An Awesome Autumn

I love the fall.  I mean, I love, love, LOVE, the fall.  I love the colors, the brisk air, kicking leaf piles, pulling out my warm sweaters, drinking hot cider, anything that is made with pumpkin, seeing kids so excited to trick-or-treat on Halloween, and the growing excitement of holidays to come.  My favorite month of the year is October (well, it's tied for first with December).  It has become even more special to me since it's the month of my anniversary and the birth month of my FAVORITE little girl in the world.  This year was certainly no exception.  Now that my mom is retired, she was able to spend two weeks with us as the end of the month.  Other than my wedding day, this was the only time in 14 years that I was actually able to spend time with my mom in October and I loved every minute of it.  Come to think of it, I've really lucked out in the mom department for the last couple of years.  Last year, Matt's mom was able to spend two weeks with us to help out with Max during those last extremely uncomfortable weeks I was pregnant with Evelyn, for which I will always be so grateful.

Anyway, this year we were able to to two pumpkin patches with the kids.  The first was with Max's play group, and the second was just Matt, my mom, the kids and I.   In addition to visiting the pumpkin patches, I ran my fist 5k with the kids, Matt ran his second marathon, we got a visit from my dear friend Jodi and her husband JJ,  and we took both kiddos trick-or-treating.  This was especially fun since Max actually kind of understood what was going on and loved dressing up as Superman and going door-to-door requesting candy.  We decided to dress Evelyn as an angel to be ironic.  Ha! Ha!  It really was a perfect month.  Here are some pictures of the good times we had.

Max and his fellow adventurers conquering a giant hay pyramid

The kids with Grammy

I think Max loves pumpkins as much as I do

Doing the Run Like Hell 5k with the kids

With my monkey and little pumpkin

Marathon #2 completed!

Pumpkin patch princess

That's big spider

Max and his daddy went through a corn maze.  This is Max jumping out and "scaring" me

All of the fun of the day wore her out

My much loved friend Jodi

Jodi and JJ.  One of Max's favorite couples.  :)

Who are these strange people in my kitchen?

Super Max!

Indian Summer

And so my summary of the last several months continues...

As our summer turned into fall, we were able to enjoy another Evelyn milestone: WALKING!  She took her first steps (pretty confidently!) at 11 months old.  The stinker took her first steps during the short hour that I left to go to the gym.  I thought one of the benefits of being at home with the kids was getting to see those precious moments!  Alas, I missed this one, but I was very happy Matt got to see it.  And I did get to see an encore as soon as I got home.

 But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Before Evelyn made those first steps, we kicked off the beginning of fall by watching Matt complete his second Warrior Dash race.  It's a 5k with lots of obstacles along the  way including a mud pit covered with barbed wire and a ring of fire.  He did great of course, and the kids loved running around in the woods while we waited for him to finish.

Max doing his own dashing

Kissy face!

My Warrior

Max goofing around with Skip

True love is kissing your filthy husband after a muddy 5k

Warrior princess

After the Warrior Dash, we decided to go visit my folks in Carson City, NV.  We hadn't been there to visit them since they moved there, so I was eager to check out the town.  I thought I'd be sad about them leaving Vegas, but I really liked Carson City.  It reminded me of Missoula in the 80's.  It was one of the friendliest places I've ever been.  It was SUCH a relaxing visit.  We spend one day driving around Lake Tahoe, which was gorgeous.  And we couldn't have had a nicer day.

Max checking out the lake

Love my parents!

Dad trying to keep Evelyn out of the water

One of the other days we were there, my mom and I were able to go over to Reno, which is only about 20 minutes away, to visit my friend Lindsey from elementary school and her adorable daughter Grace.  It was great to see them and catch up.  I don't think I had seen Lindsey since high school and it was so fun to meet her little one.

Lindsey and Grace

Our attempt at getting a group shot

Other than that we pretty much just hung out and relaxed.  Max and his Grammy made some cookies, we played outside quite a bit, and took one afternoon to go on a little train ride.  Max was pretty excited right up until it was time to ride the train.  I think he was scared by the loud whistle.  But once he got on he was able to relax some.

