Growing Fast!

Mama and Dad crane have always been pretty tolerant of my dad getting close to them -- the fact that he feeds them corn almost every morning certainly helps....

The chicks are now also starting to tolerate it when he approaches .... somewhat :)

18 months old!!

I can hardly believe it.

Lil Max is 18 months old -- like, a YEAR AND A HALF OLD!!! It seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital, figuring out this whole 'parenting' thing (well, actually we're STILL doing that) and freaking out just about every other moment.

At the same time, it feels like lil Max has FOREVER been in our lives, and we can't imagine life without him here with us!

When we had this epiphany in the car today, big Max turns to me and says (jokingly), 18 months?? That's it? Feels like forever.

To which I responded -- yeah, and we've still got 16 1/2 years to go! :)

But in all seriousness, this kid is AWESOME. Hearing his chirping across the hallway lights up my face (most mornings at least, depending on the time). He is happy, easy-going, and for the most part, well-mannered (gotta be honest here, we're entering the age of testing all our boundaries, and lil Max is an expert at that!!).

So, without further adieu, here are his latest stats from the dr's office:

Height - 33 inches; 75% (um..he is 3 inches away from being 3 feet tall!! oh my word)

Weight - 24lbs 9 oz; 30% (I thought for sure he'd be over 25. And, looking at my kid, I don't consider him in the 30% for weight, but whatever...)

Head - 47cm; 30%

He is developmentally right on track. Dr even commented on how well he walks and how good his balance is considering that he chose to knee walk for so long :). He impressed her with his knowledge of all the pictures in her office and pointing out all the colors of the fishies on her stool. He also talked up a storm and demonstrated the one concern I had at this appt, -- the love biting. :) (lucky me, right??)

In other words, he's perfect. But, we didn't really need a doctor to tell us that!

The cranes came to breakfast this morning.

The chicks are growing fast!!

Lookie Lookie!!

Lookie lookie what Emily just sent me!!

A sneak peak teaser to the photos she took a few weekends ago when she came to visit me in WI!!

I knew that the photos would turn out phenomenal, I mean how could they NOT...this is Emily...

But to turn out THIS GOOD??

Seriously unbelievable.

Judge for yourself...





And then...

Check THESE out:





I could seriously spend hours upon HOURS just looking at the photos on Em's photo site She is SERIOUSLY talented.

And to think, these are just the SNEAK PEAK!!

I get MORE!!!!

Crafty McCrafterton Part Duex

I promised you pictures of the gift that I sent to my secret swappie partner, so without further adieu, I present to you my attempt to be crafty for my swappie partner and awesome momma of 2 under 2.....MELODY!!

Do you see how effective the "Fragile" stamp was? I mean...the gift only had to go from WI to IL...oh Post Office....

The goods with fun tissue paper...

Oh look...there are the presents!!

Homemade granola and the recipe. I always make "GORP" for our canoe trips to the BWCAW, and I am always looking for new tasty recipes to try. This was the first time I made this recipe, and I think it turned out pretty darn good!!

Button Clock! Mel thought this will go perfect in the bold colored bathroom for the kids. I think this was so fun to make that I might have to make one for myself!!

I used Blurb to make this cookbook of all the recipes the group has posted on our message forum. It took a LONG time to make, but there are a lot of good recipes in here! I snickered to myself every time Melody would ask someone where 'such and such' recipe was...thinking....in a matter of weeks she would have them all at their fingertips. The other nice thing about Blurb is that you can even 'sell' the books -- others who like what you created can purchase them directly from there. I have to give credit to Emily for turning me on to Blurb in the first place, and also for letting me use her AWESOME Emily Original pictures for the cover and chapter pages!!

For Mel's daughter, Ms. N -- she is going to have a bird theme in her room.

Did I mention that it is a YELLOW bird theme!?!?

For Mr. B -- who has a brown and blue theme in his room.

I like to make these fleecy taggie blankies -- they are easy and very practical. Plus, other mommies have told me that they hold secret magical sleeping powers.....

So, there you have it! I have to say that I start out hemming and hawing over what to make, and then I end up having a LOT of fun making stuff. It is just the process of getting the creative juices flowing in the first place, I suppose.

PS -- thanks Mel for being such a fun person to 'stalk'. You were a lot of fun to craft for!!!

Crafty McCrafterton

As many of you know, I'm not the most incredibly crafty person. But, I have been known to tap into my 'crafty side' once in awhile. The problem, for me with crafting, is that I have a hard time differentiating between what is cute and what is practical. See, the practical side of me won't let me craft anything that isn't useful in real life...so, it usually takes quite a bit of thought and brain storming before I come up with a good craft.

I've mentioned my Internet momma friends on here before, and one of the reasons we all came together as friends is that we share an interest (and for some a really extreme talent) for crafting (and baking and being mommas too, of course). We did our first crafty swap for xmas, where I got some really awesome gifts from my friend Beth. She made me a plethora of really cool "Xmax" gifts.

Next, we did a 'secret swap' for Valentine's Day -- I got some really great gifts from my friend Allison!

For Mother's Day, everyone liked the secret aspect of the swap so much that we opted to go this route again. We picked names pretty early -- so we'd have lots of time to 'stalk' our swappie partner and figure out what they'd like. There were 'rules' about the swap (as far as point value for content), but the main guidelines were to include a craft, a sentimental, an edible and a recipe.

My swap partner was Jess -- I was SO excited when I realized that she was my partner. And just look at the wonderful gifts she made me!!!!


First, I open the box to find this....green and turquoise! The colors of lil Max's room!! Do you see what is peeking through the paper? Could it be....a TURTLE??


You bet! Look at this awesome card! Jess wrote me a very heartfelt, warm and fuzzy note too!


The edible -- a plethora of yummy Dove chocolates in assorted flavors!! YUM!


The second box contained the crafting overload!!

Two re-usable shopping totes! Check out the awesome fabrics!

Check this out! Sheldon the Turtle -- seriously...how awesome is this! She made it BY HAND!!! Oh the love is oozing.....


And a recipe for Salmon Packets -- I'm sure that big Max would love for me to cook him some of this...so when I feel motivated, this is what I'll try. I'll let you know how it tastes!!

Seriously -- this group of women is so great. The amount of time, and love and thought that went into these gifts is tremendous. And, I can't highlight ALL of the gifts that were sent and received here on the blog, but I can tell you that I would've LOVED to receive any one of them -- they were all SO GREAT!!

I'll post again later with some pics of what I sent my awesome swappie -- I just have to check with her first to see if she'll lend me her photos, since I neglected to take any before I mailed it! OOPS!

Crane Update

7 days later, the chicks are getting bigger and Mom is letting them venture out of the woods more...

Spring Delivery

My dad writes me on Mother's Day morning the following email:


I was up early checking the new candle growth on our pines and look what I found under one of our Concolor Firs!!

Ah....the irony....(deer love to eat new growth on trees/shrubs...especially pines/firs)...


Its pretty darn cute though...I think I'd let it eat my trees...

New Arrivals

My parents built their newest house just off a 5-acre pond (old quarry pond), and right on the edge of the Bark River nature conservancy. My dad gets a kick out of most of the wildlife he sees -- except the ones that eat his plants or poop on his lawn.

They've got, to name a few:

beavers

woodchucks

racoons

squirrels

tons of birds, waterfowl, etc.

rabbits

fox

deer

wild turkeys

muskrat.

My dad's favorites, by far, are the cranes. Every morning, he goes out and fills up their 'feeder'. Last year, he even got them so used to his presence that he could get within a couple yards of them and throw them some corn. He really likes those cranes....

Anyway, here are a few pictures of some of their new arrivals...hot off the press!

Sandhill cranes and their two little ones...

American goldfinch and an Indigo Bunting at the feeder.

Weekend of Fun

This past weekend, we had out of town visitors! I FINALLY got to meet Emily and Melanie -- two other November 2007 mommies that I had met on the message boards of BabyCenter just after our sons were born.

Melanie, her husband Ben and her son Nolan (born Nov 1, 2007) came to visit us from Utah.

Emily, her husband Joe and her son Noah (born Nov 18, 2007...yes, you read that right, he shares Max's birthday) came to visit us from St. Louis.

Now, you might find it a bit odd that we met over the internet, and that this meetup in WI was the FIRST TIME we had ever laid eyes on each other, but let me assure you that the entire weeked was magical, and we all had such a good time! You'd never have known that we hadn't met before then -- conversation was plentiful, and we all got along like good old friends (of course, we've talked enough online and by phone already to make that possible).

Anyways, other than the goal to get all of us ladies together for a meetup, we also wanted some photographs taken by none other than the awesome Emily Southerland...I can't wait to see what she comes up with!!!

The only damper to the weekend was the sickness/cold (not swine flu!!) that lil Max came down with Friday afternoon, just as our guests were rolling into town. The sickness made him pretty out of it for most of Saturday, but his little body recovered quickly and he is almost back to normal now. I just hope that Nolan and Noah don't get the sickness....but, I guess germs are pretty much inevitable at this age...

So, without further adieu, I will leave you with some photos from the weekend. The first 3 are some candid shots of Emily's, and the rest are mine. I don't have a whole lot of pictures of the weekend, seeing as Emily was doing most of the photo taking! :)

Melanie and I (bags under my eyes are courtesy of the previous sleepless night courtesy of lil Max)

Em and I

The 3 boys in their matching sock monkey t-shirts (made by Emily). I feel the need to explain this photo a bit more. See, Max is kinda zoning out in the middle, trying to psych out Nolan (on the left) and Noah (on the right) so that he can steal their suckers. Noah is crying because Max had just attempted to steal his sucker. Nolan is happy because he wasn't the victim of that go around....

This next slew of pictures is inudated with red balloons -- a vision that Mel and Em wanted to fulfill during the weekend. Unfortunately, Noah and Max were less than thrilled with the balloons, and wanted little to do with them. Nolan, was a good sport and had lots of fun!

From left to right: me and lil Max, Emily and Noah, Melanie and Nolan.

After awhile we gave up on the 3 individual ballons and started tying all 3 to the boys at one time. Nolan didn't mind at all and took off with all 3 balloons...

Max definitely wasn't as thrilled, but he put up with it for a little while...


Then he needed some mommy consoling (or some from Auntie Amanda who came along to help elicit some smiles from the sick wee one)...

I tried to keep a happy smile on despite how disappointed I was that lil Max was sick -- what can you do, though? Smile!

Thanks for the magical and fun weekend ladies!