4 to 4

And in just a blink, my tiny 4lb baby is now 4 years old! With Alex's b-day falling on Monday of the long weekend, it was fun celebrating for several days. He was very excited this year and asked about his b-day over and over and over. Next year I plan on having a fun countdown for him instead of just marking it on the calendar.

We did lots of yard work and planting this weekend which is what he LOVES to do. Many worms found good homes this weekend. Sunday, Patty and Ally treated him (me too) to a movie. This was his second time in the theater. He nearly drove me nuts all Sunday morning about the movie.

I let Alex kind of rule the day on Monday. He picked pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for his breakfast meal. He had chosen boiled eggs for dinner, but I convinced him to have those for lunch instead. :) So, for dinner we had tacos. At his request we had a dump truck cake...actually two...one red and one green. His present from us was bike. He gets frustrated but is getting the hang of it.
We ended the fun day in the basement riding out a severe thunderstorm....he appears to enjoy storms as much as I do!!!

Holiday in Review

Although I struggled to get into the Christmas Spirit this year, it finally found me. Things seemed to suddenly slow down and the fun began. It started on the 23rd. The first fun thing was that I found out I won the holiday gift basket from Eco Chic. There must have been about $100 worth of good in it. That afternoon the snow started...it was the pretty snow globe kind. It just kind of set the mood for Christmas.

After a quick dinner, we headed to Santa's Village. Alex was excited to meet Santa and tell him about the suckers he wanted. I wasn't sure we were going to get Alex off Santa's lap...and yes, Alex got two suckers. I don't think Santa believed that was truly what Alex wanted him to bring! :) Aaron's first meeting of Santa...not so great. He freaked! As we finished decorating the cookie with a kind of grumpy Mrs. Claus, we headed out the backdoor and realized Alex didn't follow. I kind of panicked. I went back in and started asking people if they had seen him. It appeared he'd gone back to see Santa. I then realized he didn't have his cookie. He said he gave it Santa, and he ate it. I'm not sure if he's telling the truth but his story has remained consistent. Poor Santa...not like he could disappoint a little boy wanting to share!

We kicked off Christmas Eve morning with Paula Deen's chocolate dippy doughnuts. They are a favorite at our house. Grams and Granddad arrived the night before, so they were able to kick off the festivities with us. That day I had a few stocking stuffers to round up, and I took Alex out to pick out his ornament. He was in to Charlie Brown this year, so he chose a Snoopy ornament. It was fun being out with all the holiday shoppers. Everyone seemed cheerful! We had our friend and Aaron's godfather, Enrique, over for Christmas Eve dinner. Paul smoked a chicken and baby back ribs. We rounded off the meal with blackeyed peas, pepperjack mac and cheese, coleslaw and cornbread. Alex set out his cookies and milk for Santa and sprinkled the snow with "reindeer food" before crawling in to bed.

Christmas morning we discovered Santa had left a snowball thrower, Charlie Brown Christmas, a lollipop and some chocolate for Alex and some bear slippers for Aaron. We fueled up on caramel rolls before the unwrapping of presents commenced. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves! We ended the day by heading over to the Halvorsons'. We were greeted by the gang in Zubaz (yes, they're back)!! We exchanged gifts, indulged in appetizers and played Dicecapades. It was a very fun day.