The Hartvigsens

Moving Day - Moving Out of PROVO!

2012-02-08T21:54:00.003-07:00

The day finally came where we moved away form Provo! I never really felt at home in Provo. I was getting sick of the college town. But it was pretty bitter-sweet leaving the apartment...the only home the boys have come to know. I cried when I left their bedroom for the last time. It was sad. We lived there for about four and a half years.We'll miss our wonderful neighbors too! We have come to make some really great friends! But on to the next chapter. We moved in temporarily with Andy's parents in Kaysville. We've been looking for a house! We found one that we really like, and put an offer on it. So far so good. Nothing is set in stone yet, but hopefully it will be ours in a few weeks!

Now...the whole reason we moved out of Provo, Andy got a job!!! In Salt Lake City. He's working for the state doing computer software development. We're so happy he got this job! It's been a blessing! He's liking it so far and is doing a great job!

We're so thankful for everyone who helped us on our moving day!

Here's some pictures from the day:

Charlie had fun helping, and playing in the truck! Max just got cuddled the whole time. He was a little confused with what was going on.

Max's 2nd Birthday!

2012-02-08T21:06:00.002-07:00

My baby is two!

Max turned two on January 12th!

We started the day by letting him open his main gift. (He got the rest of his presents during his party)

He got a Sesame Street playset. Max and Charlie loved it!

Then later Molly and Jeremy came over for some cake and ice cream.

The next Monday, the 16th, we had a birthday party for Max.

I almost planned to do nothing but serve cake and ice cream, but as the days got closer to the party, I decided to do some sort of theme. My boys like the book "Where The Wild Things Are", and the name of the boy in the book is Max. I have wanted to do this theme for a party sooner or later. I figured it was a good theme for keeping the party low key.

*Side note: The reason I wanted a simple party is because we moved in with Andy's parents on the Saturday between Max's birthday, and the party day*

I got a few ideas off Pinterest, and found some cardboard crowns at a party store, and emailed these invites that I designed:

No dinner or games...just cup cakes and ice cream...that's how I kept it simple.

I can't do nothing. I have to make it special somehow. Andy always (playfully) teases me, saying I cant do anything simple. That I must decorate and do a theme...And it's true. :o)

My sweetie pie...

My boys and their cousins...

The "Wild Thing" opening his presents...

Max has been talking SO much. He's a gabber!

I have been keeping track of how he says certain words. I've been meaning to blog about them for months, so some of these are out of date, but they're still cute.

Wa la = Water (now he says "wa doe")

Ba la na = Banana (now he says it normal)

Ma mo = Elmo

Tway = Train (now he says it normal)

Wa wo = Marshmallow

Fa fee = Butterfly

Za ba = Pizza (now he says it normal)

Daba Daba = Yo Gabba Gabba

Chi chin = Chicken

De dew = Thank you (now he says it normal)

Yep = Yep, but he really puts an emphasis on the "p"

duh dole = cuddle

Dam ma = Grandma

Dammy = Grammy

Cha dee = Charlie

Mo den = Morgan

Pa pa = Grandpa

He's starting to say I love you, but I can't remember quite how he says it. It's something like, "I Fa foo".

Oh, I love that boy! He's so cuddly. Gives sweet hugs and kisses. Always says sorry, thank-you, and bless you. He knows how to wink! Loves to run and jump. And is always up to mischief.

Christmas Stockings

2012-02-03T22:02:00.003-07:00

I've wanted to make new stockings for our family ever since we had Charlie. Now, almost two years after having Max I finally made some.

I didn't want to only use red and green. I get a little sick of those two colors during Christmas time.

So, I chose some modern colors you don't normally see for Christmas stuff, along with your usual Christmas colors.

A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into making these stockings...literally!

These took hours and hours before I finally finished them! I was worried that I wouldn't get them done before Christmas, but I luckily finished them only a few days before Christmas.

Christmas 2011

2012-02-03T16:41:00.006-07:00

By golly! It's about time I post about Christmas!

December 14th...

We went with my parents to Thanksgiving Point to see their Christmas lights.

(You drive through them in your car)

It was pretty thrilling, I tell you what! At least the boys thought so.

Christmas Eve...

Our tradition of making sugar cookies, decorating them, and leaving some for Santa.

Charlie was really into it this year! He made himself an apron out of a dish towel.

In the past I would make a big fancy dinner to eat on Christmas Eve, but after spending the entire day in the kitchen last year, I finally decided NOT to cook dinner on Christmas Eve anymore. So this year, we went to Red Robin. And every year, from here on out, we will eat out on Christmas Eve!

It's kind of a joke, trying to get these two to hold still for a picture together.

This was the result of my effort to try and photograph them together in their new Christmas PJ's. I wasn't very successful.

I did manage to get this cute one of Max though.

I had the fantastic idea to take a picture of everything we got for Christmas before I wrapped it all. Now we can see what we got, before chaos occurs on Christmas morning.

The boys were so happy Christmas morning! Charlie had been asking for this Bumblebee Transformer for a really long time. Lucky for him Santa brought it for him! And Santa knows how much Max loves to color, so he brought him an art easel.

Charlie in his new fire fighter costume.

We visited the grandparents. Here's my studly boys hangin' out at Grandma & Grandpa Ancell's house.

And here they are opening presents and relaxin' at Grammy & Grandpa Hartvigsen's house.

Also...Andy's birthday is the day after Christmas!

So Happy Birthday to my sweetie pie! One more year in your twenties!

I made him a cake, and we went to dinner. I always feel a little bad that his birthday is kind of in the shadow of Christmas, but we always find a fun way to celebrate anyway.

Pictures, Christmas Card & Ornaments

2012-01-04T22:42:00.005-07:00

This is a bit of a random blog post. I'm just trying to catch up a bit on blogging, so here's a few random things put together...

Aaron (Andy's brother) and his family came to town for Thanksgiving. They live in Washington, so we don't get to see them very often. They recently adopted a two year old girl, Sylvia, so we got to meet her for the first time! She's a total cutie! We also took advantage of them being in town, and had a little photoshoot of all the cousins together. That was difficult, to say the least. Aaron's girls were perfect angels, but my boys decided they wanted to run around instead.

This is the best group shot I could get:

Here's a cute one of Allegra and Sylvia:

I had to take this one of Charlie and Max on a different day, because they were being so difficult. And it was a miracle that I got them both looking and smiling at the camera in this shot!

Grammy and Grandpa with their grandkids:

And this is Merlin. Aaron & Josephine's puppy that they brought along. The boys loved him so much! They wouldn't leave him alone.

On to the next topic...

We did a photo swap with Andy's cousin's wife Ashley Webb (who is also a photographer). I took pictures for her family, and she took pictures for ours.

Here's my favorite picture of our family:

I used it for our Christmas card this year. I created it in Photoshop:

And finally, the last topic of this random blog post...

Every year around Christmas time we go eat out at Cracker Barrel for dinner, then shop in their little store for one ornament each to take home and put on our tree. Andy and I started this tradition the first year we were married.

We went a little late in the season this year, so the Cracker Barrel store was a little picked over. So we decided to go to Hobby Lobby to find some ornaments. They had slim pickin's too. Most of what they had were the fragile glass ornaments, like these ones we ended up getting:

Max got two, he's spoiled. And he broke one while we were waiting in line to buy them (it got replaced obviously). So I quickly took pictures the next day, because someday I'm sure these ornaments will break.

That's all for now. I have a lot of Christmas photos to post...someday...

365

2012-01-01T19:55:00.007-07:00

I'm starting a project...one that will take a whole year to complete!

Today I started a 365 photo challenge! (Technically it should be 366 since it's a leap year).

I'll take at least one picture everyday for a year.

Then weekly, if not daily, I'll post the pictures on my 365 blog. You can click on the link to the right, and it'll take you there.

This project is one of the items on my "30 Before I'm 30" list.

This is something I've wanted to do for years. I started this challenge once before...it was the month I gave birth to Max. Needless to say that didn't work out too well. I only made it a few months before deciding to quit. I didn't have the time or energy to keep up with a photo challenge while having a newborn!

So, since I'm newborn free and it's a new year, I've decided to challenge myself to it again! Wish me luck!

And Happy New Year!!!

P.S. ANDY GOT A JOB IN SALT LAKE!!!!! WE'RE GETTING THE HECK OUT OF PROVO FINALLY!!!! ...just a little tid bit of info you might like to hear about. ;) But more about that at a later time.

Lights, Family, Santa

2011-12-12T17:25:00.002-07:00

Andy's brother, and his family were in town over Thanksgiving weekend. One thing we did together was look at the lights at temple square.

Here's the boys all bundled up...

We also went to the "This is the Place Monument" on another day. There were all kinds of old-timey Christmas things to do.

My boys were able to sit on Santa's lap. Charlie told Santa that he wants a Bumblebee Transformer....I have a feeling Santa will bring it. ;)

Our Christmas Tree

2011-12-07T15:03:00.002-07:00

Every year I like to take a picture of our little Christmas tree...

...even though every year it pretty much looks the same.

At least this year I added a cool starry picture of our tree! ;)

Hopefully next year we'll have a bigger place, so we can have the space for a normal sized tree.

Halloween 2011

2011-12-07T14:32:00.004-07:00

Better late than never...

Here it is only a few weeks before Christmas, and I'm finally blogging about Halloween.

We went the inexpensive route this year, and reused some old Halloween costumes.

Max was a monkey! ...and a darn cute one!

Click HERE to see Charlie as a monkey when he was Max's age.

Charlie was a monster this year! ...same as last year, but just as adorable!

To see pictures of this little monster last year, click HERE.

This is the ONLY picture I got of the two of them together! That is a difficult task these days!

And here's a few cute one's of my handsome boys without their costumes on.

