Thanksgiving/Iron Bowl Weekend

Or Iron Bowl/Thanksgiving Weekend, whichever is more important to you :) We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Iron Bowl weekend. I started my vacation off right with a visit to the "Iron Bowl Sips N Strokes" Wednesday night with my friend and next door neighbor Dana. We painted AUBIE hanging Big Al upside down with paw prints all over him. For those of you who don't know, I just love AUBIE! 2nd to Daley (and quite possibly Zach depending on how he has behaved that week :) By the way, I had no business going in the first place for all the Thanksgiving food and tailgating food I was supposed to be preparing. But I did do that when I got home and most of it turned out quite well!

Thanksgiving Day was a blessing as always to spend time with the people we love the most, OUR FAMILIES! We started it off my going over to my Nana's house where we had a slightly larger than usual crowd, but with family is never tooo crowded, right??? We had a wonderful lunch prepared by all (even ME)! I am also fortunate enough to have such a talented cousin Kelsey who took some pretty awesome pics of Daley (posted below).

Next we were off to Yia Yia and Robert's where Robert prepared a delicious Thanksgiving meal as well. There was a slight hang up in that the Turkey Fryer went out of commission for a couple hours, but once it was ready we enjoyed a delicious Cajun Fried Turkey! My Aunt Cathy and my cousins Spiro, his girlfriend Courtney, and Jimmy came in town. It was great to see them! Especially Spiro and Courtney since they live in TX and don't get up to Alabama much! It was also wonderful to spend Jameson's first Thanksgiving with him, I really love that baby!

After Yia Yia and Robert's we headed down to Auburn to spend time with Zach's family and to see our beloved Tigers play the hearts out in the Iron Bowl. I must say I was disappointed not to get a win, but proud of my Tigers for giving it to the #2 team in the country! By the way, GO GATORS! I just had to post the pic of Zach below that was posted in the Birmingham News. There were several pics posted but I felt like none showed his true "game face" as well as this one. I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and I wanted to sign off in saying that I am so Thankful for my family! Zach included, even when he is not behaving!

Love,

Lindsey

Dodiyos!!!!!!!!!!

Last Thursday me some of my favorite friends from church went out to eat at Dodiyos. I have but 1 word for this place.....MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! It was wonderful! The company and the food. Dodiyos is a Mediterranean Restaurant so it has so many of my favorite foods. For appetizers we shared Hummus and Saganaki. If you have never had Saganaki it is cheese that comes out flaming and you spread it on bread. A.K.A. a little spread of heaven! And for my entree I ordered vegetable Moussaka which is like a vegetable casserole with topped in a cream sauce layer. Am I making your mouth water? I want to go back and eat just as am typing this.

My friends and I had a great time hanging out. We do not do this often so it was great to get together outside of church with just the girls. It was actually kind of funny because the three of us that arrived first were all pregnant, and some lady asked if we were all members of the same Lamaze class? It is funny to me because so many people around me are pregnant right now. Not just in this group, but I bet I can name at least 15 people that I am either related to or very good friends with. I am so lucky that both my girls will be surrounded by my wonderful friends and their wonderful children!

Mary, Brooke, Helena, Angela and Me

-Lindsey

Halloween and Baby Jameson

Have not been on my blog in a while so I thought I would double update! First of all we had a great Halloween. We did several things to celebrate throughout the month of October. First we went to the pumpkin patch and then we were invited to a Halloween Party at Will Vakakes's House. Will's Halloween Party was a great way to get the kids together and allow them to wear their costumes an extra time. We also had Daley's school Halloween Part and the kids were dressed up there too. They were sooo precious! On actual Halloween we did not celebrate much or trick or treat. We were down in Auburn for the Ole Miss Auburn game which was a SWEET VICTORY!

