We Loved Our Time in Texas.

I have been a bit MIA from the blogging since being in TX. I was trying to help soak in my time with little Miss. Hadley and help them out. Let's be honest for a minute though, Mr. Max required a lot more attention than I was able to give to Michelle and Hadley. He wasn't a great sleeper and wanted you to pay full attention to him 24/7. We will miss them when we leave today, but will see them in their new home in Mississippi for Christmas. 

Sisters and our babies! This was from Thanksgiving. 

We put Max in his gingerbread boy outfit after Thanksgiving as it is fair game for anything Christmas at that point. He's started doing this scrunchy nose face for some pictures. Such a cutie, please ignore my face.

He is such a happy boy though despite his lack of sleep these past weeks. We even took him to see Christmas lights at the Ranch here. We drove thru and he really enjoyed it, although he thought it was time to sleep because it was dark out at 6pm. We're ready to throw the baby at see David and get ready to move into our new house. Miss you guys, see you soon!

We FINALLY Have a Closing Date!

After literally 7 months of waiting we will finally close on our new house December 12th!! The short sale process was a lot of back and forth between the bank and negotiators and we are glad it is almost over. We have just finished our 10 day contingency period and everything checked out great with inspection and what not. 

Here is our beautiful house! It is a 5 bedroom 3 bath. We love the all brick front and our most favorite feature is that it backs up to green space. There is a creek that runs through the backyard with all lush trees. The actual yard space is a bit small, but the view makes up for it. I'll give you a better tour once it's actually ours. It has a full unfinished daylight basement that we plan to build an in-law apartment for my mom, a play room, workshop and much more once we save up some money. We are also excited as it has swim/tennis, walking trails and is in a great location. It is in the same neighborhood as David's brother Darrin and Stacey's house. We received these pictures below of houses on our street that have decorated for the holiday season. All I have to say is, I'm glad we won't be in the house with a lot of time to decorate as we do not have this many lights.

We're taking all donations of your old lights for next year! Send them our way. We'll be sending our christmas cards with our new address to close family and friends in December. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from our little turkey to yours!

 We are so thankful for our family and friends near and far, good health, jobs (especially David's great one), Gigi, David's parents that let us live with them for a few months, food, and most of all our precious baby Max. So glad he's with us this holiday season. 

Max is 9 Months!

Max is 9 months old, only 3 more months until he is a year. How crazy is that? Let the party planning begin!

He just went for his check up on Monday so these are pretty current stats. 

Stats-Weight: 18 lb 2 oz (13%) Height: 27 1/2" (24%) Head Circumference: 17 3/4" (43%)

New Development- Max is now trying to pull up on everything. His favorites are coffee tables, couches and any furniture. His top left central incisor tooth is just popping through (November 13) and the right one isn't far behind. He did wake up one night crying and wanting us to hold him and leave our hand on his face as he slept so I think his teeth were bothering him, but he hasn't done it since and he is really great with it.

He knows he shouldn't be trying to get on all the furniture and touch the TV so he looks at me and makes silly noises. He has pulled up in his crib (to at least his knees) to grab the video monitor and pull it down. I normally don't miss a thing while watching him so I know its going to happen and have to go intervene. He has just started standing in his crib (usually in the morning when he wants to get out and I'm still getting ready). He is still standing/walking with assistance mostly on his toes so hopefully he will grow out of that soon. 

Favorite Activities & Personality: Max is so smart. He will mimic you by clapping his hands, waving, and he is still pointing. We're still trying to use sign language for eat, milk, more and all done, but it isn't catching on yet. We caught him doing all done at dinner, but he wasn't really all done so he might have just been playing with his hands.  He also now watches you bounce and throw a tennis ball to Molly. He will grab it and throw to Molly. He then chases after her trying to rip it out of her mouth to get it. Molly is great with him and usually just gives the ball up. Molly and Max love to go on walks by the tennis court because we usually find a few new balls to bring home.

Max loves to swing. His facial expressions are great. Sometimes he doesn't  make a peep but will do small giggles to himself.

He's a silly little boy who loves to say dadada still and loves to goof around with Daddy. 

David makes all kinds of noises and faces at him especially at dinner. They are so cute together. 

He has a push cart walker thingy to help him stand and walk, but he just likes to stand in front of it and get things out of the basket. I think it goes too fast for him so he just likes standing up on it. He looks like such a big boy in real clothes. I love the jeans.

We picked up a bunch of new clothes as its getting colder at Macy's this weekend (they were having a great sale). Thanks to Grandpa John, I'm ready for winter!

Eating- He still loves real food, anything from chicken, ground beef, steamed veggies, macaroni, you name it. We try to give him a little of what we have for dinner if its suitable to go along with his baby foods. He is great at gumming his food and chewing with his few teeth. He enjoys the challenge. Dr. Susan says he can now have 3 meals and 3 snacks throughout the day. We usually give him banana pieces in the morning to hold him from his morning bottle until breakfast. This kid loves to eat at any time. 

I am nursing him in the morning and at night as well as pumping at work. I have moved that to only the 3:30 pm pump as I'm really not getting much of anything out at the 11am. My pumping days may almost be over because my supply just can't keep up. The milk bar is coming to a close. Luckily he is finally doing great with bottles at home with Gigi and some formula so that is a relief. He also still loves his water from his straw sippy cup and I am so thankful that we started that so early and he's taken to it so well.

