Where have you been?

Ahem, I guess I mean where have I been?! Well I guess I have been busy chasing a one year old, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, working, resting, NOT getting on the internet, and the ongoing remodeling that is happening in our house! Well I am happy to say that projects are coming to a close. My eager to keep going husband is working on a new list of things to do: paint the living room, paint our bedroom and re-tile our bathroom. AAHHH! It's never ending!! Those projects will not be started immediately but he is on a roll and is eager to keep going. I am definitely not complaining, I am loving all the upgrades, just getting tired of the messes! Thanks Clark for all your hard work :) The basement is pretty much finished, we need a vanity and would really like to find one less than the ones at Lowe's/Home Deopt. We are patiently looking, after all the room is only being used for toys at the moment. Clark also laid new tile at the bottom of our stairs (was linoleum) and it looks great! I promise to post pics but I really want it to be a wow moment... so I am waiting for the couch to come in... ordered it today. Gonna have to wait 6-8 weeks.

On to more important things... Max.



A couple weeks ago Max and I took a trip to Great Grandma and Grandad's. We left on a Monday and stayed through Thursday. We had SO much fun hanging out with them, Aunt Becki, Brice and Rider. Brice loved to play with "Paw-Paw," Rider loved to eat and sometimes sleep, and Max loved to get into EVERYTHING. He opened every cabinet, got out every toy, found sharp objects and cut himself, crawled into empty end tables that Grandma cleaned out for such purpose, stole Rider's binky, and ate like a pig. Brice hung outside a LOT, ate lots of fruit, slept well on a blow up mattress, always let Max have the "car," got stung by a bee, took a nap on grandad's lap, picked okra, pretended to eat cherry tomatoes, and was a very helpful "big boy." Rider ate cereal, took bottles/boobs, got his binky stolen, slept, laid around, cried, was the only one held by Grandma, and was a peaceful sweet, cute boy. All in all it was a blast. We ate great food (catfish and okra!), learned to can tomatoes, shopped a little, and enjoyed the company. As long as we are welcome we plan to make these trips at least every other month. Enjoy the slide show pics!

Saturday we went to the NICU reunion at OPR. We saw a lot of our favorite nurses and a lot of the families we met last year. It was so amazing to see all the babies so grown up. Really we didn't get much chance to meet the babies while we were in the hospital, we spent a lot of nights in the parent room with the other parents. It was fun to see everyone in a MUCH better element and to see all the healthy kiddos. We met up with our great friends Michelle and Billy with Hunter for lunch at Friday's (yum) before we went. We miss them since they moved out to the country! We will never miss our time in the NICU but we met some amazing people and it was a great day to reconnect. Sunday is Biker's for Babies and while we no longer have our beatiful Harley we plan to go out, eat some pancakes, look at some nice bikes, and support a very important cause that made our 2008 summer have a pretty darn good ending.

Headed in, If you look close you can see Hunter, he looks so cute!



Max on Daddy's shoulder



Walking to Miss Kelli. We loved her!



I love his face in this picture. Hmmm, I think I remember her...



Playing in the ambulance



Moms and their boys



Boys playing



(I didn't take many pics after walked in. I wish I had one of Cassie, another fave nurse, because she is adorably 29ish weeks pregnant!)

Now that Max is 15 months old (+5 days) here is what's happening:

He is walking VERY well. Our only hold up is when he falls down he doesn't get back up. He will walk and walk and walk though for pretty long distances.

He has his first pair of Nike's. First Chief's hat. And a growing fall wardrobe.

Drinks from any kind of sippy cup. All milk and water, I'm mean and never give him juice. Sometimes he gets diet dr. pepper and coke zero, though :)

Eats fairly well, sometimes throws a fit until he gets what he wants. Just when I say he is picky he'll eat something odd like okra (he loved it). Finally ate red meat the other day- porcupine meat balls. They were pretty delicious!

