little bitty update

well i have a few moments as my kids are pleasantly entertaining themselves for the moment. jonas is carrying a large (and green-eyed) tiger all around - it's bigger than he is! and miles is moving his train along the tracks i've set up for him. we'll see how long it all lasts. . .

so jonas tries to say just about everything we say! he can say balloon, bubble, "ack" (snack), "nana" (banana), stand up, book, moo, etc., etc. he really says a ton - more than we pick up on. he continues to be a non-stop climber. when i tell him to "sit down please" he looks at me, smiles, and then waits a few seconds before he slowly, slowly starts to sit down. that happens 1/2 the time - the other 1/2 he just doesn't even attempt to sit down. now he is playing the piano. he survived a hair-cut by me - it actually turned out pretty good. it's not too difficult as i just have to cut his hair pretty much straight across. the picture of him is him wearing sydney's pink boots - BEN put jonas in them and so i can not get in trouble for dressing my boy in pink.

miles found a friend in luke - his one-time enemy. :) they played and played yesterday and had a great time. luke has really mellowed out and has stopped hitting and pushing for the most part. i'm so happy - now miles can have a friendly buddy! (my peaceful moment is quickly vanishing as a fight is starting over the trains!) i have put miles in the accelerated potty-training class. i just stuck him in underwear. it's been 2 days and we've had 2 accidents. not too bad! i don't know how long that will last. we still are battling poop-issues. he's sick today - i'm not sure with what. nasty head congestion perhaps? i love that he has an AWESOME attention span. he's always the last one to finish up with his craft at playgroup (and not because he's slow!) and will sit the entire time i'm reading books. i love it.

i had a busy week full of tons of kiddos and family. tuesday was playgroup at my home - 6 or so kids. it was crazy and hectic, but we survived. then that afternoon my father and brother came down for a visit. my brother derek, from alaska, has never met my 2 kids and so we had a fun time together. miles couldn't remember the name "uncle derek" for the life of him, but i think he liked him nonetheless! miles loves the table (the one they are all sitting upon) my brother made and gave to us - we all love it! then on thursday we watched luke for about 7 hours - his mommy had a baby the nite before. the same day, at about 3, another gal in the ward dropped off her THREE kids for a couple of hours and so it was crazy insane for a little bit! luckily (FOR ME) ben was home from work that day and so he helped out tons.

anyways, i didn't mean for it to be too long. jonas has lost interest in whatever he was doing and is now having fun playing with the wall and the corner. miles is now sitting on my lap, "miles needs to be held mommy." having a sick kid definitely has its benefits. :)

denver

well i'm real mad cuz i spent a bunch of time writing and uploading photos last nite only to have the blogger kaputz on me. truthfully it was probably our computer cuz we have the lamest computer in the world (but the nicest flatscreen monitor - thanks to erin and chuck!).

so this will be short. we went to denver and had a fabulous time - mainly spending time with family. we spent time with grandma diana and grandpa max, great-grandmas dee and gwenn, and even auntE and uncle chuck. it was awesome! we already miss everybody.

i'm just going to post a few pictures - mainly from the denver children's musuem. so here they go:



the fireboys in front of the firetruck - with "spotty" the dog, of course!






looks like jonas has some serious issues weighing on his mind.









fishing for some magnets - i mean fish.








miles had lots of fun painting some fine pictures. jonas just wanted to eat the paint (he did manage to get some in his mouth), so he was quite upset when we had to end our art session early.




miles and ben went to "super dogs," a show at the stock and rodeo thing in denver. here is miles clapping!

My Day. . . thus far

Well typical of how the last few hours have gone: I just wrote my blog, uploaded pics, etc. and then it all erased on me! Sheeesh.

So you get the shortened version of my day: started out by us all (except ben) sleeping in until 6:30! Wahhooo. (Anything beyond 6 is sleeping in at this house.)

Miles went to playgroup, Jonas and I got lots done. Then we had lunch and that was grand as both kids were very excited about eating yogurt, YUM I guess. Then the day started going KAPUTZ. I was finishing up with Jonas when I heard a loud crash. We have crashes and bonks and bangs all day long here, but something was special about this one. I knew it was. . . serious. So I go out into the living room and saw that our big window pane was shattered. Lovely. So I scooted Miles away, picked up the large pieces of glass, then vacuumed up the rest.

Then. . . I go back into the kitchen and it is all smokey! I had no idea where it was coming from and started opening windows, unplugging things, etc. Then I realized it was from the microwave. I opened it and sure enough found tiny flames still blazing in there! My gosh. I had stuck a dish-sponge in there to "sanitize" it. I have done this many of times before - but never had it catch fire! So that was exciting. . . and stinky.

