Seattle: Downtown Excursion

Since Brittany and Max had never been to Seattle before, one of the first things we had to do was go to Pike's Place Market. It's a really famous outdoor farmer's market and shopping area right on the water. They sell all kinds of stuff: flowers, fruits and veggies, fish of course, art, clothes, food, you name it. Here are some photos of the ware.

These are really cool pepper wreath hanging things. Sorry, I don't really know how to describe them.

Asparagus: my FAVORITE veggie.

The market has the most insanely beautiful flowers, all locally grown. There was this gorgeous bouquet that I wanted with a bunch of white flowers and cherry blossom branches (not shown because the picture did it no justice). So when I said they sell fish, I do mean ALL KINDS. How hideous is this thing?! But they also have lots of crab and lobster and ... mmm... that's me drooling. Okay, you cannot come to Seattle and miss the fish and chips, they are to die for! Here we are eating some at Cutters, a great restaurant near the market. They were amazing.

Something else about downtown, there are lots of crazies. Especially the tree-hugging-free-love-organic variety. This is my favorite example. No this is not two chicks. Am I rude to take random picture of people kissing? Yes. Do I care? Only if I get caught. Which sometimes I do. There may be another blog to come devoted to just such crazies. If any of you know me well, you know that I have a MAJOR staring problem and I am soooo indiscreet. I think that's why I love taking pictures so much.

So there was this guy selling his art, which I'm sorry was not really fine, and apparently telling fortunes. I'm not sure if you had to buy his really fine art to get your free fortune or not, but now I wish I would have asked, because I have never had my fortune told, other than by a cookie. This is a picture of the sign on his wheely cart. I serously wish I had one exactly like it. I don't know what I would do with it, but I'm sure I would think of something.

This is on the University of Washington campus, which is amazing. Al of the buildings are really old and beautiful. I didn't actually get out of the car, so I don't really have great shots of the architecture.

Random seats on the side of a building.

So of course we sat!

A couple more shots. Sorry such a loooong post.

See ya lata California

I am sad to say that on the 19th, We officially moved from California! I am so sad to be leaving such a fun place and our great friends. We really enjoyed the time we lived there! Now the plan is this: move all of our stuff into storage for the summer, hang out in SLC for a few weeks while Danny finishes real-estate school, bless Max on May 6th, pass the real estate test, live in Rexburg for a month or two while Danny learns the ins and outs of owning a Help-U-Sell office, open our office with the Hebs in Layton around the beginning of August. I'm exhausted just thinking about it! Max and I are in Seattle until May 3rd, and then we are going to Denver over Mothers' Day weekend to hang with the Guest Fam and the Guiboards. Yay! So that's our deal.

So Happy Together/ Sucking Face

On Friday, I took Max over to Chrissy and Luke's to meet baby Naomi. She is beautiful, and apparently Max agrees with me! He loves her as you will see in the pictures. We couldn't stop laughing! Max will apparently suck on anything. Here's the play by play...

Sucking binkie...



Mommy takes binkie because it looks silly in photos...

binkie replaced by Naomi's hand...


Naomi's hand replaced by Naomi's face...


Max loves Naomi's face...




Naomi is rescued, but is left with significant amont of slobber in hair. Poor Naomi.

"Sorry" says Max.

Sweet Baby Naomi

Tonight I was lucky enough to be able to meet Chrissy and Luke's beautiful baby Naomi. She was just born yesterday and is the most adorable newborn- not squished and raiseny like lots of other brand new babies. =) I felt so honored to take these photographs. Thank you Chrissy for the opportunity! Congratulations to you both; she is truely a gem. And so photogenic! You have lots of picture taking ahead of you... I hope you enjoy each moment!

Attitude Adjustment

Since my last post, I've been thinking a lot about my attitude towards parenting. I was looking at a lot of my posts about Max, and I realized that they're all about me freaking out over sleep schedules or mile stones or immunizing or some other thing I'm supposed to be worried about, according to my books. I haven't been taking the time to recognize and record all of the great things we share together! After reading some comments from you, my friends, I am really trying to take to heart your advice and just relax! I realize that Max will only be a baby for a little while, and I need to enjoy all of it! I already feel like I missed out on a lot while he was in the hospital, and I don't want to lose these precious moments with him to paranoia.

