Who needs real toys?

I was gone somewhere, and Tim had taken this video of Max.  I thought it was so stinking cute!  Hearing Max laugh is literally therapeutic for me.  I promise we don't let Max go around in his diaper all the time...no really, we don't.  Tim is the best Daddy!!

Happy 1st Birthday Max!!!

Our Max turned 1 on August 15!  We celebrated with some of our friends the Saturday before the big day, and had a blast!  Max has been the best little guy this past year, and it has gone by so fast! There have been so many fun stages that we have been able to enjoy! He has made our lives complete, and we love him so much!  Happy Birthday Max!

Here I am in my modified birthday suit
 after eating my birthday cake and ice cream!

Saving some for later...

Life!

Hello!  Life has been so great this past month, and has gone by so fast.  I have been experiencing so many NEW things (whether good or bad).  Some of which have included Max's new crib and only nursing him one time a day (which will only last one more week when he turns 1!!)  I can't believe I almost have a stinking 1 year old little monkey.  We found the crib for a super good deal, and Tim couldn't wait till his b-day to put it up, so it is already being used and abused AND Max loves it!  It took him a couple of naps to get used to it, but so good so far! I put the bumper pad on all wrong, very embarrassing, but I don't think Max cares.  I'll fix it sometime!  As for the bottle feeding, our dude is getting the hang of it.  Thank goodness, it was touch and go there for a couple of weeks.  He is a bottle now; what a relief and blessing :)
So another new addition... we buckled and got a GPS!  We got it for a good deal online.  It was refurbished, so it has some glitches to it, but for the price we got it for, I'll take it.  I am so, so, so bad with directions, and I honestly don't know how I got around without a GPS.  Tim is a pro with maps and directions, but was a champ to let us get it.  It has allowed me so much freedom in this big new place.  Max is also a champ and puts up with me taking him who knows where all the time, but it is better than sitting at home.  And yes, I have still managed to get lost even with the GPS, but I guess I expected that with my seriously retarded direction skills.
Another new and awesome development here in Cleveland are the friends we have been so lucky to make. We have a great ward, and are getting to know all the wonderful families!  We have fabulous neighbors who have kids right around Max's age!  I think I have mentioned before that Tim is in Med School with 3 other former BYU students, and they all are married. We all get along a little too well, and our kiddos play great together. I am so blessed, and know that we are being watched over.
Tim is studying hard for his first set of tests at the end of this week, bless his little heart!  Luckily, the schedule that Case has set up allows him to have enough time to study during the day so we can spend time together most nights.  I can't believe he is already taking tests!
Tim's little brother, David, is getting married in a couple of weeks, and his darling wife-to-be is from Ohio, so they are getting married in the Columbus Temple, which is only a couple hours away from Cleveland!  We are so excited to see them, and are happy for David and Sherry!!
Anyway, that is what is new with us.  Even though we are far from home, Cleveland is starting to feel more like our home away from home!
P.S. Speaking of home, it can't exist without good old BYU Football which starts in less than a month!!!  There are a lot of families that bleed blue around here, so we are in good company come September!!! I can't wait!! Go Cougars :)

This is a video of Max in his crib for his first time! Don't mind my high-pitched voice...

So Max loves this bear.  His name is Snow Bear, and he is so sweet to him.  Snow Bear is special because Tim had this exact Bear when he was little!  If that isn't cool enough, Snow Bear was Tim's moms bear when she was little too!!!  I love it :)  With all the TLC Max gives this little flluf, I don't know if it will make it to my grandchildren, but who knows?!?!  We had to get a video of Max with Snow Bear though!

Max and his friends Elliot and Pepper at the zoo!  They
were such good sports surviving the heat and humidity of Cleveland :)

Here are some of my dear friends, Nicole and Kathy, they are the best!!

Hello!!

Got Milk?

This here is Max after weeks of attempting a bottle and Vitamin D milk. I am gradually weaning him, and  it has been SO frustrating.  Max just won't
drink.  Finally, I got the idea of pouring the milk from the bottle onto his graham crackers, and letting them soak it up.  He totally fell for it, and then I started pouring the milk onto a spoon and feeding it to him.  He LOVED it!  So I tried the impossible, and gave him the bottle and he guzzled it right up!  I was so excited, I almost started crying.  It was a miracle.  Max just looked at my like I was crazy, which after trying to have him drink milk for weeks without any luck, I was.
I have tried my little tricks again, and they seem to work a little bit, but Max is starting to out smart me and won't drink from the bottle.  So, we are back to square one.  Any suggestions?!?!?!  

