Happy 30th to my amazing husband Jared. I LOVE you so much!
Baby Jared with his big sis Jessica
Here are a few things I love about him:
- He is a hard worker
- He makes me laugh every day
- He is so incredibly HOT. I could just look at that handsome face all day.
- He is a great dad, I love listening to him put Max to bed.
- He is very patient with me
- He is very confident
- He is my best friend
- He is perfect for me
- He takes his responsibilities seriously
- He loves to serve others (if he ever passes up an opportunity to serve someone it's probably because I wanted him to come home and be with me instead :S)
Here are a few facts about him:
- die hard Lakers fan!
- likes to watch the Food Network - especially "Chopped"
- he's recently been called to be the Young Men's president in our ward
- he rides his bike to school about every day
- he likes Mexican food, especially fresh salsa!
- he can skateboard and surf
- I am the only person who has cut his hair since we got married
- he'd really like a cat (someday)
- he's always reading about 5 different books at any given time
- he doesn't really feel like 30 is different than any other birthday!
This one is for the baby . . . although Max was up in the middle of the night last week asking for the Elephant Blanket! This one only took me about a week and a half, unlike Max's quilt which took a good month!
I absolutely love the back! When I picked it out I just loved the fabric and didn't think it would coordinate exactly. . . but when I got it all together it worked out better than I thought.
I'm learning to be a better, more patient sewer. Still not brave enough to do anything too complicated. Next project. . . to appliquéd some onesies!
You can read about our trip here, but these are a few pictures:
at I-Hop in St. George, as soon as the waitress walked up Max said, "juice! pancakes!"
below are a couple pics from watching the last BYU b-ball game at my sister's. It was a sad loss, but so fun to be with the fam (crazy, yelling and screaming fans!)
Having trouble rearranging photos, these are in backwards order but here are a few from March.
Bubbles on the porch with Daddy on a Sunday evening. . .
be be cutie pie. Love those sweet curls. Doesn't everyone eat lunch in the buff with Mater, Lightning, and Sally? We always look forward to Daddy pulling up on his bike in the evening while we're at the playground. Sometimes Max gets to ride it the rest of the way home. . . St. Patrick's Day dinner. Corned Beef Hash, Cabbage, a treasure hunt with Green Rice Krispie Treats for dessert! Friends on St. Patrick's Day Grandma visited on St. Patrick's Day as well. Love when I catch him reading books. I would rather have all the books scattered everywhere and know my child was reading than have them all in their place because my child was watching TV! We had a community emergency preparedness event. We scored free hot dogs, a sweet hat, a paper fire truck and some cool magnets. The real fire truck was supposed to be there, but left to respond to an emergency!
Just a couple ultrasound pics. We've had a few extra ultrasounds, (nothing to worry about, I promise) it's fun to get the extra pictures.
This is my favorite, he's looking right at you, laying on his side.
This next one is from Thursday. 33 weeks isn't the best for pictures but the tech said, "Wow, this baby has a lot of hair! Check this out!"
Can you see it? it's standing straight up, funny huh? Max had a decent amount right when he was born, way more than I thought he'd have, then his head grew and his hair spread out and he was kind of a baldy for awhile. We can safely say now that Max has my hair (mine was the same at 2). I have a sneaky feeling this next guy will have straight black hair and blue eyes . . . we'll see!
I don't really have a recent belly pic on hand but here's a video from 2 weeks ago:
The first week of March I finished up teaching a session of children's dance . . . aren't they adorable?
2.5 - 3 year olds
4-6 year olds I was also asked to teach a little dance class to the Achievement Days girls from our ward. I couldn't believe how well they caught on to everything! We did it outside on their leaders patio, it was perfect. Max even came with me and was so good, he just watched the whole thing! the babe likes to dance with me. . . When I was teaching 5 classes every day, I was really just focused on getting to the next class when one class ended. Now since I'm only teaching every so often, after a class is over, I get such a high! It really just makes me so happy. Something about my students and seeing them grow and catch on and improve and become more aware of their bodies and what they're capable of!
I also love seeing Max again after a class. Jared always had him during my children's classes and they would come meet me at the end. I just loved seeing Max walk in the door and come over to me and tell me what he did with daddy. It's just sweet how I am his Mommy and he doesn't care what else is going on, he knows I'm going to focus on him and he knows I'm going to be excited about what he tells me.
I've been keeping track of these for the past month, since Max turned 2. Really because there are so many cute things, especially with language lately, that I don't want to forget. I realized I'll never be able to document everything, but I sure try! Here's a video from February since I haven't uploaded any photos from this month.
Max saw a car with a cover on it in the parking lot today Max: cars, uh-oh! Mom: It's ok, it's just covered Max: Blanket? Mom: uh - Max: Blanket, nigh-night cars
We have bunnies that hop around our neighborhood. If we ever don't see one when we walk passed the bushes where they live he tells me "buh-ee, nigh-night"
Our friends used to have a cat but had to give her away a few weeks ago. Max still looks for the "ki-ki" every time and when he doesn't find her he tells me, "ki-ki, nigh-night"
Max loves Fisher Price Little People. If he sees any toy with a Fisher Price logo on it he tells me "People! People!" He's recently begun to learn their names from a DVD we have of some Little People episodes. His favorite lately is Michael. He can say Michael but instead calls him "Ma-Max". He asks for him often and especially at bed-time (good thing we have FOUR of him!)
