It started when Owen was roaming around the kitchen looking for something to entertain himself. Even though he's less than three feet tall, he somehow manages to reach all the way up on the counter and grab whatever he likes.

Oven mitts, for example.

Max, on the other hand, got to enjoy the fruits our our collective inability to resist buying him a new jacket.

We had a coupon! How could we resist? Just look at it!

Once the boys were finished showing off, we took them out for a Christmas party at their school. Sadly, not many of the photos turned out, but we did get a couple shots.

Owen thinks Max's classmates are funnier and funnier as he gets bigger and bigger.

Max borrowed Santa's chair for a bit before the big guy arrived.

Max was very hesitant to even get close to Santa, much less sit down on his lap. Thankfully Santa had a very kind assistant who let Max be a big helper and bring Santa a sip of water. After that, he seemed more receptive to the idea. We actually got a great photo of Max grinning on Santa's lap, a pretty good one of Max grinning and Owen being somewhat happy, and a fantastic one of Max grinning and Owen screaming. Unfortunately we don't have the photos yet, but we'll get them soon and hand them off to the grandparents to spread some Christmas cheer.

The next day we took another trip up to Sherman for a quick visit with the cousins and grandparents. Max took advantage of Uncle Steve's availability to request some time out in the yard looking for bugs.

If you look veeeery closely you can see the pill bug crawling on his hand.

Owen spent much of the time doing what Owen usually does.

Don't mind me, just wandering around with something random I grabbed out of a toy box somewhere.

Before we took the boys in for their bath, Mimi decided to give Max a lesson in candy making. A little melted chocolate and some chunks of fruit, and it was off to the fridge for a brief cooling period.

He just sat there, quietly waiting for his candy to cool down and be edible.

His brother provided some moral support to make the waiting easier.

After that was all finished up, we whisked the boys off to the bathtub and readied them for the trip home. Before we could leave, Mimi had one last bit of fun for the boys.

Crazy bed!

It's one of those beds you can lift the head and feet on. Max enjoyed trying to jump on it to make it go back down.

To finish out the weekend, we took the boys out to the mall to buy some new shoes (Max's new ones make him go "super fast") and have a little snack. Max finished off his cookie before Owen did and thought it would be fun to go see what was happening on the ice rink nearby.

They were practicing shooting goals, which meant the pucks were hitting the glass right in front of Max. He found this hilarious.

Once we finished up there, we rushed out to a birthday party for one of Max's friends from school. First came the bounce house room.

He's getting to be an expert at these.

After that, it was off to another room where the kids got started in on the theme of the party.

It was a princess party, but they had knight costumes so the boys could have fun too.

This was after he earned his "accessory" for bravely surviving a round of musical chairs.

Max had a really good time running around, and even more fun swinging the party favor around in the car. We had a tough time convincing him that knights aren't supposed to hit people with their light-up swords. Eventually he relented and agreed that he was only supposed to hit monsters...and bears...because they're bad.

If you want to see the rest of the photos from this week, click here. Have a good week, everyone!