The Lights

Who ya gonna call?!

2011-09-10T14:02:00.000-07:00

So like I said, Max is terrified of the monsters that live in his heater vent. We tried everything to prove to him that monsters do not exist... Though having monsters literally staring down at him from his walls really wasn't helping our case. Max spent the last few months camped out on our floor. Not the best arrangement, especially when Joey would trip over him getting up for work in the wee hours. During one of my many calls to my mom, she had the idea of vacuuming up the monsters out of the vent. Immediately the Ghostbusters theme was playing in my head. I was skeptical, but desperate.

So Joey got out the shop vac, or Monster-Vac, as Max now knows it. We made Max watch Joey suck up the monsters. It took a lot of self control on Joey's part not to pretend to get his arm dragged into the vent by a monster. Who knows what consequences would result from that trauma. Max then had to watch Joey dump the canister in the dumpster. Joey came up with the idea that the Monster-Vac also turns the monsters into dust (you gotta be quick on your feet with logic when it comes to monsters). Luckily, the next day was trash day, so Max was sure to watch the garbage truck take the monsters. Max explained to me that the monsters would meet the same fate as in Toy Story 3.

Wouldn't you know it, he has slept in his room ever since. He even grabbed Joey's face in both hands and said, "Thanks, Daddy for getting rid of my monsters." Sort of broke my heart he was so traumatized by these monsters that seems so real to him. Sometimes I forget what it's like to be a kid and have your own sense of reality. Those monsters were definitely real to Max, and definitely gone to him now! I wonder what else the shop-vac can get rid of? bad attitudes? Tantrums? Maybe QVC has a spot for us.

Here's another thing we're trying around here: a chore chart. I found this pocket chart for a buck at Target! Ok... so it was one of those times when I saw something super cheap and thought, "What can I make out of this?"
I'll be honest, it's hard to think of real work for a 3 year old... who is easily distracted... and doesn't always follow directions...the first 3 times I say them. But that's exactly my goal- a tangible way for Max to learn responsibility and a tangible way for him to see what he's accomplished. I put visual cues on the card so he could decipher them, and put the chart at his level to give him some ownership of it. I didn't realize how warm of a response I would actually get. He was excited to move over each card, and as I was shutting his door at bedtime he asked to "move his cards" tomorrow. Of course, the honeymoon period has worn off somewhat, but it's SOOO much easier to tell him to move his cards than say over and over... and over... and over... to put his dirty clothes away. Oh, and the "pray" card never moves to the "done" side, I mean, you should always have a prayer in your heart, right? :)

I came up with this idea because I learned Max is much more receptive to visual cues rather than speech. We're learning how to communicate with him better, and I think it's making our house a little calmer. Oh, and I already bought another chart for Luke. Gotta put 'em to work young!

Late...as usual.

2011-09-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

So Luke turned 2... over a month ago. Here's a little post about my little 2 year old... ok, maybe not so little. He's actually kind of big for his age, especially in the cranial area.Luke is a great little talker. He loves to tell me the same "knock, knock" joke every morning which I'm still waiting to hear the punch line to. He has a lisp that is completely endearing. I don't know how cute it will be as a teenager, but for now, it makes every spit-filled word adorable. He wakes up every morning (well, almost every morning, unless it's earlier than 8:00am) with a big smile on his face and asks for Masth (Max) or Daddy. He then will run out to the living room to find Max and say, "Hi ya Masth!" over and over until Max acknowledges him... which can be a long time.He's a pretty active little boy, but I sure am glad he moves a whole lot slower than Max! He has some short, thick, inflexible little legs that don't allow for fence climbing or crib climbing. He usually laughs it off when he stumbles or bumps into things. In fact, he's pretty tough when it comes to wrestling or tackling his dad or brother. He's been known to run full speed (again, not really all that fast) into Max, knock Max down, and pin him until we pull him off. All the while, giggling.Luke has a big, kind heart. He really gets a kick out of sharing things... except with Max. He's actually pretty shy until he knows someone. He loves to grab my face with both hands and plant a big wet one on me... over and over, no matter how hard I try to escape. He loves his daddy too and loves to go bike rides and rides in "Daddy's truck"(I'll spare you what "truck" sounds like with his lisp, it's a little inappropriate). We never would have guessed Luke would love riding in the bike trailer or the car so much considering as a newborn he was in continuous cycle of screaming until he threw up in the car.
Luke certainly has his 2 year old moments when he is incredibly stubborn and throws fits like nobody's business, but more times than not, he's remorseful afterwards and just wants to get back to enjoying life... and food... lots and lots of food. I can't believe he's already 2, but I love that his personality is showing through more and more each day.

Summer Changes

2011-08-19T15:02:00.000-07:00

This summer has brought some changes for us. First, and probably the biggest: we moved the boys into one room together. Inevitably, we knew they would end up together, but I dreaded the sleeping arrangements. I figured Luke would keep Max up, but Max was practically begging to have Luke in his room (there's strength in numbers when warding off monsters who live in heater vents). Turns out, Luke was less than excited about the move. He prefers his own space at night to wind down (so completely my son). Max was elated and slept great... for a couple nights. Now for some reason we're up at least twice a night; once to go potty, then a couple hours later to run in panicked to sleep on our floor. I can't figure out what is causing his anxiety in the middle of the night, but luckily, Luke sleeps through it all (wish I could too). We converted Luke's room into a toy room and it has been fabulous having all the toys contained in one room. The boys have so much more room to play, and I don't trip over toys during Max's middle-of-the-night anxiety attacks. I didn't take any pictures, because well, just picture Max's room... with a crib. Not that exciting :)

We changed up our garden with raised boxes this year and it has help tremendously! Our harvest has been bountiful. We even have broccoli and cantaloupe. Also, for some reason, we have more yellow zucchini than we know what to do with. We have worked out some kinks and I think our garden will bigger and even better next year!... Maybe minus yellow zucchini.
Ignore the grass in this picture. Apparently our gardening skills don't transfer well to our lawn. shhh don't tell Joey I said that.

We painted our house this summer too. It was a process to say the least picking out paint colors, but we are definitely pleased with the change. Although, painting a house, however small it is, is a HUGE pain. There are still parts we need to touch up, not to mention painting the dog-less dog house and the shed... maybe next year, I guess. Hey, it's Dayton, we can do that.
School starts in a few weeks for Max, but we'll see if we can squeeze in a few lake trips and day bike trips before then. (Maybe that will make the time pass more quickly ha!)
Here's a picture of the boys doing their favorite summer daily activity. I especially like their expressions. Luke usually just sits quietly, content to be chauffeured around in circles. Randomly, they like to hop out to "check the battery." Oh yeah, and Max doesn't have pants on, another daily summer occurrence.Hopefully, you've had a fun summer too. I'm not ready to let go of the summer weather and sunshine, but I'm more than ready for the fun fall will bring!

What is "normal"??

2011-06-21T15:36:00.000-07:00

Do you ever find yourself watching one of those “health” shows that is basically a free freak show? The show consists of delving into the personal and private lives of people with mysterious and embarrassing diseases that no one would otherwise hear about. Sometimes I feel guilty that I’m getting entertainment from someone else’s pain. Anyway, during one such show, a mom of a girl with one of those taboo diseases said something like, “I wish my daughter had cancer. At least then, people would have actually heard of it.” That sounds terrible, but I really don’t think the mom wished her child had a horrible, painful, sometimes fatal disease. I think the mom was tired of painfully explaining the inexplicable to everyone about her child, reminding herself each time of her reality.

Now, let me say right now, I don’t wish cancer on my child either, and I know that our situation is way easier than a lot of kids, but I identified with this mom. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to explain to people why Max has gone to so many doctors or why he’s in the early childhood program. The thing is, it’s really hard to explain something you don’t understand. I sometimes wish there was one word to describe Max’s delays and behaviors that would say it all and I wouldn’t have to go into a long explanation. More than anything, I wish there wasn’t anything to explain.

We have this awesome toy that makes all kinds of noise. It plays songs, has sound effects, and talks. The awesome part of the toy is that it comes with three volume settings. The lowest is so quiet you can barely hear it. If you are a parent, you know how blessed that is. Sometimes, I think it would be nice if I could lift up the back of Max’s shirt and flip a switch on his back to “quiet” or maybe “calm”- just for a minute. Then I realize that doing that would be turning off Max’s personality. If we got rid of all Max’s issues, would he cease to be Max? I’d rather have Max than a “normal” kid.

We went to see a psychiatrist today. Even typing that word just seems wrong. Why should a three year old see a psychiatrist?! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be taking my preschooler to see a psychiatrist. Of course, I never dreamt I would take Max to any of the places we’ve been. Have you ever played that game seven degrees of separation? That’s kind of what our little trail of doctors is like. We are getting referred to a occupational therapist by the psychiatrist, who was referred by our neurologist, who we found through our pediatrician who kicked off this whole process. I’m willing to bet when we meet the occupational therapist, she’ll refer us to a behavioral therapist. We’ve had a diagnosis train too- from autism to anxiety disorder, back to autism, back to anxiety, then possibly a genetic disorder, then ADHD, and now an impulse control disorder as a possible diagnosis. And guess what? Only one of those is covered by insurance. I bet if my kid had cancer I wouldn’t have to fight with insurance as to whether it’s a “real” medical issue.

Sorry for the rant, but being frustrated is part of life, and I don’t think it should be a hidden part. Frustration is what makes us learn and grow. I know that there is something for our family to learn from all this. There is a reason Max acts the way he does, and there’s a reason we have to work hard at getting help. I keep thinking it has to be hard now because the pay off later is going to be really huge. His IEP team is already taking bets as to whether he turns out to be a world renowned doctor, lawyer, or painter. It’s just hard to picture what’s on the other side of the hill when we’re still climbing. It’s hard not to concentrate each tough little uphill step instead of the overall progress we’re making. …sorry for the whining, I guess that was my round-about way of giving an update on Max.

Teacher Thank You's

2011-06-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love when a spur of the moment thought turns into a good idea?

I realized on our way home from California on Sunday that Max only had 3 days of school left. I've had good intentions of getting his teachers and bus driver (all wonderful, sweet women) something to show how appreciative we are of all their help for a while, but time got away from me. I thought of cute cookie or candy bouquets and other expensive presents. With a limited budget and an even more limited time frame (why are short weeks always the busiest?), I realized that would be hard to get done. I glanced at my coupons on the way out the door and found a couple coupons for some candy bags. It was fate! I came home (with an extra bag for me and Luke) and made these tags for the bags.
I know they aren't super fancy, and mostly I blame that on my dying printer. But I'm kinda proud of my puns AND it was fast, cheap, and easy. If you can't tell, the York one says, "We 'mint' to say: Thank You". I remember when I was teaching, edible presents were the best and I usually ended up throwing away all the cutesy wrapping that parents probably took forever to make. At least I know my hard work won't go to waste!

His teacher, aide and bus driver really deserve a lot more, but from what I remember from teaching, a little pat on the back goes a long way. We're so thankful for all the help Max is getting at school. It's such a relief to be in a program with great help and great people! We can't wait for next year!

