Our Trip to Denver

At the end of November of we took a family vacation to Denver to visit my brother, his wife and their new baby.  I was SO excited to meet Lauren for the first time and for Max and Evelyn to meet their first cousin.  We weren't disappointed.  She is such a little doll and such a good baby!  We mostly just hung our around Ty's house since it's hard to do much with 3 little ones, but we did get out a couple of times.  Tyler, Matt and I took the Max and Evelyn to the Parade of Lights downtown.  It was so cute and the kids loved it.  A couple of days later, we all went downtown again.  Matt and Tyler grabbed some beers and Ma and I did a little shopping with the kids.

Evelyn (with her hot chocolate face) at the parade

Max and Tyler

Santa!

We also got to see Ma's brother David and his family.  They had a little boy, Aiden, a couple of months after Lauren was born, so we got to meet another adorable new family member.

Evelyn and Max with Natasha, Aiden, Anora (David's kids) and Lauren

David giving Lauren a little help on the see-saw

 And a few more pics from the trip...

"Stop taking my picture already!"

Another attempt at a group shot

I miss this little face!

Lauren with uncle Matt

Evelyn was a little jealous of Lauren at first, but warmed up to her eventually

Christmas geeks

Love her!

I just thought this one was funny

It was such a fantastic visit.  I hadn't seen Tyler and Ma in two years (!) so we were WAY overdue for a visit.  We agreed not to let that much time go by again.  I want Max and Evelyn to see their cousin at least once a year.  I can't wait to see them all again!

Halloween 2012

After Evelyn's birthday, we began the countdown to Halloween.  The next weekend I ran the Run Like Hell again.  I was going to bring the kids and had even registered Max for the Kids Half Mile fun run, but they were both a little under the weather, so I decided to go without them.  I was pretty bummed about not being able to put them in their super hero outfits (the theme this year) and watch Max do his run, but I wanted them healthy and happy for Halloween.  I ran with my friend Dani and her friend Abby, who just ran the same marathon as Matt and Julia.  I was pretty nervous about that since I am really not fast, but she was great and kept us going at a decent pace.  I finished in my best time yet!

Dani and I

Abbie (super runner), Dani and I

That day was also my mom's birthday, so we did a little shopping and I made her a birthday dinner.  I'm grateful to have such an awesome mom who would spend her b-day morning watching sick kids while I went for a run.  Thanks mom!

For the rest of mom's visit, we just relaxed and had fun.  We made "monsters" out of TP rolls, baked and decorated cookies (a tradition with Grammy), and carved pumpkins.  My dad was also able to come out for a few days to see the kids, which they were pretty excited about.

Max's monster

Scary!

Max wanted me to take off my special pumpkin carving hat

Mom and Dad with the kids

Unfortunately, my parents had to get back home a few days before Halloween, but we still had lots of fun.  I have been helping out a little bit at Max's preschool and went in to help on Halloween.  All the kids were so darn cute in their little costumes!  I got to bring Evelyn along with me too, which she was so excited about.  This year Max was a pirate, Evelyn was a hula girl (we got a cute outfit for her in Hawaii) and I was a cat.  Creative, I know.  That night we took the kids out trick-or-treating.  They had so much fun going around the neighborhood getting candy and seeing all the decorations people put up!  Evelyn was perfecting her candy-grabbing techniques.  If someone dared only offer her one piece, she would ask for more and she always got it.  She's such a little diva.  Skip was able to come over and go trick-or-treating with us.  His birthday was the next day, so we baked him a cake to celebrate.  Needless to say, everyone was in a sugar coma the next day.

Max's class

The boys

The girls

Hula girl and pirate

Another failed attempt to get a cute photo with the kids

This is me giving up

Our cake for Skip!  Try not to be jealous of my decorating skills

Once again we had an amazing October!  I'm already excited to do it again next year. 

The World According to Maximilian

One of the fun things about having small children is listening to the things they say.  My kids, like many other their ages, have no filters and pretty much ramble all day from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed.  Her are just  few snippets.  The kids' quotes are in bold. 

- Hi Moon!  I'm Max.  I love you!
- Here Mommy.  Let me help you up so I can jump on your head.  Um, thanks?

- Ladies don't have boobs.  Only big girls.  Just like Mommy.  So I'm a big girl and NOT a lady.  He sure knows how to make a girl feel special. 

- When Evelyn gets bigger she'll grow a penis. Yeah, I'll explain that one to him later.

- I'm just talking to my friend Daddy.
- Christmas is when the Easter Bunny comes and turns into Santa
- Stop singing, mommy.  Just let the car sing.  I guess I can no longer sing along with the radio in the car anymore.  I knew this day would come.  'sigh'
- Mommy, Daddy likes football, but you don't like football and that's ok.  He catches on quick


And her are a couple contributions from Evelyn:
- Oopsie Daisy Spaghettios!
- ABCDEFGHIJK Evelyn OPQRSTUVWXYZ!

I'm sure there will be many more to come.   Stay tuned.

My little entertainers

 

My Baby Girl is 2!

I can't believe it's already been two years since Evelyn came into the world!  And what a wonderful two years it's been.  It's been a roller coaster for sure- Evelyn likes to keep us on our toes, but I wouldn't change a moment of it.  We had a pretty mellow celebration for her, but I think she still had a very fun and special day.  My mom came to visit and we took the kids to the Children's Museum to start the day.  They played in all the different rooms (grocery store, vet clinic, construction zone), the water area, digging room and more.  We all had a pretty good time.

At the "grocery store"

And the Vet's office

Little builder

So much to explore!

On stage

The water room!

So much fun to be had!

That evening, our friends Skip and Becca came over to help us celebrate.  We played, opened presents and had cake.  As I said, it was simple, but Evelyn seemed really happy.

Her first sucker.  She wasn't sure what to make of it

Max got to open a present too.

We were really happy Becca and Skip were able to join us!

New bike!

The cake

The baby years are officially behind me.  It's bittersweet.  But it's been a joy to watch these little ones grow.  They've made me happy beyond measure.  I look forward to all the birthdays to come!