Says lots of things. Lots that I don't understand. Sometimes I think he says "thank you," he says "da-ee" instead of "da-da," "mama" is heard minute-ly, please sounds like "chsske" and he smiles huge when he says it, "aahhuughha" means one of two things: "no that's not what I want, figure it out or I'll make the noise again" or "you guys made me mad and are going to let me have my way or go crazy." He instantly waves when he hears hi, bye or night-night. He understands bye-bye, hungry, eat, cookie, and milk. I'm sure there is more...

Has a "blankie," a brown and white striped one that I got long before he was born. In fact it may have been one of the first baby things I bought. He never really cared about what he went to bed with, besides his binky, and one night I put the blanket over my shoulder on the way to bed and he laid his head down on my shoulder and closed his eyes. The snuggling continued every time I would hold the blanket and he did it with anyone holding the blanket. Now we fight over who holds it because we want the snuggles!

Well, sorry for the "time off" but I'm back and with good intentions of being a better blogger. Enjoy the pics, I'm off to bed!

busy busy

Well with the exception of me fighting off the cold/flu symptoms at the beginning of the week we have been one busy and productive family!

Tuesday Clark and I painted our almost completely rennovated basement... I will show pics when it is more complete and... ahem... a little cleaner :) I also managed to get Max's closet cleaned out and his clothes organized. I washed all of his new fall stuff, packed away spring/winter stuff (yeah, a few months late), and picked out a few things to share with cousin Rider.
Wednesday Clark finished some touch up on the paint and I got down and dirty in the kitchen. Truthfully I did no cleaning at all, but lots of rearranging and organizing. You see, a few weeks ago we ordered a hutch for our kitchen with the hopes of moving some dishes over and gaining some much needed space for food. Well we received said hutch last week and got it all in place and decorated over the weekend. It was such a mess rearranging contents of cabinets but I am SO happy with the results. I moved some tupperware, baby dishes and plastic cups into a lower cabinet for Max to be able to play with. We now have some very organized pantry space and one pretty new addition to our kitchen. Here are some pics:





Today we didn't do quite as much, Clark slept in since he has to work tonight, I hung out with Max and fed him a huge breakfast, played, and then Max begged for a was forced to take a nap. We went and ate Thai food for lunch, bought a toilet at Lowe's, easily put Max down fought for another nap, hung a light fixture, made zuchini apple bread, made dinner, hung things on the kitchen wall, played some more, then put Max to bed without a hitch and listened to him cry for 25 minutes. Did I mention today was not an easy sleep day?! The good thing is once he fell asleep his naps were good. In fact I woke him up from his 2nd one because it was dinner time, and probably I woke him too late which made bedtime more difficult. Oh well, he can't be perfect all the time...? ha.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the week:

"Don't mess with Texas" I love this shirt!! We bought it about 2 weeks before Max was born, we took a trip to San Antonio. Who knew he would be here so soon after that trip?! Anyway, he loves to sleep in it and I love his bare legs!


Toys all around him, basically baby heaven.


Clark hates this picture, they are women's sunglasses. I think it's hilarious.


Fun times with daddy



Last but NOT least, a video of little walking Max. It is very hard to catch a 14 month old walking, so please ignore the poor lighting and the fact he is standing still the first half. He does take some very sturdy steps!

one step, two steps, three steps, fall

The days of crawling are still here. I think sometimes Max is practicing for Baby Olympics, specifically the 'crawl sprint'. However, walking is in full force around these parts. He lets go of an object and, instead of sitting down, takes 3-4 steps at least. He still isn't standing up on his own, he uses a prop, but he is getting sturdier and sturdier. He sometimes even uses small toys to help him stand up... I think he just needs to realize he can do it on his own. Enjoy the pics!


Hey mom!!!


Aren't I cute?


I'm going to let go!


I did it!!! Here I come...


Yay for me! (making car noises...aka raspberries... is a type of celebration!)


Time to go enjoy a relaxing night of TV and slumber!

lightning

It was like lightning... all the hours I spent editing different banners and just thinking it was a glitch in the system. Nope, the dang picture had to be saved as a jpeg file. Duh. Oh well, now you will be able to enjoy all my wonderful creativity!!! Pretty cute I think!!

