Farewell in Rancho

This past weekend, we drove to Rancho for Paul's parent's mission farewell. It was a good weekend, but also a sad weekend because it was probably the last time we will see them before they take off at the end on June. It will be weird not to have his parents around for 3 years, but I can't wait to see them in Honduras. They are going to be great mission presidents.

On Friday, someone in their stake had a little going away party for them and 2 other couple missionaries leaving from their stake. It was a lot of fun and the kids had fun playing and eating all the food.
Then on Saturday, we all decided to go down to Laguna and spend the day at the beach. We thought that it would be a little cold, but we just wanted to spend some family time together. It actually turned out to be a perfect day and I am so glad that we decided to go. Max had so much fun. I thought that he would hate the sand, but he loved it including the water. This boy was not afraid of that water at all. Now that I know that Max loves the beach so much, we are for sure going to make some more beach trips in the future.

At least Max was good about holding our hand when he wanted to go in the water.

Every single time he saw a dog on the beach, he would chase after it and Paul would have to go run after him.

We really need a dog. Max loves dogs.

He watched daddy play volleyball and try to catch the ball as well.

He had lots of fun playing with his cousins

He had lots of fun destroying someone's sandcastle that they made.

A little scare

So i just wanted to post what has been going on with me these last past couple of weeks. Paul and I did have a little scare with the baby, but everything is fine now. A couple of weeks ago, I did have some bleeding. I called the doctors and they had me go to the hospital to get it checked out. When I got there the nurse checked everything out and said that I might have this baby tonight at 29 weeks. She told me there were 3 possibilities for the blood. First, my water broke. Second, the placenta tore away from the wall or third, my body thought I was in labor. Either possibility was not good. They hooked me up to an IV machine with 4 different medicines/fluids. I got a shot to stop my contractions because apparently I was having contractions even though I could not feel them. Then they gave me a steroid shot to help develop the baby's lungs.
Long story short, I was in the hospital for 4 nights and no baby which is very good. They gave me 3 ultrasounds to make sure everything was fine and everything was. My water did not brake and my placenta was still in place. They have no idea why I started to bleed. Their only guess is that my placenta broke away from the wall just a little bit and that caused the bleeding. The good news is that I am fine, but more importantly the baby girl is doing great. She is kicking like crazy and she is also very low in my tummy.
I do have to be on moderate bed rest until I at least hit 32 weeks and then from there I guess we will see what happens. I am at 31 weeks now, so next week I have a doctors appointment, so I will see what is going to happen from there.
I just want to thank all my family and friends for all there thoughts and prayers. Thank you so much for all the help that everyone has given us. We are so blessed to have so many people that love us and that will help us in a minutes notices.

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.