{MeMoriAL wEEkEnd}

We went to La Quinta for Memorial Weekend and enjoyed the nice warm weather!  We enjoyed a couple days of swimming and discovered that we have a 3rd little fishy in the family.....Maddix loves the water!!  :)

And we already knew that these 2 were fishies....

I love this pic of Maddix....he is wearing a swimsuit and rash guard that used to be Ayden's and it's funny how quickly the memory of Ayden wearing that flashes back to my head!  I love that they get to share clothes!!  :)

We rode some bikes......in swimsuits, of course....

And at the end of the day, when all the golfers were off the golf course and the sprinklers came on, they ran out for some more fun.....

They pretty much wore swimsuits all day long and no trip to La Quinta would be complete without a golf cart ride....

.....and a Jeep ride.....

....Zoe didn't think much of the Jeep....she just fell asleep!!  :)

Can't wait to do lots more of this next week when summer starts!!!  :)

{PuPPi GirL}

We love having our Puppi back......

....and I'm pretty sure that she is loving being back!!!  :)

{InHeriTed TraItS}

We went to Big Bear for the Tour of California bike race that was ending 1 of the stages in Big Bear.  Of course we couldn't just go there easily like we always do.  Jeremiah had to come up with a crazy idea to ride his bike from our house to Big Bear.....only 90 miles and 8K feet of uphill, but no big deal!  He wasn't the only 1....3 other guys went with him....they are all crazy!!

Jeremiah, Jimmy, Mark & Ryan.....

The kids and I were smart and drove a car up the mountain and met them there!  I guess they didn't get enough cuz the next morning, they left Big Bear on their bikes and rode to Mt Baldy....only another 80 something miles and another 8K feet of climbing.  

Next year, Jeremiah is going to be raising with these crazy professionals.....  :)

Speaking of biking, Zoe has been obsessed with riding her bike lately!  She wants to take it everywhere we go and will just ride up and down the street and up and down the driveways and around in circles.....and she never gets tired of it!  

Maybe she is following in Daddy's footsteps!!!

{nOveLtY}

Maddix turns 8 months next week......so he has been in our family for almost 8 months and you would think that by now the novelty of having a baby in the house would wear off, right?  Not the case at all!  In fact it couldn't be farther from the truth!  Ayden and Zoe are still completely OBSESSED with Maddix and they have a REALLY hard time keeping their hands off him!  I don't blame them.....that chub and those rolls are just screaming, "squeeze me, kiss me, hug me"!!  And it's not like Maddix doesn't love the attention, so I just sit back and let them smother the heck out of him.....because I know all too soon he will probably be bugging the heck out of them!  :)

And a story that need to write for journal purposes.....shortly after we moved in to our new house, we were all downstairs and Maddix was taking a nap upstairs.  Next thing I know, I see Ayden walking DOWN the stairs carrying Maddix!  Keep in mind that Ayden weighs about 43 lbs and Maddix weighs almost 25 lbs, so they are about the same size!  HA!  So Ayden is carrying Maddix and I try to not FREAK out since I am afraid he will drop him if I freak.  I told Ayden he was not allowed to carry Maddix on the stairs, that it was too dangerous and he might trip and fall!  Then it dawned on me that Maddix had been taking a nap in his crib, so I asked Ayden how on earth he got him out of his crib!  Here is Ayden's story in my own words...."Well, Maddix was whining a little bit and wanted to wake up from his nap.  So I tried to lift him out of his crib, but he was too heavy, so I had to get inside the crib.  So I climbed inside and then lifted him up and tried to hand him to Zoe, but he was too heavy for her to carry.  So I asked Zoe to get a pillow and put it on the floor outside of the crib....then I lifted Maddix over and dropped him on the pillow.  But it's ok Mom, he didn't get hurt because there was a pillow there to make it soft.  That was good thinking, right?"  HAHA!!  We had to have a little talk about not getting Maddix out of bed unless he asks first.....but now that I look back, that was pretty funny and I am glad that he "softened the fall" with a pillow!!  :)  Good thinking Ayden!!  

Here are some pics of these 3 obsessing over each other!  I am not sure who is in love with each other more.....they just can't seem to get enough of each other.

This is one of my favorite pictures......they still fight over who gets to hold Maddix at church!!

You can see in these next 3 pictures that Maddix loves to have a grab of Ayden's face!  He puts his hands on his face and SQUEEZES!!!  :)

This picture makes me laugh....Maddix is obsessed with Zoe's hair!  When she is within arms reach of him, he gets all hyper and excited and gets a huge smile on his face and goes in for the grab!  He usually ends up with a handful of her hair that he pulled out!!  Poor Zoe!!

