Visit to Lakewood

It has been a long time since I went to visit Lakewood where I grew up. Carrie and Bradley still live there and my brother and his wife as well. It was definitely "my turn" to make the drive! I packed up the kids (minus Braden-he was at Oma's house) and half the house as soon as they woke up and we were off to pick up my mom to join us. 

    We got to my brothers first and Max LOVED chasing the chickens. My brother rigged a plastc sac on the end of a fishing pole and let Max chase the chickens around with it. Max abused those poor chickens so bad! He would chase them both into a corner some how and whip that fishing pole down on their behinds!!  My brother said he has a hard time getting them back in their coup but they were running right in when Max was around haha. 

  

When they did try to hide in their house max would jut shove the fishing pole in it...poor poor chickens. It was pretty funny to watch though. Through our giggles we would tell max to be nice and soft. 

And my mom was brave enough to let the chickens eat out of her hands and showed max how. My brother whispered to me how bad it hurts when the hi jens peck your hand and bites up laughing when it finally happened to my mom...we are so mean!

Riley stayed far away from those pesky chickens and explored my grandpas craft house to see what treasures she could find. 

What's a trip to uncle "knuckle heads" house with out a shooting lesson. This was max's first time shooting. 

    We toom a break from that fun and me and the kids went to carries house to hang out. I didn't get any pictures except of me Carrie and paula. So fun to see her!

The kids rode bikes, played chalk, terrorized carrie's mom's house, did crafts and later that night after dinner we went in the jacuzzi. 

   So nice to see friends and have a good safe day!

First Quad Trip

3days after Christmas josh took Riley and Braden to Hodge Rd for a quick dirt biking trip. I stayed back with Max and reese and got all the Christmas decorations down and put away. 

  This was the kids' first time  riding without josh on the quad with them!

   Josh said when they first got there Braden road about the length of his truck and was done then Riley got on and road for about 15min. Then Braden was ready to try again and didn't stop for 45min!!!!

   They stayed for about 3hours and the kids roads non stop except to eat a quick lunch. 

   Josh took plenty of video for me to see when they got home :)

   I'm glad they were able to get some good daddy time in and do something memorable!

Josh said that Braden can barely reach with his feet...he is on his tippy-ties and had his butt clenched all tight to stay on!

Braden got gutsy near the end and hit a small jump...he got bucked off but held on to the handle bars while his feet were flung off the quad to one side! Crazy boy!

Josh said Riley more of the adventurer and Braden just like to go straight as fast. Riley like to cruise off the track josh made for them and find new ways to go.

It sounded like both kids were really good about sharing which is good and just played in the dirt in the meantime.  

And explored the hills nearby...

Max's 2nd birthday!!!

He thinks shutting his eyes is how you are supposed to smile in pictures (brings back memories of Riley doing the same thing)

Super fun to share your birthday with Christmas day right?! Haha luckily it still isn't bad. Max must just think he is super cool to keep getting more and more presents all day long and a special cake just for him...

   Im sure when he is older he wont like it but it's been great so far :)

   When he woke up on his birthday we just said merry Christmas and happy birthday Max! Then celebrated Christmas. Josh's parents and 3 of his brothers came over later in the day and brought a gift. When my mom and stepdad got here they gave him his gift too. Josh and I waited until after dinner and cake to give him our presents. 

My mom stayed home Christmas eve because she wasn't feeling well so she decided to keep herself busy and make max a super cute caterpillar birthday cake! Max loved it and liked picking off all the candies :)

Our presents to Max. 

Funny story behind the back pack and sleeping bag. Josh and I got him that backpack that came with the sleeping bag inside because he needed one for camping trips etc. (my mom got him a cool ninja turtle backpack just to play with).  Max fell in LOVE with the backpack and still carries it around. ALL. DAY. LONG. He sleeps with it in his crib, he cries when he can't wear it on his back in the car. I just stuffed his sleeping bag back in and hung it in the closet. I'm nervous when he realizes its gone! We are hoping to get him hooked on his ninja turtle back pack-it's pretty cute how hooked he is. He LOVED the sleeping bag too and that night we let all 3kids sleep on the boys floor with their sleeping bags-Max ended up in his crib because he kept getting up and walking around. But i put his sleeping bag in his crib and now that is a "must have" when he sleeps...we will see how nap time goes here in a few minutes when the sleeping bag is mysteriously gone.

   Max is our wild little boy for sure! He is very loving and cuddly and sweet but man he can have a mean little streak when things don't go his way!! He called me "NEANY!" (meany) the other day when I wouldn't give him something. He tells josh and i "NO!" and gets in trouble for that a lot. He is pretty funny to watch and a little exhausting to stay on top of. But we sure love him. I am an incredibly blessed mom!

