Toadfrogs and Elephants

It’s nice to be back home. Alex started the morning with his favorite balloon (thanks Kristy):

Then I got him ready for Mother’s Day Out:

There was time left over to play with Alex’s new rocking chair. It’s actually an old rocking chair. It was my dad’s when he was little. Alex loves to sit in it and have someone rock him.

I love pajamas. They are comfy and warm and you can never have too many. My current favorites are pajama pants from Aerie.

Not only are they flannel and a GaTech plaid, they have cute cuffs too:

And my favorite shirt to go with them? Gap’s featherweight waffle crew. It stretches out after a little wearing (buy on the small side) and is perfect for a pajama top.

Today was a typical day in Paducah. We got up early to go visit with Grandma. Alex is not much of a cuddler, but he was content to let Grandma hold him for most of the visit:

Then Kate, Scott, Taylor, and Anna came by for a visit. Alex was already down for a nap before I thought to take a picture:

Then I left Alex with Wade while Mom and I went to shop.

Alex did pretty well for his first Thanksgiving. He stayed at the table for the entire meal:

Alex has recently discovered balloons so we were sure to take one with us to Granny and Papa’s. It proved to be an entertaining toy most of the afternoon:

A few hour after lunch Alex was down for a nap, Papa and Granny napped in their chairs, Jerry watched TV, Emily was on the computer, Wade was snacking on ham, and I was taking pictures:

We gathered for a group shot before heading back to Mom’s House:

Then Alex had one more trick to show. Now he’s pulling up on everything he can find. Here we go….

I’m going to come home from Thanksgiving with all of my Christmas decorating done. We started in the living room:

Then the kitchen:

Then the dining room:

Then the downstairs bathroom:

There are quite a few more Christmas touches around the house, but I figured eight pictures was plenty. To celebrate the end of decorating we made s’mores:

I love to have my Mom put the finishing touches on most of my rooms. She has a knack of taking what I have and putting it together just right. This year I asked her to help me decorate for Christmas. We worked on the house quite a bit today, but didn’t quite finish (pictures of that tomorrow). I did get some cute pictures of Mom and Alex having deep discussions:

Then Madison tried to join in:

And another one just because:

Wade and I always string popcorn for our Christmas tree. It’s a tedious project so we also pick a movie series (normally a trilogy) to watch while working. We decided The Godfather II would be sufficiently long (and we have already seen the first one). We worked most of the day, but the tree is done.

In an effort to enjoy our Christmas Tree longer, Wade and I have been getting it the weekend before Thanksgiving. It worked well last year so we planned it again this year. While Wade was getting ready I let Alex play with my boots:

Alex even sat still long enough for a close-up:

Then we headed out to cut down our own tree. We returned to Greenview Tree Farm – the same place we went last year:

We finally found the one we wanted (hopefully a better size for our house than last year):

We got home just in time to put Alex down for a nap and get the tree inside before rushing out for Kristy’s surprise birthday party. We missed the surprise part, but I hear she hadn’t expected a thing. Emelia and Alex seemed to notice each other more this time: