My Man Max

My little Max. I feel like this little guy needs a little shout out. There have been a few different times in the past months where I have thought, 'oh, I need to journal that so I never forget it'. I'm glad i'm finally taking the time to do it.

   If you have not met Max than you probably don't know how sweet this guy is. He absolutely radiates happiness and he smiles and talks to everyone (even if they don't know what he is saying).  He LOVES his big sister and follows her everywhere. Before Pyper was born he and I would snuggle EVERY night on the rocker and he would fall asleep in my arms. I've heard people say that you shouldn't do that b/c they won't learn to go to sleep on their own. But our snuggle time has been so special to me that I decided that he's only little once so i'm going to snuggle away. So we have.  Since Pyper's arrival, night time routines have been a little more crazy and our snuggle time has gone way down. However, I hope to remember that time forever. I treasure it so much, like our favorite book, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be."

 Here we are while I am pregnant with Pyp. Oh how precious these moments are.

 These two monkeys love playing together. They are always having fun.

Oh how they love these evil little shopping carts. Much to my dismay. They always end up hitting me (or someone else) in the ankles and we all leave grumpy.

 They love going to the Tree house museum.

 Here he is at his 2 year birthday party. He had a cars themed birthday cake and as you can tell he enjoyed every bit of it.

Oh how he loves putting on 'hats'. This is admittedly my shower cap. It is a major 'turner onner' for Mitch. :)

When we went in for his 2 year check up the doctor told me that maybe I should consider getting his speech checked as he does not talk much. I told him I know a great Speech Pathologist and i'm sure he'll be fine (he is fine). :)  Since that appointment his speech has taken off and he is a little jabber monkey.  He's starting to say the funniest things as well as realize that he can say things that will get his sisters goat. The other day he was sitting at the table and he ate her fruit snacks when she was looking the other way. She turned around and said, "Max, did you eat my fruit snacks?" He looked at her, smiled and said, "YEP!" then he did a dance to mock her. I burst into laughter which made Ellie burst into tears. I've never seen him do an unkind thing and truthfully I think he was getting revenge on all the times he has been puppeted by her.

Right after baby Pyper was born Max went through a tough stage of diarrhea. He really hated the feel of it in his diaper so reached his hand in there to see what was going on. I realized he was doing this when he came up to me with what looked like chocolate smeared across his forehead. DISGUSTING. However, the worst day came when we got invited to a friends house for the first time for dinner. While the adults were eating the kids were playing. Pretty soon, Max came up to me with both hands held up in the air like a doctor would when he's 'scrubbing in'. Then he said, 'poo poo momma'. I turned over and saw both hands covered in poo. Then I looked more and saw that he had smeared his hands across their microfiber couches. I. WAS. MORTIFIED.  I grabbed him by the forearms, told Mitch to get cleaning and drove him home on my lap. I put him in the bath tub and gave him a COLD bath. I told him the only way to get poo off his hands is to use cold water so we shouldn't do it again. He put his hands on his eyes and said over and over, "cold momma, sorry momma, cold momma, sorry momma." It broke my heart. He is so sweet. So there I am crying because he is so adorable, and there he was sad that he made a mistake. Oh it was heart breaking.

So right then and there I decided that if he knew there was poo in his diaper then he is big enough to be potty trained. It's made for a big adjustment with the baby but it's paying off.  Not to mention our pocket book is happier too. 

Here he is, rocking the pink potty chair. He actually prefers sitting backwards on the real potty.

 Overall, this kid oozes love. He wakes up happy and (usually) jabbers his happy way back to sleep. He loves riding his strider bike and being outside. We are so blessed to have our Max in our life.

Sweet Pyper Grace

We did it! We went and had another baby! Our sweet little Pyper Grace joined our family this week weighing in at 6 lbs 7 ounces. She is so precious. My other children were much bigger than that so to hold a baby as small as Pyper is so different. She is absolutely perfect. Although her features are similar to Max and Ellie's she is much more petite. Not only weight wise but her head is smaller and her features are smaller. It's hard to explain. None the less, she is perfect.

