The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

A birthday post!

Does everyone know what today is?  Oh yes, it’s GJ’s BIRTHDAY!!!!  Happy Birthday GJ (or DD as Maxwell has been calling her lately)!  No Aspen this year, but with all the traveling from FL to AL to AR you’ve been doing, something tells me you’re happy to just be at home today!

You’ve been carrying the weight of the world (well, at least the weight of most of our family!) on your shoulders and we want you to know how much we appreciate all that you do (really, really appreciate it!) and how much we LOVE you!  I simply don’t know what we would do without you.

As a little reminder of your birthday wishes in the past, check out 2010 and 2011.  For this year, Maxwell once again wanted to send you some happy birthday wishes…

 Hmmm, I can’t wait to give GJ a big hug for her birthday!

Unfortunately you don’t get to see her in person today, buddy.

Whaaaat?  That’s not a nice thing to say Momma.

I know buddy.  I wish we could see her too.  But, we’ll see her in just about 5 weeks when your baby brother is born.  Until then, let’s show her the great birthday sign.

Fine.  Here you go.

Oh, come on bud.  Let’s show GJ how much we love her and how excited we are that it’s her birthday!

Alright, Momma.  You’re right…how’s this?

Much better!  Now, how about a big smile?

You got it!  Cheese!

Oh boy, GJ’s gonna love that!  Can you give me an even bigger smile?

Anything for GJ!  Cheeeeeeeeeese!

Now that’s a big smile!  Ok, how about a cheer for her birthday?

Hip Hip Hooray!

Hip Hip Hooray!!!

Hooray for GJ indeed!!  Happy Birthday, GJ!  Hope it’s a GREAT day!

We love you!

Roll Tide in the Big D!

What a FUN long weekend we had!  Robert and I took one last pre-baby adventure and hopped on a plane to spend about 12 hours in Dallas and see the Tide roll all over Michigan!  A BIG, HUGE thanks to GJ and Daddo for not only giving us the trip and tickets for our birthdays, but for also coming and watching Maxwell while we were gone.  We really, really appreciate it and had the BEST time!

Game day and we were all ready, including Maxwell!

Robert and I ended up taking a charter flight to Dallas.  It was great because we got off the plane in Dallas and immediately got onto buses right on the tarmac that took us to Cowboy Stadium.  After the game, we all made our way back to the buses and hopped on the plane to come home.  Granted, we didn’t get back home until 3:30 am and were exhausted but it was worth it!  Our plane left from Birmingham at 2:00 in the afternoon and, luckily we got to the airport with plenty of time to spare because I went to check-in only to learn that my driver’s license had expired 2 days before on August 29th!!!  What?!  I had NO idea that it was expired.  Luckily (very luckily) we live close to the airport and my  mom was able to get my passport up to me within 15 minutes.  Phew!  Poor Maxwell though, it was his nap time and by the time she got to the airport he was doing this in the backseat…

Robert was about to kill me during the process but, we made it to the gate with plenty of time to spare and I WILL be heading to the DMV this week!  🙂

I took a little series of self-portraits with my iphone throughout the day.  Much easier than asking someone else to take your picture!

At the airport (passport in hand!) and ready to go!

On the buses headed to Cowboy Stadium…

Outside of Jerry World!

In our great seats before kick-off…

During the game…

After the game, tired but happy, back on the buses…

On the plane at about 2am really ready to be home!

I also took lots of pictures with my big camera.  If you’re every going to Cowboy Stadium, note that you can’t take in a lens longer than 3 inches.  I didn’t think they would really enforce that, but I took a smaller lens just in case and I’m so glad I did!  The security guy definitely measured it and I’m so glad I had my cheapy, shorter lens instead of my good long one!  That thing would have been left in Dallas!

A little shot of BBB#2 at his first AL game!

Please note my OFF bug spray fan clipped onto my bag.  I wasn’t going to get West Nile!  I have to say, being so pregnant, I was kind of the novelty of our flight.  Everyone kept asking when I was due, how much longer I had, how they couldn’t believe I came on the trip, how I was such a trooper, etc.  I knew I’d be fine though and I was.  No problems at all – despite the 90+ degree heat and VERY bad air conditioning on the plane and bus!

Our seats really were good and right in the middle of all AL fans.  We bought them off of stubhub and didn’t know which side most AL fans would be sitting on.  We almost bought seats on the other side of the stadium and I’m so glad we didn’t because we would have been smack dab in the middle of a bunch of Michigan fans!  This was our view from our seats…

Not bad at all!  We were on the end of the row which was nice.  Right on the other side of that railing was the club level.  Those people paid a lot more for their seats and, other than having more padding on their chair, I don’t think they got much more than we did!

The jumbo-tron was awesome and jumbo. It was hard not to just watch the game up there the whole time!  They were doing crowd shots throughout the game which were pretty funny a lot of the time.

A game shot for Robert…

Maxwell will be glad to know that Big Al was there!

I didn’t worry once about Maxwell the entire game because I knew he was having a ball at home with GJ and Daddo.  My mom sent me this picture as proof!

Two peas in a pod!

While not a close game (Go Bama!) it was a fun game to watch and we got to see this up on the screen a lot!

Touchdown AL!  This was also an interesting fact of the night…

Let me tell ya, there were a LOT of people there!

And, of course, we were VERY pleased with the final score!!

After the game, we made our way back to the buses and, after a slight delay waiting for Ricky Phillips to show up (the only person out of 100 that couldn’t get back to the buses in time!) we headed back to DFW and flew back into Birmingham.  A quick trip but worth every second!  Again, thank you to GJ and Daddo for the flight, the tickets and the babysitting.  It was definitely a birthday trip to remember!

Roll Tide!

More 2nd Birthday Party!

