Thanksgiving 2011

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a low-key Thanksgiving at home spending most of the day cooking up sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, roasted parsnips, carrots and onions and devouring a BBQ turkey breast from Pok-e-Joe’s. Well, it was our first Thanksgiving in Texas – so it was almost mandatory that we gave thanks for all of our blessings and our new Texas life with BBQ turkey, right?

The weather was perfect and we spent much of the long weekend going for walks and tricycle rides around the neighborhood.

During the week before Thanksgiving, Alex’s preschool hosted Thanksgiving lunch for all of the families. It was quite a feast and so fun to get to have lunch with Alex, his classmates and their families. And we found out that Alex does not like Pumpkin Pie. That’s okay, I can think of yummier desserts to eat during Thanksgiving too.

In preparation for the big feast, Alex’s class learned about Native Americans and made rainsticks (bean-filled decorated paper towel rolls), headdresses and decorative vests (paper bags).  Each student was given an honorary Native American name by their teacher which was painted onto their vest.  Alex was proudly named “Mighty Lion”.  SO appropriate!

I only had the chance to snapped one picture amongst the chaos of the feast, but it’s a pretty happy one:

Halloween 2011

Halloween 2011

You didn’t really think we skipped our usual Halloween festivities this year, did you?  In fact, we did more activities and had more fun than ever!

The weekend prior to Halloween we attended a mom’s group party where Alex got to paint pumpkins, eat treats, play with other kids and their toys and even get his picture taken as Spiderman.

Alex revealing his secret identify to the paparazzi.

We also drove out to Marble Falls for a spectacular, yet slightly warmer than anticipcated, trip to the pumpkin patch with Aunt Lu.  We got a couple of beautiful pumpkins and some decorative gourds.  Alex also got his face painted just like Spiderman.  He was very cute sitting in the face painting chair trying so hard to hold still and just so excited to look like his favorite super hero.

Alex’s version of the Spiderman song: “Spiderman, Spiderman, doing good, Spiderman friend” 

The Friday before Halloween, Alex’s school put on a Halloween show with all of the kid’s dressing up and singing a song.  Alex wasn’t really keen on performing this particular day, but he managed to stay on the stage with his classmates.

The Sunday before Halloween was superb.  We decorated construction paper bats, pumpkins and ghosts, carved our pumpkin, watched a family movie and made a spider web apple pizza.

  

And of course we encountered this year’s cousin of Sandwich Slug – The Stromboli Slug!

These photos prove that this year’s slug was as terrifying as ever.

   

This year’s slug recipe used Whole Foods fresh pizza dough stuffed with fontina cheese, crimini mushrooms and black olives – served with a side of fresh basil and tomato dipping sauce.  Delish! A recipe to re-visit for sure.

And finally, for Halloween night, we invited some friends over to go trick or treating in our neighborhood.  This was Alex’s first year trick or treating as he was sick last year and we didn’t really live in a “neighborhood”.  Though timid at first, Alex caught on to the idea quickly and loved ringing the door bell and getting candy with his friends.  He even managed to mostly remember his “Thank You’s” amongst all of the candy chaos.

Hope y’all had more treats than tricks!

JUNE 2011: Alex Update & Father’s Day

I almost got ahead of myself here…writing about June when we only just started July.  Silly Me.  Just trying to make up for all of the late posts I guess. 

Just some memorable moments we’ve had this month:

*Tracy passed her Certified Quality Auditor (CQA) Exam.  Yay!

*Tracy’s Dad celebrated his birthday on June 10th.  Happy Birthday Dad!

*Michael’s sister, Laura, celebrated her birthday on June 12th.  And Laura is coming out to visit us in July – we can’t wait!

*We attended our first parent-teacher conference for Alex. We even sat in tiny chairs – so cute!

Alex is doing wonderfully at school.  His teacher described him as having “that spark of curiosity that you wish all kids had”.   He is very social, gets along well with his classmates, and is right where he should be with his gross motor and fine motor skills and language development for moving on to the next “grade”.  Alex takes KinderDance once a week at school and loves to “shake out the wiggles”.  He is learning to count in English, Spanish, French, and Japanese….though French and Japanese require a bit more practice. 

Here is an example of some of Alex’s art from this year:

*Alex had his 3-year wellness exam …which included a hurty shot. 

Alex now weighs 33.8 lbs and is 38″ tall.  Our doctor said that Alex looks great and doesn’t need to come back for another year.  Hooray!

*Michael’s Father’s Day was filled with summer fun and yummy food!

*Tracy’s brother, Jason, celebrated his birthday on June 28th!  Happy Birthday Big Bro!

*We officially declared Alex potty independent – at least during the day.  Actually he had pretty much wrapped up the whole “potty training” activity last month, but we were keeping an extra close eye on these activities through June.  Such a big boy!

Hope you are all having a safe summer and keeping cool!

MAY 2011: Happy 3rd Birthday Alex!, Happy Mother’s Day! & Happy Birthday Tracy!

Alex celebrated his 3rd Birthday on May 8th. As well as on May 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th.

That’s right – a full week of celebration and presents and treats!

The festivities kicked off on May 6th at a Mother’s Day school celebration. Alex’s class learned a new song for all of us mommies and we melted as they sang their hearts out. Then we sat down (in tiny chairs) for strawberries and shortcake. We were then given beautiful presents – a paper plate photo magnet of Alex blowing kisses and a pot with seeds to grow at home. Such sweetness.

We had a simple celebration for Alex on May 8th, which also happened to be Mother’s Day. (What a great Mother’s Day gift for me, right? A beautiful, healthy 3-year old son. ) Michael made a delicious breakfast for us. Then, Alex and I opened and enjoyed our thoughtful gifts.

