One Year Old!!!!!

Well, we are having some Internet issues, so we will have pictures up later!

Alexia is just an amazing little girl! She is far beyond the typical development for a one year old, physically and mentally!

At her one year check up she weighed 24.5 lbs and was 31 1/2 inches tall!!! She got her vaccinations and had a routine CBC to make sure all of her levels were normal. She didn't even cry when they drew blood from her little arm. She is such a brave little trooper!

Alexia loves to pick up books or toys, then walks up to us turns around and backs to our laps and sits down! It is so cute when she does it, we hope to catch it on camera, so we can post the video! She also has a little bit of a mean streak in her, if she finds out something she does bothers her big brother she will do it over and over again and laugh. Such a naughty little thing! :)

Alexia idolizes her brother and her daddy! She loves to chase them around the living room and enjoys wrestling them as well! She is very much mommies girl too though, she loves to cuddle mommy and read books. We found out the other day that she does not like it when mommy holds other baby girls. She really wanted her mommy to hold only her! Perhaps it is a good thing that we are not planning on having any more babies because we don't know how Alexia would take it! Luckily Blake was not jealous at all, although he still does love his one on one time with Mommy and Daddy when Alexia is taking a nap or visiting Grandma!

The past year with this amazing little girl has been more of a blessing than we are able to express. The joy of her birth helped us through the hardest time in all of our lives and she has been nothing but the best in every way! She brings exactly the element that we need in our family! We feel so complete as a family of four, each of us brings something different to the mix and it is such an amazing dynamic! We cannot wait to see what this beautiful little girl has in store for us through the next year!!!!

Hopefully we will be able to post the pictures from her birthday and her one year check up!!!!!

God Bless you all!

Disney World!!!!!!!!! Day 6

Getting ready to go back to Universal Studios!!!

We got to meet some of the Who's

Blake got to meet the Grinch

Daddy can't keep up with Marmaduke!

Blake shows off his muscles with Popeye!

Waiting to meet the Marvel Superheroes!

He got to meet SPIDERMAN!!!!!!!!!!

AND Wolverine, Captain America, Cyclops, Rogue and Storm!

Blake with SpongeBob SquarePants

Blake and Woody the Woodpecker

Who is knocking at the door?!

It is Miss Mary to tuck Blake in!!!!
We had another great day at Universal Studios!!!!! Blake had a blast going on all of the rides again! He met lots of amazing characters!!!! I think the highlight of his day was when one of the workers pulled us aside and asked if Blake wanted to meet the Marvel Superheroes! OF COURSE Blake wanted to meet them! He is only Spiderman's biggest fan!!!!!

Once we rode all of Blake's favorites from yesterday and also a few new ones like Jaws, which Blake LOVED, we were ready to call it a day! We were very happy to get back to Give Kids the World! We ordered in from Katie's Kitchen (FREE Boston Market), then Miss Mary came and tucked Blake in!

Another amazing day! What a wonderful, unforgettable trip!!! Give Kids the World and Make-A-Wish have more than fulfilled Blake's wish! He could not have imagined it better than it has been!!!!

Disney World!!!!!!!!! Day 5

We got to meet Alex and the Penguins of Madagascar!!!! Blake loves them!!!!

Blake and Daddy getting ready to go on the Woody the Woodpecker Roller Coaster!

Blake with Scooby Doo and Shaggy!

Blake and Alexia

Blake and Daddy on the One Fish Two Fish ride at Universal Studios

Another view of the ride

Blake with Mayor Clayton, the Mayor of Give Kids the World Village!

Blake with Miss Mary, Mayor Clayton's wife!

Mayor Clayton with Alexia

Blake next to the gingerbread house made by the kids at Give Kids the World!

The smaller version of the live action Candy Land game they have at Give Kids the World.

Blake on the giant teddy bear

King Blake

Blake's star is the very last star on the blue beam!!!!! It will always be there for us to find when we go back to volunteer!!!

The only clock of its kind!

