Alex's Room

Inspired by Whitney's sweet post about her childrens' rooms, I decided to document Alex's room as well. For Christmas this past year, Alex was given a "Big Cowboy Man" room upgrade. He had a super cute room before with a sports theme, but seening as how he crazy about all things cowboy, this change seemed right. I really got into making his room over in a different and unique way. I made his 'shutters' and did a few paintings for him, which he says looks just like him.

As soon as someone new comes to the house, the very first thing Alex says to them is "Wanna come see my awesome cool room? C'm on, I show you." He then proceeds to drag them down the hallway. Such a cutie!
I do have hopes of finding him a cool rug for his open space but that has been a little tricky. I may end up just making him one.

Alex, it is such a joy to see you enjoy your room so much! The pride you have in your own little space is adorable! To think, we thought the cowboy thing was just a fad! If so, it has been a **really** long lasting fad! Going on 2 years now! You are such a sweet, creative little man!

Disney (World) on Ice!

OOOO the fun we had a Disney on Ice! Alex calls it Disney World on Ice...cute little thing!

It was our first trip to the CenturyTell center in Bossier City. It was

AMAZING!

Alex was beyond good! He was so excited to be there. We let him wear his Buzz Lightyear costume and boy, was he cute! Look at how his beautiful blue eyes were just a shining! We could barely get a family picture because Alex didn't want to look away from the ice. I should have known that!

Tripp, so funny! I was a little worried about Tripp because, well let's face it: Disney on Ice is not really his thing. He went for Alex and that was very much appreciated. By his own account, he said that he really had a good time and was impressed by the show. Kudo's for Tripp!

We ended up with a Dash/Buzz Lightyear crossover Super Hero when all was said and done!

Such a great family time! Alex is still talking about it and asking when we can go again. I would love to take him anytime we could! We went to the Boardwalk after and had lunch at Joe's Crabshack. Alex loves coconut shrimp so he was in heaven.

Alex spent the night with his Nana & Big Daddy and his favorite cousin Marshall. They got the boys Super Hero capes with their initials on them.

ALEX LOVED IT!

Pictures of that to come!

Cookie Delight

One night as Alex and I were preparing for bed, he asked me if he could make cookies. Due to the time, I told him that we would make cookies another night. He promptly asked me the next morning if we would be making cookies that night. Naturally, I obliged!

I set out a good variety of different decorations for him to use and iced the cookies for him. (I tried to let him do that but the super controlling part of me had to intervene. It was turning into a HUGE mess that even Alex was not enjoying. I am getting better in my controlling ways...but I had to step in on this case) :) Alex was SO dedicated to each cookie. We decided we would take them to school the next day for his class so each school mate had a special cookie. (No, I did not remember who got what cookie and failed to mention that fact to his teacher the next day. Only a small mishap. Surely the teachers will forgive me.Ahem.)
Every good cook has a little sampling of his goods. Alex just had several samplings!

I think they turned out beautifully! Great job!

Don't you think he did a great job?

Photography via Alex

As mentioned before, Alex has a love of photography. He loves to use our camera and just walk around the house with it to see what he can see. It is very interesting to me what he takes pictures of. I have meaning to create a post showing some of his previous shots before, but sadly, forgot, so here goes...

Alex's best friend, Nosmo King Griffin. O-the ways the boys terrorize each other! Gotta love it Not quite sure why he took a picture of the underneath the table (be sure not to zoom in...you will find super scary dust bunnies....don't say I didn't warn you!) but still think it is cool!

And of course, leave it to Alex the Cowboy to get "The Shot" of his cowboy boot. I won't mention that he has on his boots with shorts, ahem. I tried to tell him that real cowboys don't wear the boots with shorts, but he quickly corrected me.

Again, no clue as to the purpose of the photo...just interesting..

I guess he had to have a picture of his basketballs. Go figure! He is all boy!

Alex, I pray that your love and zeal for life continues to grow! I adore your passion for photography and admire your skill! Thank you Jesus for this precious boy!!

Fishing with Nana D & Papa

Nana D & Papa (Tripp's dad & stepmom) were able to make a trip in from the Dallas area to spend a little time with Alex. Though the trip was brief, Alex very much enjoyed it. At the first mention of fishing, all parties involved were super excited so we loaded up and made the short trek to Alex's favorite fishing hole.

The fishies were not as active as they had been on our other fishing expeditions. It took a while for Papa to hook his first fish...then it promptly managed to get off of his line. At Nana D's first cast, she hooked a big one, er....as big as bremn can get! Alex caught several so all in all, it was a great fishing trip.

An Apple a Day...

Please excuse the poor picture quality but I had to post this so I could remember it always.

