A great way to end the year

We're happy to announce the birth of

Sailor Carolyn Maher

born 12/31/09

10:31pm

8 pounds 1 ounce

21 inches long

What a GREAT way to end the year, With a beautiful baby!

Good job Kelley and Tim Maher. Mom and baby are doing great.

Max gets a new cousin and I get to be an adoring auntie. :)

Picky Max

Max is a picky eater, To my dismay. More vegetables have been spit back onto me then have ever made it in Max's mouth. I've discovered that Max only likes finger foods or table foods. I think he doesn't like the texture of the mushy stuff. He does seem to like baby food pears. For the most part. Everyday is getting to be a battle. I'm trying all sorts of new things. I've wasted so much baby food. It gets frustrating. I want him to be healthy and eat those things that will be best for him. We're learning everyday. This morning I did get him to eat pieces of the york of a hard boiled egg. I had to put a cheerio on top of each bite so he would eat it. That might be my secret weapon for a while. I'll have to sprinkle everything with a cheerio, whole grain puffs, or yogurt melts. He really likes to snack on these.

Whenever Shaun and I eat. Max is on us like a vulture. He wants to eat what we have. Not mushy baby food. I've been introducing him to more finger foods. Will see how that goes. I get so stressed trying to make sure he's getting what he needs. Hopefully, We'll find a good balance. I don't want to feel like he's starving. He's a big boy who is moving around a lot. He needs to be nourished.

He hasen't been sleeping well. I'm afraid it's because he's starving. I also think he's going through separation anxiety. He needs to start sleeping through the night better. Or I might just lose my sanity all together. Being a mom is a full time job. Trying to discover how, what, and when to do everything is a heavy work load. That is still the best thing in the world. Being Max's mom is the best reminder of how blessed I am. He's our little/BIG miracle. :)

Here's a video at one of my atempts to feed Max. My little picky eater.

Feeling like a moron

I had to go to the store. Wally world in fact. I just needed to pick-up a few things. Which really ended up being a lot of things. So with my cart full, I headed to the check-out line. All the lines where really long. I know this is a shock for Wally world. ;) Even so, The lines were extra long.
I wasen't in a hurry so I took my place in one of the lines and waited.
Then one of the checkers came to me and said, "I can help you over here." Wonderful! I follow her to her register. When I get there I see the sign above the register. Express lane, 20 items or less. Uh-Oh, I don't belong in this line. I tell her that I defiantly have more then 20 items. She tells me that's just fine. She's helping to get the lines through.
This sounds great. Until people start getting in line behind me. People who actually have 20 items or less. It was so embarrassing. Here I am trying to load all of my things on the little counter, No conveyor belt in the express lane. I had to wait for her to ring up some of my items and bag them. Then I could put more things up to be scanned through. I felt like such an idiot! The people behind me were probably thinking the same thing to themselves.
It's a good thing that Max was with me. He was smiling at all the people behind us, being really friendly, and making them smile.
Otherwise, There could have been a riot! It was a relief to roll away with my cart full of goods. I didn't want anyone else looking at me like I was moron being in the express lane with a full cart.

Christmas Eve & Christmas

On Christmas Eve we went to my Brother Andrew's house.

We had a great dinner and a great time.


Drew and Katee invited Ruby. She's an 81 year old widow. She was hilarious! She's from Mississippi. She's sweet and also feisty! It was fun having her with us. She made me laugh.


We had a spiritual message. It was very beautiful and heart warming. Then we opened one present. I opened a present from my sister Taunya. Thanks Taun! Drew also gave me a picture of himself doing Nacho Libra. It was so funny! He signed it with, "These are my recreational pants."


Max with his presents Christmas morning. ( At the bottom of this post is a video of Max's first Christmas morning.)




Our neighbors invited us over for a wonderful Christmas breakfast. Here's the kids waiting to start eating.



Then we headed down to Shaun's brothers house. Here we are getting ready for our brunch. It was delicious.




Max with his cousins. He was loving all the Christmas presents Santa had left for his cousins. He had fun playing with them.

Then we opened more presents. All for the kids. The adults decided instead of buying presents for each other. We would all go out for a nice dinner and a movie. On the 21st we all went to The Keg and then the movie, The blind side. It was a really fun night out.

