48 weeks old

I've been taking pictures every 8 weeks to document Alexandra's growth, in the same spot - her daddy's arms. She's almost old enough that she doesn't want to be held in that position - in less than a month, she'll be a year old! - but that's okay. If she tolerated it into her elementary school years, Daddy would have a broken back! We'll have to pick a different position for her next year & measure her relative to it. Maybe on Mommy's knee!

Alexandra's modelling career

Okay, I'm not really serious about the whole modelling career thing. And that Toddlers and Tiaras show -- never seen it, never want to. But I will admit I entered Alexandra into the Gerber baby contest last year ... and was stunned she didn't even make the cut for judging, because let's face it - she's cute.

I may be a bit biased. A bit.

We had her picture taken a couple of weeks ago & the photographer is participating in a charity contest, so I said to go ahead and enter Alexandra's picture. If you're so inclined to support the charity (it's a buck a vote ... hey, it's a fundraiser, what do you expect?), go for it. The charity sponsors free portraits for families who have lost a baby -- kind of a way to commemorate the baby's brief life with compassion and grace, to give the family a way to remember the baby other than in a cold, hospital setting. We thought it was a worthwhile non-profit, and that's pretty much the whole story.

If Alexandra wins 1st, 2nd, or 3rd prize, there's some cash ($250-$1,000) and a camera in it for her. We'd safeguard all of it. Okay, and probably use the camera with abandon, truth be told.

So, if you want to vote, go here. Otherwise, just enjoy the picture of our cutie!

My snow baby

So I stuffed Alexandra into her hand-me-down bunting (cute, isn't it?) and plopped her down in the snow, in the backyard. Here is her first reaction to it:



After a while, she adjusted to sitting in the stuff & started looking around ... and seeing the flakes swirl around:



I love my snow baby.

Get ready .....!

The forecast for tomorrow night is an inch of snow ... and 1-3 more inches on Thursday. Sweet.

Now that Journal Your Christmas is over ... I resume doing everyday layouts

This is a layout I'd been dreaming about. And the fortunes were all saved over the past couple of years, as referenced in the journaling.



And I mentioned this on the blog ... but it's still fun to see the photos that inspired me to start counting the number of pictures we'd taken.



And this is another one I've been meaning to do for a while, having saved her Junior Deputy badge. Kind of cool to have it and see how small she is in relation to it!

The remaining pages, now available for your viewing pleasure

Journal Your Christmas album complete!

For some reason, the photos I took of the interior pages are quite blurry, so I'll have to give that another go tomorrow. For now, though, you can see how the album looks, completed.



I was planning on making the cover a bit more elaborate ... but now that I see the whole thing done, I'm pleased with how it looks. I also was going to tie a bunch of ribbons on the rings, but that feels a bit passe, so I'll skip it.

I am so pleased to have been able to document so many different elements of Alexandra's first Christmas!