Today we are simply feeling grateful for the many blessings we have. Life is beautiful!

Little Pyper Grace

Hi Pyper! Welcome to the world! Ellie, Max daddy and I have been so anxious to meet you! You came into the world just a hollering! As soon as you could you let out a beautiful cry. It filled my heart with so much joy to know you were healthy and alive.  They then brought you around the sanitary sheet so I could look at your beautiful face and it filled my eyes with tears to see you up close! Both Ellie and Maxwell were whisked away when they were born so I had to wait until I was sewn up before I met them. What a beautiful splendid moment for mommy.  Then you were having a hard time getting your temperature up but instead of putting you under a heat lamp they brought you to me to do skin to skin bonding and warming. After a few minutes you were toasty warm and we were immediate friends!

Pyper, your older siblings absolutely adore you. Ellie is four and max is two. They have come several times for 2+ hours and simply sat and held you ( usually they run like wild monkeys, but you calm them). Max holds up his arm when we try to take you away and says "no, no, take". And Ellie will let visitors hold her only for a short moment before she asks for her back. When she first saw you all bundled up she said,"dad does she have any arms or legs?" We all laughed about that. 

   Right now it is NCAA March madness and your dad and I have watched a lot of basketball while we have been in the hospital. We also had the kids over the night you were born and watched 'Frozen' togethe. It came out the week you were born so this was pretty exciting for Ellie. You have had visits from Robb, Carlie, Ethan, Olivia, Kendal, aunt Ashlee W., Matt, Keira, great grandma Murray, and grandpa Lifferth. Grandpa and grandma Dorius are on their mission (they will come home next week) and grandma Lifferth has not come yet bc she is back at a very special hospital in Cleavelandland helping little cousin David (5) get ready for brain surgery to help his epilepsy. She will be home tomorrow and will likely come by to see you tomorrow. As for now, it is you and I in our hospital room 225 at midnight doing some feeding. How grateful I am to have these special hours with you. You truly  are precious Pyper. Or as Ellie likes to call you, lil Py'. Welcome to our family!

Her birth weight was 6 pds 7 oz. this picture was taken a few days after she was born and she had lost a few pounds. We just can't get enough of her!

Every Photo Has a Story

 These two really are good little buddies. They snuggle up every day and watch a show together. They usually fight over the ipad, but in this sweet moment they agreed on being best friends.

 Between my cousins and I we each take turns spending a family night every couple months with Great Grandpa Lifferth. We usually pick up some Wendy's hamburgers and frosty's then have a lesson. Today's lesson, grandpa told us about Great Grandma's (my gg) butterfly collection that was sold to a local university to pay for their passageway to America. We love these special times.

 Being very pregnant (9 months to be exact) I've given up running and started doing Yoga at the church. Whenever I tell Ellie we are going to workout she runs and puts on her exercise clothes and does everything right next to me or literally on top or underneath me.  She is a really great friend and sister to have around.

 While I was out working in the garden El found some "rollie pollies" so she put them in this bucket and spent a few hours playing with them. Then I looked in the bucket and saw it was full of water. I asked El why she did that. She said they were thirsty so she gave them a drink. But now they are sleeping. I told her they probably are sleeping, let's put them outside. :)

 Sporty little El, ready to go workout with me. She always has to wear 'her Puma's. I got a good deal on Puma's once and now she is crazy insistent that she ALWAYS have her Puma's. They make her run fast like a real puma.

 Such an explorer. El LOVES being outside. Here she has caught her very first Butterfly. It's great to be a kid!

 No mother should have to deliver a baby without a decent pedicure. Unfortunatly my kids think they need one too! So we had a spa day at home. Max was insistent that he join the fun. We even painted one finger on each hand green. Silly Max.

 This little boy is full of love and snuggles. He absolutely adores his little sister and usually that cute little smile gets him out of all sorts of trouble. What's a mom to do? It's irresistible!

 While I lay in bed recovering from my C-section. Mitch has been home helping with the kids. Yesterday, Max came running in and said, "Hi Mom" then ran out. He always comes in to make sure that i'm doing okay. Like I said, he is full of sweetness.