Here are our pumpkins that we carved. It's the first time we've carved pumpkins since we've been married, I think...at least the first time since having kids.

Andy carved the one in the middle, and I did the rest.

Charlie helped till we started digging out the guts, then he wanted nothing to do with them.

And finally, here are the boys digging into their loot! We went trick-or-treating with my brother Dave, and his family. It's fun for the boys to go with their cousins!

And yes...someone gave out bags of chips! So awesome!

"30 Before I'm 30" - De Junk

2011-12-06T14:40:00.002-07:00

I completed another task on my "30 Before I'm 30" list! Check it out HERE!

Power Lines in the Moonlight

2011-11-04T17:17:00.004-06:00

Driving home one night, the moon looked so cool.

It was creating some awesome looking backlight on these power lines.

So I pulled over to snap a few shots.

This is when I wish I had a nicer camera, so that the picture wouldn't have been so grainy in the low light. Oh well, the picture is still pretty cool lookin'.

Pickin' Pumpkins 2011

2011-10-27T23:32:00.004-06:00

We went to a cute pumpkin patch in Springville to pick out some pumpkins for Halloween.

Here is what took place...

We of course picked out the perfect pumpkins for each member of our family, but they also had other fun (free!) things to do there too...

...like climb a giant pyramid of hay...

...play in some corn...

...look at some cute animals (yes, I believe that's a kangaroo)...

...play in a kiddie maze...

...and a hayride. But unfortunately we got there too late, and they weren't doing anymore hayrides for the night. Charlie was a little disappointed, so we just took some pictures of him sitting on it instead. Plus there was plenty of other things to do that kept him happy!

The boys had a blast!

Charlie loved playing in the corn and getting lost in the maze. Once he reached the end of the maze, he'd immediately turn around and go through it again. It wasn't fun trying to get him out when we needed to leave.

Max found a small green pumpkin thing that had a big worm hole in it while we were getting pumpkins, and he would NOT let go of the thing! So the owner/farmer guy let him have it for free. That silly boy!

It was a fun time. I love the tradition of going to a pumpkin patch every year to get our pumpkins!

View some previous pumpkin patch picking HERE and HERE.

Just some random pictures...

2011-10-27T14:04:00.003-06:00

I posted some pictures I took on my phone of the "Up" house on a previous post. But these are a few I took on my camera:

Here's a cute one of Charlie sitting by the window playing on my phone.

I liked the way the light was hitting him from behind, so I snapped a picture.

This old school Utah Jazz shirt belonged to one of my brothers when he was Charlie's age.

I helped my mom clean out some of her storage one day, and wanted this shirt for my own boys, so she let me have it.

One day Charlie and I made a bridge with his Thomas the Train tracks. We made columns of blocks to hold the tracks. They went from the couch, across the laundry basket (river) to the red chair. He loved it! It came crashing down several times, and of course I had to keep rebuilding it.

"30 Before I'm 30" - Camping

2011-10-21T15:46:00.003-06:00

I completed something on my "30 Before I'm 30" list.

Go check it out on the blog! CLICK HERE

Charlie's 4 Year Old Pictures

2011-10-18T12:41:00.003-06:00

Here are the pictures I took of Charlie for turning four years old. You can see all about his party in my previous post.

My little man is growing up so fast!

Charlie is so sweet and tender hearted. He's a friend to everyone he meets...really...if we're in public and he sees other kids, he'll say he wants to go say hi to his friends.

He loves to talk. He's always talking my ear off. When we're in the car he likes to play what we call the "find it" game. I say, "I see a ___" and he'll say, "there it is". Charlie is always asking questions!

He loves dinosaurs, cars, trucks, trains, forts, slides, animals, bugs and anything else boyish.

Charlie is SO loving! He'll just randomly come up to me and say "I love you, mommy" and give me hugs and kisses without me asking. It melts my heart!

He loves to sing the ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the I Love You (Barney) song.

He's such an amazing big brother! He plays so well with Max and shares his toys with him...not all the time though...boys will be boys, ya know.

Charlie loves primary! He goes in, sits down and doesn't even care that I leave.

He's been through a lot, health wise, in the past year. He's had many doctors visits, and he had to get his blood drawn 9 different times to find out what exactly is wrong. I haven't really talked about it on my blog. Not sure if I want to. Too many people giving me advice that I don't agree with. But long story short, Charlie has something called PFAPA. You can go HERE to read about what it is. Charlie has just been such a tough guy through it all! I'm so proud of him and how strong he is! He's amazing.

Here is a little questionnaire I did with Charlie:

And one last picture...it's hilarious! Charlie was looking at a spider on a pole. He was focused!

Oh, how I love this boy!

Charlie's 4th Birthday Party!

2011-10-17T20:33:00.005-06:00

I have a four year old! Crazy!

He turned four in August, and I'm finally getting around to blogging about his birthday party. It was a hoot! Lots of family came, and we had a grand ol' time.

Here's a few snapshots I took of Charlie before the party started.

We had the party at my parent's house. It was a monster themed party!

I made these streamers out of colored paper, and got some fun colorful lanterns to hang.

I made crayon mouth monster tote bags for the kids to take home as party favors. It was a LOT of work, but when I saw this idea, I knew I had to do it! And it didn't cost too much either. The most expensive part was buying the canvas tote bags. Inside the bags were monster stickers, a mini monster beach ball, a monster rubber duck, a monster sucker and a notebook to color on. The kids loved them!

I also let the kids "adopt a monster". I made these out of socks.

The grub...

I was lucky enough to find monster cups, plates, and napkins at Walmart! Also, I found some Kleenex boxes that had monsters all over them, so I stuffed tissue paper in the empty boxes and turned them into utensil holders.

We ate hamburgers, hot dogs and all kinds of yummy monster munchies!

I made this cake twice! The first attempt was a disaster, luckily the second one turned out really cute! My first time making cake pops for the eyes...they turned out a bit sloppy...oh well it's still cute.

A cute picture of Andy with his siblings (except for Aaron who lives in Washington).

We had a craft project and made monster googly eye headbands. It was more of a hit than I expected it to be!

Charlie's monster eyes:

Max, he didn't like them so much...

Breaunna and Taylee:

Nicholas and Miriam:

Jonas, Isaac, and Ethan:

The presents!

Everyone was so generous, and gave Charlie some really fun toys for his birthday!

Jerry's family got Charlie some Cars Squinkies. And Taylee made a really cute card!

Dave's family gave Charlie these little plush monsters. He was SO excited when he opened this present, because he saw them online when we were ordering the party favors for the tote bags. He really liked them, but we didn't order them, so it was a fun surprise that he got them after all!

Jeremy gave Charlie some really cool dinosaurs. Their legs, tails and heads come off the bodies and you can mix and match parts on the dinosaurs. They're funny, and the boys love them!

Grandma & Grandpa Ancell gave him a Paper Jamz guitar. Charlie once saw one in a store and really wanted it, so I told my mom that's what he wanted.

Grammy's family got Charlie "Pete's Dragon" on DVD, some money and a Cars helmet for his new...

...Bike!

Andy and I got Charlie a tool set, a Clifford movie, a foam baseball bat, and of course his new bike.

After the party Charlie tested his bike outside and then played in grandpa's truck with Max.

My old kitty is hardly around when we're at my parent's, especially if the kids are around. So I was barely able to catch a shot of her with my boys. It's really grainy and blurry, but I like having a picture of my boys with my first baby. ;o)

Thanks everyone for coming to Charlie's birthday party!!! It was so much fun!

Puts Some Perspective on Life

2011-09-27T15:05:00.002-06:00

I won't say much, but I want to write this down for my own record, more than anything...

My dad had a mild heart attack last week, on Monday the 19th of September 2011.

My mom took him to the hospital, and he started having congestive heart failure.

He had to have an angioplasty.

On Wednesday the 21st, he was transferred to a different hospital where they would perform a quadruple bypass on Thursday the 22nd.

His surgery went great! We were expecting him to be in surgery for well over 4 hours, but it only took 3 and a half hours.

His recovery in the ICU went really well. His nurse said he should be the "poster person" for the ICU, because he was doing so well.

He spent a few more days in the hospital, and came home yesterday, the 26th.

So that's the basic info.

Lots and lots of prayers were said throughout that time, and I know they helped us all through it! It's been a really hard, and worrisome time. We still need our dad, grandpa, brother and husband around for a while longer! Like my dad said, "It sure puts some perspective on life". My dad is really loved by many people, and we're so thankful that he'll be okay.

(I took this for their 40th wedding anniversary that they had this year)

Good Things to Come

2011-09-08T14:54:00.001-06:00

This video is so great.

A Mother-load Of Pictures!

2011-08-29T12:32:00.006-06:00

I have a whole bunch of pictures from my phone that I loaded onto my computer. And I want to finally put them on my blog.

I must warn you though, there are A LOT of pictures! I tried to somewhat condense them down to smaller sizes.

(below): One day, out of the blue, Charlie asked me to make a dinosaur cake. I just so happened to have a cake mix and some frosting, so I made him a happy little boy that day.

(above): Charlie got a new umbrella a day or two before Andy's graduation. It was raining the morning of the graduation, so Charlie insisted on using it that day. He looked darling.

(below): Andy got out his guns one night to get ready to go shooting the next morning, and happened to prop them up next to the toy box where Charlie's little pop gun was propped up too. We didn't set this up...it's just how the pop gun happened to be sitting.

We made Mother's day cards for the boy's Grandmas. The boy's fingerprints are the petals on the flowers, and Charlie painted the stems & yellow centers all by himself.

(above): The sign at this gas station in Springville had a picture of Hank Hill from the t.v. show, King of the Hill. The sign says "We sell propane and propane accessories" (a line heard often in the show). And on the other side of the sign it said, "Taste the meat, not the heat" (another quote from the show). It was really funny to see!

