::max's story::

Tonight Max's teacher hosted a story reading for his class. All the kids wrote and illustrated a little story. Then they got to sit up on the stool wearing a beret and read it for the crowd. The stories were so cute and the performances were sweet and hilarious. Max is lucky to have such a great teacher who has helped the kids in his class so much. Some of them couldn't even read at the beginning of the year, and here they were reading stories in front of people. It's great.

We were so proud of Max, his reading and his writing. He's a smart capable guy and it's fun to see that demonstrated for us.
Be sure to watch all the way to the end, the last couple of seconds awesome.

::week 2::

Thought I'd follow up week one with pictures from Sandy's 2nd week here with us.
A couple of days are just phone pictures and a touch cruddy, and I've been struggling with the light in the house. It gets dark so early these days and the afternoon sun is very harsh. But I think the photos are fun anyway.

Day 8:

My aunt and uncle were on their way back home to TX when they had some car trouble. They had a forced layover at our house and we really enjoyed our time with them, watching football and playing with little squishy babies. In this picture we were out watching the sunset, which of course was gorgeous.

Day 9:

Daddy and son loooooong afternoon nap on the couch. Perfect sunday afternoon activity.

Day 10:

Boys in front of the fireplace. Kris loves lighting fires in there with the good smelling pinon wood.

Day 11:

I love this little elephant suit. He's already too big for it though. Baby on the table in the late afternoon light.

Day 12:

A couple of phone pictures. This was his first "bath". Mostly just a hair washing. He really enjoyed the hair washing part, not so much any of the rest of it.

Day 13:

This is a terrible phone picture, but it's supposed to show how dang long this baby is when he finally stretches his legs out instead of staying all crunched up like a little frog.

Day 14:

Saved the best for last. Does it get any cuter than these two brothers?

That's week two for you. It sure goes fast.

::lost::

In order to keep this blog from being 100% cute baby pictures, I thought I'd tell you all about a biking adventure that Kris had on saturday.
First important detail--Kris got a new mountain bike and he was so excited. He'd been yearning after this bike for months. He's been riding on the same old entry level mountain bike that I got him before Max was born, and it just wasn't holding up to his level of riding. When we got to NM we met friends that had a bike for sale--of course the perfect size, and a better price than the store.
So we finally were able to buy it after months of working towards it. I surprised Kris with it and he was very happy.

See? That's definitely his excited face.
So he got the bike late friday night. Then the baby was born on saturday night! Poor Kris was dying to ride his bike. He went for a quick ride on saturday afternoon, but I didn't want him to go far.

So the following saturday morning he planned on heading into the mountains early for an adventure. My mom was leaving to go back home early afternoon, so he had a deadline.

Of course he got lost. Totally lost. He went up the mountain on one trail (272 if you're looking at the map) and then ended up going down on a completely different trail (175). That trail went completely in the wrong direction. By the time he realized he was in the wrong place it was too late. He couldn't get back up the trail easily because it was too steep. So he just had to keep going. He called me right before he lost reception and asked me to try to figure out where he would come out and meet him with the car.

I'm not that great with maps, geography or directions, so I wasn't super excited about that.

But I tried. I found the road I thought he'd end up on and we packed my mom up and headed out with a car full of kids to go find dad.

He called me as I was driving towards the road and said that the trail had disappeared and that he'd had to hike his bike along a creek for a ways, then through and ranch and he had no idea where he was. That was discouraging news. Then he lost reception. We kept on driving. I thought it was a serious long shot that we would find him, but I had to try.
Then of course, the deeper into the mountain foothills we got, the less phone reception, until we were completely without communication.
We drove up this random dirt road, and after a while there he was! It was kind of miraculous that we found him, and such a relief.

Lucky Kris got to drive all the way to Albuquerque in his spandex. We barely got my mom dropped off in time--by way of Chick'fil'a for lunch, then we drove home exhausted.
So that's the story of Kris lost.

And just so we don't accidentally forget that this blog is 99.99% about cute baby and kid stuff, here's a confused baby with puppy ears.


Good night!

::spooky box::

Max came home with a special homework assignment last week. He was supposed to come up with some sort of "spooky box" to display in his classroom during halloween week. It was supposed to be a diorama in a shoebox, using whatever materials he wanted.
So Max and I brainstormed and came up with what I think is a pretty good idea. A spooky ocean box.
We painted our shoebox last night and then this afternoon all three of us worked together to make spooky cranky ocean animals.
Then I glued everything into place.

(Max is working on some other self-directed project here. Suddenly plenty to do when there's homework!!)
Here's the box, I think it turned out super fun looking.

