This time last year...

This time last year my mother-in-law was celebrating Thanksgiving at our house - it was the last time she was here. You could tell she didn't have a lot of energy and that she wasn't feeling 100%. BUT, that didn't stop her from helping me cook, playing endlessly with Max and anything else that was needed.

She passed away on January 10th of this year at the young age of 60. Don, Max and I spent her last two weeks with her and I'm so glad we had that time. She was a great lady and a wonderful mother to my husband. I miss her a lot and I am just so sad that Max won't be able to know her and know how much she loved him.

New camera and my secret

Yesterday was MY Christmas because my new camera came via the UPS man! Thanks to great recommendations from fellow bloggers, Diana and Kim, we decided to invest in the Nikon D40x. Well, I've only taken a few pics but I think I'm really going to love it! The quality seems to be so much better than my old cheap camera - of course, it doesn't take much to have better quality than the one that broke after 1 month of use.

I have to admit a secret - none of my family (husband included) or friends know that I have a blog. I got "addicted" to blogs when my friend started one to chronicle her adoption process from Guatemala. Well, I became hooked and thought maybe I would start one about my son, Max. I have been absolutely horrible about writing things down in Max's baby book so I thought maybe if I had a blog it would be easier to write cute and memorable things down (since I'm on the computer every night due to my "addiction"). Well, I'm still not doing it as often as I would like so I'm going to try and do better. But, back to my secret...I've been debating about whether to tell everyone that I have a blog. I mean - what if I want to complain about my husband not picking up his dirty clothes and working too late??? Do I really want him reading that? :)

Anyway, here are some pictures I took with my new camera. My niece, Lily, was sick with a 103 fever so I thought I would take a picture of her when she was actually quiet and still for more than 5 minutes! She's a sweetie!

Pics from Homecoming at Furman and Max's Birthday

Happy Birthday Max!

Well, my little 2 lb baby is 4 years old today! Hard to believe. We'll be celebrating tonight with family and, of course, it will be a Thomas the Train party. This is the 2nd year that Thomas has come to Max's birthday party - maybe next year Max will have moved on to something else. :)

Here's a picture of Max from the Meyer Center Trunk or Treat. Last year he was a doctor and this year we decided to go to the opposite extreme - show the bad boy side!

Dreaming of chickens...

So, Max crawls in my bed this morning about 6:30. We lay there for awhile and then we start playing and talking. Out of the blue he says "the chickens were biting my back." Of course, I had no idea what he was talking about so I said "WHAT?" Again, he said "the chickens were biting my back." Well, it hit me that he had probably had a dream. So, I asked him if the chickens were biting him in his sleep and he said "yes." He then said that "you picked me up and then Daddy came too." It was HILARIOUS!!!

Well, tomorrow is the big Meyer Center Trunk or Treat. Max is dressing up like a prisoner - ball and chain included! He's going to look so cute. There are about 40 companies coming to pass out treats to the kids so I will be snacking on candy for the next month - why do I like chocolate so much?

Booseum

Andrea and I took the kids (Max, Lily, Clay) to Booseum this afternoon. Booseum is a little Halloween "haunted house" that the Greenville Children's Museum puts on every year. Well, I hadn't really thought about what it would be like, but I sure never thought Max would be scared - WRONG! We're standing there listening to the "Pirate" talk and I look over at Max and his chin is just a trembling - it didn't take long before the tears started flowing. For the next 10 minutes he kept saying "I want to go bye bye." Poor little guy.

We met Daddy and Don at Corona's after Booseum. Daddy was a little confused today - he thought it was Halloween and went out and bought lots of candy to pass out tonight. Mom is in Texas, but it sounds like we need to get her back so she can keep him in line.

Max called in sick today

Max woke up in a quiet and blah mood with a runny nose and a few sneezes here and there. So, I thought we would just stay at home and play hooky. Well, we had a great day and I actually felt like a stay at home mom today!

When he got up from his nap we went to Toys R Us because I wanted to get some ideas for his birthday (November 3). Of course, he went straight to the Thomas the Train aisle and I finally pulled him away after about 15 minutes of staring at every train, bridge and tunnel. So, I took him around the store and pointed out other toys I thought he might like. Well, after about 5 minutes of that he wanted to go back to the Thomas aisle. When I said no he said he wanted to go home. So, it's either Thomas or nothing!