First Trip to the Farm

We took Natalie and Max to Grandpa Mike's farm outside of Pretty Prairie for the first time on Saturday. Natalie enjoyed seeing the cows, watching her cousins fish, and just being outside while Max enjoyed napping.

Max's Baptism

Max is officially Catholic now! He joined the church this morning in a beautiful baptism ceremony. He slept through the whole thing - even when Father poured water over his head. We had a great party with our family at our house after the ceremony. Max is so blessed to have so many loving and supportive people in his life.

Happy National Last Day of School Day

According to Sonic today is National Last Day of School Day. Sonic is celebrating by offering $0.50 corn dogs, and our family is not one to pass up Sonic deals. We ate our celebratory corn dogs, fries, and tots on the patio while Chris was home for lunch, but, as expected, Natalie did more sliding than she did eating.

"Park! Park!"

When Natalie woke up this morning, I asked her if she wanted to go to the park. She responded by excitedly running all over the house saying "park! park!" The plan was to go early and leave before it got too hot, but we ended up staying all morning and then swinging at our house for an hour this afternoon. The heat can't keep this girl inside.

One Month

Max is one month old today!

Where did the month go? I know it's so cliche to say that the time has flown by, but it really has. Max is such a laid-back, easy-going baby that taking care of him this month has been (dare I say?) easy. He has a really sweet personality that I can't wait to know more about as the months go on.

At one month old Max:

• unofficially weighs around 12.5 pounds.
• tolerates Natalie's pokes, pats, hugs, and kisses fairly well.
• loves to nap in the Moby wrap. 
• grunts in his sleep.
• has nestled right into our family to fill the void that we didn't even know was there.

A First

Max took a short nap in his crib for the first time today.

Natalie didn't sleep in her crib until she was five months old.

Let the sibling comparisons begin.

Little Gardeners

Natalie really likes to help Chris in the yard - mostly because her friend Sadie is usually outside helping her dad across the street. When they're both outside at the same time, they get to give each other hugs, which absolutely makes Natalie's day. 

Max finds it all a little boring.

Little Wooden Crib

This little wooden crib has seen a lot of love. Three generations of love to be exact. It was my dad's, then mine, then Erica's, then Natalie's, and now it is Max's. I don't have a picture of my dad in it, but here is everyone else.

Sand

Natalie's new love is sand. We played with Mary at the park yesterday morning, and Natalie spent most of the time playing with Mary's sand toys. We went to Wal-Mart yesterday afternoon, and now Natalie has sand toys of her own. They were the highlight of our trip to the park today.

New Swings

Natalie and Max got a new swing set today! Natalie swam in her "outside bath" while Chris put it together, and then our neighbor friend Sadie came over to help test it out.

Happy May Day!

I considered making May baskets with the kids for about five seconds this morning. Then I snapped out of it and realized that I would be the only one who understood what was going on and that I would have to deliver baskets and run away while carrying two babies. Maybe next year.

Instead, we celebrated May Day with our first trip to the store sans Chris.

And we survived!

Max was there too, just unavailable for the picture as he was attached to me via the Moby wrap.

My heart melted a little each time I looked in my rear view mirror. What a precious view.

(Natalie is singing even though it looks like she's crying.)

And two more pictures very much unrelated to the topics of May Day and grocery shopping. Natalie loves her genius shirt, and now Max has one too. I had to get a picture of him in it while I could still sort of squeeze all 11 pounds of him in to it. Here they are - our little geniuses.