My mother and father in law still bought us presents. It was really sweet of them. Shaun and I now have a date night planned for the Olive Garden. Thanks Dick and Marge for the gift card.

After all the fun and the great time we had being together. This is where we found Ireland. Fast asleep on the tile floor. I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I know I had a great time being with family and friends. I wish I could have also been with my family in Utah. Love you!

I caught Shaun on tape saying, " Who is this from, My mom and dad or your mom and dad." Because the present said, "To Max from mom and dad. " I had to correct him laughing. "Form Max's mom and dad!" (ha, ha) You'll also have to excuse my annoying baby voice! Now that I've heard how bad it is on tape. I'll be working on it! :)

Good or bad dogs?

Shaun and I received a plate of cookies from our friends. They were Delicious. At least the 3 of the ones I ate. ( They were only bite sized.)

I resisted eating the whole plate of yummy goodness. Because I'm doing the biggest loser contest. I'm trying not to over indulge.

The next day. I went out to the store. When I came home. All that was left was the plate and Saran wrap. The plate was completely wiped clean, Or licked clean. I had mistakenly left the plate too close to the edge of the table. My two canine beasts, couldn't resist the yummy goodness. Because they know that this is bad to do. I had to punish them and kick them outside. Or put them in, What we call the "penalty box" Which is Shaun's office. I'm sure they have no idea why I was yelling and stomping them out the door, While waving this plate up and down in my hand.

What do you think? Are they good dogs for doing this? Or are they bad dogs? I think their both.

The M&M dilemma

For some neighbors and friends. I made some bags filled with pretzels and red and green M&M's. I rolled up a story on pretzels like a scroll and wrapped it all with a red bow. (see post below for pretzel story.)

While I was making the bags. I ran out of M&M's. While I was gone. Shaun went and got more M&M's. He then made up the bags. With scroll and bow. I was impressed. Until I came home and what do I find in the bags? REGULAR colored M&M's. Ahhhhhh! The horror of it! Why would you get regular colored M&M's? When you can find.........festive......red and green M&M's.......everywhere!! Why do men have no festive sense? I'm almost tempted to write a note with the bags that have regular colored M&M's. That would read, "Sorry the M&M's are the regular colored ones. I realize that you can buy the festive, Christmas colored M&M's everywhere. It's Shaun's fault." ;)

The pretzel story

It was only a few weeks before Christmas in 610 A.D. The monastery bakery was preparing for the holidays. Brother Bachman was earnestly kneading bread dough while he watched the village children playing in the snow outside the chapel window. "It's too bad they aren't as interested in coming to church and learning their prayers," he thought.
The growing apathy of the village folks saddened him. "If only there was some way to get them back to the church." Brother Bachman continued to work the dough and ponder his dilemma. As he was finishing up the last loaves of bread, he was suddenly struck with a most original idea. He thoughtfully gathered up the leftover dough and began to form pencil-like strips, which he then twisted into a shape that looked like a child's arms folded in prayer. "Ah! a Pretiola!" he declared, which in Latin meant little reward.
He opened the bakery window and called out to the children. "Come in, come in say your prayers, and I will give you a Pretiola!" It didn't take much convincing. Soon each child had learned a prayer and proudly received a "little reward." Rushing home, the children excitedly told their parents. Word of Brother Bachman's idea soon spread through the village, and children and parents alike visited the chapel to receive a Pretiola.
One child proudly placed his Pretiola on the small church's Christmas tree. Not to be outdone, the others followed. Soon the entire tree was beautifully decorated with this unique symbol of their achievements. The Christmas Prayer Service that year was especially festive and bright. The church was filled with families once again. And as the cheerful voices rose in prayer and song together, Brother Bachman smiled joyfully and thanked the Lord for little rewards.
The Pretiola soon found its way into Germany and Austria. It became a symbol of excellence used to reward worthy accomplishments as the church and youth programs flourished.
Through the centuries, Pretiola became known as "Pretzel" as we know it today, and decorating the Christmas tree with Pretzels became a special family tradition that continues. Thanks to Brother Bachman's bakery inspiration.