Today Britt and I are going to see baby Naomi in the hospital, and I am so excited, but in a way I know it will be hard to see Chrissy with her beautiful little girl and watching them be together, the way I so desperately wanted to be with my baby during those first few weeks. I hate to admit it, but I get jealous of all the moms who get to have their babies in their rooms and go home together! However, I am so grateful for the blessings we received while Max was in the NICU. We had the support of a wonderful ward, friends, and family. Though it was a very tough time, we felt very loved.

Max is such a sweet baby and I love him so much! He amazes me every day and I am so excited to see him grow and learn. I love the time I have to cuddle and hold him, and I am so thankful that I get to be a stay at home mom. I know I will have to work hard to be the kind of mother he deserves, which includes learning how to slow down and enjoy every second. He is having a really good day today and we are going to stay at home to try and get back on a better schedule. I think he has been a little cranky because I have been carting him around non-stop the last few days, which isn't fair to him. I think this also explains why he hasn't been sleeping as well. BUT, I'm not stressing over it... =)

We don't self soothe.

So. Max has decided that as of today, he will not sleep in his crib, his chair, or his moses basket. He will only sleep in our arms, which isn't exactly good for him or productive for us. Every time I put him down, either awake or asleep, he wakes up and gets so mad! His naps today have taken place today in our arms or in the baby bjorn as a last result. He had been doing great in the crib, but he's not having it today. He won't cry himself to sleep or calm himself down either, which we have been working on. He just keeps crying! Any tips? I don't want to raise an uber-dependent child. Plus if he can't calm himself down during the day, how can I ever expect him to sleep through the night? Yikes.

Max's First Easter!

(Max's first Easter basket)

We had such a great Easter! In fact- we had two days of it. We started at the Asay's on Saturday. We had a great dinner and got to spend time with our good friends. We felt so blessed to be included by their family!

I was so excited for Max to wear his little easter one-piece and bunny hat! I thought he looked so cute. Or at least he did before he pooped all over it! Thankfully, I got lots of cute pictures of him in it first. We tried to take some "artsy" pictures of him for easter, but it didn't work out so well. He was cranky and tired, so his eyes were closed and he had to have a binkie to keep from screaming. Can't win 'em all.

Little Boys Egg Hunt

First, we hid eggs for Luc and Joseph, who had a great time finding them and eating the candy. They are the cutest little boys! I got such a kick out of watching them run around, falling over, dumping their eggs out- it was adorable. Max even got in on some of the action with Uncle Joe!

BIG Boys Egg Hunt

At the Asay's, the men also have their own egg hunt. The wives hide the eggs, then the husbands run out of the house at the same time and search for the eggs like crazy because the eggs are filled with money and movie tickets! It's so funny. Danny found five eggs this year after a sorry performance last year with just one egg. He had to get rough with David though! Little Joseph also "helped" the big boys.

Ashley

"Little" Ashley is getting so big and so pretty! She is crawling now and cruising all over the place. It seems like I just went to visit Sarah in the hospital! I remember when I held her for the first time, I had just found out I was pregnant with Max. It made me so excited to think I would have a teeny baby just like Ashley! She was so cute (still is)! She was watching Max sit in her old car seat and she was determined to get a hold of his binkie! It was so funny. She just couldn't keep her eyes off him! Max just sat there like "Just you try to get it. I know your mom's watching you!" I can't wait for them to really be able to play together. I know we will always be friends even though we are moving.

Pogo Palooza

These things are the coolest! They are no average pogo sticks. Jean Phillipe (the pro) can get like 5 feet in the air (I'm not exaggerating). Brittany and I on the other hand, well, we tried. Kelly was pretty good though. Rachelle's pregnant, so we figured she better give pogoing a try some other time.

