Monday, December 15, 2008

Mischievous Little Boy

I was in the living room folding laundry and heard the sound of a bowl and spoon clanging around in the kitchen. It took me a minute to realize that I didn't give Maddox a bowl and spoon to play with. This is what I found!
The stinker figured out how to open the fridge door!Looking at me with no remorse. In fact, he went right back to doing what he was doing...




Which was stirring his leftover lunch and dipping it into my honey and then mixing the honey with the mashed carrots and then throwing some on the floor and trying to scoop it up in his spoon. My favorite is the blue racquetball he placed in the carrots. That was his original play toy, but obviously abandoned it at the prospect of the spoon! Isn't he a cutie? I am just glad he didn't go for the eggs!
Later that night he was still on one!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Maddox's Real Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Maddox's real birthday on his real birthday, the 6th of December. As I think back to that time, I remember just wanting to not be pregnant anymore. It wasn't that I was uncomfortable, because I really wasn't. Okay, he did kick me in my ribs but as long as I didn't stay sitting down for too long I was fine. The real reason I wanted to have Maddox was that I didn't want to get a stretch mark and one had barely popped up. Vain, I know. I was so emotional during that time. I was a grouch and really mean for about a month. Jeff would argue that that meanness never went away. He is sitting right behind me and laughed when I typed the previous sentence and in a way, he is right. I am a little more stressed out and a little less patient with him and that is something I need to work on. New Year's goals here I come!

Anyway, we are so thankful for Maddox in our lives. He definitely keeps us on our toes and in check. He brings us many smiles and laughs and he is just so darn cute with his monster head and beautiful eyes that change colors depending on what he is wearing and the light. He is our little Gerber baby, so we wanted to make this day special for him, even though he had no idea what was going on. Jeff and I made miniature cakes and frosted them to look like all sorts of balls, which Maddox loves. He loves to throw them, bounce them, kick them, lay on them, roll them.

From top to bottom, there is a tennis ball, baseball, basketball, golf ball (he likes my pink one), football, racquetball, bowling ball, and then just a happy birthday cake. Here is the little guy about ready to touch the flame on the candle, so I blew it out quickly. He picked out the basketball. I think he liked it because it was a bright color.
He was not quite sure what to do with it. For awhile he just sat there until I put a bite in his mouth. Then he stabbed it with a fork and played with it. Then he threw some over the side.
Then he threw some on William. Then I gave him another bite and it clicked and he wanted more but couldn't figure out how to get it in his mouth, so all of a sudden he opens his mouth up wide and goes to stick his face in the cake, but stops right at last second, grabs a handful and shoves it in his mouth. Here is a sample. He did a great job!
And when he was done, after about 5 or 6 bites, he did what he always does and squished it, smashed it, squeezed it in his fingers, and threw it over the side of his high chair. Boy was it fun to clean up!Then we opened presents. Here Maddox is eating a present. He got some books, a puppetand this really cool wind up caterpillar that he and Matthew were scared of.

All the cousins together. Notice Maddox's head is bigger than all of theirs. We love you Maddox!

First Snow

It snowed on Maddox's birthday, so we decided to take him out and let him explore it a bit. Really, it was more fun for Jeff and I than for Maddox, but Maddox really liked walking around. When I tried to get him to touch the snow he didn't like the cold. And when it was time to go, he was not a happy camper. He is getting very good at throwing fits. It is funny. Here are Maddox and Jeff walking. I love his shoes. This is the first time he has ever walked using them. Doesn't he look so grown up?

Taking a short break, emphasis on the short. Really, we tried to get him to sit down and he didn't like that and stood right back up and reached for our arms, whining until we helped him walk around again.
I love this one because you can see the pull that Maddox does to us when we "walk" him. He will pull us in the direction he wants to go using his body weight and arms. Here he is pulling Jeff forward.

All bundled up in our freezing car.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Maddox's Pre-Birthday Birthday

We celebrated Maddox's birthday with my parents while we were at home in MT. Maddox was recovering from the stomach flu, so he didn't eat anything, but he really enjoyed opening the presents and playing with them the next day! We did a piece of apple pie for his "cake" because it was Thanksgiving and to buy a cake after eating so much food was pointless...plus there was no room in the fridge!
Opening his water table, which he loved!




Thanksgiving in Montana

My dad's sister and her husband flew into Kalispell. I have not seen my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Tim for about four years. They hadn't ever met Jeff or Maddox. Sadly, this is the only picture I got of them. Guess we will just have to get together again with them soon! It was so fun seeing them. We talked and laid around and went to dinner and a movie and ate way too much food! And no that person on the left is not a ghost. It's my sister. Most people who live in Montana are white like her because of no sunshine. (NOTE: Jeff added the last part about you Valissa. Bring it!)Maddox was fascinated by the Christmas tree lights. My mom is vigilantly watching to make sure he doesn't eat one. The finished product. Jeff, Maddox, my mom, and I never made it out to get cut down a Christmas tree. On the way out to the woods Maddox threw up. He had a fever all that night and didn't sleep well. He was not a happy camper and Mom and Dad were really really tired. Life is the pits when your kids are sick...and I only have one!