Here's a template if you want to make the ones pictured. Joey did inform me that my "u" on the York tag still has the beginning of an "r"... if that bugs you, feel free to change it. Oh, and I punched a couple holes in the tag and bag to tie with pretty ribbon. I punched the holes in the bag above the seal so they know I didn't poison them :)

A little goes a long way

2011-05-02T15:11:00.000-07:00

I heard on the radio today that the amount of new construction across the nation is still half what is considered "economically healthy." It was an insignificant statement made at the end of a news program. It might have been just a small blurb, but to me, it was significant. To me, it means my husband's chosen career field is not getting any more promising, and we are going to keep trudging through the same pattern of sporadic work we've had going on three years now. I don't say this to whine, in fact, I'm shocked to look back and see how long we've been able to hold on and make it. The only thing that can explain it is tithing. I know that there are real blessings from paying tithing. No, we didn't get any mysterious checks in the mail (doesn't mean I dream of that haha) or piles of money left on our door step. We have received odd jobs and deals that have made a big difference. It never fails that some work gets drummed up in the moment we need it.

Another blessing I've noticed is money management. Like I said, we are FAR from perfect, but we have come a llllooonnnnggg way from when we were first married and even when we were single.

One small thing that has made a huge difference is a budget. I know that sounds too simple and obvious, but it's easier said than done. I used to live by the idea that if money was in my account it was available. Not so when you don't know when your next paycheck is coming! Knowing that my bills are covered and there's still a roof over my head goes a long way in calming my anxiety over money. I've heard that couples argue about money most, well when our budget is on the fridge for both of us to see, it pretty much eliminates any need for blame... of course, that means we have to stick to it! I adapted my budget from this website and laminated it so I can write on it with a wet erase marker and reuse it every week (Joey gets paid weekly). Here's my template

Another small thing is meal planning. Joey will tell you I am a sucker for eating out. Not only is it unhealthy (and tasty hee hee), it's also so expensive! Nothing helps me with the "I don't know what to make for dinner" blues, like having a meal plan. I plan out two weeks worth of dinners. I also keep track of the prices of ingredients so that I can get an accurate picture of how much my grocery bill will be. This is still a work in progress, but it's already paying off. My meals aren't really gourmet, but it beats blowing $20 at McDonalds! I'm keeping my meal plans on my computer so I can just cycle through them when I can't come up with any new dinner ideas. Here's a template if you want to print a blank one.

Sometimes it's hard for me not to be able to contribute financially to our family, but there are little things that I can do to reduce the income I spend. We are also working on improving our garden this year, so hopefully that little extra savings will come in handy. We've even gone as far as putting those big, ugly, multicolored Christmas lights on our apple tree to keep our little blossoms from freezing to ensure apple sauce, pie filling and other goodies come fall. Yeah, it's white trash looking, but... when in Rome...or Dayton, I should say...

Life's a Circus

2011-04-07T14:58:00.001-07:00

Life has seemed a little circus-y lately. Some days I feel like a trapeze artist trying to balance everything and not fall! Most days I feel I have one of the worst jobs at the circus- cleaning up the elephant poo. More often than not, I feel like one of the lion tamers on one of those shows, "When Animals Attack," when the trained animals wait for the perfect opportunity to take advantage of their trainer's vulnerability. All in all, our circus can be quite entertaining. (just ask my parents when they try to skype with us!)

We took a trip recently to the real circus and I'm not so sure it was a hit. We managed to grab three free tickets for Max, Luke and their cousin Jake. (Thank goodness since a kid's ticket is $12!) There was way too many things going on at once for the kids to focus on the entertainment. I wonder just how much money the food vendors make at those things, going constantly up and down the aisles. We had to keep putting Jakey’s hand down as the snow cone and cotton candy guy came by. The little boys only showed interest when the scantly clad rope swinging ladies came out (I don't know what their official title is). I was more entertained by all the carni-folk who all seemed to have some sort of soap opera type lifestyle going on in the background of the circus culture.

Luke's favorite part of the circus?... snacks found in the diaper bag, of course. The most attention Max gave the three rings... This was before the circus started and I'm pretty sure an elephant was pooping. I'll let you come up with your own caption. Cotton candy was a big hit for Jake. Max squished it with enough hand sweat to make it nice and sticky then threw it on the floor.

This was what was going on the majority of the time. Luke has a mouthful of dropped popcorn from the row behind us and Joey was kind enough to let us share this giant communal lemonade to which I was the official drink supervisor.

Three popped balloon animals and one crabby momma later, we headed out just as the death-defying dirtbikes in a metal ball was getting started. The circus is just too long for 3 squirmy little boys... and me! I really hate crowds. Once we left the crazy circus, I let out a long sigh of relief. I guess it could be compared to life. We have to go out in the crazy world and deal with some real characters, but isn't it nice to come home to a safe (sometimes quiet) place? I think that is the main reason I want to stay home with my crazy circus animals, I want to make sure they have somewhere safe to retreat to so they know what is real and right, not just an act or illusion. So in a way, I guess the circus makes me grateful for being a mom!

First Day of School

2011-03-07T09:40:00.001-08:00

What did you do when you were a kid in preparation for the first day of school? I loved the first day of school! I was one of those anxious kids would lay out their outfit for the first day like a week ahead of time. I would beg my mom to go school supply shopping in the middle of the summer so I could have brand new crayons pencils. Oh, and new, fresh pink erasers, don't even get me started! I know, I'm a nerd.

You might be wondering why I'm talking about the first day of school when the school year is more than half over. I just dropped Max off for his first day of preschool. We just found out Friday afternoon that he would be starting today, so I didn't have much time to analyze what he'd be wearing, etc. Even so, I had to keep myself from going over various wardrobe choices. He also had to bring a snack, so I ran out the store to find some healthy snacks. (Didn't want the teacher to think I give my kids oreos and other scandalous processed foods...'cuz that never happens)

Although I'm missing him, I'm pretty grateful this day has finally come! It's been a loooonnng annoying road to get him here, but now he's in! (for a few months until summer comes, dang it) I've had to fight, question, and fight some more to get him in preschool. I was almost in shock that he's actually going now after all that work. At times, I felt powerless, but I never gave up. I've seen such an improvement in Max since being in sunbeams and our preschool playgroup, I can't wait to see how much he improves in the early childhood program.

The best part is Max is excited. I was pretty worried he'd be intimidated and anxious, but his main concerns were 1) he'd get to go to a bus stop, 2) They had toys, and 3) They had a kitchen. So far, we're 2 for 3, and he'll get to start riding the bus next week... if I can stomach it. (by the way, the bus has child seat restraints and it's only his class that rides it with aides on board)

I just hope Max isn't like me and only likes school for the first day :)

Here's his accomplice/arch nemesis patiently awaiting his return.

Quiet Books

2011-02-14T13:36:00.000-08:00

Sitting through sacrament meeting for about an hour can be brutal for little kids... and parents. We've tried yummy snacks, exciting toys, stickers, coloring books, etc. to keep our two misfits entertained and quiet! These tactics have lasted about as long as it takes to devour a packet of fruit snacks (or shake them all over the pew, in our case). I'm always in search of something that will give us a little piece and quiet during church.

Then armed with a coupon, I snagged a sweet deal on a laminator at Harbor Freight. After laminating everything in my house, my mom gave me the idea to make a quiet book. I love projects like this. Fun, simple and easy! Ok, the cutting can be a little tedious, but I kinda like things like that. I did steal a few ideas from other people online, so I guess I won't charge anyone for my book. :) Here's how I did it and you can use my template to make your own, if you so choose. Or you can mock me for my nerdy laminating fetish.

Step One: Print out your pages. Simple enough, though some of my images were just in black and white. I don't have any fancy smancy software (but I do have a pretty sweet laminator...ok, it's from Harbor Freight so it's really not that fantastic) that will color images. I find it just as easy to print it out and color it myself.

Step Two: Color and cut out the small pieces. One of the great lessons I learned while studying to become a teacher is that there is a trick to making laminated projects last. In order not to have the plastic peel off and curl up after lots of use, you have to leave a edge of clear laminate around each object. So you have to cut out each little piece on the line before you laminate it. Any pieces that I colored, I colored before cutting so I could color a little sloppy.

Step Three: Laminate. Woo hoo! Don't pee your pants, but it is pretty fun. When you laminate the little pieces, be sure to leave about a 1/2 inch space between each piece. That way when you go to cut them out you'll have enough excess to keep that border I was talking about.

Step Four: Cut out the pieces (again). Remember to leave that clear edge. I didn't cut out the pieces until I had enough time to put it all together so that I wouldn't lose any.

Step Five: Velcro. You can buy velcro stickers just about anywhere. I used the clear kind because you can put it over the design without covering it up. There is a bit of a technique to it and I learned a couple helpful hints along the way. Instead of putting each side of the velcro on individually, hook them together first. Then place it on the page. Then, position the piece how you want it on the page and press down. That way you aren't trying to find the bullseye blindly. Make sense? One thing I found along the way was to put the velcro in the center of each object so kids don't have to position them perfectly to get the pieces to stick. Also, you can use half of each velcro sticker. Saves money, and makes for a quieter ripping sound when your kids is pulling pieces off.

Step Six: Bind your book. Use a three hole punch (so you keep your holes lined up) and punch each page. You can find rings to hold it all together at any office store. I recommend using reinforcers on the holes because I noticed several times the books got stepped on and pulled on the holes.

Voila! You have a book that will keep your little one entertained! I tested out our books on Sunday and not only did they keep our boys quiet, but also the kid behind us. They would also be great as travel toys or anytime. Have fun making this one, or go make your own. Here is my template

excuse my tardiness, please

2011-01-24T14:31:00.001-08:00

I noticed today that I forgot to post about our Christmas. So I'll do it now... a month later. It doesn't really feel like winter anymore around here (it's supposed to be a balmy 59 degrees by Thursday), so maybe that's why it slipped my mind. We really enjoyed our Christmas Eve with our little family. We went swimming in the morning and had the pool almost to ourselves (besides the old people who really have no modesty or shame in the locker room). Then we decorated ornaments. Max squeezed out an entire bottle of glitter paint, then flung it at the wall. That was fun.

The finished products:

Then we decorated cookies, and ate clam chowder in bread bowls. I think we might make this our tradition instead of Hamburger Soup. (gasp) scandalous, I know!

Christmas morning was really fun for the boys and they loved their new workbench. So much so, that they fight over it non-stop.

Joey insisted on making me "try on" my gifts. I guess they fit... camping... yay...

We drove to the Mucc Christmas Day to spend time with my parents before they left on their mission. We were going to take home our newest edition, Goober, that day, but after learning of his "nervous bowels" I decided otherwise. I don't need my car smelling like big dog diarrhea on a hot day. My parents brought him up a few days later. Goober has settled in with us and resigned himself to be tortured by Max all day, everyday. Max is really fascinated by Goo's tail (and what's under there) and I'm sure Goo feels violated all the time.

Here's our belated Christmas gift from us to you- Max performing the part of Sugar Plum Fairy. Sorry, he is a prima ballerina and doesn't appreciate flash photography's affect on his art.

I'm not sure what this second move is... some sort of scissor kick, twitchy thing. Whatever it was, I think he's future Juilliard material.

We Shall not be Defeated!

2011-01-03T09:12:00.000-08:00

For some reason Mother Nature has it out for us. For two years in a row we've had to battle the elements to have our annual ugly Christmas sweater party. But we will not be deterred! After one cancellation, our 2010 party was actually in 2011. We couldn't let another year slip by without displaying our very best! We really gave 110% this year going with an overall theme instead of just sweaters. The Lights' theme this year was "Stay Classy, Dayton." We, like all good rural citizens, were living in the 80's... the trashy 80's. I found Joey a sweet child molester-ish, flesh colored mustache at the Walmart gumball machines earlier in the week. I really think my 50 cents paid off. We, of course, are still the reigning champions, but kudos to all that tried to topple us from our lofty station. I would venture to say that fun was had by all, and thanks Uncle Chris for lending your poncho to Max as a security poncho. He's slept with it every night since.

