Rockin' the Red Carpet

This weekend Mike, Max, my sister Krista, her husband Ryan, my friend Natalie, her husband Will and their daughter Fallon went up to good old P-town to drop in on a ragin' Rock-&-Roll party my sister Kim was having. Actually, originally it started as a business trip for Natalie and I to talk to some boutiques about stocking our Max & Magnolia gear. But then I got the invite to the party and we decided to stay and rock out.

Let me say this, they know how to throw a party. All the guests came dressed in rock and roll themed outfits. Boy George, Kiss, Axel Rose, Slash, Ozzy & Sharon Osborne, DEVO, Run DMC, and some punk rockers all made appearances.

They had a red carpet, waiters, a bartender, and a stage all set up for people to perform "rock band" on the playstation. Dinner was served and desserts (my fav) as far as the eye could see. It was big fun and hilarious to see all the costumes. Can you guess what we went as?

Garth & Bjork -----------------------------Blondie & Jim Morrison

(aka Mike and Rebecca) --------------------(aka Natalie and Will)

Punk, Bjork & Madonna

(aka the Holmes Sisters)

Wayne & Garth

(aka Ryan & Mike)

The video is just to darn embarrassing, so more pics will have to do.

What a slacker I am

It's unbelievable what a blog slacker I've been. I promise I've been doing other things and not just lounging outside while Max plays. So here's the boring catch up version. I'll try to me more clever another day.

My baby outfitter business (www.maxandmagnolia.etsy.com) that my friend Natalie and I started is doing great, we're in 2 boutiques now and getting lots of custom orders on ETSY. Here's a shot of our onesies in the boutique window :)

Plus Grandma Gail came to visit for a week & Max is learning and doing so many new things every day I can hardly keep up.

For starters, he's learned to stand in his crib and yell "mommamomma" until we go get him in the morning. He's learned to scream like HE fell over the side of his crib, when in actuality its just his pacifier which falls over the side while yelling "mommamomma".

His schedule is so out of whack I don't know whether to wind my but or scratch my watch (for all you Steel Magnolia Fans!) Some days he takes 40-60 minute naps & others he sleeps for 2-3 hrs at a time. Thankfully I hear a few moms with kids in the 9-12 month range are going through the same thing. The last few days he seems to only take 2, 2.5 hr naps. I actually prefer it over 4, 1 hr naps. 1 hr is barely enough time to even think about what has to get done let alone accomplish anything.

Max has taken to walking behind his walker instead of in it these days. We tried it at Aunt Krista's house (she has carpet) and he loved it. We caught the quick video below before he bailed, but at least he didn't freak out. Now he does it at home on the hard wood. We have to keep an eye on him, cuz he can get going pretty fast and plows into pretty much everything.

He also now does not like to army crawl and prefers that you hold his hands & walk him everywhere. It makes trying to sit at church pretty rough. First thing he does every morning is walk from his room to our room and goes up and down the 2 steps at least 10 times. He'd do it more but my back is usually killing me by then. Instead I taught him to go down on his tummy backwards so that can usually buy me about 10 minutes to check email while he goes up and down the steps. I know how you fellow moms can appreciate a free 10 minutes!

They go big in Texas

Pretty much everything in Texas is big. big mosquitoes, bigger mosquito bites, big cars, big on bbq's, big hair, & BIG news. Max had a bunch of "1sts" while we were in San Antonio for my nephew Tylers baptism.

-He flew alone on a plane with Mom (not something I look forward to doing again)

-He went to Texas

-He met some of his cousins

-He took a bath with his cousin Jaxon (who is exactly 1 month older)

-He started pulling himself up on his knees to think about really crawling instead of army crawling

-He took his 1st ride in a waterski boat

-He wore his first life jacket

-He went wakeboarding (Yup, and he helped his Uncle Chad do it too!)

-He went for a ride on the banana boat with Mom and Dad

-He started using his pointer finger and thumb to pick up every tiny thing he saw (between his army crawl & new pincher trick he will be a big help cleaning my floors)

-And finally...he got his 1st tooth!

We're exhausted and will be sleeping for the next 48 hrs :) Glad to be home in our own beds, but we miss everyone already. Thanks Chad and Jana for hosting us all. We had so much fun at Schlitterbaun, waterskiing, watching the Olympics & playing games. Is summer really almost over?

