Boo At the Zoo and Halloween

Well, I'm a little behind but better late than never :) So here is what we did for Halloween!

We took Mav Man to Boo at the Zoo at the Fort Worth Zoo the Saturday before Halloween. He had fun seeing the animals, eating popcorn and then playing some games to get Halloween prizes and candy. The weather was perfect!! I think the zoo is a little over his head right now, I think waiting a bit before we go back would be good, but he did have fun though :)

 Mav looking at (trying to run away from) kangaroos with Dad :)

Pointing out penguins!

  

  With mom and her favorite animal :)

Putting bean bags in a hat!

        

On Halloween, we went to Compass's Fall Festival. Mav had so much fun!! He got to jump in a bounce house, pet baby animals, and played some awesome toddler games! He got a lot of candy, but didn't really understand the concept of why he was getting the candy. He just wanted to continue playing whatever game he was playing. His favorites were anything with a ball, throwing bean bags and one game with water in a plastic pool... he had to drag him away from that one :) AG met up with us there, but Mav had to leave about 8:00 because we had preschool the next morning and he was getting cranky. But he looked adorable in his M&M costume mom made him! He didn't want to wear it at first, but once he realized other kids had costumes on, he was fine :)



Videos from the Compass Fall Festival!

Posing with mom and dad :)

We all had a wonderful Halloween weekend! We can't wait to see what he will be next year.. he probably will have an opinion next year on what he wants to be.. he is growing up WAY TO FAST!!! 

World Series and more Pumpkin Patch

Well, we have really been enjoying the World Series games (last night nearly caused me a coronary) but Mav has really learned to enjoy baseball! We watched one of the games at my parents house and Mav participated in the national anthem for the first time and tried to salute the military!

 He put his hand over his heart :)

Mav's attempt at saluting :)

For that game Ross got to go down on the field and hold the American flag since he is a season ticket holder. I know this was a big deal for Ross, Mav and I were so excited for him. We even saw him on TV! 

Ross is in the dark shorts looking to the left

When baseball isn't on TV we are still enjoying all our fun fall activities! We took Mav to the pumpkin patch again, once with AG and another time with Caleb. Mav loves going down the slide and trying to pick up all the heavy pumpkins. He then goes for the really small ones and throws them like they are balls :)

 My little flash of energy... can't even get him to look at the camera :)

 Beep beep!

 Walkin in the maze

 Family Photo Op :)

I'll have more pictures after the next couple of days.. we are going to Boo at the Zoo on Saturday and to Compass Church's Fall Carnival on Monday. Mav is going as a blue M&M for Halloween :)

Until then...

My future little chef :)

Hello hello :) Well last week involved some fun activities that showcased Mav's culinary skills! Last Tuesday, Lydia, Caleb and little Katelyn all came over to play. Mav and Caleb enjoying playing in the ball pit and outside. We all had a great time!! They also helped us make Halloween cupcakes! We had a blast playing and the kids liked putting sprinkles on the cupcakes. Mav also enjoyed eating the cupcake batter... just like Dad :)

Mav enjoying the batter :)

Then at preschool on Thursday, Mav's class got to make pumpkin waffles with Ms. Kim! I volunteered to help out in the kitchen so when Mav got there I got to go out and bake with him. He was a little confused when he saw me, but we had fun! He knew what the eggs and milk were and got to help stir the batter with the whisk. He helps me out in the kitchen quite a bit, so he was a pro! Then the kids got to sit down and eat the waffles. Mav really enjoyed it!

When he first saw me in the class.. :)

Stirring the batter

Listening to Ms. Kim

Were contemplating getting Mav a kitchen set for Christmas... but all I know is he loves to help me cook! If I'm in the kitchen, he wants on the counter so he can see what I'm making. I love that he is my little helper in the kitchen :) I look forward to baking yummy fall wnd winter things with him for the next couple of months!

