Happy, happy birthday, Max!!

Max's Easter egg hunt birthday party was tons of fun. We watched the weather closely all week, hoping that Saturday would be a nice enough day to be outside. And luckily it was, at least for a little while. It was a bit windy, and kind of cool, but nothing a jacket couldn't handle.

The kids had a good time hunting for eggs. I stuffed about 250 eggs with candy, toys, and money, and prayed that we would have enough for the 10 kids there. Well, if you want to know how many eggs are enough, apparently 25 eggs per kid is too many. Most of the kids got tired of searching before all the eggs were found, and instead just wanted to open however many they had to see what surprise was inside. We had three golden eggs with certificates inside that let the lucky child pick a special prize - a kite, DVD's or markers. We didn't announce that the golden eggs existed, but once the first was found, it became quite the hunt to find the other two.

My wonderful mother made Max's birthday cakes, and they were spectacular. Everyone ooh'd and aah'd. And of course they were also quite tasty.

It's always so much fun to watch a child on their first birthday to see how they will handle their cake. Ellie wasn't much of a fan of getting too messy, and we had to force her hands into her cake. Max, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of the chocolate goodness. He had it everywhere...in his hair, in his eyes, up his nose, and in his ears. His ears were a result of him talking on his cake "phone," which you can see in one of the pictures below. He pretends that anything that is roughly the size of a cell phone is actually a phone and will put it to his ear and say "hello." Especially when someone else eggs him on and keeps repeating "hello" to him, which Jason decided to do. It was adorable and hilarious, but not so funny when I had to clean him up.

And, of course, Max raked in the presents...too many presents. We're very lucky and blessed to have many loving family members and friends that are very good to my children. We are very happy that so many of them were able to join us for Max's special day.

Little Mister is 1-year-old!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

I can't believe Max is a year old already. The last year has flown by. It seems to have gone by much faster than Ellie's first year, which I'm sure is a function of having 2 kids and a busier household.

We're so thankful to have such a sweet, happy, funny boy. Mr. Adventurous keeps us on our toes with his climbing and exploring, and he brings tons of joy into our family. He's developing quite a personality and is already doing tricks and trying to make us laugh. He loves a binkie, some milk, and a good snuggle with mom or dad (and we love those snuggles just as much). He lights up around Ellie and adores Lucy -- in fact he says "Luce" and "Sis" but not "Mom" or "Dad". I treasure every moment and love you to pieces, Buddy!

Gigi invited us over for dinner since she was going to be out of town for Max's birthday party over the weekend. There was singing and dancing (on Ellie's part), crying (on Max's part), and balloons - I'd say that's a normal birthday party for a 1-year-old. Stay tuned for how the actual b-day party turns out.

Let's Talk...

Ellie loves her babies and has become quite motherly, as you can see from the picture above. Her maternal instinct extends to her brother as well.

Case in point - I was in the other room and Ellie yelled to me, "Mom, Max is on the stairs." (It's a constant struggle in our house to barricade the stairs and the tv from his little fingers). I knew she'd try to pick him up or pull him off the stairs, so I yelled back to her to be gentle while I made my way to them. But before I could get there, I heard this little lecture from Miss Sass...

"Hey Bud, come here. Let's talk 'bout this. Come on, we need to talk 'bout this. Why you get on the stairs. You know you not 'posed to be there. Let's talk about this. You gotta listen to me. You're gonna get hurt. Let's talk 'bout this."

Nope, Max doesn't stand a chance.

Just Because...

Nothing special to report right now. I just wanted to show some cute pics of Mr. Man, my happy, funny boy. I can't believe he'll be one-year-old in a week...where has the last year gone?

Science is Cool

What do you do on a winter weekend, when you've had enough of being stuck at home all the time? Head to the Science Center! Apparently though, lots of other people had the same idea, because it was rather busy that day, but we still managed to have a good time.

The kids loved working on building an arch.

Wow! What an accomplishment. What's next?

Let's build an even bigger one. Good thing we have a tall daddy to help put that final piece in.

Max had a good time digging for dinosaur bones.

Ellie and Kameron checking out the globe. Anything that makes noise and lights up is fun, whether you're 5, 3, or 6 months old.

First Haircut

The First Haircut at the Salon

To update the post below... we did finally take Max to get a real haircut at a salon. We went to the Hairy Elephant, which is where we took Ellie for her first haircut too. It is a great kid-friendly salon, and makes the whole experience much less scary for little ones. Max sat in the jeep and watched Elmo during the haircut, and was a champ.

