September

If anyone still checks my blog you may have noticed that it has been a while since I have posted. I have really good excuses too. From the last week of August until the middle of October I have been super busy doing taxes. Only the necessities get done when I am so busy! Life goes on though and we had a great month.

This cracks me up. Maxwell takes McKay's pajamas out of his drawer and 'wears' them like a scarf.

The librarians thought he looked like a GQ stylin' boy today. I hadn't realized how well his sandals matched!

These boys love to dance to 'fast songs'. Makes me smile.

I don't even remember what came in this box but the boys enjoyed playing with it. It just wasn't quite big enough for both of them too much of the time though. McKay remembers his box house at Nanna & Papa McCleve's house and decided he wants a box for Christmas.

Yep, both boys are in there!

September 10th Jordan ran his first half marathon at Camp Pendleton. Several veteran marathon runners were shocked that he was doing that race as his first since it is one of the most difficult races around. He did it!

There is a free water park 20 minutes away that we added in to our park rotation and the boys loved it! This 'tunnel' was McKay's favorite. We waited to go until most of the kids were in school and it was great!!

We went twice in September. I love this picture. McKay tells me they are friends. So sweet.

Yep, as you can see in this video, McKay wore his goggles. :)

McKay started soccer and absolutely loves it! He has incredible endurance and runs and runs the whole time. He is a lot of fun to watch and is always right by the ball.

They don't have practices for his age group so they practice for the first 15-20 minutes of their hour and then play for the rest of the time. Anytime Max sees an 'extra' ball somewhere he likes to practice kicking. Jordan and I are learning about soccer right along with the boys!

After stake conference we drove 1 hour to Temecula to Jordan's brother Todd's home. As usual, McKay loved playing with Karlie and Todd . Max also enjoyed being outside and playing with the soccer ball.

McKay and Todd came up with a game where Todd would make a 'da da da daaaa' sound and McKay would take off running. Then Todd threw the ball and McKay raced the ball to the fence. Pure fun.

Todd's daughter Erin had baby Brooklyn about 3 weeks before so this was our first time meeting her. When the boys first saw her, she was asleep so McKay thought she was a doll. It didn't take them long to warm up to her and Max now loves to point at babies and say 'baby!' It was totally his idea to kiss her head too. So sweet!

Friday September 30th Jordan's company had a get-together at Dave & Busters. They had dinner and gave us power cards with a certain amount on them for the arcade. All day long McKay was so excited to get to play 'video games'. He hasn't really played them before but I'm pretty sure he has heard about it from the boys in his primary class.

The games were OK but we had the most fun with a couple of skill games where we got LOTS of tickets to use in the 'store'. The boys LOVE the big balls we got that light up when they throw them. We used the rest for something that will show up in a couple of months...

Max heard General Conference start and came in from outside where he had been 'helping' Daddy and sat down to listen. Loved it!

My other excuse for not blogging is actually pretty good too I'd say. We are expecting another little baby at the end of April. My due date is April 21 but unless this baby is different then the first two, I can only hope to deliver before May! McKay is confident we are having a baby girl. We'll find out sometime around Thanksgiving if he is right! We all heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time October 3, 2011 and then it really felt real!! We are super excited at our house.

June

Slowly but surely I am catching up on all the things I let go of during tax season. It seems like it is taking me longer every year to get back on top of things! It could also be that THIS YEAR I want to do some of the things that have been on my 'list' for a long time. Hopefully I'll be able to blog more so I don't end up doing these forever long posts! Anyway, here are a few things we did in June.

We started off the month by going to the San Diego Zoo. This time it was a much better experience since we avoided the Tiger Trail and didn't get lost! We saw the elephants first and one even did a dance for us. We also saw the polar bears and several reindeer. None of them had red-noses though.

There are a couple of different areas for the flamingos so we saw them again this time. Those mounds of dirt they are sitting on are nests. One stood up for a second and we saw the egg it was sitting on. Very interesting.
While we were watching the flamingos a couple of peacocks were in the trees around us. One was behind us and the other was in a tree in front of us and they were 'yelping' back and forth. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to hear that at night... it is quite a sound.

