Max VS Max

Some of you may be wondering "is it difficult having two Max's in the house"? The answer is... "YES!!". There has been quite a bit of confusion in our home with there being two Max's. Some one will say, "Where's Max?" or "Is Max hungry?", "Can we take Max on a walk?" and other such phrases... the confusion has been annoying. And so, we changed the dog's name! He is now known as "Jaxson" or "Jax" for short. It has taken a few days for us to get used to the difference (we still mess up) but Jax doesn't even seem to notice the difference (hence the rhyme ). So, now we have 2 dogs named Jax and Lucy. The confusion is gone (mostly)!

Max Again

Top 10 thoughts of life with a newborn:

* Say "Adios" to any uninterrupted sleep over 2 hours.

* Say "Hello" to spit up all over every shirt you own!

* Remember the good old days of kids buckling themselves in the car, when you just holler "hop in everyone" and off we go!

* DIAPERS! (and the things that happen when you are CHANGING diapers...ew)

* Diaper bags.... ughhh, diaper bags.

* Bottles, bibs, swings, binki's and burps.

* Baths in the sink & tummy time.

* Smiles and coo's- we love em!

* Non-stop cuddles.

*Unconditional love on both sides!!

We love having Max in our home. He is so loved. The kids recognize his special spirit and crave being with him. Any time he is awake he is being held. Even when he is asleep the kids want to hold him, but we have learned our lesson- we all crave holding him. Travis rushes home from work to take his turn in line. When the kids go to sleep and Max falls asleep we have been holding him all night long. Just letting him sleep on us until we go to bed. Consequently, he really prefers to be held while he sleeps! So, we are working hard on putting him down in his bed EVERY time he falls asleep, it's just not easy to do.... everyone wants to hold him all the time. Gloria will pick up a book and sit on the couch for hours, just cuddling the baby while he sleeps. Gray will sit and just cuddle his new brother, watching him sleep. Olivia and Cami just cannot get enough "Max time" and will hold him whenever we let them.

Max is so smiley. He is a happy little guy. He just has a peaceful spirit about him. He looks at your with these big beautiful blue eyes and just gazes into your eyes and you feel like life is perfect. We are thankful for whatever amount of time we get with this little guy. We are blessed to have him in our lives.

Little Man

We got a foster baby this week. He is the sweetest little man and we are all in love with him. He is super tiny, about 6 pounds, and is as sweet as marshmallows dipped in sugar!!! We are really enjoying our time with him. He loves to be held and swaddled (which is really only a problem at night when he wants me to hold him instead of going into his crib!). He has a tiny little cry. And, he HATES bathes!!! Never had a baby hate a bath before.... It will probably change while he is with us, as water is thought of as nothing but fun in our house!! We are very thankful to have Max for as long as we get him!

A cute picture of my kids

Thanks for the Valentine package Grandma and Grandpa Kendall.

Poor baby

Livie spent the day and night throwing up. Here she is cuddling with her daddy, who had a throw up bucket by his side during her 24 hour episode. We are glad she is feeling better now!

Sock Curls

I found an EASY and FAST new way to curl my girls hair. It has made my mornings so much easier! At night I grab 4 socks (per daughter) and lightly mist their hair. I put the sock in and roll. In the morning we end up with great, easy hair do's. The socks are soft, so it doesn't hurt to sleep in them. I literally put 4 socks in each girls hair. One on the top center, one on the bottom center. One on the right side. One on the left side. Easy. Fast. Cute. What could be better then that? Here are some during and after pictures. Enjoy!

One Month

It has been ONE MONTH of my new resolutions. One LONG month. I thought it would be easy. I thought that I would be happy to not have to buy any more clothes. But it has been TOUGH. I see moms with kids dressed in super cute outfits and think "So cute!! I should buy something like that for my kids!" and then immediately I think "Oh! :( I guess not." It has saved me so much time, I immediately toss all clothing catalogs (I thought that I could handle just browsing through them, but it is just too depressing). I immediately delete all clothing emails. I don't spend time browsing for great deals and coupons. I have saved a lot of time- and definitely a lot of money. My kids have not noticed any change in their lifestyle, yet. They are handling this change just fine. Better than me. If it doesn't kill me, it will make me stronger... right?

Also, no eating out- we don't eat out very often in general, but still- knowing we can't has made it so much harder on me. I find myself thinking "if we could go out tonight WOULD HAVE been a good night, I guess I'll have to stay home and cook....". I think about it a lot more than I did before this resolution. Weird. It is definitely saving us $$ and it is helping me not be so darn lazy!! So, we will see if I can last a year without going crazy!!!