The Nelson Family: December 2011

Time goes by so fast! I swear I’m never going to be caught up on the blog… Oh, well. Here’s December 2011, at least! December 1 - Kisses Max has started giving kisses lately. It is the cutest thing ever to watch him give his daddy a kiss on the cheek! Little stinker still won’t give one to his momma, though… We started a Christmas chain today. Max gets to rip a link off the chain every day until Christmas! He’s pretty excited about it, LOL!

December 2 - Advent Calendar Max started off this morning by not eating breakfast… He thought it was more fun to throw French toast sticks and banana slices at the cats. He laughed hysterically all morning while he was doing it! Stinker… I didn’t get pictures of Max at breakfast, but here’s one of the little guy at lunch…

We lost the advent calendar we bought for Max, so Ryan brought a new one home for Max today. Max is just as excited (if not more so) for this as he is for the chain!

December 3 - Santa is Scary! Max met Santa again today--first time this year! He did not like him as much as he did last year… LOL! We met him at Ryan’s work party this morning. His company decided to do breakfast at a country club. It wasn’t bad, but they ran out of food pretty fast. Then Santa made Max cry, of course!

Ryan got sick after breakfast, so I took Max with me to my friend Chalyse’s baby shower. Max had fun playing cars with another little boy while we were there! Ryan was still feeling sick when we left the baby shower, so I took Max to my friend Aubrey’s kids’ birthday party by myself. Max didn’t socialize as much there, but he did enjoy licking frosting off of his cupcake, LOL! On our way home, we picked up some meds for Ryan and then we ran to the post office to ship out a sock monkey hat for another friend of mine. We went to look at toys at Target that afternoon, and Max bit his lip when he swung his head and banged it into our chopping cart… Later that night, we decided to use the gift card Ryan got at his work party and went to dinner at Goodwood Barbeque Company. Here are a couple pictures of the boys at diiner!

I wanted a GOOD picture of Max with Santa, so we went to the mall after dinner. Santa made Max cry again… The only way to get him to stop crying was for Ryan and me to get in the picture with him. I held the little guy and he was trying to scoot as far away from Santa as possible, LOL!

After we got a picture with Santa, we took Max to the play area in the mall. Some little girl totally ran into Max and knocked him over right in front of us and her dad. Neither she nor her dad bothered to even try to apologize or check to see if Max was okay. I was fuming about it… If my son plowed that hard into another little kid and knocked them on their face, you can bet he’d be apologizing and that we’d all be making sure the other kid was okay… We had to leave shortly after that so I didn’t deck the dad for not doing anything. December 4 Not much happened today… Here’s some pictures of us doing the advent calendar and the Christmas chain when I got home from work tonight!

December 5 - Grapefruit and Scout!

Max loves grapefruit. It amazes me how much he loves it! He ate an entire grapefruit for breakfast this morning--one of the halves didn’t even have sugar on top! Here’s Mr. Cute Stuff at lunch today!

And here he is doing the Christmas chain and the advent calendar after Daddy got home from work!

Here’s our naked little monkey getting into trouble before bedtime tonight…

Max won’t go to sleep without his little green dog, Scout, anymore. It’s really cute, actually! They are such good buddies. Scout sings to Max every night and Max just hugs him and falls asleep, LOL! December 6 Today is Josh’s birthday! We didn’t see him for his birthday last year because he was in Idaho for school, and we don’t get to see him this year because he’s in Italy on his mission! We are thinking of him today and hope that he has a happy birthday, anyway. Remember how I told you about Max’s new love of grapefruit? He stole a grapefruit off the counter this morning before I even had a chance to cut it!

LOL, you wouldn’t think he likes grapefruit from looking at this picture… But he really does! It’s just kind of sour at first, you know?

Max and I were lazy today… He was still in his ‘jammies at lunch time, LOL! But he definitely got changed after lunch… Look at the mess he made with his pudding!!

December 7 - Sickies Well, I finally wound up catching the cold going around in my house… To make things worse, I had to work tonight with it as well. Ugh. But, the boys had fun while I was gone! Ryan learned that Max will stick out his tongue if he does, too!

Poor little guy... Always a good sport, even when he doesn't feel good!

December 8 - Extra Sick I woke up before 5 a.m. this morning to be sick… I never get sick, so it’s weird that it happened a month ago and it’s weird that it happened again today! On top of being sick, I had a baby who seriously refused to let me wipe his bum and put a new diaper on him for a couple changes today. I basically spent my entire day just wishing that Ryan didn’t have to go to school tonight. And then something amazing happened--Ryan ditched school to play with Max so I could lay in bed and take it easy. My husband is the best, and I am so very grateful to him for doing that for me today! December 9 I totally forgot I bought taquitos for Max and me to have for lunches this week… I found them in the freezer today and boy, are they a hit! At work today, I rang up a guy buying a pregnancy test. As I do to all customers I ring up, I asked him how he was doing today. He said, “I’ve been married 14 years, I have five kids, I’ve had a vasectomy, and I’m buying a pregnancy test. THAT’S how I’m doing today.” It was hard not to laugh. Before he left, I told him I hoped it came out negative, and he said he hoped so, too! December 10 Here’s the little cutie, tired and ready for his nap today…

For those of you who don’t have kids or who have never seen “Yo Gabba Gabba,” you should watch the episode “New Friends.” Jack Black guest stars in it, and it is hilarious. Especially when he gets his gift from DJ Lance Rock!

