Happy Anniversary Jeef!

Hmmm, which one should I eat first? I guess I will have both of them! Now we know why he is so chunky...He is always sneaking treats, just like his daddy!Jeff is playing in a city softball league here in Lexington. Usually I don't get to go because Maddox goes to bed around 6:00 p.m. each night, but this game was at 6 :30, so I kept him up and we went! It was so fun! Jeff is their pitcher and does a great job, or so I have heard. I am sorry to say that most of the time I end up talking to the other wives there and thus miss most of the game, but I did see him get on base once AND I took a couple pictures of him pitching! I also took one of Maddox. Silly boy! Here's Jeff pitching...not too interesting. He is the center dot in the photo...my camera gets all blurry whenever I zoom. Annoying, but at least we have something!Speaking of Jeff, today is our anniversary! Three years of marriage! It has gone by quickly and what a great husband and father I married. He is stuck at school right now taking a test and I am attempting to put Maddox down for a nap but he has not been feeling very well the past couple days so he is being a stinker...literally! Yesterday morning he pooped five time before 10:00 a.m. and this morning he is already on two! He is also not too keen on eating right now, but what else is new? From his size you would never guess he is not a fan of eating. Anyway, thanks to my wonderful husband for putting up with me for three years and hopefully many more sets of three years to come. Here are a couple reasons why you make me smile and laugh in no particular order!

1. The way you play with Maddox and make him giggle until he has the hiccups
2. How you come into the kitchen ALWAYS when I am cooking/busy and want hugs and kisses and try to tickle me
3. The way you laugh really really loud when watching TV at something that isn't that funny, but then I laugh anyway because you laughed and I like it when you laugh
4. The way you stick out your lower lip and pout when I ask you to clean the shower for the millioneth time, hunch your shoulders and fall on the ground like I asked you to run 100 miles until I agree to do it for you or help you
5. The way it takes you hours to do half a sink full of dishes
6. You affinity for anything sweet
7. Your goal to eat healthy (minus that afternoon snack of twenty cookies) and exercise
8. The way you compromise-ie. you agreed to have another baby sooner then you wanted if I agreed to give up ever living in Montana
9. The way you flex in the mirror whenever you are done working out
10. You ask me what you should wear the next day to school or which "outfit" I like better. I tell you and then you wear the other one.
11. Just the fact that you plan out your "outfits."
12. You hum "I love you" and tell me you love me lots everyday
13. You eat the food I cook even when it doesn't taste that good
14. You call me Melva and I call you Jeef
15. Your example in reading the scriptures everyday and saying your prayers
16. The head bob you do when playing Guitar Hero
17. The way you have taken it upon yourself to always lock the door at night to protect Maddox and me.
18. You have a smile worth a million dollars and will make a great dentist just because of that
19. You make everyone happy, including me
20. You are a hard worker (as long as you don't have to do the dishes or clean the shower)
21. The way you let me pick one of your whiskers once every six months or so (I love picking them out for some reason...especially the really thick ones...gross, I know, but it fascinates me)

And those are just a few of the reasons why you make me laugh, smile and love you!

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures of Jeff playing with Maddox. Maddox likes to suck on faces right now. He will take your face in both of his hands and dive bomb your nose or chin and then just suck his little heart out, drooling all the way. This is what I was trying to catch on camera, but everytime I got close with the camera, Maddox would look at me insteand of keep sucking. Still cute though!
Who taught this guy to sleep? Oh, and by the way, his is in no way attached to the blood pressure monitor and box of checks on either side of him. We keep that in his crib to keep his sleep positioner in place because his mattress is elevated due to acid reflux...As you can tell we are going to have to think of something else. Twenty pounds and still growing!

My father-in-law recently broke his tibia right under his knee while out exercising on what they call a "Trikke." Click on link to find out more about it. http://www.trikke.com/ Anyway, he has really had it rough the past few months, being in dental school at a really hard school and taking all kinds of tests and clinic and now this. So Jeff and I were sitting around staring at each other Sunday night, bored, and thought we could do something to brighten up his day. You know those candy grams you used to do to ask someone out on a date or to prom? Well, we did that for his knee. I thought we were pretty clever, so I thought I would share it with you!

“Extra, Extra.” Read all about it. You were riding down “Fifth Avenue” on your “Watchamacallit” when you hit a “Sour Patch” on the road. You should have “Rolo”-ed over, but instead you made a “Fast Break” and then it happened, “Crunch.” You had a “Whopper” of a fall and your knee became “Reeses Pieces.” This isn’t something to “Snicker” about. Don’t Worry. We don’t think you are a “Nerd.” At least Mom still thinks you are worth “100 Grand,” and not all of that is medical bills. And we still think you are a “3 Musketeer.”

72 Hour Kits

Lately I have been having nightmares about atomic bombs going off and Jeff, Maddox, and I being stranded in the middle of nowhere and being among the only surviving people left in the world and because we didn't have our water storage and food storage and 72 hour kits, we were going to die. Mainly I paniced because of Maddox and my lack of planning to protect him. Sooo, I finally finished our 72 hours kits yesterday, ordered some food storage stuff, and am going to order a water barrel soon. It feels good. Hopefully the nightmares will stop now!

Rice Cereal

This post is a little old, but we decided to start Maddox on rice cereal on his four month birthday! It was so much fun, but it gives me just another reason (besides poopy diapers) to wash more clothes. Yeah! The first bite he took he kind of spit out, but you can see with the next ones that he likes it! He still purses his lips when we first feed him, but once you tastes it, he gets really excited and flailes his arms all over the place and pants like a puppy dog. It is so cute!

