::hammock::

Did I spell hammock right? I'm suddenly having a crisis of spelling confidence...

Anyway, Kris's brother Kelly served an LDS mission in Brazil way back in the day. When he got back he gave us this awesome hammick for Christmas (from how we say it, doesn't hammick look more correct?)
So it's an authentic Brazilian hammock. And I think Kelly and his companions actually slept in these at night sometimes. Is that true Kelly?

In our first house we actually had someplace to hang it. Two nice trees, spaced just right. But Max was too little to really appreciate it. And of course we moved.

(Not my favorite picture of myself, of course, but Max looks cute. And we're enjoying ourselves.)

Kris got the good old hammock out the other day and hung it between our one tree and the deck. I think since we're leaving in a couple of months it'll be ok, but if we were staying any longer the deck railing would be in serious jeopardy. Because Max LOVES the hammock. It's his favorite thing. He spends so much time out there. He blows bubbles from the hammock (much to my chagrin because he spills bottle after bottle of bubble stuff.) He pats Sultan from the hammock. He swings and thinks about 6 yr old boy topics. He swings and wiggles his loose teeth. He swings and eats popsicles. He turns it upside down and pops his head out and pretends to be a bug coming out of a banana.



So basically it's 100% fun 100% of the time out there. And I love it because it gets him out in the sun and the fresh air.
And I'm only worried about him falling on his head about 10 times a day. No big deal.

::all about Guy::

It's my dad's birthday today!
I wish I was in Provo to give him a Symphony bar. Or a tub of Almond Roca. Mmmmmm.

Here he is pretending to be surprised by the can of Almond Roca I gave him back in 1987 or maybe 1988. Convincing, right? One time I gave him a Symphony bar for some holiday and when I wrapped it I put a brown bow on it. When I showed it to him he said something about the color of the bow giving away what was inside. I just couldn't figure out how he knew what it was!


My dad, circa who knows when. Actually it's circa no beard. And that must mean it was before I was born because I've never known the man without his beard. That's a pretty impressive accomplishment, to maintain a serious beard for thirty years. He deserves credit for that.

I love my dad! He's the best dad, the hardest worker and such a faithful and strong person. I wish I was there to give him a birthday hug, and of course go out to dinner! I hate missing birthday outings.
But since we're not there, we just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY and WE LOVE YOU!!


And to close, here's a story that I found in one of my old journals. I wrote this when I was about eight. It's based on one of the fun stories dad used to tell us about when he was a kid. He has some good ones. My favorite was one about him falling into a red ant hill. I wrote and illustrated that one at one point but I don't know where that is. Wish I did.

Love you Dad! Happy Birthday!!

::::

It's March 2nd! My goodness, February went fast because we were traveling for most of it. And that's a good thing for me. Though there are really fun things to do during the month of Feb, and happy days to celebrate, it's not one of my favorite months to get through.
Max and I have been back home for a week now, but I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things. And I'm trying to do a GOOD job of that, like making sure that things actually get done around here. So I've been running around planning meals, grocery shopping, doing laundry, cleaning up. You know, all that stuff that just has to get done no matter what--and stuff that's always waiting to be done whether you're home or not.

So I haven't been playing around and taking pictures at all. Bummer. Part of that is because it's been so gloomy here. In fact the sun came out this afternoon for a couple of hours and it was amazing. It felt like the first time I'd seen it in MONTHS. So I took Sultan on a walk out to our little beach while Max was at school. Sultan was more than happy to hit the trail. The water looked amazing with the sunlight glinting off of it. I wished I'd brought my camera with me.

By the time Max was done with school (remember it's not that long--half day Kindergarten!) the sun was back behind the clouds and it was too cold to go back and let him play at the playground by the beach. Bummer. Hopefully sometime in the next week it'll be warm enough to go back.

I have some UT stuff left over still to post and hopefully we'll be having some fun once we get ourselves rolling again. Maybe if I could catch up on my sleep I could do more.....It always takes Max one day to deal with travel time changes. I feel like I'm suffering for at least a week.

