getting some serious ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzs

so, yeah, i know i'm posting lots of blogs and they are really only photos of my kids, but i can't help it. i don't do anything exciting - except play with my kids. so that's what you're going to get! someday i'll post some witty and intellectual blogs, but i'm still waiting for those witty and intellectual moments to come my way. anyways, these pictures were just too funny for me to not put them on the blog.

miles' newest thing at bedtime is to ask: "mommy please close the door another way." interpretation: leave the door slightly opened. which is fine since it is so darn quiet once the kids go to sleep anyhow. but i ask ben to close it all the way when we go to bed so perhaps ben won't wake miles up in the morning with ben's walking on our squeaky floors. so ben went to close the door and, of course, stole a peek at our little boy. and this is what is came upon - he told me to come and check it out. i did and then ran and got the camera and took these 3 pictures - he didn't even stir when i took the pictures. i told ben to move him back to a normal position and i guessed miles twitched a little, but that was it. how cute. i was dying - it was pretty funny to me!

p.s. just for clarification for those of you who don't know - miles' head is smashed up against his little railing - put there so he doesn't fall out of bed. and, judging from the pics, he definitely needs it! (and, yes, the railing is torn, i need to fix it or buy a new one)

Johnny Jump-Up-Date

yeah, confusing title. but i thought i would post some funny pics of the boys on the johnny jump-up and give an update. we found the jump-up as we were cleaning out our hall closet. jonas really loved it - and of course miles had to have his turn, too! it's fun. only we wish we had a better spot for it since the boys both get a little wild and crazy on it and tend to bonk their heads. oh well. it's not their first bonks and is far from their last.

so jonas is doing dandy. he started walking a couple of weeks ago - well taking steps. he's now really good at walking and tries to do it all the time without prompting. he can walk across a room now - but usually it's about 7-8 steps and then he plops on his bum and then crawls. it's so cute to see him walking! he would have weaned himself probably 2 months ago if he had his way - but, despite all my moaning and groaning about nursing, i wasn't ready. but now i've really started the weaning process and am down to only 3 feedings a day -it's nice. soon we'll be able to give him cow's milk and that will be fun - he's had sips of miles' and i think he'll like it. we'll see.

miles loves his halloween candy and does very well with the rule: one candy anytime before nap and one candy anytime after nap. "anytime" usually means within 5 minutes of waking up in the morning and from his nap! :) he gets soooo excited about choosing what piece of candy he wants. i brought a tootsie pop for him to suck on during sacrament (it took him like the whole time to eat it - my idea exactly!). there are 2 rules with suckers/lollipops: 1. you sit when you eat it and 2. no biting until it's real tiny. he probably asked me 2 dozen times during sacrament: "mom, is it tiny yet?" cute, cute. ben got some costumes from a gal at work and so miles dressed up in one of them this morning. what was he - i have no idea? but it was fun and i thought he looked hilarious. miles' favorite words: "really," "probably," and "actually." he uses them all the time and it is so hilarious. he tells jonas about all sorts of things: "jonas that's a chair," "jonas that's the moon." i love it!

now for the boring update: ben and me. ben actually (hmmmm, i wonder where miles gets his habits?) got a really good raise at work - cuz he's such a good nurse, much to his chagrin. (is that how you spell it? i'm not sure i even know what it means, but it sounds good, right?!). but he is enjoying his job as a nurse and is now even more motivated to do a good job. i think the surgery center realized how lucky they are to have him around - he really does a great job in the OR and the docs like him lots. plus, he's just a "nice guy." as for me? nothing really new. i mowed the lawn on saturday and that was quite enjoyable - it was my "break" from the kids - although miles watched me the whole time. i love how all my "breaks" include work: houseWORK, yardWORK, nurse-WORK. someday i hope to have a real break. i like real breaks. but, you know, i also like my non-kid work-breaks too. i'll take what i can get.

well that's it for now.

the Pumpkin Patch

so we had a good halloween. it was a big, long day - but a good day, i think, for everyone. miles had playgroup in the morning - and when i picked him up from it he was teary and i was told he was pretty much teary/crying the whole time. he's afraid of another playmate, luke, who is quite fond of hitting - especially miles. poor miles.

while the kids were napping i got to/had to make about 3 dozen donuts that my husband had signed-up for in priesthood meeting. i was fine with it - but, really, sign-up sheets in priesthood should be called "signing-up my wife" sheets. really. so that took me like 1 1/2 - 2 hours to do.

