My Life With Boys

My Frontyard with Boys

2012-01-03T14:59:00.002-07:00

Yesterday as I was freezing inside, I went a looking for my family,
The front door was wide open and this is what I saw,

Not an unusual sight,
Xander does this everyday,
If you look closely, you can see where the grass is worn down from being played on so much,
I just decided I should document this for when he makes it to the NFL and we say 'I told you so',

Boy was papa proud of this one!

All he wanted for Christmas was a helmet and jerseys,
He got them.And every day when he gets dressed,
he asks me if he looks like a real football player.
I have also been instructed that when he turns 18,
I need to sign him up to play for the Philadelphia Eagles.
He wants to play quarterback.

My Holidays with Boys

2012-01-03T14:25:00.005-07:00

We started off the season by, of course, going to see lights.
Xander? And exhibitionist? huh.Me and my little sweeties...
Xander is not the type that gets overly-excited,
If he does, he's really good at not showing it,
and if he really isn't the type, then these lights sure brought it out of him,
He was smiling, jumping and exclaiming 'this is the coolest thing ever',
what a fun experience this was!

Apparently, there is no rhyme or reason to the order in which pictures are uploaded on blogger.

Christmas was fantastic this year,
as it is every year.
We got to make 5 different visits in two days.
this is us Christmas Eve, GO Utes!Look at these handsomes,
Yes, they are just as good looking in person.
A sidenote and a random picture regarding Xander's football obsession.
He plays football constantly, this is not an exaggeration.
Because we can't find pads small enough for him, he resorted to making his own.
He puts his coat on and pushes up the sleeves under his shirt,
to make him look big.
He almost passed out from heat exhaustion one day,
He had on 1 long sleeve shirt, 1 coat (his pads), all underneath a broncos hoodie,
inside, by the fireplace.
Luckily we were at Grandma's,
He started complaining that he felt sick,
my mom commented on how much clothes he had on,
we thought nothing of this, he wears his pads all day every day,
sure enough as we peeled back the layers, his bottom shirt was SOAKED in sweat!
That's my little NFL star.

the boys and their Christmas jammies,
not sure why Xander has a '5T' on his lips....
Santa was OH SO GOOD to us,
He always is.
Max got the tools he so badly wanted,
He would have been good with just those,
He threw Alphie across the room...
Xander got all the football equipment he could stand,
and a nintendo DS,
even though he said he didn't want one until next Christmas,
He seemed to be fine with the early delivery....

8 YEARS and counting

2012-01-03T14:20:00.002-07:00

I want to warn everyone,
Be careful, really careful,
not to blink.
I swear we just celebrated our 5th year anniversary,
and that was huge for us.
Here we are at number 8.
Brandon's hair is gone,
we have two little boys,
and are in the process of getting leaving our first little house.
Time flies.

Anywho, after a few years of experimenting different venues for our anniversary, we went back to our favorite, The Melting Pot.
And we took some really good friends with us.
PS-This is the first time I have ever thought I look a LOT like Paige......

Fall.....

2012-01-03T14:11:00.004-07:00

We had a WONDERFUL fall and got to do lots of fun stuff!!

In September, we got to go watch Brandon compete in the St. George Turkey triathalon!

We also put our house up for sale this weekend......we'll see what happens!

He was wiped out!

Seriously? Is he really that cute? Yes, he is.
My CUTE boys helping me rake up the leaves!

HAlloween

2011-11-09T14:30:00.003-07:00

I know this is completely belated, but oh well!

Xander's hair for crazy hair day, we had this idea to spray paint a red target on his whole head,
Instead he looks like Jem, oh well, he didn't complain!

Our annual pumpkin carving night withe our bestest friends,
These guys are truly BFF, still going strong 11.5 years after high school!

I haven't known these ladies nearly that long, but great girlfriends just the same!

My boys found the rest of their crew at Grammy's work!!
Grammy and the boys....

Grandma Gay brought them these cute little glasses on Halloween, I haven't seen anything quite this funny! I got a kick out of them.

And, finally, the big night!We endured THREE rounds of trick-or-treating, and now I just want to throw it all away, is that bad?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I LOVE having boys!!

FaLl AcTiViTy!

2011-10-27T15:12:00.003-06:00

First off, I HATE to brag, BUT here is a picture of Xander scoring one of his mean goals. This little kid scored exactly TWO goals every game!! He is following in some VERY talented footsteps......

We got the opportunity to be a part of the test group that got to go through the Utah Museum of Natural History for the very FIRST time to test it all out!!! We had a BLAST! This is the place for little boys for sure!
The boys and a VERY BIG dinosaur foot (paw?) print
This was my favorite display, and just to give you a glimpse of what to expect!

Wait, nevermind, this was my favorite display, and by the way, the camera does NOT do it justice!So much for the kids to do, can't wait to go again!

what's been going on?

2011-10-27T14:58:00.004-06:00

We had the exciting opportunity to go and tour the plant where my Dad works. He works for Williams International, and for those of you who know me really, really well, you know that production factories are one of my most favorite fascinations, I even' worked in quite a few! Anyways, It was really fun to see where my dad has been going every day for the past 15 years and what he's been up to. Here is what we got to do:

Cute little Max, always a sport for anything!Brandon is the best, he know just how to pose for any picture....

Then there's me, I'm a complete idiot in any picture I have taken of me and don't know what to do....

I should also mention that Xander refused to have his picture taken like this....he is WAY too mature for silly stuff.....

Here is what is left of the little Smith Family...hopefully my brother and sister will get going and our family will be DOUBLE this size in a few years!

Soccer!

2011-08-28T13:53:00.002-06:00

Xander is very unique in that he doesn't really show a lot of excitement for things that are coming up, i.e. Christmas, he shows it when it actually gets here, then he can be excited. Well, soccer has proven to be the one thing that gets him excited in advance. It's all he can talk about and we have a countdown every day until his next game. After he played for the first time he said 'Mom, I never want soccer to end!' Yay! looks like he picked up the family past time!

He even scored a goal during his first game. We have it all on video tape, but well, getting things off of my video camera is another challenge in and of itself.....

He's Growing Up Too Fast!

2011-08-28T13:40:00.003-06:00

My little Xander off to kindergarten, where have the past 5 years gone?!

And Finally, the beach house

2011-07-18T15:41:00.006-06:00

It is fair to say that I would do almost anything to be in San Diego again. Our vacation there was everything a vacation should be and more.

Our condo was right on the beach. Every day started with cruising around the little surf shops and checking out the local spots, getting takeout lunch from the beach grille downstairs, and then spending the rest of the day frolicking, yes I said frolicking, between playing in the sand or jumping in the waves. Every night ended with a wind down in the hottub before bed, it was heaven. Never really keeping track of the day or time, pure bliss.

We have been home for 1 month and every night in Xander's prayers he is thankful that we got to go to San Diego, and SeaWorld and Legoland.

We will definitely try to make this an annual thing.

Max couldn't have been more at home, he would chase the tide out and then run away from it when it came back, I swear it never bored him...

And I just can't get over the background, no end in sight!
The little man wanted to boogie board, and man, did he try!
Brandon and Andrew figuring out the waves and what to do with them on the first day there
Sigh.....where we called home for that week....
Grammy and Grampy after their morning walk....
The boys making a cool city with their aunt Paigey...
Andrew is the coolest....I honestly never knew that I could have so much fun and be so childish with that much sand around!
Grampy and the boys.....
taking a break from it all,
and parenting at it's finest,
a bag of doritos and hand him off to someone else for a nap!

Xander making fun of my beach hat!!
Xander in the hole!
Paigey and Maxi
Max and one of many rounds of sand toys that we purchased while there....

Me and my sis made this turtle! it was SO fun!
Diggin' the huge hole...

The boys on their last day at the beach....
Our last night there, walking along the pier....There, I did it. I blogged all about our vacation, but I feel like I've just torn a wound wide open......I wanna go back! Thanks mom and dad for taking us, it was SO good to spend time with my parents and siblings, we'll never forget it as long as we live!

Legoland California!

2011-07-18T14:40:00.007-06:00

I am not kidding you, I have NEVER taken so many pictures of a single event ever! I don't even have this many pics of my first born, well, maybe....

Anyway, this is our trip to Legoland, These aren't all of the pics, just the funnest ones. This place is truly unbelievable and Xander's dream come true! I am so grateful we were able to enjoy this experience with him!

Me, the boys and a life-size bionicle!

They had something for everyone made from Legos here!Cool city display...can't remember for sure which building this is.....
Little mummy Max!

For the star wars fans.....I have lots more of these too!
Right after we first got in and Xander was discovering how cool this place really was!
Max and Bob The Builder!
Xander and his favorite building ever
The Rodriguez family, both real and lego-made (behind)
Me and Max on our first ride ever in Legoland!
Me and Xander on boats with water-guns!
Paigey and Max
This is the coolest Bionicle picture ever...
Proof we were there! haha!
Andrew, Chewbacca, R2D2 and Xander!

SeaWorld!

2011-07-18T14:13:00.004-06:00

I have been in denial since being home from vacation for over a month......this was the BEST vacation ever, and I haven't wanted to admit that it's over already.
So, anyway here are just a FEW of the pics from our trip to SeaWorld. Sigh, I LOVE that place!

Andrew and Xander on the zebra-Elmo

Me and Mr. Max (you can't see him, I promise he's there!) on the Elmo ride also, SO cute!

