Family family and more family...

While we were in CT we got to go to a family picnic at my Uncle Pete's house. When I was younger we had these all the time so it was nice to be able to do it with Maddox and Tyler, too. We also took some family pictures (well, I took them). It was a lot of fun to laugh and eat with my family. I forgot how much I miss that!



Max LOVED all his aunts and uncles and cousins. He loved the attention and the games they played with him. He especially loved my cousin Jenny's son Josh who is about 6 or 7 years old. We had great food and great fun.


Josh was so sweet, too. He was teaching Mattie how to catch a football and kept going over to her and moving her hands and setting up her arms so she could catch it.


My grandma and our long LONG time family friend Mrs. Fortune (or Flip as everyone calls her because she's kind of "flippy"). My grandma's kids and Mrs. Fortune's kids grew up together. Their husbands both died around the same time. Mrs. Fortune even taught Danielle in preschool and me in Catechism. We love her!






Although, worth mentioning is the incredible rain storm I had to drive in on the way to my Uncle's house. I have never been so freaking scared in my entire life while driving. I kid you not, the rain was soooo hard that we had to slow down to about 10 miles an hour on the high way and turn our emergency lights on and pray and pray that no one would hit us from behind. I couldn't see the hood of our car it was raining so much. I just followed the red flashing lights in front of me hoping that my step-dad knew where he was going. We had to cross a tall bridge, too and the wind gusts were incredible. I white-knuckled it all the way to my Uncle's house where I promptly parked the car, got out and started shaking. I usually tend to panic after the emergency situation is over -- while driving I was pretty calm, but as soon as the car stopped I freaked. And this wasn't the only torrential downpour I had to drive in on this trip. Yikes!!

We Can't Believe It!!

Our baby is all grown up... well, not really. But he did turn 2!! Yikes!! These last two years have been some of the hardest 2 years of my life -- but also the most fun, amazing, rewarding, incredible 2 years. Tyler and I can't even imagine what our lives would be like without this adorable little boy in our lives. He makes it so much better. And for all the trouble he is, he certainly makes up for it with his cuteness, smartness, sweetness and silliness. We love him beyond crazy!!



He now weighs a whopping 24 pounds and stands at a towering 32 inches (if any of you are familiar with heights and weights of toddlers -- that's roughly the size of a large one year old). He's still a small guy, but he's got a HUGE personality to cover that up. He's in the 5th% for height and weight -- pretty consistent for the way he's been growing since he was born. He never really had a chance at being big anyway, considering his parents.

He's getting incredibly smart these days, too. His vocabulary is crazy and his understanding of logical events is amazing. He knows his letters, tons of songs, how to put on his own shoes and shirts (and take them off). He knows how to do pee pee in the potty (although refuses to do it now since one time he sat down, nothing came out, he cried that "it's not working!!!" and instead opts for peeing in the bath.) He can usually tell us exactly what he wants and when he wants it. He dislikes time-outs very much which works out well for us since he actually listens when we threaten him with them. He's an incredible kid and we feel so blessed to watch him grow. His heart is HUGE and he is so loving and kind (but not in a sissy way, much to the relief of his dad).



Happy Birthday little man!! We love you more than life itself. And here's to many many more happy ones.

To Grandmother's House We Went

We had a blast in Connecticut visiting my family. We say EVERYONE since everyone lives there now. It was great to see Mattie, too. I sure did miss her. And I finally got to see my parents' new house. It's so cute. Tyler pretty much fell in love with the New England style houses (all so different and unique). Maybe we'll end up there eventually (who knows, right?)



The plane ride there could have been worse -- we could have crashed or blown up or something. I really believe Max does the best that he can do, but it's still horrid to be stuck on a plane with him for that long. The ride back was even worse since the first flight was 5 1/2 hours. And he had to get up at the crack of dawn -- no fun at all.



Max absolutely loved being around my mom and Mattie again. You could tell he missed them like crazy. He loved their house with the stairs and play kitchen stuff and tons of toys. The first night we were there was kind of rough. His sound machine turned itself off and he woke up. Getting him back to bed took hours. We honestly didn't know what to do because he usually just falls asleep on his own. We couldn't let him just cry because he'd wake Mattie and everyone else up. So Tyler had to stay in his room until he fell asleep. Like, for hours.



The day after we got there was Max's real birthday! So we celebrated with some presents and cake for him. And later we went to a little concert in the park near my mom's house. It was really fun, Max and Mattie loved running through all the roses and grass. My dad and Margaret even came to meet us and my grandma, Aunt Angela and cousin Tami were there, too.



Tyler and I got Max a doctor's kit for his birthday. He loved it, but not as much as Mattie did.





Max also really loved reading books with my step-dad, his Da. Aren't they cute??



Anyway, we had a really great trip visiting everyone. We miss them all and can't wait to see them again soon.

(More posts to come about our trip!)

Tag Sale!!

