Here's the trouble with feeding a baby blackberry sauce...

They poop it out.

Everywhere.

At the mall.

It has seeds in it.

It smells very bad.

We are now:

minus one ruined onesie and

plus one brown striped long sleeved shirt and

never showing our faces at the RTC baby gap again.

Seattle: Ableskievers

Here we are Saturday night eating the ultimate Rands family traditional meal: Ableskievers! My dad served a mission in Denmark and this is his signature Danish dish. Its made from a batter somewhat similar to pancakes, then you pour it into the special pan and turn them around and around until it makes hollow balls. Then we fill them with yogurt, vanilla syrup, fruit syrup, powdered sugar, whipped cream, whatever. We each make them a different way, but they're delicious no matter what! Max seems to love them just as much as everyone else, especially with the blackberry sauce Nana made (she spoils him). I am so glad I learned how to make these this year, I even have my own pan, I have just never been brave enough to try it at home without my dad. Eventually I will! I hope to make these for my own grandchildren someday.

a

Come Fly With Me, Let's Fly, Let's Fly Away

Saturday morning Max and I hopped on the plane to Seattle to stay with my brother and sister while my parents are in New York City. I am so jealous that they are going without us, but I'm still lucky to come here and see my family. We do miss Danny though!

P.S. Word to the wise: Southwest Airlines no longer pre-boards babies. Rediculous!

Tooth number two...

just barely broke through this afternoon. Whew! I can't believe my little guy is going to have two whole teeth sticking out not long from now! He definitely notices them. I can tell he is always moving his tounge around feeling them- so he makes the funniest puckery faces!

two blogs and photogs collide

Today I met fellow blogger/photographer Sheena! We have mutual friends (Kelly and Rachelle) and saw each others blogs and decided to hook up to bounce photography ideas off each other. I had so much fun! It was nice to talk to someone who was in the same place I am starting a new business and still learning about cameras and photoshop and all that. Here are a couple shots of her ADORABLE kids, Jonah and Lucy. Thanks so much for coming over Sheena! I learned a lot (I edited these using gradient, thankyouverymuch! I like the look so much better. Thanks for the tip!).

Concentrating

My brothers used to lay on the floor and roll their cars around the exact same way!

The most expressive baby ever- she made the cutest faces!

Doctor's Office

Today Max met Dr. Kastellar, his new pediatrician here in Utah. Come to find out, Max or "Jon" as they call him at the Doctor's (so funny), is growing like a weed and developing nicely, especially for a preemie. He weighs 18 pounds, 5 ounces and is 27.5 inches long, putting him in the 24th percentile for weight and 38th percentile for height. I always expect him to be bigger than that, since he is our little chub-chub. Doctor's exact words when I told him I thought he would be a higher percentile in weight: "Well, he looks chunky, but if you were to put him next to other 8-month-olds, he wouldn't be as big." I love it.

To those of you who are already aware, I did ask the ped about Max's disappearing you-know-what. He says he is just a chunker, and it's normal, and he will grow out of it. What a relief.

Welcome Autumn

(the field near my house)

Even though I loooove summer, I am always excited for the air to turn crisp, the leaves to change color, and to drink pumpkin hot chocolate and throw on a scarf. It is such a beautiful time of year! I love looking across the fields and seeing the fall leaves with the snow topped mountains behind them. I love dressing Max in all his cute layered clothes and cozy hats. I am especially loving his thermal shirts (or as me and Brittany call them "long johns") with tee's and DIY baby legs (more to come on that topic). I just made my yummy pumpkin muffins and I love to burn pumpkin and apple spice candles. I love Martha Stewart fall recipes and Halloween ideas. I love making pumpkin shaped sugar cookies and caramel apple cider. I love snuggling with my baby in his blanket when we're chilly and I can't wait for his very first Halloween! Happy Autumn everyone!

many pictures, many pumpkins

Me and my very favorite little punkin!