Here's Joey really showing his stuff playing games... He was kinda the only one into it... like really into it. Thanks friends, for humoring him.

Here are the Pyrahs getting cozy in a poncho for two. How romantic.

I know your eyes are closed, Steph, I just thought it was pretty funny how Tyson and Kurt are doing the same thing with their arms. The earrings were a nice touch!

Here we have the Hunters thoughtfully contemplating the symbolism of Taneil's vest. I think you should frame this one in your home.

And here are your reigning champions. I know we aren't even looking at the camera, but this way you get the full effect of the bangs AND the side ponytail. P.S. I did my make up that way on purpose. Do you like Joey's facial hair? The neck beard was all him... and some brown eyeshadow, of course.

See you next year, Chumps! ...er I mean Chums!

Here we go again...

2010-12-16T16:18:00.000-08:00

Wow, ok, I know it’s been for-ev-er since I last posted. Summer came along and things got very busy with scouts and little boys who like to play outside all day. Then fall came and I don’t know, I guess I got a little more introverted. I’m still trying to figure out why exactly, but all this crazy doctor stuff surrounding Max has really thrown me for a loop. I started journaling, but that was more of a personal thing I didn’t feel like sharing with all of blog-dom. Then the other day I was reading NieNie Dialogues. If you haven’t read this blog, do it now. She really gives you perspective on how wonderful life is. When I read stuff like that I realize I really have an awesome life. I want to make this blog more about how really blessed we are, instead of just me whining about laundry and junk like that. So here is my list of awesomeness to catch you up on life in the Light house.

-Today, for the second day in a row, I got to take a shower before 9am without an audience and without anyone destroying any electronics. Awesome.

-I finished all 6 credits I needed to renew my teaching license. That felt amazingly awesome, well, except for my sore eye from running into the door frame late at night while finishing my essay for my final class, but that’s another story.

-Max is getting closer and closer to being potty trained. Less diapers= awesome.

-Luke is talking more and more each day. It seems a little crazy that hearing a tiny person say things like “hot” can be so awesome, but it is. He sort of sounds like he can speak “whale,” mostly because he always carries around his binky between his teeth so things don’t always get enunciated crisply.

-Luke also gives the most awesome hugs. He sure knows how to make a gal feel special. His kisses need to be refined a bit though; I usually end up with a face full of slobber. They’re still pretty awesome, none the less.

-Max has finally given us a break and doesn’t wake up until at least 6am. It’s awesome how non-sleep deprived I feel now.

-We bought a dvd player for our car. That made the 9 hour trip to Utah a couple weeks ago sooooo awesome and quiet. Say what you will, but TV is an awesome entertainer/babysitter.

-Joey got an email from NVenergy the other day saying that he’ll get an interview probably next week. He talks about how awesome that’d be daily.
That’s all for now, people are waking up from their naps. I can’t make any promises, but I’m going to try to be more diligent with this whole blog thing.

Weirdo

2010-03-09T14:57:00.000-08:00

That's his binky if you couldn't tell. What a talent! Soon we'll be inserting a giant disc in his lip.

Six months later...

2010-02-17T10:02:00.000-08:00

Six and a half months ago I became a mother of two. I worried about it a lot, wondering when my life would return to "normal" after being a new mom... and I'm still waiting :) but things are getting easier day by day. Overall, Luke has a much more laid back personality than Max and is a lot less high strung! Things I never would have attempted with Max as a baby don't seem so bad with the two of them. For instance, we just went on a hike last weekend. It was nice not to worry about missing nap times (at this stage, Max would have screamed the rest of the day after having his schedule disrupted). We just packed a lunch and headed out. Max loved it so much, he ran the whole way tripping over many a rock on the way. I think I might just let him run alongside the car next time to get his energy out. :) Luke was very content to sit in the backpack and observe everything while sucking on his binky Maggie Simpson style. I think this summer is going to be really fun, full of camping, hiking and even (sigh) some fourwheeling.

Luke had his 6 month check up yesterday. He is still quite big for his age. He's 96% for height at 29.5 in, 75% for weight at 19lbs, and 75% for head circumference. The kid is a brick! He doesn't have many rolls (except for some nice man boobs), he's just solid. The doctor told me that he should be a great athlete, to which I explained that he received zero coordination from his parents genetically. The doctor said that for his size, he's really impressed he's able to roll around and sit up so well. It's exciting to see him so close to crawling, but it makes me tired to think of all the tiny toys I'll be fishing out of his mouth soon. It's also really exciting to see Max and Luke play so well together. Max is a wonderful big brother. He loves to share with Luke and will try to comfort him when he's crying the only way he knows how- with blankies. Luke is totally enamored with his big brother and I'm sure it's only a short time before Max involves Luke in his trouble making schemes.

MMMM Donuts!

2010-02-13T09:50:00.000-08:00

We had a new donut shop open up here in Dayton. The donuts are delicious...and overpriced. My solution: make homemade potato donuts. I have had this recipe since Jr. High, but I only made it the one time for homework. That did not turn out well. My dad convinced me it would work to use leftover mashed potatoes (from who knows how long ago) and my grandma told me to crank up the oil because it wasn't boiling (without anything in it). Needless to say I ended up with blackened, gooey, potato lumps. Yum.
Round two went sooo much better! I started the dough last night because it has to raise for 2 hours and then another hour after cutting out the shapes. Max even helped out with the mixing. He really loves "cooking" and I need to find the patience to let him help more.
So here's the recipe from 8th grade Home Ec (thanks Bev!):
Scald and cool 1 cup of milk
In the meantime:
dissolve 1 T yeast in 1/4 C warm water, set aside
Combine cooled milk, 1/4 C sugar, 1t salt, and 1/4 C shortening
Stir in 3/4C mashed potatoes (mash 'em good) and 2 eggs
Add yeast/water. Stir until combined
Add enough flour to make a soft dough. The softer the dough, the lighter the donuts. However, it has to be sturdy enough to roll and cut out shapes.
Let rise 1.5 to 2 hours
Roll out 1/2 thick. Cut into shapes (I discovered it's much easier to do smaller shapes, kind of donut hole size) Some of my big hearts looked like those lovely sacs people hang from their tow hitchs when I finally got them into the fryer. mmmm schwety balls.
Place on well greased cookie sheet and let rise another hour. Or put them in the fridge until you want to make them and let them rise after you take them out.
Deep fat fry (sooo healthy) until just golden brown on both sides.
Let cool until you can handle them. Shake in cinnamon/sugar or frost. Joey said to add the banana as a part of your complete breakfast

Chocolate fudge frosting (This makes a lot so be prepared to eat spoonfuls from the bowl afterwards mmmm)
3 C powdered sugar
1/3C cocoa powder (I'm generous on this one)
1/3C melted butter
1/4C boiling water
1/4t vanilla
blend until smooth

It was a big hit and we are all sick from sugar overload. Happy Valentines Day!

Sweater Party

2010-01-19T20:50:00.000-08:00

We look forward to our annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party almost as much as Christmas itself. We are like kids in a candy store when we search for the perfect sweater. It does get a little awkward as we stand in Goodwill almost peeing our pants over the ridiculous sweaters when another person is checking out the same holiday selection in all seriousness.

This year was almost a disaster due to an annoying blizzard. At first, I just thought the Gambles were just being babies like usual. Then as the snow got worse, I realized it wasn't worth putting our guests in mortal peril just for some cookies and old lady sweaters. We reluctantly rescheduled for the next weekend, leaving out two couples who promised to be our toughest competition. Where are your priorities, people?! Surgery?? Hawaii?? Seriously, I think we all know which is more important! Ugly Christmas Sweaters!! Oh well, maybe next year the Johnsons will get to lose in person... that is unless one of them decides to remove another organ. Thanks to our friends who came and made it another successful party!

The Lights enjoying the sweet taste of victory... again!!

The newest editions to Sweater scene. Sorry Jensens, we take no mercy on newbies!

Sibling rivalry rears it's ugly head... or sweater in this case.

Kudos to Jamin for being man enough to wear what only can be described as a hot pad on a mini dress.

All in all, everyone brought their "A" game, unfortunatly that's not enough when you are facing the Lights! Booyah!

Christmas

2010-01-03T15:50:00.000-08:00

We spent Christmas with just the four of us this year. We decided it's time to start our own traditions. Joey was worried it might be boring... I guess that tells you what he thinks of my company. Anyway, we blended the old with the new. We had to have hamburger soup (shut up, it's good) and decorated cookies Christmas Eve. Well, we tried to decorate cookies. Max didn't make it through his first cookie before he gobbled it up along with a ton or red (what was I thinking??) frosting. Then, hopped up on sugary frosting, he attempted to crawl across the table with a crazed look in his eyes after the rest of the cookies. We also decorated ornaments this year for our tree. Max really got into painting and covered his plaster bear with about fifty, thick, gooey coats of all the colors available. I don't think Max ever really understood the concept of Christmas, but it was still fun to spend the day together as a family. Maybe next year we'll try to work in more of the spiritual aspect.

Here is Max on Christmas morning, mildly impressed with his presents. He actually loves his easel now, even though it turned out to be a piece of junk!

We did get to visit the newest Pyrah Christmas night. Sam sure is tiny, but hopefully he can catch up to Luke before Luke squashes him.

Stay tuned for pictures of the infamous sweater party.

Jumping into Christmas

2009-12-18T20:22:00.000-08:00

I wonder when exactly Max will understand what Christmas is all about. Right now, he understands that Christmas lights are really "purty" and punching the ornaments on the tree makes a great sound. I tried to tell him about Santa, but he just started repeating everything I said, which is a great indicator he has no idea what I'm talking about, but he'll humor me. I am actually grateful for this because he has no demands for gifts, and I'm fairly positive he'll go bonkers over the box of dinosaur bandaids I bought at the dollar store for his stocking.
On the other hand, I'm excited for my kids to be excited about Christmas. Both boys got to meet Santa at our ward party and both were less than impressed. All that waiting for a candy cane? You can't quite make out Max's expression, but he's furrowing his brow and glaring at Santa.Joey and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary today. I'm pretty sure Joey was demanding 4 years ago that we take a cruise on our 5th anniversary... yeah, that didn't happen. Instead he's working nights right now and I'm blogging. Normally, I'd be pretty upset we didn't get to go on a date, but things are a little different now. I'm just really glad he's got a few full nights of work this week. I've tried (not always successfully) to think of it positively. It really makes you get your priorities straight when every penny counts. I really think it's made us pull in tighter and appreciate more family time.
Luke had his 4 month checkup this week. He's 97th percentile for height and 75th for weight. I can't help being shocked at the difference between Luke and Max in size. I think it took Max about 9 months to reach Luke's 16.5 lbs. Luke has a healthy appetite and is all around a great baby. I am also happy to say the barfing has significantly decreased. Here's Luke in his jumper (thanks Aunt Sarah for letting us borrow it for a while). I didn't think he was old enough for a jumper, but he constantly tries to jump while standing on our laps. And the kid is a porker so our arms were dying! As you can see, he's a pro...I'm thinking future circus trapeze performer. Oh and if you're wondering why he's in the bathroom, it kept him occupied while I gave Max a bath.

I'm a big kid now!