Daley and I with our church friends at Will Vakakes's Halloween Party

Daley and Caroline (Tinkerbells) at Daley's School Halloween Party

Most importantly November 4th was the birth date of mine and Zach's first nephew, and Daley's first cousin! We are so in love with him already and we are so happy for Tiffany and Philip upon the birth of their sweet baby boy. Jameson Foster Bolen came into the world weighing 8lbs 9oz and was 21 ans 1/2 inches long. He was born Wednesday November 4 at 8:15 p.m.

Jameson Foster Bolen

Tiffany Me and Jameson



Aunt Lindsey and Jameson

Hope everyone has had a great couple of weeks and has a great Thanksgiving Holiday! Happy Holidays and War Eagle!

Love,

Lindsey

Demi Sophia

It's a girl! She will be named Demi Sophia Alsobrook! We have known since about 14 weeks. I went to the Dr.'s office where my mother works and the ultrasound tech there was able to tell. Then, at 16 weeks I went to my Dr. and there was a little trouble finding the heartbeat. No worries though! I got another ultrasound and she confirmed it. Then again, 2 weeks ago, we went back to the Dr. for our 20 week ultrasound and it was confirmed again. Definitely no third legs here!

I have 2 other friends who are pregnant right now, Helena and Angela and they are both having girls too. Then I have 2 friends from church, Melanie and Mary who both just had girls (Lane and Emma respectively). I think it is the year of the girl! I am still waiting on a few friends in my mommies group (the ones I went to Sips and Strokes with) who are a little behind me in the wonderful journey that is pregnancy, and with the way things have been going surely we'll get some more boys!

I have attached a few pics from our last ultra sound. They are mostly of her head and her bottom. Enjoy!

-Lindsey

Head and Hand of Sweet Demi

Bottom of Sweet Demi

Head Hand and Spine of Sweet Demi

The Great Pumpkin Patch

We normally go to the Pumpkin Patch out in Clanton every year on Columbus Day, but this year the weather did not permit. I had also taken Tuesday off to prepare for some work we are getting ready to do on our house, but I decided to go ahead and try to go to the Pumpkin Patch since it was the one day in the past month or so that it hasn't rained. Luckily when I got in the car I called to check and make sure I knew what exit to get off on because it was CLOSED! They are actually not usually open on Monday or Tuesday any week, they just make an exception for Columbus Day, I guess since some businesses are closed. I then called the Pumpkin Patch in Harpersville and it did open at 3:00, but it was 11:00 and we were already in the car. I Googled Alabama Pumpkin Patches in my phone and found that there is one in Hayden just above Gardendale on I 65 so we headed to Hayden! After all the trouble of finding a Patch we did have a great time once we got there!

Daley LOVES to take her picture in these things. This has gotten to be like our 4th or 5th picture we have like this, but they are cute!

Daley picking her very own Pumpkin!!!!

Daley making her VERY SCARY Halloween face

Daley at the petting zoo. I will say that the petting zoo at the Patch in Clanton is MUCH better. These animals were not so spiffy!

Daley and Mommy at the Pumpkin Patch

Church Fall Picnic

This Sunday after Church we had a fall picnic complete with BBQ, pumpkin painting, flag football and fishing. Daley LOVES "barbecubes" and she had such a great time painting the pumpkins! She also played football with Dad. No flag football quite yet and we did take her close to the water but she walked in off the bank, so after we changed her wet shoes into dry shoes we were out of any more clothing options, we then opted for dryer activities.

Daley pumpkin painting. She is a very stubborn pumpkin painter too. I had a lot of good ideas, but instead we just scribbled.

More pumpkin painting. The face on the front was some of my good ideas, but like I said, she liked to scribble all over it!

Football with Dad!

More football, running away from Dad!

Will, Brooke and Helena Vakakes enjoying the beautiful day!

Race for the Cure

This Saturday was the Race for the Cure to help find a cure for Breast Cancer. I walked with Melissa Ashdown for the benefit of her mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer less than five years ago. There was a wonderful turnout at the race in spite of the weather. A lot of people are dedicated to this cause and we had a great time celebrating with the survivors.

