Category — Picture Pefect

On Friday, before Halloween, our MOPS group went trick-or-treating at NHC Place Nursing H0me. It was a lot of fun to see how much the residents enjoyed seeing all the kids dressed up. The residents were sitting in a big circle in their living room and the kids went around to each person and got a piece of candy. Will went to the man with the suckers several times! Will dressed up as a scarecrow and was the cutest scarecrow I’ve ever seen

Will getting ANOTHER sucker.

Can you see the crow on his hat? I cut it using my Sihouette machine and hot glued it to his hat!

Heidi reading a fall book to all the kids.

Will eating a sucker and listening to the story.

Scarecrow Will and Farmer Mom

I can’t believe that my “baby” is 2 years old today! He is so much fun these days and so funny. He loves playing with anything that has wheels, balls, puppies, Moo cow and still loves reading books. We celebrated his birthday Saturday with some of our family and friends. It was a fun day! The party was train themed and we gave Will a train table for his birthday. He loves it!

Will playing with balloons while waiting for the party to start.

Thomas cake that Dana and I made.

Will’s friend Ellie brought over her ball house for the party. Will couldn’t wait for it to be set up so he jumped in the box of balls!

Singing “Happy Birthday” to the birthday boy.

Will blowing out his birthday candles.

Time to eat!

Will playing with his choo-choo train.

Will playing in the ball house.

Will giving his friend Justin a hug goodbye.

Time to open presents!

Fun with cousins

We have had a busy couple of weeks around here – full of fun! So, this week on the blog I’m going to be playing catch up and including New York City, Halloween and Will’s birthday party!

Last Saturday – Tuesday we went to NYC to visit friends and have fun. Honey went with us too! Will was overwhelmed and amazed by all the transportation we took – bus, airplane, taxi, train (subway). He even learned how to hail a taxi – it was ridiculously cute.

Bill and Will watching the airplanes.

Nashville wins for the most “kid friendly” airport. There was a playground right across from our gate!

We ate dinner at a pizza place right under the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a great view and the pizza was delicious.

The Manhattan skyline from Brooklyn.

We went to Apostles church Sunday Morning and then ate lunch at a thai restaurant on the Upper East Side.

Will was super excited when we got to Times Square. Can you tell?!?!

After lunch Bill and I went and saw the matinee performance of Memphis on Broadway. It was really good. While we were at the show Will and Honey spent an hour at Toys R Us in Times Square, window shopped several places and then walked back to our hotel.

After the show we ate dinner at P.J. Clark’s. We sat in a closet practically and it was so dark they had to bring us candles so we could see. Will blew out the candles as soon as the waitress sat them down Will doesn’t care where he is as long as there’s a truck and a bump bump. He was playing on the sidewalk as we waited for a table at P.J. Clark’s.

We woke up early Monday morning and went to the Today Show.

You might recognize these two from their national TV debut! Al talked to them before doing the weather at the top of the 8:00 hour.

After the Today show we went to Central Park where Bill and Will climbed to the “top of the rock.”

Will throwing coins into Bathesda Fountain.

After walking around Central Park for a while, we let Will play on the playground. He loved going down all the slides but he wasn’t patient enough to wait in line to swing. Monday afternoon we went to Columbia’s bookstore, shopping in Herald Square and Chinatown. It was a busy day!

Monday night we had dinner with our friends the Sholes’ and Mason’s. James is 8 months older than Will and they a great time playing with each other.

James and Will sitting on James’ big boy bed laughing and screaming as loud as they could.

A couple of mornings we ate at a grocery across the street from our hotel. They had a good, inexpensive breakfast and Will had pancakes, bacon & banana. Our last stop before leaving the city was Books of Wonder where we picked up a signed copy of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day.

We had a great trip! Who wants to go with us next time?

Saturday afternoon we met my parents (with Will) at the Cedarwood Nursery and Pumpkin Patch in McMinnville. They had a lot of fun things there including: petting zoo, pumpkin train, hay play, playground, hay ride and of course pumpkins.

