9 months!

Today is Alex's 9 month birthday! Where did the time go?? He has made some nice strides during this past month. Alex now eats a lot of different table foods, has mastered holding a sippy cup by himself, and is getting the hang of holding his bottle by himself. He gets around (and into everything!) by army crawling now and as you can see by the pictures, he can now stand without us! If he can get a good grip, he can also pull himself up to a stand by himself. Such a big boy! He had his 9 month checkup earlier this week and everything looks great. Alex now weighs 19 lbs, 7 ounces and is 27.5 inches long. Our summer is coming to an end as Mom starts work and Alex starts daycare again on Monday. We're sad our vacation is over but boy did we have a fun summer!

"I love to stand!"

A picture for the grandpas

Alex and Rosco are friends again

Lunch out with our friends Bailey and Karla on

Friday in honor of our last day of summer.

Maddie's Wedding

Andy and I got a night out on Saturday to go to Maddie and Toby's wedding. Maddie was my freshman roommate at Wisconsin. It was nice to get out for a little while and fun to see some people from the college days again. Congratulations Maddie and Toby!

We don't get dressed up too often anymore so

I had to take a picture.

A mini UW reunion

"I'm soo big!"

Alex decided that tipping over his tent would be more fun

than playing with the toys inside of it. This was certainly

not an accident!

Rosco Gets Revenge

So you all don't feel too bad for Rosco for taking a beating from Alex, here are some pictures of him getting a little revenge. A little brotherly love...

Rosco Takes a Beating and "Crawling"

Andy and I admit that we don't give Rosco enough credit for being as good as he is around Alex. He really is a pretty good dog. Here he is taking a beating from Alex. I know it's terrible but Andy and I thought it was funny.

It might not be the most efficient way but Alex has finally figured out how to move around on his stomach. I don't think you can really call it crawling. It's more of a mixture of rolling, creeping, and scooting but whatever you call it, he can now get to where he wants to be. It won't be long now before he's all over the place.

Elk Mound Visit

Alex in his John Deere shirt chewing

on his John Deere corn cob

Checking out some animals with Aunt Sara.

He wasn't too sure about the sheep.

Trying on Uncle Jeff's hat. Just a little too big.

Playing with Great Grandma and Grandpa

Brushing his teeth (all 2 of them) after a good meal. I just

love his bright blue eyes in this picture.

We had a nice visit to Elk Mound this past weekend. We went to the Dunn County Fair to see some animals and also had an opportunity to spend some time with Andy's grandparents.

Texas

The food spread (at least most of it) for April's shower

April decorated a two tier cake at the shower while blindfolded.
This was the result- actually not too bad. Perhaps she has a
future in blind cake decorating!

Swimming with Grandpa

Kisses from Nonna

Alex meeting Avery and Angela

It didn't take long and they were already holding hands.

Last week Alex took his first plane ride to Texas. Luckily he was good on both flights and slept for about half of the time each way. Our trip was busy but a lot of fun. My friend Angela and I co-hosted both a bachelorette party and a bridal shower over the weekend for our friend April who is getting married next February. Alex was also very excited to meet Avery (Angela's daughter) for the first time. They hit it off right off the bat. Aside from that, Alex got to spend some nice time with his Texas grandparents and Aunt Jill.