Christmas in Monroeville

This year, we spent several days in Monroeville right before Christmas. As we are packing everything to go out of town, I typically pile everything on and by our big tan chair so that nothing is left behind. As Chris and I were scurrying around getting the last minute things together, the house grew strangely quiet. Anyone with a child knows that is NOT a good thing. So, I went to check on Lane. This is how we found him! He was apparently ready to go see Nana, Grandpa, and Aunt Sarah!

This year, we learned how crazy toy manufacturers make it to open a kids toy!! We always knew it was difficult, but this year it was much more difficult. As soon as Lane opened a present, he wanted to play with it! So, momma starts out opening the toy….

Out of the cardboard box, now daddy gets to unwrap all the plastic twist ties from the wheels! Seriously?? We did manage to get Lane to open another present while we worked to free the truck.

Waiting on Nana to open the puzzle. Daddy is still working on the truck. 🙂

The truck is free!!! It took a good 30 minutes before Lane would consider opening another present. He was quite happy with his truck!

Once we started back opening presents, he loved his cookie monster!

so many buttons!

Ah the VeggieTale Christmas movie that we still watch multiple times a week. There is nothing like Christmas in April!! He still dances and bounces like the first time he watched this movie!

Trying to open more Christmas DVDs.

Sitting in the middle of his loot. Such a spoiled boy and LOVING every minute! Thanks Nana, Grandpa and Aunt Sarah!!

One morning, Lane woke up and was talking but Chris never budged. I thought this was hysterical, so instead of getting up with Lane I took pictures of him trying to wake Chris up! Here he is trying to swing his blanket out to land on Chris…

That didn’t work. (notice the blanket on the mattress) So, he squatted down and started screaming “Daaaaaaa!” and banging on the side of the pack n’play! That was too much for me. I couldn’t control my laughter, so we got up. I wish I had videotaped this!

One evening we took Lane to see the Christmas lights. I wasn’t sure how much he would be able to see from his car seat, but he seemed to love it!

It’s hard to tell, but Lane is pointing at all the lights.

November Trip to Houston

In November, Lane and I went to Houston with GiGi and Papa Rock to visit family. This is a long trip, ESPECIALLY for a baby. We stopped several times at rest areas with playgrounds. We also played a lot of games in the car to keep him entertained…

Lane and Momma Bear enjoying the ride.

Playing peek-a-book under his jacket.

While we were in Houston, we took Lane to the Hands-On Museum. He had a blast!

Heeeeey!

Instead of a sand table, they had an oatmeal table.

We also visited the Houston Zoo. Here he is sitting in an Eagle’s nest.

I see you Papa Rock!!

Petting a stone fox

In the actual petting zoo area…hahaha!

a REAL elephant!

Mommy teaching Lane what elephants say, “Rooollllll Tide Roll!”

The zoo had a little aquarium. This was a cool tunnel that allowed you to crawl through the aquarium. Lane LOVED being in the middle of all the fish!

Somehow, I did not manage to get a single picture with family!!! Pitiful! So, Houston family watch out, next time we see you there will be a photo shoot! 😀

Random October pictures

Here are some silly pics of Lane. Enjoy!

What you talkin‘ bout Willis? (No idea what was happening, but I love his facial expression!!)

New favorite hiding place…

He has gotten so good at throwing the ball!

One of his favorite games is hide and seek! He found me!!

Here I am!!!

Trick or Treat!

This year we took Lane trick-or-treating for the first time. Our friends, Terry and Shae have an annual Halloween party. Everyone gathers at their house for pizza, then we hit the streets! There were a ton of kids – 16 I think! Lane did not completely understand the trick-or-treat process, but he had a great time running around outside in the dark!

Old Baker Farm round two – October 23rd

We took our second trip to Old Baker Farm with some of my good friends from college, Mistie and Randy. Their little girl, Charis, is just a few months younger than Lane. This time we took Lane in normal clothes hoping to get some good pictures of him at the pumpkin patch.

Hey!!!!

Oooh, this is a pretty pumpkin…

I wonder what it tastes like?? 😀

Lane and Daddy

Lane LOVED the geese! They would honk at him and he would scream back! I have a funny video of this somewhere. If I find it, I will post it asap…it is too cute!

Lane and Charis were checking out the cows.

Old Baker Farm round one – October 21st

Every year we go to the Old Baker Farm Pumpkin Patch before Halloween. We always have so much fun. This year, we went twice! The first trip was with GiGi . Since I knew we were going to be going twice, I thought it would be funny to dress Lane up as a scarecrow again and take his picture in the pumpkin patch.

We were greeted at the front entrance by this scarecrow.

Corn Maze!!

We attempted to recreate one of our favorite pictures of Lane sitting in the cotton. This was as close as we got to everyone looking at the camera…

The cutest scarecrow in the pumpkin patch!

Near the barn were several toy tractors. These were the HEAVY metal toy tractors like they had when I was a kid -no plastic! Lane was not big enough to reach the petals, but he still LOVED playing with them! He sat on them for awhile…

until he realized he could stand behind the tractor and push!

So Neat!!!

Since Lane enjoyed the tractors at the farm so much, Papa Rock got Uncle Jonathan’s old tractor down from the attic. Lane has pushed that tractor several miles around their cul–de-sac! 😉

Boo at the Zoo

This year we decided to take Lane to Boo at the Zoo. It was suppose to be kid-friendly, but I can’t lie – I was a little nervous. Only because Lane had never been to anything like this before, so I was not sure how he would handle it…He LOVED it! We learned that he is not afraid of anything!!

As we were waiting in line to go in, Lane started grabbing the bats and spiders that were hanging from the ceiling.

At the first little thing, there was a huge blow-up creature. None of us noticed it, but since Lane was on Papa Rock’s shoulders he was at eye level with the creature. We only noticed it after Lane drew his sword to take down the scary creature. Such a little hero, protecting the family from crazy monsters!!! I still can’t believe he never made a sound…

He thought this skeleton was pretty cool. He had to touch it several times!

The carousel went BACKWARDS!! This made him nervous at the beginning, but he quickly warmed up!

Hayride!

a noodle maze

silly little pirate!

Daddy and Lane on the tractor

Mom and I took Lane to the zoo one day while all the props were still up. Lane thought the cut-out faces were funny!

Scarecrow Day at Aldridge Gardens

One day, Lane is going to look back at these pictures and be so MAD that I dressed him up like this. However, one of the local gardens had a scarecrow competition and of course I had to dress Lane up as a scarecrow and take his picture. Cheap entertainment!! 😀

He was amazed by the scarecrow family.

I have a secret….

Chris and I found out in October that we were going to have another baby! We were so excited and really wanted to find a cute way to tell our parents. I found this t-shirt online and knew it was perfect! What better way than to let Lane tell!!

blog failure…

So, I’ve completely failed at keeping the blog updated! My new goal is to just be caught up before Bethany arrives in a few weeks. So, in order to do that I am going to mostly just upload pictures and as I find time come in and write captions and little memories. Hopefully, that will work better…. So here are pictures from AUGUST 2009 (yikes!). These are from a zoo trip, Alabama Adventure and some other random moments around the house. Enjoy!

Poor baby did NOT want to get off!

The water fountain thing was amazing!

Come back, water!!

Riding the slides at Alabama Adventure!

Climbing the fridge…

I guess I didn’t get his snack ready fast enough! 🙂