The Circus

So we usually do a family activity for everyone's birthdays. With our 3 birthdays in 10 days, that means 3 weeks of fun!! So we went to the circus for Max's b-day. It wasn't the Ringling Brothers or anything, but it was way fun! We had 1 free adult ticket and free kid tickets. Just had to buy one adult ticket. That meant we all got in for $16!! A steal! We got there early and got front row seats, it was awesome. I thought the kids would love the tigers and lions at the beginning, but they thought that part was boring. Their favorite was the motorcyles in the round-globe cage... Death-defying!! And Sophie liked the trapize artist. Rich's fav was the blue and pink poodles!! Very cute. Because we got in for so cheap we splurged and all got treats!! But I still didn't splurge for the $10/kid elephant ride. Come on, they only walk around the circle twice... The night was a sucess. And on the way out to the car Pete and RIch were ahead and Max was calling out the whole way, over and over "Peter!! Or really it was more like "Dee-duh" with his hands almost covering his mouth like he was trying to cup his mouth to make his voice louder.

Maxwell Smurf Turns Two

It was a Smurf-tastic birthday!!

Max liked blowing out his candles on his smurfday cake!



He WANTED to sit by his smurfs that he smurfed with all day long for a posed picture. That never smurfs. He usually hates to smurf his picture taken and never co-operates!





Mmm! Smurfday breakfast!

The Smurftacular Smurf Cake for our 2 year old!

What started out being a cute circus cake ended up being a smurf cake. How it happened? Well, I was at the store looking for little circus animals to put on the cake and ended up finding this awesome set of smurfs!! Not to mention my cake rose funny into a mushroom top, perfect for a mushroom house that smurfs live in!!! So ta-da!! And with a Smurf DVD to top it off, our kids have now been introduced to one of our childhood memories of Saturday cartoons. It has been really fun to watch these cartoons with the kids today. Nothing like classic cartoons. I was afraid that Max wouldn't like the smurf toys, but it is just the opposite. He LOVES them and won't share them with anyone! Much to Peter's dismay... Fun birthday surprise!

Smurfing the cake before it is cut!!!

I can't believe my little boy is two years old already! Time certianly has flown by since the day he was born. I cannot imagine our family without Maxwell. In all respects. He is so funny and independent (that means he is stubborn!!!) and he knows what he wants, even when we don't. I have recently taken him to a speech therapist to help with his speech development. It turns out he is at a 16 month level of speaking. I was told to continue encouraging sign language as much as possible to help ease the frustration Max has with communication. He enjoys the signs and the fact that I finally know what he wants without having to say "do you want THIS... do you want THIS... do you want THIS... do you want THIS..........." He has some funny habits, like the way he turns the binki in his mouth when he is upset like he is thinking that turning it will help him calm down. Or the way he trades one binki out for the other, different flavors?? He also likes to wave night night to all the pictures in his house before a nap. He loves toothbrushes - all of them. So we have to keep the other kids put up, or he will use them all. Max loves to read. He LOVES Cars (from the Disney Movie), and its his favorite show. He always asks for it, especially when he is crying. We lost it once for 10 days. Bad days. He is our only kid to LOVE milk. Strawberry milk that is. We tried to think of his favorite meal to have for dinner and couldn't come up with anything. He doesn't really like dinner and never eats much on his plate. He loves to go over to Grandma and Granpa's all the time to get a sucker. He loves suckers, and all candy. Max is tender too. He is a good big brother and likes to share his binki with Gavin. He can now throw diapers away in the garbage! And loves to help. I love it when he sees me wiping off the table or something and he goes to find another cloth out of the drawer and comes over to help. He likes to be clean, even though he isn't most of the time (blame candy and treats for that). He gets so sad when the big kids go out and he can't go with them. He thinks he's as big as they are. Max is awesome. We all love him. He has been a delight to have in our family and we count him among our highest of blessings. It is fun to watch him learn and grow and we look forward to a life full of surprises with Maxwell.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAX

My Blog Book - With Pictures

There is a site. http://www.blurb.com/ where you can take your blog and turn it into a book. Love it! I used it and made one for my blog from 2007. It was actually ready for publishing about a year ago, but it took me that long to actually get it done. It is awesome. Better than a scrapbook. I LOVE MY BLOG BOOK!!! So reasonably priced when comparing it to a regular scrapbook too. And way faster, not to mention professional. So I got it on my birthday too, what a bonus! I recommend it to anyone. Make your blog come to life!!!

Random Pictures

I couldn't find my camera anywhere in the house as we were leaving for my birthday adventure. Thank goodness my mother in law was around for the rescue. She let me borrow hers for the birthday snaps. As I was downloading them I did something wrong and I got ALL of her pictures off of her camera. Looking through them all, there were some that I wanted after all. So here you go.