One of my favorite fall activities is going to pick out pumpkins. This year was extra exciting because I got to take Max for the first time and we got to visit a REAL pumpkin patch and pick our very own pumpkins off the vine. SOOOOOO much cooler than buying them at Wall-Mart. Since the pumpkin patch is just a couple miles from my house, we have ended up making several trips.

Trip #1, Me and Kate
So much fun! Only one problem- me, forgot my wallet. Kate- only had a credit card. Since this patch doesn't give away free pumpkins or take credit cards, we had a bit of a predicament. We managed to get some great pictures of the kids though, which I guess is the most important part.

rocking the pumpkin hat

Max with the pumpkins I chose

Max really enjoyed sucking the dirt off the pumpkins, off his hands, and just getting messy in general. Such a boy. Disgusting but so cute.
Kate and Cameron. Don't be confused, Cam is borrowing Max's hat!
In front of the Peck Farms pumpkin Truck, which was chuck full of a billion pumpkins!
Max felt like he should ride in his orange stroller for the occasion. He is so festive.

Same patch second day- Me and Chelsea (plus Max and Lauren and Hallie)

Ah yes. Don't we all look so amazing in this picture!? Yikes. It was windy and so bright out. That's why we look so hot. My friend Chelsea came down with her ADORABLE twins Lauren and Hallie. They are so cute! It was a fun sneak peek into what's to come after your baby turns one. They make animal sounds, swap binkies, walk all over the place, and are just plain cute. It was so fun just catching up all afternoon and then running to the patch to actually BUY my pumpkins. Chelsea found some cute ones and even a couple mini pumpkins for the girls. Thanks for coming over Chelsea! We had a blast!

Trip # 3.

What? A third trip?! Yes. We took Daddy to the pumpkin patch with Max too so he didn't feel left out. We also went with our next door neighbors Natalie and Sid and their little girl Heather, who is just a doll. She is super talkative and had a full blown baby talk conversation with Danny! They also passed her story book back and forth during this conversation. I LOVE my cute husband and I love how sweet he is with all babies, not just our own! Afterward we had dinner together. I felt very lucky to have so much quality adult conversation in one day. I hardly knew how to handle it!

Our ghostly little family! Yes, my eyes are closed.

our front porch- there may be some rearranging...

thud.

(look close, you can see the scrape, his tooth, and another tooth about to poke through!)

So, I am officially joining the negligent mom's club. As you may know, Max is a rolling fool these days. Max woke up early yesterday morning and so I brought him into bed with us so I could feed him and maybe get a few more minutes of sleep, as I always do. A while later, Danny got up to get ready for work and put some pillows in place so Max wouldn't roll off the bed, as he always does. Unlike, usual, in my groggy state, I must have thought one of those pillows looked comfy because all the sudden, I heard a loud thud. Followed by a high pitched scream! I opened my eyes and quickly realized that I had two pillows (woops) and I knew immediately Max had rolled off the bed. I felt so stupid! I immediately jumped out of bed and picked him up. Thankfully he was fine, he cried for about 20 seconds and then he was over it (unlike me who felt aweful all day!). He does however have a lovely little skid mark on his nose to show for it- I have no idea how since he landed on his back. I don' think he would have had time to roll over that quickly. So sad!

A perfect mix

I saw this on Chelsea's blog and had to follow suit. How fun!

La Familia

This weekend was so great! My mom was in town with the priests and laurels from my home ward to attend general conference. She didn't get to come to my house, but we were able to meet up with them in down town SLC. I also got to hang out with Jordan and his so adorable friend Lizzy from Seattle. We had so much fun! The pic is Max hanging out with Jordan at Details (yes, I did drag them in there with me... we stayed a long time too). He said he would pose for the picture if he would make it on my blog! Haha. I hope you are all digging his fro, overcoat, and mustache (he has never had facial hair before, but because a stache is the only facial hair allowed at the Y, he is living it up!). He is the king of quirky fashion. Think deep V necks from American Apparel. He is such an awesome brother, I feel so lucky to have a bro that I am also good friends with. I love him so much, even though I always give him a hard time about some of his outfits. He's actually a great dresser and super original. This weekend, I gave him a his and her set of bowling balls, bags and shoes that I scored from Grandma and Grandpa D. Sounds weird, but I think it's the best gift I have ever given him. He LOVES it. It's so old school and funny. He wants to go bowling with a date and walk in with their own gear. How hilarious would that be?! The men's bag is so retro and cool, he is thinking about using it for every day use. I wish I had a picture of it. Anyway, Jord, you are officially published, I love you, and I had so much fun with you and Lizzie. Let's do it again soon!

