Christmas with the Ogles

We went to Michigan for Christmas and had a nice time! Here are some pictures of our time there. I didn't think to get any pics of us all dressed up on Christmas Eve. Oops. Oh well...I'll try to remember next year! Hope each of you had a nice Christmas!

Sitting with Grandpa Ogle:

Sitting with grandma just watching gifts:

Alexander has all of the attention!:

Helping open presents:

Finally, a picture with mom (she's always behind the camera):

A family picture:

Just hanging with Uncle Luke:

With Great Grandma Ogle:

Watching Uncle Luke on the computer:

In my Santa Outfit:

Our Christmas, Cont.:

Opening gifts from my family:

This one was fun because he could hear the rattle inside and was excited about it:

Yeah...another rattle to put in his mouth!:

Checking out his new musical gift: It even came with a moraca which he loved:

Here's another video of Alexander with his new musical toy. Already, we just love this toy and it's provided us with many minutes of entertainment. Plus, Alex is able to hold onto it and it helps him learn how to use his muscles and balance to sit.

Christmas: Just Our Family

We are home from spending Christmas with Brent's family in Michigan. I'll post some of those pictures later. First though, we had our own little Christmas this morning with just the three of us! It started snowing just a bit, but it was the prettiest, fluffiest, most picturesque snow. And nope...we didn't get any pics. Funny thing is, Brent and I didn't even get Alexander any gifts, per se, but thankfully, Aunt Kelsey did some shopping for Grandma and Grandpa Berlin so that Alex at least had a few gifts under our tree from them! We are so excited to see them next week in Texas at Aunt Heidi's!

Alexander playing with his new toy:

We've Been Busy & Santa!!!

Sorry it's been about a week since we've posted. Brent and I had our first Alexander milestone last week: we were away from him for 24-plus hours. It was definitely harder to think about leaving him than it was to actually be away from him. The anticipation of leaving him made me sad, but it was actually not as bad once we were gone. My sister, Kelsey, was done with finals and came to babysit for us. I'm thankful as she knows Alexander very well. She knows his patterns, what he likes, dislikes, etc. He was also coming done with a cold, so it made me feel better knowing that she would give him extra love for me!

Since then, we have been either busy or sick. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow. Alexander still has his congestion and I feel so bad for him. He did get his first shower! We let the shower steam up real well and then Brent held him in the shower in hopes that it would help his congestion. It did for a few hours. We think he liked the shower too. I gave him another one today. :)

Our highlight of the last week was that Santa came to visit last night. We are so thankful that Santa wanted to come visit. We have such great pictures and will remember this always! It's so much fun to experience Christmas with Alexander around, compared to when it was just us. It is fun to read the Christmas stories to Alex and it's just fun to see his eyes light up when he sees the Christmas lights on our garland or on our tree.

My Dad the Hunter:

Who knew that Alexander had a hunter for a dad?

When we were home over Thanksgiving, Grandpa, Uncle Chris and Brent

went hunting several times. They were successful with the pheasants,

but not so much when they tried to get a goose (a Canadian, I think).

Here's what they came home with after their conquests.

And yes...we even ate it. You can see that tomorrow!

Real Men with their Kill:

Brent with the birds:

Someone has to clean them so we can eat them:

Although Brent didn't mind touching the pheasants, I am

literally terrified of dead birds. To me they seem gross and dirty. My mom on the other hand, had no problems at all picking them up and touching them. She apparently used to do this all the time as a kid. It was her job to run and get them and clean them. I really couldn't believe that my mom was picking them up with such ease and touching them, lovingly, I might add.

She really did surprise me. She's not much of an outdoorsy woman, so this took me by surprise!

Of course, she did grow up on a farm, with chickens and lots of animals, so it shouldn't.

The pheasants are beautiful birds, especially the males. My mom slowly (SLOWLY) brought one over to me so I could see because I wasn't going near such things. I did have to agree that it was a beautiful bird. Too bad we ate it. Uncle Chris even got one mounted.

To my delight, Brent had no such wishes to get one mounted.

Plus, not sure it would fit in with our decorating at home, even if he did want one mounted!

Although, Aunt Heidi has no idea where theirs is going to go.

I vote in the garage! HA!

