merry christmas and happy scooping!

merry christmas!  hey pace, do the pj's max is wearing look familiar?  

yup--they are what you wore on your one year-old birthday!  can you believe how big max is?!

    

he's gaining on you, you know!  you better eat your spinach or he'll win every arm wrestle!

playing peek-a-boo with max on christmas morning.  max is one of the ticklish, giggliest, happiest babies around...as long as you stick with the program--do not deviate from feeding times or nap times, and we've got a happy camper!

this is where pace spent christmas morning--in a box, usurping max's presents.  he thought all of max's things were really cool.  he especially loved the peek-a-boo bear from great mom mom.

until daddy built the life-size excavator uncle jon erik sent!  then that's all we did the rest of the day--scoop snow!  mama and daddy spent the rest of the day using their favorite family gift:  the ice cream maker!  we made peppermint ice cream, toasted coconut cashew cheesecake ice cream with blueberry compote, and good old cookies and cream.  yum!

we got an even bigger snow storm the next day--it snowed all day long!  we had a good 8-12 inches in our backyard.  pace and i built a fort, scooped snow with the excavator, threw snow balls at each other, rolled around, ate snow, made snow angels, and played catch...phew!  happy scooping!

 

snow day!

we got some snow the other day and after putting max down for his morning nap, pace and i bundled up and played in the snow for about an hour.  we built a snowman family, did snow angels, made a snow car wash for his trucks, and ran around the house.  boy is this age fun!

christmas sweat shop and the car wash

i turned my kitchen into a christmas sweat shop last week.  after making 100 cinnamon rolls, i figured it would be no sweat to make and decorate neighborhood gifts.  i made wheat pancake mix with cranberry-orange syrup, hot cocoa mix with peppermint marshmallows, and chocolate-dipped peanut brittle.  i made everything in bulk sizes, tripling and quadrupling every recipe a couple times over, but the brittle i made in extra bulk size--spending two days on just the brittle, making the recipe over and over and over and over and...

the perpetual state of my kitchen last week.  this week i am cleaning.

  

pace's new obsession is the car wash.  he has been to a real car wash two or three times, and has hated it every time.  but you tube has won his heart--he wakes up in the morning asking the watch the car wash.  we build car washes with blocks.  anything that has tower-like things side by side he turns into a car wash.  so while i was slaving away last week in my self-induced sweat shop, pace turned the kitchen table into a car wash.  the chairs became convenient rollers, and after watching him go around the table a few times, i thought his blanket was a nice added touch.  he loved it, too.  

outtakes

max had woken up from his morning nap and had just had a great mid-morning meal, so i thought it would be a great time for a photo shoot.  we still had some meltdowns and some hyper blanket rolling...

i think max was mad that he wouldn't figure out how to get the toy into his mouth...not sure, but it was sure the end of his world!

the dynamic duo

pace's turn

pace needed his own turn behind the camera--and who can resist this little face?!  and especially when he requests "cuddle mama?" (cuddle time = sitting on the couch on my lap with his blanket and binkies)  or tells you "yuh-bew" (love you), or asks, "mama?  goop box gedder?" (scoop blocks together).