Sleeping: He is still doing really well with sleeping. He goes to bed around 7:30pm and is waking up a little earlier now at 6:15-6:30ish. I will take that time though as with the time change last week he was waking up in the 5:30am range and that was not cool. It took him about 3-4 days to adjust as that is pretty consistent with anything new we give to him so I'll take it.

He naps pretty good still. His morning and afternoon naps range from 1 hour, 1.5 hours or even 2. Sometimes we get the unlucky 1/2 hour nap but we really can't complain. 

He's so crazy that he can't sit still, he is always going, going, going. I think that's why he can't put any weight on, he never sits still. This is going to be fun on the plane Saturday :)  Exhibit A above.

And B

And C

Such a silly, happy boy!

Molly is still his best pal (DA) and they love to get into trouble together. Molly doesn't love all the attention Max gets so she'll plop herself down so close to Max and stretch out so we notice her. Max just grabs a bunch of her fur and laughs while Molly lets him do it.

Randoms
- He is in size 9 month with some clothes and he can fit in to 12 month as well but they are just a little big.
-Size 3 diapers (we went with pampers cruisers since that's what they have now at Sams and they are great).
He is still liking books, but mostly just to point, pull and bang on them. He likes the musical ones, those hold his attention for a bit longer.
-His hair is definitely getting fuller (and blonder). He wakes up with crazy bed head sometimes, which is adorable.
-He still loves playing with his hot wheels cars, he has started to move the cars and make car noises as he moves them (I'll have to try to video it). He goes babababb. I think he started doing it because I would go vrooom vroom and move the car.

Here is just a couple random pics of Max being Max. He loves to play and get into trouble. Trouble is definitely his middle name, well his middle name is really David, but David is also trouble so it fits. 

Love my little boy. He is getting so big, but I am loving how interactive he is with us and how he can play with us and by himself.

Max's Box Car

We decided to make a box car out of one of Max's pampers diaper boxes. I highly recommend this for free enjoyment. Max loved it. David rigged up my boppy and a pillow in case his head went back.

He now wants to sit in the box and play all the time. This is a photo from this morning when I was slowly pushing him around and he put his arm on the window and he went for a ride. He's too cute, I can't even stand it. 

Baby Hadley Has Arrived!!

Baby Hadley is here!! I am so proud of my sister who went through over 15 hours of labor and delivered little Miss. Hadley yesterday, November 11, 2012 at 1:46PM (central). She weighed 6lb 15oz and 20 1/4" tall.  Michelle's water broke saturday night and off to the hospital they went. Fun twin facts- My water broke the night before I was 39 weeks and Michelle's broke 2 days before 39 weeks. We both had our babies 1 day before we turned 39 weeks (even if mine was 1 min before).

She is so perfect and I wish I could have been there with my sister. We are headed there this weekend to stay for a few weeks.

It is also rumored that Hadley has a set of lungs like her cousin Max. We were hoping she wouldn't have learned from Max's bad behavior yet.

I did a side by side so you could see Max when he was born and Hadley. I can definitely see the resemblance. So excited to meet her! Hurry up week!!

Fall Fun in the Hay!

This past weekend we went to our nephew Ian's birthday party. They had a hay ride set up for all the kids.

Max didn't partake in that, but his cousin Kathleen took him over to the hay to play. He had fun touching, sitting and trying to eat the hay.

 

Just look at those precious eyes.

 

 

He is waving his hands so they are blurry.

Such a cutie pie.

Of course he also had fun playing with Kinsley. She was showing him how she stands up and holds on to just about everything! They are getting so big already. Max will be 9 months old tomorrow and soon Hadley will be here! We can't wait!! Head on over to her blog to vote for when you think Hadley will make her grand entrance and how much she will weigh!

Cheering Max On

I've had these pictures waiting to post. I thought they were so cute. One afternoon Gina and Mary stopped over their parents house for lunch.

All the cousins wanted to see Max crawl (he was just learning how to). Ian, Kaleb, Kathleen, Gina and Molly were ready.

They were all cheering him on, it was adorable. Max appreciated it. After getting over the shyness, off he went towards them all. So fun to capture.

Max's First Halloween!

Yesterday was Max's first halloween. Of course he wasn't interested in many of the halloween festivities but he was a good sport with dressing up.

He is used to wearing a jacket out when we go for walks and I'm glad his costume was basically a zip up hoodie with some extra padding and pants. He didn't mind having it on at all. It kept him nice and warm as we were having cool temperatures outside.

We decided to get together with cousin Kinsley to see her in her owl costume. She was adorable!

I just love his little faces he makes and he's still playing with his upper lips around his gums, but no teeth up top yet.

It was funny to watch them interact. As usual Max was trying to claw at her face.

Kinsley starting crawling towards Max but in her costume it looked like she was flying to attack him, so funny because you can't see her face.

We had fun eating chili, hanging out in the culdesac (in our hopefully future neighborhood) and catching up with everyone.

Handsome boy.

Kinsley and Ashley. She just loves her mama. Even if both kids are still saying dadada all day.  

They are both almost ready to stand up on their own. It won't be long now! It's so fun having them so close in age (2 weeks apart) and watching them grow.

Gigi loved hanging with Max in his costume. We went to a few houses to trick or treat, but mostly just to show off Max in his costume.

David and Max. Max was over the hood at this point.

Phone photo of me and Max

Fun trick or treating in the culdesac with the firepit. Can't wait till Max can walk to the doors himself next year.