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.

Merry Christmas

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and that you get time to get snuggly & warm in your Christmas jammies with family and friends.

~hugs
The Brownsteins

This is Max's new most favorite toy in the whole world. Apparently the rumor I heard is true, they prefer playing with the box.

Taking a nap with the dogs is his 2nd favorite thing to do. This is them right as they woke up today.

(Just kidding, for some reason the dogs tried jumping up there today so I put them in for a picture).

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" .