These ducklings slipped through the fence but (of course) the mother duck couldn't fit. One by one they went back through the fence to the mama duck.

Max helped himself and finished the rest of McKay's lunch he had 'saved for later'. Didn't bother McKay one bit.

McKay finished off the rest of his grow capsules and made a bunch of little foam animals that he and Max had fun playing with. Max was being so silly.

Here he is entertaining his brother (while he eats his lunch) by putting the animals on his head and saying 'uh-oh' when they fell off as he bent over to get more.

I love that smile.

And that hair!

I love that smile too.

We have a weekly park playgroup I organized when we moved here. Sometimes we are the only family there and other weeks more join us. But either way we love going to the park. Here Max is trying out a scooter and lovin' it!

McKay has been itching to ride his bike again so we took advantage of an overcast cool morning and went to the church parking lot. I didn't have to help him at all; he remembered everything.

Max had fun chasing McKay.

He also enjoyed kicking and throwing a ball around the parking lot. He is really coordinated and loves balls. He is the first one to see a ball no matter where we go.

He also enjoyed playing on the rocks, which made his momma a bit nervous. He thinks he can climb on anything...
It really was a lovely morning.

I did a few sewing projects this month including several hooded bath towels and a few burp cloths for friends having babies and for myself. I bought material to make burp cloths before Maxwell was born but didn't have time to make them. And I definitely could have used more with Max! SO I made a few now so that if (or more realistically speaking: when) I don't have time the next time I am expecting a baby I already have a few new cloths ready to go. Good idea eh? McKay loves to watch me sew and entertains himself by playing with my pin cushion and 'making things' with ribbon and pins. I hadn't noticed what he had done to my pin cushion until I picked it up to get a pin. Ouch!

The boys have enjoyed playing in the water on the patio on some of these hot days we've had so far this summer. After the first time I set it up I realized I needed to be prepared with towels for the boys and a chair for me to sit on BEFORE I let them play with the water. When I left them the first time Max was drenched when I got back, thanks to his brother.

This was taken at Mast Park, which is my favorite because there are lots of trees shading the playground. Max likes hats but I haven't found one he will keep on for very long, unlike McKay who will keep his on the whole time. We were the only people there from our playgroup but McKay made friends with some other boys there and had so much fun playing with them while Max enjoyed having free reign over the sand toys. He enjoyed it so much I had to give him a bath when we got home!

This is how Maxwell eats: mouth full, fist full, and tray empty. Usually both fists are full. Once one hand is free he starts asking for more. Funny boy!

It is not unusual for Jordan to fall asleep on the floor after dinner in the evening. His commute is usually about 45 minutes. He gets to work and has to walk 15 minutes from where he parks to the office. He has to be to work by 6 am and doesn't usually get home until about 6 pm on good nights, which makes for very LONG days. This is how I found him one evening.

We went to La Jolla Shores Beach to help our friends celebrate their baby's first birthday and the boys had fun flying McKay's Buzz Lightyear kite. Notice how Maxwell is all tangled up in the kite's tail.

McKay busy trying out the new sand toys.

Max is in the phase where he wants to play with whatever McKay has. At least I hope it is a phase cause it is sure making life interesting.

McKay loves to chase birds.

Our friends had an un-birthday party for their little girl whose birthday is in December. A pool party isn't too much fun in December! Both boys had so.much.fun. I didn't grab my camera when the boys first got in and I didn't want to leave Maxwell alone so this is the only picture I got, which was toward the end. They loved playing in the pools, running through the sprinklers, playing with toys and having a nice little lunch. Seriously, it was great. In this picture McKay's friend Melody Jacobson had this great idea that if McKay took off his hat they could both fit on the spinning toy, in the pool, inside the ring. Once they got in there they giggled and giggled and called for Melody's mommy (Tasha) to see.

