and texting during surgery and checking up after; Family, church family and friends: thanks for all the prayers, check up calls and visits, snacks and food sent; Rowley: for being a great surgeon.



Warning: Some pictures have blood and sad images.

Family Pre-Op waiting on Dr. to arrive after we got to hospital at 5:30am.

Alexander enjoyed his double thumb sucking right up until the last minutes before surgery.

When they gave him the "drunk juice" right after this, he was one happy, funny guy. Wish we had a video of that before they took him to the OR.

WARNING BLOODY PHOTO Post Surgery

Only letting one parent go back to recovery is hard for all three of us.

After finally getting up to the room, Daddy consoled Alexander. Sometimes he just wanted Mommy too. He was very cuddly trying to get over the anethesia.

Day 2: Finally some good sleep in our big boy bed.

Day 2 and Day 3, Quite bored trying to stay in bed all day. So we spent most day three riding around the hospital visiting people and waiting for our Dr. to come release us to go home.

Alexander would have driven right out of the hospital if they would have let him. We got home Wednesday evening, and things have been going well since then. Still getting used to the choo-choo arm braces and only being able to drink instead of eat. We are all really ready to go back to solid foods. Hopefully by Thanksgiving! Definitely lots to be thankful for this year!!

What does the lion say?

Alexander is getting pretty good at answering questions on demand. I think his favorite is "What does the lion say?" He has some other sounds and does to dog one better than this video shows, but the video shows it pretty well. Hope you enjoy.

Big Red Chair

I went back to my old Little Biggs blog and here's what I found:

"Biggs Chair
Posted by: littlebiggs on: April 21, 2009

There’s a long story to why we were so excited to get this picture taken today. Maybe sometime after I finish this 10 page paper for my grad class I can tell you about it. But, regardless of the story, the picture came out cute and Little Biggs is very obvious in this fun picture. So, here’s the three of us in a Texas-size chair."

So, I don't think I ever did tell that whole story. So here it is, the story told through pictures through the years.

For Jason's birthday in 2006, I made him a "Jason and Stephani" book all about our relationship starting with a ticket from the play we went to on our first date up until April of 2006. On the last page I put "To Be Continued..." and several of the pages were blank.

When Jason came to visit me in Spain in October 2006, he brought be a long wrapped box and made me carry it all over Barcelona until we found the perfect place to open my gift. In a beautiful chapel above the Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus church on the top of Mount Tibidabo overlooking all of Barcelona, Jason opened the package to reveal my book. Jason started to turn to the "To be Continued..." page, but I started at the beginning, making him read the whole book with me :-). I was surprised that there were no blank pages in this book. He had continued the book! He wrote about me being gone and his time without me. As I turned to the last page, he was trying to get on one knee between the tight pews of the chapel and pulled out the most beautiful ring I have ever seen.

Anyway, this isn't about his proposal, it's about our book and his creativity. On one of the pages he put this:

This story is also about the fun we have together. So, in April of 2009 when I was pregnant with Little Biggs, I wrote the post you saw at the beginning and it was accompanied by this photo:

So in April, we were excited to continue the story and have a pregnant picture in the Big Red Chair. I didn't really think about it again much until an announcement came across my e-mail a couple of weeks ago that the Big Chair was coming back to campus! Yes, that's right, Jason and I drove across town during our lunch break to take Alexander out of school for a photo op. We are those parents. So here's the reward and next chapter of the Biggs Chair Photos.

We tried to get one of Alexander all alone in the great big world, but he was not excited about the idea of being left up there alone. The photographer was afraid we would let him jump out of the chair. He wasn't going anywhere, but wasn't going to smile about it either. Probably more appropriate anyway since thankfully none of us are all alone anymore :-).

New and Old Tricks

Alexander has been playing "Where's Alexander?" aka Peekaboo for many months. It was really fun when he started pulling the blanket over his own face insisting that you ask, "Where's Alexander?" before he would show his smiling face. I think most kids enjoy this game. A few months ago he started playing in the bath tub. Sitting in the bath, he would duck his head until the person in the bathroom asked for him and he would POP up laughing. It's been fun for all of us, but I think Mommy and Daddy were both surprised and excited when Alexander started playing in the living room. I think this started in June sometime, but we finally took a video at the beginning of July.