The killer whales show, this is SO amazing, totally worth the price of admission alone!

The boys in front of the shark tank
THIS was SO cool!
Grampy, Max and Mr. Turtle
The boys and the GIANT starfish, to the left is an actual tide pool where you can pet and pickup live starfish!
Me and Xander with some cool surfboards, don't we look so natural here? Like this is where we belong?
Our cute little fam right inside SeaWorld
My sweet parents who made it all possible!
Xander's favorite thing about our whole trip was our 'building' (the Stratosphere) in Las Vegas and anything shark-related. He only wanted shark shirts, and a shark tooth necklace and even asked for his FIRST stuffed animal, a shark!

We bought max a little Shamu at Seaworld and he won't go to sleep anywhere with out it, it's SO cute!

Vacation: Las Vegas

2011-06-20T19:49:00.005-06:00

***WARNING**** Picture overload from Vegas!

The M&M Factory!
About the only kid-okay place in Vegas.
Brandon handed us all bags to get whatever colors we wanted,
Being the economical wife that I am, I PROMPTLY stopped him when I realized they were $12.99/LB!!

Brandon after paying $13 for a bag of M&M's...
Did I mention we only got THREE colors?
Black, white and gray....

$13 was SO worth it though!
Look at that cute little face!

Boys on the strip!

Who's that girl??
I LOVE Madonna,
And that AWESOME shirt in the case? She wore on her 'Who's That Girl' World tour 1987...

The boys LOVE their sports cars,
That Camaro was SICK!
We LOVE pawn shops,
We love 'Pawn Stars' even more!!
We got to check this place out, so cool to go somewhere that's actually on TV!
Of course, the Superbowl Rings at the pawnshop,
The Patriots one was $999,000,
A few Questions:
Who sold these?
And why?
We stayed at the Stratosphere, and Xander kept saying, "can we go back to our building and live?"
Xander may be a little hot for the slots!!

Pictures and I mean PICTURES from our San Diego trip will be next....

Easter

2011-04-25T19:41:00.005-06:00

We had a fun Easter this year!
Pardon the lack of captions for each picture, I'm tired! And also feel a bit redundant!

Grampy and Andrew helping Max pick up his spilled eggs....
I LOVE this picture!
Max so kindly sharing his eggs with Nana...
Eating their treats.....

Max's Birthday!

2011-04-25T19:05:00.006-06:00

On April 16th, my little Max turned 2, I cannot believe it!

At age two he:
Has been sleeping in a big boy bed for 6 months,
has been potty trained for about 3
LOVES bugs, bubble and trains
His favorite movie is Despicable Me
He ADORES his big brother

The Birthday cake,
They are magnifying glasses with bugs, if you can't tell...

The presents,
this little guy was SPOILED rotten!!

Wyatt showing Max how to look for worms,
this was the cutest thing ever,

Some of the kids,
My cute sister and aunt who were both here from out of town,
SOO good to see them!
Some of the guys,
The presents!

He handed all of his presents to Grandma Gay for the keeping,
Aunt Paigey giving him his own personal bug cake to eat,
He was WAY to busy to even really care
No, this is not a display and at a children's clothing store,
These are all of the SUPER CUTE outfits he got!!
Thanks again everyone!
What's this a picture of you ask?
At the end of the green balloon is none other than my little Max, (if you look closely you can see him through the glass table) we tied this to his wrist and he just continued on with it, we always knew where he was, it was really cute!
Happy Birthday baby boy, we love you!!

Happy Birthday Xander!

2011-04-11T11:33:00.002-06:00

Xander's birthday started out a little something like this......
Scary huh!
We figured it was the vitamins we had started giving him.

I'm a pathetic baker and and even more pathetic decorator,
Regardless, I made him a lego cake and lego-faced cupcakes

He seemed pretty happy!
My pictures of the birthday boy are on another camera and I don't know how to get them off, so they will have to be posted later...
I can NOT believer Xander is 5! My boys are growing WAY too fast,

Happy Birthday Xander!!

Scrambled Egg Morning

2011-03-28T09:06:00.002-06:00

We had a rough morning the other day,
Full cup of hot chocolate spilled on the new table,
sand and mud dragged in after only 5 min of playing outside,
after they had begged to go out all morning,
Did I mention it was Saturday and Brandon had to work?
After having thrown a tantrum myself, and sent both boys to their room, I was hungry,
for some reason I kept having the thought to make scrambled eggs,
I don't know why, my boys do not like them,
but I made them anyway,

After some coercion to try just even a tiny bite,
THEY LIKED THEM!!
Am I the only parent that gets super excited upon discovering their kids like a new food?!
Anyway, that will be the morning I will always remember as the 'Scrambled Egg Morning'

Legos

2011-03-28T08:58:00.002-06:00

Sigh.......
This area in Xander's room absolutely drives me crazy,
I'm a little OCD okay?
But it means SO much to him, these are all the MANY things he has built out of Legos,
He is completely enthralled by them,
he has a ledge that runs around the opposite side of his room,
That's full of them too,
Sometimes I just need to remember to let the kids be kids,
I love the stuff he builds.

Camera clean off!

2011-03-17T10:27:00.004-06:00

Every once in awhile I find it necessary to clean off my camera, so even though I don't have an order to this particular post, each picture tells it's own story!

The boys having as much fun as they've ever had....
jumping on each others internal organs
they are seriously such good brothers to each other.

They think that Brandon having and riding bikes is SOOOO cool...
Snow day!

Family

2011-02-23T13:52:00.002-07:00

I just got this picture of my awesome family on the day of my Dearest Grandpa's funeral......

Valentine's day

2011-02-23T10:45:00.003-07:00

We had our annual fondue by candlelight Valentine's dinner this year,
I don't know another time where boys eat this much,
They love this dinner!
Max enjoyed the chocolate!

And we had some special guests just in time for the dessert round!

Too "Mustache" fun!

2011-02-23T10:26:00.005-07:00

We got some fun Valentine's treats from our friends,
Here the boys are trying them out....
Thank goodness we have awhile before these puppies are real....

I have MISSED my camera!

2011-02-23T09:33:00.007-07:00

I just realized that every shot we have of Dad could be used on a poster for Bigfoot....
he always has this deer-in-the-headlights look.....
So, I think that my camera was pick-pocketed right out of my purse,
I had a very busy day on Valentine's day and my purse never left my shoulder,
but somehow my camera went missing,
I traced all my steps, made lots of phone calls,
no trace of it,
Thank goodness for Sunday ads in the paper...

So we got a new one,
I definitely took my old one for granted,
So here's what we've been up to!

Max is finally sleeping normally again....
Xander is still a lean, mean, lego building machine.....
The boys still LOVE their uncle Andrew......
And their Grampy.....
Grandma is still wrapped COMPLETELY around her little MAx,
and maybe one or two of his little fingers...
(I just love this pic!)
Xander LOVES the Broncos.....
And I OBVIOUSLY need a tan!

Potty Trained!

2011-01-25T14:56:00.005-07:00

There have been some questions as to why Max doesn't ever seem to have any pants on....

Well, my friends, it is because he has been potty training,
and at he has officially graduated!!
He began (all on his own accord) at 18 months and now at 21months, we are there,
yes, he is not even 2 years old yet,
Thanks to his patience and initiative (believe me I was not quite ready to do this),
and my patience too,
we have saved ourselves approx $291.60 in diapers over the next 15 months, (presuming he waited to train at the same age Xander did).
It is nothing short of a miracle, I tell you,
I am SOOOO grateful to be done with diapers!!

It's All Backwards

2011-01-10T09:50:00.004-07:00

Our anniversary was actually on December 12th,

Brandon took me to dinner at a FANCY restaurant......
We didn't understand half the items on the menu,
But we got to take our custom menu home,
The waiter looked at us funny when we ordered Cokes,
We spent a two weeks worth of groceries on one meal,
And it didn't even come with dessert!
But to celebrate SEVEN years, I think it's worth it!!!!
Then we spent the night wrapping present and watching movies,
In our new family room,
I have loved this 7 years,
Brandon is the best!
Happy Anniversary late babe!!

I Know It's Late!

2011-01-03T15:46:00.009-07:00

I was TOO excited to get a good pic of the tree, I couldn't hold still!

It started out with a note.......
"It wouldn't fit in my sack, so I left it out back!"
Santa is so clever,
So we were all led outside, at 5:30 a.m.......

And look what Santa brought Brandon!
His look is priceless!

As you can see, Santa was very good to us this year...
Xander got a Leapster, his favorite thing that he didn't ask for....
and TONs of legos.......Bless the inventor of those.....
Max got his own little cell phone and key chain alarm, they are so realistic too!
what a FUN mess!
Santa even put Xander's legos together for him, thank goodness for Santa....
Max making sure all his gifts fit.....
Peek-A-Boo and Merry Christmas!!

Updated Pics

2010-12-15T11:49:00.003-07:00

Aren't they just SO handsome! I love having boys!!

7 and still going strong!

2010-12-14T15:43:00.002-07:00

I don't know where she went, okay!
Hahahaha....wouldn't it be great to be that young and beautiful again?
Although I'm not, I have a wonderful husband who sure makes me feel like I am!

This has been the best (and sometimes hardest) seven years ever, but he is seriously the man of my dreams. Love you Babe!

The Holidays Are At Our House!

2010-12-08T22:05:00.007-07:00

Here is what we've been up to for the last little while.....

