Yeesh! And Merry Christmas!

I cannot believe I haven't posted in over a month. I started out so well, and then somewhere in there things got a little crazy ...I can't blame it on anything in particular, unfortunately. Anyway, we got the boys' pictures taken this week, and I wanted to post a few. Officially they're our Christmas portraits, but they were taken on Owen's birthday, and we didn't take any when Alex turned 4, we're calling them birthday pictures as well.

Early November update

I know it's been forever since I posted. I have tons of October pictures to share - seems like October is always the busiest month of the year, and we went to the State Fair, a couple of pumpkin patches, some church carnivals, and of course trick-or-treating, and I have the photographic evidence to prove it. Unfortunately, I can't find the camera to upload the pictures! Jason must have stored it somewhere, and he's not here for me to ask right now. So for now, I'm going to post a few more Disney World pictures ...

November update

One of our favorite restaurants at Disney World is 'Ohana at the Polynesian Resort. During dinner they always have a few kid-friendly dances and activities, and this is the first year Alex was bold enough to participate. Notice that he has barbeque sauce smeared across his cheek - he was in too much of a hurry to clean up when the music started! Each child who participated got one of these manly pink leis. The song they were dancing along to happened to be one that's on a Disney Sing-Along Songs DVD, so Alex was familiar with the hand gestures that went along with it.

The second picture is obviously me and the boys. We're at the entrance to Hollywood Studios on our second day in the parks.

And now we arrive at Disney World ...

At The Seas with Nemo and Friends (in Epcot), Alex crawled into a huge Bruce the Shark (for those of you who haven't seen it, he's a shark that's trying very hard not to eat fish, but the scent of blood reminds him of what he's missing).

To be honest, I have no idea where this picture was taken; Jason took it while Alex and I were riding something. I just think Owen looks so cute here!

Both of the boys did very well with the characters, but it was hard to get pictures where they both looked happy while interacting with them. This one was taken at Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom. To be honest, Alex got a little bored with the characters and often ignored them until he saw how much attention Owen was getting while talking to them. Jaded at the age of 4! I guess that's our fault for taking him to Disney World so often.

This is my favorite picture of the trip. I'm obsessed with castle pictures, but we're rarely able to get one without other people in the frame. This is also the only picture we have from the entire trip with all of us in the shot.

Florida Vacation, Part 4

While we were in Pensacola, we went to the National Naval Air Museum. It was huge and actually quite interesting, with a lot of kid-friendly displays. Here are the boys (and Jason) in a helicopter. I wish I could tell you what type it is, or what war it was used in, but I don't have a memory for such things.

Finally, Florida Vacation, Part 3

More beach pictures - sorry! There are just so many, and I hate to leave them out. In this one, Alex made a trench from the dry sand to the tide line so he could make his sand a little more moldable. It didn't work very well, but he had fun doing it.

Owen LOVED building sand castles! His castles didn't really stick together, but he never got tired of filling up his buckets.

Florida Vacation, Part 2

We found a neat restaurant at Pensacola Beach that had volleyball courts, a playground, and a huge fishing pier. Doesn't it look like something out of a Corona ad?

My mom took the boys out to see the water while we waited our our appetizer. After dinner Alex found an older boy who was nice enough to play volleyball with him, though neither of them knew the rules.

On the bottom is Owen's reaction to the sight of the ocean. He did enjoy the beach, and as long as we allowed him to dig holes or walk around he was fine, but he wanted no part of that huge body of water. On the top is Alex's first reaction - he ran right in and started jumping the waves (a boy after my own heart!).

Florida Vacation, Part 1

We got back from Florida on Monday night, but I think we're all still recovering from our vacation hangover! I'm posting some Pensacola pictures now, but I have a feeling I won't get a chance to post Disney World pics till later this weekend, since naptime is almost over ...

