Happy 2nd Birthday Mr. Max!!!!

Wow.  My sweet little buddy is now TWO!  I can't believe it.  I better stop calling him sweet little buddy, he is old enough now to get embarrassed by his mushy mom...!  Max is so sweet.  All week he has had this crazy fever that comes and goes as it chooses, and of course, it decided to come full-swing on his birthday.  I made BBQ steak for him (he usually pounds it), and all he had to eat was beans and blueberries.  We think he is getting two-year-old molars in, so hopefully he'll be in good spirits soon!
Max is now starting to say the two-worded sentences, and it cracks me up how cute he sounds.  He remembers that it rained last week pulling into the library parking lot and says it every time we go there now.  He LOVES kitties, doggies, birdies, etc... I'm the mean mom who won't let my husband or little boy get a cat someday, shouldn't it be the other way around?  Max could read stories all day.  His current favorites: Cosmo visits BYU and The Hungry Caterpillar (thanks both Grandma Ashworth and Grandma Holt!!).  Oh speaking of Grandmas, it is depressing being so far away from them, but he LOVED seeing them and his uncles, aunts, and cousins this summer (blog post to come...)!  He is still a BYU Cougar true and true!  While we were in Utah, I let him peek inside a "no-public-practice" for the football team for about 2 minutes.  When we were going to get in trouble for watching too long, I decided it was time to go.  Max screamed his guts out while leaving...needless to say, it made me proud to have raised such a big cougar fan!  Firetrucks, police cars, motorcycles, and "fast cars" are a big deal to Max.  It makes driving in the car all the more fun!  Leap Frog Letter Factory is a blessing and a curse...Max watches it once (sometimes more that once, but hardly ever...) a day.  He know all of his letters and points them out when he sees them on the road, at the store, in a book, and around the house.  We're working on his numbers now too.  I can take no credit in teaching him the ABCs...way to go LeapFrog!  Max's best pal is his "Dada."  The #1 sentence fragment he says is, "Dada...home...school...bike?"  It makes for a long day since we would both love Dada to be home all day!  Tackling, flipping, running, tickling, reading, singing, passing and kicking footballs/soccer balls, and sneaking all sorts of treats are some activities my crazy boys do together :)  Max still takes Snow Bear around everywhere with him...let's hope he lasts till next year?!?!?  Max's favorite things to do right now are Story time, walks with his friends, eating popcorn, playing with his trains, singing primary songs, ready-set-go races around the house, bike rides, dancing crazy, eating smoothies, swinging, swimming, picking his nose, and putting his hands down his pants ...you get the point.  He is 23 pounds (8th % in his age...) and growing (let's hope)!  He is quite the little man, and we love him so much!!

Before haircut...

...After haircut

Who would have known that this was taken right after
a trip to the ER while visiting Grandma and Grandpa Holt?
That is one of the things I love about Max, he really doesn't
let the bad things get him down.  

Was up?

That's my boy!

Love this picture!

It's hard to tell, but this is right after a super traumatic experience of touching
the candle on the birthday cookie instead of blowing it out.  Every time we sing  "Happy Birthday"
now, he bursts into tears remembering this :(  

We sure love you Max, keep up the good work dude!  

P.S...

I forgot to put these in my previous picture update post.  Here we are!!

Holt Family 2012
And yes, the awesome photographer was my Dad...and yes, he did somehow manage to run from the camera being "timed" for 10 seconds to this.  Way to go Dad!!  

Mom, Dad, Camille, David, Elise, Dallin, Devin, Candilyn, and AnneMarie FINALLY
all in a current photo.  Although, I do kind of miss the big bows and poofed bangs from
family photos of the past!

...

Picture Update!

We have had so much fun this past month!  One of these days, I will blog along with life, rather than a month late...but until then, enjoy the overload of pictures!  

Our little monkey!  We go to a gorgeous park called Horseshoe lake a lot as a family and love it!
As you can see, the toys are a little bit different than the usual park toys, but that doesn't
stop Max from having a blast!

Attempted Family Picture...gone bad!!  At the end of May, the WHOLE SIDE of my family got together for
a reunion!  We hadn't all been together for 4 years, and we had a blast!  Thanks to my awesome mom and dad,
all 33 of us stayed at an awesome cabin in Park City for Memorial Day weekend. (My parents and Elise and Bren made it possible for us Clevelandites to fly out for this which was sooooo generous of them, thanks guys!!)
  I wish I would have taken more
pictures of the group!  It was the best being together, eating way too much junk food, being destroyed in ping-pong (I
say that for myself...), laughing our heads off, shopping, and getting caught up from the past four years!  Thanks mom and dad for that amazing memory!  

