Busy Day

Yesterday I felt seriously motivated to get crafty. Max & Magnolia is participating in a boutique in LA the middle of December so Natalie and I have had to get busy. I cranked out a couple snowman hats, several bows, organized my buttons & checked my email. But this is the price you pay for neglecting to watch where you son was heading while you do all that. I'm guessing ash doesn't taste too good, cuz' it was all running down his chin. So why oh why did he keep eating it?

Sooo, it was off to the bathtub for Max. All I have to say is "splishy splashy" and he knows exactly where he is going and gets all squirmy with excitement.

After that it was outside to check on the status of the tree trimmers we had come clean up our yard. It was becoming way too much for us to take care of. Plus we never could figure out the layout or plan the previous owners were going for, so out came all the hard stuff to take care of. I was amazed at the guy who could shimmy up our redwood tree w/o any hint of fear and with a chain saw swinging from his waist hack away at the tree. Crazy.

You can kind of see the guy here as he gets started towards the top.

Almost done.

The finished tree. It's amazing how much light gets into our family room now.

Beware! Read if you Dare!

It was a dark and scary night. It was oddly warm, even for Southern California. You could smell sticky sweetness in the air. Was it cider or blood? There were goblins & ghosts, there where spooks & skeletons, and there were dragons & princesses & lobsters! Dragons, princesses and lobsters? Ok, maybe not all very scary, but very cute.

Our friends Laura and Eric Daines recommended an awesome street in Sierra Madre to check out for trick or treating. Honestly, I've never seen anything like it on a residential street. These people must be some serious Halloween lovers.

I thought the "shoe" tombstone was fitting for me :)

My Mom, Dad, sister, her husband and kids joined us.

The best part of the night was the house with the witch. You could go up and get your picture taken with her. Probably not the best idea to let our son be held by her as she was being served served booze through a straw. Who know how many drinks she had.

Max made a pretty good haul for a 1 yr old. We'll definately remember this place for next year!

While we waited for my family to arrive, we went to a couple of our neighbors with the dogs. Let's just say that Boo Radley was not very enthusiastic about her costume. I think she wanted to be the "Bad Dog" .

i'm a Bella

I read the Twilight series every night after Max went to bed for 3 days straight while staying at my sisters house this June. I bought the final one the day after it came out. So, yes, I got hooked. Saw this quiz on Niki's blog & took the quiz. Which are you?

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Party #2

I'm a little late posting this, and all I have are the same old excuses, so I'll just tell you about his 2nd party on 10/20 (official b-day). Just a small shindig with a few close friends and our buds from MortgageIT. I made way too many treats and one was purely to post on the blog. Can you guess which one? (thanks to Natalie, Mike and Marshal for helping out in a pinch!)

The spread:

Some guests:

A happy and not so happy Fallon. What sort of mother forces a party hat on her son? oops, I mean daughter.

RJ & Max . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jean & Weston

Ciana & Sienna (that's a tong twister!)

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Trying to get photos of the 1 yr olds. They had their own ideas.

Party #1 for Max's 1st B-day

Max is having 3 parties (doesn't every 1 year old?). Today was for family and we had a nice quiet lunch, presents & cupcakes. We had to let him go to town on his own cupcake which he inhaled- literally. It didn't start off well, but its his party and he can cry if he wants too :) I didn't exactly put the party hat on right (see photo below). The only way to get him to stop crying was to force a taste of frosting in his mouth. After a quick hose down he crashed for about 3 hrs. I should have taken advantage and grabbed a nap of my own.

It's official, Max has decided to be a dog

We knew it was only a matter of time with Boo Radley & Atticus in control of our house. He already enjoys crawling around after them and playing/eating with their toys more than his own. But now he prefers their food and their door as well :)

This photo is a bit blurry, but notice the red marks on his arms, thighs and side. He's a bit chubbier than the dogs so had to squeeze through. It didn't stop him from trying several more times.

A really scary Halloween story

This is Max

This is the Black Widow Spider that leaped out of nowhere, crawled all over him looking for a place to bite and then the dogs noticed and knocked it off his arm before it attacked him... (ok, not really, you can read the true story below, but this version is better).

Here's the long winded story:

Our morning routine consists of me laying on the floor next to him from

6:30 am- 8am while he eats and plays. I can't sit on the couch because that is not close enough for him. I have to be on the floor with him. So while I wake up, he plays. Around 8 he gets cranky & tired again but I have to keep him up for at least another hour + in order to get a decent nap out of him. Most mornings we go play outside. I chase him while he rides around in his walker, or walks behind it.

He usually heads for our small planter next to the garage that has some cacti & an aloe vera plant in it. For some reason these is a small succulent that he likes to pull up and eat. So he was heading for it and I told him "that's not a good decision" (I try and say this instead of "no") so instead he pulled on the pipe coming out the side of the garage. I saw something black fall on his arm and then it fell to the ground. I didn't really think anything of it until I saw it moving. I went to look closer and it was a black widow spider. It was pretty close to dead but it was trying to walk away. I was so glad that we just had Terminex come the day before to spray for bugs and spiders. Although, come to think of it, that's probably the reason it was out during the day to begin with. Aren't they usually pretty reclusive?

So naturally I scooped it up in a cup to save for Mike. He's never seen one before. :)