Alex loves apples! Loves them!! When we had to make adjustments to his diet about 6 months ago, that was one of the things that we had to cut back on. He went from getting them any time he wanted to just about 1 per week. We have gradually increased the amount of fruit he can have so he gets them more often now.

He eats the ENTIRE thing! I have to keep a close eye on him because he has been known the even eat the core. Tripp says it is good for him and that people do it all the time...but I say No Way Jose! If his body has a hard time breaking things down already, I don't see how it could break an apple core down with ease.

I just love to watch him enjoy one of his favorite foods. It is so precious to me how he delicately eats all of the red off before devouring the center. So funny!

Though he doesn't get an apple a day, he would definitely love it if he could. All in due time, Sweet Pea!

Fish Kisses..

Alex is considering kissing this little buddy...but eventually opts out! He needs to learn from a pro! Take note of the fact that ***I*** am holding, touching and about to kiss a fish! I am not such a chicken afterall!

I caught this one by the way! Hard to believe...but I did! Alex's fishing technique of casting out and instantly reeling back in works like a charm!

Thank you 'Uncle Denny' for letting us fish at your pond! Appreciate it more than you know!!

Fun times Fishing! Alex's First Official Fish!!

Hope no one is starving b/c this little guy is not going to go very far!!Let me just say that I may have lost both of my two favorite people to the sport of fishing! Tripp has always loved to fish and it looks like the passion for it follows the blood line! Alex can't get enough! He asks every single night if he can go fishing! He is very good at it so no wonder he wants to go so often!

On his first fish outing, Alex caught 5 fish. Four were Brem (?) and one bass, which was caught in the photo's below. If only I could figure out how to upload video! His commentary was priceless!!

Here they are headed to the honey hole...

Alex casts out and sets his fish. At this point, he is saying a garbled mixture of the following,
"Oh no, he's trying to pull me in the water, he's a fighter, I'm gonna get him out that water! I gotta fight him out!"

Almost out of the water...

SOOOO PROUD OF OUR LITTLE ...i mean... BIG FISHERMAN!

GO ALEX! YOU ARE THA MAN!

Congratulations on your first fish, Baby. Daddy and I are so proud of you! I know that your daddy is looking forward to the millions of times that you two will enjoy in Fish-land!

Now tell me, is your daddy putting you up to asking for a boat everyday? Come on, You can tell me!

Ft. Worth Zoo w/ the BESTIES

The picture above and below are just a test. They are only a test. This is a test of the

Katriana is Annoying

system and is testing to see if you really read this. This is only a test...

Please continue with your current activity... :)

moving on..

When we returned from Family Campout with our church, Alex and I basically slept for a few hours then hit the road again. Nikki, Kaleb , Karleigh, Alex and I all loaded up and made our way to Forney to meet Erin & Co. (CO. would be her babies, Blane, Avery & Lydia) We have all missed them since they moved so we jumped at the chance to get to hang out with them since they were on Spring Break. We decided to take the kiddos to the FT. Worth Zoo and had a GREAT TIME! We were "Those People" and stopped a sweet passerby to get a group photo. This was at the end of our day and not really the kid's idea of a good time! But they still did good!
Love this picture! I could stare at those sweet baby blues ALLLLLLL day!!
The goofy smiley face is nice to look at too!
The day was super long and incredibly full of activity but it was so nice to get to spend some quality time with two of my besties. Thank you girls for the treasured time! It is such a joy to be around you both and your children! Erin, I miss you terribly!! Nikki, you are a fantastic newcomer to the Katriana Bestie club!!

FBCLC Family Campout 09

OH My! Did we have a great time at Family Campout this year or what! Though it rained basically the entire time we were there and was SUPER FRIGID, we still managed to make some great memories!

The kids (Alex, Karleigh, Trystan & Kaleb) had such a wonderful time together. The big kids were soooo sweet to Alex and you could tell he loved it!

Alex took it upon himself to play in everysinglemudpuddleintheentirestateofoklahoma and by the looks of his clothes each day, you could tell he enjoyed himself completely! He had to "fish" in every stream or puddle he came across.

Tripp was way better than me at the crossing the moving body of water thing. I think Alex knew this deep down, because he never asked me to carry him across one time. Hmmmm..

Aghhhh, the best $1.00 ever spent! BIG THANKS to the Kulak family for sharing these wonderful balloons with us! They provided hours upon hours of entertainment for the kiddos! I was super lightheaded when it was all said and done, but they loved it and that's all that matters!

Each night at Campout, we gathered as a church body to praise God. What a wonderful time! Though it was a little hard on Alex and the whole 'you have to be quite' thing, he almost, sorta, kinda came around. Well, almost. :) He loved to sing the praise songs and was so sweet doing so.