Thanks to my awesome sisters and mom, we were able to all have identical t-shirts for the reunion!
We all went to Wendy's before heading to the outlet stores.  The poor Wendy's staff and guests were privileged to be
there when we crashed the party!   Max's shirt is a little too big for a shirt still, but makes a great night-shirt!

My mom, Elise, me, Max, my Dad, Brenna, Sydney, and Eli after our VERY nutritious meal :) 

The cousins had a blast being together.  They were so cute with Max and the other little
ones'.  It was so fun to see them all playing together!  

Max and Eli hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's!

Dick's Bakery Doughnuts...need I say more?  I crave these almost weekly living in Cleveland,
and oh boy, I ate enough of these delectable delights to ease my cravings for a while...! 

Some of the cousins: Juliana, Talmage, Daniel, Brenna, Eli, and Max!

CHEESE!

I got to see my little Aspen Grove Romper Counselor as well!!  Annie is working up
at the camp that I did 4 years ago...!  I can't believe it has been 4 years.  I. Am. Old.
Annie is the best counselor there, and seeing her was one of the highlights of my trip!
Love ya Grim :)

Two of my good friends are having their babies within weeks of each other, and
we had a combined "hooded-towel" shower at my house!  Thanks to
Malorie (the babe in the blue sweater), Cassie and Brooke went home with 2
hooded towels each for their sweet kiddos!  Malorie sewed all night, bless her dear
heart!  It made me realize how badly I need to learn how to sew!! Love all of you girls!

Beach time!  Max spent 4 hours doing exactly what this picture shows...except
I don't know where his bucket is.  I am working on his appreciation for the beach water,
but hey, I'll go and relax for 4 hours while he is satisfied with the sand!

I teach piano to my darling next door neighbor Natalie, and we had her first recital last week!
She is so awesome, as are her parents for diligently practicing with her :)  It has been
wonderful seeing her progress so much in such little time!

There was a sweet parade last week by our house, so we hopped on our bikes
in the heat of the day, and got to see some cool stuff!

Max, on the other hand, didn't think the parade was that cool...!   We
got there and left pretty quickly!

Some of you already know, but for those of you that don't, Mr. Max has a peanut
allergy :(  It has been a hard thing for Tim and I to deal with, but luckily we think it is only
peanuts.  Since we found out, we have slowly given him different types of nuts (besides
peanuts), and thankfully he hasn't reacted to them :)  Last week we gave him some nutella (hazelnut)
to try, and yeah, no reaction!  

Judging from the aftermath, I think we'll be regular buyers of nutella!  

Our very expensive and massive backyard pool!  

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TIMMY!  I made Tim pork spare-ribs, his request, for
Father's Day dinner :)  They are a bit time consuming, but I guess Tim is worth it.
No, I couldn't have asked for a better hubby or daddy for Max than Tim!  I love you babe :)

Again, I don't have a dog, I have a husband...

My wonderful boys!  

Max loves saying "cheese" to the camera, so this morning we had a  "cheese" session.
I can't believe how big this guys is getting!  And yes, those are curls on top of that cute head!
No idea where he got them from, but I'm afraid that if I cut his hair, they will never grow back!

Sweet little buddy...

Max will be 2 in August!  AH!!!  I am so lucky to have a happy, healthy, and  hilarious little
bud to play with.  Currently he loves to run from one end of the house to the other probably 30 +
per day, eat cookies, sing the cougar fight song, learn his letters, play with his trains, answer "No!" to ANYTHING
Tim and I ask him, copy and play with his daddy, read books, pick his nose and give me the treasures he finds, jumping and talking in his crib for almost 2 hours every night before he falls asleep, giving hugs and kisses, and kneeling down to pray at random times while outside or in public!!!  We love our Maxwell James!! 

Mama and Max!


The End.  

Oh Spring and Popcorn!

