Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

I have been a very good girl this year - or at least, that's what my Mommy and Daddy tell me. I am not sure what all this Christmas stuff is about, but I think it sounds like fun - especially the ripping paper part. I love to rip paper, especially the covers of Mommy's magazines.


This year, could you please leave me a few special treats underneath the tree? I would really like some more footed pajamas, a cell phone of my very own so I won't break Mommy's (I like to chew on it), some things that make lots of noise when I shake them, and lots and lots of bananas and sweet potatoes.


Please stop by the houses of all my friends at daycare - Colin, Ethan, Stella, Max, Jillian, Claire, and Clayton - they have all been good this year, too.

Please be sure to fly your special reindeer up north and visit Aunt Rachel in Boston. Mommy tells me she is working at the hospital over Christmas and that she can't come home. I miss her and I think she needs something extra special underneath her tree this Christmas.


One last thing, Santa - can you please look out for all of the little children of the world? I hope that all little kids everywhere have full bellies, warm beds, snuggly pyjamas, and lots of hugs and kisses from mommies and daddies that love them as much as my Mommy and Daddy love me.



Mommy didn't get to make any cookies to set out for your visit, but she tells me there is a carton of peppermint ice cream in the freezer in case you get hungry.

XOXO,

Alexandra Grace Davis

p.s. Please leave a fresh mint bone for Pearl - she's awfully sweet and gives me lots of kisses but she has some real stinky breath.

Hey Mr. Postman....

Ryan and I joke that we know we are getting older because our collection of Christmas cards from friends with pictures of their children keeps growing as more and more people we know start families. Of course, we are no exception ... I can't wait for our Christmas cards to get here this weekend and to fill them with some cute photograph of Alexandra. Here's a picture of the cards I picked this year - you can get this or another great design here.

So Crafty

I finally stumbled upon Etsy this past year and have become a devoted fan of the site, constantly finding incredible items to lust over. What is Etsy? In case you haven't checked it out, Etsy.com is a website upon which the general public can sell or buy handmade items. There are literally thousands of sellers showcasing everything from pottery to furniture, jewelry to clothing, and on and on. Here are just a few of the beautiful items I've stumbled upon in the past few days:

Beautiful Baby Booties from Bubblegirl Knit


Colorful Stuffed Octopi from Happy Whosits


Tutti-Frutti Baby Bird Slippers from Piddies


Sun Kissed Bud Natural Soaps


Custom Silhouette Print from Le Papier Designs

Twelve Days of Christmas

We have already set up our Christmas trees (yes, I said trees, we have two!) for the holiday, but I always love searching for new festive decorations. Here's a few items I adore (and note how the first few all revolve around the 12 days of Christmas):

12 Days of Christmas Plates from Rosanna


12 Days of Christmas Ornaments from Crate & Barrel


12 Days of Christmas Ornaments from Land of Nod


Red and White Polka Dot Dishes from Rosanna


Gold and White Capiz Pear Ornaments from Crate and Barrel (these would look gorgeous on my "fancy" tree which is covered in cream, gold and chocolate brown ornaments!)


MERRY DECORATING!

Early Christmas Toy

In anticipation of all the photo opportunities coming up in the next couple of weeks, Ryan and I went ahead and got a DSLR camera, the Canon Rebel XS to be exact. As you'll recall, I've been slightly obsessed with getting my hands on a DSLR camera for some time. I had researched it and had narrowed it down to the Rebel and the Nikon D60 - after a lot of thought, and hearing the pros and cons of each from the very informed salesman at Murphy camera, I opted for this baby:


I started reading the instruction manual this weekend ... you know you're in trouble when some of the terminology used in the "Getting Started" chapter makes no sense to you whatsoever! I definitely need to sign up for one of the introductory classes offered at the camera shop. With that being said, I have thankfully been able to figure out some of the basics of the camera and have captured a few shots of my favorite subject. Even with my VERY limited knowledge as to the ins and outs of this camera, I'm already thrilled with the quality of the pictures I'm getting. I think I have found a new hobby...now if I could only find some time to carve out of my schedule to develop this hobby!

Here's some of my handiwork:

Adventures in Solid Foods

Who would have ever guessed that you could have this much fun with strained green peas??

Gratitude

Many blogs I follow have had recent posts including what that blogger is thankful for, and I thought it was such a good idea with Thanksgiving tomorrow. While it is easy to get discouraged by the little struggles that pop up in our lives daily, it's important to take stock of all the things (big and little!) that we are thankful for. In my case....

(1)Two words….Alexandra Grace.

(2)That we live in a charming home that provides warmth and shelter for the little family growing within its walls.

(3)That we have our health.

(4)That Ryan and I are raising our daughter in a world where she can do anything she puts her mind to – while there is still a great deal of room to improve, the road for young women now is much better than it was 25, 50 or 100 years ago.

(5)That I am greeted each morning with sloppy and stinky kisses from our dog Pearl, a warm hug from my husband, and the sweetest smile that a mother has ever known.

(6)That I have an incredible support system, consisting of said husband, dog and baby girl; my wonderful parents, sister and in-laws; and a tightly knit group of girlfriends.

(7)That the price of gas has dropped to $1.66 a gallon and it no longer costs a small fortune to fill up the tank of my SUV!

(8)That I am the lucky sole recipient of my daughter’s first version of a “kiss” (she basically grabs the hair on either side of my head or both my cheeks, pulls me in close and then “bites” [no teeth yet] my bottom lip – sounds somewhat painful, but it is endearing!).

