Alex turns 3 (at least he thinks so!)

Even though Alex's birthday isn't until November 9th we celebrated on Saturday so that Bryan could be here for the festivities. So now Alex thinks he's three.

The birthday boy - look at him! When did he get so BIG!




In my mind he's still THIS little baby!
Look at that dimple!

With all of his presents.

The cake! I used a new technique on this one - it's called a frozen buttercream transfer - it was EASY and took like half the time of filling up a form cake with stars. It's not perfect, but Alex loved it and that's all that really matters!

Admiring the cake...

Good friends of ours, the Fishers came over to celebrate with us.

The big present from us - Rocket from Little Einsteins with all four characters - it really talks! Alex loves it.

"Go Tigers!" in the Clemson hat that Aunt Reeree gave him.

Emma was getting into the spirit of things and helped Alex open one!

A firetruck from Grandma Melissa

Emma thought it looked like fun!

Diego sea glider from Rebekah and Emma

Playing the Monkey's Jumping on the bed game

Putting together the 63 peice puzzle together with Daddy.
Alex is amazingly good at puzzles - it took him about 10 minutes with a little bit of help.


TIME FOR CAKE!

Ready for church the next morning with Grandma and Grandpa who had come down from Flagstaff to celebrate with us. He is wearing the outfit they got him.

Emma's Baby Dedication

I just got these pictures from Emma's baby dedication and thought I would share. The church hired a photographer and I thought she got some nice pictures. It was sure nice to not have to worry about finding someone to man our camera.

Here we are with all the other families with babies. Our pastor Ben is the guy in front.

Apparently Ben said something funny. (If I remember right it was something about the giant bow in Emma's hair)

With our pastor Ben and awesome children's director Julie.
Emma is wearing a dress my mom made especially for the occasion.

Little Photographers

There have been many occasions when either Alex or Rebekah has gotten ahold of the camera and had a heyday with taking pictures (thank goodness for digital!) Although they usually get into trouble for touching the camera, it is always humerous to look through the pictures that have been taken. Here is one such collection of pictures taken a couple of days ago while undoubtedly I was on Facebook, yes I am addicted. Rebekah came running into my bedroom. "Alex is taking pictures with the camera! I DID NOT TOUCH IT Mommy!" My mommy sense told me that was a bold faced lie - and I have the pictures to prove it!

We start off with a nice shot of the diaper bag that was right next to the camera. I'm pretty sure Alex took this one.

Rebekah comandeered the camera right away as we see with the next photo that most certainly was NOT taken by Alex.

Nice shot! Look at the mischevious grin on that boy's face!

Here either Rebekah has the camera turned around on herself, or more likely Alex got the camera back from Rebekah and he took it - it seems to be at his level.

"My turn!" This one is probably my favorite - just look at the glee. Oh my naughty children!

2nd favorite - Blair Witch anyone?

And the camera is back with Rebekah (I DID NOT TOUCH IT Mommy!)

And a few more random shots....



I guess this should teach me to leave my camera out of child reach!

All in the Family

My brother and his family were here for a visit. It has been 2 years since we have all been together, so it was a really good time. Here are several pictures - I will make notes as we go.


First off, here are a couple of pictures of Emma who has recently learned to stand herself up. I had intended to do a separate post - but accidentally uploaded them into this post - so here they are. She always looks so proud of herself when she makes it up on her feet!

Now on with the visit.

Me and my nephew Andy, isn't he the CUTEST thing in the WORLD!?

WANTED:
The Dangerous Diaper Duo

Best Friends: Rebekah with her cousin Maren walking into the zoo

Not a perfect shot, but with 6 kids you learn fast to just take a picture and go on.

This one turned out a little better

Andy and Emma

Jim and Mamie with Emma
(am I stating the obvious here?)

Maren and Emma

Cousins
watching a movie on the big air matress - how much more fun can it get?

In Tombstone

Ice cream break!

Thanks to Uncle Jim, even Emma got a taste!

We took a trip to my cousin's house in New Mexico to see her family.
The kids had a blast playing in the driveway.

The 9 great- grandchildren

Amy, Jim and me!

The backyard was also a hit!
Amy, thanks so much for opening your home to us, it was a really fun time!



It has been a bit of a tradition to go get studio pictures of all the kids whenever we are all togethr, so one day we tackled that major undertaking. It went remarkably well!