We Are SOOOOOOO PROUD:

Tonight we are so proud of our Aunt Kelsey! God has let us know His plans for her and she has been accepted into at least one medical school! Now the pressure is off and she can wait for possible other acceptances to roll on in!!! While we were waiting for Alexander to make his arrival into this world, Aunt Kelsey stayed with us and studied during the days and nights! Even after Alex was born, she studied during the days. In this picture, you can see her MCAT book in the background! :) Congrats, Aunt Kels! We love you and are so proud of you!!!

I See it and I Want It:

Alexander will reach for almost anything he sees.

Here, he wanted the pretty wine bottle.

It was so funny to watch him look at it,

and want it, then to reach for it.

Of course, he tries to put everything in his mouth. I'm not sure this would fit!

In 20 years and 6 months, maybe we'll let you have sip! HA! :)

I see it:

And I'll try to get it:

Alex's Thanksgiving Dinner:

Alexander had a great Thanksgiving meal (thanks to his mom)!

But for dessert, we let him try some real food: rice cereal.

It was so funny!

His facial expressions show it all.

He did not like it and personally, I don't blame him.

That stuff smells icky and I wouldn't want to eat it either.

We've tried a few more times at home to give him some more

and he literally gags on it and spits it out! It's so funny!

We have video, although I'm not sure how to upload it on here.

Brent attempting to feed Alex:

I love Brent's smile here because Alex hated that spoonful:

Maybe I could try and have success:

NOPE!!!:

See, he doesn't want it and just spits it out:

Although we tried to give him more last week, we've backed off it this week.

We are in no hurry to give him solids, so we'll just hold for a few more weeks.

He's just recently discovered his tongue and spitting out his saliva, which by the way, is hilarious!!! Maybe in another month he'll know how to swallow his food better.

Hanging with Thanksgiving Peeps:

When we go home, there's no shortage of love for Alexander!

Everyone wants to hold him and get their hands on him. Usually, he doesn't like to be held all that much. He's very independent and likes to just lay out and play. However, because he was teething this vacation, he wanted to be held more and wasn't happy on his own.

Here's Alex who feel asleep on our good friend, "Uncle" Rich.

Rich is the ultimate snuggly bear:

Grandpa with Alex while Alex just chills.

He was so content here that Grandpa couldn't sit down for a while

b/c Alex would fuss if he did!

A happy baby with my Aunt Merry.

She came to visit and see Alex from South Dakota:

She's always had the magic touch:

While we were still eating our Thanksgiving dinner,
Uncle Chris played on the floor with Alex.
Plus, you might notice, they are wearing match outfits!
Uncle Chris and Aunt Heidi got Alex his first Texas A&M outfit for the game on Thanksgiving:



Aunt Heidi playing with Alex:

It's so nice to see our family and friends when we go home.
It's obvious how much they all love him.

Naked Baby:

I absolutely love naked baby! Alex's baby skin is so soft and pure, it's just kissable. I love these pictures because you can see his baby rolls and just how white his skin is!

I wish you could smell through your computer since he smells like baby.
It's just precious.

Alex and Brent getting ready for bed:

If you look closely, you can see the rolls on his thigh!

Look at his precious cheeks and that baby arm/hand.

Traveling Baby, Cont.:

Probably all of this week will be dedicated to our trip home to Nebraska for Thanksgiving. Alexander was a trooper. Traveling is now much more difficult than before we had a baby. It was even more difficult this time now that he's older and pays more attention to everything around him. When we flew with him at 5 weeks, he was so tiny, he mostly just slept. This time I had a bag full of toys to keep him distracted. Unfortch, there isn't a direct flight anymore from CLE to OMA (there was one when we moved here), so our day always involves a layover.

Alex playing with Brent on the plane:

He won't actually use the pacifier, but he does like to chew on it:

He's such a happy baby and brings so much joy into our lives:

Gotta love the smiling baby! Hope your weekend was great!

Camera charger found!

Good news: Heidi found my camera charger in her bag and has sent it north! :) Other good news: Kelsey had an extra camera charger and sent it to me too. I guess I'll be covered now! Can't wait for the camera to get here so I can upload some cute videos of our little jumper! He loves this jumper that we bought him! It'll be fun for you to see! :)

Reaching for Everything!!!

Back in October, just after his 3rd month birthday, Alexander started to realize that he could reach out and touch things. As a mom, observing Alex was the neatest experience. It's so much fun to see him reach for these toys and realize that he can touch them and make them move. The day I caught this on the camera was honestly the first day he was realizing he could do this. No wonder he has a smile on his face! :)

The Traveling Baby:

Alexander had his first plane ride when he was just five weeks old. Here we are modeling the popular Baby Bjorn that we bought to carry him around the airport! Brent is such a character!

