Happy Halloween!

We had a great time celebrating Halloween this week. Max had fun at school where they carved pumpkins, sang their Halloween songs and got to bring home their little bags of treats. At home, we carved two of our five pumpkins. Max wanted his to have a scary mouth with big, sharp teeth. Brent carved an "F" in the smaller pumpkin that is Finn's. Around 6pm, we went outside to meet up with the neighbors, Max in his Batman costume and Finn as Batman's buddy Robin. Soon thereafter it began...Max and Luke led the pack of 10 or so kids around the court and scored an enormous amount of treats. The boys were so excited it was difficult to keep up. Finn wasn't into it though. He pretty much cried from the start and was much more comfortable hanging out in his stroller with some milk and just watched as the other kids ran from house to house, trick-or-treating. As always, it was fun but crazy. Another Halloween celebrated on the Court with our great neighbors. Here are some pictures of the fun event!

Finn is now a little over 14 months old. He has ten teeth and two more breaking through. New words are added to his vocabulary daily. Some of the newer words are; "hi", "cheese" (when posing for photos), "patience" (when we sign the word patience which he has little of..), "happy" (when wishing GiGi happy birthday today!), "doggie" (for when he sees a dog but also when searching for his favorite doggie blankie). He tries to meow like a cat when he sees one. Our little guy is trying so hard to express himself with words and becomes so frustrated when we don't know what he wants and needs. Soon enough, there will be more new words mastered. I don't ever want to forget how he sounds and looks and feels at this age. They way he runs towards me with his open arms, calling out "mommy, mommy" and hugs me so hard. The way his laugh sounds and how he loves to play peek-a-boo. The way he screams out loud when he disagrees with you, wines and squirms when he is on the changing table, hating to get dressed, undressed or his diaper changed. The way he places his head on your shoulder, holding onto his doggie blanket and lays down for bed without a sound. He is such an amazing little boy.

On Saturday before Halloween, Max and attended a party at Leo and Lily's house. Leo is a friend from Central Nursery School. We baked pumpkin-shaped cookies with black sugar sprinkles to bring to the party. The weather was amazing, Brenda and Lars' backyard looked great with all the decorations. We had a great time!

GiGi and PopPop visited with us earlier this month (October 20 through 23) to hang out with us and to celebrate Brent's birthday. Brent and Dom played golf at Wente. On Brent's birthday, we spent part of the day in Half Moon Bay at a pumpkin patch. We lucked out, since it was Friday, it was empty at the patches and no lines anywhere. The kids had such a blast! They visited a petting zoo, went pony riding and Max rode a big, huge slide. We also checked out the pumpkins, of course. We enjoyed lunch at Half Moon Bay brewery and went for a stroll on the beach. Thereafter, we drove to Santa Cruz to visit Scott, Amanda and Masao and Brent received his birthday gift which was hidden in Scott's garage. Brent loved his new surf board! I think he had a pretty good birthday. I have so many photos from our pumpkin patch visit and promise to upload some soon. If I can only choose a few..

Here are some photos from late September to early October including some of Max and his mohawk hair-do, Finn and his huge blue eyes and Brent installing our new wine fridge and cutting board station.

Finn in his new bib (referring to Uncle Todd!) - gift from GiGi & PopPop