Funny Puppet Day 5 was chilly (60 degrees) and there was a pretty high chance of rain, so instead of going to Sea World, like we had planned, we decided to go to Universal Studios!!!!! It was a blast! We went to both Universal parks.

When we got to Universal Studios we went on the ET ride first!!! Blake loved it and so did we!!!! It was really neat to feel like we were in the movie we grew up watching!

Blake really enjoyed the Woody the Woodpecker park at Universal Studios! He also enjoyed walking through the Curious George storybook! We went on the Jimmy Neutron Rocket ride a few times!!! Blake really liked that one!!!! We also went on the brand new Simpson's 3D rollercoaster! It was really neat!

We crossed over to Universal's Islands of Adventure side of the park and went straight to the Dr. Seuss area! We rode the Cat in the Had ride, in which we rode through the pages of the story of the Cat in the Hat, then we went on One fish, Two fish. After that we rode the Trolley Train ride in the sky.

Once we were done we went to the Jurassic Park area and rode on the Pteranodon Flyers, which takes you on a little tour flying above the park dangling from a pteranodon. We were very impressed that Blake was not scared by that at all!

We headed to the Marvel Comic section of the park and rode on the Spiderman 3D adventure about 4 times! Blake loved that ride! He is a BIG Spiderman fan!!!!

We headed back to Give Kids the World at about 6pm! We had a wonderful dinner at the Gingerbread house, then hung out at the Ice Cream Palace for a while before heading back to our villa!

Today was a great day! While Universal is somewhat less geared toward little kids than Disney World, it was still a lot of fun for all of us!

Disney World!!!!!!!!! Day 4

The family with Pluto

Blake with Mickey and Minnie at Give Kids the world

The Christmas Tree in front of Disney's Hollywood Studios

Blake meeting Mike and Sully

The live action Playhouse Disney show

Little Einsteins

Watching the Playhouse Disney Live Action show!

Disney's Epcot Center

Blake and Alexia with Donald Duck

Blake outside of the Nemo ride!!!

Blake eating his burger!

Meeting Mrs. Santa Claus

Goofy

Pluto

Donald

Making a Gingerbread boy

Lots of frosting

Blake's Gingerbread man and Alexia's Gingerbread snowman

Blake and Alexia with Santa

Blake with Daddy

Alexia with Mommy!!!

All of us on the train

Blake in the rocking chair on our porch

Mommy and Lex

Blake and a Gingerbread Man

Pluto, Goofy and Donald

Blake got to hug and thank Henri Landwirth, the founder of Give Kids the World, what an honor!

Mommy got to shake his hand and thank him!!!!!!

The kids playing with their gifts from Santa

Blake ready for bed!
In the morning there we quite a few Disney characters at the Give Kids the World Village! Blake got to meet Mickey and Minnie again and they autographed his stuffed Mickey, which was a gift to him from Give Kids the World!!!

We decided to hit both Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney's Epcot Center today since there were only a few things at each park we thought were age appropriate for the kids! The kids had lots of fun meeting Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc and watching a live action show of Playhouse Disney! At Epcot the kids got to meet all of the Disney Characters again and rode the Nemo ride a few times and went to the show Turtle Talk with Crush! It was a blast!!!!

We left in plenty of time to make it back to Give Kids the World in time for their Christmas Tree Lighting and festivities!!!! First we had dinner at the Gingerbread House!!! Followed by cookie decorating with the Culinary Students at the Ice Cream Palace! After that the kids got to meet Santa Claus and he gave them each a gift!!!!

We headed back to the Villa to drop the gifts off, then we went back to the Village for the Tree Lighting Ceremony!!!! Little did mommy know that she was standing right next to Henri Landwirth, the founder of Give Kids the World! What an honor it was for Blake to give him and hug and tell him thank you for all of the amazing things Give Kids the World has done for our family! What an honor it was for Daddy and Mommy to hug him and shake his hand! He is such an amazing man and has been through so much and still finds time to dedicate to children like Blake!!!!!

After the ceremony we were all pretty tired, so we went back to the Villa and went to bed!

Another amazing day! We missed Mama Corinne and Papa Mark, but are having fun as a family of four!!!!