(below): The boys spent the night at Grammy's house and helped her plant her garden. Andy texted me this picture.

The boys got a hold of some stickers, and started decorating my leg.

We had some fun with a couple iPhone apps, taking silly pictures.

(below): Charlie & I took a lot of goofy pictures together. It's fun how my phone has a camera on the front, so we can look at ourselves while we take our pictures.

(below): Grammy, Andy & I took Charlie fishing for the first time up at the Farmington Pond. We didn't catch anything though. I don't think the fish were hungry.

(below): We went to a field to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks for the 4th of July. Charlie thought they were too loud, so Molly covered his ears for him. Max loved them, he kept pointing at them saying, "Ooooo".

We went to the Provo Parade on the 4th for the first time ever. We've lived in Provo 6 years, and have never gone...it was about time. The boys really liked it.

One day Max handed me these glasses, binky, and finger puppet. All things that could be worn, so I helped him accessorize.

(above): Max is a PRO at climbing around on the playground. He climbed up this ladder and seal thing all by himself with ease.

Perry the Platypus underwear...enough said.

Like it says on the picture, I was only a few months pregnant with Max when we went on our vacation to Hawaii. We got this little Hawaiian outfit for Charlie, and it fits Max now!

I took this picture of our messy house, because I was shocked at how fast they made this mess!

And if anyone wants to buy me this sunburst mirror, they can! I can't stop thinking about it, but it's way out of my budget! You can find it at Hobby Lobby. ;)

(below): We went to the Hogle Zoo on Charlie's birthday thanks to Andy's mom! They had dinosaurs there this summer! I thought he'd love them, but Charlie was really scared of most of them...up until the end, and he put his head in the mouth of one.

Morgan put on Max's monkey leash, and Charlie held onto it...it was pretty funny.

(above): I'm pretty sure there's a picture somewhere of me when I was little getting a drink from this same lion drinking fountain.

(below): I won Parade of Home tickets, and went to some houses with my mom. The "Up" house in Herriman one one of the houses. Here are some pictures I took.

They had an old guy and a boy dressed up like Carl and Russell.

The details were amazing. I loved the doorbell, kitchen, tile in the bathrooms, and the trinkets on the mantel.

In the basement they had a Toy Story room, and a princess room.

(below): Double rainbow all the way!

This bed/window was in a home in the Parade of Homes. I just loved that window above the bed! It almost acted as part of the headboard, and had an awesome view. It was so cool!

We got a new front door this week! The frame of the old one was rotting away. We also got a new door knob for the back door. There's a picture without any door at all, then our new one.

Phew...that was a lot of pictures. Whenever I don't have my big camera handy, I snap away with my phone. Hopefully next time I won't wait seven months before I load my phone photos onto my computer.

Max @ 18 Months

2011-08-08T16:27:00.003-06:00

Well...Max will be 19 months in 4 days, but here are some pictures from when he was 18 months.

He's becoming more and more like a toddler, but he's still my little baby.

This first picture really makes my heart melt!

He saw a helicopter flying in the sky.

A few of Max's milestones are...

Talk talk talking! Everyday he says something new. The other day he held up his sippy cup and said, "Wa Juuu" (want juice). That was his first sentence.

He's a climber! And very sturdy on his feet. You should see him on the playground!

He gives great hugs, and pats you on the back. And puckers up real big for kisses.

Max's favorite foods are strawberries & grapes.

He's 91 percentile for height. And 56 percentile for weight.

He loves to do what ever his big brother does.

He knows what letters are when he sees them, and tries to sound them out...he's a smartie!

Max is such a sweet little boy! He is so loving, playful, smart, funny and cute! Everyone loves him. I have such a soft spot in my heart for him. I love him SO much! And in only 5 more months I'll be entering the "terrible two" stage again. So I hope to really enjoy the rest of his babyhood. :o)

Copper Mine & "Up" House

2011-08-07T17:05:00.004-06:00

I'm a little behind on blogging...this was clear back on July 16th.

We decided to go up to the Kennecott copper mine. They were having a free day, and I haven't been since I was a child. We thought the boys would like it, so we went!

We parked at the base of the mountain, and they shuttled people up to the mine in big buses. The boys liked the bus just as much as the copper mine.

A few minutes later, we reached the mine, and the view was spectacular!

Of course we had to get the traditional photo in front of the giant tire.

Charlie liked this little train car thing. And the sparkly copper rock.

(you can't see in the picture, but it really sparkled)

Here's the awesome view!

Notice the size of the giant dump trucks compared to that smaller semi-type-truck. They're HUGE!

After we checked out the mine we went inside to the visitors center.

Charlie wanted to buy these old toy trucks, but they weren't for sale.

He was in heaven!

Max was a good boy for about two seconds, and let me barely take a picture of them together by this picture.

After the copper mine we drove past the "Up" house in Herriman.

We love the movie Up, and I thought Charlie would love to see this house, but when we got there he got really scared! I think he was a little creeped out by the life sized version. Or maybe he thought it would float away....I don't know.

So Andy waited in the car with the boys so I could get some pictures of the house.

I won some Parade of Homes tickets (like 30 minutes before I was going to go online to order some)! And this house is one of the homes, so I can't wait to walk through it.

A lady that was also there taking pictures started to walk inside. I went up to the door with her, and we saw some shoes on the floor in the entryway. So we thought it was okay to go inside. I stepped into the living room, snapped this shot of the painting, and a man walked into the room to tell us we weren't aloud inside. Ha ha. Oh well. I only saw the living room, and a small bathroom before we got kicked out.

On the way home we got a treat, and Max got his chocolate chip cookie everywhere! It was a mess! But oh so cute.

It was a really fun day! It's nice to do something different every once in a while.

Charlie's Friend

2011-07-07T14:12:00.003-06:00

This is Charlie's first real friend, his name is Robby.

Sadly Robby and his family moved out of state recently. We'll sure miss them!

These boys would have play dates, and they were best buds! They always sat next to each other in Sunbeams and caused trouble. One time I was subbing a different primary class, and I saw that they kept kissing and hugging each other. Ha ha. It was funny and cute, but disruptive. :o)

It's so nice to see my boy make a such a great friend. I wish we had started doing these play dates sooner. Hopefully Charlie can find more great friends just like Robby as he grows up.

Girls Trip to Natalie's Cabin

2011-07-06T13:44:00.003-06:00

Two of my best friends (Natalie & Katie) and I wanted to have a "girls weekend". No boys aloud. And so we did! We went to Natalie's cabin up in Oakley (near Park City) on June 3rd and came home the next evening. Natalie's mom also came along (Jeannine).

So here I am...finally blogging about it.

It was so much fun to get out with some friends! I needed to! It was nice to relax, not have to worry about taking care of the kids, and catch up with my friends...we rarely get to see each other any more. sad.

Here's the view off the deck of the cabin:

And here's another view:

We had a giant, yummy, juicy steak dinner! Tons of snacks, a huge breakfast in the morning, and ate lunch at Kneaders the next day...we ate so well!

We played games, watched a movie, laughed a lot, and went shopping the next day in Park City.

We saw two moose just outside the cabin while we were making breakfast. I tried to take some pictures of them, but I didn't want to get too close. Here's the best shots I got. One of the moose was hiding too much, so I only got pictures of this one.

Here's a game we played. I believe it's called Mexican Train...it's a domino game. It was pretty fun.

Natalie's deep in thought...

My friend Katie...I love having "special" moments with her. We dressed her up in a lot of gaudy jewelry while we were shopping.

Our weekend was so great! We want to make it an annual tradition...and so we shall. :o)

30 Before I'm 30

2011-06-27T10:59:00.007-06:00

I'll be 30 on March 15th 2014.

And I've been thinking lately, there's a lot of things I want to do before I turn thirty.

Things I want, or need to do.

(photo by: 96dpi)

So here's my list of 30 things to do before I turn 30:

1. Buy a house with a yard

2. Have another baby

3. Lose weight

4. Buy a Nikon D7000 or better

5. Have a more established photo business and offer prints

6. Finish the quilt I started

7.Get better habits/actually have a routine (exercise, getting ready for the day before noon, cooking dinner more often, going to bed at a decent hour, keep the house clean, etc.)

8. Run a 5K

9. Go to Hawaii or any other vacation

10. Host Thanksgiving dinner

11. Go to WPPI

12. Go to the dentist (it's been a while...haven't had insurance)

13. Get makeup and hair tips from a professional

14. Go snowboarding again

15. Go to Moab

16.~~De junk (will do several times before I'm 30)~~ Completed November 11th 2011

17. Wear red lipstick in public

18. Get caught up on scrapbooking

19. ~~Go camping (it's been a long time)~~ Completed September 9th & 10th 2011

20. Get family portraits done by another photographer

21. Do a project 365 (take a picture every day for a year, and blog about it)

22. Read The Book of Mormon from cover to cover

23. Be happier and more thankful

24. Start photographing weddings

25. Get & Ride a bike

26. Go to a McDonald's drive through, and pay for the person in the car behind me

27. Be more outgoing and talk to people more

28. Make a new friend

29. Remodel a large piece of furniture

30. Hang more pictures and artwork in our home that I truly love

So there you have it...

I started a new blog to show my progress.

On that blog, I'll post about each item as I cross it off my list.

Click HERE to see my "30 Before I'm 30" blog, or click on the link on my sidebar to the right.

I have less than 3 years before I'm 30, so I better get on the ball here...wish me luck! :O)

Max @ 16 Months

2011-06-07T13:57:00.004-06:00

Max turned 16 months old last month...he's almost 17 months now, but I'm finally getting around to blogging about it. Here's some pictures I took:

Oh how I love those baby cheeks & dimples!