Home Sweet Home!

We are finally able to start calling our little place home.  For about 4 nights in a row now, Tim and I have been setting up camp.  Mr. Max makes things a little more difficult to do (he tries to be such a good helper though...), so we are most productive when he has gone to bed.  It isn't perfect yet, and we still have a lot more to do, but it is getting there.  Tim has been so great in putting up with all of my picky requests.  Everything that has been hung up on our walls has gone through Mr. Mechanical Measuring Man (a.k.a. Tim), and is perfectly centered, straight, and secure.  We have the steps down to hang something up, and there are about 8 or 9 of them.  I am glad Tim is with me, because I get impatient, and want things done fast.  Our house would be cooked and crazy if I were in charge!  Thanks Babe for being so great!

Here is our living room.  We found this sectional at a furniture
store, and it was on sale and the last one in stalk. We were really excited
about it! We rented a U-Haul van for the day and picked this up, our kitchen table, and a computer desk.
Bless Tim's heart...I don't know how he fit all of it in, but whatever he did worked!
We found this rug on a website call the Case Forum (it is like a craigslist, but for
Case students.  We also got a computer chair from the same people, all for a really good deal.)
Hardwood floor is all we got, and we had to get some carpet for our little goose-egged boy.  Poor Max, he
has gotten so many bruises from falling all of over the place. We found a rug that covers
his whole room from a garage sale, which will hopefully minimize the bruises!  Whoot, whoot for garage sales!

The dining room.  I just fell in love with this kitchen table when we saw it on
Craigslist, it was in perfect condition, and has so much more room on it
than our old one.  It think it will last us the 9 years we need it to!  If not,
we'll use it anyway :) 

I just had to take a picture of this little wall.  Thanks to my amazing hubby,
we were able to drill this sturdy shelf into the wall, and I just love how it turned out!

The table in the corner was the kitchen table we had before our new one.
We got it for $10.00 at a garage sale, and now are selling it on craigslist for about
that much!  

My front porch lookin' in!

A home is not complete without this.  Go Cougars!

So I love, love, love Monet paintings, and we found this one at a garage sale
for only $7 dollars!  Tim saw it fist, and yelled that I should get over to where it was.
The lady selling it probably thought we were crazy, especially me, because
I was so stinking excited about finding it at such a good deal!  

Our poor Max has quite the lame room.  So I decided to paint these dinky letters, and mounted
them on his wall a couple of days ago, and they have already fallen off once. Who knows
how long they will last!?!  I want
to get a third ball to put in between the other ones eventually.
Max is still sleeping in his pac 'n' play, and he will be 1 in less than a month
and is way too big for it.
We are horrible parents...
I feel so bad, but hopefully we will get him a suitable crib soon!

Cleveland!

We made it-our green little car chugging along and all!!! It was July 4th, and since it was late at night the whole sky was shooting off fireworks.  It was obvious that Cleveland was welcoming the Ashworths, and it made our arrival that much more exciting!!  Driving from the freeway to the street where we were going to be setting up camp was very ghetto.  I was already tired and sick of driving, and seeing what I saw did not help my mood.  The closer we got to our street though, the safer it became.  We are inside the border of the a sketchier part of Cleveland Heights, and the wealthy part.  I have ended up falling in love with where we live.  I feel safe on our street, and in the surrounding wealthier neighborhoods.  The houses in our city are huge, but are kind of old fashioned.  We love to go on runs and admire all of it!
There is a lake with a running trail surrounding it about a mile up the road, and it has become one of our favorite spots!  We have a grocery store at the end of our street, and Tim is super close to Case.  The library rocks, and I think we will be weekly visitors of it! There is a middle school with a track and an elementary with a play ground right around the corner, which I feel very spoiled living close to! We have 3 LDS families on our street, but only one is in town now.  They have been so nice, and Max has loved getting to know all of the babies his age.(He even had his first kiss with Malorie, the 8 month old cutie across the street...he wastes no time!!) Max and I were invited to go to the zoo with Malorie and another little guy Max's age and had a blast!!  It is free parking and admission every Monday!!   Our ward is small, but I think we will really like it.
Our little house is perfect!  Not only do we have the privilege of having central air and a dishwasher, but compared to a lot of the other 1920 homes on our street, it has stayed in great shape.  We are still in the process of decorating and unpacking, and will take pictures as soon as it's ready.  We have gotten some great deals on furniture, and since Tim and I have never really bought anything new (almost all our furniture since we have been married has been our treasure and another man's trash), I am still having some buyers remorse. Kind of.
Tim is loving med school, and I am so excited for him.  We had his white coat ceremony a couple of weeks ago, and he is official!  There are three other BYU students that are in his class, and we all get along great with them :)  The BYU's are the only ones with kids, and we stick out like a BIG sore thumb.  Oh well, all of the students have been really nice to us.  At least I have moral support from the other wives and kiddos.  I don't know what I would do if it were just me.
We have been so blessed this past month, and can't thank Heavenly Father enough for watching over us.  I am excited about Cleveland, and will keep you all updated on our adventure!

