::baptism day part 1::

First things first.  My parents and Kris's mom all came to our house for Max's baptism which was so nice.  They also all did me the favor of coming in (and leaving) on the same flight, so I only had to go down to the airport once!  It was very thoughtful of them.

We got to spend a couple of days hanging out together, playing guitar and doing puzzles.

Because of goofy scheduling things at church Max had to get baptised on sunday, right after stake conference.
So while we were getting ready for church we broke out the baptism presents--plus it was my dad's birthday that day too, so he got a present too!


Prior to the visit I had been talking to Kathy and had mentioned how I needed to get Max a set of scriptures for his baptism. She told me that I could give him a set that used to belong to Kris's brother Kenny who passed away when Max was just a baby. She went and got them all engraved to say Max's name as well. I thought it was a fabulous idea.

Once Max opened it up and we explained it to him he thought it was pretty awesome too.
And since Kenny didn't use them too much they're almost brand new.


Isn't this just the cutest picture? He looks so clean and tidy and sweet.

Now this is much more characteristic of a Max face.
He's obviously very happy with his present though.

The script turned out really nice I thought--though the lady at Deseret Book who was supposed to imprint it got pretty nervous Kathy said. She was all worried about messing up. But she didn't.

Ah, there's my classic Max back in full force.

I have part 2 on the way.

::long overdue::

And I mean this post is LOOOOOOOOONG overdue.

At Christmastime I was surprised by a package from my dear friend Rachel. Rachel is an amazing person that I feel so lucky to know. She was friends with my mom first, technically, but now she's mine too. Thanks to the internet, blogging and such we've been able to keep track of each other's lives and keep in touch.

Anyway, she sent a gift for both Max and Sandy. So so nice, right? But just wait. It's nicer than nice. She made the stuff by hand.

I will show you now. But first I want to say this. There is one benefit for me having taken so long to post this. We get to see baby pictures that are now old. Baby looks so much different now and seeing the old pictures from December and March is fun.

First of all, she knitted a little Yoda guy for Max. I don't have a picture of him handy but he was super cute and Max loved him. He fit perfectly in with the Star Wars sleeping bag Max received from his Grandma.

But Sand was the one who really scored. He got an amazing hat that Rachel knitted.

(He's only about a month and a half in this picture. SO CUTE AND NEW!)

Isn't that a gorgeous and amazing looking hat? Sand wore it all winter and I got so many compliments on it. It's just different and gorgeous.

Awwwwwwww. Back when he used to sleep in his carseat.

AND he got a jacket. He had to grow into it a bit, so in these pictures it's March and he's about four months old.



The jacket matches the hat of course. I think it's amazing. So cute.



Rachel is amazing. She has a great big family with all sorts of cute kids. She takes great care of them. She's creative and fun and crazy and gorgeous and such a loving friend. I just feel so lucky to have her as one of my buddies.

Thanks again for the gifts Rachel, they're such treasures--just like you!

::s is for sandy::

Did I ever tell you how much I love my friend Megan? Well I do. I just think she's the cat's pajamas. And it didn't hurt my feelings about her when I opened up the mailbox the other day and found a cute little package waiting for me there.
She made Sandy some adorable freezer paper stenciled onesies! He's a lucky little guy.
And Megs, they're the perfect size. I don't know how it's possible that my little 7 week old fits into 6 mo size onesies, but there you go.
The first one:

I LOVE that S.
The sad thing is, when I dressed him that morning we was wearing this onesie and an adorable pair of teensy jeans. But everytime he wears the jeans he poops on them within a couple of hours. I'm not sure why. I thought I should take pictures right after I dressed him, but then I got busy and he went to sleep. And of course by the time he woke up the jeans were soiled.
Oh well, those chubby legs are cute too.



He likes his shirt too I think.

And the other one--adorable.


Thanks Megs, WE LOVE YOU!!
And--if you think these are cute you should check out Megan's blog. She makes these for her kids, and others as well and they're always adorable. I especially like the ones she and Maggy made recently for the twins.

::christmas report pt 2::

I don't ever want these Christmas reports to turn into a big list of gifts received, but sometimes it's hard. We appreciate the gifts that the family sends so much, and I like to express that here! So you'll get to see at least a few of them.
Max loved his suitcase and Star Wars sleeping bag. What a great present Grandma & Grandpa!!

He's slept in it every night since on his bed. I don't know if we'll ever be able to talk him out of it.

We also got some fun pictures that we love from them and a photo book and a family recipe book. Loved them!!


