It's been a long time..

We've been so busy lately.. I always say that, but in the past two months, we've moved out of our house into a new house. Alex and I have been working a million hours, and I was out of town for a good chunk of a week, and then we've had to continue with daily life, like trying to hang out with Solomon for at least a few hours every night. November is always a crazy time of the year work wise. I always look forward to Thanksgiving when it seems to let up some . Oh yeah, and we always have the bar to keep us busy.. all of the stupid permits and licenses that I swear are made up to create jobs are due at this time of the year. You've probably never stepped into a bar and realized just how many forms and licenses are required for the doors to remain open. It's really ridiculous. Never a slow moment around here. We do love our new house and are excited to spend the holidays in it (and maybe finally get it arranged the way we want it). I don't think we're going to travel anywhere this year and we're very excited about that! Yea! We can get some much needed relaxation.

Just a few highlights since September.. Our little guy was easily the cutest fire fighter ever on Halloween. We went to a nearby fire station and they pulled an engine out and let him climb all over it. He loved it and looked so sweet in his little costume. He talked about that forever.

Alex took the following picture in our backyard just before we moved. It's pretty cute and shows off our little boy's goofy side pretty well.

We've been taking Solomon to "micro basketball" at the YMCA. He might be a little young for it as his focus is more out than in, but he likes to pass and he likes it when I play keep away. He also likes to lick the ball! Gross, but what do you do? He's three, not exactly ready for the NBA!

We have had so many friends have babies lately.. I think we know of five babies in the last two months. That's more than we've seen in years at the same time... Pretty cool to hold all of these little ones. I've been thinking about our friends Ben and Melissa a lot lately. They had Ronin a few weeks ago. He's still in the NICU as he decided to come a bit too early. We hope he gets out soon.

We are hosting Thanksgiving in a few days! I can't wait. It should be a lot of fun. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

New House, B-day Boy, etc...

So, the big news in our world is that we have bought a new house! We are really excited. Now, just say some prayers that we sell our current one! :) More details to come on the new house.
Solomon is just showing off his new haircut in the picture below. The other big news is that Solomon turns three on Wednesday! It's really hard for me to believe it's been 3 years! We had the family and friends bash on Sunday.
Below: My mom and Kandi continued their tradition of making Solomon's cakes. I think this cake turned out fabulous as always. The brim of the hat is actually a cookie cake and the rest of it is a chocolate cake! Pretty fun and inventive. Solomon loves Curious George, so it was a perfect fit for him.

Below: A picture I snapped of the b-day boy after most of the mayhem was over... note the chocolate residue on his shirt...Below: Solomon surrounded by some of the gifts.. He loves change and putting it into piggy banks as well as taking it out.. He got a few of those and they proved to be his favorite of the day.Below: Solomon trying out his new red wagon from Kathy, Gary, Debbie and Jare. He's a bit rough with it, so it's a good thing they bought the red flyer.. :) I know that you'll all be shocked to know that he's a little bit of a crazy driver! :) It was a fun day.. all of the kids seemed to have fun jumping on the blow up thing and running around. His school birthday party is this week. More photos to come. Mom and Kandi prepared mini cupcakes for that one.

BTW, this morning I asked Solomon what his favorite thing about his birthday party was and he replied, "Zoe". I thought that was so cute. He just loves his cousin!

National Coverage!

Our bar, Kirby's Beer Store was featured in the July issue of Playboy Magazine as one of the top Dive Bars in the country! We were pretty excited about it, but have no idea how they decided upon us. The article was really part of a larger story talking about the best bars in the country and best late-night eating spots.
Also, one of the local TV stations did a story on it:
http://www.kwch.com/videobeta/8cae7c65-6adb-4096-9dbb-4d854a6d5674/News/Video-Wichita-bar-makes-Playboy-s-list-of-best-dive-bars

Hotness in July!

After the 4th, Alex and I took off for a four day trip to Missouri without Solomon. We started at his brother's house in Ozark and then went to the Big Cedar Lodge just outside of Branson. It really is a beautiful place. The town of Branson isn't exactly our "cup of tea" to say the least, but perhaps if we were 40 years older it would be. :) It was a lot fun.

Below is Alex refusing to take a normal photo with his margarita. We had the best Mexican meal at Cantina Laredo. Good stuff.

Below is a photo from outside of our hotel room. Very pretty area.

Below are two photos of crazy Branson shows... The Dogs onboard the Titanic show is the weirdest one I saw... Yakov is the staple and has the goofiest sign, so I had to take a photo before "Lauging my Yakov". Below is a photo of Rhanda, Cherie and I. We met up just after I came back from Branson. It was so fun to see both of them. We had some good laughs.

Alex, Solomon and I went to KC this past weekend to visit his mom and sister and brother-in-law. Below is a picture of my friend Cherie's son, Eli, with Solomon watching some Curious George. I think it's pretty cute.Alex's old friend, Adam, also stopped by with his wife, Alyssa, and their son, Asher. Asher and Solomon took a bath together! It was so cute. I don't have the picture available.. sorry. I suggested that Adam and Alex take a bath too, but it didn't fly... :)
Below, are some random photos of Solomon. I love the one below of him with Alex's softball hat.

A few last things.. videos of Solomon being cute.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Father's Day and Other Stuff

Solomon loves blowing bubbles and gets very mad when I won't let him hold the container, so mad, that at some point I typically just give in and then the bubbles end up spilled on the ground! Below is a typical meal for Solomon... not the most graceful eater on the planet.

Solomon and Coco continue to be BFFs.

I spent half of Saturday at a music festival that our bar sponsored. Thanks to Stephanie and Bevan for coming out to help us out. We had a good time people watching.