So, first of all... yes, I do have some VERY exciting updates to give you. However, all I can think about today is some VERY sad things. I know this economy flat out sucks, but to be totally honest no one in my immediate group of family/friends has been too affected. Both of our parents, our siblings and our friends all seem to have recession proof jobs. By the grace of God Clark and I have about the safest (yet most dangerous:)) jobs possible. Thankfully, and I guess not so thankfully, people will always need safe streets and emergency health care. We have been fortunate enough to be only minimally affected by this recession. So, just today we found out someone close to us (will remain anonymous) is struggling a LOT. He is a single father trying desperately to save his house. Tonight we talked with a guy working on our house (more on that later) that a couple years ago ran an extremely succesful, million dollar business, making over 200k a year. Now, he works 80+ work weeks on odd jobs, again, to just save his house. To top it off, his wife left him 3 weeks ago. Did I mention he has 3 young daughters? What a struggle. There isn't really any quick fix for these people but it does make me pray even harder for an economy turn around. Or maybe lighting could strike and all there problems could go away (it worked for my banner trouble:)).

More sad, yet not economy related, news. A very good friend of mine from nursing school, Tiffany, lost her grandmother this morning. It was a peaceful passing and they all know she is in a better place, but I know her family could use some thoughts and prayers. A girl named Katie, whom I've NEVER met... only read about... had her baby a couple days ago. While pregnant she had a very life threatening battle with a brain infection and was in the ICU for days. Luckily she fully recovered and with no suspected complications to the baby. Well, her baby was born not breathing and possibly with no brain activity. I cannot even imaging what they are going through.

Ok, let's lighten it up...

MAX IS WALKING!!!!!! Well, it's not really as exciting as it seems all typed out in caps lock and bold and stuff. It's exciting, yes, but it's only a start. He will take consistent steps, maybe 5-6 from person to person or table to chair, etc. He does not make any attempt if the destination is more than he is in the mood for. Trust me, his mood does matter. For the most part he is an extremely happy kid, but he wants his way when he wants it. And oh, does he tell you about it. Tonight we went to Grandad-E and Grandma Dee's house for dinner. Max was in his high chair eating when Dee got home. He fussed until she talked to him and then he finished dinner. Immediately after he was through eating I took him to the bath tub. He was fine at first but as soon as Dee walked in he started flat out crying. I thought it was because I wouldn't let him stand up (he tends to fall and get black eyes when he stands in the bath tub, so I try and stop him) but I soon realized he was just throwing a fit. A fit. Because he hadn't yet been held by his Dee. Quickly I washed him off and gave him to Dee. He snuggled right in and was done with his fit. You know, right after he got his way. Spoiled? Make up your own mind.

So... at 14 months Max is...

Walking 5-6 steps at a time.

Saying "mama" "dada" "uh-oh" and "mmmmmaaa" (I think his attempt at his name) he also babbles a ton and sometimes sounds like "nana" or "baba" but I can't tell.

He is a waving fool. We took him shopping today and he smiled and waved at anything resembling a person. He does the whole arm flap version of the wave, I love it. I especially love any attempt at an impression of his wave from adults. Let me tell you- when a grown person flaps there arm up and down- it's weird. Keep this in mind when you are waving back at a one year old. On second thought, don't, it's keeping me entertained :)

He is still eating 3 meals a day with 3 sippy cups of whole milk. He is getting better at holding his own cup (ahem... his aunts will be glad to hear this:)) and does it about 95% of the time. He is still quite the eater and expands his menu daily. Blueberries, peas, peaches, muffins, pb&j, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, yogurt, green beans, cheerios, french fries, ice cream, teddy grahams. Not a fan of mexican, italian, or french toast. He'll be reformed soon enough, after all, he won't have a choice.

