Holidays 2011...Thanksgiving and Christmas

Again, I have gotten really busy with our lives and on day 7 of vacation before I finally got to blogging on Thanksgiving and Christmas. And then it only took me another month to actually put pictures it and push the post button.

We celebrated thanksgiving this year with my family and Chris's family combined at his parents house. What a great idea that was and not sure why we hadn't done that before but it was all around easier for everyone since we all brought parts of the meal and then both of us and Alex got to see all of our family at once. The food was amazing and like usual at the Evans there was so much that we were able to enjoy yummy leftovers for days. Alex liked the stuffing the best.

One of his new favorite things...pretending to drive our cars. Smart keys make it super fun because he can push all sorts of buttons and things light up for him.

Chris & Gigi

We decorated the house for xmas that night after Alex went to bed. I was so excited for his reaction to the tree. When he came down, he danced in front of the tree and pointed and then didn't really touch it for at least a week and then started pulling off these plastic glittery snowflakes and breaking them. I bought a whole new set of shatterproof ornaments just for him so I didn't care too much. My nice stuff is stored away until we are past the little kid stage. He ended up really loving the tree and every morning when he would come down he would sign "please" for the tree to be turned on, then the fireplace and then the music of course so that he could dance.

There was a laser light show to music which Alex was in aww of

Wasn't really feeling santa this year...poor baby

Santa was ok when he gave him a little gift though..Alex even signed "thank you"

We went to the Streets of Tanasbourne Tree Lighting on the Friday night of Thanksgiving weekend. The laser light show with music and fake snow was awesome. I think it is the best event like this in the area. We definitely plan to go again next year. Alex was very into it. Santa on the other hand he wasn't so into this year. We put him on Santa's lap and typical for this age, arched his back and screamed in terror of Santa. He got a chance to see Santa again at a co-worker's home and was happy to take a little gift from santa and even signed "thank you" but again wasn't having sitting on Santa's lap...maybe in 1-2 years. 

On a side note, we also ended up having Alex's 15 month check up and still long and lean. 31.5 inches and 22.1 lbs. I thought for sure he would weigh a few more pounds. He felt like he was getting really heavy carrying around lately but I guess it is just me. He was perfectly healthy. We are lucky to have kept him so healthy since last winter/spring. Funny thing is, a few kids at daycare got Hand Foot Mouth disease and Alex was spared it, but Chris came down with it and was horribly ill. He got a fever, sore throat and then sores in his mouth, hands and feet.

Christmas popped up so quick as usual where you barely feel like you have the time to do everything you want to. We did xmas eve with Chris's family and Christmas day with my family as usual. Alex really enjoyed himself. Too little to really know what it is going on but he enjoyed the gifts he got and I think we did a fairly good job making sure he didn't get too overwhelmed.

We had some sad news in our family over the holidays with Patty being diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer. She will be undergoing a series of chemo treatments between now and April. Any of your reading this post, please pray for her. We hope she continues to feel well and that her treatments go well. 

Alex's daycare shuts down for the whole week after Christmas and Chris had just switched jobs and didn't have the PTO so I ended up taking the week off. Being home to bond with Alex was so much fun.

He is starting to try and talk which is just so cute. He has been saying "bye" a lot and maybe says it a little too early. Poor grandma was babysitting him and as soon we got home from our date she told her bye. We will have to work on that a little..hehe. It seems he is learning several words a week. He now says..."bye", "hi", "ni night", "Ball", "bear", "eat", "door", "all done", "hide", "mil" (milk), "moooo" (more), "_at" (cat), "up", "down"...it's crazy how fast they learn words. I swear last week he only said a few. He still just loves music so much and asks for music to be turned on immediately upon arrival to school. We have a family trip planned to Disneyland at the end of February and think Alex will love all the music there a lot. 

Pumpkin Patch, Halloween and Dancing with cousin Jordyn

Alex and uncle Jackson

 Our little dinosaur

Alex Dancing

Alex and Jordyn

Alex giving auntie Katie a love

Alex and Jordyn

Alex and Jordyn Dancing

I finally made it onto the computer to blog a little..yay! We have just been having too much fun with our little family to stop and record these things and I must admit I have been a little behind on the baby book too..oops. Alex is getting to be such a fun little guy. Almost always happy, clapping and dancing..shaking his little hips. It's too cute. The video of him and Jordyn is so funny. Well, the truth is, he dances like that all the time and sometimes there isn't even any music or it is just static on his radio in his room and he thinks it is something to dance to. 

He is starting to communicate more through baby sign language. Which Chris and I think is the most awesome thing ever. I really think it has cut down on him fussing because he is able to let us know what he needs. He signs "more," "please," "eat," and he has done "thank you" two times now..hopefully that one keeps a coming. "More" has multiple meanings.."more" and "milk" but it is usually really easy to tell which one it is.  Sometimes like if he is really tired he will start combining them meaning he is really very hungry and tired and wants to go to bed asap. It is so precious how he tries to say "More" except it sounds more like "Mooooooo." Hel is also saying "uh oh" whenever he drops something.

