Merry Christmas

Christmas came and went faster than you can say the word. The month of December alone went really fast for us, but we did have a lot going on. This year we did not travel to WI, but instead stayed put in Arizona since we just bought the new house. Grandma L came out to visit for the holiday too.

We had our first gathering at the new house on Christmas Eve. We hosted our friends and had fondue for everyone. The house was full with three big dogs, 10 adults and two little ones and it was a lot of fun.

AJ and I with our favorite boys in front of the tree.

Max with his own chocolate fondue that he had for the first time. I don't think he quite got it, but at least he tried.

Max and Tee-Tee.

Max was adorable as he shared his toys with Evan and gave Evan his Christmas present.

Daddy helped Max open his presents from the Seiferts and he got crash cars that he can play with Uncle Tom when he comes over. These crash cars kept him busy for a couple hours. Max stayed up playing until 10pm (the latest ever) when I finally put him to bed.

Christmas morning was a lot of fun with Max. We enjoyed watching him open all of his gifts and get excited about all of them. Santa brought him a construction truck train and a Cars scooter.

Tee-Tee and Max had a "snowball" fight thanks to auntie KB who sent him "snowballs."

The biggest present that Santa brought and left in the dining room is a blue truck. Yup, this little boy was so good this year that Santa brought him a power wheel. After we opened all the gifts I told him that Santa left a gift in the dining room and he should go check it out. I walked him there to see it while Andy took photos. The pics do not do his excitement justice. This little boy was so excited.

He has not driven in it yet, but climbs in and out while pretending to drive. He also puts all of his toys in the bed of the truck. We showed him the pedal to the truck, but that made a very loud noise so he is currently scared of the pedal. Once we put it outside he will see it's not that loud and have a great time driving it around.

Max had fun enjoying his new toys all weekend long.

Wishing our family and friends had a fantastic Christmas. We missed everybody in Wisconsin, but we hope to see everyone for Christmas 2016!

Ugh...Not Ready For This

Well, it happened this weekend...Max managed to get out. He's been gated for the past 2.5 years and he finally did it. He finally escaped. He broke out of his crib. He jumped. He climbed. He finally did it. We knew this day was coming very soon, but we just were truly not ready for it. Plus, did I mention it's really bad timing?

On Friday morning, Andy contacted me to tell me the details. He was working and saw a flash of a person on the monitor in Max's room. Then he heard pitter patter of feet upstairs. He knew the day arrived and so he made the trek upstairs to find Max standing in his doorway giggling and that's how Friday started. Friday nap time didn't go so well. Andy put him down and Max climbed out again and walked downstairs to say "Daddy, no nap, please!"

Come Saturday morning I woke up to the sound of little feet running into the bedroom and climbing into bed. Then a voice says "Wake mommy." Great! There goes the end of that. Nap time wasn't much better and went very similar to the Friday nap time that Andy experienced, but I worked with him to go back to bed for nap.

It was time to make the trip to the store to purchase a big boy bed. Not thrilled with this because I am so not ready for it and it's really bad timing with the purchase of the new house and the holidays. Oh well, it was time to go shopping. We had Max help pick out his bed and we found the perfect one for him. A bed that he can grow into and last a very long time. It will also look great in his room once I have it finished. I have this great idea in mind for his new big boy room.

The bed was delivered on Sunday so we only had one more time of Max climbing himself out of the crib. Of course he did this again on Sunday morning for the last time. We took apart the crib, packed it away and put Max to sleep on Sunday night in his big boy bed and he loves it. My big guy looks so tiny in his big bed.

We may not have been ready for this milestone, but it came and it went. Max loves his bed and now we don't have to worry about him face planting as he tries to escape his crib.

Playing at the Park

Our new house backs up to a park and is a two minute walk to the park. This is a huge bonus for us. I took Max to the park this past weekend to help him get rid of some of his energy and he had so much fun. There were tons of giggles from Max as we went down the slide fifty times.

It is so nice to have the park right behind us. A park we can walk to where I don't have to load Max up in the car and drive 20 minutes just to get to a decent park. This was new for Max. I told him we are going to the park and he said "ride in Mommy's car." I told him we were walking and he looked confused, but once we got there he was so excited that we are so close. I am sure we will be at the park a lot.

Week With Grandma & Grandpa

Grandma V and Grandpa J were in town for a week to help us move, but they also got to spend some quality time with Max.

Eating lunch and dinner outside at the old house.

Playing cars with grandpa on the old patio.

A big helper decorating the Christmas tree at the new house.

Playing in Max's new playroom.

He worked hard at decorating the gingerbread house with grandma. He was very particular on where to put the candy and he did a really good job. Once he figured out he could eat the candy, then more went in his mouth than on the gingerbread.

Grandpa spent a day building Max a sandbox for Xmas and Max will just love it once we get the sand delivered. Unfortunately I did not take pictures yet, but I am sure Max playing in his sandbox will eventually make the blog. Besides the sandbox, we got to open Christmas presents from grandma V and grandpa J before they left town.

Just a few giggles.

Picture in front of the tree before saying goodbye to grandma and grandpa.

We Moved!

We did it! We sold our house in four days (accepted an offer in four days) and put an offer on a new house shortly after that and it was accepted. After going through the process of inspections, appraisals and closings on two homes in one day, we moved into our new house on Monday. It was a lot of work, but thankfully we had help from family and friends.

My parents flew in on Friday night to help us with the move. We spent all day on Sunday emptying out our house and into one truck. Thankfully Mike, AJ and Tom came over to help too because it was a lot of work. Yes, we did look into hiring a company, but we initially thought it couldn't be that bad because our house was only 1100 square feet so we can't possibly have that much. Oh, we did! Somehow we accumulated a lot of "stuff" over the last eight years and somewhere it found a spot to live in our tiny home. It took all day to fill that truck strategically so everything would fit because we had to be out on Monday. Max even helped load the truck. He wanted to make sure his digger made it in the truck and his cop car.

He really just wanted to play with his cars on the ramp. I mean, how cool is it to race your cars down the ramp of the big moving truck?

Max also got a kick out of playing in the cab of the big truck. He thought it was fun to "drive" the truck too.

It was hard to say goodbye to our first house together. I am not going to lie, I got a little emotional as I pulled away from the driveway with our belongings. It was a bittersweet moment. I know I complained about this house a lot due to the size of it and how we have outgrown it, but I will miss the house and all of the memories we shared together. It was our first house together; we brought the animals home to that house; Andy proposed to me; we brought Max home from his 7 week stay at the hospital; etc. So many memories created in that house that I couldn't hold back as I pulled away. I. Got. Emotional. But, we are now onto making memories in our new home...a home we plan to stay in until Max goes off to college...at least until then. So, here is to goodbye to our old house, but not goodbye to all the good times and memories that will last with me for a lifetime.