::more max & lucy::

I just can't quit with these two. They're so cute together and Max is so attentive to her.

Today we were reading scriptures and Max was holding Lucy. I had to keep shushing them because Max kept making Lucy laugh. Stinkers.
Then they just kept up the cuteness after the scripture reading so I pulled out the camera.
The color and light in these photos looks a little funky because it was right at sunset time and the sun was blazing in our western windows. It just seems like it wasn't that long ago that Max was our only baby. It's crazy that now he's big enough to (sort of) take care of our Lucy. Max was incredibly amused when Lucy started bending herself double and sucking on her toes. He was giggling madly.

And while those two were doing that, Sandy and Dad were reading a bedtime story in his room.  The end and happy Sunday!

::more max artwork::

The fabulous Max artwork is pretty much everywhere you look in our house. But I still can't get enough of it. This chalk drawing was done at school sometime in the spring and I just ran across the photo on my phone.

 His characters are so cute. I love the little dog.
 He knows I'm a sucker for his little animals. Especially when their tongues are hanging out.  And I love the music notes!!!

::fuzzy caterpillar::

Being the mean mean mom that I am, I forced the boys outside the other day for playtime. We really have an amazing yard so Kris and I get a little frustrated when we have to kick them out in order to get them to play, but I guess that's how it goes sometimes.

Anyway,

The boys found a fuzzy caterpillar. And they were very excited.

Max was scared to touch him because he was worried he would be spikey, but I led the way and then everybody gave him a fuzz.

I think the boys felt like crazy safari adventurers, so of course I had to take a bunch of pictures.

Anyway, the next day they were out front for some reason and found another caterpillar on the wall. They figured it was the same one.

THEN, the NEXT day they went out looking for him and couldn't find him. Max told Sandy that he must've "made a chrysalis and turned into a butterfly." Max reports that Sandy said, "I'm so proud of him now!!"



Sandy came running into the house to me saying how proud he was of his caterpillar because he turned into a butterfly! I was confused, but charmed of course.  By the little loquacious one and the big one who was being so sweet.

And that's the whole story of boys and caterpillar. At least for now.

::5 months::

Our baby Lucy (AKA Lucy-Lu, Lucy Lu-Lu,or Lu-Lu) was 5 months on Tuesday! 5 whole dang months!

Ok, some of her favorite things right now are:
Chewing on her fingers
Chewing on my fingers
Chewing on Max's fingers
Sucking on stuff
Looking at pretty or interesting things
Looking in the mirror
Kicking people--preferably in the face
Playing with the toys on her bouncer
Max
Touching stuff
Swimming in the bathtub
Waking up
Being awake
Taking 10 second naps in the car
Playing on her stomach
Watching people smile
Watching people make funny faces/noises
Smiling
Talking--babbling and babbling
Blowing bubbles
Spitting

Her least favorites:
Riding in the car for longer than 10 seconds
Getting in the carseat when she thinks it's mealtime or nap time
Playing on her stomach when she's in a bad mood
Being left alone--ever
Going to bed
Taking naps
Staying asleep
Anybody else eating a meal when she's not
The grocery store
Entertaining herself
Gas bubbles.
Gagging herself with her fingers

That's a pretty exhaustive list.

My favorite things about her?
Her smile. It's so adorable and contagious. It takes over her whole face and wiggles her whole body. Her laugh. It's tough to tease out of her but oh so worth it when it comes--it's kind of a chortle.
Girl baby clothes. I've had a blast buying clothes and dressing her. She's like my little baby doll. Snuggling.
Having her to keep me company all the time.
I love how she will always fall asleep for a nap if I lie down on the bed with her and snuggle. It never fails.

Least favorite?
Just the fact that she never likes to sleep and tries to avoid it as much as possible. Nothing else. And we'll keep trying to help her love of sleep grow.  We know from Sandy that sometimes it just takes patience but it all works out in the end.



We love love love our Lucy.

::::

You'd think a person that recently dropped a protein shake lunch all over their computer, phone and work papers would learn their lesson.

But no, I've just got way too much to do. I don't have time to learn from my mistakes. Oy.

::swimming lucy::

When we went to San Diego in late June Lucy got to swim in the pool. She was pretty unexcited at first, but warmed to the floating pretty quickly.


Kathy got her this super cute little swimming suit. Max thinks she looks like a Katamari cousin and I agree.





She was more worried about watching her feet than anything. She didn't even realize she was dressed like a flower.



BUT, she was NOT a fan of the beach. Way too much wind, way too much noise and way too much beach. Shes' going to have to get used to it though. This was just a practice run.

::lunch today::

I had to just force myself to post these photos without editing them because I just don't have the dang time right now. It's a little painful, but maybe it will help me to do better just taking them right instead of having to edit every dang photo.

I FORCED the guys to go outside a bunch today. Mean me. Somehow in the midst of all that forced fun they were excited to take lunch outside so that they could eat on the playground.

A storm was coming over the mountains, but it wasn't quite here yet.

I came out with the camera because I was guessing that they were being cute. I was right, but once I got out there they weren't cute anymore but just goofy and hamming in front of the camera.

Max tries to pretend he's not 100% aware of the camera.




"Wow! What a surprise! Who knew you had a CAMERA?! I just happened to have a sandwich hanging out of my mouth!!"



Har har





Sandy wants to be as cool and goofy as his brother. He's almost there.  Just a little more training.








Just imagine lots and lots of cute giggling. LOTS.  I do love to hear them giggling together even though it sometimes means trouble for me.

I sure do like these boys. They drive me nuts, but they're so dang cute the rest of the time.

And poor little Lucy had shots today so she was taking a long and serious nap in my bedroom. I think she's just about too big for her little bed.




She's so happy and peaceful when she actually sleeps--just wish I could get her to do it more.
And that's today. The fun part of today anyway. The rest was all working and running around and feeling tired.  Classic Monday.

::drivin' home::

The kids were so good on our way home from UT. We did have a few tough spots though.
On Saturday we got all packed up in the morning and then went with Mom & Dad to meet up with Lorri and kids for yummy lunch at Burger's Supreme.  It was really nice, but everybody was already a little tired by the time we actually got going.

Kris and I being ourselves decided that we should push through a little longer than planned and try to make it to Farmington NM. The fact that there's a Cafe Rio type place there might have been a bit of extra incentive.

Anyway, we made it there in time for a late dinner, but everybody melted down there and we ended up leaving so precipitously that I almost left my purse.
What happened was that Max decided he needed to go to the bathroom so bad when we first went into the place that he neglected to pay attention to the fact that we were ordering.  He didn't listen, didn't stick around and didn't tell us what he wanted so he got no food. It was a very sad dinner time--lots of tears, a few trips to the bathroom (one time he came out with toilet paper pasted over his eyes so nobody could see the red eyes or tears) and lots of whining. But he survived, MAYBE learned a lesson, and since Sandy never eats food he got to finish all of Sandy's dinner.
And at least Kris's and my food tasted good. 

It was a relief to get to the hotel and put people to bed. Although nobody seemed to think they were tired.

Kids make life so complicated, but they also make things interesting. Never a dull moment--lots of uncomfortable, embarrassing and poopy moments, but not any dull ones.

::::

 Lucy is getting so big, but honestly Max is getting even bigger. Murphy took this photo.

It's so cute besides the facial expression of the overtired baby who wants people to just stop taking her photo and put her to bed. Max is stylin' in his church clothes.