Easter 2011

We celebrated Easter a week early this year.

Egg dying...

The Easter bunny was really nice to them both...Look how excited Reese is about all her new flower clips! ;) The egg hunt...

Pat's Run

This is a proud mom moment....

My boy ran his first race! It was 0.42 miles .I am such a sap and I got so choked up running behind him. I took 3 videos and I have no idea how to turn them, so I chose one, but apoligize for having to watch him run sideways. My favorite part of this one is how he runs out of his way to the left to kick an orange peel. :) SOOO Maddux...

chillaxing before the race...

Before running with Maddux I ran the 4.2 mile race with my friends, sister, and mom and dad. It was SO fun! I absolutely LOVE this race. My goal was to finish faster than my best time (33:12) I finished in 33:46, so I was happy enough! I was mostly so proud of my mom and dad for running it and doing awesome and SUPER pumped to have my cute boy running!

11 months

I've never been this behind with my monthly baby updates! Oops!

Reese is 11 months and I'm so excited to be thinking about her first birthday party!
I can't believe it's all gone by so fast!

Reese....

*grew about 3 whispy pieces of hair in the last month
*still has 6 teeth
*waves bye-bye
*blows kisses
*is at your feet in a matter of seconds if you start eating something
*drops everything when she hears her daddy come in the door
*turns her head bashfully if anyone smiles at her
*can stand on her own for a LONG time
*tries to take steps, but always chickens out and goes down to her knees (ANY day now, I'm sure of it!)
*dances when we play music
*says mama, dada, and bye bye and finally knows what it means
*will not hold still (must run in the family)

Urban Dare

My sister and I talked our hubbies into competing in Urban Dare with us this weekend. They were reluctant, even 5 minutes into it! By the end, all four of us agree that it is a blast and we will SO do it again next year. Definitely a memorable experience. Think scavenger hunt on steroids.

We had a LOT of people stopping us asking what the prize is for the winners. To be honest, I'm not even sure. I didn't care. We competed Kasey and Joel vs. Drew and me. Losers buy dinner.

We started at the Tavern on Mill in Tempe with no idea what to expect. A little after 12:00, there were a few hundred of us gathered and they quickly handed a sheet of clues to each team. They were to be completed in any order. We needed to take a picture and/or get a stamp at each stop, depending on the location, then finish back at the Tavern on Mill.

1. Get your picture with: Waiting for a Date.

2. Go to celebration by Jerry Peart for your wheelbarrow dare.

3. Get your picture with a neon sign that says: free smells.

4. Get your picture with a sculpture of Charles Trumbull Hayden.

5. This was the official office of the Catholic Church until Pop John Paul II abolished it in 1983. Get your picture in front of the establishment that goes by this name.

6. PHOTO HUNT - Get a picture of 2 people, not in the race, reenacting the famous WWII photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Get a picture of 3 people doing see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. You may not use the same person more than once.

7. A historical novel written by Henry Sienkiewicz during the time when Nero was emperor. Get your picture in front of the bookstore which goes by the name of this book.

8. Go to Birchett park for your scrabblestick dare. Get the point value for the word on your passport by using the letters with numbers in the park.

9. Get your picture with a billboard that says "Legalize Marinara".

10. Go to the giant hands by Suikang Zhao for your balloon dare.

11. Get your picture with Devil Dancer.

Finish - Go to the Tavern on mill for the finish

5 minute bonus, Get a picture of a group of 6 people posed as if they were all shooting bow and arrows.

We were stumped!! Yikes! Drew and I decided to spend a lot of time at the start sitting and working out all the clues. So, we pulled out our phones and started Google-ing. We figured out the answers to most of the clues and then started plotting them out on a map. We ended up ALL over Tempe. Running, walking, sprinting, backtracking (too many times), wandering, asking clueless people, and sweating our brains out, we ended up traveling 7 miles on foot before we got to the finish. We finished in 1 hour 56 minutes and earned a free dinner by beating Kasey and Joel. LOVED it!

If you are as stumped as we were about the clues...here are the answers and pictures to go along with each.

