Maxaroni

My baby will be turning a year old in a couple of weeks, but he has been changing so much in the past month that I see him turning into a toddler before my eyes. In his eleventh month he has been crawling all over the place and mom has been finding it hard to keep up with him.

Adam and I have seen him escape through doggy doors and attempt to escape through the front door.

So far, he has not shown any signs of being shy or timid and if he sees something new, he is not afraid to go check it out and throw every social norm out the window--oh to be so uninhibited!

He is fascinated with anything that has wheels and will even keep an old lady at church from getting down the hallway so he can inspect the wheels on her walker.

As we begin to teach him to restrain himself, he has begun to show a dramatic side. Any mention of the word no gets a very strong reaction of scowling faces, growls, screams, whines, head banging, and sometimes tears. We are still deciding on whose side of the family this originated. :)

Some of the fun new things Max is discovering is how to chew. This week he has been cutting 4 new molers and it has been tough on all of us, especially Max. To test out these new teeth he is trying all kinds of new foods. He loves macaroni with marinara sauce the best. Adam likes to call him Maxaroni. I don't know what it is, but Max loves to eat all by himself...which is awesome because I can hide his veggies in there too!

Sometimes I get preoccupied on my computer and Max goes exploring. Today he discovered that mom had forgotten to lock up one of the kitchen cabinets and there was a brand new can of flour just waiting for him inside...

Good thing this boy is so cute or I might have been really upset. He was more upset that I insisted on taking photos of him and wouldn't let him crawl around with flour all over himself.

The Ants Go Marching...and so did we.

A few weeks ago my kitchen was invaded.
By tiny ants.

My parents were visiting at the time and so my mom was helping me battle them for a couple of days. After my parents left, I googled every home remedy I could find on how to get rid of the little buggers. Perhaps I wasn't patient enough in my efforts. Some things would work for a couple days, but they would inevitably be back. Being 7 months pregnant has me on edge anyway and I just couldn't stand waking up every morning to little ants covering my counters and floors without getting emotional about it.

Adam, seeing how distressed I had become, called the exterminator. They said they could easily take care of them(for a small fee, of course), but that I would be unable to clean my kitchen for a few days after they treated it. Since Adam had planned some pre-bid meetings in Salt Lake, I decided to head to my parents house for the rest of the week to escape the bugs and the 105-110 degree temps.

It was so nice to be in Vernal. This year it is greener than I ever remember it being. My mom said they have gotten a lot more water than in past years. I started getting a little nostalgic for all of the places I used to play and ride my bike as a child.

{see more pics from Vernal HERE}

Adam came and joined us after his meetings and we had such a nice week. Max even had his first 4-wheeler ride. I think he liked it.

Independence

Independence day is one of my favorite holidays. I have fond memories of gathering with family to eat delicious food, watch parades, and light fireworks. Now that Adam and I have started our own family, we thought we had better start some of our own traditions. Now that we are living on the sun...er, I mean, southern Utah, the local parade started at 8AM. By that time it is already 80 degrees outside. We left early to ensure a good spot in the shade and Max wasn't quite awake, but as soon as more people started arriving he started perking up.

Now, there are pros and cons to small town parades. I tried to lower my expectations, but I couldn't help but chuckle at the less-than-stellar effort.
I mean, really...no floats?
Mormon missionaries looking like Secret Service with their shades on?
Horses, fourwheelers, followed by more horses...in some ways it was just like any other day on main street, haha!

However, what's awesome about a smalltown parade is what gives it all the charm...
They STILL THROW CANDY!!! (and otterpops)

Max was much more interested in
watching the kids running for the
candy than in anything in the parade itself.

It was short, only about 20 minutes(good, because it was getting hot)
A lot of the time you know half of the people in the parade.

Although Max couldn't stay awake for the 10pm fireworks show, it was still a really fun morning!