 Can I sing praises to Mitch any more? The day I got home from the hospital Mitch set this up so I could enjoy the outdoors while he worked in the garden. It was just what I needed. He is so great.

Every day Max comes up to Pypers bassinet, pokes his little head over the edge and says, "Hi PyPa" with a little wave. He then takes one of her binkies and sneaks it into his mouth. The little stinker. 

A Quick Getaway

I know with all the baby room switching, painting and planning Mitch has been needing some time away so the weekend before Pyper was born we went up to East Canyon with Matt, Keira, and Meg. We brought the Ranger and Mitch (i swear) kept purposely getting stuck. He and Matt enjoyed using the wench to 'save us all'. Boys will be boys. Honestly, it was quite uncomfortable for my nine month pregnant self. Being the amazing wife I am, I endured for the sake of a happy husband and kids.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Holidays are always so much fun with kids around. Those naughty little lepracauhns got us again and made a mess all over the house! Why I don't have pics of the kids in the morning is beyond me. I do have some video though.

 Mitch always say's, "Oh Stace". and I always reply, "Oh Mitch" When I start doing things like this.

 Our lepracahn always needs to go potty when he comes to our house. He is crazy.

 Ellie and I made this amazing trap to try to catch one. She knows that the only way he can get out of it is to drop all of his gold coins from his pockets and dissapear. Which is exactly what he had to do to get away from us!

Christmas 2013

Could Christmas be any more fun with kids?!  This was the first year that Ellie understood Santa, elves, reindeer, and any other bit of magic associated with Christmas. It made the entire month of December so much fun.  Max mimicked her every move and every morning they would run out into the family room together to find out what silly thing Sammy the elf would do.  Christmas morning also did not dissapoint. Ellie was so excited to have it come that on Christmas Eve she sat in her room yelling at Mitch and I to get into our beds so Santa could come (we all know that Santa will not come if we are awake).  Mitch and I loved every minute of it.

 On Christmas eve the kids got slippers to open then they joined me for a bowl of cereal. When I'm pregnant me and a bowl of cereal have a date every night between 9 and 10.

Here are the two munchkins on Christmas morning. They were both so excited that they got  battery powered tooths brushes in their stockings. I think that could have been their only gift and they would have been totally pumped.  

Santa really delivered this year by giving Ellie an Easy Bake Oven. She is quite the chef so she loves using it!  I personally, find it a bit of a hassle to get it out and cook with it when I have a perfectly good oven that makes 2 dozen cookies opposed to 6 mini ones. :)

This little toy was pretty difficult for Santa to get his hands on. However, seeing the amount of love that this Buzz Lightyear gets i'm sure Santa was happy to see that he went the extra mile to get it for Max.

 Max also got a football. This ball or one of the many at our house, is constantly being taken up to Mom or Dad and asked to play catch.  He is a bit obsessed. But I do love this picture of these two. Two of the most handsome men in the world in my opinion.

Christmas morning would not be Christmas morning without some tasty scones. The kids loved having them. Our Christmas breakfast was followed up by a skype date with Grandma and Grandpa Dorius whom are on their mission in California. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the kids showing all their gifts to their loving grandparents peering through the ipad.

 Christmas morning was blessed with a visit from Grandpa and Grandma Lifferth. Grandpa Liffreth is getting more and more energy and it's fun to see him interacting and wrestling with his grandkids. They absolutely love him.

 Mom enjoyed Christmas with the help of some loritab as she had a total knee replacement the week previous.  At Christmas dinner she asked me to get her a pain pill and I convinced her to take two instead of one.  In the middle of dinner I looked over at her on the recliner and I saw her feet dancing back and forth on the recliner. I admittedly felt kind of bad as was the one who drugged her on Christmas.  We laughed about it the next day.

We invited our friend Barbara over for Christmas morning and scones. She always gives us nice Christmas socks to keep our toes warm.

Overall, we had a wonderful holiday and could not be more grateful for the girfts and blessings that our loving Father in Heaven has given us.