The Happiest Place on Earth!

Max was such a little stinker during his two-year photo shoot.  Isn't that the way it goes?  You pay all that money and pick out cute outfits and then they have a meltdown.  But we did get some good photos of this cute little guy!

Ash and Zack moved to California and we decided to tag along and make a little vacation out of the trip.  We spent one morning at Huntington Beach.  I didn't bother to put on Max's swimsuit because he hated the ocean last year.  But he loved it this year.  We had to take his shorts off (they were soaked) and go eat lunch with just a diaper bum.  Keepin' it classy.

There is a place in Downtown Disney that lets you 'make' your own car.  You pick out the body, wheels, rims, accessories and then you get to put it together.  Max could have cared less but Cory had a great time!

I love Disneyland.  It is such a magical place.  And while Cory does not share my enthusiasm, he was a good sport and let us spend a day at the happiest place on earth.

 Max's reaction to the first character he saw at Disneyland (Pluto) was priceless.  As we were waiting in line, I kept telling him, 'look, there's Pluto!"  I don't think he was really paying attention (or he could only see Pluto's legs from his vantage point) because when I lifted him up to see Pluto's face, he almost jumped right out of my arms.  And then he just had his mouth hanging open and kept looking at me and then back at Pluto.  The wonder of it all.

 Max walked right up and gave Mickey a high five.  And then Mickey wanted to do knuckles.  So cute!

Tow Mater and Lightening McQueen!  This is what we came for.  Max adores these two characters and was absolutely star struck.  And I must say, Disney did such a great job with Cars Land.  It looks just like the movie!

Ka-Chow! (Or A-Chow, As Max Likes to Say)

Max woke up in a pile of puke on his birthday.  So sad!  But he was pretty excited to see Lightening McQueen hanging on his high chair when we walked downstairs.

Notice the pink bucket next to the high chair…just in case.  Happy birthday, sweet boy!  Max knows most of the letters in the alphabet and he can count to six.  He's starting to put together phrases and is starting to sing songs or say nursery rhymes to the point where I can usually make out what he is saying.  His favorites are 'the wheels on the bus', 'heads, shoulders, knees and toes', 'one, two, buckle my shoe', etc.

To say this kid loves car / trucks is such an understatement.  Imagine his reaction when he went outside on his birthday and saw his very own coup!  We also gave him a sand/water table and he frequently points to the back door now and says 'sand and water'.  He isn't quite sure about the texture of the sand or getting dirty but he loves the water.

Thankfully Max got feeling better in time for us to go camping for his birthday.  We did a little 'Cars' birthday party for him.  We are so thankful for everyone who made the trek up the mountain to celebrate with us!

Max was so excited to see the dump truck on the front of this card.  Grandma & Grandpa Johnson picked a good one!

Just admiring his trucks...

I laughed pretty hard when I saw this picture.  Emilee caught it just right.  This is my face after reading Ashlee's card.  ;-)

We took Max to see 'Planes' the weekend before his birthday.  This was his first time in a movie theater.  Thankfully there was no one sitting in front of us because he was wandering around and leaning over the chairs the entire time.  But we made it through the whole show!

Choo Choo! And the Zoo!

We went to see Thomas the Train last weekend.  Look at this face watching Thomas come chugging down the tracks.

We got to go to the zoo today with some good friends of ours who live in Blackfoot.  I love Breck's face in this picture.  Ride 'em cowboy!

Love this little guy, all ready for church.  Whenever Max does something he isn't supposed to, I usually say, "Son!", in exasperation and then remove him from whatever he isn't supposed to be doing.  Last night Max dropped his spoon on the floor, along with the bite of applesauce that was on its way to his mouth.  He looked at me and said, "Son!" and then "Uh-oh!".  Thanks for taking care of that for me, Kiddo!

Easter 2013

I hard boiled nine eggs for Max to color.  We ended up with four intact after he was finished.  But he had fun...

 The Easter Bunny found Max in St. George this year.  A big shout-out to Camille for helping the Easter Bunny stock up for the hunt.  Max really worked hard to get the egg out of this prickly bush!  

 The Easter Bunny also found us at home.  He hid Hot Wheels cars in Max's Easter eggs.  Can't go wrong with cars for this kid!

 Jordan helped Max with the Easter egg hunt that our Primary organization put on.

We combined Max's 18-month photo shoot with Easter pictures.  He finally had a growth spurt and is on the charts.  His stats: 22 lbs 8 oz (10th percentile), 31.5 inches tall (27th percentile) and his head circumference is in the 81st percentile.

 This picture has nothing to do with Easter but I just had to add it.  These are my favorite winter jammers and Max has almost outgrown them.  I will be so sad to put them up for the summer.

I am really loving this stage.  Max says so many words and he will try saying anything once.  He started going to Nursery last week and has been doing great.  The world could be falling down around him and as long as there are trucks/cars to play with, he could care less.  I really cannot explain how much this kids loves cars/trucks.  There is a somewhat busy road behind our house.  When we go out for walks, Max takes the walking path straight to the road and just stands and watches the cars go by for about 15-20 minutes.  He yells at each of them (jeep!, car!, truck!, BIG truck!, garbage truck!, you get the idea…).