Pumpkin Carving and Painting

On Sunday we decided to carve and paint the pumpkins we got the day before at the pumpkin patch. We started off painting the small pumpkins. Max had a great time painting his pumpkin. So much that he tried painting Tayler's pumpkin too.

After the paint session we moved onto carving the bigger pumpkins. Tayler did her own while Andy carved Max's pumpkin. Max was not really interested in this part. He definitely did not like the pumpkin guts, so Andy pretty much carved the pumpkin all by himself.

Of course we had to get a picture of Tayler, Max and the pumpkins at night with them all lit up. Max sat down and started saying "cheese." He is such a ham!

Halloween Birthday Party

On Saturday we had a birthday party for a one year old and the party was a Halloween costume party. Of course I decided to make Max's costume this year. Since we have been very busy with house stuff I was running out of time and decided to go with a cookie monster costume since it is easy. On Saturday morning Tayler reminded me (thankfully) that I never finished Max's costume. I ran into panic mode because I needed to glue pieces onto his hoodie and I didn't know if it would dry in time. I got everything out and that's when Max wanted to help with his costume. He actually glued on a couple of the cookies and he had fun doing it.

Unfortunately it was overly warm on Saturday so Max did not last long in his costume. He would wear it for five minutes and then take it off...then want to put it back on because all of the other kids had their costumes on.

From the time we got there Max kept asking for cake. He saw the cupcakes and has a one track mind. I kept telling him we had to wait for the birthday girl to have her cake before we can have cake. Finally Max got to eat his cake and sit next to Owen...even though they did not speak to each other.

After cake, we headed out to the "pumpkin patch" via horses pulling a wagon. Tayler was excited about this part to go and pick out a pumpkin. I did warn her before we left the house not to have high expectations because this is not a WI pumpkin patch. I like to call it a faux pumpkin patch. I don't think she completely got it until we arrived at the patch because she was disappointed. Hey, we live in the city and we live in the desert, this is the best we are going to get.

Everybody had fun at Mona's first birthday party and all the kids got to pick out pumpkins to take home. Happy First Birthday Mona!

I got to end the day sharing a bottle of wine with my best friend!

It's A Gecko

On Monday night Andy opened the front door and a gecko ran into the house. Of course this caused a lot of commotion in our house. Andy started chasing the gecko around the living room while Max followed him around helping him find the gecko every time he would take off. Max would be crouched over looking under the couch saying "where'd gecko go?" This went on for a half an hour until Andy scooped up the gecko into a Tupperware container. 

After Max checked out the gecko up close Andy took him outside and let him go.

Crazy Busy

Last week on Thursday, we put our house up for sale. It's been crazy since then with having showings, keeping the house clean (with three animals) and getting everybody (including the dogs) out of the house. Since Friday, we've had eight (I think, but I have lost count) showings, so it's been busy.

For Friday's showing, the household went for a drive. Luckily I was at work and was not bothered. On Saturday morning we took Max to the park for an hour. He made a couple friends until they wanted to play with his ball...that didn't go over very well.

Andy hung out with the dogs.

After the park, we did some shopping for supplies to make Max's Halloween costume and then we hunkered down at Tom and Karen's house. We played in the backyard for a while until we could go home. Sorry, I didn't even think of taking pictures.

On Sunday, we woke and did our routine of cleaning the house in case we have a showing or two, dropped the dogs off at Tom and Karen's and then took off to house hunt. Sunday was a bummer of a day with no showings, but it did rain and Tayler and Max had fun in the rain. Max doesn't see rain very often so he gets pretty excited when it does rain.

We had three more showings today and another scheduled for Wednesday this week. Keep your fingers crossed this house sells soon!

Wisconsin: Part 9

This was our last full day in Wisconsin and we spent the whole day at grandma S and grandpa T's house. They had the whole family over to watch the Packer game and to say hi to Max. Of course with all the people Max was a little (ok, a lot) shy, but it was still good to see everyone.

We had such an awesome time in WI, but it was very nice to head home and get back to normal. It warmed my heart all week seeing Max interact with his grandparents. It means a lot to see him develop that relationship. It also makes me happy to know that FaceTime works in developing and maintaining that relationship. Until next time WI!

Wisconsin: Part 8

Andy and I were gone for the majority of this day because we went to a Badger game. It was a very cool/cold day out for us, but we managed. It was great to hang out with our good friends. It was so fun to get to have a little adult time and with grandma L watching Max we took full advantage of our day.

Grandma L had an awesome day too. She took Max to the Fitchburg fire department because they were having an open house. Max loves fire trucks, so this was right up his alley. I am not going to lie, I was a little jealous of this activity because this was something I have been talking about doing for a couple months now. I know they had a blast together and Max got to sit in a green fire truck.

I expected to get home from our long day to see grandma L pooped and worn out, but she wasn't. Max had her playing hard too, but grandma kept up. Max had her playing chase with a lawn mower throughout the house. She also taught him how to be "sneaky". It was beyond adorable. He had a lot of fun that day.

Here are some fun photos of Max having a good time at grandma L's house during the week.