Santa Baby 2012!

Santa has come, and since Max has been a very good boy he raked in the goodies!!!  Actually, we contacted Santa and asked him to come a few days early since we were going to be ay Papa's house on Christmas day.  He was pretty agreeable, so long as we left out extra goodies for him and the reindeer!  This is the first year for Max to actually be excited about Santa coming to visit which made it fun for Mama and Daddy too!

 Max's man-house, not a doll house!  The firemen and policemen have a toilet, bunk beds and a basketball court!

 Woohoo!  A stocking full of goodies.  As kids, my sister and I always received a coconut.  My aunt Nancy told me that Santa always brought a coconut for her, my mom and their siblings.  We don't really know why but the tradition continues.

 Santa did not forget that Max asked him for a helicopter!

 A new set of alphabet letters for the tub.

 A few of the ornaments that Max made at MDO.  I wanted to take pictures of them in case they break someday down the line.  This was a manger.  On the day he brought it home I asked him where baby Jesus was born expecting him to say "A manger" (I also would have accepted a stable, a barn, or the smelly place where livestock are housed a night.) but instead he said "Bethlehem".  He has a good memory for such large words.  He will also tell me that the angel said "Do not be afraid!  I have good news!".  It makes me happy to hear him repeat the story about the birth of Jesus.

 I love the upside down hat!

 Oh!  He's awake.... and he went straight for the helicopter.

 Wow!  Monster trucks!

 A new spyglass for Max.

 Trying to drive his new car... he needs to work on his driving skills a bit.

Aaaahhhh! Stuck in Mama's new footstool.  Goofy kid!

Max's 3rd Birthday

It's just not possible!  Max is 3!!!  Oh how the time flies.  We had a really wonderful day celebrating with Max.  Started out with a big gift from Mommy and Daddy, something he has always wanted.  You will have to see the video of him "discovering" it.  Keep in mind his reaction was low key, but he had just woken up.  His friends Carson, Eli, Anna, Elizabeth and baby Caleb (and their families... I'm not quite THAT brave!) came over later in the afternoon for some playtime, painting, dinner and of course a cake!  Max had such a good time playing with everyone and being the center of attention!  We will have another "party" in Carlsbad with my family, so I'm sure there will be a few more birthday pictures in a few days.  We also had his wellness check and Max weighed 33 lbs and is 39" tall.  I guess he is going to get the Boans height for sure.  Happy Birthday Max.  We are looking forward to celebrating many more with you! 

Max woke up to find a new train table waiting for him in the family room.  

I think he likes it!!!

Opening a gift from Grandma and Grandpa.

Yup, it was Lincoln Logs.  Daddy and Maxwell built a fort and added it on the train table. 

We had his birthday party here at our house.  The kids painted home-made Christmas ornaments.

Seth, Caleb and Sarah.  Baby Caleb was too young to paint today.

Elizabeth painted the longest... she was really concentrating on her works of art.

Anna Painted all of her ornaments white.

Cheese face!!!

Singing Happy Birthday.  Carson and Eli are across the table from Max.

Make a wish!

Carson, Elizabeth (who really didn't want to be in the picture), Eli, Max and Anna.

Besties!  Eli and Max jumping together.

Pictures from Galveston

So the video of Max flying his kite was taken over our mini vacation to Galveston.  We decided to us our Thanksgiving holiday to see a new part of Texas and explore some new venues.  Overall, we had a nice time at Moody Gardens as well as the new pier (new since Hurricane Ike leveled the old one in 2008).  There were some really pretty parts of the island, but at the same time there were many homes that still had major visible damage from the hurricane.  A lot of the shops in the historical area had a sign or plaque to show how high the water had reached during the storm surge.  Makes me glad I live inland!

I hope that someday we will travel over Thanksgiving to somewhere that knows it is still November!  I realize that Thanksgiving is a springboard into the Christmas holiday, but seriously!  How do you think Thanksgiving feels being treated like a second rate holiday?  Anyway, that is my rant to let you know that this WAS over Thanksgiving even though Max is posing in front of a Christmas tree.

 We rode the Colonel later that night.  It was quite chilly and I didn't have my jacket!

 Max and a white-faced saki monkey.  The Rainforest pyramid had lots of "free" animals.

Mmmmm... Picking out our ice cream flavor at LaKing's confectionary.  We also watched them pull their own taffy.  Max settled on chocolate.

At the Pleasure Pier.  Max could only go on about five of the rides.  The carousel is always a favorite, especially when he can ride a dragon!

 His other favorite ride.  It was fun to see Curtis crammed in the back of those little cars!  Hahaha!

 The pier at night.

Our las morning we hit the beach for kite flying.  It was perfect condition for the kite, but not for me!  The wind coming off the water was chilly!

Max may have enjoyed digging in the sand just as much if not more than flying his kite!

On our way home we stopped for lunch at the Houston aquarium.  We didn't actually go through it, but they have a restaurant with a HUGE tank in the center.  Max was excited to find Ms. Sharky's twin swimming in the tank.  What's this?  You don't know who Ms. Sharky is?!?  You better come for a visit to meet her.

 We took a quick train ride before heading home to Waco.  Fun trip!

Ummm.....

I don't really know how to describe this video, mainly because I have no earthly idea what Max is doing!  But this is for all the friends who believe that we are raising a boy genius.  This may change their minds!

Dancing for Sadie

Sadie was talking with Max on the phone.  He still talks about going to see her dance (last May) and jumped up to "show" her what a good dancer he is as well.  I grabbed the ipod and captured it for her.

Vacation in Idaho

These pictures were all taken in July of this year when we went to Idaho for a week to visit Curtis' family.  It was the first time that all of his siblings plus their kids had been together since I was pregnant with Max.  And while he had met all of his cousins at various times, this was the first time they were all in one place.  Aunt Connie and Seth were also there bringing the total up to 18 people.  Whew!  It was a lot of bodies crammed into the house.  In fact the first couple of nights there were even a few people sleeping in tents in the yard (not me, waaaaaay to cold for me!).  Max had a wonderful time with all of his cousins, but seemed particularly drawn to Stuart this trip.  Stuart is the family baseball star and he would get out in the yard with Max to his baseballs off of a tee.  Maybe Max will be inclined to play baseball as well.

Auntie Gwen and Anika were helping Max walk out into the St. Joe river.  Again, it was waaaaay too cold for Mommy to go wading out there!!

The three Quiglateers: Cash, Ross and Emma stuck together like glue!

The swimming area is designated with a floating log wall.  Everyone was out hanging off of it here.

Out for a scenic drive up the St. Joe river valley.  I haven't done that since Curtis and I were first dating.  I forgot how beautiful it is along the river!

In the garden picking raspberries.  Max would pick any and all of them and eat them just as fast.  We worked hard on learning to only pick the red ones.  Can't blame him... they were delish!

Stuart and his shadow!

We roasted marshmallows for smores one night.

Max helped shuck and carry in the corn.  This was not from the garden (it wasn't quite ready yet) but tasted good anyway!