The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Christmas memories

Let the holiday re-capping begin!

As I said yesterday, the holidays this year were definitely memorable…with some memories we’ll always want to remember and some others that I think we’d all like to forget!

Memory to remember #1: Getting to wake up in our own house Christmas morning!

Memory to forget #1: Robert and I woke up Christmas Eve morning with the stomach bug.  ugh.

Robert was hit MUCH harder than I was with the stomach bug so I slugged through and took care of the baby all day while Robert stayed in bed.  Luckily we were both feeling better by Christmas morning.  While not 100% yet, we were able to get up and see that Santa had come down our chimney!

Whoa!  Maxwell didn’t quite know what to think when he got up that morning.  Well, what he first thought was, “I want my bottle of milk!”  But, after his tummy was full, he was happy enough to check out what Santa brought him.  It was no surprise to me what his favorite thing was…

Topped off with a brand new fireman’s hat, he was ready to go!

Other toys were hits as well, like his Megablocks…

and this Little People barn from GJ and Daddo.

little people fisher price barn

We then packed up and drove down to Montgomery to spend the day with Robert’s family.  What fun we had!  Maxwell got into the spirit…

and loved all the attention.

We even got to see River the pony dog!  While BIG, River is just about the sweetest, calmest pup in the world.  Even I liked him (from a distance of course) and, if you know me, that’s saying a lot!

We had a great day and Maxwell loved “helping” to sort the gifts…

playing with new toys…

and giving Lou Lou a new “do” with a Barbie brush!

I think Katie and Anna had a great day as well!

Memory to remember #2: Anna and Maxwell acting like best buds all day. Kindred spirits these two!

Unfortunately, that fantastic day brought….

Memory to forget #2:  Maxwell refusing to sleep and screaming crying all. night. long.

I don’t know what the issue was but Maxwell would not go to sleep in the crib.  Robert and I finally took him into the (double size mattress) bed with us.  Real comfy, let me tell ya.  He would sleep for a bit and then just sit up and scream bloody murder until I calmed him down again.  I think we all ended up head to toe in the bed and not much sleep was had for anyone.  Considering Robert and I were still one day out from the stomach bug, that lack of sleep hurt.  But, we survived.  Ho Ho Ho!

Tomorrow the re-capping continues!

A birthday!

hello all!  I’m back home and ready to get this bloggy blog in gear for 2012!  We had a fantastic – and memorable! – holiday and I have full Christmas recaps to come.  But, today we have something much more important to celebrate…

Maxwell’s cousin Nate is ONE today!  Happy Birthday Nater Tater!

We got to spend some time with Nate and his big sis, Delaney, while down in Florida last week.  They are just as fun as ever.  While the 4 month age difference between Maxwell and Nate makes a big difference right now, in just a few months it won’t matter at all.  Can’t wait for these little dudes to be best buds!

We had a little birthday party for Nate complete with a dinosaur cake and safari hats…

Everyone got in on the hat wearing fun!

Nate didn’t take anytime smashing his smash cake!  I’d say he was a fan…

Of course, he also had a little help from Delaney!

After cake, the kiddos had a surprise waiting for them outside…GJ got a bounce house!!

It was a blast!  for the adults too!  🙂  These kids are going to want to go to GJ’s house every weekend if she keeps doing stuff like this!!  Speaking of GJ, after playing with her grandbabies from the outside for a bit….

She decided she had to get in herself!  or maybe it was Delaney begging her over and over to get in?!  Whatever the reason, she was a good sport, bounced away and made 3 little babies VERY happy!

And if you’re wondering if Nate had fun at his 1st birthday party….just check out these pictures!

A happy birthday boy indeed!!  Here’s to many more!

Disney part two

Continuing on with our day in The Magic Kingdom…

After seeing Mickey, Minnie and Santa, we finally made it past the front square and into the park.  I don’t remember the last time I was at Disney but it’s been several years and, I’m not gonna lie, I got a little emotional when we were walking up Main Street towards the castle.  I’m not some sort of Disney freak, I think I was just so happy to be there and continuing the memories with my family.  Being able to go with Maxwell and see it all through his eyes – it’s pretty neat.  Anyway…

We first went and got a Fast Pass for me and Robert to ride Space Mountain later and then hit up the kiddie rides.  The Carousel was awesome…

and, now, please get ready for Scary Momma Face!

Whoa!  Maybe I am a Disney freak?!  🙂

Next stop was Winnie the Pooh.  Maxwell was doing his best to take it all in…

especially when he started glowing in the dark!

