what a difference a year makes...

january 19th, 2010...

january 19th, 2011

biggest little packer fan...

celebrating "gotcha" day...

for max's "gotcha" day, the anniversary of the finalization of the adoption, we had planned on going to lunch with daddy.
well, max decided he wanted to "take a little night-night" at 10.
he usually doesn't nap til 11:30-12ish at home.
so instead we made plans to meet at paradise island after school for ice cream.

max was excited to have his own bowl of ice cream!

notice all of the sprinkles are gone. after the first bite, he was taking them out of his mouth one by one, so daddy happily scooped them out.

saturday morning we took our first trip to monkey joes.
it's a place with lots of inflatables...slides, bounce houses, and things like that.
max was pretty unsure for about the first 30 minutes or so.

we tried this small castle.
he enjoyed watching these two little girls go down the slide.

next, we tried out a bounce house and he was warming up to it, until some kids who were too big to be in there anyway scared him.

then he found this car table and played with it for a bit.

finally we found a slide that he enjoyed.
we went down that about 5 times then he was pretty much ready to go.
it was a fun family adventure.

we are sure next time, when it isn't so new, he'll have more fun.

it was so great to spend some time together as a family in celebration of such a very special day. january 28th, 2010...the day we "officially" welcomed maxwell joseph hicks into our family!

caught in the act...

max disappeared the other morning.
i heard him by the stairs and he sounded like he was getting into something.
i'm not sure why i had the camera in my hand...
but i caught mr. max in the act! :)

19 months...

max, i can hardly believe you are now 19 months old.
you are strong willed, curious, so very smart, loving, and a rough and tumble boy.

you already have such compassion for others....you show such concern when others are hurt or when you hear a baby cry.
you bleed "green and gold"...you are the best little packer fan ever. you love watching "the game." you cheer for touchdowns, call "first down" and get really into it!
you are full of love...and we love getting kisses and "nice touches" from you at all of the random and unexpected moments.
you amaze us with your intelligence...you count things and sometimes are right even though you often skip the number six, you know so many animals and the sounds that they make (my favorites right now are elephant, sheep, and turkey), you repeat EVERYTHING, and you have just recently started singing songs (twinkle, twinkle little star, old mc donald, itsy bitsy spider, and this little light of mine).

you love to play with blocks, your barn, basketball, phones, flashlights, and anything that you shouldn't play with! :)

you love to read. you can "read along" with most of your books. when we bring new books home you can't seem to get enough of them. i love it when you grab a book and just plop yourself in my lap, ready for me to "read it."

you are so curious. you can be playing with something, in this case your truck, and then you get totally distracted by something that catches your eye, the picture on the front of the plow. you want to know how things work and it doesn't take you long to catch on.

you definitely have your own opinion as you can see when i tried to take this picture and you responded with a "no!" you like to have a say in what you eat...peas for breakfast, oatmeal for dinner, and oranges all the time.

we love you so very much and you have made our lives fuller than we ever could have imagined. 19 months and 2 days ago we didn't know you existed and now, 19 months and 2 days later, we can't imagine our lives without you!

wet...

we were hanging out in the kitchen and honestly, i'm not exactly sure what happened.
i don't remember if he went for a toy and lost his balance, if he backed into the island and just fell down, or if he just tripped over himself.
it doesn't matter how he got there...but max landed directly in the dogs water dish.
he couldn't have fit in there more perfectly if we would have planned it.
i was cracking up.
he was a little upset so i didn't get a picture of him in the bowl but i did manage to get this one once i removed his wet pants!

superbowl bound...

today was game day!
we were ready to watch the packers play the bears and hopefully make it to the superbowl.

look at this little packer fan!

so cute and so excited to watch "the game."

he loves football and anything packer related.

during the game you can hear him shouting, "goooooo packer!", "get em," "football," "go game," "double d" (for donald driver), "go matthews," "touchdown," and "first down!"

this kid is too much.

we had a few people over for the game...and here was our spread.

drew was showing off our victory football brownies.
hannah and teddy wanted to eat these so bad.
i told them that we had to wait until the packers won.

and if they didn't...i was throwing them in the garbage.

lucky for us...they packers WON!
and max got to enjoy his very first brownie!

whooooo hooooo! the packers and superbowl bound!
we are already making plans for february 6th!

and just one more of me and my handsome husband!

