Back in Business!

Please excuse the brief hiatus in blogging. We have been busy....a good busy! I LOVE that I get to play stay-at-home mom for a few months. It has been good for my soul to spend lazy mornings with my boys and have John find us at the end of his work day still in our pjs! We have met up with friends for lunch, trips to the zoo, splash pad, pool, etc. We have celebrated our baby boys first birthday, taken a week long vacay to the beach with my whole family, and now I am just trying to soak up these last few weeks of summer before the real world slaps me in my face and it is back to work I go! The main reason the blog has taken a hit since school was out is that I had to leave my laptop at school so that they could do some major upgrading. I have just gotten it back this morning and am having a blast while Alex sleeps answering emails, posting to facebook, and now updating the blog from a COMPUTER!! Phones and iPads are nice, but I am much faster on a computer!
I honestly don't know where the summer has gone. After we returned from the beach, I feel like the days have been put into fast forward....I made a little summer bucket list for me and mainly Will....we better get busy!! I find that I am very good at pinning countless things on Pinterest late at night, however actually making those awesome ideas bear fruit is easier said than done. I have many things I'd like to do with Will and Alex before August 13th! A month from tomorrow....it will be here before we know it!
Here are a few random pics that provide a glimpse into our summer...I'll be back soon with pics from the beach!

 Cool Dude!

 What we do around here for entertainment when we get bored....

 Alex trying out the puddle jumper!

 This picture was taken at approximately 6:45. We are full throttle around here as SOON as a certain 3 year old wakes up (around 5:40 EVERY. SINGLE. DAY)

 Will....no caption really necessary

 Our view of the backseat about an hour after we pulled out of the driveway headed to the beach!

 Celebratory dinner after our last swim lesson!

 Backyard pool time with Sutherlan

Fun with the sprinkler ball!

One Year Stats

Alex did not inherit his nickname "Chunky Monkey" by accident...he is indeed a Chunk-A-Monk. At his one year appointment he weighed 24 lbs 10 oz which puts him in the 90th percentile.

He still is only saying Da Da. Every now and again we hear Wa Wa or even here recently Ma Ma (rare, but we're practicing)!

We are pretty much done with baby food. He still gets baby oatmeal in the morning but other than that, and the occasional veggie pouch, he eats big boy food. He loves grilled cheese, pb&j, all fruit, some veggies. He is still not a big fan of meat. He has tried it and will occasionally eat turkey, but spits out most everything else. His favorite food at the moment are baby Goldfish. LOVES them!!

He has become a screamer in the car. Not a mad screamer.....a "I'm screaming because I think it is fun to hear my voice" :). Combine that with Will (as Alex is screaming) screaming at Alex telling him that he is hurting his ears and we have had a few car rides that could not end fast enough. Thankfully we made it to the beach without many screaming spells!

Alex still takes 2 naps a day but is such a rock star if he misses one or both. He is content and happy and rarely EVER fussy!! We are truly blessed with an easy child!! He is almost walking. He walks all around the furniture and gets up the stairs QUICK!!

Memorial Day weekend was Alex's first trip to the pool and he loved it. He loved being in his float and was very relaxed. He equally loved our makeshift tent we made him, where he had an endless supply of goldfish (and a pretty cute friend that he was happy to share with!).

Obviously he requires lots of supervision when goldfish are involved :)

We love our little chunky monkey and can't imagine our family without him!! I can't believe a year has already passed. He is growing up each and every day, learning new things. This stage is so fun, but constantly reminds me of how quickly time really is passing!! Alex is definitely not a baby anymore. Maybe this is why Will prays for a baby sister EVERY NIGHT and has informed us we will name her Tanesha (one of his teachers names at school). Baby Tanesha Vakakes....now that would be a mouthful!! :)