But now all is calm and merry and bright. Or something like that. The kids are napping, the window guy came over and gave me an estimate (yikes), and now I think I want to take a nap.

Hopefully when I wake up it will be on the right side of things. :)

Hope your day is going better. . .

My New Year's Resolutions

I usually like to make New Year's Goals and such, but I've never been one who is really good at sticking to them. So this year I have only made two - although I actually want to make a few more with Ben but we haven't quite had time yet to sit down together and get that taken care of. Anyways, I'll share my resolutions since one of them involves YOU ("YOU" implying my family and friends reading this).

The first one should just be a given, really. And it doesn't involve YOU, it just involves ME. It is that I will read my scriptures every day. Every day. Every single day. I used to be so much better and would get up and read my scriptures, go running, etc. But when I'm "forced" to wake up around 5:50-6am every morning, I just don't feel like getting up much earlier to read, etc. So I usually try to find a moment here and there to read. I'm still not going to get up any earlier, I'm just going to make more of my "here and there" moments. Like today: I read the scriptures while Jonas was taking his mini-morning-nap and Miles was playing with playdough. I, of course, had to "participate" in playdough-playing and so it was not a truly focused scripture study, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

And so now for my second resolution, the one that involves YOU. I resolve to convince either family members or friends (YOU) to move out to Montrose, Colorado. It is a great place to live, but would be a million times better if we had some good family and/or friends out here to enjoy it with us. :) I've realized that it isn't so much as where you live (especially when you get "established" with kiddos, etc.) as to who you live close to. Luckily we are very close to family and friends, but we actually wish we were closer. We have met wonderful people and friends out here, but nothing beats a long-time friend, sister, sister-in-law, mother, mother-in-law, etc.! So part B. of this resolution it to monthly write a blog on why YOU need to/should move out to Montrose, Colorado.

Wish me luck. . .

Burn Hut - our Home away from Home

(from left to right: Lara, Andy, Shanna, Paul, me, Ben, and Christian in front)
So Ben and I had quite the adventure this past Friday and Saturday. Ben's friend, Paul, had organized a cross-country ski trip near the town of Ridgway - which is just about 20 miles from our home. I was dreading this trip - as well as looking forward to it. I was dreading it because Ben and I had never left our kids for more than 4 or so hours - and this was going to be a 24-hour ordeal. So I kind of hoped that a snow storm would force my parents to stay in Utah and thus we wouldn't be able to go - but it didn't happen. Thank goodness. Ben and I had an awesome time - and so did our boys and Grandma and Grandpa (in fact, the only one who showed signs of missing us was Wilson - I guess he would stand up at the window and whine a few times each day).

Ben and I headed out at about noon on Friday - about a couple hours after the rest of the gang since Ben had to work. We skied about 6 miles to the hut - it was all uphill except for maybe 10 minutes of the 3 1/2 hours of skiing. But it was beautiful and fun to be out together in the wonderful snowy mountains. We got to the hut a little before 5 and hung out for a while. Then we ate dinner and then at about 9pm that nite we all went out frolicking in the snow again. Ben and Christian skied while the rest of us walked in our boots and sled down hills on a shovel - which I was pretty pathetic at doing.

The 10 minutes of down-hill on the way up translated into about 30-40 mintues of uphill for our trip back down. Thus it took us 1/2 the time to get down - a little under 2 hours. It was challenging in a different way - going down hill on cross-country skis is quite difficult since there is not much control and we also had pretty big and heavy packs on us! So we had some fun falls - luckily nobody got hurt. It was a fun ride down!

We met my parents and the 2 kiddos in Ouray for lunch. Miles and Jonas seemed excited to see us - but not overly so. And I guess that's a good thing. They really had a great time and even went to bed well - and Jonas wasn't even cranky for them. And Miles only had to go to time-out once.

In a couple of weeks Ben and I are going down-hill skiing at Mary Jane Ski Resort, outside of Denver. And this time the kiddos get to stay with Grandma Diana and Grandpa Max. They are excited out it - and so are we! This whole idea of leaving our kids for a day or so with the grandparents just might become addicting. . .

Here are the pics of our trip:


Here I am on the way up. We got soooo hot amazingly enough!














This is to show the inside of our hut. It had 2 bunks on each side, a wood-burning stove in the middle and a little "kitchen" area in the back. Here is the gang washing the dishes in the snow-melted water. Fun times!


Ben and Christian getting some nite-time skiing in. More fun times!