Max "hearts" Fallon

Natalie and her adorably feisty daughter Fallon came over yesterday so we took advantage & tried getting some pictures of them together. We figured it would be cute when they want to do a photo montage at their wedding some day. At least if Fallon has her pushy way Max will have to marry her.
We've never taken pictures of newly mobile and squirmy 9 1/2 month olds before...GOODNESS what a chore! Max wanted to watch the cars go by and Fallon wanted to examine Max's feet or crawl right over him to get to the lawn. But still, aren't they cute when we were able to snap a couple shots? :)

Summer = Watermelon

I have been such a poor blogger lately. There always just seems to be amillion other things that have to get done. But last night Max did something blog worthy, his first taste of watermelon. Watermelon is one of my favorite fruits and I can't think of a single summer's past that does not have watermelon involved. It was served at every family picnic, waterskiing trip, and visit to cousins.

So glad we had his new high chair and thought to strip him down to his diaper.

Wonderful World of Disney

Mike is not a Disney fan. He has seen maybe 2 of the movies (Incredibles and Nemo), not a fan of crowds and had a tragic accident at Disneyland 7 or 8 years ago that he doesn't like to talk about. Mostly because its really embarassing to admit you got a rope burn on your face when you majorly bit it on the rope bridge back when it was the Swiss Family Robinson tree. Unfortunately no one was taping it. But I still laugh just as hard when I picture it in my mind. However when his family came into town for his brothers wedding Uncle Marshall and GG took Max, Mike and I to Disneyland. I was way more exicted than anyone. I really wanted to take Max on teh Dumbo ride which I've never been on. Max hardly reacted to any of the rides.

No reaction on Pirates...

No reaction meeting Tiger...No reaction on Mr. Toads Wild Ride...

The only ride where he showed any emotion was the Winne The Pooh ride (again, which I've never been on). There is a really bright part where you enter a room full of hefalumps and woozles. All Neon colors and he just got a hige wide-eyed look on his face and slowly turned to look at Mike and I like "Are you people on drugs, or am I?"

We also were able to catch what might be a smile on the Carousel.

I had purchased the book "Hidden Mickey's" to entertain myself a bit more during the day. It's pretty neat to try and find them around the park and hidden on some rides. Anyone who wants to borrow it, just give me a call. The Haunted Mansion one is my favorite...(spoiler alert)... when you go by the room of dancing ghosts at a party, look down on the table settings. One is in the shape of Mickey.

After about 4 1/2 hours I think GG and Uncle Marshall were ready to go, but I still had to take Max on Dumbo. We took about 30 pictures, but I'll spare you and only post a couple.

It's possible Max was tired as well.

Luckily we bought the So. Cal. season passes so we can go back again soon. Just give me a call if anyone wants to go, I'll ditch Mike and be there!

Hava Nagila

I love celebrations, particularly weddings. I just adore the bride & groom all fancy and in love, I crave the yummy food & always marvel at the creativity of the decorations. I love it even more when all you have to do is show up and partake!

This past Sunday Mike's older brother Matt married Susan who he has been dating for a few years. We love Susan and Matt and were so glad they finally made her addition to the family official. They put the wedding together themselves and it was great. It was out on the patio at the TRAXX restaraunt at Union Station in LA. I've never been there, but it was a great place to have an outdoor wedding.

It was a Jewish wedding ceremony so it took place under a Huppah. Since I married into the tribe & gave birth to a mo-jew, I will explain... a Huppah or Chuppah is a special canopy, which is held up by four poles and represents the presence of God as well as the couple's future home. Matt and Susan made theirs using Matt's Grandmother's table linen that she held passover on.

My sister Krista and her husband Ryan also happen to be friends with Matt & Susan so they were invited as well. Max was only the center of attention (as he should be) until my niece- Macie and Nephew-Carson got there. Macie has been talking about this wedding for a couple weeks and the "wedding dress" she was going to wear. She had to be in every picture and Carson was even directing the photographer on where he wanted his picture taken. At 2 years old he already knows his best side. Macie's favorite part was dancing to Hava Nagila (Hebrew for "let us rejoice"). To her it was basically ring-around-the-rosies. To everyone else, it just went on & on & on. Hava Nagila is a very long song which apparently no one knows the words to other than saying "Hava Nagila" over and over. That's Macie dancing in the middle of the circle with Susan. Can you guess which picture is of Macie when the dancing was over? I think she wanted to keep going (& going & going).

We did manage to take one Brownstein family picture w/o Macie. I think it turned out pretty good.