Maxwell you are 15 months!!!

Oh my heart.  I love my last babe soo so much!!  I want to eat him up.  15 months is delightful, especially when he is your last.  What a bonny bonny boy he is.  He loves his momma and I love him.  Here's what's new:

• He says "mama" and "dada" and when I tell him beso he gives the best beso smack ever!  Also, he is saying "uh oh" when he drops stuff now.
• He waves hello and goodbye the the cutest little flaps of his arm.  Like chicken wing flaps.
• He LOVES to dance to music or any beat and really gets into it.
• He sleeps like a champion!
• He gets a lot of runny noses and colds, poor guy and suffers from them.
• He does not like strangers to hold him, no sir.
• He shows all signs of being a terrible two-r like Grace is.  
• He has the cutest walk.
• He likes to eat books but not read them.
• He is obsessed with our neighbor's cat who is basically our cat.
• He wants to keep up with his big siblings and I swear he is doing things faster then they were like going down the stairs and down the big slide by himself already.
• He love snuggles and huggles and I LOOOOVE him to pieces.  I wanna wake him up and kiss on him right now.  Beso beso Maxwell.

Love, 

Your momma

A word on 2017

It's nice to be back here.  I do a daily journal (cough cough) about once a week.  Ha!  But I need more outlets for all my readers out there (aka me).  I'm actually kind of happy to see the blogger backlash lately.  I cannot imagine how exhausting it would be to keep up with sponsored posts and nasty commenters and all that.  I write for me and for our kids and our family and for stuff like, "when did that happen" and "oh yeah that's when we went there" and "awww we look so young there."  It's good to have documentation.  

So 2017.  I see you with excitement and trepidation.  Goals you ask?  YES!  Of course I have the usual goals of health and fitness and weightloss.  It almost seems rude to mention those, doesn't it?  But my main goal (first time to see it in writing) is to bring our kids closer to Christ and to find ways to serve.  

See, I've been going on this self-centered journey of mine that some people call life and I don't think I've done much in that regard (gulp).  I gawta and I am way behind.  I am working on praying every day with the words "How can I serve Thee today?  How can I serve others?"  And I don't mean some kind of awesome service project but you know stuff like being more selfless with the kids.  Willing to drop everything and play cars with Moses, to talk with Lizzie at night when she wants to chat, to give Grace a nice long snuggle (oh man her love language is touch like crazy!!), and to stare deeply into Maxwell's eyes and make sure he knows he is wanted and loved.  

The other one good thing I have done right so far this year is I got our family a huge chalkboard that I placed on the kitchen wall and every month I am going to replace it with a different easy scripture for our family to memorize.  I am so grateful Paul is really on board with this and any kind of scripture or gospel attempts I make.  We are gonna do this guys!  I want to be a deliberate mother in the gospel to our kids.  I need them to have their minds take them back to scriptures in times of need and in times of joy.  I loved memorizing scriptures in seminary back in the day.  It is such a comfort.  

Back to service, I need to instill this urge to serve with our kids too.  Anyway, I pray and hope I can be consistent on this above all things.  I love my family so so much and I want us to all be together.  No more or this mediocrity.  Can people change?  I have been pondering this all evening and the answer literally just came to me, Yes!  Only with the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ.  And I don't honestly even completely know what that entails but I know that it can.  Happy New Year!!

Maxwell you are one year old!!

So my dear darling darling last baby.  You are so so cuddly and I have been so so bad about blogging on here and I am so sorry.  Your dad warned me that I would get lax with the posting and updates as the kids came along and I thought that was crazy but I have.  I am so sorry.  If it makes you feel better, I hesitate putting too much on here since it then belongs literally to the world.  Isn't that nuts?  I could go on about this but this post is about you not me, right??  So what is new with my baby boy?

