Cripple Creek

We took a drive up to Cripple Creek in the mountains on Thanksgiving weekend. I was planning on getting a photo of the boys together for our Christmas card while we were there. I loved this one and would have used it,  but a card just never ended up happening at all. Oops. The photo is still adorable though!

Thanksgiving: 2011

I got behind on photos in the last months of 2011. Here are a few photos we took before dinner on Thanksgiving. I wanted a photo of the boys together so Carson gave us one and then took off. We still have Max though!

To put Max's size in perspective.... Max is wearing an outfit here at 5 months that Carson wore on his firsts Easter at 11 months old.

New old toys and Jeeps

I kept the baby toys that were still in good shape from Carson and have been able to start pulling stuff out for Max. He loves this music stage. It is meant to bang on so it's perfect for him because he seems to try to hit everything. Those little fists get going and it builds him up to get a little crazy. He is sitting up on his own, but still randomly throws his head backward and goes down. We don't quite trust him to be alone like this just yet. The doctor said the bigger babies usually take longer to sit up, probably because there is just more baby to hold.

Carson sees my camera come out and he gets his to join right in. This thing doesn't take great photos, but it lets him feel like he is doing something with me. We took pictures of each other taking pictures here.

That afternoon we headed to Carl's Jeep club meetup. Ours is the white on on the bottom left of the photo. There was one other little boy there (named Max) so Carson had someone to run around with and then watch cartoons with while the grown ups were socializing. He has cameras with me and Jeeps with his dad.

After we left Carson still had a ton of energy so we stopped at "Chick Play" (that means Chick-fil-A in our house). We had been outside with the Jeeps so I put Max in this warm outfit that day. I bought it a while ago because it was on clearance and 12-18 month size. I folded the arms and legs once and it fit like a glove! He's just so big all around, not even only in length!

I already posted Max's Sunday photo from being 7 months old. I found this outtake that I had to share though. Any idea what was happening with this face??????? :)

Max: 7 months old

We're over the middle year hump and are on the back end of the first year. I can't believe how big this baby already is! Yesterday I put him in a 12-18 month hooded jumper and it fit. I gave the arms and legs one roll and it was perfect. I have to find him some new onesies, but apparently that's hard to come by when you don't want all Carter's. I'm so over Carter's. 

He is rolling all over the place. He doesn't really show signs of crawling, but cruises all over the living room by rolling around. He figured out how to get to Carson's toys and it was plenty of motivation. I'm not sure how we are supposed to keep the little stuff out of his reach. We didn't have that problem with Carson...

There are tons of sounds and Dada's happening. Still no Mama's. He loves the rice cereal, still is so-so on the fruit. He makes the bitter-beer face all the time like they are too sour. He's sitting up 90% of the way all on his own. He does well, but he easily topples over if he tries to reach for something. We definitely can't trust him on his own like that just yet. 

Here's our amazingly chubby, happy, giggly, silly, sleepy, rolly, adorable Max.

Cereal Killa'

Max hasn't been so sure about straight fruit purees yet. He makes bitter beer face like they are too sour for his little palette. I started mixing rice cereal with the fruits and he loves it. He won't open his mouth all the way though. He just dives on the spoon so he gets a little in and the rest around his mouth. The spoons end up being a fun toy though. And do you like his little Trump comb-over? His hair grows right on top down the middle, just like Carson's did. If I don't push it to the side it goes half-way down his forehead. :)

Lazy day

We boys were laying on the floor together the other day playing and it dawned on me that I could take an updated photo like one when Max was just born. I grabbed my camera and took a few of these monsters together.

Now:

6 months ago:

I don't even recognize Max in that photo!!!

Max keeps his eyes on Carson all day long. I'd LOVE to be in his head and know what he's thinking.




I asked Carson to tell me his ABCs and quickly flipped over to get a video. He asks me the funniest questions everyday. And lately he's been teasing everyone about their butt, tries to pull down your pants and always says how gross butts are. That's what you hear at the end of the video.... He was attacking me. And you can see Max rolling all over and playing with those toys that always come with us. His toes.

Preschool Days

We've about completed our first full week of preschool today. The first week was just two days and now we are to four full days every week. He cried with the saddest little quiver lip for the first three days when I dropped him off. Tuesday afternoon his teacher said they talked to him about not giving me a hard time when I leave. The very next morning he was a new kid. He gave me a kiss (on the hand), kissed his brother goodbye and was happy as ever. 

He's been talking non-stop about planning sleepovers with all the girls. Honestly, I have no idea what any of the boys' names in his class even are. And neither does he. I hope he ends up liking going all the time. My days have seemed so much longer lately! 

