THE BOY TURNS 5!!!

I can't believe we have a five year old!! This kid has been looking forward to turning 5 for about 5 years now. He thinks he's so grown up and big now! When we walked in to get him in the morning on his birthday he started jumping up and down on his bed saying, "LOOK!! I can jump higher now!!!" He then jumped off his bed and ran across the apartment yelling, "LOOK!! I CAN EVEN RUN FASTER NOW!!"




Knowing he couldn't wait until cake later on in the day, we let him open his presents from us in the morning. He was SO excited to see everything decorated for him! Oh, and his breakfast of choice for his birthday? A poptart! Simple yet delicious. From us he got a few lego sets, some soccer things, a movie and some other little things he'd been asking for.





We then headed out to Pelly's for some miniature golf (including Danielle who spent the day with us, too). The kids had never been and were VERY excited to play!! I'm pretty sure they had no idea what it was but that it did involve golf balls and golf clubs. We tried the first few holes to play for real, but it just kind of ended up being a free-for-all with Max running ahead and whacking his ball everywhere and Lia running after everyone else's ball after they hit it once and dropping it in the hole for them.



They all had fun though which was the most important!






And Max was the only one to score a legit hole-in-one!! GO Max!!



We then headed to Wahoo's for lunch for the adults. The kids got Happy Meals from McDonald's -- Max's choice. He wanted some kind of lunch with a "really cool toy!"

After that we dropped Lia and Tyler off at home for naps and Danielle and I surprised Max by taking him to see the new Smurfs movie at the theater. He was SOOO excited!! Although, he ended up not really enjoying the movie all that much. He thought it was kind of "weird and funny looking." Oh well! I have to agree that it was kind of lame. I think the MASSIVE amounts of popcorn he ate made up for it.

After the movie we came back for some birthday cake and a few more presents. Max picked out this delicious oreo cookie ice cream cake.





My mom got him a seriously cute, um, I mean awesome (yes, I got yelled at by said 5 year old for saying it was cute) Batman backpack from PBKids. And Danielle got him some Transformers gear for school, too. Grammie and Papa got Max a super cool soccer ball and also paid for his soccer registration so that he can play on a REAL soccer team this fall!! He's beyond excited. Grandpa and Margaret got him some soccer cleats and socks and some soccer shorts, too. He's totally set now!






Max kept saying it was the best birthday ever. I tried really hard to make it fun for him! We are so loving our 5 year old Max. He's the BEST!!

Dear Max...

Our sweet, sensitive, loving, thoughtful, crazy, energetic, super smart, super fast FIVE year old! Oh how much we love you, more than words can even say. We love the way you laugh, we love the way you smile. We love the way you wrap your arms around our necks to hug and cuddle with us. We love that you wake up grumpy even if you are difficult sometimes. We love that you are always willing to help us with anything. You make the beds without being asked. You clean up your whole room, all your toys and the rest of the house just because you love us. You are the sweetest, kindest little boy we've every known and we are so proud to be your parents.

You love to color and do art. And you draw incredibly thoughtful and amazing pictures! You are super smart and can figure out all kinds of things without us having to help you. You can build anything and everything out of blocks or Legos or pillows or old boxes.

You love to do anything outside. You still love the beach and running and playing in the sand. You are always the happiest when we are there. You love the park. You are still incredibly fast. So fast that even people we don't know comment on how fast you are. You can run run run and never get tired of it. You really are like a little superhero.

You are the most loving big brother we've ever seen. You are always caring and helping Lia with everything and anything. You stand up for her on the playground when another kid is mean. You play with her and teach her as much as you can. You take your roll of big brother very seriously. You are so understanding when she bothers you and you are quick to come to her aid when she needs help.

You have a loving heart the size of a gigantic elephant! It's amazing it even fits inside that sweet little body of yours. While you can be shy sometimes, you listen when your mom or dad tell you to try to be more out going. You always try to do your best in every way. You strive to be a good boy and to choose the right all the time. Although you get into trouble sometimes, you rarely do it on purpose and are always trying to be the very best boy you can be.

We love you more than life itself our sweet sweet Maddox boy. We are so excited for you to start kindergarten. You will love it and will be so good at it. We are loving the person you are already becoming and can't wait for you to keep growing and learning and thriving. We feel so so blessed to be your mom and dad. How lucky are we that we get to be YOUR parents? Our sweet sweet boy. We love you!

Hugs and Kisses,
Mama and Daddy

We'll miss this place...

I'm already getting nostalgic about leaving San Diego and we're still at least 2 years away from that! I know I know, I have issues. The truth is I actually don't mind moving to new places, I really like it! But there is something amazing about living this close to such a gorgeous beach. I can't help but think about how quickly the day is coming when we might not be able to hop in the car and drive five minutes to the sand. Luckily, Residency can be temporary. And I might just fall in love with that new place, too.