Max is a busy busy boy! Always trying to keep up with his big brother.

He's talking more.

Has a total of 14 teeth now...I'm starting to lose track.

He knows where his eyes, nose, mouth, hair and belly button are.

He's such a fun & happy boy full of mischief! We love him to pieces!

And here's some pictures I took of Charlie that same day.

He was being just as cute! We love him too!

I found a picture...

2011-05-13T15:53:00.004-06:00

I cleaned out my wallet (a much needed duty, but only did so because I bought a new wallet), and I found this picture from way back in August when we went to Chuck-E-Cheese's for Charlie's Birthday.

Boy, did he have a bad haircut back then. Needless to say we never went back to that hair salon.

Anyway...This ride takes a picture of you while you're riding it, then prints it out for you to keep. We've done it once before, I blogged about it HERE. He was so little back then!

I though it was cute, so I decided to post it in my archives.

Also, Happy Friday the 13th! ;)

Andy's Graduation!!! Our Anniversary!! Mother's Day!

2011-05-10T16:58:00.007-06:00

I've waited 6 long years to say these words...

ANDY GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE!!!

Can you sense the excitement?

Well, it's true! After lots of hard, HARD work (especially this last semester), and after changing his major 3 times, and schools once, he finally settled on something he truly enjoys and is good at!

Andy majored in Computer Science.

He graduated from UVU on Friday April 29th 2011. (yes, the same day as the royal wedding...is that good luck?)

We had to get up at 5:15 a.m. to be at UVU by 7:15! SO early! I'm not a morning person...so having the royal wedding to watch in the wee hours of the morn helped to wake me up.

So the graduation started at 8:00 a.m. with the convocation.

Here's Andy walking to his seat:

One of the speakers at the convocation, President Holland (president of the school).

Getting handed his diploma from the department chair and pausing for a picture for me!

Then after the convocation, there was a short break before the commencement ceremony began.

Here's all the graduating students marching in together. It was cool they had bag pipers leading the way, playing with an orchestra as they came in.

There's Andy, that tiny speck. I can't believe I even spotted him. He's right in the middle of the circle. He's waving his hand at me, you can see his hand on the left side of the circle.

The boys were so good during the whole thing. We were gone for many hours. I took plenty of toys, books, and treats to keep them entertained.

My parents, Andy's parents and Andy's sister Molly came. It was great to have them there to support Andy!

Max was tuckered out by the time it was over.

Here's a few family pictures with the grad.

I had the boys dress in these colors for a reason. Green is UVU's school color and Orange is the color of Andy's tassel (the color for the computer science school)

Andy's parents...without them this would not be possible! Thank You!!!

My parents and us. Great supporters of Andy's college education!

Andy's fam...minus a few.

Max...adorable...need I say more?

I'm so so proud of Andy and all his hard work he put into getting his college diploma! It was really hard at times, but through it all, he stuck it out and finished!!! He worked SO hard, especially this last semester! It was really hard the last few months before graduating. He was gone from 6:45 a.m. to at least 9 p.m. most of the time he didn't get home till 10 or 11 and sometimes midnight! I pretty much felt like a single mom in those months. Even on Saturdays he was gone doing homework on campus all day. I'm so happy this long chapter of our lives is over, and we can move on. Andy can be home with us in the evenings and he doesn't have to work on homework! Hurray for graduating Andy!!!! I love you!!!

*****************************************

The next day, April 30th, was our 6th anniversary! Perfect timing too! I had hardly seen Andy at all the last few months and finally we could have a whole 24 hours alone to ourselves! Andy's Dad used his frequent flyer points to get us a hotel for the night. The hotel was a block away from The Gateway, so we went to a movie, did some shopping, and ate at the Market Street Broiler...which was delicious...but pricey!

I love my husband! He never raises his voice to me. He loves me like crazy. And he thinks I'm pretty even when I look a mess. I'm a dang lucky gal to have him! Y'all should be jealous! :)

**************************************************

Sunday was Mother's Day.

Our parents, Molly, Morgan, and Jeremy came over to our place, since our car has had some major issues lately. We didn't want to drive an hour up to our parent's house and back, it might completely kill our car. It's on it's last leg. So, we're in the market for a new car...probably a minivan...yes, a minivan. I've always told myself never to get a van, because they're not cool...but sadly practicality has won that war.

Anyway...We had a fun time with our family on Sunday. We had a yummy dinner, chatted, and played Catch Phrase. It's so nice that my parents and in-laws get along so well!

I gave these flowers to our moms along with a card the boys helped me make. I didn't get a picture of the cards though...dang. On the cover of the cards were flowers made from the boys' fingerprints. They were really cute.

Happy Mother's Day, Moms! And might I add...I have the best one! She's so nurturing, kind hearted, mild tempered and accepting. She always helps me feel better when I'm down, and always looks for the good in things. I love you Mom!!!

Wow! What a long blog post! Phew...

Some Fun Pictures

2011-04-26T21:20:00.002-06:00

I was playing with the boys a few days ago. I had an empty paper towel roll and was looking at them through it. I thought it would be cool to try and take a picture through the cardboard roll. So I did. And here's the result...pretty cool, huh?

This one's funny. Max snuck that finger in there pretty quick. I didn't see it coming, because I had no peripheral vision. :)

Easter 2011

2011-04-26T20:36:00.003-06:00

Happy Easter Everyone!

On Saturday we dyed eggs using THIS technique. It was fun, but man were they slippery because of the oil!

Here's how they turned out:

Here's our Easter baskets for this year:

And the Easter Bunny brought the boys dinosaur Pillow Pets!

Charlie didn't sleep very well Saturday night, so we had to bring his Easter stuff up to bed in order to bribe him to get up for church. (normally we have them find their baskets that are hidden by the Easter Bunny) He and Max really liked their stuff. Charlie was way too cranky and tired, so I just went to church with Max.

After church we (minus Andy, because he had homework) went to my parents and Andy's parents house to visit.

My parents had a little egg hunt for the boys to do.

Once Max had a couple eggs in his hands, he wouldn't put them in his basket, he just held them the whole time.

Charlie pretty much got all the eggs, but we shared later.

Easter was fun, I just didn't get to spend much time with Andy. He's been SO SO busy with school! But he GRADUATES ON FRIDAY!!!! Then maybe I'll actually be able to see him in the evenings! Yay! I'm not excited or anything. :)

Been Dreaming...

2011-04-20T21:20:00.003-06:00

Andy is SO close to graduating (the 29th) and I'm SO excited! I feel a little anxious though, because I don't know what the next few months will hold for us. Will he get a salary paying job right away? How much will he make? Will we move to a new apartment, rent, or buy a house? Where will we live? How soon will we be able to afford a house? How much do we need to make in order to afford this house? What's a short sale? Lots of those "grown up" questions have gone through my mind lately. All will be answered soon

enough, but until then, I've browsed utahrealestate.com and have gotten my hopes up a little bit...hopefully someday we can afford a beautiful home that we love, in an area that we love.

I've also got the itch for redecorating. Probably because I know we're moving to a new

place sometime soon. And I'm getting a little sick of my current style in our home.

I think it's straight up contemporary right now, with a little bit on homemade craftyness mixed in.

Lately I really like the vintage look...but not too vintage. I like the look of vintage items and styles mixed into modern/contemporary furniture.

Just for the fun of it, I pretended to shop online for all new living room furniture. I made a quick little layout in Photoshop of my dream living room. It's not to scale, and the pictures aren't perfectly cropped, but you get the picture.

I love the vintage feel of the florals and the milk glass lamp and that red side table. And I love the color combination of yellow, gray, and indigo. The colors and fun patterns make me happy! If only...maybe someday...I'll get new stuff. :)

And if you're wondering where to get these glorious items (for me) here's where:

Red Media Stand/Side Table: Urban Outfitters

Finnia Rug: Anthropologie

Gray Velvet Curtain: Anthropologie

White Milk-Glass Table Lamp: Pottery Barn

Capiz Pendant Light: Pottery Barn

Gray Dylan Sofa: Pottery Barn

Canary Print Chair: Target

Also...

I was browsing Etsy today for actual vintage items...just for the heck of it.

So here's some more things I love:

These vintage bowling pins would be such a boyish and unique decoration for my boys' room!

buy here

My boys would love to have this adorable rocking horse in their bedroom to play with.

buy here

I'm sure my mom and your mom have old Pyrex mixing bowls. I love the colors, patterns, and they scream vintage! Hey...maybe I'll inherit some someday.

buy here

These Pyrex drinking glasses are just as fun! See? More fun colors and patterns!

buy here

I am in LOVE with these brass candlesticks! So don't buy them, unless you're buying them for me. ;)

buy (but only for me) here

Gotta love a vintage frame and mirror, although I'd paint the frame a funner color.

buy here

I have a thing for milk glass lately.

buy here

I've always liked the look of vintage industrial fans, maybe for a bedroom.

Buy here

Well, there's my retail therapy for the day!

What do you think? Do you like vintage? I love it...I think I need to start a collection.

A Quote

2011-04-20T15:06:00.003-06:00

I came across a really great quote by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf in THIS article the other day.

The whole article is great, but I especially loved this quote:

"May I invite you to rise to the great potential within you. But don’t reach beyond your capacity. Don’t set goals beyond your capacity to achieve. Don’t feel guilty or dwell on thoughts of failure. Don’t compare yourself with others. Do the best you can, and the Lord will provide the rest. Have faith and confidence in Him, and you will see miracles happen in your life and the lives of your loved ones. The virtue of your own life will be a light to those who sit in darkness, because you are a living witness of the fulness of the gospel. Wherever you have been planted on this beautiful but often troubled earth of ours, you can be the one to “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees”."