2009-12-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

I've been dreading taking Max out of his crib ever since it dawned on me that we'd need the crib for Luke. I put it off as long as possible, but after many nights of Luke getting his fat arms stuck in the slats of his all too small cradle, I knew it was time. I figured it wouldn't be too much of a shock to Max since he's so accustomed to climbing in and out of his crib. We finally got everything sanded and painted last night. Max was pretty eager to help set up the bed and immediately took the first jumps on it... too bad the mattress wasn't on the frame yet. He also threw a big fit when I made him get off to put on the sheets. Even with all his excitement, I thought he might make several trips out to the living room after being put to bed. I am happy to say he didn't make a peep all night! He even went down for a nap just now without a fight. I wish I could say the same for Luke, what a stinker!If I've learned anything about Max these past two years, he can't be pushed into anything. He wanted a big boy bed, so he went willingly. I'm sure if I had tried this a few months earlier, he would have fought me tooth and nail. That's not to say he didn't immediately climb into Luke's new crib and throw a fit about it being his bed too. I'll choose my battles.

Luke had a first this week also. He started cereal. I thought he'd be more excited about it than he was. Everyday at dinner he wants to be up at the table with us and smacks his lips as he watches us eat. I guess I forgot how disgusting rice cereal is. Why do they make everything for babies so nasty? Even the smell of formula is revolting.

So here is the before. Look how excited he is

During...Poor Guy!

And After. Guess it's not that bad after all.

Ow, my freakin' ears!

2009-12-03T17:42:00.000-08:00

While watching "Destroyed in Seconds" with his father moments ago, Max exclaimed, "Oh crap!"

It's a fine moment in the Light house.

Playing catch up again

2009-11-16T20:19:00.000-08:00

Seems like it's getting harder and harder to keep up with this blog. I can't believe Luke is almost 4 months old. He's getting so big! He's rolled over 3 times from his belly to his back. He can hold his head up like a champ, especially if he's watching TV. He also loves to sit up straight and refuses to lean back and relax. He's such a happy baby and loves to snuggle with his mommy. He also seems to be working on his bottom front teeth. He growls and gnaws on my knuckle like there's no tomorrow. Now if only we could get him to stop puking! Not only does he spit up like a bubbling volcano all day long, but he hates the car and cries to the point of puking... it makes trips real fun.
I forgot to post a picture of the boys' Halloween costumes. I made Max's costume from scratch (He's Max from Where the Wild Things Are, in case you live under a rock. And FYI he's Max from the book, not the movie). Whenever I do a sewing project, about half way through I ask myself, why did I want to do this? I broke my needle and being the resourceful rural woman that I am, I used hot glue to finish it. Joey's costume was a little impromtu tribute to life in Dayton. Oh, and Luke is a horse, not a cow... it was a common misconception during the trick or treating process.

Max went pee pee on the potty yesterday for the first time! He loves sitting on his potty, and makes lots of great grunting noises. He also says, "cool," with a sheepish grin everytime he toots on the potty, something he does not get from me. He still likes to climb anything he can get his hands on. He's also pretty big into his train. No one taught him to say, "All aboard!" like this, but I ask him to say it when I need a good laugh.

Foot pursuits and heating pads

2009-10-26T18:04:00.001-07:00

So right now it's very quiet around the house. Max is at a friend's house and Luke is sleeping peacefully in his swing. You would think I would be enjoying this time, and I would if it weren't for the stabbing pain in my lower back. You see, it all started Monday morning around 11:00. About this time every morning, Sesame Street ends and so does Max's attention span. I quickly throw on his shoes and kick him out to the backyard to burn off energy. It took a while for me (and Max) to feel secure enough to send him out on his own. We had to clear and childproof the yard so he could have some freedom... backfire! I'm not sure how this qualifies as a milestone, but on Monday at 11:00am Max climbed over the 5 foot fence behind our house. As I went out to check on him, I caught him running across the ditch and onto the 3 foot fence that borders the busy road behind our house. I screamed at him to stop and I got a very nonchalant, "Okay, Mommy." from him. However, to Max, "Okay" just means, "that's nice whatever you just said, but I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing." I attempted to climb the fence (yes, I'm out of shape too) but quickly realized I would have to climb back over it with an unwilling toddler. So I quickly ran to the garage, hopped in my car, and squealed out of the driveway and around the corner just in time to see him get over the fence and start to run toward the road, all the while my baby is laying on the floor screaming in the living room. The kid is C-R-A-Z-Y! I really don't know what to do to contain him. I thought our yard was big enough, but apparently not for this free spirit.
My back has been a little wacky ever since lugging Luke the Puke around. I think the stress of pulling my toddler off the fence, acerbated it. It was a little throbby that evening, but then yesterday morning I attempted to get up quickly off the floor to answer the phone and SNAP! I looked just like an old person in the cartoons that walks around bent over at the waist. It was a little alarming to find I was unable to get up... then Max jumped on my back. Awesome. My wonderful friends took my children and I made an adventure-filled trip to the Chiropractor. Anyone else have their chiropractor check their facebook page while working on you or make small talk about how they're filing bankruptcy? I don't think I'll be making a return trip to him anytime soon. In the mean time, I'm walking around with heating pads and ice packs tucked in my waistband trying so hard not to make any sudden movements or heaven forbid, sneeze.

Monkey Max is Two!

2009-10-12T10:49:00.001-07:00

Most days I find myself trying to calculate exactly how many days I have until Max enters kindergarten. Nursery has given me a taste of what school could be like... hours of quiet!!
Today is different, I'm feeling a little nostalgic.

Two years ago today I was pretty sure this baby was not going to come out. Max's dramatic entrance should have tipped me off that we were headed for trouble. The moment the doctor announced he was, in fact, a boy, he peed on me. From birth, he has had a mind of his own. He has to do things his own way, in his own time... not that I know anything about that. I never would have guessed that the same person who woke up every 45 minutes for the first two months of his life, peed through every piece of clothing, and refused to take a bottle would turn out to be one of my favorite people. These past two years have flown by, and I can't help missing my fuzzy headed little monkey baby who could only sleep snuggled up on my chest.

Happy Birthday, Monkey!

Randomness

2009-09-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

So I wish I could post pictures from Luke's baby blessing but alas, pregnancy left me with crap for brains. We didn't take a single picture the entire day. Just another thing for Luke to present to his therapist in the future. Thanks to all the family that came to support us that weekend.
Here are some random pictures instead.

Turns out Luke is scared of the camera. I took many pictures, with and without the flash, but every time I got this wide eyed look out of him. He is really getting cute. He loves to smile and show off his dimple. He coos and squawks a lot. Best of all, he sleeps! We are up to 6 hours consistently at night. I'm sure lots of babies out there do it better, but in this house, that's a record. We tried formula the other night out of curiosity and Mr. Piggy didn't even flinch. Luke is already wearing 3 month clothing (which Max was wearing at 6 months). I'm picturing him sitting on Max as soon as he can catch him.

I had a milestone of my own. I made a trip to Michaels with two kids, bought everything I wanted (at half off, no less), came home without a tantrum, and decorated with what I bought. Ok, it's not the grandest floral arrangement, but I love looking at it because I was able to do it with both boys. It's proof that I can do this mom thing!

We're still working on projects around the house. Joey worked on the spa this weekend, working out the kinks so we can sell it finally. He tried to convince me we should keep it, but I'd rather have the money. Here is Max doing his part.

Lastly, here's a picture of Max, back from camping over night with his daddy. It's amazing how less than 24 hours can produce that much dirt. He says his own prayers at night now. His favorite phrase right now is, "Thanks...that's nice!" I guess he's trying positive reinforcement on us. He also has discovered his love of bubble bath. Randomly throughout the day he'll smile and tell me, "I got bub-bows." Whatever gets him through the day, I guess.

Max gets a DUI

2009-08-31T21:14:00.001-07:00

From one month

For some unexplicable reason, Max has decided he can, in fact, eat meat and vegetables. For two nights he has eaten his entire dinner! Okay, so we bribed him with strawberries, but he ate a whole meatball the other night! I can think of worse things than bribing your child with fruit. As a side note, I have tried bribing him many, many times before, he just has decided to take me up on it finally. He also said the prayer before dinner last night. Well... okay, he mumbled a few words and ended it with an enthusiastic "MEN!" I figure if anyone can, God can translate Toddler. Yes Max is starting to mature, so much in fact, he has tried to drink his first beer. We were at the park yesterday (mind you I was in the car feeding Luke while the other responsible parent was in charge of Max) when Max decided to cozy up to a nice man with a beer can at a picnic table (I'm pretty sure Joey was nearby...maybe). Max helped himself to the man's beer (Joey assures me he didn't actually get any in his mouth) and in the process of trying to chug it, spilled the can all over the front of him. We drove home with our wino of a toddler in the back seat saying, "I love you, man! You're the best!" Okay, I made up that last part, but he certainly reeked of alcohol on the way home.

Luke, however, has decided to just say no to the stuff, as beer is high in calories. He's up to 10 pounds already, and gaining. He's started cooing and I'm amazed I have a baby with a longer attention span than my toddler. I know people say their smiles aren't real at this point, but he really has some mischevious ones. He's probably formulating evil plans to use on Max at a later date. I haven't captured them on camera yet because I have my hads pretty full all day. In fact, I'm feeling pretty guilty about the gazillion newborn pictures I have of Max and the ten I have of Luke. I'll just have to buy Luke's love when he get's older.

Campout

2009-08-14T21:29:00.000-07:00

Joey and Max are off to the Father and Sons campout tonight. It's interesting how my perspective has changed. Things seemed so much harder with Max as a newborn. I would have cringed at the idea of being left alone with him overnight. Many nights I spent bouncing him in his bouncer with my foot trying to figure out something to make him stop crying. Now, the thought of being alone with Luke for the night sounds peaceful and easy. I don't have to chase him around anywhere and his demands are relatively simple. Oh yeah, and he doesn't know the word, "No!" yet. I just hope Max makes it home in one piece and doesn't try to run away to be raised by bears.

Baby Luke

2009-08-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

It seemed like I was never going to go into labor with this baby. I never really put any stock into old wives tales that were supposed to put you into labor, so I never tried them. Thursday, I was fed up. I did not want a repeat of Max and sit at home contracting (but not enough) for two days. Joey came home from work and since it wasn't stifling hot anymore, we went for a walk. I was actually keeping the pace, and by the third block, I started having contractions 10 mins apart. We got home and it continued. What would be the logical next step? Well, go to Taco Smell, of course. I did not want to be in the hospital for-ev-er starving, so I loaded up on a quesadilla (yeah, yeah, not the smartest). By the time we got back home from Taco Bell, my contractions were about 5 mins apart. We decided to head up the hill towards Reno, making plans with my mom and sister along the way. Because it's me, my contractions stopped as soon as I got on the monitors. I tried my best to stay positive in case she sent us home thinking we could go to Farmer's Market and I could get on that nice bungee contraption to make the baby fly out. Finally I got some really hard contractions and she let us stay.
We arrived at St. Mary's at about 7:00pm and Luke James Light was born at 3:00am exactly. He is a hefty fellow weighing in at 8 pounds, 15 ounces and measuring 22 inches. I think the heftiest part is his umm... sack. Apparently he has retained some fluid there, so his diaper is a little snug around the racket ball-size...balls. He seems to be a pretty calm baby and is content to be a blob. We are keeping our fingers crossed he stays this way. He has two chins, no neck, and a full head of hair. At the moment he has deep blue eyes, but I think that will probably change(I don't want to get my hopes up).
I'm doing good. Recovery has been a TON better this time and surprisingly no tears or sutures to heal from. We've had great nurses this time and now we're just waiting for the okay to get outta here!