Kari's family sent Max some pieces for his hexbug habitat. This was awesome because he got some other pieces from some other people and so now he has one big enormous fabulous habitat complete with bridge battle. It's very fun.


The bugs are really fun to watch. Lots of times it seems like they really must have minds of their own.
And Cammon & Lorri, omnisciently sent Max big packs of batteries. He was in heaven. One of his hexbugs immediately ran out of batteries, and we were able to start him up again. It was amazing. Nice work guys!!


Gram & Grandpa sent an awesome rainbow tent--you probably saw the youtube video below. It has a tunnel which just takes it over the top for coolness.

My mom has also been working her little bottom off making all her old analog photo books digital. It's billions of hours of work and when she gets done they look amazing. I look forward to getting the next installment of the family photo albums every Christmas, and she did not disappoint. Thanks so much for all the hard work mom!!

Lechelle made us the cutest ties for the boys. Max wore his to church the day after Christmas and it looked amazing!

It's the perfect size! Sandy's is perfect too, see?

I can't wait get him a little button up for church. Then he and Max can match adorably. And best part? I can match too!!

Love it!

We spend the rest of the day playing with presents and each other and eating yummy things like tomato soup and 3 cheese grilled sandwiches, and german pancakes. Mmmmmm.


(No we don't just leave the baby on the table, we were keeping a close eye on him. But he was loving watching Max play with his trucks.)
We were all exhausted by the end of the day, but a good tired. Everybody behaved themselves well and it was a great day. Well, except for little Sandy's hour long screaming fit at the end of the day, but that's to be expected when the day is way too exciting for good naps.
It was a great day, thanks to all the friends and family that contributed to it. We missed you all. We love you, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

::christmas report pt 1::

The best thing I ever did was make Max use an alarm clock a few Christmasses ago. Not so much to wake him up, but to show him when he was allowed to leave his room and come get us. It's worked awesomely for us each year since and we've never been waked up at 4AM (yet anyway). I told Max this year that 7:30 was his time. When the baby got me up at 7, or was it 6:30? He was still out. I fed the baby and showered. I went into his room and checked on him at 7:25 and he was SO asleep. 5 minutes later we heard the alarm go off and seriously 30 seconds later he was in our room, wide awake. It was hilarious. And just proved that all those school mornings where we have to drag him out of bed by his toenails are preposterous!

Boys in the morning, all stripey and sleepy. I can't tell if Sandy's begging me to save him from his big brother with his eyes or not. He actually loves Max and I think it's only going to get better as he gets bigger.

We headed into the living room to see the goodies. It was nice to hear Max's extremely delighted noises as he saw the half size electric guitar we got him and the fun bits of things that Santa left. He was very satisfyingly excited about it all.

I realized the other day that it is just SO darn light here compared to other places we've lived. Even in the winter the sun comes up before 7AM. I was surprised that it wasn't dark when we went out to the living room. It may be the first Christmas I remember where we didn't see the tree lights glowing because of the sun!


Here's Max with his awesome guitar. The half-sizedness of it is very cute, and seeing Max play it is even cuter.

I'm sure I'll have to post more pictures/video of him playing it soon enough.
Here are Kris and Max with matching bracelets made out of bike chains. Max had purchased the bracelet for himself a few weeks ago, and he was dead set on getting Kris one for Christmas. Luckily there were still some left when we made it to the bike store. It is a lucky bracelet after all--or at least so says Max.

Sandy got worn out very quickly and was ready for his first nap. We brought his bed out into the living room so he could still be with us. I don't think he got very good quality sleep, but at least he slept a bit and it wasn't in my lap the whole time.

Plus, he's adorable. I love seeing little ones sleeping with their hands above their heads like that.

And Sultan? Well of course he had to be in on the action. He came right into the middle of the little space on the rug we'd cleared and he lay down. He got himself all comfy on Max's new sleeping bad and fell asleep. It wasn't very convenient for us, but cute anyway.


That's all for now--more tomorrow. I'm regathering my energy after the weekend. Max wished on a star tonight that it would be Christmas every day. I remember wishing that myself when I was little. I don't wish it now though. Once is enough even though I'm always sad it's over.

::for gram::

This video is a combo of showing off a couple of gifts. My mom gave Max the fun tent with play tunnel, and I used my new tiny video camera (the GoPro) that Kris gave me to make the movie. It's near indestructible with the case on it which is why you were able to see the fun footage that Max took. Fun stuff!!