Rocky Point

We had an awesome time with the Startins in Rocky Point this weekend. The weather wasn't exactly cooperative, but it really didn't matter. We relaxed, ate, played games, shopped, swam, played put-put, and the little ones played NONstop.

It couldn't have been any more perfect. I can't even try to pick a favorite event or time and choosing pictures was even harder...so here is a little of everything we did!

My Buddy

Here is a confession: Maddux was rough on me between 19 months and 24 months. It was a hard time. Not sure if it was because of my pregnancy and hormones, or because he was seriously as naughty as I remember him being. I cried a lot during those months.
Not fun.

The past two months have been awesome! When I say awesome, I don't necessarily mean that everything is perfect. He still slapped me in the face in front of an old friend at the grocery store, he still plays for hours in his room before falling asleep at naptime, still rips toys out of his friends' hands, still isn't perfect-or close to it, but what kid is, right?

I've just realized lately that I really feel like he has become my little buddy. We are friends. We play and have so much fun during the day. We went to Target and Rubios together yesterday for lunch and had a blast. He makes me laugh, I make him laugh, we dance together in the car (picture above), play dinosaurs and fix things with his tools, and sometimes (only sometimes) I almost want to skip naptime so we can play more.

When daddy comes home it's a whole different story..."Momma get out!" or "No...No-Daddy read book, no momma!" I guess Daddy is allowed to be his buddy too. :)

But for those 9 hours that we are home together each day, I couldn't be more lucky to be a stay at home mom with my buddy!!

Today's Nap

Mean Mommy

Definitely won't be winning any Parent-of-the-Year awards over here. I put Maddux down for his nap and he was playing around and jumping off his bed like he always does and then he started this fake-sounding cry. I've given in to it before, and I did a good job of resisting this time. So...here is it 2 hours later and I go in to get him up.....
OOPS!

Carnival

Again...I forgot my camera! So, again...I have horrible camera pics.

We went to a little carnival around the corner today. Maddux had a blast and was a brave big kid! I loved watching his face glow with excitement!

Excitement not pictured:
*shooting the water gun to make a monkey climb a tree & winning a stuffed cow
*mommy popping a balloon to win a picture of spiderman
*daddy shooting baskets- no prize :)
*riding a little train around in circles about 50 times
*maddux peeing through undies and jeans
*hanging out with our awesome friends, The Startins
*getting in the car only seconds before the downpour started

Handy Man

Silly

Maddux has been in the best and silliest mood this whole week. I really should have done a better job of documenting it, but instead all I have are some lousy phone pics.

His personality has turned down-right FUNNY these past few days and I haven't stopped laughing. (Ok, that's a lie...today when he threw everything in sight on the ground at Paradise Bakery, I wasn't really laughing).


This one is when we were in the car and Drew and I are up front having a conversation. We turned around to see Maddux had found his sun glasses, put them on and then gave an "I'm-too-cool-to smile" look for the next 5 minutes. Last night he got the fridge open, and took every fruit and vegetable out of the drawers and set them in a pile on the floor telling us what each one is called. We took him to Toys R Us and he went running through the store saying "big car! big car!" we followed him (running) to the back of the store where he found this! I can't believe he remembered it from our last trip.
I have so many stories from this week, but the another one I really want to remember was just this morning when I went in to get him out of bed.
He told me to lay down. He gave me his blankie and his favorite book, tucked me in and started to leave saying, "Ny Night" in his whisper voice. Then he turned around and said "no no...pray time" and kneeled next to his bed and said "Fodder..." then told me to get up and I helped him say a prayer. Then it was the same routine again before he locked me in his room for a while.
(We have the door knob turned around so we can lock him in at night)

We had a small birthday party for Maddux with the family a couple of weeks ago. Maddux got spoiled (again!!!) and we now have toys taking over our house! He now thinks that all packages are "TOYS!!!" and are there for him to open. Aunt Amber got him this plasma car and he LOVES it. He calls it his "cool car".
One of the most fun toys ever!


We had his 2 year appointment today and he is still a tall and very skinny kid:
height: 36"- 80th %
weight: 25 lbs- 15th%
head: 50th%

My baby is 2!

Maddux turned two today. I can not believe how fast time flies.

Here is the latest on my little buddy:

*He is a little dude. He is tall and very skinny and most of his friends (and 9 month old cousin) outweigh him.
*He loves trains, planes, cars, and motorcycles and will point them out everywhere we go.
*He knows all of his letters and the sounds they make.
*He has decided he hates eating. Mealtimes have become a bit of a nightmare.
*When he will eat, his favorite foods are quesadillas, pizza, treats (of any kind), and cheese.
*He has finally started snuggling with us a little bit. He will sit on our lap if we rub his tummy or his head.
*He still only says the first syllable of each word and speaks his own language that only Mommy and Daddy can understand. I've become quite the translator.
*He likes to dance and sing. His favorite song is "Slow Ride" and asks for it ALL the time.
*He will pee on the potty whenever we take him, but Mommy is lazy and still has diapers on him most days.
*He likes to have things put in their place and doesn't like a mess.
*He is still the absolute most active kid I've ever met.
*I think he is very smart (what parent doesn't) and he has a knack for figuring out how things work very quickly.
*He thinks the baby in my tummy is the birthmark I have next to my belly button.
*He can frustrate me to tears one second and completely melt my heart the next.