Our crazy little monkey has enjoyed way too much getting into
all the new cupboards, drawers, bathtubs, toilets, closets, etc...
He keeps me on my toes, that is for sure!

This was the night we got to Cleveland, and Max
was so excited to be out of his car seat he could hardly stand it!
We forgot to pack these darn bed frames in the truck, and so
it was an honor to have them between Tim and I the whole
way.  Needless to say, we will never forget to pack
them in the truck again!

One of Max's favorite places to play.  Our closet.  Bless his heart!

We don't have the luxury of bathing Max in my parent's sink
anymore, so he gets a real bath and LOVES it!  I am drenched at the end,
but it is so hot here, I usually welcome it!

All clean!

This is after the white coat ceremony, and bless Tim's heart,
he was so hot in that coat and his dress clothes.  We were
soaking wet by the time we finally made it to our car.  Gotta
love Ohio humidity and heat :) 

Introducing:
The future Dr. Timothy James Ashworth!!!

One of Max's forbidden cupboards.  He is so wild and naughty, but
so cute at the same time!

Tim got a new computer desk and apparently his son did as well.
Max uses and enjoys it as much as his daddy...!

Max's friends- Beau and Malorie!
 It is so fun for me to see him interact with
kids his age.  This is right before we headed into the zoo.

Cassie, Me, and Brooke with the kiddos.  These girls are awesome!

I just love this picture.  My boys!

Saying Goodbye and Packing Up...

July finally arrived, and whether we were ready or not, med school was waiting

for us.  I can't believe how fast these past 7 months have gone and now

they are over.  My parents and Annie have been so wonderful in letting us

crash their party this past while.  We will always be so grateful for their kindness to 

our little family! 

My awesome hubby was a packing pro (and thanks to the help of

my family), we fit all of our

stuff into 5 feet of a ABF trailer.  I guess that is one bonus of

having nothing.  We were able to pay the minimum amount, and couldn't

believe that we fit it all in that tiny space.  

There is the man at the end of the 2 hours it took to pack it up.  You
go Tim!

Our sweet little Henrietta the Hyundai. She was great for the
 27  hour adventure.  

And the first place prize goes to this champ.  Max was better than
his parents on the trip, and that is the truth.  He was so good, it
was kind of creepy.  We  kept telling him that he
was justified to fuss, but he decided to do the
exact opposite.  We sure love this boy!!

 Before we headed out east, we were able to meet up with some dear

friends of ours, which was wonderful.   

This lovely group are friends of mine from high school, and I think
the world of all of them.  Alicia and Collin hosted a yummy fondue night, which was so sweet of them.
Alicia and Collin are on our right, and Allie and Alex on
our left.  Sara is standing next to Allie and is getting married this August!!
These girls and I have made so many memories together, and I will miss them a lot.

This darling couple is the Scows, and their sweet little baby-girl-to-be!  Tim and Dan
have been the best of friends since their freshman year at BYU.  I just love Suzanne, and
we were so lucky to enjoy a delicious dinner with them before we left.  We are going to miss
them, and are so grateful for their friendship!

Finally, we had to say goodbye to my family.  Saying goodbye to
all these wonderful people was not fun.  I cried on and off for about 48
hours before and after we left.
Bless Tim's heart, I would be laughing one second, and
then crying the next.  It was a long car ride...
  I have always lived within an hour of family,
and know I will have a hard time being so far.
 I love them all so much, and am so lucky to
have all of them in my life!  

Max saying goodbye to his Grandma Holt.  Another tearful experience for
me.  He sure loves his grandma and grandpa!

Here we are ready to hop into the car.  And oh, what we did
not know we were getting ourselves into for the next few days of travel...