He had been playing for a long time when I finally got the camera out, so it is a little short and less enthusiastic, but gives you a good idea.

On Alexander's first birthday, he got a walking toy from Aunt Robin and Cousin Morgan. That afternoon he started showing off his skills and has gotten better and better at pushing his toy. He loves it and can now do pretty well to manuver around furniture and walls.

We haven't been really good at taking videos. He's had this toy outside, at the church picnic, in Amarillo, Booker...We take it everywhere because he loves it and people love to watch him pushing it. But I really should try to get some better footage. This doesn't do him justice.

1st Birthday

Well, a month and three days after Alexander turns 1 and I'm finally getting some pictures online. We have many more. It's been a fun but very busy month since his wonderful party. I'll try to get more on at some point.

Zia and Uncle Marcus came to town for the festivities. We surprised Uncle Marcus by telling him he needed to go pick Zia Lindsey up at the airport before coming to the party. But, when he got to the airport, it wasn't Lindsey waiting for him, it was his fiance, Lauren.

Guess someone who couldn't make it called to sing him "Happy Birthday!"

He was pretty excited about his presents although his friend Piper did most of the unwrapping because he wasn't very interested in that. He got lots of great stuff from all his friends. We are truly blessed. Family did a great job too. Thanks to family for all the setting up, decorating and serving it was a great day! And, thanks for transporting presents because he got so much stuff it didn't all fit in our car.

Mom and the birthday boy. He wore this tux and his boy guests wore tux bibs. His girl guests got blue tutus to dress for the occassion.

Zia Lindsey had the cakes made and picked the theme herself. Alexander's little top hat applesauce cake was really cute and delicious if you ask him. He kept asking for more. After a long time of demolishing it, I put him back on the floor to play with his friends even though he kept asking for "mas."

Lipscomb County, Texas

I was going to work through lunch, but I don't want to work through lunch. I have to work before and after lunch, so I should use this time to blog.

I don't have any photos or videos, but this weekend should be recorded in Alexander's first year somehow, so I will tell you about it in writing only. Maybe later I can get some pics from my mom and add to this post.

Still not quite sure how, but Nana Gayle convinced us at the last minute on Friday night to travel to Booker this weekend. We haven't been out of Lubbock in awhile and although it was very last minute and odd for us, we loaded up the whole family, Sampson included and headed to Booker Saturday morning. Of course, we stopped in Amarillo to pick up Uncle Marcus. We didn't make it home in time for a wedding shower I would have loved to attend, but we did get to see some old friends before we headed to Lipscomb for dinner.

For those of you who have never been to Lipscomb, it is the county seat less than 30 miles from Booker. Booker is the largest town in the county with 1,315 inhabitants. "So, why would you go to Lipscomb for dinner?" you ask. Well, Mom had said there was a great live band playing and a bar-b-que dinner that they put on once a month in the summers. Lipscomb is kind of an artsy place and has a long heritage as the county seat. I have personally only been there a couple of times and only remembered that they had the courthouse. In fact there are several buildings. A few houses, a couple of art galleries and I think even a grocery/convenience store. I think they claim 44 as a population although I am not sure all 44 live in the city limits.

Since we had made the 4 hour drive and Jason and Alexander had never been to Lipscomb, dinner and live music sounded like a great night. The weather was nice and we had our lawn chairs ready to go. When we arrived, Uncle Marcus, Jason and I were a little surprised that this was not an event that drew most of the people we knew in the county. The median age of the event was 65.

Uncle Marcus said he wished he could videotape that night to show Alexander, because he'd probably never see something like this again. It almost felt like we had gone back in time. It was a carefree and friendly time where time seemed to stand still.

The line for pork tenderloin, black-eyed pea salsa, corn bread, sweet potatoes and cobbler was wrapped around the wooden platform where the band and several dancing couples were already enjoying themselves. The square dance callers were singing a karaoke-esk ditty as the cowboys twirled their poofy-skirt wearing partners. Alexander danced (head banged) to the square dancing as we sat in our chairs around the platform and enjoyed dinner.