He's such a big helper

In the train station

Waiting for the train

A nervous Max

It was so much fun to see my parents' new home, even if it is only temporary.  I look forward to our next visit!

Evelyn is One!

There has been so much that has been going on since my last post!  But I thought I'd start with the most important event of the last few months- Evelyn's first birthday.   I truly can't believe it's been a year already!  In twelve months' time our little gal went from a tiny, helpless newborn to a walking, babbling, singing, laughing, stubborn, strong toddler.  Evelyn just amazes me.  She is one of the sweetest, loving little girls I've ever met, but she won't show that side of herself until you earn it.  She's very stubborn and spirited and I love that about her.  She's an old soul for sure.  But I digress.  Back to her BIG day.  It was a low-key day, but she had so much fun.  We started out the day by going to Gymboree, then had a nice dinner and cake with Skip, followed by opening presents.  Of course Evelyn loved the cake.  We really limit her sugar intake, but let her go to town with her "smash" cake and she put a pretty good dent in it.  She also had a fun time opening her presents, but I think she enjoyed the wrapping paper almost as much as the gifts.  Max also enjoyed "helping" her open the presents and enjoyed testing them out for her too.  Ha! Ha!  All in all it was a delightful day and I was so happy she enjoyed herself.  We are truly a lucky family.    Enjoy the pictures from Evelyn's big 0-1!

Evelyn's Birth Day- making her feelings known from day one

Happy birthday girl!

Another birthday outfit.  She won't let me put on her cute headbands anymore.

Mmmmm...cake

Princess for a day.  Who am I kidding?  Princess every day.

Getting a little hep opening presents

Pancakes!

We had a fun-filled Labor Day weekend this year.  It was a very nice change from last year when I was home alone with Max, almost 8 months pregnant and sick as a dog.  This year, I was at home with the kids Friday and Saturday while Matt went to Bumbershoot in Seattle with his parents and sister.  But Becca came over all day on Saturday to help me out with the kids while I got stuff done around the house.  It was great to hang out with her and she brought her pug CJ, which pleased Max to no end.  He loves little dogs (and Becca), so it was a great day for him. 

Even Evelyn fell for CJ's charm

CJ, Becca and Max

Matt and his parents got back in the wee hours Saturday night and we all spent Sunday at home, playing in the yard and generally enjoying the beautiful weekend weather.  Matt brought out some black tarp and made a "white trash" slip-and-slide.  Max couldn't get enough of it.  Evelyn mostly preferred the safety of the non-slippery grass, but did have plenty of fun in the water.

Perfect form!

Evelyn and Julia checking things out

We discovered over the weekend that our little Evelyn has expensive taste in food.  Julia put out some smoked salmon she brought back from Alaska for us to spread on crackers.  It was some pretty good stuff, so we were all eating it in small doses.  Evelyn, however, decided to go over and help herself and eat it by the handful.  She ate more than the rest of us in about 30 seconds.  We had to take it away from her before she ate all of it!  She definitely doesn't have her brother's finicky eating habits.

Mmmm...smoked salmon

While Max is very particular about what he eats,  there is one  thing he can't get enough of- pancakes.  So we went to his new favorite restaurant, Slappy Cakes, where you make your own pancakes right at the table.  As soon as we told him we were going there, he must have yelled "Pancakes!" about 30 times.  It's so easy to impress a 2-year-old. 

Kocubinski girls

"Pancakes!!!"

Yum!

Cool girl

Matt's family had to leave town that afternoon.  It was a very short trip for them, but we were happy they made it.  Especially since Sue and Julia just got back from an Alaskan cruise for their 60/30 birthdays.  They were exhausted since it was more of an adventure cruise (kayaking and jumping in ice-cold water, among other things) than a playing shuffle board on the lido deck kind of cruise.   So we were that much more appreciative that they came to see us. 

Sue and Julia in Alaska

After his family headed back to Montana, Matt, the kids and I rounded out the holiday weekend with a BBQ with our friend Skip, or "Dip" as Max calls him.  After all, Labor Day just isn't Labor Day until you've busted out the grill.  It was a great end to a great weekend.