Max turns One!

My baby turned one on December 3rd.  I really don't know where the days went!  How could this happen?  I love this little guy. We are all so happy that the miracle that is Max was born into our family one year ago.  I can't imagine our life without him.  Happy Birthday little Man!

Now for some quick details.  We celebrated on December 2nd.  Daddy had to leave the next morning for a business trip to Philadelphia.  So we just celebrated early. Max didn't mind at all.

 I made a vanilla cake and dyed it blue.  I made icing that we love.  The recipe can be found here...  

The Best Icing

The results? Max loved it.

Max got a "gumball" machine full with his favorite thing tiny balls.  He loves to click them together and put them in and out of the machine.

Madison took this photo of me and Max. I wanted to prove I was there.  He loves his new Little People farm too.  We got his presents at the consignment store.  I have to wonder why I haven't done more of that for little guy presents.  He certainly didn't care. It was loads cheaper.  It was like four something for the gumball machine and 4.95 for the farm!  Yay!!

Halloween 2013

A group shot was attempted.  This was the best we could do.  Five kids, happy, good looking and all standing in the right places in one picture is a myth, a true work of fiction, or photoshop.  I don't know if it's even possible, at least not when two of them are under the age of 5.  Nathan wanted to do his own thing and wouldn't stand next to Noah.  Max was done at this point and wanted his pacifier and didn't want me to move him to be part of the group either.  It captures the moment though.  I'm sure we'll try again on Halloween night.

As you can see, Grace is Red Riding Hood.  Madison is Esmeralda, the gypsy from the Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Noah is a Shadow Hunter from the Mortal Instruments book series. Nathan is a Clone Trooper and Max is a dragon.  Max is our second dragon, some of you may remember that Noah was a black dragon on his third Halloween.

Noah is Fourteen! (July 28th)

This post is late too. I took photos for his birthday and never got around to posting them.  I can't believe my first baby is now fourteen!!  Where is the time going!?  We couldn't ask for a better Noah.  We love you Noah!

Maddie's Eight & This Post is Late!

Madison turned eight August 18th.  I took these photos to mark the day.  I was pretty delayed in posting them.  I wanted to get these on the blog though.  Happy birthday my sweet girl.

Nathan at Three

Nathan turned three in May.  I just got around to taking his three year photos.  I promised him balloons would be involved at some point. So I picked some up for our impromptu photo session.  I just decided enough was enough, we had to get on this before he was four!

So here you go...

Nathan at three....

Nathan likes to play with his Jedi figures.  Here he is setting up a beanstalk for them to climb up.

 Nathan loves his big brother Noah.  Here they are posing for a picture together.

I love it!

Three years old!  Where does the time go?!

Happy Father's Day

On this day, when we take the time to tell our father's how precious they are to us.  I found it appropriate to post this adorable picture of Mike and his youngest baby.

Mike is a good, loving father. He would do anything for his kids.

We love you!

Tie Dye (The First Project of the Summer)

The family that tie dyes together, well, they wear tie dye shirts together! 

We had a really fun time tie dyeing shirts yesterday.  We made red ones too, that were going to be our swim team shirts for swim meets, but the red looks a lot more pinkish than we'd like.

We will show those shirts when they're done being washed and dried and spruced up.

Mike doesn't have one of these shirts, he's not really a tie dye kinda guy, but I think we may make him one anyway.  

Oh, and you may be wondering why my shirt looks a little more pastel.

After the kids had used the dye there was a shortage, so in an attempt to have enough to even dye my shirt I had to water down what was remaining.  I like it well enough though.  It matches my shorts.

An Evening Visitor...

We had a small visitor last night.  I opened the door to take Sulley out and this beautiful moth flew in! He fluttered around eventually settling on this fake dogwood branch.  It was under a light and I think he liked it.  He blended in pretty nicely.  I love this moth, this is one of my favorites. 

Here's a little information about it. 

Actias luna

Actias luna, commonly known as the Luna Moth, is a lime-green, Nearctic Saturniid moth in the family Saturniidae, subfamily Saturniinae. It has a wingspan of up to 4.5 inches, making it one of the largest moths in North America. (Wikipedia)

What's Growing in the Garden...

Look what we found growing in our raspberries out back!  It's Max!  I had to try this out with my littlest before he got just too big. Frankly he's too big for the bag now.  It's meant for newborns to curl up into.  Max doesn't curl up anymore.  He stretches his legs and he wants to crawl.  With the help of the kids I got him to sit for a few seconds and let me take the photo.  I love this bag now that I have figured out how to use it.

Six Months

*Max*

I cannot believe how fast the past six months have flown by!  Seriously. How did my baby get to be six months old so fast!  I want to slow things down!  

Max is a delightful baby. He really is mostly happy.  He is a sweet little guy.  I had to mark the occasion of his six month birthday with a photo session, complete with cute hats and props.

I can't promise I'm entirely done yet, but I wanted to get the photos I took up today on his birthday.  I may have to take a few more later.  I take them in tiny spurts.  Like no more than 10 minutes each session.  Otherwise it wouldn't be any fun for him.

I love this watermelon hat.  I got this hat from KnittyBittyApparel also on etsy.

I had this orange and blue set made for me by PinkieBows you can check her out at her etsy site.  She's been good to me and gives me a photographers discount and I send her photos she can use for her products. I wanted to get some photos of Max with his blanket from Aunt Julia and Aunt Elizabeth.  I love the owls and the colors.

 Max wearing his "Caution I'm teething shirt" while chewing on his favorite new teether. These photos were for me. It's Max just as he normally is.  T-shirt and teether.