• You are so happy and cuddly.
• You love to put your panting face right up to mine and put your lips on my face just wherever they land.
• You want to eat my glasses
• Oh man you are walking!!!  Yes and I swear it was on Christmas Day that this event happened.  You took about 3 steps and you were so very very proud.
• You can now walk about 6 steps up to me and I can't get over the look on your face.
• You are a true mama's boy.  You cannot stand it when other people hold you who are in any way strangers.  Drives you nuts.  To be totally honest my motherly instincts kind of embrace that, especially since you are my last.
• You love drinking milk and I have held out the milk in a sippy bottle tradition past your first birthday because I just LOVE bonding with you so much.  Oh man do I love you.
• You are a great sleeper, thank goodness.  You take great naps at 9 and 1:45 and sleep at 7.
• You have bitten me a couple of times not in a mean way but I will say it hurts.  I think you want to eat me up sometimes as much as I do.
• You love to be an appendage of me and love it if I just walk around and carry you.  Again can't say I don't love it too cause I DO!!!
• You did go down in your weight and height.  Weird huh?  You are now 50% for weight and 60ish% for height.  Last time you were in the 90's for height but you are a skinnier guy so your weight was 50%.  
• You have the fluffiest, finest, darkest hair that I love and it grows out and the brownest eyes and I could stare into them forever.  People say I finally got a baby who looks like me and I must agree.
• What else?  Nothing else comes to mind this second but Maxwell this has been the best year with you.  You have made our family complete and I cannot imagine life without you.  I will love you forever.  Love, your mama. 

Grace you are 2 years old!!!

Oh man she is almost 2 years and one month old.  Time flies.  Busy summer but fun summer!!  Gracie Lou had a great birthday, I think. Unfortunately with 4 kids it's harder to take her to a fun and special place but we still had a great time.  She got some cute toys.

Oh man I love it when she "smiles" this is her "smile" hehe

Gracie burrito at Bear Lake right after she almost drowned and right before she face planted.  Poor girl had a rough morning that day.

Wearing matching shirts courtesy of her Aunt Carol.  So so cute!!

As you can see in this last pic.  She is headstrong.  She will pose and smile for pics when she darn pleases and she is my first real foray into the terrible two's.  She's got em.  Lizzie and Moses have yet to be naughty kittens.  They are fabulous and so are you Grace.  You teach me new things every day with your fun and hilarious personality.  I love nothing more than to watch you run with your cute little hop step waddle run.  It's like you push off the floor with your feet.  So so cute and I love the way you say "I'm cupe" and the way when you get sad you let me hold you and hold you and put your head right in the crook of my neck just the very best way it feels.  Oh so turns out you are 56% for weight and 74% for height.  You will be 5'9".  Wow!!  So cool.  Tall Lizzie and Grace.  You love to color and you love to share and you love to help me put things away.  I very very much appreciate that and I love you so so much Grace.  Thank you for being my adorable oops baby.

Maxwell you are 6 months old!!!

Hello sweet boy.  Well the doc says you are gonna be a big one!  Wahoo. You are so so dang adorable.

Here are your milestones:

-Your big sis Lizzie adores you and dotes on you and says googoo to you and you love it and you kick your little feet

-28 inches in height - 95% (wow!!)

-16 lbs 12 oz - 24% for weight (oh my let's feed you more.  Doc says it's ok)

-Head circumference 42 cm - 42% (still have no idea what this means)

-You don't really have an interest in sitting up.  That's ok.  

-You love to roll over from back to front and sometimes you figure out how to go the other way.

-You are such a flirty and happy baby

-You despise the gym and the ladies there.  You cry an angry cry if I take you there.  Mom is figuring out alternatives to the gym.

-You are a happy happy boy.

-Not much else, oh you have some acid reflux but the doc says you'll grow out of it.  I think that's all.  I love you soooooo much baby Maxwell.  

A before I forget post....

Something cute Moses said the other day to Paul:

"Moses why are all these grapes scattered around?"

"Becasue I broke my dinosaur dad"

Tee hee.  Makes no sense.  He is so darling.  We recently returned from Bear Lake and Tiffany said she found him in bed clapping and singing "Beauty and the Beast."  Cuuute!  I love you lil Mo.

Maxwell you are 5 months!!

Something isn't "talking" right between my phone and computer so my pics of Maxwell aren't syncing to my computer.  Hmmm.  Probably have to turn it off and on again...  Anyway, so only 1 lovely pic of our sweet baby boy here.

But what a picture no??  I thought Grace and Moses were happy but Maxwell is outta this world happy.  Even when he is sad and fussy he tries to smile through the tears and he does that cute thing when you come in to get him from his nap where he wiggles and pumps his little legs in pure delight.  Pure joy and delight is what this sweetie pie has to offer to me and boy am I lucky and blessed.  The other kids love to dote on him and man I love having 4 kids.  It is so so so hard but so so so worth it!!  Thank you dear Lord.  What's new with him??  He is almost sitting up on his own.  He is almost rolling over.  He is really good at playing with himself but often his siblings come to visit and love on him.  He sleep until about 6:30 these days and wakes up squaking with joyful coos and stuff.  What a great guy!  I love you sweet baby Maxwell.  So so much!!