Baby's First Christmas!

So today was Lexie's very first Christmas. We started getting ready yesterday; I did a lot of cooking and baking and we watched Christmas movies and listened to carols. Last night a major blizzard came through and left us with lots and lots of snow - Lexie's never seen it before so I opened the door so she could see it and told her all about it.

This morning we got up to open presents. Even though I know she doesn't really know what's going on, she had a blast! She had so much fun opening each gift and has already played with all the toys. By the time she opened all of them she was looking around at everything trying to figure out what to grab and shake!

Thank you to everyone who thought of us and especially Lexie on her first Christmas! We love you all and appreciate you so much. Remember the reason for the season is about the greatest gift of all!

I finally get to open!

My Learning Purse!

I'm soooo excited!

Look at all this stuff!

When You're Tired of Milk

... make a sandwich!

I know there's something else I'm supposed to put on here...

There it is!!!

Crawling to the Gifts

Trying to Open My Gifts

(Looks like she got to one a little bit already)

Why do I have to wait?

Okay, fine! I'll play with this instead!

Lexie's First Christmas Play!

So Sweet!

I'm a Stubborn Little Angel!

All Grown Up!

It's Christmas Time!!!

Merry Christmas from the Flaggs!

It's Christmas time!!! Anthony and I both love this time of year and we are just so excited that this year we get to celebrate it with our little girl! It is her first Christmas and as you can see, family and friends have already filled our tree more than ever before and of course, most of it is for her!

Anthony has had a pretty busy traveling schedule and I have been very busy at work (as usual). This week was my first time away from Lexie overnight - I traveled to Denver for business and am so grateful for our good friend Jacarriah who took wonderful care of her while we were both away. She did great and I surprised myself with how well I did away from her, even though I missed her terribly. That said, I am happy to be back home and have her in my arms again.

Anthony got home from his most recent trip last night at 1 AM; it was so good to see him! He's convinced Lexie's hair grew noticeably while he was away :) Church was great this morning; in the spirit of Christmas we gave away bikes to kids today. It was a packed service with many giving their lives to Christ! We came home and ate a good lunch and got to spend some family time together. We also got to add some presents to the growing pile under the tree; maybe it is our imagination but Lexie seemed to be pretty interested in figuring out what was going under there!

We have a really busy week ahead; very intense schedule at work and Anthony travels again this week. Hard to believe Christmas will be the week after that. Other than preparing food, we are pretty much ready to go! Decorations are done, cards are sent, presents are wrapped! It was really fun this year to continue our yearly ornament tradition (every year we purchase a family ornament with our names on it; this year we got a snowman one with a baby snowman in the middle! It is the first year we have three names on it!) Our collection is growing and I can't wait for the day when we have a large collection of beautiful ornaments to look back on!

We want to wish everyone in our lives a wonderful Holiday season. Each of you enrich our lives in a unique way and we love you all.

The Joy of a Hat!

I'm Having So Much Fun!

Up and Down!

Stylin'

Busy!

It's Been a While!

Wow! I can hardly believe it's been so long since I've blogged! Things have been moving at a pretty quick pace here and I have a lot of updates.

First of all, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving; traveled to Memphis for the second year in a row and stayed with Aunt Virginia. Lexie did great on the trip; we brought a Pack n Play this time since she is getting so big and she slept in that while we were there. She met her cousin Isaiah for the first time and they got their pictures taken together - SO cute!

She also got an early Christmas present - her first doll! It is soft, washable and says "I Love You!" (I think Aunt Virginia and I had more fun playing with it than she did!) Eventually it was time to come back home. She did well on the ride back and was so excited to be home that she spent about an hour and a half straight just jumping in her Jumperoo!

We went to the Christmas Train in Dry Gulch that Saturday also. It was an amazing time with so much to see and do! The weather was beautiful and Lexie sat on our laps for the train ride that tells the real story of Christmas. The workers there are in costume and did a great job of staying in character, but Lexie did manage to coax some smiles out of the conductor while we were riding. He was standing in between the rail cars and she stood on my lap and jumped up and down, smiling at him through the car window. He couldn't help but smile and wave at her a few times.

In other news, Lexie started at a new child development center on December 1st. We were sad to see her leave Krystal's since she has so many friends there now, but super excited for all the new adventures ahead of her at her new "school". She has been adjusting well and there is so much for her to do there. Below is a picture of her with her sippy cup; I have been introducing one for a while - I finally put some diluted juice in it (before I was just using water.) I think she thinks it is more of a teether than a cup, but at least she puts her mouth on it and makes me think it's working :)