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!!

1 year

I really can't believe that a year ago today I was studying this little round face for the first time.

I loved Max's fuzzy brown hair, and that fact that he was born with full, chubby cheeks.

Can this really be that same little boy?

Time goes by much too quickly!

Max is sooo, sooo busy these days. I can't turn around for more than a second at time before he's emptied a cupboard or completely cleaned off a book shelf. He can make our little 2-bedroom apartment look like a disaster area in a matter of minutes. But I wouldn't trade that for anything.

Max is a sweet heart. He makes me laugh. He will smile and giggle at anything. I love his cute, huge front teeth. The way tries to use his voice all day long. And the fact that he is already a tease...just like Sam and Eric. I love how social he is and how he tries to get strangers' attention where ever we go. It's hard to remember what life was like before Max was around. He fits right into the Dockter crew.

Happy Birthday, Little Goose! I love you!

Halloweened Out...

Our week has been full of all kinds of Halloween festivities. From pumpkin carving, to pig racing, to trick-or-treating, to trick-or-treating again we are completely worn out!

Sam and Eric worked hard on their jack-o-latern. Sam knew exactly what he wanted to carve into the huge pumpkin he picked out. Can you guess what it was?

A whale of course! We have got to take this boy to Sea World someday.

We also did one of my favorite things...trick-or-treating in Perrysburg. Look at our cute bunch of trick-or-treaters this year! They all loved it.










We spent Halloween morning at Farmer Charley's up in Michigan. It was freezing, but we didn't mind because we almost had the entire place to ourselves. The boys loved feeding the goats, riding the train, watching the piglets race, and playing in the haystack maze. Eric and I loved it, too. It was the perfect place for a family to spend a fall day.

Sam really got the hang of the candy thing this Halloween. And Max did his best to keep up with his big brother, all while wearing a goofy duck costume and toting a bag full of loot. It's been so fun watching the boys enjoy this time of year! It makes me so excited for all that's coming up during the next few months...

Fall Colors

Besides the colorful beauty of the trees this fall, we've been seeing a plethora of color all over poor Max's face. Here's his most recent colorful bruise:

His sweet face met the corner of the wall just as we were walking out the door to church on Sunday morning. It's quite the bump. I've been getting looks and comments from strangers all week. Poor baby.

Anyway, the leaves did not disappoint this year...they were gorgeous! They are now past their peak and I hate to see all of the color come to an end! I'm glad we ventured out one last time on Sunday to get a few more pictures while the trees were still so beautiful!

I love Ohio!

Halloween is in the air...

and we're loving it!

Toledo is so fun right now! There are so many great traditions that we look forward to every year! We enjoyed our ward's trunk-or-treat last night...it's always a favorite! As you can see, the boys went as wild animals and Eric and I tried to control them by dressing like zookeepers...sadly we forgot to get a picture of all 4 of us. We'll have to fix that.

Anyway, we're looking forward to a busy, fun, spooky, and candy-overloaded week! We can't wait...