Here is Ben on Saturday morning getting the fire started to warm up our hut. The hut actually stayed fairly warm all nite - I never got cold.


These are taken on our way down. I love these pictures! It shows the beautiful snowy trees and the amazing moutains - and one handsome man. Once again - very fun times were had on this trip!

Our Merry Christmas is Over

Well we did have a really great Christmas - it was just like we thought it would be. Lots of fun and lots of squeals. The 2 boys had a lot of fun - Miles especially. He would play with one toy until it was time for him to open another present and then he would play with that toy until it was time to open another present, and on and on. Jonas mainly watched as Miles "helped" him with opening his toys! And of course Jonas watched Miles playing with all the new toys and wanted to join in, too. But he truly was just as happy playing with the new toys as he was with the wrapping paper and boxes. :)










After a few hours of opening and playing with toys, Ben and I were ready to do something "for us." So we got the kiddos ready and went for a Christmas Day Jog. It was great. But apparently all that hard playing got to the boys since they BOTH fell asleep in the stroller (this is Jonas' second time, but Miles' first time doing that!). So it was a quiet run, but the short nap of Miles' was enough to make him not want to take his real afternoon nap. :( That was a slight bummer.

We got the kids some outdoor playset thing. Miles screamed with delight when he first saw it, then got busy with his trucks and started snow-plowing our deck. Jonas was absolutely thrilled to play in it - and by himself, I'm sure! Jonas would go down the big slide (on his tummy for some reason) over and over and over - he loves it! Once Miles came over to play on it we had to do a lot of coaxing to get Miles to go down the big slide - he finally did and did it maybe once or twice more. Miles is our cautious little boy and Jonas is our little dare-baby. Interesting.

Sadly the day is already passed and we're already back to the same old routines. Only now we've got a lot more toys to play with. Like bulldozers, backhoes, drills, crane trucks, cars, trains, slides, etc., etc. . . .

And A Merry Christmas. . . Almost

Just a little note on the Eve of Christmas Day. We are all excited - Ben is busy finishing up some last-minute wrapping and I'm doing some cooking.

We did some fun things today - we made some homemade lumanarias and put them on our sidewalk. We delivered some gifts to friends. We also opened up our Christmas Eve Pajamas. I've decided that that will be a new Maxwell tradition - pjs each Christmas. And all from Old Navy, too! Man I love that place. Anyways, I am following after my mother's steps, and, yes, dressing my kids alike - at least for bedtime. But sometimes it's just too cute to resist. (Just wait, Erin, it will happen to you, too!).

We also had some not-so-fun times today. After we put the kids to bed Ben aptly summed up the day by saying, "I think that was the crankiest day for both our kids." And he's right. Hopefully a little of the Santa Magic will cure them - at least for a few hours.

Well, Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Nite. . .

Happy Birthday Ben

So yesterday was Ben's birthday and it was a very fun day - at least I thought so. We had decided to go skiing last week and was lucky enough to 1. get about 7 inches of new snow the day before, and 2. find a babysitter available in the morning. So Ben and I skied for about 1 1/2 hours just outside of town and had fun in the snow and together. We probably spent about 3/4 of the time skiing up-hill, 1/8 of the time skiing down-hill, and the last 1/8 was spent falling as we attempted to do tele-turns. Ben was way more successful than I was - but he still fell way more than I did, too! Anyways, that was awesome.

Then we came home and after the kids' naps we made gingerbread houses - or, rather, graham cracker houses. It was awesome. Poor Miles was sick all yesterday and had a fever of 103. But an hour after a dose of Ibuprofen and he was doing much better. He didn't really eat anything yesterday - except the candy from making our houses. It was pretty bad timing I guess since an hour after giving him the Ibuprofen we started the gingerbread houses - whatever. We all had fun doing this and I want to make it a yearly tradition of making gingerbread houses on Ben's b-day. Ben and I copied ideas from Martha Stewart for our houses and Miles did his own beautiful thing. :) (you can probably guess who the houses belong to!)





A while later we had dinner - a meal that Ben only gets on his birthday and/or Fathers' Day. Impossibly Easy Cheeseburger Pie from Bisquick. Ben enjoyed it, Jonas ate it, I tolerated it, and Miles didn't touch it (but nor did he touch the chocolate cake). It was quite difficult getting THIRTY-ONE candles on one cake, but I did it. I had to mix-n-match candles and some were these crazy sparklers or something - wild!

It was an awesome day to celebrate an awesome guy's birthday!