But for now... I'll just let these two roll around in the sand as much as possible!

Beach Love

Just posted these on my photoblog but thought I'd post them here for those that don't look over there! We had a great little afternoon at the beach. And lucky for us, Tyler got to come, too! We snuck this little trip in after dinner to let the kids get out a little bit more energy and just to sit and relax. We're always happy when we take the time to do this. The beach makes us all happy!

Captain America

He has nothing on these two!

Quirky Girl

Lia is definitely our quirky little girl. She's got so many silly, cute, adorable, deplorable, frustrating, funny, quirky things about her that we can hardly keep up with her quickly changing moods. Tantrums are definitely a 6 or 7 a day kind of thing now. Drama is the norm. Pink and princesses and puppies are the fad.

Here, Lia's hair reaches new heights in the tub. Quite a feat of physics.
 

While we were staying in Orange County with the family (in a town house that Nick's brother generously let us use!) we had to share a room with the kids. The room was teeny tiny, with two twin beds we pushed together for me and Tyler. We brought some camping mats for the kids; Max was at the foot of the beds (kicking it all night long and keep us from getting any sleep, literally) and Lia we decided to put inside the closet. It was the perfect space for her! She crawled in, shut the door and fell right to sleep. Except Sunday morning when Tyler woke up (I was in San Diego dealing with the kitty drama) he found her like this, totally zonked out on the floor, not inside the closet.
 

Temples

In our last General Conference we were told that we should keep a picture of the Temple in every room of our house (or maybe just the bedrooms? I have such a bad memory with this kind of stuff). So I decided the kids needed one in their room. Instead of just buying one at the church bookstore (or taking one myself) I went and had the kids stand in front of the Temple and took their pictures. I printed them in 5x7 and framed them and hung them on the wall in their bedroom.



They are so tiny compared to the Temple!



The kids are so proud of their Temple pictures! They LOVE the Temple, love seeing it wherever we go in La Jolla, and love to point out Moroni from our bedroom window (we can see him just above the trees and buildings). Max is especially happy to have the Temple picture where he can see it. He's such a good kid, he consistently says prayers on his own in his bed at night and in the morning. He started doing this without any prompting from us, either. Sweet boy. We love sure do love him and Lia and the Temple and we're so grateful we live so close to it. I think our kids have a better understanding of the Temple because we get to see it and touch and be near it. We're so lucky to live where we do!

Date Night With Daddy and Lots of Parties

June has been a pretty crazy month for me! Well, if I'm being honest, March through June has been kind of nuts here. If I didn't have a million photo shoots (not complaining, totally LOVE that I had so many!!) I was planning parties or taking care of sick kids, or being sick myself, or being stuck at home while Tyler worked crazy hours to finish the PhD, etc etc, you get the idea.

Anyway... the month of June was party month! I planned and executed (with LOTS of help) 2 baby showers and a birthday party for Max. And as most of you know, I have a sickness when it comes to party throwing. I can't just be content with opening a bag of ruffles and store bought french onion dip (even though I LOVE that stuff) and putting out fancy colored napkins. NOPE. I have to go all out. No, I NEED to go all out. And so I did. And although it almost killed me (hmm, I wonder where Lia gets that dramatic side from) (oh, and for that matter, where Max gets his OCD detailed oriented side from) I actually loved loved loved doing it all!



The first party was Lucynthia Rockwood's baby shower. I made the invites.  I think they came out really cute!



I had lots of help from Desirae Badger who graciously took on the crazy task of making all the food. We had the shower at my house and we decorated with white flowers and linens and plates. Everyone had to bring a package of diapers, since the gender of her baby (it's a girl) is just "baby" right now. It was lots of fun to host. I like being the hostess! But I'm a bad photographer, I only took 2 pictures!



The second party was Brooke's baby shower. It was a backyard BBQ vintage rodeo theme. I made these invites, too. Cute, no?





I would have liked to go even MORE all out for her shower but with limited funds I worked with what I had! I think it came out awesome. I hope she liked it! I planned for months -- colors, theme, invites. It all came together nicely!











The third party was Max's. But I'll get to that in another post.

Anyway... the point of the post!! I'm getting there!! So for the night of Lucynthia's baby shower I told Tyler to take the kids to dinner and out somewhere and not to come back until after 8. So he did! He took them to get dinner and then planned to take them to a movie on campus. When that didn't pan out (he had the dates wrong) he decided to take them for a little jaunt around the campus to their favorite spots and then out for ice cream (see!! treat pushover!!) They kids LOVED it and were so excited to get to spend time with him.

 


They had also been to the fair that morning with Danielle and she let them get their faces painted! Max's was supposed to be Batman but it looked NOTHING like it whatsoever. Max didn't seem to notice or care, he was just really excited to have Batman on his cheek.