Updates all around

Well, somehow it has been a few weeks since I last posted again. Thus an update of all the random sort. Alex: what to say about that kid. I'm pretty sure the picture says it all. He's growing like a weed and getting a few smarts. He has a deck of 'first word' flashcards that he loves, you can show him 3 or 4 then lay them down in a random order. Then ask him to pick one out for you and he gets it right every time (unless the card for Table is involved. He seems to have a blind spot for tables either on flashcards or when running...) He loves playing with PJ, being as picky about his food as his dad and Grandpa Price.

Jeff: Poor poor Jeff. We had a COLD spell here for a while. I mean it was freeze your nostrils shut COLD. And poor Jeff would have to treck across campus to and from his car/classes every day. Thus by the time he got home to the warmth and the comfort of his couch he was hard pressed to leave it... Did you know you could take beautiful winter scenery pictures from your couch (as shown by the reflection of the ceiling light on the window pane in the pic...)

But on a more serious note, he just finished mid-terms (we find out how he did this next week...) and sinc, and since we joined the gym back in January, has actually been swimming again. Good for him!

As for me, I have been keeping myself pretty busy. I am currently trying to teach myself to sew and have made a few weekend bags (the pic below) that turned out pretty cute. The first one I made for myself and my mom loved it so much she commissioned me to make the second one (the one pictured.) I started taking a quilting class this month and am pretty excited about that. I bought some STINKING cute fabric for the quilt and can't wait to start making my blocks. I also have a recent fascination with sourdough. I have a starter, but as of yet am not quite sure what to do with it other than bread. Not that homemade sourdough bread is EVER a bad thing. But I ordered a new cookbook that should tell me everything I ever needed to know about whatever it is you do with this starter. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, I think that is about all that is going on here. Other than it has been around 40 degrees for the last week, which is all but a tropical vacaction! Maybe Jeff will actually go outside to take his next scenery pic!

It Speaks!

So, Alex has finally started talking over the last few months. Which is pretty much awesome. Now, I want to be clear, just because he can say the word doesn't necessarily mean that you can understand it. Those two things do not go hand in hand. Here is a list of of the words that he can say that have the highest chance of being recognized as English.

Mom

Dad

Ball

Kiss

Nellie (but only when talking to Nellie)

please

yes

no

what is it?

here it is, or there it is

hi-ya

bye

shoe

sock

hug

Kyle

PJ

Grandpa (I think... either grandpa or yaya...)

baby

Loralei (sometimes....)

fish

more (which was his first real word other than Mom & dad. He ALWAYS wants more.)

That is about it for the ones he says on a regular basis. Pretty soon he is going to learn "Stop shooting me in the butt with your nerf gun daddy." I have $5 on that being his first full sentence. He makes lots of animal sounds and recognizes a few upon sight. He is also learning to pick the correct flashcard out of a lineup. Oh! He just said a new word! OW! Looks like his first sentence might now be "stop shooting me in the FACE with your nerf gun daddy!!"

Anyway, that's pretty much what is going on here. Great, now Jeff is showing him how to shoot the gun......

Merry Christmas

Sorry for the delay but this has been a pretty busy week. Christmas was good, we spent the 24th - 27th at the cabin. Rhianna flew in on the 28th so we had another Christmas the next day.

Alex didn't really understand the concept so we opened his stuff for him and he took an early nap.

He did like his new toolbench though.

Rhianna is a fan of her new dollhouse too. (truthfully she didn't really care about it that first day, but now she must show it to everyone that walks through the door.)

Big Boy Bed

He's still not that used to it but he was pretty excited to get a big boy bed. Julia was excited too because she got to make him this quilt to go with it. And too top it all off, Rhianna was pretty pleased that she gets the top bunk. Some day (hopefully soon) he will stop waking up and coming to get us in the middle of the night.

What's he gunna do?

Another one of those pictures you don't intend to take but it's too funny not to post.

For Sandy & Christine

Sandy, per your request on the family website, here are our pumpkins from the Great Pumpkin Carve Off!!!! The top one is Nellie's Frankenstein, the Winner. The middle is Jeff's house window looking out over a graveyard. The bottom is my 'gobblin' that ended up looking more like an owl. Either way, it was a good time!!

Halloween Festivities

Halloween was pretty much awesome and crazy busy for 3 days. We started off on Thursday with a trip to the pumpkin patch (which was FREEZING!!!) then back to my mom's house for the great pumpkin carve off. Nellie won the carve off with an awesome frankenstein. Then on Friday we dressed up and went to Boo at the Zoo which was so cute. The zoo was all decorated in lights and pumpkins and the mokey cages had cardboard pumpkins and blow up decorations in them, and there were trick-or-treat booths set up all over the place. Right after that we went down to the river where Nellie was part of a free city trick-or-treat carnival type thing. So we played the cakewalk and got more candy! On Saturday we went to Roz's for a hay ride which Alex loved, then to my moms again for a eating/getting ready party before trick or treating. All in all the weekend was a lot of fun and Alex is STILL recovering from all the activity!