Maxwell loves strawberries. He saw them at Costco and couldn't figure out why I didn't give him some right then. So we had some for lunch, and for a snack after his nap and after dinner... pretty much every time he saw them! :)

Park in December

I love being able to go to the park in December! This particular day was about 80 degrees and McKay had been asking to go to the ‘park with a lake’ so we took advantage of the weather and took a picnic lunch and old bread to feed the ducks with. I told McKay to remind me to take bread for the ducks and he didn’t forget! The ducks were a little too aggressive but McKay still had fun throwing bread to them and laughing at the ducks racing to get it. McKay has a very contagious laugh and it makes me happy to hear it! It was one of those outings that wears me out but was a perfect day at the park making memories with my boys.

Playing the WAITING Game

Yes, we are still waiting for our little guy to decide to come. Sometimes we feel more patient than others but all three of us have asked the baby to 'com'on out!' several times. We weren't planning on having another Saturday so we took advantage of the day by getting a few more things crossed off our list. Then we went to the park for a picnic and to play. After browsing through a few stores we got some frozen yogurt at Golden Spoon. Yum! It was a nice day being 'all together', as McKay says.

We had our afternoon quiet time and then Jordan and I walked 3 miles. Yesterday we walked about 2 miles and just HAD to try out our new double jogger stroller that arrived. McKay is anxious for the baby to be able to sit next to him. On Friday McKay fell asleep during our walk. Then on Saturday, he asked Jordan to adjust his hat so he could sleep like he had the day before. Made us laugh. Definitely my boy - he stayed awake until HE was ready to sleep and then he was O.U.T.!

Oh so comfortable! Now if we could JUST get his little brother to come!

The funniest thing happened while we were at the park. We were playing on the playground when a little boy who was probably about 4 years old came up to me and asked what was in my shirt.
I said 'what?' not understanding him.
Boy: 'I know it's a ball. Look I'll show you.' At this point he grabbed the bottom of my shirt and started to lift it up. I took my shirt and said 'No, it's just my tummy, I have a baby in my tummy.'
He said 'No it's a ball, I know it.' I lifted my shirt just a little so he could see my tummy and said, 'No, it's just my tummy.'
He was satisfied for a minute and then said he wanted to see again. I told him no, he could just believe me that it was my tummy. We never saw anyone who looked like they belonged to this boy but Jordan and I got a good laugh out of this experience. Too funny!

Halloween

Halloween was supposed to be a really nice day so we were surprised when we woke up to a chilly & foggy morning. Jordan was cold after breakfast so McKay brought him some blankets.

Jordan likes to go for a run on Saturday morning and unless the trail is not stroller friendly, McKay and I will go with him. There are lots of great parks & trails around us so we like to try new spots. This week we went to Almaden Lake Park. There is a trail around the lake as well as connections to 3 other trails.

McKay and I walked for almost an hour and then waited for Jordan at one of the many playgrounds. It was cool when we started out and by the time we were done, we'd all shed our layers and were actually hot. It was beautiful!

The playground equipment was actually intended for older children but McKay still had a good time.

(click collage to enlarge)
After McKay's nap, he and Jordan carved our first pumpkin. McKay wasn't too sure about cleaning out the pumpkin at first but he quickly caught on and loved it! He'd blow in the general direction of all the pumpkins we saw when we were out to 'blow' out the candle. Every time we leave the house or come home the pumpkin gets an excited 'hi' and 'bye' from McKay who is bending down to be on the pumpkins 'level'. Definitely worth $3.50 to buy a pumpkin this year!

McKay didn't wanted to dress up for anything this year. None us us dressed up for the ward party, though McKay had fun laughing at his friends in costumes, and I only got him to put on his 'doggy' hat for his preschool Halloween party. I borrowed costumes from a friend this year so he could either be a lion or a bee. We didn't know if we would be going trick or treating or not. All we had to do was tell McKay he had to put on a costume if he wanted to ask the neighbors for candy. Okay, he'd wear the bee costume. :)

It was a beautiful night with a gorgeous full moon so we took him to the neighbors we know who live close to us and then walked to the people in our ward who live pretty close, hitting a few other fun houses on the way. McKay got lots of candy & had a good time saying 'candy please' and 'thank you', since 'trick-or-treat' is a little too hard to say just yet!