Do you Gingerbread?

We were invited over to our friends house to decorate Gingerbread houses. It was a lot of fun. My friend Tori makes all the Gingerbread. We just had to show up with some candy to share with our group of friends. Then have fun decorating.

Shaun couldn't come because he was working with his group on his group project. So I had some of our friends kids helping me. It was really a fun time! I haven't decorated a Gingerbread house in a long time. I'm excited to continue to do this every year.

I didn't have time to finish the house the way I wanted to. I live on Max time, and it was time to take Max home and put him to bed. Otherwise, This house would have been plastered in candy. I love the aroma my house has because of the gingerbread. It makes me smile every time I see it. Thanks to my great neighbors and friends the Brunsons. I love my Gingerbread house!

Zoo lights

Shaun, Max, and I went to see the zoo lights at the Phoenix zoo. Shaun was really disappointed. He thought the animals were going to be out. The only real animals we saw were a camel, zebra, and an otter. We did see a whole bunch of animals lit up through out the park. It was cute. If Max was older. He would really have enjoyed seeing all the animals lit up. It was a fun night out.
Here's some pictures of some of the animals. The pictures aren't the best. Enjoy!

Monkeys in the trees

One of the REAL animals. They were giving camel rides.

I had to put Max in his Zaney Zebra sweat shirt for the occasion. I'm weird like that. I also made his knitted hat. I really enjoy making them for him.

Max was more into dad's hat then the lights.

I love Christmas time.

Max and Santa

Max likes Santa

Especially his beard

Do you notice that Santa is not looking up at the camera. It's because Max has a firm hold of his beard. The minute I sat him on Santa's lap, He went right for the beard. All that big, bushy, curly goodness. Whats not to love? Santa couldn't look up for fear that he might be exposed. That would be really awkward. As there were other kids in line to sit on Santa's lap.

I had to pry Max's fingers from the beard when I went to pick him up. Being careful not to pull the beard off myself. That would be embarrassing.

Max was really cute with Santa. I think Santa appreciated it. He said in a really loud tone, Probably so the rest of the kids in line could hear, "This is a REALLY good boy."

Will be expecting lots of presents under the tree. ;)

Phrase of the week

This past week. I found myself saying, "When will you be coming home?" To Shaun a lot. Shaun has started his Masters program. It's a 3 year program in counseling. This last week Shaun has been working on a group project. He was meeting with his group almost every night. One night he didn't get home until 1:00am. They gave their presentation on Tuesday. I'm glad it's over. And Shaun is really glad it's over. Graduate programs are a lot of work.
I tease him that I might just be his first costumer after all this. I might need some counseling.
I'm really impressed with Shaun and his ability to do all this with such a great attitude. Because as for myself, I'm a stress case. So I would not be handling things as well as he does.
Shaun has been working 50 hours a week plus the immense amount of work for his masters.
And be a husband and father. He does all of this really well. I'm amazed at how well he's been able to juggle all this. Again, If it were me, I would be a mess with stress!
I do love to hear about the things he's learning. It's all really interesting. I think Shaun would be an outstanding counselor. He really is a great listener with a lot of wisdom and empathy. I hope the work doesn't get to be too much. Or be to emotionally draining. Some of the case studies are really had to hear. We defiantly live in a fallen world. But, As Shaun and I like to say, "At least your trying to help and do something to help mend things."
So the phrase of the week is, "When will you be coming home?"

A date with my mate

Shaun and I had a date. Alone. It was awesome! Saturday night, Shaun got a babysitter for Max and we went out. Did I mention it was just the two of us? Alone. We went out to eat and we talked. What did we talk about? Anything and everything.......except......we could not talk about any worries or problems. We were out to have a good time.......together......alone.
We went to Riverview and decided to try out Toby Keith's bar and grill. It had some interesting things on the menu. Fried macaroni and cheese balls and.................Deep fried Twinkies!! It sounded so disgusting to me. Shaun thought he had died and gone to heaven. He once told me he wanted to get a deep fryer. Gross. We laughed. It was fun. About the deep fryer. I told Shaun that Max and I wanted him around for a long time. No deep fryer.
After dinner, We walked around outside. Passing shops and going into some. Holding hands and talking. It was a little chilly, So I ended up holding on to Shaun's arm and snuggling myself close to him. It was nice.
Then we saw a beautiful Clydesdale horse pulling a sleigh with no other then Santa Claus aboard. It made me smile. I loved it. They were giving free rides. The sound of the horse trotting up and down the street and hearing Santa ask the kids riding with him, What they wanted for Christmas. Made me smile even wider. It all invoked such great memories and warmth. I snuggled Shaun even tighter. It was a really great night.
We've decided that no matter what. We have to do this at least once a week. A date with my mate. Alone. (insert BIG smile)

