Tailgating 2009!

Gotta love our Shives Tailgate! This was before the Oklahoma game, where we dominated the Sooners!! A big Thank You goes out to Gary Shives for all of the hard work and good times he has put in to make such a fun tailgate. Go Huskers!

Chad & Mia
Jessie Shives, Mia & Nicole Shives - I love these girls! By the way...Congrats to both of them...Jessie is now engaged to Paul and Nicole is expecting their 1st child!!!! Yah!!
Jessie and Paul...Doing what they do...whatever that is!??!??!

Chris Shives (the new daddy-to-be!!), Joe Hefflinger (love the smile), Carl Bartholomew & Chad Ruwe

Alex, Paul and Chad...I believe this picture was taken before the shots came out, although it may not look like it! :)

Kim Hefflinger and Nicole

The one and only Mr. Gary Shives, Allison and Alex Shives (engaged too!!) The Crew

Jessie waving the Husker flags to the cars drving by before the game...Just trying to get everyone PUMPED!

Here they come!....I just love the Tunnel WalkBring on the Huskers!
I already can't wait until next year...go get the Arizona Wildcats!

Snow Before We Rake The Leaves??...CRAZY!

Isn't crazy to think we received our first snow before we raked our leaves. Actually we have raked our leaves and mowed our lawn twice since the early October snow...Crazy I know. Here are some picture of our fall fun in the leaves. It has been a beautiful November so far! God Bless and enjoy the weather!

"Helping" Mike and Liz rake their leaves on the day after Halloween.

Truly helping Mike and Liz rake their leaves!

Our neighbors Ali and Emily had a blast playing with Alex all afternoon. Alex loved it just as much!!

Laying in the leaves with Ali and Emily. They just loved posing with him...I bet I took 50 pictures of the three of them!

Alex's offical job was the "leave smasher". He was the best kid for the job, we fit so many leaves into that trash bin!

Happy Halloween!

Alex and Mommy pre-trick-or-treating

Taking a picture with Dad was so much easier...I think it was the talent of the photographer!Our Little Dragon at his school party.
Alex and Mommy trick-or-treating at our neighbors...isn't the little dragon butt the cutest you've ever seen! The front view was just as cute too, with the wide hips. I just loved it!

Ringing the door bell at our neighbor Jacob's house...this was the only house Alex actually rang the door bell and he didn't act too shy. (he refused to say "Trick-or-Treat"). Alex didn't really enjoy trick-or-treating as we only went to about 5 houses, but once we got home that is when the fun began. Everytime he heard the door bell ring...he would go running to the door saying "Trick-or-Treaters!!!" The three of us all enjoyed a nice, relaxful Halloween at home handing out candy.

Snow...on October 10th??!!!??

BELIEVE IT OR NOT....IT SNOWED ABOUT 6 INCHES ON OCTOBER 10, 2009!!!
Just wanted to share some photos of Alex playing in the snow on Saturday morning. He was so excited that it snowed...he was just bummed that he couldn't "shovel". Luckily for Chad, it was warm enough out that the snow didn't accumulate on the concrete!
The first of running through the snow...I know this picture is blurry, but it shows how much snow was on the ground!

This is awesome!
Hurry and take the picture Mom,,,I have lots of playing to do.

Happy Harvest...??!?

The 1st Snowman of the year!

Fall Already??!!??

Seriously my last post was the beginning of August...I am such a slacker!

Well Alex and I are back in school and one of us is just loving it...and it's not me. I do have a much better group of kiddos to work with this year and I am enjoying it...but not totally loving it.
Chad just got a promotion at the Nebraska Medical Center as a Project Leader for the Facilities and Planning Department.

Alex is growing so much and KNOWS so much. He is starting to out smart us and the little things we used to do to change the topic or to get him to avoid something...doesn't work with him any more.

