*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!!

::Our Trip::

So I just wanted to give you a quick run-down of our RI trip. OK, not a quick run down, more like a long one with lots of pictures but whatever. The trip was quick though and felt like it just flew by. It was amazing we even got there in the first place--Kris almost got stuck at school until too late the morning we were leaving. It was really nice to get away from school for a couple of days, especially for Kris. School has been really high stress for him lately because he's trying to finish up all his requirements.

We stayed somewhere different every night to try to get a good overview of the area.
On friday morning we went over to the hospital where Kris will be working where I got to meet the program director and the current residents. Everbody was so nice and pleasant. It's very busy there but I think that it will be a great atmosphere for Kris to work. It seems to be very positive and happy, and everybody seemed to get along well.
The program director was so nice. I was very impressed with him because as we were standing in the hall of the hospital chatting, suddenly we heard a strange noise behind us. A young teenage boy had fallen to the ground with a seizure and his mom was trying to help him. Dr. Kane ran right over to them and got right down there and took care of things. He didn't leave them until he was sure everything was ok. He seemed like a really good caring doctor. So that's great.

We did a lot of driving around different areas to try to figure out which areas would be best for us to live in. We spent a good amount of time at Barnes & Noble on the internet too. Thank goodness for the internet or we wouldn't know anything!

We found a couple of areas we really liked, and now we're just going to watch craig's list to see if something liveable there will be available soon.
In general we really liked it out there in the Providence area. It's definitely all old and most of the houses are small but our house we live in now is small, so as long as we can get a little more room than we have now we should be fine.

On friday night we went to a get-together with all the residents. It was really fun. It seemed like they got together a good amount, and were all really comfortable with each other. They were so nice to us too. It was great for me to get a chance to get to know them a little--it makes the move a little less scary.
This party was where, unbelievably, Kris sang karaoke. Like I said before I don't think it'll ever happen again. He just didn't want to look like a party pooper in front of his new friends. Good thing I used to be in the karaoke business! I got up there and sang with him and we were coolness incarnate. Or something.

I look totally exhausted in this picture because it was after midnight. The party went on forever! It was really fun though. We were glad we got to attend.

Here's Kris in our crazy all white hotel room in downtown Providence. Everything was either bright white or chrome/stainless steel. It was weird, but pretty fun!

and here we both are--not my favorite picture, but then again no picture with me in it is my favorite! It's better than the other one...nobody's going to see that one.


We got burned out from driving around looking at places which we were too early to rent, so on saturday night we drove down to Newport and stayed there. We took the scenic ocean drive around the coast and it was soooo beautiful. Soooo cold, but so picturesque.

There was gorgeous light sunday morning so we took the drive again so I could give my camera some exercise. So fun to look at.


Can you see the cool bridge in this shot? It was amazing looking. Can you see the line of geese in the water? I wish I could've gotten a little closer shot there.









We went to sacrament meeting at the ward we're planning on going to and that was nice. Seems like there are a good amount of members in that ward and a healthy amount of kids, so that's good for us.
We flew out on sunday evening and you know the rest! We're glad to be back home even though it means we're back into the stress. Hopefully we can be strong and tough and make it through the next couple of hard months, AND find a place to live that is everything we want and need.
Wish us luck!!

.:.:Happy V Day:.:.

Good morning everybody, and happy Valentine's Day!
Max and I had a little photo shoot with my new lens that I LOVE. He's been practicing the "I love you" sign and almost has it down.
Sorry I have to say it--he's so CUTE!

Working on it...

it's tough to hold fingers like that when you're little....

But sucking fingers must help.....

Finally, he's so comfortable he's flashing that sign like rocker horns or something.
He's one of my special valentines and I love him!!!

::Frozen no More::

We finally made it home, yesterday at about 6PM. Finally. Yesterday was a long day. Not only did we miss our connecting flight on sunday night which meant we were rescheduled for a flight monday at noon, but they also delayed that flight two hours. It was annoying. But luckily Max was safe and sound with friends, so that made things a lot less stressful than they might've been otherwise.
We were actually happy about the delay because we got to see Lisa (Kris's cousin). It was so fun to see her. She came and picked us up and took us to breakfast. It was so nice to spend some time just chatting. Let's do it again soon Lisa!

I love this next one:

Finally when we got off the flight we went to wait for our luggage. But there it was, already sitting there waiting for us! Turned out they had sent our luggage on the 8AM flight, so it had been sitting there on the bag carousel for hours, just waiting for somebody to walk off with it. That made me mad.
After that we hurried to pick up Max, who was very glad to see us, and also rushed to pick up our red car that was in the shop getting fixed. Phew.

When we finally got home we walked into the house and were hit by a blast of arctic air when the door opened. It seemed the furnace wasn't working! The house was SO COLD. I had to run straight to school to take a test (which was not fun), so Kris called the landlord about the furnace. Unfortunately they couldn't fix it last night, so after I got home we all snuggled into our big bed and slept the night under an electric blanket next to the space heater. It was nice except for Max deciding he needed to sleep sideways and kicking me in the head all night.

