christmas parade...

because of the chilly weather, we decided to watch the appleton christmas parade from home.

daddy started a fire.

i made tea, hot chocolate, and chai for each of us...

we snuggled in on the couch and enjoyed the show.
it wasn't quite the same as being there, but it was nice not to be freezing cold for hours!

hopefully the weather is better next year! :)

happy thanksgiving...

we spent thanksgiving at my mom's house this year.
look at the beautiful table she set for all of us.

we were expecting 9, but because of weather, our numbers jumped to 13.
we were excited the stachowiaks could join us but knew they were bummed they didn't make it to michigan.  it was an awesome dinner, great company, lots of laughs, and good ol quality family time.

i even got some silly pictures of max and i before the night was over.
it must have been an action packed day...max slept til 9:45 the next morning!!!

more randoms...

this kid loves the cold weather and the snow.
he was pretty excited to be wearing his new hat to school that grammi made for him!

on some fridays when i pick max up from school we go out on lunch dates.  last friday he wanted to go have bagels.  who am i to say "no" to that!  as you can see, he really enjoyed his bagel! :)

max was playing last weekend and was building nests in the living room.
he was gathering random items to help make each next and then putting different snuggle buddies inside.

then he thought daddy might like to play too...here they are enjoying their new nests!

yesterday we decided to do something fun with the stachowiak's since their trip to michigan was cancelled due to the snow storm in the u.p.  we all loaded up, grabbed an early dinner, and then went to watch "frozen."  it was a great movie and a fun time!!

randoms...

here are a few pictures that i wanted to include from the past couple of months that i didn't feel like i could do an entire post on..


drew and max picked up this halloween decoration for our house.
it was bigger than the dogs!!!

here was their creation...i was pretty impressed.
check out all the baby spiders in the web!

libby is usually "drew's dog."  the other morning she just couldn't get close enough to me.
it was pretty precious.

sometimes when we leave school, max pauses for a moment to say a little prayer in front of these angel statues outside of his school.  i love him!

we made banana bread together...

it was exciting...

and pretty intense! :)

drew found some cool paints and max went crazy...he painted until he ran out of paint!

grammi was visiting and doing some crocheting.
max decided this white yarn would be perfect for baby audrey's wedding dress for when they get married.

so grammi gave him a crocheting needle and some yarn and he got to work.

drew got asked to dj an 80's fundraiser for the parents at his school.
so i tagged along.  it was pretty entertaining!

max and i went to michaels with grammi and found some cool christmas hats!!!

max didn't have school a few thursdays ago.  we decided to head down to milwaukee with grama for some shopping, lunch at cheesecake factory and a trip to trader joes! 

imagination...

max loves to dress up and pretend.
we picked up a few new costumes after halloween.
we usually play along.  if he has a mask on, he really believes that we don't know that it is him.

spiderman in our kitchen.

ironman on my bed.

"the warrior" (this is the name he gave himself) my room.

i really enjoy watching his imagination soar.  

he's got skills...

in the last few weeks, max's drawing skills have really taken off.
the things he draws actually look like what he is trying to draw.  it's pretty awesome to watch!

here he is catching up on some school work from when he was out sick.

this is a shark.

here are two electric swordfish fighting each other.
the one on the left lost...so he colored it in.

this is a ghost pirate ship.  the "B"s on the top are the sails.
he drew ghosts inside and made the water red.

halloween 2013-a knight to remember...

max was very excited for halloween.

when we began talking about costumes, he wanted to be a bald eagle.

no one makes a bald eagle costume and diy and pintrest examples were not that great.

so we started looking at other options and he decided on a "dragon slayer knight."

and he sure was a handsome knight!


the evening weather was interesting...rainy but a pretty decent temperature.  better than snow!
so, we grabbed our umbrella and headed out to collect some candy!

t stayed back to help hand out candy but h, the rainbow zebra, joined us for trick-or-treating!

there is a house in the neighborhood that hands out jello shots to the parents.  they also hand out full size candy bars...treats for EVERYONE! :)

h, max, and daddy!

this pretty much sums up halloween for max...excitement, dressing up, and candy!

i can't tell you how much i love this picture!

here's our annual family photo on the stachowiak's porch!

we stayed to celebrate uncle denny's birthday!
we enjoyed yummy homemade tomato soup and make your own grilled cheese sandwiches.

after dinner, max and i relaxed on the couch and took silly pictures!

it was a fun night of halloween and birthday celebrating!  definitely a "knight" to remember! :)

a heck of a cold...

we had one heck of a cold knock max out for a couple of weeks.
poor kid missed 8 days of school!
fever, runny nose, and a cough that he just couldn't shake.

i knew we were in trouble when he fell asleep on my lap.

the fever went away and he was feeling better but the cough was really bad.
we spent a lot of time reading books, watching movies, and snuggling on the couch

and after about a week of hanging out with my sick boy...what do you know, i got sick too!
but i'm happy to report that we are both doing better and daddy managed to not get sick at all!

go pack go...

drew and i had the opportunity to go to the packer-brown game a few weeks ago.

we had the pleasure of going with our good friend, scott, and his dad, larry.

they always make food from the town of the opposing team.

that sunday it was bean and kielbasa soup….so delicious!

i was ready to cheer on my team…raining or not! :)

it's always so awesome walking into the stadium!

here was one of the favors they were giving away…we had to grab one for max!

we had great seats and were excited to see our team take the field!

it was chilly and rainy.  so i enjoyed the most expensive mug of hot chocolate EVER! 

but it sure was good.

win or lose…it was awesome to spend the afternoon with this great guy and some pretty fantastic friends!