The Party

I am not really sure how people planned birthday parties before Pinterest. I thought I was doing good in that I had picked out and ordered Alex's invitations in the middle of April. Well, that was about all I did until about a week before the party. Bless his heart-I had a little trouble getting motivated because the end of school is such a busy time. I convinced myself that I had whole week after school got out before party weekend and that would be plenty of time to run around and get all those little ideas turned into some sort of reality. I was badly mistaken. I found myself out late after the boys went to bed browsing Hobby Lobby, Target, Party City....I ALMOST paid $20 to ship napkins (that were $3...). Thankfully that moment on insanity passed, and I called around until I found what I was looking for (on Thursday before the party mind you). John and I stayed up late on Friday getting last minute things hung up and all in all it really came together. Will's first birthday was planned (completely) in October...his birthday is in January. I did not want to feel like I gave Alex the shaft. And I don't think we did.....
Almost every single one of my visions for Alex's party came from pinterest. Mind you, it was nothing hard, crazy, outrageous, or even original. Just when put together it looked pretty cute and I had so much fun celebrating Alex through his first birthday party. We invited family and close friends and really kept it simple as far as food goes. I did his party at 4:00 so I could get away with not serving a meal. We had cake and ice cream, animal crackers with cake batter dip, fruit kabobs, baby goldfish, and "1" cookies with white and chocolate milk. Many thanks to those who helped me pull off our sweet baby's party-my mom who made the "1" cookies and who served as my late night errand accomplice, my friend Angela who made the precious photo clips to hang Alex's monthly shots on, and my husband who created the balloon/streamer background, taste tested my donut pops, and helped keep me going when I felt like giving up :) I'll let the pictures tell the story of Chunk-A-Monk's first birthday party!

I had big plans to make cake pops for the favors, but I just ran out of time. A friend gave me the idea to just dip donut holes in candy melts and decorate them. Same effect....and they were yummy (because let's be honest, you can't mess up a donut!!) I found the stickers on Etsy-they read "Thanks for making my first birthday so sweet!"

 The milk station....I had my whole family drinking those Starbucks Frappacinnos you can buy at Wal-Mart-we saved the bottles and my mom scrubbed the labels off :) I have about 30 if anyone ever needs to borrow them! And I found precious blue and white polka dotted paper straws on Amazon. Turned out so cute!!

 Birthday Boy!!

 I was so surprised that he didn't seem to mind the hat and kept it on for so long!

 Happy Birthday to Alex!!

 I am convinced that Alex wouldn't have touched his cake had it not been for Will!

 Will is an awesome big brother and patiently fed Alex little bites...

 He only put his fingers in his cake one time!!

 I could get used to this birthday stuff :)

 Present time!

 I think he was worn out by this time :)

 His first Auburn baseball set...

Sweet Sutherlan 

 The Big Brother...

 The damage (99% of it done by Will) :)

 Bentley thought for sure since another one of these chairs popped up looking just like Will's, it had to have his name on it :)

ONE

Alex turned one on Friday! We had a low key day planned: lunch with daddy at the galleria, a visit to Build-A-Bear, and a fancy dinner of pizza and cupcakes with the grandparents was all on the agenda.
Will was so excited to go in and sing "Happy Birthday" to Alex as soon as he woke up! He of course woke with a huge grin on his face. Happy boy!!

Before Alex got up, Will and I made him some blueberry birthday muffins! We had already sung to him three times by 7:06 a.m. and he looked a little confused to have fire coming out of his breakfast :)

After his nap, we headed to meet daddy at the galleria for some Chick-fil-A (he didn't touch any of it....not even the fries!!) and some carousel riding. He loved the carousel! I am pretty sure this was his first ride!

Gotta love this picture...John doing anything trying to get Alex to laugh, me trying to snap all the pictures and remain standing and not vomiting while the carousel is going round and round, and Alex just looking at us both like we are nuts :)

Look at those sweet legs!

After riding the carousel, we treated him to picking out his very own stuffed animal at Build-A-Bear. Will was a huge help and decided on a shaggy pup for Alex. We took Will to the Galleria for birthday lunch on his first birthday and ended up making a Build-A-Bear for him so we thought it only right to carry on the tradition with Alex.

I ran around like a crazy person trying to get last minute things done for a little par-tay that was taking place the following day while the boys napped. Grandparents and Fafie headed over to our house about 6:00 for pizza and some cake! Alex was as sweet as can be, but his cake performance sure didn't live up to his brothers. As you can see here, Will LOVED his cake.....he entertained all of us as he dug in and clapped for himself. Alex wanted NOTHING to do with it! We tried using our fingers, using his fingers, getting a spoon.....he wasn't having it!

 Finally, he sent the message loud and clear that he was DONE!

While he wasn't a big fan of the cake, he WAS a big fan of opening presents and playing with new toys! We gave him a Pottery Barn chair to match Will's, and he got a water table, a ball poppin' car, a walker/wagon, and some clothes from all his grandparents and Fafie.

Big brother liked having new toys in the house to play with too....

Alex did laps around our den with his new toys for about an hour. He was sweaty and breathing hard when we decided to call it a night :)