Will enjoyed every minute of it – when we made him move from one activity to the next he pitched a fit EVERY TIME. He didn’t realize that what was coming next was going to be just as fun, silly boy.

Will just wanted to sit in the pumpkin train and wave as it went by. But when we tried to get him to ride it he was not happy. I think his favorite part was the pumpkin patch. The entire time we were out there he was picking up “big pumpkins” and re-arranging the rows until he found the perfect pumpkin to bring home.

Enjoy the pictures of our day!

On Saturday Bill’s parents came up to visit and to celebrate Bill’s birthday – which is next weekend. We had a great day! Saturday morning before they got here we went to a Fall Festival at a nearby church. Will’s friend Justin goes to church there and had invited us to come.

This was the “best” picture we got of Will in front of the fall decor. His expression is hilarious!

Will really enjoyed throwing bean bags into the pumpkin face and picking ducks out of the water.

Can you tell that Will and Justin were both THRILLED to be sitting on a horse!

When Bill and Gayle got here it was time to open presents! Bill got 2 storage units for the garage. We then spend some time watching Bill and Bill putting together and organizing the units. Will took the opportunity to play outside with Nonny.

We ate a delicious lunch at J. Alexander’s and then headed back to the house for cake.

A close up of the cake from Jackson Bakery.

The birthday boy and his parents.

It really was a great fall Saturday!

Front to Back: Noah, Taylor, Will, Ellie Kate, Javen & Liam (photo by Diane)

This morning Will and I met some friends at the Nashville Zoo. It was so much fun! Will had a really great time with some of his favorite and some new friends. This was Will’s second trip to the zoo but the first one that he could really enjoy it. I think he was only 8 months old the first time I took him.

Will really enjoyed the petting zoo area – here he’s petting a goat.

Will, Javen & Taylor looking at the alpaca.

A camel looking at Will. The camels would lick the kids hands – and one bit my arm

Ellie Kate wanted to get down with the big kids.

Will taking a break near the elephants.

I think Javen thought Will was part of the petting zoo

Will holding an ostrich egg.

Taylor was really excited to hold the egg.

Will near the African lion pelt. When he went to touch it the zoo worker growled and Will jumped back squealing with delight!

Javen and Will looking at the jaguars.

Will pointing at the silly monkeys.

Will and Javen holding hands and running to the next exhibit.

Tuesday I had the privilege of watching the McDaniel boys for a couple of hours while Diane went to an eye appointment. They were so much fun! Will and Javen LOVE playing with each other and Will gets so excited when I tell him we’re going to play with Javen. And Will is also very interested in “baby Liam.”

Will and Javen ran around the house in circles pushing things, pulling things, riding things and Liam watched in awe. Then, they decided to play a duet on the piano.

This is the best picture I could get of both of them looking!

Liam didn’t know what to think

Last night I was talking to my Mom on the phone and she said – “Be looking for a package this week!” And guess what I had waiting on my front porch/stoop/step-up when I got home from MOPS today?!?! A big ole package! It was addressed to The Dixon Family but I couldn’t wait to open it (even though Bill’s at work and Will was asleep!) It had something for all of us – and it was so fun to open.

Yes, each item was individually wrapped in tissue paper!

The first thing I opened was a Milk Bone for PepperAnn.

She quickly grabbed it and ran off to eat it. I had to practically hide around the corner of the coffee table to get this picture because she kept running away from me!

A couple of indulgences for me! Air Heads and a Cold Stone Creamery gift card. Yum!

Socks! I had to borrow a pair of my Mom’s socks over Labor Day weekend and mentioned that I really liked them – and she sent me some!

A Reese’s dessert bar for Bill.

Will and Thomas’ first matching outfits! I about died at how cute these are They both say “It’s a Boy Thing!”

A book about “New Baby” for Will.

Thanks Mom & Dad!