Happy Birthday Max!

Happy Birthday to my little man! Two years ago our little tax day baby was born. The day Max was born turned out to be a snowy spring day.

Thankfully Max was much easier to get here than his sister, and, comparatively that has held true for most things in their lives.
A few of Max's firsts - 1st Birthday, 1st Halloween and 1st outside photo shoot...

A few things Max loves - watermelon, driving the boat and playing at the park. I just can't believe my baby boy is two! He's turned into quite the handsome little man!

At 2 years old Max is such a little tease, he is an expert at pushing his sisters buttons and likes to make her scream. He says too many words to count, but his newest ones are light, dark, dime, money, mine, more, juuuce, car, truck, boat, bus, train, dinosaur and peek-a-boo.

Max LOVES his green nanny's. I have to wash his blankets in the middle of the night because he has a melt down if I try during the day. They are fleece and he chews on them - which is totally gross to me.

Max likes stove top stuffing, mashed potato's, ham, candy, hot dogs, and corn. He loves tomato's, strawberries and ice cream. He does not like hamburger (unless its a McDonald's cheeseburger), chicken, cooked carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, beans or cucumbers. Occasionally I can get him to eat raw carrots, but I usually find them around the house later.

Max would play outside all day long, he loves the park and slides. He loves his cars and trucks and his fix its (tool set). He also likes to play with Grace's Barbies and babies, but that may be just to bug her!

Max is usually my happy child, he loves attention and its rare he stops "going" for a few seconds. One of my favorite things Max does is when he says "hi" and "bye" to people. He gets so happy when they say it back, he also waves and smiles from ear to ear. When we are in the grocery store he always says bye to the checker, too many times they just ignore him and it breaks his heart (is it so hard to say bye to a little child?), but when the door greeter says bye he smiles all over again.

Happy Birthday little Man!

Color's of Spring

This is one of my favorites of the day - Grace has started putting her arms around Max for pictures - without me telling her to.

I can't decide which of these I like the most -

Dear, sweet, charming, comical Max.

I mentioned in the last post that Max is a little comedian. He's quite the ham - and my favorite part is that he knows it.

In this picture he thinks he's being tricky watching the other kids getting their pictures taken - as soon as I get close enough he takes off running again.

Both kids smiling - check.

He's laughing so hard over absolutely nothing in this one.

Quick check with Travis to make sure he's watching and thinks he's funny too.

I can't believe he's almost two!

Grace's hair was done so cute, lets be honest - not be me - by here aunt Mary. But after a car ride and a change of clothes, and another car ride, and a whole lot of running and playing she kind of looks like she has some serious plig hair... But she's still my cute stink!

Grace loves her cousin Daisy- she has started wanting to twirl with her. She loves when Daisy is at grandma's house too and nearly every time we go she asks if Daisy's going to be there too.

This is a picture of Grace pulling a scary face. I have no idea where she learned what pulling a scary face was - but she's so funny.

Outtakes of a chilly family photo Shoot

Have you ever tried to take family pictures, when it's cold outside, and the kid's don't want to cooperate?
The Tyler/Hymas cousins made a good, long attempt at Easter/spring pictures. The grandchildren looked so smart in their Spring colors, there was a serious case of not wanting to sit still and smile going around.

And who could blame them? We were in a big open grassy area, where they could run. And run they did.

Mr. Comedian himself thought everything was hilarious that chilly afternoon - I'll most more pictures of him later. He kept looking at his cousin Travis like - "dude, that was funny!"

But, he was suffering from too short of nap syndrome, combined with I really need to not look at the camera and participate issues... But doesn't he look handsome in green?

It didn't last long, and the two of them started taking off in different directions.

This was the last picture I took - I figured it was time to call it quits.

Dinosaur Park

Welcome Spring!

I'm not sure what's my favorite part - the sunshine, the warmth, the playing outside, the not having to wear coats...

Wednesday Mike took the day off work and we took Grace and Max to Dinosaur Park. Max has recently developed a fascination for Dinosaurs so I knew he would LOVE it. He calls them "Dinesors".

For Christmas Mike's mom bought him some shoes that have a Dinosaur on them and they have an eye that lights up when he walks. Max loves them - he wears them every day and gets angry when I try to put him in other shoes. He won't let me take them off at night and brings them to me first thing in the morning. They are really heavy shoes too - but they make him happy.
Look how grown up they are getting!

Grace kept saying they scared her and all she wanted to do was go and play or feed the ducks. I finally told her she just needed to relax and we'd get there. Max wasn't scared at all - he kept pointing his finger everywhere. I loved just watching him - his smile said it all!

Both of my kids could live at the play ground, Max is more fearless than Grace and didn't think twice about going down the big slide.

Grace and her pouty face - some times she wanted to smile and sometimes she'd be so happy until I said smile and she'd pout and cover her face. She really did have fun -

I love when Mike takes a day off in the middle of the week. It's fun just to hang out and not worry about what needs done before the weekend is over. I love these three so much!

Catching UP! a bit

This post is going to be filled with much randomness... Just a few things that make me smile and a few things I want to jot down for posterity...

