Max's First K-State Game!

I got home really late Friday night from my work trip to Aruba and we left very early the next morning for the K-State game!  It was Maxy's first game!  Craig and I had plans to go with Sara and Curt and then we took the boys and they got to sit with GG and Poppy.  It was a very chilly day, but we bundled up and with the sun, it wasn't so bad!  The boys had such a fun time as they had been wanting to go to a football game all season!

After the game, we headed to Aggieville and to show Curt the sights of Manhattan since it was his first visit.  GG and Poppy left with the boys around halftime and we met them back in Topeka.  It was such a fun day!  I'm glad we got to go and the boys got to be there too!

Fun at Home

One thing we've got a lot of at our new house is..... leaves!!!  Leaves, leaves, leaves!!  The boys had a blast jumping off the swings into this giant pile of leaves.

 They love their tree house at our new house!

 Beautiful day for a jeep ride

 And having fun riding bikes in the new neighborhood

 New bunk beds have been super exciting... it was a bit of a challenge figuring out a schedule of who sleeps where but I think we've got it down now.  Max is on the top bunk in November and then we switch each month.  They are doing much better at sharing a room than I expected (so far)!

 Maxy has been looking for this snorkel gear ever since we first put our house on the market... I couldn't remember where I had packed it away and sure enough, when I was packing for my work trip last week, I found the snorkel gear in my big suitcase.  He was so excited!

 While I was on my work trip last week, GG and Poppy helped Craig out a LOT!  GG took Maxy on a ferris wheel ride at Scheels

 School skate party... Cole was off with his new friends :)

 A new OBSESSION... Minecraft... Cole studies his books and they both watch YouTube videos on how to create things.  It's amazing what they can do!  They are both SO into it right now!

 Love this first grade toothless smile!  Warms my heart!

Max's 5th Birthday!!!

Maxy turned 5 on Monday, November 9!  He is the sweetest little 5 year old puppy guy ever!!  Of course, we had to celebrate with puppies as we have been doing for several years now.  :)  He had a couple friends over the Thursday before his birthday for a little playdate in the afternoon.  He wanted everyone to get puppy ears and adopt a puppy.  Noah and Maxy below.

 Noah, Max, Charlotte and Coco

 A birthday gift from Noah that the boys are having lots of fun with!  They wanted to make it Murphy's bed, but Murphy wasn't so sure about that. :)

 Then over the weekend we had to go to Topeka to "Puppies Galored" for the second year in a row!!  Max loves this place and picked out a puppy to take home with him.  It cracks me up how quickly he makes a decision and all he wanted was 1 puppy and he was a happy guy!

 He wanted to go to Bobo's in Topeka for dinner :)

 Scooby legos from GG and Poppy!  He's been playing with them lots!

 Celebration at Pre-K, donut treats and Mommy read a story to the class :)

 The extra special birthday flag that Great Grandma Helen made and we always put out for the boys' birthdays

 A new big kid bike!!  Maxy picked it out and loves it!

 On the night of his birthday, we had cousins over for a puppy party... love this picture below with all the sweet cousins!

Max, you are sunshine when there are clouds.  You brighten each day with your sweet smile and kind spirit.  You are a joy to be around and a pleasure to spend time with.  I adore you and thank God for letting me be your mom.  May you be sunshine to all those around you as you are to me.  Happy 5th Birthday my sweet little puppy guy!!

World Series Celebration Parade

Craig took off work the Tuesday after Halloween and we headed downtown for the Royals World Series Celebration parade.  It was pretty chaotic and insane... we had no idea what it would be like, but apparently there were about 800,000 people there!  We made a mistake in taking a shuttle from the Plaza, we would have been better off driving as far as we could to get there, but we were worried about parking so we opted for the shuttle.  We waited in line 1.5 hours for the shuttle and by the time it took us, there was so much traffic we were barely crawling.  We finally ended up hopping off and walking to Union Station. By the time we got to Union Station, it was people as far as the eye could see and the boys were overwhelmed by the huge crowds.  It had taken us almost 4 hours to get there from the time we left our  house that morning.  We didn't even make it for the parade, it was just too overwhelming.  Then we couldn't get a shuttle back, so we walked from Union Station to the Plaza.  It was quite the adventure!  We ended up having a good time and made it fun.  It was certainly experience and I guess we can say that we were there!

 At least we did get some fun pics by the blue fountains on the Plaza on our long walk back!  The boys were such good sports that day!!

 Gretchen kindly came over to take a few family pics for our Christmas cards this year.  Here are my favorites. :)