Still Catching up!

Alex's Great-Uncle David and Kristy just moved into a new house this year. Their neighborhood has a Christmas celebration with Santa, food, and carriage rides. It is one of the coolest things I've ever seen! They invited us to go with them. Santa stands on the roof(kind of the balcony) of this house and calls the kids names and throws their present down to them. All of the kids love it because there is Santa actually calling their name with a present just for them! The picture is not too good but you can kind of see Santa and all of the kids on the yard below.

He just got his present from Santa and we are about to go open it!

It was a green (kind of like a koosh) ball! He thinks it is so neat and calls it "green ball."


We met Granddan and Mimi at the mall one day to ride the train and maybe do some shopping. Mimi took him up to talk to Santa but Alex didn't much care to sit with him.

Shopping with Granddan


Our friends came over for a playdate on the 17th. Jennifer had just had a birthday so we had a little celebration for her with a pancake cake made by Ally! Happy Birthday!

Olivia, Caden, and Alex went outside to play on the porch and we opened the window so we could talk to them. This was too cute of Caden and Alex.

December Catch up!

Kindermusik is over! :( But don't worry! We are starting back the end of January with all of our friends again! I think Alex really liked it. This is the next to last class. Mrs. Laura did ice skating on paper plates. I have to brag a little that Alex really tried to do it!
Taking a break with Jack and Olivia

Dancing with Mrs. Laura

Ice Skating!


Have I mentioned the train at the mall?? Alex LOVES it!! Everytime we go he says, "ride choo choo." One time we were even shopping for Mamaw and Papaw a Christmas gift and I told him we didn't have time to ride because we were looking for their gifts and he was fine with it. I hope the next baby is just as sweet! :)


One Monday when John was off we took Alex to Chuckee Cheese. He had been once with Papa but we had never taken him. John talked to him about skeeball and he loved it! I love this age because he doesn't have to really play any of the games or really ride the rides so you don't have to spend the money. He just sits in the car or the plane. I know one day this will all change, it may be already, but I'm still enjoying it.
Playing skeeball

Sitting with Chuckee

Breakfast with Santa was on December 6th. Last year, he sat in Santa's lap with no problem. Not this year! We went with Ally, Todd, and Caden. Ally had to sit on the stage with Caden and I had to sit with Alex. Alex took the candy cane from Santa but that is as close as he would get. Sorry the picture is not too good!

When we first traveled to the beach when Alex was a newborn we drove down in my Camry. It was packed full of our stuff and mostly baby stuff. I told John we couldn't have two babies and that car. It's even better that it's a pretty good time to buy a car so we went ahead and bought a forerunner. We got a DVD player put in with wireless headphones. Alex is hilarious watching the tv because he just leans his head back with the headphones on and watches. It's so nice not to have to worry about a portable one sliding around and falling off the console.

Putting up Christmas Decorations!

John and I got the decorations down from the attic as quickly as we could. It took longer than usual putting them up due to a 2 yr old and a sick mom, but other than that things finally got done and look pretty good. :) At least I think so! As we were unloading things John put one of my favorite things-my snowman platter-down on the garage floor sitting up. He knew he should have laid it down but just didn't. Of course, Alex was out in the garage playing too and knocked the box down, causing the platter to split right in two. :( I was so sad! But I know that platter is not important enough to get upset over (too long anyway:)) and I knew there would be many more Christmas decoration mishaps!


Finally, the Christmas tree all decorated! (Pretend you don't see the chair and the boxes in the background. He was still and so I had to snap a picture as soon as I could!)
Playing with the "nutcracka." I love when he says that! He loves to get them down and sit them on the coffee table and just touch all their parts and pull the nutcracker handle. John's grandmother (Mimi) gave him and his brother nutcrackers every year for Christmas. When we got married, I started getting them too and now so does Alex. We have a good collection of them which helps with Christmas decoratiing!

Playing with his choo choo Mimi got him. He loves this! It is in his room and we turn the lights on every morning and he sits on it for a little while every day. No it's really not big enough for him to sit on but he does it anyway:).

I thought this picture was too cute so I had to add it in. This is at Dickens downtown. We weren't dressed appropriately and didn't stay very long but ran into our friends the Williams. Alex and Jack Glieyn had to sit and hang out for a few minutes.

Thanksgiving!

I need to catch up! I know it's almost Christmas. Any free time I have had has been resting and trying NOT to feel sick. I haven't been very succesful :) but I hope this will be over soon.

