Max's Wild Rumpus

Our little Max-man turned 1 a few days ago. It is still kind of hard to believe. We are loving looking back at pictures and videos from when he was born and his first year of life and seeing how much he has changed, and how much he has stayed the same. He has always been our strong, determined little Max Attack. And always will be, I'm sure! He makes life so much fun, we just can't get enough of him. He's growing up much too fast, but what can we do???

We were lucky enough to have my parents drive into town the night before Max's b-day. He has been spoiled the past few days with constant attention, new toys, and the best playmates and book readers the little guy could ask for. He is having so much fun he won't even take his naps. Another perk was that my mom was here to help me throw Max a party! I have been busy trying (and usually failing) to study so aside from getting invitations out I didn't think about it much until the past few days. But we had a lot of fun putting it all together, and it turned out adorable. What better theme than "Where the Wild Things Are" for our Max?

We did an ocean cake with Max and his boat and a #1 on top, and Wild Thing cupcakes. They really were pretty easy to do, and lots of fun.

We had a spread of meatballs, chips and cowboy caviar, mango salsa, bread and spinach dip, goldfish, fruit salad, and 'forest' veggie cups.

We tied balloons and hung streamers to go with the jungle-ish theme.

And here's our handsome birthday boy!
Vati and Daddy teaching Max how to dunk the ball.
Max basically took zero naps all day so he definitely could have been in a better mood. But once his friends got there and things got going he had a great time. Here he is with friend Alec - Max liked taking off his hat and trying to put it back on. They are the cutest little buddies.
And with friend Grant - Max kept trying to steal his food. Basically he walked around from person to person looking for handouts (that's our little puppy for you).
We had a little contest putting together a Where the Wild Things Are puzzle - girls won. We also showed a little slideshow of pictures of Max that Joe put together.
Then Max got to open presents! His friends were so nice to bring him awesome new toys (& an adorable shirt!) He was too distracted by the first toy to really get into it - plus he's only 1.
Then it was cake time! I was so excited to watch Max shove sugar into his mouth like it was the best thing he'd ever tasted. Well, it didn't exactly happen like that.

We all sang to him and he looked around and noticed everyone staring at him and smiling, and then he started clapping. So cute.
Max didn't really know what to do with the cake at first so I gave him a taste of frosting off my finger and then broke up some little pieces for him. He definitely seemed to like it for a little while.

But the fun faded fast. He was tired, tired, tired and just wasn't loving the sugar thing. I put some blueberries in the middle of all that frosting and he found and ate those instead.
But ... he cheered up when he started feeding Mom and Dad.

What a good little sharer.

Once he couldn't take it anymore we cleaned him up in the bath, and then he got to run around in a half-buttoned shirt and play with his friends and toys until he crashed.

. . . with his dad and his bottle (yep, finally weaned!) If he doesn't sleep soundly tonight then something is definitely wrong

Christmas!

The good thing about not taking lots of pictures is that it makes blogging and photobooking a lot easier. We spent Christmas (Max's first!!!) in AZ this year and did lots of fun things but I was too lazy/busy chasing Max to get my camera out. More pics should be coming from from the family members who have nice cameras and love taking pictures, but I probably won't get around to posting them. So here we go.

We started out Christmas by finally getting a real tree! We weren't sure whether it was worth it or not since we'd be gone, but in the spirit of Max's first Christmas we decided to quit being Scrooges and be a little festive for once. Max I think was very glad we did, and as a result ingested a lot more glitter than he should have (that is why the bottom of the tree is a little bare).
Unfortunately we didn't get a Christmas card sent out this year. I had fully intended to but we had to cancel family pictures in November when Max started throwing up and then things got busy and I just never made it happen. I'm over it. Keep us on your lists though because next year we might just return the gesture.

We decided to have Christmas morning for Max on the 21st - the day before we left for AZ - since there wouldn't be a tree at the place we were staying and we couldn't really haul his toys. Joe got dressed for work and we waited for Max to wake up (one of his few sleeping in days) and then brought him down to show him his presents. It was so much fun! He actually did a pretty good job with unwrapping because he really wanted to eat the paper. So if we took away the pieces he ripped off he'd just keep going.




On the 22nd we headed to AZ. Our flight took off about an hour after Max's bedtime. Crazy us! I thought he would fall asleep on the plane but he didn't even come close. He never stopped moving the entire time even though there was nowhere for him to go. Exhausting, but we made it. Then he crashed in the car (which he never does) and was like this when we got to the Skinner's. We meaning me and Max. Joe stayed at the airport until 2:30 waiting for my missing bag, which finally showed up 4 hrs late. Max screamed for a good part of the night after having his schedule all messed up so we were off to a good start.
Luckily things got better quickly. The next morning we attended Joe's sister Franchesca & Jason's sealing in the Mesa temple and then for the next 3 nights we stayed in Ahwatukee in a house we rented so Joe's entire family could be together. It was awesome! We cooked & ate lots of delicious food, went swimming and hot tubbing, sang carols (including quite the impressive rendition Handel's Messiah), had dance parties, played rock band, watched movies, chased Max and Reese around the house, and just hung out. I can't wait to see everyone else's pictures since I have about none.
Except for cousin tub time - I did manage to document that. Reese is 5 months older but you'd never know by just looking at them! They would be the perfect little playmates if only we lived closer. :(


On Christmas Eve everyone opened new pj's and here are ours:
On Christmas day we did two white elephant gift exchanges - one cheap, random one and one nice one. This little shopping cart was in the random one and Max and Reese played with/fought over it all morning.
They also played in this tunnel/tent Reese got for Christmas (Max got one too, back in CO).
On Sunday we packed up and left and got to attend Joe's brother Sam's homecoming! He just returned from serving in the Vermont/Maine/New Hampshire mission and it was awesome to see him.
Then we got to spend a little time with the rest of the cousins (Maria's kids) who weren't at the house with us. They love playing with Max and are so cute with him.



Joe left early the next morning to make it back for work but Max and I hung around a couple extra days. The Skinner's were so nice to let us stay with them and we loved getting to hang out with Hannah and the girls, as well as getting to see some other friends and more of the family.

We took another late night flight back and after the crazy flight out and not having two extra hands for everything I was super nervous about it. Luckily we made it all in one piece. Despite having gotten a nasty bruise a couple hours before leaving, Max did really well (considering how it could have gone).

I thought this was so funny: an 11 month old pushing his stroller around the airport.
This time he was so exhausted after the flight he fell asleep in his carseat before we even got to the car. You can kind of see the bump he got ... poor kid!

Anyway, it was a great Christmas. But I am already excited for next year!