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4th Fun

July 6, 2011

Somehow Robert and I managed to not make any plans for the long holiday weekend and it sure was nice to be at home and get stuff done around the house. Yes, we are old and boring and I like it that way. 🙂 We got Maxwell a new carseat (pictures to come!), cleaned out closets, did yardwork…exciting stuff. It was a very low key weekend but we did manage to have a little celebration on the 4th. LuLu and Granddad made the drive up from Montgomery and we cooked up an Independence Day feast. I even got festive with my centerpiece…

You’re a grand ole flag!

Robert made a pork butt in the slow cooker that was fantastic and even made homemade cole slaw. Funny…the cole slaw recipe he used is supposedly the same one that KFC uses. Robert didn’t tell me that until after I ate it. I didn’t care though because it was good!

I used the awesome locally grown tomatoes I had to make The Pioneer Woman’s caprese salad…

Although I think my balsamic reduction was reduced too much because it was definitely more like glue than glaze! Oh well…it still tasted good.

For dessert we whipped out our fancy ice cream maker that we got as a wedding gift (still in the box! thanks Gordo!) and made homemade vanilla ice cream to go on top of our strawberry shortcake. YUM! If that’s not a July 4th feast, I don’t know what is! While Maxwell didn’t get any shortcake, he did eat a strawberry….

He’s trying new foods all the time…and liking some of them. Strawberries were mostly a hit.

Of course we all dressed in our red, white and blue!

Granddad and Maxwell had fun hanging out on the couch…

And then LuLu got in on the fun…

LuLu and Maxwell had fun playing with his toys…

and going for a little drive.

Then Maxwell and Robert got into a rousing game of peek-a-boo under the table…

Good times.

I’ll take low-key long weekends like this one any day.

ps – Remember in the 10 month post yesterday how I mentioned that Maxwell “loves to scrunch up his nose and snort in and out”? Well, I caught it with the camera…

Told you it was funny. If only you could hear him snort.

Old friends in B’ham

June 20, 2011

We had a jam packed weekend. Father’s Day, a visit from GJ, crawling on all 4’s! But, first things first. Let’s start with Friday…

Do you know how fun it is when your best friend, who lives about 8 hours away, calls and tells you that she’s going to be in your town in only 3 days?! Let me tell you – it’s FUN! Hannah and her family and some friends were driving to the beach and Birmingham was the perfect place for them to stop for the night. So, I got to have their whole crew over for dinner and playtime in the backyard.

This is Joshua, Hannah and Ryan’s little boy. He turned two in May and is a bundle of energy…

and just about as sweet as a boy can be.

This is Owen, Megan and Marcus’s son. He will turn two in August and is such a little love…

and does his best to keep up with Joshua!

These two boys have a blast together. They even got into a little game of one-on-one while they were here!

Owen tries to play defense…

But Joshua quickly takes the lead…

He lines up his shot…

He shoots…

He scores! Joshua then turns to Owen and says “That’s how 2 year olds do it!” 🙂

Maxwell loved watching the big kids from the comfort of Sarah’s lap (Sarah is Megan’s cousin)…

There was a lot for Maxwell to see! Joshua played with trucks…

rocked on the elephant…

and got spun around and around by Sarah!

Owen was having fun too on his dad’s shoulders…

Maxwell loved all the attention and got plenty of love from Hannah…

Megan…

and Marcus.

Ryan tried to give him some love but it didn’t…

go…

so…

well.

Ha! Don’t worry Ryan, Maxwell loves you…even if he didn’t act like it.

One of the funniest parts of the evening was to watch how Joshua and Owen reacted when their moms had Maxwell in their arms! They’re not used to having to share Momma…

But, luckily both boys ultimately decided that Maxwell wasn’t so bad…

and there was plenty of Momma to go around!

It was a fantastic night with old friends. If only this old friend could live around the corner….

