Max has become my little helper. He helps me unload the dishwasher, pick up his toys, and all sorts of other chores I need to do, Max is usually close behind to help me out. The one chore I don't like him helping with is the laundry. He always takes the clean clothes out of the basket and throws them all over the floor. He thinks it's hilarious, I want to scream.

Yesterday I was picking up the clothes he threw out of the basket and turn around to find him in the dryer. Yup, crawled right in there to get the "boas". Naturally I made a mad dash for the camera to get this documented, hopefully I didn't laugh too hard to encourage this behavior in the future. At least he can't get the door open by himself.


Someday he'll be folding clothes like a pro!

Goodbye to 2009!

Randy and Ashley came over for New Year's Eve and the four of us spent the evening playing Wii. Ashley and I were kicking the boys' butts at bowling so we had a great end to the year! But the best part of the evening was dinner; Dusty made steak, lobster and cheesy potatoes. I don't know how I ate so much.

Uncle Randy made sure Max got to see the lobsters before going to bed. He didn't really know what to think of them, but he didn't have a problem touching them!

Daddy getting Rory ready to go to sleep.

2010 started out with a bang. That morning Rory decided that she no longer needed Max or I to help her roll over and just started doing it on her own. I haven't been lucky enough to see her do it yet, but Dusty said she was doing it all morning while I was still in bed. You'd think that would be enough of an accomplishment for the day, but Rory had more in store for us!

Randy and Ashley watched the kids for the afternoon and evening and they got Rory giggling! Dusty and I got home too late to try to get her to do it for us but we are both looking forward to hearing our little girl's laugh - apparently it is really adorable.

My exciting start to the year is that I finally got a minivan! Yup, I'm that mom now! Needless to say I am very happy, and Dusty is very unhappy, although he does see the benefits to having the van. He keeps saying he is going to go into the business of installing sliding doors on SUVs like Suburbans and that he'd make millions since so many parents want sliding doors but don't want minivans. We'll see if he actually ever does that!

2009 was an interesting year for us. We had triumphs and turmoils galour but we've survived them all. I hope 2010 is a bit less uneventful!

This is my second post on Christmas. I suggest starting below with Christmas Eve and then reading this post on Christmas day to follow chronologically.

Christmas morning was a new tradition for us. We stayed home and opened presents from Santa and ate delicious eggs benedict that Dusty made. Santa even brought Dusty a present, the new Jay-Z CD.

Max woke up and found a new John Deere tricycle waiting under the tree for him. He was very excited and climbed right on it. Of course he wouldn't sit still for at least one cute picture of him on it but I guess that is a good thing. He is a bit too short for pedaling but it will be perfect come spring. He currently just climbs on and off of it and dumps the back over and over again.

We then proceeded over to my Grandma's home for gifts and food. Of course GG had frosted cookies which means a big mess with my little man. Luckily Grandma was willing to keep track of him while he ate them.

Bopa was kind enough to dress up as Santa and hand out the gifts. Max wasn't into sitting on Santa's lap but he was more than willing to help unload the gifts from the bag. Rory was perfectly happy sitting with the fat man in the red suit and posed nicely for pictures. Yep, she's going to be my beauty queen!

Tara got Dusty and Dad special hats for Christmas. Max was terrified of them so they didn't get to wear them long, but Tara was happy she got a picture with them.

It was a very exciting Christmas. The kids make Christmas special in a whole new way and its fun living the season through them. Here's to a great end to the year, and looking forward to what 2010 will bring!

I have too many pictures to share, so I'm going to have to do at least two blog posts to get as many pictures up as I can. We'll start with Christmas Eve.

We started out at Joe and Bridget's home in Stillwater. Luckily it really wasn't a bad drive as all that snow that was forcasted just didn't show up. We had a great time and found out that purple was the color this year! It's become a joke that the last few Christmases almost all the women end up wearing the same color, and this year was no exception as most of us were in purple. We naturally had to get a picture of this and then decided to take a sassy picture for our good friend Don who lives in Miami. He'll love our Christmas picture for him!

We then proceeded to Annette's home for the evening where most of Dusty's family congregated. They brought back out the pinata game since we finally had some little kids big enough to hit it. It was so cute to watch. Jody helped Rory get in a swing.

Lyla was just a ham as she would hit the pinata and then turn and smile at everyone that was cheering her on. Naturally both her and Max got very upset when their turns were over.

Max even went so far as to hit his auntie Rosie for taking the bat away. It was very naughty but so, so funny too. Luckily no one was laughing loud enough over his crying to encourage that behaviour. Max did get in quite a few good hits though!

I also had to get a picture of Max with Brayden since the two of them looked so handsome in their sweater vests!

Christmas Eve was very fun with Dusty's families. I am really looking forward to next year as both my kids will be big enough to run around and play with all the cousins!

Rory is 3 months old and I was finally able to get a picture of her big smile. She can really turn on the charm when she wants to and especially likes when you are giving her your uninterrupted attention. This is usually when she'll give you her biggest grins.

Max was of course helping me take Rory's pictures and I finally let him go up and pose with her too. Of course then he'll only look at "baby" instead of me. Oh yeah, and he is quite the fashionista. He loves taking mom's headbands and hair ties and wearing them.


They are a handful at times, but then I look at pictures like this and I wonder how I got so lucky!

We celebrated Christmas with Dusty's siblings and parents on Saturday. It was a great night with 20 lbs of crab leg, steak, and of course some beverages. Isn't my little girl adorable in her Santa outfit? Yes, Katie is cute also.

Max riding the Barbie tricycle we got Lyla. Yeah, he spent the evening on that bike, good thing Santa has decided to bring Max his own tricycle on Christmas Eve. (And even better that he can't read this to find out in advance!)

Suzanne and Curt with all the grandbabies! From left to right, Oliver (4 days), Lyla (17 mos), Max (19 mos), Allison (2 yrs), Rory (3 mos).

Dusty and I in our Christmas finest. Nothing says Happy Holidays like a Santa tie and Christmas sweater!

We had a great time and it was a perfect way to start out the holidays by having a relaxing evening with family. The kids were up way to late but of course there was too much going on to even consider going to bed early. I hope we have as much fun for the rest of the holidays as we did Saturday, because that is going to be hard to beat!

Oliver William Wirth was born December 16th, at 7:52p.m. He weight 8 pounds and 4 ounces and was 21.5 inches long. Here's a picture of Ed, Katie and Oliver at the hospital.
And proud Grandma Suzanne with her newest grandson!
He has his Mommy and Sister's cheeks, his daddy's nose and slate blue eyes. He also has quite a bit of dark brown hair on his head. He is just beautiful - or handsome if you prefer that for a boy.

I'm so excited to add a nephew to my family! Allison, Max, Lyla, Rory and Oliver are going to have so much fun together as they grow up and it is going to be so much fun to witness it all. Congrats to the happy parents, Katie and Ed!