2011 Buddy Walk

Time to check in again :) This week has come and gone quite fast, like most weeks with Mav now that he is SO active! This week he had preschool (they got to see a firetruck), Mom and Dad had date night, we all went to Buddy Walk and of course the Rangers are now going to the World Series! :)

Mav had a great time at preschool this past week! After school on Tuesday we went to Cupcake Bliss with Leslie and AG and had after-school cupcakes! On Thursday the firemen came to the school so the kids could learn about fire safety and more. Mav loved the firetruck! He also enjoyed the new sandbox his class gets to play in outside their room. They only had to get on to him for throwing the sand, imagine that! On Friday, Ross and I got to go on date night thanks to Grandpa, Mims and Aunt Mallory who came over and watched Mav for us. Ross and I went to Brio and to see 50/50. It was a great movie! (I cried!!) On Saturday we took Aunt Mallory to Buddy Walk in Arlington. Buddy Walk helps to raise awareness of Down syndrome and raises money to support the Down syndrome Partnership of Tarrant County and Mallory's school, Green Oaks School. 

We had a great time! Mav got to play games, go in a bounce house, we pushed him in the stroller for the walk and Mallory of course had a great time seeing her friends :)

Kristen, Mallory, Me and Mav at Buddy Walk

Mav playing in the rice pit :)

Bouncin' around!

After Buddy Walk, Gramps and Grams came over for lunch and to see Mav. We played outside and Mav showed off his t-ball skills. We had a great time! On Sunday Mav's Great Mimi and Papa Gene came into town. I got to meet them at Olive Garden and then we all went over to Grandpa and Mimmy's house once Mav got up from his nap. Mav loved seeing them and showed off all he can do now. He went swimming (yes in the chilly water, he didn't even seem to notice it was cold), went swinging, played outside, etc. It was a very special day! On Monday night AG and Eric came down to play with us and after they left Mav got to play with bath tub crayons I got him at Target. He loved them!

Playing in the tub, he colored everywhere!

Those are the highlights of our week so far, I'll post more next week. This week we will defintely be enjoying the cooler, fall weather and watching the Rangers. GO RANGERS!! 

MavJax Stats: 19 months

Ok well I decided to start doing a summary of Mav's stats like every 3 months or so. Height, weight, favorites, words, etc so we can look back and remember everything :) So here goes for 19 months!

Height: 31 inches
Weight: 23 pounds
Clothing: 12-18 month shirts, 12-18 month pants (barely), size 5 shoe

Words:
          Food: "ju" (juice), "dadoo" (water), "milk", "ice", "crunchie", "cheese", "cicle" (popsicle), "yuwee yuwee" (M&M), "golfish", "peas", "eonade" (lemonade), "nana" (popcorn), "cookie", "ice cream", "ioli" (ravioli), "anana" (banana), "o-ee-o" (oreo), "lemon", "apple", "hot dog", "ca-cake" (cupcake), "salami", "oipop" (lollipop),"een bean" (green bean)
          Function: "empty", "old", "too big", "too small", "stuck", "hold you", "up", "out", "roll it up!", "throw!", "nigh nigh" (wants to go to sleep), "eat", "no", "aye" (yes), "poo poo" (tell me he went), "all done", "bye", "hello", "uh oh", "yum yum yum" (after watering plants), "gentle", "bable" (breakable), "vroom vroom", "beep, beep beep" (backing up),"off", "on", "step step" (go up stairs), "throw", "pull"
          Things: "dog", "Yahtzee", "Hammy", "swing", "baseball", "bat", "GO!!!", "shoes", "socks", "bathtub", "bubble", "ball", "ballpit", "play-doh", "Target", "french fry", "video", "pumpkin", "orange", "blue" (normally the answer to most questions, besides "no"), "football", "gucka" (sucker), "candle", "diaper", "moon", "roller" (stroller), "snack", "thum, thum,"(jump jump), "stamp", "gymbo", "AG", "stick", "o-ee-o" (video), "cloud", "up" (airplane), "cyckle" (motorcyle), "Maverick", "dollar", "soap", "Aggies", "momma", "dada", "mimmy", "grandpa", "allory" (mallory), "necklace", "girl", "car", "side" (outside),  "nose", "eyes", "mouth", "chin","toes", (knows where bellybutton, ears, hair, arms, fingers are), "baby", "light bulb", "leaf", "pebble", "rock"
          Animals: "goat", "baa baa", "cow", "moo", "cat", "meow", "dog", "duck", "quack quack", "penguin", "elephant", "giraffe", "monkey", "lion", "panda", "bird", "tweet tweet", "turtle", "rabbit", "bug", "bee"

He enjoys watching videos of himself on our phones, playing with his tee-ball set, playing on his playground and rolling balls down the slide, swinging, throwing balls (or anything for that matter), dancing to music, playing with water, watching Momma cook, going "boom" on bed or in ball pit 

He is learning about time-out and goes every now and then. The whole time he is in there he says "no, no, no" (saying he wasn't supposed to do whatever he did wrong).