Continuing on with the 2nd birthday party coverage…

After a yummy hat-wearing lunch Maxwell got to open all of his super fun presents!

His first stop were the two packages from Mrs. Susan and let’s just say they were a HIT!

She got him some Superman pj’s with a detachable cape!!  I think someone might have been a little jealous!  🙂

She also got him an AWESOME fire truck that lights up and makes fire truck noises.  Maxwell LOVED it and had to go get his fireman hat immediately!

He got lots of other sweet and wonderful gifts from everyone like new clothes, Dr. Seuss books, a VTech computer, a giant sticker book, new toys for the sandbox, DVDs and even a ride on bumble bee!  This little boy is fixed up in the toy department!!

After presents it was time for cake!  I got the cake from Olexa’s again and it was worth every penny!  yum!

Maxwell has been practicing blowing out his birthday candles for weeks now.  He’s been so excited about it.  I guess all the excitement was just a little too much though because when I came out with the lit candles and everyone was singing to him, his little face went from pure excitement to fear!  He didn’t want those candles anywhere near him!

Poor buddy!  I think it was all just a little overwhelming.  After a little hug from Dad, he was doing much better…

We were happy to see a smile again!

I cut up the cake…and here’s my 32 week bump in all it’s glory if you’re curious!

While Maxwell didn’t want to blow out the candles on his cake, he sure did want to eat it!

I think everyone enjoyed the cake eating part of the party!

After lunch, the cousins played with the new sand toys in the sand box for a bit…

and then it was time to bounce off all of that cake!

Please note that picture in the middle of his face smooshed up against the black netting!  cracks me up!

After lots of energy was spent, it was time to say “bye” to everyone!

Or maybe that’s actually more like “help!”  🙂  Either way, it was a GREAT day and we’re so happy that so much of our family could be there to celebrate the big TWO!

Maxwell, I hope you had the best birthday party a little boy could hope for.  We love you so much and can’t wait for another year of adventures!!

Bring on the terrific two’s!!

 

2nd Birthday Party!

We had a big weekend around here and we’ve got a big week coming up!  First, today is Maxwell’s first day of school!  Let’s hope he does great in his new older toddlers room with his new teacher!  Second, Maxwell’s 2nd birthday is on Thursday so lots of fun birthday posts to come this week!  Third, we celebrated Maxwell’s birthday on Sunday with a family party centered around – what else – yellow construction trucks!!

Here’s the invite I emailed to family…

dump truck party invitation

And here’s my sweet birthday boy ready for his party!!  Boo-boos on his chin, knee and shin and all!  My rough and tumble little 2 year old!  🙂

I got his shirt off of Etsy and it came in about two weeks ago and Maxwell has been SO excited to wear it!  Every day he would want to peek into his closet at his truck shirt…but he knew it was off-limits until his party!  He couldn’t wait to put it on that morning!!

Like last year, I had to make things festive and I like a good theme to center the decorations – some yellow construction hats, orange cones and plenty of balloons of course!

dump truck decorations

I even got some special eating utensils for Maxwell…

So cute, right?!  I think he might be eating every meal with those for a while!  I did forget to hang the awesome “Happy Birthday” banner though!  darn!  remind me to hang it next year, ok?

We gave Maxwell this truck that morning and it barely left his hands all day…

and the proof is in plenty of the pictures!

The only thing that took him away from his truck were the balloons of course!

He was a happy little boy!

We loved having most of our family over but definitely missed Mary Beth, Holland, Keath, Jen, Delaney and Nate!

Before lunch, we had one more surprise for Maxwell…

A bounce house!  Those 3 cousins bounced and bounced and bounced in that hot sun…

until they were red-cheeked and ready to eat!

When it came time for lunch, fortunately everyone got into the hat wearing spirit!  What can I say?  I definitely think hats make a party more fun!  🙂

But the Birthday Boy looked cutest of all in his hat, of course!

I think that’s enough for today.  Party coverage continues tomorrow!  Until then, I leave you with this awesome family photo that we captured…

ha!  Hey, it was his party – he could do what he wanted!!  🙂  See you tomorrow!

Birthday celebrations!

This past Saturday we drove down to Montgomery for the day to celebrate both LuLu and Graddad’s birthdays!  I think it was a surprise to LuLu that we all showed up at her house…but luckily we came bearing food so she didn’t have to do anything except play with the grandkids.

We all enjoyed a wonderful lunch…and the kiddos had a ball at the “kid table”.

We then celebrated the birthday boy and girl with a key lime pie…

and then LuLu got to open her gifts…with plenty of helpers!

Granddad had a little help too!  🙂

Maxwell LOVED getting to play with Katie and Anna all afternoon….

and I loved getting to catch up with these lovely ladies!

After pie was eaten and presents were open, the kiddos hit the pool!  Robert was a trooper and volunteered to get in with Maxwell. Of course, considering how HOT and HUMID it was, I don’t think he was sacrificing too much!  Maxwell loved swimming as always and even starting jumping off the side of the pool into Robert’s arms!  exciting!

We also got to see Mary Beth’s dogs, River and Zelda, that she brought over.  If you know me at all, you know I am not a dog person…to put it lightly.  and to be around dogs this big…well…poor MB was having to run interference to keep them away from me all afternoon!  Maxwell wasn’t too keen on getting close to them either.  He just kept saying “no puppies!”.  I can’t blame him though because I think Zelda and River might still be taller than him at this point.  They are super sweet pups though, just too big for me!

By the end of the afternoon, Robert was hot-doggin’ off the diving board.  It was pretty impressive!  wish I had gotten a picture of the flips he was doing…Maxwell had to get his olympic swimming expertise from somewhere, right?

It was a fun day all around!

Happy birthday LuLu and Granddad!  We’re so glad we got to celebrate with you and love you very much!