Shannon's Yearly Visit

Man, October is already a month filled with fun and it's only the second week!

Max rockin' his soccer fashion - Soccer fleece, warm up pants, tennis shoes

Doing some work at school

Emmalyn loves playing with that cute baby in the mirror

Crazy hair day at school - front view

Side view

This cutie has lots of festive Halloween attire.  These are her pumpkin pjs.

She is full on sleeping on her belly now.  She can roll over to her belly and then back to her back when swaddled.  She pushes back and somehow moves all over the crib.  

Love those cheeks

Late night (post 1 am nursing) cuddles.  She wants her hands to be touching momma too.

Boo!

Crawling all over

2 cute kids wearing Halloween shirts

My dear friend Shannon came to town for her annual visit.  I LOVE having her here for a weekend.  We ALL love having her here.  After picking her up at the airport and spending some time at the house, Peter, Shannon, and I went to casino night at work.  Casino night is the best!!!  And this year was another great year even though we walked away with far less than last year.  No big raffle prizes and I only won one of the things I bid on in the silent auction.  :(  I wasn't very on top of it this year.

Peter and Shannon were rockin' the craps table while I enjoyed some blackjack and socializing.

Brittany watched the kids while we were out.

Funny faces

The one thing we won in the silent auction was a FedEx Build A Bear Puppy.  I thought Max would like it, I didn't plan on him LOVING it.  He was so excited to open the box and pull out the bear.

He calls it his "special delivery" bear because his purple FedEx onesie says Special Delivery.

More to come on the rest of Shannon's fun visit...

Building Castles - First week of October 2013

October is going to be a fun month!

Video - Max counting to ten in Spanish

Thank goodness this kid is cuter than me!

I love it when he wears vests

I tried to build Max a fort with the alphabet squares.  He called it a castle.

Peter showed me up by building a MUCH BETTER castle.

Hey there, slick! (I seriously love that creamy skin tone with just a little bit of rosy cheeks!)

Another castle built by dad.  Max loves playing in them.

It was my favorite work activity of the year - Casino Night!  I look forward to this night every year.  This year I only got a few things in the silent auction (I realized that we probably wouldn't be doing very many "activities" in the coming future...baby coming and all...so I didn't go after many of the things I would have normally).  As usual, I played pretty conservatively and didn't make much "money".  Peter learned how to play craps while I stayed at the blackjack tables and did pretty well.

At the end of the night we put our few raffle tickets in the bags.  I tried to be strategic and go for the less popular items.  Then they did the drawing...and I WON SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!  Not only did I win something but I won the biggest prize (biggest = worth the most money).  I won a night in the CROSSMARK Suite at the American Airlines Center during a Stars Hockey Game (NHL).  I get the suite all to myself and my closest 11 friends.  It's a pretty sweet prize!  (It's ironic that we put most of our tickets in for other prizes and only put in *1* ticket for the suite!) It's fun to be a winner!

Max looking pretty tired in his car seat.

All of a sudden he put on this huge smile.

Less then 2 minutes later - this is what we had...

Max working on building his own castle all by himself.

He did a great job of stacking and understand what would and wouldn't be stable.

Pretty proud!

Video - I love his reaction when the blocks fall, just a little bit of frustration and a "hey, what you doing" and then he just starts over.

...still going

I was impressed with how many towers he got to a good height plus how many different types of blocks he used.

Still crossing his feet all the time

Eating out as a family

Sunday Brunch

We took Max with us to enjoy the Sunday Brunch for 2 that we had won at last year's casino night.  It was a big difference from when we took him last year and he hung out sleeping in the car seat while we ate!

Max was really well behaved.  He only fussed once when I walked away to get some food - he cried "mommmmy".  He never does that.  He loves his mom but he's a daddy's boy.  So I heard him cry that when I walked away and it totally made my morning.  :)   Peter calmed him down quickly so he must not have been too devastated with me leaving.

He enjoyed a variety of foods and we indulged him a bit when it came time for dessert.  And because he did so well, it was an enjoyable meal for Peter and I as well.  It was nice to be at a nice place and have my kid be well behaved.  Here's hoping that wasn't a one-time thing!!

Casino Night!!!

It was that time again.  My favorite nighttime work event of the year....  CASINO NIGHT!

This year Casino Night was even bigger and was held off site at a hotel.  It was a lot of fun.  I got to show off my skinny husband (a few of my co-workers didn't even recognize him), socialize, snack, and spend a little bit of money.  I love Casino night! (You can read about past Casino nights here and here.)

Peter kept me more restrained with the silent auction this year.  :(  I walked away with 4 tickets to an FC Dallas game, a 1 hr massage, and a dinner for 2 to a restaurant in Dallas.