Happy Birthday Alex!

Our new addition, Woody!

The Mamas who adopted from Alex's baby house got together and collected joy boxes for the children. There are 115 children left behind there and the group collected around 200. At least one other orphanage and possibly two will benefit from this effort. I am so proud of this wonderful group of ladies. Our entire church only collected 183 boxes and this group of 18 Mamas rocked it! Thank you Baby House Mamas!

Alex's first jack-o-lantern. Notice Alex's Hawaiian Punch mustache!

Father and son

Beautiful boy and beautiful tree

So excited to see the gorillas this time. We missed them last time. Of course, Alex had to comment on their big behinds.

I loved watching the bears. They seemed to pose for us.

This is at the entrance of the zoo and all the kids get their photo made on either this or the mama & baby lions.

I got to check off an item on my bucket list! Finally got to feed and pet a giraffe. Two, actually - there was a baby as well.

The baby was not tall enough to reach over the railing, so we had to feed him through the rails. When I bent down to do so, the adult was a little pushy and bonked me in the head! We had a good laugh.

Baby

Meerkat. Granma loves these and watches them on the Animal Planet show, Meerkat Manor. This one was so cute, but chubby compared to the ones on the show.

Alex wanted a picture of himself climbing on the turtle.

Don't have a clue what he was trying to do here.

Lion by the tail

Riding the dino

My little monkey

Riding the pony

One of this three train rides.

Yesterday was Alex's 5th birthday. We celebrated by going to Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing how much Alex has grown since our birthday trip last year - not only in size, but emotionally as well. We didn't do a big party this year because there were so many others in his class who did parties and because he wanted to go to the zoo. He will have a small family party at Granny & Grandpa's on Saturday.

I will update again next week with Halloween photos. Halloween is not a favorite holiday of ours, but we do allow Alex to participate as long as he only wears a "nice" costume, avoiding things that are against our beliefs - witches, werewolfs, vampires, etc. We strive to teach him that it is for fun and not a ritual.

Love to all,

R & T & A

A New Addition & Fall Beach Trip

Three weeks ago - the day we met Woody.

Chloe has been pretty good with Woody, but she does not want to share her new water bottle toy that Mommie & Daddy brought her back from the beach.

Hard to get a photo of him because he is rarely still. This is his windblown look. He had been running and his ears are stuck backwards.

Alex taming the dino at Broadway at the Beach

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Alex loves his Daddy

Entranced by the speed boat on the Lagoon

In the elevator - heading out for his first sunrise ever!

On the walkway - cheesing!- So excited.

My boy and the beautiful sunrise.

Thank you Lord, for my son and this beautiful world that you created.

Mommie & Alex at Broadway at the Beach. Daddy wouldn't play along.

Precious hands of my precious boy.

Learning to boogey board.

Our house has been a little quiet and lonely (for Chloe) since we lost our sweet PJ. Tim agreed that we could get a new Boxer puppy. After searching the internet, losing "dibs" on one that I really wanted, and calling several people, we found our new addition. He is a brindle boy who Alex named Woody. You can guess where that came from!

Chloe is doing as well as expected with Woody. We picked him up on the way home from the beach and he cried all the way home! He is so sweet and a cuddle bug. He has his first vet check-up yesterday afternoon and he weighed 18.2 pounds! My biceps are killing me from toting him around. We are working on training him to walk on leash and he is doing well with the "sit command. We took him to the park today and everyone had a fit over him. He sleeps cuddled up to his Mommie and Chloe sleeps on the other side, cuddled up to Daddy.

We had a great time at Myrtle Beach. Alex got to experience his first sunrise and he made almost every one after that! No rest on vacation with Alex! We saw dolphins almost every day from our balcony. He played in the ocean, made sandcastles, practiced swimming in his swimmies and fell in love with the "hot bathtub." While in that hot bathtub, Ales asked me, Mommie, am I your precious boy? Yes, baby, you always will be - forever.

Alex and Daddy rode rides at Broadway while Mommie enjoyed relaxing by the lagoon. He really likes the little speedboat that runs on the lagoon. Maybe he can ride when we go back in June.

Alex had his evaluation in K4 and he is doing really well. We make sure that he does his homework each day and he enjoys learning. He didn't even complain about doing his homework while on vacation.

We are looking forward to fall, cooler weather, and Alex's birthday coming up. We are going to do a party at school and then we are going to do something as a family on his actual birthday. I think he wants to go to Riverbanks Zoo.

Enjoy the photos.

Love to you all,

R & T & A

Special Request

Please see the button at the left side of the blog - Operation: Christmas in Nikolaev. Some of the mothers who have adopted from the Nikolaev Baby House (Alex's Baby House) are organizing an operation to send "joy boxes" to the 115 children who live there. All info is posted below the button. Anyone in our area who would like to participate, I will handle shipping the boxes to the US collection point. Thanks!