The day after...

On Sunday, we had a relaxing day cleaning up the house from party chaos, going to the playground around the corner, playing with our new toys, and Alex even helped me fold the laundry.

Happy 1st Birthday!!!!!!!

Alex had SO MUCH FUN playing with all his friends, opening presents, and especially eating his own cupcake! We tried to get a picture of him with the cake with his name on it, but we put it a little too close so you can see what happened. Thank you Kianna, Rigel, Stella, Ryan, and Evan for coming to celebrate and for all your wonderful gifts! We hope you all can come back and play again soon!

The day before...

Alex's birthday fun started early when his Grammy and Grampy came down from Maine and brought him some wonderful gifts! Alex's Great Grammy made him this wonderful elephant to play with while he's in Maine visiting. Great Grammy also got him a stuffed frog and a nice fleece robe - so cute! He also got a teddy bear and a fun lobster toy from Grampy and Grammy gave him a wonderful picture to hang on the wall that was done by the artist who did Bambi. Can't wait to decorate his room!

Other funny Alex pics from the apartment when we were packing up. We stopped by the apartment yesterday to get the last car load of stuff and do a little cleaning. We will miss that place. It was good to us in many ways. We lived there for about 5 years - got married there, had a baby there. It was a great location and so convenient to walk to everywhere in town, but I'd never go back! I love the house and we will have many more wonderful memories to come. We still need to do quite a bit of work on the house - windows, kitchen cabinets and counter, bathroom needs some love, etc., but we have the rest of our lives to work on it and it will probably take as long!

More house pics of the living room and our bedroom plus some fun ones of my cutie pie.

Other house pics of Sam in the basement (a.k.a. Sam's workshop), another kitchen shot and one of Alex's room. Thank you Bill and Julie for the crib!!!

Before and after of the guest room/office (was purple and now blue) and our room (was peach and now green).

We successfully moved into the house this weekend and we could not have done it without the help of some special people. Thank you very much to Mom, Lisa, Teddy, Brian, Mac, Christina, and JC for all your help!!! Here are some before and after pictures of the living room (was green and now beige) and kitchen (was red and now yellow).

Finally!!!!!!

It has finally happened! We are now the proud owners of a house in Plymouth! We have a little work to do and hope to be in it sometime during the second week of February so we can celebrate Alex's first birthday in the new house!!!

More Christmas fun! Grandpa wanted a picture with his 2 new Great Grandsons. Alex does this new thing where he puts his hand up in the air and I'm not sure if it's a wave or not. Here's Alex in his new Xmas pjs from Marcia and Meghan playing with the book Emily gave him a little while ago.

The boys had tons of fun opening their presents together! And then here's Brad (a.k.a. Typhoid Mary) who successfully infected the entire house with that lovely gastro-intestinal nastiness that is sweeping the nation. It has been an unpleasant week and a memorable first Christmas for the babies who thus far have escaped the bug, but we still love him!

Christmas morning! Joel and Evan are snuggling on the couch - Joel looks very good for being sick the day before. Do you think Alex likes his new shoes? Alex and Grammy had fun opening presents together.

Here are a few pre-Christmas pictures when we opened gifts from Sam's family before we went to RI with my family. The night before Emily left for CT, then TN, then UT we went out to dinner and Alex wore his new hat and mittens you saw before. He got a really cool rainfall rattle that he loves to listen to. He likes his new lobster hat, still loves to eat ribbon, and had a fun test ride in his new backpack carrier - Daddy still looks pretty sleepy though.