Texas Tech!

His Zia Lindsey and Aunt Lauren will be most happy to see that he loves to cheer for the Red Raiders and get his Guns Up! He even practices before bed.




Dancing and cheering was more fun than watching the baseball game.

Christmas

Can't believe January just slipped away so fast and I haven't even posted about our wonderful Christmas yet. So, February has been cold. The first three days of Feb. were late starts at work 11am, 10am and 9:30am. It's been nice to sleep in a little and hang out at home before coming to work, but it really hasn't made the days any shorter. Here is how January and February have been at our house.

So, let's see if I can catch up on Christmas and January with some pictures to tell most of the story.

In December, Alexander and Mommy went to the Carol of the Lights at Texas Tech!

Alexander loved the music and lights and just being on the bussling campus in the dark. He ran all over Memorial Circle and sang along with the caroling. We ate dinner in Mommy's office before the festivities. It was a late night for us, but we had fund even though Daddy was out of town and couldn't go with us.

We worked up until Christmas Eve eve and Alexander got sent home from school early that Thursday even though he wasn't really sick. So we took the half day opportunity to load the car and get on the road to Booker by 3pm. This gave us an extra day at Pops and Aba's house with Zia Lindsey and Grandma Ruby.

I had to include one of, if not the best picture of Grandma Ruby that I have ever taken. It was great to see her smiling face and let Alexander have time to hang out with his wonderful, Great Grandma.

Booker Christian Church had a wonderful Christmas Eve service.

Alexander really enjoyed the music.

Although Alexander really enjoyed church, we found out that he was really afraid of the Santa impersonator who handed out gifts after church.


The real Santa was very good to us all as usual. Christmas morning we woke with excitement to:

This year was much more exciting than Alexander's first Christmas because he could really enjoy it. He still doesn't love to open presents, but he loved that everyone got up at the same time as him and set in a circle around the room just laughing at the show he was putting on. He thought he was the center of attention, wonder where he got that idea?


Alexander enjoyed sitting at the big table and eating with Pops whenever he could since Pops sometimes works too much.

Not sure if Daddy and Zia were teaching Alexander progressive rummy or if he was teaching them.

We also had a great exchange with Nana and Bumpa in January. Gotta keep the Christmas spirit throughout the new year.

Besides Nana and Bumpa's visit and the Horned Frogs winning the Rose Bowl!! Go Frogs!, our January was pretty calm. We were really busy at work with the start of the Spring semester, but our weekends have been pretty relaxing and fun like playing at the park.

February is going to be busy with travelling. Alexander will take his second trip by airplane this weekend to Uncle Marcus and future Aunt Lauren's wedding shower in Houston. We wanted to escape this cold weather, but looks like it will be ahead of us getting there. Our first flight was already cancelled, so hopefully our new flight will get us there for a fun-filled weekend.

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.