to be home

this week i am in arizona and so happy. i have 3 homes in fact, one in lincoln, one in provo, and one in arizona. so yes, i am home and i am happy. my parents have actually moved a couple times since i went off to college but every house they move to seems like home still, it's the same stuff, but more importantly the same people that make it oh so wonderful. i am so very blessed to have such incredible parents. they love me endlessly despite my shortcomings. they are so supportive of all my decisions. they amok life fun. i am so very lucky to have them for my mom and dad.

maxson is loving all the attention too. they dote on him showing him new and exciting things constantly. they help calm his tears and make him as comfortable as possible. they are dreamy grandparents.

despite the awful nasty cold maxson brought with him and has shared with a couple of us, we are having a most wonderful time. each day has brought a different adventure of activities. the most important being the warmth of the sun. i admit, i've complained just a little during the days of saying "oh my goodness, it's so hot, how do you guys live here?" and it was only 95 out. in my defense i've been living in 0-30 temperatures all winter, my blood is not used to this. but beyond the middle of the day hotness, oh boy does the temperature in the mornings and evenings make up for it. just sitting on the porch all evening and morning in such comfortable weather is a dream. my parents do have a long covered porch which makes it even nicer, but still, the weather is just great.

a plentiful supply of cousins isn't so bad either. these sweet kids make max feel like an even bigger deal when he comes to town which makes my heart swell. before we had max and we came to visit the kids would run in yelling "casey and kimber!!!!!" now it's "kimber! where's max?" they go up to him and give him big hugs, and kisses, take him by the hand to show him all the fun toys he's never seen before. oh it is just so wonderful to be surrounded by instant friends and loved ones. max loves when they're around, he just follows them wherever they go.

it's a different lifestyle of having family around. with friends in lincoln, we see them all the time, and if we don't see them all the time we know we will soon enough, so we just say a casual goodbye. but with family around you feel compelled to give hugs and kisses when you say goodbye, even if you'll be seeing them later that night or tomorrow. it's definitely something maxson is not used to, not used to as in when we say give x a hug or kiss he just doesn't really know what to do. he's actually pretty good with hugs when it comes to adults, but just stands there with kids, ha. it's adorable watching him learn.

i must end here. my mom has a big balloon job i'll be helping her at. pictures later my friends.

maxson of lately

maxson is so busy. oh man that is one growing boy. oh boy he loves to make messes, in his mind anything is fair game that is reachable to him on counter tops: bags of cereal, chips, crackers, rice (that he'll dump out), a stick of butter (that's he'll smear everywhere), a jar of vaseline (that he'll put all over his face), the box of tissues (that he'll pull them all out and start tearing them apart), the bag of apples on the counter (that he'll think are balls and throw [hard] at you[r face]), your half finished bowl of cereal (that will fall all over the floor, and he'll begin playing in the milk), any pens/markers/pencils (that he'll suck on or draw on the floor with), and the list goes on… haha. it's amazing how terrifying sounds can be. one freak out one is when he gets a hold of the large unopened bag of m&m's and starts trying to find an opening. it doesn't matter what room you're in, that bag always sounds like it's open and it's a terrifying sound.

there's tons of hilariously cute small things he does all day long that i think "i should write that down." but getting out my computer means maxson wants to be on the computer which doesn't go down so hot. he's obsessed with phones, obsessed. unhealthily obsessed to the point that he is not ever allowed to play with either of our phones ever, ha. he loves to make his car sound to anything that has wheels. he says mama, dada, papa, ball (ba), and shoes (szzhoozz). he's doing great at pointing to a bunch of body parts, his (our) favorite lately is "where's your lips?" and he puffs them out in an exaggerated kiss face and then we make him give us kisses. it's pretty much our favorite.

he's more of a cuddler than i give him credit for. before naps he always melts into me, after naps the same thing. and that at random points in the day i can get him to just lounge on me/cuddle into me while i sing him songs. whenever we ask him questions he always nods his head ya to them. his "ya" always sounds different though, ha.

timeout is kind of hilariously cute. he's begun hitting us (not so cute). that along with any other behavior we want him to stop, we firmly say "no, we don't do x, go to timeout" he promptly walks over to the corner by the door, sticks his nose in the corner and we count to 10, and he actually stays there until 10, ha! is he truly learning anything from timeouts? i'm not really sure yet. it does take him out of the situation and let's us talk to him with eye contact afterwards, but it's not like he protests going, he willingly goes right away (there's been a few times he's not done that but you get what i mean).