Favorites:
        Movies: Despicable Me, Rio
        TV shows: Yo Gabba Gabba, Wonder Pets, Blues Clues, Go Diego Go
        Food: cheese, M&Ms, mandarin oranges
        Toy: Balls, lion sucker, stuffed Brobee
        Other: Crocs

Sleeping:
Gets up around 8:30am and goes to bed around 8:30pm (now dictated by preschool schedule)|
Naps 45 min at school and 2 hrs at home (1 nap)

If I think of anything else, I'll update :)

Until month 21....

Yay for Fall! :)

As I am writing this entry, it is a brisk, windy 69 degrees outside! It is amazing! Ross, Mav and I have been enjoying this fabulous weather and ringing in fall with fun activities.

Let see, first off we fired up Mav's Kawasaki Power Wheels and he has been riding it in the street and in our house :) He hasn't quite learned how to steer it, but he definitely enjoys riding it! He calls it his "car".

Mav Man on his "car" sportin' his Batman shades

Riding in the street

Mav officially started his second month of preschool and he is still absolutely loving it! He is napping about 30-45 minutes and is eating all of his lunch. He tells me bye and just walks in like a big boy. This past week they got to have a pumpkin patch at the school, learned about the color orange and got to play in the "garage". On Friday, Mimmy and Aunt Mallory and I took Mav up to the pumpkin patch on Hall-Johnson to meet up with Annabelle Grace and her family. It was a bit hot, but we had fun. We went through the corn maze (where our kiddos held hands!), played in a old truck, took pictures, and had some awesome kettle corn.  We are gonna go back though when its cooler and maybe darker so we can see all the lights they have set up, go on the hayrides and see the petting zoo. 

 Sitting in the pumpkins

 Holding hands in the corn maze

  So cute!

Since the fall holidays are now upon us, I have gotten crafty thanks to pinterest and made an awesome wreath for my front door, hung leaves around the door way, set out some pumpkins and added a pennant banner to our mantel. I love fall and all the decorations just make it feel more like the holidays.

 Our "L" fall wreath

The festive fall porch, Mav even matched while coming out with an orange popsicle :)

Halloween pennant banner & our new photos!

Also, Ross and I celebrated our 4 year annivesary on the 6th. We went out to dinner at Tillman's Roadhouse in the Bishop Arts District in Dallas. The food was delicious! We had a trio of fries for appetizer, I had chicken fried steak for dinner (Ross had rib eye) and we had table side s'mores for dessert! YUM!!! Ross also surprised me with roses at our lunch at Celebrity :)

 My beautiful flowers!

Our table-side s'mores :)

Well, since the Rangers are in the playoffs life is definitely put on hold for Ross :) No, but it is an exciting time in Ross's sports world and Mav likes to cheer them on now too! He likes to watch baseball on TV and yells "GO!!!" and talks about the baseball and the bats. He is definitely going to follow in Ross's sports fanatic footsteps!

Rangers Ballpark in Arlington

Well, gotta get back to mom duties and do something productive while Mav is napping! Till next time! ;)

Girls Weekend & More fun with Mav

Hello blogland.. well since my last post I went on a girls weekend in Austin with my girlfriends from college. We had an absolute blast!! We had dinners at Manuel's and Z Tejas, got pedis and massages and of course bar hopped on West 6th. We had a great time catching up and hanging out! Ross and Mav hung out at home and watched Aggie football during their boys weekend. It was so hard being away from Mr. Mav, but we both did great!

 All the girls getting pedis :)

Gig 'Em!