On haircut #2, which went far better than #1. He got the back and sides cut with clippers and it is shorter, which means less fuzzy, and so so so adorable. He got to watch a Baby Einstein and eat a sucker while he got his grooming. A really good plan because he sat perfectly still. He looks so grown up though:(

Napping and sleeping is unchanged, and for the record, amazing! He stays up until 7:30 or 8 and sleeps till 6:30 or 7. Sometimes 7-7 and sometimes 8-6. Morning naps and afternoon naps usually average 3 hours combined. I'm not going into any more detail to say what typically happens or how they normally work because I am superstitious. At least about sleeping schedules.

He still loves to play with cars, but has started expanding to other toys. He likes putting toys together and inside each other.

He can drink from a straw. Kind of a fluke, but he was playing with one of Clark's cups and was biting at the straw. Then all the sudden he got a taste of the yummy coke zero that was available. Now he is a straw drinking maniac, even has a straw sippy. What a big boy!!






And a few more of my fun "color splash" photos.





Hope the lightning bolt strikes you in a good way!! Good night!

fun with color

So, I am not a very creative person. I have a very big desire to be and sometimes I surprise myself. For example I like to blog and have been trying to revamp my blog for a while. I have thought about changing the title and even had a few good ideas. My problem is the stupid "banner." I am not exaggerating when I say I have likley spent 4+ hours working on it and everytime it looks ridiculous. Whenever the time comes that I figure out the glitch it will be a more generic name (so our family can grow... and no, I'm NOT pregnant). Ok, back on track... my creativity... Today I purchased on app on my iPod called "color splash." It lets you add those touches of color to a black and white picture. Anyone with an iPod touch or an iPhone should get this app. It is awesome. So easy to use and deceivingly makes me look talented and creative. Check it out:

Probably my favorite, I already really like the picture and the color splashes make it so fun.



Such a cute picture of Brice. At first I just had the shorts in color and then I realized he was eating a cheeto! The orange looks awesome!



I think this could be used as an advertisement for Discovery Toys... These cups have been in the top 10 toys for Max since the first day we opened them.



And a cute beach pic.




Max and I went to the pool with our friends Paige, Cooper and Carter today. The boys have so much fun in the water (well at least Paige's boys do!). Max enjoyed the picnic lunch of pb&j (one of his newest faves) and sitting with me on the chair while we sun-dried. Did I mention I forgot towels? I pride myself on being such a prepared mother.

Too much fun for one day.

PS: Dear Max, please sleep later than 5:30 tomorrow. While I did enjoy your 3 hour nap I would much prefer a later wake up call.

"Relax and Enjoy"

"Relax and Enjoy" was written on the chalkboard as you entered the house. We added a "...that's what she said" and really set the mood for the week!

After 2 long days in the car we arrived at "the ocean's house" as Taylor would call it. The house exceeded our expectations. It was a beautiful, modern, million dollar ocean house. And it was ours for a week. Now, 8 adults and 5 kids seems like a pretty good ratio. But when all but one of the kids is in diapers and only 2 are walking it made for a pretty exhausting week. The two big boys were always into something entertaining: climbing in laundry baskets, pushing empty strollers, hiding in closets and playing duck duck goose with anyone sitting on the floor. The two one year olds enjoyed playing with toys, "borrowing" sippy cups and binkies, sleeping and eating (well at least Josiah did this for sure!). They both were the easiest by far, with 2 naps a day and sleeping till 7 or 8 each morning they adjusted very well to "beach time" and owned up to there first vacation! Baby Rider was a typical 3 month old. He slept, ate, laid on the floor, sat in the shade, and cried a little. He made his momma happy with some good naps and a few good nights.

Overall we went to the pool the most: nearly every day. We went to the beach twice to swim (a few more times we walked but didn't get in). Max did NOT enjoy his first experience with his feet in the sand. He grew used to it by our last trip and sat playing with toys for quite a while. On day 2 of vacation we were headed to the pool when I noticed that Max was burning up. Clark and I got him out of the car and immediately decided to take him back to the house. Motrin, tylenol, and a nap later he was as good as new. Or not. His fever kept coming back for 3 long days. It must have been some virus because we started antibiotics hours after his first fever and it didn't budge. As long as we kept him drugged he was fine, and really he still slept well and when fever free didn't even act sick.

