Merry Christmas cont.

Lunch with everyone at the Mucky Duck on Captiva.
Max called it the "Monkey Duck".
We had a lot of fun playing frisbee on the beach.
Max only got hit in the head once!
Oh cousin Sadie! You're stuck now for sure.

Sigh!

I came across this video while prepping the birthday candle video. Where did the time go? It is hard for me to believe that the Max in this video is the same one that I see every day. I miss this little guy and his sweet giggles.

Happy 2 Year Birthday!

On this day, two years ago, Curtis and I had our lives changed forever... and it has all been for the better! Yes Max is officially two although I think his 2 year old switch went off on Wednesday. He has always been so good about minding me, especially when doing something dangerous. Well apparently all bets are off and we are in for it now! Deep breaths! We will persevere!

Last year after his birthday I blogged about how it wasn't the best birthday. For some reason Max and I were just "off" that day and we have had many more days like that since. But today was wonderful! I put together a very impromptu party with our usual play-groupers so many of the other kids in the pics will be some you have seen before. However we had a couple of additions which was extra fun as well. We had a quick b-day cupcake at our house followed my some serious fun at the Jump-n Place. We were so fortunate to share today with friends (and with Papa) making it a great day to remember always!

New Elmo shoes!

More Elmo... it was an Elmo-licious birthday!

Anne and Jasmijn made Max a birthday hat. Very cute!

Ugh! Too much birthday fun!

Jack, Luca, Jasmijn and Laina, thanks for making today a special day!

Sea World Continued!

Waiting for the shuttle to take us to Sea World.
Everything was decorated for Christmas... a little weird seeing as how it was 75 degrees that day!
Max and Daddy riding the ferris wheel.
Finally! The orca show! We waited all day for it!
Max fell asleep 5 minutes into the orca show.

One of Max's favorite things was the carousel. He rode it multiple times and would hand pick his horse each time. In the video we are sitting on the "red" horse. He would kiss his horse then grab me by the back of the head and make me kiss the horse as well.

Non-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all celebrating this Thanksgiving in just the way you wanted! We didn't have any family headed our way so I decided cooking for just three was not MY ideal way of celebrating the day so we packed up and headed for San Antonio. Yesterday we spent the whole day at Sea World and kicked it off by eating lunch with the characters from Sesame Street. I was nervous how Max would like it... I was always intimidated by people dressed in costumes, but after a few minutes warming up he was ALL over them. He would walk away from our booth because Elmo was across the room and he needed to go and hug him. It was really sweet. And since there were so few families yesterday we really had a lot of time with all of them. At one point Max crawled up into an empty booth and both Grover and Elmo came over and sat with him for a good 10 minutes or more. Pre-school heaven!!! Later we walked the park and watched some shows. I'll post pictures from that later. For now our lunch with Sesame Street!

Max meets his hero!

Max and Rosita. She is not one of his "main" characters, but this was a cute picture.
Wow! Big Bird is tall in real life. Way taller than Mommy, and that's saying something!
A little shy at first. He needed Daddy confidence!
Cookie Monster! Nom, nom, nom!

And finally a video of Max, Grover and Elmo. Please excuse me eating in the background but in a situation like this we eat when we get the slightest break!

BU Homecoming

Go Bears!

We went to the homecoming parade a couple of weeks ago. It was a crisp autumn morning, just the right weather for football (it is currently 80 degrees now, not so footbally if you ask me). We also went to the first half of the game, but we didn't get any photos. Again, Max's favorite part of both the parade and the game was the band. He is crazy about the drums. In the clip below (which is the shorter version) you can see him clapping along. The longer version is just of the band and Max watches it over and over. He also yells "Go Bears!" along with the band. Even when we went to the Veteran's Parade he continues to yell "Go Bears!". Yup, we start 'em young.

Showing off our cool hats and Bear pride! Note: the hat didn't last much longer!

Max and Jasmijn enjoying the parade.

Happy Halloween!

The series of photos were taken over the last four days. First we had Max's costume parade at his PDO. On Saturday we ended up at the Homestead Heritage farm for lunch and a hay ride. Finally are a couple of photos from our Trunk or Treat night at church. Max loved being a giraffe and really did not mind the costume or the hood. He did mind the ant bites when he stomped in an ant pile during trunk or treat. Grrrrr. Unfortunately we never carved our "jack-o-naner"... maybe next year!

Max had to be at his PDO already in costume. This was the view I had in my rearview mirror driving him there. So funny!
Max with his PDO "class". He knows all of his friend's names!
Waiting to go on our hay ride. We had to wait about 30 minutes and he was so patient. He was so happy to "ride horsies".

Trunk or Treat! There was a lot of commotion so he couldn't be bothered to look at Daddy and the camera!

Max and Callie. This one is for Nini!

And finally here is Max "bowling" at Trunk or Treat.

T-Ball

We bought Max a little T-Ball set. Up to now Max would get a stick out of the yard and hit a ball off of Curt's hand. His right hand! That is the dental hand! Something else was needed. Max loves this toy and we spend many an afternoon out playing T-Ball. Please, please, PLEASE ignore my smudged and streaky windows!

Sleepy Sillies!