From Luke James Light

The Final Countdown

2009-07-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

We are now T minus 5 days for countdown. I think I'm finally ready. Last week was a mad rush to finish my online education class. This week is actually the last week of the class, but with my "bag-a-bulgin'" as Sarah likes to call it, I didn't want to take any chances. I asked my instructor to work with me just in case I went into labor. She eagerly said, "Sure, what'd you have in mind?" I asked for a simple extension on my final just in case I went into labor. She responded to my email with an ever so helpful, "No, you cannot have an extension. You can just finish everything a week early, ok?" Not ok! So as I raced around BSing my final assignment, Max had to intervene. He somehow plugged the laptop adapter into the outlet (child plug covers are no match for him), tripped the breaker, and shorted out my adapter. With no battery and no adapter I was freaking. Outsourced Dell support to the rescue. I have no idea what the Middle Eastern woman said half the phone call, but she nicely overnighted me an adapter and I finished my ridiculous class! Now we are just waiting for this baby to arrive. The next date that my doctor said she would induce me is on the 3rd, so atleast I know I only have to make it until then. For now, I'll just settle for running through the sprinklers with Max.

2 weeks to go :(

2009-07-20T14:26:00.001-07:00

I'm too huge, it's too hot, I'm too sweaty. That is all.

Fruits of my labor

2009-07-07T20:34:00.000-07:00

I bet you thought I went into labor. Ha! No, something much more fun and less painful. Our garden is producing! I discovered my first zucchini baby last night. I can't bring myself to chop it up, maybe it's the mother in me. Hopefully we'll have it with dinner tomorrow night. My peas are going crazy, too bad Max doesn't eat peas... or anything else for that matter. My knee-high-by-July corn is growing little tassels. I'm so excited that I actually can grow things! Apparently I grow weeds just as well as vegetables. I'm taking a very aggravating education class, so pulling weeds sort of gets rid of my frustration... and maybe it'll send me into labor.
In the spirit of melon growing, here's a picture of me at 36 weeks. Ugh, can't wait for that watermelon to drop!

Max's World

2009-06-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

How was your Sunday? Mine was great, I started it off by getting up too early. I ate a nice bowl of cereal, which I found is made better if you just dig through the milk with your hands in a swirly pattern. We went to church and I've decided that instead of listening to my parents tell me to whisper I should proudly announce my demands in a progressively louder manner. I tried to reach my goal of shouting, "SNACK," and "JUICE," at least 150 times. Then I entertained myself by trying to tickle the deacons as they passed the sacrament. They didn't respond, but I gave them my compliments for the excellent bread as I smacked my lips, "Mmmmm, num yummy." I then decided that pants should not be a mandatory part of church. The more my parents tried to pull them up, the more I demanded they stay off. After mooning the family behind me, I noticed the cute girl in front of me. She gave me the eye, so I made my move... and slapped her on the head. I think she was playing hard to get, she just stared at me and then cried. I made it up to her by wiggling my way into her pew to hold her hand, and steal some of her crayons. I came back to my seat and it was jumping time. I did my best Van Halen impression as I shouted "JUMP," every five seconds. It was then I realized Mommy's hair needed some touch ups. I did my best, but I don't think she appreciated my volumizing technique. Phew, it was a long day. I think I'm going to make up for it by not taking a nap and saying, "NO!" to any question I am asked.

-Max

Wanna come play?

2009-06-19T23:04:00.000-07:00

What do you do when your grass finally grows in? Flood the yard with an inflatable pool, of course.

Water, Baby!

2009-06-13T07:29:00.000-07:00

Joey hasn't had much work lately. In fact, he stayed home yesterday because he didn't have anything to do at work. We thought we'd make the best of it and plan a family day. We planned to run a bunch of errands and then go swimming at the swim center in Minden. I had a sneaking suspicion that Joey would get called in just because we made plans. I'm psychic. As soon as we finished our nutritious breakfast (the pregnant lady wanted donuts), Joey's radio went off. I wasn't too disappointed because he needs the hours. By the time Joey got off work, I was so bored I agreed to drive to Minden, with a huge headache, AND wear a swimsuit in my whale-ish condition.

The trip was well worth it. Max is a natural water baby! He went underwater a few times without crying, which is funny since he acts like we are waterboarding him when he gets a little water on his face in the tub. The only time he got the slightest bit bratty was when Joey went off the high dive and Max was dying to get a turn. I better get him into swim lessons before he takes his giant leap when I'm not looking!

Update

2009-06-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

Our grass is growing great in the backyard inspite of several mini flash floods from all the thunderstorms. We lost a little of the seed that hadn't germinated yet, but it will be easy to fill in. We don't have rain gutters yet, so we have huge run off ditches running through our garden. Surprisingly we haven't had to weed the garden much, which is good since it's getting harder and harder to bend over!

Speaking of weeds, Max continues to grow like one. He's talking more and more too, repeating everything we say... guess I should stop all the swearing. He especially loves words that allow him to spit (big surprise) like "chip" and "sheep." He just really loves those ending consonants. I tried to capture him on video talking, but he's a little camera shy. Please excuse the messy face and milk mouth. It's a lot easier to video him when he's stationary and the only time he's somewhat stationary is when he's eating.

Lookin Out My Back Door

2009-05-26T17:34:00.000-07:00

After blood, sweat and tears, Joey got the grass planted and the sprinklers working in the backyard. I also got our garden planted after perfecting the art of squatting with a ginormous belly. Our only challenge left is keeping Max from destroying our hard work. So far he's already ripped out the drip system.

From May26

Your fork's ringing

2009-05-15T13:06:00.001-07:00

I really wonder what life is going to be like with another boy in the house. Max's new "thing" is spitting. I think he picked it up watching us brush our teeth, but he ran with it. No matter where he is or what he's doing, he takes a moment to spit. He also likes to spit in disgust if he doesn't get his way. It's attractive. He spits in his sandbox, he spits in his food, he even spits in his shoes. (sort of sounds like a Dr. Seuss book) We took him to the park and as he was climbing the steps of the slide, he paused halfway up to spit. It was a blustery day and his spit sprayed right back into his face. I think boys are just predisposed to be gross.

Max is pretty funny. Last night at dinner (I use the term loosely because dinner to Max means throwing his food everywhere but his mouth) he picked up his fork like a phone and held it to his ear with his shoulder. He was talking to someone he really liked because he was laughing and talking gibberish excitedly. He lied to his friend, "haha yeah... mmm rice num yummy!" He didn't take a single bite, so I can only determine he was sarcastically telling his imaginary friend how horrible my cooking is. He then finished his fork call with a good spit.

Squash, Anyone?

2009-05-10T15:32:00.000-07:00

From Mothersday

I am happy to report that my gardening efforts have not been in vain. My little seedlings are sprouting! The only ones who haven't shown their little green heads are my watermelon plants. My dixie cup planters have worked fabulously, except they have this fuzzy white mold growing on the outside of the cups. It's probably not healthy, so I hope to get my sprouts in the ground this week. I have a feeling that we are going to have more corn and more peas than I ever want to eat.

Besides being the mother to my little sprouts, I was given the royal Mother's Day treatment for breakfast... well as royal as it gets in Dayton. Notice the lovely ice cream scoop sized butter and fancy garnish. Nothing says I love you like grapes on lettuce.

From Mothersday

The force is strong with this one

2009-05-04T14:59:00.000-07:00

Come on, the resemblence is uncanny! This was one of our baked potatoes from dinner. Ok, the picture is a little out of focus, but really it was like he was there telling me, "It's a trap!"

Hostage Situations and a Green Thumb

2009-04-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

Joey and I have realized we really need to start some good habits early with Max. We've always been pretty lame about Family Home Evening. We've tried a little harder lately to have a family activity with Max on Mondays. This Monday, Joey decided that Max needed to learn about Jesus. Joey thought we could show him a picture of Christ so in the future Max isn't the kid who stands up on his chair during sharing time and says, "Who's Jesus?" (Ok, he'll still be the kid who stands on his chair and yells, but atleast he'll know who Jesus is!) Joey got out the picture from his primary binder and we all sat on the couch for a nice little lesson. Joey showed Max the picture and immediately Max tried to grab it, and not in a gentle, I-just-wanna-look way. They wrestled and there were cries of panic on all sides as Max tightened his grip on the picture. The more Joey tried to take away the picture, the more Max crumpled and ripped it. It was like watching a hostage situation, only with a picture of Jesus at stake. Eventually Joey won, but at the cost of the picture. I have to say I'm a little disturbed Max had such an instinct to grab the picture and destroy it.
In non-related news, I started some seeds for our vegetable garden. You sort of have to improvise when you live in the sticks and can't just make quick trips to Walmart. I figured if it works for first graders, it can work for me. I filled a bunch of dixie cups with dirt and planted my seeds. I planted a lot because judging from my record, about half should die. If I end up with any sort of vegetable by the end of the summer, I'm going to count it as a success. Of course while I was planting my little seedlings, Max got a hold of the hose and made himself a nice little mud puddle which he quickly drenched himself in. At first he laughed and said, "Is cold," but that quickly turned into a whine of, "inside!" Even Max has his limits, I guess.

Quandary

2009-04-26T20:36:00.000-07:00

I've been informed that I'm in the "fun" stage of pregnancy. I'm not exactly sure what is so fun about it, but I am happy to say that I can again eat chicken and my nausea is all but gone. Of course every time I say that I end up waking up with a stomach ache in the middle of the night. I can't believe how the time has flown by! I have about 14 weeks left. I think it's gone by so fast because we're still trying to figure out how we're going to handle two crazy boys. We also can't figure out what we are going to name this little guy. We can't seem to agree on any name, and just end up creating lame name combinations with our last name like Flor Escent Light. So, against my better judgement, I'm asking for help. Joey suggested asking for a dollar from everyone to make a suggestion, then giving the winner the pot... We are not doing that, but if you'd like to help us out, feel free to give us some ideas!

2009-04-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

Max can now open the front door. Fantastic.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T13:16:00.000-07:00

Although we all are still recovering from a nasty cold virus, we had a great Easter. The Easter bunny brought Max some toys to use in his sandbox. He was excited about most of it except for the plastic bendable bunnies. I'm not sure why he hates them so much, but he immediately chucks them across the room as soon as he sees them. Which we learned when he threw them over the pews at church... along with his juice. Thankfully, no one was sitting immediately in front of us!
After church we went to the Pyrahs' for a yummy dinner and Easter egg hunt. Max opted out for the rocks instead of Easter eggs, much to Joey's dismay. Joey was counting on eating all of Max's candy.

We've got spring fever!

2009-04-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

Literally. I think we need to buy stock in Kleenex. I don't know what we have, but I think we just keep passing it between the three of us. I can't wait for warmer weather so we can get fresh air and get rid of this bug!
Amidst the sneezing and hacking, we've made some progress on the backyard. I won't go into the concrete fiasco... let's just say now the motto around here is, "Heather is always right." It seems like the ground isn't too hard, and we've found lots of treasures from the previous owners including a spoon, a butter knife, a triceratops, a marble, a canteen, and the list goes on. I'm thinking some little boy was trying to become survivor man in the wild of the backyard. Here's some updated pictures.

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Is anyone really surprised?

2009-03-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

It says "I M A BOY" if it's too blurry for you.