   Max still isn't talking well. He can say up to about 20words give or take (learns new ones each day now) but most are still hard for even josh and I to understand. He does know almost 20 of his letter sounds! It's incredible. We tease him "you can't talk but you sure know your letter sounds good weirdo!" at his 2yr check up the doctor wasn't too concerned and said he thinks he will improve greatly over this next year. 

   It seemed the day after he turned two he was talking so much better. Over night. We will see. 

  Josh and I agree, for not being able to talk well he let's us know his wants and needs REALLY well. He can get his point across with body language quite well :)

    Happy birthday our sweet, rough&tough, funny, snugly wild boy!!

Christmas!

Christmas was just as good as I had hoped!

   We started off by putting all of our wrapped gifts under the tree, we hadn't dared until that day thinking Max would destroy them but he surprised us again and didn't touch them! He got mad if I even touched one...

     Josh went to work and the kids played while I made a bunch of Christmas goodies to bring to Josh's patents. 

     We got to my in laws house after the kids were bathed, dressed and naps finished. Around 2pm. 

     Once there it was so fun to just hang out, talk with everyone and watch the kids play.

They love all there uncles but when uncle Justin is home from Utah they LOVE it. They are constantly playing, wrestling and cuddling with him. And he is a good sport and never tells them

 to go away. 

  Reese was so cute and was exhausted by all the talking-she fell asleep like this on Lisa's lap...

    After dinner we all gathered by the tree and Max asked the children why we celebrate Christmas and give each other gifts. 

    One family at a time we sat in the middle and opened all our gifts. I have to say we made out! Josh's parents were very thoughtful and got josh a smoking plate for his big green egg and a beautiful (huge) painting of christ for me. They spoiled the kids. SPOILED! My favorites out of their gifts were the hand made hooded towels and pillow cases for them. 

   At the end of the night I remembered i made and brought all the Christmas props for a fun "photo booth" so they didn't get much use this year...

     We had some dessert when we were done and headed home. The elves knocked on the door when the kids were brushing their teeth and left pj's for Riley and Reese and a Christmas book and a movie for the boys. 

   Josh and I stayed up, brought down all the wrapped gifts that were from Santa. Put together Maxs's bike and jut got things ready for the morning. 

   I woke up about 6am needing to feed Reese which woke up josh. Riley came in about 7am and we waited a few minutes until I couldn't handle it and told josh to wake the other two. 

   The kids hung out on our bed with me while josh went down to turn on the lights (get the quad in position in the backyard) and video tape the kids coming down the stairs. 

    The kids were excited to come down and went nuts over all the gifts under the tree. Riley went right to work unwrapping

 while Braden took some more time just to look around.

 Max sat right in Josh's lap and started unwrapping anything we handed to him.

Max would say "wow!" in a high pitched voice no matter the present. Pretty cute. He LOVED his bike which is all i wanted for Christmas-to get him a cool strider bike and see him love it! He opened the rest of his gifts while straddling the bike!

I was there believe it or not. Noone takes pictures of mom anymore!

   Once they opened their dirt bike riding helmets they continued opening gifts with them on :)

Riley gave Reese the kids old play mat thing, that you lay under. 

And a bumbo

  It was so fun to see the kids genuinely happy for each gift. Josh and I spoiled them rotten again...we need to tone it down next year for sure!

   As we were opening gifts I mentioned to Braden the stockings weren't hung anymore and it took him a second to realize they were on the couch overflowing with more stuff! It was so fun to see the magic of Santa through the kids eyes this year.  As Riley was looking through her stocking she found two cutie oranges and said "mom! I must admitt I mustve been pretty good his year because I got TWO cuties!!" and she wasn't being sarcastic, haha so cute. 

   While we were making breakfast the kids were Playing with the laser pointers they got in their stockings. Riley tricked us-she pointed hers at the slider door (if you looked out the quad was sitting right there...) and she said "wow! Look!" so we thought she finally found their last gift...but then she said "my laser pointer is on the door!" LOL  it only took a few seconds more for her to realize and the kids went out an spent a good amount of time sitting on it. 

   We popped on a new movie for the kids after breakfast and they just watched and played for awhile until nap time. Its note worthy to say Max had to sleep with his new superman rain boots on!

    After nap my mom(grancy) and stepdad (papa) came over to spend the rest of the day with us. And spoil the kids more of course!

   Josh got the quad running and gave the kids turns on it

Max hung out with monte so he wouldn't be In the way

We ended the day by eating a delicious ham dinner and celebrating Max's birthday.