The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

School birthday!

To celebrate Maxwell’s birthday last week, I sent cookies up for his class to enjoy at lunch.  I just made sugar cookies (this recipe – the best ever) with yellow icing of course.  All morning, Maxwell was so excited about his “lallow ccckkkkies” and I kept having to explain to him that they were for school and not for breakfast.  Well, needless to say, he couldn’t wait to get to school!

As soon as he got to his classroom, he walked in and immediately sat down at the table ready for his cookie!

ha!  It was precious.  Beyond precious.  I had to break his little heart and tell him that cookies didn’t come until after lunch!  He was fine though and immediately started playing with some trains and said “Bye Bye Mama!”

His teacher then sent me some pictures that afternoon of the day…

It looks like he had a GREAT day and everyone enjoyed their “lallow cccckkkkies!”  He was very proud of his birthday crown when I picked him up!

Thank you Ms. Juli!  She also sent this AWESOME video of everyone singing Happy Birthday to Maxwell.  Wait until you see what he does at the end!  TWO!

Happy Birthday Maxwell

(if you can’t see the video, click here)

Maxwell is obsessed with this video and he’s probably watched it 75 times over the past few days!  I don’t mind, I can’t get enough of that cute little TWO at the end!

Happy Birthday buddy!  Here’s to many more fun school birthdays!

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!

Happy Labor Day!

Hope you’re getting to relax and do a whole bunch of nothing today!

See you tomorrow!  and, one more thing – Roll Tide!  🙂

Two Years!!

First, thank you for all the comments yesterday!  It makes me so happy to hear from so many of you!!

Second, it’s official, I have a TWO YEAR OLD so I thought it would be good to wrap the week up with a full recap of what he’s up to.  Maxwell is just so fun these days.  He’s communicating more clearly every day and I just love hearing the fun and funny things that come out of his mouth.  Just a few things about him right now that I want to remember….

He’s talking up a storm and learning new words every day.  He knows red, green, blue, yellow and purple.  He’s starting to make mini sentences – mainly starting with “me” like “me eat.” and even getting into 3 word phrases like “no puppies me.”

He still LOVES trucks.  One of his favorite things on our walks is to go see the “lallow tucks” – all of the various yellow construction trucks in the neighborhood!

He still sleeps in a sleep sack and, lots of nights, fills it up with all the toys that he wants to have in the bed with him!  His bed is always full of Nanner, Mr. Moo, two wooden yellow truck puzzle pieces and then at least 2 other plastic trucks.  I don’t know how he doesn’t roll onto them in the night and wake himself up!

He continues to be a great sleeper.  After our nightly routine of reading several books, turning off the lamp and turning on the Twilight Turtle (purple, lallow, purple, lallow), he’s in bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and wakes up around 7:00 in the morning.  He’s still napping every day at 1:00 until about 4:00.  yay!  Let’s hope his baby brother is as good of a sleeper as he’s been!

Shhhh, the baby’s sleeping…

He’s still obsessed with shoes and wants to wear them all the time.  He’s also still a big fan of his baseball cap – never puts up a fight about wearing that!

He’s definitely developed a little happy squeal – or maybe I should say scream – that he does when he’s really excited about something!  It’s loud and hilarious!  His other big reaction is to say “ooooooh” when I explain something to him.  I love to hear that little “ooooooh” because that means whatever I said clicked in his head!

He still says “yea yea” for yes and it melts me.  And he’s very good at saying “no”…especially when it comes to food!  He’s learned ‘day and night’, as well as ‘above and below’ thanks to his Dinosaur Roar and Sandra Boynton Opposites book.  He loves to say that things are “cuuuute!” and he also loves to tell me when he finds some dirt on the floor with a loud exclamation of “dirt dirt!”.  Yea, I love that!  🙂  Most impressive?  He can definitely tell you he’s TWO while holding up 5 fingers!!

While we’re not ready to potty train yet in my opinion, he is very good at telling me when he “pees” and needs a clean diaper.  I’ll take that as a first step!

He gives awesome hugs and the sweetest kisses.  If you don’t get one on the cheek, he’ll happily blow you a kiss!

I just love to see how he learns new things every day and picks up on what we’re telling him.  He totally gets it and I can’t wait for his little vocabulary to catch up with his brain!

Now, on to some more shots of my two year old!

I have got to teach him to stop making this piggy face!!…

Happy two years sweet boy!

Whew!  This has been a big week on the bloggy blog!  Thanks for coming to visit and have a FANTASTIC long weekend!

Happy Birthday Maxwell!!

TWO!!  How is my baby two years old already?!  What a fun two years it has been.

Maxwell has gone from this tiny, helpless baby…

To this chubby cheeked, dimpled, curly headed, giggling 1 year old baby boy….

To this funny, chatty, energetic, sweet and happy, running around everywhere toddler!

I love him so much and am constantly amazed that he’s mine.  I cannot wait to see what adventures we have together in the years to come!

Like last year on his birthday, I have one small request.  Would you leave a comment wishing Maxwell a happy birthday?

If you cheered him on for his first day of school…

If you got a little inspiration….

If you enjoyed our continued adventures to the park…

If you got a kick out of his yummy Halloween costume and our Halloween parade...

If you caught the whirlwind 24 hour trip to Disney part 1 and part 2...

If you like a good game of peek-a-boo…

If you liked seeing the house all decorated for Christmas…

If you read about his first haircut…

If you wanted my lovebug to be your Valentine…

If you felt sorry for his little broken leg…

If you got excited about our big news…

If you thought this bunny was scary looking (I did too!)…

If you liked any of the Friday Favorites like these awesome shirts…

If this made you want to say “all aboard!”…

If you just liked to see him smile for the camera…

If you liked seeing us make new friends and visit old friends…

If you sang along to The Itsy Bitsy Spider…

If you found these Travel Tips useful…

If my Olympic swimmer made you laugh (and, really, how could he not?!)…

If you liked seeing us try to be models in the fall or summer…

Or if you just love this sweet little boy smiling or not...

Won’t you leave a comment and tell him Happy Birthday?  You don’t have to say much – just “Happy Birthday!” or tell me your favorite post, picture or story. Or even just say hi!  Whatever strikes your fancy. I’d love for him to know all of the fantastic readers that have been following his adventures over the past year! A big thanks from me to you!

Now, I’m off to spend the day with my sweet TWO YEAR OLD!!