::look alikes::

Here are my two boys. Can you tell which is which? Max couldn't even tell. These were the most similar pictures and poses that I could find. These are two cute little boys that look so similar.


They have the same little bow lips and the same little pokey out chin and double chins for that matter. They have noses that are very very similar. They both have/had those little bruised looking eyelids. Those come from Kris.

I think though they look a lot alike now that is going to change. I think Sandy's going to end up with his own look.

Here are a couple more poses that I tried to use for comparison--not as good as the top ones, but still so cute I couldn't help but posting!!
Max at about two months old:

Sandy last week:


Max at about two and a half months:

Sandy last week again:

There are some similarities there, right?

And last but not least, here they are in the same outfit--Aunt Leslie gave me this one when Max was born. A little boy always looks adorable wearing the Hungry Caterpillar.
Max probably around a month old:

Sweet Sandy just yesterday:


Love it!

::highlights from week 4::

So I didn't get a picture a day, but that's ok. A picture a day is way too hard, especially in the winter when it gets dark so soon. And I'm all about not putting extra pressure on myself. At least that's how I try to be!

So here are a few fun photos from Sandy's week four. I can't believe he's been here a month already. Time really does go way too fast.

Here he is waiting in the car for big brother to get done from school. Boy is it complicated to take care of a tiny guy and a big guy at the same time--scheduling conflicts! The logistics can be quite complicated. So far so good though, and I have developed a heathy respect for all you parents of multiple children out there!


Another photo from the "kissing grandpa" scene. This one is way too blurry but I still think it's super cute.


Sandy gets to hang out in his bouncer when we're trying to eat meals or get something done. He likes it for about 10 minutes usually and then thinks it's too boring. This is one of my favorite outfits he's wearing. I just love the little stars!


Baby in an elf outfit. I love this little stripey sweater with the pointed hood! Good thing Sandy's small enough to be patient with my dressing him up like an adorable little doll.
Max went and got his Santa hat and pretended to be Santa to Sandy's elf for the rest of the day. Cute stuff.

I love my boys!!

::found::

I found this on the dining room table the other day.

I don't think I can play this song, but as long as Max can we're in good shape.
I think it's the cutest song I've ever seen.

::visits::

We were lucky enough to have Kris's parents here to visit for what was essentially a long weekend. They got here Saturday night and I took them to the airport on Wednesday morning. We had a great time. Kathy has been here before, but this was Ken's first time and we had fun showing him around.
Kris and Max took him up on a four wheeling drive in the Land Rover into the mountains where they saw wild turkeys and wore Ken right out. We took them to a delicious Mexican restaurant. We went to the Cowgirl grill where they got to enjoy the awesomeness of the ice cream baked potato. Kathy and I did a little shopping. Ken got to see the office and meet the people that we work with. We got to sing christmas carols--especially Max's current favorite "The 12 days of Christmas" over and over...

I think Kathy's favorite part was Sandy though. She said this was the oldest any of her grandbabies had ever been before she got to hold him. She made up for it though while she was here. The boy was always happily snuggled up in her arms.

I love this picture. Sandy was in heaven.


He has his eyes open so much more lately. It's very fun.

The bummer was that poor Ken had a work emergency come up just before they came out, and so he was stuck at his little makeshift workstation in our living room for a lot of time. But what would a visit from Ken be without a work emergency, really?

At least we have a bunch of computer stuff, so we could make sure he could get stuff done.

But he took a break long enough to play guitars with Max. Max is doing really well with his lessons, and so was able to play with Ken quite well. It was really fun to hear them play and sing together.



Max is lucky to have such a rich heritage of guitar playing and appreciation from both his Grandpas. We expect great things from him as far as guitars are concerned! At least we want him to be able to serenade girls in college...

Even Sandy got a little Grandpa time. Ken was holding him for me while I did something, and when I came back into the room this is what I saw:


It cracked me up. Lucky Grandpa--not everybody gets those special Sandy kisses.

We're so glad they came, and we'll have lots more to show and do next time they make it out here.
And if you want to see some more fun pictures, see Ken's post here.

::the tree::

We love our fabulous tree from the forest. It's huge.
Luckily we have a large front room with a high ceiling, otherwise there's no way it would've fit and we would have all cried.
But happily it fits, though we did have to trim the back branches a touch and take part of the very top off. I think it's about 10 feet tall now, and the bottom branches probably stretch about six feet. It's definitely the biggest tree we've ever had.
You know what's weird about it though? Unless your nose is basically stuck inside the branches, it just doesn't smell that piney. I've hardly smelled it in the house at all. But oh well, that's what Christmassy smelling candles are for, right?

Last sunday I put the lights on, once Kris's mom was in town to visit and could hold the baby. The poor tree had sat bare in the living room for four or five days, just begging for lights. But I could only do so much. It was great to have two free hands for a bit, though the hands missed the snuggly baby.
Here the tree is, all lit up.

I wish I could give you an idea of the scale, but you'll just have to imagine it. Well maybe this will help. Kris had to do the top lights for me, and he had to get a ladder to do it!

And of course he had to reenact putting the star on top so we could document it for posterity.

He's pretty cute!

So sunday afternoon we got out the ornaments and decorated the tree. First thing Max did was get out a glass ball and hang it on the tree. It directly slipped right off and shattered on the bricks. I decided at that point we'd go 95% non-breakable as far as ornaments. So we're missing some of our favorites this year, but that's ok. It gives some of the others a chance to shine.

