"had you arrived five minutes earlier you would have met Elder Perry." (dangit! thought i). this is what Elder Michael Talley Ringwood said to us as we entered his office in the Church Administration Building. That place has more security than hogwarts, seriously, besides the dementors that is. anyways... for seminary, we had the wonderful privilege to meet with a member of the 1st quorum of the seventy (if you're a baseball fan like our bro timmy, it's kinda like the minors or triple A, love ya tim) and it was uber (my new word for super) AMAZING!!! slash a tiny bit scary!
we made sure to read his talk entitled "an easiness and willingness to believe" from the sunday afternoon session of october conference. we read it like five times! He was such a nice guy, and as soon as we got there he made us feel welcome. i was still nervous as he cracked his first joke, to which jessie laughed and i kinda went heh heh, at which point he said "that was a joke. thanks for laughing jessie" (dangit again! thought i).
he actually student taught a ninth grade class a few years ago and commented on how much he loved teaching seminary. now he has a more broad calling to teach a lot more people. he spoke of the great love president Monson has for the youth of the church and how much he cares about who teaches them. it was humbling.
as we walked out he joked about how four of the members of the quorum of the twelve are on his floor, since they have to keep a close eye on him. i suggested we go and act lost at a couple doors. he didn't think that was very funny (dangit times infinity! thought i). it was a privilege meeting with one of the Lord's special servants. We know he is a man of God.
i know, i know. max has literally taken over this blog.
but this post deserves to be dedicated solely to him.
on sunday, november 15, 2009 daniel scott blessed maxwell scott and gave him a name and a blessing. we decided to make it a little more personal and bless him at my parent's home. we had many of our family and friends come to be a part of this special experience.
danny gave max a beautiful blessing. and the spirit was so strong. i am so grateful for a husband who honors his priesthood and a sweet baby boy who reminds me every day how lucky i am to be his mommy.
thanks to all those who made this such a lovely experience.
isn't life great???
dad + son.
the men.
very happy, proud parents.
max doesn't quite know how to smile for pictures yet...
our awesome friend sam yarbrough took pictures of max a few weeks ago. he gave us a cd of 250+ pictures...and these are a few of our favorites. he hasn't had a chance to "touch them up" yet, but i was too excited to wait to post them! max cooperated for almost the entire photo shoot.
dang he is sweet! max is finding out he has a face, and he is trying to use it to tell mom and dad what he wants. you try and figure these faces out and then let us know what the heck he is trying to say! ps he hates uncle aaron's pet rat that is glued to his chin, hence the screaming. word. try beating me in an arm wrestle again punk! for the record: he recently ate a ding dong and it went straight to his chin! he is now on a diet. i swear he usually knows who i am. holy moly did you see that?! he climbed up my leg, scampered up my massive chest, shimmied across my muscular arms, and perched himself in the palm of my hand...dang!
remember back when i wrote about the baby quilt i was making for max??
i started out with a very optimistic mindset. how could a quilt be so hard? i thought. the ladies in the relief society bust out about ten a day...surely i can make one!
i had my fabric all picked out and ready to be cut in hundreds of little squares. after two days of cutting, all i had left to do was simply place the squares on and sew, sew away.
my mom was kindenough to lend me her bernina: straight from the seventies. it is a beautiful olive green color, and hasn't given her any problems after all of these years. that is, until i laid my hands on it.
i probably got about twenty good stitches in, when i started hearing very weird noises. the motor sounded like it was overheating, the needle would speed up...and then slow down...and before i knew it, the thread was in one huge, gigantic tangle.
now, i'm no sewing expert, but i decided it would be best to un-stitch what i had sewn, and start from scratch. luckily i hadn't gone too far. un-stitching would be a piece of cake. i happily started over, dreaming about the little boy who would one day very soon get to snuggle in this blankie. i fixed the thread, and after a slight detour, was ready to go again.