We have been having such a good time lately with the Cleveland's amazing Spring weather!  I keep meaning to post certain things, and then I remember that I don't even have time to brush through my hair or unload the dishwasher!! We also celebrated Tim finishing his first year of Medical School!!!!!  I am so proud of him, he worked soooo hard!!  Good job dude, you rock!  One down, three to go :)  Here's what we've been up to lately:

We got a new I-bert bike seat and use it probably 5 times a week!  Max LOVES it,
and calls it "Bye-bye."  

Feeding the ducks at the duck pond.

So everybody has there favorite things to do.  Max's top 2 are, #1 Popcorn, and #2
Listening to the BYU Football fight song.  Tim is responsible for #1, and I guess I should
take the blame for #2...!

Playing at parkdays with my friends!

Like Father, like son...need I say more?

Max hardly ever looks into the camera and smiles...oh well, he is still stinking cute :)
I am shocked he has no bruise on his forehead for this picture...he sure does now!

Swimming with Pepper, Story, and Elliot!  Max actually was in the pool for about 2 seconds
to take this picture, and then freaked out from all the splashing.  My goal this summer is to
make this Max Obsession #3!

Me and Kailee's primary class pool party!  We team taught the 4 year-olds in our
super small primary and loved it!  These kids rocked :)  You can see Max being a swimming whimp
in the very back...sweet little buddy!

I mentioned we go on bike rides all the time, and now, thanks to my awesome  husband
surprising me with this bike rack for Mother's Day, we can bike anywhere we want!!  Seriously,
I don't know how I lived before we started going on bike rides.  It is easy, free, convenient, and SO fun! 

Pepper, Elliot, and Max!  We had a party for our awesome first year  med school hubby's ! Good job boys!

Ladies and Gentlemen, introducing the future Doctors of America...haha!
(Tim and Taylor using Taylor's tire swing in back yard...all the guys took a turn!)

Why wouldn't you trust these men with your life?  

Love this picture :)

My first popsicle experience... 

Not quite sure what to think about the freezing sugar to my teeth...

This picture could go on a popcicle box...oh Max, we sure love you buddy!

3 Years of Happy Times!

Timmy and I celebrated our 3-year anniversary last Saturday, April 28th!!  Thanks to our amazing, and I mean AMAZING friends the Bullards who watched Max ALL day (and even letting him sleep over the night before so Tim and I could leave early enough to make it to our Temple session...) with their busy schedule, we were able to enjoy a day-date in Columbus.  We had soooo much fun, and loved spending so much time together.
We woke up bright and early on Saturday and headed to our first stop...The Columbus Temple.  In order to make it on time, we need about 3 hours to get there.  Tim studied up a storm on the way there while I drove, trying to stay awake listening to a book.  We barely made it...!
After a wonderful temple session, we booked it over to a movie theater that I found about 2 miles from the Temple to see the long- awaited-viewing of The Hunger Games.  We were not disappointed with this book turned into a movie!!! After way too much dollar store candy and movie theater popcorn, we headed back to Cleveland.
Before arriving home though, we stopped and stuffed our faces at The Olive Garden (thanks mom and dad!!!).  We had such a good time there, and our waiter probably thought we were in high school with all the laughing going on at our table.  Tim tried soooo hard to get me to eat the fried Calamari (sp? aka squid), but I wouldn't budge.  Never in a million years.
Stop number 2 on the way back to the Cleve was the Lodi Outlet Malls.  It was a little nippy outside, so we didn't stay too long, but loved how delightful the place was.  The outlets have a cute train that gives rides around all the stores, and we immediately knew a certain little boy would flip out if he could get a choo-choo-train ride :)  That made me miss Max even more (even though we had only been gone from him less than 20 hours...I had to promise Tim to stop worrying about him being any trouble for our friends...)
It ended up being a perfect day, despite the fact that we knew heart-attacks were in store for what our diets consisted of that day...  We are still alive right now, phew!
I love Tim so much, and can't believe it has been 3 years since we got hitched.  He makes me be better everyday, and is SO patient with my short-comings, hormones, falling asleep in every movie or tv show we watch, days I don't make it to the shower, mac and cheese with hot dog dinners for the 3rd-night-in-a-row-weeks, complaints, worries, fears, crying sessions, etc...  He makes me so happy and I can't imagine where I'd be if I wasn't lucky enough to have met him. I love you Tim!

Me and my handsome husband outside the movie theater... No, that isn't our car.  I wish.

Give it up for 3 years baby!!  Whoot, whoot!