tids and bits from indiana

so remember when we left town for 3 weeks traveling what seemed like everywhere to go visit family?

well how about we talk about that.

so first stop was indiana to visit casey's brother's family and be there for his dental school graduation!

as always, we have the best time with them.

played games,

had yummy food all the time,

watched the children play,
played games,
and celebrated with cody in graduating from dental school!

just had a grand time together.

and this time the grandparents visited at the end of the week too!

it was so fun to them in their element of being solely grandparents without the cares of jobs, callings, and real life to deal with.

the main reason we went:
GRADUATION!
their 4 years went by so quick and it gave casey a glimpse into the future.
we're so happy cody (and camille) made it :)
apparently jaden was too...



maxson learned how to sit up while we were there and i was one proud momma.
seeing your baby learn these new things is just the best.
it felt like he just started doing it one day by himself,
all in an instant!
no falls or anything.
(the first picture was maxson and casey during the graduation ceremony, i thought it was funny)


grammy is just the funnest, she got out there with jaden (3) and played their own very intense game of baseball.
the rest of us adults couldn't help but join in on the fun.

when cody and casey are with their father, i think it's just a riot.
add in our 3 hooligans and it's even better


we got to have a mini celebration of miss brielle's one year birthday!
she is just a little sweetie pie.
by the end she was finally comfortable with both casey and myself and would crawl over to our legs to hold her, made my heart melt!
and as i mentioned in another post, she too began taking her first steps while we were there,
so fun to see


more of these 3 cuties


and more of grammy playing with the littles,
she rocks


so glad we made the trek,
thanks for having us, cutlers!

and i forewarn you, there'll probably be a phone picture post from this trip too, since i haven't downloaded that yet

this (messy) face kills me.

that's it :)

throwback thursday

so i've never done the throwback thursday pictures on instagram,

BUT it just so happens that today is thursday and i finally have pictures gathered to compare maxson to cute baby casey/kimber!

the majority of people who meet maxson immediately rave at how much he looks like casey.
always.
i have yet to hear once that he looks like me
(i take that back, they FIRST say how much he looks like casey and then follow up with a "but i can see the woodruff side in him too!)
but i don't mind at all, i think it's true.
max // casey

max // kimber

max // kimber

casey // max

although everyone says maxson is the spitting image of casey, which i totally agree, i was so surprised (and happy) to see that maxson DOES resemble pictures of me as a baby as well!
it's not as fair comparing casey's baby pics to maxson's because casey was one large baby
example:
maxson at 2 months: 12# 2 oz
casey at 2 months: 15 # 2 oz
....
but i think the older (and chunkier) maxson gets, the more pictures of little casey and max will resemble each other.
even until then, in person, maxson looks just like his daddy.

other things to note:
it has been mentioned quite a few times that when casey was a baby, he too was very difficult to get smiles from.
like father like son...

fun in the sun

we pretty much got in the pool everyday here.

we loved it.

casey was the fun parent getting in all the way, splashing around with everyone.

i was the boring mom making sure max was covered in sunscreen and a hat and not too cold and not in the sun for too long.

i'm so funnnnnnnnnnnn.

but really, maxson loved it too (except on the 2 days where it was a little chiller [note: slight breeze and 93 degrees instead of 100...] he would make large grunting noises the entire time:)
one of my brothers came over with his family a few different days which added to the fun :)

here's the plethora of pictures we took over the week of swimming, because a baby's first swim cannot be overrated!
yeah, and i totally forgot the whole swim suit for maxson part...swim diaper it was!!!
it's charlie banana.

other notes:
-my parent's pool is awesome.
it was built as a pool for handicap access so there's a whole ramp that goes down the side of it,
it will be sooooo awesome for the kids!
-funny the difference a few degrees in the weather will make for swimming.
-sunscreen has to be one of my most favorite smells in the whole world.
-children make swimming so much more fun
-maxson is pool lover, i think the future brings fun things for us in there :)

still gone

did you know we're in arizona visiting more family?

yep.

and swimming everyday!