Just for fun:
Today 6 years ago (MAN!! Could it really be SIX?)

Kris home from school at BYU making lunch for us. He has brand new baby Max in the carrier. Max wasn't even a month old yet and he never wanted to be put down. They're so cute. I wish Kris was home to make me lunch more often these days. What an awesome husband!

::now we are six::

Our little boy is SIX today! I can't even believe it. He's so tall and just looks like such a big boy.
Ready for a little retrospective? This is especially for Kris since he's in RI and we're in UT. He missed out on our little birthday activities today--even though we had the real party and festivities on saturday. Anyway, here's a fun (quick) little trip down memory lane. These pictures should be all on his birthday, except the first one.
0 years old:

(awwww, so fresh and new!!)
1 year old:

2 years old:

3 years old:

4 years old:

5 years old:

And 6 years old!!!!! (this picture is from the party, not from today, but that's ok)

Happy birthday to my little boy!!!! Even though he told me I ruined his birthday because I yelled at him for being disobedient. Unfortunately I had to destroy his conviction that birthdays=no problems, consequences or discipline. "That's not the way it works! You shouldn't yell at me on my birthday." I told him he shouldn't be a bum on his birthday.
Isn't it fun to be the mom? Sometimes so rewarding, sometimes so frustrating.
But anyway, we had a fun day and I don't think it was really ruined.

::skye::

My parents found out a few days ago that our old collie dog Skye was really sick.
They had to make the tough decision to put him out of his misery.
We've had him since I was seventeen.
He was such a great dog and a good friend to all of us. Especially Piper, our Australian Shepherd.
We'll miss him. I'll especially miss his goosing--his head was at just the right height to hit most people right in the crotch with his nose when he was going about his customary greeting.
We'll also miss his ridiculously high pitched yip. It wasn't very manly but it was cute.

Dogs are such good friends and fun to have around, but they sure do remind us of our mortality with how fast they age, don't they?


Love you Skye.

::::

Kindergarten 1984 (?)

Kindergarten 2009/2010

See any resemblance?
That sideway smile is one that Max always does when he's trying to be cool, or when he's self conscious. He's totally aware of it too, because he's drawn pictures of himself with that smile before.

What a couple of cuties.

::so cute::

Kris says that when cold weather and winter comes out here it reminds him of when he first got to Germany at the beginning of his mission.
I think we're on a similar latitude with germany-and the weather out here is so much more like Germany than Colorado or Utah. So he's reminded of the bone numbing wet cold while tracting, street contacting and street preaching.
I hope we can go back together sometime soon.
Here's a photo that one of Kris's only converts sent us. It's Kris and his companion Elder K. The funny thing is that we ended up living really close to each other in Kansas City without having any idea, and Kris ran into him one day while having lunch by the dental school. We got to get together a few times and get to know his family. It was really fun.
He and Kris have a lot of good stories together, including the catching of at least one thief. We'll have to get him to post those sometime.

Funny picture, right?

So cute.

::fingers crossed::

Our sweet friend Rachel offered to babysit for us tonight so Kris and I could go out. Of course, as usual he's on call! So I need everybody to cross their fingers and wish really hard that no kids will get hit in the mouth, fall on their mouth, catch a baseball with their mouth, get hit with brass knuckles or fall on their mouth from skates or bikes.
We're going to see the Star Trek movie, finally. And I think the below person DEFINITELY deserves to see the movie uninterrupted.  

(I'm the tallest one)

I worked really hard on that halloween costume.  I got the nose putty for our ears from Taylor Maid in the University Mall.  You can't see it, but I also embroidered a little star trek insignia on cross stitch fabric and sewed it onto my sweatshirt.  The eyebrows included a liberal use of mom's make up. Sorry mom!

Anyway, that kind of dedication is worth something, right?

Kris hadn't seen any of the old Star Trek movies (or didn't remember them).  In fact, he was a star trek scoffer.  So me, having been a serious fan in my tween years, but later growing out of it, figured it was something we would never share, and I was ok with that.  

