I Have The Sweetest Kids. . . .

Max has been my little love bug lately.  Last night he wanted to tuck me into bed and read me a book.  He was very serious about the whole thing.  After tucking me into bed, he sat down on the floor next to me and pulled out his Star Wars book and "read" it.  It was pretty cute.  He actually started the story out with "Once upon a time. . . " then proceeded to say "and there was that guy," then turn the page "and that guy was hiking," and turn the page, "and that guys has a lightsaber," and so on.  It was a good story.  :-)  THEN this morning right after I got Max out of bed he gave me a big bear bear hug and said "Ohhh mommy, you are my best friend."  He makes my heart melt.  :-) 

Other Quick Updates About the Boys

Let's see. . . . Max moved up full time to the pre-school class this past week.  He is very proud of himself and keeps telling me that he is now with the "big kids."  And at times he will try to exclude Eli because "Eli is small and I am big."  I'm sure I will be hearing this for a while!  Max is also potty trained now (for about a month now) - which is SO great.  Cuts my diaper costs in half!  :-)  He will go to the bathroom all by himself and most of the time refuses to even let us in the bathroom to help him.   Max is also very into dinasours, and loves the movie The Land Before Time.  He also loves the movie Cars. 

Eli is growing like mad.  He is talking a bunch and is running, jumping and trying to do everything Max does.  He now says "love you," which is the cutest thing ever, and if he wants me to pick him up he says "Up, please!"  He is still very attached to his bottle, but other than that, is a big boy! 

Skiing!

Winter is finally here (although we could use more snow. . . .). We did get the boys up skiing already, and I think its going to be an awesome season. Max is already wanting to "go faster and faster," as he says, and won't let us put a leash on him or hold him in any way. He just wants to ski on his own! And he is doing pretty darn well! Eli got on skis for the first time ever and was a trooper. It was super cute.

Max and Eli with their friend Vinny. 

Getting ready to go skiing! 

Eli skiing for the first time.  Big boy!

After ski snack.  :-) 

Max skiing with no help. And me trying not to hover too much! 

Vinny, Max, Eli, Hunter and Sarah.  We went up with a fun group of friends.

Thanksgiving 2009

 We had a really nice Thanksgiving holiday at my parents. The boys love going there and the weather was beautiful. Rob took the boys out on the pond in a canoe, and Max and I rode around the property in 4-wheelers. It was great! Uncle Richard and Dylan were in town as well, which was really nice. My mom and I braved the black Friday shopping and woke up at 5 a.m. to his the outlet mall. It was actually a super fun time! I have to say that this whole owning my own law practice has been fantastic - I was able to take the entire four-day weekend and not think about or do work at all! :-) It was great to be able to just focus on family and shopping. ;-) Below are some pictures from our Thanksgiving holiday.

Gross Max Story - Which I Fully Plan To Use To Embarrass Him Someday

I can't believe it is December!  Where does the time go?  The boys continue to grow at a ridiculously fast pace, and are both talking like crazy and saying and doing new things that constantly amaze and delight me (and some times disturb me!).  One story to share, which I look forward to sharing with Max when he is old enough to laugh his booty off about it, is our trip to McDonalds last week.  Instead of just writing it all out, I've just cut and pasted a funny thread from my friend Sarah's facebook page below that tells the story. . . . Enjoy.  :-) 

ORIGINAL POST:
December 1 at 7:20pm:  Sarah Lofgren:  is cooking a late dinner...pot roast and herb-leek-gruyere potato gratin. The winter pounds are piling up! 


COMMENT THREAD:
December 1 at 7:23  Jessica Woelfel:  Sounds better than my night! I took the kids to McDonalds and Max pooped in the tunnel, took all of his clothes off up there and refused to come down. I had to climb up there with wipes to clean all the mess up and then walk my naked poopy son out of there. Lovely.

December 1 at 7:23pm · Ricardo Martinez:  my mouth is watering!

December 1 at 7:37pm:  Sarah Lofgren:  OMG-Jess!! That is awful and soooooo f-ing funny. Dave and I are laughinfg our asses off! I guess Max really does poop everywhere.

