The Graduate

Will's sweet preschool doesn't do the whole cap and gown ceremony, but they did a special program to honor the kids who will be movin' on up to Kindergarten in the fall. I am an emotional person anyway, and I am sure being pregnant did not help matters, but I sat and cried through the entire thing. Ms. Diane, the program director started with a poem that reminded me of the book "Let me hold you longer," by Karen Kingsbury (If you do not have this book, go get it today....it is a children's book). The poem didn't necessarily talk about "lasts" but reminded me of how special and sweet this time in our lives is.....regardless of the chaos and crazy!

They sang about 10 songs and this picture was taken during the last one-it was called "Friends Forever" and was the sweetest, most precious thing you have ever heard 5 year olds sing. Will couldn't have had a better spot. He was in between Gabe, who he has been in the same class and friends with since he was 19 months old, and Kate, his friend by default :) We have had photo shoots with Kate since they were born and I am so thankful they were in the same class this year and will move on to kindergarten together.

 So special that Yia Yia and Papou could join us for Will's graduation!

 Will and Gabriel

 Will and Kate...after all of this history, they better AT LEAST be best friends growing up :) I'm still hoping for a wedding! They are currently more like brother and sister :)

 Will's 4K teacher, Mrs. Beth

 Our little preschool graduate!

 Family picture-I am about to POP and have no more makeup on because as I said earlier, I cried through the entire thing.

We finished out the day by picking Alex up and heading to Johnny Rockets for a celebratory lunch (Will's pick!).

We have a KINDERGARTENER!!

I love Liberty Park Elementary School's sweet tradition for upcoming Kindergarteners. To invite them to Kindergarten orientation they place a giant blow up crayon on their mailbox. I'm pretty sure I was way more excited about this because I have known about this tradition since before Will was born and now it was finally his turn to get a crayon. I can't believe Will will come with me to school next year! So fun and bittersweet at the same time...he is growing up!

Cousin Easter Egg Hunt

On Easter, for lunch we headed to the Jebeles' house. After lunch, a huge egg hunt takes place. This year, the ages ranged from 2 years to 20 years old :) And the competition is fierce. There are 3 golden eggs with varying amounts of money in them that the kids go crazy trying to find! Will and Alex were pretty content just finding the pastel eggs hidden or not so hidden in very obvious places :)

Preschool Easter Egg Hunt

We had our fair share of egg hunts this year! I always take a half day off work for the one that Brookwood Baptist puts on for the preschool because it is so adorable! This year was no different. The boys had a blast hunting for eggs and celebrating with their friends!

Ready to go! The boys were pumped about the days festivities!

Will's hunt was first. To make it last a little longer this year, the kids had to find the eggs with their name on them....not just any egg laying around! It was cute watching them read their classmates names and trying to help them out by telling them they had spotted one of their eggs! I am sure you can imagine how excited Will was that the first egg he found with his name on it was a Ninja turtle egg :)

 Kiki and Pops came to the hunt. Kiki helped Will get started on finding his eggs!

 Sweet Friends!

 And his very sweet teacher, Mrs. Beth

 Next, it was Alex's turn. His egg hunt was on the playground! He knew what to do and was ready to go!

 Sweet angel!

 It was fun having Kiki and Pops there this year!

 My boys...Will looks STOKED to be taking a picture ;) This was because I made him leave his cupcake to come and take a picture with me. Sad SAD knowing he will not be at this precious school next year!

Last Vacay as a Family of Four!

At the end of March, over spring break, John and I took the boys to Orange Beach. Will had been begging to go to the beach and we thought it might be fun to do one more trip just the four of us. The weather was not ideal (that is being very positive), but we caught the sun for a bit here and there! Alex still was not crazy about the sand, but was okay with it by the last day we were there. We enjoyed a laid back couple of days with lots of snacks, lots of indoor pool time, and yummy seafood dinners. The next time we head to the beach will be with my whole family in July and I have a feeling it won't be as laid back once we add the caboose into the mix!
The day we got there we went straight to the indoor pool to burn off some energy!

The next morning it was in the 50s. We were the first out on the beach and the boys just wore their pajamas and jackets to bundle up until it warmed up a bit.

