::drums::

This is another instructional video in Max's series.
This is really for Kris since he's far away, but everybody else is welcome to watch it too! It's pretty cute, but not super funny like the Halloween movie was.

Max is definitely enjoying the studio at my parent's house.

Eye of Max, car dealership

Often, when we need to get something done and Max is making life difficult, we give him one of our phones. Sometimes it distracts him from being annoying and lets us get a few things done.

He tends to take a lot of pictures. I really like them because it gives you an idea of his perspective.

Take for example, a trip to the car dealership. I really like this series because it really captures the scene of young kid disrupting his parents while they are doing something important. But at the same time you really get a feel for how he perceives the situation.

::max's party part 1::

Kris and I got back from New Mexico on thursday, had a day to recover and then we had Max's birthday party on Saturday.
It was basically a Star Wars themed party.
Max was thrilled. He couldn't even wait until 4PM when everybody was supposed to come.

(yay!! yay!! birthday stuff!!)
I made him a banner--the drawings on either side are his renderings of R2D2 and R4 (or whoever the red R2D2 is.)


Max had fun playing with his cousin Jennifer. They're a good age to hang out together.

We had some fun present opening time (thanks everybody!!) and then we went outside to break the pinata!! What's a birthday without a pinata, right?
And it's even a star, which sort of fits the "theme".
We started out hitting it with a croquet mallet.


Some of the little guys weren't entirely sure if it was ok to raise the mallet above their knees, but Derek was cool with it.

Somebody decided that the mallet wasn't good enough, so we moved to the nerf bat.

Really, these store bought pinatas are basically indestructible. I remember a few homemade ones that were pretty tough to break too though.
Anyway.


Big strong Parker managed to knock the pinata off it's little hanger. So Kris pierced it with his garden rake and the show went on.

THEN, that same somebody decided we weren't making enough progress STILL, and so went and found a crowbar. (A crowbar!??! Yes, that's what I said, kids trying to hit a pinata with a crowbar, yikes.)

Luckily it didn't take very long to demolish the thing with the crowbar.
And out came the goodies.

Robots and treats.


Then we went in for some singing and some cake. It's always nice to feel like the star when everybody sings to you. Well, except for me, I'm always embarrassed. I don't think Max has that problem though.

(good singing Charlotte!!!)

(I love all the little helpers watching so closely at Max's side)

Hooray!!!
Then we moved on to the next and last activity......to come later......

::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.

::even more new mexico::

A couple more glimpses for you. Our trip was SO busy. We were only there Mon, Tues, Weds and a couple of hours Thurs morning. We were running around doing school tours, meeting other dentists, going through things at the office, talking to the current employees, looking at some of the houses that are on the rental market now etc. etc. It was a crazy trip and it made us really tired.
But it was fun.
The point is, we were so busy I didn't get to just run around taking pictures the whole time like I really wanted to. But I did get a few.

Here's the sign for the office we're buying:

Pretty cute logo, right? At first I thought the name was boring and obvious, but the more Kris and I talked about it we decided that the more obvious the better! At least nobody will be confused about what we do, and we should be easy to look up!

Here's one of the open bay operatory areas. There are two like this:

(yes, that's a cardboard cutout of John Wayne in there. Don't ask me why.)

The waiting room:

It's all southwesterny and cute, right? They just added the little raised area with the shelving.

Here are a couple of examples of the type of houses that are everywhere in Santa Fe. These are probably much bigger and nicer than anything we'll have, but they're fun looking.


When you see a normal looking house out there it's really weird and confusing. Everything is this adobe look.

Here's one of the schools we liked. This front doorway is just so nice looking, isn't it?


And last but not least, a snowy snowy high desert hill.

They say it doesn't usually snow that much in Santa Fe, but this has been a super snowy winter. It was definitely pretty, but a bummer not to get to see a lot of sky and sun because of all the clouds.

It was fun trip though! Thanks to Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Ken for letting Max stay and have a blast while we were gone!!

::to the sweet::

I just want to say happy Valentine's day to Kris. He's the sweetest and I'm so glad to have him!!


(Max took these two pictures for us. Pretty good, right?)

Here's what our little house looks like at home.

I think it misses us. But we don't miss it yet.

::more NM::

The sky in NM is so beautiful! I don't know if it's because the elevation is so high or what, but it's just gorgeous. Unless there's a big storm of course.
Here's the Albuquerque temple:



We got to run by it on the way to the airport heading back to UT.
And here is a view of Albuquerque's rocky mountains from near the temple. The mountains are reminiscent of Utah valley.

What do you think?
And it's not hot. Like I said before, there's winter. It was about 40 or 50 degrees in Albuquerque while we were there, and around 20s and 30s in Santa Fe.

::::

Kris and I are in Santa Fe, NM getting some business done. It's snowy out here! This is for all youse guys who think that NM is hot and full of palm trees. :)

::out::

We're out west! If I'm not too busy having fun I'll post more about it soon.