Two peas in a spider man couch

Sometimes you need a best buddy

Sometimes you need a break

(HA, HA, HA, HA, HA)

This is Max with his cousin Thomas on our trip to Utah. They were so cute together. Thomas was so adorable with Max. We had to really watch Thomas when Max was taking a nap or Max would no longer be taking a nap. ;) He wanted to know where baby Max was at all times and he would share his toys and play with him. It was so cute! Thomas was so sad when we left. He couldn't understand why we had to leave.

The closest we're going to get to Ireland

Max and I got the opportunity to watch/play with Ireland. Isn't that such a cute name! She's my niece and Max and I have a lot of fun with her. When I was pregnant with Max and we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. Our girl name was going to be London. We all thought that would be so cute to have an Ireland and a London. But, We're happy to have a MAX. :)
Ireland is soon to be an older sister. Their having a little girl. I told them they should name her London. They really like the name but don't want to take the name from us.
I told them that we don't know when we're going to have another one (since we had to do in-vitro to get Max) and we don't want the name to go to waste. We would love it to go to someone we love already. :) Wouldn't that be cute to have sisters named Ireland and London?
The new babies name is going to be Saylor instead. So we'll hold out for maybe someday getting our very own London. :)

Phrase of the week

So my phrase of the week is falling behind. I might just have to call it phrase of the whenever I can get to it.
Do you recognize the image to the left. It's Goldie Hawn in the movie Overboard. I love this movie! It's a classic.
In the movie Goldie Hawn's charactor yells to her butler, "Andrew, Are you going to bring me a lemon or do I have to squeeze it from my hat?."
So Shaun and I have adopted this phrase.
This week I got in the tub! I use to love the tub and spend hours in it reading. That does not happen anymore. Wonder why?
Anyway, I had to get in the tub because a girls got to shave her legs sometime.
When I got in the tub I started to get really thirsty. I get it quite steaming in there so I won't get razor burn.
I asked Shaun if he could bring me a glass of water.
Time goes by and it looks like Shaun has forgotten my request. So in my best impersonation of Goldie Hawn's character I yelled, "Shaun are you going to bring me some water or do I have to squeeze it from my hat?."
I did get the water and I even got a chuckle from Shaun. :)

In love with the vacuum

Max is in love with the vacuum. He's loved it ever since he was born. It's the funniest thing.

When he was a newborn and he would cry. We would turn on the vacuum and he would instantly stop crying. I think when Max was left with daddy the vacuum got used more for this purpose then it did for actually vacuuming the floor.

I would tease Shaun and tell him I don't want to come home and find Max in his room with the vacuum going at a stand still.

Now when I pull out the vacuum he goes crazy with delight. I mean bouncing up and down and squealing. It's hilarious!! I make sure that I get really close to him with the vacuum to make his day! You should see the excitement on his face! His little body shows it's appreciation by bouncing up and down and throwing his arms and legs every where.

When my sister in law has watched Max. She says she has to turn the vacuum on to get him to eat and to go to sleep! He needs the comfort of the vacuum I guess.

I'm thinking that I might just never tell him that it's really a chore. Is that wrong? For instance, "Max, If you're finished with picking up your toys you can PLAY with the vacuum. It likes to be pushed back and forth in straight lines and it doesn't like to miss any spots." ;)

Max also loves to crawl. He is now in full crawling mode. He likes to get into everything! Who new there was so much to learn, explore, and get into. Even in your own living room. ;)

He also has MORE teeth coming in. He had his bottom two teeth and his top two teeth all come in October. Now he has two more teeth coming in on the top. Teething is NOT fun at our house. They sure look adorable on him though.