He calls all castles "Temples". I just love it and have decided not to correct him just yet. The Disney castle at the beginning of Disney movies, sand castle molds, anything with a tower is a temple. He always gets excited when we drive passed our Temple in Newport Beach on Sundays or on the way to the library. Then he sees the church right next to it and tells me "church, choo-choo, big cars!" (talking about nursery).
He's got a little cold and when I wiped his nose today he told me "no, no" in a very serious way. Like how I tell him "no" sometimes. It wasn't the usual pouting and trying to get away, just a simple "no, no".
Sometimes I ask him questions or ask him to do something in such a nice and positive way, especially when it's something I know he doesn't really want to do. For example, "Max, why don't you play with the Thomas choo-choo and let Ruby play with the James choo-choo?" He sits there for a second and thinks about it. Then makes a very serious face and shakes his head from side to side, "no".
We live on the second floor and walk past two trees on our way down stairs. The second tree Max will always point at and say "Monkeys!" (referring to the song "5 little monkeys swinging in a tree"
The other day going out to the park it was pretty warm but Max wanted his little hoodie anyway. He was wearing a shirt with two choo-choos on it and as I zipped up his hoodie over his shirt he said "bye-bye choo-choos" while waving at himself.
Yesterday he put cheerios in his "Muck" dump truck (from Bob the Builder, or "Bob-boo") He wheeled Muck over to one of his Little People horses and said "share, share that's nice!" Then the horse "ate" the cheerios. It just made me laugh because when I ask him to share I always follow through with a "That's nice" when he does it.
Other words he's picked up on that I say a lot are "careful" and "gentle". He knows exactly what they mean and says them often. He also said "sorry" the other day for the first time, using it in the right way (after he bonked his friend with a stuffed animal). It made me so happy he could say it and knows what it means. Of course I was not happy that he bonked his friend, but at least it was soft!
He's had "please" down for quite some time and now says "thank-you" when I give him something, often without being asked. He also tells me to say "Thank You" when he gives me something, like a scoop of his applesauce on my plate.
He's started to say "see" when he wants me to hold him up to look at something.
He is a very systematic little boy. He likes things in the right place and is very aware of what belongs to who. He likes to return toys on the playground to their owners, or to their owners moms. The other day he found our friend Willow's sippy cup and was so excited to give it to her. On his way to where she was her big brother came by, swiped it, and started drinking from it. Max was really upset! I explained to him that he was her brother and they were probably sharing.
Lightning McQueen is called "Borsie" no idea why.
He can kind of read books to me now, and can tell me what is going to happen in his favorite shows. He told me the whole sequence of events in Jungle Book the other day. "baby, kitty-cat, nake (snake), eh-pant(elephant), bear (with a little dance), monkey, tiger, birds, tiger, bear, mommy (the little girl), water."
He puts his toys to bed lately. Gives them a kiss, stuffs them under a blanket and says "night night monkey, night night Thomas, night night frog" . .. etc. He also likes to run in our room and put them to bed in our bed.
Max knows the word "Scary". I did not teach him this word. I don't know how he picked it up but when he sees a skull somewhere he tells me "sca-ee" and also during certain parts of movies. He watched a Thomas episode where Percy thinks he sees a ghost. He watched it with my dad, I probably would've skipped it. After he told me "Percy, sca-ee!"
He also tells me things are funny. This is one of those words where I'm probably the only one who understands him because he says it "wa-ee" but somehow I know what he means.
He loves Thomas the Tank Engine and can now correctly identify Thomas, Percy and James, oh and also Emily the girl engine. It's so funny to hear him say my first name and he always follows it with "mommy". So it's like "Em-ee, Mommy". At first I thought he was recognizing that my name was Emily. I'm still not 100% sure but I think it's more that she's the only girl so he calls her the "Mommy".
If he loses something or drops something it's always followed with "uh, oh, whed-a go?" In the same little sing song way.
When we sing a song about rain I always wiggle my fingers while bringing them down. The other day Max was asking for something to eat and I couldn't quite figure it out. Then he was wiggling his fingers and saying "ray" like I do for rain - turns out he wanted raisins!
He loves to sing Old McDonald "E-i-E-i-O" and then tells me what animal to do. He can sing ABC's clearly until about H then it gets a little hard to understand but he's got the melody.
We play a little singing game often. He tells me one word, then I start singing a song about it. Sometimes it's a specific song he's asking for "Bob-boo" (Bob the Builder), "People"(Little People), "Big Cars" (Sheryl Crow song from Cars Move) and more. Sometimes he asks me to sing "Big Truck" or "Eh-pane" (airplane) and I have to make up a song, are there any songs about Big Trucks or Airplanes?
He sometimes gets "off" and "on" confused. When we come in from the playground he immediately wants his jacket off but pulls on it saying "on, on, on!". When we get in the car if it's dark outside and the dome lights turn off, he doesn't like it but will ask for them to be "off, off, off!"
He turns cups and bowls over and makes them into "dums" (drums) then plays them. He still is my little dancer boy and moves to the beat of just about anything. I love how he dances. He just feels the beat however he pleases, with his fingers wiggling, his toes tapping or his elbow flapping.
He still is not the least bit interested in the toilet or garbage. He'll put trash in the garbage if I ask but doesn't play in there. Counting my blessings there!
Happy 30th to my amazing husband Jared. I LOVE you so much! 
sweet friends, btw my mother-in-law Patti MADE this maternity top for me, isn't it cute?
