Underballs, cont.

My little underwear model, i think he's got what it takes, especially the tucked-in look.
Uhhh...

And here they are, the world-famous underballs!!!

Bringing Lu Home

I've never seen a kid so soft and loving with his little sister. He loves to hold her and can't get enough.
She's had enough, though.

Bryn really loves Lu most of the time, we just have to keep a little closer eye on her, just to make sure.

Here's Grandma with her 3 grandkids, I think Max is working on Blue Steel.

Very ready to head home and have my backside covered up. It got more exposure there than it really needed.

Easter 2008-The missing archives!

There's not much that needs to be said about there pictures, they show the life and times of best friends and worst enemies-Max and Bryn.

Max's First Day of Preschool

Obviously very happy about something. He actually really likes preschool and was mostly upset that I wanted his picture in front of the bushes and not the front door. This kid definitely has a mind of his own.

The Knots

Anyone who has ever been around Bryn when she's tired already knows about her hereditary knot-tying disorder that she inherited from her Grandma Gibson, who got it from her Grandma Anderson, etc. ( I think that's how it went). Anyway, I thought I would share a collage of some of her masterpieces. Ben and I have become quite the knot-untyers.

The latest of Baby Lu

Sleeping away on her two-week birthday, she's already grown a ton.

Her first real bath given to her by Grandma Noble, don't you love her bling?

A bit of a grump, but that's okay, she's pretty nice most of the time.

My late-night ramblings

So, it's 2 in the morning and i just sent Lu back to the nursery and am feeling a little sleepy, but just wanted to reflect a little. My dad sent a text right about the time Lu was born talking about how no matter how many times you get a new one, it's always this amazing miracle. She's gorgeous and fresh from God. I'm amazed by so many things, like how your body puts itself back together in so many different, little ways. I think because things have gone so well with this little one getting here, i take for granted a lot of the blessings, like she eats great, she's slept great so far, even when she cries it's cute (i'm not sure how long that will last). anyway, my body feels really good and she's perfect, so everyone's prayers were answered. I hope she realizes and understands early-on how much she is loved. I hope she survives Max's and Bryn's love. Thanks to everyone for all the love and support.

Elf Dance

You all have to go look at this video Ben's sister, Amber made with her family and Max and Bryn in it. Max and Bryn apparently watched it about 30 times.
http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/qQ0hqRriqUTko9Oqky70

Lu's Big Day

Mom before going into surgery.

Lu, minutes after surgery.

Mom and baby meet. Hooray!!!

Baby Lu, how beautiful!!!
Lu was 7lbs. 12 ounces, 20-3/4" long.

Big Boy Pants!!!

A full accident-free day and a half!!! We have to start somewhere, right? Well, this is my cute boy in his tighty-whitey spiderman big-boy pants.

He loves his "stuffs". He'll carry as much as he can with him, this is his Spiderman toolbox, another box from G'ma Gibson and his Pooh backpack, all chock full of toys.

Bryn's 2nd Birthday

I stole these pictures off of Amber's blog, because our camera didn't make it to Encanto Park with us.
Is that not the prettiest girl you've ever seen in your whole life?
She loved her star cupcakes (especially the frosting part).
We're so happy that we have this little girl in our family. I always said I just wanted boys, and now I know that my life would definitely be missing something without this little girl in it.

I Love This Kid

Summer Movie Fun

We did the Harkins' summer movies with Max's friend, Wyatt this year and they were pretty excited about the Wall-e display.
What a cute couple of big boys.

Bryn and Max always have awesome hair, but this might take the cake. I guess those 9:45 movies were just too early to get them that ready.

Tractor days with Daddy

Apparently Bryn wasn't too thrilled about being on the tractor...
But she got over it. (And we even caught Bucka in the background.)

Max and the ABCDHIJ pipe

Max was playing outside with some PVC pipe and hit somehow hit himself in the toe with it. I had no idea how bad it was until this awesome bruise formed on his toenail. He had heard me tell people what had happened to it and when he was in the bath one day, I said, "What happened to your toe?" He replied, "I hit it with the ABCDHIJ pipe."

Max and Bryn under the Sink

If you know Max, you know about his attraction to sticks. Obviously, he was nice enough to share with "Missy", that's what he calls Bryn.She was pretty excited about that....
And then I think being under the sink with Max and his stick was a little too much for her.

Max's underballs

We were headed to the State Fair on Friday for Bryn's birthday and I asked Max if he wanted to wear pants or shorts to the fair.
He said, "Shorts, no wait, my underballs."
I replied, "What?"
"My underballs."
"Your underballs?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, you mean your overalls?"
Yes, he did, in fact mean his overalls, but that was about the funniest thing I've ever heard come out of that kids mouth. The other funny thing is that he knew overalls were appropriate attire for the fair. i really wish i had a picture of him wearing them, cuz they're a couple inches too short and very Opie.