We did some baking.....
and lots of dough eating.....shhhhh......

I DON'T know where they get this infatuation from.......

Max relaxing and watching a little tube......
IN his laundry hamper.......
My boys and their snowman......
Please leave Mr. White outside......
He seems to have some kind of skin disorder....
Decorating the tree....
I just love this pic!
Oh and Max has decided to grow up on me, in one week......
The day after Thanksgiving we put him in a big boy bed...
I was afraid he would break his neck in the middle of the night by climbing out of his crib....
oh and the day before that he POOPED in the potty!
It wasn't a fluke either,
he knew exactly what he was doing,
He's done it three other times since, YES!
This is what mom's dream of......

So here are the boys in Max's room....
It's MUCH more fun now that all the baby equipment is officially gone.....
And showing off their football jersey's,
Football jersey's are to boys what panties are to girls....
They require all kinds of special laundering.......

Me and my man....

2010-11-22T14:56:00.003-07:00

Just love this pic of me and my little man....

Rough Weekend

2010-11-10T14:13:00.002-07:00

Just like 'that', he went from this..........to that,
poor guy had the rhea all weekend, I never knew we could go through so many diapers.....
this is after he rolled around and screamed on the floor for a good 40 min,
you can't see it but upstairs there are fresh muffins, and grapes everywhere because he indicated that's what he wanted and instead threw them everywhere out of rage....
thank goodness he is feeling MUCH better now......

Legos

2010-11-10T14:06:00.003-07:00

Xander has being spending HOURS on end with his legos.....he usually has them all used up and built into something by the end of every day.....

At his request, I took some pictures of all the stuff he built.......

He is SO creative, my fave was an actual FOOTBALL field complete with goal posts, bleachers, a coach and a jumbotron, I LOVE HIM!

Sweet boys

2010-11-10T14:01:00.001-07:00

Some random acts of kindness I witnessed going on around my house over the past few weeks....

I have the sweetest boys.

Kinda cute

2010-11-10T13:54:00.002-07:00

I'm so proud of my graveyard cake..
When it comes to baking, I may as well be in a graveyard..
that was a dumb joke, anyway I'm not good at baking and decorating, except THIS DAY!

Scary Stuff

2010-10-19T13:27:00.004-06:00

Yes Sir, Captain Sir!

Attack of the killer hamburger!
Or the 'Big MAx' as I like to call it,
I realize I may not yet be ready to debut the Halloween costumes, but they're just so cute!
And SO storebought!
We have already kicked off Halloween by having a fabulous dinner with friends and going to a neighborhood carnival,

More pics to come I'm sure! Happy Halloween!

18

2010-10-19T13:09:00.003-06:00

He's only 18 months, thank goodness,
But I wish he was still 8 months,
And before I know it, he'll be 18,
I wish he could stay like this forever,
This is my absolute favorite,

He found these 'wishing flowers' in the backyard,
I hope he was wishing he could stay the same age too!
Probably not,

He's so fun right now,
His vocabulary consists of: cookie, Jew (juice, no we're not teaching him racial slurs), wa-wa (Grandma), Na-ner (Xander), Spider, Chocolate, Hello, Bye, nooooo, nose, and Chea-Chea (my BF Chelsea) and of course Ma-Ma and Da-Da,

He love's choo-choo's (trains), pup-pups, BUGS, and 'The kids'

Nicknames: Maxi, Cha-Maxi, Maxi poodle, My Middle Maxim (don't ask, mommies come up with weird stuff!)

He's had 8 haircuts and has been walking for quite sometime now,
Every night he chooses which blankets he wants to sleep with,
He HATES my hair on my shoulder if he wants to cuddle, I have to put my hair up, he tells me so, I wish I could describe it,
He doesn't like BREAD, not a huge fan of milk (I don't know where all this came from) and he loves eating ranch and bbq sauce with his fingers,

He is by far much more mischievous than Xander was,
The other day he completely busted his lamp and blew a fuse in the process (we were lucky on that one!)
He also tried changing his own poopy diaper unsupervised.....
I just love him SO much!
I can't believe how big he is getting,
I know I can't stop it,
So I'll embrace it,
I love you my Middle Maxim!

Our History Lesson

2010-10-12T13:53:00.003-06:00

My knowledge of History of any kind is awful,
Actually it's embarrassing,
Anytime I ask Brandon an obvious question about and event or person, he laughs,
"how do you honestly not know that? Please tell me you're kidding",
Specifically this response was received the other night when we were watching The Patriot and I asked if that was the Revolutionary war where we gained our independence from France...
I didn't think being stupid was so funny,
Brandon was in stitches,
I can't be the only one who doesn't know these kind of details....
IN MY DEFENSE, First of all, as far as my public education goes it's not that I'm stupid or uninterested, I flat out don't ever remember being taught certain things,
Second of all, my private education years were spent studying Finance, why would I have a History class?
Anyway, we decided that we would start on our kids young,
So we took them to the Utah Museum of Natural History,
Wow, VERY interesting!

Here they are sitting on a dinosaur femur!

As far as History goes, I learned a little bit,
Okay History is BORING to me, there I said it,
But they had some REALLY cool. fun displays!

Let the Game Begin

2010-10-12T13:50:00.001-06:00

It's official.......
These boys are Utes fans too!!

Governor's day

2010-09-18T15:06:00.005-06:00

Governor's day......Every little boy's dream in ONE place!

And every mom's dream, FREE!

Army tanks, Hum-V's, army trucks, Apache's, army guys EVERYWHERE, BB gun shooting range,
Zip line, bounce house AT the FOOTBALL stadium of our beloved Utes!

Xander's First.....

2010-09-07T15:26:00.004-06:00

Xander's first day of school was today! He has been SO excited for this day, he 'plays' school everyday at home, so today was the REAL thing and it was awesome!

His one wish was that he had holes in the knees of his pants like Dad,
I'm going to have to secretly throw those out,
Moms worst enemies are holes in the knees......
And of course, Max wishing his big brother well on the first day!
Max was a little lost without him!

Camping

2010-08-11T16:14:00.003-06:00

So I got a little ahead of myself on the blogging,
Or behind,
Well I was behind, and then just started posting erratically
So they're out of order,
But what do you care?

The ole' Smith family took a camping trip to beautiful Fish Lake,
It was four hours away,
We stuffed the four wheeler in the back of our little truck,
with no a/c, we made the trip,
the boys were in good air-conditioned hands with grandma and grandpa of course,
here are a few pics from our trip....
Don't mind the filth,
This was the dirtiest camping trip ever,
Thanks to two adorable little boys,
Emphasis on the word 'boys'

We even got Grandma to come along,
For those of you who don't know,
She is NOT a camper,
But the boys were sure glad to have her there, and so were we!
We ate like kings because of her!
This was literally the view from our tent, gorgeous!
Our dirty little fam
Aunt Paigey even came!!

Max cooling off in the little creek JUST outside our tent,
It was gorgeous, and fun and perfect weather,
Except the afternoon I tried to put Max to sleep in the HOT tent,
After several hours of no success, grammy took us for an air-conditioned nap/ride, and a coke,
We were rejuvenated.

Lake trip!

2010-08-11T15:58:00.003-06:00

We had the chance to go up to Bear Lake with some friends.
It was our boys first time at the beach....
I think they liked it,
And no sunburns!

A little dirt gourmet was served up though.....
This pretty much sums up our summer....
We love water and the sun!!!

And this video of Max at the beach is WAY too cute not to show off!

Boys just wanna have fun

2010-07-12T14:47:00.006-06:00

Warning! LOTS of pictures of boys having fun!
This was our fourth of July weekend.
It was AWESOME!
We started out with some swimming, of course,

Brandon spent the afternoon teaching Xander to dive for these.
Very effective, might I add.
He was swimming very well and proper by the end of the day.
It only cost us $5.
Vs. $25 and 2 weeks at Layton City.....
Then we stopped off at Grammy's for a change and a baby drop off (Thanks Mom and Dad!) and headed to the drive-in.
"Reunited and it feels soooo good"
I can't help it.
When I see this pic, that song pops into my head.

The buddies just hangin' out,
Who knows what they're talking about......
Xander is SO lucky to have lots of little buddies everywhere we go.
This little girl is his first 'crush'
She thinks he is SO cute,
And I think the feeling is mutual
Then on the 5th, Xander went with Grandma Gay to see a movie.
He came home and puked up all the crap he had eaten all day.
It was everywhere.
I guess you really can eat too much candy and sugar.
Because he was just fine after that.
After a quick bath and a cleanup, we were ready for some fireworks.

Men and fire....
and things that blow up....
and things that shoot colorful fire....
Get the HUGE smiles now??
I've not seen many 17-year-old boys who know how to get a baby to sleep.
Maybe I should mention that little Max actually reached for Andrew when someone mentioned 'ni-night'.
Sweet, isn't it?

Backyard Resort

2010-07-02T14:04:00.005-06:00

You probably didn't know it, but we have our own backyard resort.
It's funny because we weren't really thinking when we bought our house, about having a kid-friendly backyard. Luckily, it has turned out to be quite kid-friendly.
With a couple of props, of course.
Inflatable pool, spongebob slide, hand-me-down climbing/slide thing, and a sandbox.
We spend SO much time in our backyard in the summer.
It's so fun. And so free!
Xander grilled hot dogs. By himself.
Supervised by Brandon, of course.
Finally, some help around here!
I love to watch the brothers.
I love that little crack.
I am not very careful on making sure it doesn't get sunburned though.
This pose was obviously a kodak moment.
Very GQ.

