three + four + five

i realize that it is now the thirteenth and i still haven't finished posting about our fourth of july festivities! so i'm going to knock it all out in one gigantic post. enjoy!

saturday we relaxed, and headed over to the freedom festival. it was hotttt but we still had a good time. max got his first balloon and as you can see by the pictures, he was basically in heaven. we had to pry his fingers away from the string when it was time to get in the car because he had fallen asleep holding on to it.

we brought bri and cami along for the ride as well...bri was a good sport to let me take this picture:

that evening after max had his nap we got ready for the stadium of fire! we thought about buying tickets but they were a little pricey by the time we got around to it, so we just set up camp right outside the stadium and it was perfect. we played games, ate treats, and relaxed on our blankets. we could hear perfectly. wasn't carrie underwood great? i'm beginning to think that sitting outside is the best way to go. the fireworks were a.ma.zing from our view and max loved them!

{do you see what he is holding?? a set of hands. i told you he was obsessed!}

the actual FOURTH was a wonderful day. we got to meet our newest niece for the first time ever. little sally is such a cute/chubby/sweet baby and she may or may not have made me a little baby hungry! how can you not be when you are around such beautiful babies??

we had a delicious dinner at my parent's house and the only person missing was alli! it was great. after dinner, laney and i had a photo shoot out by the grapes. she is the cutest little two year old. every time i got the camera ready she would say cheeeeeeeese. it was adorable.

and last but not least, monday morning bright and early i pulled my two boys out of bed and we headed over to see the hot air balloons. it was a blast. we got there before any of the balloons had taken off, and half of them were still filling up. the coke bottle balloon was incredible, but apparently it was a little too incredible because it didn't ever make it off the ground.

after balloons, we joined the rest of provo city and went to magelby's fresh for breakfast. even though we had to wait foreverrr the food was delish as always and we still made it in time to walk to the parade. we went down to our usual spot with kim and clay and had a grand old time. the babies were being especially cute so we snapped a few pics. i couldn't decide which ones not to put up...so i am posting them all! {max has a serious crush on ellie!}

when the parade was over we went home, caught up on some zzzzzz's and then went to the scera to watch toy story 3. what a cute movie! we loved it. we just don't recommend going to see it with a crazy 9-month old baby.

and at the end of the day we had our annual bbq at my grandparents house. yummmm yum.

nothing beats the fourth of july.

spArk

the festivities continued on friday night when i went out with the girls for a night on the town! it was a BLAST to say the least. we strolled around down town and visited some of the shops they had set up for the freedom festival, and then we went to spark for some "mocktails."

i had never been there before and it was so much fun! it definitely has the feel of a big city in there. i got a shirley temple {and i don't think you can see it in the picture...} but it has cotton candy swirled around the straw! how cool is that?? i decided on that specific drink solely because of that.

the drink itself was pretty yummy too.

{me, kim, and keri}

we had many adventures, and were reminded yet again, why we are SO glad we are married! :)

thanks for the fun night girls! we definitely will have to do it again.

let the festivities begin!

wasn't this weekend wonderful???

we enjoyed every second of it.

we started out by driving up to layton thursday night so we would be there bright and early friday morning to go boating with the family. max must have caught onto the excitement, because friday morning he was up at seven o'clock acting as if it was christmas morning! {and he never gets up that early!}

we packed up, made humongous sandwiches for everyone, lathered on our sunscreen, and headed up to pine view in ogden around ten.

our little family waited for the rest of the group to pick us up...and when we finally saw them coming we also noticed that the boat was smoking like CRAZY. it was pretty hilarious. after twenty+ minutes they finally made it over to the shore and the men realized that they had forgotten to follow the steps completely before taking the boat out for the first time of the year.

after a little while they got it up and running again, so we took a little test run...and max absolutely loved it. he is one adventurous little guy. and his life jacket definitely enhanced his cuteness {besides the fact that when he sat down it completely smashed his face...}

danny and i got all pumped to show off our wakeboarding/tubing skills {since we have never been boating together. isn't that crazy?? i was a boat instructor at lake powell! and we still haven't gone.} but after getting out onto the middle of the lake, the boat died again. we were stranded there for a while, but eventually made it to a shore where we ended our little adventure.

it was still such a blast to be with family though, and everyone was such a good sport. definitely a wonderful way to begin the fourth of july marathon weekend!

nine

why hello! i realize that it has been almost one whole month since i have updated the ole' blog. my bad. life around here has been awesome...but so crazy busy. danny is working forty hour weeks, i am taking nine credits, {last semester of college!! woohoo!} and our little baby has turned into an army-crawling, get-into-everything toddler. on top of that we have to move out of our apartment by the end of august...and we still haven't found a place to live. awesome, huh??

good thing it is summer and so very gorgeous outside!

