::phoenix in january pt 1::

Kris has his orthodontics course about once a month. We drove out with him in September for a fun little getaway. He went on his own in October, and then took Max with him in December (and almost earned the title of a saint for it).
He was excited that this time we were all up for the trip.
We planned it well--lots of stops, and no more than four hours of driving a day.
We left on wednesday evening after work and drove to Gallup, NM. We stayed in a crazy old supposedly famous place called El Rancho. When we drove up in the dark Max said he thought it looked like Las Vegas.

Supposedly this is the place where all the movie stars stayed when they came out to make movies and such. There were signed photos all over the lobby--if you can call it a lobby.

I'd say their claim here is a little overstated. It's charming--at least in the lobby, but the convenience of tomorrow was sadly not that present.
Check out the crazy lobby.

It's hard to even tell what's going on in here with the balconies and the stairs and all the crazy furniture. The overriding theme in there (besides the movie stars) was bull horn furniture. If I hadn't had my arms full of baby when leaving the next morning I'd have gotten some shots. They did have some fun vintage vending machines and some other stuff in there. Overall it was charming, but also 100% overwhelming!
Then, when we went up the stairs and headed through a door towards our room, this is what we saw.

Cinderblock halls! The charm was gone! Besides the paintings of indians along the way.

The rooms were ok, they attempted to keep the theme with wagon wheel furniture. The best thing though was the bottle opener/corkscrew attached to the doorjamb in the bathroom. Just in case.
We froze all night, not knowing how to turn up the heat. Sandy slept well despite that though, so that was nice. Max tried to get him to do some stomach exercising, but it didn't work out so well. He didn't enjoy it much. The pictures are cute though.


I love how his little feet are pointing up. Max sure loves his brother!
We got up to head our four hours towards Phoenix. I enjoy this part of the drive because we get to drive through AZ's northern mountains and then down towards Phoenix there are tons and tons of the big cactuses. They are so fun to look at. I wish I had a picture, but it's tough to take a good one from a speedy car. We did get some video though, but I don't have that to post right now.
The drive went well. Sandy does so great in the morning, he mostly just sleeps and smiles. Max was attentive to him in the back and popped his "peaceifier" as he calls it, back in for him and blocking the sun.

I love those baby mirrors.
It was definitely cold in NM and northern AZ. At one point we drove into a big foggy cloud and I thought it might be stormy, but luckily it was just frosty instead. I thought it was cool looking.

We were all really happy to arrive in Phoenix in the early afternoon. It was sunny and in the high sixties. The baby was able to wear short sleeves outside for the first time in his life!
And that's as much as I'm going to say about it all tonight. Oh, except that I'll say we had a great time and I was a little sad to have to get home....

(If only he was always this jolly!!)

::comparison::

9 days old:

55 days old or almost 8 weeks:

WOW!

::fun from week 8::

Week eight with our sweet Sandy.
He's darling and he's been sleeping great at night. Week eight found him stretching his nighttime sleep to four or five AM. Such an amazing thing for a sleep deprived mom.
He doesnt do so well with his daytime naps, but its hard to complain about that when nights are going so great. We're working on the daytime--slowly but surely (hopefully).

Some smiles from the week:


Oh how I love those full body smiles!!!!


I'm so sad that this little star suit doesn't fit anymore. He's growing so fast!


He now can sometimes get his hands into his mouth. It's a very happy and triumphant moment for him when he does! Like this:

BUT in the process of attempting to eat his hands he ends up scratching the crud out of his sweet little face. So sometimes for naps and nighttime he gets to wear socks on his hands.

I had gotten one hand's worth of fingernails clipped, but he didn't let me do the other one, the stinker. So he got to wear the
Michael Jackson sock look.

Another great week down, so many many more to go........

::just a teeny video::

Mostly for the fun of the grandparents!!
We think little Sandy is so adorable. He's almost figured out how to make his hands do what he wants--once in a while--sort of.

::::

Everybody loves the baby. Sultan loves him so much we have to protect him vigilantly from over-licking anytime his face is within reach.

::brothers having fun::

Max got a little toy phone at the office one day last week. When we got home he dug out one of his (many) other toy phones and proceeded to play phones with Sandy. It was seriously adorable because Sandy was in a wonderful mood and was very smiley.
Too bad it was super dark in the room--I wish the pictures were a little brighter, but oh well, they're still cute!






So adorable! I'm glad they're having fun together now, I think it bodes well for the future. But whatever it is, it's just so sweet.



"I just love that little guy!" says Max. I say I love BOTH my little guys. I feel very lucky and blessed.

::week seven::

Ah, week seven for our little Sandy. The week after Christmas! It was a fun week with Max off school. Kris worked hard all week because it was school vacation, and those are the best times for our office to be busy.
One day we had an one of Max's sweet little friends from the ward over. She loved Sandy and wanted to hold him. She's the youngest in our family, so she doesn't get much experience with babies!

Sandy's basically as big as she is.

A few days later we took a drive someplace and when we got back the baby looked so adorable snoozing in his carrier that I had to take a photo or two.

This hat is special, and it's going to get it's own blog post soon--as soon as I can snag a minute or two. Isn't it adorable?

The shoes are courtesy Aunt Lorri. They're SO DANG CUTE!!

And then later that day Max was playing with Sandy and I was seeing the most adorable faces. It was pretty dark in the room though, so the photos aren't that great.
But he's still just so cute.


He loves Max!

Late in the week, baby in my bed.


It was a good week, but now unfortunately the winter vacation is over and Max is back in school. Now I have to figure out how to find enough time to get the tree down and the decorations put away. Not too fun because it's a lot of work and depressing. But I'm afraid it'll get more depressing every day that I leave it all out.
Would somebody tell Sandy to take some good (or any) naps tomorrow so I can get some work done?? He's quite excellent at being cute, but not so good at napping.

::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.

::new year & lookalikes::

Here we are at 1-1-11. I think this will be a great year for us, we're looking forward to it.
And just to celebrate New Years day, here's another set of cute little lookalikes for you.


That makes me smile.
We're going to hang out together for the rest of the day, watching football, playing games and making cookies. Hopefully there won't be a lot of crying from the small guy. He's had a lot of yucky gas lately and he's been sad. But hopefully we'll have him all figured out soon.
Happy New Year everybody!