sleep is getting more stable he might wake up in the middle of the night 2 of the 7 nights of a week. we go into comfort him for  second and he goes back down pretty easy. he sleeps 10 1/2-11 hours a night. naps are hit and miss. sometimes they're 45 minutes (like right now when i'm actually taking time to blog, grrr), or sometimes 2 hours. how he does for both nap time and night time sleep doesn't really effect the others quality oddly enough. he's always a gem to put down for any kind of sleep though, doesn't care a lick.

i just love that little boy so stinking much. he makes my heart burst with happiness!

picturas de iFono round 1

a. a pots and pans mess
b. thrilled to learn how hot pads work
c. he sat with the hot pads like this for at least 5 minutes
d. wondering where granny went after our FaceTime was cut short

a. putting cheerios down the vent
b. climbing to get to things we try to keep away from him
c. just driving the car
d. a happy site to see after errands

a. b. c. general conference my little wonderful family. max slept on me during all of one session, the first hour of that was great. the second hour of that got a little tiring ha. but gotta appreciate it while it lasts!
d. more mischievous climbing

a. maxson and i did a 5k run with our stake. he did great, i about dies on the other hand
b. post race, very happy to be holding the bag of cereal
c. more adorable faces
d. time-out

a. astronomy for scouts! maxson joined us this night
b. more scouts, playing pit for scouts, the silent bidding version
c. d. found a bag of tia rosas chips at the store, they were pretty great! maxson was very possessive over the salsa, haha. he's quite the double dipper offender but he dips that chip for tons of salsa and eats it straight up, amazing!

a. b. went to the university of lincoln's baseball game. it was utterly freezing and we were rushed back because of max but it was such a fun evening together holding hands, cuddling, laughing, sipping hot chocolate, i loved it so very much.
c. smoothie sharing
d. the BYU women's basketball team came to lincoln during the NCAA tournament, and we had to go to support! it was such a joy finally seeing lots of other BYU shirt everywhere, it was like family everywhere for me! and we were right by the band singing along with all the chants, cheers, and fight songs. they did amazing the first half, second half not so much, but again, such a blast to be out with this man of mine.

a. b. c. parking it with my favorite park boy
d. climbing to terrorize mummy

a. jaden, from back in indiana
b. at a restaurant maxson was obsessed with the cheese sauce. it was equal parts nasty and hilarious
c. saying goodbye in indiana
d. maxson loved the leprechaun beard

a. oh the irony. not my child
b. max loves pushing people if there on wheels
c. worn out
d. little maxine

a. park with friends
b. going on to bigger and scarier things
c. d. cuddles

a. church time cuddle baby, he's so good at falling asleep on casey at church
b. post church with my glittery "reverent glasses" for sharing time that max broke that week
c. we read this book A LOT. i'm so totally sick of it, ha
d. more post church

a. getting excited for summer 2014 over here! i have a feeling this boy will be a little FISH!

and non related to iPhone pictures, Friday night there was a big BBQ birthday party in our backyard for a couple people with TONS of our friends, it was such a blast.
we took this picture after a couple families had already left sadly, but you get the idea. such a QUALITY group of women i'm surrounded by.
and it was such a fun evening to just be with everyone.

easter eggs

this afternoon we went out to our picnic table and dyed some easter eggs!
oh boy was it a mess, haha.
my camera died after 2 minutes but luckily we had our trusty iPhone.
maxson loved dipping the eggs in the colors but he also loved smashing them, haha.
we had lots of smashed eggs.
and his little shirt got dye on it, should have just taken it off.
but it was still really fun and i'm glad to keep traditions going!

a little video

remember last month when we went to indiana?

well we went to the children's museum and had a blast.

here's a little video i made of our day there.

it is to be noted that sometimes i have blinders on when it comes to pictures/videos when my child is around.

my SIL and her two sweet kids were there the whole time, the 4 year old was so fast and uninterested in 1 year old activities i didn't get him in a single video :( and the almost 2 year old is in only a couple videos because our kids were constantly running different directions. i don't know how moms go and bring 4 kids, how do you watch them all!?