The little dude is just growing up so much. Alex has not had a wet pull up for five straight days...Yeah!
Even as an educator I can't believe that he knows his ABC's (although he may not pronounce them the best yet!), knows most of the basic colors, shapes, and has a memory like I have never seen before! He recognizes who's parents are who at school and he even knows the cars they drive! Unbelievable!

Here is a little update on us and a couple of pictures to make you laugh...enjoy and Happy Fall!

Alex running around "nake" and decided to help Dad hang the new curtain rod.
Cooking with Mom this summer!

Chad & Alex enjoying life camping with Uncle Brian, Aunt Tiff and Papa.
Just watering the lawn like everyone else does...naked!
Have no fear...he knows how to pee on a tree and he's not afraid to do it.

Alex before he lost his pants...helping Nana water the lawn and play with rocks. We went to Mullen to see my parents in August. We all had a blast...Alex especially! He loved being outside in Grandpa's big shop playing with tools, the vacuum, this car, you name it...he found it in Grandpa's shop! Big A - Out for a Drive!
For Chad's b-day his wonderful wife :) got him a tee time at Sand Hills Golf Club in Mullen!

Joining us at Sand Hills were our great friends Chris (right) and Gary (middle) Shives.

I promise to do a better job of updating our blog this fall!

Keith UpClose....Real Close!!!

Enough Said....right?!!!!!
This was my birthday gift from Chad this year. I knew that Keith Urban was in town this year on my birthday. I knew we were going to the concert with one of my girlfriends and her husband, Tracy & Ethan Mann. I knew that our seats were kindof up high. BUT I didn't know that Chad had a trick up his sleeve, by getting us up close to see Mr. Urban!
The wonderful thing about watching Keith, beside for his looks, is that he is so musically talented!!
This is one of the guitarist in Keith's band. He came over by us, sat on one of the amps and that would be my hand you can see and how close I was from him!

A terrible picture, but good attempt to get a pic of Chad & I on my birthday at the concert. Love ya babe...Thanks for a great birthday!

Summer Fun

We have absolutely loved our summer! There is nothing like a mom who gets to stay home with her child...even if it is just for the summer!! We have done so many fun and memorable things this summer that neither Alex or I are excited to start school again in a week. Just talking about going to school brings tears to my eyes....so enough about it. Here is a snap shot of a couple of the things we did this summer - when we had a camera.

We had friends over! Caleb and Adrienne came over to play a couple of times. I made chocolate chip teddy bear pancakes...they were lovin' life!
Here they are all squeezed into one of the cubbies in our toy chest.

Chad helping the kiddos build a track for Thomas and his friends. Both Caleb and Alex LOVE Thomas...and poor Adrienne...she doesn't have a choice!

The end of the night...winding down watching Thomas on the tube. The look on Adrienne's face says it all, "You boys are obsessed!"

1st CARNIVAL!!! AND WE LOVED IT!!

We enjoyed a nice saturday with the Wewel's and all of the clean personal working at the LaVista Fair Carnival. :) Chad, Alex, John & Thaden on the carrousel!

Alex loving the motorcycles, as he is riding on the back of Thaden's "Harley!"

Chad and Alex rode down the tall slide, Mommy even got to ride down the slide with Alex...just no picture. :(

Alex and Thaden riding the train...more than once of course!

Needless to say, these two boys had a blast!
PLAYING AT THE FALTI'S!

We got to go play at Mary & Pete's house one Saturday afternoon and Alex just loved making monster puppets (made out of playdough) on his fingers....well they all loved it. And Mom enjoyed talking and catching up with Megan and Dad got to help Marc with his new roof.
ALEX LOVES TO READ...ESPECIALLY ABOUT THOMAS!

I love these moments....when I walk into a room and find Alex doing something that just makes my heart melt. This was right before Alex got his big boy bed and I caught him laying on the floor reading books. Alex loves this Thomas book so much that we read it before nap and bedtime everyday! He has every page memorized and will always say the last word on every page!