Worship time was super special because Chad taught on a subject that we all need to learn about...Love One Another. He raised so many intersting concepts and thoughts. I am so grateful to have such strong mentors to look up to! It was such a wonderful time to meet and socialize with members of our church on a more intimate level that I would normally not have the chance to do. There is just something about standing shoulder to shoulder while putting on makeup or fixing your hair with a sister in Christ that is just flat out cool!

I pray that everyone had as much fun as we did! Our "Bunk Mates" were awesome! The Hagen & Dobbs family contributed the creation of some super funny memories, sound effects and jokes that will have a long time running! Thanks for that!

Blog Hiatus

No excuses here....JUST BEEN SUPER LAZY LATELY! I say that in almost all truth. Though I get on my blog daily, it is mainly to check on the families I am praying for and keeping up with.

Each time I log on I think, "I should really share that cute thing Alex just did," or "I need to capture this memory while it is still fresh in the nogin." But to no avail. Maybe one day I will get better at posting on a more consistant basis.

That being said, time to record some memories...

Jo Jo the Clown

Alex was ready to eat cake and get back to JO JO the Rodeo Clown!
Riding the Mighty Buckey, this thing was a hit! Alex loved it!

Jo Jo the Rodeo Clown is a retired bull fighter we had come out to put on a show for Alex and his friends at his party. They LOVED him! Alex talked about him for weeks before his party and is still talking about him now. He did several events for the kids, mighty buckey, stick horse races, rope tricks, etc. I wish it would have been a little more 'controlled' as the kids were kind of all over the place...but all that matters is that they had a good time.

Mission Accomplished!

'Awesome-Cool' Birthday Cake

The babe LOVED his bday cake! Usually our Sweet Aunt Brenda makes Alex's birthday cakes but I decided to give it a try this year. She has two other sweet birthdays the same time as Alex's and she is in high demand! Rightfully so! I still could not have done this with out her though. She made the actual cake, SUPER YUMMY, and the home made icing.....SUPER DUPER YUMMY! No one needs to know what happened with the left over icing...

I carved the cake down and with the help from some dear friends, we layed fondant on top. Then I painted it with food coloring. The eyes and mouth are also fondant.

It was so much fun to make this special cake for my little man. He was soo excited to eat it, touch it, photograph it...he was ready to dig in!

Thank you so much Aunt Brenda, Julie & Ramonia for all of your help! Thank you for helping to make this memory even sweeter!

Sweet moment with Alex..

As I was putting Alex to bed last night, he wanted to pretend that he was the daddy and that I was the baby. He said some of the sweetest things to me;

*Time to go to sleep so Mommy will be happy.
*'Morrow we will ride the tractor and mow the grass
*Time to go to sleep so we can see the stars (glow in the dark on his ceiling)
*Time for kisses all over so you can sleep good.
*You are such a sweet baby girl.

I asked him if he was a good daddy and he said, "I'm the best daddy like my daddy." So sweet! Then I asked him about his mommy and he said that she was working. I asked what she was working on and he said, "She working on a cake. A awesome cool cake!" Sooo funny! (All night long I have been making the horns to go on his bullrider cake. They turned out really cool. He wanted to 'help' the whole time which was precious and then not so precious!)

I wanted to document this adorable exchange. I love to see his little imagination at work. He really gets in to it! We tried a pasttime game that I read about on one of my favorite blogs and he enjoyed it alot. I poured a bag of pinto beans onto a cookie sheet and gave him some small toys like his tractor, front end loader and an airplane. He was entertained for quite some time.

O the ways I love my child!!

3rd Birthday Party Invitation

I am sooooo happy with how Alex's party invites turned out! I encourage anyone who is interested in some super cute invitations to visit *** lilbeansprout@etsy.com *** They will take great care of you at an amazing price!

Birthday Cupcakes

Cupcakes are my favorite to make! I love to make them for Alex's school. Some may know me as the Cupcake Mama. Ok, I really just call myself that but hopefully one day it will stick!

Alex got to lick the spoon for the first time ever. Usually, I am too scared to let him try it because of the raw egg in the batter, but I got brave this time. Trust me, the benedryl was right beside me! He really enjoyed it!


From the looks of it, the cowboy cupcakes were a hit, for sure with Alex!
I had big ambitions for his cowboy birthday cupcakes, but at the last minute, I had to scale the plan down. I am still super happy with how they turned out! The kids got to keep the cowboys, which means that is about 13 less cowboys for me to worry about stepping on!

JR Photographer

Alex got a special gift for his birthday. He loves to play with our camera and for the most part, takes really good pictures. He was able to play with his friend Elle's camera a few weeks ago and just loved it...except that it was pink! So, he got his very own blue camera last night on his actual bday.

His eyes got so big when we busted out the present!

What could it be?

Look on his face....priceless!!

Say Cheese!!


I pray this spurns a deep love of photography and memory preservation!