Recap of December 07!

So - we've been a bit offline, but we have a good excuse! Rather suddenly, we found our perfect new house, so we bought it, moved in, and put our other one on the market all between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yes, we realize we're insane. But its all been great.

The new place is only a mile from our last house - we love the area and knew we wanted to stay around. The new house is bigger, more completely remodeled (read: grown-up house!) and has a 240 gallon saltwater tank and a playscape for Max out back as a bonus! The open floorplan has been great for our entertaining habits, and I'm totally smitten with the gourmet kitchen and with the tub in my new master bath (yes, for the first time, we have a master bed and bath!!).

More pics of the house soon, but here's a smattering of pics from Chanukah, Christmas, New Years, and random other things in between! A few details: Top pic is from Chanukah in the old house. The rest are as follows (you need to match descriptions with pics yourself!): Christmas in the new house. Pic of Max's best close friend (and our old neighbors) Devyn and her mom Dian with Max. Davyn and Max on his new playscape. The band we had play for our New Year's party. Friends eating and drinking on New Years by the fishtank. Me and my cousin/BFF Meredith. (I just realized I haven't put a pic of myself up for a long time. This one is a couple months old, but whatever!)

Thanksgiving Austin-style

Thanksgiving started with a fun Austin tradition - Beth, Meredith, Andy, Leigh, Erin, Marla and Suzanne began the day running the Turkey Trot - a 5 mile run around central Austin. It was freezing, but fun! Plus, we were able to then move into the day full of food without any guilt!

Max and David were planning to come cheer us on, but given the temperatures, they stayed home and gave mom a nice breakfast when I got home!

Meanwhile, the turkey was prepping and we started to get ready for our nearly-annual gathering! Thanksgiving here has turned into a great potluck gathering with lots of close friends. David and I do the turkey, gravy and mashed potatoes, and other folks bring everything else. We even had an extra smoked turkey and ribs (every gathering in Texas seems to include ribs...) provided by Mike Lavigne, resident meat smoker extraordinaire!

Max had a total blast. He played with his friend Jack and neighbor Devyn while we all stuffed ourselves, drank wine, and watched some football. Great day! A few more pics below to see how we spent our day!

Horses and Trains

This Saturday morning marked an all time great day for Max. At 10am there was a knock on the door, and it was our friends Forrest and Aaron. The guys announced a surprise for Max, but he had to come outside. On the lawn was....a horse!!! Not a real one (good thing) but one that Max just about flipped over. He's been riding it constantly, and though we have no idea where he heard this before, dubbed the creature "Tally-Ho".

A little while later, David arrived bearing a load of Thomas wooden train tracks. Between the horse and the train tracks, Max was about ready to explode. In a good way.

Now if only he can figure out how to play with the tracks while riding Tally-Ho, all would be perfect!

Halloween Max!

OK - so it wasn't Halloween proper, but it was close enough. Beth's office had a kid-filled Fall Fest party, so Max finally got to wear the viking gear from Grandmom and Grandad's summer trip! He loved it, mainly because strangers gave him candy (Halloween really messes with that rule of thumb.)

Anyway, good thing we had that night of trick or treating, even if it was among grey office cubes, because Max woke up Halloween morn and promtly emptied the contents of his stomach all over mom. (Now THIS isn't the image of motherhood you see on all the book covers...!?) Anyway, he seemed to feel much better after that, but we'll be staying in this year, since its probably the last one where he's not totally aware of what he's missing.

In the meantime, Happy Halloween to all, and enjoy the extra image here of my co-worker Rhonda's costume. Any other Beauty and the Beast fans? The best part of it is that she stuffed a radio in her outfit that played the songs. Nice touch!

Spoiled by Grandmom

Grandmom Gorman came down for a visit along with Aunt Kathy - talk about being spoiled! Max got lots of presents imported from the grandparent's Baltic vacation (stay tuned for pics of those around Halloween time!). Here's Grandmom and Max, ecstatic to get time to hang out together.

Max also got his first tricycle! Very exciting stuff. He's still working on the whole leg/foot/pedals thing, but we should probably start with the basics - like not drinking and driving! At least he's got the helmet on!

Pumpkin Party Fun!

Hi all! Welcome to the new face of our blog. Assuming I manage to stay on top of things, you can expect to see not only more photo updates, but also more general posts about Max and all our happenings here in Austin.

Let's dive right in - shall we?

Yesterday was Pumpkin Carving Party '07, hosted (as always) by Erin and AA. We prepped by pumpkin shopping the day before with cousin Meredith (see left), Andy, and a bunch of other friends.

Max probably only had a few vague memories of last year's event, but he dove right into things this year. He quickly dubbed himself the official "pumpkin cleaner-outer" and had his hands in everyone's pumpkins. He also made himself the official M&M eater. No wonder he laid in bed singing for 2 hours before he finally passed out.

At right, see his official Monsters, Inc. scare tactic. He's been practicing for weeks now, so we're all ready for Halloween!

6 months and no updates?

Yikes. we're so bad.
Scratch that - I'm bad.

From here on out Beth will be taking over the blog in an effort to stay (more) current.

Look here for lots more pictures and news.

Max plays the birthday blues...

Max's Birthday Party - album

More Pictures >>>

Birthday Cake (after)

Birthday cake

More presents!