The First Haircut at Home

Before

After

Max has been in need of a haircut for a while, but I didn't want to cut it till I got a good picture of the length. Well, it was getting in his eyes and bothering his ears, so I finally gave the okay. Gran did a quick little trim in front and around his ears to clean it up a bit, but we'll be heading to get a real haircut soon. I'm sure it will be an adventure. For now though, I'm happy to have gotten the before and after pics of this milestone.

I'm Sick of This

Ellie has a sweet personality. She's funny, kind-hearted, and good to her baby brother. She's also 3-years-old, which means she may not always behave as we would like her to. She is also still learning new phrases and trying to understand their meaning. One particular evening, she was being rather naughty and testing our limits. She was in time-out a number of times during the course of the evening. It was bedtime, and she had just done something to land her in time-out again. Everyone was tired, and I was not as patient as I maybe should have been. As I passed her to take Max up to bed, I said to her, "Ellie, you have got to start listening better. I'm sick of this."

After her sentence in time-out was complete, Jason took her up to bed. He read her a story, then as she was falling asleep, she said to him, "Dad, is Mom getting sick from me being bad?" Jason sleepily answered her that "no" that is not what I meant, but he didn't elaborate too much. A couple seconds passed then Ellie said, "Dad, I think I'm getting a fever from being in time-out so much." It's a good thing the lights were off in her room, so she couldn't see Jason stifling his laugh.

...and Away He Goes

Max has finally mastered crawling. Around Christmas time, he was getting quite proficient and moving on his hands and knees, and finally it all clicked. It's kind of an amazing experience to watch it all come together, when they figure it out and can coordinate the movements of their arms and legs. He's a pro now and is getting quite speedy.

He's thinks it hilarious when he starts to move toward the stairs and hears one of us yell at him to "stop," then hears us chasing him down the hall. And we are seeing a very different personality come out in him compared to his sister. Ellie was always a very cautious baby, rarely ventured away from us, and didn't try climbing or walking till she was completely confident that she wouldn't fall. Max, on the other hand, regulary explores the house on his own...we'll hear glasses clanging together which signals that he's moved into the dining room. He has great balance and will pull up to standing then try to take a step. He falls on his face, but gets right back up and tries again. He is Mr. Adventurous. I wonder if this is a signal of trouble ahead?

Horsin' Around

We traveled to Columbia to celebrate Paige's 3rd birthday in January, and somehow we came home with a new giant toy. Max discovered this horse and was having so much fun with it that Uncle Bryan said to take it home. He looks like such a big kid on it...he shouldn't be able to sit and play by himself yet because that means he's not my little baby anymore.

Even More Christmas

Just in case the kids didn't get to open enough presents in the 3 Christmas celebrations so far, we threw in another 2 for good measure. Christmas "morning" at Jason's parents was lots of fun for Ellie and Max. Ellie loves her cousins, Paige and Kameron, as you can see from these pics. We can't wait for next Christmas with a new baby cousin for Max to climb all over.

And our Christmas celebration with the extended Freed family at Aunt Pam's is always crazy, noisy, and great. We love all of our family and feel so blessed to get to spend time together.

Rockstar Ellie with her new guitar...now she has a guitar just her size for our Wii Rock Band battles.

Ellie is ready to melt some faces.

Present opening fun.

Every kid loves to make the giant nutcracker talk.

Best buddies.

Max styling in his tuxedo shirt.

The beautiful princesses.

Christmas Morning #2

Santa also brought gifts to our house for another exciting Christmas morning, the day after Christmas. Ellie had some questions about this, but since there are no rules on Christmas presents and when they're received, she was quickly appeased. The kids had a great time tearing open presents and playing with all their new stuff. It was nice to not be on a time table, so the kids could just leisurely open and play.

All during the holiday season, Ellie would see things on tv or in magazines that she wanted. We told her she had to be a good girl and put these items on her list for Santa. She heard this so much that even she said, "I'm getting a lot of stuff on my list, huh?" But the one thing that she kept asking for over and over was a Princess bike and Barbie helmet. And luckily Santa obliged. We're waiting for some warmer weather so she can get really good at riding her new 2 wheeler.

Last Christmas, one of the few items that Ellie asked for was a shopping cart. Well, things happen, and there was no shopping cart for Ellie under the tree last year. She didn't seem to notice, so we moved on. But this year, we found a cute shopping cart and thought she would still enjoy it, so it made it under the tree this time. She was very happy to open the box and said, "Finally. I had to wait a long time for that shopping cart." Yes, she has quite the memory.