max is 3! arf.

well folks. i officially have a three year old and there was a puppy party to prove it. for those of you who don't already know, the whole reason we did a puppy party is because for the last 6 months or more, max believed he was in fact, a puppy. he would make me feed him out of my hand, he randomly would start crawling and barking (like, no matter where we are), i would say, "let's go max" and he would immediately correct me: "wet'th do puppy!" thus, the puppy party.

i will be sharing all my sources for this puppy junk, let me just say, i have got to be the LUCKIEST shopper alive. i usually feel like i'm a lucky shopper and find good deals or thrifty stuff, but i purchased and made EVERYTHING but the dog bowl and pinata(which i purchased TWO days before the party!) the evening before the party. now seriously, that's luck.

birthday boy with his party stuff.

ok. the fire hydrant? 50% off at hobby lobby. no lie, i about peed my pants when i saw it. see what i mean? lucky. i will never again believe the people who have been telling me how bad it is to procrastinate. our super fancy table runner is stamped butcher paper.

bone sugar cookies. cookie cutter: hobby lobby.

puppy food (aka coco puff) cake! bowl: petsmart

the puppy pinata which he named sylvie (after sawyer's dog). or occasionally wilson (after my parents dog). sylvie/wilson: zurchers

party favor bags! bags and paw stamp: hobby lobby

each contained a bag of puppy chow, a giant bone cookie, and a ball- to fetch of course! balls, zurchers, i made the scallop chow labels from label paper, a little die cut thingy, and another hobby lobby stamp.

i toooootally scored and found 10 of these little stuffed puppies at the dollar store ( i swear i had like a spiritual experience telling me to go to the dollar store in centerville. you think i am kidding. i am only kindof.) and again lucked out BIG time on the red bone take out boxes.

each child opened the takeout box with puppy inside after max opened his presents. because it's hard for three year olds to watch another kid open presents!

GAME TIME!!

here's most of the puppies getting ready for OBEDIENCE SCHOOL. we had all the kids roll over, bark, sit, lay, etc. and fed them skittles when they obeyed. it was a riot!

FETCH. we threw the bone and each kid took a turn running to get the bone and bringing it back to danny, who then threw it for the next puppy. long after this game was over, max kept throwing the bone for hadlee and would yell "DO DET IT HADEE!!" who would fetch it and bring it back. oh, i was rolling.

PUPPIES! i made these puppy ears and dog collars for all the kids out of felt and plain head bands. they all looked sooooo cute!! of course all the kids wore them... EXCEPT for MAX. go figure.

CAKE TIME!

we spread butcher paper out on the floor and let all the kids eat like dogs- without silverware. so funny! i was hoping to find a bunch of cute cheap dog bowls so all the kids could have one, but that didn't work out as planned. pretty sure if i had planned enough time to go to multiple dollar stores, it could have been pulled off. =) but that's what you get when you're a procrastinator!

aww. i think this means he loved it! hahaha. no but really, it was just short and sweet and fun. thank you soooo much to max's little friends for coming! and of course to natalie who helped me set everything up in the morning. she saved me.

happy birthday to my little puppy! i love you SO much and can't believe you are 3!!! in human years. =)



NOTE: THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR NICE COMMENTS AND E-MAILS ABOUT THE PUPPY PARTY! ALL OF MY SOURCES FOR PARTY ITEMS ARE LISTED UNDER THE PHOTOS. THE FIRE HYDRANT IS NOT FOR SALE (IT BROKE). SORRY! AND HERE IS THE LINK FOR HOW I MADE THE DOG FOOD CAKE. ;) 

let him have cake. and make it too.

the day before max's party, we decided to make his cake in the morning. then i proceeded to do every BIT of the shopping and preparation that night! i work best under pressure i guess! i thought this little baking time deserved it's own post. because a. max had the best time ever and b. i thought his cake was kindof awesome. and we created it. and it was truly and max and jessica original, meaning sometimes i feel like everything these days seems to be borrowed off someone or other's blog, and this wasn't. do you ever feel like that? but that's a whole other story. anyway...

i think the germs get baked out. right? who cares. it's his birthday. he can eat his cake batter i guess!

oh. my. cheesey. where did he learn that one!?