Christmas

Christmas was a blast this year. Maddux totally understand ripping paper off the presents and that there are toys inside (If there isn't a toy, the sad present gets thrown to the side while he frantically moves on to the next one).

Drew's family headed to Utah for the week, so we celebrated early with them. We had an Italian dinner and LOTS of presents.

Christmas Eve we decorated a gingerbread house and I put all my OCD tendencies aside and let Maddux put things wherever he wanted. It was a mess but very fun!We had a very relaxing Christmas day. Amber and her fam didn't fly in until 4:00 that day, so we spent the morning at home, opening presents and hanging out with our little fam. Then we headed to Ahwatukee and had a very fun time opening gifts and having dinner with everyone. Due to the high number of gifts and people present, I didn't have a lot of time for picture taking!

Merry Christmas!!!

Ears and Santa

Last Friday Maddux got tubes in his ears. We finally decided it was time to take serious action when he got his 6th ear infection of 2009. Poor kid! His speech is suffering because, as the doctor put it, "everything sounds like he is under water". It was confirmed when he went in for surgery and the doc said he had a lot of liquid under his eardrums that could not drain on it's own.

My favorite part of his little surgery was when the doctor came to get him from the pre-op room. He had his blankie dragging on the floor in his right hand and was holding the doctor's hand with his left. He walked away and turned around to look at Drew with a look that said, "You sure this is ok Dad?" The doc said he crawled right up on the table with his hands to his sides and was a total champ. Coming out of the procedure was a little more chaotic, he was confused and disoriented for a while and it broke my heart. All is well now and he has been a much happier kid this past week. It was definitely the right choice and I'm glad we did it!

This might be my favorite Santa picture of all time! I am SOOOO in love with this boy!

20 weeks!!!

Today, I officially hit the halfway mark! It's actually going by pretty stinking fast! This is my first belly pic.
Good news: my tummy isn't as large from the side as it looks when I look down on it from above! yay!
Bad news: My face is already wider than I thought!!

Oh well, all part of the fun, right?

For fun...this is a pic of me at 22 weeks when I was pregnant with Maddux...

This morning Maddux was playing with his toys, which are RIGHT next to the Christmas tree. He started saying "dine head!" "DINE HEAD!!!" and came over to grab Drew. Translation: he found a dinosaur head and was SOOOO excited! He had dropped a toy in the bag and while fishing it out, discovered there was a talking dinosaur in this mystery bag.

We were laughing too hard to stop him and you can see how excited he is here about his early Christmas present!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Tattersall!

Ultrasound

I had my "official" utrasound to find out the sex of the baby today.
(I already knew it was a girl because my awesome friends Cody {an ultrasound tech} and Aubry let us have a little party at their house on their in-home machine! what a hookup, huh?)

Yes...see how her legs are aimed right into my stomach. We have another active kiddo on our hands! She's a mover!
Her little feet...
She must know about her big brother already because she is practicing her self defense moves here...
(those are her arms and you can barely see her face behind them)
PS- I am now SUPER excited to have a girl!!!!

A success!!

We got Maddux a "Big Boy Bed" and tried it out for the first time last night. It was a disaster, to say the least. Nap time today presented similar problems. Third times a charm, right? YES! We put him down for bed tonight and to be honest, we forgot about him...it was silent. When we went in to peek, this is how we found him...
I'm not getting TOO excited, because heaven knows how tomorrow will go!
But I do think he looks dang cute!

Timeout

We have been having a lot of timeouts at our house lately. Usually it's from throwing his food all over the ground.
Drew and I have to turn our backs and bite our lips to keep Maddux from seeing us smile. He is TOO cute- even when he's in trouble.
He sits in this corner with his arms folded for 2 minutes. When time is up, he gives us hugs and says "sorry" (which sounds more like "saw").

Boring Blog

I feel like I've become that person with the boring blog. I have NOTHING fun to write about. Lame.

Drew had hand surgery on Monday and it's been a little different around here this week. He can't get his hand wet which eliminates a lot more chores/maddux baths than I realized. He has limited mobility in his hand and fingers and needs to take it easy for a while. He has been a total trooper and has done really well so far! We are looking forward to his follow up appointment this Wednesday to make sure everything still looks good!

Maddux STILL has a double ear infection and now has an appointment with the ENT on the 24th to look into getting tubes for the poor little guy.

After 2.5 years (in this ward) and 2 years (in my last ward) I was finally released as the YW secretary today. It's going to be crazy having an extra night of the week to spend at home and I'm not even sure what you DO in Relief Society anymore.

Baby appears to be growing well as my tummy is way larger than I think it should be at 15.5 weeks. Already into maternity clothes, which doesn't quite seem fair. That's a LOT of weeks left to wear not-so-cute clothes! Wish me luck!

Hopefully I'll get some motivation to revamp the blog here soon. For now...here is a pic of Drew and his "ow ow ow", as Maddux calls it. :)

6 years ago....

One of my greatest blessings!!