1. A Bench on University2. A sculpture on ASU campus where we completed a wheelbarrow race and get a stamp
3. Jimmy Johns sandwich shop4. A sculpture by the Police station on 5th st.5. A bar called Devil's Advocate.6. photos
7. A store called Quo Vadis Books.8. Park on Apache and Mill to do a word game and get a stamp

9. Billboard on Apache for Oreganos. (Unfortunately we ran all the way TO Oreganos to get the picture before realizing on the way back that the billboard would have saved us 1/2 mile or so)10. Sculpture along the lightrail to make a sword out of balloons and get a stamp
11. Sculpture on ASU campus. 7. 6 People shooting Bows and Arrows.

Kryptonite

This is Maddux's Kryptonite.
He has slept with it every night since he found it in our front yard two and a half weeks ago!

My baby girl is 10 months old!

This girl is so full of personality. I just can't get enough of her and those chubby cheeks!

This month Reese:

*Has 6 teeth
*Walks along all the furniture and can stand for a few seconds on her own.
*Loves to play with (next to or on top of) Maddux
*Waves
*Claps
*Dances
*Refuses to sleep anywhere but her OWN crib or carseat
*Squeals with excitement when she sees Daddy
*Poops way more times a day than a kid her size should (3-4?!?!)
*Nibbles on all our food

*Still has no hair!

Surgery

Maddux had surgery this morning on an inguinal hernia. He was such a trooper and did amazing through the whole process. All he cared about was NOT getting a "pokey". Every time we would go in a new room, or a new nurse or doctor would come in, he would tense up and say, "I can't need a pokey!" The kid HATES shots.

He was at Cardon Children's Hospital and they were so great with him. He got to wear a mask to put him to sleep and they let him sniff all the scents and pick his favorite to paint on the inside of the mask. He also got to decorate his mask with stickers, then choose how he wanted to get to the operating room. He chose a car. They had a binder with pictures for him to look at of everything he would see while at the hospital (check in room, admitting office, nurses, the operating room with the table and lights). They did awesome at making him feel comfortable (and us too).

He went in like a champ and the nurses said he was talking up a storm while the silly gas was pumping. Once he was asleep, they gave him an IV and the whole surgery took about an hour.

When he came to, he did a LOT better than he did with his ear tubes. He was a little sad for a few minutes and he was numb from the waist down and wasn't a fan of not being able to walk for a few hours. Other than that, he did great.

waiting room...

pre-surgery...ready to head to the operating room...
(he chose the yellow hat with kittens rather than the white hat with sports balls) ;)post surgery...At home with balloons from his bff Paisley...

Bath

3.5 hours at the park requires a nice long bath for both kiddos. Lucky for all of us, my kids LOVE the bath...

1 of a Zillion Reasons I LOVE my son...

Monday morning Maddux and I had a "cleaning/dance party" together. I blasted some awesome dance music and we danced and picked up toys for about 15 minutes. It was a total hit and we actually got a lot done together!About 10 hours later, it was bedtime and I insisted that Maddux clean up his play area before bed. We went in to pick up and at a closer look, I noticed his "mess" (above) was actually this...

A pile of Lions and a pile of Tigers...

Bugs...Not just dinosaurs, but all of his Brachiosaurases...

Anyway, there were like 10 different piles of animals. He had been sorting for an hour or two. I was pretty impressed!

I let him keep his hard work out and they are still strewn all over the floor in my entry. :)

9 Months

Today my baby is 9 months. Before I know it, she isn't going to be a baby anymore! Depressing.

Her stats are:
Weight- 17 lbs, 11oz - 25%
Height- 28.75 inches - 85%
Head - 17.5 inches - 73%

We have been calling her our Chunky Monkey for months, but I think we need to come up with a new nickname. I had no idea she was such a peanut!

This month she:
*Crawls like a big girl
*Has 5 teeth
*Claps
*Dances
*Stands (holding something) for prolonged periods of time (usually until Maddux knocks her over)
*Says "dadada", "mamama", and "bababa"
*Eats any baby food, rice, formula, AND anything and everything we eat
*STILL has no hair
*Loves Daddy a LOT
*Looks more and more like Maddux everyday

LOVE this girl!