A Big Day

We have such a busy day today and there is excitement in the Alexander house! This weekend Eli's soccer team, The Chelsea Sting, has a soccer tournament in Trussville against teams their own age so that means WE CAN WIN!! They have played up two divisions this season so the season has been rather brutal - but we held our own, even against the big boys so we know we take the "gold" at this tournament!

Today is also Jill's first gymnastics exhibition and I am so excited! I love that she is following in her Mom's footsteps and enjoys flipping and tumbling everywhere! We will have lots of pictures to share and maybe even a little video.

After all our sports excitement, we are headed to Gadsden to our Little Katie-bug's 5th birthday party! Happy Birthday Katie - We love you soooo much!

Oh - and I think one of the best parts to the weekend is that I get to see my family! I miss and love you all so much!

Just a Few Changes

As you can see, I decided to play around with the blog today...not sure why but thought it needed a "fresh" new look. Summer is quickly approaching and the Alexander family cannot wait. Oh Summertime, lazy days on the boat, playing outside until dark, playdates with friends, zoo trips, ice cream truck, snow-biz and the POOL! We are ready - bring the best you've got Summer!!!

Better Late Than Never...Jill's B'day

Yes, I know I am so late at posting this and I am sorry but sometimes it gets a little hectic around our house. I know that is surprising but it happens. Jill decided that for her birthday this year she wanted a spend the night party - Mom on the other hand decided that she was not ready for that just yet so we made it a half-sleepover. Jill invited 10 of her friends to come from 6 to 9 and enjoy pizza, cookie cake, nail painting and a movie. When everyone was good and tired, it was time for the Moms to come back and pick up their precious little ones! The perfect solution in my opinion! It also helped that my neices from Gadsden as well as one of our friends from Atlanta were able to come and really spend the entire night - with their Mommies of course!!! Also thank you to my sweet friend Kimberly for staying with us and helping with "crowd control!"

My FIVE year old - where has the time gone?

Blowing out the candles on her cookie cake - all she wants is the icing anyway!

The girls who spent the entire night and actually slept from around 11pm to 7am - not too bad!

On Jill's actual birthday (Sunday April 11) she and her Daddy went to the galleria shopping! Jill came home with more "loot" than any five year old needs and she loved shopping alone with her Dad! She knows she has him wrapped around her little finger - we are so in trouble when she is a teenager!

Kindergarten Registration

I cannot believe that today I am registering my little Princess for kindergarten! My how the time flies! It seems like just yesterday we brought this little bundle of joy home from the hospital looking like this...
And now, here she is, all grown up and ready to face the world - better known as Chelsea Park Elementary School! Get ready CPES, here comes Princess Jilly!

Happy Easter!

Whew - what a whirlwind of a weekend we had! Our Easter festivities began on Friday morning with an egg hunt with our Moments 4 Moms group from our church. We had our egg hunt at the playground and could not have asked for a more beautiful day! God's sun was shining and his birds were singing and his little children were hunting for eggs and having a GREAT time!

Jill and her friend Coleigh playing - we don't get to see her enough these days!

A photo-op with Mom
Luke with all his "loot" - he is now a professional egg-hunter!

Jilly finding a little "loot" of her own.

At first Luke thought he should open each egg he found but he quickly figured out that if he continued in this manner there would be no more eggs to find so he changed his "strategy."

After our egg hunt on Friday, we went and checked Eli out from school to get ready for his soccer game in Tusacloosa. Jamie got off work early so that he and Eli could head to the game and I took Jill and "the littles" and headed to gymnastics. After gymnastics, we came back home, loaded up the car and set out for Grammy & Poppa's, with a stop on the way at Jill's favorite restaurant, Oskar's in Dadeville, for a little catfish! Eli's team won their soccer game - GO STING and Saturday they joined us in Tallassee. Saturday morning we had Elam's annual Easter egg hunt, complete with puppet show and telling of the Easter story. In the afternoon, the men got to enjoy a little golf while the rest of the gang did a little last minute Easter shopping and then played! A fun time was had by all until...the stomach bug hit! About 1am poor little Jilly got sick and so early Easter morning, she and Dad loaded up and headed back to Chelsea - just after opening Easter baskets. The stomach bug also hit at the Bryant house, poor Uncle Mike! So the photos below are missing three smiling faces but enjoy! (You will see Jill in the egg hunt photos!)

Mom and her boys - We miss you Dad & Jilly!

The grandkids (minus Eli - he hadn't made it into town yet.)

Before the egg hunt at Poppa's church

Ashley and her boys - We missed you Uncle Mike!

Poppa, Grammy & Six of their seven grandkids

Charlton, Donna, Anna Beth & Katie - a complete family (WOW)

Two of the three grand-girls

Happy Easter 2010!

Alabama Gymnastics

Jamie surprised Jill and me by getting us tickets to Alabama's last home gymnastics meet. He got us four tickets so we were able to take some friends with us. Mrs. Kimberly and Carsyn, who by the way are HUGE Auburn & UAB fans, were nice enough to go with us. Jill and Carsyn take gymnastics together so this was a fun experience for our two future gymnasts! Mrs. Kimberly was such a good sport and was able to look past the fact that she was at an Alabama event and even cheered for the home team. We had a great time and Jill and I were so thankful we had company on that late drive back home. It's not everday that Jill gets to stay up until 11pm but for Bama gymnastics we will make an exception!

Jill & Mom enjoying the meet!

Carsyn & Jill posing with Big Al...This was a HUGE step for Mrs. Kimberly - we were so proud! Now I guess Jill has to pose with Aubie :-( Good luck getting HER to agree!

The girls with former Bama gymnast Ashley Miles

Ashley Priuss

Now with the crowd favorite Morgan Dennis!

Thanks Dad for the tickets! We had a great time and hope to attend many more of these events. One day maybe we will be there to cheer on these two little girls!

The Flu & Jamie's Birthday

Well, we thought we had escaped the flu this year but unfortunately all of us did not. Last week Luke was one sick little man! His temp went up to 103.7 under his arm so if you add the .5 to 1.0 degrees that you are supposed to add his temp was actually over 104!!! We went to the pediatrician and they tested him for the flu and it came back positive. Even with the Tamiflu he ran a fever for 6 days and was pitiful!

On top of the fact that he had the flu he was coughing his head off and wheezing so we also had to endure breathing treatments three times a day. Big sister was a big help and would keep him company while he did his treatments.
During this time came Jamie's birthday. I had made reservations to take him to dinner on his birthday as a special treat because all day on his birthday he coached the first practice of Eli's soccer season. Well, needless to say, we could not leave Luke with a sitter so our plans had to be put on hold! (We did make it to dinner - just a week late!) Instead we bought a cute little cake and celebrated at home.

The frog eyes on Dad's cake were a big hit!