School!

Emma's first day of 2nd grade two weeks ago.

Rachel started her last year of pre-school today. Woo hoo!

All Max

This post is all about Max. He'll be two months old on Saturday and I can't believe it! Well....I can and I can't. It does seem like awhile ago that I was hugely pregnant and sleeping all the way through the night (except for potty breaks!!). But I really can't believe that a full two months have passed since our little Maxi (yes, I know--it's a terrible nickname; hopefully it won't evolve into maxi-pad or something!!!) arrived. I love the stage he is in. He is becoming much more content and alert and is smiling and interacting more. He just started cooing and it melts my heart to have "conversations" with him. He's sleeping pretty good at night too, going down about 9:00ish and not waking up until around 5:00 a.m.; then he goes back to sleep until about 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. I can handle that. He's such a sweet baby and we all just love to be around him. Here are some pictures of him over the past several weeks.

My boys!

This is from the Fourth of July (don't you love the hand lopped over the side??). Max just slept in his bouncy seat the whole evening. It amazes me how babies can sleep through such noise and chaos!

2 weeks old

My four babies!

Look at that sweet profile.

Each of the kids with their new brother. So cute!



His "adopted" Aunt Sarah. :)

Grandpa time.

Chubby cheeks!

I love my boy so much!


7 weeks old

Smiling at Emma--she was over the moon!

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to capture a good photo of him smiling yet. Hopefully soon. His face just lights up!
Love you, Maximus!

Whew! Six weeks of fun.

What we've been up to in the past six weeks......

Snuggling Max. This kid gets more love than I ever imagined (and it's definitely TOO much love sometimes...poor kid). :)

The kids are loving our garden. They loved picking all of the snap peas and eating them right there. And Emma loves to go out every day and see what's ripe. Gardens are great. Too bad we can't have them year-round.

The Fourth of July was spent with my family this year. It was so fun to spend this day together! I'm so glad they were out here for it.
We did patriotic crafts,

jumped on the tramp,

colored with Aunt Ali (the best colorer in the universe),

watched the neighbors' fireworks, followed by going over to watch the city's fireworks show. It was great!

Even Max enjoyed his first Fourth of July, chillin' with his papa.


Ben turned ___ (I'll let you guess how old he is...). Happy birthday! We went to Tucano's with my parents (minus kids) and enjoyed lunch and a raucous happy birthday song. Isn't Ben awesome with that tambourine???

We had a family reunion for my mom's side of the family. We ate dinner at a park and then had the entire Lehi pool to ourselves from 9-11pm that night. It was late and the kids were tired, but we had a blast. Luke especially loved squirting my mom in the face with these little fountains.

We took a trip to Cascade Springs one afternoon. So pretty up there.

Heritage Park in Cedar Hills is always a fun place to visit in the summertime.

New cowgirl hats! Aren't they stinkin' cute???

We blessed Max! We were able to bless him just before a family reunion so many extended family were able to attend and participate in the blessing. It was great! Doesn't he look so handsome in his little white tux???

I got to meet my new nephew, Michael, five months old. He's so cute!

My grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with a bang. We had a beautiful dinner catered by Magleby's, formal family portraits, and a dance DJed by none other than my sweet bro, Cameron. It was so much fun! This is my papa with Luke.

Getting down at the dance!


We've been swimming quite a bit, especially for having a new baby. We swam at the Lehi aquatics center, the pool at my parents' timeshare in Park City, and we tried out the Lindon Aquatics center (which we loved!!!).

A trip to Bridal Veil Falls with our best buddies.

We checked out the new and improved walkway south of BYU campus. There is a beautiful little creek running alongside it and five gorgeous waterfalls. It ends at the Botany Pond where turtles, fish, and ducks abound.


We then ate lunch at Brick Oven. Yummy root beer floats!!!

I know there weren't too many pictures of Max in this post. He deserves his own post, which hopefully I'll be able to get up in the next few days. He's getting so big already!

Mighty Max

Max is 8 days old today! He is so cute. I love it when he's awake and alert and craning his neck around to see everything around him. The kids still love him to pieces and aside from a few more tantrums/meltdowns, they have adjusted pretty well. They literally surround him with love--constantly--and they live for the times when Max is awake and able to look at them. It is adorable.
I know it's hard to really see what Max looks like from the hospital pictures, so I thought I'd post some more of him.
And, by the way, isn't Ben's post about Max's birth just beautiful??? I love how he writes.

Here's a few more cute pictures from the hospital.

We're getting ready to take Max home in this picture. He had to stay an extra day to complete a 48-hour round of antibiotics. (I tested positive for Group B strep and they were only able to get one dose of antibiotics in me before Max was delivered.) It was very hard for me and the kids to go home without the baby. It just didn't feel right. My heart aches for the other mothers I saw in the Level II nursery who have to leave their babies there for several days/weeks. I can't imagine.




And here are some from a few days ago, when Max was 6 days old. I'm crossing my fingers that we'll have a blue-eyed baby this time!!!







Isn't he just perfect???