Santa Pictures

We went to Santa's Village this past week.  More on that later, but I wanted to post the link to our Santa pictures...

http://clicksfoto.partypics.com/

1.  Click on the Santa's Village icon in the middle of the page
2.  Enter my email - julievb@hotmail.com
3.  Choose Santa's Village - Thursday, December 6
4.  Choose 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
5.  Our pictures start about halfway down the page

School Pictures

Here is a link to Alex's school pictures.  They were taken a week before our family pictures so I did not plan to order any of them, knowing that I would be ordering some from our family session.  I did not realize that they would still take his picture - thus allowing him to be dressed in a wolf t shirt ;).  I must say I was impressed with how they turned out and I think he looks SO OLD!!!

http://www.teddybearportraits.com/secure/albums/default.aspx?albumid=308654&cc=ewr5mwquen

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a nice long holiday weekend.  Eric took Wednesday off and we enjoyed the beautiful fall weather with a lot of time outside.   We went to the play ground and Eric took Alex to the driving range. 

 
 Some of my family came down to visit us for Thanksgiving.  My parents and my brother, Todd, and his wife, Jen, drove down for a long weekend.  We enjoyed the gorgeous weather on Thanksgiving and spent the day outside - playing, watching the Lions lose, frying a turkey, etc.  We even ate our Thanksgiving dinner outside.
 

Friday was cloudy and cooler, but we still braved a lot of time outside.  While the big boys golfed, Papa took Alex fishing.  Alex LOVES to go fishing with Papa.  Alex had been asking to go since Wednesday night when they got here and he kept saying "it is so hard to wait!".   






 
Alex was more than happy to help get the night crawlers out of the container...

Reeling one in on Papa's pole...


Reeling one in by himself....
 
The "I caught a fish happy dance"...

 He caught 3 fish total...

 
Alex loved cuddling with Uncle Todd and Aunt Jen and watching the Macy's Parade with them.  When he woke up this morning and they were gone he said, "but who will watch the parade with me?" ;).
 
Watching football with Papa....

 Brodie got a lot of love and attention over the weekend...

I also talked Eric into accompanying me on his first Black Friday "Thursday" event...we bought a trampoline for Alex...

More Pictures

You can view the rest of our pictures here:

http://www.ponderanew.net/?page_id=3883

Password:  potsma (make sure you misspell it) :). 

Picture Preview

We had family pictures taken this past weekend.  We used a new photographer - Ashley Turnbull- a friend of a friend who recently decided to start doing some photography on the side.  It was a wonderful experience.  We loved the cool location - a downtown alley.  It is not easy with two little ones to get a picture with both of them looking - especially when we were fishing stones out of Brodie's mouth, swiping away his constant string of drool and trying to distract both of them from the random cat in the alley that wanted to hang out with us.  We couldn't be happier with our pictures!

Here is a little preview on her blog....will post more later. 
http://www.ponderanew.net/?p=3901

11 Months Old

A little less than a month and Brodie will be ONE!  How is that possible.  This past year has truly been a blur.

Here is what our sweet boy is up to these days...

Brodie LOVES books - he will sit and look at them forever...

 

 Brodie LOVES to be outside.  He likes his little slide.  He likes to push things around, roll balls and chase after them and pretty much just explore and get into everything.

Brodie is a total Daddy's Boy!!  He will entertain himself  really well for me during the day, but the minute Eric gets home he just wants Eric to hold him and will cry the minute Eric puts him down.  We think he does this because he loves Eric, but also because Eric usually comes with technology - ipad, iphone or remote - all of which Brodie is OBSESSED with!

Brodie is eating all table food now.  He loves fruit and does pretty good with vegetables - he will eat green beans, lima beans, peas and carrots.  He hates sweet potatoes and will throw them to the floor.  He likes pasta, grilled cheese, yogurt, pancakes, chicken meatballs, etc.  I am trying to add in more variety as it is easy to get stuck in a rut.  He still nurses 3x a day, we plan to cut down to two soon. 

Brodie waves bye-bye and points to things all the time now. 

He is standing alone for long periods of time now and has taken a tentative step here and there.

Brodie is still an inconsistent sleeper.  He is doing great going to sleep by himself.  We can just put him in bed and he will usually play for a little while and then go to sleep.   Brodie is a good napper, but will still wake up sometimes at nights.  He had a cold and double ear infection this month so he was waking up a lot with that, but now he will still wake sometimes - could be teeth as he is a drooling machine - who knows??

Brodie continues to be an easy going boy.  He is quick to smile and is a happy, sweet boy. 

Happy Halloween

We had a fun filled day yesterday and Alex was busting with excitement and ready to go at 6:30 a.m.
"Is it time to get dressed up yet?" - Question I was asked 100x at least.

I love how Alex's mind works.... On Tuesday night Alex was asking when we would get to go Trick or Treating the next day and Eric said we would go when he got home from work.  Alex tells Eric not to go to work and to stay home ;).  And sure enough when he came down on Wednesday morning he asked where Eric was and I said at work and Alex started crying, "but remember I told him to stay home today". 

Thankfully we had some fun throughout the day too.  Alex's school had a Halloween Party.  They really put a lot of effort into it and Alex had a lot of fun....

They started by trick or treating.  They had all of the staff from the church lined up through the hallways passing out candy to the kids as they "trick or treated" through the church.

Next they had a lot of different games set  up for the kids to play.  And of course each station they were rewarded with goodies and treats as well.
Bean Bag Toss (This is Alex's Teacher - Ms. Brooke)-

 Fishing for a Treat...

 Spider Soccer Kick -

 Ring Toss on the Spider...

 Tattoos

Hula Hoop Toss

 Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin

 

Sweet Brodie....ready for a nap and recovering from his double ear infection.  He was a trooper just hung out and watching all the craziness around him...

Then it was the moment Alex had been waiting for all day - TRICK OR TREATING!  A few shots of the boys - we just put this  on Brodie for pictures but did not make  him endure it while trick or treating.

Alex was so excited and led the way asking "I did not go to this house yet?"  He got a little stage fright and needed prompting and reminding to say Trick or Treat and Thank You.  He liked seeing all the other kids dressed up.  My favorite was when someone dressed like a scary monster was sitting on their porch handing out candy and Alex walked very cautiously up there but then declared "its a nice monster it gave me candy" :).  

 Checking out his loot...

 This morning he had to look through all of his candy again.  Then we sorted out the candy he didn't like (with a little encouragement from Mommy telling him ones that were too hard or would stick to his teeth) - and we are going to bring a bag of candy to the dentist and you get $1 per pound of candy. 

 Not Halloween related but sweet moment this morning when Alex was reading to Brodie..