Busy, Busy, Busy

It has been a while since I have posted last. Life just got in the way I guess, but we are all doing great. Max is doing great and the baby girl is growing on track. This last past month we have been pretty busy. When we found out that I was pregnant, I told Paul that we need to get everything done around the house now because once this second baby comes we won't have all the time in the world. So I made a list and we are slowly getting stuff done.

In the middle of February, we had my dad and my sister, Dana, come for a visit. That was a lot of fun to see them and Max had so much fun spending time with them. We did a lot of fun things while they were here, but my favorite part was when we went to the Worldlife Zoo. We have never been there before, but it was a lot of fun.

Max going down the slide at the Zoo for really the first time and he loved it.

Eating lunch at the Zoo with a great view.

One of the big things that was on my to do list was to get the backyard done For about 7 months, we have lived with dirt in the backyard and it was driving me crazy. We were going to do the backyard ourselves, but with Paul's crazy work schedule and the weather getting warmer, we just decided to hire someone to do it. We got a fabulous deal and they finished in about 3 days. There is really nothing special about it. We just got grass, rocks, and some plants. It is a typical Arizona backyard, but its a finished backyard and Max loves it.

He can now go down the slide all by himself.

He can play with balls all day long. He kicks, throws and chases them.

This water thing is the best especially when it's warm outside. He is entertained by it for hours.

I put the bouncer that I used for Max in is closet to get it out of the way, but Max has recently discovered it and loves it. I think he loves it more now then we he was a baby. He is going to have a real hard time letting is baby sister use it.

Another big project that we are doing is painting. I am so sick of having white walls. We have spent months trying to pick out colors. I can tell that this is our first place that we have ever painted because we had the hardest time deciding what we wanted and what we liked. The most frustrating thing about picking out a color is that we would like a color on the paper, but when we bought a tester and put it on the wall, we hated it. The color on the paper and the color on the wall were so different. But after many different color testers, we finally decided on a color. We first painted the base color that is all throughout our house and that color is a light tan and then in the living room and kitchen/family room we are doing accent walls. We haven't painted those walls yet, but in the next week or two those walls will be done. So that means I only have to paint the laundry room, 4 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms. This is never going to end.

Max helping us paint

The only time we can paint is on the weekend, during Max's nap, and at night when Max is a sleep. So this is a very slow process, but it is getting done and its getting done before the baby comes.

We are having a.........

For everyone that doesn't know, I am pregnant. Yes, pregnant. It was a surprised, but of course a very good surprised. I am 18 weeks pregnant. My due date is in July which I am not so excited for. It is going to be very very hot here in Arizona. If this was a planned baby, I would be giving birth in March or April, but oh well. Max and this baby will be 18 months apart. Our life will defiantly be different when this baby comes, but I can't wait.

Well today we had our first ultra sound. I always get so nervous and excited at the same time for those appointments and I don't know why, but the baby looks good. It has a good heart beat and growing on track. The doctor had a hard time getting really clear pictures of the baby because it was right up against my side, but we did at least get a couple of good ones. We were able to find out the sex of the baby and it is a girl. Yes, we are having a girl. I am so excited. I already have my boy and now I am getting my girl. I am so happy. To celebrate, we went to the store and I bought a cute little summer dress for our baby girl. Today is a great day.

Max's 1st Birthday

On January 10th, Max turned one years old. I can't believe that he is one already. Where has the time gone. This past year has been an amazing year. Max has brought so much joy into our life. He has been such a great baby. We have been very blessed to have him in our life.
Max has changed a lot in these last couple of months. He now weighs 20 pounds and 29 1/2 inches long. We is walking like crazy and getting into everything that he possibly can. He loves to talk, cry, laugh, play peek-a-boo, play with balls, going outside, and he loves loves his blanket. This is a new thing that he started after Christmas. Ever since he came home he has become obsess with his his blue blanket. He caries it everywhere with him and cries if he doesn't have it. The one thing that we are trying to work with him on is his eating habits. He is a very hot and cold eater. Sometimes he will eat everything then other times he won't eat anything. We are also trying to get him to like veggies. He will not eat them unless they are covered in some kind of sauce. He just loves flavor.
Anyways, on the 9th we celebrated his birthday here in Arizona with some of our friends. We had taco salad and then had cake. It was a lot of fun to have people celebrate with us Max's first birthday. For his birthday cake, I decided to make a cupcake cake. I did run into some problems, but the finish cake was very very cute. I loved doing the cupcake cake because then I was able to give Max one cupcake to destroy, so then everyone else could also have a cupcake. Then on Sunday the 10th, Paul and I had celebrate his birthday just us as a family. We gave him a cake all to himself, so I could get the classic baby destroying his first cake. But no. I didn't get that picture. Max would barely put his hands in the cake. My child doesn't like to get dirty at all. He doesn't like to get anything on his hands. Anyways, Max had a great first birthday and I still can't believe that he is one!

Max's first birthday cake!

Max only ate the cake part and not the frosting which is very odd for a kid to do.

His birthday gifts

Max was so excited to get the car. He loved the school bus one that Grammy Babs had. Thanks Babs.

His second cake with just Paul and I.

So we put the bottom layer of the cupcake cake on his tray to see what he would do and it was the funniest thing ever. He just starred at the cake for a while and then he would slowly touch it.

This is the messiest picture that I got of him.

