Cousins!

Maxton gets to see his cousin (actually 2nd cousin) Parker at church most Sundays, and while we were over at Paul and Monica's house this weekend, I finally took some pictures of the 2 of them. Paul and Monica are really good friends of ours from the ward, and interestingly enough, Monica and Jeff are cousins. We have loved being in the ward with them and it'll be so fun to watch Max and Parker as they grow up together!

I didn't notice until after I had taken the pictures that Maxton's gut had popped his pants open!

It was a challenge trying to get them both to look at the camera and smile, but the pictures are almost better with their true emotions showing!

What a Mess!

Jeff went on a campout with the Deacon's Quorum tonight, and I often find that when he is gone, I try to tackle odd projects. Tonight I tried to make strawberry jam by myself. I've done the freezer kind before, but I tried to do the kind you have to cook. I ended up fairly frustrated with a burnt finger, a screaming poopy baby, and a huge sticky mess in my kitchen!

I think the directions said to let the jam sit for 24 hours, so I won't know until tomorrow if it even tastes good!

I kind of spilt a few of the jars of jam while I was trying to clean them up- Luckily I jumped out of the way and just barely missed spilling the boiling hot jam on my bare feet! That would have been really bad!

The little man was in his Bumbo chair (which I now have named his pooping chair) on the kitchen counter through all this mess and he was not happy. Spreading stickiness as I went, I picked him up to find that he had once again pooped in the Bumbo (this happens regularly) and for some reason, whenever he poops in the bumbo, it never stays in his diaper but instead makes a mess up to his ears!!!

So while the dogs enjoyed licking up the jam from the floor, Maxton got to play in the tub! He loves the tub!

Moral of the story- I need to not tackle projects while Jeff is gone- I'm wishing now that I would have settled for a nice quiet evening with a movie!

News from Our House

Last week, Max got his first haircut! It was long on the back and getting thick and longer up top, so we decided to test the theory that I heard at work. Theory: If you buzzcut baby's hair when they are young, it will grow in thicker and faster. I guess we'll see if it is true! He looks so cute with his little buzzed head!
Last Friday, Jeff didn't have to work, and it was nice and sunny, so we took Max and the dogs on a walk to the park that is behind our house. I couldn't help but try out Maxton's new shades since it was so bright outside! He didn't seem to mind them!

I unfortunatly was a slacker and didn't take my camera with to the park, and if I would have, there would have been some great pictures on Maxton's first encounter with a horse! Jeff got a horse in a pasture that is next to the park to come over to the fence, and I wheeled Max right up to him. I don't think he knew quite what to think- He just sat and watched closely as the huge horse munched on some grass that Jeff fed him. So cute!

Also, Maxton has 2 teeth!!! He got them almost a month ago, and I still haven't gotten any pictures showing them. Hopefully we'll get some on here soon.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

We fed Maxton his first baby food tonight! (not including rice cereal) And in honor of St. Patty's Day, he got to try peas! He loved them!

Scariest Night of My Life!!!

So Friday night started out like any other in our quiet little town of Middleton- Erin, my 17 year old sister, was staying the night after a date with a boy from Middleton, and we had all settled in and fallen asleep when I woke up around 1:15am to voices in the front yard. Gracie heard them too and started barking like crazy as she bolted for the front bedroom window. (She is AMAZING! The best dog in the world! So gentle yet so protective as well! She doesn't bark at all unless something or someone is out front that she doesn't like, so we knew something bad was going on)

Jeff, Erin, and I spent the next 30 minutes in awe as the Canyon County SWAT Team yelled through a megaphone at our next door neighbor to "come out of his house with his hands up" They kept flashing a light at his house and repeating his name, saying they had a warrant and he was under arrest. Crazy! We thought it was kind of exciting and tried to video tape the dozen SWAT men that were positioned behind cars and bushes with guns drawn-

(This picture was taken Saturday Morning from our front room window)

After about 30 min of this, they pulled out of the back of the SWAT van the big black door smashing device! We got a little more excited thinking that now we would get to see some real action! We had our front window open so that we could hear better, and we watched as they formed a big V with shields and guns drawn as they approached the neighbors front door- After yelling a few more warnings, they smashed in the front door- Our house shook from the impact! We heard them tell him to come into the living room with his hands up, and then we were stunned to hear a dozen or more shots fired! The group quickly retreated to the SWAT van, and they huddled around planning what to do as the neighbor kept randomly firing shots at them!

We heard them ask each other if they should start evacuting. At this point, we realized that it was getting serious and maybe we should be a little afraid, so Jeff ran to get out one of our guns and load it just in case the man came into our backyard and tried to get in our house. While he was in the other room, one of the SWAT men dashed up to our window and asked how many were in the house- I told him and he replied very sternly 'you need to leave NOW!' We threw on shoes and grabbed Maxton and his blankets (and I forgot to grab his diaper bag!) and we ran to our truck out front with the SWAT guy acting as a human shield for us as we huddled behind him. (Shots were being fired this whole time) We left and saw about 20 men in uniform swarm our front and side yards-

As we left, a neighbor called us to make sure we had gotten out safely, and she assured us that she would keep us posted through the night. We crashed at our friend's house for a long and sleepless night and got a call from the neighbor at 4:30 (we left at 2:30) she told us that they had ladders up to our roof and there were men stationed on our roof as well as surrounding our home. I was just praying that he wasn't in our house! We then got a call at 5:45 from dispatch letting us know that we could go home. We went home around 7:30 to find our home safe and just as we had left it, but our yards, driveway, and Erin's car were all roped off with yellow Crime Scene tape.

We grabbed a few things and went to spend most of the day in Boise, not wanting to be around for all of the questioning and reporters- We later found out from the news that our neighbor, who actually happened to be a very nice guy-not creepy at all, had demanded information from a store owner at gunpoint, so he was wanted for attempted murder. His body was found dead with at least 1 gunshot wound in the backyard kitty-corner to ours at 5:30. We have since then, gone over and talked to his sisters (he was 31 and lived with his mom and brother and brother's girlfriend) and we feel horrible for the family. We were definetly put through a scary ordeal, but its not even close to the pain that they must be feeling- They told me that they had left him there alone as the police had instructed them to do, but now are wondering if they made the right choice or if things would have ended up differently if they had stayed with their brother. Our hearts go out to them! So sad! But in a nutshell, that was by far the scariest thing I have ever experienced! And it is a night that I will never forget!