The Curious George Party

We had our families of for Max's birthday on Sunday for cake and ice cream. I love the way Max's cupcake Curious George cake came out! (Say that 5 times fast!) Max loves Curious George, it's one of the only shows on TV that will hold is interest - so we had a monkey cake for my little monkey.

3 months ago when Grace turned 3 she was so mean to Max about her new presents. She wanted me to put them on the high dresser so Max couldn't get to them, even when she wasn't playing with them. I know she is only 3, and they were her brand new presents but she was over the top about them. I remember thinking, "I can't wait until Max's birthday and you won't get to play with his presents." Needless to say, Grace had a hard time. She thinks they are either hers, or that Max can share. And Max is so easy going that she gets away with playing with most of it!I got Max a dinosaur castle, and he got some other fun things for his birthday. He was so stinking funny anytime he opened clothes he would shake his whole body and say "NO! No!" and go back to the toys. I love the picture of Grace hovering over him just checkin it out - isn't that so nice of her?
Just a little note, my children always have clothes on when we start eating, but I pretty much strip them down to eat anything too messy. I'd rather them not stain their shirts....

What a good boy using his fork to eat those messy, yummy treats! And yes, his hand was stained green the next day.

As a parent do you ever buy things and wonder why? I about died when we opened the dinosaur castle, it had so many pieces. The instructions were not labeled and it wasn't the funnest thing we've ever put together, but Max (and Grace) like playing with it so I guess we'll call it a win.

Easter Fun

I've been meaning to get these posted for a while....but I'm addicted to Farmville on facebook and that takes up my free time!

Ok seriously - Grace was the cutest thing while we dyed Easter Eggs. She was so serious about it. I knew we would decorate eggs with the cousins at my moms so I only hard boiled a dozen.

"Don't bug me mom, I'm working, but I suppose I can spare a quick look at the camera, but no smile."

She also surprised me at how patiently she would wait for the egg to get dark enough. That is so unlike my unpatient daughter.

I think she's trying to dry the egg here, but then she puts it back in the dye.

Oh yeah, Max was there too. He didn't really care for the whole dye-ing thing, he preferred to drink the colorful mixture and I'm no fun at all. No drinking, mixing colors and as little of stained fingers as possible.

We always go up the Hyrum Easter Egg hunt on the Saturday before Easter. When I left Layton it had rained a bit and was cloudy, but 1/2 way through Sardine Canyon I got a lovely surprise, at least 4 inches of snow over a pure ice sheet. It was the worst drive I've ever had, and we barely made it to the hunt. But do you think they canceled it, no way! Lucky for my kids, 3 and under hunted in the pavilion this year, but all of the older kids traipsed through 4 inches of snow for their colorful bounty!

Sadly, my camera battery died so you can't see Max's loot - but lets just say Grandma Kate helped Max hunt and his basket runeth over, literally.

Such a cute picture of my little sister Cassie, too bad the boy child's eyes are closed! Grace managed to stay warm. She even picked up a few eggs this year - and then the Easter Bunny came to our house.

Max loved his truck so much he had to sleep with it for several nights afterwards.


We love Easter time, and this year I really struggled with trying to teach my kids why we have Easter. Christmas seems so easy, to celebrate the birth of Jesus. It's something I think they can grasp, but how do you teach the ultimate sacrifice and resurrection to a 3 & 2 year old?

I thought long and hard and all I came up with was we are celebrating Jesus, because he loves us more than we can know. Maybe next year we will get into some details.

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!