Prayers

We've been working on prayers with Jack. He likes to say them but usually its a quick " thank you for everybody and everything and please bless everybody and everything" you get the picture right? So we've been asking him to try to think of things he is thankful for and name them in specific. The other night he was saying his prayers before bed and this was it...

"Dear Heavenly Father thank you for mom, Max and me. I'm thankful for our house and all the stuff in our house, but if we didn't have a house we wouldn't have anything to be thankful for. Thank you for the bushes to hide in. Thank you for mom, Max, me and dad. In the name of Jesus Christ amen."

It was hard not to laugh right in the middle and I came right down to tell Pete. He's really been getting creative in what he is thankful for. He use to just say please bless everything so we've worked on saying thank you for and now he never asks for blessing. Anyway I thought it was pretty funny and wanted to record it before I forget.

As far as Max goes he's doing great and super close to walking. He is so happy and unless he is tired or hungry he pretty much just does his own thing and is really happy. He can climb up the stairs and go down them by himself and is usually laughing the whole time. He gets into everything and somehow it doesn't bother me... for now anyway. He is still my little ray of Sunshine here in cloudy Cleveland.

Max turns 1

I can't believe Max is one! Where did a year go? Although it is so fun to see him growing and his personality come out I sure miss the sweet tiny baby stage! One good thing is he is now a snuggler where as when he was a baby he didn't like to snuggle at all. Max turned 1 on the 26th of February and boy was that a crazy day in my life. So much pain and then the most amount of Joy I think I have ever had. Having a baby is AMAZING!! So we just hung out here and had a little party with just us for Max. He liked the paper after Jack opened all the gifts. In fact Jack was way more excited about the gifts then Max, he just liked the shinny Christmas wrapping paper! Thanks moms and dads, grandma and pa's, and aunts and uncles for the gifts! He got a glowworm, tub toys and carrier for them, a shopping cart cover (yea) a new outfit, some money, cute shoes, thats all I can think of right now. After presents we did the cake. So I wasn't planning on having a cake for him first because it would be his first time with sugar (only nice thing about being far from my dad :)!) and second because he's not really into textures and I figured he wouldn't like it anyway. Well I ended up making some cupcakes to try out a recipe that I have to make for the Relief Society dinner this week and decided he could have one just for pictures sake. I was surprised to see he loved it! Bummer!

Jack blew out the candle but Max really wanted to touch it :) Oh and yes Jack got a haircut, I promise I didn't cut it crooked, he's just got this messed up cowlick that I haven't figured out yet, so we'll keep working on that. Probably buzz it next time!

Jack helping however I must have got the picture on my phone of him actually picking it up and shoving it into his face. So cute but I was having a heart attack wanting to take it away from him!

I think he liked the sprinkles but they were probably to hard for him to eat.

So he didn't eat all the cupcake, in fact I took it and ate most of it just so he couldn't, but he did really like what he was able to get his mouth on!

A few things I want to write just so I don't forget. He got is first two teeth on the 27th of January, his bottom two both at the same time while grandma was here. He is standing by himself with good balance but no steps by himself yet. He follows us all over the house and can now climb up the stairs and does a pretty good job coming down them. He LOVES Pete!! If Pete is in the house Max is either in his arms or at his feet whining for him to pick him up. He got his first cold on the 25th (night before his birthday) Yea for making it almost a year super healthy. I guess me being a germ freak payed off... right? Oh man is he sweet and has the sweetest voice. He loves to clap and can sign please, more, and milk. We are working on thank you and please is really still in the process. If we do more signs he'll have learned more then Jack :) He loves to bounce in his bouncer and gets pretty crazy doing it. He loves dancing (bouncing to the music) and has the biggest smiles ever! He has some pretty grouchy faces too. I got my first kiss just yesterday, he's not fond of kissing anything but stuffed animals and they get it all. He clicks his tongue, has a love/hate relationship with his bath, has the softest skin I have ever felt, is a great sleeper and great eater and seriously has the yummiest floppy ears ever. Oh and I LOVE his red hair!! He is such a joy and I call him "my little ray of sunshine" (in case you didn't know we don't see the sun often in Cleveland) because he really brightens my day everyday! I LOVE you Max!!

I was putting Max to bed one morning after the boys had just had a bath and I told Jack to get dressed and then quietly go downstairs and watch TV while I got Max to sleep. I came down to him dressed like this and started laughing. He said he couldn't reach is shirts hanging up and was kinda cold (maybe some pants would have helped) and hoped he could wear it all day. I said sure and he really did wear it most of the day.

We decided to go to an indoor water park for Pete's spring break. We loved it and really needed a break from the house just to enjoy doing something fun. The boys loved it and so did we, however we were so tired that Pete and I fell asleep at 9 that night and were almost to pooped to keep going the next day. Jack had so much energy and could have lasted probably 2 more days. Jack is pretty much fearless and LOVES the water!

Max got stuck in between the bed and night stand, he wasn't very happy about it and even more mad when I grabbed the camera instead of rescuing him. He was heading for the alarm clock.

He's got some long hair so we decided to have some fun with a mow-hawk (for you uncle Rob)!

Max also LOVED the water however he was as exhausted as Pete and I were when we were all done.

Max has the best chubby belly ever! I couldn't really get a good picture of it but believe me he's got a good one.

Jackson and his friend Jack were dressing up. Love their serious faces, they were trying to be so tough :)

Max got his first haircut the first part of February and needs another one now. He didn't like it so much but the mullet had to go.

