Birthday pictures

Alex is concentrating hard at pulling the wrapping paper off while his cousins wait patiently. A few minutes after this we had them help Alex with the rest of the unwrapping.

Here is Alex with his great-grandparents who came in from Denver to celebrate Thanksgiving and his birthday with us. We were so happy they were able to come.

Alex enjoyed making a mess out of the cupcake. This was after he licked all of the frosting off. Eventually he ate his whole cupcake.

Birthday pictures

Alex in his new rocking chair.
Just about to open presents. I wonder what that rocking chair shaped present is?

Birthday cupcake! Don't worry, Mom and Dad are right next to me so I don't grab the fire.

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Alex turned one year old at 6:55pm yesterday evening. At that time, he had just finished his Thanksgiving dinner by throwing most of the Turkey on the floor and then starting to dig into his Birthday cupcake. We celebrated his birthday and Thanksgiving with our family. Thank you Nana, Saba, Grandma, Papa, Great Grandpa Sid and Great Grandma Kathy for making the trip to Seattle to be with us. Thanks to Brian, Shauna, Hannah and Nathan for making the significantly shorter trip. :)

While hosting Thanksgiving and a birthday is fun, it requires a lot of planning and cleaning of dishes. I think we'll have recovered by the next time this happens in 2014. We'll post pictures soon from both Thanksgiving and his official Birthday Party on Sunday.

Haircut

As you can see Alex is sporting a new shorter hairstyle. We finally broke down and took him to get his haircut. He did very well. He sat in a red sports car and for the most part was very calm. He didn't like it when we had to hold his head down but there were no tears. I think I was more upset than he was.

We are busy planning for Thanksgiving and his b-day. I have been trying to clean the house all week but when you have a little boy who won't sit still and no longer thinks its cool to take long naps, it has been a challenge. I know it will all come together in the end.

Crawling baby

Alex has finally graduated from army crawling and is crawling the good old fashioned way. This means he gets around a lot more quickly and is very happy about that. He has also learned to stick out his tongue. He does it often and really likes to imitate you.

We are gearing up for his birthday party. I cannot believe he is turning one in less than two weeks. Time has flown by this past year. I promise to take lots of pictures over the next few weeks to post.

Batman gets out the vote

Here's a picture of Alex before we went out trick or treating. He wasn't a big fan of the Batman mask. We'll share more pictures soon.

Alex joined Dad today on election day. He sat with me in the polling booth on the way home from work and happily slept through it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get his advice. He said he was for Obama though. Although he might have been saying ba ba.

Palm Desert

We spent the last week vacationing in Palm Desert with my parents and my brother's family. We had such a great time. The kids got to play in the pool everyday and the adults got to relax at the spa. The weather was great, Alex really enjoyed the sunshine (as did his parents). We didn't do much other than lay out by the pool, eat and take naps, which to me is the perfect vacation. I have lots of pictures so I will start with just a few.

Portland Trip

This past weekend we took a trip to Portland. We decided to leave around 5 PM on Friday which is usually the time Alex is very active. I assumed he would stay awake in the car but instead he slept the entire time. This meant his schedule was completely off and rather than going to sleep at 8 he went to sleep at 11:30.

We had a great time. Sunday the whole family came over for brunch. Alex got to meet and play with all of his cousins. I think he was fascinated by all the older kids (he wanted nothing to do with the adults).

As you can see from above, Alex found a cool cubby to crawl into and hang out. He is really moving around and exploring and has no desire to sit still.

Tomorrow we leave for Palm Desert. I am so excited to get in the warm sun and hang out by the pool. Alex has only been swimming a few times in his life but he is going to get his share this next week. I hope he likes it.

Last weekend

This is an older picture but don't they both look so cute!

This past weekend Rob and I spent our first night away from Alex. While he was home having a great time with Grandma and Papa, Rob and I were living it up in Leavenworth. Sadly living it up for us means a few drinks, possibly making it to 11 PM and then crashing. Regardless, we had a great time and enjoyed our freedom for the night.

Other than that things are status quo. Alex pulls himself up on everything and is starting to creep around the furniture (he really only takes a few steps before he chickens out). Sampson is being very tolerant of Alex's adventurous side as he climbs over Sampson and then proceeds to steel the bone that he was in the middle of chewing.

We are heading down to Portland this weekend to celebrate Heather's 30th birthday and see the family. We should have some new pictures for you then.

More pictures

Here are some more Alex pictures for you all. I'll try to get some Sammy ones for all of his fans out there. Not too much new in our world.

Alex in one of his many warmup outfits. I think he's warming up to play football. The Huskies could use him.
Pre-game workout. Alex likes to do pullups on his pack and play to stay fit. He's hardcore.
Now he's ready to go, but he can't find his football in the toy bin.
Whatever. Maybe I'll just go pretend to be the dog and play with his toys in his crate. He did this to himself...really.