Buddies

Alec had a great weekend b/c he got to spend a lot of time with his best buddies. On Sat we went up to Longmont to play with Katy, Tim and James and Holland, Chris and Riley joined us. Katy and Holland put their craftiness to good work and made all the kiddos matching aprons, which are about the cutest thing ever! The kids had a blast playing with all of James' toys, painting and eating delicious grilled cheese sandwiches in their matching aprons. Then on Sunday we headed to Lacey, Zach and Audrina's for Audrina's 2nd b-day party! The kids had a great time playing again, and Alec LOVED his orange frosted cupcake. He is such a lucky boy to have such great friends!

Feasting

Future artists

What good is painting if you can't paint your body parts along with the paper??

I love this one

Happy b-day Audrina

More Traveling

Alec and I got back to CO yesterday after another 2 weeks of traveling. We had a nice time in Chicago visiting Matt, and then drove up to Cleveland on Friday to stay with the Wolfe family for the long holiday weekend and to celebrate Julie and Matt's b-days. As always, we had a fabulous time in Cleveland!! Sadly, Alec came down with another cold before we left, so he was a little out of sorts and didn't get much sleep, but he still managed to have a great time with the Wolfe kiddos. Plus, the cold was a major bonus as far as traveling went - he was actually a treat to drive with - he played in the backseat, chatting and reading and singing for the the first 3 hours of the drive, and then slept for the last 3. He was also pretty beat down yesterday and actually slept for the entire first leg of our flight and half of the second, which is unheard for for him. So - as sorry as I was to see him sick, I much appreciated the relaxing flights. Here are a few pics from the trip - I haven't been able to take as many lately b/c I get a very firm "No cheese mama" the majority of the time I pull the camera out.

Giving Logan's XMas present a test-drive

Alec, Logan and Zach

Realizing that the buttons on the Wii remote changed things on the TV

On the drive

Helping mama pack - he's become a pro

My boys!

Entertaining ourselves indoors - I am definitely not yet adjusted to the Chicago weather...

Alec in our new house - yes, we found and put an offer on another house, which we are all very excited about

For good measure!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!! We hope everyone had a great end to 2009. It has not been the best year for us, so we were happy to see it go. Grammy volunteered to babysit, so we celebrated up in Boulder w/ Abby and Ross, my cousin Jenny and her husband Justin and our neighbors Niall and Cherilyn. It was a very fun night and we had a great time behaving like we didn't have a kiddo. Matt had to head back to Chicago on Sunday afternoon and we were very sad to see him go, but we are headed that way on Friday so we don't have to miss him too much longer. Alec certainly loved having his daddy home for Christmas and continues to tell me how much he "loves Daddy" whenever I kiss him or say "I love you." Anyway - just a few cute pics of the last few days - and, I'm not huge on New Year's resolutions, but I decided today that my resolution is to make sure that Brody gets to go on one walk a day for the next year. The poor dog has gotten the short end of the stick since Alec showed up, and with Matt being gone (he was the loyal dog walker) I have really been neglecting him. So Brode - here's to you and all the fun we will have freezing our toes off in Chi-town.

First sledding experience

Flying Matt's remote control helicopter - he could do it for hours.

Hanging with Grammy

Alec and Reid - all smiles!!

Merry Christmas

We enjoyed out 3rd Christmas with Alec this year!! Unfortunately, Alec came down with croup on Monday and was a pretty sick boy all week long. It is the first time he has really ever been sick, aside from having a runny nose, and it was hard on all of us. They put him on a really low dose of sterioids to help expand his lungs so he could breath and sleep at night and they had quite the impact. They definitely made him feel better, but he was also transformed into some kind of 2-year old devil. Alec is already a wildman as it is, but the medicine pushed him over the edge. He was literally running from one said of the house to the other with no end in sight. It was actually pretty insane to see what a huge impact the meds had on him and I was glad when his three-day dose was over. Although they helped his cough, he was still fairly out of sorts all week long - just very uncomfortable, cranky and irritable. We were hoping he would be improved by X-mas, but that wasn't really the case. He had a horrible time sleeping on X-Mas eve (he was up for about 3 hours), so he wasn't in the best spirits come 7a.m. He definitely enjoyed all the presents (although he was more excited about unwrapping them than actually seeing what was inside of them) and he had a lot of fun talking about Santa, but he was still really cranky and didn't enjoy the morning like we know he would have had he been feeling better. So - here's to hoping that next year is a bigger success. Illness aside, we still had a wonderful Christmas and were SO happy to get to spend it together and with our families. Here's a little photo collage of our holiday!

Watching the train with Grammy

Hanging with Uncle Ross on X-Mas Eve

Running wild

Christmas morning

He loves his new jet plane!

This photo pretty much captures his mood

Checking out his new food with Uncle Ross

His very own "puffy" patagonia jacket - thanks Aunt Abby and Uncle Ross

Driving the new remote control car

Christmas afternoon with the Sungy family

A new remote control plane from Aunt Kat

Checkong out his new trains with Papa Gene

Grandma Susan

Seeing his typee play tent for the first time. Papa Randy and Retta sent this and we waited until the day after Christmas to unveil it at our house.

It's not small...

but certanly a hit - here is Alec inside with his new Thomas leggos. We have ALL spent plenty of time in the tent in the last week!

Thanks SO much to all of you who love Alec and were so generous with him this year. He is a very lucky boy, as are his parents!!

Christmas Fun

Things have been a little crazy for Alec and I lately, so I have been neglecting the blog a bit. Here are a ton of pics from the last couple weeks. Alec has had a great time preparing for Christmas and it's a ton of fun to watch him start to figure out what the holiday is all about.

Putting up the tree with Dad.

Mom attempting to get a cute tree pic - I actually love this one!

Cookie baking at Grammy's

Playing with an early X-mas present he got from Aunt Abby and Uncle Ross - pardon the random mayo jar in these pics.

His new trick is to close his eyes and pretend he is invisible.

Loving on his Grammy

I like my mom and sister's holiday flair

Helping Papa Ross put together the train that goes under the tree - Alec couldn't be more enamored with it.

Some post-nap cookie decorating

Meeting Santa, who Alec wanted nothing to do with - he started screaming the minute he came in the room. This is him taking his present from Santa and booking it. Notice his friend James in the background - James does not share Alec's Santa phobia.

He did manage to give Santa a high-five - thanks to a little borrowed bravery from James.

More cookies

The finished product.

I think he likes them!