A busy, fun weekend

On Friday night we had friends and their two boys over for dinner. Their older boy is also named Max, so both boys kept turning when a parent called. We posed Max (aka Buzz) with Porter and our Max with Ben.

I'm realizing that Ben hangs out in his jammies a lot. I think we used to do it to keep him warm; now I think it's a comfort thing. It's also hard to get a lot of people dressed every day!

On Saturday we went to Idaho for JB's sister Sarah and her new husband Joe's open house. On the way we stopped at the Burger Bar in Roy, soon-to-be featured on the Food Network. It's famous for the Big Ben Burger, so we took a picture with our Big Ben.

Apparently I got sunburned because at church on Sunday people kept commenting on the back of my neck. We had fun at the Burley Stake Center, where Max thought the area under the stage was his new house.

Later all he and cousin Emily wanted to do were eat chocolates on the stage with their Aunt Suzanne. They were like baby birds in a nest with mouths wide open.

Ben loved hanging out high up.Look at this big smile even though he just spit up all over his shirt and my dress.

I didn't get to mingle much with any body there though. It seems once you have children you spend most of the time keeping them clean, occupied, quiet and safe when you go anywhere. But we had a really nice time.

Sleep is a changin'

Forgive me if I sound sleepy these days. Max is now in a toddler bed, and Ben is in the crib. You would think Max was the one having a hard time adjusting. Actually, so far he's been great -- it's Ben having trouble! Apparently he liked being crammed in that cozy bassinet. The crib is more spacious and I think it freaked him out. But he did much better last night.

Max loves showing off the big boy bed. It came from his new favorite relative, 2-year-old Eliana (JB's cousin's daughter. They played big time at the wedding reception). Uncle Scott delivered it and helped put it together so that was pretty cool for Max too. He shows it to all our visitors, and jumps up and down on it like a kangaroo.

He is turning into such a jumper. I keep telling him, "Don't jump on the bed/couch/chair/table because it will ruin our furniture." Part of me thinks maybe I should just let him do it. I loved jumping on the furniture when I was younger -- when did I become uncool? Then I realize I became uncool when I became a mom, and now I have to pay for new furniture if our stuff breaks. So I set aside one thing for jumping, climbing or rolling: the love sak my sister made us downstairs. Too bad I end up trying to take a nap on it while he kanagroos around me.

The wedding

Some pictures! This is from the wedding dinner Wednesday night. It's hard to get two squirmy boys to look at the camera. It was drizzling when we came out of the temple, but Max was in heaven with the umbrella.

The Richards family waits for pictures on the steps.

We loved getting pictures of Sarah and Joe with their nephews and niece. You should have seen the photographer doing amazing stunts to get the kids to look at her!

Max and his cousin Emily take a break.

It was fun to think about our wedding almost 5 years ago, and fun to see everybody at the reception. Congrats Sarah and Joe!

The binkie you never knew about

I forgot Ben's binkie Sunday while we were at the Richards' house for Scott's homecoming on Sunday (he gave a great talk by the way). Ben was getting sad and tired, so we tried giving him an empty Baby Tylenol bottle he likes to play with. Next thing we knew, he was sucking on the soft, chewy top it like it was his binkie.

It worked! He fell asleep in Grandpa's arms.

Sick part 2

The boys are better -- now it's JB and me! My roughest time was Wednesday evening, and I still feel a little suspect this morning. JB looked pretty bad last night. Sometimes I wonder if it would be better for the whole family to get sick at once and get over it all at the same time. But it's harder to take care of others when you are feeling poorly yourself.

Thankfully we all got through his sister's wedding just fine yesterday. I think the excitement of the day really helped. I should get a few pictures to post soon. Max and Ben looked so cute, and even though the potential was there, they didn't melt down too badly after a full day of "Smile for the camera! Look here! Hey, say cheese!"

It rained on us outside the Temple but the drizzling stopped in time for the reception. The whole day was so nice. When we were on the way home last night Max sleepily said, "I want to see Sarah again in her dress." Then he nodded off. It's hard to carry that boy inside the house when he's sound asleep!

Sick

My poor boys. they caught a yucky bug sweeping the neighborhood. Max just got over a few rough days of fever and runny nose. He's much better, but now Ben has it. He had a temp of 101.2 yesterday so I took him to the doctor. She said she was encouraged by the fact that through his tears, he smiled at her. If he gets listless, then I should worry. He slept better last night than the night before so hopefully he'll be back to almost normal for JB's sister's wedding tomorrow.

It was a surprise to see how much he weighs. The nurse, seeing his size, said "Just sit him up here." My response: "He can't quite sit up by himself yet, he's too young." Nurse: "What? How old is he?" me: "5 1/2 months." Nurse: "!!!"

You see, he's not only long, he now weighs 18 pounds, 15.2 ounces! I'm rounding up to 19 pounds next week.

Ready

Bring on the solid food, he says! Almost there, Benji-boy.