Kite Flying

We enjoyed a weekend of great weather this past weekend and spent a lot of time outside. This included a visit to our neighborhood park and some kite flying. Alex enjoyed the kite flying, but pretty much wanted to do it by himself and he liked having the kite low to the ground so he could catch it and play with it.

Grammy and Grampy

Eric's parents flew down from MI for a visit this past weekend. We were blessed with a weekend of beautiful weather and we had a great visit. Alex loved spending time with his Grampy and Grammy and definitely enjoyed a weekend of being the center of attention.

On Friday we made a day trip to Chattanooga and visited Rock City. It was a sunny, clear day and the views were amazing.



There were some dark tunnels and tight squeezes. Alex was a little unsure of the dark passageways at first, but after we pretended we were Thomas the Train going through the tunnels - all was good.


Not so easy to suck in that baby belly....

When we got home we had to prepare to celebrate Daddy's big birthday. Eric celebrated a milestone birthday this year - let's just say it ends in 0 and doesn't start with a 3 :).

Alex helped Grammy make the cake....

Having a two year old means you never have to open your own presents again... (Alex of course helped wrap the present and so there was plenty of tape and he also insisted on taping all the wrapping paper scraps to the box as well :) ).

Alex got lots of cuddle time in with Grammy this weekend....


On Sunday, Alex and I showed Grammy the Huntsville Botanical Gardens...


On Sunday night we all headed to Bridgestreet...

We fed the fish....

And Alex enjoyed a carousel ride - he had the biggest grin the whole time...

To top off Alex's very exciting weekend, he got a new bike and new helmet. We have new neighbors on our cul-de-sac and they have three boys who are always riding their bikes and Alex loves to watch them and he is always talking about their helmets. Since the Toys R Us in town is having a huge moving sale we bought him a big wheel bike and new helmet - so a little early Merry Christmas to Alex....

Beach or Bust

Well..it was a BUST : (

We were SO looking forward to our beach weekend down in Gulf Shores. It was our last hurrah as a family of three and we couldn't wait to spend a long weekend enjoying the beach. Well - Tropical Storm Lee had other plans....so instead of driving 6 hours each way to be holed up all weekend in a condo - we stayed home where we got to be holed up half the weekend in our house.

Lee also caused my brother and his family to leave the beach a day early - so lucky for us we got to have them visit again and enjoyed time in the pool and hanging out. Alex was THRILLED to see his cousins again.

Saturday was hot and humid so we got some pool time in...Alex's latest trick is to swim with his face in the water.



He also likes to sit on the stairs like Daddy....


Sunday and Monday were long, dreary, rainy days - not the Labor Day we were looking forward to - but we still enjoyed time as a family - playing in the garage and the toy aisle at Target :).

On a side note - Alex's latest thing is to call me "Mom" instead of "Momma". It just started this weekend - do I all of a sudden have a 10 year old??

Professional Pictures

While we were in Michigan we had professional pictures taken with Eric's whole family. The photographer also did individual family sessions and individual children sessions - here are a few of them...

Pretend Play

Alex has been getting into pretend/imaginary play lately. He likes to get in my van and pretend to drive places. We used to drive to the store, but since visiting MI we now drive to see boats or get ice cream. Alex will say what kind of boats we see - jet skis, boats with fishing poles, boats going over waves, etc. Then we will go get ice cream and we have to order different kinds - Alex usually gets an ice cream cone with eyes and nose (he had this on a kiddie cone while in MI).

The newest aspect to our pretend play is dressing up in "boots" and pretending we are playing in the snow. We build snowmen and igloos (thank you to Curious George for teaching us about igloos :)).

Alex in his "boots"...

Of course he insists that Momma wear boots too....

Alex in his "igloos"....

Cousins Visit!

My brother and his family stayed with us this weekend - a short stop on their way down to the beach.

Alex was SO EXCITED to get to see his cousins again. Alex woke up from his nap on Saturday calling for his cousin, Eli :).

The swimming began at 7:15 am on Saturday and continued all day! Unfortunately I wasn't great about having the camera around - but I got a few shots of all the fun.


We had a little down time on Sunday morning and Alex was constantly attached to one of his cousins...
When Joel started carrying suitcases down from upstairs Alex cried "no go bye byes" - he was not happy to have all of his playmates leave : (.

Newest Phrase

Alex used to just call "Momma" when he woke up. Over the past couple of weeks he has a new way to let us know that he is ready to get up - by yelling - "Momma, I all done sleeping now!". And he yells louder and louder until he is rescued from his bed.