Pictures of Christmas!

Our first family Christmas was quite exciting in Booker!  We spent a lot of time with the extended family and really enjoyed the low-key Christmas.  The Murphys came through town twice and it was very exciting for them to finally meet Alexander.  Alexander loved spending time with his Aunt and Uncle, Grandparents, Great-Grandmas and Mom's family.

 

Of course, Alexander was the center of attention whenever he was awake.

At the end of the stay, he was sad to pack up and travel home.

Winter Wonderland!

I am very disappointed that the blog has turned in to once a month blogging during lunch at work.  I really need to go get our home computer fixed because the Ipod can't blog.  But, it's another errand that I keep putting off.  Jason has been working more in the evenings and will be leaving town this week for a conference.  Between that, the snowy/rainy weather and actually going to the gym a few times per week, running errands has really been put on the back burner.

So, most people probably log on to see cute pictures of Alexander, not read me rambling on and on.  So, without further ado, here are more pictures of the cutest kid on the block.

Christmas Eve was a crazy day for travel with snow like this.

I think this is the wettest winter Lubbock has seen in awhile.  We got out of school 1 and 1/2 days at the end of January.  It was super cold, but we decided to take pictures outside anyway.

The cold doesn't keep Jason from grilling out...even in flip-flops

Alexander started daycare on January 4th.  Besides catching a few colds and such, he loves it!  Sometimes when we go to pick him up, he doesn't even notice we are there, because playing is just too much fun!  He is learning a lot from his classmates who are all older and more mobile.  This is his teacher, Miss Debra.  He is definitely teacher's pet.

Alexander started eating cereal a couple of weeks ago and started peas this last weekend.  It is hit or miss sometimes.  He has had a couple of really good feedings, but the bad ones are really bad.  Green peas coming out the nose and mouth, is not the most appetizing sight.

Merry Christmas (just a little late)!

We had a wonderful time in Booker for Christmas and New Year's.  The drive to Booker, was horrible!  But, Alexander and Sampson did great.  We left at 8am on Christmas Eve Morning.  Lubbock had been hit by freezing rain and snow, but we didn't know how bad it was until we got out in it.  An hour after we left our house, we made it to the Lubbock Airport.  We thought about turning around, but knew that driving back through Lubbock would be tough and thought that maybe just north of Lubbock, we would be out of this mess.  Alexander and Sampson slept on and off in the back seat and never seemed to mind that we were only going 25 miles per hour and being blown from side to side with the 40 mile per hour wind gusts and the icy roads.  It didn't clear up in an hour and Jason did an amazing job to not end up like the 40-50 cars we saw in the ditches as we drove.  We were in a long line of people travelling that day.  Finally, at Tulia, the ice was clearing up even though the wind was getting worse.

After we had been on the road for four hours, we stopped in Amarillo (normally 1hr 45min - 2hr trip).  Luckily, the parents of Stephani's best friend from childhood live in Amarillo.  We took a nice long stop where Alexander could eat, we could eat and lounge around for a little before getting back in the car.  Also, Stephani's best friend happened to be in town and his brother and is wife and kids came over too.  It was a nice reunion and a good start to the Christmas spirit.

We did make it to Booker in time for Christmas Eve service at Booker Christian Church.  It was great to see everyone there and show off Alexander's new lip for the first time in Booker although most people had already seen it on the front page of the Booker News the day before.  Yes, Alexander is famous, frontpage news in good ol' Booker, TX.

Food, family, games, and fun for all for the next few days.  It was great that Alexander had time with Uncle Marcus, Aunt Lindsey, Great Grandma Ruby and his grandparents.  Thanks to weather in Oklahoma, we also saw Great Aunt Debbie and Don.  Over the weekend Alexander got to meet many more family members even though he tended to be in bed during some of the most fun times of the weekend.

Santa was very good to Alexander.  He didn't know what was going on but had a good time playing with everyone and his new toys.