after un-picking for the sixth time i was ready to give up. i was getting so frustrated with the machine i was ready to throw it out the window. so i called up my grandma. she is basically wonder woman. {max definitely inherited some of his awesomeness from her} i told her of my predicament and she insisted that i come use her sewing machine because it hadn't given her any problems for years.
when i got to her house, she saw that i had glued on my squares instead of pinned them on. {that's me being lazy...} and she pulled out her ruler and box of pins and got right to work. we pinned for a good two hours, and then were finally ready to get in business. we headed up to her sewing room and she tested it out on a piece of scrap fabric before we sewed on the real deal {she understood that i was done with un-picking}. it worked, just like it should, making perfectly spaced, tight stitches, so she left it up to me to finish my quilt.
i stitched two entire columns before anything went wrong. but suddenly the machine starting acting up again. i was beginning to think it was just my touch. the engine was making weird noises...and the needle wouldn't move. great. i've ruined TWO machines {both over 20 years old} in the space of two days. i am awesome. my grandma came to the rescue, and after {at least} an hour of trying to diagnose the problem, we discovered that the belt had broken...or more like shattered. little tiny pieces of rubber were all over the inside of the sewing machine. i felt horrible. and frustrated. max was definitely not getting a baby blanket from his mommy anymore.
but, my grandma is not one to give up. she took the broken belt into the sewing store, and found a brand new belt to take its place. she and gramps fixed it up and called me the next day, telling me that the machine was back in working order! a few days later, i headed back over to finish the quilt once and for all. i finished sewing a few more stitches when, yup, you guessed it, the machine stopped working again!!! grandma kept reassuring me that it wasn't my fault--she thought the belt was a little too small anyways--so they went back to the store, and this time, found the perfect one. after a few long hours, and a very sore back, i was finished sewing those squares on. the end was in sight.
all i had left was the binding. easy, schmeesy. except for the fact that i've never done a binding before. in my life. so, my grandma helped me yet again. she is absolutely amazing. we got half of it sewn on, and then she finished it up by HAND stitching it. it would have taken me a good year just to do the hand stitching, but she got it done in less than a day.
i wasn't sure if it was going to be worth it. breaking two sewing machines, spending countless hours sewing stitch after stitch...but after seeing little max all bundled up in it i have no doubt that it was worth it.
every second.
{photo courtesy of sammy yarbrough. he took pictures of max last week and they turned out ADORABLE. more to come.}
you can't go wrong on a monday night when you've got this sitting out on your counter, waiting to be devoured:
thanks to our awesome friends {and housemates} kim and clay for joining us in making delicious caramel apples. we dunked our apples in melted caramel, covered them in white chocolate, and rolled them in reese's, heath bars, and butterfingers.
isn't he adorable??? halloween is the best with a baby! {thanks for the cute onesie kate!} halloween this year was yet another success. it kind of snuck up on us, having a new baby and all, but we were able to dress up {thanks to kim and clay!} and had a fantastic night.
danny had to work halloween night {bummer, huh?} but we had bri and cami come over around five thirty and we took them trick or treating on osmond lane. i dressed up as an indian, danny and bri were byu soccer players {original i know} cami was sharpae from high school musical, and little max was a cute baby in a mummy shirt. some people didn't want to give danny and i candy because apparently we are "too old" to go trick or treating...but as soon as they saw max they dumped the candy right into our bags. it was awesome.
danny drew awesome tribal paintings on my face with eyeliner and lipstick. he is quite the artist, huh??
after dropping danny off at work, the rest of us headed to my parents for our annual delicious halloween soup. it tasted especially good this year.
we can't believe another halloween has already come and gone! but boy are we excited for the upcoming holidays.
i just finished watching president uchtdorf's ces fireside which he gave this past sunday evening. i may not be part of the single adult crowd...but his words were astounding.
if any of you need a spiritual pick-me-up, {like i did this morning} take a few minutes out of your day and watch this.