Cool!  After that, we stopped for some dinner and then Robert and I headed over to Space Mountain which was just as much fun as I remember. Twists and turns and all in the dark!

After a night of little sleep (Maxwell apparently doesn’t like hotel rooms.  Remember Little Rock?), Maxwell was up and ready to hit the parks again!

(like his shirt?  I made it!)

The weather was great and there were, surprisingly no lines at all.  Robert and I rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and then took Maxwell on Pirates of the Caribbean.  After that, we all went into The Haunted Mansion together…

Luckily we all made it out alive with no hitch-hiking ghosts in tow!

Next stop?  A hot dog on Main Street of course.  I think this was Maxwell’s first hot dog ever.  He liked it but the fries were the big hit…

After a stroll through some shops…

it was time to call it a day.

Maxwell was spent…

exhausted…

and completely done for.

It was time to go home!  Even though we were only in Orlando for 24 hours, we sure did pack a lot of fun into every second!  I’d also like to publicly thank Robert for being such a good sport.  He had been to Disney World once when he was 10 and definitely had no idea what to expect from my crazy Disney-loving family!  Thanks for embracing it all Robert and helping us to have a zip-a-dee-doo-da time! (am I a dork? oh yes.)

ps – did you know I have a brick with my name on it at Disney World?  Been there for 18 years!

 

Disney

Here’s the deal – my family LOVES Disney.  We love it.  We went on numerous family vacations there and I just have such fun memories of my family and that place.  This year, my mom had this idea to get the whole family together for a quick little Disney trip.  The purpose of the trip was really so she could get a picture of the grandbabies all together for her Christmas card…but we didn’t care about the reason, we just wanted to go!  When everything was first planned, we weren’t even going to go into The Magic Kingdom.  We were just going to go see Santa at Downtown Disney and then maybe do a little shopping.  What were we thinking?!  The morning we left for Florida, everyone made the (smart) decision to change our plans and do it up right…Disney style…which meant The Magic Kingdom.

Sooo…Robert and I left Saturday morning to fly to Orlando.  Maxwell did great on the flight and we got there around noon.  After a quick lunch and nap at the hotel, we headed over to The Magic Kingdom.

Always important to hydrate when you’re going to be out in the sun…

When we bought our tickets they gave my Dad this button since his birthday was last week.  Everywhere we went that day, Disney staff were constantly saying “Happy Birthday, Steve!”  It was pretty funny.

When we finally got in, we had the take the obligatory entrance picture…

Exciting stuff!  We then met up with Keath, Jen, Delaney and Nate and headed for our first stop – a meet and greet with the main mouse himself.

Maxwell didn’t cry…but he wasn’t exactly thrilled with them either!

After we checked that off the list, it was over to see Santa.  The line was a little long but Maxwell didn’t mind because he had plenty of entertainment.  Namely me….

Robert…

and cousin Nate.

When we finally got up to see the big man, Maxwell reacted just as I suspected…

Guess he’s gonna be on the naughty list!

He calmed down a bit and we got a family pic…

Don’t you like how I’m hooked arms with Santa?  He was a jolly soul.

Maxwell’s favorite part of the Santa experience was definitely the candy cane he got after…

And, just for the record, Nate’s on the naughty list too!

I think that’s enough for today!  More Disney to come tomorrow!!

Thanksgiving recap

Welcome back everyone!  Hope you all had a lovely holiday.  We had a great Thanksgiving…even if it was a small crowd.  Robert’s parents, Granddad and Lou Lou, came over for the day and I cooked us a Thanksgiving feast.  It was my first time to make all of my mom’s traditional Thanksgiving foods and I think everything turned out delicioso!…but I guess you’ll have to ask Robert, Lou Lou and Granddad if that’s really true!  🙂

Just as I thought it would, Maxwell and Susan’s little turkey made a great centerpiece!

While I was pretty proud of all the food I made, I think I was most proud of the homemade rolls (my mom’s rolls are a bit legendary in our house)…

and the pecan pie with handmade pie crust…

Yum!  I’m stuffed again just looking at it!

Maxwell was a peach all day and even took 2 naps for us.  While he was just as happy as could be, he clearly wasn’t into having his photo taken…

Solemn face #1…

Solemn face #2…

Solemn face #3…

And solemn face #4 with cousin Liz who stopped by….

I think he just didn’t want to have to stop playing to “say cheese!”  We got plenty of smiles after lunch though when he took his lawnmower outside to do a little work…

Fun times up and down and up and down the driveway!

It was a very happy Thanksgiving!