I like the two headed snakes slithering along the ocean floor amid Kris's seaweed.
I'm frightened of this shark--he looks like he would easily bite somebody's leg off. And you can't see the fish he's chasing very well, but that poor fish looks pretty dismayed.

An awesome group of ghostly jellyfish.

Snakes hiding behind the anemones.

Successfully (and definitely oddly) spooky I think. He turns it in tomorrow, I think his teacher will like it! She'd better anyway.

::a few events from today::

All brought to you thanks to my handy dandy iphone.

First:
Max's part in the primary program for tomorrow. The rehearsal went as well as a saturday primary program rehearsal could ever do. This is for the lovely grandparents who don't get to come and hear it in person!


Next:
A super cute little outfit Max and I found at the mall for new baby. Giraffe print is unisex, right? Can you see the adorable little hat with the giraffe horns? Max is a big fan.


Next:
The fort Max built in the living room while we were watching the BYU vs Wyoming game. Or in other words watching BYU just squeak by against the worst offense in the country. Ouch!
But it was great he was entertaining himself, because while I thought I was watching the game, in the second half I was actually sleeping. He was happy hanging out in the fort.


And last, at least for now:
Halloween costume preparations--or more like experiments. What do you think? I think the mustache needs to be black.

::my mother's day::

I had such a lovely day yesterday. It was pretty chilly outside but the sun was shining very beautifully. Max and Kris took really good care of me.
The flowers are from Max--he made them at school. I love them! He also brought home a handprint with a little poem in a big envelope he had decorated with hearts. So cute. The cheesy poem even made me cry.

Kris made us a yummy breakfast (including bacon). Kris also taught our primary class at church which was nice. In this ward during the 3rd hour the men take over and the ladies get to go in the gym, have snacks and mingle. It's pretty nice.
I guess the bishopric was in charge of the primary. They brought in cupcakes for the kids to frost as mother's day gifts. Kris said it turned out crazy--lots of little kids covered in frosting (happy mother's day!!), but the kids had fun. And the best part was, the bishopric cleaned up after themselves--the room at least.
Max was quite excited to give me the cupcake.

Look at the copious amounts of candy. And can you see the dirt on time? There's real dirt on there, thanks to the little seed pot from primary that Max was also supposed to give me. Pretty funny, right? I let him eat most of it--for some reason.

Kris and Max cleaned up the kitchen and made lunch.

The kitchen was a big mess after our busy weekend, so it was a big job.
I got some nice presents. We played games. I got to talk to Murphy and the rest of my family on Skype. We had delicous ice cream.

It was a great day. Thanks boys for taking such good care of me. I love you so much!!!

::another project::

This one turned out pretty darn cute. I made it a few weeks ago for a friend's new baby.
I took the little hippo pattern I've made many times before and modified it so he looked all sleepy like the puppy we made earlier. I would've just made a puppy, but I still can't figure out how to knit well enough. Someday I'm sure.
Anyway, sleepy hippo needed a blanket. So I knitted/crocheted him one.
Max said he needed one--just like everything that I make.
So what do you think?

::collaboration::

When I was in Utah I bought a knitting book that I'd been wanting. It's full of adorable patterns for toys and I couldn't resist it. But I didn't (and still essentially don't) know how to knit. So I assigned my mom to teach me how to make one of the toys. Which turned out to be a tougher assignment than I thought. Anyway, she started working on one of them, and finished it just before we left. It turned out super cute.

It's an adorable puppy. BUT there's a problem. It's a sleeping puppy, and it's supposed to have a little blanket to be wrapped up in. She didn't have time to make the blanket, so I took on the challenge when I got home. Which is a big deal for me since my knitting skills are so very basic.
So here's how her blanket turned out:

Yes, it looks kind of like a washcloth. And yes, as usual I picked out a multicolored yarn that made it so I couldn't tell if I was doing the stitches right or not. But it turned out fun. The edges only look good because the pattern had me crochet around them, and I'm good at that!
But I thought the blanket turned out pretty cute too.

But the cutest is when they're together.




Needless to say, Max is in love. He walks around shushing us: "The puppy is SLEEPING!!!!"
My mom and I make a good team. Now I just have to figure out how to do the more complicated stuff.

::more little guys::

Green eyed kitty:

Little blue hippo:


These guys are fun because they're such small projects that I can actually get them done. It feels good to finish a project once in a while!

::first day::

The first day of kindergarten is a pretty big deal--especially for those of us parents that never attended kindergarten ourselves (that would be me). I don't really know what to expect.
But Max doesn't care if I know what to expect. He was plenty excited about school.

It's close enough that we can walk there--it's a long walk, but totally doable.
His teachers seem nice, though at the end of the first day I'm still at a loss as to their names.
Kris got to come home for lunch today--probably the 3rd time since we moved to RI. It was great timing because he was able to come with us to drop Max off at school. Mr Max looked very cute lining up with the other kids and heading in.