An early fall day

In a very unusual move for us, the boys and I spent yesterday afternoon playing in the backyard. Most of the year it's too hot to be out there, and until recently Owen was too young to enjoy it (that's my official excuse anyway; the unofficial excuse has something to do with the large number of spiders). Plus, we usually go to the area parks to meet our friends. But Jason is constantly bringing up the fact that the boys don't spend enough time on the swing set that he (and my dad and his dad) worked so hard to put together last summer. Therefore, I decided to commemorate the occasion with pictures.

First we blew bubbles (we now have so many bottles of bubbles that I have no problem letting each boy take one outside - if they spill the entire container, that's one less bottle I have to put back on the shelf) ...


Then Alex went up and down the slide while Owen rolled the basketball up and down the slide. It's very easy to take pictures of Alex. He'll always stop what he's doing, look directly into the camera, and smile. I look forward to the day that Owen will do that too, so I can get some decent pictures of the two of them together.

For some reason Alex insisted on sitting in the baby swing, which left Owen with the big boy swing. Owen didn't seem to mind, but when Alex realized Owen was having more fun than he was, he quickly offered to trade.

This one is an action shot of Owen as he attempted to go down the slide unassisted. This was the first and last time he went down the slide yesterday, as it turned out to be a lot faster than he expected. When I looked at the picture later, I felt terrible - it really looks like he's about to fall off the side of the slide, but I promise he wasn't!

Jordan and Jenna's birthday party

It seems to be birthdays galore around here ...on Saturday we went to Mt. Pleasant for my brothers' twins' second birthday party. While we were at my parents' house, Owen broke out a most unusual walk - I call it The Scarecrow. He seems to be experimenting with his walk a lot lately; one day last week he was walking around with his pelvis thrust forward, and he often tiptoes or walks backward when entering or leaving a room. I've noticed that the unusual walks only make an appearance when he knows he has an audience.

At the party, Jenna was all about the presents, but Jordan didn't seem that impressed. I tried to get a good shot of all four kids together, but they're just not very cooperative at this age! I did get a shot of the twins and their cake, with Jenna all decked out in her princess finery.

First day of Pre-K

Alex started another year of preschool yesterday, Buzz Lightyear backpack and lunchbox in hand. He had absolutely no hesitation as he walked in (he didn't last year either); the teacher had to remind him to say goodbye to me. This year he's in class with Gavin, Isaiah, and Casey, and I have my fingers crossed that they won't get into too much trouble together. When I picked him up yesterday, his first words were, "The teacher had to move me away from Gavin." I asked why, and he said, "We weren't keeping our hands to ourselves." I asked, "Were you fighting?" to which he replied, "No, we were just touching." I said, "I don't understand. Were you poking each other? Were you touching because you were mad at each other?" He said, "No, we were touching because we love each other." Okey-dokey.

Chocolate chip muffins

As a special treat, I made mini chocolate chip muffins for breakfast one day this week. After consuming a half dozen of them (after he ate his yogurt and cereal), Alex reluctantly agreed that he had had enough, but I promised he could have two more after naptime. Owen, meanwhile, who never met a sugar-laden treat he didn't love, only had one and had no desire for more. Anyway, as soon as I released the boys from their rooms after naptime, Alex made a beeline for the muffin container and asked if he could watch a little Sprout from the kitchen while he consumed his muffins. (He knows better than to ask if he can eat in the living room.) After I approved the request, Owen decided he too needed a muffin, primarily for the novelty of eating on the floor beside his big brother. I thought they looked so cute sitting side by side, but I'll admit that right after these pictures were taken, Owen promptly crushed one muffin and left the others sitting in a pile on the kitchen tile.

Six Flags

Earlier this year, I bought Six Flags season passes for myself and Alex (Owen is free till next year) for those lazy summer days when we didn't have anything else on the schedule. As it turned out, we didn't end up with a lot of those days, but we did manage to squeeze in one more trip before Alex goes back to school next week. We went with Ryder and Nikki, and Owen rode some of the "big boy" rides that he hadn't had a chance to ride before, while Nikki was kind enough to take Alex on a few rides that Owen was too small for. And best of all, after the boys went to bed that night, Nikki and I got to go back for some big girl rides!

