Visits to Nana Kay

Just over 3 weeks ago, Max's mom had a heart attack followed by open-heart surgery that ended up being a triple bypass. She is recovering well now but her recovery originally wasn't going as quickly as hoped. This event has had the whole family rallying around and helping Max's parents get back on their feet. (Max's dad had a stroke a couple months ago taking away his ability to drive.) They were also in the middle of buying a house and flooded with many other family and financial responsibilities. Max has spent countless hours keeping on top of their bills and getting their mortgage going. 

Max was visiting nearly everyday and sometimes the boys and I were able to visit too. For family night last week Charlie and Miles made this picture for Nana Kay and then we went for a visit. 

Charlie loves pretending to be Grandpa with his walking stick and Red hat. 

He also loved to help Grandma get around. Grandma was really doing all the work with her feet but Charlie still had fun.

And there was even a fish tank..so that made Charlie extra excited to go visit grandma. 

Kay just came home from the rehab center yesterday. Max's sister and her family are staying at their house to help out. She is recovering well now and is ever so grateful for the many people that have helped her and her family. I'm also so grateful for the example that Max has set for the boys and me of honoring your parents. I've already noticed in Charlie that he has an increased desire to help and make people feel better. 

Date nights!

Two, out of the house childless dates in one week! How did we get so lucky? That hasn't happened since I was very overdue with Charlie and we went out almost every night. 

Date #1 we went to the temple together. It had been awhile and we've been trying to schedule a time with my mom for a while to have the boys over. After I dropped the boys off, I brought a picnic dinner to eat with max in is office, we then went to the temple. It was a fabulous evening spent with my wonderful husband. And I even made him take a date night selfie in the atrium...although it's not hard to make him pose for a picture!

When we picked up the boys, Miles was getting hungry and tired and Charlie was getting a fever again. He'd been having a relatively low fever on and off for a week. Charlie climbed into Max's arms and fell asleep and I nursed Miles and he fell asleep so we stayed and visited for awhile before taking the boys home.

When we got home, Charlie had a hard time settling down so Max curled up with him and fell asleep still all dressed up. It was a precious moment for me to observe so I wasn't even mad that Charlie stole my date! I truly love the husband and father that he is! 

Date #2: this date had been planned for awhile and we were even trying out a new in home babysitter, something that's new to us. We had actually invited Carly the babysitter over a couple weeks ago to have dinner and family night and to watch our bedtime routine....paranoid parents much? Anyway, we were pretty excited and felt very good that Carly would do a good job. So yesterday we got to go see a Portland Trail Blazers basket ball game courtesy of Max's boss. 
We are not huge sports fanatics but it is still fun to be in that atmosphere and cheer for a team. And as far as sports go, basketball is one that I prefer to watch...just after Max playing water polo or gymnastics. :) Football...not my favorite...especially if it's cold.

Date night selfie #2
We left a little early because Carly had early morning seminary the next day and we didn't want to keep her up too late, also neither Max or I were feeling that great. Our family has spent most of 2015 sick so far, we hope that changes soon! Anyway, here's to making time for your marriage! 

A Swinging Good Time

We've been home a lot with the kids alternating their sicknesses so we were excited when our friends invited us to the park and I realized we could go because everyone was feeling better! I grabbed my camera but didn't take it out at the park until it was almost time to go but I'm glad I did so I could capture Miles' excitement for his first time swinging. 

These photos were taken nearly a year apart in the same exact swing. Remember that time I went to the park and my car rolled down the hill?...that was the same time...He has grown a lot.

Two happy swinging boys

"I'm an airplane"

Swinging is the best...that's all!

9 months

And now Mr. Miles is 9 months old. 

He decided that he was brave enough to climb the stairs. Luckily I watch him like a hawk and decided that he was done exploring this new skill once he got half-way up. 

He has 6 shiny and sharp teeth.

He likes to give kisses now which turn into slobbery bites. He thinks it's hilarious when you try to squirm away. 

He must taste everything and if it's something soft he will take a bite out of it. 

He moved into his new crib nearly a month ago and the transition went smoothly, he was so excited the first moment we put him in there. 

He had his first big sickness this month. He had a fever for 3 days along with an awful stuffy nose and raspy cough. It was so sad. The worst part is that he went nearly all day without flashing his charming smile. He is mostly better now but still working on sleeping better.

He likes to gag on most foods that aren't pureed baby food so we are still working on incorporating more foods. He sure does like to eat though. 

Miles had his first Christmas and, just as expected, he was much more excited about the paper than the presents. 

Miles has brown eyes but they are a much greener shade than mine and Charlie's eyes.

And here are some photos of my 9 month old. 

And just because I think it's fun, here are a couple photos of Charlie right at nine months. He has a lot more hair and more face chub. He was also a lot bigger. He's also wearing 9 month clothes here while Miles still fits comfortably into 6 month clothes.

Happy New Year!

Our New Year's celebrations were filled with fondue, grown up sleepovers, and family fun! We didn't get a chance to review our goals yet like LAST YEAR which we will do for family night soon but we had an amazing New Years and hope that we have started some new traditions.

