sleepy

We had our first Thanksgiving dinner of the year at my Grandma's on Sunday. Max fell asleep in the car on the way home (he was exhausted--the drive isn't that long!). I got a few pictures of my sleepy little man. I love sleepy pictures, and haven't got any of Max in a while!

I got all my Christmas shopping officially done--woo hoo! I can't believe I actually made it by my Thanksgiving deadline. I think my original goal was to have everything wrapped too, but hey, I'm pretty proud that the shopping is all done! The doctor said that our new little baby could potentially arrive any day, so now we're just waiting to see when she decides to make her arrival!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

something fun

My computer has a little photo booth program on it--super fun. Max gets a kick out of seeing himself on the screen, then you push the button and it does a little countdown and snaps a picture. This particular picture is really grainy because we were in our living room (aka the cave) and it is very dark. I love this picture anyway for it's "imperfect perfectness".

a little auction treasure

A while ago at an auction I bought a little box of goodies: old papers and workbooks. Really old. I gave two dollars for it. Fun. It was funny, Andrew was bidding it off, and I said that I'd go two dollars. His responce: "You will?" In other words: What are you going to do with this? Well, I wanted to use the old workbook pages in my little button paintings. And you never know, there may be a treasure in the bottom of that box...

I started really going through the box today at the studio. I did find a little treasure at the bottom. (Now, it is a treasure to me, but to anyone else it might not be. Eye of the beholder type thing.) At the bottom of the box there was a very old and yellowed "Royal Drawing Book".

There was all kinds of kid drawings in there. So precious. I am a doomed collector of kid artwork! I think kids' drawings are all so wonderful.

This particular drawing book seemed to be a little "how to" book with instructions on how to draw farm animals and such. Adorable. Immediately I could see the little collection all framed in Max's room. (You know you can frame just about anything and it turns it into instant artwork. That's what the magazines say anyway.) Poor Max, he'll probably never have any art in his room because I always have new ideas and am changing my mind!

The last little drawing of the cow is my personal favorite. So glad I went through this box today!

greetings from santa's workshop

So, I've been working on my Christmas to-do list for a while now. I've always wanted to be all done (wrapped, signed, sealed, ect.) with Christmas shopping/making way ahead of time, but it never seems to happen. Well, this year has to be different because our baby girl is set to arrive mid December, which will make shopping in December a little difficult...

I've been working on a few handmade things for different people, which is fun. Ideally I think it would be fun to have a Christmas where everything you give is something you make. Very pioneer days, I know. Maybe one day I'll start far enough ahead (like February?) to make that happen. I think making things for someone is a lot more fun than shopping for them. I find Christmas shopping in general to be a bit stressful, so I think that is why this idea appeals to me so much.

This week Santa's workshop is in full swing--the goal is to get everything bought/made/wrapped and put away by Thanksgiving. I think I can do it this time...

october pictures

I still can't believe I've made it this far in the year with only minor cheating! After a while it becomes habit to make sure you take a picture of something every day. The only bad part is that I don't have hardly any pictures of me or Andrew...I'l have to try and make a point of taking more pictures of us, as well as the ones of Max.

I think this is a project I would like to continue, even after the year is over. We'll have our new baby then, so I'll have lots of new things to take pictures of!

three years of halloween cuteness

Just for fun I thought I would take a little look back to all of Max's Halloween "looks":

Year one - Super Baby. Oh so cute. He had a little cape and tights and everything. (Plus it was comfy and cozy.)

Year two - Max the Wild Thing. Love, love, loved it. Again super cute and comfy. Max has actually just now discovered this wonderful book--he calls it the "monster book".

Year three (drum roll please...) - a Scarecrow! Again, the cuteness of his costume amazes me. Let me tell you, my amazing mom made all three of these costumes, and every year they get cuter. I think she is going to start a little collection of them at her house. So great Mom!
This scarecrow pattern was based on the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. (I LOVE the Wizard of Oz, so of course if Max was going to be a scarecrow it would have to be the "official" one.)

I changed this one to a sepia tone--so it would be like the movie. You know, before the house crashes in Munchkin Land and everything is black and white? Then it occured to me that that the scarecrow didn't make his appearance until after the movie was in color. Oh well, still fun!

Also, I hope to get more pictures of Max in his costume soon...I had a little camera issue during the costume photo shoot. You see, I am a tad absentminded (I blame it on the pregnancy) and leave things everywhere, so my memory card for my big camera was stuck in a computer at the church where I was taking pictures the night before. Gosh. So, these are not as good as I had hoped. Lesson learned. 1: Get a back up memory card or 2: Try not to forget everything!!

Hope everyone had a good Halloween! Come back tomorrow for the October photo mosaic!

pumpkin painting

We did a little art project the other day: pumpkin painting! I'll have to say, I think this is the first project where Max and I both worked together, but independently at the same time. He worked on his pumpkin, and I worked on mine. He was busy with his for about an hour. (In toddler time terms that is a LONG time. It is the equivalent of about 2 adult days!)

Of course we had to have a little chocolate while we worked:

Here's Max's finished pumpkin: He was so proud!

This one is mine. I could have worked a long time on this...there are so many fun things you can do with pumpkins!

We decided to save our big pumpkin to carve this week for Halloween. I think Max will enjoy that process too!