Happy 4th Birthday, Max!

WOW!  Look who turned 4 years old!  I can hardly stand it!  Max had a great birthday!  He was lucky enough to have not just Mommy and Daddy to celebrate with, but Grandpa Tom, Auntie Amy and Auntie Becky too!



Auntie Paula sent balloons which were a HUGE hit for Max!

 

Max showing us his 4 digits!  He's such a big boy; I feel like he grew into 4 just in the last couple of weeks!



Max gets so many hugs and kisses!  Look at the cheeky grin on his face as he plays hard to get with his adoring Auntie Becky!  It was so special to be close to some aunties and have them share in our celebration. 

Best Friends:  Auntie Becky and Auntie Amy give Mama some hugs!  SOOO love these ladies!.... and they ADORE Max.  So cute!

Max was also super lucky to have Grandpa Tom here for a few days to celebrate the bit FOUR!  And, of course, Max had to show Grandpa his favorite place to hang out: The Goleta Depot.  Train rides are so much fun!

are you having fun Grandpa?

Tommy and Grandpa Tom.  Tried to get 3 generations of Rowell men, but it wasn't happening.  We still have a few more days for visiting, hopefully we can capture all 3 cuties pies.  (and see the crazy genetics of how they pretty much all look alike. )




I just had to add this great picture. Daddy and Max sent to Mama while in Chia to cheer me up. I just love it!

 

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 I'm a bit behind on my blogging, so let me try to catch you up.

Christmas was so wonderful this year!  Max was soo into it and really loved the season... and presents!  We're missing a picture of Santa this year because Max was having nothing to do with him. He was only interested in admiring Santa from a far.  Maybe next year.



Max's Preschool had a super cute Christmas pagent.  Lots of little kids singing Christmas songs.  It was totally adorable.  Max was very interested in the Christmas tree where he was standing.  He made kept looking at me and pointing to the presents under the tree.  

Singing Jingle Bells

 

Mama, Daddy and Max after the show.

Deckers had a fantastic Christmas party!!  We even had snow, in southern CA!  They really did it right, Santa came with his reindeer and sled.  All the kids were so excited.  Max was interested in Santa, but afraid at the same time.  He had to keep a safe distance.

Making Christmas cookies at the party.

Nothing says Christmas like an ice sculpture of Lucky the Penguin.

Christmas morning, as you can see by the bed head.  Buzz Lightyear was a big hit.  Max had been asking for Buzz for quite some time.  Glad Santa thought he was good enough to get him.

Max loves his Thomas the Train pillow from Grandpops.

And what fun would Buzz be without Woody?

Mama loving my Maxi boy!  So much joy this Christmas.  I still can't believe how BIG this child is getting.

Max and lots of cousins!  He LOVED having the entire tribe to play with!

Fireman dress up from Uncle Dave, Aunt Shelly, Madi and Bryce.

Cool new flashlight from Uncle Patrick and Antie Yvonne.

Max and his love, Kendyll.  She was so great with him.  The two of them were like 2 peas in a pod.  Hard to tell who enjoyed each other more.

Oh yes, 2011 will be known as the UGG Christmas!  Mama LOVES her new job.  :)

Just so happy with all the family and attention!

Tommy and Dad .... two of my favorite men on the planet!  May Max grow up to be just as wonderful as you are!

This is my favorite!  These two were stuck together like glue.  I loved watching them together; having sooo much for.  Truly wonderful.

So, we learned how to play "Blurt" with the "loud family".  It was a crazy fun game, but people are nutty.  You really have to YELL your answer out.  Tommy and I were just saying it in our normal voice, by the end, we were screaming too!

and much to everyone's dismay, Tommy and I won the game!!

After a looong, action packed day... it's time to snuggle.  Mama's favorite!

Now it's back to adjusting to winter in California.... I think we're doing pretty well.

Big boy!

Our "little" Max is getting soooo big!  He has grown so much just since we left Idaho.  He fast, strong, and often doesn't realize his own strength.  He has to burn lots of energy everyday.  Daddy and Max go to the 'big park' down the road from our house all the time.  Max now does his 'stretches' on the monkey bars because he's seen Daddy do the same thing.  Sooo cute!

Part of being such a big boy, is our new big boy bed!  This was sooo exciting!  No more crib.  We always joked that he would stay in the crib until he figured out that he could climb out.  Well,  he never climbed out, which is good.  But since we moved from Idaho, he's been wanted to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed.  So, we knew it was time to banish the crib and get the big boy bed.  Gotta love Craig's list....we got an awesome deal.  Now Max loves his room even more and doesn't fight at all when it is time for night nights.

