Last day of 2010.

Here are Dad and Max on the last day of the year.

I should have put together a big post on remembering 2010 for today!  Maybe I can do that tomorrow!

Max, playing with toy trucks in Buddy's new greenhouse.

Dad has put his strawberries in it already.

Lately it seems like Max is saying a new word every day.  Today it is "blue," and sometimes you can really hear the 'l' sound, which is so impressive!  He's also been working on "helicopter" and "Totoro."

Buddy likes playing with trucks too.

Maybe he's another natural born gardener.

Max has also recently learned to smile for the camera.

Playing on the scooters in the driveway.  Brian actually got these from his work because of some lawsuit for their patent or something.

Maya stopped smiling for the camera long enough to kick Joe from the fence.

Here's a picture Gabe drew:

This is Ultimate Aggregor from Ben 10.

My new camera has a "fireworks" setting.  I took several pictures of fireworks but they all look just about like this.  Max was not afraid of the fireworks at all, and I kept having to chase him because he was excited and running toward them!

Mud.

Max woke up eager to use his new word "raining" again.  But, it wasn't!

So I put on Totoro with its awesome rainy scenes, and he could use his word again.

Buddy needed to go build a gate on the back of the property, so he could get to the dirt he had dumped on the other side of it.  (Here's Max, sitting on the big yellow tractor, and also holding his toy yellow tractor.  He is a tractor fan.)

Gabe and Joe followed them to play in the dirt.

Three large piles of dirt with a high content of clay + 1 day's rain = guess what.

Sorry, Brian.  I asked Joe if those were his school shoes first ...

Their shoes were soon so caked with super-sticky mud that they didn't want to play anymore, and both just wanted to clean their shoes.

Did anyone notice how nice Fidget was smelling after this morning?

I taught them a few ways to get the mud off (the basketball goal idea did not come from me though).

Joe did such a nice job getting the mud off the outside of his shoes without getting them wet inside.  But when Gabe got the hose to do his, he totally wasn't paying attention and sprayed water all into Joe's shoe.  Joe got mad and went home.

Then, while no one was looking, Max went and picked up the still-spraying hose.

Gabe got his pay-back immediately.

But he enjoyed it a little too much.

Take that!

Now he could say "raining" again!

This was followed by a warm bath and a full apology to Joe.  (Sorry, Brian.)

Max says, "Raining!"

Max's new word today is "raining."  I told him it was raining this morning, and he repeated it!  He's been enjoying saying this word all day.  

He also made an attempt at "umbrella."

He and I went shopping today while Mom and Dad took Gabe, Joe, and Maya to a movie ...

They saw Tangled.  I guess Gabe liked it.  He said he did but didn't expound.

Max broke the statue of a child that's been sitting in our living room.  Who knew the head was attached to a long spike!  Eddie Izzard comes to mind ...

I have no good explanation for this photo.  This is the kind of goofy stuff that goes on in our house.  

Wanna hear Max say "raining?"

Yay for getting out of the house!

Hurray for warmer weather and the chance for Maxie to run outside!

This morning we went out grocery shopping ... yipeee!

Buddy went to work on the farm in Brenham again.  Max was so excited when he got back!

After Max's nap, Daddy took us out to spend some Chili's gift cards!  Max wasn't too sure about the food at first.

It's amazing how good black bean burgers are when you quit eating meat!  My post-holiday diet will be basically the same (no more burgers and fries, of course!), except to cut down on the vegetable oils, nuts/seeds, avocados and dried fruits that keep me holding onto these five pounds I don't like.

Gabe's burger was not black beans.  Converting him seems impossible.  The boys have been arguing about whether meat and milk are good for you, since I make an effort not to eat/drink them.  So I tried to explain the whole vegetarian thing to them in a simple, nonthreatening way, as unbiased as I could ...  Apparently I did a poor job because Gabe came back and told me that I'd scared Joe.  (Sorry, Brian.)

Max warms to the fries ...

Gabe gets bored ...

Max is all about the food, now that it's time to go!

Back home, we found Buddy working on his greenhouse.

He's always learning new things about gardening and homesteading, experimenting, and finding new ways to implement what he learns.  He has lots of projects!

These two are my biggest ongoing projects.  Goodnight!

The Ant-pire State Building is in Yew Nork City.

Hanging around the house on a cold, cold day!

Gabe and Joe seem to talk a lot about the Empire State Building (because of a video game, I think).  Except that they always called it the "Ant-pire" State Building.  The other day Gabe asked me, "How many people would die if they jumped off the Antpire State Building?"  I told him, "All of them!"  Then I pulled out the camera and recorded our conversation.  (Hopefully I can get that uploaded.)

So today Gabe was telling me that he now says "Empire" the correct way.  I congratulated him happily, then asked him if he knew where the Empire State Building was.  He said, "Yeah.  It's in Yew Nork City."

Some of Max's new words are "giraffe," "white," "eight," and he makes a very funny attempt at saying "cock-a-doodle-doo" that I need to get on camera!

I have a really bad pain in my right hip, and I think it started when I started having to dance this little guy to sleep again!  It happens when we sway to the right!  I think it is trochanteric bursitis ... but I'm always worrying when I get pains that it's going to turn out to be ovarian cancer.  I have to ask myself, Which is more likely?  And then try not to stress about it.  I've had to quit my exercise, and we have quit dancing at night.  I will go to MD Anderson on 1/13 for the mammo and breast screening, and 1/20 for the pelvic u/s and high risk ovarian screening.

Dan volunteered to work this week (when he would otherwise be off).  He's making extra money for it, though.  Hopefully it will be slow, because he's the only guy there!

Let's see ... I haven't left Rosehill Church Road since last Wednesday.  Ugh.  Tomorrow I have to get out!