Max's 1st Birthday Party

About 40 family and friends joined us Easter weekend for Max's 1st birthday party. We served Walking Tacos and a Build Your Own Sundae bar, both were a hit, LOTS of leftovers!

Uncle Duff and Papa demonstrating the sundae building:

Lucy, very happy with her sundae creation:

Time for presents!

Time for cake!

Birthdays

Max is going to be ONE. Where did the year go? The comparisons to Lucy at this age as to what she was doing (crawling, standing successfully, a few words) are so different than Max (butt scooting, yelling baby nonsense at his sister to let go of his toys...). We are planning a big open house type party Easter weekend (walking tacos and build-your-own-sundae bar...mmm) and counting down the days (26 to go?) til our trip to Disney World!

Lucy keeps asking if we're going today, like it's a car trip to the Mall of America. Her biggest news these days is she's potty trained. Well, to her mother's standards (still in a pull-up at night, and we do frequently remind her to take a break). Now that we're in "unders", she will proceed to take off her pants whenever and run around the house "free". I missed this, but when Troy brought her home from daycare the other day, she took off her pants and socks and said she was "exercising". Hey, whatever works!

Max's new favorite snack is Club House Crackers. I think the Easter bunny might put them in his basket. He will shove an entire one in his mouth and immediately grab another. It's like m & m's for the rest of us. Lucy's new favorite snack is Pretty Much Everything or Anything I'm Eating.

With the wonderful weather lately we've been taking lots of walks. Here are some photos from at the park yesterday.

Happy Birthdays and Easter Everyone!

Haiti and the Little Peanut

www.arcrelief-haiti.blogspot.com - I read this daily. My good friend's cousin is the one over there and posting this. We are so blessed and overabundant in this country!

Lucy and I took Max to his 9-month check-up yesterday. She's a big helper and loves taking care of her little brother. Max is now 29 1/4" long and 17 lbs. 15 oz. Comparing him to Lucy's 9 month stats, he's about a pound less than she was. However, his head circumference is in the 90th percentile! No vaccines this time but we did have to go to the lab for a lead test. Lucy watched on as they pricked his finger and it took forever to "milk" it for blood. Max was absolutely fine with it, but big sister had tears in her eyes for him and said we needed to go now.

I had an "egg incident" on Sunday. Note to self: meringue = raw egg whites. HELLO!

2010

Greetings! It is nearing the end of January and the girl who used to post many times a week can barely post any time a month. So, a recap of the holidays!



Lots of gifts, food, family time and crazy weather keeping people from travelling.



Max is now 9, almost 10 months old. His 9-month check up will be this coming Monday where we can see how much he's grown. He seems like such a peanut compared to Lucy at this age! He has nearly 6 teeth. He eats pretty much anything. No crawling yet, lots of butt-scooting and he goes from butt to knee and one leg out like a kick-stand.



Lucy is a couple months shy of three. We continue to work at the potty training but now we said no more diapers. We're in pull-ups every day all day (which really are a diaper that she has more control of). She goes often and independently, which can be cute when she emerges from the bathroom and her buns are still exposed after trying to pull up the pull-up. I am hopeful that by the 3rd birthday this is all a distant memory... She is a good kid whose latest favorite saying is "lookin like a fool with your pants on the ground".



Troy had a "procedure" recently that he is (hopefully) finally recovered from so he can get into water hockey again.



And I am allergic to egg whites. A food I have eaten all my life started wreaking havoc on me a couple months ago. I had the doctor run various food allergy panels and lo and behold, egg whites. And I hate it. Do you know how many things have eggs in them? Sheesh.



Here are photos from the past couple months:





Max in his bomber hat at Christmas:

In the pile of wrapping paper at Papa and Nana's:

Who dat?

Lucy and I and friends Kellie and Matt Jones went to the Macy's display. Here she is with the world's most expensive cookie she never ate:

Christmas Morning:

I love Max's expression here. We got a gently used pony for the kids and when we put Max on it, he holds tight to his sister and squeals with delight!

Lucy and Cousin Jamie on New Year's Eve:

Max's 9 month baby photo:

Our non-photogenic child now always wants you to "take a picture of me!"

Everyone in their Vikings gear:

Christmas Parties begin!

Today was my work's children's "holiday" party. After bible study and cookie exchange this morning, we packed up the kids for mommy's work. Lucy was beside herself with happiness for going to the party, getting presents and treats and seeing Santa!

After dropping off our coats at my desk and playing the marble game we headed upstairs for our gifts (some sort of number foamy puzzle thing. Since both kids were in the 0-2 years range, we gifted one of them to cousin Jamie).

Here are mom and Lucy enjoying ice cream and cookies:


Loaded up on sweets, we were all smiles and ready for face painting!


Now things get serious...Rudolph on Lucy's face:

You're a bad banana with a greasy black peel....

After the 20 minute or so wait, the excitement had waned for Lucy, but not for Max!


Gotcha!


These pictures are from yesterday. Max is wearing a sweater knitted by Auntie Annette:


Abby gets in on the photo op:
Tonight we are heading over to Nana and Papa's to crash the choir Christmas Party!

Pictures

Just a quick note that our family photos are now out on www.suzannewynveenphotography.com for family interested in viewing them!

Finally!

It's been a long time since the last post, mainly because of the basement "destruction" and everything has been sitting in the garage for the past 6 weeks. (For those who don't know, our sump pump failed after a heavy storm one morning and we had about 6" of water through our entire basement.) We had lots of help getting things moved out, the new carpeting got put in this week and our wonderful brother/uncle Eric came yesterday to put the home back together again.

Trying to take pictures of wet white carpeting doesn't really show much. The photo below is of our "old" leather couch and how high up the water went (you can see the stain).

So what else has been going on? Max got his 2 bottom teeth for his 5-month birthday. He has become an eating pro over the past week. If only all that eating meant more sleep for mom and dad :)

Lucy continues to expand her vocabulary (they are learning the Pledge of Allegiance at daycare this year), show off her independence, and sometimes even challenges mom (and dad) to a battle of wills! No...really?

I had a weekend up north with girlfriends last weekend where I spent a lot of time making candles (they are selling very well!). Cousin Josh and Christy came to hang out with the weens, Stella and Izzy (Lucy loves the weiner dogs!):

Lucy loves her little brother. Last night after going on the potty (yes, we're still "training". Maybe she's training us?) she had to run and tell Max "Max! I went potty!"

Coming up - Max will be 6 months this week, it's our 4-year anniversary, (great) grandma Fearing is coming to live with us for the winter, Lucy will turn 2 1/2, the annual Women of Faith conference (for Lisa) and a whole season of hunting is upon us!