So there is no picture to see, it is all audio. This was on the way to LA and it was probably 9:00 at night which is 2 hours past Max's bed time. Needless to say he was being pretty grumpy so I tickled his foot to cheer him up. What followed was a fit of giggling that went on for a few minutes probably due to me tickling him all over. Love this laugh!

The Wedding in LA

Actually because it was in Louisiana I think the proper term is a hitchin'! Haha! That little joke was for the benefit of all of my southern friends although many would argue that Texas is pretty southern. Wedding, hitchin', whatever you want to call it we had a good time and the deed was done. Although there are absolutely NO pictures of the bride (it was hard to pin her down with so many guests, and I hated to impose) we were in fact at the wedding. We did get some of the cousins in a couple of pictures which was a feat in itself. I really wish we had taken one full family picture though... most of my regrets come from not taking the time or having the thought to capture these images for Max in the future. If I have learned anything in the last few months it is that life is short and fragile...

Cousins! Or as many as we could gather at the moment. There were many others around, just not close enough to get in the picture. But at least we got Jay and two of his girls, Camille and Madalyn, plus aunt Lili and Sadie all together.

Aunt Nanee and Madalyn lighting candles for the reception.

Max with Sadie and Vivi.

I LOVED the swampy background for this pic. We searched for "agilaylors" but never found one. Next time maybe we will have a little more time for some exploration.

How he loves Sadie!

And finally more little white man dancing!

Our week in Louisiana

Hi everyone!

Last week we were very fortunate to go and visit out friends who recently moved to St. Francisville on route to my cousin Aubrey's wedding (pictures and videos from wedding to follow). We had a wonderful time at Ross and Stephanie's (or Nini as Max calls her) house. They live outside of town a ways close to a lake and nature was abundant (much to Stephanie's chagrin!), but we were in heaven. On Thursday we poked around town with Ross and he took us to look at some of the beautiful plantations and grounds that still exist in the area. My favorite was The Myrtles, aka America's most haunted house! I posted a few pics from there, look close for spirits in the background! :) That night we went into Baton Rouge for dinner and outside of the restaurant there was a live band playing. Max loved it! "Drums! Drums!" He tells us that when he wants to watch this video clip of himself. You'll notice that in the next few video clips I post he is dancing to music. Apparently music just moves his little body!

The statue in front of The Myrtles. All of the statues look really old, but it is hard to believe they are authentic when you pass a HUGE statuary on your way to the plantation!

Angels!

These pics were taken across a little wooden bridge behind the house. We just now, and I mean just now, watched a show on the Myrtles and apparently a lot of paranormal activity has been documented on the bridge. Yikes!

Lunch at the Magnolia with the LSU hog. Apparently he travels all over town.

And finally, the first of several dancing baby videos!

Get'cha!

He loves bats!

He truly is the perfect child!

"I like it!"

Max's new favorite phrase.

The Hopper!

Finally we get Max on video saying our favorite word... "Awesome". However, he is no so select on what is and what is not awesome. Today he told me that our couch was "beeeg" and "awesome". Hmmmm... he'll get it eventually.

Don't encourage him Curtis!

I found this video today... it's an oldie but it made me smile!

More Pictures from Rachel Craig

Saying his ABC's

Max has known all of the letters in the alphabet for a few weeks now and we have been trying to get him saying them on video. Like every family in the US we have the foam alphabet that stick to the walls of the bathtub and this is where he is the most consistent in telling us his letters. Sorry to future Max for posting yet another bathtub video of you, but it is just too cute and sweet to pass on!

Max and the Agilaylor

This was also from the perfect day. The elementary school had a flower bed with these alligator statues and Max stopped by to investigate them.

Bounce House Fun

From yesterday...

A Perfect Day!!!

So today was about Max's perfect day. The Woodway Public Safety Department had their annual fundraiser and so we headed down to support our fair community in the effort to purchase a new rescue truck. Hopefully we will never have need for that ourselves...

Anyway there were fire trucks galore out for us to explore and "drive". Max was so excited to see them all AND after lunch one of the volunteer fire fighters took us for a ride in the "leeddle" fire truck and he even ran the siren and honked the air horn a time or two. I so wish I could have had a camera on Max's face when we pulled out of the parking space. Elation is how I would describe it! On top of all the awesome fire trucks, they had a bounce house (video to follow) a playground nearby AND he won some Play Dough as a door prize. We came home and he sacked out for a 2 hour nap. Whew! What a great day!

Max and Daddy were checking out the "beeg" fire trucks. He was impressed with it's ladder.

Our friends Scott, Rachelle, Anna and Elizabeth Huitink were also there today. Max so desperately wanted to hold the "beebee" so I had a pile on my lap!

You will notice in the most recent videos that we keep trying to get Max to tell us that whatever we are looking at is awesome. The way he says it is so cute! Alas, he will not perform for the camera. I hope to get it some day though. I just wanted to explain why we continue to ask him to describe things or experiences.

Sneaky Peek!

Hi everyone!

We had some photos taken over the weekend while Max's Grandma and Grandpa were here visiting us. I know that there are no pics of them on the blog... yet. Our photographer Rachel just sent me a few as a teaser and the rest will get to us next week or so. Many more of these wonderful pictures to follow. Thanks Rachel!

Max and his Daddy. Plus he has on his fire truck T-shirt that he LOVES!
I LOVE THIS!!!!! It will be blown up and wall papered in our house!

Sweet boy. Check back for more pics!