(I was going to lead up to the big reveal, but I realized you would just skip to find out what I'm having anyway.)

I think the most frequently asked question since I started telling people I was pregnant has been, "Are you going to find out the sex of the baby?" It's a generally common question to ask, but anyone who remembers the fiasco after Max entered the world understands why there are snickers after the question is posed. Neither Joey or I could stand to let it be a surprise (ha!), so we decided we would still find out the sex of baby #2. Now, I know that I will still be a little skeptical until D-day, but I have reasons to think this time it's more accurate. First, we did NOT go to the ghetto imaging place we went to with Max. Second, no one told me last time I had to drink 32 oz before the ultrasound (sooooo happy I didn't pee my pants). Thirdly, his bits were quite obvious and this guy is not shy! Lastly, the technician was much more knowledgeable and friendly. Here are the first naked baby pictures. Joey and I were just happy all the body parts are accounted for and everything looks normal. Max, on the other hand, was very unhappy with the whole process because he wasn't allowed to play with the ultrasound machine.

A few of my favorite things

2009-03-16T17:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a good day. Max went to nursery for all of church! Technically, he's not actually 18 months, but the fact that he makes a bee-line for the nursery room in any church building is a sign to us that he's more than ready. Of course since I dropped him off, there were no tears (he only has attachment issues with Joey). I got nervous when the nursery leader poked her head into Sunday School looking knowingly at me, but it was only a really stinky diaper. That might not sound like a big deal, but Max is a bit of a shy pooper (yeah, yeah TMI) so he must have felt pretty darn comfortable in there! Sending Max to nursery for the majority of church is one of my new favorite things!

Another favorite of mine is our growing cupcake business. I made these cute spring chicks for some friends who had birthdays.

These are some monster cupcakes I made today for a preschooler's birthday. I think Jim Henson would be proud. They were super easy too.Lastly, my favorite thing to hope for is our backyard. Joey worked all weekend getting ready to pour our cement patio. I cannot wait for grass and a garden! Max loves going out to play in the dirt, but I would rather be playing on some grass. Hopefully we'll have the majority of the yard done by the end of the summer.

For Sale!

2009-03-13T10:18:00.001-07:00

Do you find yourself unable to reach the dark recesses of your cabinets? Are you too frightened to uncover the dust bunnies waiting for you in the nooks and crannies of your cupboards? Are you frustrated when you are missing the lid to your favorite Tupperware container? Have we got the tool for you. He's lightweight, flexible and comes in many shades and smells. We can't guarantee the tool will do what you want, in fact it IS guaranteed he'll do the exact opposite of what you want. But rest assured that if you want to know what lurks in hidden places, this guy will find it. He's also great at climbing to those hard to reach shelves on your bookcases and crawling under your bed. Order now, he's going fast!
*Caution: he will most likely eat whatever he finds and emits foul odors at least twice a day.

Look What I Can Do!

2009-03-09T18:40:00.000-07:00

I guess Max thought it was too bright in the living room, so he took it upon himself to fix the blinds. I'm still not sure what to do about him climbing on the couch. I wasn't able to grab the camera in time to capture his backward summersault-faceplant when he slipped off the top of the couch. I wonder what the neighbors think of the boy standing on the couch, yelling and banging on the window.

After!

2009-03-03T12:41:00.000-08:00

So here is our new furniture. I'm still not done with the whole room. I don't care much for the pillows that came with our couches, they seems too southwestern for me. I'm keeping my eyes open for fabric to cover them and match to curtains. I always get nervous when I pick things out at a store and am not positive how they will look in my house. Joey and I were both relieved that they work so well. Our table doesn't have the leaf in it right now because it would take up the whole dining room. I'm also not sure about the lazy susan that came with it, but it sure is fun spinning food toward Joey! The only downer was that the delivery men (they blamed it on someone else) dropped the table top and crunched a corner. We'll get our new, new table in a week or so. Now onto finishing the backyard and tiling the floors!

Before...

2009-02-27T11:41:00.001-08:00

When Joey and I got engaged, we looked at furniture for our first apartment and realized we were dirt poor. Luckily, we came into lots of donated furniture. In fact, in our first apartment we didn't have a single new piece of furniture. Joey found our huge, green, feather-shedding monstrosity at work... which was a disaster cleanup company. They mostly dealt with sewage leaks and mold, but lucky for us this was just a fire damage job. Some rich person with horrible taste out there had this couch custom made complete with pea green flower print and fabulous dust ruffle. We never smelled any smoke on it and the people who owned it got a nice chunk of insurance money. Since then, it has served us well... aside from the feathers scratching us and going up our noses and the cushions sliding off daily. I can still picture Joey standing on his dad's truck lifting it up to our window (it wouldn't fit through the door) to Matt and me. Then having to drop it back out the window when we moved to Dayton.

I'm not just posting this to show my love for my couch, but to rejoice in the fact that by tomorrow it will be gone and so will our dining table! In their places, we will have STORE BOUGHT furniture that matches! Hooray! So here is the before picture of our living room. Stay tuned for the after picture.

What the cup, Cake?!

2009-02-17T09:18:00.001-08:00

As some of you know Sarah and I are starting a cupcake business. Halloween was pretty much our first attempt... and there was a lot of error going on with our trial. I had my doubts if we could make it in the cut-throat world of confections, but Valentines Day was booming for business! Here are a few samples of our work. Sarah said in all we made 152 cupcakes...but I was spent long before that. We have a website for our company http://www.whatthecupcake.com/. You can also email orders and questions to whatthecupcake@yahoo.com.

Tracking Bigfoot

2009-02-13T13:33:00.000-08:00

By 8 o'clock I usually crash on the couch watching some stupid reality show after eating some rocky road ice cream. I keep asking myself, "Why am I so tired??" I know I'm pregnant and it's supposedly like running a marathon...blah, blah, blah. I know what the real reason is- M.A.X.

I try to explain to people just how mischevious he is, but I can never express it fully. Either that, or I'm just a big whiner and people don't want to listen to me anymore. Either way, I try desperately to document his behavior on film, but it's all in vain. It's like trying to capture Bigfoot on film, no one believes it's real. Of course Max just loves the camera, so whenever he hears the whir of the lens popping out, he drops whatever he's breaking and runs over to breathe heavily into the lens. For instance, here's a video of him. What I was trying to get was him pulling the suitcase out of the closet over to the bed to create a step stool. He wanted to grab whatever random item I had placed on the middle of the bed out of his reach. Now, I realize this is pretty ingenious of him to figure out his own solution, but his inventions always come with some bodily injury risk.

Exhibit B: I had to get ready this morning to go deliver cupcakes, so I set up the gate in the doorway of the bathroom and headed for the shower. In the 10 minutes I was in there (I sped up as I heard various crashes and squeels) he had knocked over a lamp, unfolded all the towels I had just folded, taken the heater vent out of the hole (I don't know what he threw down there), pulled out the drawers of Joey's closet organizer, and somehow changed the time on my alarm. Not to mention earlier this morning he pulled the table runner off the table knocking over the roses Joey gave me, getting water all over the place. I find myself saying to him, "This is why we don't have nice things!"

They say the darndest things

2009-01-31T10:40:00.000-08:00

So last night Joey and I were talking about how eventually this little growing thing has to come out of me. I was saying I hoped it would be easier this time around. Then HE said, "Man, I just hope I'm not as exhausted this time. That was hard." Ummm... yeah, you poooooor baby, that delivery sure was hard on you!

Those Crazy Lights

2009-01-15T12:12:00.000-08:00

This year is off to a good start. I realized that this is as good as I'm going to get at somewhat of a journal, so I thought I'd give an update on us. Plus, I don't do the whole Christmas letter thing, so this makes up for it!

Max:

Oh where to start. He had his check up and I bet you can guess where he fell in the percentiles. The nurse reassured me that he is very close to being in the 20% for weight... all 22 pounds of him. He is still tall at 33 inches. So tall in fact, that he can reach the top drawer in the kitchen and pull out carving knives. He loves pushing buttons (literally and non literally). He frequently changes the cycle on the dishwasher and tries to turn on the stove. He is a good helper though, he loves to close the dryer door for me... sometimes before I want him to. He can say a few words (I use the term loosely). He can definitely say "shoes," but I think he may be referring to his feet. He can also say, "hello," "knock, knock (which he also acts out)," "socks," and "cracker." Most of these probably would still sound like gibberish to the untrained ear, but I speak Max and therefore we get along... until Daddy comes home and then I'm chopped liver. he loves being with Joey and really loves tools. He could bang a hammer on the drive way all day if we let him.

Joey:

He completed his FCC license in December. The class was super expensive (not to mention the week off of work unpaid) but he did really well, like always. Yeah, that's right, he could be the announcer on a cruise ship or be a DJ on the radio. Actually, he needs it to work at Sierra Pacific (his dream job). He has turned in his resume there and hopefully his connections there will pull some strings! Joey's also been itching to work outside the house (no closet doors yet, ahem). He loves pulling out ugly trees and getting rid of weeds, which I am very thankful for! He just fixed our side gate that was barely hanging on. He's a perfectionist, but it's worth it. He wants to finish the backyard this summer, and is a little disappointed his pack mule (aka me) will be out of service by then. I'm still working on convincing him that I will be huge and pregnant and then have a newborn while he talks of camping trips and anniversary cruises.

Me:

Well, I get the question a lot of, "So... what do you do all day?" I mainly chase a knife wielding toddler around keeping him from ingesting poisonous substances. It's kind of strange to me, but I've had feelings of wanting to teach again... hmm, guess those stinky fifth graders weren't so hard after all! Seriously, I love staying home with Max. I love watching him figure out new things like how to use a fork. He has a great sense of humor. Yesterday we were playing in the backyard and I showed him how to hit the tree trunk with a stick. He seemed to think that was ok, but chasing me and trying to poke me in the butt with it was much more fun! I have been working on a couple projects myself. Toni and Jake (we all know who really picked it out) gave me this awesome magnet board that I got to paint and decorate. It was the perfect gift! I'm sure I'll get more crafty as the nesting instinct starts to kick in... hey, maybe I'll have a clean house then too!

Stink, Stank, Stunk!

2009-01-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

I don't have much new to report, other than I think I'm going to go into hibernation until spring. I think I could really sleep that long. When I'm pregnant I turn into one of those dolls where when you lay them flat their eyelids automatically close. I've missed a lot of good shows this way and apparently I snore.

On one hand, I'm really glad I'm not teaching with this pregnancy. I remember when I was pregnant with Max I would fall asleep with my head on my desk during recess, not to mention having to breathe out of my mouth to keep from inhaling the toxic fumes 10 year old boys produce. On the other hand, I have noticed if I'm busy, I don't notice how incredibly disgusting I feel. If I was teaching at least I would have bigger problems than whether or not my food would stay down. I told Joey last night that it feels like my stomach is full of rotten eggs on a ferris wheel. I can't tell you how many antacids I've taken or how many foods I've tried to settle my gag reflex. All I know is if I even hear about anything BBQ'd I have heartburn the rest of the day! Basically, I'm down to hot chocolate and peanut butter toast.

I know it may shock my family members, but I'm an optimist at heart. I have searched for the silver lining in this stomach-acidy balloon. First, it must mean the baby is healthy and I've got prego hormones up the wazoo, right? RIGHT?!? Secondly, all I wanted with Max was fresh fruit and now that is all he eats... all 20 pounds of him. SO this baby has got to be a fatty... a fat, docile, sleepy baby. (Don't burst my bubble on this one, I have to hold onto some hope!)