then i took the kids to get to get the flu shots. the nurse/frog was great - neither kid cried at all!miles was actually in denial that he had received the shot. i was asking him about it on the way home and he kept replying, "i didn't get the shot." whatever you want to think kid. he DID NOT let the nurse put a bandaid on him afterwards - maybe that's why he thinks he didn't get one???

then we got ready and headed over to the church for a halloween party - they had little carnival-like games, food, and finally trunk-or-treating. it was a lot of fun, but with a ward of 700 people it's kind of crazy to combine with another ward! so it was a little hectic, but fun. i sat with jonas during the trunk-or-treat and ben took miles around. i guess miles LOVED it and would belt out "RICK or REAT." (he does not say his "t.") the kids were SO cute, in my opinion. fun day.

p.s. i think i made it possible for "non-registered" people to post comments. so i was wondering if a non-registered person would post a comment so i could see if it works or not. thanks!

miscellaneous

so nothing much has been happening here - just enjoying fall and all the activities that come with fall. we've been eating so much pumpkin stuff - from our home-grown pumpkins. :) we've had pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin quesadillas, pumpkin french toast, pumpkin cinnamon rolls (i sound like forrest gump's friend). anyways, we're loving it. so here are some random pics i've taken the past week or so:


these were taking at a pumpkin patch in town. a couple other families from the ward came and so we had a fun time. we took a hay-ride driven by a tractor and got some hot apple cider. yum.







fall brings out the vest in us. haha. maybe my mom will be the only one to appreciate the lame pun. but i just thought these boys were too cute to resist taking a picture. we were getting ready for a nice walk in the beautiful fall weather. LOVE IT.











this is some chair we just bought at some consignment place. it was homemade and cost us $5. i think it's real cute. the fabric is from our old window curtains (or window treatmetnts as my sister would call them) - the upholstery is not so nice and so we are going to try and re-upholster the chair with this fabric. pretty cute!

Britney Spears

so, yeah, we pulled a britney spears on wednesday. ben had the day off - since he is doing 4-10s - and we decided to drive up to twin lakes, colorado to check out some property we are interested in.

well we opted to drive two different routes there and back. it was a beautiful drive there (we drove through amazing snowy moutains and the neat town of aspen) but also took longer than expected - 4 hours. which wouldn't be so bad but we had to come home the same day - and, of course, we had 2 li'l ones with us.

anyways, by the time we had reached twin lakes and wanted to drive around the area and check out the lots, our kids had had enough. so to appease them we took them in the front seat with us. and it definitely did the trick - they absolutely loved it! mind you, we were only going like 10mph max. and there was only 1 or 2 trucks that we passed there. it was pretty fun. miles was totally "steering" and had a great time. jonas actually liked to just sit on ben's lap and stick his head out and stare at himself in the mirror!

lucky for us we are not hounded by the paparazzi. . .

Collage Ala (play-)Mode

so playgroup was tuesday at my house - it was the first one we've had. and, all in all, it was just fine and dandy. of course there were moments of pushing, pulling, stealing toys, etc. - but what do you expect from four 2-year olds? but it's just fun to watch these kids and see how different they are. miles (2 1/2) was pretty quiet and did his own thing. luke (2) just wanted to get out in the muddy rain and visit our dog wilson. claire (2) was just cute, sweet, and nice. and sydney is the "boss" out of the group - she's the oldest (turns 3 in jan.) and i think she knows it! she's really adorable.

so for our little craft, i found an idea on familyfun.com. it was to make collages using contact paper and feathers, fuzzy balls, etc. so i set up the 4 pieces of contact paper on our kitchen wall and let the artists go to work. here they are:





so luke wasn't really interested in doing it at all. i gave each of the kids a little baggy full of feathers and such and he just threw his on the paper and was done with it. and he's the kid who has an artist for his mama! :)









this is claire hard at work. she enjoyed doing it and basically only used the feathers in her bag.












here is sydney showing off her beautiful artwork. a great collage i think!









and last but not least is miles. i found his truly interesting! and not just because i'm his mom. cuz really i thought sydney had the greatest collage! but miles', as you can see, was quite different from the rest. i showed ben and his comment was, "i wish i was more like that"! perhaps miles takes after his 2 grandpas and their need for perfection?! but it's not like he's this way with other things - like his room for example! anyways, it was interesting and i still don't know what to make of it. . .


so playgroup was pretty fun. and what did i learn from the kiddos at playgroup? that adults should be as forgiving to each other as 2 year-olds are. one minute they are pushing, the next they are giving hugs all around. :) too cute.