Grandma and Grandpa on their trip to D.C.

Visiting Kaylee,Allison and Justin in the fall.

The nativity we missed down at Kim's last Christmas. We accidently had all the costumes and they had to improvise with kitchen towels and dress-ups! I love baby Macie and the tinkerbell wings for the angel...

Grandma holding baby Shelby on her blessing day.

Brothers!!! Matt, Rich, Steve and Aaron. At Macie's blessing.

Mmm Mmm Good

I didn't think I would get a birthday cake this year, so I requested chocolate covered strawberries. When it turned out I did get a yummy cake after all I was happy, but not willing to give up on the strawberries. Even though the strawberries cost $3.98/pound and we got 2 pounds! So tonight after dinner we had fun dipping, licking and eating out chocolate and strawberries. Rich wanted coconut on his too and then the kids wanted sprinkles too. It was really fun. I love it when my birthday fun lasts and lasts.

Twenty Five Weeks Old

Yesterday for my birthday Gavin decided to grow a tooth! Bottom front. I couldn't believe it! I was so excited. It's earlier than my other kids if I remember right. The best part about it is that it was a complete surprise. He didn't go through the normal teething process that my other boys have gone through. No fever, runny nose, crying, fussiness, sleepless nights, or any other problems. It just appeared. I loved it. So cross your fingers that all his other teeth will come in in the same way. He is such a happy baby!

Sunday Fun

We have afternoon church this year. Meaning we don't start until 2:30pm!!! Hard in a lot of ways, fun in others. The kids have all morning to just hang out together. Right now that is a fun thing because they are in a getting-along span of fun. It doesn't happen all the time, but for the last few days that have been really great friends and I love to see that. So I made them get dresses this morning and then let them free. They found me a little while later to show me their creation. They found almost all of their stuffies and blankies and piled them into Max's crib. They were so proud of it all and hung out in there for a little while. When it was time to get out Sophie crawled over the side and then helped Max out (love that she is big enough to do that) and then Peter called to me for help... He still can't crawl in and out of a crib at 4 1/2 yrs old... Anyway, this was a fun morning. I love when the kids just play.

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

The big 2-9

I am another year older and another year wiser now. What a great day it was today. First of all it was Saturday so there was nothing to interrupt the birthday fun. We planned to make a whole day of it and that is just what we did. After sleeping in we opened presents and ate pancakes. Finally we got ready to go. The plan was to take the train to Salt Lake and then Trax up to Rodizio's for lunch. I was a little worried when we had to wait 1/2 hour for the train in the pouring rain to start out on our adventure. Max's little hands were so red from the cold... But it didn't even dent our day of fun. The kids LOVED the train. They could walk around, go upstairs, change seats and everything. Instead of being strapped down in the car seats. They loved Trax too because it would stop and go so much and they would get pushed around by the constant movement if they were standing by their seats instead of sitting. Lunch was so yummy at one of our favorite restaurants. We even liked walking around downtown too. The weather turned to our favor just in time for our walks. And Gavin did so great considering he was in his car seat for almost the entire 6 hours we were gone today. Max didn't have a nap and still had a happy face all day long. (That always scares me a little when they can go a full day without a nap. Does that mean naps are coming to an end in the near future? I'm so not ready...)

Sophie and Peter had a great time while I was changing the babies in the restroom. It was near the escalator and Rich was out watching them. They would ride it together up to the top and come back down again over and over. Well, almost that easy. Peter would go up and then get stuck because he was afraid to come down. So they'd go up together, then Sophie would come down and Rich would ride up to get Peter and they would come down together. Too funny.

The kids loved all the free time and quality time with mom and dad today. Me too. What a great day.

Thank you all for your emails, comments, phone calls and everything. And I finally got to talk to my mom late tonight. After 5 attempts between the two of us she finally got to sing me birthday wishes just before going to bed. You can't have a birthday without talking to your mom! I love you!

Surprise!!!!

I'd say it's pretty hard to pull the wool over my eyes. Especially for Rich. He is the worst secret keeper. He just can't do it. So tonight when we went over to 'pick up' our friends to go out to dinner and it turned out to be a surprise birthday party for me, I was blown away!!!!! It was so cool. There was dinner that everyone brought pot luck. Foods from different countries. Yum yum. And complete with birthday games. The dress up relay was awesome! And a Maggie Moos birthday cake put it over the top. Mmmm. And I loved that it was just us grown ups. The kiddo's were all with babysitters. I felt so akward and special having a party for me like that. And I really can't believe that it all got pulled off without any suspicion from me. Even when we pulled up to Tawna's house and I saw balloons in the window I was thinking to myself "huh, I guess they had a party..." No clue at all. Even when we were driving there and Rich said "oh no we forgot the camera!" I was surprised that he had thought I may want to take a picture while we were out on our double date. How blonde can I be??? But it was the best evening. Thanks everyone for coming and helping me have a great birthday. Being 29 will be awesome. I can already tell.