PHRASE OF THE WEEK

I decided I would start a PHRASE OF THE WEEK post. Every week I'll post a phrase that Shaun and I use, That comes up during the week.
Shaun and I have a lot of jokes and phrases we use. We seem to always be coming up with new words or phrases.
This week are new phrase is "Mommy Crush." Shaun came up with this one. He says that Max has a Mommy crush. I LOVE IT!! I think it's so cute.
I love that Max has a Mommy Crush. It makes me feel appreciated. :) I love that he gets so excited to see me and wants to be with me. MOMMY CRUSH!! Too funny!! It also seems to work out because I have a baby crush. :)

A service project

This is a picture of my beautiful niece Elle. She was born with a cleft palate. The poor thing has been through a lot in her short life. She has a lot of surgeries ahead of her.

48 hours after she was born she had to have a sleep study done. My sister in law Amy went home to shower and get some much needed rest. When she came back to the hospital (Primary children's medical center in Utah) She found the nurses had bathed baby Elle and put this cute blue bow on her head.

Upon asking about the bow she found out that the bows are donated by a family who was grieving the loss of their little one. This really touched me as it did my sister in law Amy. That little bow had a lot of meaning behind it. She made a request on her blog to help make and donate the bows to the hospital.

I'm all over doing this. If you would like to get together and make the bows with me. I would love that! Especially, because I'm not the best bow maker. :) I could use some help.

I want to come up with an idea for little baby boys too! I'm going to be brain storming. Give me any ideas if you have some. That's my new goal.

You could do this for a church activity or with your family. Then send them to:

Primary Children's Medical Center

Attention: Marie Hendrikson

Salt Lake City, UT 84158-0249

Or you could add some special touches to your own local children's hospital. I love the idea. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling! Let's honor that grieving family and all grieving families who have children born with complications. :)

Even when I had Max and he had to be taken from my room and stay in the nursery because of his jaundice. It broke my heart! It was really emotional for me. I wanted my baby to stay with me. I can't even imagine the pain or heartache some people have to go through with their little precious angels.

Who has some ribbon? Let's get started!

Revenge of the Gallbladder

When I was pregnant with Max. I would get pains in my upper stomach below the breast. Sometimes it would radiate into my back, Or the left side. I thought it was because Max was always kicking me in that area.
After I had Max I continued to have pain. Sometimes I would wake up at night and be in a lot of pain. I really needed to go to the doctor and never did. Sometimes, us moms never seem to take care of ourselves. Please go to the doctor if you're having these kinds pains. Or you could have the terrible experience I had.
Monday night, November 9th at about 10:00pm I started having the most excruciating pain. I couldn't even breath. It was terrible! I told Shaun he needed to take me to the emergency room. You think if your going to be taken to the emergency in this much pain that your going to be helped.
I was wrong! I think I lost faith a little bit in humanity that night. It was an awful experience. Where is the CARE in Health care? They could see I was in so much pain and it was like they were robots. Programed to ask you the questions and then put you to the side until someone can get a moment to see you. I could barely answer the questions. The pain was so INTENSE! The nurse just stared at her computer and said in a rude tone, " I can't hear you." ARE YOU SERIOUS!! The people at the front desk, The nurse, The doctor, All of them thought it was my gallbladder. It still took forever to get the care I needed. Shaun got very heated a couple of times with them. It was awful!! He could see I was in so much pain and no one seemed to CARE.
It took forever for them to finally give me something for the pain. (Morphine and Toradol)
I realize they are dealing with a lot and see a lot of horrible things. I'm still a human bean. We cannot become so desensitized that we lose all compassion.
Even after they did the ultrasound and saw that it was my Gallbladder. They stuck me back in a waiting room, heavily drugged and extremely exhausted. To sit and wait in a chair. NO BED.
They finally gave me a bed to lie down in. Then I had to wait some more. We finally got to go home with a diagnosis of Gallstones. They gave me a prescription for pain meds and told me to follow up with a surgeon to have my gallbladder taken out. We got home at 4:00am.
I just want to forget the whole ordeal. It really was a HORRIBLE experience. The system needs work! AND government wants to take over Health Care? BAD IDEA!!! It would be even worse.
Thank you to Lindsey, Our neighbor, For taking care of Max for the night.
When we called the surgeon. She couldn't see us until next Tuesday. She would be in surgery all week. I ended up calling the doctors office Thursday because the area was still having pain even with the pain medications. The doctor said she would see me in between surgery. Her office called me when she was done with surgery. We hustled down to meet her before she had to go back into surgery. I was so THANKFUL for doctor Butler.
She said the stones were probably blocking the way of the bile and it's really inflamed. She said she would see if she could schedule to take it out the next day! When she got back to the hospital she would look up my ultrasound and give me a call if she could take my Gallbladder out.
She called us back and we were scheduled for surgery at 11:00am the next day! We needed to be at the hospital at 9:00am. I'm so thankful we were able to schedule the surgery so soon. I needed to get back to normal and take care of Max. No more revenge of the Gallbladder.
When I came out of surgery I felt really good. I felt better then I've ever felt coming out of surgery. I've been recovering. Thanks to pain meds. Which I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with. I'm now fine with out them. I hate recovering. I'm not a patient person about it.
I love feeling back to normal.

