Monday, October 29, 2012

Max’s Fourth Birthday Extravaganza

Max turned FOUR on October 5th and I cried a little.  It happens with every birthday my boys have.  Mostly they are happy tears.  I’m reminded how happy I am to be their Mommy and how quickly they are growing up.   Sometimes I wish I could just freeze time.  I heard a quote once about motherhood, “the days are long but the years are short”.  Every birthday I am reminded how truly blessed I am for my time with my children.  I never could have imagined how much joy they would bring into my life.  

Max is the sweetest little boy I could ever ask for.  He is so full of personality.  He says things that crack us up every single day.  He has a smile that absolutely melts my heart.  He is my little boyfriend.  Seriously.  He is always asking me to snuggle him.  If we are watching a movie on the couch he will always reach over and hold my hand.  It has been such a fun year watching him learn new skills in school, swim lessons and soccer.  He has made many new friends, but his little brother is still his best friend.  Don’t get me wrong, they fight like CRAZY.  But every single morning Max wakes Kyler up early because he just can’t wait to play with him.  Max is also sweet to watch out for Kyler and I catch him doing sweet things for him when he thinks no one is watching.  Love him to pieces. 

Max Opening up a spider man mask and avenger shirt from Uncle Collin and Aunt Ally.  As you can tell he was super excited!

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He also got a ninja turle, transformer, legos and an Angry Birds umbrella.  Random I know.  Kyler also got a ninja turtle and umbrella so they could play together. 

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Attempting a family picture while holding the camera at arms length. 

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CAMPING!!

For his birthday we decided to go CAMPING. Actually if I’m being honest, we were already wanting to go camping with the Jones’s and Petersens, and his birthday happened to be on the only weekend that it worked for us to go camping. Mr. Max was convinced that we were planning an elaborate camping birthday party just for him. He was thrilled. We started off the day with our usual breakfast donuts. Then I got us all packed for camping. Jeremy worked from home so we were able to open a few presents that afternoon and then we took off to Double Lakes camp ground up by Livingston. We had a blast!! We ate cupcakes that evening and Max blew out his candles and we sang. We also roasted s’mores around the campfire. We camped for two days and I think all the children were in heaven. My boys especially because they were allowed to get extra dirty. I brought them both buckets and they spent hours filling their bucket with dirt and little treasures like shells, pinecones, twigs, and bugs. Kyler literally spent two whole days just digging in dirt and dumping it on his head. We spent many hours around the campfire talking, eating good food, riding bikes, had a butterfly funeral, Diana and the children told scary stories, Tayla and Addy put on a talent show, we went into town for shakes…. And the best part was the weather was chilly and perfect campfire weather! We had a blast and can’t wait to go camping again!

We got there as it started to get dark.  The kiddos took off exploring and the guys quickly put up the tents.  Then we ate cupcakes and roasted s’mores.  

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The next day was filled with lots of exploring.

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Addy and Tayla found a “butterfly” (nasty moth) that was injured.  It died a few minutes later and so the children had a funeral and buried it. 

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lots of sitting around the campfire

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We had to take this picture because the children just happen to be sitting in order from oldest to youngest.  Love all these little kiddos

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Sorry Di but these ones made me laugh.  Poor Lyla got sad while I was taking her picture and she had ice cream in her mouth.  Also notice that Miss Lyla is in her swimsuit and everyone else is in warm clothes.  She decided to go into her tent by herself and put on the swimsuit.  She insisted on wearing it and it was too funny!

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My dirty little boy exploring

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Addy wiggling her loose tooth

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Watching Tayla and Addy’s talent show

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Aaaaand that’s a wrap.  Is anyone still looking at these? 

{crickets}.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAX!!!

Friday, October 12, 2012

Goooooo Max!

I’m officially THAT mom.  The one that gets too into the games and takes a billion pictures.  But I can’t help it.  It is so fun to watch Max play soccer.  He’s becoming a good little player!  Note that he is like a head taller than most the kids his age.  Jeremy is practically giddy about that.  I know it may seem like Max is our favorite child because all my posts have been about him lately.  I promise we still love Kyler equally.  And next year I will be posting a billion pictures of Kyler playing soccer, going to preschool, swim lessons, etc because he will finally be old enough to do all those things.  Poor Kyler, its been a rough year for him having to watch from the sidelines.  Next year buddy.  Next year.

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Check out this sweet shot of Max’s friend Ian.  The boys are actually in the same preschool class so it was fun the ended up on the same soccer team

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Just Because

Max is in the cutest stage right now.  Everything is make believe.  Each day the costume possibilities are endless.  Each day he makes my heart melt.

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It’s Fall Somewhere

But not here in Houston {sigh}.  Oh how I miss SEASONS.  The heat gets old.  At least the boys never get sick of swimming  These pictures “crack” me up.  I love that Max stopped playing to help Kyler pull up his swimsuit.  Looking out for his little brother. 

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Monday, October 8, 2012

“The Most Important Thing In Life is to be Yourself

UNLESS YOU CAN BE BATMAN.  ALWAYS BE BATMAN.”

These two are obsessed with Batman.  So they had to have batman jammies, and it should come as no surprise that they both want to be Batman for Halloween.  I tried to get one of them to be Robin, but neither would concede.  And so they will be Batman and Batman.  PS I love that they were wearing their pj’s with boots.  Love them.

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Play date with Lyla Sue

Every Tuesday while the big kids are at school, these two little cuties get together for a play date.  It has been so great because it gives Kyler something to look forward to while Max is at preschool.  He loves Lyla so much and they are the cutest little friends!  It also means that every other Tuesday I get to run errands with NO kids, which feels amazing.  I forgot how fast I can crank out errands when I’m by myself.  Look how cute these two are together!

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Soccer. Lots and lots of Soccer

I feel like all my posts lately have been about Max, but he has had a lot going on his little life these last 6 months with swim lessons, preschool, and now soccer.  (oh and his 4th Birthday… pictures coming soon).  Okay, soccer isn’t THAT time consuming.  It’s just on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings.  But it does make our schedules a bit busier.  It also means I have been taking a bajillion pictures of Max.  We have so much fun watching him get into his games.  He is getting the hang of it and is doing awesome!  Poor Kyler though, he desperately wants to be out on the field playing too.  He actually is really good already with dribbling the ball so I’m excited to see what next year will have in store for Kyler with soccer.  It really makes me so happy they will only be a year apart in school.  Hopefully this means they will be playing sports together for a long time! 

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