But a tree was picked out and you can see it was HUGE! The biggest yet! It is so big the cat climbed it and knocked it over. It even has acorns on it, according to my brother, Brian. Most people would call them pine cones.My dad. This is the only picture I have of him. I am terrible at taking pictures of anything important. My dad watched Maddox a lot. We have determined that Maddox got him huge noggin from my dad and my dad's Uncle Melvin. We also determined that Maddox is stubborn just like my dad (and me). My dad tried to get him to go to sleep one day. He spent 1 1/2 hours and said Maddox would be almost asleep and he could tell he was really tired but Maddox won over the sleep and stayed awake the whole time! By the end of our trip Maddox preferred my dad over me!

My cousins from Frenchtown, MT came up to visit one day. Andre brought his fiance Ashley up to visit and meet us too. A true test of love, especially after Jeff made up a nickname for her: Gasley. Apparently we didn't scare her off cuz they are still getting married next month!

Brian, my brother, wearing reindeer antlers. Doesn't he look happy?
My cousin Jarom wore them next.
Jeff was the only person in the whole house who had never ever been hunting before...even I have been and he said he didn't want to go becasue he didn't want to go walk around by himself in the mountain lion infested woods and freeze to death...oh, and he didn't want to wake up early. As a side note, the Fish and Game recently killed 15 mountain lions near our house, one of which took a deer down a few hundred yards away from our house. Scary.
Back to story, so my dad took Jeff out to shoot my rifle-a 25 odd 6-and then Jeff decided he would go hunting, but only if he got to shoot something with horns. In other words, he wants to shoot a bull elk or buck and he wants to be guaranteed! We are going to enlist my brother-in-law's brother, Zanen, who is practically a mountain man, to help him out next year.This is Jett, my sister's baby. Isn't he pretty? The first time I saw him this trip he was wearing a turquoise jumper. His eyes are just so pretty with the longest eye lashes. He loved this fire truck.
So Jett may get his paleness from my sister, but he gets most of his looks from his dad, Zach, right down to the butt chin.I still think he looks a little like Valissa, though, in the eyes.I visited my mom at work and we found a huge box for Maddox to crawl through. Valissa decorated it with all the happy birthday wrapping paper around. He loved it!But loved it even more when he saw Jeff try to crawl through it!
Alice is the new love of Maddox's life. He is so over me. He followed her everywhere! It was so cute and Alice was so patient with him. He would lay on her and hit her with balls, as he is doing now, and she would just lay there.
Maddox and Jett loved to play with each other. Mainly Maddox like to hit Jett with balls.
Or sit on himPoor Jett would just lay there and take it. He wanted so much to be able to defend himself!
But instead he just drooled all over himself. Seriously, I have never ever seen a kid drool this much. You would think he has a mouth full of teeth by now from all the drooling, but there is nothing but gums on him!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

He's a Reader!

I absolutely LOVE reading. I think I could do it all day everyday if someone would supply me with nonstop good books. Sometimes I run out of books that I know are good to read. Well, this problem doesn't happen to me so much anymore (since having a child), but it used to. I am happy to announce that I think Maddox enjoys "reading" too. I will find him several times a day looking at books. We read at least three books a day together, usually more. I am so happy! Jeff has read one book since high school for fun and that was only so he could put it on his dental school application. I should note, however, that Jeff does read his scriptures everyday. He is very good at that, which I am grateful for.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

It took us several days (actually a couple weeks) to get our Christmas tree all the way decorated. We have been so sick recently. I was counting and figured that since September I have been sick at least part of every WEEK, if not the whole week. Not even exaggerating a little. Between all of us, we have been sick every day since September. No fun. But, we did finally get our tree decorated, while still being sick. Did I mention Jeff and I are both sick right now? :) Maddox actually does pretty good with the tree. We have only had to move one ornament up a little. Most of the time he stays away from it because it is so pokey. I guess he doesn't like pokey things.

Hence this picture. I know I already posted a video of it, but I love his face. It makes us laugh without fail.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Pokey Ceiling

Our ceiling is textured and pokey. One day Jeff lifted Maddox up really high to touch the ceiling and this is what happened.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Playground Time

Jeff and I live right next to a huge park and have never taken Maddox there. One nice fall day we decided to venture over and see how Maddox liked the playground. I think Jeff and I enjoyed it far more than Maddox. It is so fun seeing your kids experience their firsts, even if they don't enjoy it as much as you would like.

Here are Maddox and I going down the slide. He really didn't know what to think of it. I think we got a half smile out of him. He is so observant and cautious.
Even when we put him in the grass, he just sits there and doesn't move, but tries to NOT touch the grass as much as possible. You can see by him lifting his leg and holding his hands up that he doesn't like it. Silly boy!

We also tried out the swings while we were there. I think this was the only smile we got out of him. Seconds later, he started fussing and reaching for us to get out.We tried to put him back in, but you can see he clung on to Jeff for dear life. There was no way he was getting back in that scary swing! I love how his legs are stiff and straight. He would flail them outwards so we couldn't put him in.