***When I was in the emergency room in the worst pain. A guy comes in and wants to have his cast taken off his leg. He travels around and it was time for it to be taken off. That's part of the problem! You don't go to the emergency room for something as stupid as that!! I was beyond annoyed about it!***

The BIGGEST loser

I'm the BIGGEST loser! I hope. Why would I possibly want to be the BIGGEST loser? Because I'm in a competition with some friends to see who can lose the most weight.
This is the push I need to get myself healthier and in shape. There is 7 of us in the competition. We started the competition Monday, November 9th. We weighed in on a wii fit and will continue to weigh in each week on Monday. The competition will last 13 weeks. It's based on the % of weight losed.
I'm so excited to get going! Because of my Gallbladder I haven't been able to get out and work out. The first week I lost 3.3 pounds. Awesome! Tomorrow we weigh in and I'm afraid I didn't do so well because I was down from the surgery. I'm so excited to get into a work out routine tomorrow! It's going to be hard through the holidays. I love the sweets! My middle name should be Chocolate. Wish me luck!!

Oh Yeah Ladies!

Let me just set the tone for you. Imagine Ferris Buellers day off. The song with the Ferrari scene. "Oh Yeah.........Beautiful............chick-a, chick-a."

For Halloween Shaun was not just any 80's dude. He was his brother Thom in the 80's. Thom had a really RAD mullet. Looked just like this.

80's Thom with future Thom

Future Thom taking it back to the future.

Mom, Can I have one??

Let's take this for a ride.

The witch

Woo hoo Witchy women.

HALLOWEEN FUN

MoNsTeR Cupcakes

These were really fun to make! Thanks Amy for the fun idea. You can get creative and make your own with whatever candy you think would make a great monster face.

My little Trick or Treater

Chocolate GHOST suckers

You can use Almond Bark or white chocolate chips. All you do is melt the chocolate. Add some vegetable oil to the chocolate so you can spread the chocolate easier.

Spoon out a ghost shape onto parchment paper. Add sucker stick, Then cover with more chocolate so it holds better. Make some eyes. I used red hots. Put in the fridge until hard.

PUMPKIN time

Cleaning out the guts





I carved a detail into the pumpkin. It looked really cool in the dark. I couldn't get a good picture with my flash on my camera. It was the first time I had done a design. Their really fun to do. I recommend that you get the really good carving tools. Not the crap cheap ones.

Pumpkin seeds

I roasted the pumpkin seeds in the oven. I just coated them with olive oil and salt. Shaun and I enjoyed them. Does anyone know of a good way to separate the seeds from the guts? That is a pain. I put all the guts and seeds in the sink with very cold water. The seeds are supposed to float to the top so you can scoop them up better. They did float to the top, But so did a lot of the guts. It took a long time to pick out the seeds.




Halloween block party

We had a Halloween block party at our house. We started at 8:00pm. We had soup, snacks, treats, and fun SPOOKY music. Thanks to all that participated! It was a fun Halloween/October.