Just for Fun

i just thought i would write a little on what's happening here with the kiddos. not much is going on with ben and me - although we both have gotten new callings. ben is the busy stake executive secretary - he's excited about it. and i just got called yesterday as the compassionate service leader - i'm excited about it, too. that's enough about us boring folk.

miles is getting more and more, ummmm (trying to think of a "nice" term) WILD. i've heard it usually is not the terrible 2s to be worried about, but rather the terrible 3s. only time will tell. but if the last week is telling me anything, it ain't so good. just kidding - kind of. miles is tons of fun and tons of work. i need to figure out how to better discipline him. but he is full of energy and is so fun to watch at play. he's really into making up words, such as: "i need to find my bonkaburlact." he says stuff like that all the time. he's not having any trouble in nursery anymore. i was so elated 2 weeks ago when the nursery leaders told me how sweet miles is and that he listens really well to them. that was deflated this week as i was told he was trying to push over cooper the entire time - too bad for miles that cooper is like a year older and way bigger! this morning was cute as he decided he wanted to carry his bunny in his "packpack." so i got one out for him, strapped it on, placed bunny in the back, and off miles went "hiking in the 'no." ('no - for snow). miles likes to not say the first letter of a lot of words - is that bad rachelle?????? such as: "reat" for "treat." i try to politely correct him and so sometimes he will OVER-correct and say something like "tAAAreat."

jonas is jonas. a little cranky and a lot of fun. he's so great to have around. he can say a few words - "bub" for bubble, "bal" for balloon, "boo" for peek-a-boo, etc. i love it! he really likes bubbles and balloons. santa terrifies him - well only if i make him sit on santa's lap i guess. he learn to love the jolly old gift-giving man someday!

the most exciting thing happening with the kids (in ben's and my opinion) is that they are now sharing a room! WAHHOOOOO. it's been about 10 or so days and it has gone soooooo well. the first nite we did it i had to go to YW, but ben heard miles say after a few minutes: "Jonas peeking!" (we put a sheet over the crib area so jonas can have some "privacy." or whatever you want to call it. bascially so the kids don't get too distracted by each other. when they are older i'll remove the sheet!). so ben went in the jonas was peeking out of the sheet - and absolutey LOVING it! he is so funny. jonas peeks like every nite - as soon as we put him in the crib and tuck miles in bed, jonas is already peeking out. so then we'll go over to him and jonas will turn around, start "running away" and flop down in his crib,and, yes, laugh - like he knows he shouldn't be doing what he's doing. it cracks me up every time - i love it! another nite miles was singing "jingle bells" in his bed - to the delight of his one-baby audience. hilarious! one morning as jonas had been crying for about 15-20 minutes (i am now refusing to get him up if it's before 6am and it was 5:30-5:50), we heard miles plead, "take the baby out." haha!

so anyways it has been delightful for us, for many reasons i suppose - 1. to have our bedroom baby-free (we haven't had that in a year), 2. to hear all the funny things the kiddos say and do, and 3. to have the boys start bonding and becoming more a part of each other's life.

Happy Birthday Jonas

6:58 EST. One year ago this mommy and boy finally got to meet each other face to face - after hanging out "in the dark" for 9 months. It was a joyous encounter - one of them was happy to have Jonas in the world, the other wasn't quite so sure he wanted to leave his waterworld. But a year later we are all glad to have Jonas in our world. So we had to celebrate this one-year mark.


We started the celebrations with some yummy cupcakes. Unlike his big brother at his first birthday, Jonas was not too shy about getting his hands in it and eating it - good for him!










Then we started opening the presents. Luckily Big Brother Miles was there to help Jonas out. I definitely know who was more excited about the gifts: hands down Miles. It was cute. But Jonas enjoyed the new gifts - Miles just enjoyed them more.
















This was one of my favorite gifts (I loved them all, though) - a new outfit for Jonas. I thought he looked soooo adorable in it. And it was just real fun to see Jonas in his own clothes - not hand-me-downs. Now do not get me wrong - I absolutely LOVE hand-me-downs and it is super fun to see Jonas is Miles' clothes and it has saved me a ton of money. None the less, it is one of only a handful of actual Jonas-clothes and it was just cute. He's just cute, what can I say????

Finally we ended the day in our birthday suits - luckily that only applied to Miles and Jonas. And it wasn't truly a full birthday suit, but to Miles he considered himself and Jonas as "NAAAAKEDDDDDDD" (they did have pants on). (I actually just took their shirts off since we were eating BBQ pizza.)















Anyways, it was a great day one year ago and a great day today. The most amazing thing that happened in the past year: a mama's heart that was completely full to the brim with love for Miles became overflowing with Jonas.