Burgers and Shakes!

Max is a HUGE fan of burgers and shakes. He's pretty much obsessed. He can and will eat a whole hamburger AND drink a whole chocolate milk shake. I think we have another Tyler on our hands.



This picture is from our road trip up to Sonora for Christmas. This kid was never happier than when he had a burger and shake in his hands.

Presents!

Max got TONS of Christmas presents this year. All his grandparents spoiled him rotten! He loves every single one, too. This Christmas was really fun with him because he was really into the idea of Santa. Here are some pictures of him opening presents because Santa came the night before Christmas at our house (on account of us going to Sonora for actual Christmas).



New laptop from mommy and daddy.



New shoes from Santa. He calls these his "warm shoes." (His crocs aren't warm I guess).


Checking out all the stuff Santa brought while Max was taking a nap. He kept asking me if I had seen him come. So cute!


Sooo excited to get this keyboard! He "makes music" on it everyday. He loves it.

The Temple

Max loves the Temple. We're so blessed to be able to live so close to it! It's always decorated so nice for Christmas, too, with lots of lights and a huge nativity scene. They also have a special musical concert every night leading up to Christmas. Sometimes it was a choir, other times it was instrumental. We took Max to go listen and he loved it. He thinks the Temple is the greatest place ever. When people were protesting in front of it during the whole Prop 8 lets blame the Mormons thing he was so sad that he couldn't go see it. He actually cried at the "mean guys" outside yelling.



He was fascinated by the nativity. He kept kissing all of the statues, especially baby Jesus (who he kept calling Amelia).



Max asking the wiseman for a gift. Daddy holding Lia in the sling, fast asleep. Notice Tyler in shorts and a jacket that I made him put on? Yeah, it was freezing out. Does he care? No. Tyler would wear shorts down here even if it snowed.


Max asking the camel for a ride and yelling at the wiseman to "GET OFF NOW!"

Snow Day

When we were visiting Tyler's parents, on Christmas Day we decided we wanted to take Max up to the snow. These pictures aren't edited (I'm planning on doing that some day) but they are still so cute! Max was iffy about the snow. Sometimes he liked it and sometimes he hated it. He didn't like walking in it, mostly because he was so bundled up I think. But he LOVED the snowman Papa and daddy made for him. He told them where to put all the stuff. It was seriously cute.

Christmas Surprise

Well Tyler and I were really looking forward to having a nice quiet Christmas at home this year, just the four of us. We got a tree and decorated even. We wanted to stay home and not travel with baby Lia (hoping it would spare her from any germs -- she unluckily got three colds anyway). But plans changed. We had this strong feeling that we should be with Tyler's family this year. So two days before Christmas we decided to pack up the car and make the drive all the way up to Sonora to surprise Grammie and Papa and the rest of the family. It would be the first time that whole side of the family would be together since before Cory left on his mission.

We did the drive in two days, staying overnight in Visalia. We also bought a DVD player for the car. Lifesaver. Seriously. Max did great and Lia just slept the whole time. It was a rough trip, but we weathered the storm and made it mostly intact. We got there on Christmas Eve and totally surprised the whole family. It was great!

So I'll let the pictures do the talking... these are some of the only ones I was able to save from my hard drive disaster!

Love this picture of Jordy! She's a doll face and she was so gentle with Lia.



And here's Grandma and Lia. Love this!



Christmas Eve we did a wonderful version of the nativity -- narrated (and costumed) by Andy and performed by everyone (but me, I was the photographer).



Our Joseph (not very cooperative but dang cute).





Cory was a good sport to be the donkey that carried Mary.



Our angel (and a wiseman? Can't remember). She wanted to go to bed.



Mary and baby Jesus. So cute!



Here's the whole group.


But I like this one better...


We also did a pinata. It was raining and freezing outside, but all the kids got a whack at it (even Grandma did!)





Christmas day was so fun. We had a great breakfast made by Molly (quiche!) and then watched everyone open their Christmas presents. Tyler and I had opened all of ours before we left because we couldn't fit all of them in our car. We packed as many as we could for Max so he had some to open on Christmas day with the rest of the cousins. He kind of had a ghetto stocking but he didn't notice.



In case you can't tell, Max is unwrapping a one of those really bad games from the early 90's. He loved it. Little did he know we found it in the back of a closet to wrap up for him. (He really did get real presents, he just opened a lot of them before we got to Sonora because we couldn't fit all of them. He got great presents from my dad -- a keyboard, a motorcycle -- and from Grammie and Papa -- guitar, Rody horse, musical instruments -- and mom and dad -- a laptop, books, clothes -- Mimi and Da got him an Elmo and puzzles... this kid DID NOT miss out, trust me).




Some of the gang on Christmas morning.



Max and Jessica playing with Jessica's new tea set.

Baby Lia's first Christmas!




Okay, so these next pictures aren't the best. This is not professional photographer Nina, this is mom Nina taking blurry pictures of her cutie kids!!



Max holding baby Max. This kid is almost as big as him and he's 3 months old.


