::catch::

One morning as we were scrambling to get ready (well, we is a stretch, I was scrambling and the kids were moving in slow motion) I had Max watch Lucy for a minute so I could run and grab my shoes or something else like that.  When I came back into the main part of the house I found all three of the kiddos in Max's room.



They were playing catch with the baby.  It was so cute and gentle.  Max would hand the ball to her and then she would suck on it for a minute and hand it to Sandy who would then pass it to Max.



Sandy got a little ancy because of Lucy's pace, but really he was so patient.  I almost died of the cuteness.  I was so impressed.  It was adorable and I hated to break it up to leave for school.



Later that day they tried to play again, but life was just too distracting and it didn't quite work.



Even later, yesterday, Max was at school and Sandy and Lucy were playing alone.  I was doing the dishes or something else equally fun and when I looked over there was Sandy, sweetly and patiently playing catch with Lucy.



It was so cute.  And I thought about how influential an older sibling can be in a family.  Max taught them to do this and then there they are doing it when he's not even there.



And really, although these two can get annoyed with each other pretty easily, they really love each other and there are some adorable hugs and kisses that go on from time to time.  Lucy can be very affectionate.



Oh Sandy's face!





It's so fun for Lucy to feel like a big person playing with the big guys!



And yeah, I have to acknowledge the morning light in this room.  Glorious.



There you go, my brag on my kids.  Allow me it, there's plenty of other days and times when bragging would NOT be appropriate.  Such is life.

::fishies::

Remember my cute little adorable fish loving boy from many many years ago?

Well, he still loves fish.  And that makes me so very happy.

At school the kids were put in two person teams and had to do a poster presentation with research and illustration about a certain type of animal.  I'm assuming they got to pick the animal, since Max picked FISH!



Max tells me he did most of the illustrations.  Like 99%, though he did teach his partner to do fish shapes so that he could help with the fishy border.

I love this poster more than words can say.  It's adorable and hilarious and super fabulous.



Jelly + fish + jellyfish.  DO NOT TOUCH!!!



It don't even know what to say about the rest of this.  Yes, I think he's brilliant because he's my kid.  I can't help it.  But seriously these drawings are incredible.



This octopus cracks me up.  The dismay and embarrasment of having no brain.  Max's character's faces are so expressive.



I'm going to get my hands on this poster and keep it forever and ever.

::boo hoo::

This is a very sad post about chocolate. When Kris put together my birthday piñata, he put in a bunch of my favorite chocolates.  Ghirardelli squares (Disneyland candy according to Sandy) and those Lindt balls.  Yum!!! I was excited to enjoy a few of those the following day.

Here's the sad part.  I left most of the chocolates on the pool table after we broke the pinata in there.  When I went to get them after church the next day they were completely melted and liquified from the heat of the sunlight moving across the room.  Totally mushy and disgusting.  I was pretty bummed.

Oh well, sad but I didn't need to eat all those chocolates I guess.

Next?  Kris got me a little box of Godiva chocolates for Valentine's day.  Yum!!!!  I ate one and put the rest on my nightstand to savor.  Well, Lucy woke up coughing a few nights later and was up and angry for a long time.  I ended up turning on the lamp on my nightstand (I almost never use this lamp because it gets very warm--see where this is going??).  Almost as soon as I turned on the light Lucy went back to sleep and then I nodded off.  Well, when I woke up I realized that somebody had put my box of chocolates on top of the lamp to get them out of the way.  And guess what?  They were totally squishy, melted and liquified.

WHAT?!  Is the universe watching out for me or is life just unfair??

::max's bday::

The big 11!!!!

Max turns 11.  How crazy is that?

He didn't get up when I woke him, as per the usual, and was very slow getting up, even though it was his birthday.  So of course I had to yell at him--as per the usual--and we barely made it to the doughnut shop for his birthday treats.

 

He was so excited to share treats with the kids at school.

Isn't he looking so old and mature?  Don't be fooled though, he's getting old but he's not any too mature!



He is adorable though.



I had kind of a crazy day with lots of work and kind of crazy things going on.  I finally got around to making Max's cake a lot later in the day than I'd planned.  Lucy got to enjoy some scraps.  Sandy was sitting at the bar waiting for cake scraps just as hopefully as Sultan lurks under the high chair when Lucy is eating.



Since it was after school I put Max to work feeding his sister while I was cooking.  He was happy to do it.  He loves her so much.  Sandy is always happy to photobomb.



They were both a sticky mess when he was done feeding her, but it kept the both of them occupied and that's all that really matters.

Poor Sandy was so anxious for Max to open his presents.  He asked me if it was time yet about every 10 seconds.  He was somehow convinced that There was a present for him in there too, and that it was a Lego Millenium Falcon.....not true.



She's so dang cute.  Notice the wire wisk--that's my attempt at keep her happy and occupied while waiting for me to get things done in the kitchen.  Honestly it only works for like 2 minutes.  But I always try.