Pardon the old, rickety fence in the background.
Pitbulls live on the other side. They tore off planks with their teeth.
NOT a kid-friendly feature of our backyard.
Don't worry, the Teresa in me did not fail, the pound was called.
I ratted them out. They listened, I think.
We love summer in our backyard!

Groovin'

2010-07-02T10:11:00.006-06:00

We went to the annual 'Groovefest' in Cedar City.
I was excited for the car ride down.
We hauled all of our bikes.
It sucked.
My babies hate the car. Among so many other things.
Max slept for 25 min, it took us 5 hours to get there.

I was able to pacify him for a moment with some sunglasses.
And a chicken nugget.
Just for a moment.
At last, we were at Paigey's house.
We got there Thursday night.
There are no pictures until Saturday.

WE had a BBQ at the Armstrong resident. A first for all of us.
Here is the Master chef himself.

The spread.
I made Frito salad.
I take it to every BBQ.
Everyone loves it. they think it's a mystery.
It has 4 ingredients and takes just as many minutes to make!

My cute sis and her hubby.
They were VERY gracious hosts.
All four of us stayed with them for 3 nights.
I'm pretty sure they won't have kids for awhile.
The might not even still sleep in the same bed. I'm not sure.

Groovefest night #2.
This time, we moved out of the peote.
And the cheeba.
Cedar City, really?
Yes, there are hippies there too.
We love you Cedar City hippies!
...And lady carrying the chihuahua in her shirt between her boobies (didn't get a pic, dangit!!)

Xander getting his groove on.
It's a music festival.
But really, it's just bluegrass music, over and over and over.
No Rock n' Roll. That's what the Rodriguez' get down to.

The three of us.
Max had clearly worn us down by this point.
I think he's off with Grammy in this pic, probably.

Happy and rested!
Here's a pop-tart. Have a good day!
Ya, I feed my kids pop tarts for breakfast. and Kool-aid sometimes too. They're okay.

Max has his grammy wrapped around his finger.
And his toes.
And his whole little body.
He loves her.
And she doesn't believe any of the horror stories I tell about him.

Until next year, Groovefest 2011! We love you!
Oh and I also can't believe that we don't have any pics of the good ole' pawnshop (Cedar Post and Pawn) where we spend 82.3% of our time when we're down there!

I Love Him.

2010-07-01T16:52:00.003-06:00

I love him.
'Who's Him?' you ask.
Just take a look and see if you can decide.

These two are absolutely trouble.
They both have those dark, smoldering features about them.
When I look at Max, I swear I get lost in those M & M brown eyes.
I'm in love with him.
It's weird, I know,
I love running my fingers through all that hair.

Every morning I wake up (on the weekends, really, 'cause he hasn't gone to work at the crack of dawn) and I laugh to myself when I see Him.
I just flashback to the time when He was at the front of my house with his mint-blue Ford Ranger, jet-black hair parted down the middle, jeans, button up shirt and Doc Marten Wing-tips.

Not to see me, just with some friends.

He's handsome.
I keep noticing his eyelashes.
But he likes my friend. Oh well, It's nice to have met him.
Coincidentally, now my sons have those same handsome eyelashes.

And when I look at Him, my eyes fill with tears.
He truly is unique.
I know he chose us, clearly his features and coloring are nothing like ours.
But he is ours.
His stone gray-blue eyes are like mirrors.
He's obnoxious and entertaining and loud. Just like me.
And when I put my hair in a ponytail he complains, 'aww...I like your hair down'
And out of nowhere, he always asks, once a day, 'How's your day mom?'

Kickoff to Summer!

2010-06-07T16:25:00.006-06:00

Summer all started with a Cinco De Mayo (acutally Ocho) party at our house! Complete with a pinata, HOMEMADE Horchata (thanks honey!) lots of fun decor, and LOTS and LOTS of YUMMY delish food......we were eating well into the next morning........

I made the pom -poms, materials courtesy the dollar store.......

Cute little donkey pinata.......
As all the yummy food that everyone brought was FINALLY setup and read to dig into, this happened.........

Max fell and chipped ALL of his top teeth!

Hence the are no pics of the FINE, Mexican Spread that we enjoyed.......

Everyone at our house is SO excited it is finally nice outside! Brandon can hardly contain it......

The boys are wrestling.......well that's not really new, but still funny to watch.....

I cut some bangs, and then parted them and put them back to the side 'swoop' as usual, I don't deal with change well.......
Xander is/will be getting blonder by the day...........
Even Max is getting lighter!!!! Whose kids are these???
WE went for our first fishing trip/picnic and it was a blast!!

Here is Max getting into the dirt and weeds.......
Xander teaching ME how to fish........

Here they are getting ready to take the four-wheeler out for it's FIRST official Memorial Day weekend, the first of many I'm sure!!!
Hope everyone else's summer is off to as great as a start as ours!!!

Max's FIRST birthday!

2010-04-21T10:07:00.004-06:00

Maxim Smith Rodriguez was born on April 16th at 2:06 a.m. (my boys love the middle of the night!) You may remember reading this same info on my blog just a short year ago, but too bad! you're going to read it again!

He was 7 lbs, 13oz and 20 in long, and had/has LOTS of brown hair (obviously!)

Some interesting facts: With both boys I was induced on a Wednesday, it was snowing both times, and neither one of them came until Thursday, Xander at 3 am and Max at 2am...alike much? Yes, very much still......

Here is the Mr. Mischeif cake I wanted so desperately to make him, but gave up thinking I just couldn't do it until the last minute when my sister showed up with her creativeness in all its glory, and TA-DA! I LOVE this cake!!

Pics from the PAR-TAY......

Xander was reunited with his beloved Paigey............

The cute little four-wheeler we got him to match Dad's.............

You're thinking to yourself 'that's all the pictures they took of his FIRST birthday?' you should know, we bought a video camera and the selling point for me was to have it for Max's first birthday, funny thing, the camera wasn't CHARGED at all come showtime! And our regular camera? IT's batteries died too, I tell ya, I'm terrible at this. So there will be another post complete with cute cake eating and possibly some birthday boy videos once ceratin individuals send them my way!

Fun FActs about MAx:

he asks for crackers (ka-ka?)

he walks around the house ALL day talking to 'da-da' on the phone, when he doesn't get a response he throws the phone at me, presumably to call da-da

he LOVES dogs

he tries to put his shoes on when he wants to go outside

he will put anything he can on his head, blankets, rugs, buckets either because he loves hide-n-seek or because he knows we all think it's funny and laugh

he will do almost ANYTHING to get Xander to laugh at him, and when he does, his face ligts up entirely!

EVERY morning, without fail, Xander wakes up and stays in his bed and growls like a monster until we go and find him, and EVERY morning, Max is so excited to pull back his covers and find 'the monster'.
He has had 4 hair cuts by the time he turned 1!

Happy Birthday Max, we're so glad you came to us!!!

inside anything

2010-04-13T16:24:00.003-06:00

This little boy likes to get inside anything he can, here is the latest discovery........

brothers

2010-04-13T16:21:00.002-06:00

If this isn't the cutest pic ever, than I don't know what is! We couldn't resist when we found shorts on sale in BOTH sizes! SO what if they're not even close to being twins!
So if anyone even reads this blog (I'm starting to wonder if my blogging is just a waste of time) what do you think? do they look like brothers?!

Dinosaur park!!

2010-04-13T15:36:00.004-06:00

This is just a misc. pic of Xander being a ninja turtle....he LOVES to dress up and has the best imagination he was using some pretty weird stuff for a bandana, so when I saw an actual one at Wal-mart, I couldn't resist!
So, we had a somewhat-decent day finally and me and a friend decided to take our kids to the dinosaur park. Upon arriving at the dinosaur park Xander was VERY apprehensive, but he eventually warmed up......

Max was ready for an adventure from the get-go, as usual........

Buddiesand a BIG dinosaur!!!!

Me and my boys....

Xander and the volcano...this pic just happened, I didn't even realize that was in the background until after I took it!

Me and Max...you should know that I totally let him fall of this thing just seconds before this pic......I'm a terrible mother, what is it with me and dropping this poor kid?!!

We love dinosaurs!

Easter

2010-04-06T08:24:00.005-06:00

It all started with an Easter egg hunt with friends on Friday......the rain/snow stopped just long enough for us to run to the park and find some treats! Xander was being a little camera shy......

Then we colored eggs..........

This may just have been the first time we've done this! Brandon and I couldn't remember in our old age if we had done this before since we've been married.......

Max entertained himself while we colored.............

Then.......

The Easter bunny came while we were sleeping!

And it left us clues inside our eggs to look in certain places throughout the house....we found some pretty good stuff!!!

Xander found a transformer hidden in the couch pillows and dad found a tent just outside the back door!

Mr. Max gettin' Grandma all wrapped around his cute little fingers........He is so spoiled by his Grandmas, there's no one that excites him more!

Firsts

2010-03-31T08:40:00.003-06:00

Right before his 1st birthday, Max has been having lots of his own firsts!

First SERIOUS haircut.......
before pic......

After!!...........

First favorite book....he will sit and read this forever.......

He also started officially walking on March 29th, and on March 28th he said his first word, and that word is...................ACHOO!!! So cute!

Happy Birthday Xander!