PS - thanks Tawna for helping Rich pull this all together in only a couple of days. How did you guys do it? You are such a great friend. Also, when you get a chance, could I snag some of those pictures you took at the party?

Twenty Four Weeks Old

He's reaching new milestones all the time. Rich and I were getting ready to go out and Gavin was on the floor in front of us. And all of a sudden he rolled over from his tummy to his back with no effort at all. I couldn't believe it. Such a big boy.

First Foods

Finally, at more than 5 months old, Gavin gets to taste something more than milk. Rice cereal here we come!! He loved it of course, couldn't get enough of it. My favorite was how he would lunge himself into the spoon to try to get the food faster than we would shovel it... Cute Gavin. Loves the new found way to add calories into his diet. He has taken to solid food like a car takes to the street. Oh so natural!

Twenty Three Weeks Old

Well. The deed is done. Gavin is officially into 12 month size clothes. I emptied out his old and smaller clothes and replaced them with the 12 month clothes. How is that possible that my 5 month old has such a big body??? Just as cute and happy as ever though!

Makin' Bows

I love all the cool bows and ribbons that are out there for little girls to wear now a days. I wish they were around when Sophie was a baby, but I'm glad she is still little enough to wear them. I'm even more glad that I have learned how to make them thanks to my awesome sister in law, Cyndi. Over Christmas she taught all of us gals the tricks of her trade. She makes the cutest bows for her little baby Shelby. So we all tried our hands at it and I loved it! After Christmas was over I even went out and bought and made all the things necessary to be a bow pro like Cyndi. So I'm practicing up. On Sunday Sophie put a dress on and said "Mom I don' t have a bow to match this dress for church today. Will you make me one??" So I pulled out all the stuff and PRESTO!! A new bow. Thanks Cyndi for giving me a new hobby, and a new way to procrastinate... You're the best!

This is a little sample of what I've made so far. Bad lighting in the picture, sorry about that.

Happy New Year

I guess it's actually 2009 now.

Time is seriously flying by. Like how I sat down at the computer an hour ago to check something real quick.
I usually do the same old new years resolutions thing, but haven't had a chance yet. But I did want to say that here are my top ten memories from 2008.

10. Rich and Sophie went to Disney land for her 5th birthday.
9. We started saving tons of money on groceries and are building our food storage using Grocery Smarts!!
8. Rich got another Doctor working in his office. We happened to know them from school, and his wife happens to be my friend and old roommate from Ricks, crazy!!
7. Sophie learned how to ride a bike without training wheels.
6. We went on an overnighter without kids for my birthday last year - that never happens!!
5. We had our first real family vacation (that wasn't visiting family) in Rexburg, ID!! The kids still talk about it!
4. The office celebrated it's 3 year anniversary and it is growing stronger than ever!
3. ALL of the Ford's got together for Christmas this year. 50 people in all!! Rich is #5 of 10 kids.
2. My mom came down as a surprise visit when Gavin was born.
1. Our 4th baby was born in August. Gavin Christopher Hugh Ford. We love our little chunk!


Can't wait for all the new memories we will create in this brand new year!!

I'm BAAAACK...

Well, after a long time absence, I'm back. I can't really explain where I went. I was in the kitchen or laundry room mostly. We had such a crazy 5 weeks worth of company all overlapping. All so worth the hard work. It is bitter sweet living in the hosting house. We get to spend the most time with everyone that comes to town, but it is hard work at the same time trying to organize and keep everything clean and orderly. Thank you to everyone that came and stayed and helped so much in every way to help it all run so smoothly. We love you all! I went back and back blogged for the last month. So take a small peak at what we've done...

Conversations at Breakfast

I was sitting on the couch feeding the baby and this is what I overheard...



Rich - We need to save some for mommy. Are you agreeing?



Peter - I'm not wearing all green, I'm wearing blue dad!





Sophie - Yesterday was Monday and I had P.E.



Peter - P.E. T - E - R. Peter!



Am I the only one that thinks this is funny!

Twenty Two Weeks Old

After only a few short nights of being back in his own bed I am proud to say that Gavin is back up to his old tricks of sleeping through the night again. At least 12 hour stretches. That means mommy sleeps well too. Ahhh...