Trick or Treat

This was Alex's first year to go Trick or Treating and he was a pro! He went Trick or Treating with his best friend, Evan, and they were the cutest little boys ever.

The "scary" dinosaur and Alex's "monkey face" -

Group shot....


The boys mastered the routine very quickly and as soon as they were done saying "thank you", they were saying "go another house", "get more candy". They loved ringing the doorbells and did a great job saying "trick or treat" and "thank you".


Most of the houses just held out their bowls of candy for the kids to choose what they wanted. Our "not so shy" Alex took this as an invitation to take SEVERAL pieces of candy (that's my boy : )).

Alex was constantly checking out his loot as we walked between houses...


At one house there were several high school girls gushing over the boys and one of them said "what a cute monkey". We were leaving the house and Alex said to me "Momma, I a cute monkey" : ).

We let Alex pick his costume. I narrowed it down to Buzz Lightyear, monkey (Curious George), football player or Elmo and he kept picking the monkey. When it first came he did not want to wear it, but being motivated by candy tonight he had no problem putting it on and wearing it all night.

It was absolutely precious watching Alex decide what piece of candy he could have tonight. He labored over the decision forever. Sorry the lighting in the video is so bad....I wish you could see it better as he had the cutest little smirk on his face! It took him two minutes to choose and he settled on a purple tootsie pop.

Baby Brother

I want to take a moment to document Alex's current attachment to his Baby Brother. It may be my very large stomach, but Alex is definitely very aware of and quite attached to Baby Brother these past couple of weeks. Whenever we are on the couch, reading or whatever, Alex will say "Momma, open up Baby Brother" and I will have to lift up my shirt so he can be close to the baby.

Here are a few things that Alex likes to do with Baby Brother...
- he will pretend to feed him his cereal in the morning and give him sips from his sippy cup
- he will take his medical kit and listen to Baby Brother's heartbeat
- he will tell him things that he is going to do with him - "I give you pacifier", "I share my taggies you", "I play football you and tackle you" (can't wait for that one!).
- he will point out things in the book we are reading - "Look Baby Brother a choochoo"
- he lifts up my shirt and gives Baby Brother good night kisses every night when he goes to bed
- he likes to use my stomach as a pillow and lay his head on it and cuddle with Baby Brother

Right now Alex is a sweet and loving Big Brother - hopefully he will retain a few of those feelings once Baby Brother comes and shakes up his world.

I am going to spare you the pictures I have of Alex giving my big ole stomach some kisses :).

Grandma's Visit and Big Adventures

Let's begin with Grandma's visit and telling you how wonderful my mother is. She came down to visit and in her words for a "working vacation". She came to help get everything ready for Baby Boy #2. This involved her on her hands and knees washing all the baseboards in the house, scrubbing stove top plates, emptying and organizing and washing out all the kitchen cupboards...just to name a few. She also watched Alex for hours so I could go to appointments and clean out and organize closets and wash and put away baby clothes, etc. Alex loved having Grandma visit and at one point he said "Mama, go to doctor, go bye bye", just so he could have Grandma to himself. THANK YOU MOM!!!!

Unfortunately we were so busy, I was not good at all with my camera during her visit, but I captured a few moments. Here they are having a morning snuggle...


They spent a lot of time in the garden...Alex would bring Grandma her old tennis shoes and tell her to put them on and go in the garden. Then in the garden Alex would command her around - where to dig and tell her to move, etc. Boy is his world going to be rocked when the universe no longer revolves around him :).


They spent hours taking walks through the neighborhood and to Alex's newest favorite place in the world - a construction site! They are building a hospital near us Alex will ask to go there everyday to watch the diggers, cement mixers, bulldozers, etc. He will walk, ride on his truck, or push a toy the whole way there and then the best part of the adventure is two tracking through mud and dirt to get to the site. Alex loves to play "monster trucks" in the dirt and will play in the ditches, tip over his truck, roll around in the dirt, etc. Needless to say the bathwater is a lovely shade of red clay dirt these days....

Fall Fun

I need to do a little blog catch up -

We had a beautiful Fall weekend last weekend and enjoyed a lot of family time outside. Among our activities were carving a pumpkin and raking leaves....which are apparently very dangerous activities that require a helmet : )


Alex was not sure about touching the seeds and guts of the pumpkin - so he decided to use some big tongs to pick the seeds out...

Showing Daddy his seed he stabbed....


And of course, we needed to make some pumpkin cookies. Alex mastered the frosting part very quickly....

Pumpkin Farm - The Daddy Version

We headed back to the Pumpkin Farm with our friends the Lopez's today. We had half off certificates and the beautiful Fall weather returned, so we went back for a second trip and the daddies joined us this time.

The farm has a big "jumping pillow" and since the daddies were there to help, the boys got a chance to try it out.....


Alex loved driving all of the different old tractors....


Alex's favorite thing to do was drive the old fire truck....

Shaving Cream

We had a little blip in our perfect Fall weather the past couple of days, so we had to resort to some indoor activities.....

Today's big fun was shaving cream. Alex loved exploring and drawing in the shaving cream and driving his cars in it - he liked to pretend they were monster trucks stuck in the mud....

Who swallowed the basketball??

I stole this picture from a friend's blog (Thanks April). We went to the Gardens with several friends for a play date on Friday and April captured this picture of me and my seriously growing stomach!!!

Little of this... Little of That....

We continue to enjoy some amazing Fall weather down here and pretty much spend all day outside. We spend our days at playgrounds and just playing outside at our house. Some of the things Alex is into lately....

Lighting fireworks...Eric bought some fireworks last month and will shoot them off for Alex and now Alex likes to pretend that he is doing them too...



We painted pumpkins the other day....the small one may have a pound of paint on it ;)


Alex is very into playing soccer and football lately. Football consists of Alex directing us when to chase and tackle him and when we are suppose to throw or catch the ball or when he wants to kick the ball.

We walked to our neighborhood playground tonight to play some soccer. Alex carried the soccer ball the whole way, then had a little one-on-one match with Daddy...



Here is a little video - my favorite part is how he moves the ball over away from Eric so he can kick it in the goal without Eric stopping it ;).

Pumpkin Farm

I have decided that Fall is officially my favorite season in Alabama as our weather has been amazing these past few weeks!

Rachel and I took the kids to the Pumpkin Farm yesterday to enjoy this fabulous weather.

The first highlight for Alex was having Evan ride in the van with him. It wasn't the quietest ride ever, but they sure did entertain each other!

The Pumpkin Farm was filled with lots of fun activities for the kids.....

A playground area with various tractors to climb on, bikes to ride and a teeter totter....


There were animals to see and pet....rabbits, cows, coats, pigs, etc. Alex loved petting the rabbits, but I didn't get a picture as I was too busy making sure he didn't put his fingers in his mouth after petting them :)

There was a fire truck to climb in and drive....

Pits of corn to jump in and play in....


And of course the BIG FUN - taking a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins...