"Love, love, here we are"

I saw this quote on a necklace while doing a little Cyber Monday shopping online today and I have mentally tucked it away in my mind's treasure chest. My eyes were immediately drawn to the words. Finally a quote that expresses how it feels to be living each day with my husband and sweet baby boy (well, maybe not each and every second of everyday, but for the most part :).

As someone who has spent a lot of time looking forward and focusing on the future her whole life it’s nice to finally feel “here”. Like the present is the “there” I had been trying to reach. The place I had been waiting my whole life to get to has arrived and I’m living it. I keep repeating the quote in my head as I snuggle here on the couch with Billy, Max and Oliver in front of our happy tree and warm fire. “Love, love, here we are.” Yes. Yes, we definitely are.


My loves lounging on the couch.

Holiday Magic

And so it has begun...the holidays! Billy and I are nearly bubbling over with excitement to share Christmastime with Max. I think a tiny spark has been rekindled within us this season. Although, Billy has always lovingly been called "Clark Griswold" this time of the year for a reason...sooo maybe its just me that has a renewed sense of the holiday spirit. At any rate, we already have our two Christmas trees up. Two. And they both are real. I've never seen Bill more giddy than when we took Max to cut down the "inside tree" this weekend. The other tree is displayed on the front porch and we got that one up the day before Tgiving in preparation for Billy's annual lighting ceremony (see "Clark Griswold" comment above).

First, a couple shots of the Thanksgiving festivities...

Our little turkey only outweighed our actual Thanksgiving turkey by 2 lbs.

The man ate cranberries, salmon, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and green bean casserole!

A very proud Lolli and BooBo - first Thanksgiving with their grandkiddos.

I made Max his "First Christmas" ornament at the Meyers' Thanksgiving. I think I'll try to hand-make an ornament for him each year.

On the hunt for the perfect tree. It was a gorgeous day.

Back in the car. Tuckered out from all the fresh air.

Checking out his ornament.

The tree.

He loved the train.

Max's stocking hung in between ours...the perfect symbol of our growing family.

She's here!

Annabelle Grace is here! She was born on November 19th weighing in at 8lbs 2 oz. Everyone is doing great. Adam and Jennifer are naturals at this parenting thing. It's so wonderful to see them with their little girl. Those first few days at home with a new baby are amazing, beautiful, a little overwhelming, sometimes sleepless and so full of love. I know they're enjoying every moment.

Max was very interested in meeting his new cousin. When we visited her at the hospital he kept reaching out to try and touch her and he was so concerned when she cried. I think he's going to like being the big boy cousin.

Here we are at the hospital waiting for the big announcement. GG read Max a story to keep him occupied.


And here's a pic of the little sack o' flour with a pretty head :)

So many fun times to look forward to...

9 Months

Max has now been outside my belly for as long as he was in. It's kind of hard for me to wrap my mind around that fact. WHERE IS THE PAUSE BUTTON ON THIS CHILD?! Or at least slow-mo. My sister, Jennifer, is about to have her first baby any day now. I keep telling her, and all other pregnant momma's I come across, "enjoy every moment...it goes by so fast."

For instance, Max used to fall asleep laying on my chest with his tiny head resting on my heart. Now he uses me as his personal jungle gym whenever I try to get him to lay quietly with me. However, the other day Max gave me the gift of going back in time. He crawled up on my chest and laid his little head down. In a few minutes he had dozed off the way he did when he was an itty bitty baby. I know it was just because he was a bit under the weather and totally exhausted, but his reason for doing it didn't matter. In that moment I listened to my own advice - enjoy it. it goes by so fast. - I closed my eyes and did just that. Happy 9 months my little baby. I won't take a single second for granted.

Billy grabbed the camera to document this sweetness, but as soon as he did the stinker popped his eyes open.

And just like that...the moment had passed...

Max Stats:

23 lbs (85th percentile)

29 inches (80th percentile)

Recent Max-isms:

- Throws his arms up when you say "Touch Down!"

- Says "Quack Quack" when you show him a duck (sometimes ;)

- Pulls up on ev-er-y-thing and walks around furniture

- Hasn't learned how to sit from the standing position so he goes down in the middle splits to get back down on the floor

- Loves to clap his hands

- He thinks the word "no" is funny, but he actually listens and will stop doing whatever it was he was doing when I say it. (I wonder how long that will last)

- Waves and says ba-ba (bye-bye), but only when it's HIS idea

- His favorite toys are footballs, soccer balls and baseballs. Anything that rolls makes him flap his arms and kick his legs like crazy!

