I Miss the Crib

This is where Max fell asleep for his nap yesterday.  Our closet.  Look closely, he's in there.  

Aviva's Cake

We wised up with Aviva and didn't have a big party for her first birthday.  Instead, we just had her cousins over and spent the money on this beaut:

A coconut and chocolate cake with vanilla swiss and Belgium chocolate butter cream.  Mmm.  Way better than a party.  And I think it's safe to say she enjoyed it:

Max Turns Three

Max's birthday couldn't have gone better.  I was a little worried when he started telling people there were going to be lions there that his expectations might not be met, but a few balloons later he couldn't have been happier.  Well, until the candle episode...

if blogger will ever let me post a video here I will .

Saline Fair

I took Max to the Saline Fair.  This was him before every ride:

This was him during every ride:

Early Bird

I'm playing with the idea of going to bed by 9:00 every night so I can get up at 5:00.  I know it sounds crazy, but I just think an hour to myself before the kids wake up would change my world.  Ideally my kids would wake up at 7 and I could wake up at 6:00, but that just doesn't seem to be in the cards, so do I go for it, or no?  Thoughts?  Testaments?  Concerns?

First Day

Here's Max on his first day of preschool.  I got him all prepared, telling him I would stay with him as long as he wanted and when he was ready for me to leave he could tell me, but I wouldn't leave until then.  We were there for maybe ten minutes, surrounded by kids clinging to their parents like white on rice when he glanced back at me and said, "Mama, you leave now."  Well all righty then.  I'm trying not to be offended but instead grateful that he's ready for some action away from me.

Hooray for Visitors!

We had a great Labor Day weekend with lots of visitors.  The Hales drove up from Virginia and Travis and Garrett flew in from Utah.  Shawn and Lisa had a full house too with Steve and Debbie (Lisa's sister and bro-in-law) and Shawn's old roommate Mark.  

Max and Nikolai were so excited to see each other.  Whenever Mary mentioned leaving Nikolai would say something to the effect of, "But I'm going to miss Max so much."  When Max woke up this morning he said, "My friends still here?"  And then in an impossibly pitiful voice, "I don't want my friends to leave."  Break my heart.  I miss my friends too.  

Aviva and Luke also got a kick out of each other.  They mostly just followed each other around babbling back and forth. 

This weekend was the Michigan/Utah game, so the first thing we did when the Hales got here was take them downtown to buy some appropriate Michigan gear.

That afternoon all the boys went to the game.  The traitor in the middle is Shawn's old roommate Mark who went to the U.  

That night we went out to eat and then back to the house to hang out with everyone. 

Sunday was nice and relaxing except for dealing with Max and Nikolai who didn't go to bed until 10:00 the night before because we told them they could have a sleep over in the same room.  Big mistake.  We came home to them jumping the bed together.

Monday we played a little basketball, a little football, and had a cookout.  Abram got to use his smoker and made Italian sausages and I made beef brisket.  We just wanted to make sure everyone had their share of unhealthy meat.   

That night we took Steve and Mary down to campus.  Here they are in the Law Quad.

We told the babysitter to put the boys down in separate rooms, but apparently a major fit was thrown and we came home to this:

I live for weekends like this.  We're going to miss everyone so much.  Thanks for coming to visit!