2010-03-30T10:55:00.007-06:00

First of all....HAppy Birthday Xander, from your brother, Swampfire......

4 years ago on the 29th.....I started labor with Xander and 20 hours later (on the 3oth)he was born! After 2 hours of pushing, he looked pretty rough and was well bruised but we were so glad that EVERYTHNG was perfect.

Xander was born at 3:09 am weighing 8 lbs 5 oz and 21.5 inches long.

At that time, we had no idea that in four years we'd be making Omnitrix cakes (what are those?!) and searching high and low for anything hot wheels, transformer and Ben 10.

Thanks to Brandon's extrememly in-tuned art skills....he created the cakes, again!

I wrapped the presents....totally my type of wrapping...camoflauge and NO bows!

First gift of the big day!

The loot......

The making of cupcakes with an oreo inside for his 'friend' party.....

The goodies for the goodie bags....I LOVE the dollar store.....

Spider Monkey himself (Ben 10 guy).......

And Jet RAy!.......

And I totally forgot my camera at his friend party, but we played Rollerball over at Boondock's and they were SO ctue and had SO much fun!

I am always so surprised by Xander's patience. On both days of his parties he was so calm and cool all day long, waiting and acting just like it was any other normal day, it was just so amazing to me.

Xander is very smart (of course, isn't everyone's 4-year-old?) He's tainted by the fact that his name makes a 'z' sound but actually starts with 'x', so as a compromise, when he writes his name, he writes it XZander....Never saw that one coming.

He LOVES football and soccer (wonder where he gets that from?) and cheese pizza oh and Cheetos too!

He love to tell jokes, even though the don't always make sense...and he gets really hurt if he tells you one and you don't laugh....something tells me we have a class clown on our hands......

Happy 4th Brithday Xander, you are such a big boy and we love you so much!

Last week we.....

2010-03-15T14:27:00.002-06:00

Played at the park...(well this was when we were still in SO. Utah)....

Got a haircut! (Before pic)...

The After pic.....

And made freezer jam....yummy!!!!

I love this time of year, I am SO motivated!

Max is back!

2010-03-09T16:26:00.005-07:00

Is this not the cutest little picture ever?! I could just eat him up!

Anyway, yesterday he fianlly got his casts off...and much to my dismay, taking them off reavealed that he had a massive blister/sore/whatever across his whole ankle. The Doctor warned me. It was my biggest fear. We took every precaution to not get them wet. But I guess with a little guy it's inevitable. It did, however, explain MANY sleepless nights. Here's the kicker....his toes don't look any different than before the casts! The Dr. said they look significantly better...but can he really remember?

The sore....the day after.....

Another view......

The Saddest Lil' Pic Ever

2010-02-18T16:10:00.003-07:00

Little Maxi can't get his casts wet......
Here he is at the bathroom door....daddy and Xander are in the shower and he knows it.......

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-16T13:08:00.007-07:00

It's my lot in life to be surrounded by handsome men.....
Especially on Valentine's day.....all these years I never had a date on V day and now I have 3!

I had this great idea this year.....found the cutest little boy shirts at Old Navy, 'The Ladies Love me', and thought how cute would it be to get some really cute pics and send out Valentine's photo cards? So I attempted a photo shoot......

Look over here Max! Xander! hands down, smile normal!

Okay, this time keep your tongue in your mouth!!

Whatever.....they are still pretty cute.....

The whole photo shoot thing didn't go over so well....

I did get cards made....forgot to order them! I have become such a flake lately.

I did, however, get around to doing our little Valentine's dinner. Xander says that in this shirt, and this shirt only, he wants the girls to tell him he's 'hot'. Really? Already? you're only 3!

Every year we have yummy heart shaped pizza, and chocolate fondue by candlelight, it's always a hit!! I also did pink Shasta with STrawberry hearts in them....he keeps telling people 'my mom gave me this pink juice, I really liked it alot'...I'm always afraid of what people think I gave him!!

Love is in the air!

2010-02-03T15:07:00.004-07:00

So after a few weeks off, I have hopped back on the craft wagon, and have binged!! Here's what I've been up to.....with a great partner-in-blog-stalking of course!

SUPER cute banner, cut the circles out of a diaper box, mod podged cute paper and other notions on them, strung them together with twine.....

This is prob my fave, we got it off this blog .....its cost us $4: http://becauseicancrafts.blogspot.com/2010/01/valentine-topiary.html

Bought these letters at Hobby Lobby for $.99 each for a two pack, mod-podge and cute paper is all!

Happy Valentine's Day!

An expensive, hard-earned, piece of paper

2010-01-28T15:05:00.003-07:00

At last, it is here, it's official, Brandon's B.S. of Economics from the University of Utah....

This letter has had a whole different meaning than when I got mine. When mine came it was at the very beginning of our marriage, we had nothing to do but go to school, work, come home and be in love! We would eat dinner, go to the library together study in peace and quiet, and go home when the assignment was actually finished. But watching Brandon work 10-12 hour days, then spend his nights in class or downstairs at the dining room table trying to squeeze in one last hour of productivity before bedtime while I wrestle kids or they vye for his attention has given me a whole new meaning to college education. He has often said to me 'I wish I could have gone to college like you, you have no idea what it's like for me'... 'whatever...' I would respond as I rolled my eyes. But now with all his free time, his college experience has come pouring in over ME.

So many things come to mind, like when I couldn't bear the thought of dropping Xander off at daycare anymore so Brandon told me to just quit and stay home with him....I was bringing in as much income as Brandon at the time, and I HAD my degree, but I took him up on it. Or like the time when our engine that we had paid to have replaced once, died again, and we couldn't afford anything else but for Brandon to replace it himself, and he did, all while working full time, going to school full-time and maintaining good grades. Well I could go on forever, but I am so proud of him! I want him to know that quite possibly, I got my college degree a little easier than he. There's just something about seeing that piece of paper sitting here everyday that says no more financial aid, no more buying BOOKS, no more late nights. We have never taken a semester off, we have always been 'students' until now.

So all we have to do know is photocopy that bad boy, get it in the mail to some employers so he can start making the big bucks! HAHAHA, I wish, who knows what lies next.......

(I'm a little prideful, I know, it's bad)

boots boots!

2010-01-26T14:13:00.005-07:00

"These are my I don't need a job, I don't need a man,I don't need my dad because I have new boots, boots!" That's my favorite line from a favorite show......anyway...

Max got some new boots boots today. That's right, just as he began taking his first steps (yes, you read correctly, almost walking at 9 months) The Dr. discovered that his toes are growing inward so we had to put casts on him, quickly before he got the walking thing totally figured out and was REALLY REALLY mad, boy is he mad anyway! Hopefully he will only have to have them on for about six weeks, and then we have to do night splints! This couldn't have happened to a busier baby, on the cusp of just walking and bam! Cut down in his prime! The Dr. said he very well will figure out walking with the casts on, so for now, he has been slowed a little, but it breaks my heart since he's literally been on the go on his own since he was 5 months old....he's a little trooper though! Oh and one more little catch...NO BATHS. PERIOD. That is our saving grace with this little one, not to mention, we gotta keep that hair clean!! Should be interesting. I'll keep ya posted.

2009 In Review

2010-01-11T21:20:00.008-07:00

Okay, It's totally over, the whole New Year Enigma, I know, BUT for my own purposes, here are a few things that stick out in my mind from the past year:

The best thing in 2009: Our little Max was born, of course! And only 7.5 hours of labor vs. 24 hours (with Xander)

The worst: When I spilled my little 6 week old Maxi out of his carseat onto the driveway, headfirst, it was awful, ambulance and all. BTW he was totally fine, not so much as a scratch, and yes, I do still feel terrible.

The hardest thing in 2009: Sigh, trying to figure out yet another very fussy newborn.

The happiest thing in 2009: Brandon FINALLY finished his Bachelor's degree!

The most exciting achievement(s) in 2009: Xander was potty trained, moved to the downstairs bedroom all by himself, and learned to ride withOUT training wheels, this was a HUGE year for him!

Other noteable events of 2009:

*Xander started preschool

*My little sis got married

*My parents celebrated their 30 year anniversary

*We celebrated SIX years of marriage!

If this post seems totally mundane and boring, GOOD! This year has been pretty low-key compared to less and I can't say that I minded it! Can't wait to see what 2010 brings!

Four the love of fun!

2010-01-11T16:41:00.005-07:00

I am SO done with January already! This month is so hard!! Although, we did get the month off to a good start (see all the pics below from new year's day), I'm still ready for it to be over with...

Our good friends graciously let us come out and tear up the powder on the property of their future beautiful home, thanks again guys!!

Ya, That's me! Dangerous huh!

Ya, I know this is random, but everyone probably got so sick of me complaining about how my baby never slept, that I thought I'd post a pic of him sleeping, he does it ALL the time now!! Yay! (Please ignore the bottle in his hands. Yes, I am one of those moms)

Fancy Dad takin' the new ride for a spin!

And I can't believe I left this one off the last post! Our two boys on christmas morning! Man, they sure do look like brothers to me.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-30T22:15:00.003-07:00

Some pics from our Christmas....In no particular order...

Mom and Dad, still in Love as ever and great senses of humor!

Daddy and daddy's boy on The Big morning.....

Me and my little buddy in our PJ's

Me ranting and raving about something as usual....wait, a deep freezer! I didn't even notice! yay!

The gift of the year...Dad finally got a snuggie! (you're welcome dad!)