This last week was Mav's 4th week of preschool already, and he is a pro! He walks in while telling me "bye" and has a great time with AG and his friends. He is eating his lunch, taking his nap (only 30 min right now) and learning so much! He knows the shape "circle" and the color "blue", and had his first Chapel on Thursday and learned about Zacheous. What a blessing Compass Preschool is... already helping us to form his relationship with Christ at 1 1/2 years! Also this week, we pulled out a gift Blake and Amy Denby gave him, a Little Tikes T-ball set! He is loving it!!! He has picked up on how to hit the ball really fast and has a blast with it! Its finally cooling off, so hopefully we can play outside more with it and not die of heat stroke. (I'm also going to charge his Kawasaki Power Wheels car this weekend!)

My future baseball player!

Other than that, I cannot wait for the month of October and the upcoming holidays! I have ordered Mav an M&M costume and thanks to Mimmy we have cute light-up pumpkins on our front porch (I need to add a little bit more stuff though). This next week I am going to attempt to make a fall wreath, if I'm successful I'll post pics :)  YAY for FALL! :)

Our happy pumpkins!

Grapefest 2011

Well this week came and went very quickly!! Mav had to be picked up from preschool on Thursday at 10:30 because of an upset tummy and I think the time has been in fast forward since then! :) But it has been a fun busy!

We met up with Joe and Mckenzie Comparin at Grapefest 2011 on Thursday evening and we had a blast! We ate some good food, drank some ok wine..(and I spilt a couple as well) and Mav and Mallory danced to music and petted animals in the Kid Zone. The weather was beyond perfect.. cool, breezy.. perfect autumn night!! Mav liked the Kettle Corn and wanted out of the stroller so he could run around. He is getting SO ACTIVE!! He does not like to be confined! But we had a great time and all crashed when we got home!

On Friday we met up with AGB and Leslie and went to a park in Euless and then to Fuzzy's. We have so much fun with them! On Friday afternoon, it started to get really dark while Mav and I were on the school playground and then all of a sudden, it started to rain!!! It has been so long since it actually, really rained here! We ran back to the house and Mav decided to play in the rain! He loved it! And got absolutely soaked! :)

Ross left to go to the A&M Game this morning so Mallory and Mav and I had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and then did some finger painting :) It was a bit messy, but we got some wonderful artwork out of it!

Now its nap time for Mav and I'm catching up on things at the house. We have had a wonderful weekend so far and can't wait for what next week brings us! We are so very blessed!

Blissful Momma

While I was busy Swiffer vacuuming my house, I thought it would be a great idea to add products, recipes, activities, etc that help me out so that I am a blissful momma! So my first product is the Swiffer SweeperVac! OMG! If I actually swept and then vacuumed my house I would first break my back and second it would take me 5 hours. With the SweeperVac I can clean my floors in under 30 minutes! 90% of my house is either tile or hardwood floors and  I have three dogs and of course my toddler. So the vac makes it a breeze to vacuum up dog hair and whatever Mav has decided to throw on the floor :) Who needs a maid? This thing is awesome!!! Now back to cleaning :)

Check out the Swiffer SweeperVac

Pilot Post :)

Alright well here goes nothing! I have finally figured out how to create a blog after many attempts and I have vowed now to blog for at least a year so I can create a scrapbook filled with my family's memories! Now that Maverick started preschool at Compass, I will have a little more time on my hands to chronicle our life's crazy adventures.

Mav sporting his A&M jacket in St. Louis! :)

We just returned from St. Louis visiting my god-sister Megan Janes and her husband, Brandon. They are expecting their baby girl in December! Maverick was great on the plane and an angel while we were there. However, he did pee on Ross on the flight there which was fabulous. He watched Despicable Me and Rio on the flights, played with playdough, stickers, and loved on Brobee. In St. Louis we hung out with Meg and B's neighbors who have a bounce house, Mav loved it! We are totally going to have to get him one for Christmas or something. We went to Eureka Days Carnival where I used the monkey harness on Mav for the first time, worked like a charm! Mav loved the carnival, he got balloons and a new ball and then we make S'mores with the neighbors afterwards. Mav loved their dog Franklin and giggled at him as he chased Mav around the house trying to get his cheese. We had a great time enjoying fall weather there and were sad to leave, especially because we were flying home on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 so we were a little apprehensive to get on a plane. But we can't wait to meet baby Ava!! Now back to reality (and 100 degree weather) here in Texas, third day of Preschool is tomorrow!!