I thought we had two weddings today… Turns out, we only have one! I started reading the invitation on our way to wedding this afternoon and discovered I’d gotten the date wrong! We did go to my childhood neighbor Erin’s wedding tonight, though. Here’s a picture of Brooke, me, and Max at the wedding!

After the wedding, we met up with my Dad and Michelle at Chick-Fil-A for dinner. Max had fun playing in the play place! December 11 - Oops… I got off to a great start today… I was so tired, I hit the snooze button on my alarm four times. When I did finally wake up and head to work, I arrived seven hours early… Ugh! December 12 - Coffee Addict! Here is my silly little guy trying to finish off the last drips of my afternoon coffee today, LOL!

December 13 - Hot Cocoa We woke up to snow this morning! Max and I had hot cocoa with our breakfast. It’s so fun to do stuff like that with him! December 14 - A Baby Brother! I had to work tonight, and when I talked to Ryan on my lunch break, he told me that he’d just learned that his mom was five months pregnant! She’s due in April with a baby boy. Ryan is getting a baby brother! Ryan has been a little overwhelmed by the news, but he wants to try having a relationship with his mom again and he wants to know his brother. So we are excited! December 16 - “Duck!” I am so excited--Max said a new word today! He said, “Duck,” today, while he was holding one of his rubber duckies!! It was so cute! He is growing up so fast… It’s crazy. He is way too tall all of a sudden and has been pulling everything off of the kitchen counter and dining room table today! December 17 - Ready for Christmas! Max got a cupcake for breakfast this morning. My silly boy LOVES frosting!

I finished wrapping all of the Christmas presents today and am so glad to be done! While we were out and about today, we let Max pick out a toy to donate to “Toys for Tots.” He picked out a cool little motorcycle toy and threw it in the box. I hope we can do this every year! I’d like to teach my son to be a giving person! Here’s my little cutie at dinner tonight… He got a root beer float for dessert and LOVED it!

December 19 - Ups and Downs… This is Max, the early morning grumpster…

He really does like his Candycane Cocoa, though. ;-) He also loves “Yo Gabba Gabba,” as I mentioned earlier… So we got him these new shoes! His feet are growing so fast, it’s crazy!

We haven’t been able to take Ryan lunch for over two months now, but we got to today. That was fun for us! And Max was such a silly little cuddle muffin all day… I was really upset with myself because I thought I was late for work today and was in such a rush that I forgot to kiss my little guy goodbye for the first time ever… And I wound up at work way earlier than I was supposed to. I was quite devastated. December 20 Max had Trix and bananas for breakfast this morning… He LOVES cereal!

Apparently, though, it is time for us to invest in more plastic tableware…

Max is loving his new Brobee shoes today, too. He begged me to put them on him today! We had an unexpected visit with Ryan’s mom tonight. We haven’t really seen or spoken to her in over a year, but Ryan called her and we ended up going to visit her at her house. She gave Max a Christmas present and he was really shy since he doesn’t know her very well. Afterwards, we went to Winger’s in Lehi with her. Max was very friendly with her there and wanted to feed her popcorn the whole time. It was kind of a weird night, but things went well. It’s a good first step for Ryan and his mom, and I just want to be there for him and support him, however he feels about things. December 21 - Tooth #13! Max officially has 13 teeth now! He cut his top left canine today--his first new tooth in over four months!

When we went grocery shopping on Sunday this week, I though we’d gotten two boxes of butter. I could only find one in the fridge, though, so I asked Ryan if he knew what had happened to the second box, and he told me we’d only gotten the one. He had put groceries away because he had gotten some stocking stuffers for me at the store and didn’t want me to see them. I started looking for Crisco today so I could start making some treats for Christmas, and I found the second box of butter and two packs of cream cheese in the pantry… Ugh… Men!! December 22 - Migraines and Cinnamon Bears I started off the day feeling like a migraine was headed my way… Not a great way to start the day off, especially when my baby wanted to bang pots and pans on the piano or when he wanted to use me as a jungle gym… Luckily, my prescription strength ibuprofen and RockStar finally did kick in and helped ease it up a bit! But not until after I’d dipped 381 cinnamon bears in chocolate. Max decided to sample a few bears for me… He liked the chocolate, but not the cinnamon bears! He also thought it would be fun to keep his bears in my old coffee mug from this morning, LOL!