nothing fancy, but we had fun :)

go here if you can't watch the video on the blog

life lately

a few recent pictures prior to our indiana trip!

there was a sunday evening a few weeks ago that was so warm and beautiful, it was definitely that glimpse of glorious spring/summer.
a bunch of the neighbors on the street met in the backyard where the kids played, husbands played corn hole, and wives chatted, it was wonderful. funny how the kids have changed so much though, last year they were crawling around on blankets and this year they're all literally running all over the place!
come back warm weather!

friends eat (green) pancakes together

this is definitely one of my most favorite pictures in a long time, he fell into the drum and got stuck, he wasn't too happy

maxson insists we read where the wild things to him 20 times a day, and i mean, like, 6 times in a row too. this week i hid the book on top of the bookshelf, ha i needed a break from it

helping dad study while begging for chips. do you see how tall he is?


sometimes max gets super upset when 1 parent leaves without him, funny boy

he was watching videos of himself on the computer and loving it

easter is coming!

easter is such a special holiday to me for so many reasons but mainly for the purpose of celebrating the miraculous resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ!

because of Him, I know we will all be resurrected again and live with our families forever.

what an amazing feat that is.

i hope that we can all remember the events this week leading up to easter.

ps- arizona friends, go see the easter pageant for me, you won't regret it!

winter, tears, and hugs

the other day i had a meltdown. i am done with winter. DONE. it's kinda killed a little piece of my soul this year, i think my mistake was not taking a trip to arizona in march, after that many months of winter my soul needs to be outside in the warmth. no warmth coupled with an active toddler, a small house, and very few indoor places to retreat to has done a number on me. don't worry i don't have depression and i've survived the winter and i've still gotten together with friends, i'm just so over the winter season. 

so as i was on the floor like a blubbering bafoon crying my complaints out to casey, i saw maxson just stand there in the middle of the room staring at me, he was so confused at what i was doing. he slowly kept inching toward me, not taking his eyes off me. soon enough he was standing right in front me looking straight into my eyes with a kind of questionable face. he then slowly came into my lap and put his arms around my neck and held me/let me hold him while i cried, he pulled away and began touching the tears running down my face, this was all so new to him. he was so still anad calm and cuddly, so unlike middle of the day maxson. i think he sensed what to do since i had done the same to him so many times over the past 16 months. 

it was a really sweet moment, sure i was temporarily unhappy with my situation, but it was just so sweet how maxson reacted to my sad moment. it made me go from feeling like a -2 to a 4. man i love that mr maxson of mine. (i can't forget casey in this situation though, maxson soothed my physical-emotional needs at the moment but casey soothed my mental-emotional needs. that man sure gets me through everything, he's the best husband.)

ON A MUCH HAPPIER NOTE. this weekend is general conference, it's been wonderful thus far!  2 times a year the prophet of the lord speaks to us and it's just so incredibly uplifting. watch with us on sunday at 10 am/2 pm MST, you can watch it live on lds.org!

our spring break in indiana

for supposedly the last year this was our last opportunity to visit indiana! we do love visiting family and this trip did no disappoint. the adventurous casey persisted through my grumblings of not wanting to drive 11 hours with maxson and took us to indiana anyways. i'm so glad casey loves to travel because trips are always worth awful drive in the end.

parked it with the family which was stupendous

played don't eat pete, maxson cracked us up with how he caught on

st. patrick's day! camille is so great at making lots of green things. we had the most scrumptious green lime cake, green chicken lemon garlic pasta, green mini german pancakes (some were green). most the kids did not like all the food colored green, ha. funniest part is that we colored the milk green and when i gave it to max he expected it to taste yummy (like from strawberry/chocolate milk mix), he wasn't happy that it didn't have a new fun taste, ha.

camille and her kiddos in their green

littles making messes

one day we went to the children's museum in indiana which was quite spectacular, it was like a mini amusement park! there was so much fun for the kids, max loved exploring it all

chalk and bikes outside

i helped camille make new pillow covers, they turned out sober cute. this is my 4th set of pillow coverings i've done, they're so fun.

and that is some of our trip!
we're so lucky to have such good friends in our family members, i know maxson loved being around other children 24/7. he slept absolutely awful while there but has recovered since.
boy oh boy we love our family!!!