These are things that I need to remind myself of every day!

Arg! I've rewritten this next sentence (paragraph) like four times to try and get it to sound right and go along with this quote. I simply want to say that I KNOW I'm a great mom, wife and person! I've felt a little judged lately which has led me to compare myself to others and begin to doubt myself, but then I had a realization that Satan was trying to creep in and make me believe that I was a failure. But I now realize what is true and I'm not letting that lie fester in my mind anymore. We have harmony in our home, we're happy, we follow the spirit, we're doing the best we can with what we have. And just because we don't do things the same way as others, or have what others have, it doesn't mean we're not as good of people and it doesn't mean we're going to raise menaces to society.

I don't normally get too personal or spiritual on my blog, but I just felt like getting this out there in the open! So there...all is well...life is great...be kind to others. :)

Max @ 15 Months

2011-04-07T14:37:00.002-06:00

Max will be 15 months old this month, so I took some pictures of him. He's growing up so fast, and he's developed an adorable personality!

I always post tons of pictures, I know. But hey, at least I know the grandparents really like that! :)

Our little photoshoot didn't start out so well...

...but I quickly cheered him up!

This face cracks me up!

Max actually likes to wear these sunglasses! I always call him my cool little dude when he does.

Some facts about Max lately:

He started jumping, which is really funny and cute, because he doesn't get his feet off the floor at all.

He's not only walking everywhere but he runs too, and he rapidly swings one arm from side to side as he runs along, it's really adorable.

He's really good at going down for naps. I'll hug him and he pats me on my shoulder, then I'll lay him down and he goes right to sleep. A good sleeper is this mother's dream!

He babbles all the time, but the only clear things he says so far are Ma Ma, Da Da, wow, whoa, wha sat (what's that) and when he wants more of something he says "Mon Ya". Another random thing he says all the time is, "Ba Zub Ba Zub", I have no clue what it means, but it sounds really cute when he says it. He has the sweetest little voice.

Max loves when I tickle his face with my bangs, I always get a smile when I do.

He's really starting to understand direction. If I say "go get your shoes" or "go downstairs" or "put this book away on your bookshelf" he will! And sometimes he'll come over and lay down to change his diaper if I ask him to. It's so nice.

Max LOVES books! When he finds a book, he'll bring it up to me and hand it to me to read to him.

He's great at coloring. Give him a piece of paper, and a crayon and he'll go at it!

He has 11 teeth, almost 12! We're waiting for one more molar to come in, it's so close!

This is more for my information more than anyone else...but I'm no longer nursing! I finally weaned him at 13 months. Such a relief it is to no longer be "attached". Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the bonding time and convenience that comes with nursing, but after a year I'm SO ready to quit.

Best of all, Max is so loving. Always hugging us back, starting to give kisses, loves to be held and cuddled and gives the sweetest smiles.

I love that little guy like crazy! :)

I Thought It Was Spring...

2011-04-06T16:20:00.005-06:00

I woke up Sunday morning to find a giant snow storm had hit us! At least four inches of snow was on the ground. And now another storm is supposed to come this weekend!

It DOES look quite beautiful, and I'm SO glad Andy doesn't have to go into work to shovel it anymore!

But c'mon spring! Where are you?!

My Family

2011-04-05T14:38:00.004-06:00

We needed a family portrait for a party that Andy's extended family is having next month. And we didn't have a current one of the four of us. In fact, I don't think we've EVER had an official family portrait taken. I guess I just like to stay behind the lens.

So, while we were at my parent's house on Sunday I had my mom take a picture of us. It was cold out, snow was melting off the trees onto us, it started snowing again, Charlie started to cry...till I got some candy, the wind was blowing my hair all around, but we toughed it out long enough to get a decent portrait.

So I thought I might as well post it on my blog, because it's not very often that we're all in the same picture together. :)

I love my family!

A Little Announcement...

2011-04-01T14:19:00.002-06:00

October 3rd we're expecting a baby!!! I had my first ultrasound this week, and we're SO happy that our little one is healthy, and growing strong!

Here's "baby's" heartbeat:

I'll be so excited for baby number 3 to be here someday soon...

...but that day won't be for a little bit longer...

...APRIL FOOLS! :)

Did I have you going? Or are you like me, and don't believe anything anybody announces today? :)

By the way, those are pictures from Charlie's ultrasound.

Me 27 - Dinosaurs 230,000,000

2011-03-22T18:48:00.006-06:00

I'm this many!

My birthday was last week. I made myself a chocolate sprinkle cake (my favorite). Andy sent me some flowers a few days early for my birthday, and also because I hardly saw him the week before. He's been incredibly busy with school! There are day's when he's not home till almost midnight. And I got myself an IPhone for my birthday...it sure is fun! I love it!
Birthday celebrations aren't as exciting when you're older. I never throw myself a party. We were originally just going to go to dinner, but then Andy suggested we go to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. That was a great idea! Even though it's geared toward children, it's still just as fun for adults, plus it's fun to see the boys light up when they see everything. Charlie was really scared at first...it can be a little spooky for kids, there are dark corners, and creepy dinosaur and bird noises playing throughout the museum. But he warmed up to it quickly and soon began to have fun. There were a few things here and there that scared him though.

(right) Charlie comparing his little feet to the big dino's feet.

(right) Something spooked him, and he came running for me.

They had a fun sand/water play area for kids to build stuff with little dinosaurs and trees.

(left) Here's Charlie discovering some dinosaur bones in the sand.

This shark (megalodon) scared Charlie real bad. He refused to get close to it, so I just got Max to pose in front of it.

After we left the museum, we ate dinner at Rodizio's. I had a great day celebrating my birthday, up until I slipped on a rug at Rodizio's and fell flat on my butt! No harm done luckily, just really sore that night.

You know me...I love pictures!

2011-03-17T15:47:00.003-06:00

I've got lots of cute pictures to share! I took these February 4th...a while ago...I know, and I'm just getting around to blogging them.
I never really took an official "one year old" photo of Max, and I wanted to attempt a photo of the boys together. So here's what I got:

I LOVE Charlie's sweet little smile in this one:

Valentine's Day 2011:
And finally...here's some pictures of the boys with their V-Day stuff. I got a few surprises and stuffed their Valentine envelopes with them. I got some heart suckers, little toys, and glow stick bracelets for them.

They also got a Valentine's Day card from me and Andy that I made. On the outside there were two chocolate hearts glued on it, and it said, "Valentine..." Then on the inside it said, "I've got my eye on you". With a picture of a monster and a googly eye glued to it. They were pretty dang cute, if I do say so myself. We gave some of these cards to the boy's cousins, and grandparents too.

It was cute to see how excited they were with their surprises. I tried explaining to Charlie that Valentine's Day is a day we celebrate our love, for the people who are the most special in our lives...

...and you can see just how "special" Charlie looks in this picture. ;)
I love all my boys, SO much!

Some Pictures and Some News

2011-03-01T15:38:00.003-07:00

I took a few "nakey" pictures of Max. He was lookin' cute walking around in just his diaper, so I laid him down on our new shaggy rug and snapped a few photos.

Doesn't he just melt your heart!?

This look is quite common on Max's face. He says "Ohhhhh" a lot; whenever he's fascinated with something. And here's Charlie driving his motor home through some rough terrain (shag).

We have some good news! No, I'm not pregnant. Andy got a job! It's a paid, part time internship, but could possibly turn into a full time, salary paying job after he graduates in April. We're SO excited, blessed, relieved and very happy about this! Most importantly Andy will be getting the experience he needs for future jobs. His job title is Junior Software Developer.
We love that he no longer has to wake up really early in the morning (2 or 3 a.m.) to go into work to shovel the snow! We were actually able to enjoy the beauty of the last snow storm for the first time since we've been married! What a relief it is, I tell ya! I love the snow again. :)

The Shag

2011-02-03T17:01:00.003-07:00

I let Charlie's hair grow into a shag over the winter. I got a little attached to it. His hair is so soft, smooth and floppy...but it was time to let it go. So we got it cut today.

Before:

After:

He looks like such a stud muffin now, with his new rock-star hair cut! :)

I've been a crafty crafter...

2011-01-27T15:53:00.003-07:00

I was in the mood to make something crafty, so I decided to make these Valentine decorations...

First, a fabric heart garland.

I started by spraying sections of fabric with this fabric stiffener.

Hung them to dry for a few hours.

Then they were stiff...but wrinkly.

So I gave them a quick iron.

And voila...flat and sturdy, just like a piece of paper.

I cut out four paper heart templates, then progressively shaved the edges of each one. Traced them onto the back of the fabric, and cut them out.

Then folded the three smaller hearts in half and ironed.

Sewed down the middle of the heart.

Tied and cut the strands of strings from the ends.

To string the garland, I used a needle to guide the string through the stitching on the back of the heart.

This makes such a dainty, pretty heart garland perfect for your Valentine decorations.

My second craft...I made these cute felt Valentine envelopes...sorry no tutorial for this one. If you really want to know how to make them go here, that's where I got the idea.

I think they turned out super cute! I made two...one for each of my boys. Charlie's been having fun with them. I plan on having some sort of surprise in them for the boys on Valentine's day.

And on a side note...Max has learned how to go down the stairs! So we can have the gate down finally! :) He loves to play on the stairs! I can tell he has a new sense of freedom.

And something funny...I got this Woody bubble bath for Charlie, but I feel a little creeped out by the way he looks at me while I shower!

Max's Actual Birthday-Day

2011-01-23T19:25:00.004-07:00

We had a party for Max a few days after his birthday. But we had to celebrate, at least a little bit, on his ACTUAL birthday.

Here's a few pictures I took...nothing super great, but I couldn't let the day go by without getting a few snapshots of the little birthday boy.