Afterwards Max said he had a good time and was looking forward to going back. Phew. One day down, a bunch more to go! Yay for brave Max. We're very proud of him, he's so big and strong and smart. How did he get so big? It might sound trite, but it seems like not that long ago he was learning to crawl.....

.::Visual Proof::.

I just think these are so cute that I can't resist posting them!

Here's the page where he wrote his name for the first time. You can see down at the bottom the one where I wrote the first line in black and he finished in blue. Above that is his second successful attempt. (yeah, I realize now it looks a little like he's writing MAT, but keep in mind his Xs are on a bit of an upwards curve....)

Here's another page we did right then. You can see all the different words we worked on. I had to remind him what a lot of the letters were shaped like, but I didn't help him any more than that. I especially love how the word fish looks, and the E with like 7 legs. My letters are at the top, all the rest are his.

And then here's a letter to Parker he wrote last week. I helped him spell and reminded him what letters looked like on a separate piece of paper. It's so cute!

Now that I have it scanned maybe I'll actually mail it one of these days. We'll see...
Here's a picture that went with the letter. This is the first thing I've ever seen him draw that wasn't just scribbles. I told him to draw a face and he just did. I couldn't believe it. There's a guy, a couple of hearts, a tree, grass and the sun in this picture.

I'm just thrilled to have a child that actually drew something!!! (as you can probably tell). Yay for Max!

::Sicky::

As you know, poor little Max has been sick for the last few days. He's started to feel better on saturday and sunday, but now seems to have had some sort of relapse. It's sad! He hasn't been this sick for a while.
I have mixed feelings about him being sick. Of course I don't want him to feel ill and terrible and to be hurt, but man when he's sick with a fever or something he is SO snuggly. I love that he just lets me hang onto him. It's pretty relaxing. Well, it would be if he wasn't so hot that he burned my lap after sitting on it for 10 minutes.
The first day he was sick, thursday, he was like that. Just really cuddly, tired and sweet. He even said he needed his bed in the afternoon and went straight to sleep when I put him in it.
You may remember this picture from a few days ago. I'm putting it back up here because I think it's so adorable.

Poor little cute snoozer. The best part about this picture is that you can't smell him. OK, that was probably too much information, but it's true, he was a little stinky.
Here he is thursday morning, resting in his chair.

Here he is taking a much protested "nap" on his bed.

yes, he's on his bed, AND in a tent. That's another story for another day.
Anyway, when we got sick when we were little my mom would often make "sick eggs" for us to eat. Ok, it sounds gross now that I'm writing the name down, but it's supposed to mean eggs for when you're sick, not gross eggs.
They consisted of a couple of warm hard boiled eggs sliced up with a little bit of butter and salt and pepper mixed in. To a sick little one it was like heaven.
So I made Max some sick eggs. He appreciated them quite a bit. He was an instant fan.

Have somebody you love make these for you the next time you're sick. I tell you, they're like magic.
So Friday morning we thought he was doing better, although he still wasn't 100% himself by any means.
Max was lying on the couch when Kris left for school. About two minutes after Kris walked out of the door he puked all over everything. Nice timing, huh?
So he earned himself a bath, which took care of the stinkiness I alluded to earlier.
After that he thought he was back to normal, but when I came into the room and found him lying on the floor on top of his sock monkey blanket I knew better.

Here he is trying to pretend he's not the palest thing that ever walked the face of the earth. He didn't fool me. Notice the towel on the couch, strategically placed to catch anything nasty. The couch cushions had to spend some time airing out...yick.

After the cute sweet snuggly sick stage comes the horrible cranky cranky whiny sick stage. This is where he thinks he's well enough to do stuff, but everything he does either hurts him or makes him mad and frustrated. This stage makes up for all the pleasantness in the first stage and is what keeps me from wishing he was sick more often!
Here are some examples of this from sunday:





See what I mean? It's no fun for anybody. This was even after he'd taken a nap.
Today we thought he was feeling better and so he went to school, but when I went to pick him up he was all warm and feverish and looking smushed. So he's doing a little bit more recuperation. Wish us luck getting him better. I know we can do it.
We'll have more happy photos to post here before you know it.

-} Oh the Things Kids Say {-

If you take a moment to watch this Sesame Street segment with Elmo and Whoopie, you might start to understand why Max decided to point at the African-American man sitting in our pew at church on sunday, and rather loudly say "Hey, he's black! Black is beautiful!!"
This was only shortly after he asked me whether that same man was Jesus.
I'm not sure whether any of that was overheard or not......