Xander so determined....after we had to tell him "just tear off the paper!! it's okay!"

These two are SO cute! Everyone in this pic has the cutest expression I think.

Reunited.....at last!

All the little Rodriguez grandsons......

Our cute little Grandma Rodriguez, Te Quiero!

We hope everyone had a beautiful, love-filled Christmas like we did this year. We wish you the best! Happy Holidays!

Lights!

2009-12-20T20:16:00.004-07:00

Last night we visited the Ogden Christmas village. It's something we both have fond memories of as children, and we are SO glad they still do it! Xander loved peering in the windows of all the different little houses, and this one (above) is my favorite (notice the melted snowman on the middle stool who was eating soup while his friends ate ice cream!)

It was WAY past his bedtime, but he was so good!!!

We also went to the Layton City lights the night before....Xander makes me laugh so hard....

No one would be in the pic with me................

These two are so cute!

Lucky!!

2009-12-20T20:03:00.003-07:00

So I know most of your probably are already sick of this, put I just had to post some pics. Brandon totally won this four wheeler from a local grocery store! We were at a brunch for his work when we got the news, I laughed the entire time so hard and Brandon ran a red light right in downtown Salt Lake he was so excited! You never hear of people winning this kind of stuff, so you NEVER expect it will happen to you!

This is right when he got it out of his truck......can you tell?!

Six

2009-12-17T21:46:00.004-07:00

Then...............(2004 just after we were married) look at those fresh faces, no stress lines, hair perfectly groomed, pre-children......man, we looked good.....

Now................6 years later, exhausted, plus 40 lbs, 2 kids and a mortgage, (and a lot more!) but still in love! (Note to self: Teresa, time for a new hairstyle, it's the same in both pics.)

Six of my favorite things about Brandon:

1. Nothing is funny until Brandon thinks it's funny. When he laughs I feel like I might split in half, it's so contagious! It's what attracted me to him immediately (aside from the tall, dark and handsomeness)

2. He only likes aquafresh toothpaste. I think he still does. He's never had it in the 6 years we've been married because I keep forgetting that one simple request, but A) he's still around, it hasn't even phased him. B) I'm hoping that if I actually write it down I'll remember it next time at the store.

3. He has BEAUTIFUL feet. You know how I feel about feet. His are the only ones I will let touch me, in fact I'll clip his toenails before I'll do my own!

4. He gets my jokes. All of them. I have never once had to explain a joke to him. Ever.

5. He is a morning person just like me. And a neat freak. And a little OCD too. And we love bathroom humor. He's literally my other half.

6. He hates getting massages and I hate giving them. He loves giving massages and I love getting them....could we BE more perfect for eachother?

Finally, I came across this picture while digging through old ones. It's from when we were first married and our first big purchase was a digital camera. We tried forever to get the self timer to work. I just thought this was hilarious. Look how silent everything is, what would it be like............

Dear Santa

2009-12-14T17:39:00.004-07:00

Dear Santa,

This is the little baby boy you saw the other day......

This is the little baby boy I see every day.......

Oh, and Xander is good as usual!!

Prelude to the Holidays

2009-12-02T16:05:00.006-07:00

We had a great Thanksgiving.....

I had to chase Xander around to try and get a picture of him in his cute Thanksgiving shirt...As Brandon is in the background yelling 'I didn't want to be that family! The ones with the matching holiday shirts!' (note: the parents did NOT have holiday themed shirts)

And chase him I did! But I never caught him, man he's mean!

My brown-eyed boy being serious as always!

And alas, you know it's Christmas around our house when Kitty takes her perch beneath the tree as SOON as we put it up every year.....

...and here's just a little something I whipped up to make the countdown to Christmas a little more FUN around here. Aw, who am I kidding, this is the FUNNEST, CUTEST thing I have ever made! It's an advent calendar, and each day has a fun activity and yummy treat inside! Let the Countdown Begin!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Miracles & Lumber

2009-11-30T19:07:00.003-07:00

Real quick...tonight during FHE I said 'Even though Jesus died on the cross, he still lives' and Xander asked 'where?' not knowing exactly how to answer this question myself, I sat there for a minute and Xander then asked 'at Home Depot? Ya, at Home Depot.' We laughed so hard, he's so funny!

Majority Rules!

2009-11-24T11:21:00.003-07:00

Since I am now a minor in my own home, I am forced to follow and partake of certain 'male traditions'...the biggest one being football. Actually, I don't mind it all that much. At the last minute we decided to take just Xander to the Utes game and spend some one-on-one time with him. It was cold. It was so fun. Even though every game we watch, and I mean EVERY game is watched at our house, Brandon is so patient and explains the plays to me and the 1st and 4th downs, and the snap and all that other stuff, I never seem to remember, but it is so fun. I'm sure he can't wait until our boys are at the age where they totally understand everything about football and he will no longer have to repeat himself. As for me, I don't see how one person can keep track of so many numbers, rules, plays, etc!

Xander even snuck in a litte nap!! He is SO my child.

We LOVE the Utes!

4 Teeth and no Gates! (Third and final)

2009-11-13T15:21:00.002-07:00

Okay....I had a lot of catching up to do....Please don't let my blogging efforts go to waste! Make sure to look at all the posts, there are 3 new ones! That's a lot for me!

These are some hiking pics I promised B I would put up a long time ago...

Yes....WE went hiking...even me....Mrs. anti-physical activity.

Dad helping mom out REALLY early in the morning before work one day......

Max LOVES the bathroom! He is cutting his FOURTH tooth, possibly fifth, we can't quite tell yet....and we didn't even have to worry about baby gates this time around....He has mastered the stairs already. Next on his agenda: getting, I mean climbing into the bathtub with his brother.....not kidding....

Bling!

2009-11-13T14:46:00.005-07:00

I totally made this! I am so proud of myself....Me and my good friend have gotten so good at copying other people! It was super easy, and I want to make a million of them, but don't know what I will do with them all!

I found a minute to catch up!

2009-11-02T13:11:00.004-07:00

Better late than never, right?! Halloween was an ordeal this year.....we (and by that I mean 'I') had been so gung-ho to do so many fun activities during the week, that poor little Xander was DONE come Halloween day! He actually put his pajamas on and got in bed and said he'd rather read stories than go trick-or-treating. What?! We have been looking forward to this day all week, and we had super fun plans with our friends....PLEEEASE Xander? Okay, he said, but I want to be something else, so...........bickety-bam..army guy! (no pics...we had to get trick-or-treating, it was late!)

Before the Halloween carnival the week before....

Halloween day.....he sleeps on her EVERY time!

Visting grammy at work!

Our pumpkins, complete with, of course, autobot pumpkin!

Picture post

2009-10-27T12:45:00.006-06:00

Just some pictures of what we've been up to lately....

Max getting into anything and everything.....
A visit from aunt Paigey!!!

The great Pumpkin Carve of 2009.....

Three of the cutest babies all in one place and all only 1 month apart!

Max after he rolled down ALL the stairs....he couldn't be happier!

pumpkins!

2009-10-10T11:11:00.003-06:00

CHECK these suckers out.....Grammy & Grampy made a visit last night and brought us these huge pumpkins! That big one weighed in at a whopping 168 lbs, the only one that even came close is when I was 3, and it was only 132 lbs.....not sure what mom and dad are up to in their garden at their old age, but they still got it! Thanks mom and dad we love you!!!

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE being surrounded by boys??

Sweeties & Sanity

2009-10-01T22:05:00.005-06:00

A little update on Max....well Alot of update....

The little stinker is 5 and a half months old, and, maybe I'm stupid for saying this, but I feel like the hardest part is over. That newborn stage. I can't explain to you the sheer terror I have of newborns, It's awful.

You know when you go running and you so desperately want to take a deep breath but cant, so you feel all uptight and un-relaxed all the while gasping for that breath so you can just let it all go? ya, that's how I feel all the time around my newborns. Your newborns, I will hold them all day until they cry and then hand them back. Mine are like time bombs. If I'm not holding them while they scream, then I am following the person around who is holding them waiting for them to scream, or, if they actually do sleep, I sit around and wait for them to wake up screaming. My husband pointed that one out to me, good call.

Who are 'they' you ask? BOTH of my babies. I love them. Dearly. But the whole '40% of babies are colicky/fussy? I have had 100%. Everyone said my second one would be so much better. How about my second one is exactly like my first in every way, except he is brown haired and brown eyed?

Maybe it was me, I thought it was my house, or the color of shirt I wore. Maybe if I only washed my hair every other day they wouldn't be so upset. I thought it was everything. No dairy, only dairy, only water, only things that aren't cooked on a stovetop, sheets, blankets, socks, no socks, mild detergent, no detergent, baths in the morning instead of night, believe you me I though of it all, I should have been admitted! You can imagine my horror when the nurse at the doctor's office asked me if I had tried tilting his crib. Are you kidding me? Yes, that must be it....of all the things I've tried, tilting his crib must be the reason he is so fussy...FYI that didn't work either, I tilted it both ways.

So finally, I have come to terms that this is just how my babies are, they don't cuddle, they are high maintenance and stubborn, they are not easily contented, you have to earn their entertainment, and that's just the way I like them. We are still up at night, a LOT, but you know what? The good thing about my babies is that they are creatures of habit, so even though he does still wake up twice at night, I know exactly what time to expect it, and I do. This is how it works at our house, my babies never have and never will sleep 6 hours straight before the age of 1, let alone 12 hours(I've assumed those babies are mythical creatures or their mom's are storytellers), and that's okay, nothing is wrong with them, that's how they are. But you will never hear us use the phrase 'slept like a baby'...it doesn't make any sense to us.