I was making a few decorations for Max's party, and Charlie wanted to make a paper airplane out of my scraps of paper. He showed me where he wanted the pieces of paper, and that's where I taped them together. Such a creative little guy.

Then I started frosting Max's cake and Charlie said, "Now make birthday hats!" So I couldn't resist, I already had some crafting supplies out, so we made some birthday hats after I finished the cake. It was so cute that Charlie suggested that! It made Max's actual birthday a little extra special.

Molly and Jeremy came over to help us sing to Max and eat the cake. Max enjoyed it...but mostly he just made a mess.

I think that about wraps up the many blog posts that have to do with Max's birthday. :)
(pictures taken on Max's first birthday 1-12-2011)

...one more thing...
this is what my kids have been up to lately:
...little daredevils.
(pictures taken 1-10-2011)

Funny Star Wars Video

2011-01-19T12:08:00.007-07:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Max's First Birthday Party!

2011-01-18T11:41:00.002-07:00

Max turned one on the 12th but we had his party on Saturday the 15th. His cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents came. It was a full house, and it was a LOT of fun!
The party was a carnival themed party. We had carnival decorations, carnival games, carnival food & treats, and even a photo booth!

This was the invitation that I sent to everyone:

The decorations, games, and food:

The kids played the games to win tickets to trade for treats from the "snack booth".

Everyone got a party hat (right) and here's the "snack booth" (left):

I made all the pinwheels for the cupcakes.

The food/"hot dog stand":

This photo booth had us all cracking up! I think my favorite one is the picture of Jerry and Lindsey!

I LOVE these ones of my boys!

We printed them for the guests to take home...just like a real photo booth.

Max got a lot of cute presents. We gave him this book, this t-ball toy, this toy phone and a little turtle drum set thingy.
Our family got him some clothes, toy cars, and this whacky ball toy.
Here he is opening his presents with Daddy.

And then it was time for the cake. Max had a little chocolate cake all to himself...and he loved it!

He wasn't sure what to do with it at first...

...but soon enough he got the hang of it.

By the end Max looked like he had a 5 o'clock shadow.

...then it was bath time, and the party was over. Thanks to everyone who came! It was so fun to have you all there! :)
Happy Birthday little buddy! That year was the fastest year of my life! :)

Max's First Year

2011-01-11T12:47:00.004-07:00

Max turns ONE tomorrow, January 12th 2011! I can't believe it. His first year flew by WAY faster than Charlie's!

I wanted to do an invitation (for his first birthday party) with a collage of pictures throughout the year. But I decided to do something else. So I thought I'd just post that collage on my blog instead.

These are all pictures taken on, or near, the 12th day of the month. Except for that first one, he was only a few weeks old.

Some of Max's milestones are:

WALKING! Really, he started walking at 11 months, but now he's full blown walker! He walks way more than crawling now.

We're still waiting for those molars to pop through. I can feel a little corner of a tooth, and his gums are really swollen. Getting those molars in has gotta hurt!

Max "talks" a lot.

He climbs everything! Which keeps me on my toes a lot. He climbs the banister on the outside of the stairs. He climbs up into the living room chair over the arm of the chair and onto the coffee table. And he sometimes gets up on the back of our couch. The little stinker is full of mischief.

Max and Charlie wrestle all the time. Which usually ends with someone crying.

He's really close to being able to go down the stairs. He'll get his feet down one step, then just crawl back up.

Max is a fun, loving and happy little guy. I'm so happy he joined our family a year ago!

Charlie's a Sunbeam!

2011-01-08T21:43:00.002-07:00

Last week Charlie went to primary. My little baby has turned into a Sunbeam! I can't believe it. He's growing up way too fast!

When we got home I took some pictures of him to mark the occasion. I told him to smile and this is what I got:

Then I told him to smile with his teeth, and this was what he did:
I guess he has also entered the "awkward learning how to smile for pictures" phase. That's okay though, it makes me laugh. :)

The week before last, Charlie came home from nursery with a picture he colored, and there was a poem that almost had me in tears. I don't know why, perhaps it's because he's my first child, and every milestone is a big step for both of us. Here's the picture and poem:
Gotta love the scribbles.
On a side note, I got asked to sub for one of the Sunbeam teachers tomorrow. I'm excited to be in class with Charlie and see what it's like for him! :)

New Years Day Bowling 2011

2011-01-08T21:25:00.003-07:00

It's a tradition to go to breakfast and then go bowling with Andy's family every New Years morning. I love it. Charlie loves it too! It was pretty cute to see him bowl.

He would even pick up his ball all by himself.

Then put it on the top of the "slide". And push it down the lane.

Those little bowling shoes were adorable!

Max got passed around a lot while everyone took turns bowling.

I was pretty proud of my score on this game.

Such a fun tradition! I'm sure well continue on with it for a long long time. :)

Andy's 28th Birthday!

2011-01-08T21:16:00.002-07:00

Andy turned 28 the day after Christmas! Which meant lots of candles on the cake!
We had a little get together at our place with our parents and Molly, Morgan and Jeremy.
We ate fajitas and cake & ice cream.

I made the cake, and not to brag or anything, but it was as delicious as it looks!
Happy Birthday sweetie! I'm glad you were born 28 years ago, so that I could meet you and marry you! You're so good to me, and I love you SO much! :)

Christmas 2010

2011-01-05T18:39:00.004-07:00

It is such a busy time of year for everyone. I'm finally getting around to blogging about all our Christmas time activities. Boy, this is going to be a long post!

12-18-2010:
We started off the season with a Christmas party with my side of the family. We had a yummy dinner and Santa came and visited with the kids. This year Jerry played Santa. Remember last year?

Elizabeth had the tables decorated so cute!

We brought a veggie tray, and homemade mac & cheese.

Max showed of his new walking skills! And this is Charlie's face when Santa entered the room:

Luckily Charlie wasn't as scared of Santa this year. He was a little shy, and very quietly told Santa what he wanted for Christmas. And I think what got him through it, was knowing he'd get a candy cane afterward. And Max was oblivious to the fact that Santa is a little scary.

Every year we have a tradition of eating at Cracker Barrel, then we shop in their country store after we eat, and each member of our family pick out their own ornament to put on our tree.
The airplane is mine, Andy picked out the reindeer in the stocking...

...Max liked this jingle-bell-angel-snowman thing, and Charlie LOVED this robot!

The tree, and a few other decorations:

Another tradition we have is making and decorating Christmas sugar cookies on Christmas Eve.

Charlie decorated one, then he ate it right after.

Max just sampled some while we decorated the cookies.

I cut out the boys hand prints to give to the grandparents. But Max was asleep when I cut out the dough, so I had to guess on his hand size...which was way off...but they look cute anyway. Charlie decorated his hand prints all by himself.

The finished product:

I made a nice Christmas Eve dinner, but next year I think I want to start a tradition of ordering Chinese food instead. I felt like I just slaved away in the kitchen all day between making the cookies, doing the dishes five times, and making the big fancy dinner. I'd rather have that time to spend with my family.
Here we are around the table ready to eat. It's a Christmas miracle that Max actually looked at the camera!

We left Santa some cookies milk, and a note. The note said, "Dear Santa, We have been good boys this year. Here is some milk & Cookies. Say hi to the reindeer for us. Love, Charlie & Max."
Then Santa replied, "Dear Charlie & Max, Thank-you for the cookies and milk! You were very good boys this year. I hope you enjoy your presents. Be good boys and always listen to your parents! Love, Santa Claus."

Here's some pictures after the boys were in bed, and Santa came. I'm planning on making some new stockings for next year...some that actually match.

Charlie got an igloo tent from Santa, and max got a toy top from Santa.

Christmas morning:
It was fun! We look like we just rolled out of bed...well...because we just rolled out of bed.
The boys loved tearing into their presents and playing with their new toys.

Some cute tags that I printed for our presents:

We got this rug for Charlie to drive his toy cars on.

Andy got a bunch of reloading stuff, and I got a new sewing machine!

Then we had a yummy quiche for breakfast.

After we ate breakfast we headed out to see the grandparents.
This is what we gave them. I put together a calendar in Photoshop, with some of my favorite pictures of the boys, then had it professionally printed and made into a spiral notebook.

Here we are at Grammy and Grandpa Hartvigsen's house:

Max got these sing-a-ma-jigs from them, and Charlie got a Tonka dump truck and front end loader.

Later we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Ancell's house.

Jerry's girls, Taylee, Brylie, and Breaunna, looked so cute and festive.

Max fell asleep on the way over, and stayed asleep for a while. The boys got presents from my parents. Max got some clothes, and a "Elmo" in the box (it's like a jack in the box.) And Charlie got some blocks...great for dumping from his new dump truck.

I attempted to get a picture of the boys in their new outfits, Charlie behaved, but Max was being difficult. This was the best I got.

The boys also got new jammies from Grammy, so they wore them home on Christmas night.

It was a fun Christmas with our families!

The Provo Tabernacle Fire

2010-12-30T23:49:00.003-07:00

I'm sure most of you have heard about the Provo Tabernacle that caught fire a few weeks ago. It was such a beautiful building, and I'm sad to see it go. We actually attended our stake conference in this building during our first year of marriage.
I stopped by that evening to take a few pictures of it. The roof and second story had completely collapsed. You could see big piles of rubble, through the windows, still burning. All that stood were the brick walls of the exterior of the building.