I finally let her out, blocked up the hallways with stools and she explored the breakfast nook.  She's so dang cute.

And the finished product, another highly requested and coveted M&M cake!  This one turned out a little bit uneven for some reason, but it tasted super good.



Boy was Sandy ready.  You can see the makeshift baby gate behind him there.



We had one of Max's favorite dinners, chili-cornbread.



Mmmmmmmm.  Or is that some other kind of face?



It is so hard to get Max to make a normal face for pictures.  So dang hard.  Especially when he's excited for cake and presents.



Presents!!  Legos and other fun toys.  He also got a Rip Curl jacket (which he's been dying for) and laser tag guns.  SO EXCITING!



And here are the girls!



Time for cake.  11 candles is a heavy load for one little m&m cake.



I love the little serious onlooker--so engrossed.  Picking up tips for his next birthday celebration.



See how the cake is a little funky on the side?  I decided it really doesn't matter what it looks like as long as it tastes good.  And boy did it taste good.

It was a fun day.  We're so happy to have Max in our family, and it's honestly impossible to think he could be this big.  What the heck??

::skiing with grandpa::

When my Dad came out to visit for a few days (and do an adventure race with Kris) we took Grandpa up our ski mountain for a morning adventure.  This was only my 3rd time skiing and definitely the first time I've gone without Kris's help.



Accidental Grandpa selfie!?



We dropped off Sandy at ski lessons and Lucy at the baby center and went for some fun easy runs.  Max's friend from church showed up and so they went on some bigger more exciting runs together and Dad and I just stayed on the easy hill, he was getting to know his new skis and I was practicing turning and stopping.



We stopped for a photo op at the top of the hill.



It was so fun to get to hang out together a little bit and Dad was impressed with me.



Lunchtime after kid pickup!  It was nice to have the cafeteria almost to ourselves, especially because the way Sandy eats.  He doesn't sit.  He runs up and down.  So this was perfect--well, perfect until he dropped his hot dog out of his bun and had to throw it away (after he snuck a few bites).



Good old patient Lucy.  She's so good at just hanging out.





Cutest girl ever!



This is a pretty attractive picture of the three of us.



We got an awesome parking spot, so loading and unloading was pretty easy.  We're lucky to have this nice mountain so close to home and it was fun to share it with Dad.

::valentines day 2015::

Kris and Dad did a crazy adventure race on Valentines day.  It's called the Mt Taylor Quadathalon and involved many many miles of skiing, snowshoeing, running and biking.  They are crazy.  They had a lot of fun together and meanwhile back at the house, lots of rather interesting things were going on.



It was Valentines day of course, so I set up little gifts and toys for the boys on the dining room table.  Max was so excited about it that he got up really early and also woke Sandy up.  Great.  But I was glad he was excited.



I sent Kris a few pictures to make him feel bad for leaving me behind--or to make him wish he was hanging out with me.




Here's Sandy.  He made a fancy double sided red light saber out of legos and was very proud.  Also note the stick that's on the ottoman--one of his favorite toys.  He's always bringing special sticks home from school and from the yard.



We went out to try to run some errands--the boys are being silly back there with their new valentines gift water bottles--I didn't realize they'd love them quite as much as they do.
So the errands went just ok.  They ended with both Lucy and Sandy bawling and screaming (yes, actually screaming) in the cart at Target.  I can't even really remember why.
So after that happened I just headed straight home.

And the kids took a bath.  I wasn't planning on bathing them all together, it just happened--like most of the day just happened to me.

It went pretty well, surprisingly.  Sandy did try driving cars on Lucy's little floaty and few times and Max stopped him.  Lucy was a little overwhelmed yet amused with both the boys in there.



They ended up really having a lot of fun.  I only let Lucy stay in there for a while, and then the big boys and their pretend world took over.  They didn't get my bathroom *too* wet.







One of the reasons why Sandy was screaming at Target (I remember now) was over a popped Jake & the Neverland Pirates balloon--I won't get into the details.  But in the below picture he's so happy because Max drew Jake on a balloon that came from Cub Scouts to try to make Sandy feel better.  Sandy was so thrilled by this that it made me very happy.



We got ready for bed nice and early, this I tend to do when Kris is out of town.  I look forward to (and also dread) bedtime.



And last thing worth noting is that my Dad insisted we needed a "real" high chair.  I was kind of trying to muddle along with a tray-less up to the table high chair, a bumbo and a bouncer.  He was right, but I compromised with one of these little more portable chairs.  She liked it a lot.  All the food was right there!!!



It was a pretty good day despite all the craziness.  Kris and Dad finished the race and had a good time.  They came back and arrived pretty late, but safe and sound.

Oh, and I forgot to say that Max came in first thing in the morning (nice and early of course) and gave me his and Sandy's valentine cards.  He made sure I was taken care of.  I did feel loved.