Also this weekend, I got to meet up with my old teammate Jess Parenti and her husband Preston. We hadn't seen them in a while and it was so much fun. I also photographed the two of them and I had a blast! It's so much fun taking pictures of good friends- especially when they are as funny and photogenic as Preston and P pod. Love you guys! I will try to post their photos on the photo blog in the morning, along with a few others. They had some great ones! But for now, so sleepy. I wish I wasn't such a night person.

Here is a little tooth update on Max: his little lonely pearly white is poking through more and more every day! I love it! I can't believe how fast it is coming in. Every day he shows us a little more of it! Thankfully, he has decided not to bite me so much anymore while nursing, nice. I was sitting in the back of the car with him and he was finding my antics oh so hysterical, so I had a chance to take a few pics of it in between laughs. What can I say, I' m in love with my little one toothed baby.

I'm moving in!

Have you ever been to a store and just thought to yourself, I want to LIVE here? Exactly how I felt about a home store in Sugar House called Details. I am so in love with all the shabby chic goodness of this place! It compares to the Rachel Ashwell store in Newport. It's unbelieveable. I took pictures. There are many. Look, click, enlarge, love.

Max making himself at home on this gorgeous setee. The women who worked in the shop LOVED him! It was so cute, he was totally flirting and showing off his new tooth.


Totally going to try to make some of these for Christmas!

check these babies out!

see the rest here- http://www.lookthroughmylens.blogspot.com/

two thirds of a year

(see more of these shots here http://lookthroughmylens.blogspot.com )

I can't believe my baby boy is 8 months old! He is getting to be cuter and more fun every day. This last month Max has changed a lot! I got on the scale with him a few days ago and he weighs 19 pounds! I don't know how long he is, but he has a doctor's appointment on the 10th, so I will find out then.

On September 20th at Rachelle's house, Max rolled from back to front for the first time. Now he's like a little steam roller! He rolls continuously all over the place. He rolls from one side of the family room to the other so fast! I catch him on the tile, under the coffee table, and stuck in corners or against walls all the time. He gets so mad when he rolls up against something and gets stuck.

This picture was taken after I had put Max in front of the mirror for a few minutes in my room one morning while I was getting ready. He had rolled all the way from my mirror to under my bead while I was blow drying my hair. I laughed so hard! It reminded me of the Wizard of Oz when the wicked witch of the East gets smushed by the house and her body is hanging out from under it.
Max is sitting up pretty well now, but he still uses his hands for support and I don't quite feel comfortable walking away from him while he is sitting.

Max is getting his first tooth! It's on his bottom left. The funny thing is, I didn't even know he was cutting a tooth! I dropped Max off with Grandma Kettle who was in Salt Lake so I could take pictures last Saturday. When I called on my way back, she informed me that Max's first tooth had poked through- probably the night before! I felt so silly that I hadn't noticed, but still excited. It made sense though- he had been biting me all week! NOT COOL. I tried to get a picture of it, but I haven't been too successful so far. Obviously. But you can see it a little in the second one- especially if you click to enlarge.Along with the tooth, Max has gotten a runny, yucky, boogery nose. He has been sitting in the steamy shower with Danny so he can breathe a little better. Yesterday Danny called for me to come get Max from him. I walked in and he pulled the curtain back. This is what I saw! It was so cute I made him do it again.

We love our little Max so much! Even if he is cranky and teething and not sleeping a wink. He is so cute and funny and just plain hilarious sometimes. Happy 8 months Max. Gotta go. He is screaming right now!