Max likes to hang things in big clumps. I'd give him a few to hang, then look up and see them all bunched up on one branch. So after he hung stuff I had to go back through and redistribute. But he was very insistent that the Mama Fish ornament hang as close as possible to the trombone ornament, so she could play it whenever she wanted.

And the best part? Now we get to hang out by the light of the tree whenever we want. I love Christmas trees, especially busy ones with colored lights like ours. They're just so fun to look at, there's always something new to see. Sandy loves to stare at it too.

When he's not sleeping that is.

::week 3::

This is late, and it's the last week I've had a picture every day. Some things just aren't 100% practical, right? But he's so cute honestly it's hard NOT to take pictures of him all the time.
Anyway, so here's his week three.

Day 15:

Does it get any cuter than this? We were on our way to watch the BYU vs UT game with friends. Sandy is wearing Max's old football jersey.

Day 16:

Taking a sunday afternoon snooze with Daddy. I love sleeping babies. And sleeping 6 year olds too really.

Day 17:

You've seen this one before--Sandy waiting while we picked and cut down the christmas tree. He was super patient and slept the whole time. What a man.

Day 18:

Stripey velour suit day. He looks so cute in it. And he's awake, wow!

Day 19:

Propped up in the corner of the couch wearing one of Max's old outfits. I could eat him up.

Day 20:

Me, trying to actually get something done while the boys were in Phoenix. Can you see the dirty dishes in the sink behind me? I didn't get them washed. But Sandy does love the carrier. It's just hard to do anything that's right in front of you when he's in there. But it's nice he enjoys it. He falls right to sleep usually.

Day 21:

A phone picture we took to send to Dad and Max so that they could see how cute his outfit is and how cute HE is.

And that's week three. I can't believe how fast the weeks are flying and how big he's already getting. Slow down baby!

::out with the boys::

Kris had a conference in Phoenix over the weekend, and like the awesome husband that he is, he thought it might be easier for me if Max went with him. It was true, and Max was SO excited to get to go with dad.
I think they generally had a great time. These are some of the pictures that were emailed to me over friday and saturday.
A huge hotel breakfast--I can't believe he ate all that!

Max's little workstation for during class time. Lots of fun entertainment.

Producing cool stuff like this:

Love it!!

Testing the temp of the pool water with a changing color car. Max swam, Kris was too wimpy for the colder temps.

Max getting to be the dummy for demonstrations of headgear. This one cracked me up! We had to make sure he earned his plane ticket somehow!


I'm glad they had such a good time together, and it did make things tons easier for me--love you Kris!!

::the tree::

On monday morning we set out to find a christmas tree. We were all prepared for the adventure with cold weather gear and snacks. We headed south to the confusing areas on the little map where tree cutting was allowed.
It was a cold cold day.
We were excited and I was a little nervous, hoping we didn't get stuck or something up in the mountains with a brand new little baby and another sweet boy that whom I don't want freezing.

The dudes in the back:


We drove and drove and finally reached one of the forest service roads. We headed up the crazy bumpy road and I sat in the back and held little Sandy's head so I wouldn't have to worry that it would bounce off.

We kept seeing nice trees, but then we would realize that they were HUGE. Like really really big. Our sense of scale was all off in the mountains. We looked and looked and then finally saw a couple of good candidates halfway down a pretty steep gorge. We stopped and Kris went down there to check them out.

We were only supposed to get a tree that was 10 feet or under. We had to eyeball it because even though we remembered everything else, we didn't remember a tape measure.

Baby slept and slept through the whole adventure, thank goodness, because it was awfully cold out there. He was tucked in all warm and cozy and enjoying the extreme vibrations of the land rover.


Here is our tree. We also liked the one to the right.

It looked so small to us after all the others we'd seen on our way.

The scenery:


The crazy boys:


The slightly nervous mom and slightly obedient boy:

Why I'm letting him hold the saw here I'll never know.

Kris had to have Max's help cutting the tree down--they'd been talking about it for quite a while. So Kris rigged up a rather ingenious solution to the problem of the extremely steep bank.

Max looks like he's on his way down from Everest or something.

There they go--Sultan was freaking out. See him there in the picture zooming under the tow rope? He wanted to go down to the tree so bad, but was smart enough to realize it was just too steep for him.
But he was still sad about it.


They cut it down. "TIMBER!!!!" said Max. Then they had to get themselves and the tree back up to the car.
No small task, but Kris can do anything.


Luckily the tree isn't really too heavy. The trunk isn't super thick.

Then they had to figure out what to do next with the dang thing.

And up it went. It was snowing by this time and I wish you could feel the cold air. My hands were freezing!


Taa Daa!!
Then we drove him in a big snowstorm by way of Dairy Queen. Yes, there is a Dairy Queen in the middle of nowhere quite a way south of our house. It's pretty funny.
Sandy stayed asleep until we got home, such a blessing.
Then we got the tree in the house and realized it was HUGE! Definitely at least the 10 feet and probably more like 11. When Kris stuck it in a bucket to wait for our stand it brushed the ceiling, and our ceilings are really high in this house. I couldn't believe how big it was! So funny that our sense of scale was so off.
If only I had a picture of it to show you. Soon enough. It's sitting here waiting for me to put lights on it. Who knows how long it'll take me, especially since I'm going to need a ladder for the top part! But pictures will come.
And that's the story. Pretty epic.