Moving on, as you can kinda see in the video, he army crawls already! It's so nice when they can move around and get to what they want to get at. He has been doing this for about 2 weeks now. Also, at about the 5 month mark he cut his first tooth and he was awesome! One day he was just kind of whiny and irritable, wouldn't let me put him down to play, Brandon came home to play with him and said "Look! he has a tooth in there!". We gave him a dose of tylenol, and that's all she wrote. So that wasy nice and easy.

What I have learned about Max so far:

1. He wants his bottle at a very certain temperature. He would rather be hungry then eat not-warm-enough-milk.

2. He does NOT like his feet exposed at night. During the day? Feet out all you want, just not at night.

3. Fabric softener does his skin something wicked. Don't use it. Not even on his bath towels or our clothes.

4. His room is pitch black. I HATE dark rooms, especially when the sun is shining, he will only sleep if it's black, drives me crazy.

5. He loves to be naked. Stark naked. When he is, he will roll around and crawl all over the house. When clothed, he does a little but seems to think clothing hinders his movements.

6. He is silently studying all of Xander's moves, and quite frankly it is freaking me out a little bit.

7. He LOVES his daddy. The weekends are awful for napping because he can hear Brandon is home and REFUSES to sleep.

This has been mostly for my record. I love my little brownie, and my little blonde one too. I will never hope or expect to have one of those babies that just sleeps in a carseat all the time, how boring would that be? I wouldn't even know what to do with myself or my time. For now, I have come to get used to the fact that I look 40 years old for lack of sleep and a quiet house is a little bit too eery. I love you crazy boys!!

Hikes, Spikes, the Zoo and Southern Utah too!

2009-09-27T13:35:00.007-06:00

****WARNING, PICTURE OVERLOAD!!!****
This is LONG overdue, so I'll keep the blah-blah short and sweet....enjoy!

We FINALLY made it to the zoo (Thanks Grandma GAY!) and saw the new baby elephant.....I didn't get a very good pic, look right between the mom's two front legs and you can see him, he is nursing, so cute!
Some R&R at the playground....

One last picture on our way out....

Snake Food!

Xander was being anti-fun....as you can see neither one of his parents were participating, we're so mean!

Me and my sweet little boys....I freakin love these little studs!

All three of my boys......the weekends are getting rowdier and rowdier as MAX gets bigger...

After about 4 weeks of snipping,trimming and stepping back to look at random times all throughout the day, I finally finished Max's haircut...He's such a little stinker!

***We went to Cedar City over Labor Day weekend and stayed with my sister and her husband....the newlyweds! Really? Were we ever like that? Well, I'm pretty sure after staying with them, they will hold off on having kids for awhile. While in Southern Utah, we couldn't help but indulge ourselves in some Cedar City real estate, we so want to move back! We determined that finding a place to live would not be an issue at all....how can we pay for it??

Going on a walk in Cedar city....now I know why people have more than one kid, finally, some help!!

My little T-Bird!

Mom & Xander sailing away....

My little superhero.....

Our little family fishing at Duck creek and Mirror lake.....Sigh, we sure do miss Southern Utah...

project!

2009-09-09T14:02:00.003-06:00

Look at what I made! It's a mobile for Max's room and it was SO fun to make! Next maybe I should work on my object photography....Anyway, Max is 5 months old and his nursery is now complete! More pics to come later...

Merry Christmas!

2009-09-09T10:07:00.002-06:00

Lloyd Christmas that is........

I took the whole hair cut thing a little further and tried to do the front, and this is what turned out, oops! Sorry Max!

Firsts

2009-09-01T09:14:00.008-06:00

This past week we've had some fun firsts at our house. Brandon finally talked me into cutting MAx's lovely locks.......

Before...... (sorry, we LOVE bath pics!)

After! I cut quite a bit off....I love having babies with hair!

And Xander started preschool! (sniff,sniff) He is so freakin' big, I can't even believe it!

Xander

2009-08-20T20:57:00.010-06:00

In all this hustle and bustle of having a new baby, I feel like I have totally left Xander out of all my blogging, if you didn't know me any better, you'd probably think I just have one kid. Well, we do have two kids, our first is my baby Xander who is 3 and I just can't believe it.

Xander is at that wonderful stage where there are no more well kept secrets, and all private conversations between mom and dad are now everyone's business. He talks very well, and he is VERY detail oriented. He LOVES to talk about movies and about episodes of Spongebob Square Pants. He can carry on a conversation about anything. He is WAY into 'army guys' , he dresses up like one once a day and if we see one at the store or somewhere, he gets SO excited! He loves wrestling, ANY sport that involves a ball, is fascinated with transformers, bad guys, cops and car wrecks, and well, he's just 100% boy.

I can't express enough how honestly, 'easy' a toddler he has been. He doesn't throw tantrums, he listens, he obeys and follows directions, he's CLEAN, he sleep 9-11 hours at night and take 2hour naps during they day, ALL without arguing! Best of all, he is an AMAZING big brother. Max spends the whole day watching Xander, it's hilarious! And Xander can get him to stop crying so easliy, He's so great! I love him to pieces. Here's to you Xander, you're my little blondie and always will be. I love you! ----Don't Skip our other NEW post below! I'm on a roll this week!!

we LOVE swimming!

2009-08-20T16:25:00.007-06:00

WE have had ALOT of fun swimming this summer, and we have done lots of it! Max took his first swim when he was only five weeks old! (don't criticize me, he loved it!)

This was a SUPER fun, MEGA waterslide that our good friends let us come play on....thanks Butler's!!! And hats off to Katie for all the manual labor to set it up!!

OOPS!

Max and Daddy!!

Max and his cute Aunt Jessie!

Triathalon!!

2009-08-04T12:06:00.004-06:00

This weekend, the more athletic of us two, Mr. Ambitious, participated in the Layton Triathalon, and he did AWESOME! We are so proud of him. It consisted of and 11 mile bike ride, a 3/4 mile swim and 3 mile run. He did it in two halves, so swim, ride, run half the distance and then started over again! I was exhausted, personally, just having watched him, But he did do it and finished in 1 hour 46 min!

He's like a fish!! This is Brandon tearing it up in the pool!

Transition area, it's either him or Jon Gosselin....I can't tell....

Here he comes around the corner Lance Armstrong style

Final Lap! He must have spotted the ice cream man, just kidding! Yay #65!!!

With a super cute girl who cheered him on there....and watched his kids.....

Congrats on this accomplishment babe! Many more to come, maybe I'll even join you one of these times!!!

My 1st pics!

2009-07-13T08:23:00.003-06:00

I just LOVE this little cutie!

Rub-a-dub-dub Three Men In a tub

2009-07-05T16:09:00.002-06:00

My little firecracker

2009-07-05T15:53:00.003-06:00

We spent our fourth of July with Brandon's family out in West Weber this year, and had all kinds of fun. We decided to enter Max into a little baby contest they were having, and he won in his age group!

Of course, cuteness runs in the family, our little nephew Enoch, who is 3 months older than Max, was also entered and WON in his age group too! Here are our little prize winners....

Here is Enoch and MAx getting to know each other....boy are they gonna be trouble in just a few months...watch out Grandma Gay!

If I could describe the city of West Weber with one picture....this would be the one I would use...
Hahaha! West Weber is probably one of the last, few little farming communities around, and it is so nice to spend time out there....Everyone knows everyone and you always feel at home. This truck was AWESOME to say the least, and yes, he shot that cannon thing off the whole parade! We were on the baby float a few behind it, and it didn't even bother the babies and it was LOUD.

LONG overdue!

2009-06-26T20:49:00.005-06:00

Is it possible that I finally have 10 minutes to blog?? MAx is just over 2 months and man.....it's a lot of work. Apparently he has some serious silent reflux going on, hence the non stop screaming for the first few weeks, now that we have that taken care I am trying to get him to sleep in his crib during the day.....the little stinker wants to be packed around and doesn't want to miss a thing! He goes down without a fight at night though! Anyway, it is a joy, but a lot of work, and to those of you who have little babies who nestle in their carseats and sleep the day away.....don't take that for granted! BOTH of our boys have insisted on being packed around, jostled and patted firmly on the back before going to sleep, and there are very few places they will sleep, it is a workout! Anyway, I have total baby brain so I don't know if any of this even made since, but here a few of the many pics over the past few months....

Summer Fun....We attempted to try out this park during all the rain (see the dark clouds in the back) and our patience perservered!! The clouds lifted and the sun came out for about a half hour and it was WARM! Best part was, we were the only people crazy enough to be out in the rain so we had it to ourselves!!

Is this a kodak moment or what???

Yes, Max's hair sticks up like that ALL the time, we love it! They are so serious these two....

These two are such buddies already...Xander is a life saver with this little one

See how big Max is compared to the last pic of Xander holding him?

I took like 4,000 pictures trying to catch one of him smiling....I was kind of successful...

His Blessing

I love his little knee highs (Brandon would kill me!)

Awesome weekend

2009-05-13T08:41:00.002-06:00

Brandon did it!! He gradauted from the University of Utah on Friday and we are so proud of him! We kicked off the weekend with his graduation and then had a rockin BBQ at our house that night....
Good job daddy!!