Getting up was hard though. It was like camping or something. I was scared to get out of bed.
Anyway, the guy came this afternoon and fixed the furnace. Evidently a bird had flown down there and gotten rather stuck. So finally Max and I were able to come out of the bedroom where we'd been holed up next to the space heater. Starting to go crazy.
I'll tell you what though, next time your heat goes out make sure you have some peanut m&ms in the cupboard. They taste awesome frozen. Yum yum.
It was almost impossible to do anything in the house when it was that cold, it was kind of crazy. Oh well. At least we're warm now.

So I have some fun pictures from our RI trip, and some impressions, I'll get to those soon hopefully!
I'll leave you with this picture. I think it's beautiful, but it makes me cold. Isn't it just so wintry and cold looking? Brrrr.....

*Stuck*

We're stuck in Washington D.C. Our flight out of Providence last night got delayed for way too long and so our connecting flight to K.C. left without us. And of course, the airline wouldn't pay for anything or give us anything good because the delay was because of weather!
But luckily our friends that are watching Max are infinitely patient and and sweet, so he's in good hands. Kris and I just got to enjoy another night at a hotel, without a 3 year old, so we can't complain.
But my email's not working right, so I owe some people an email that aren't getting them. Patience. I'll be back late today--just in time to go and take a test at school.
In the meantime here's something quite exciting. It's a picture of Kris singing karaoke. Can you believe it? Take a good long look because I've never seen this before I don't think it's likely anbody's going to see it again. I'll have to explain later.

Oh and too bad we're not stuck here longer since there are people I'd LOVE to see out here in our nation's great capitol. We're meeting up with Kris's cousin Lisa early this morning for breakfast and then flying out. Smash and Amy, next time we get stuck it's your turn.

.:.:RI:.:.

You haven't heard much from me in the last few days because Kris and I are out in Rhode Island trying to get an idea of what it's all about.
Max is staying with our good friends back in KC, and seems to be having a great time--enough of a good time that he hasn't bothered to ask for me. Oh well I guess.
Here's a picture of Kris on the coast.

We're getting a better idea of places we could possibly live, and how the city is. We've also gotten to know some of the residents Kris will be working with next year, and that's been really fun.
So more later!

~ M ~

Max's school studied "muh" during and after the christmas weeks (oh man, now I'm giving away how behind I am!) They did a lot of different stuff for M, and I probably only captured a small part of it. Here we go.
They talked about mushrooms, mammals, moose, mice, mountain lions and monkeys.

This is a mammal that he brought home to me. It's a giraffe in case you can't tell.

They did a lot of art projects, and here are a few of them:
"Mixing Colors" by Max


"Mosiac Art"


"Edible Marshmallow art" This is one of my favorites!!! He was so proud of it.






I hardly got any of the snacks written down, but they did have mangos, mozzarella cheese with apples, meatballs, muffins and mushrooms with rice. Yum. I wish I would've gotten to eat all of those snacks.

We're sure going to miss this great school when it's time to move!

::Mealtime at Our House::

This is how mealtime looks at our house.



Pretty much any meal. This particular meal is dinner, (applesauce with cinnamon) but breakfast looks about the same. Monkey and zebra both have to attend, and often Mama Fish is there as well.
The only unusual thing about this shot is that Max is actually sitting in his chair eating. I have no idea how I captured that since it only occurs during about 10% or less of mealtime.



He's cute though, isn't he? These are pre-haircut pictures as you can probably tell. See why I waited so long to cut his hair? Isn't it just adorable in these shots?
And how about his tail, do you like that?

I'm working up a post to tell about why we have Sock Monkey. Maybe someday I'll get it done.

*By Special Request*

So I have a pile of fun pictures from my birthday "fest" to post, but of course I haven't gotten them ready and put up because I've been using every extra moment (of which there are oh-so few) to play with Photoshop, which was one of my birthday presents. I love it and I'm excited about it and I SO don't know what I'm doing yet.
But, in the meantime I've had a special request from Kelly to post a picture I took of Max and his best buddy Isobel. This shot is from my birthday get-together. Max was being very energetic and bossing Isobel around a lot. She played along for a long time but then I think just got tired of being bossed and started ignoring him. It was pretty funny to watch their interaction. This picture illustrates how they were relating to each other that evening very well. I think it's hilarious.
I especially love the food all over their mouths.

And in honor of my new photoshop, here are a few other versions of this photo.

vintage snapshot--kind of cool, kind of weird.

this one's using some settings that are supposed to enhance portraits. I like it pretty well.

kind of an interesting muted color version. It makes Isobel's eyes look really beautiful.

another vintage version-I like this but I think it's a pretty cheesy effect. Like I should make a greeting card out of it or something. But I'm not sure what the card would be say....any ideas?

and last, a version with very saturated color. There are things I love about this, and things I don't love, like Max's cheeks looking so strange.

Obviously it's going to take me some time and experimentation, but I'm going to figure this thing out. You just wait! I'm sure I'll subject you to more experiments as time goes on.