{or we would be having some serious issues}

besides us being insanely busy, life really has been quite spectacular. little maxwell scott turned nine months old and it is such a fun stage of life! when we went to visit the doctor, these were the stats we got:

height: 27.75 inches {34.87 percentile}

head circumference: 18.03 inches {66.56 percentile}

weight: a whopping 16.8 pounder-roos! {2.9 percentile...}

i'm pretty confident that since his appointment was a full two weeks ago, he has progressed up to the 5th percentile at least! really though, the doctor wasn't too worried about his weight since he has always been lower than 15%. he eats like crazy so apparently he just has an awesome metabolism...lucky boy.

it is pretty crazy to think that he has been alive for the same amount of time that i carried him around in my belly. he is only three months away from turning the big ONE. i don't even want to think about it.

max really is such a joy to be around. i absolutely love being his mama.

some recent developments of his include:

army crawling. he goes anywhere and everywhere. he still hasn't quite figured out the proper crawling technique, but i'm not too worried about it. army crawling is bad enough!

growing a new tooth. {that makes three!} and not just any tooth...it is the tooth next to his top front teeth. he is a little jack-o-lantern/hillbilly and we love it!

a fascination {unlike anything i've ever seen} with hands. it is the funniest thing. he has always loved when i sign to him, so that could have something to do with it, but we have a mr. potato head, and his plastic hand goes everywhere with max. once he has a hold of one of his hands, he doesn't let go for hours. {maybe he secretly wishes he were an octopus?? two hands just isn't enough!}

crawling up stairs. who knew?? he first discovered the stairs yesterday, and he could not stop laughing! it was the cutest thing.

his love for go-gurts. he can slurp down an entire go-gurt in one minute flat. the second he sees the tube he starts licking his lips. same goes for any type of bread/chocolate.

being able to drink out of a sippy cup. this is great for us since a few months ago he decided that he was no longer going to drink out of a bottle.

his love for nature. or maybe he just loves leaves. every time we go for a walk i pick him a leaf off of a tree. he holds onto it the entire time and i only have to remind him a few times not to eat it!

realizing that he is cute/funny. he LOVES it when people tell him that. he gets this gigantic smile on his face and you can just tell that he knows exactly what you are talking about.

life is always an adventure with him around! we love you maxwell!

hiking the Y

though we've both done it separately, danny and i have never hiked the Y together, so we figured it was about time! we went a few weeks ago...but this post is better late than never, right??

we had a great time even though the hike KILLED me. i am a little out of shape...

at least my awesome husband didn't make me carry the pack with little max in it. i don't think i could have done it!

{plus, i had my share of carrying him around non-stop for nine months!}

{he was so pumped to be in the hiking pack!}

we ran into some of our seminary friends right before we started, so we hiked up to the top with tucker, katie, and their three kids. it was quite the adventure!!

seeing double

i don't have twins, but after watching little krugh for my friend keri while they moved into their new place, i felt like i had twins!! krugh is about three weeks older than max and is into EVERYTHING! he can crawl faster than i've ever seen and can pull himself up while holding onto almost anything {the dryer, the couch, the kitchen stools, etc...} it was a little crazy, especially since our house is far from being baby proof yet, but it was fun to see them play together. {at least when they weren't trying to steal each others toys, and poke each others eyes out...who knew it started so young???}

isn't the picture of them in their car seats hilarious?? that was the only way i could keep an eye on them both! plus they both LOVE food.

gotta love baby boys!

aaron + missy

wednesday, june ninth, danny's little brother got married to his sweetheart, missy.

it was a wonderful day and we feel so blessed to have such amazing people in our family!

the festivities began tuesday night, at the wedding dinner. danny's mom went ALL OUT and made all of the food for 100+ people. she is incredible! the dinner was delicious...and the desserts were to die for.

{this was the only picture we snapped all night. very flattering, isn't it??}

{me, max, and mom right before leaving}

the wedding itself took place in the salt lake temple. beautiful! they looked so happy. i love going to weddings to remind myself of our own wedding day and the special events that took place. after the ceremony, many many pictures were taken. see below. once pictures were through, we had a family luncheon over at the lion house. again, the food was delicious. i couldn't have eaten another bite even if i wanted to! the reception that night was in bountiful at the eldrige manor which was also beautiful and we had a great time. we are so proud of you two!

{aren't they cute?! check out aaron's sweet orange socks! that is true love right there.}

little sterling

my wonderful friend lindsey orton is doing an auction over on her blog for an AWESOME photography session. {she has got some serious talent!}

the auction is going on to raise some money for her sweet little brother, sterling. he has a genetic condition called VSFS. {to find out more about it, you can read her sweet blog here.}

it would mean to world to her, and her entire family, to support the research that is taking place.

check it out right here. right now.