December 1 at 7:42pm:  Sarah Lofgren:  Oh-and now I am never going to let Hunter play at another McD's playland ever again :-)

December 1 at 7:44pm:  Ann Marie Taheny Seefeldt:  I too am laughing my A off.. and I don't even know Jessica! The placement of Ricardo's comment in this list is also priceless! I've always fought my husband's neuroses about letting the kids play in those things.. he always has been disgusted by the germs.. unfortunately I was laughing so loud over here I had to tell him why.. and now our kids will probably never see another play structure :-)

December 1 at 8:11pm:  Jessica Woelfel:  Sorry, Anne-Marie's children and Hunter for ruining your future McDonald's playland trips! ;-). But I too won't be going there anymore - I'm too embarrassed (and grossed out)!

December 1 at 8:29pm · Erin Anthony Howard:  This whole threaded post has us laughing our a$$e$ off....This is classic....and I am no longer hungry!!!! ~A.

December 1 at 8:42pm:  Stephanie Mullen:  Jessica! this is hysterical...Max loves to poop doesn't he. Was Eli with you?

December 1 at 9:39pm:  Bridgette Gangitano:  Too bad this wasn't caught on video, it would be perfect for the tv show "America's funniest caught on video" (called something like that)! LOL!!!!!!

December 1 at 10:01pm:  Tina Hoy-Barnwell:  OMG, Sarah I so had food envy then read this post laughed outloud, woke Gunnar up and was glad I didn't want to snack after reading it!!!! So glad Jessica shared, needed the laugh!!!

December 1 at 10:48pm:  Isaac Marr:  Priceless. We can testify to Max's pooping ability. He dropped a deuce at our house once. Just marking territory.

Our only Halloween Photo

Halloween was more scary than fun this year.  Pretty much the whole family was sick - it was sad!  We had all of these fun plans made and were going to have a party with a bunch of friends with kids around the same age.  Rob had been sick with the flu for almost two weeks, and on Halloween morning Max started throwing up and threw up for the entire rest of the day.  He couldn't even keep down water!  It was so sad.  So, he had to stay home with Rob and I took Eli to the Halloween party and out to trick or treat for a bit.  But after about an hour, I started to feel bad and ended up coming home and throwing up all night too!  Not the best night ever.  Thankfully, the kids are so young that missing Halloween was not a big deal for them.  Next year we better not be sick!  Below is my only photo from Halloween - at the party before I got sick.  Eli was a purple dragon.  Max had a matching red dragon costume that would have been so cute.  Oh well!  :-(   (Thankfully we are all better now!). 

Tahoe Marathon

In September, our friend Mark came up for the Tahoe Marathon.  Rob and Mark ran the 1/2 marathon and I ran the 10K with the boys.  It was a gorgeous day, and the boys were troopers.  A few times I had to let Max out of the stroller because he wanted to run with everyone.  :-)  Fun day! 

Max with my number.  :-)

Eli and his baba.  He took a good nap during the run (since it took me over an hour!)  :-)

Playing with trains before the race began.

Getting ready for the run.  It started up at Emerald Bay. 

After the race, hanging out at the beach. 

Fall Festival

Here are a few photos of Max, Eli and their good friends Hunter and Gunny.  This is at a Fall festival here in town.  The boys jumped in a bouncy house, played in the pumpkin patch, danced to a local bluegrass band and had balloon swords made.  Good times!  :-) 

Cappelli Ranch with dear friends

A few months ago, we went to our friends Belinda and Marco's ranch in Sommerset and had a wonderful weekend with good friends.  Our dear friend Liz and her husband Pierre were in from Ireland, and our friend Rachel came up with her two daughters as well.  It was such a great time.  Max and Eli LOVED it at the ranch.  Belinda and Marco have several apple trees, a bunch of animals at the ranch and a vineyard.  They had two humongous pigs and Max filled up buckets full of apples and then threw all of them to the pigs.  He loved it (and so did the pigs!).  Max kept trying to fill up the buckets and Eli kept trying to eat the apples.  :-)  Too funny. 

Me and lovely Liz. 

Max and Rachel's daughter, Ava.  They walked around the vineyard holding hands.  It was pretty adorable.