Alex decided he liked his socks on because that way the sand wouldn't touch his feet!

Finally the sun was fully out and it was warm enough to shed some layers, eat some snacks, and dig some holes!

Friday was basically a monsoon and the entire day was spent inside. After watching as many movies as we could handle, the boys decided to improvise to keep from getting bored :)

 Saturday was of course the most beautiful day....and the day that we were leaving. We decided to stay on the beach for as long as we wanted and just deal with a late start back home. Alex dressed himself for the beach and made John a pretty proud daddy!

 Beach naps are best! I love that Alex will sleep anywhere! And how could you not nap great with the sounds of the waves as background noise!

"My wugey and my pass"

Sunday night we were over at John's parents house for dinner. With Will and Alex being their only grandchildren, the den is sort of a shrine to them...pictures everywhere. There are two small albums that I made for John's parents when each of our sons were born-one for Will and one for Alex. They boys just discovered these and LOVED looking through them. It was at that moment Sunday night when I realized that without me even meaning to, or even realizing it, Will's birth and childhood has been so much more documented than Alex's. The proof was in those albums. Will's album was basically every picture we took in the hospital. From his very first picture, to his first bath, to every visitor he had while we were in the hospital. Alex's album was about 10 pictures from his newborn photo shoot, and two of those 10 had Will in them! Even in looking at the blog, it pains me to see how each and every little milestone of Will's was documented with pictures, blog posts, and videos. Will's baby book is filled out through year two, completely, with hair from his first hair cut and everything! Alex's baby book was ordered and came shortly after he was born but was never even taken out of the FedEx box until last summer and then I never wrote anything in it. This makes me quite nervous to bring baby boy #3 into this world....will we even know where his birth certificate is in a year or two?? People told me I would get busy and it would be harder to keep the blog up. I vowed that I wouldn't let it slide....and guess what....it did. It is hard to be motivated to sit down at the end of a long day or on the weekend and update the blog in my free time. Laundry and dishes and just pure exhaustion totally have gotten in the way. I am not a scrapbooker, so I rely on this little blog to help keep these sweet, special memories so when our babies are not babies anymore, we can go back and remember fun little details about when they were.

Alex will turn two just days before we welcome a third son into our family (assuming he stays put until he is scheduled to come out). He is my heart. He is such a fun loving, laid back, hysterically funny kid who was born to be a middle child :) He has this toothy grin that makes it so hard to discipline him. Just the other day he was throwing a FIT! I put him in his room where he continued to throw a fit and then about 2 minutes later it got very quiet and I heard, "Worry Mommy, I not mean to." He is perfect and precious in every way.

Since he was born he has been attached to his lovey and paci. In recent months, the obsession has gotten worse and I really am nervous to wean him off. I don't mind the lovey, but the paci needs to go. He used to call his paci and lovey "mine." They went together and if he had one, he wanted the other as well. A few months ago he started calling his lovey "wugey" and his paci "pass." To hear him say it makes me smile and I hope I never forget the sound of that little voice.

Most days Alex can be found with wards (swords) in his hands "fighting da bad guys." He loves tagging after Will and likes for them to play ninja turtles (Alex always chooses Weonardo). He calls Will "Wool" and that makes me smile too. "Come on, Wool!"
Alex loves any sport. He loves having a ball in his hand and playing catch with daddy or basketball...or soccer....or baseball.....

He is often heard telling us "just a minute" or if he wants a snack just before dinner he will try to be convincing by saying "just one mommy and thats it!" Little stinker!

We love this little boy! His carefree spirit reminds us that life is short and these days are fleeting. I try to soak it all in. I am incredibly thankful for Alex. I hope that one day he will look back at his childhood and have sweet, precious, special memories...even if they weren't all documented :)

Sunday Afternoon Adventure

After all of this cold, dreary weather, we knew that the sunshine on Sunday and warmer temps were going to warrant some kind of outdoor activity. Will wanted to go on an "adventure" so we loaded the boys up with snacks and their binoculars and set out for Oak Mountain State Park! We have never taken either of the boys, but after the fun we had on Sunday, I am sure there will be lots of return trips in our future!

 "I did it!"

 Love my boys!