My two kiddos in costume. 

Another shot of Alex in his Mike costume.

Most of the time Grace loves her little brother. 

I like this picture because you can see Gracie's hand around Alex's shoulder.

This is who my kids were supposed to look like.

Mmmmm...Junior Mints

So so tasty.

I wanna be a cowboy

Grace had Rodeo Day at school the Friday before Halloween. Very cute seeing all the kiddos in their "western" gear (if you consider vests made out of paper bags western wear). Grace brought her cowboy hat too but we loaned it to her friend Aiden who had forgotten his. My daughter is often the envy of other 3-yr old girls with those rocking hot pink boots.

Grace decked out for Rodeo day. 

Grace and some of her classmates.

The kids paraded around the church, which was actually pretty cool because they were being led by some of the marching band members from North Dallas High.

Just proving that Alex was there too. In this picture you can see Grace's busted lip she got falling down in front of Tom Thumb the day before. 

Pony rides!

That's Grace on the front pony.

Alex opens gifts

Well, we finally located the cable to download pictures off the little camera. I've got a ton to post so I think I'll spread them out over a few days to not overwhelm everyone with my kids.

Here's a few from Alex's birthday evening (not the party later that week).

 

More excited by the ribbons than by the gifts his sister is opening for him. 

Grace helped with everything from opening Alex's gifts to wanting to "show" him how to play with his new toys. 

Seconds before Alex picks up the puzzle piece and flings it. 

Curse of having a big sister part 2

Poor Alex.

Gracie's art.

Grace draws these wonderful people now. The picture above is about her playdate with Sarabeth this week. Grace is in the middle, Sarabeth is on the right (she has her glasses on). She draws bodies with great big bellybuttons, then "Oh, I forgot their clothes" and scribbles the body in. She also said they both have red panties and shorts on. Purple thing to the left of Grace is Sarabeth's dog (head with four legs). Triangle to the left of the dog is the slide in Sarabeth's house, and the bumps on the bottom are her piano the girls played on. Love it.

The boy turns 1

Happy birthday, Alex!

Wow, I can't believe it's been an entire year since our little guy joined our family. All the parents who told me you can actually love your second child as much as you do your first were right. And what a rough and tumble boy he turned out to be. So different than Gracie was - he loves to bang things, throw things, pound things against his head. He thinks head-butting ("clonking") is one of the funniest things you can do with him.

We had a family birthday dinner of spaghetti followed by ice cream. Alex was in heaven. And he got lots of help from his sister in opening a few presents tonight. But now we are finding ourselves in the situation of having to tell Grace that it doesn't matter that she picked up the toy first - Alex now has toys that are HIS, and if he wants to play with them then he gets them.

I got to wrap the day up with my sweet little guy hugging me and babbling softly to me while I rocked him to sleep. With chubby little arms thrown around my neck. It doesn't get much better than this.

Happy birthday little guy.

Curse of having a big sister

"MOM...Alex won't sit still so I can put my Dorothy shoes on him"

Destructo Boy strikes again

Alex - 1
Pyrex baking dish - 0

These boots are made for walking

Grace wore her new cowgirl boots today. Lots of compliments. She even wore them with her leotard and tights on the way to dance class this afternoon. I'm not sure I'll be able to get her into any other shoes for a while now.

She wanted to show off her pink soccer ball in this picture too. Can you tell what her favorite color is these days?

Dallas Blooms

We went to the Arboretum last weekend for the opening of Dallas Blooms. Beautiful, but too dadgum hot. We look forward to going back in a couple weeks once it cools off a bit. But this is the time of year that makes our membership worthwhile.

Hot but happy 

The frog fountains cool off Gracie 

Trying to stay cool 

This look describes how damn hot we all felt.