Pictures taken 12-17-2010:

Max @ 11 Months

2010-12-20T20:00:00.002-07:00

Max is now 11 months old! For sure he's acting like a toddler more and more these days. I wonder sometimes what happened to my baby. This first year has flown by!
Max will eat ANYTHING! He loves all food.
He has 8 teeth, and it looks like some molars might be popping through really soon.
He says "Ma ma"... and that's about it ... sometimes it sounds like he repeats what we say once in a while but it could just be coincidental.
He knows his name. When you say "Max" he turns and looks at you.
Max will wave hi and bye.
He's quite the climber! Nothing is safe anymore.
...and...
MAX TOOK HIS FIRST STEPS!
Just last week he took his first step without holding onto anything. And then a few days after that he took four steps and today he took about five steps. I think he'll be walking by his first birthday!

Here's some pictures I took of Max at 11 months:

Charlie wanted to get in on the photoshoot too, but he got a bit rowdy.

So, he got in a little bit of trouble, and started to cry.

Once Charlie was out of the room, I tried to continue with our shoot.

Then Max had enough, and wanted to be cuddled.

So I tried to continue our photoshoot the next day, but this is the only good picture I got.

Toddlers can be pretty hard to photograph. :)

Sleeping

2010-12-20T14:34:00.002-07:00

A few weeks ago Andy took this picture of me and Charlie. We fell asleep on the couch like this. It's pretty funny, I'm glad he took a picture of it.

(Picture taken December 5th 2010)

Merry Christmas From The Hartvigsens!

2010-12-18T15:43:00.002-07:00

I made this Christmas card this year using Photoshop, but I never printed it to mail to people. I just wanted to save time and money this year by e-mailing our Christmas card instead. So, some of you may have been lucky enough to receive this by e-mail, if not, then go ahead and enjoy it on my blog!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all have a fun, joyful, and safe holiday season!!!

Christmas Decorations and Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-06T19:58:00.003-07:00

On the day before Thanksgiving I couldn't wait anymore so I busted out the Christmas decorations.
The boys had fun playing with the reindeer antlers that we got from Grandma and Grandpa Ancell last year.

This picture on the right is a little blurry, but I think it's funny that I caught Charlie in the background. :)

Thanksgiving:

We ALL got together for Thanksgiving at my parents house this year. We were there with my brothers & their families, my parents and my aunt Marva. It was a full house, and it's always so much fun when we can all be together! Not to mention, the food was delicious!

I REALLY don't care for that picture of me, but I don't care, I need to post more of myself on my blog. I'm your typical photographer...always behind the camera instead of in front of it.

Max's First Hair Cut

2010-12-06T18:30:00.002-07:00

The day before Thanksgiving I gave Max his very first hair cut. It was getting really long, so I figured it was about time. I literally kissed his baby hair goodbye before I started cutting. It's so sad to see his hair that he was BORN with get chopped off...I guess I'm weird and sentimental like that. :) He did pretty well, and held still most of the time.

Max @ 10 Months

2010-11-21T22:58:00.003-07:00

Max turned TEN months old this month, on the 12th.
Here are his ten month pictures:

Max is SO close to walking! He'll walk along the furniture like crazy, and he'll stand on his own until he notices he's not holding onto anything, then he'll lose his confidence and fall down.
He's such a good eater. He'll eat almost anything, and like it too. His favorite foods right now are bananas and bread.
He's such a mellow little guy, he likes to sit back and observe the world around him, but he also likes to explore.
He has six teeth, four on top and two on bottom...but two more are starting to come through on the bottom.
Max is such an amazing sweetheart with the most kissable cheeks!

Sleepy Heads

2010-11-17T23:16:00.004-07:00

Max woke up one day from his nap with a wild case of bed head. So I took some pictures...enjoy.

11-03-2010

The next day Charlie fell asleep at the kitchen table while wearing his Halloween costume.

11-04-2010

On a side note...Charlie has asked several times since Halloween day to go trick-or-treating.
Sorry buddy, Halloween comes but once a year.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-17T22:35:00.003-07:00

This was Max's first Halloween. He was a dinosaur...the cutest dinosaur ever.

I totally love that tail!

We hung out with Grammy and swung on the swings.

Charlie was a four armed, three eyed, two horned monster...the cutest monster ever.

He had a hard fall on the sidewalk a few days before Halloween. That's why he has that scabby spot under his nose.

Charlie raked...or should I say...shoveled the leaves with Grammy and Morgan. :)

Then had fun throwing them around.

Then we went over to Uncle Jerry's house to go trick-or-treating with the boy's cousins. And my parents were there too.

There was a big rainbow right before we went out.
And here's Charlie after we trick-or-treated. I thought it was a cute one of him about to eat his candy with messy hair from his costume.

We went to quite a few houses, then the two babies of the bunch went home, while the big kids kept trick-or-treating. Charlie eventually got tired, and I ended up carrying him from house to house. He's getting so big, so I was pooped too by the end. It was so much fun this year. Charlie actually "gets" Halloween now, he said "trick-or-treat" at all the houses and said "thank-you" and "Happy Halloween" to all the neighbors. It was fun going with Jerry and his family!

Max @ 9 Months

2010-10-27T18:54:00.002-06:00

Max turned 9 months old on the 12th. Here are some cute pictures of my growing little man.

I put some hair-styling-gel-stuff in his hair for the first time.

I can't believe in only 3 months, he'll be one!

He's learned to sit on his knees. I think it's so stinkin' cute when he does.

He's such a curious little guy.

And here's a cute one of Charlie playing while we were outside.

A Little Hike

2010-10-21T19:26:00.004-06:00

Andy's Mom, sister Morgan, the boys and I went for a short hike up in the Sundance area. The drive was gorgeous!!! The leaves are turning color, there were tons of aspens in one part of the drive that have all turned a bright yellow. I think aspens are my new favorite tree! The views were breathtaking! I'm glad my mother-in-law came by to get us out of the house. It was so nice to get out in nature! I feel bad that Andy had to stay home to work on homework, he would have loved it too.
Here's some pictures. It was nice that the path was paved, so we could use the stroller for Max, and it wasn't too hard of a hike for Charlie.

There were several small ponds, and small waterfalls that the path weaved around and over. We saw a couple fish swimming in the pools.

Here are some pretty views of the fall colors.

Maybe I should have people take pictures of me more often...I'm just so used to being behind the camera. I need proof of myself being on these great adventures. :)

The Petting Zoo @ Thanksgiving Point

2010-10-21T18:57:00.002-06:00

We were in search for a pumpkin patch last Thursday and somehow ended up going to the petting zoo that they have at Thanksgiving Point instead. They have all kinds of cute farm animals to look at. Charlie liked it. It was something different to do.

We fed the chickens.

Saw some goats.

I think Charlie's favorite animal there was the sheep. He got pretty excited when he saw them!

This picture isn't so great, but I like this silly cow bench. What's up with Charlie's face?

There was a cool room with toys all about farming, and Charlie liked playing on these tractors.

We were unsuccessful at making it to a pumpkin patch this year, Andy's been super busy with school. Usually we try to make it a tradition. I just got some pumpkins at the grocery store instead.

A Few Cute Pictures

2010-10-21T15:52:00.003-06:00

I spent the day at my parent's house last week. My mom, the boys and I went for a walk around the Bountiful pond. I got some cute pictures of the boys. Charlie was "fishing" with a stick.

(pictures taken 10-13-2010)

A while ago Charlie was playing with our laundry basket. He put pillows and a blanket in the basket and got all cozy, and ended up falling asleep in it. It was really cute.

(pictures taken 09-25-2010)

Then Max for some reason decided to crawl over the basket/Charlie. Which was cute too. :)

A Trip to the Zoo

2010-10-21T15:06:00.002-06:00

Last month Charlie, Max and I met my Mom for a fun day at the zoo! We had lots of fun, and now Charlie keeps asking to go back. :)

(Pictures taken 09-23-2010)

The tiger. I'm surprised the only thing between the us and the tiger was a wimpy chain link fence! I'm glad he wasn't hungry.

Crocodile! And whatever these things are (on the right)...Charlie loved them!

Giraffes. These were Max's favorite! He wouldn't stop staring at them.

When we came around to the other side, Charlie saw this giraffe sign (in the left picture) and he said, "Look! A giraffe stop sign!" It was so funny! I guess any kind of sign is some sort of stop sign to him.

And...the elephants...oh the elephants! I LOVE that little baby elephant! I couldn't take enough pictures of this little cutie and her mom!

While we were at the zoo, Charlie got in a couple rides on the merry-go-round. At first he just wanted to sit on the peacock bench, then on the next ride he was daring enough to ride on the giraffe.

Max was a trooper, he hung out in his stroller the whole time, and got a little fussy towards the end. It was his first trip to the zoo. And here's Charlie on the train.

Max sat on the bench (on the train) like a big boy. Sorry it's a blurry picture, but he looked so cute sitting there.

It was a fun day!

Max @ 8 Months

2010-09-27T14:17:00.002-06:00

I'm SO late posting these pictures of Max at 8 months old! Heck, he'll be 9 months in a couple of weeks! Oh well...

Here's some pictures from his 8 month photoshoot. Our neighbor gave us that little toy giraffe, and he LOVES it! He'll hold onto it for half the day sometimes.

Gotta love those cute little tootsies!

Max can pull himself up and stand, while holding onto furniture. Once in a while he'll walk along the furniture too.

When Max was exactly 8 months old he got his third tooth, but now he has all four of his front teeth. You can see the two tiny teeth on top poking through in this picture. Oh...and you gotta love those dimples!

Max has climbed up to the third step all by himself! Just once. Most of the time it's just the first step. And he has fallen down a couple times too...but that's inevitable.
When I took these pictures it was the first time he climbed the stairs. On this day he made it to the second step.