They dyed the fountain pink in Linn Park! How cool is that?

Daley pre-race all decked out in her pink!

Daley and I before the race

We got there pretty early before the race started so we could see the survivor parade. They all stood by a sign to celebrate how many years they had been fighting this terrible disease. We couldn't get close enough to get a picture of Melissa's mom, but she was in the 5 years and less group.

Melissa Daley and I after the race. Daley was such a trooper!

Girls Night Out at Sips and Strokes

Once a month I have a "get together" with some of my dearest and oldest friends. We all graduated from high school together and some of us have even been friends since 1st grade! This is a great group of girls! All very spiritual and I am so lucky to have them in my life! Here are a few pics of us at our last Girls Night Out at Sips and Strokes.

This fist picture is a picture of all the preggers! 4 of us! Lisa and Meredith our both having their third child, they both already have two boys. Laura and I are both having our second and we both already have one girl. Kind of ironic!

Girls in Action

LEFT (Me, Laura and Jen) RIGHT (Kim, Nichole, Lisa and Meredith)

Our finished product!!!! Aren't we the artists?!?!?

We went to the fair!

Sunday I forced Zach to go to the fair! He really did not want to go. His major complaint was how much money we would spend. I assured him he was wrong, it was only $16 total to get in because Daley was free, she wouldn't be able to ride many rides so we wouldn't have to pay for many tickets. Boy was I WRONG! We could have taken a small vacation for the amount of money we spent at the fair! It was really fun though! Zach is a little peeved that he got ripped off by some fat guy at the balloon popping game, but Daley loved it and she got 2 of her 4 stuffed animals there. I was a little tired to begin with since we also had the Greek Festival this weekend but I still had a great time, and most importantly so did Daley. And Zach will agree, he talks about the Fair as if it were designed by criminals who take you for everything you have, but then he adds....but at least Daley had a great time!

Daley came home with 4 stuffed toys...2 sharks, Tigger and Dora.

First we went to the petting zoo and Daley fed some of the animals.

After the petting zoo we took her to the fishing booth where she won the first shark and she loved it!

She rode the Ferris Wheel with Zach and I, some spinny ride that Zach took her on (I never would have made it).

She also rode the boats and she went into a fun house that she got stuck in and Zach had to crawl in and get her out. They had a monkey named Gilligan there and you could get your picture made with him for $5, but Daley would not have anything to do with him! Overall our 2 hour trip to the Fair turned out to be an expensive success! Hope you enjoy the pics!

-Lindsey

Can You Smell It????

That smell you are trying so hard to find ladies and gentlemen is the smell of Auburn Football! Whether you are at home or at the game you smell the wonderful fall weather, the hot dogs, the hamburgers and sometimes the alcohol if you are lucky and not pregnant:) This time of year means everything in my household. It makes riding around in the car year round listening to Auburn Band music for Daley all worth it as she now knows all the songs. It marks the last Friday and Saturday (August 28 & 29) that you will catch an Alsobrook in a non orange shade of clothing. It also means waking up to the glorious sound of Eye of the Tiger, which we have now set our alarm to play to wake us up in the morning. It also marks the last weekend we will be in Birmingham for a month as the first four home games will be in the Loveliest Village on the Plains. This will be one of Daley's games she gets to go to this year and she is prepped and ready to go. We have been brushing up on the fight song and I feel sure she can pull the Tigers through to a victory against Louisiana Tech. all on her own. I suppose I will be taking a brief hiatus from blogging as well as we will be in God's Country for the next few weekends, but I wish you all the best and may all you teams WIN this football season (especially if you're an Auburn Tiger). God Bless and War Eagle!

Cruisin' to Mexico

I am sad that I can't post every single picture to document this cruise because we had such a FABULOUS time! My Mom and Robert were generous as always and invited my family and my brother and his wife on a cruise for summer vacation. Unfortunately my brother and his wife could not go as she is too far along in her pregnancy to travel.