(mostly) fun overnight trip to milwaukee...

we headed to milwaukee for a "girls weekend" on saturday morning.
grama, drew, max, me, ryan, leslie, hayden, darla, and pam.
usually girls weekend is just for the girls...but grama got an extra room so the boys could come and play too. unfortunately ryan and hayden were running late and the
boys didn't get their play time...but max got in a good nap and dada got his schoolwork done.
the girls hit the mall and got some serious shopping and bargain hunting done!

max was excited to check out the hotel rooms.

so was hayden!

and what did our little explorer found...one of his favorite things...BUTTONS!
momma said, "no buttons!"
and what was max's response.

to copy me of course with a "no" of his own! :)

here is a picture to prove i was there! me and my little brother!

these boys are going to have some serious adventures together in the years to come!

uncle ryan wrangled up the boys...this picture is just too cute!

sharing a nice open-mouthed kiss with grama!

the boys got bundled up and snuggled in with their dada's for the walk across the parking lot for dinner.

we got to champs and found out that it was going to be a 45 minute wait. yikes!

so, drew came to the rescue and ordered up some fries.
max's new love is ketchup. he can't get enough.

this tided them over long enough to wait for a table.

we headed back to get in a little swimming before bed.
and yes, the boys are wearing PINK little swimmers.
aunt diane works at kc and got these for us at an auction.

at least they were able to sport the little mermaid diapers together! :)

ryan and hayden.

drew and max.

so cute...the boys with their dads!

max didn't last long in the pool. he was tired.

so tired that it he couldn't fall asleep.

it was about 10:30 when he finally zonked out.

it made for a long night for us.
drew and i had to be on the road at 6am to get back in time for church and class.

thanks to ryan and leslie for taking care of max in the morning.

thanks to grama, darla, and pam for letting max do some shopping with you and for bringing him home safe!

dada and max time...

so, this is one of the "things" that dada and max do on "boys night."
i work til 10pm every wednesday and they call it "boys night."

take max's LOVE for football + drew's new toy (the ps3) and you get this!
drew tells max to "get his controller ready!" and max plops in his chair and watches drew play madden while playing with his own remote.

hey now, hey now...

...our boy is back!
max is finally feeling better and back to his normal, fun-loving, silly self.

we missed you buddy!

our sweet boy...

our bedtime routine is always the same.
change into pjs, get a little bit of playtime in, head upstairs, read books, and say our prayers.
the other night when we were saying our prayers, max added in a new name.
we always pray for dada, momma, maggie & libby (the dogs), then he'll add in various family members, his teachers and friends at school...whoever he saw or is on his mind for the day.
well, monday night he also wanted to pray for jesus. so sweet. it made me tear up a little bit!

our saturday...

the morning started off with some serious snuggle time while watching a show for max and dada and friends on the couch.

just too cute!

after an afternoon of resting, drinking juice, and laying low...max and i were joined by grama, hannah and teddy for the packer game. they stayed until half-time and helped us cheer our team to a victory!!!

max was showing our guests what a big boy he is by holding his nebulizer for his treatment.

in the words of max, "goooooo packer!"

tell-tale sign...

it's a tell-tale sign that max is getting sleepy when he plays with the ribbon on his "ming."
he was snuggling with daddy and i just think it's too precious when he does this!

under the weather...

we've all been a little under the weather here at the hicks household.

max started getting sick last sunday night and is just getting over his cold.

daddy and i are battling it now.

it's not been a fun week around here.

i haven't taken many pictures or had time to blog.

but we are all slowly on the mend.

new years day...

we started 2011 off with yummy pancakes for breakfast.
daddy even used his new snowman mold to make them a fun shape for max!

after breakfast we cleaned up and headed to cedar grove to celebrate christmas with drew's mom, step-dad, sister, brother and step-brother.

max was enamored with his cousin taygen.
first he tried to share his cracker with her.

then he just got as close to her as he could and stared.

then he gave her some kisses but the picture and the kisses didn't happen at the same moment.
it was pretty sweet!