Max has had a lot of milestones in his 8th month of life!
He's actually crawling and not "army" crawling anymore.
He waves hi and bye, and can clap.
His favorite foods are rice cereal with applesauce and banana Gerber puffs.
I can tell already his favorite animal is the giraffe...thanks to that toy, and when we visited the zoo he wouldn't stop staring at the giraffes!
He takes a lot from his older brother, Charlie, who loves to tackle, squish and push him over. But Max also LOVES Charlie like crazy! His eyes light up when he sees him. Charlie can easily make Max laugh. I can tell Max tries to keep up with him all the time.
Max is also a Daddy's boy. He get's SO excited, kicks and waves when his daddy comes home.

It's been a fun month, seeing all that Max has achieved!

A Visit to the Farm

2010-09-20T12:57:00.003-06:00

Sunday the 5th we went to Charlie's Great Grandpa Hartvigsen's farm up in Idaho. It's a fun little get away when we need one. We spent the night and came home on the 6th, Labor Day. My parents came, so did Andy's parents and his sister Morgan. Some of Andy's cousins, and uncle were up there too. It was a fun trip, and it was Max's first time going to the farm.

Here we are on our pit stop at Grandma and Grandpa Ancell's house, between Provo and Idaho:

Charlie played...
...while Andy and Max napped.

At the farm...Andy and Morgan drove around a bit on the 4 wheelers...

Charlie played on the slide...

...and we star gazed. My dad brought up his telescope. And I tried my best to take some pictures of the stars. I've never done it before, so sorry they're a bit blurry.

The Big Dipper:
Cassiopeia:

The Andromeda Galaxy (it's the fuzzy gold one, kind of in the middle/bottom/left)
When you do long exposures, like I did for these star pictures, you catch the different colors of the stars, which is pretty cool to see.

In the morning...Charlie slept in...

My mom helped make breakfast...
I took some pictures of the pretty scenery...

And we blew stuff up....a laptop that is...

Andy wanted to get his revenge on a crappy laptop that he's had for a while now. He bought some explosive targets and set his laptop on top of them. (when you shoot at these targets they explode) So he shot the target and Kaboom! There went his laptop! It was pretty cool to watch! The laptop exploded into tons of little pieces!

Here's what's leftover of the keyboard.
And here's Andy holding a bucket of laptop pieces.

Here's the boys with their Great Grandpa Hartvigsen:

Charlie played in the house a lot because he was scared of the loud guns...which probably is a good thing right now. Here he is with Grandpa Ancell.

We did some crafty things. I got these canvases and some paint for Charlie to create his own artwork for his room.

It was a fun trip! Max was sick the whole time though. I felt bad for the little guy. We thought he was just teething, and he was, but after we got home I decided to take him to the doctor and found out he had an infected lymph node in his throat, so he was put on some antibiotics, and he's doing much better now.

Charlie & Max...

2010-09-07T16:28:00.003-06:00

Here's Charlie:

Here's Charlie's totally awesome shirt:

I love it! I got it at Target if you're wondering. :)

...and here's Max:
He gets up on his knees and clings to the furniture now.

Max @ 7 Months

2010-08-15T16:47:00.002-06:00

Max turned 7 months old on the 12th...where did the month go? I swear he just turned 6 months! Anyway...Max is SO close to crawling, he army crawls, he gets a little upset if he doesn't get what he wants, but he's as wonderful as ever!

Warning...there is MAJOR cuteness in the following pictures!

Also...You know me...I take a lot of pictures...and sometimes I can't pick just a few...because they're all cute...so enjoy the abundance of pictures!

You can see his two teeth...be careful...they're sharp!

What a sweetheart.

And a couple without the hat...

This look kills me! So serious.

Charlie wanted to get in the basket too.

Then Charlie ACTUALLY for once in his life WANTED me to take pictures of him! So I put a little product in his hair to make him look all studly, and he looked at the camera saying "cheese" and sorta' smiled. But it didn't last long, soon after I snapped a few shots he just wanted to go play. So, enjoy my 3 year old actually looking into the lens of a camera:

Max and the Messy Carrots

2010-08-09T22:24:00.003-06:00

Max has been eating solid foods now for about a month. I gave him some carrots for the first time the other night, and boy was it messy! It was cute, so I had to take pictures. :)

Sigh...This is my 4th blog post tonight. I had a lot to blog about. But now I'm done, and all caught up.

Charlie's Birthday Day

2010-08-09T22:07:00.003-06:00

We had a party for Charlie's birthday a few days before his ACTUAL birthday. So we felt like we should do a little something on the 2nd (the day of his birthday).

We ate dinner at Brick Oven. The waitresses sang and gave Charlie a free slice of pie. And there was a man there making balloon animals. He made this Buzz Lightyear for Charlie. It was really impressive! He made Belle, and Sleeping Beauty for the girls in the booth behind us.

Then we went to Chuck-E-Cheese's just to play the games. Charlie was SO EXCITED when we walked in the door. I'm not sure if I've ever seen him this excited about anything before. He was so jumpy and jittery, running from game to game, trying to take it all in. It was so cute.

Although, he wasn't so fond of Chuck-E, he gave him a high five, then quickly ran away.

He LOVED all the rides and games!!!

Just about every day since then he's asked to go to Chuck -E-Cheese's again.

Charlie @ 3 Years Old

2010-08-09T21:07:00.003-06:00

I can't believe Charlie is 3! Here are some pictures that I took for the occasion.

(Have you ever tried to take a decent picture of a 3 year old? Well, how about MY 3 year old? It was a challenge!)

Charlie, you are SO amazing in so many ways! You're sweet, loving and caring. You're so polite. If I sneeze, you say "Bless you". If I say "I love you Charlie", then you say "I love you Mommy". If I'm sad, you ask me "What's a matter?", then you give me big hugs. If you don't want something, you say "No thanks", even if you're crying really hard.
You love your little brother like crazy! You squish him, give him kisses, and act silly to make him laugh. You two will always be great friends!
You have so much fun with Daddy! You love to rough house with him. (Something Mommy isn't so good at.)
Your laugh and smile is infectious! I love when you're happy.
If you get hurt, somehow my kisses magically make it all better. You instantly stop crying.
You make me laugh everyday. You say the funniest things! It's so dang cute!!!
Your favorite foods are cookies, vanilla yogurt, and chocolate milk.
You're 37.75 inches tall, and you weigh 32.63 pounds.
You know all your colors, all your animals, and animal sounds. You know most of your shapes, and we're working on counting and your alphabet.
I love you more than I could ever explain!!! Being a mother to you isn't always easy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything, ever! There is no end to how much I love you, and I will always love you! I'm so happy that you're 3 years old! You're growing up so fast! Life will always be an adventure with you as my son.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!!!! xoxo!

Charlie's 3rd Birthday Party!

2010-08-09T19:35:00.004-06:00

Charlie turned 3 years old on August 2nd and we had his birthday party at Grandma & Grandpa Ancell's house on Saturday, July 31st. It was a Wall-E themed party, with Wall-E colors and decorations.

Here are some of the decorations:

This is a sign I made and printed and I hung it up in the kitchen for the party.

And I also made these invitations for our guests.

Charlie got lots of fun presents!

Here are all of his presents together:

Here are the kids gathered around Charlie's new Leapfrog laptop. It's really cool!

Aaaaaaaand the cake, a Wall-E cake of course.

I also made a Wall-E pinata, filled it with little toys and candy, then we smacked him around.

Poor Wall-E. :)

This is what Grammy and Grandpa Hartvigsen got for Charlie, it's a Toy Story bubble rocket.

I got some cute shots of Grandma Ancell with Max towards the end of Charlie's party.

We had such a fun time at Charlie's 3rd birthday party with his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins! Happy Birthday Charlie!!!

Fancy Old Cars

2010-08-06T18:48:00.003-06:00

I'm kinda testing something with this new blog layout. If you want to see more about these pictures, you can visit my photography blog.
Also, I know my blog header looks funny, but I'll fix that soon.

*UPDATE* I fixed my blog header...do you like it?

Max @ 6 Months

2010-07-26T11:04:00.004-06:00

This post is long overdue. Max turned six months old on the 12th. I took some pictures of the little cutie. Here are some of them:

Max is growing up so fast! He can sit up by himself for a few minutes before he starts to tip over, he has two teeth on the bottom, he rolls and scoots all over the place, and he can get up on his hands and knees. Crawling is sure to come VERY soon. Max is also a wonderful sleeper, he'll take his naps with hardly any fuss at all. He's such a good, happy boy!

We were at my parents house on the 12th. Charlie was having fun pushing this truck down the hill with his Grandpa.

Charlie's such a great big brother! He LOVES max! He loves to play with Max and pretend with him, and he's loves giving him hugs, kisses, and squishes.

The 3rd Of July Fireworks

2010-07-06T21:35:00.003-06:00

The sky was amazing, on the night we went to see fireworks!

I was playing with my shutter speed while waiting for the show to start.

Charlie fell asleep before the show started, and amazingly stayed asleep the whole time.

Kaboom! :)

I always love watching big fireworks.
I just wish the smoke wasn't blowing right over our heads, then our view would have been even better.
Happy Birthday America!

Peanut Butter & Wall-E Sandwich

2010-07-02T10:28:00.002-06:00

I saw a picture somewhere online of a sandwich like this that looked like Wall-E. So I decided to make one for Charlie. It was a lot of effort though, and he didn't even eat it. He thought it was pretty funny though. :)

Max @ 5 Months

2010-06-22T16:39:00.003-06:00

BEWARE...Cuteness overload! Continue at your own risk!

I took pictures of Max. He turned 5 months old on the 12th.

Max is now rolling over front to back, and back to front. He loves to chew on his feet, and anything else he can get his hands on. He got his first tooth and a second one is making it's way to the surface. He's still a happy, easy going guy. He laughs, coos, and talks in his own little baby language. He loves when his big brother makes goofy faces at him. And he can sit up for a few seconds on his own. He's such a big boy, and he's growing so fast!