Ok, I am going to go ahead and post this because lunch at work is almost over and our home computer is still on the fritz.  I promise to add some pictures soon, more about the break and more about how great daycare is going. 

Lip Recovery

Alexander's surgery went well and then he had almost three weeks of NO SUCKING!  If you have ever been around a 4-5 month old, you would know that sucking on your hands, pacifier, bottle or anything they can get in their mouths is the best way to pass the time.  Alexander was given rainbow, floaty-like splints to keep his arms from bending and his hands from their favorite place, the mouth.  Every night at bathtime, the hands tried their best to make it to the mouth.  Mom was feeding him with a syringe.  They really had a system going and feedings were going well.

The Sunday after the surgery, Daddy left for a conference in Florida.  Grandma Gayle and Great Grandma Ruby came to spend the week helping Mommy. While Daddy was gone, Grandma Gayle and Mommy took Alexander to Covenant on Thursday to get the stitches removed.  Daddy came home Thursday night.  The eating system was a little rough at first.  Alexander and Mom and a rhythm with the syringe that took awhile to learn.  Dad's rhythm was different and the first feedings with Dad were not pleasant.  But, then Alexander and Dad got their own rhythm and after Mom had been off for two full weeks, she was able to head back to work to do a little catching up.

While she was working, the boys stayed home and did laundry.

Then on Tuesday, December 22nd the whole family went to Dr. Rowley's office at 3:15pm.  He said the lip looked great!  He gave Alexander the "ok" to go back to the bottle and have his hands back for Christmas.  Alexander's only Christmas wish was to have those hands back!  So, Tuesday night when CMN came to do some more video of their Miracle Baby, we all enjoyed the smiling, jumping, and most of all the hand sucking! :-)

So, Alexander got his Christmas wish a couple of days early.  Now we can all enjoy our trip and our Christmas celebrations in Booker a little more!  We are excited to see family and everyone in Booker.  Merry Christmas to all those we won't get to see before this year is over!!

Merry Eve of Christmas Eve!!

Thankful for a new lip!

Our Thanksgiving was very nice.  Low-key.  Alexander and Stephani got up to watch the Macy's Day parade and make pumpkin pie while Daddy slept in. We had a wonderful fried turkey and great fixins.  On Friday, Bob and Jason fixed the fence while Stephani, Cindy and Alexander shopped and decorated the house for Christmas.  We fried up some onion rings, pickles and jalapenos as we continued to us our new fryer with the beautiful weather.  I think Alexander enjoyed his first Thanksgiving because all four of us were home and having fun for 3 days in a row.  I think he'll enjoy his second one even more since he can actually partake of the good food.

His Hat Says: "My First Thanksgiving"

Mesmerized by the Parade

 

Our turkeys.  The one on the left weighs 3lbs more.

A week after Thanksgiving, we went to University Medical Center at 5:30am for Alexander's cleft lip surgery.  When we got to our holding room, they gave Alexander a funny hat to keep his head warm.  We had two hours to wait for Dr. Rowley to get there.  Alexander laid in his bed and listened to Antonio Vega, which always calms him down.  We were visited by our anesthesiologist friend, Greg.  And then he walked Mommy and Daddy to the waiting room while the nurse took Alexander to meet with Dr. Rowley. 

Mom and Dad had it pretty easy compared to the last surgery where the "30 minutues" took 2 and 1/2 hours just waiting in a quiet waiting room.  We were expecting about 2 hours this time and had some nice distractions.  After the anethesia had set in, they called and we headed down to the cafeteria for breakfast.  If you are in the area and have never eaten at UMC, you definitely should.  It is great food at a great price.  We had some free food vouchers from our lab tech on Tuesday who got Alexander's blood and urine samples all over Jason's pants.  Also, since Alexander is a Children's Miracle Network Miracle Kid, they came by to visit and pay for our breakfast.  After breakfast, we had more time and went to visit the pediatrician that had help Alexander his first two times in the hospital and who recommend Alexander to Children's Miracle Network.  It was great to see her and show off pictures of Alexander.  She promised to stop by our room later when we checked in, and she did get to see Alexander in person. 