I know, I know. Everyone here in California calls them yard sales. But I grew up calling them tag sales. And we had a GREAT one!! We started out with 4 families and quickly grew to include some other ones from the neighborhood. We set up shop right outside our front door on the grass. We had snacks and let the kids run around and priced all of our stuff. It was sooooo fun!!! And we made a small fortune, too. Not to mention the yummy lunch of Pizza Port's Beer Buddies and pizza. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.



We had people start to show up an hour before the thing even started and they came back a couple times. Our guess is that people from Mexico come and hit up all the yard sales on Saturdays and bring home stuff to sell down there.



It was great getting rid of tons of crap and making money, too. And Max even got this cute yellow car out of the whole deal (to share with the rest of his little friends) and this awesome headphones. Thanks for all the fun guys!!

The Chase

Max loves to be chased. He thinks it's the greatest. And Tyler loves to play with him. And the poor kid is so skinny that his pants barely stay up when he runs. This video was totally cracking us up. Watch him pull his pants up while he's running. It's hilarious.

Learning to Read

Max thinks he's learned how to read, relieving us the burden of having to read books to him ourselves. See for yourself.

Beijing Huan Ying Ni -- I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!!

Yippee!! It's a...

GIRL!!! That's right. The next member of the San Diego Seibert clan will be a sweet little baby girl. So, commonly asked questions at this point:

Q: Are you excited?
A: Duh. Yes. We would have been excited either way, boy or girl. We would not have been excited if, say, the baby had two heads or no kidneys.

Q: Is the baby healthy?
A: As far as an ultrasound can tell, she is happy and healthy and has only one head, two kidneys, one bladder and all the right limbs in all the right places.

Q: How do you feel?
A: I'm feeling great. This pregnancy has been a breeze -- seriously. Explanation to follow.

Q: Does Max know what's going on?
A: No. Not really. He knows there's "a baby in momma's tummy" but we're pretty sure that means absolutely nothing to him. Although he does sing the baby songs and pats my tummy.

Okay, so don't get creeped out by the ultrasound picture. It's not a very good one as far as these things go. BUT -- she's smiling!! Isn't that adorable? (Yes, ignore the eerie looking skeleton face and concentrate on the cute little smile). This was the only picture we got from the ultrasound, no profile shot or anything. Oh well... I'm still loving it (I understand most people probably don't care).

So... honestly, I feel really really spoiled. I seem to be getting everything I've ever wanted. Slowly, but still, I'm getting it. Now that we're having a girl I feel like everything is balanced and turning out just as I had always planned. Apparently that was God's plan, too. Things just seem to be falling into place for me lately. I probably shouldn't use the world spoiled -- I guess I've just been extremely blessed.

As far as the pregnancy is going I really can't complain. Compared to Max this pregnancy is awesome. I only felt sick for like a week (with Max it was the whole time) and I have lots of energy. I barely feel pregnant at all actually except that I'm getting huge and I can feel a baby in there now. Maybe the pregnancies are indicative of the personalities of my babies (Max=hard pregnancy, hard baby) (little girl=easy pregnancy, easy baby). We shall see. I won't get my hopes up. But honestly, I feel great. Except for this nagging sinus infection (if anyone ever offers you Erythromycin as an antibiotic run away screaming and never.look.back.) that will hopefully clear up soon, I'm loving life. I'm getting sentimental about Max not being my only baby anymore. That makes me emotional at times. But I do know from experience that things will just kind of work themselves out so I'm not too worried about juggling it all.

Oh, and a big THANK YOU to those of you who kept thinking pink for me!! Although I'd like to say it had something to do with you guys, I guess I have to give all the credit to Tyler. But still, your thoughts meant a lot.

Yay for baby girls!! (And big brothers -- go Maddox!)

Grrr... muscles!! OR Milk does a body good...

Sea World Fun

After Tyler was done with Step I of the boards he had a few days off (the days we were supposed to be at his family's house) so we took Max to Sea World. They have a new section called The Bay of Play with water stuffs and rides for kids. Tyler took Max on all the rides but one (the line was a little long and Max pitched a fit). But Maddox LOVED them!! And Tyler was a good sport to take him on all of them.

Happy Fourth of July!!

We had a really fun Fourth of July this year. And although I terribly miss spending them in New England, we spent the afternoon with our neighbors (and friends) and saw the fireworks... it was a really great time.

Tyler even got the day off!! We had a BBQ pot-luck with our neighbors and let the kids play together on the jungle gym. My sister came by with her boyfriend and had some food, too.

Tyler and I debated all day whether we should take Max to the fireworks that night and we ultimately decided to do it on the grounds that he loved them last year. Unfortunately this year he kinda got freaked out. He never cried, but he refused to look at them and just held us tight around our necks. The only time he looked was during the finale when I told him the fireworks were going bye-bye. He turned to wave emphatically and then turned right back around. I don't think it was the sound that freaked him out, I think it was that he couldn't quite figure out what they were. Anyway, it was sad because ALL DAY he ran around saying "Go fireworks!! Go fireworks!!" Poor little guy.

We still had a great day. And I just love living in this country. God bless America!! Seriously.