After dinner, the hostess took the mic to make announcements and introduce the band. The first announcement was about the outhouse usage. She wanted to remind everyone that if you were using one of the three outhouses in the adjacent field, to please take the lantern hanging outside inside with you so that other patrons would know that you the outhouse was in use and wouldn't have to make the walk until the lantern returned to its hanging position.

The second announcement was about the contest of the night. There had been a "Well Water Tasting Contest" for tonight's event. A family friend of ours won the second best tasting well water prize. Last she announced that we could put money in the big milk cans that would be passed around to help support the band for the evening.

The band took the stage and played some good country music. Unfortunately a couple of their singers were about as good as the winner of last year's America's Got Talent, Kevin Skinner from Kentucky. But, the music was good and many couples continued to dance. I'm sure the band went on for hours, but it was getting late for Alexander. He was still dancing and enjoying the whole scene when we loaded up to get him home for bath time. He went straight to bed and slept long and hard after his Lipscomb adventures.

New Picture

This was taken back on Easter Weekend during the commercial shoot, but if you are having a rough week like we are, maybe you need to see three smiling faces. I think Alexander laughed out loud right after this shot. Ready for the weekend, but feeling better looking at this smiling face, tongue and all.

More Swimming

Alexander did great last night! One trick Mommy really loves and is impressed with is his ability to hold himself on the side of the pool. He did lots of swimming, dunking and tossing last night. Ready to continue swimming whenever we can without the schedule.

He almost looks like he's ready for Daddy to let go. Chasing Mommy and piggy-back were two of his favorite games in the pool. Although simply splashing is pretty cool too.

The back float is Alexander's least favorite.

Swimming

A month of Swimming Lessons and tomorrow is the last one :-(. Alexander will miss getting together with all the other kids, but we will have to make frequent trips to the pool because he LOVES it. We will keep in good practice before getting to the beach in San Diego in about 1 month!

This weekend we plan to show off his swimming skills to our friend Lindsay and then in a month to Zia Lindsey. He does love to show off when it comes to swimming. We have some new pictures and video with Daddy we will have to add later. Here's the first week of swimming.

Telethon and Two Minute UMC Spot

Well, the weekend was successful but definitely busy. I think it wore us all out, but Alexander was a trooper. Alexander got hives on Friday afternoon. They went away and were more than back on Saturday morning when he woke up. They looked horrible! Leave it to Jason's son to get hives on the weekend of his live TV debut. Jason was always sick or injured on his birthday and holidays as a kid.

Alexander had fun at the telethon where he helped answer phones and was never without eager hands to hold him.

He was on the evening news Friday night,

sitting with Karin McCay and trying to eat the mic.

His spot ran on Saturday at 2:30 for the kick-off of the telethon. You can see the piece at: http://www.kcbd.com/Global/category.asp?C=138135. This doesn't include the live part we did at telethon, but it was short and Alexander tried again to hold and talk into the microphone. We stayed for an hour or two on Saturday.

On Sunday, we went back after church and stayed until the final total was announced. Children's Miracle Network raised $1,006,902 this year! On Sunday, we helped our favorite morning DJs, Jeff, Kelly and Mudflap answer phones and they showed our UMC commercial and we did a short live interview with Abner from News Channel 11. Alexander was jumping, waving and clapping during this interview....luckily stealing the show. Then, all the kids went out at the end with the final total and confetti.

VBS started up Sunday night and went really well. Alexander started swim lessons on Monday! More to come on that in the next post. We finally found our two minute spot on the UMC website, so here's another video you can check out. https://www.umchealthsystem.com/truestories/

We survived the Telethon, three nights of VBS, two nights of Swim Lessons and our first three day Red Raider Orientation. Definitely resting up this weekend and looking forward to a swedish massage on Saturday!

Busy Week, Busier Weekend Ahead

Summer finally feels like it is here! Bring on the fun!