The Rest of our Colorado Trip

We found in Max a very brave, fearless fisherman. While Ben cast and reeled until he had a fish on the line, Max had other ideas of what fishing is. He took a hook to the water's edge and, as he dipped his hook in the water, he informed us that he was fishing for worms (how else would you get the worm on your hook?)
So, once Ben had a fish on the line, it was all Max, our reeling champion. He would play these fish in a long and drawn out chess match, these mighty monsters of the river.

They were so massive the pole would bend to where the tip almost touched the water, leaving us all speechlessly anticipating the final moments when Max brought him out of the water.

Thankful for Ben's massive biceps, Max gets him all the way in...he's huge, at least 2 oz. and 5 inches!!!

With the release of the last giant of a fish, Ben gets another one on the line and hands the pole of to Max.

As he gets him all the way in, I look for a photo op that would put Max somewhat close to the fish.

Our brave fisherman turns and runs, wanting nothing to do with being close to that big beast of a fish.

Could the lip stick out any further on this kid? He'll reel 'em in, but by golly, he's not touching him!

So...dad get's all the credit!!!

Standing 365 feet over Telluride's Box Canyon, Bridal Veil Falls is Colorado's tallest free falling waterfall. It is an incredible feast for the senses with its breath-taking view, soaking mist and roaring sound.

The house at the top of the falls produces its own electricity from the falls. It was owned by a German family that doesn't want anyone going near it.

From the top of the falls, you can look down over Telluride, nestled in this gorgeous valley. This is a geat example of how beautiful all of southwestern Colorado is.

The members of a new high-end golf/ski community didn't want to brave the windy road around the mountain to get to the ski resort in Telluride, so "a free gondola connects the authentic 19th-century mining town, the modern Mountain Village, and the slopes"

., it's free to everyone that wants to ride it from 7am to midnight. It was so fun for the kids.

Max loved to rock the gondola.

Bryn wasn't quite as excited about Max's rocking the gondola.

The cherubic smile deceives many into believing that this is an innocent by-stander in the ruckus with her brother.

We had pulled off of the road on our way home from Telluride to do a little fishing, enjoy the sun and let the kids play in a meadow.

Max thought it was great...until, in record time the skies opened and began dumping rain as fast as it could on our poor, innocent children, leaving them scampering, or more accurately, sliding through the mud trying to get back to the Jeep.

Obviously, Bryn didn't cover the distance without a couple of spills into the mud.

Cute, isn't it?...and pleasant to clean up.

That's fantastic!

Max came away relatively unscathed from the mud, if you don't count his toes.

This is the coolest park we saw in our trip. A young man had passed away and in his memory, the entire community came together one weekend, donating thousands of hours and built this park.

The kids could get lost in this place for hours and still have more to discover.

Max demonstrating his tight-rope walking skills, he may need those someday.

Bryn is ready to roll. A funny story about the book on the couch next to her: When we were on our honeymoon in Cancun, I had just become a big Barbara Kingsolver fan, so I was thrilled to find a copy of her Prodigal Summer in the condo we rented. I took it on our drive to see the ruins at Coba and, for obvious reasons left it in the Jeep while we hiked around. When we returned to the Jeep, much to our surprise, everything was there, except the book. So, now 4 and a half years later, I finally checked it out from the library and finally got to finish it.

Max looks a little stressed out when he watches TV. Sidenote: the chair he is sitiing in was Bryn's bed for the duration of the trip. I couldn't keep her in the bed with Max (the little wanderer) and she was used to a crib-tent, so we tilted this chair back and strapped her in her carseat every night and she slept like a baby (by the way, that's the dumbest saying I've ever heard, as anyone who has had a baby would know).

We spent our last week in an RV park on the Animas River outside of Durango. It had a great park for the kids, a heated pool and showed kids' movies on a big screen every night.

Our little pioneers

Can you tell who's getting squished?

We made the trip the first two weeks of August and found it very interesting to see snow here and there along the mountains.

Granted...it was really dirty, beat-up snow, but it was snow.

This stunning rainbow appeared Aug 8. The reason I remember the date is that we decided it was there to commemorate our niece Izzy's birthday. Happy Birthday, Izzy.

It has to have been the brightest rainbow I've ever seen. You could almost hear it, it was so bright.

This captures the beauty of our two weeks in Colorado very well.

Always the cool kid!

Every day, we did a little day-trip in the Jeep, so that the kids could get their naps in. Max really loved those times.

We went to Purgatory for the alpine slide.

Ben and Max decided to check it out first.

They had so much fun that they decided to have Mom try it, too.

We We now know that Max has no problem with heights.

You had to push your brake forward, which lifted to back end of the slide to really get going. Ben had quite a load to try to lift (don't tell him I said that), so they weren't exactly screaming down the hill.

We did have our moments where enough was enough in the carseats.

On the way back to Phoenix, we stopped over in Heber for a couple of nights. In the 15 days we were gone, we were lucky enough to find a Dairy Queen everywhere we went and this is probably our 8th or 9th time making a DQ stop on the trip (probably not great for our waistline).

Innocent-looking little fellow, don't you think?

Is there anything better than Dairy Queen, really?

Rachelle loves it, too.

Bryn most enjoys climbing around. She's always getting herself into positions that she's not sure how to get out of.