Goldfish

May 17, 2011

We had playgroup at our house last week. It was a beautiful day outside and everyone was enjoying playing in the yard…until the sprinklers came on! oops! Luckily I was able to get them turned off pretty quickly and we didn’t get too wet. All of the water did make it nice for the goldfish though…that’s goldfish of the Pepperidge Farm variety! ha ha ha! You didn’t know I was so funny, did you? 🙂

Put out a bowl of goldfish in the middle of 8 kids under the age of 3 and those little things go FAST and get EVERYWHERE!! Many of them ended up right by Maxwell and, even though he doesn’t have teeth yet, I think he enjoyed getting his first taste of the cheesy little fish…

I don’t think he ever actually ate one…just licked them and crushed them in his hands! He had fun with them though!

Some other cute pics from the afternoon…

A fun (and slightly wet!) play day!

Baptism Weekend – part 3

April 20, 2011

Continuing on with the events of last weekend…

After brunch, Robert’s side of the family headed back to Montgomery and Huntsville but my side of the family came over to our house for a little bit. Maxwell was clearly happy to get out of his “fancy” clothes and into something a bit more comfy…

He then had fun checking out Daddo’s watch as usual.

Delaney was pretty good at pulling out all of Maxwell’s toys, including Little Al!

After running around and around, we finally got Delaney to sit still for a few minutes by turning on an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She loved seeing Mimi Mouse and Don Duck! 🙂 Here’s she and Daddo watching intently…

Meanwhile, John and Cara got some good Maxwell time in…

and GJ smiled!

Maxwell then got to open some really sweet gifts for the big occasion. Along with a beautiful silver frame and sweet wooden cross, he also got a bath time Sophie…

a cute Noah and his Ark…

and an awesome elephant rocker!

Of course he tried to eat the ears!

We then tried to get a few shots of Susu with her great-grandbabies.

A shot of 1 baby worked great…

a shot of 2 babies was a little difficult…

and a shot of 3 babies was impossible!

It was pretty funny. At least we tried!

And, finally, just a few more shots to round out the day…

It was such a fun weekend and I’m so grateful so much of my family was able to be there. I’m ready to do it all again!

Baptism Weekend – part 2

April 19, 2011

All the baptism details continue…

Maxwell was baptized at the 11:00 service at IPC this past Sunday. As you saw yesterday, a lot of my family was already in town but my Uncle John, Aunt Cara and my Granddaddy (the original Maxwell!) flew in from Arkansas Sunday morning. Robert’s family all drove over Sunday morning too. Everyone wanted to be sure and get a front row seat so they were all there nice and early waiting outside until it was time to go in. My mom snapped some shots of everyone outside….

Susan was there too! So special!

Meanwhile, Robert and I were upstairs with Maxwell also waiting for everything to begin!

How sweet is Maxwell in his little silk bubble with his knee socks? I just love him so much. He did GREAT during the service. He started to stick his lip out when Reverend Sharps took him from Robert but then quickly decided that Reverend Sharps was pretty nice and he was fine. There was another little girl getting baptized that day as well so we had to share the stage. It was kind of nice though because it let us stay out there a little longer and let everyone get a good look at our good-looking baby boy! 🙂 After the baptism, Robert and I left while the rest of our family stayed for the remainder of the service. Here we are after the baptism in the courtyard…

After church, we hosted everyone out at The Club for brunch. It was a great location to hold a group of 26! I actually got a photographer to come take some photos of all the generations together. I should have those pictures next week and can’t wait to see them!

I put together little goodie bags for the kiddos in the group to help entertain during lunch…

I think they were a hit!

As soon as everyone arrived, we headed outside to let the photographer snap away. I didn’t have my camera out but Jenny did! Love this one that she took…

And here’s a look at one of the many group shots we got – all the Pattersons in a row!

After we posed and smiled and said “Cheese!!” too many times to count, we all headed inside to eat. Maxwell took his place of honor at the head of the table!

Ronnie took that picture. It might be my favorite from the day!

Here’s a few more of our group enjoying the meal and the company…

I was so happy that Granddaddy was able to make it. Jenny caught some great images of Max and Maxwell…

Love those. All of the kiddos did so well both during church and at brunch. Delaney had fun…

and Katie and Anna were all smiles!

Somehow I didn’t get a picture of Nate, Yohannes or Tripp but they were there too. We had a big, fun crew! The excitement soon proved to be too much for the littlest ones though. Nate snoozed for most of brunch…