So, we got back to the waiting room and just as I pulled out my Christmas cards and wrote a couple, the phone rang for us.  Alexander was in recovery and "wants his mommy."  So, we headed down to recovery.  This is by far the worst part of surgery days for Mommy.  Seeing your baby fresh out of anethesia, still groggy, bloody and obviously in pain, is not an easy thing.  I sat and rocked him has he moaned and whimpered.  It was also hard because only one parent could be in the "room" at a time.  So, I asked the nurse if he could at least come by to see Alexander.  I think this was even harder for him because he saw his moaning son for just a second but couldn't do anything about it.  Our room on the pedi floor was ready so he went to sit in it alone until Alexander and I could go.

We stayed the night in the hospital.  Nana and Bumpa came to visit in the afternoon and had lunch.  Children's Miracle Network came to check in with us again.  Then people from Jason's office stopped by a couple differnt times and one of Stephani's friends came by too.  It was a good night.  We took turns sleeping and taking care of Alexander and surprisingly we got quite a bit of sleep.  We were home by noon on Friday.  Nana and Bumpa said their tearful good-byes at the hospital and headed back to Tennessee.  Alexander didn't need any pain medicine the rest of Friday.

Grandma and Grandpa Simpson and Great Grandma Ruby came in to town Saturday for lunch.  Grandma Ruby stayed when they headed back to Booker.  Grandma Gayle came back on Monday to help out.

His lip looks great, but definitely different.  I had to ask him a couple times on Thursday who he was and what he had done with my baby boy.  Of course now we are getting use to it and it almost seems like he has always had a lip.  At first I was a little sad that his smile had changed and he can't move his upper lip, but now his eyes and bottom lip do all the work and his smile is great!  He's been in a great mood.  A little different than before with a new schedule and a new way of eating that he is slowly mastering.  But, his personality is still great and fun to watch everyday.

We had a great Thanksgiving and now we all have something to be very thankful for.  Hopefully, Alexander will be back to sucking for Christmas.  All he wants for Christmas is his two hands for his mouth.

Guns Up!

Tomorrow is the bigg surgery day.  We were kinda behind on blog posts, so here's three within 24 hours.  Wanted to make sure we let everyone know that we have been having lots of fun and life isn't all work and surgeries with no play.  We go in at 5:30am, tomorrow (Thursday) and Alexander will come out with a new lip!  Hopefully it won't be too long before we have another blog post about tomorrow with before and after photos.

Alexander has been to his first college sporting event. Although we went to two football games this year, we didn't take Alexander to root on the Red Raiders or Horned Frogs in football, but we did have a family outing to a Red Raider basketball game.  Alexander did great with all the lights and noise.  We even set across the aisle from the Goin' Band.

Alexander was decked out in his red and black clothes.  He had double T's on his shoes and jacket and the Masked Rider on his shirt.  Zia Lindsey would be proud.  He loved meeting Raider Red. But we think he liked the Spirit Squads (or their shiny poms) the best.

 

The Red Raiders won the game and Alexander even enjoyed cheering with his Nana and Bumpa.  But before the game was over, Alexander had had enough excitement and fell asleep in Daddy's arms.

More Friends

Our friends Brett and Abigail couldn't make the TCU reunion, but we had our own little reunion.  It was great to have them at dinner and spend the night on their cross country trip.  I wished we live closer because they are friends I would like to have around more often.  Their visit was very uplifting.  Alexander had lots of fun smiling and talking to them in his fun awake time before bed.

 

We also recently met our newest friend, little miss 4 week old London.  And Alexander met the triplets tonight as well.  He hasn't shown much difference in his attitude when meeting other babies or children.  He is still wide eyed and alert and just likes to look around, but not sure if he likes meeting them or not.

We'll keep introducing him to people and see what reactions we can see.