Halloween

We had such a fun Halloween this year with Jack being old enough to kind of understand it and be excited by the events leading up to it. 

We started with a trip to the pumpkin patch.  It was a beautiful day, everyone was in a good mood, but I forgot to charge the camera battery.  BOO! I am still mad about it. Then we invited Grams and Gramps over to carve the pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch.  My Dad always carved our pumpkins growing up and always did a great job, no matter how ornate the design.  It's one of those treasured childhood memories of mine, and even though Jack wasn't as excited about  pumpkin carving this year as I might have hoped (he mostly wanted Gramps to play soccer with him instead), I sure enjoyed it!    

Jack wasn't much on helping prepare the pumpkins for carving...

 

He rolled his sleeves up, ready to dive in...

  but quickly changed his mind once he saw what was in there!

Max wasn't much help but did look super cute in his pumpkin jammies!

Gramps and Jack sketched out a few possible designs earlier in the day.  We only had two pumpkins, so we couldn't do them all, but we'll save some of the ideas for next year.

 

 Jack decided he didn't want to help with pumpkins but would like to color while Gramps carved.

 Look how great they turned out!

That's a "J" nose and an "M" mouth!

Max got a few snuggles from Gramps before they left.  What a nice night!  Thanks Grams and Gramps!

Jack was a monkey this year after much deliberation.  Every day we asked what he wanted to be, he had a different answer!  Dinosaur, giraffe, monkey, conductor, and lion all made his list.  I was hesitant to buy anything for fear he'd decide it wasn't the right thing on Halloween morning.  I did find a really cute monkey costume for Max though (thanks Dianne!) and once Jack saw Max was going to be a little monkey, he wanted to be a big monkey!  They were super cute!

Friday, Jack's class paraded their costumes through Carytown. Max and I had planned to go and see their cuteness, but Max didn't sleep much the night before (hence I didn't either) and so our morning was a bit rocky and we had to miss it.  Next year will be better!  Jack was the line leader though and seemed to have a lot of fun.  That evening, there was a party at school.  We always look forward to those - Jack loves them and we love meeting the other kid's parents and getting to watch Jack interact with everyone.  Max even got to meet Miss Gay, who loved on Jack while he was a baby bird, and will get to do the same for Max here soon.  Jack's class pumpkin was really cute...

 He loved playing the games and winning treats!

Saturday the Seaborns invited us a Fall Festival that was a lot of fun!  Jack got to decorate a pumkpin...

 and decorate a trick-or treat bag...

Max got to snooze while looking extra cute in his monkey suit...

I think Jack enjoyed the Carillon steps the most though.  I can't tell you how many times they went up and down them.  I stood at the bottom in awe of my little life.  Just 4.5 years ago some of my best girls and I gathered here for a lunch on the day before my wedding.  And look at how that all turned out!  I still have that wonderful husband and now we have these 2 perfect little boys!  I am just SO lucky!

Halloween morning we set off to explore a part of the River we'd never visited before and had such a good time.  It was a gorgeous morning and everyone was cooperative (even me!)!  I think it's my new favorite spot and look forward to going back soon!

Saturday night we headed over to Grams and Gramps house for trick-or-treating.  Their neighborhood had a haunted walk for the kids that I was sure was going to scare Jack to death, but he loved it and asked to go through it again as soon as he got done the first time!  He kind of got the hang of trick-or-treating, though I think he only actually said "trick-or-treat" a few times.  He loved getting candy though - lollipops are his favorite!   Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween too and are enjoying your treats, or "Halloweens" as Jack calls them!

Two of a kind

So it looks like these two cuties have more in common than their good looks and dinosaur pj's!  

Max seems to have inherited Jack's reflux and possibly his milk allergy as well. :(  I don't think his is quite as severe just yet.  Cross your fingers!

6 weeks

Max is 6 weeks old today and look what I got this morning...

Yes, I am smiling too!  There is nothing sweeter...

Granny & Uncle Aaron come to meet Max!

Granny and Uncle Aaron both came to town last week to meet Max and visit with Jack!   While they were here I happened to turn 34 (!) so Daddy cooked us up a great supper and meet Max too. We had a lot of fun and as usual, it was great to see everyone.

 

Uncle Aaron taught Jack how to "boop" which, according to the urban dictionary, means "to poke an animal or something cute in the nose."  Jack surely qualifies as something cute...Uncle Aaron...well...that's debatable! :)!

Jack and Uncle Aaron tried to play baseball...but then Jack picked up all the bases and moved them!  Oh well...

 

Jack was a huge help opening presents.  I got an awesome new camera lens.  Watch out boys!

Uncle Harold and Judy brought Jack a great train set for as a gift for becoming a big brother!  He fell in love immediately and has played with it nonstop since then!

 

At some point something went wrong and Jack decided to consult the "instructions."

Grams and Max are pretty smitten...

 Thanks so much for coming to visit everyone and really looking forward to seeing everyone again next month for Thanksgiving!

Weekend fun with FOUR!

 A few  weeks ago, on our first real weekend settling in as a family of 4, we had a lot of fun. We went to the State Fair...

 made pancakes for dinner...

 danced on the kitchen counter...

 read a LOT of books...

 and snuggled...

We can only hope all the weekends going forward are so much fun!

4 weeks!

Max is 4 weeks old and one day shy of ONE MONTH! 

It's going way too fast!  We've already outgrown the newborn clothes and he's starting to be awake for much longer stretches at a time.  One night last week he had a 6+ hour stretch between feedings at night!   Here's a few pics from the past 2 weeks...

Max and I spent a lot of time watching it rain over the past few weeks...(that's a window he's looking out of)

 

Somewhere in week 2 he really started to pay attention to the bears above his swing.  He is happy to watch them for quite a while!

He was just lounging on our bed with Daddy while Jack had a bath...

The epitome of sweet, right?  He really is just that sweet and peaceful too!

So this isn't Max of course and he DOES have clothes on (or at least a diaper), but he's just as cute too...look at that smile!  He sure loves horsing around with his Daddy!

 

And he loves "his baby Max!"  His friend Emerson at school is going to be a big brother soon and Jack is very worried that Emerson is going to take Max for his baby.  I keep telling him Emerson will get his own baby, but it makes perfect sense, and I love that he wants to be sure we get to keep OUR baby.

 

 Just relaxing in his swing the other morning...

And do I see the hint of a smile?  It's too early for it to be real, but every once in a while I catch him smiling involuntarily and even that melts my heart!

 

Hooray for sweet baby boys!

Art

Jack's really been into drawing lately and I'm really starting to see actual shapes and forms develop. 

A bath time stegosaurus 

A "J" for Jack

 A "monster" after watching the movie Shrek for the first time

A spider

 

Compared to Max, Jack always seems so big and I convince myself it's just because Max is so small.  And then I see him doing things like this, which make it so clear that he's really not a baby anymore.  He's a full-fledged kid.  While it's wonderful to see your child grow and learn and see their little brains really start to make sense of their world, it's heart breaking too.  It's just all happening SO fast!