I took my camera with me on the first day to hopefully get a few photos of him out front. Somehow I forgot that I didn't grab my memory card and it was a pretty gloomy morning anyway. I brought everything Friday morning and he played along for a few minutes. He's such a little cheeseball and we couldn't adore him any more. He just looks so freaking big. :(  I can't believe we will have a 4-year-old soon!

6 month checkup for Max

After we dropped Carson off we had to run right over to Max's 6 month appointment. No doubt about it, he's still a biiiig boy! He sure is a happy big boy though. He's trying to attack my phone as I type this. :)

Weight: 19lb 11.6 oz - 82%
Height: 27.5 inches - 83%

First day of preschool for Carson

We had our one trial run day a few weeks ago which was questionable. Yesterday Carson started getting a little freaked out about going back. He half-cried when I dropped him off and was telling me not to leave because I'm his best friend. Luckily his teacher scooped him right up and got him to help with breakfast.

I was beyond excited to pick him up and see what happened. Apparently he was great and says he had a fun day. Thank. You. He ate good, took a nap and got to play outside since it was so warm today.

I got a ton of work done and hope he continues doing well! It's an understatement that we all need him to embrace some structured release of energy.

Max's first real food

Max has been acting like he wants what we're eating for a few weeks now. I like to wait until the 6 month mark for any food so we were excited to let him try something. I let him lick an apple slice and he went nuts! On Christmas Eve morning we decided we'd try bananas for the first time. He seemed to love them and ate most of it just fine, with a few silly stink-faces. The second day of bananas was so-so and the third day he wouldn't eat them at all. I decided to give him a break and we'll try again really soon. I got an avocado yesterday so we'll probably try that next. Everyone got a turn at feeding him. I can't believe he's so big already!!!!

Great demo, huh? I think he was excited......

Christmas 2011

This is going to be a reeeeeaaaaalllllllyyyyy long post. I brought my laptop along on our drive to Utah this weekend and that's the ONLY reason I have these photos to show now. Where does time go these days?!?!  

My dad got to come out for Friday to Monday which made our weekend that much better. The boys (Carson, Max and Dustin) all got beyond spoiled. We let them open a present on Christmas Eve. Carl told Dustin to open one of the ones that Jordan sent and it was a little too big to be the Christmas EVE present. He ended up getting this PS3 with two games, a Nintendo 3DS with 3 games and an iPod.

The gift Carson got to open was this horse on a stick. He tries to "giddy up" everything in our house so I ordered this thing hoping he'd use it instead. And he got it this night because I couldn't figure out how to wrap it. I just gave him the brown box. haha

We asked him what he wanted to name it and he immediately yelled, "Cowboy Balone!". I'm pretty sure this is derived from Karl Malone (pronounced the same, but with a B) which was in one of his monster truck library books. We all laughed so freaking hard.

Daddy and the boys - Carson got new Christmas PJs and Max wore the ones that Carson did on his first Christmas. :)  Yes, Max is a big boy!

Grandma Susan and the boys

On to Christmas morning.........   Carson got a ball pit and a trampoline. 

You don't jump on the trampoline like a super hero?

Me and my boys.

I was shopping at TJ Maxx and found one lonely Stinky the Garbage Truck. I knew this would be a hit so I called my dad to see if he was still looking for a gift for Carson. See, for MONTHS we had to go straight to the Stinky display in the grocery store before we did anything else to play with this thing. I was not going to shell out $60 at Target for it, but when I found it months later I knew it was a sign. He was pretty excited and surprised since he had forgotten about it by now. 

Dustin was on world 8 by the next morning on Mario. P.S. There are only 8 worlds.....

Carson got his "5 buck monster truck", aka a remote control Jeep.

Carl got me and my mom each a Snuggie. I still can't believe he actually paid money for these things. She loves hers. I already returned mine. Oops.

Aunt Christy and Max

My dad also bought Carson these Nerf guns. We ended up with a full on Nerf war in our house. Carson couldn't quite pull back the gun himself to shoot so he had Luke to help him out. We were all dying laughing at these guys.

I flipped over just in time to get this video. I love it! Watch to the very end to see Carson's sign off.

After the fun died down the boys crashed hard. Max had had enough.

I've been wanting to try shaped bokeh for a while now. I figured my tree would be the perfect place for lots of little lights. This is pretty fun and all done in-camera!

Before heading off to take Grandpa to the airport I got a couple photos. I joke to him that since I couldn't have been less athletic I had to give him boys to make up for it. We sure miss Grandpa!