Happy October

Yeah! My FAVORITE month has finally arrived! I absolutely love October and am so glad it is here. We got about 12 pumpkins from our little garden and I saw the flower idea in a Martha Stewart. So I used our 2 smallest pumpkins and bought these flowers from Walmart for 25 cents each. (I ignored the lame walmart-worker's comment: "it's kind of late to be buying those," as she just walked on by me. well sure. but they were 25 cents, come on! and they've already lasted a week and so i think my 50 cents was alreday worth it for me. :)


I guess I'll do a little update on the Maxwell clan:

ben - he has realized he has a pretty good job after all - good hours and good co-workers. so he's content to stay where he is for now. he's starting to work 4-10s this month as a trial-schedule and so we'll see how that goes. he'll have wednesdays off. he got back into biking a little bit and has been enjoying that.

emily - i'll be hosting our first little "playgroup" tomorrow - i think there will just be four toddlers and jonas. we'll see how it goes. hopefully everyone will survive. i think i'll be able to get more of a set schedule at work by the end of this month - working every other friday nite and then a 1/2 shift every other thursday. i'll still pick up extras if i want to. i'm still running but it's too dark outside now at 6, so i have to go later - and with the 2 kiddos. it's pretty fun - not quite as peaceful, though!

miles - he's doing great. we got a freebie toddler bed from ben's co-worker last nite and he was soooo excited about it. as soon as we got home he wanted to take a nap on it. :) in fact, he wanted to do everything on it: sleep, eat dinner, read books, etc. he slept great last nite - no problems at all. the deal is if he gets out of bed he has to go back in the crib. it does the trick! he still has some issues with shoving, pushing, eye-gouging, taking toys away, etc. with li'l bro jonas. but jonas is quickly catching up in size and abilities and so, as i have warned miles, the tide will someday be changing. . .

jonas - awesome li'l buddy. he's getting his 3rd tooth now - his upper left. he slept until 4am today and that made me extremely happy. he is way into pointing up at the lights and the sky. he's also perfected his wave and will wave on-cue when he hears "hi" or "bye." he stands every once in a while on his own - the longest we've seen is about 15 seconds. he's a gabber, too. this morning on our jog he just didn't stop "talking." he kept pointing and talking - very loudly, too. it was hilarious.

that's all for now.

yellowstone

So we had a great time in Yellowstone. Here are some of our pictures showing what we did:




This is us just getting into Grandpa's "cabin." It was coooold. BRRRRRRRR. Notice me in my coat, Diana wrapped up in blankets, and Jonas the Rednose Baby.























We bought this swing way back in New York but never found a place for it. So we brought it up to Mack's Inn and set it up. The boys just LOVED it!


One of our favorite things to do up in Mack's it to go to Big Springs. It's just a beautiful place and the water is as clear as you can get it. And the fish are enormous - we saw about 1-2 dozen fish, about 18 (?) inches long or so. We also saw a few muskrats and ducks. We did a very scientific experiment and concluded that the fish will not eat bread - but the other animals will. The fish will now only eat the "fish" food you can buy at the little vending machine there. Crazy - when I was a wee lad the fish gobbled up all of our old, stale bread.





We also did a lot of "hanging out" around the cabin. With Miles' help I built a little fire in the fire pit and we enjoyed roasting hot dogs and making smores.





















We spent a full day at Yellowstone. I really love that place - I think it's just beautiful and so interesting. And what were the little boys' impression of the Park? Well let's just say I think their favorite aspect of Yellowstone was the yummy ice cream they got at the Old Faithful Lodge. :) They did great, though, and are such good troopers!














Our last day there was rainy and a little cool. But Ben talked me in to still going ahead with our plan of going canoeing. So we rented the canoe (the guy at the rental place gave us a discount b/c he felt bad we were going on such a poor day!) and had a fabulous time! It was so enjoyable and absolutely beautiful. We saw quite a lot of large fish, a school (preschool probably) of hundreds of tiny fish, and 2 eagles. It was neat. It only started pouring rain the last 5 minutes of the trip and so that was good. We had a really, really good time. I have to thank Jim and Diana again for their Babysitting Services. They were so willing to watch the kids for us and let us go out together. One of my favorite things we got to do up there was going running every morning. I loved it because 1. It was brisk outside - about 30 degrees (perfect running weather!), 2. We ran on dirt trails in the forest (so much better than car-congested roads!), and 3. I got to run with an awesome running partner - Ben.