Alex enjoyed himself at the pumpkin patch. We picked up 3 pumpkins from Plumper Farm. Cute little private farm. We got way too busy and never ended up carving our pumpkins. At school he got to do pumpkins and get his hands in all the stringy gooey stuff so I don't think he missed much. On Halloween day, they had a fall parade at Alex's school so we sent him in his dinosaur costume which he loved and apparently he was growling. I had to work Halloween night, but Chris took Alex over to my mom's and he got to go to a few houses with his cousin Jordyn. When I finally got home from work that night, Alex was still in costume, the hood and all and running around patting his fat belly. It really surprised me how much he liked being in that costume.

We started swimming lessons with Alex back in September. I think he doesn't mind the water too much as long as he is not on his back. It's funny, he doesn't seem to mind if his face gets wet, but the back of his head and he freaks out. 

Weekend in Reno to visit the Carman's

Baby Grant

Stacy & Grant, Me & Alex

Alex eating steak for the first time..he loved it

I had a great time visiting Stacy, Greg and meeting baby Grant for the very first time. Stacy is my good friend from PT school. We both had baby boys this past year and since we now have our hands full it had been a little while since we had seen each other...just over a year. We got to see their beautiful new house and the weather was great. I really enjoyed just relaxing at their house and sitting on their patio. Alex loved the little water fountain on the patio too...got himself soaked every time he went out there. Sure beats a tupperware with water in it at home..that is what he usually gets to play with. Baby Grant is just such an angel baby. Greg and Stacy are so lucky. He is so sweet and mild tempered. I just couldn't get over how he could sit on the floor by himself while Stacy did things around the house. Made me realize how high need Alex is. We had a great time, but also very exhausted by the time we got home. Traveling with a little one is tough. I don't know how these parents with two kids at the airport do it. I think the next time we fly with Alex, we will get him his own seat though. On the way home, we put him in a empty seat while the seat belt sign was off and he was so much better behaved than sitting on our laps. 

Alex turns 1! and labor day weekend trip to Spokane

Fireman's hat and truck from Romen

Some of the goodies from the party

The ice cream cake..strawberry and vanilla ice cream with graham cracker bottom and middle with caramel

He loves it!

Alex and uncle Tom Bez at Pig Out in the Park

Alex pigging out on while chocolate covered strawberry at Pig Out in the Park

Nana got him glasses and he loves them...they even helped to get him to walk 4 steps to mommy because he wants to put them on mommy and daddy and take them off and on again

Playing with water on Tom and Cindi's deck in spokane

Alex is 1! We had such a fun time celebrating on Friday September 2nd with family. It was perfect. All his grandparents, great grandma...aka "gigi", auntie Katie and cousin Jordyn were all there to celebrate. We had a truck themed party, had some of Alex's favorites...pizza and ice cream cake and of course a birthday movie of pictures and video clips of Alex's first year. The birthday boy really enjoyed the party, the food, the cake, his visit with family and gifts. I had so much fun making the ice cream cake which I had planned for for some time knowing that Alex didn't like regular cake yet and his tummy didn't seem to agree with chocolate yet. I ended up doing strawberry and vanilla with a graham cracker crust bottom and middle including caramel. The truck decoration on the top is a frozen buttercream transfer. 

I had decorated the house the night before so when Alex came downstairs the next morning he was so excited and pointing at all the directions. His excitement made it all worth the time..hours..I spent making the birthday banners from cardstock. 

Alex got lots of really nice gifts including a firetruck and fireman's hat, an activity table, book and probably enough clothes to get us through the better part of next year. 

The next morning we got up really early to catch a 7am flight to visit Tom and Cindi Bez in Spokane. There is a festival up there every year called Pig Out in the Park where there are 40 some food vendors. Alex looked like a little chipmunk while he was eating his white chocolate covered strawberry. Poor Alex did not have such a good time while we were there because he was cutting a tooth. Although, the way he was acting, it almost seemed like an ear infection because he would cry whenever he tried to lie him down. I realized it was a tooth when I put together the pieces that he was nursing very briefly but frequent, biting and drooling and had what seemed like a tooth that was trying to poke through for a few weeks. Once the tooth cut through late Sunday, and a couple doses of tylenol, he was back to his old self...yay! I sure hope the next one doesn't bother him like this one.

Alex is not walking yet but very very close and today he took 4 steps to me while trying to put his sun glasses back on me. I think we are any day now from him walking all over the place. His balance is very good, but he is very timid. In the food department, he still doesn't eat more than a few bites of most foods, but still has more interest in foods that are spicy and flavorful. This weekend, the things he liked most were spinach, chicken and artichoke crepe and yakisoba noodles with spicy asian ginger dressing. He is so funny. Such a foodie already. He really is not into the regular kid stuff like mac and cheese. He is now into all cupboards and drawers so the real baby proofing has begun. He absolutely loves to drum everything and I think we are all convinced he will be a drummer. The other new thing is a little big of attitude and tantrum coming out if he doesn't get his way. Hard to believe that this is starting. He says "dada" A LOT...almost all the time. "Mama" use to be said a lot but now not as much. Lots of babbling of sounds but not really any other words at this time. 

Now that Alex is going to bed so early now...by 7pm, Chris and I finally have more time both for each other and ourselves which makes a world of difference. Alex is really funny about the bed time. He pretty much falls to pieces if you don't keep to the schedule. His internal clock is ridiculous...I guess sort of like me though.