Happy Halloween

 Carving his first pumpkin with daddy.

 Scary faces!

 Silly faces!

More scary faces (from Brody)!

Happy Halloween!  Tonight Brody will be dressing up as a doctor, complete with a stethoscope which he will tell you he wears "just like daddy".  Maverick will be dressing up as a pilot, minus the super cute hat from Brody that I cannot find.

Happy 5th Months Maverick!

 This is often what I see peeking up at me from his pack n play in the morning.  Little bugger is lucky that he's cute, otherwise those wake up calls every 2 hours would really be getting old!

Back around the 4th of July up in Ely, my sister-in-law, Aimee, took this photo of Maverick.  She is a great photographer in case you were wondering why it's so professional looking, it's because it is!  I just love the little hand-knit aviator hat that she has as a prop.  How cute and appropriate for my little Maverick!

Today Maverick is 5 months old, how time flies when you're sleep deprived...I mean, when you're having fun:)

The Zoo

The weekend before last I took the boys to the zoo and met up with Whitney, Claire, Max, Heather, and Mara.  We went to see the farm animals at the zoo and Brody loved the bull!  We had a picnic lunch too...the kids are comparing their lunch loot.  At the end, I took the boys and sat in the Bee Hive play area with Heather and Mara for about a half hour or so.  As a parent of a toddler quickly approaching 3 that goes to a daycare with cousins and his Omi, it was an amazing half hour that I got to witness Brody playing so well with the only other little girl in there.  The little girl was with her grandpa, whom she called "Papa" too.  Her name was Riley and it wasn't until the very end as we were leaving that I found out she was 4.  She was such a peanut, about the size of Claire, so that surprised me.  Brody and Riley played together, talked together, made up games together.  It was so cute!  It makes me think that he'll do just fine making friends come Kindergarten:)  The little girl liked babies almost as much as Claire & Max love Maverick & Mara, so cute!

 Claire does not like the cows, but Brody loves them and Max was brave and ventured over to see the big bull too! 

Funny story: I'm not 100% sure if I'm getting the story right, but it went something like this...Yesterday we were at the farm and Papa took Brody out in the tractor to "check on cattle".  After awhile in the tractor looking at the cows and such, Brody asks Papa, "When we gonna check on cattle?".  And so Papa explained that "cattle" were the same as "cows".   "OHHHHHHHHH", light bulb moment for Brody.  A little while later they came back in the house and Brody says to me, "cows are cattle".
Thanks Brody, thanks for clearing that up for me.
A nice reminder that little kids are learning a ton of new things everyday, the hundreds of questions that they ask all day long are often legitimate questions.  It would have never occurred to me that he had not yet connected that cows are the same as cattle.

Mara & Mav & GG too

 Mara (and her parents too) was recently over to our house.  Here are the 2 little ones getting acquainted.  For some reason Maverick kept wanting to grab her mouth, little stinker!

 We paid a visit to the farm & GG on her last day in MN so she could get in a few last snuggles.

 GG getting in some last minute Mara snuggle time!

 I thought this was a funny picture!  It took me a minute to realize that it's Sean holding Maverick!

Time to head out for the night!  This was last Sunday, October 14th.  We spent some time at the farm and then took GG to the airport that night for her flight to Arizona for the winter.  We can't wait to see her again at Christmas and we hope to be able to visit her in AZ again this coming spring.

Emma Krumbee's

 Getting ready for the train ride with daddy.

 Cousins Claire & Max in front.

 And Briggs & Everleigh leading the way!

 I love how you can see Claire's eye behind Max and that Everleigh is looking on from the side.

 Whitney & Max take a turn at the slide.

 Barry comes down the slide with Brody & Claire.

 Aside from the John Deere logo, these trikes are awesome!  Check out those serious tires!

 Brody's legs were a bit too short to make the peddle go around, so Uncle Josh gave him a little help around the track.

 Checking out the pirate ship playground.

