Yesterday was plain awful...

Daddy Warbucks: You can say that again.

Annie: Yesterday was plain awful.

Daddy Warbucks: But that's.

Annie: Not now.

Both: That's then.



Continue with tap dancing down the mansion stairs to the circus, as seen above.

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Okay, yesterday was a bad day. It started bad and just seemed to get worse. I won't go into details because it was just one of those days. They pass. (Although it was nothing like Annie had to deal with like running from bad people and being rescued by Punjab and a helicopter. Might I add that scene is terrifying to watch as a child!). Today was beautiful. Max took TWO naps just short of two hours, he sang to me while I took a shower (I even saw him sort of dancing at one of his musical toy things) and was just charming all day. So thank you to Max and thank you to Mom, Kelly, Carla, and Erik who all had to deal with me yesterday.



Tonight was cute too:





I think this was the funniest for me. I made spaghetti for dinner tonight and decided to start a food fight. The fight (which consisted of me throwing a piece of spaghetti onto Max's head) turned into a photo op because the piece stayed there for about 20 minutes. Max looked at it a few times (cross-eyed) but never pulled it off. So here are some funny pics of dinner tonight. Alaina, we are telling him all about the "Noodles" here.
After he tasted it. He liked it a little, until I finger-swooped him and pulled the chunk out. I'm getting pretty good at the swoop.
Happy to be noodle-free. But such a good sport so mommy can have her fun. After dinner as Erik was taking him out of the bath. Nice ending to a nice day.

Max's First Camping Trip

After surviving the flu we decided to make the trek to our favorite camping spot, Lake Alpine. Erik grew up visiting the lake and skiing at Bear Valley and introduced me to it a few years ago. This year marked our third trip there. We usually take the dog and camp and fish for a few days. This year we left the dog at home and took the baby. Have you ever been camping with an infant? One that is just recovering form the flu? Not so fun, eh?

Overall we decided it was a success, but not as fun as we were hoping. Max did well after the second day and we think he liked his first camping trip. Max's camping bath. We warmed the water and he LOVED this. Way better then the cold lake water. So much splashing!!
On Thursday we took a hike to Duck Lake and Max fell asleep about 10 minutes into it. He woke up for lunch and slept the whole way back. It was a good hike.
Who wouldn't love to go on a hike when this is your destination? Is was really beautiful. It had big meadows and huge granite rocks. We got off trail for a little while and had fun searching our way back.
There were a few little cabins, somewhat preserved, that we were able to peek into. Just like Little House on the Prairie. It was a nice reminder of how lucky we are and how easy we have it.
We started a tradition here. Back in the distance, across the lake, is one of the cabins that sat near the one in the picture above. We decided we'd try to take a family picture at this spot every year. A funny thing about this picture is on my right leg. I forgot a belt and had to use a rope to hold up my pants. I tried so hard to keep it covered. Oops. (which by the way is one of Max's favorite words. Oops, spoon, etc. Anything that has o's and p's will make him giggle. Our camping neighbors probably got so tired of hearing it).

Ah, we tried.
The first night of fishing. We didn't have any luck this year. Stupid fish.
My birthday cake. My original cake came in barf form at about 12:30 am from my lovely son...second at about 12:45am. I liked this one much better. Erik sang Happy Birthday to me, it was really cute!
Max really loved the sand and dirt, When we were unloading the car we sat him in his chair and it took about 5 seconds for him to dig right into the dirt. Then eat it. We spent a day on the beach and between Max's naps, we got to play in the sand. We made sand castles that he liked grabbing at too. He is such a boy!
After eating the sand.

Another beautiful trip! Looking forward to next year...even if it's in the lodge.

Where's the milk?

This is what happens when your baby has the flu. He gets tired, cranky, irritated, hot (understatement), confused and just plain fed up! This is what happens to Mommy and Daddy when their baby gets the flu. All of the above and then baffled when you can't find the milk...
Finally, after several days of baby barfing, we were able to go on our camping trip...

11 kiddos...and counting

On the 4th of July we all got together at my parents house and actually got a decent picture of all the Mills grandkids. This is a VERY difficult task. We had to pull a few of them out of the pool. Addy lives the farthest away which is funny because she's the one looking at all the other kids and probably wondering "Who are these people?" The age ranges are from (almost) 15 down to 5 months. They have so much fun together. (Thanks for the picture, Carla).

Teef

I just spent what felt like forever trying to get a picture of this boy's teeth (yes, there's two now). I gave up and tried a video. You can only see them in the beginning but it's still cute of him giggling. Enjoy!

Snails pace

I finally finished Eclipse tonight. It took me forever! I was told that after reading the third book my feelings towards Edward would change and I could be headed in the Jacob direction.

Nope. Didn't happen.

I think Jacob is a whiny brat. I sort of think Bella is a whiny brat now too. Sorry, I do. I think she's selfish. And I'm totally jealous of her.

Edward 4eva. (That's only funny if you've seen Fear).

4th of July!!!

I won't have time to post tomorrow so here's our little patriotic boy! I took a short video too. It's not the best one (still haven't really figured out the video capabilities of blogging...some work, most don't) but it shows a touch of how much Max moves. He never holds still. Holding him or not he is constantly waving his arms and legs. Even when he is sitting in his high chair he is doing "circles" with his toes. This certainly doesn't show just exactly how much this boy can really shake it (it even has a still moment), but it will give you an idea.

Have a fun 4th of July!

Ouch!!!

Max cut his first tooth.

It's not pretty here at the Mrazek house.

A taste of happiness

I never took pictures of our garden but here is an idea of the success. I'm not a fan of radishes but Erik loves them and this is the last of what we planted of them. The garden looks great. Everything is coming up except the cucumber (well, we're not sure yet) and the watermelon. The tomatoes have gone crazy! We have a cucumber plant and that is taking over the garden. Everything else is coming along nicely. Erik redesigned the watering system this weekend with tubes and soaker hoses...what a difference that makes. It's turning out pretty good for our first garden. Just a random picture of Max eating carrots tonight and is possibly possessed? I forgot to take the red out, sorry.
And the best thing... PUDDING POPS! I haven't had these since I was a kid and they were still just as good. I've never even seen them in the stores until today. Yum! This is a picture of the box, they are a tad different then when we were kids. I also made the Bruschetta Chicken that my sister-in-law Melissa put on her blog a while back. It was SO GOOD and I thank her for posting about it!
I just watched this commercial on You Tube. If you like Pudding Pops too, watch it!

Sacramento Monarchs

Last Saturday we were invited to watch a Monarchs (WNBA) game in Sacramento with the Kapele's, Mills and DeGarmo's. No, we're not fans. But, we all thought it would be a fun outing together. And it was. We got the (free) group tickets through Andrew's art class so we were seated pretty high up. But, with 10 kids it was PERFECT! The kids could walk around the seating area and be as loud as they wanted. And they were. This was taken before the game and is one of the reasons the kids love Erik so much. He's just a bigger version of them. Above is Jordan, Teagan (upside down), Tristan, Erik, and Clay is on the bottom.
As we were walking into the arena the kids were invited to go to the court and high-five the players as they ran in. Perfect timing! They were given t-shirts and escorted by the staff (and a few other guests) to meet the players. There were being filmed as they were waiting for the team and Max's face was up on the big screen. It was there for just a moment, long enough for Kristen to yell. I missed it. :(
Max was given a t-shirt once they got closer so all the kids/big kids were purple monarchs.
Part of the group.
Mommy and Max.

Thank you Andrew for being such a wonderful artist (he really is!) and letting us all join your family at the game. We had a great time!