Four Months Old!

We took Maddox for his four month check up last week and were amazed to see how much our little boy has grown! His stats were 17 lbs. 14 oz., 26 1/4 inches long, and 46 cm circumference head. Regardless of his acid reflux, he is in the 95th percentile for everything. Here are a few new random pics of our little bobble head! He is growing so quickly and just rolled over from his tummy to his back last night. Jeff was so excited because he was the one who was trying to help Maddox learn this and got to witness it first. This first pic is of him sucking his thumb for the first time! Jeff went in to check on him and we saw Maddox had found his thumb! Usually he just sucks on his fingers, fist, or whatever he can fit into his mouth...and then he drools everywhere! Here he is just before we all went on a walk one Sunday evening. It was beautiful outside!
Jeff thought we should all let you know that Maddox does, in fact, have a neck underneath all those rolls! Isn't that the cutest little gummy smile ever!?!?
Maddox helping me cook dinner while he sucks on his new folf frisbee. Jeff got a bunch of folf, or frolf discs for his birthday. Jeff insists it is frolf and I have always heard folf...any expert frisbee golfers out there that can settle this dispute? Anyway, thanks Dad for the little ones. Even though they weren't meant for Maddox, he sure loves them! They are the perfect rubber toy for him to chew on and gum.
More of Maddox's sleep habits. Here he looks like he is doing the hula or something. Also, here is how Maddox sleeps. His mattress has a pillow under it to help with acid reflux so we have to prop pillows on either side of him so he doesn't slide over to the crib edge and hit his head on the bars. We actually just got him a sleep positioner because having the pillows there worried me. I came in once and the pillow was over his head and he was playing with the fabric.

The Last Part of Our Trip

The last couple days of our trip, we went to the D.C. Temple. It took us two days for both of us to finally do a session. The timing with a baby who doesn't like to eat was off, but I was finally able to go on the second day after an hour or two of waiting around for Maddox to eat. It was wonderful, although I was distracted throughout the entire session and rushed out as fast as I could afterwards. :)

This is Maddox's new trick, or maybe I should say Jeff's new trick. Seriously, it has been his dream to have a baby and have him balance on his hands and Jeff has had to work at this, mainly because Maddox weighs so much! He has had to build up to balancing our monster baby on one hand. I am okay with it as long as he keep his other arm out there to catch Maddox.
Viddy, one of Jeff's old college roommates and Maddox.
Jeff and Viddy being goofy...
Viddy, as for your request, here are the photos we took just before we left. As you can see, neither of them turned out very well...I look dumb in both of them, you look dumb in one of them, and Jeff looks just fine, as always! Still, here they are!
Viddy doing the dishes like a good boy! His mom made us a wonderful lasagna dinner on Sunday and we were able to see some friends from Utah. Cameron and his girlfriend came over as well and Rich and his wife, Ashley. Also, Jordan and his wife, Kay, and their baby Charles came too. I am sorry I didn't get a picture, but we had a blast!

Maddox sleeping in the stroller. We were at the Holocaust museum during this time. Doesn't he kind of look like a little gangster?
Arlington cemetary...me being goofy and starving at the same time. We didn't make it in time to go into the cemetary, but we still were able to take some pics outside and you get the idea-a lot of white headstones stretching on forever!

And that's it folks! Thanks to Krystal and Jared for letting us stay with you and thanks to Viddy and his family for letting us come over so much! We miss you all and hope to come out again before we leave for the west coast in three and a half years and counting!

The Mall

We made it to D.C. and back again and we are still alive! Maddox did very well and was such a good baby, save for me having to nurse him on the Metro during rush hour...can I say embarrassing? At least he was eating, though, and that is a miracle in itself!

We stayed with one of my college roommates and her husband. They were gracious enough to show us around the Mall on Saturday, which also happened to be the annual Cherry Blossom Festival and kite festival. While we walked the entire day miles and miles, these people had another form of transportation...Even though I was really tired by the end of the day, I think I would rather walk then join this group of wierdos. Sorry to anyone who has one of these contraptions or likes them. They are just silly looking and to see a whole pack of them roaming around... they look like they belong in a Dr. Seuss book or something. Jeff took a picture of the "sniper" on top of the White House. I am not sure if that is what he really was, but there was a big party going on that night, so maybe...
The whole family in front of the White House. It was the end of the day by then and we were all exhausted, a little bit grumpy, and ready to sit down! Of course, Maddox was ready to stand up and play after sitting all day!
This is a picture of some homeless guy who lives across the street from the White House. Apparently he is protesting and has been for years, so he cannot be removed from the property. It is ridiculous...he has been there for at least five year, if not longer and it just looks trashy. I was wondering, where does he go to the bathroom and how does he get his food? Does he just leave his stuff sitting there?

Here we all are hanging out in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Maddox was sleeping so we had him covered up.
While we were walking around, there were a million people flying kites for the kite festival. This guy must have forgotten his or maybe he is from a different country where they fly kites with fishing poles...? Seriously, I busted up laughing where I saw this guy. He was standing all by himself waving this fishing pole around with something hanging off the end. It was strange, but it is D.C. and so maybe it actually wasn't that strange.
Maddox snuggling with his blanket. He was such a good boy the whole day!
Peek a boo, I see you!Jeff, Krystal, Jared, and Maddox walking. That is what we did all day...walk!
All bundled up and ready to go!

The whole family once again in front of the Washington Monument.
We went to an IMAX movie: Dinosaurs 3D. It was Jeff and Maddox's first one. Maddox liked it so much that he ate and fell asleep while I covered his ears the whole time. It was loud!
Isn't he cute!?!?