End of September

A family dinner outing to the newer Mod Pizza by our house, where we discovered that they have a free Pac-Man machine. Pretty much the coolest thing ever to the kids!

We went through some of Tyler's old stuff and he tried on his tae-kwon-do uniform. This guy's a third degree black belt! Watch out!

Family walk. I love being in the back and just seeing my family and feeling grateful.

Always fun to stop by the boardwalk - the kids could play there forever.

I don't even remember why I took this picture, except for these boys are adorable!

Making magna-tile towers and then knocking them down while Monka films in slow-motion kept the boys busy for quite a while haha.

We went through a phase where the boys insisted on eating lunch outside every day. 

Reading lesson with this cute boy. 

Millie came home with a poster where her teacher played with her name and she thought it was so fun she wanted to do it with our names too! 

A trip to the other park in our neighborhood.

Heidi and Wes came into town for a few days! It was so fun to see them. 

We went to the Woodlands to see Grammy and stopped by the children's museum while there.

We love to go to Mod in the Woodlands so we can see ourselves on the wall (above Max's head)! But who am I kidding? We love to go to Mod anytime. It's Mod.

The term "three-ring circus" came to my head while the kids were testing out hula hoops in Target one day. 

Playing checkers on the pig chairs at with Poppy Harris County Smokehouse. 

Millie went to a friend's birthday party and her mom sent me this funny picture afterwards. Such a goof.

Reading a story with Aunt Heidi. It was so fun to have them here for a few days!

Lauren's horse show

Aunt Lauren was in a horse show in Katy one Saturday and we got to go watch her! It was so fun. That's a whole world I know nothing about and it was cool to see a glimpse. The kids got to meet Lil' Sebastian too! At least, a look-alike.

Lauren and her beautiful horse Gilbert.

She did so well! 

Harvey happily sat with Grandpa and sweat all over him. Sorry, Grandpa.

The kids got to feed Gilbert an apple and pet him. We couldn't believe how tall he is. It was a fun afternoon! Way to go Lauren!

Little things

We went through a phase of playing a lot of Yahtzee and both Millie and Max learned to keep score. 

I've pretty much given up on fighting my kids when it comes to what they wear. I just smile and take pictures of their cute and funny combinations.

"I'll hold you, Harvey!"

Max loves to give underdogs.

We went to have lunch with Millie one Friday. It was Gigi's birthday and we were so glad she could come with us!

We went to Best Buy that evening with the kids all ready for bed and in their jammies. They love playing with the iPads there since they don't get to do that at home.

A Saturday visit to Grammy's. The kids love the view!

Chik-Fil-A picnic at the park and it was SO hot. 

Sweet brothers "reading" together.

I love it when Harvey randomly asks me to snuggle with him!

The boys loved checking out this cow that is in Texas Children's Hospital after a follow up appointment for Max's eye. These cows are a thing in Houston apparently.

Harvey has quite the shoe obsession and loves boots, even if they're not his.  

Millie drew a Transformer on a large sheet of butcher paper for Max's door. My favorite is the bottom where she wrote, "I actually did this." 

I finally installed that little Elfa drawer under the kids' bathroom sink. We've only had it since we moved in... 6 years ago.

Max has frequent playdates with his buddy Oliver and when they play quietly while Harvey's napping it's pretty much my favorite.

Traditional swinging around the poles on the way into the gym.

Max's bike accident

We went for a family bike ride one evening in September and it ended a bit dramatically! We'd stopped at the park but Max continued riding on the sidewalk that goes around the park. The bike tipped over and he hit his eye on the handlebar on the way down. The metal cut a perfect little semi-circle in the corner of his eyelid. I ran to him quickly but couldn't see where the problem was until suddenly it started bleeding like crazy. I held the cut together while Tyler biked home (never seen him ride so fast!) to get the car. Gigi met us to get Millie and Harvey and then Tyler and I took Max straight to the hospital. With the location of the injury we were nervous to go anywhere else. Max was such a trooper. He screamed for a minute after the initial fall but after that was totally calm and collected. I told him to keep his eyes shut the whole way there and he was so good about that. Such a brave boy.

It took a while for his eye to stop bleeding every time a doctor or nurse touched anywhere near it. It was hard to see exactly what was going on but they were confident his vision wasn't impaired. We were (are!) so grateful for that.

The doctor decided that all he would need was a couple of stitches. Because of the location they had two plastic surgeons do it. They put him under for the procedure so he would be still. Watching Max come out of anesthesia was so funny and cute. He seriously didn't complain or cry at all the whole time! At one point he was staring at me and he said, "What is that on your shirt?" I told him it was blood and he asked, "From who?" I laughed and said, "From YOU!" He got to watch the movie Wall-E in the hospital and thought it was such a cool movie. He refers to that night as his "eye appointment" and still remembers how they made him drink juice to make sure he wouldn't throw up after anesthesia. Funny boy.

Max slept with us for a couple of days so we could make sure he wasn't itching or picking at his stitches in the night. It was so interesting to watch his eye heal over the next couple of weeks! The first day or two it was SO swollen and goopy.

Oh and I forgot to mention that one of the awesome nurses gave Max this little monkey because he was so brave. She said he was the most brave and calm boy she'd ever seen! We were so proud of him. He named the monkey Fork. He came up with this while still a little loopy so we were surprised and amused when he remembered and kept the name. Fork is still one of his favorite stuffed animals!

Max was curious to see his eye from time to time. It was interesting to see his reaction. He would shrug and say, "Okay, cool!" or something nonchalant like that. 

He also thought his black eye looked like an eye patch and he called himself a pirate from time to time. 

We had left my bike with the trailer on and Millie's and Max's bikes at the park that day and a friend of ours that lives nearby grabbed them for us so they wouldn't get stolen. A few days afterward we got them back and Max was anxious to ride his bike again. I wanted him to be safe but I also didn't want this to create a fear of riding his bike! So off he went, just down a few houses and back a couple times. No fear at all. He's amazing.

More eye healing pictures. Quite the rainbow!

This last one was from his first checkup with another plastic surgeon. The doctor was very pleased with how it healed. We are so thankful our sweet Max was able to recover from it and has nothing but a tiny scar and a cool story to show for it!