In the afternoon we went swimming in the perfect weather which was a blast. For dinner Alex devoured one of his favorite meals, cheese quesadilla with a side of fruit on the patio. Alex closed out the day by blowing out 3 candles placed upon a Texas-Sized Chocolate Glazed Donut from Round Rock Donuts. Killer.

Alex’s celebrations continued as he sang happy birthday to himself for most of the week. There were a lot of May birthdays at school, so Alex learned the song pretty well this month.

Michael and I brought yogurt and strawberries to Alex’s school on the 9th for a special birthday snack. We really enjoyed getting to show Alex’s classmates several photos of Alex through the years, and getting to witness Alex squirm while his class sang to him. So cute!

On Friday, the 13th, I (Tracy) celebrated my birthday. It was a beautiful sunny day filled with yummy food and warm hugs. And we were changing work areas at work, so with all of the moving and organizing I barely had to do any real work for the day. Easy day bonus!

Alex’s official birthday party was on Saturday, the 14th. It was a Toy Story-themed Little Gym party and the kids all seemed to have a great time. Amache, Attache, Uncle J, Aunt Tonya and Cousin Kayleb all came over for the festivities which made it even more special for Alex.

I keep forgetting what a marathon May is for us now days. With all of the planning and preparation followed by the many wonderful celebrations and treats, it is a beautifully busy month. We are so lucky.

Alex’s 3rd Birthday!

Just a quick post to let you know that we final uploaded snapshots from Alex’s 3rd Birthday Party at the Little Gym.

Yep, you still need a password. So send me a note if you don’t know it.

Happy 2nd Birthday Little Man!

Our Alexander turned a wonderful 2 years old on May 8th!

To celebrate the momentous occasion we spent a long weekend in Las Vegas with Tracy’s parents and grandmother. We had wonderful Spongebob Squarepants (aka “BobBob”) decorated dinner and cake and Alex spent the weekend doing what you loves most – running around at parks and in the yard with his family.

Here is Alex enjoying his birthday song…

…and some sun…

And finally, three generations of gorgeous mommas enjoying a lovely Mother’s Day.

December 2009 Recap

What a great end to the year!

Our little family of 3 took a road trip down to Chez Etchegaray in Las Vegas for Christmas, Tracy’s Mom’s Birthday and New Years.  There, we had wonderful visits with and were showered with love by (in no particular order): Tracy’s Parents, Tracy’s Grandma, Mike’s Parents, Mike’s Sister Laura and her boyfriend Jonathan, and Tracy’s Aunt Retta and Uncle Jean Claude.

Thank you to all of you non-Las Vegans who made the trip to spend the holidays with us.  And thank you to the Las Vegans (mom & dad) who hosted such wonderful family meals and festivities.  And thank you to everyone else for being a part of our lives! 

Alex had a wonderful time singing Christmas songs with his new reindeer friend (thanks Aunt Retta and Uncle JC!), chasing the poor cat Cody around the house, and running and exploring outside in the rock garden.

For your sneak peek pleasure:

Alex coming down a slide at the best park we’ve ever seen:

& Alex enjoying the brisk outdoors (he’s officially addicted to the pacifier now! yikes!):

By the way, Laura got me (Tracy) the best Christmas gift – an ipod nano WITH VIDEO.  So you can be sure that we will be uploading many more videos in 2010!!

Hope you are all having a great start to the new year!

Love & kisses,

Tracy, Michael & Alexander

Birthday & Mother’s Day Weekend!

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Alexander’s 1st Birthday and Mother’s Day!

The Whisman Grandparents and Etchegaray Grandparents all flew in for the weekend festivities.  We had a wonderful lunch at the Elephant Bar in Burlingame.  Our party “theme” was rubber duckies – complete with a rubber ducky shaped birthday cake.

Alexander seemed to enjoy the day full of attention especially when we sang the “Happy Birthday” song to him. We are appreciative for all of our friends and family that were able to attend and share our son’s very first birthday celebration.

We are slowly opening gifts to give Alex some time to get acquainted with all of the new toys – we are overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity and thoughtfulness.  Our son is quite possibly the most loved little boy ever.

Michael and I were able to spend some quality time with our parents and celebrate Mother’s Day with our moms which was a wonderful bonus to our already wonderful weekend.

More pictures available at the First Birthday Weekend album.

Happy 1st Birthday Alexander!

Wishing our little Alexander a very happy first birthday!

Happy New Year! 2009!

Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy New Year, Everyone!

We had a wonderful and busy holiday season filled with lots of family, a few runny noses, and quite a bit of snow.

First, we traveled to Illinois to spend Christmas with Michael’s family.  Michael’s Father’s Mother (Memaw) came up from Georgia to meet Alexander and have a white Christmas with all of us.  Alexander was a bit under the weather for most of the week, but he enjoyed seeing the snow, playing with the Whisman’s new puppy Rocky, and getting new toys (of course!).

Next we jetted over to Las Vegas to ring in the new year with Tracy’s family.  Jason and Tonya (Tracy’s brother and sis-in-law) were visiting with their very well behaved puppies Sydney and Sark.  Tracy’s Mom also celebrated another beautiful birthday while all of us kids were in town.  Alexander met Great Grandmother Yudin (Tracy’s Grandmother), enjoyed going for walks around the neighborhood and was able to visit the beautiful Christmas display at the Bellagio.

We have put together a 2008 year in review video.  Please do enjoy!

If you are reading this post through email, please click here to view the live post and watch the video.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!