THE BEARD

we have reached the end of an era.

actually we've reached the end of the 3 months time that casey said he was going to grow out his beard.

the first 2 months were really fun for us both, just a fun change.

the third month took quite a long time for us, i'd say.
my favorite months of beard growth were the 5th and 6th picture, roughly the 5th and 6th weeks.
it was funny looking at casey during dinner and seeing all this food in his beard,
i think he was pretty tired of it.
i asked him to use conditioner and shampoo on his beard once to see if it would make it softer, it didn't.
we took a picture about once a week and it's fun to look at the growth (and to see how much maxson has grown!)!!!!

and of course, we had to cut it off in stages.
man, looking at that first picture, he looks almost homeless, ha!
the second picture is quite handsomely-rugged-looking in my book that i really like.
a few friends/family members were just certain casey should keep the foo-man-shoo mustache for at least a few days...
YUCK!
and on the regular mustache, all he needs is a red hat to be mario!

after casey had fully shaved off his beard, it definitely took maxson a little while to know who casey was again.
he wasn't just throwing out his smiles easily like he did before for casey.
it took a good 15 minutes of mostly blank stares at casey while he was pulling out all the tricks from the bag to get him to smile.
maxson finally realized who he was though i think :)

it's still taking me a little while to get used to his baby face.
it just looks so different!!!!!
it's been 3 months since i've seen that clean face so it's a surprise to have it back!

happy mother's day!

happy mother's day!

to my wonderful mother and casey's wonderful mother.

the 2 greatest women to influence our lives.

we love love love you both!


we're lucky enough to spend the day before mother's day with casey's mum
and the day after with my mum.
the love they have given to us is always infinite,
and now that i'm a mother, their love means so much more and i am now so much more aware of their sacrifice.
there truly have been so many other wonderful mothers in our lives that have influenced us,
and today we thank and honor them!

and now because of our little maxson, i've been given the greatest gift of being called a mother too.
there's is nothing, nothing i would rather be doing in my life,
it truly is the greatest calling.


my SIL shared this video with me and i want to share it with you!
do enjoy and happy mother's day!!!!

what we're doing.

playing with cousins in indiana!

and celebrating little brielle's 1st birthday!
(see more pics i took of her on my SIL's blog!)

saturday plans:
dental school graduation ceremony!
(for casey's brother:)

ps- 2 of the babies hit some pretty big milestones on friday:
we've got a baby sitting up by himself and a little 1 year old taking her first steps!

banana, sweet potato, carrots, and peaches.

so right there around 5 months,

we decided little maxson was ready to try a few solids here and there!

we started with just a few spoonfuls of rice cereal, he wasn't too enthralled with it.

but a few days later while i was eating a banana he kept grabbing at it,

trying to put it in his mouth (like he does with everything else:)

at first i pulled the banana further from him,

but then i thought "wait, i kinda want him to eat solids"

so after he stuck the banana peel in his mouth and sucked on it for a few seconds i thought,

heck, why not!

i broke a piece off my banana,

mashed it up nice and good,

plopped maxson in the bumbo,

put a bib on and we went for it!

he practically loved from the get go.

it was fun feeding him the exact food i was eating myself.

i just really liked it.

i'd love to make my own baby food but i'm just not sure it's in the cards for us, we'll see.

since then i've introduce a new something every few days.

he didn't blink twice at sweet potato or carrot (well actually he'd make a sour face at first like "what's this?" with the first 2 bites but then he was fine after that)

we just tried peaches though and he wasn't as thoroughly entertained.

took him quite a few spoonfuls to enjoy it.
i have to hold both his hands with mine while i feed him unless i want his fingers all up on the spoon and in his mouth getting nice and messy,
that's pretty cute.

solids are a fun new adventure, for sure.

but it's also kinda a hassle, ha!

it (already) takes a bunch of time,

his mouth is quite the moving target,

he we both get all messy in the end,

i have to remember to actually feed him stuff other than just nursing,

and did i say it take a bit of time?

but it's fun and we all are loving it :)