We used it again on this last trip, but I'm don't think that we have any pictures. He's much bigger in it now and almost ready for an umbrella stroller. Maybe next time we fly? We will be gone soon to Texas!

Go Bears!

It's no surprise that Alexander's dad loves the Bears, so it should also come as no surprise that Brent constantly dresses Alex up on game days in Bears attire! We probably could fill an entire photo album of pics we have with Alex dressed up in his various Bears gear. Too bad they haven't been winning as much as we would like this year! At one point, Alex had to wear the same Bears onesie because the Bears won the last time Alex wore the same onesie! Then the Bears lost. I guess what Alex wears doesn't affect the game. Who knew...

Alexander at One Month:

I was just going through the videos we took on our camera of Alexander. It was so much fun to see all of these videos. I can hardly remember what it was like four months ago when he was this small. It's obvious that I took a million pictures and we did capture some of it on video, but do I actually remember what it was like when he was this small? I can't say that I do. Hopefully I can look at these videos and remember. Plus, along with blogging more, I want to make sure we are capturing the little moments more, like bath time and just hanging out during the day. First though, I need to find my camera battery charger. Since we've been home from NE, I haven't found it and the battery is dead. Oops. Let's hope I find it today!

Oh yeah...we keep squeezing his cheeks in this video because when we would do that, we would sometimes get a smile! He's just four weeks old in this video. We went to church this day for the first time. I put him in this outfit that said "heaven sent," but it was too big for him and was falling off of him. He didn't wear that outfit again for nearly a month. Ha!

Meet the Lizard:

Back in the day...you know...when Alexander was only 2 and a half months old, he used to give us the "lizard." He would mostly do it when he was happy and we loved to see the lizard! However, since about three months, we haven't seen much of this lizard. Thankfully, we have the picture to remember. :)

Teething:

Alexander is getting his second tooth today. He went to bed very easily last night and woke up an hour later nearly screaming. Brent and I did our best to sooth him and determined very quickly that this was the issue. Thankfully after the orajel and tylenol kicked in, he went back to bed without any issues. He's been a generally fussy baby today, but he has take some quality naps, so we are doing okay. My stress level is up a bit today because it's hard to see him in pain and he gets cranky very easily and there's not much I can do to help him besides what I am already doing. Hearing him cry sucks though. Thank goodness tomorrow is a new day!

One of My Favorite Pics Ever:

This is one of my favorite pics ever of Alex. He's about three weeks old.

(Obviously, I'm not putting these pics up in any order, yet!)

Any guesses as to who gave us this onesie?

Tired Little One

Sometimes our walks around the neighborhood are too exciting for Alexander and he ends up falling asleep. Too bad our walks are probably over for the season, although it is Dec. 1 and we don't have snow yet! (Did I just jinx ourselves?) I love the ears on this little outfit! Look at his cheeks...so sweet! I kiss them all day long. Poor kid!

Is This the Definition of "Blow-Out?"

A few weeks ago, I heard that Alex was awake from his nap earlier than normal. When I opened the door, this is what I saw! Needless to say, we headed straight for the bath! :) For the record, I have no idea how the diaper leaked so much and we ended up with this mess up his back! Oh well. The tide worked pretty well and we salvaged the outfit!

Vow: To be better about posting

Well...maybe I should just say to *start* posting. We'll try to post a pic or something each day!

Today is an older pic of Alex. It's from over two months ago, meaning that he was only two and a half months old. Oops...see...vowing to be better about posting! I love this picture though because Alexander is so happy and smiling at his daddy. Alexander is so blessed to have Brent as a dad. He's amazing. I wish you could see how wonderful he is with Alex. Our lives are so enriched because of Brent's personality, dedication, and helpfulness. Alex is just going to love his daddy more than he already does. I also love this picture because Alex is wearing his Husker outfit! Go Big Red!

Giving it a shot!

Thanks to my friend, Jen, I am entering the blog world. Many of my friends have blogs, but for some reason, I couldn't figure out how to upload videos, etc. Jen came over today to help me and teach me all I needed to know and more! Her little guy is a month older than Alex. He was able to play with a few new toys and listen to Alex cry while his mom so patiently helped me!

I hope you'll come back often to check out our blog and learn about our days and long nights, but I realize this is mostly for fam and friends who are procrastinating! :)