My parents came down Wednesday to spend Thanksgiving with us since John only had Thanksgiving day off and couldn't travel. We did it easy! There was no stress and we ate what we wanted when we wanted. John and I bought fried turkey with white bbq sauce (what's the point in trying to fix one when you can buy it and it's just as good?) It was delicious!!! And then we had kraft mac and cheese (one of John and Alex's faves), broccoli, rolls, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, chocolate pie, and some other things I seem to have forgotten:) Yummy! Wednesday night we had a Warren Thanksgiving with Jimmy's side of the family at Mamaw and Papaws. Then our own Thanksgiving Thursday and then Friday we went to Jimmy and Emily's for dinner. It was a good week! We went to the mall one day so Alex could ride the choo choo train. He loves it. I think it's the best 2 dollars I've ever spent. He wasn't real fired up about it at first but now he's a pro and has even ridden it by himself.

checking it out at first

riding the train


Mom and Dad got him these "car shoes" for an early Christmas present. Mom thinks his feet get cold on the hardwood floors. He loves them. He'll say "car shoes." "Put on." And Dar Dar makes him these yummy fruit and veggie filled breakfast muffins. He scarfs down two in a matter of minutes and starts asking for more. Hopefully, he'll get some more this weekend!

Alex's new shirt

Check out Alex's new shirt! It it too cute! In case you can't read it it says...BIG BROTHER! Yes, we will have a new baby (Lord willing) about the middle of June!! I'm 12 wks today and have been feeling nauseous since right before Halloween. It is just like with Alex, I have a constant 24 hr feeling of needing to be sick:) Coke is all I want to drink (don't tell my doctor:)) I think I'm starting to show, but of course I'm not really sure if it's baby or just all the food I've been eating to try to keep from being sick ha ha! Hopefully, we'll find out December 30th what we are having! Please pray for us! Alex is watching a lot of Wiggles and Elmo these days as I lay on the couch and tell him, "Mama's sick." Not much fun for the little boy (or his parents)!:( We told our parents Thanksgiving night. My parents were in town and John's parents came over. John went to put Alex in his pj's and he came out wearing this shirt. Everyone was just watching him play and run around with the football and nobody said a word about his shirt. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I said, "Alex, what does your shirt say?" Everybody finally started to look at it and then realized what it said. Needless to say I think they were surprised but then it all made sense once they thought back-Rachel's been sick lately, a little grumpy, her face is broken out, she's eating a lot (not too unusual), getting a little bigger...hmmm! Alex kind of (I think) knows what is going on. He will lift up my shirt and say "baby." And he'll pat the baby and say "sweet baby." Then he puts my shirt down and says "bye baby." I think he'll be a great big brother!

Da Beach

We went down to "da beach"(that is what Alex called it the whole time we were there) the week before Thanksgiving. It was a much needed vacation for John. We got lots of rest and did lots of nothing...except eat. :)
Jimmy and Emily joined us on Friday for the weekend, before we left on Sunday. Here are Alex and Jimmy in their matching polo sweaters.


Jimmy and Emily have these fish sitting on a dresser in the bedroom Alex stayed in. He loved them and had to carry them around with him everywhere he went inside. He had to kiss them goodnight and we had to put them to bed in a drawer because I thought they would distract him from going to sleep. One morning I went in to get him and he had reached and opened both of the drawers and got the "fishies" out. It was hilarious! Also, side story, the second day we were there we had gone out outlet mall shopping the whole day and so he still hadn't been down to the beach. That night when we put him to bed he cried a lot. I went in to check on him and with his tear stained face he turned and looked at me and said "da beach!" It was so sad and funny at the same time. We had to promise to take him the next day.


Pointing to "da boats" from our balcony.

There is also this lighthouse in one of the bedrooms. We had to get it down and let him play with it on the coffee table. He liked to walk his fingers up the stairs and just kind of mess with it (ie, point to the door, twirl the thing on top, etc.) It kept him occupied!

Playing football on the beach with dad.


We forgot there was an indoor pool so I didn't pack swim suits. But we knew he would LOVE the "wa wa." So I wore John's basketball shorts and a tshirt and we put Alex in a regular diaper. He had the best time playing around. After we got him back upstairs we realized how BIG his diaper was! It was sooo heavy! But I was not paying 12 bucks for a pack of swimmie diapers to use only one.:)

Enjoying his grilled cheese at Lulu's! He just looked deliriously happy!