But then he said we should watch all the old movies before we went to see the new one.  And we did.  Kris even borrowed a projector while Kelly was here and we watched three of the movies on the big screen (and by that I mean a big blue bedsheet hanging on the wall).  It was awesome.  And both Kelly and Kris have been enlightened.  So now at least they're not so rude about Star Trek.  That's progress.

Anyway, wish us luck that we get to see the whole thing.  I'm sure we'll need it!

::more::

Having more fun with the film scanner.





They're going up on facebook. So fun.

::::

Some of the "fruits" of my visit to the grocery store earlier today. And this doesn't show the grapes, carrots, strawberries and bananas.
We've been trying to eat better as a family for the last long while. We're doing pretty well now. I used to buy fruit and just end up throwing it away. Now we eat it all. It just takes a bit of an adjustment--if we want a snack we try to reach for fruit now. And seriously, oranges are so delicious.
I'm proud of our improvements. And I'm glad that my little boy is a fruit lover.

(max feb 2007 enjoying a pear at the dining room table in our old house in kansas city. we miss that house.)

::old::

So the last couple of days I got out my scanner and starting scanning a whole bunch of old negatives from back in high school. I was in photography class for at least two years, so I have a lot of old black and white rolls that I developed myself. Most of the photos I never bothered to print, so it's fun to see them. They're old and some of them are hilarious. The funny ones are mainly of Murphy.

I've posted most of them on facebook, so if you're my friend you can go check them out. If you're not my facebook friend then you should be!

But here are a few gems.

Murph swinging on our old awesome swingset in the backyard.

Murphy again. So tiny.

Cammon and his friend Ben being so cool.

Murphy and Char and neighborhood kid friends having a blast. I especially love Charlotte's leap there on the right. Woo hoo!

I can't wait to see what else is in there. Now I just have to convince myself that I have things to do that are more important than this.

::coolness::

Back when I was in high school there were times that I thought I was awfully cool.
One of these times was after I saw how this picture turned out.

Obviously somebody else took this picture, but it was my idea.
And I'm just so edgy, right? So artsy. It's mostly the braces and the National Honor Society sweatshirt--oh, and the chewed off silver nail polish.  I was cool.  
What happened?  Ah well, that's a subject for another day.

Anyway, the other day we were at the dog park, and suddenly there was a photo op.

Look familiar?

How about now?
What's that saying--Like mother like son? Hmmm, I actually don't think that's a saying, is it?

All he needs is some braces and some nail polish and he'd be set for life in coolness.
How can he help being cool? He's my kid.

::grandpa guy=eggs for breakfast::

At least if you ask Max.
Before my parents came I had a talk with Max about some things he might like to do with them. First on his list was "Eat eggs for breakfast every day!"
Yes, the poor deprived boy gets fed oatmeal almost every day of the week. Nice fresh oatmeal with strawberries or raspberries and cream and honey on it. Lame, right? No wonder he's always crying about how he wants cereal or eggs.
Anyway. That's not the topic here.

When my dad comes to visit he makes eggs. He came and stayed with us for about two weeks in 2007 while Kris went on a dental humanitarian mission to Nicaragua. My Dad and Max made tons and tons of eggs for breakfast.

See?



That's when it started.  Max loved helping--I wasn't letting him help in the kitchen much at that point.

Later when we would visit my parents, my dad would make sure Max got eggs to eat in the morning.

He visited again in March of this year for a week. They made more eggs. I didn't get any pictures of the egg making, but I did get this photo, which I think makes up for it.


Anyway. The whole point of this is, that Max loves to make eggs with my dad. And he loves to eat them. When my parents were here last week they made eggs a whole bunch. He was in heaven.

And the older he gets, the more involved he gets to be. He's actually stirring the eggs nowadays.

He's very serious about his job, and very careful of the burners.

I like to see them working together. It's so fun.

And somehow his eggs ended up looking like a Land Rover at breakfast one morning. Do you see it? I barely do.