It's a bird! A plane! No it's...

2008-12-31T07:44:00.000-08:00

You may be asking yourself, "What the heck is that? Is that a squirrel? A puppy??" That's exactly what Joey said... to my doctor at my appointment. Needless to say, Joey is not invited to many of my doctor appointments, but I thought this one was an important one. His presence usually makes my blood pressure go dangerously high mostly because I don't know what he'll say to the doctor next.

Anyway, this, my friend, is our little squirrel...er I mean baby #2. By now you've done the calculations and yes, we are crazy and yes, Max will be all of 22 months when this little animal comes and no, (for the billionth time) this wasn't unplanned (rude!). Also, yes, I will find out the sex of the baby, and no, I will not believe it until I see it's bits for myself!

Happy New Year! Countdown to July 31st!

Who Knew?

2008-12-18T13:01:00.000-08:00

Who knew we would make it four years :) We laughed, we cried, sometimes it felt a lot longer than four years. When I was little, I was appalled and disappointed to learn I would have to be with my siblings forever. Guess that Family Home Evening didn't go as planned. I thought we got to trade families or something, or atleast older brothers. But I am glad to say, I wouldn't trade my little family for anything. And as they say, "Four more years!!"

Homecoming

2008-12-15T11:14:00.000-08:00

Finally our coveted Ugly Christmas Sweater Party trophy is where it belongs. For three years now we have been shamed by the Johnsons and their holiday attire. But no more! We were out for the kill this year! Joey spent weeks growing out the perfect creepy mustache (I tried to make him keep it for church and ask to hold everyone's babies, but he declined) and I just seemed be inspired by everything around me. I even fashioned my ornament earings hours before the party. So now our blessed trophy (purchased at Savers many years ago by me) is back resting with the other members of our Nativity scene. Oh and one more thing, HAHA Johnsons, Losers!

Ho Ho Ho!

2008-12-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

We had our ward Christmas party Saturday night. Last year, we didn't have Max sit, er rather lay like a blob, on Santa's lap. It just didn't seem worth it when he wouldn't know what was going on. This year was a different story. Although Max has no idea who Santa is and doesn't know anything about presents (lucky us), he was quite impressed with the jolly fellow. As I watched the extremely long line of crying children terrified of Santa, I thought of how every child needs a traumatizing Santa picture. When Max's turn finally came, I got all set with the camera. To my dismay, he just stared, open mouthed, at Santa's beard. He was no doubt thinking of ways to rip off his glasses or beard or both. Finally after practically screaming his name to look at me, I snapped this one. Atleast Max is smiling, can't say much for Santa.

Phobias and coping

2008-11-21T09:07:00.001-08:00

I've been informed that it's been a long time since I posted anything. Relax, adoring fans, I'm still kickin'. Here are a few things to catch you up on what's been going on (or around) in the Light world.

1. Vomit.
If you know me well at all you know I can't even stand the thought of the V word. It's a deep psychosomatic fear of mine that I've had since as long as I can remember. Don't know how to explain it, but just the twinge of a stomach ache will send me into sweats/panic attacks and don't even get me started when someone else is sick! Like one time when I had to babysit my nephew and he projectiled all over the living room. I called my mom to clean it up and basically stood there like a statue the rest of the night. I love my nephew, but my fear was greater. I don't know how many times I've heard, "What are you going to do when your kid throws up?" and my answer always was, "Call Joey and tell him to come home and clean it up. Duh." Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have all but conquered my phobia (as far as my child is concerned). Max and I were enjoying a nice episode of the Wiggles after a nice breakfast of cinnamon raisin pancakes (Max's new fav.) when without warning the rugrat spewed chunks everywhere...numerous times!! I sat in shock for a minute and recovered enough to haul him to the tub, my slippers filling with you know what. I managed to clean him, our clothes, the blanket, the carpet and disinfect the bathroom without a mental breakdown (Joey said our house smelled like a swimming pool, bleach is my friend) ...Then I got sick. Two hours after arriving in the mucc for a nice visit with Nana, my turn came. Nine hours later, basically sleeping with my head on the throne, dehydrated and hoarse, I realized I hate being sick. So far Joey has been spared, but if I see any minute sign he may be next, I'm heading for the hills!

2. Craigslist.
I couldn't possibly make this post totally about vomit, I had to end it on a positive note. I love craigslist. I loved Ebay, but all the annoying fees are pulling me away to Craigslist. I sold all the left over napkins (unused, but opened) from Max's birthday for about $5. I really believe the trick to selling stuff online is that it has to be crap- like party napkins. Oh but Craigslist, how it has made our Christmas! Needless to say with a car and a house this year, we are a on a budget for presents. However I discovered Joey has lots and lots of greasy metally thingies in the garage that are very popular on Craigslist. Don't worry, I haven't sold his truck (again hee hee)... yet.

They grow up so fast

2008-10-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

So if you haven't heard already, Max is walking. He hasn't perfected it yet, but he looks even more like a monkey when he walks like an ape. I edited the video, but for some reason it won't rotate here, so just cock your head to one side to watch it.

He really is growing up so fast. We had a first this week- my first call to Poison Control. Ah yes, who doesn't enjoy the taste of liquid bandage on a cool morning? Luckily, Max only licked the applicator brush, but he thought it was quite tasty. The nice man at the poison center told me not to worry unless he started vomitting, which he didn't. We thought he may have sealed up his taste buds for a while, but he actually had a good appetite that day. Needless to say, Joey installed ALL of the child cabinet locks as soon as he got home from work... not that that will deter Max.
We went with the Pyrahs and Grand-Pyrahs out to Lattin Farms this weekend for Max's first encounter with goats. He absolutely loved the goats and attempted to rip their ears off. I was pleasently surprised to see the goats didn't bite his fingers, especially since Max was practically giving them a dental exam. We're thinking about getting a goat, more as a play mate for Max. Here are some pictures from the day:

Oh Gourd!

2008-10-17T15:17:00.001-07:00

As you can probably tell we carved pumpkins last Monday. Joey thought it might be too early, but I thought nothing of it. Well, yesterday Joey's pumpkin sank in. Curse you global warming! It's still about 75 outside and now our Jack-o-lanterns look like old men! Max really had fun squishing the guts. That's what it's all about, right? At least our pumpkins will be too mushy to be picked up by hooligan kids and hurled into the street on Halloween night! THAT is what it's all about.

Max looking thoroughly thrilled about the whole experience

Joey taking out his aggression on the pumpkin. No need to thank us, Scheels, for the free advertising.

In Your Face, We're #1

2008-10-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

Max's first birthday was quite the fete. Don't know if I could count how many people we had at our house! Like always, I got caught up in the details of his cake and got in a little over my head. Joey thought I should make Curious George's eyes red like he was an attack monkey, but I thought better of it. Max didn't go crazy with his cake like I was expecting, but he is definitely my son. Every time he passes the cake he says, "mmmm" and holds out his hand, dying for another piece. I'm hoping the square foot of cake we have left over from the party will disappear soon... and not into my belly! Here are some pictures from the party. Thanks to everybody for coming, it was a blast!

Love this one of Sarah. Classy.

I'm glad to be done with the first birthday planning and now it's on to more important things- getting rid of the bottle and reign in the tantrum monster!

Model Behavior

2008-10-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

It's really hard to believe Max will be one is just over a week! He has taken a few steps and I swear he can say, "soft". He's not the most gentle little person, so we've tried to teach him to stroke people's faces softly. Now he just says, "sofff" and then slaps me across the face.

Anywho, I took him to get his pictures taken last night. He was a HUGE crab the entire afternoon, so I figure the pictures would be of his snotty nose and red eyes. The boy is a ham! As soon as she got out her camera he was all smiles and actually sat still! I'm thinking of becoming a stage mom.

Check out the photographer's blog for some of Max's pics.
http://bluelakephotography.typepad.com/blue_lake_photography/2008/10/index.html

Ode to the Escort

2008-10-01T20:31:00.001-07:00

Oh how I've loved my little purple car. Oh how I loved the zippy little car that got atleast 30 mpg. The faithful purple beast was always reliable, but all good things must come to an end.

Truth of the matter is that the Escort was on it's last leg. We figured we needed to be rid of it before it got rid of us. Joey has been dying to test drive anything since we got married, but I absolutely detest car salesmen. I also hate spending large lump sums of money. So I told him to pick out a car and I would say yea or nay. Joey found a great deal on this 2005 4-runner. It's got 3rd row seats and power everything. I've never had power windows and locks before! And it's fabulous to have a working gas gauge! Max loves the smooth ride and would rather sleep in the car than his own bed. Joey thinks this will be a great family four-wheeling rig/camping transportation- HA!

So, as Joey cleaned my Escort, I put it up on Craigslist. Within 3 hours it was gone! Joey was sort of melancholy about selling it since we've had that car our whole marriage. I guess it's sort of the ending of an era, the Purple Era.

Laugh it up, Fuzzball.

2008-09-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

In my life I have endured many hardships inflicted on me by my siblings. For some reason I was labeled the minority child of Latina descent. With that label came many embarrassing derogatory comments. I have developed a lot of character through the years letting their constant assaults roll of my back. I thought I could leave it all behind me when we moved to Dayton. Then look what we discovered in the flower bed next to the front door. *sigh*

I'm a planner

2008-09-12T19:23:00.000-07:00

I think like most kids when August came around, I had already decided what I would be for Halloween. It probably took me longer than most kids to realize I was too old to dress up. However, I now have someone who I get to choose his costume for him! Old Navy was having a sale and Joey knew I had my eye on the monkey costume for Max. Actually, it was a big toss up between the skunk and the monkey. We decided a monkey is more Max's style, plus Joey wants him to wear it on his birthday which is going to be Curious George themed (Yes, I already planned that too, although, I think the costume might be a little too much what with the cake and all). Of course, I had to see if the costume would fit right, you know, in case I had to plan out something else for him to be. I mean, I only have like a month and a half before Hallow's eve! Here are some pictures, I think we made the right decision with the monkey. It was a little hard to tear him away from his favorite Baby Einstein (thanks, Tiff!) to look at the camera.

Doesn't he look like a browner version of Hudson in this one?
Joey couldn't resist hugging him. With all that padding it was like a stuffed animal!

Now my life is complete

2008-09-05T15:30:00.000-07:00

It's been ages since I laid in bed gazing into Donnie's eyes... or was it Jordan's? It was a sad day when I took down my New Kids on the Block poster and realized they had left my life forever. There was a hole in my heart where bib overalls and falsettos used to live. Then I was flipping through the channels yesterday and caught a live performance on "The View." Oh yes, the rumors are true! The New Kids on the Block are back, hangin' tough! I made Joey sit and watch them perform "Step by Step." He just didn't share my enthusiasm. I have to admit, it's just not the same. At least I got some closure.

Lost: battery charger

2008-09-03T10:21:00.001-07:00

We (Joey) did a bunch of work on the yard this weekend. Joey ripped out the dead trees and some weird placed bushes in the front yard (much to my mom's dismay). It was pretty funny to watch him pull them out with the truck! He actually broke a bunch of ropes trying to pull out the bushes. We've given up on trying to grow grass from what was left in the yard. The ground is really not level, so we're going to rip it up and seed again. Again, when I say we, I mean Joey. I will most likely be supervising.
I would have taken pictures, but our little ankle biter, who likes to remove items plugged into outlets, has made off with the camera battery charger. I searched the house, but have no idea where he put it. I'm beginning to think he has some sort of squirrel hole where he hides all his treasures. Did I mention he now takes money out of my wallet too? Beware, we're raising a pick-pocket!