We had a great Father's Day. Alex played a couple of softball games in the blazing heat and I did stuff around the house. We also went to my parents' house for dinner. My mom made some amazing lasagna... regular for all of us and diary free for Alex, Jimmy and Solomon. They said it was super good too. I'm loving the leftovers as well. Solomon was super excited for Zoe to chauffeur him around in the Corvette.

Zoe is soooo my niece.. I love the poses. Of course Solomon is just reaching to turn off the car. He loves to do this and it just annoys Zoe.

Riding off..

A short video of Zoe and Solomon driving around.

Okay, so I'm just SURE that Solomon is sooo smart. Look how well he draws an apple in this video.

It's Been Awhile!

It's important to stick out one's tongue when performing tasks with a golf club and hard hat.
He's getting better at drawing shapes that mean something. This is a "circle" for a face.
Solomon pointing out his drawing (on the side of the house of course) of Uncle Zach. It consists of two pink lines.
The morning ritual

Silly face!Legos are fun...

Before I get too far, the pictures are all in random order b/c I'm having trouble getting them to move around today.
Life has been super duper busy... Let's see I ran a half marathon on April 25th. That was huge for me. I felt like poo poo for two days after it, but I'm so glad I did it. Now, the challenge is to keep up with the running schedule. My friend, Cherie, just ran a full marathon last weekend in SanDiego. Pretty cool!

I went to Orlando for a work conference at the beginning of May and just returned back from Dallas for a meeting with the team I work with/for. Plus, I went up to Lawrence a few weekends ago for my friend, Erin's, b-day and a girls weekend with her and Cherie. We had so many laughs. A few times we actually had those silent laughter moments when you can't even produce sound b/c you're laughing so hard. I love that.

Solomon is of course keeping us super busy. He just started a new daycare. So far, so good. The other one always closed in the summer time, so I just decided it was time to go somewhere, where we would be for a full year and not have to make special arrangements during public school breaks. He's hilarious and of course a bit aggravating at times. He's OBSESSED with elevators currently, so the minute he spots one, no matter where we're at, he must go on it, or it's a total meltdown. The thing is he could go on it all day long and that's not exactly a fun time for the rest of us. Plus, the makers of elevators weren't really thinking when they decided to place the alarm button farther down on the button panel b/c of course, he's always going for that and I'm nervous every time that we're going to be greeted by a fire truck or something, thinking there's an emergency in the elevator...:) He's been saying "that was fun" or "I had fun" a lot lately after school or after we go to the pool or something, so that makes me happy. My dad loves it that he says, "righty tighty" b/c of a Curious George episode where it is explained how to tighten a screw. We've been getting outside a lot and he just loves his chalk and to help me "garden". To use the word "gardening" as a description of what he's doing is a bit of a stretch, but he sure has fun squirting hose all over the place. He gets very mad at me b/c I have to keep explaining that the water musthit the general area where the plant is located or it does no good. I guess I just get too caught up in the details... :)
Hangin' with Coco
Daddy's Shoes
Directing Coco to do something "important"
It's been a rough day...

This was a reenactment of the time Thomas the Train became covered in bubbles during one of his crazy adventures.

My friend, Molly, and her husband, Dan, visited with their kids yesterday. It was fun, but of course Solomon was very territorial about all of his toys. He would take something from Louis and then he and Louis would get into a WWF Smackdown type of brawl. Molly and I were kidding that it was a bit reality TV- esque.

Alex's brother and sister-in-law, Zach and Susan, came Friday with their kids. Solomon just loves Zach and his son Sam, so that made for a good time for him and it ran some energy off which is always a good thing. Even Coco was happy b/c they brought their dog and they ran around endlessly one afternoon.

Alex is doing well. He's as busy as ever with work and has picked up a few new hobbies. He's playing softball with our bar's team over the summer which he really enjoys. The "Bad News Beers" are playing well too.

The Terrible Two and a halves...

Doesn't my little guy look so sweet and innocent in the above picture? Let me tell you that evil lurks inside. The so-called "Terrible Twos" have hit big time. The kid throws unbelieveable tantrums, often repeating the words "I got boogers," until I want to slam a box of kleenex up his nose. Fortunately, he is a cutie.. It's about all that saves his life some days. Grandma Thomas just came for a visit this week. He likes her a lot. We also celebrated Braden's birthday last week.

Alex and I went to the Big XII tournament in KC a few weeks ago. We had a great time. It may be the first and only time I will ever get to see so much KU basketball in person within three days. I was in Heaven! We stayed with Zach and Susan and Sam while we were up there and had a lot of fun. We were able to hit a few fun restaurants while we were in Lawrence.

Above: Me, Vinnie and Cherie (It was so awesome to catch up with them!!)

Other random pics......

Above: Holding hands with daddy. Alex has a very irregular sleep schedule and often minimalistic schedule so there are a lot of Alex sleeping/Solomon hanging out photos in the archives.Above: He's very into legos which I love. I've always liked Legos. He gets so excited when he builds something. Above: We were sharing a cookie. Mmmm...mmmm.. Above: Solomon participated in his school's Easter Egg Hunt/party today. It was a lot of fun. He loved finding the eggs.

Above: Just like last year, he loved decorating the eggs with dye.. especially getting the dye on his fingers, of course.
Above: Solomon with his good friend at school, Ella. She's a cutie. Her hair is a bit disheveled due to the Kansas wind.
Above: Solomon and Ella share a hug. I love it. I also love that girl to the right that looks like she's saying "Look what I have to deal with everyday. Get a room you two!"