Real Easter

Saturday night we went to stay at Britt's grandma's house in the high desert (whatever that is) and spent Easter Sunday there. It was also Joe's birthday! Britt and I made him this sweet shirt! We went to church, dyed eggs, had dinner and just relaxed. We dyed Paris's ears too, which actually turned out really cute. It was really nice. Brittany made an ice cream cake that turned out really well too. We met her friend Jen who is so nice. I love Britt's family- it was so fun spending Easter with them. Kandice held Max for a long time and he loved her! Collin is a pretty funny kid, but we were laughing at him because he kept making these goofy jokes and immediately would look around to see everyone's reaction. It was so funny! Vance wasn't there which was a total bummer because he is so funny.

Feeties II

I was looking through my pictures the other day, and I came upon this shot that I had previously overlooked. I ended up loving it! The first shot I posted was more the look I was going for, which is why I think I overlooked this one the first time.

Last night was rough! My doctor told me that I should go ahead and let him cry through the 4 am feeding and let him learn to self soothe. We gave it a try and totally bombed. Max cried for two hours! I felt so bad for my little man! The best though, was when I picked him up and he immediately stopped crying and just relaxed and looked at me. It gets me every time. Obviously we're not quite ready to go all night without eating. Needless to say, we are going to be very sleepy today!

ZZZZZZZZ....

Last night went great! We put Max down around 10 and he didn't make a sound until 4:30! It was really nice. I checked on him about 7 times before I went to bed at 11, but then Danny and I prayed about it and I felt so much better. I had no trouble sleeping at all. Then
Max slept again from 5:30 to 8! Fabulous. Thanks everyone for the tips and encouragement! It was so nice to know that other moms felt the same way I did.

Night Night

Max is asleep in his crib. AHHH! I'm nervous but not freaking out yet. I'm sure I will be checking on him every hour! Wish me luck.

I am so sad the weekend is over! But it was very relaxing and felt extra long since we had so much fun all day Friday with Brittany and Joe. On Saturday we all went to Sean's baseball game after the morning session of conference. Sean did great and we had so much fun sitting in the sun and eating game food (i.e. hot dogs, hambergers, soda).

The whole time we were there, all I could think about was how excited I am for Max to play sports! I really love going to games and I know I will be one of those crazy little league moms who cheers extra loud and screams at the coach when my kid sits the bench too long. =) But seriously, I hope that I can teach Max to work really hard, be dedicated and have a great attitude. I have found that if you can do that, it can take you a lot farther than the athletes who have lots of raw talent. I am already planning the sports I want him to play! I really hope he plays soccer in the fall and baseball in the spring. Of course he'll ski in the winter since we'll be living in Utah! Danny wants him to start golf as soon as he can hold his head up well. It will be so fun to see my boys play golf together. Danny also wants him to play hockey. Yea right! I don't want to spend all our time in Canada! Plus I wan't Max to keep as many teeth as possible.

One of the reasons I am so convinced Max is going to be such a hot shot athlete is because Max rolled over again on Friday night! He did it the first time when he was just under six weeks- March 12th, just two days after his due date! I was sure he wouldn't do it again until around three months (which I think is about average age for rolling over). But surprise! He was laying on his back on the couch Friday night and all the sudden I looked and he was on his tummy. I couldn't believe it! The first time he went from his tummy to his back on the floor.

It is especially unual for Max to roll over at such a young age because he was premature. Most developmental milestones occur later for preemies. Max is amazing, what can I say?

Saturday night I was planning to put Max in his crib for the first time over night. I felt like it was a good time because I want him to get used to his crib so we can start working towards sleeping through the night a little bit better. We spent forever looking for his baby monitor, and just when we got everything ready, I freaked out! Out of nowhere I started crying because I realized that once he starts sleeping in his room, he won't sleep right next to my bed anymore and he won't be my teeny baby anymore! I was soooo sad! As much as I look forward to sleeping all night again, I know I will really miss the time we spend snuggling on the couch at 4 am and being able to look over and watch him sleep. He always looks so beautiful all snuggled up in his little blue moses basket. I'll even miss listening to him snort when he starts waking up! It's also really comforting to be able to check on him so much. I'm afraid I'm a little SIDS paranoid. Am I the only one who goes crazy over sleeping apart from my baby? I need some advice fellow moms.

I took these pictures after a 3 am feeding. I was struck by how sweet he is while he is sleeping and I want to always remember these early morning moments together! It was worth the lost sleep time to stay up and take them.