Is this an audition?

Not only were the food and fellowship great, we also had the best musicians in town there for our listening enjoyment. They had, get this, 2 drummers going, a bass player, piano player, trumpeter, guitarist and Reggie was doing double duty as drummer, sound guy and emcee/entertainer. I think some of these guys need to come play at our church! It was really great and definitely my most favorite party of the summer.

What a blast!

We got to spend this past Saturday laying down a funky one with Reggie & Menia and friends for Reggie's birthday party. I'll take a risk and say this was probably Alex's most fun shindig yet. Thanks, Menia! You do know how to throw a party! Here is Alex with Marisa and Brandon. It was great to catch up with old friends, not having seen people from Calvary since we moved out to Homewood. :)

DATES!!!

Keith and I have been trying to get out together once a week for a date night. We never really had a date night before Alex because really, every day was "date" night without a kid. So last night we went bowling together at Brunswick Zone down the street from us. I had never been there and I was amazed at what a cool place it is. We bowled 2 games and then ended up hanging around for an hour or so because there was so much going on there. Shout-out to my hubby-he bowled 143 his second game! Pretty, pretty good...We hung around and watched some of the league bowlers and man, those people are good. I was amazed at how good some of the women were! I've always bowled with amateurs and in my experience breaking 100 is great "for a girl." That's always my goal at least. So after that we wandered over to the bar and grill area and it was karaoke night! We hung around and watched/listened to some of the people and then I even got the nerve to go up there and sing. I'm always amazed at how good some people are at Karaoke and how bad others are. :) It was a good crowd though and a LOT of fun. We'll definitely be going back there for date night! Oh, and I sang Norah Jones, "Don't Know Why."

More of Sammy

I really do not exaggerate when I say this went on for like 15 minutes!

As you can see, Alex is not amused.

All laughs...or not.

On September 5th, Jennifer and I ventured out to Shedd Aquarium with the babies. Afterwards, we stopped at Potbelly's for dinner. For reasons only known to Sammy, he was cracking up at Alex. It was so funny!!!

Alex's debut

A big hello to all the mommys out there! You guys are my peeps!
So Alex, finally started crawling today. phew! Of course, like many parents I'm sure, I start to worry when he doesn't do something as quickly as I think he will or as quickly as other parents swear their kids did it. Thank God my kid is normal...but then again what is normal? I digress...So I think he's been trying to figure it out for the past couple of weeks, but it just wasn't clicking or he was just plain giving up. Come to think of it, I'm kind of like that. If a skill is too hard to learn or it doesn't come naturally to me, I tend to quit. Not a good trait, I know. So while he's been trying these past few weeks, he would just kind of give up. Anyhow, so today, of course with the added incentive of getting a toy out of reach, he did it! It was not perfect, albeit, but he crawled and scooted and made his way over there somehow. My baby is all grown up, awwww. I can't believe he is already 7 months old! Where has the time gone! Next comes walking, potty training, school and before you know it he'll be slamming his bedroom door and telling mom and dad "I hate you." AHHHHHHHHHHH! I'm not ready for that! It's okay, Cil, you have a ways until that yet and when that time does come, hopefully, you'll be able to laugh about. (fingers crossed). I'll be posting a pic of my cutie soon. ttfn.

Crouching Alex, Hidden Dragon

So last weekend was Alex's first real vacation!!! We spent 3 days at Indiana Beach, where Keith and I honeymooned coincidentally. It was wonderful! My mom and my sister, Lizi, also came along. We all had a great time together, but of course, Alex just had the time of his life. We arrived on Friday, and since it had rained, we kind of just had a low key day. We stayed at this very cute little cabin at Jellystone Campground. It was tiny, but very quaint and very clean. Keith had to work that morning (meeting with the boss) unfortunately, so he joined us a few hours later. After Keith got there, we headed over to the amusement park for a few hours. Lizi and I convinced my mom to come in to the "famous" haunted-house at the park. It is actually a very cool haunted house (probably my favorite). My mom is hilarious, she led the way and just practically ran through it after swearing she was going to get a heart attack because we made her go in. Lizi and I had been inside several times and we knew all the tricks (but we still managed to get quite a fright at the "choose a door" section). My mom, Lizi and I don't spend as much "fun" time together as I'd like, so it was a very memorable experience for me. That night, we also got to go to a fish fry at this neat local bar. The food was fantastic!!! The next day, we headed for an all-day excursion at the amusement/water park. Alex just loooooved the water. He even went into Lake Shaffer and it was pretty cold. We got to try a few of the water slides and just hung out a little bit. There was sooooooo much for Alex to see though! He was DEFINITELY overstimulated. He couldn't get enough though. The cutest was all the prize-winning games they have. He could not take his eyes off this one game with a bunch of fish that open and close their mouths (not in-sync). The object is to pick one of them up before it opens its mouth with a fish line they give you. He was very fascinated. We had never seen him so determined to see something. Too cute! We also took Alex to one of those cheezy Old-Western pictures places where you get all decked out in Old-Western garb. We had him all dressed up as a Billy the Kid-type character and got his picture taken. He even held the gun and everything! Since the adults didn't get to do much during the day (surprise, surprise), we returned to the park after Alex went to bed (with my mom) for a few fun roller coaster rides. All in all, it was a very good trip indeed.