Baby Jesus Sleeps in the Attic

 Addie loves playing with little figurines, so when we have holiday trinkets to put out, it’s like a whole new batch of toys for her!  Her two favorite Christmas decorations to play with are the ceramic snowmen and the nativity.  One day she was picking up her toys so that she could go upstairs to take her nap and I noticed she was laying all the snowmen down and putting them behind a picture frame.  She told me that they needed to lie down for their nap too… makes sense.  But then when we were about to walk up the stairs she quick turned to the nativity that is on her table and moved baby Jesus to the top.  When I asked her why she moved him she told me it was because he needed to take a nap too… again this made sense, but isn’t he already lying down???  So I then asked her why he needed to be on top for his nap, and she said, “Baby Jesus sleeps in the attic like me”.  It was so sweet that I couldn’t help but come down after nap and take a picture of baby Jesus sleeping in the attic.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving.  For the first time in our 8 years of marriage, we only attended one Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving day.  In the past, we would spend two hours with each family and always end up wishing we had more time to visit (and eat!) and end the day feeling exhausted.  So this year (keeping the limits of a 3 year old in mind) we spent Thanksgiving day with the Corbett family at Uncle Brent's.  The food was delicious, and the company was even better.  I got to spend lots of time snuggling with little Mikko and Addie had a blast playing with Noah, Taylor, Avery, Braden and Maddie.

Max's First Thanksgiving

After a relaxing Friday (the only black Friday shopping I did was online!) and Saturday, we went to my parent's house to celebrate Thanksgiving Engstrom style.  The food again was delicious and we enjoyed spending time with Eric who is home from California and Great Grandpa Wes and Great Grandma Audrey.  Addie enjoyed being the center of attention and Max got lots of snuggles.  It was especially fun to see Wes scoop up Max and cuddle with them... there is nearly a century between the two of them!

Wes and Max

We have so much to be thankful for this year, especially two beautiful, healthy children and a wonderful and supportive family.  Thank you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

8 Months Old!

Where does the time go???

Cousin Mikko!

Mikko, Addie, and Max

On November 16^th we welcomed the newest Corbett into the world… Mikko Steven.  He came a little late, but was well worth the wait.  He is healthy and very sweet!  Addie was so excited to meet him and even keeps talking about Mikko and how Max should share all his things with him.  The newest Corbett Generation is now up to 4… I wonder how much longer until they out number us???

Our Little Canary

I came across this video recently and realized that I hadn't done anything with it!  Brian recorded it on August 6th, and all I can think of is how much Max has changed in the past 3 months...  I can't believe how fast the time is going by!  

Halloween 2011

Addie decided about a month ago that she wanted to be a butterfly for Halloween.  She and I had a fun time finding the pieces to her costume and even doing a little costume creating ourselves!  And thanks to Grandma Dayna, Max dressed up as a zebra!  

The kids got a lot of use out of their costumes since Halloween turned into a 3-day celebration this year!  It started on Saturday night with our 4^th annual Friends’ Halloween Party.  Max had a fun time playing with some “big boy” toys (I think a truck or tractor may be in order for Christmas!) and Addie had a blast making finger puppets, digging through pumpkin guts for prizes and playing hide-and-go-seek. 

Addie, Max, Mason, Henry, Cooper, Ava, Liam, and Jack!

Then on Sunday we went to the Zoo Boo at Como Zoo.  One of my coworkers gave us tickets to this great event, and I expect that we will make this an annual outing for our family.  Addie had fun running around and looking at all the character boards and costumes while Max just sat back and took it all in.  I think the highlight of the evening for the little girl in me, was riding on the carousel!  Every time we go there it seems like it isn’t open so we were quick to take a ride when we saw it was up and running.

Finally Halloween arrived!  We had our friends, Angela, Nick, Hazel, Debbie, Jake, and Helene, over for dinner and then headed out as a group for some trick-or-treating.  Addie was so excited and sprinted from house to house.  She even braved the “scary” house down the street with excitement.  It was so much fun watching her run around the neighborhood with our friends and neighbors with pure exhilaration.  This was definitely the highlight of the weekend for us as well!

Max's First Halloween!

Addie, Hazel, Max, and Helene

7 Months Old!

Our little guy isn't seeming so little anymore!  I can't believe how fast he is growing and how big he is getting!  Max is now sitting up on his own and is officially crawling!  We knew he was getting close to being mobile, but are still quickly trying to baby-proof our house once again.  Another new "skill" is that Max is starting to sign!  We started noticing him signing "milk" this weekend... it's so cute, he takes his fist and turns it left and right and just lights up when we recognize what he is asking for.   No stats until the 9 month check up, but our growing boy is eating and loving all the new foods he tries... keeping up with him is the hard part!