Motor Mouth

One day Alex put his bunny in his bed and I covered it with his blanket and gave it a paci. Then he wanted the lamb in there too. So I put them beside each other and gave the lamb another paci. Then he wanted in. He grabbed his paci and wiggled down between the lamb and the bunny. And he just laid there! Didn't even make an effort to get up. Probably about 5 minutes later I came back to check on him and he was still laying just like this. Guess he was enjoying his time with his friends:)

He is loving choo choo trains right now! One night I was cleaning the house and he emptied his lego bucket on the living room floor and started lining all the blocks up on the coffee table (which he thinks is his personal play table, race track, train track, etc). He kept saying "choo choo train" so I realized he thought he was making a train. Then he tried to push it around the table and got pretty mad when it didn't go. Because of course the blocks aren't connected. So he said "mama do" and I put two or three on the floor and started pushing them around. That worked a few times but then he got even more frustrated. He needs a train for Christmas! Thank goodness he has one coming!!


One morning he walked in and here he was in my shoes! Look at those legs!


Here is the coffee table as a road for his truck. He can do this for hours it seems-just going round and round!

So Alex is definitely talking a lot now. Some phrases are "mama do" (or you insert the name...daddy, dar dar, papa, etc), "I touch," "Row tide," "choo choo train," "I do," "I see," "brush teeth," "daddy read," "eat," "more" (with the sign also), "big hug," "big kiss," "where paci (or mama, grammy, mimi, band, etc) go?" "big car, truck, etc," and one of my favorites "there it is!" Watch the video below. I LOVE how he looks like "Mom, are you serious? It's right here!"

Visit to Nashville

Nan's Dad passed away Thursday, November 6th. Emily (John's mom),Alex and I went up to Nashville for the Memorial Service the next Thursday. Hearing so many people speak about him and tell stories about him made me really wish I had known him before his disease-PSP-Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. So many people spoke about him and his quiet integrity and all of the good things he did in his life for other people. He was an amazing man! Please say a prayer for Nan and her family that they are comforted by knowing he is in a better place. Alex was so good the entire day! He took a little nap during the service itself but was Mr. Personality the rest of the time. I kept hearing Nan tell people, "that's my nephew" as he ran around them. He was hilarious and very sweet to everybody.
He would go find Nan and she would bend down to talk to him and he would squat down too. It was so funny! I couldn't capture it on my camera (of course) but this is close. Sorry it's so dark.

Showing off how he goes "night night" to Carrie
Grandaddy, me and Alex We stayed 3 nights with my parents. Alex had sooo much fun! He is really into climbing their stairs now all by himself. He knows how to come down and up pretty well. My dad has this chess board and it sits on a dresser in the guest room. There are always pieces missing when we leave. Alex always has to touch them and then they disappear. I watched him one day for a good 5 minutes just picking them up and arranging them on the front so he could see them all. He loves it. Him and dad got down in the floor and started trying to put all of the pieces back together. Mom and Dad got this race car track and two cars as a hand me down gift to Alex. The blue car doesn't work but the red one does. He played with this for an hour and he would have kept on if he didn't have to go to bed. He didn't care about using the remote he just liked to put them on the track and push them himself or let someone else use the remote.

The LSU weekend

November 8th was the LSU/AL game in Baton Rouge. My friend, Ally, is from Baton Rouge and went to LSU. She had already warned me that her and Caden would be decked out in LSU gear for our Kindermusik class the Wednesday before. So, OF COURSE, Alex and I had to wear our Alabama gear. Ally's mom was also in town and brought them many new things to add to their wardrobe such as a "Beat Bama" pin (Thank goodness they didn't:)), Caden a cheerleading outfit, etc.

Here is a picture of all of us. (My hair looks awful big on the side doesn't it?? Don't know what that's about!) It's not too close I know but you can tell who is who:) Alex had his cute red baby elephant pants on that Dar Dar made him.

Keeping the beat in class.

Catching up!

Here is a cute picture of Alex playing with Adam at the UCP park. They were so funny together!

Alex and Papa at the Crimson and White game (Alabama's Practice game). He had so much fun eating popcorn and hotdogs and watching Big Al! He also really watches the game and likes to yell "shoot!" He doesn't say basketball, just ball, and always says shoot and throws his hands up in the air (like the sign for a touchdown) when he sees a basketball.

This was at the homcoming parade with Grammy before the football game Saturday morning, November 1st. He wasn't too impressed but hung in there. He would wave at some of the people but you could tell he wasn't quiet sure what was going on.

After the parade Mimi wanted him to fingerpaint with pudding. She had done it with Parker and John when they were young and couldn't wait for Alex to be old enough to do it. He wasn't quiet sure what he was supposed to do and didn't like putting his whole hand in it like Mimi made him do. :)