This is the before...

and the after, not to bad right?

The Dominican Republic

These pictures ended up at the first, so Pete's trip is next. A last few pictures of my mom and the boys before we took her to the airport :( Miss ya mom! Come back soon... I'm thinking mothers day and if you want to bring Lisa and Indiya thats great too :)!!! Don't I have the cutest boys ever!! I'm one lucky mommy!

Okay so I'm going to let Pete take it from here, you're gonna wish you could have been in the

D. R. after you see these pictures!

These couple of pics are at Punta Cana a resort town on the east side of the island. This is our last morning there so I thought I'd better get up for the sun rise. pretty amazing!

Our resort was right on this beach. It was really rice. There was plenty of space to relax on the beach, play some volleyball, or shop at one of the little souvenir shops right on the beach. The resort was all inclusive so I took advantage of all the virgin strawberry daiquiris and pina colladas (?) that my body could handle.

Another view of the beautiful beach.

This was the path from the front office to the villa we stayed at.

This is the inner court of the villa. There were 12 villas I believe.

This is an LDS church we worked at for the 4th and 5th days. The church was really beautiful. We actually worked in the chapel which was also the cultural hall. The members were very organized, which made things run much smoother than at the schools we worked at. They wrote down the name, telephone number, and address of all the people who came so they could go and visit with them and share the gospel. They used this as a missionary opportunity. They had church videos playing in the relief society room where everyone was waiting.

This is future missionary. I can't recall his name. We were able to help fill out part of his mission papers by completing his dental work. I did about 14 filling on him. It was pretty cool.

This lady had a broken down tooth that we "built up". She was really happy. And thanks to JC and Haylee for the light.

These are some Dominican children at school. We worked at the school. They all wanted us to take their picture and they immediately wanted to see what the picture looked like.

This was the view from our hotel in Santo Domingo.

This is pretty typical of the housing where we worked in the city.

Below is a group of us on day one. From left to right: Dan Yates, me, Spencer B., Clayton Carpenter (front), Ryan Jones, and Courtney Johnson.

January's happenings!

So Jack turned 4 on the 16th, and celebrated with a Pirate party. Pete left for the Dominican Republic on the 15th and my mom came on the 14th, so we went to pizza at Deweys that night and opened presents before Pete left the next day. I cant find Jack pictures of that night but he got lots of goods, including nerf guns, camera, a game, a Leapster, Pete made him a book shelf, and other great stuff!! Then on his birthday my mom took him shopping and got him a couple games for the Leapster (from g and g Mecham). Pete was gone for 10 days and it was so great to have my mom here to keep me company. We had a blast! Then she stayed for a whole extra week and just left today. Its so hard when she leaves but she gets to come pretty often which is SO SO great!! Here is the Pirate party... it was pretty much chaos, but Jack loved it so that's what matters most! My mom went a little/a lot overboard to make it a great party, thanks so much mom I know Jack LOVED it!! So he had the party on the 23rd. We tried to play games but none of them worked so went to presents and then cake. Then they broke the pinata which was a hit!! I only put a few pictures up cause there were a lot and I'm tired of waiting to download. After that they went on a treasure hunt to find a chest full of loot bags. Then it was time to go! We were pooped!! I'm probably going to be like my mom was with us and just do parties every 4 years cause its a lot of work and can we just say how spoiled Jack was!! He doesn't need that every year... right?!!

Oh and they were supposed to come dressed like a pirate, so they were super cute!!

The pinata fell on the floor so a few took hits to it on the ground, love this one of Jack Heaton. He really got into it. Then we were able to get it hung back up for a few more hits. I finally broke it and the kids dove for the goods.

What a cute pirate!! His friend Finn was talking to me while I was putting a tattoo on Jack and Finn asked where Jack was. He totally didn't recognize Jack with the hat and wig. So cute!

Cute Pirate cake, but during the night it split right down the middle, oh well!

We also took cupcakes (muffcakes is what Jack calls them) into his preschool class. He loved that!

Oh my sweet Max! Cant believe he is 11 months. WOW is all I can say. He is amazing, so sweet and so stinkin cute! His hair is growing (kinda a mullet) and red red red, I LOVE IT!! He sleep like a dream and is almost always happy!! He was great with my mom, it took a couple days to really warm up to her. He is pretty much a daddy's boy. If Pete is around he wants to be with him, kinda sounds like Jack... where's my mama's boys? Oh Pete loves it!! Big news for Max... he broke is first two teeth on the 27th. The only day he was grouchy and I thought maybe he is finally teething and my mom stuck her finger in his mouth and was like " He's got two teeth!" Funny huh! At least he broke them both at the same time, he's a late bloomer with the teeth but that's okay I love that gummy smile!

My mom seeing if it was a good time for a photo shoot, and obviously Jack had other plans. We didn't get very many great ones but that's okay I'm just glad we got what we did. She bought them matching red sweaters and they look so cute in them even with Max's red hair. I was skeptical about the red but thinks its pretty cute.

I wanted to show that Max's hair can be curly, but really just when its wet. He LOVES his bath... of course most kids do. Here's some of the funny faces of Max.

Oh Jack got these super cute jammies from grandma for his birthday too.

Some sweet ones with gram.

Some crazy hair he has!! I probably should put my haircutting skills to work on him, but I cant bring myself to cut it! I know when I do I'll wonder why I didn't do it sooner, but until then I'll just love the craziness!