On our cruise we stopped in two places, the Yucatan and Cozumel. We left for Mexico out of Mobile aboard the Holiday. I think they are about to retire this ship as it has been around for a really long time and I am really glad that we got the opportunity to go on it before they did that because it is a really neat ship! They had a really awesome section for kids with netting all around the side rails of the boat, so it was really easy to play there since we were worry free. It had a Fisher Price like slide section and a baby pool and we could lay out there ALL DAY. There also wasn't as many people there and it wasn't as wild as it was at the other pools.

Aboard the ship they had a buffet style type breakfast and lunch and then of course the sit down dinner at night. I REALLY think we had the most entertaining waiter on the boat. I know this because they perform for you every night in song and dance and of course you know Zach had to bust out his moves for the dining room as well. I had unfortunately left my camera in the room that night so there are no pics to document this special event. :)

Our First stop was the Yucatan and we barely got off the boat to shop. There were a lot of excursions to go visit the ruins, but I really could not see Daley hiking 2 miles plus to see pyramid ruins. I didn't think she would appreciate it. There was a beach excursion that I thought would be alright, but I was out voted by the other members of the trip. "We" decided we should save our money for Cozumel and we could do a larger excursion there. Then, what did we end up doing in Cozumel???? Shopping! And who came out on top??? ME!!!!!! I got a really awesome watch in Cozumel at a really great price. My watch that I've had for a few years now has broken twice and the cost to fix it just wasn't worth it. I was supposed to get one for Christmas, but Christmas came early for me this year! When we were in Cozumel we also stopped along the way and ate at a "real Mexican restaurant"! Of course I was in heaven as Mexican food is my most favorite of all.

Overall we had such a good time and I hope we get to go on a cruise again in the future. They are so nice! You get towels folded into little animals every night in your bed. They take pictures of you everywhere, so you never have to worry about getting everyone in the picture. There are casino games and shows to watch at night and miniature golf and a huge pool slide to play on during the day. They are just the best and you are so well taken care of. I would recommend it to anyone! Hope you enjoy the pics!

Alsobrook July Beach Trip

We went down to Destin with Zach's family last month and I am just now blogging about it :( We had a great time though! There was a small hiccup the first day we got there and we were unpacking our stuff. Daley decided she would hang on the small dresser with a BIG TV on it, and she pulled it on top of herself. Luckily the TV went over her head and landed on the bed, or we probably would have made one of our trips to the emergency room again! After this incident our beach trip began. We had a great time on the beach, not so much a good time in the water since Daley will not go within 100 ft of it :) But, she was really content just playing in the sand despite our many efforts to try to get her to at least put her foot in. We had great dinners every night. We also went to the Trak and she rode the swings, the train, the tea cups and the bumper boats (with Dad). Overall we had a blast and we love going to the beach each year with Zach's fam!

Most importantly we got to meet Uncle Pearson's girlfriend Lauren who we fell in love with from the very beginning. They met each other in East Asia with their similar interests, and she is also from the U.S. (North Carolina actually so not too far!) Hopefully she will be vi sting more and more and maybe we can even go visit her since I have never been to North Carolina before :)

Love, Lindsey

Big Sister to Be

I realize that my blogging skills are NOTHING AT ALL to speak of. I formerly tried to update my blog every other week, but it has gotten to be more like once a month which is totally unacceptable for our family members that follow and can't get on Facebook.

I have not even been prompt in letting the world know that we are EXPECTING! I am now 13 weeks, which in the picture the baby is 9 weeks. The baby is the blob in the middle of the picture between the two plus signs. It looks a little like a rodent, but we love him/her anyway :) I am so excited to be pregnant (or actually just to have another little blessing, being pregnant is actually not all it is cracked up to be). We have been so blessed with Daley and I know we will be even more blessed with two! Please keep our family in your prayers for the next 27 weeks!

Love,

Lindsey