Winter Break: Part I

 Max kicked off winter break with one of his good friend's birthday party at a fun park. The boys did go karts, ropes course and ate a lot. He had the best time.

We watched Red One outside for a movie night with a fire pit and the heater on us. The dogs enjoyed snuggling up!

Max and I put together the saran wrap ball in preparation for Christmas night at our friend's house. This was my first time doing it so I didn't know how big it should be or what should be in it, but this is how it turned out.

We built gingerbread houses. Max definitely had the best house. Mine was kind of falling apart. He even added a ladder to the roof like in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I told him he got extra points for that creativity!

It's Christmas Eve and we stuck to the tradition of going to see a movie. Max picked Mufasa for the Christmas movie.

We then had king crab legs and beef tenderloin for dinner while we tracked Santa.

All is quiet in the house as I admired the tree that is ready for Santa!

Max was pretty excited in the morning to see his gifts from Santa. He received the Bed Jet, PlayStation Portal and a 3D printed lizard. He must have been good this year to receive everything on his list.

We did not travel back to WI this year so everyone sent their gifts to us. This made Max's pile of presents HUGE! I think it took him 2.5 hours to open everything...this was also opening at Max's pace.

We had one happy boy with a lot of shocked faces on Christmas morning.

Later in the day we headed over to the Campbell's house for Christmas dinner and games. 

It was the first year I put together a saran wrap ball and it was a lot of fun. I did learn some tips for the next time I put this ball together though! 

Somebody was exhausted from his day and ended it with a chocolate shake!

First part of winter break is over. Max was sad we didn't travel to WI like we usually do but I told him we could travel next year! I hope all our family and friends had a fantastic Christmas!

Cookie the Elf

 Cookie, our elf, came the day after Thanksgiving and left on Christmas Eve. While Cookie was here he entertained Max every morning by the random stuff he was doing. It was fun to see Max giggle every morning once he found Cookie. 

Here are some of the fun ways Max found Cookie in the mornings.

All About School

 As many people know, the month of December is a very busy month getting ready for the holidays. This also includes a lot going on at school. Max has a choir concert, band concert, awards ceremony and the Jingle Jog. That was a lot packed into a couple of weeks.

Max joined choir this year and he seems to enjoy it. He mostly liked going to sing the national anthem at the D-backs game earlier in the year. At the beginning of the month he had a winter concert that we got to enjoy. I took plenty of video and a couple of photos.

Here is the trio...Max, Caleb and Grayson...his buddies!

Then we had the band concert. Max signed up to play the trombone this year and he hasn't really liked it at all. Band doesn't seem to be his thing, or at least he doesn't like the trombone. He thinks he should have picked to play percussion (like I recommended) or general music. Even though he hasn't enjoyed band so far we enjoyed going to the concert to hear him play. We couldn't see him playing the trombone since he was in the back, but we could see the top of his head. 

For second quarter the school held the awards ceremony for the kids who received a PRIDE award, Honor Roll and Portrait of a Learner during second quarter. We are proud to say that Max earned a PRIDE award and made honor roll again. We went to the ceremony and I got to take pictures of Max on the stage. We will celebrate his honor roll with a special prize because he truly worked hard to make honor roll for second quarter.

To finish off the second quarter the school held the annual Jingle Jog where the kids run a mile off school grounds. Max hates this event every year since he does not like to run. Even though Max doesn't like it, Andy and took the electric scooters to the school to cheer him on and take pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The weekend before Thanksgiving we got the original gang back together for the annual Children's Museum gala. This was another fun year with another silent disco. If you haven't tried a silent disco I highly recommend it. It's so fun!

Max and I did a little shopping right before Thanksgiving and he still thinks this reindeer is hilarious and had to get a picture with it. 

We hosted Thanksgiving another year and had family and friends over for Andy's fantastic smoked turkey. My parents came to town with my aunt Carrie. They stayed with us for a week and the house was filled with people, dogs and lots of fun. 

My aunt was enjoying the beautiful weather we were having and riding on our electric scooters.

We started the say off with Max injecting the turkey. This is his favorite part of the whole day.

Grandpa T and him did their annual "pop the bottle" in the backyard. Max was hoping to shoot the cork into the park, but it ended up in the pool instead.

We did our annual group photo outside for the 2024 Shutterfly book.

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday and now we are onto Christmas!

Happy 60th Aunt Margie

 My aunt turned 60 so what better way to celebrate it than a trip to Arizona to visit me and my family. Makalya came out with her too so it was a great weekend of laughter and lots of chatter. 

I picked them up at the airport and we went to downtown Chandler for lunch and drinks. We did a little shopping but they loved the atmosphere and the establishments I took them to. 

The next day we went to for a hike on the hyrogliphic trail. This is generally one of the easier hikes so I thought it would be a good one for them and they will get to see the beauty of Arizona.

More than halfway Margie realized it was too much for her so she decided to stay on a rock while Makalya and I finished the hike. We felt bad leaving her but she insisted we go on without her. She wasn't lonely as she chatted with everyone that walked by her. I was surprised she didn't invite random people to dinner with us that night.

Later that day we went to the clubhouse while Max was taking his golf lesson and had drinks outside by the fire.

That night we had dinner and then drinks around the fire pit in our backyard.

On Saturday morning I took the ladies to Goat Yoga that was at a farm in south Gilbert. Max decided he wanted to come with because of the animals. This was not serious yoga, but something unique and fun. We had a riot doing it. The baby goats were adorable and there were also two alpaca and a donkey roaming the yoga area.

The goats were much heavier than anticipated and Max didn't really like them on his back due to their weight. 

It was such a cool experience and I would definitely do it again when guests come to town.

Following goat yoga we went to the Chandler Farmer's Market and then it was time to go home and get ready for Margie's birthday celebration. We had fondue, a fire pit and some friends over to hangout. Unfortunately I did not take one picture the night of fondue. I was just having fun entertaining and chatting with everyone. 

It was such a great trip for Margie and Makalya and I was so happy to see them here. I can't wait for them to come back again.