He's a funny kid, with a funny Grandpa. We like them both.

*Happy Birthday Max*

Today is our little Max's birthday. He's four now. It's a little crazy to think he's that old, but I guess we've been out here in school for a really long time, so I guess it should make sense...
I think Max's birthday merits a look back in time, so here we go:

Here's little Mr. Max born 2/17 at 2:17PM. The face he's making in this picture is a cranky face he still uses. That cracks me up. He was a cute baby, that's for sure.

Here's Max on his first birthday. He was very upset with me for making him wear the paper crown. I haven't tried to make him wear one since. He was really fun at this age, we usually had a great time hanging out together while I worked.

Here's Max on birthday #2. He had a cold and conked out at dinner, which was unfortunate since we did go to his favorite restaurant. Luckily we like it too, and enjoyed the unexpected peace and quiet during dinner. Thanks for the b-day present Max.

Here's Max on his 3rd birthday. We drove to Denver over his birthday that year to meet up with Kris's sister Kari and her family. We had a lot of fun hanging out with them, and Kari made him a fabulous birthday cake that nobody else will ever be able to live up to. Ever. But that's another post altogether.
I have to include these next two pictures because I think they're so cute of Max and Parker (Max's cousin). It's always fun when we can get them together.



And here we are at today. Max turned four! He was amazed when I told him this morning that he was four. It made him feel really cool. We had a pretty good day today although Max and I both didn't feel well and had to stay home from church. We think Max maybe picked up strep throat from our friends he stayed with last weekend--two of their kids came down with it while he was staying there. So he and I are both going in for tests tomorrow. Yay fun.
Anyway, he still had a good day. Kris got him a little kid's digital camera which he was very excited about. It's a pretty good camera for him because it's quite tough, and he's already dropped it on the hardwood floor a good amount of times. We'll share some of his pictures here on the blog later.

He's very serious about his pictures, as you can probably see. Well, at least when he's not sitting on the camera or doing something else weird to it.

Here he is enjoying his birthday dinner.

When we asked him what he wanted to eat for his birthday he specifically requested "chicken and rice." I was cool with that because it's easy to make and it does taste good for sure. Now that I know he likes it so much I'll make it more often too.
This morning when I was getting his oatmeal ready for breakfast he looked at me very reproachfully and said "I wanted chicken and rice on my birthday!" When I explained we were having it for dinner he was pleased. Funny kid.
Lechelle made a birthday cake for Max--his special request was a chocolate "fishy" cake. She and Kelly came over this evening to eat and celebrate with us. The cake was so adorable! Take a look.



I love the eel. It reminds me of the one I had painted on the wall in Max's old room.




The little fishies are so cute!



I think Max really liked the cake although he didn't do a great job of showing it. He was acting a little wacky because he was sick--and he always acts a little crazy when everybody's attention is on him. He's doing better with that as he gets older, but he's still a little goofy at times like this.
It was so nice of Lechelle to take care of the cake for me. This was kind of a stressful week, and then on top of that I felt ill all day saturday and today, so it was a big relief for me not to have to worry about it. And I couldn't have made one that was nearly as cute.

Max loves having "Happy Birthday" sung to him. It think it makes him feel like the President of the United States or somebody else really special. He did a good job blowing out all the candles.
Then we had him open up his gifts from Kris's parents--we had them on video chat through the computer there for a few minutes. Kris's mom made him a wonderful sock monkey quilt! It's so cute. I didn't get a picture of it today, but I will soon and I'll post it. I couldn't get Max to let go of it long enough for a picture.
If you look closely at the last picture here, you'll be able to see a little of it in the background. Anyway, it's adorable and she made a matching pillowcase too. I might steal it from him.
After that he was way too overwhelmed and when to bed after he ate some cake, leaving about 5 more presents unopened on the table. Oh well, whatever works I guess.

Thanks for sticking with me through this whole long post. I'm just so proud of my Max, he's growing up into such a good boy, and sweet. Happy Birthday Max!!