The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

A big birthday!

Today is an important day.  My dad, Maxwell’s Daddo, turns 60!  What a BIG birthday!  For those of you that don’t know Daddo, he’s basically the best…at everything.  The smartest, nicest, most talented and all around greatest dad ever.  When I was growing up, despite working so hard, he was always home for dinner around the table with me, my mom and my brother.  He never missed a family vacation and always made them more fun.  Zip a dee doo da!  The older I get, and especially now that I’m a parent, I appreciate these things so much more than ever before.  Everyone always says I’m just like my dad…I couldn’t think of a better compliment.  Daddo, let’s hope that Maxwell has got more of you in him than just your name!

Now, Maxwell has something he’d like to say…

We had quite the conversation while taking these pictures and it went a little something like this…

Mom: Maxwell, did you know that it’s Daddo’s 60th birthday?

Maxwell:  Of course I know!  That’s why I made him this sign!

Maxwell:  It sure is going to be nice to give him a big hug for his birthday today!  I can’t wait!

Mom:  Unfortunately, we don’t get to see him today.

Maxwell:  (crestfallen) What?!

Maxwell:  No Daddo today?  boo hoo hoo.

Mom:  Don’t worry buddy, we get to see him in just 2 weeks for Christmas!

Maxwell:  Oh good!  I guess I’ll just pick up my sign and put it in my suitcase to take with me to Florida!

Maxwell:  Man, I can’t wait to get to Florida.  I’m going to have so much fun with Daddo!

Mom:  I know buddy, we are going to have fun with Daddo!

Maxwell:  One last question, can I bring my party hat too?

Happy Birthday Daddo!  We love you and can’t wait to see you – party hats and all!

Weekend festivities

After our great Thanksgiving in Montgomery, we had a fun-filled weekend in Birmingham!  Saturday morning we had a visit from my college roommate Kristin and her little boy Lucas.  Kristin and I lived together at Vandy freshman, sophomore and senior years.  All those years ago I never thought that we would end up having baby boys within days of each other!  Lucas was born 9/9/10, just 10 days after Maxwell!  I’m so glad our little guys got to meet and hope they become life long friends like their moms!

Me with Lucas and Kristin with Maxwell.  Can you believe SHE has the red headed baby?!  🙂

A handful!  Thank goodness I don’t have twins!

Kristin and sweet Lucas…

Later that day we had a birthday party to go to!  About 6 months ago, I reconnected on Facebook with one of my good friends from summer camp only to find out she was moving to Birmingham!  Bette and I spent about 7 summers together starting around age 9 and wrote countless letters back and forth.  I can’t believe we have ended up in the same city all these years later and am so thankful to have an old friend around!!  Bette has a super cute little boy, Sam, and threw the most fantastic party for his first birthday.  The theme was “Sam I Am” and everything was all about Green Eggs and Ham!

The birthday boy…

All the cute decorations, including green deviled eggs!

Me and Bette…

Maxwell did great at the party and I’m so happy we were able to help Sam celebrate turning 1!

On Sunday we had a quick visit from two little pig-tailed girls…

Katie, Anna, Jenny and Ronnie stopped by for a minute on their way back to Montgomery.  It was great to see them!

That day I also I put on my favorite Kenny and Dolly Christmas CD (yep, that’s right, as in Rogers and Parton) and got all the Christmas decorations up!  Can’t wait to get our tree next weekend!

Ho Ho Ho!  Let the Christmas season begin!

A great Thanksgiving

Maxwell had a very nice first Thanksgiving.  Robert and I packed up the car and the 3 of us headed down to Montgomery for the night.  Maxwell got to meet his Great Aunt Betty and Great Uncle Don for the first time as they drove down from Huntsville.  We had quite a feast and lots of good conversation.

Maxwell looking cute in his courdory Thanksgiving outfit…too bad it was 75 degrees that day!

I think he liked his little frog jumper despite the heat…

Hanging with Granddaddy…

and sitting with Lou Lou checking out his very favorite thing in the world, the ceiling fan!

Getting lots of attention as always…

Kicking it with Aunt Betty….

and Uncle Don.

Looking well fed just like we all were that day!  🙂

We stuck around Montgomery on Friday to watch the Iron Bowl – Alabama v. Auburn.  While the first half of the game was great, the second half was not so great with a disappointing AL loss by one point.  Oh well, there’s always next year!

Game day!

Lou Lou showing Maxwell how to say Roll Tide!

Good friends William and Garman came to watch the game…

and Aunt Mary Beth and Uncle Holland were there too.

I think this is how we all felt during the first half of the game…

and this is how we felt at the end.  blah.

Despite the AL loss, it was a great Thanksgiving.  We have so much to be thankful for, especially our happy, smiley, coo-ing little guy!!

More visitors!

Another successful night of sleep last night.  My new mantra is swaddle, swaddle, swaddle!  Another favorite saying is “sleep begets sleep.”  The better and longer Maxwell sleeps during the day, the better and longer he sleeps at night.  I’ve learned that he can have about one hour of “wakefulness” and then he needs to go back to sleep.  I know these periods of staying awake will get longer and longer the older he gets, but, as of now, an hour is about the max for Max!  🙂  If I can get him to sleep for some good naps during the day, we have much better nights!

On to other topics!  Last week Maxwell got to meet some more of his family on Robert’s side.  Lou Lou’s cousin, Nancy Ellis and her husband Charlie came over from Huntsville for a quick visit along with their daughter Melissa and her two boys, Nate and Yohannes.  We’re so glad they were able to stop by!

Meeting Nancy Ellis…

Hannie just being cute…

and Nate just being cute…with a tight grip on Charlie’s finger!

It was a great day.  Maxwell got lots of attention…

and loved getting to meet his “cousins”!  Nate wasn’t quite so sure about this baby thing…

but Hannie couldn’t get enough of Maxwell!

Robert and Hannie had a good talk about how Santa gets down that chimney…

and cheese balls were enjoyed by (almost) all!

A good day all around!

Friday Favorite

Happy Friday!  Today’s Friday Favorite is the Twilight Turtle.  It’s so cool and I seriously kind of want one for my own bedroom!  The turtle illuminates the ceiling of your room with tons of shining stars and makes it seem like you’re gazing up at the night sky.  It’s the perfect light for late night feedings – just bright enough to see what you’re doing but not so bright that it will wake the baby up.  I think it will make the best nightlight in the future as well.  It’s even on a timer so it goes off automatically after 45 minutes.  It really is SO neat and I can’t say enough good things about it.  We love our Twilight Turtle!

Twilight Turtle

Our Twilight Turtle was a gift from some of Robert’s parent’s friends.  Speaking of Robert’s parents, they got to visit last weekend!

Maxwell being his usual charming self…

Snuggles from Lou Lou!

Have a great weekend!