Petroleum Jelly

2008-08-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was cleaning the kitchen when I realized things had gotten quiet...a little too quiet. Max was babbling to himself in his room happily and I was grateful he was discovering on his own. I didn't want to interrupt this because I don't want to encourage the clinginess he's developed lately. Then I realized he must be into something or else he wouldn't be so content. I turned the corner to find him with both hands in the petroleum jelly jar! (didn't even know we still had it) His feet were covered in the goop so he must have stuck those in there too. I gasped and startled him, which made him fling the slimy stuff. He then looked at me and gave me a nervous laugh and some flimsy gibberish explanation.

The sad part of this story was I was more concerned that he had gotten the grease into the new carpet rather than him ingesting it. Luckily his face didn't seem glossy so I don't think he ate any... Although, his lips were very luscious and shiny the rest of the day and his hands and feet were super soft.

P.S. Searching for images of "petroleum jelly" is NOT a good idea and produces many unwanted images!!

Trial Run

2008-08-10T13:22:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking lately about what I would do for Max's first birthday. I thought of doing "Where the Wild Things Are" (how I'm decorating his room), but what I found online was either too complicated or discontinued...

Then I remembered that Max does occasionally watch Curious George, and he does resemble the precocious little monkey. So there you have it. Since watching "Ace of Cakes" and "Food Challenge" I decided that decorating cakes is, well, a piece of cake.
I went to PBSkids.org and there is a coloring page (most likely meant for 5 year olds) where you can go step by step to draw Curious George. My monkey looked NOTHING like the example. I decided I had better make a stencil if I want people to think the cake is appetizing. I used cocoa powder to dust my homemade stencil and successfully dumped the can onto the cake creating brown smudges everywhere. It still tasted alright, and I have to say my crumb coating was spectacular.

Since I have realized baking sweets with no purpose leads to excess weight on me, I gave this trial run cake to our friend, Jamin.

I learned some important lessons through making my trial run:
1. In the world of food coloring, red and green do not make brown- they make a nasty gray color.
2. The Smiths in Dayton does not carry food coloring!
3. I should not make too much chocolate frosting because I eat all the extra and get sick.

Procrastination

2008-08-06T10:30:00.001-07:00

I could be doing many constructive things- touching up the house paint, doing the dishes, folding clothes... UNPACK. But no, I took a quiz to see which Disney princess I was. I think it's funny I got the only Disney movie I owned until I met Joey (funny, he has more Disney movies than me... ). It sort of reminds me of those quizzes you take in all those girl magazines in middle school (ok, ok high school) in Seventeen and such where you know you want to manipulate your answers to make sure you acheive, "Prom Night Princess" instead of "Prom Night Pooper" status. All in all, I was pleased with the results. Hey, I was just happy I didn't get Cruella.

You Are Mulan!

Strong and spirited. You're no one's girly girl; actually you are very determined person with a strong sense of self. Never let go of that! The only thing that equals your sense of self is your family, but the traditions of society can always be bent to protect something or someone you love.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

2008-07-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

So I haven't been blogging lately- mainly because we were in limbo most of the month waiting for our house to close. We are still unpacking and finishing up painting and other lose ends. As soon as we get all the boxes unpacked, I'll take some finished pictures of the house. In the meantime, here are some things we have been up to this summer.

We went to Winnemucca for the fourth of July. We tried swimming in my parents above ground pool, but it was freezing. Max loved it though, and liked his new floaty... so did Joey. Joey didn't have to pick the pink one, but he was pretty attached to it. (They were watching my dad chip wood... It's a guy thing, I guess)

Seems like all our family outings revolve around water. We also went down to the river with the Pyrahs. Joey inexplicably took Max out into the rapids of the river and promptly brought him back after much yelping from the shore. Max's much paler cousins stuck to giving each other mud spa treatments on the shore.

I quite enjoy Max's floppy hat. I'm considering getting one for myself.

House Update

2008-07-01T20:34:00.000-07:00

People have been asking us what the deal is with our house- when are we moving, when does it close, blah blah blah. Buying this house has to be one of the most stressful things we have done. For the past week we have been on a rollercoaster of thinking we can start working only to find out someone in the process has made yet another mistake. We think we have all the kinks worked out now and hopefully we will be signing tomorrow afternoon or Thursday. Our closing date is also Thursday, but we have the week after that to finish the carpet and paint. We have to be out of our apartment by the 13th, so we're in a bit of a time crunch. It has been SO nice to see how many people are willing to help us and we wish we weren't being such flakes about telling people when they can help. Thanks in advance to everyone who has volunteered to help us and hopefully we can take you up on your offer as soon as possible!

Max Power

2008-07-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

So, this is a little old (a week or so), but Max has learned to crawl... well sort of. He does this sort of gimpy one-legged crawl. But it certainly doesn't slow him down! I remember looking around the apartment when I was going through my nesting phase feeling pretty confident we wouldn't need to do much child proofing. Max has proven me wrong. I never realized he could find the tiniest crumbs on the floor to eat. He quickly shoves them in his mouth as I run over to fish hook them out. He loves to pull books off the shelves, open and close cabinets (sometimes hitting himself in the head with them), and trying to dump out the bathroom garbage cans. He also loves outlets. Not just poking the outlets themselves, but he tries to pull off the entire plate. He must want to work with electricity like his daddy. Here is a video of his new favorite hobby. Atleast it keeps him busy while I do the dishes. Guess you'll think twice before accepting something from us in a tupperware container!

He floats!

2008-06-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

For Father's Day weekend we took a trip to Forest Hill CA to Joey's parents' house. We had a lot of fun. Max had so much fun, he didn't feel like eating or sleeping! (that part wasn't so fun for us) The highlight of the weekend was going to Sugar Pine Reservoir. The water was a lot warmer than Tahoe and provided a great starting point for Max to learn to swim. He did so great, he was wakeboarding by the end of the day! He's pretty much a child prodigy.

Deep Thoughts by Joey

2008-06-08T16:22:00.000-07:00

"You have to be careful with ham and cheese. Sometimes it can be too cheesy or too hammy."

Finally!

2008-05-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

Finally we heard back about the house we put an offer on forever ago. Our offer was accepted, no thanks to our less than helpful realtor. I am still cautious about the whole thing just because I have heard horror stories about other people having something happen right before the closing date (which is July 3rd). Here is a link to the property's website. The photographs do not do the amount of filth in the house justice, but you get the idea. We are excited to actually be moving forward with a house! Did I mention there is a hot tub? Heck yes! I think it makes us seem super sophisticated.

http://cbbestsellers.com/SLW/80005805

First Haircut

2008-05-14T21:21:00.000-07:00

Before...

During...

After...

Many kids don't have their first hair cut until they are like two, but it was either cut Max's hair or start braiding it. So we decided to do it at Nana's house. I thought he would go balistic at the sound of the clippers, but he actually liked it. He didn't cry at all! The only difficult thing was that he wanted to look at the clippers so I had to hold his head in pretty much a headlock while Joey attempted to fade it. Max's head looks so much skinnier! Joey missed a few spots, but I couldn't believe how much hair we cut off! Next time we will have to donate it to Locks of Love.

2 New Developments

2008-04-24T15:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I noticed a little rough thing in Max's mouth. Finally a tooth has broken through! Funny thing is though, he is more happy now than he has ever been. We'll see how this continues. Also he can sit up on his own... well almost. He occasionally tips over, usually before I have a chance to catch his head before it makes a thick thud sound on the carpet. Hey, at least I don't let him hit his head on concrete, right? It's good for him, it'll toughen him up!

Crying Out Loud!

2008-04-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when I let Max "cry it out." It never fails, I'm either exhausted or in the middle of something and he refuses to sleep. So I think to myself, "Just let him cry himself back to sleep." I usually give up and find him soaked through his diaper, tangled in blankets (usually over his mouth, very safe) or in crazy uncomfortable positions like this one, yesterday. He did finally fall asleep this way, but I felt so bad because his nose was completely smashed against the bumper and he was making snorty sounds trying to breathe. I think I'm a shoe in for "Mother of the Year."

6 Months and Counting!

2008-04-11T20:11:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Max is 6 months old already. Dang it, I was supposed to get my washboard stomach back by now... oh wait, I never had one. We can't believe how much he has grown! We feel so blessed to have in our family. We found out today at his check up that he is still a beanpole. He is in the 10th percentile for weight and 90th for height. His head is actually average size. Thank goodness for those Light genes! :) All in all he is a healthy boy, but I think I'm going to start him on protein shakes to bulk him up.

House Update

2008-04-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

So scratch the last post. After thinking about it, we were definitely biting off more than we could chew with those houses. We went out again and looked at some more, some scarier than others. Note to self, at least watch a how-to video before attempting doing a tiled tub.

We put in an offer yesterday on a nice house pretty close to our apartment (but far enough away from the scary people). It's a single story 3 bed 2 bath. It's a cute house with a lot of potential. If it doesn't work out... guess we can always get a trailer and live in Dayton State Park.

2008-04-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

We looked for houses on Saturday. I have heard people say that after a while all the houses begin to look the same. I thought that was what was happening, but in fact they were almost all the same floor plan. We narrowed our choices down to two. They are the same exact house, but one was built in 2005 and one is almost done being built. There are pros and cons to each, but atleast now I know what my future house will look like...hopefully :) I have a hard time at night sleeping (besides being up with Max) thinking of all the things I could do with the space. Curse you, HGTV!

Sounds of Silence

2008-03-31T19:12:00.000-07:00

So it's 7:15pm and finally Max is asleep. I know 7:15 sounds early, but the kid has been screaming since he woke up at 4:00. I don't know what is going on with him, but he better pop out a tooth or something so that I can feel like this agony is worth it. I would say that it is peaceful now that he is unconcious, but I also have the basset hound next door to listen to as well as my fabulous white trash neighbors with their "Rock Band" game. Ah, but there is a glimmer of hope! We got approved for a house loan (much higher number than first thought) so we can move out of white-trash-ville! We are looking for a house on Saturday, YAY! I can't believe we are finally going to own a house.

P.S. Does anyone have a suggestion for Mad Max? He's not constipated, running a fever, or allergic to new food (no rash and I haven't given him anything new in a week)

Family photos

2008-03-24T15:00:00.000-07:00

We also took family pictures on Saturday. I found this girl in the other ward here in Dayton. She took us to the golf course in Genoa to photograph us with the waterfall in the background... too bad it was drained due to repairs. She still took some great pictures of us and is going to take more of Max later since he got pretty fed up with the camera that day. I recommend her to anyone, she was great to work with. You can see our pictures as well as her other work at this blog: bluelakephotography.typepad.com

Who's the bigger kid?

2008-03-24T14:51:00.000-07:00

We should have spent the greater part of Saturday cleaning house, but it was such a nice day! I thought we were just going for a walk, but Joey needed to get some extra energy out. He claimed Max wanted to play... I think the pictures prove otherwise.

We're here!

2008-03-19T16:41:00.000-07:00

So I thought since Myspace just doesn't hold much interest for me anymore, I would move on. Like always, I am one of the last people to jump on the band wagon. Better late than never. Well, I hope all of our adoring fans will now feel satisfied to see up to the minute updates on America's favorite family, the Lights. Looks like I have found yet another way of procrastinating house work. Enjoy!