Ives

Well, Ivy finally had her 4 month appt...she's 5 months old...

Long story...but we now have new measurements for our little Sprout:

Height: 25 1/4 in...65%

Weight: 13 lbs 10 oz...25%

Head...42 cm...50%

Poor little thing has pink eye...but waaaay better than it was on Monday (and not contagious anymore) and an upper respitory situation, so this facial expression is not the norm for our little smiley girl...but she deserves to have a sad face today. Dr said she's perfect...saweet!

Let's Go Fly a Kite...

...Up to the Highest Height, Let's go Fly a Kite, and Send it Soaring. Up to the Atmosphere...

You get the general idea.

Apparently, today is the 45th anniversary of Mary Poppins. While I didn't know this until today, my friends upstairs, did some pretty stinkin fun things in honor of the amazing movie. Coincidentally, I planned on taking Max to fly our Buzz Lightyear kite (Albertson's Special) on this very day! He LOVED it, and did a great job. Jeff was home today, which was fabulous. Here they are, Max getting a little instruction.
and off he goes!

He thought it was the coolest thing.

My two cute guys

Such a pretty day in HB!

Max age 3

I didn't want to miss my opportunity to document some things about my favorite little boy at age 3...

Max's favorite book is: Walt Disney's the Three Little Pigs (The old school Silly Symphonies one)
He loves when I make: Ham Hocks and Beans or Chicken Roll-ups for dinner
Max is really good at: singing the words to church songs by himself, namely I am a Child of God, We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet and I'm trying to Be Like Jesus...soooo cute. He's also really good at knowing his capital letters, the sounds they make, his shapes, colors and numbers.
Max's Best friends are: all the neighbor kids in our apt complex...there are so many fun kids!
Max's Favorite TV show is: ?
The best trip he took this year was: Washington, Arizona and Texas
Max's Favorite Snack is: Peanie on a stick..Peanut Butter scooped out onto a spoon to lick!
When he grows up, Max wants to be: a Catcher
The Best Movie Max saw this year was: Chicken Little...we don't have that one, but we netflixed it, and he was glued!
Max's Favorite Color is: Pink

Maxer loves trucks, bugs, dirt, tractors, running, playing ball with his daddy and playing with his friends. He says the most hilarious things all the time, which cracks Jeff and I up! Like, in Texas, after he got bit by the dog, he told her: "Abby, do not eat me again!" or "It smells like booty in here." or, when we pass the gym: "Mommy, you want to go get skinny in there?"

He constantly reminds me of what his favorite color is as well as mine and Jeff's. He remembers EVERYTHING...the names of stores that we got certain books at, the street we live on, if we drive past it, how to get to the park. He recognizes signs like Taco Bell, Sams Club and 24 hour fitness. He remembers when we stayed in a hotel, and everything they had in there: fruit loops, turtles, fish, a glass elevator, and a special pull-out couch bed. It constantly amazes me how much he remembers, and what he can tell me about ANYTHING!

He is the sweetest thing, and loves to give hugs and kisses. He loves to wrestle with Daddy, and can get a little unruly if he doesn't get a good wrestle frequently enough. He loves to help me cook, or watch me make things. He loves to read, and I constantly find a huge pile of books on his floor because he's been reading: that makes me so happy! He's good at saying please and thank you, and remembers lots of his sign language from when he was teensy, which amazes me! He makes us sooo happy, and we are so glad that he picked us to be his mommy and daddy! Such a good little boy, I can't wait to watch him learn more things and see what great things he does.

I love you Max!

Our Trip to

The Big D

Holy cow...1462 miles, a round trip count of 6 take-offs and landings on the airplane with me and two kids, over 1700 pictures, a dog bite, pink eye, cute cousins...we had so much fun. I weeded through the pictures, and got down to this: the longest post in the history of the world! but, here is day 54-67 (and as you can see, our 60 days of summer is now over)...

Day 54:

Airplane Ride

Who doesn't like an airplane ride? Jeff actually took Max to the park in the morning to get his wiggles out in anticipation of a really long flight. We stopped twice on the way there, and twice on the way back, which I preferred to having to get off the plane with my two kids and my large stash of things... Day 55:

Max's actual 3rd birthday...

we did our annual celebratory balloon room for Max and his two cute cousins Clara and Carter...the two C's had never experienced the balloon room before, so it was way fun! My sister, Brandy got Max the ultimate bug catching kit...and boy did we use it...we caught a dead june bug, a dead fly, a live jumping spider...aaah, and a stow-away larva grub thing. The next day, there were 6 larva worms in the container...Sick! someone was busy!

We played outside a ton...This is Max being the master of his own destruction. My Brother-in-Law, Jeff, aimed the hose at him, and Max turned the water on and off...ha. He had so much fun! So did Ives, even though it was sooo humid outside. Clara LOVES Ivy...LOVES Day 55:

We went to church, and then found a really fun park called Big Lake Park in Plano. We fed the ducks our cast-off bread, and played on the toys... Clara, Carter, Max We played in boxes... And watched some shows... Day 56& 57:

We went to their ward's playgroup at the pool...It's an awesome pool with a huge wading pool for all the kids...they had a really fun time, a couple of times, at the pool...
We went to a way fun playground called Pirate Park (this was the second time we went there). It's just a huge wooden playground with mazes and ladders, etc...so fun

Day 58:

Heritage Farmstead Museum in Plano

This was such a cute little farm-turned-museum where we got to see old tractors, some sheep up, some chickens, hang rags on the line, ring a school bell, iron with an old-fashioned iron, pretend to milk a cow...it was a fun place to run around and look at cool things. We met Brandy's friend Ann there and her kids...so fun.