Brandon was able to take a nice long weekend, so that made it an even better mother's day! All they did was ride their bikes!

Xander took off his shoes because it was "like the beach" Brandon so happily obliged!

What can we say, we LOVE this weather and are taking FULL advantage of it!

The hospital pictures of my newborn SUCKED! so we tried to do some at home, even though they weren't professional they still turned out way better than the ones at the hospital....even with my giant hand....

I don't know what I'm doing

2009-05-03T11:19:00.003-06:00

Hello! I have no clue how to mother two children....someone upstairs must be crazy to have let me have two kids......My baby wants to sleep on his tummy...what do I do?? Xander slept on his tummy and I survived, and so did he, but I didn't think my two kids would be so much alike, and they are!! Every time I lay Max down to sleep, he is up 20-40 min later wanting to be held...don't get me wrong, I love it, but I need some sleep too! I would never forgive myself if something happened to him while he is sleeping on his tummy....help!!! Oh and here are some cute pics of late....

Graduation is this Friday....we are so excited for daddy! He has worked very hard for this, and will continue to do so until August!!!

Xander is seriously my saving grace. He is the best big brother in the world, so patient and such a huge helper....and whenever the baby is fussy (which is alot) he stands or sits by me and pats my back and tells me it's okay.....I love this kid.

Xander's A Big Brother!!

2009-04-18T09:08:00.004-06:00

We are proud to announce that Maxim Smith Rodriguez arrived Thursday, April 16th at 2:06 a.m.! He weighed in at 7 lbs 12 oz and 20 in. Labor and delivery went very short, smooth and well! Everyone is doing great!

Don't Ask!

2009-04-08T23:30:00.002-06:00

I left the Dr's office crying tonight, yes me, crying. She told me that basically my cervix is still hard as a rock and I am only dialted a 1+...I was sure I would be a 4 and ready any day. I am sure the news could have been much,much worse, but this was a huge let down. I do still have a week left, but my one-time feeling of this labor/delivery/birth being so much smoother than last time has completely faded. Most of you know that I do not want to be induced, but I want even less to be pregnant longer than 40 weeks! What do I do?? I chickened out to have my membranes stripped....I dug sores into Brandon's arm just while she 'checked' me. I couldn't do it and I just had this overwhelming feeling that it probably wouldn't help anyway. He is in a posterior position, just like Xander was, and I am beginning to have nightmares of Xander's birth all over again. Sigh, so if you haven't heard if I've had my baby yet, I HAVEN'T! I promise, I will shout it from some place very high when he is here. Thanks for all the tips and well-wishing!

Happy Birthday Xander!

2009-03-31T06:02:00.003-06:00

We celebrated Xander's birthday this past Saturday, it was actually yesterday, and it was great! I can't believe my little boy is 3, he is seriously such a good little boy, I wish it could be his birthday everyday! WEll, maybe just once a week.....

We started off the day by going to see the REAL spiderman! He was at an event by our house, it was so exciting! Poor little XAnder was very tired by the time of his party, he was a good little sport although it took him a few tries to blow out that candle.....thanks for helping Grammy!

Thank goodness for Brandon....None of the bakeries had a transformer cake worth paying $30 for, so I stressed about how I was going to make one. Thank goodness for Dad and his artistic talent....look at what he drew, free hand! I can't even write on cakes!

Xander actually put in an order for "five ones" (five cakes!) all ranging from helicopters to spider man to hulk to transformers......I figured all this should suffice, and those oreo-filled cupcakes were yummy! (I pictured them dark red, not pink, but you do what you gotta do!)

We got him a spiderman bike.....I think we went overboard with the excitement though....he wasn't that surprised about it

Thanks to all his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmas and grandpas (he had a record of 5 grandpas there!) for coming and making his day so special....he told me the next day it was like Christmas.

Happy Birthday Xander, We love you!!!!!!

3 graduations and a wedding

2009-03-24T07:06:00.003-06:00

Continuing on after all the birthdays at our house, we still have a full schedule ahead! On top of expecting a baby, we also have three college graduations, a wedding and a 30th wedding anniversary, all by June 9th! In May, My dad and sister will be graduating on the same day, in completely different parts of the state, Dad with an MBA, Paige with a BS from SUU (carry it on girl) and Brandon (YAY!!) graduates a week later from the U with his bachelor's in economics. After all that, Paige is getting married in June, and mom and dad celebrate their 30th a few days later. SO we get to enjoy all kinds of fun celebrations and everything that comes in between, including a bridal shower and major graduation bash complete with handmade invitations....what am I thinking....seems like I forgot what it's like to have a newborn eh? Here are some pics we have taken along the way.....enjoy!

The first official pic of someone in a cap and gown, and this is because I am responsible for making sure he looks FAB as he is crossing the stage! Go Dad!

Me, my sis and my two babies!

I know I've said this before, but man these two could be twins! And they are the best buddies ever, so cute!!

Quick pics

2009-03-11T10:24:00.002-06:00

Had a few kodak moments at our house this week that I thought I would post....and also a updated belly pic....no, I'm not due tomorrow, I still have 5 more weeks!

First fishing trip!!
Batman......hopefully I didn't just make myself the worst mother in the world by posting this pic...

Giant me!

Birthday BoNaNzA!

2009-02-24T14:55:00.003-07:00

Yesterday kicked off the annual Birthday craziness at our house....from now until the new baby is here, we will have a birthday in our immediate household every two weeks! Starting with Brandon and ending with little Max, with me and Xander in between! So anyways, yesterday was Brandon's Birthday and he is the BIG 2-7! can't believe we have known each other since we were 16! Rather than list 27 things I love about Brandon (because I can, you all just might get bored) I just want him to know that I think he is the greatest hubby in the world, so handsome, and such a good dad and I admire him for all the things he has accomplished and overcome in this life, as well as the good influence he is on me(no, I am not my own natural good influence, surprise)! Some of my favorites things about him are:

1- He's tall, dark AND handsome

2- his unadulterated levels of testostorone (he is 100% male through and through, it cracks me up!)

3- His sense of humor, he totally gets my lame jokes ALL the time, and he knows just how to get me rolling on the floor with his

4-He sets aside 'Man-days' with our sons (he will continue when the other one is here) to do men stuff like go to Home Depot, Auto Zone, work on cars, play guitar, fix stuff, etc.

5- He can clean a MEAN bathroom! (no joke!)

6- He is very appreciative and doesn't take anything for granted...

Happy Birthday babe, I love you!

Baby Update

2009-02-19T14:29:00.004-07:00

It's official, only 8 weeks left! Little Max weighs in at 4 lbs 1 oz so far, he is breech right now but the Dr. is hopeful that he will turn....here is a picture of him, these pics always make them look so scary! He looks alot like Xander, of course we won't know for sure until he is here and we are lovin on him! Everything looks great with him, I am, however, nervous for how much he will actually weigh when he is born....I still have 8 weeks to go and he's already 4 lbs?!?!? We'll see if he beats out his big brother at 8 lbs 5 oz...

My Valentines

2009-02-19T14:18:00.001-07:00

For Valentine's day I decided that we could stay home and have a nice fun dinner and not have to worry about a babysitter since Xander is my little Valentine too! We had super yummy homemade cheese and chocolate fondue (thanks again for the idea Chels!) and a heart shaped pizza, of course! Xander LOVED the fondue, especially the broccoli in the cheese, did I mention this kid LOVES broccoli?? He loved the 'fire' (candles) it was so fun and so cost effective! My favorite was the chocolate with bananas, strawberries and cheesecake bites! Thanks to my boys for such a wonderful Valentine's day and for the roses, I love you!

Potty Training....Check!

2009-01-25T21:14:00.003-07:00

We are happy to annouce that just months before his 3rd birthday, Xander is fully potty trained! #1,#2 and night-time! And it only took about 1 week! It all started January 14th as we were headed out the door to the library right before naptime. Xander asked if he could wear big boy pants. I was already hesitant about taking him out during nap time, let alone the fact that we had only done the 'big boy pants' thing a few times, at home, and for only a few hours at a time. How could I tell him no? I had been waiting for this day for months. So we went to the library, during nap time, with big boy pants...no accidents. I then pushed it and went to the grocery store to grab a few things....no accidents. As soon as we got home and got settled for a nap he said to me 'i'm gonna pee on the floor, i need to use the potty' which he did and then took a completely dry nap! I was SHOCKED! That same night Brandon (out of habit) went to put a diaper on him before bed and Xander said 'I wear big boy pants' and he did.....and no accidents! We decided not to push the #2 thing too hard because we hear that it usually comes later and is a lot harder for them, but by the following Monday he was doing that all on his own in the potty! We haven't touched, seen or bought diapers in over a week and it is everything I thought it could be! I no longer have to worry about two sets of diapers come spring time and I am so excited.

We also moved his bedroom downstairs and painted it for him in an attempt to make room for the baby. He absolutely loves it. It has been harder on us, however, our baby boy has grown up alot in the past week!
Here a couple of pics to appease, including a prego one, which there are not many of, from either of my pregnancies, so this may be the first and last, enjoy!

Xander fell asleep in his armchair in his new room...he loves it! And has been so brave, he hasn't been scared or hesitant in the least bit! Although I find myself curled up in a ball crying outside his door every now and again ;).....I feel like he has moved out!

I can't figure out why everything seems to be so much bigger EXCEPT my belly! PS~the Dr. says baby Max already weighs in at about 2.5 lbs!