This first picture is Max saying "Cheeeeessseee" He is actually in trouble here because he's learned how to open all of my cupboards. They are all child proofed but thanks to Grace he now can stick his finger in and unhinge the doors. He was opening up my pan cupboard when I caught him, he just says "Cheeesseee" and smiles.

Isn't it funny how kids can be entertained by the simplest things? Grace found this blue glitter ball under one her bed. She got the ball about a year ago and it's been missing for a few months. She's convinced it's a new ball and is so excited! She hasn't put it down in days.

Of course after I took a picture with Grace and a ball Max had to go find a ball for a picture. As long as it's his idea he'll let me take it! What a stink.

Grace keeps getting in the fridge for her own snacks. Which I really wouldn't mind except she leaves messes and keeps eating unwashed food. Yesterday she told me she was eating clean grapes. I said no, they haven't been washed, to which she told me the fridge washed them for her. (I don't have water in my fridge, or an ice maker...) What a good appliance I have.

The week Grace wore her pink and brown skirt we took her over to Grandma Ruth's to show her how cute she was. Several days since then she keeps asking to go to Grandma's to show her how cute she is. Mike says I've created a monster...

The other night Grace told me I had to wait to run to the grocery store until Phineus and Ferb was over - because she said.

One night I made dinner and Grace wouldn't eat, I told her she didn't get any treats unless she ate her dinner so we left her alone when we were done. Several minutes later she came in and told us Max had spilled her dinner all over the floor. I said no, Max was in with me the whole time. Two or three more times she blamed Max. Finally she said "Ok, then I'm sorry I spilled it. Can I have a snack?" Nope, and I held my guns.

Max has started talking more, he says; thank you, nack (snack), more, no, mine, uhhuh (with the cutest full body/head nod), jacket, car, train, bus, truck, tractor, boat, cow, Cassie, grandma, grandpa, Max, Gracie, Daisy, cheese, star and ball. He calls his blanket "nanny" and is completely attached to his two green fleece blankets.

The poor guy can't get a break - last winter it was constant ear infections. He had tubes last Max and has only had one ear infection since. But he has had a runny nose and an on again off again cough for months. This week he got really sick and was down Saturday night - Monday with a high fever and a really bad cough. The dr said it's viral and he just has to wait it out. By today his cough is worse but his fever is controllable with Motrin/Tylenol. He's much happier!

Max always surprises me - he's so strong, he can jump with both feet several inches off the ground, he can throw a ball pretty accurately. He's finally starting to sit down through a whole story, but he's a tease and he may just be doing this to bother his sister who usually gets reading time all to herself.

The kids are normal and watch the same movies over and over. Right now their favorites are UP!, Bolt, Toy Story 2, Bugs Life and Nemo. Thank goodness for Disney! They also love Curious George and Max will stop anything and run for the TV when he hears George come on. We watch Handy Manny, Imagination Movers and Mikey Mouse clubhouse pretty much everyday.

We are awaiting spring and thankful for anytime we get to spend outside!

A rare Sunday

I just love when my kids are all dressed up for church. Grace has more dresses than than any other child I know - Poor Max, he's either had a runny nose, an ear infection or a cough pretty much the whole winter. I think this was the 2nd or 3rd time he's been to nursery since he hit 18 months. (And this week he's got the worst cough yet, so he'll be staying home with daddy. Again. Which means daddy gets the nap time, which means.... I'll stop there.) So, last week all four of us went to church.

Max has started fighting pretty much every picture I want to take, he either closes his eyes or just stares - he's so dang fast most of the time I get one of him turning his head. This was the best we could do...

Mr. Mellow.
Grace however can be bribed and played along nicely for a few pictures of her in her big brown tutu skirt. I'm addicted to Gymboree, I can't go in there because every time I do I want to spend lots of $$$. They just have the cutest stuff!

Now... what to wear today?

Crazy Cold Animals

I found out last month that Hogle Zoo has a free day November-February, and since my kids had so much fun last summer, and I'll do anything to get out of the house, I bundled up the kids and headed to Salt Lake last week.

It had been snowing on and off all morning, but only barely and the kids really enjoyed it. When I went in January there was maybe 30 people in the whole zoo, well, apparently it caught on because I was there by 10:20 and had to park in the back of the parking lot. You would have thought it was June!

I had always heard the animals are more active in the cool weather, and that was true with the tigers and other large cats. It was fun to get to see them up and around, last summer we barely could see the tigers. But the elephants were not out either time, and since Grace is obsessed with elephants that pretty much was lame!

The kids loved to get out of the stroller in the indoor exhibits and walk right up to the glass, Max is enthralled with the huge gorilla, which truthfully freaks me out. I think it would kill someone in a second, his eyes are evil! (The gorilla, not Max's....)

The carousel was open this last time so I let the kids have a ride, they love it too. One nice thing about going in the winter is all the drink and ice cream vendors are closed so I don't have to tell Grace no a million times.

We had a lot of fun, I'm thinking of buying a season pass, I'm guessing the kids won't get bored :)
Grace loves to go upstairs in the giraffe house, and she loves to look at their big bums....

They both were as warm as I could keep them, and were not ready to leave when I wanted to go, so I guess they had fun!

(On a side note, I have no idea how most of this post got underlined, nor can my brain figure out how to underline something!... Lovely blogger...)