Better Luck Next Year

Well, no one we know made the Top 10 on the Beautiful Baby Contest 2009. In my opinion all our babies were way cuter than the ones they ended up picking. Oh, well, what can a mother do - she's still absolutely adorable to me and everyone who see's her.

This is her newest sleeping spot - I guess all that jumping wore her out.

Alexa is now about 13 pounds and 2 feet tall. Saturday she finally rolled from her back to her tummy all by herself. Now she does it all the time - the only bad thing is she doesn't know she can turn back over when she wants. She's still not sleeping through the night, but I think my body is finally used to it. Solid foods haven't been very successful; however, the last couple of days I've been giving her a little of whatever we're eating and she seems to be liking that. I hope this isn't an indication that she's going to be a picky eater.

The Winner!

Here is the picture that won the blog contest. I submitted it to the GMA Beautiful Baby Contest, now we just have to wait and see. We're not really expecting anything to come of it, but thought it would be fun anyway. We think Alexa's the "Most beautiful baby" and that's what really counts.

Alexa is now at 12 lbs., 24 " tall, and is developing right on schedule. She had her 6 mth development appointment 2 weeks ago and everything went really well. She is a little small (5% at her corrected age of 5 1/2 mths), but the doctor said there's not much we can do about it and she's growing steadily and that is the important thing. We also had a hearing test and her ears are perfect. What a blessing this has all been, after all her little body has gone through since birth and she's turned out to be an extremely healthy and happy baby.

She is now sitting up with just a little help from the Boppy, she absolutely loves her activity jumper (see video posted on web album), eating food is still a hit or miss; which the doctor said he doesn't expect her to be really ready for much of that at this point, so that was a relief. All around she has become a very easy, happy, and fun baby.

Other going on's: I realized a while ago that we never give an update of what Trevor and I are up to (which isn't very exciting), but I thought I'd give just a little summary.

Trevor is staying very busy with his full time job at HE Williams performing his amazingly genius computer skills, which he sometimes gets to expand with a few programming projects, he also just began his final semester of college (Whoooooo!), so that means in May he will officially have a Bachelors degree in Computer Science w/an emphasis in Programming, obviously we are excited. Lately he's also been staying pretty busy with his new calling as Ward Building Coordinator -which is surprisingly more involved than you might think. Between all these responsibilities he does, somehow, find time to go jeepin' - then come home and fix his jeep, search the jeep forums for who knows what, and read his 4WD magazines. Most importantly he also manages to spend some time with me and Alexa. Alexa loves to sit with her daddy and look up jeep stuff.

As for me, obviously Alexa and I spend a lot of time together. We start our day with our morning workout at the Y (well, she watches and sleeps while I work my bum off), then we typically spend our day at home organizing, cleaning, or playing. I do a little bookkeeping from home too, which has helped me keep my sanity along with our occasional "Girls Nights". It doesn't seem like much, but for some reason there still isn't enough time in the day. I love being a "stay-at-home-mom". I have so much fun watching Alexa do new things and just be her adorable self - and of course taking tons of videos and pictures.

Well, I think that about covers the Trevor and Melissa update. Check out the web album for more pictures and videos.

More Voting Options

Okay, so I just had to take more. Now I really can't decide.



Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Cast Your Vote

We're going to enter Alexa in the Good Morning America Beautiful Baby Contest and need some help deciding on a picture to submit. Rules are that it must be a home photo (not professional) and taken within the last month.
Below you will find 3 pictures of our irresistibly adorable Alexa. Please vote on which one you think is the best - if any :D
Thank you for your time. The results will be posted at a later time. (obviously can't say when, b/c it probably won't happen then anyway.)


Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

What have we been up to??

Alexa in her blessing dress (this was taken a few weeks after the fact) but still a little doll.

Alexa and her daddy on our family outing to Roaring River. She wasn't very amused by the fish and you'd think it was freezing by her expressions in some of the pictures. (more are posted on the album) It was actually a really nice day. This was our first attempt to take her out in the Jeep. We didn't end up going on any trails and later decided that was probably a good thing.

Alexa and Grandpa P. playing with the birthday balloons. (Also more pictures and videos on the web album.)

Alexa is 8 lbs. 10 oz. but still pretty little. She looks like a newborn now except that she's really strong and holds her head up really well, smiles, laughs, and coos & jabbers constantly.

Life has been busy as this time of year seems to be. (oh, actually I think that's a year round thing.) We had a very nice Thanksgiving with Trevor's family and spent some quality family time at home over the weekend. It was a very nice change of pace.

Alexa is growing fast. She's now 21" long and has her own height mark on the Petersen family growth chart, found on the back of the kitchen door.

She's starting to grab things but still hasn't quit figured it out yet. She still needs help. Baby Einstein play mat, the swing, and bouncer are mom's new best friends as Alexa has finally starting to enjoy entertaining herself and can be left to jabber for a period of time.

About a week ago she was looking out the window from her swing and she started humming. A few minutes later she was asleep. It was so precious - singing herself to sleep.

We also went to see her Grandma LaRue and Great Grandma Groll a few weeks ago. Grandma Groll had only seen her one other time, very briefly so it was nice to spend some time with her. (more pictures on the web album)

Well, that's all for now. Check out the web album for more pictures and videos and I'm going to try to add more in a week or so. Thanks for checking us out.

She Laughed!!

This video was purely by accident. I was trying to catch her rolling over - which she hasn't quit figured out yet - and she started laughing. (Don't mind my voice in the background.) For the last week or so she smiles and acts like she's trying to laugh but nothing comes out - finally it did and how cute is that!?! This video was taken just a few minutes ago - that's how adorable I thought it was and couldn't wait for everyone else to see her newest trick.

Our Adorable Little Copycat

A few weeks ago, the first weekend in Oct., Alexa started copying me when I stuck out my tongue at her. Trevor didn't believe me at first, but then she did it when he was watching and he was convinced that she knew what she was doing. It was super cute. So, now we have it on video along with her adorable "talking" and very animated facial expressions. (She also started drooling and blowing bubbles with it about the same time.)

This is Trevor & Alexa's other new trick - Trevor balances her on one had to see how long she can stay there. She tries to sit up a little, but usually ends up slumped over. Here's a video to demonstrate.

And yet another trick - we see how long she can stand up without trying to sit down. The video I took was taped sideways so we'll have to try again.

Alexa with her Grandpa Petersen.

For Family Night we decided to do a little canning. In the process we noticed that Alexa was about the same size as a #10 can. The family got a kick out of the comparison. There are several more pictures with her and the cans on the web album.