Nighttime Wakenings...

Don't you just hate it when your husband is gone and you're home alone (except for the baby) and you wake up to the sound of sirens in your house in the middle of the night? Wow, I sure do. Of course, the first thing you think of is the security system and an intruder in your house. You quickly realize that it's only the smoke detectors... sigh...what a relief. Wait a minute!!! Is there a fire??? So you go to every room in your house and can't detect one bit of smoke. The sirens start going off again. But it only lasts a few seconds. You're left thinking that there must be a bit of lint stuck in one of those 10 detectors placed inconveniently in those really high ceilings. So you consider pulling all the detectors from the power source for the night but don't want to risk it (and the thought of going out to the dark, cold garage is really too scary). Then you realize that you forgot to replace the batteries in the carbon monoxide detector that started "chirping" rather loudly in the middle of the night (when you were home alone AGAIN) several months ago. So you find the new batteries and replace them and the detector starts going off all crazy style and your hoping and praying that it doesn't wake up the baby, all the while knowing that there must be a carbon monoxide leak in the house and this was a sign to get you to remember to replace those batteries. So you go outside to make sure that the detector is working properly (yes, I left Max inside the potentially carbon monoxide-ful house). It eventually stops beeping and you have only lost 2 toes to frostbite in the meantime, but it was worth it because now you know that the house is not full of carbon monoxide. WOW, what a fun night! Like I said...Don't you just hate it when that happens to you?

Max's First year

This post is long overdue. I have actually been wanting to write this for some time, but haven't found the time to do it. Max is already almost 14 months old. So the following is an attempt to make up for lost time. Here's a fly by of his first 12 months.

The day he was born, one of the happiest of my life.

Max's 1 month photo shoot, what a handsome little guy! Although we missed it in this photo shoot, he had already shared some of his sweetest smiles.

2 months old already! Isn't he the most handsome boy ever? Already sleeping through the night, what an angel!

3 months old, giggling and using his hands.
This was the day we found out Grandpa Ford wasn't responding to chemo,
Max was sad too.

4 months old. Rolling over, eating cereal and he already had his first haircut!
Happy first Father's Day to daddy!

5 months old! Max is rolling onto his tummy.

6 months old. Max popped out his first tooth 3 days later!
He babbles and sucks on his toes, just the cutest thing you've ever seen.

7 months old and happy as a clam! He has two teeth,
sits up unsupported and is about to get his 2nd haircut.

8 months old and bonding with daddy. Grandpa Ford passed away. We will miss him dearly...

9 months old. 4 teeth, crawling, and standing up with help.

10 months old. Sitting up, bouncing, saying "daddy" and 5 teeth already.

11 months old. Standing up all over the place, saying "uh oh", and getting his 3rd haircut.

12 months old. Happy birthday sweet boy. 7 teeth, waving bye bye and walking along the furniture. More to come on his birthday party...

Beautiful Boy

Sometimes words aren't even necessary...

My babbling baby boy

It occurred to me today that not all my friends use Facebook. Therefore, in an effort to notify everyone, here is a post to inform you that Max has a favorite word. One of these days I will post more pictures, but that day is not today.

3 Months and Counting...

So much has happened in the last couple of months, so here's a smattering of what Maxwell has been up to. He's such an incredible baby and I love being his mom. More photos to come.

5/30/2010 (~3m)- started using his hands

6/9/2010- First haircut (just like daddy's)

6/20/2010 (~4m)- Rolling over(front to back)

6/20/2010- Just so happens to be Father's Day as well. Happy Father's day daddy!

Discovering rattle noises for the first time.

Max's 1 Month Photo Shoot

These photos are a long time coming, but to my credit, we didn't get the CD with the images until maybe 3-4 weeks ago. We did a photo shoot on Max's one month birthday. Of course he is much bigger now that he is just over 4 months old, well, not that much bigger. In fact he is in the 0.44% for his weight. This just means that he wants to stay cute and tiny for a while longer so I can relish all the little baby moments before he grows up to be a big boy. Max was supposed to be asleep for pretty much the entire photo shoot but he decided that wasn't going to happen. So all of his sleeping naked baby pictures are eyes wide open, naked baby pictures. Only after an hour of shooting and mild frustration on my part did he finally fall asleep and let us get some sleeping baby pictures.

Sleep is overrated...or is it?