The adults had only one rule. Kids in bed NO later than 8. And it worked out every night. On a few occasions Taylor would come wandering down the hall dazed and confused. He had this look like "why are you all still up?!" After 8 we would cook dinner, eat in peace, play cards and games or just sit and relax. We played our own version of Chopped. Each day one couple would get a list of 4 secret ingredients and had to prepare a meal for everyone in around 2 hours. (The best catch was no clean up and no kid duties for that night!) Clark and I got lemon, garlic, sour cream, and spinach noodles. We made our take on Filet Oscar: Sirloin Oscar... the filet was &18 a pound (did I mention you also had to pay for the groceries?!). We made a delicious crab bearnaise sauce for the perfectly cooked sirloin and spinach noodles with a toasted garlic basil cream sauce. Fancy, huh? It was the winner by a hair, second to Shrimp Scampi with the best noodles and garlic lemon sauce. The other 2 runners up: Grouper with an avacado fruit salsa and smashed sweet potatoes & "Armadillo Eggs" (cream cheese stuffed jalapeno inside a chicken breast then wrapped in bacon) with a peanut butter adobo sauce (first place for creativity) and jalapeno spoonbread. We had no lack for delicious food or good company.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip:

"the ocean's house"



Max's first trip to the beach. His face is too far away to see the screaming.



Toes in the sand.



Second trip to the beach. Still kind of under the weather, so sleeping soundly in the stroller.



Third trip to the beach... finally warming up to it!!





Dinner at Toucan's. Max learned to feed other people and thought maybe Monkey wanted a puff. Aaahh!



Clark and I with our ocean view



Day 2, hour 18 of the 19+ hour car ride home. Max had EVERY toy in his lab... including daddy's police badge. Hope Chief Corwin doesn't see this :)



As far as the car ride goes, Max did surprisingly well. We brought along Baby Einstein, snacks, plenty of toys and lots of patience. Turns out we didn't need the patience. He was SO good. We maybe had 30 minutes total in the 4 days in the car where he was unhappy. Clark and I are not much for car rides so we plan on using the airport for any upcoming trips. But it's good to know our little man can make it both ways... as long as it's to somewhere fun!!!

Click here, here or here to read more about our trip as the other's post!

little sleep... lots of fun!

I hate working weekends. I hate working nights. I do love being a nurse, especially in the ER. But mostly I love being home during the week with my crazy little man. Monday is the worst day of the week, I usually sleep 3-4 hours before Max gets home.

This Monday was a lot of fun, however. A friend Carie and I took her daughter, Cooper, and Max to this great water park near our houses. It was surprisingly cheap to get in and it was so fun!!! Cooper is so stinking cute with her sassy swim cover up and her high pony tail (I can't wait for a girl!!). She and Max enjoyed staring at each other and sharing lunch- but aren't much for playmates yet. Mostly it was fun for Carie and I!!!






I especially love that Max was so worn out from the water park that he slept 2.5 hours when we got home!!

Monday was also Max's cousin's birthday. Josiah turned one!!! You can check out Crystal's blog by clicking here. The party was full of fun party hats, cousins, good food, presents, and a birthday boy with a shirt to prove it!!!





With only 3 days left before leaving for vacation the rest of this week is consumed with laundry, packing, trips to the store, and getting some things done around the house. As soon as Max wakes up from his nap we are going to Babies 'R Us and Target... 2 places I LOVE!!! (Ever notice how Bed Bath and Beyond is the "dangerous store" for newlyweds and Babies 'R Us for new parents?!) Daddy is mowing the yard later today and I am getting a pedicure... YAY! Then the rest of the night... packing. I am working friday night and sunday night, we are leaving town at 4am sunday morning. Hoping to drive while Max is still supposed to be asleep and maybe get some peace out of the first half of the trip!

One more picture, because I think it's colorful and probably one of the few family photos we have!