Sebastian's birthday party

After we went fishing on Saturday morning, we took the boys to their cousin Sebastian's 6th birthday party, which, as you can see, was a swimming party. Due to naps, we were 3 1/2 hours late, but better well-rested and late than cranky and on time, right? Besides, Sebastian hadn't opened gifts, blown out his candles, or done the pinata yet, so we didn't miss much. We bought this life jacket for Alex last week before a different swimming party. We should have purchased one long ago; it was infinitely easier to keep up with him this way. He even jumps off into the deep end with it on! Jason was a little stressed out watching him, as he tends to be more protective than I am (isn't it supposed to be the other way around?).

Fishing

Our city hosted a kids' fishing tournament this past weekend, so we all headed over to the city pool to give Alex a chance to catch something. He didn't, but he and his dad still had a good time trying. Owen and I spent our time walking around the jogging path surrounding the pond and eating the free pretzels they were giving out.

Swimming lessons

This was taken on our last day of mom & tot swim lessons. Alex was taking preschool lessons in another part of the water park. We hadn't gone swimming much this summer prior to starting lessons, and I was really nervous about how Owen would do, but he did a great job - he kicked and scooped and blew bubbles, and he'll even jump off the side into my arms. I wasn't able to watch Alex's lessons, since Owen and I were in a different class, but his instructor said he did well enough to graduate from the preschool class into Level 1 next year.

Another birthday picture

I think this is my favorite picture from the party. Along with Ryder (on the left), Alex, and Owen, there's Sebastian, who is Alex and Owen's cousin, and Sergio (far right), whose mom Matilde was in MOMS Club with me for 2 years before they moved to San Antonio last September. Matilde and Sergio drove all the way up here just for the party, and we were all so excited to see them after 10 months!

Alex's big day

This picture was taken at Alex's big birthday party in July. From left to right are Luke, who is six months older than Owen (Luke's mom, Kelly, and I are hoping that Owen and Luke become best buddies), Owen (I love the expression on his face here), Gavin, who is one of Alex's best friends (and also Luke's brother), and Ryder (the other birthday boy). Alex was MIA here.

Owen LOVES watermelon

While my mom was here in July for Alex's birthday, we took the boys out to play in Alex's new inflatable pool. Owen didn't care for that, but his face lit up when I brought out a bucket of watermelon. He must have eaten at least 4 slices.

Alex's fourth birthday

This is Alex at his first 4th birthday party. He basically had three celebrations: this one was at my parents' house, so my grandmother could be there. He chose a Baby Einstein theme for that day. On his actual birthday my mom and I took the boys to Six Flags, and after Jason got off work we all went to Incredible Pizza Company, a pizza place with an indoor go-kart track, mini golf, bowling, a bounce house, and games. And finally, he had his "big" party at an indoor play area called Glenview Treehouse. This was a combined party with his friend Ryder, who also turned 4. We've known Ryder since the boys were about 14 months old, and this is our third year to have their parties together. Alex wanted a Scooby Doo cake that day, and Ryder wanted Spider-Man, so we had a Spider-Doo party! I'll post pictures of those if Blogger lets me (I'm having issues!).

Let's try this again ...

I tried again last night to post and I failed dismally, so I'm trying again.

This is a picture of the boys in Arkansas over Memorial Day weekend. It took 3 or 4 tries to get them both looking at the camera at the same time, so we didn't even attempt dual smiles.

Another test

Okay, that first test came out alright, so I'm going to try another one. Still don't know how to upload photos from the camera to the computer, and Jason's at the movies so he can't show me, so this is a picture from our trip to the mountains in May. It was just Jason and me; my parents watched the boys. This is my favorite picture from the trip. Doesn't it look like a postcard?

Testing!

Before I invite anyone to look at this page, I want to test it first ...I don't even know how to transfer my pictures from the camera to the computer, so here's an old picture for now. This is Alex and Owen at our church Trunk or Treat party last fall (the date in the corner is very wrong!). Alex wanted to be a Spaceman, but astronaut suits were so expensive, so we convinced him that Buzz Lightyear IS a Spaceman. Owen is Roo (of Kanga and Roo fame).