Max having some fun with Papa -- tackling (it's one of his favorite things to do).


Three beautiful girl cousins -- Jordy, Jessica and baby Lia!!


The two littlest cousins, just two months apart!


And this was the best I could get of all of them... it was late and we were all tired.


We left the day after Christmas but we had a really great time seeing everyone again. It was a much needed family reunion and family get-away for us, too. It even snowed on Christmas Day! It was the first white Christmas for me in a long time!

Lia's First Bath

Okay, so this wasn't her first bath. I'm so lame and didn't even take pictures of her first one. This is an early one, trust me. She loves her baths. Seriously loves them. She fusses and fusses until we finally put her in that bath and let her splash around and then the smiles come out.

Names

So there seems to be some confusion about how Tyler and I name our kids. Let me clear it up. We like nicknames. I've grown up with a nickname and most people only know me by that name. I think nicknames are cool and unique. And are more important than the idea of "nickname" really denotes. Especially when they are less obvious forms of the given name. (Like Nina from Christina -- I really don't think I'm much of a Christina). When Tyler and I first got married and started thinking about having kids, there was a little boy in our ward named Max. We got to spend a lot of time with him in the nursery at church and he was a freakin' awesome little kid. It got us liking the name Max a whole lot. When we finally had our Max, we (well, mostly me) wanted a unique name. I thought Max was so simple and common (still kind of do and I'm not that wrong about it, we have 2 in our family!) and I wanted a more unique baby name -- not crazy, but different. So I happened upon Maddox and fell in love with it and thought Max would be an awesome name he would go by from Maddox. We call him both, but mostly Max. And Max is a Max for sure. He's awesome and embodies the name perfectly -- both names really.



So when we had Amelia we wanted to continue the trend of nicknames. Tyler and I both really loved the name Leah. I (of course) thought it was too simple (my kids are complex little creatures). So, brilliantly, again, I came up with the name Amelia and we would call her Lia. Cute, no? We think so.



So there... an explanation. Let's hope this clears things up. We love our perfect unique children, and even though one of them shares a name with another kid in our family, he's still unique and separate and wonderful and loveable. He'll always be our Max. And Amelia will always be our baby Lia.

Breastfeeding attempt #2

Yeah. So apparently I was never meant to breastfeed any of my children. In fact, I'll just come out and say it -- breastfeeding SUCKS (no, that's not meant to be a pun; it's literal). If anyone needs a refresher on my first attempt click HERE. In fact, I think that post starts out pretty much the same way. Now, let me explain that I did, in fact, want this time to be different. I wanted to be successful and I thought this time I really would be. It looked as though Lia had the latch just right and she was such a nice calm baby. Everything seemed to be going my way -- until infection #1 hit.

Mastitis, people, is seriously no fun. Never have I felt a more searing pain than a breast infection. So a few calls to the lactation ladies later and I was focusing on the other one for feedings. Well, as luck will have it infection #2 set in creating a breastfeeding nightmare. Not only was it so painful to try to feed her, but my ducts were so clogged that she was hardly getting anything. I couldn't even pump without crying. And a few more calls to the lactation ladies later I was told that the only way to really cure a double infection was with antibiotics, special ointment and drying up.

I hung up the phone and sat there stunned for a minute. Did that lactation lady just tell me to quit breastfeeding? Was I really forced to give up yet another feeble attempt at being a normal childbearing woman? Was the end of this stint at breastfeeding going to make me spiral into an emotional breakdown? I sat there... a good five minutes... and came to roughly the same conclusion I did the first time. Why am I stressing about this?? She's still going to be fed, even if it isn't directly from me. I still get to bond with her by giving her a bottle. Tyler gets to bond with her by giving her a bottle, too. And she'll be happy. With formula (thickened with cereal) she'll have some help with her terrible acid reflux. And with formula my baby will be nourished, happy, loved, taken care of. So what was the big deal??

Really, there isn't one. There never should be. A mother should never ever feel guilty about the decisions she makes to take care of her babies to the best of her abilities. A mother should be proud to provide for her baby no matter what it is. Because HEY, I carried that baby for 9 months, too. That counts. That counts for a lot!



So... there you go. Attempt #2 -- fail. Although, let's not look at this as a fail, but as a very successful journey into how not to get down on yourself as a new mom.

Legoland at 10 days old?

Yes! That's what we did! While my dad was in town (and my mom and baby sister) we all decided to take the kiddos to Legoland for the day. And that indeed included baby Lia. Yes, she was 10 days old. She was a trooper. She barely made a sound all day. And Max and Mattie had a great time on all the rides. And yes, I walked around an amusement park 10 days after having surgery. I rock (not really, I was just so dang bored at home I needed to get out!! Nothing like a prescription pain killers to ease the day!)

(these pictures were saved!! yay!!)

Where Lia hung out the whole day. At one point she was awake and I was holding her and an old lady asked me how old she was. I told her 10 days and she proceeded to tell me how I was a terrible mother for taking a 10 day old baby out.