Christmas Time

So it has been forever since I have posted anything. I am slowly getting back to real life after being on vacation for so long. It might take me a couple of post to catch up with everyone that has been going on these last couple of weeks.

This post is all about Christmas. I know that Christmas was a while ago, but I am finally posting pictures of Christmas. We had a very fun Christmas this year. We were able to spend Christmas in Danville with all the kids. I really don't remember the last time that we have all spent Christmas together. I finally got to meet my little nephew, Skye and my niece, Ali for the first time and they are so cute. We had lots of fun while we were there. We decorated cookies, went to San Francisco, hiking, played games, ate lots of food, shopping, and just hung out with each other.

While we were there, Max really changed a lot. He started walking a lot better, loves playing with any kind of balls, is not as much of a mommy's boy, loves being around people/kids, loves any kind of meats, learned how to take only 1 nap instead of 2 and rides in a big car seat. Max had a lot of fun playing with all of his cousins and playing with all of his aunts and uncles. He was really sad to come home to an empty house with no one to play with every day, all day long. Here are just a few pictures of Christmas.

Max and Ali

Max's first Christmas

Max and Skye

Thanks to everyone for making it a great first Christmas for Max!

Walking

For the past couple of weeks, Max has started taking a couple of steps. He has never been able to walk that far until this past weekend. During the Thanksgiving holiday, we drove down to Rancho and Max was able to play with all of his cousins. All of his cousins were running all over the place and Max tried to keep up. By the end of the trip, he was pretty much walking. He still falls a lot, but he loves to walk. He doesn't really even crawl anymore. Here is a video of him walking the day that we got back from our little trip.



Here is another video of Max dancing while listening to Christmas music. I tried to get it on tape, but whenever I start to record he always stops what he is doing. I was trying to catch him dancing to the Christmas music. It is really funny because whenever he hears music he will move his head back and forth and start bouncing up and down. I will try to get a better video of it, but this will just give you the idea of what he does.

Halloween Weekend

We had our first Halloween with Max. I will have to say the Halloween is a lot more fun when you have kids to dress up and take trick or treating. I can't wait for him to get older. Well the weekend of Halloween, my mom decided to come for a visit to see our house for the first time and or course to see Max. It was a lot of fun to have her here in Az. On Friday, we decided to drive to Sedona and spend the day. It was so pretty there and perfect weather. We went on a hike, had a picnic lunch, and walked around the shops. It is always nice to do something new and to get out of town just for the day.For Halloween, I decided to dress Max up as Tigger. At first he didn't like the costume especially having something on his head, but after a while he got use to it. It was very cute on him. It was so cute to see him crawl on the floor and all you can see is this tail dragging on the gound. I wish I had a picture of it, but all we have is the front.

We did take Max trick-or-treating and it was so mcuh fun. When we got up to a house, I put him down and held his hands so he could kind of walk up to the door. I would also put his pumpkin bucket around his hand so people could put the candy in his basket. When we got home, I let him play with the basket and he had so much fun playing with the candy and trying to eat it.
Max has a lot of fun playing with plastic cups. He will roll them all over the kitchen. One of the cups got under one barstool and then under the next barstool. Max wanted that cup so he tried to do what the cup did. Go under one stool and then the next, but he got stuck at the first one and couldn't not move.
One day, Paul comes back from running and sees that we have an owl sitting on our roof during the day. I have never seen an owl here especially during the day.
Thank you mom for coming to Az to visit us. It was so good to see you and spend time with you. Thank you for taking me shopping for my b-day.

Homecoming in Rancho

This past weekend, we went down to Rancho to welcome home Paul's brother from his mission. I can't believe that 2 years already went by. I can't believe how fast time goes by. It was so good to see David.

On Thursday we drove down after Paul was done with work. Max did pretty well in the car, but we did have to stop to feed him and to let him crawl around. Friday was the big day of the arrival of the missionary, but he wasn't coming in until 7:30 at night, so we had the whole day to hang out. Because it was such a beautiful day, I mean it was clear blue skies. I have been going to Rancho for about 4 years and I have only seen blue skies a couple of times because there is always smog around. But on Friday the winds were blowing, so for once I could actually see the mountains. We walked around the outdoor mall and had some lunch with the fam. It was a perfect day. I wihs I took some pictures because it was so clear.

Max and his Uncle Mark meeting for the first time. Mark is in the Navy and is station in Washington.

When 7:30 came around, we all went to the airport to welcome David home from being on his mission in Alabama.

The whole family

David with his 2 new nieces, Tiffany and Ashlee and of course Max

Max with his cousin Ahslee

On Saturday, we celebrating Jo Ann's 60th b-day even though it was a week after her b-day. We went out to dinner, which the food was very delicious, to celebrate the big birthday with the whole fmaily and some of her close friends. Before we went to dinner we took a family picture because it has been 2 years since the last one. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, I decided to take some pictures of Max because we have no nice pictures of him. One of these days I am going to take professional pictures of him, but until then these will have to do. (There are more pictures of him in the photo gallery link on my blog)

David and Max

Max with his Grandma and her birthday party.

Max with his Great-grandma

Here are some random pictures of Max that I thought were such cute, so I wanted to pot them. Here Max is ready for a morning walk and wearing is Halloween sweatshirt that is aunt Kim and Uncle Adil gave to him.

Max had a lot of fun eating beans for the first time