Thankful.

Some things to be grateful for this Thanksgiving weekend:

1) Sam's comments while eating turkey during Thanksgiving dinner.

    - "Mom, where's the turkey's face?  Where is it?" 

    - "We don't eat the feathers, right?"

    -  And my personal favorite, "There's the beak!  There it is!  I see it!"

2) Wonderful friends. 

   -Toledo is FULL of so many great people.  I love them all!

3) Lazy days spent in pj's.

4) Killer Whales.

- I'm dead serious.  I love killer whales.  Recently, they have provided Sam with hours upon hours of entertainment; this weekend was no different.  Print him a picture of Shamu and let him go to town.  He's content to swim them around the house, squeeze them in and out of the cracks on his closet door, and talk to them like they are his best friends.  I love the whales.   

5) Christmas curiosity.

-We pulled out the Christmas decorations yesterday and Max couldn't get enough of it all.  He was enthralled by the little strings of lights we hung up.  He also sat for nearly an hour and pulled out each ornament one by one.  I am grateful that I get to teach my children about Christmas and see it through their eyes. 

I love holiday weekends.  Does Monday really have to come?

A taste of home.

What makes for a nearly perfect weekend? 

For us it includes:

Family visitors from SLC.

Seeing a little sis who's willing to sacrifice a college weekend to spend time in Holy Toledo.

Going to the zoo all by yourself with Pops.

Warm enough weather in November that allowed for golf and some walks in the park.

Trains...both the kind you can play with and the kind you can eat!

 

And of course...eating out!

Thank you for coming!!  We loved everyone second of it.  The only thing that could have been better would have been having the whole Morg-A-Tours group together!  What do you say we do that in about 4 weeks?!  Can't wait.

Curious

At 12 months old this little man is interested in everything, except my camera.  He will look at, taste, touch, grab, and examine anything he can find.  Whether it's gravel, dried up dead worms, old m&m's, or dryer lint, Max wants it in his view and in his hands!  However, when we pull out a camera he will not look at it... for even a second.  He shows no interest whatsoever.  So, trying to snap some 1 year-old pictures of this little rascal presents quite a problem.

I really put Eric to work yesterday as we tried to conquer the impossible and capture some pictures of Max for his birthday.  I so wish you could have seen the stunts Eric pulled while begging for Max's attention.  He danced, he sang, he teased, he blew spit bubbles.  You name it, Eric did it.  Max must have pitied his poor old dad because he looked at the camera a few times and let me capture a handful of cute smirks. 

12 months is such a fun age, definitely exhausting, but totally fun.

Celebrate!

Max knew that Friday was his day. Somehow he understood that he was the birthday boy. Maybe he clued in because I let him go to town on a sucker before it was even 9 am.













































Or perhaps he figured it out when Sam sang nearly 200 renditions of "Happy Birthday" to him...before 9 am. Whatever it was, Max knew that Friday revolved around him and he loved every second of it! He woke up happy and stayed that way the whole day.

Sam was super excited for Max's big day and was more than willing to help with the birthday preparations. During naptime, Sam and I worked on Max's birthday cake. Sam of course had to make his own cake for Max. He worked on his masterpiece for nearly an hour. He was thrilled with the outcome and called it "A Killer Whale Cake."

And here's my attempt. I so needed the expertise of Kelsey M and Jimbo, but I did the best I could. (It's a dinosaur, if you couldn't tell)

Eric's schedule the last 2 weeks has been more than crazy. So, I was thrilled on Friday to get a text from him in the afternoon saying that he'd be home by 5:30 pm! So, Sam, Max and I rushed to get everything ready for our little birthday party! The cakes were decorated, the pizzas were made and ready to throw in the oven, the balloons were blown up, and the birthday boy was excited!

Well, 5:30 came and went...no Eric. Six o'clock came and went...no Eric. Then 6:30...no Eric. I was beginning to worry he wouldn't make it home at all.

But at 6:45 he called and walked in the door 10 minutes later. Phew. We were thrilled! (is all of this unpredictability what residency will be like? i hate it!)

We had such a fun night together.

Max didn't dig right into his cake like I thought he would. Instead, he carefully picked each M&M off his mini-dinosaur; and savored them one by one.

And I don't know who was more excited about Max's new lawn mower...the birthday boy or his older brother. But Max has made it very clear that this new toy is HIS. He just loves it!

Max is definitely a fan of birthdays. His day was wonderful!!