Some fun at the little park in our apartment complex.  Sporting some cool UGG, doing some hard work wear testing. 

Halloween



It was a Wow Wow Wubbzy Halloween for Max. I was surfing on line and looking at cosutmes when Max saw this Wubbzy costume on the side nav bar.  He knew then, that was what he wanted.  Cutest Wubbzy you ever did see! 



The class took turns showing their costumes to their friends.  Max thought this was great fun!



What a fun group of 3 and 4 year olds!



The children did a parade through all the different classrooms.  Super fun stuff.  You can tell my the cheeky smile on Max's face.



Willow Springs had a fun little Halloween party.  Max was over being Wubbzy at this point and went skelator.  He was orignially freaked out by the goodie table.  The candy bowl had a motion detector hand.  Max was amazed!

A visit to the pumpkin patch.  SO cute!  Just wanna eat him up!



More fun Max stuff

Max has been having all kinds of fun wear testing product from Mommy's work. I love this little fashion photo of him testing some fancy UGG slippers. Funny that you'd need sheepskin in Southern CA .... but he loves them.


These Teva Mush sneakers are his new 'go to' shoe. They are flip flops on the bottom with a sneaker upper. He LOVES these shoes ! He tells me he can run and jump very fast in them.


Max got his first bicycle! It's a balance bike; so there are no pedals. Mostly he walks his bike around right now, but he's learning to sit on it and push with his feet. It's all so very exciting!

This is after a very good day on the bike ... totally just crashed out on the floor for over an hour. So funny!

One of the other super fun things about where we live is the Railroad Museum right around the corner. They have these super cool mini trains that we can ride around. We go here a LOT! You just can never get enough trains if you're Max.


Max and Daddy having fun at Goleta Depot.

The best recent fun thing was a visit from Auntie Paula! Max just loved having being all chatty with her and playing. Auntie Paula has taugh him to say, "Toot toot ...hey ... beep beep!" Pretty funny.

Awesome August

It has been a totally awesome August! The boxes are finally unpacked in our new house in Goleta, and it's starting to feel more and more like home.


Max is having a blast, becoming a true California. We were lucky enough to have Max's cousin, Bobby, come out to visit from Texas. Max loved having him around as he was a terrific playmate.



Bobby was so good with Max! He got right in there and played trains, wrestled and all that kind of "boy stuff".





I think Bobby enjoyed himself as well. Who knows, maybe UCSB is in his future. Either way, it was super fun to have "cousin time". Come on back soon!


Deckers Family Picnic



We went to our first Deckers Family Picnic at the Santa Barbara Zoo! WOW! What a BLAST! The company rented out the zoo, so from 4pm-7pm, the entire zoo was ours! There was a great BBQ and all kinds of fun activities and games for everyone. Couldn't have had a better time.


Of coarse, our favorite part of the zoo is always the train! Max and Daddy are excited waiting for our turn to ride. Which was free for Deckers... woohoo!


Boy, we sure do get very excited about riding the train. It just never gets old!

Max got his face painted for the first time. There were so many to choose from, but Max chose a basketball. Such a boy!

face paint!

There was also a huge blow up slide, jumper thingie for the party. Oh boy, that was a scream! Max was all over that thing.

The slide was super fast and Max loved every second of it. He must have gone down that thing a hundred times.

Coming from N. Idaho, this just made me laugh. This is how California does sledding: astro turf and a cardboard box. The irony here is, we tried to get Max to like real sledding, with snow and all while in Idaho. He was never really interested in it and normally would end up crying.

But, California sledding, in shorts and barefoot, is an entirely different story! Now, that is fun! Max was going down that hill like there was no tomorrow.

It's even more fun when Daddy goes down with you! Seriously one of the best times I've had in a while. What a great party!

Grandpops!

Grandpops came to visit for a few days. Max was in his glory! Grandpops is a complete push over when it comes to this kid... and Max capitalizes on it. I just love to watch the two of them together. Such mutual admiration.

We had fun exploring the Mission.

And Max was stoked to swim with Grandpops in the pool. Grandpops was such a good sport; he got totally waterlogged as Max just continued to play... and splash!

St. Raphael's Preschool

We're most excited about starting preschool again. We found a great place close to home and Max is thrilled to be back to school. He was also particularly excited about his new Ugg boots from Mommy's work. He is such a California boy already .... Ugg boots and shorts. I just love it!

Max's favorite things about school are: musical instruments, basketball, playground, lots of kids, and trains to play with.