we poured the batter in a pyrex bowl, coated with pam and some wax paper strips to be SURE it didn't stick! thanks for the tip celeste! i just followed the instructions on the box for temperature but you do have to bake it for quite a bit longer so the cake gets cooked in the middle. just keep sticking a fork in it. the finished cake was pretty brown on the outside but still tasted good!

totally missed the focus, but this is my child's FAVORITE expression right now. a wrinkly nosed scowl. ALWAYS a scowl these days.

the finished product!! we flipped the cake over into the dog dish (which is real. we got it at petsmart), spread on the chocolate frosting, and then covered the whole thing in coco puffs so it looked like a mound of dog food! you should have seen people's reactions, kids thought it was so cool, adults thought it was pretty unappetizing. we will post about the rest of the party soon!!

15 weeks

i have been hoooorrible about taking belly shots, so i had my friend tiffany take this really quick after max's party on saturday! i actually look bigger in this shot than in real life (carrying high + loose t-shirt = extra grande appearance. haha!), but at least you get the idea. i can't BELIEVE how big i have gotten so quickly this time around! i guess you really do "pop" sooner on #2. but honestly, i love it! i would so much rather LOOK pregnant than just feel pregnant. =)

p.s. i am a little in love with this headband- and it was $3.50 at old navy in the little girl's section! score.

p.p.s. max's true love heather asked me this week if my baby was "in HERE?" (pointing to my belly) or "in HEEEERE?" (pointing to my boobs). i died laughing! but really, i can understand the confusion. they. are. massive.

Unfortunately, it's only February.

Dude. I really don't know how I am going to survive the rest of the winter! Max and I are sooo tired of being cooped up. We went to st. George over the weekend and were loooooving 65 degree weather, but I was ready to cry when we got to cedar city and saw snow. Here is Max and Heather trying to live it up on a warm salt lake day, yea, it was like sunny and 40. Waaah.













Ps. Why on EARTH did I ever leave orange county. Pretty sure it's like 70 there.

it's how you know.

my monday at a glance.

9:30- peel your face off the john

9:45- get dressed, button pants with rubber band, choose a cozy shirt (and cute necklace and shoes as consolation)

10:20- head to pictureline, feel like you might cry because you want to keep the equipment you rented, and then get warm and fuzzy while you dream about the camera you want to buy.

10:35- eat three street tacos at the taco truck on 8th, and profusely thank the lovely mexican woman for making such amazing carne asada tacos. many times. you think about saying it again in spanish, and think it may be too much. contemplate weather tacos can lead to spiritual enlightenment.

10:40 consider seriously ordering just one more, but then you remember that it's breakfast time, you are eating tacos (street tacos, at that), it's before 11 am, and your tummy can be a fickle thing.

10:45- decide to eat half of a cupcake at mini's instead. because it's like, sooooo small. and i deserve it.

in my book, that's pretty much how you know

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YOU'RE PREGNANT.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

=)

STATS.

14 weeks.

looks like 20 weeks by first pregnancy standards.

(really people, if you have seen me in the last month, this is probably no shocking announcement)

due august 12th.

we think it's probably a boy.

friends think it's probably a girl.

still puking, boo.

not nearly as much as last time, yay!

so so so so HAPPY.

3 years ago today,

this was us. i can't believe it! is he really three? really? three years ago this little boy burst into our lives quite ahead of schedule. it was the craziest, scariest, best day of my life, and we have never been the same. i am so thankful for this little man who keeps us on our toes, growing, learning, challenging us and loving us every day. i knew i would love my child unconditionally, but i am also amazed at the unconditional love he shows me. i feel so lucky, and often undeserving of this perfect little boy and i can not BELIEVE how fast he is growing up. i love you max, happy 3rd birthday.

us!

my dear friend and AMAZING photographer ashlee raubach took these pictures for us this fall and i could not love them more! of course i am so behind on blogging it is out of control, so i haven't had a chance to post them yet, but she just posted a few today, so check them out here!! thank you so much ashlee!

"tsenzie."

we look amazing in crazy mirrors. love that there is apparently a smudge on the mirror that is giving kenz the appearance of the perfect goatee!

dude. aunt kenzie (or tsenzie as max calls her) is coming to town on thursday and we are sooooo excited! max saw a picture of himself with kenzie on the computer today and he gasped and yelled, "dat me! dat my tsenzie!" we basically can't wait.

lovely things about today...

