NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION

Happy New Year's to all!!!  Since the last 6 months of my blogging has been very sporadic and infrequent my New Year's resolution is to blog more often.  I really enjoy sharing what the Troyer's have been up to and it's a great way to look back and reflect on our family.  With Alexander growing up so fast, time just seems to slip away from us.  I look at him everyday and cannot believe how amazing he is.  Right now he loves to sing.  I couldn't tell you what exactly he is singing, but he is definitely singing...all day!  It's really sweet. 

We were able to go home to Kentucky for several weeks over Christmas and really enjoyed getting to spend some good time with family and friends.  Alexander loved playing with all of his relatives!  This trip definitely went better than our October trip in terms of his sleeping.  He slept so much better everywhere we went.  However, he still was on a hunger strike many nights at dinner.  I'm really not sure what that's about, but he seems to be a bit better now that we're home.  He is still really picky, but we keep trying new things.  He's trying to use a fork and a spoon, so this helps some with getting him to eat.  He thinks it's fun to use utensils like mommy and daddy. 

Here are a few pics that we had taken this fall.  I hope this new year finds everyone happy and healthy.  I know we have a lot going on this year with Chris expecting a new assignment, but I think it will be a good year. 

GET 50 FREE CHRISTMAS CARDS FROM SHUTTERFLY

Two weeks ago we had our family pictures taken on probably the coldest and windiest day of the year so far.  We just got them back and I love them!  I can't wait to order my Christmas cards through Shutterfly this year.  They have the BEST choices of Christmas Photo Cards available at  http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards.  We had so many great pictures that I can't decide if I want to do a single photo card like this one:


or if I want to do a card with multiple pictures on it of the whole family like this one:



The choices are amazing!  I'm not sure how I will ever decide, but I know that I'm going to have fun creating the cards.  I guess you'll just have to wait to see what comes in the mail!! 

They also have a lot of other fun holiday/gift options.  I'm thinking about possibly doing a calendar for some grandparents with lots and lots of pictures of their adorable grandson!  Shutterfly has a lot of great selections on calendar formats as well:  http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars.

And since we just had some family pictures made, I'm thinking about using Shutterfly to do a canvas print of one or more of our pictures.  I think that one of these would look amazing hanging in my house somewhere. 

Find out how you can get 50 Free Holiday Cards from Shutterfly:   http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Took Alexander for his first Big Boy haircut yesterday. There were a lot of tears, but his hair looks so cute!

15 MONTH WELL BABY

Friday we took Alexander for his 15 month well baby check up and he is doing great. He weighs 24.2 lbs (43%), is 31 3/4" tall (65%) and his head is 18 1/2" (42%). He also had to get 2 shots. He cried quite a bit with the shots, but he calmed down pretty quickly afterwards. He is such a trooper!!


As you can imagine, he is walking and running everywhere! I can hardly keep up with him sometimes. He's a very happy, chatty little guy. He doesn't speak a lot of "words" yet, but you can tell that he is on the brink. He's starting to really try to repeat what your saying and paying very close attention to the names of objects and people. It's amazing to watch him figure things out. I also think he's very smart (I know, I'm his mom, of course I think he's a genius!!). This morning, Chris and I were sitting at the kitchen table and Chris asked him where his boat was. He went over to his bookshelf and looked at the books and then found the one he wanted, brought it to me, and he found a picture of a boat. He is an amazing genius!!!


He is also very, very affectionate these days. He loves to give out hugs and kisses to us. And really it's not just to his mom and dad. He gives them to the neighbor, the kids in his music class, and strange kids at the park. He's such a sweetie!! It is the best feeling to have him run up to you and throw his arms around your neck.

KENTUCKY TRIP

Here are some pics from our recent trip back home to Kentucky. We had a great time with all of our family. There were definitley some stressful times since Alexander had a difficult time adjusting, but overall the trip was fun!

At Opening Day of Keeneland.

"Uncle CT" with Alexander and Molly

Meeting chickens for the first time with his Grandma Oolie

Mowing the driveway.