--- a/docs/Makefile
+++ b/docs/Makefile
@@ -53,14 +53,12 @@ cleancache:
 
 notebooks:
 	@echo "Generating notebooks from examples/notebooks folder" 
-	$(TOOLSPATH)$(NOTEBOOKBUILD)
+	$(TOOLSPATH)$(NOTEBOOKBUILD) $$PWD/../examples/notebooks
 
-html:
+html: notebooks
 	# generate the examples rst files
 	@echo "Generating reST from examples folder"
 	#$(TOOLSPATH)$(EXAMPLEBUILD)
-	@echo "Generating notebooks from examples/notebooks folder" 
-	$(TOOLSPATH)$(NOTEBOOKBUILD)
 	@echo "Generating datasets from installed statsmodels.datasets"
 	$(TOOLSPATH)$(DATASETBUILD)
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b html $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/html