(9)Little "indulgences" like Caffeine Free Diet Coke, soft sweaters, my BlackJack, SIRIUS satellite radio, warm bread from Panera, and indulgent fashion magazines.

(10)That I am a Southerner, particularly a Kentuckian.

Tis the Season

We are decorating our house for Christmas this weekend ... in looking at the ornaments that Ryan dug out of storage yesterday, I was struck by the sensation that we had just put these ornaments up! I guess that is what happens when you have a baby, time just seems to fly by quicker and quicker...

At any rate, I ordered some very cute Christmas stockings for us this morning from Ballard Designs with our monograms. We already had stockings for Ryan, Pearl and I, but I had to get one for sweet baby girl and of course I wanted all of them to match! I found the cutest kiddie stockings on Pottery Barn Kids, but PB only monograms up to 8 letters which means no Alexandra on the stocking! Just as well, these from Ballard Designs are beautiful:



Speaking of Ballard Designs, look at this beautiful framed picture I found - if you're a dog lover, they have one for almost every breed imaginable!


Ryan and I have had fun in purchasing Alexandra's gifts from us and "Santa". We've only gotten a few things, since (a) she is only a baby and will be more content with the wrapping paper!, and (b) we know she is going to be getting lots of gifts from family. However, I can't wait to see her open these colorful gifts:


Alexandra's Christmas Gifts by saraclarkdavis

Jump Around . . .

. . .Jump Around. . .Jump Up, Jump Up, and Get Down. Sorry, any time I think about Alexandra jumping in her jumperoo, that old House of Pain song from the 90s pops into my head. I digress...

I think I successfully loaded my first video onto You Tube!! Just another way for me to overwhelm you with images of Alexandra. This video was taken this past weekend from my little Canon PowerShot (takes decent pictures, video image is only so so). As you can see from the video, Alexandra has definitely found her voice and is "talking" in her own special language. Her Aunt Rachel thinks she sounds like a pterodactyl (and yes, I had to google that term just to make sure I spelled the dinosaur's name correctly!). The people you hear in the background, encouraging my little girl to bounce up and down, thereby resembling a bobble head doll, are Mimi and Grandpops (aka, my Mom and Dad).



p.s. Sorry for all the changes to the background of my blog - I think I finally found one I'll stick with for awhile!

The First Six Months

At 8:49 pm tomorrow night, our sweet, beautiful girl will be six months old. It's hard to believe how this little creature has totally changed our lives in such a short period of time, but we cannot imagine our lives without her. She is pure sunshine, and brightens any room with her presence. Alexandra Grace, you are loved more than you will ever know - we cannot wait to see what the next six months and beyond holds.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Halloween!

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween - Alexandra's first Halloween was a big success. By success, I mean she didn't cry when I put her costume on her!! We had lots of trick or treaters, thankfully clearing out our candy supply so we wouldn't be tempted to gorge ourselves on the leftovers, but unfortunately Alexandra didn't get to see many of them before she went to bed. It was a gorgeous night in KY for trick or treaters - clear skies and about 70 degrees - so many waited till after dark to come out and haunt the neighborhood.

In Search of the Great Pumpkin

This past Sunday our little family (sans Pearl) traveled down the road to the St. Matthews Great Pumpkin Patch (basically the local Boy Scouts set up a Windstream in a church parking lot and sell pumpkins to benefit their organization). There is a great farm not far from here in southern Indiana called Huber's where you can pick your own pumpkin, eat pumpkin doughnuts, go on a wagon ride, etc. - I think that will be great fun for Alexandra next year, not so much right now (especially since the poor little thing is cutting her first tooth AND battling her first cold!). She was pretty tired, but she looked awfully cute in her little Halloween outfit!




Despite feeling under the weather, Alexandra had a fun weekend and even posed for a few pictures in her infant seat:

Scrumptious Squash

...well, I don't know that Alexandra would agree with the title of this post, as you can tell from the above picture. I tried some squash out on her this past Sunday. This was her first real "food" following rice cereal and oatmeal. I'm not sure how well it was received - most of it ended up being spit out over the course of the afternoon (we had five, count that FIVE, outfit changes). Alexandra also slept TERRIBLY that evening...at first I was blaming it on teething, but maybe her tummy hurt from the adjustment to food after months of eating nothing but milk? Any of you with little ones think that might be a possibility? Just in case, I went back to feeding her rice cereal and oatmeal with the resolution of trying something else in a week or so - the ladies at daycare swear by sweet potatoes so maybe we'll try that or apples, maybe pears.

Even though it wasn't a hit, we still got some pictures to commemorate the occasion...as you can see, Pearl couldn't let an opportunity pass by to make her presence known.

Nothing Says Autumn Like the Keeneland Fall Meet

What a beautiful way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon ... this past weekend, Ryan, myself, and 20 or so of our friends traveled from Louisville to the beautiful Keeneland race track in Lexington to enjoy the ponies, each other's company, and the beautiful fall temperatures.

I should have taken pictures of the beautiful grounds while I was there ...


But instead, all of my pictures were captured on board our charter corporate coach:


Yes, folks, we have come a LONG way from our college days...this was the way to travel! This bus could seat 25 and had three satellite Direct TVs, a small kitchen, even a bathroom with a granite counter top! This would be an AWESOME mode of transportation to a college tailgate...

Here's some pictures of our crew on the bus - we had a blast and even sacrificed some time off the bus to enjoy the crisp weather, beautiful sunshine, and even more beautiful horses.