Day 59:

DFW Plaza

At the airport, they have an actual park to sit and watch the planes...an upgrade from our previous outing. An awesome hill, which Max loved to roll down, a broadcast of the air traffic control radio, and telescopes to watch the planes land. They were HUGE, and so awesome to watch. I liked being there! We met Marji, another one of Brandy's friends, who moved away there...fun to see her and her kids getting bigger! I love this picture:
Here are some of the kids watching the places: Clara, Thomas, Carter, Max, Matthew...

Day 60:

Spring Creek Farm:

Holy so awesome, we got to feed the goats out of our hands...they just lick-licked all the stuff off. Max did awesome pouring the stuff into his own hand from the cup and feeding them...I was really impressed. Then we got a hay ride behind a tractor...so fun.

We saw potbellied pigs, a huge horse named Captain Midnight, turkeys, chickens, goats, Longhorns, foals, etc. Carter took a digger into a mud puddle after chasing some geese, so he was nude for the rest of the time, but the kids were awesome listeners...and we had such a fun time!

Day 61:

Galatyn Urban Park

In the middle of a bunch of big buildings, is this awesome fountain...My Brother-in-law finally came home from his work training, and went with us. It was really fun to run through the water...A splash pad for grown-ups, kind of...but the kids liked it, too. The water shot up pretty hard, and a little funny to run around in my swimming suit in the middle of a city, but no one else was there...it was awesome.

Day 62:

Galatyn Park Woodland Preserve:

We headed back over to the Galatyn area on Sunday to take a walk around the nature preserve. There were a bunch of animal statues that the kids could climb on half-way through the walk which was fun for them, and as an added bonus, the train kept going by...that was the highlight, they'd all run over and watch the DART go by. Fun Sunday activity...

Max and Carter had matching shirts...that we couldn't for the life of us get a picture of, and Ivy and Clara had matching dresses...soooo cute. Like I said, Clara loved Ivy so much, it was so easy to get a picture of those two...

We went to the pool again with Jeff. (Not my Jeff, the other Jeff) and Ivy had her first experience with a floatie...so fun, while Max partied on with some water wings. (I was so opposed to them, but in order to be in the pool with him, and Ivy, that's what I have to do, and Max really likes them. But we stinkin' need swimming lessons!

Day 63:

Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas (The Children's Museum)

AMAZING!

We took so many pictures here that it was hard to sort out which ones to pick...the time flew by...I thought we'd only been there for an hour or so, and it had been 3...There was a pretend farm, backyard, kitchen, water area, sand area, fire truck...all interactive, and so fun.

This was the backyard area...it was a tunnel system like the ant farm they had on display...

Another fun thing they had there was a spider web made out of bungee that max kept playing in and pretending that he was getting eaten by the big spider.

This was the urban farm, there were John Deere Trikes to ride, horses to ride, another cow to milk, eggs to gather, seeds to plant, vegetables to gather and sort onto semi's trucks...The fire truck station was a big hit for the two boys. Max kept ringing this bell, then running around to the fire truck and sliding down the slide...he was helping get the kitty out of the tree, like Grandma used to tell him to do. He was here for about 30 minutes...

Then we went to a dinosaur digging site...it was huge, and they loved it! Then we went and blew ginormous bubbles, and played with Gravity... This was about the only picture that we got of all of us...we were there...that's all we wanted

Day 64:

Pump It Up Jr

A pump it up for just little guys...AWESOME...Everyone had so much fun, for the first hour or so, we were alone...which was great to allow Clara and Carter to test the waters...they weren't so sure about it at first. A really fun last-day activity Again...another picture to just say that we were all there...Ivy was sleeping... The time went sooo fast! We were in Dallas for 2 weeks, and I felt like it was only a couple of days. We were so busy. We had so many projects to do, as usual, and as usual, didn't get hardly any of them done...except our cute key chains and flannel boards...{so fun, another post}.

The kids had so much fun, and despite the dog bit and the pink eye, it was perfect. Thanks again, Brand for letting us come! I miss you already!

Day 53:

Happy Unbirthday to Max!

We are going to Texas and will be out of town for Max's actual birthday, so we pretended today was the day... but I'm sure he'll get extra special treatment on Friday...Big Texas Style.

Today was a day of Sharks! Max Woke up and opened his presents...He had a party playing with all of his new stuff...his favorite being his stunt race tracks:
{Cruella DeVil's car gettin' some air!}

Then at 8:00AM, Daddy packed up a backpack and took Max to the Aquarium of the Pacific to check out some real Sharks...amongst other cool things.

Jellyfish Spider Crabs

Max petting the Sharks!

After nap time, we had some of our neighbors come over to swim in the Shark pool...Swimming with your friends is always fun! Everyone that came got a new Shark shirt that my Mother-in-Law screened for them...Soo fun...why I don't have a shot of at least Max in his Shark shirt is a mystery...We had shark cupcakes...{dude, I made those..} are you scared?

and opened some really fun and unexpected presents from friends...thanks, Bowens, Jacobs, Haights and Scotts! All of this shark activity made for one very happy un-birthday boy!

see you in Texas!