 Finding the best pumpkin.

 And apparently claiming it by sitting on it.

 The whole crew lining up for a picture.  Right then Max had just fallen on a pumpkin stem so Whitney is consoling him.  This is why he didn't make the picture below.

I assure you, Maverick was there too.  He was bundled up and I carried him.  Below is a picture that Ami took to prove it:)

Cindy Visits, Hockey Time

 Grandma Cindy got Maverick to just fall asleep in her arms as she held him before bed one night.  He sure must have been nice and comfy!

 Mav just loves baths.  He never cries at bath time:)

 Yes, that's a hockey helmet and kid cross country skiis.  We'll be bringing the skiis up to Ely so Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Steve can take him out to practice.

 Thanks to the hockey stick from up in Ely, Brody now has the complete set to be ready for hockey.  Now we just need some ice!

My Boys

Over a month ago when I took newborn photos of baby Mara, this was what the crowd looked like behind the scenes.  Even though the lighting is not perfect in this photo, I just love this picture of my three boys!  I love how perfect you can see the color of all of their eyes.  Eyes are my favorite feature about people.

Mara's Photo Shoot

These are the keeper photos of my niece's photo shoot:)  A little doll for sure!  I know I'm way behind on photos, life has been busy with things and I haven't had the time to go through them and post our most recent adventures.  I will be sure to catch up with most of it this weekend.

Big Boy Brody Visits Ely

 He loves the big bath tub.  It's a deep tub so I don't blame him!

 Practicing hockey in their shop.  It's fun to hear him talk about it.  When I ask him how to face off he tell me, "two hands".  Maybe Brody will teach me how to play hockey.

 Drinking a root beer next to Grandpa Steve.  Lucky little boy!

Last week Brody went up to Ely with Cindy and spent the whole week at Grandma Cindy's and Grandpa Steve's house.  He seemed to have a lot of fun with them and I got a few pictures of his adventures from Cindy.  He even got some lessons on hockey, complete with a nice Brody-sized hockey stick.  He has a hockey helmet and skates already too for this winter.  Bring on the ice!

Maverick is 4 Months

Maverick turned 4 months on September 30 and had his 4 month check up yesterday morning.  He got an oral vaccine and 4 shots.  After the oral vaccine and 2 of the shots he was a little less than trilled, but the minute I picked him up he was fine.  Little stinker loves to be held.  I really like his doctor, he's so easy to talk to and never makes you feel rushed!  He's complimented me on Maverick's name every time I've seen him and this time the nurse complimented his name and the security worker girl at Target did too last night!
On to his stats: He's 26" long (75-90%), 14# 2.5oz (25-50%), and his head is 17" (75%).  He's longer and leaner than Brody was at 4 months, but the doctor told me (and even wrote down on his sheet) that he's doing "excellent".  I probably will wait on solids until 6 months because it's a pain and I don't need to go there right now.

 Working on rolling over so that he can watch the football game.  He sure finds the TV fascinating!

 There's nothing more relaxing than a baby that falls asleep in your arms!

 Our visit to Target last night while we had a showing at home.  Phish Food ice cream, a blast from the past!  Even Maverick was eying the ice cream (although always the look of concern from him).

Maverick is rolling from back to front and front to back now.  He doesn't seem to roll a ton though since I seem to remember Brody rolling across the floor.  He likes tummy time, especially when I put a mirror in front of him.  His big brother encourages him to do tummy time and it's pretty cute!  He loves it when you sing to him or if you play music.  It calms him down and it gets him to fall asleep.  He sings back sometimes too and I just love his little voice!  Usually I sing "You Are My Sunshine" since my list of songs is quite limited.  He has a couple of giraffe toys that he likes to hold onto and eat too.  The little bugger isn't the best sleeper at night, but it could be worse.  There are those nights he goes to sleep at 8:30pm, wakes up to eat around 4am, and then goes back to sleep until 6am or so. Those are the good nights that I try to remember.