1st Haircut

Ok so I finally relented and got Alex a haircut - I was just so afraid that we would lose the curls.

We went to Snip Its. Alex loved it when we walked in, but when it was his turn to sit in the seat, not so much fun. Once they started to sweep around then he was interested in watching them so he calmed down and we got a haircut. We still have curls left. Here are 2 pictures, 1 when he was not so happy and 1 after he calmed down and let her cut his hair.

California

There are so many wonderful pictures of our trip to CA that I just updated the slide show above to show them, please enjoy!
We flew out on the 26th to San Jose and Nana and Uncle David picked us up and we drove to Lake Tahoe. It was my first experience with chains on the tires - not one I would like to have again for sure. We had a blast in Tahoe, Alex loved playing in the snow and Carl had a good time skiing with his sisters and brothers. Nana and I took Alex up the gondola to the top of the mountain, he was a bit tentative going up, but coming back down he was looking out the windows going WHOA!
We headed back to Gilroy CA, where Carl's parents live on Monday and had a wonderful family dinner that night with everyone and more presents to open. Alex can't wait to get his talking Elmo back, as we had to ship it back here. We spent the rest of the week in Gilroy relaxing, taking walks, going to the park, seeing the biggest mistletoe ever, feeding a horse olives, watching wild turkeys, and playing with the neighborhood cat. On Friday we drove down to Monterrey and up the 17 mile drive through Pebble Beach to Carmel. It was a rainy windy day but we still enjoyed getting out and watching the birds and the sea lions in the water. On Saturday we drove up to San Fransisco and went to the market and then to Pier 59 for lunch. Alex had his first ride on a carousel and loved it. He also saw a blimp over the bay and continues say blimp every day.

We really enjoyed our trip and can't wait to go back and see more next time.

Some more Christmas photos

Below are some more photos from the Christmas season.

Mommy and Alex - Alex just being cute! - Alex and Daddy with his ornaments

The family with the tree - Alex and his most favorite charachter right now Elmo!

Thanks Pampers for putting Elmo on every cruiser, makes it much easier to change an 18 month old!

Alex trying to wake up Max to play - Alex and Max playing in the family room - the girls with the boys... Yes there is proof of Aunt Wendy holding 2 children!

Christmas

Alex had a wonderful Christmas. Thanks to all for the wonderful gifts, of course our best gift this year is my dad's continued good news of being cancer FREE!

Christmas eve, Alex and I went and spent a few hours visiting Georgie, Sander and baby Keller, then headed to grandma and granddads house for the first opening of presents. We then went to the children's service at 4 at Dunwoody Baptist, which was wonderful, Alex clapped and danced on my lap, followed by Macaroni Grill for dinner.

Christmas morning, Alex was greeted by all his Santa loot and we opened the second round of presents, followed by a yummy breakfast of eggs, sausage, biskets and gravy [yummy!]. We had Christmas lunch with all the family at my uncle's house, along with the 3rd round of presents, then headed back to our house for Christmas dinner with grandma, grandad, mom, dad, Alex, and Wendy. We then packed and headed out early the next morning for California, much more to follow on our various excursions there.

Here are a few shots of Alex decorating the tree, with a present, the "Santa stack", in his wagon and his favorite item - his bike!

Alex and Santa 2008

We have had a wonderful holiday season and there is so much to update on with Christmas and our trip to California, I will start here with the photo of Alex with Santa.

Thanksgiving weeks

Hello all,

We have been very busy the last few weeks as everyone is during the holidays.

Aunt Katie [Carl's sister] and Uncle Gabe came into town the weekend before thanksgiving and Alex had a blast with them. We went to dinner on Saturday night and then church and the park on Sunday, then came home and made a yummy dinner from the Mario Batali cookbook. They headed out on Monday morning to go to Augusta. Then my cousins all started to arrive for thanksgiving.

On Wednesday night a group of us met for dinner at Fudruckers, probably the only restaurant that can handle that number of kids at once. Then we all went to my uncle's house for thanksgiving. We attempted to get a picture of all the kids together at once, but that is difficult with 2 of them under 3 and not wanting to sit still. Here is our best shot.

Mom and I went and did our Friday shopping the next day and got some really good buys - I have almost all my shopping done already.

This last Thursday was very stressful as we waited for the results of my dad's cancer screenings, but all good news - NO CANCER!

We celebrated by having lunch together and getting Alex's Santa picture at the mall. He loved Santa and had no issues at all.

This weekend we had Friday night dinner with our neighbors at a new restaurant that just opened Kaysons, it was very good and we are going back in 2 weeks again. Pretty good sign that we did not have any major meltdowns with 7 kids.

Then on Saturday, my cousin dropped his daughter Sarah off around lunchtime so they could go away for a night. I got to see what life with 2 kids is like... actually not bad... but Sarah is such a good girl and loves Alex and had a blast being the big kid and showing him how to do everything. He loved all the attention... they were too cute walking out of the Mexican restaurant hand in hand. Sunday evening we headed to Home Depot to pick out our Christmas tree. The rest of the inside of the house is done, so all we have left to do is the outside and the tree.

Alex is enjoying all of our decorations, and most especially his singing Elmo stocking that his Nana gave him last year.

Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.
We are looking forward to a great family weekend with some of my Aunts, Uncles and Cousins that are in town. It will be interesting, it starts tonight with dinner at Fudruckers [probably the only restaurant where you can take 11 kids at once and manage it].