This week my sweet baby boy started sleeping through the night. We put him down at 8:30pm on Monday night and he slept until 4:30am the next day. I was so excited. Then the next night he slept from 9:00pm to 5:00am. What a glorious thing, this thing called sleep (uninterrupted). Hopefully this trend continues.

Oh, and by the way, Maxwell also has superhuman strength. Check him out! His grandpa Jackson says that he looks like a wrestler. This was his first tummy time experience.

More baby...

Snapped this pic on my cell phone the other day. What a blessing our Maxwell is. Isn't he the most handsome baby boy ever?

He's here!!!

Announcing Maxwell Ford. Born 8lbs 1 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. We're so excited to have him here. More to come...

38 weeks and counting...

Well, I'm pretty much the best blogger I know, considering that I update every other day to let people know the progress of the pregnancy. Not to mention, I am always taking pictures to show everyone what we're up to.
Anyway, we finally took a picture on Sunday to document the 38 week mark. Rosie decided to join me in the picture (she didn't smile for this one). We are very excited and can't wait for little Maxwell (yes, it's a boy) to come.

Cafe Preggers

Came across this article in a pregnancy magazine. I laughed until I cried and then I laughed some more. Mind you, I was in the midst of my first trimester at the moment.

Cafe Preggers
First Trimester Menu
Appetizer
Tums compote
Entree
Fresh saltines on a bed of saltines, lightly seasoned with saltines
Beverage
Ginger Ale (IV drip available upon request)
Dessert
Ten minutes in a dim room with an ice bag on your head

Second Trimester Menu
Appetizer
Half a roast of chicken, extra crispy
Entree
A succulent leg of lamb smothered in pork chops, served with BBQ ribs and garnished with cheeseburgers (all burnt beyond recognition for you safety)
Beverage
Toll House-pie smoothie, prepared with 1/2 pint heavy cream
Dessert
9" x 16" pan of double-fudge brownies

Third Trimester Menu
(Each course followed by 15-minute neck massage and/or bathroom break.)
Appetizer
Three bites of tossed salad
Entree
Two bites of lasagna
Beverage
None- so you'll have room for dessert
Dessert
A Tic Tac

*Double portions available if you're expecting twins

We're Pregnant!

Well, we're due on March 1st and we couldn't be more excited. These ultrasound pictures are from our first OB visit during the 11th week of the pregnancy. Tomorrow will be 17 weeks! We find out if we're having a boy or a girl on October 13th. (For some reason I can't get the pictures any bigger. We'll try harder next time.)

Remodeling

After we finished the shed we moved inside to warmer temperatures and got busy on the house. Here are the before and after pictures. It required a lot of sanding, painting, dusting, prying, and hard work- but here's the near completed project.

Front room before

Front room 2

Dining room before

Kitchen before

AFTER PHOTOS

Entry (note the tile, Justin did it this time)

Front Room Completed


Dining Room Finished


Kitchen completed

The Property

We bought a cabin property this fall and have been able to go up and enjoy it a few times since. It was at one of these such visits that Justin and I got the envied "1000 Aces" in a game we like to call Pinochle. Read them and weep, my friends...



























Here's a pic of the family on the "dock" as we like to call it.

The Turkey Trot

Justin and I ran a 5K on Thanksgiving Day prior to loading up on thousands of Thanksgiving calories. It was a tasty affair to be sure. I had an entire banana cream pie to myself that weekend! Still working off the extra pounds though...

It's a New Year!

It's a new year and even though from our blog it appears that we have been idle, it is quite the opposite. We have been busy with a series of projects which I have dutifully documented with my camera and I will share with all of you. But first off, the completion of the shed.

We got the shingles up and even some trim on the sides. I don't have a current photo of the shed because it is just too bitterly cold to go out and take one. Here's a close to finished photo at least. It seems like all the projects that we have done this year have taken at least a month longer to complete than expected. But alas, it is complete and we are happy to rest for a while.

Our Shed-Building Project

While Justin was gone this summer he designed the shed that we are building in the backyard. It certainly hasn't gone very quickly but it will be cool to say that we built it ourselves. Check it out....Here's Justin making one of the walls.
Two walls up, 2 more to go. These things are heavy!
I know that you must be impressed with the trusses we made, try not to be jealous.
Justin securing the top of the roof. What a man!
We nearly got all the shingles done on this side of the shed over the weekend. We had to stop since they got hot and were burning our skin (not to mention that we had been working on it for about 5 hours straight.