Max Meets Grammy

And Grandpa Joe and lots of other relatives, but the pics are all with Grammy.  Max is a fussy little guy, and generally isn't the kind of baby people ooh and aah over and want to keep holding.  He yells and cries and needs constant bouncing in order to stay happy, which makes people nervous (at least when I'm there watching).  But Max was so sweet with Grammy.  His very first meeting he laughed and smiled and laughed while Grammy held him.  One night he sat on Grammy's lap and laughed harder than I've ever seen him laugh.  He was super cute and so was Grammy.  Grandma's Alzheimer's is taking over and she doesn't remember who Max is from one time to the next.  She also is a little bit lost in social situations as it seems hard for her to follow everything that's happening.  So even though she doesn't remember these moments with Max, I was thrilled for her to have them. They brought each other joy and were happy and content, even if it only lasted for a few minutes at a time.  I'll hold onto the memory for them since they can't.

Very first meeting.

Snuggle time.

Pro-Max

With surgery up and coming, I thought we should officially document Max's face.  I think we'll miss his sweet little face.  And of course, we haven't taken a single photo of our own, so without these, there'd be nothing to remember him by.  Ha ha.

Like a Frog on the Wall

Wait, not LIKE a frog on the wall, but an actual frog on the wall.  Frogs aren't really common finds, so we were surprised to see one hanging out on the wall of Grandma's house.  Owen and Claire were particularly excited and played an unspoken game of who can get closest to the frog.  It was really funny to see Claire, who's typically more likely to freak out, sitting with her nose two inches from a frog and trying to block O from getting in there.

Smiley Smack

Max has the most adorable smile ever.  It's this whole body experience where you can just see the happy hit him and spread until he breaks into a giant smile.  Pictures don't do his smile justice, because by the time you get to taking the picture his whole face is practically smushed in on itself from smiling so big.  I think we need a video to get the full effect, but in any case we love his smile and especially love making him smile.  He's laughing at Daddy in these pictures.

La Petite Artiste

My father will probably cringe because I made one thing disagree with another or swapped some genders around.  Too bad, Dad!  Claire was an adorable little artist today and took her work quite seriously.  So seriously that she swiped some extra canvas to create additional masterpieces.

So seriously that she crashed and burned afterward.

Family Swim

Tonight was 4H night at the water park. Owen is a fearless guy in the water and just goes, goes, goes, so with him, Claire and a baby, it's definitely a two adult event, so the kids have been waiting and waiting for a night when daddy could come.  The kids had so much fun, Max only cried when splashed, and I got a photo with all five of my kids pretty much looking at the camera.  It only took 50 tries and I'll just have to ignore the part about it being crooked, but you can't have everything in life ;-)

Fireworks--because we can

How often do you get to...

 have three heads?

grow wings, or have a really big heart?

 look like a demon from the other side?

or just get the chance to play with fire and light?

Picture Perfect

The kids were just messing around tonight, asking to take pics, doing goofy poses, etc.  I love this shot.

Tell me how you feel, Max.

Max's feelings on going to church were more than clear today.  Thank goodness he's so cute, because the little boy packs a big attitude.

Perfectly Average

This is just a snapshot of a random moment in our day, but it's perfect since it's my kids so everything they do is cute and adorable and photo worthy.  (I am in no way a biased parent, FYI.)

Hair

PB and Pretzels

I read about this great idea.  Give kids pretzel sticks and peanut butter and let them build.  It's great for fine motor skills, it's a fairly healthy snack, it's fun because you're playing with your food.  Too bad the PB wouldn't hold the pretzels in place.  The girls got over it and just played for fun.  But for Owen it was the end of fun and beginning of mad.

Eventually he lightened up, with a little help from Ella and Mom.

So Easily Amused

No, this post is not about Max.  Max is not easily amused and though he does have a great smile, it takes a lot of work to keep him happy.  I'm the easily amused one in the family.  All I have to do is put Max in his bouncy seat and it makes me giggle on the inside.  "Look, my baby has giraffe ears!  Ha, ha, ha, ha!"  Yup, very easily amused.

Happy 4th of July

Except that it wasn't.  We tried to go to our traditional Freedom Festival event, but it was super crowded, hot and humid, and then windy  Max fussed the whole time. The kids were grumpy.  Andrew was grumpy. And then I was grumpy.  The proof is in the picture.

So then we took the kids to McDonalds and let them play in the air-conditioned playland.  Sadly, I think that probably qualifies us as super American after all. 

There were still some good parts, like the excitement of starting out on an adventure.

 And the beebs is cute just for being the beebs. He's 2 months and 2 days old.

 And Claire can turn on the cheese when she wants to.

And you get to watch "the boys" set off firecrackers.

And eating pizza on the front porch while watching the newly legalized aerial fireworks is fun, even in the rain, and especially when you have your own sparklers to use.

All's well that ends well.  Happy Independence Day!

Blessing Day

Sweet Max had his baby blessing today.

Hadley and Sterling's Wedding

Max with Aunt LuSz.