{image courtesy of caroline drake}

1. consultation this morning which lead to booking a wedding. yay!

2. max's friends AND my friend came over to play.

3. we made (and ATE) reeeeally good chocolate chip cookies.

4. max watched no T.V. all day! i told him yesterday that is was broken. we have been watching waaay too much lately. plus, i got inspired by my t.v. abandoning cousin.

5. i have an awesome cleaning lady, and she came today. yeeeah clean bathrooms! her name is tammy jo, only max calls her BAMMY jo. it's awesome.

6. i had a plethora of homemade pico de gallo from my weekend with mom, and i had to hurry and use it. Caroline recommended i make her yummy TOMATILLO SOUP for dinner to use it up. OH. MY. GOODNESS. i died it was so good! i doubled it so i could freeze some and i am super glad. it's amazing. for real.

7. even though he struggled for a minute (and got out once) max went to sleep for the third night in a row, by himself, in his big boy bed.

8. I GOT MY HAIR DONE!!! au revoir FRUMPY. ahhhhhh. i love you laci.

9. max asked me to check out his booty.

he walks up to me, shows me his backside and said

him: "hey mom, see my butt?" (this is new as of monday, and i about hit the floor!)

me: (being very stern) "max, we do NOT say that word. when we say that word, we get yuckies in our mouth." (last time he said this, meaning yesterday, it was worchestershire.)

him: "otay. mom, (now SMACKING HIS BEHIND) see my BUNNERS?" (bum, buns, and bunners are allowed).

what do you even SAY TO THAT???!

appauling, yes. hillarious? also yes.

mission accomplished!

nothing more needs to be said.

i mean really people.

ok. so i am a bad blogger. like, really bad! the thing is, i needed a break. big time! the christmas photo rush was nuts, plus getting ready for a two week trip over christmas, plus finishing our basement (yes, it's DONE! the carpet went in over new years!), i have been needing to just plain check out for a while. i mean for crying out loud, i haven't even mailed my CHRISTMAS CARDS! and they are killer i might add. =) don't worry, i will probably still send them out. yes, really. tacky huh? but i worked hard on them and printed them all, so i WILL do it! even if they show up around valentines day.

as you already saw (thanks to my baby sister- that stinker!), our christmas was just perfect. we were so spoiled to spend so much time with our families! no gift was better than that, to be sure. though max thought the gifts were pretty cool too! as usual between everyone, he got too much stuff, so we didn't even open half of them, we're saving them for his birthday. i hate when kids get so much that they don't get to enjoy each thing. you know? less is more, i say.

anyway, we are back home and getting into the swing of things again and it's so nice! we worked really hard on getting some of the basement organized this week, and wouldn't you know my mom came out and helped us do EVERYTHING! you would not even believe how much work she did, we can not thank her enough! we really are so lucky. pictures coming of the basement soon, i promise! i am just waiting for my wide angle to return from the nikon hospital. =)

however, here are some darling little shots of my sweet max. he is getting soooo big and saying the darnedest things. and to top it off, he is officially out of his crib this week! he has been doing great and hasn't gotten out once. yay! i won't lie, i maybe cried when we were setting up the big boy bed. just a little. =)

aww. i just died over this one. basically, we adore him.

he thinks he's so funny. and really, he is.

wrapping up in his choo choo towel, and of course coloring while sipping some chocolate milk in my room.

Round one

here are a few pictues of what we did over christmas break with jessica danny and max!

Max, nana, and bapa!
ICE SKATING

Out on the frozen lake!
Tyler on Christmas Morning!!
Me, jess, and becca chillin on the couch

on christmas eve!
Max and Danny enjoying the evening :)
New years eve morning! max LOVES WILSON!

officially hijacked!

because it is obvious to me and my father that jessica lynn kettle is no longer blogging. we decided to take over her blog until she gives us a post. so let the games begin.

P.s. a word of advice, dont share your password with anybody, even your sister :)

Bugalicious: what jessica kettle is.

well hello there. this is not jessica. this is her sister mackenzie. and her sisters friend kailey. we really dont have anything to say except that... we felt like hacking her blog. but we are in idaho right now with some good friends of my family. here i am watching my adorable nephew max, shovel up books and little green army men. well life is good and i hope you all have a happy new year!

love, big mac and kakes