Feeling a little sad

When I logged on to my blog account I was going to write about something happy, but I've had a change of heart. I was just reading a story online about a little boy who lost his battle with cancer. It shook me to the core and I can't focus on writing about anything else. Why do things like this have to happen to the smallest and most innocent beings? It just doesn't make sense. I have asked God more times than I can count to please let Max grow to be a very old man, to let his heart experience the same kind of love I feel for him and maybe, if possible, let Billy and I be around long enough to see that happen.

My heart aches for that little boy's parents who won't get to watch their son grow up. I have to think that there is a reason for things like this. I'm not sure what those reasons could be, but sometimes the only thing that keeps me from feeling so incredibly small is putting my faith in something big. So I said a prayer today for that little boy and his family. I know there are many families that go through this kind of heartbreak. Too many. Some people even within our own families have suffered losses that are unimaginable. I just wanted to write about this to express how incredibly thankful I feel for each day that I get with the people I love.

And now that I've written the most depressing blog post ever I will try to redeem myself with a hopelessly cute picture of Max to cheer you up. I'm so grateful for this little man in my life.

Max wearing Billy's baby hoodie

Max Makes Our World Go 'Round

We took Max to ride the carousel this weekend. I couldn't decide if I wanted to let Billy take him so I could watch Max's face as he went round and round or if I wanted to be the one to ride with him. So we took turns. Bill took him first so I could snap a few shots and then we got back in line so I could ride with him. Poor guy probably got motion sickness just because I didn't want to miss out on either perspective of this experience with him. Actually, he warmed up to the whole thing the second time around. He squealed and kicked his legs everytime we passed Billy watching from behind the fence.

Rock Chalk Baby Jayhawk

Dedicating this post to our dear friends, Sam and Julia, who are currently living abroad in Dubai. They are the biggest KU fans I know and we are missing them very much here in KC.

I know they would have enjoyed joining us on this beautiful fall day in Lawrence. So, Jukie, I hope you're reading this and it brings a little bit of home to the middle east for you.


Max on Mass

Lunch at Tellers

B.M.O.C.

Outside the William Allen White School of Journalism - where Momma spent the majority of her time in college (aside from bars and KKG)

Yum. Crunchy leaves.

Max enjoyed his campus tour. 18 more years buddy...

"I'll eat you up, I love you so"

I adore this quote from the book "Where the Wild Things Are". I think it very simply describes how it feels to really, overwhelmingly love someone. A similar quote was coined by my friend Lisa P. When talking about a cute baby, dog or other small creature, she always says "I want to squeeze him 'til his head pops off!" Sounds kinda weird but everyone knows that feeling when the cuteness or the amount of love you feel is just too much to handle. Or...maybe we're just weird?

Anyway, Max was a fabulous Max thanks to Grandma Murray's help with the costume. It turned out so cute. She sewed on the buttons, tail and claws. I made the crown and the "boat" both at the last minute on Sunday afternoon even though it had been on my "to-do" list since the begining of October.


Lolli and GG stopped by to see Max in his costume.

We Trick-Or-Treated around the neighborhood and collected some goodies with the help of the older cousins. Too bad Max is too young to eat any of the candy his cuteness earned him. What WILL we do with it?

We had a great time at the Murray's house and seeing all of the cousins dressed up. The kids looked adorable!

This picture makes me want to squeeze him until his head pops off.

This is a pic from earlier in the day. Max was getting into character by reading the book and hanging out with his stuffed "Max".

Also, I thought I'd share photos of our afternoon at Operation Breakthrough. Aunt Erin invited us to volunteer this past Thursday. We were so excited to help pass out candy to the cutest kids ever! Max went as Curious George (thanks, Colleen, for letting us borrow Finn's costume!) and I was "the Man in the Yellow Hat".

Lisa and Jocelyn went as a burger and fries and Erin went as a giant pumpkin.

We also got together to carve pumpkins this past Friday night. We made it into a fun adult activity after the dude went to bed.

I don't know how Max would rate this Halloween but it goes down in my memory as one of the best I've ever had.