4th of July

We went to Chris's cabin for the 4th of July weekend and then down to his brother's house for fireworks. It was beautiful and so nice to actually be able to go outside without feeling like you would die from the heat in the next 5 minutes.

I couldn't decide if I like color, b&w, or sepia the best with this picture.

We took some pictures with Max and our family. Just impromtu but they are cute.

Max reaching for Thatch....see prior posts.

More Max

Max has a bear that is very soft and snuggly. He doesn't need it to sleep but he loves it. He smushes it to his face and snuggles it if he's tired. You can see him holding it in the pictures above and below.

The below picture used to be a frequent occurence. He used to get stuck and scream in the middle of the night. He has since figured out how to get himself untangled so now it's just a cute picture. (I had taken the bumper off since you aren't supposed to have it when they can pull themselves up.)

I get him naked to eat sometimes. Much easier to change one diaper than wash more clothes (and pre-treat them). Here he is eating a favorite - spaghetti. Unfortunately, a very messy favorite.

Maxisms

This is Max's pile of toys one day at our old place. Tons of great stuff to play with and enjoy for hours on end.

Below is where Max always ended up - playing with the dog toys.

On a different day a few weeks ago: Max was eating Kix on his highchair. He decided he was done so about 20 Kix ended up on the floor before I put him down. I'm pretty lazy so they stayed there while I did something at the table.

I then watched Max get a Kix, take it over to Thatch, throw it at him, and go back for another one. You see, Thatch isn't allowed under the highchair or really anywhere near it while Max is eating. So Max decided to help the poor puppy out and proceeded to feed him every single Kix on the floor. Thatch was in love. Above is Max getting the last two Kix and below is Thatch patiently waiting (he had crept into the room a bit) and then getting fed by Max.

I have a feeling I'm going to really have to watch them when Max gets fed something he doesn't like. Murphy is picky but Thatch will eat anything. And Max tries to share everything and give everything to Thatch - his pacifier, his sippy cup, and toys - both dog and kid. I hope they still play together so nicely when the baby comes.

Great-Grandma Loves Max

Great-Grandma Healy has always been able to get a smile out of Max. I love that he warms up to people fairly quickly. It seems to make people love him that much more. Grandma also gave Max a cookie which didn't hurt.

A Post for Chris

This is for anyone who likes fly-fishing. Chris made this contraption and used it last weekend fishing (which if he had a blog he would write about for hours - it was apparently GREAT fishing). Anyway, he doesn't like lanyards and is tired of his fanny pack so he came up with using his binocular harness and some picture hanging wire to make this. Way to go honey. If only it could make us some money.

River & 20 Weeks Pregnant (1/2 way!)

We went and played in the river last Saturday. We weren't sure how warm it was going to be since it has been in the 80's here but it was great. Everyone loved it, especially Thatch and Max. Murphy was busy doing flyball so she couldn't go.
Max just waded around at first with us holding his hands but then he demanded to be put down. So we stripped him of his clothes and in he went, diaper and all. He has been throwing the loudest tantrums lately, especially in Walmart. We give in sometimes and sometimes we just let him scream. He started slapping us in the face a few weeks ago and we've been working on being 'soft'. The other day he got mad at me, went to slap me in the face, caught himself in time, softly touched my lips, then screamed, and slapped the wall! I almost laughed out loud. Since he got his temper from me, I can't hardly blame him.

Back to the river - He was so filthy afterwards he had to have a bath. He is a water-baby through and through. Any little puddle of water you can't keep him out of. He launches himself out of your arms to get in any pool or tub. Hopefully we'll put up his baby pool soon and he can splash around in that all summer.

I got pretty wet too. I hardly look pregnant in this photo - I love it! (You should see the other picture I didn't post where I'm slightly bent over and look 7 months pregnant :)

20 weeks (and 5 days) pregnant in these pictures. I love Chris. You know why? Because he looks at these pictures, which he took, and the first words out of his mouth are, "You're so pretty."

My cousin posted comparison pictures of her first and second pregnancy. I don't think I really want to know. :)

Catch-Up

We had the ultrasound today and even though I started to doubt my decision to not find out, we held strong and did NOT find out what the gender is. I can already tell that the last week before the baby is born I'm going to be very anxious. I actually have no maternal instincts on this either so even though most of the time we refer to the baby as "she", it's only to avoid saying "it". We chose "he" with Max until we knew so we just switched genders this time.

We moved into the house last Saturday. Moving out was a nightmare and a half, moving in was alright. It helped to have my in-laws here. They helped unpack and put together more than half my house. And we've said we're never going to go on vacation before we move ever again. Idaho was the best part of the whole month though and was way too short. I miss going up there. Who can't love looking out at this?
Max had a great time. He LOVES being outdoors which is a very good thing for us. I tried fly-fishing for the first time and it wasn't so bad. Maybe I'll try again another time, like when all the kids are gone. We went to Yellowstone and had a beautiful drive with lots of animals. We drove almost 2000 miles that week. We were sick of the car but the scenary was good.

I love my cousins and aunt and uncle up there so 4 days was definitely too short. Hopefully we'll be able to go back soon.
We came home, moved and cleaned our apartment for two days, and moved into a hotel Sunday night. We thought it would be for almost two weeks and were VERY happy when it was only until Friday.
Max spent the time crawling around on the floor under the sink and playing with Thatch. Thatch is very, very patient with that kid. More patient that I am most of the time. And Max got a few baths. You really don't want to know what his knees and feet looked like after crawling around on a hotel floor.
The house:

This is the yard on the left. With that amount of space, I always think POOL. But it won't happen. We'll figure out something else to do with it and let the dogs run it for now.

I'll show pictures of the inside when it is actually cleaned up and decorated.