Easter

For this Easter, we decided to spend it right here in Arizona. My mom actually decided to come for a visit and help us celebrate Easter. It was a lot of fun to have her visit. Max of course had lots of fun with his Grammy. One thing that he loved to do was to have his Grammy read to him. It is so funny because whenever people come to visit, all he wants to do with them is read. He just loves his books.

This was the first Easter the Max was able to help color Easter eggs. We decided to decorate outside because it was such a great day and. We put him in his chair and let him go to town. Of course, at first he had no idea what to do, but then he caught on and had lots of fun. After we were all done, Max looked like an Easter egg himself. His arms, hands, stomach and legs were covered in food coloring.

Max loved his Easter basket that the Easter bunny brought him. He got some toys for the backyard and some stuff animals.

Helping mommy and Grammy cook breakfast before Conference.

Max's first Easter egg hunt!
He had so much fun finding all the eggs. At first, he didn't know what to do. We would try to help him, but he kept getting distracted by his toys that were in the backyard. I guess for next year, I will have to put all his toys away before the Easter egg hunt. Finally, he did catch on and then he had a blast trying to find all the eggs. Paul did a great job hiding the eggs.

After Max found all his eggs, we sat down and let him see what was inside. I filled the eggs with fruit snakes and Trix cereal and he loved the cereal. It was a great Easter. It was perfect weather, maybe even a little to hot, but it was so much fun seeing Max so excited whenever he found an egg. Hope everyone a great Easter.

Rancho Visitors

A week before Easter, Paul's parents and grandma came for a visit. It was really good to see them and Max had a lot of fun with them. On Friday we were able to attend a Dodger's spring training baseball game. It was Max's first baseball game ever and he did pretty well. Of course we had to take many walks around the field, but for the most part he was great.
Then on Saturday, we went out to this farm place in Phoenix which is rated one of the best places to eat. Max was able to run around and look at all the chickens that were there.

The gang

I am trying to teach Max to smell the flowers with his noise, but instead of smelling with his noise he smells with his mouth.

Grandma and Grandpa bought him some Easter eggs and we decided to let Max play with them a couple of days early and it was very funny to watch him. He would take all the eggs out of the container and then put them all back into their places. He would do this over and over again. I think he was entertained for a couple of hours with those eggs. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

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.