But she still loves him!!  :)

I cannot believe that their heads look the same size and they are almost 4 yrs apart!!

Yes our TV is on the floor, yes this is the next big project to do a built in entertainment center.....in the meantime, my kids will sit 6 inches from the TV....but I do love this picture because like I said.....they can't keep there hands off each other!!  I love how Maddix is watching TV and just has his arm on Ayden's back....

{MaMa's DaY}

I got to go to "Muffins with Mom" at Zoe's preschool the week of Mother's Day!  The little kids were "serving" the Mommy's and we enjoyed the most delicious muffins, fruit and lemonade!

Then they sang some cute little "Mommy, I love you" type songs!!

Zoe is so serious whenever I go to visit her at school!  She acts very mature and tries hard not to crack a smile!

But she was excited to deliver me my Mother's Day present....

The cutest little vase of flowers that she painted all by herself for me!  I am realizing now that I am a mom that it is the "homemade" gifts that are my absolute favorite!!  :)

We celebrated Mother's Day with Jeremiah's mom on Saturday and we went to San Diego to visit all these crazy monkeys and celebrate Cooper's birthday on Sunday!  My mom was out of town on Mother's Day and we missed her!  :(

Me and my little sillies....

I'm so grateful to be a mom!

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, the best mom in the whole entire world.....and to my wonderful mother-in-law.....and to the 3 most amazing girls in the world that gave me the opportunity to be what I've always wanted to be.....a MOM!!!! 

{Let'S pRetEnD}

I'm so glad that these two have each other to play with.  They've kind of been forced into being friends since it was just the 2 of them for so long.  And when Maddix came around, we stayed home a lot more at the beginning and they were again forced to play...with each other.  We're now to the point where they would rather play with each other than watch TV.  It's nice.  They definitely have their fair share of fighting, but I love to hear them playing with each other and using their imaginations and making up things to play.  I hear a LOT of "let's pretend...."....they are constantly saying "let's pretend"!  The other day, I grabbed the camera and snuck up on them when they were playing in the toy room and didn't know I was there.  It's a long video and will be good for me to have years from now when they tell me how much they hate each other....I will be able to show them that one day they were best friends and played so well together.  I think when I replayed the video, I counted them saying "let's pretend" about 15 times or so....gotta love it when they use their imagination!!  :)

{7 mOnThS oLd}

You are already 7 months!  That one really snuck up on me since you turning 6 months was so much of a blur!  Wow....7 months!!  You are really changing and becoming so much fun!  You are now looking more like a little boy and less like a baby....even though you still have those cute rolls and that cute baby fat!!  

We weighed you at 7 months and you weighed 23 lbs 6 oz!  At this rate, you will be a 30 lber by the time you are 1!  You are now officially to big to be carried in your infant car seat, so we have to take you out and put you back every time we get in and out of the car!  You are also officially too big for almost all 6-12 month clothes!  Mostly Mommy dresses you in 12-18 month and 18-24 month clothes!  The 18-24 month ones fit you perfectly!!

You are still eating 4 8 oz bottles a day....and you are hungry like clockwork!!!  Almost to the minute, you start crying and getting fussy to tell Mommy that you are hungry!  It's like your body has an internal alarm clock to tell you it's time to eat!!  You are still not the biggest fan of baby food!!  :(  So weird....we thought you would gobble that up and want to eat a ton, but not the case!  There was about 2 weeks when you LOVED sweet potatoes and would eat those any time.....but you don't really like it (or any other fruit or veggie) anymore!  You do love yogurt we discovered.....and the little puff things!  You can't get those in your mouth fast enough!  We have given you little bits and pieces of our food and you seem to like that....so maybe you will just go straight from formula to people food and skip the whole baby food thing!?!?!?

Thankfully, you are still sleeping through the night and that has been so nice!!!  Mommy and Daddy really appreciate this!!  :)  In fact, you actually LOVE bedtime!  For naps or at night, when Mommy asks you if you want to go "nigh night", you actually get excited....you get a big smile on your face and squeel in excitement!!  Not sure how we got so lucky, but we have always had kids that love bedtime!!  You are taking 3 naps a day......usually about 2 hrs each, but Mommy has to wake you up at least 2 of those naps to go take or pick up Ayden and Zoe at school!!  Poor guy!  You never get a full good nap!!  Summer is right around the corner though and you will be happy about that I am sure!  :)

We have a good routine at bedtime.....you cannot sleep without Mommy singing "You Are My Sunshine"!  You are so cute and stare into my eyes as I sing and flash a little smile when I say "Please don't take my Maddix away...."!  Love it......one of my favorite things to do is put you to bed for those sweet quiet moments before I lay you in your crib!

