Spread Sunshine all over the place...

Yeah, we've put on our happy faces again! The days of endless (but needed) rain have officially passed. Thank goodness, I'm all "Barney'd" out. Between entertaining Max & the dogs going stir crazy we are so excited for the return of southern CA sunny & warm mornings.

This is how Max spent endless hours during the rainy season...

He likes to pull all my shoes off the shelves, then hide them in the back of my closet making a really fun hide & seek game for mom.

Now that we have been able to go back to our morning routine...

We pick an orange off the tree and eat it while Max explores, pushes the swing, the swing pushes him, & watch the dogs wrestle. I'm so thankful we have a yard for him to play in.

This video is a little something we like to call "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Boo". Boo stalks Atticus thinking she is invisible until she pounces. We think it's pretty funny.

Max is going "punk"

Ok, not really. This past weekend we decided Max's 70's shag had seen its day so it was time for a haircut. I thought a "faux" hawk would be cute, Mike doubted. I think it turned out pretty darn good. He sat through it wonderfully once he was given a lolly pop. By the time the lolly pop was gone, the haircut was done.

He also discovered these pink shades that I've had in a toybox for almost a year. He never let us put them on him and decided now that he's cool with his fauxhawk that he would wear shades. So what if they're pink, he's man enough to pull it off.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

New Year's Day we decided to have a couple friends over for dinner. I decided to use everything in my bag of tricks so I ...

-cleaned the house (not that it needed much after my fabulous mother-in-law cleaned while here)

-bought a cheese platter and crackers to snack on while folks arrived

-marinated tri-tip steak

-made an apple/blueberry pie (from scratch-only my second ever!)

-made yorkshire pudding (a Canadian fav for holiday meals)

-made a cherry cheesecake

It was fun, but...

-I forgot to put the cheese platter out

-The steak was a little tough

-The bottom crust of pie didn't cook well so it was soggy

-I over cooked the yorkshire pudding a bit

-Lots of left over cheesecake

Sorry friends. Next year I'll order pizza :) At least Max enjoyed me letting him suck on the beater from the cheesecake, until I took it away.

Also, for the Grandparents, this is video of Max loving the train set under the Larson Family Christmas tree. He watched & chased it for about 20 minutes.