December 23 - Gearing Up for Holiday Cheer I started making sugar cookies today. Apparently, I started following a different recipe than I intended and they were not cookies that could be frosted, so that saved me some time! Max really liked them… Ryan and I were talking in the kitchen and Max ran in, grabbed a ball of dough off of my cookie sheet, stuck it in his mouth, gave us a sneaky little smile, and chewed it while we laughed. It was hilarious! I struggled to make the cookies, though… Our oven did weird things today. Some of my cookies turned out burnt, and some of them were doughy. And these were all cooked in the same batch! Before I headed to work today, we decided to decorate our Christmas ornaments. We couldn’t afford the cutesy ones from the Hallmark store that I loved so much, but we found some at Hobby Lobby that we could color ourselves. Max had a lot of fun coloring his with markers!

December 24 - Christmas Eve I had to work this morning and took an extra long lunch so I could talk to Josh when he called home from Italy. It was nice to hear from him, though it was hard to talk much with him--we were on a conference call with the whole family! Before we put Max to bed, we let him open one Christmas gift. He got a new pair of pajamas and a book!

After Max was ready for bed, we left out some cookies and milk for Santa and wrote him a letter.

Max wanted Santa to share his cookies… ;-)

December 25 - Christmas!

We got off to an early start on Christmas morning, as per usual… Before my family started arriving, I tried to get the Kindle books I’d ordered for Ryan set up on his Kindle and totally accidentally accepted them under my Amazon account instead of under Ryan’s! So, I spent the morning instant messaging a guy from some foreign country to fix it. I did finally manage to get the books sent to Ryan’s Kindle, thank goodness! My dad, Michelle, Sean, Chainda, Polly, Uncle Hal, and grandparents came over in the morning to have breakfast and to watch Max open up his Christmas presents. It was a lot more fun to watch him open presents this year than it was year!

These are the new shoes Ryan gave me for Christmas! Cute, huh?

After our house, we headed to my grandparents house to celebrate Christmas with my siblings, too. 7:30 was too early for them all at my house, LOL!

Aunt B was just as excited about Max's Buckaroo Bull as Max was... She had to take a ride on it, LOL!

After lunch and Max's nap, we headed to Ryan's dad's house to celebrate Christmas and have dinner with them!

Poor Ry... He's tired!

Max said his newest word at Ryan’s dad’s house today--“Nana” for “Grandma!” Hopefully he will keep it up! It was so cute! By the end of the day, I was exhausted. But we all had a great Christmas and we were so happy we got to spend the day with our family! December 26 I got my first real kiss from Max today… Two of them, as a matter of fact! Smack on the lips! I love that boy. He is such a cute little sweetheart! Here’s my sweetie in his bath today…

We went out to play with our Christmas money tonight. We went to the mall and let Max play in the play area. He had lots of fun with his dad!

We went to Jamba Juice for smoothies after we went to the mall. Max LOVES Jamba Juice--I swear he actually said, “Jamba Juice,” while we were there. He also said, “Doggy,” today.

I started playing Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” on my phone tonight and we told Max to dance… He started head banging, LOL! I wish I’d gotten it on video. It was pretty cute! December 27 - Silly Boy! Max is such a silly little sweetheart… He’s been trying all day to share his chocolate Goldfish with the cat! Here he is trying to wear Mr. Potato Head’s glasses… Such a silly cutie!

December 28 - My Grandpa’s Birthday My grandpa turned 73 today! Here’s some pictures I took at his house tonight when we went to go celebrate with him…

December 29 - Ryan’s 26th Birthday! My husband is 26 years old today!! And my dad is having surgery on his neck today as well… Interesting day… I got up early to make Ryan a birthday cake. This is about how well it went…

After I made Ry’s cake and got ready for the day, Max and I gave him his birthday presents.

We went to see my dad after his surgery that day and ended up spending quite a bit of time at the hospital with him. His surgery went well, though, so we’re excited for him to come home and start recovering! After we visited my dad, we went home for cake and ice cream with Ryan’s family. After that, Max and I took Ryan to dinner with some of his family. We went to Shoga, which is our favorite sushi place! Ryan had a little bit to drink with his dinner. He’s extra cute when he’s tipsy, LOL! I hope my hubby had a nice day. He’s pretty awesome and he deserves the absolute best! December 30 - Hospital Day Max and I went to visit my dad at the hospital again today while Ryan was at school. I borrowed my dad’s truck so we could go visit him. It’s a little tricky getting a baby in and out of a big ol’ truck like that! My grandma was visiting while we were there and we went to Wendy’s for dinner with her. She needed help getting in and out of the truck, too! December 31 - Crazy Days! We’ve been having some problems with our washing machine lately… Ryan got some new parts for our washing machine this morning and it now works! We decided to take Max to the Living Planet Aquarium today. It was a lot more fun and exciting for him this time!

After the aquarium, we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Max ate pretty well! And when he was finished eating, he started putting his Cheerios in ketchup. Ryan was fascinated watching him! He thinks he's got a really artistic mind.

Today was Sean’s birthday, so we went to my dad’s house to celebrate tonight. Max was really fascinated by the candle on Sean’s cake! He was really cute!

We went home to celebrate the New Year after Sean’s birthday. We had pizza, chips, and pomegranates! After dinner, we made party hats and played with Max’s new toys. I’m pretty sure we all fell asleep before midnight, though!