You love your binky now.....finally!!  YAY!!  You are really good at finding it when it falls out while you are sleeping!!  Good boy!!  You still spit up like crazy....but we all just expect to get barfed on at least once a day, so it's ok!!  You are still on your reflux medicine and are a champ at taking that every morning!!  You love bath time and love to splash around!

You still only have 2 cute teefers and you love to show them off in pictures!!  :)  Look at those eye lashes......

We got our little "Puppi" back.....we haven't had her since we moved from Utah because we were renting!  So she was staying at Jeremiah's parents house and we got her back a few weeks ago!  You love having her around and everytime we get home, you immediately start looking around for her!  So cute!  This picture pretty much sums up yours and Puppi's relationship.........you love her.....she loves you!!  HAHA!!  I think she really DOES love you because she always comes and sits by you.....but without fail, you ALWAYS squeeze her or pinch her or get a fist full of hair that you pull out!!  Poop Puppi.....but she does love you (I think)!!  :)

I love this last picture....it shows off your rolls oh so well!!  I love to squeeze and kiss those chubby arms and thighs!!  I'm totally looking forward to you crawling soon, but kind of dreading the fact that you will be losing all that baby fat soon when you start to become more mobile!  Let's just freeze time and keep you this cute and chubby forever!!!!  :)  

Love you Maddix!!

{6 moNthS oLd}

Maddix never got a 6 month post since we closed escrow on our house on his 6 month birthday, so here is his 6th month in pics and I will get caught up on him since he is turning 7 months tomorrow!!!

At his 6 month checkup, Maddix was 22 lbs 1 oz (100+ percentile) and 28 1/4 in (100+ percentile)!  He is off the charts....in everything!!  BIG BIG BIG BIG boy!!  

He loves the swings.....and lately has been obsessed with sticking his tongue out!

He's also obsessed with putting EVERYTHING in his mouth!!  When we went to McDonald's one day and he tried to eat the fries container, I had to take a picture!!  HA!

He went on his 1st little bike ride around the block.....we still need to find a helmet small enough for him....this one kept falling down on his eyes!!!  But he obviously is going to love our family bike rides this summer.....he pretty much has no choice considering the family he is in!  :)

Such a smiley happy boy.....people are always asking me, "Is he always this happy?!?!"  Yes he is!  He is so personable and just needs someone to make eye contact with him and he will "talk" and smile at you and make you feel like a million bucks!!

He has started to get more interested in toys and books and is doing really good holding on to things!

Such a big boy in his 1st little hat....

He finally started holding his bottle.....which pretty much means life for me has gotten 110 times easier!!  I love that bonding/snuggle/cuddle phase the first few months when you can hold your baby and feed them and they stare into your eyes and sit still for 5-10 minutes.....but the stage when they can hold their own bottle is just heavenly!!!  Life is easier now....and I can get a lot done in those 5-10 minutes that he is preoccupied holding his bottle and feeding himself!

He LOVES his blankie so much!!  He really sees that thing and starts salivating!!  :)  As soon as he is within reach of it, he grabs it and hugs it and kisses it and tries to eat it!!  Cutest thing ever!!!  I love to get my kids attached to their blankies!!

He finally started sleeping on his tummy!!  He has been a pretty bad sleeper since day 1 and we have always said that as soon as he starts sleeping on his belly, he will be so much more comfortable and will sleep so much better!!  Yep.....he sure is!!  And he looks so cute with that little bum sticking straight up in the air!!

I try putting him in his bouncer every now and then!  I wish I could say that this purchase has been worth it....but I can't!  He doesn't like to be in it for more than 10 minutes at a time!  He just prefers to be held.....ahhhhh!!!! 

These next 2 pictures might be my favorite pictures to date of Maddix!!  I am just so in love with his chubby face, big brown eyes and adorable smile!!  I could stare at these pictures ALL DAY LONG!!!!

And last but not least, I am happy to say that 6 months brought sleeping through the night!!  FINALLY!!!!!  When we moved into our house and Maddix had his own room and his own crib and it was quiet......that was the combo he needed to start sleeping good!!  This is the same kid that for the first 6 months of life woke up anywhere from 3-20 times a night!!  Yes....insane!!!!  And he is now sleeping ALL night LONG.....usually from about 7 pm or 7:30 pm - 6:30 am or 7 am!!  YAY!!!  This makes for such happier parents that are getting a good uninterrupted night of sleep!!!  I love going into his room and watching him sleep!!  Why are sleeping babies so darn cute?!?!?  

Happy 6 months Maddix!!  This was a good month for you and I can't wait to see what new things you learn next month!!  :)