Memorial Day weekend was very fun and relaxing! We had toured Texas Tech with the best tour guide the campus has ever seen. We bought a great new rug for the living room. We had some wonderful salmon dinner one night and a great cook-out the next thanks to Chef J Biggs. We enjoy the Drive-In. Stephani won a couple rounds of Progressive Rummy and Speed Scrabble.

This week has been quite an adventure for Mr. Alexander.

Monday, Great-Grandma Ruby, Nana Gayle, Pops and Zia Lindsey all had to drive home. Then we went to a luncheon with friends from all over the world and had to tell some very special guys "Good-bye, until we meet again in Syria and Turkey."

Tuesday, our new babysitter from Perryton, of all places, came over to play with and take care of Alexander. He really likes her and did great eating and napping for a new person.

Wednesday, she was good enough to come back! And I think day 2 was just as good, if not better. Also, Wednesday night we had our monthly speech visit and worked on eating some chuncky avocado. Yummm!

Thursday, Daddy stayed home in the morning until our new babysitter got out of class. Then the day would be spent learning a new babysitter and her learning Alexander.

Friday, our Perryton girl will be back and ending the week on a high note!

Friday night is the kick off to KCBD's Children's Miracle Network Telethon with a Pizza Party!

Saturday morning Mom's going to a baby shower for one of Alexander's future friends. Then we will be on TV around 2:30 on Saturday afternoon. Mom and Dad will be answering phones at the telethon while Alexander will be entertaining the people with his smile, crawling and new tricks. The telethon goes until midnight on Saturday, although I'm sure we won't be there near that long.

Sunday, church in the morning, lunch at the hospital for the end of the telethon, telethon excitement until about 5pm with final totals being announced, and then a cook-out at church to kick off VBS. Mom's doing Arts and Crafts during VBS Sunday-Wednesday nights.

Better rest today and some tomorrow to get ready for all of this.

Check out Alexander's website where people can donate to Children's Miracle Network at UMC to help kids all over Lubbock, West Texas and New Mexico.

http://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=420693&lis=0&kntae420693=A8F61ECE39C54F3BA4C9AB144E7CBDD5&supId=293283626

May

Another fun month down, schools out, Summer Red Raider Orientations are starting and Alexander is 10 months old! Hard to believe, but it's been a great 10 months and looking foward to the last 2 before his first birthday!

This is another year of weddings for our friends. Alexander and I drove up to Heather C's wedding shower in Booker a few weeks ago. We stayed with Uncle Marcus and he came too. It was a fun weekend for Alexander to show off his crawling ability.

Mother's Day was nice. At church, they asked all the Mom's to wear hats. I think most people were surprised that the youngest mom at church would actually go along with the other Mom's. Jason didn't think the hat suited me very well, but I sure got a lot of compliments at church and am obviously very proud to show off that I am a Mom. Alexander wore his "Mommy's Allstar" baseball outfit to church.

We went to Fort Worth and Dallas two weeks ago and had one of the best trips back we have had in 3 years. It was great to see people at TCU on Friday and eat at Mama's on Friday night. I got to celebrate Heather's birthday!! And we had so much fun with Nana and Bumpa. Saturday in Dallas with Nana and Bumpa and at Erin and Kevin's Wedding was too much fun!! We loved the hotel, Alexander got to roam around downtown Dallas, and it was great to catch up with Pi Kapps from all over the country.

Alexander's best tricks are "Give Me Five," "Clap, clap," and covering his face with clothes to hear, "Where's Alexander?...There He Is!"

We had to get out some new clothes for the wedding weekend. Outfits with hats are too cute. But I think Alexander and Mommy have one thing in common, they look better without hats.

Someone was having too much fun trying on new clothes that our friend Davis gave us...

Who, me?

This Memorial Day weekend, Zia Lindsey, Nana Gayle and Great-Grandma Ruby are driving in. Can't wait! Drive-in, cook-out with friends, and lots of playing and crawling around. Three days off!! We'll try to take some more pictures and keep you updated. Next week, we are without daycare and Alexander is going to have an intersting week with three different babysitters and a day spent with triplets. Maybe we'll get some pictures of that too!