So it was a fabulous time and we are glad we got to go and are also really glad that Jim and Diana came up there with us. The more the merrier, right? We thought so!

i'm baaaaaAAAAck. .

so i finally made it back to montrose colorado - too bad my camera plug-in thing didn't make it back. so i'll have to post my pictures and talk about the trip when my folks mail the plug-in thing to me.

but one thing we did after yellowstone was go to a BYU football game on saturday. it was sooo awesome and super fun. it was the longest i've ever been apart from my kids - except working during the nites of course. but the longest i've been apart from them during the day. my sis asked if i missed the boys and my response: "no." is that mean, bad of me? i don't know. but really i was only gone from them for like 6 hours. i did think about them a whole lot - like when we saw toddlers in front of us wanting to leave the game and kicking their moms, and when the little baby behind us kept crying out. so, ummm, no i didn't miss them that much! i still LOVE them and all that good and gooey stuff, but it was a good break for me - and ben, too, i think.

it brought back a whole slew of memories. they were all good memories, but made me sad. why? i'm not sure. it's just sad that that part of my life is over - it really was one of my favorite parts of my life thus far.

at the game i was reminded of my freshman year - when i attended lots of football games. i remember you, Rebecca, working at the games with your bright orange jacket - right? i think that was you! you'd have to stay after the games and clean up and all that fun stuff. but you also got to go to the games for free - if i remember correctly.

we sat about 10 rows behind the band and so i thought a lot about my first byu roommie - debs. i remember all the practices you had to go to and how much you really did LOVE byu. i still hope you have good memories of your years there.

on the way back home ben and i were talking about byu - who were all my roommates, etc. it was hard trying to remember when - not who - people lived with me. crazy. but i had such good times there.

i miss waking up early (like 5am) to go to the gym and then come back and get ready for my classes. i really, really, really loved being a student. i really, really, really miss it. i don't think i'd like to do it full-time again, but just to be on campus and to learn and study - ooooohhh, that sounds so nice. i feel like i was so productive with my days back then. this whole stay-at-home thing is harder than what i was prepared for. it sounded, ummmm, more glamorous in YW! :) i absolutely love being a mom - but even a job you love gets hard after 24-7, nites, weekends, holidays, and vacations.

i guess somedays i just wish and yearn for those more selfish days - when i lived for myself. but, really, i guess there is no point in that. i worked with this one gal back in GJ who never had any kids and i felt really awful for her - she had NO ONE. and i'd much rather have snotty, stinking, no-saying, sleepfull night-wrecking, crying, demanding, trying boys than no one - ANYDAY.

so what does this all boil down to? just that after 10 months i really, really, really, really wish i could count on jonas to sleep through the nite - or even to 5am. that's all. i'm just getting tired and cranky. . .

keys schmeeze

so my sister brought up a good point in her comment on my last blog: that about me locking myself out ofof the house not too long ago. she's right - i've locked myself out NUMEROUS times in the past year or two. it's rather humiliating, but true - i've probably locked myself (and usually the kids, too!) out of either my car or my house at least a 1/2 dozen times in the past couple years. hmmmmm, what has changed in my life in the past 2 years. exactly - KIDS. i once heard someone comment that she'd lost brain cells with each of her kids. back then i didn't have kids and so i just laughed it off. but now. . .

i have to agree. i've never felt so spacey in my life. old-age ain't lookin' so good for me - neither is having more kids! anyways, enough about me getting stupider. . .

so i just finished watching survivor and i'm so happy it's back on! i really love the show. it's the ONLY show that ben and i watch. it's too bad that ben had to go out on elder quorum visits, but i'll fill him in. so it's kind of early but i'm cheering for the asian team. i just like them - even cao boi ("cowboy"). maybe i'll try that headache thing on my husband sometime - ha! i find the divison of tribes racially interesting. i don't think there is a single thing wrong with it. what i found most interesting in the first episode is stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason. but even more interesting is that the white group wasn't stereotyping about the black group or the asian group - each group was stereotyping about themselves. am i making sense (remember the loss of brain cells that have occured)? i just don't think people should get upset over most of the stereotypes that are out there. because, for the most part, they are a pretty accurate representation. anyways, go asians!

so i'll be gone from the blogging/internet world for awhile. we leave tomorrow for yellowstone. we're staying at my folk's house on friday and then head up to yellowstone and will stay there for a week. ben's parents will meet us there. i'm soooooooo excited. it's going to an awesome vacation! we'll be out in the "great outdoors" and it's suppose to be perfect-emily weather -- upper 50s for the high and upper 30s for the low. LOVE IT.

so to all my million adoring fans, you'll have to wait a week or so until i get back from yellowstone - unless, of course, i lose the keys in yellowstone and a buffalo eats them. then you might not hear from me for a little longer. . .