We were planning to go up to Tacoma for New Years Eve and stay for two nights but with Miles being so sick, we decided to postpone our Tacoma trip for a day later. It was great having Max home on New Year's Eve. I got a good run in, and a shower and a trip to the grocery store, Max cleaned up the living room and put together his birdhouse gift from Charlie.

Throughout the day, Miles seemed to be feeling much better so we followed up with our friends Richard and Marissa who had previously wanted to do something with us for New Years Eve. They invited us to go stay the night at Marissa's parents house for a New Years fondue party and then we could put the kids to bed and stay up late and play games. We couldn't refuse, it sounded like so much fun.

I have known Marissa's parents for as long as I can remember as Marissa's older sister Rochelle and I grew up together. We enjoyed a delicious cheese fondue dinner shortly after we arrived and then we put the kids to bed, their house is plenty spacious to accommodate all of us and Charlie was pretty excited for his big boy bed, he got to stay in.

Miles' smiles are proof that he was feeling better so we were excited to see him so happy crawling around in all the space.

After we put the kids to bed, we went upstairs to play games with Richard and Marissa, and Marissa's parents and sister. And then we made the chocolate fondue., and indulged maybe a little too much.

We enjoyed watching Harry Potter 3 on the projector while we waited for the New Year to roll in. I ended up sleeping through a good chunk of it since I had spent a lot of time this last week awake in the middle of the night tending to sick kids. After the movie we all went to bed.

The next morning Cindy and Marissa made us an amazing breakfast of Bacon, and German pancakes, with fresh whip cream and fresh cinnamon. It was DELICIOUS!

Charlie and Lacey spent a little time playing in the basement before we needed to head out.

I remember playing with this same dollhouse when I was little and came over to visit Rochelle and Marissa.

Just before walking out the door, Charlie and Lacey were practicing their magic by turning the Christmas lights on and off.

We left and started our trek up to Tacoma only to stop at our house and grab a couple things that we had forgotten. I also made lunches while Max went and filled the gas tank, then we were really on our way except for when Miles woke up and started screaming so I nursed him a block away from our house and then realized we forgot Charlie's eye patches so we had to go back again. Then we were really really on our way.

The drive was pretty uneventful, I ended up driving because Max became drowsy and he ended up sitting in the back to entertain Miles.

We also were able to bring up all the Christmas gifts from the Portland family so it was kind of exciting to arrive and bring a whole bunch of gifts even if they weren't all from us.

When we arrived we got ready to go to Chuck E Cheese. Elizabeth and the kids gave Charlie some money and a coupon for us to go to Chuck E Cheese when they were down here visiting on his birthday. We ended up not going for various reasons so we made sure to make it work when we went up to Tacoma. Max helped Gwenevere get ready by doing her hair.

The little boys played together a little bit.

I attempted to do Gracie's hair.

When James came back from some errands we went to Chuck E Cheese.

The family that skeeballs together stays together.

And we had to hit up the Chuck E Cheese photo booth. The top picture here was from 12 years ago when Max was 16 and I was 17. It was one of the first pictures we have together. So it was fun to take a comparison picture of how we and our family have grown. It kind of makes me all sappy thinking about how great life has become. 

And then back to more arcade games.

I was surprised to see Miles pass out...but he did.

Then all the boys did some Jet skiing.

I don't know what's going on with Charlie's hair here.

And this was Chuck E Cheese's attempt at making an active arcade game. That high score was achieved by James.

We had a fun time then came back, Charlie and Grace fell asleep in the car while Miles screamed.We made homemade pizzas back at the house. The kids all made their own shape and decorated their own pizzas. Elizabeth thinks of the best things to do. After dinner, the kids all needed baths so that is what happened.

After baths, the kids got to open the presents that we brought up from Portland.  Everett was so excited about his ball from Uncle Austin.

 In the morning Elizabeth made us an amazing breakfast of Waffles, bacon, and hard boiled eggs.

After breakfast the kids played while the grownups cleaned up  a little and Miles and Everett took naps. 

I went out and took photos of their Rabbit farm. This has been a new hobby of James' and it has pretty much already paid for itself with all the rabbit meat they've received from them. The girls are also able to help take care of the rabbits and dont seem concerned that they have to die to make meat. 

Fun with Kinetic Sand! This stuff is amazing. Charlie got some for Christmas and it has been an amazing activity that keeps him entertained and quiet while Miles is sleeping :)


After nap and lunchtime, we took the kids to the mall to run out some energy.

 This photo makes me smile!

We stopped by Target to get one more thing for dinner then went home to a delicious smelling house with a crockpot full of rabbit curry. James got home from work at the same time. As dinner was being prepared, I worked on getting most of our stuff packed up so we could just get the boys ready for bed and leave after dinner. We ate an amazing dinner then cleaned up and got the boys in their pajamas and brushed their teeth. We then finished packing up.and said our good byes. We are so grateful for family and friends that take us in. We had such a fun New Year's celebration.