First Day of Kindergarten

Max started Kindergarten at Anderson Grove Elementary in Papillion, Nebraska on Tuesday, August 16th. He was so excited! In fact, perhaps a little too excited ... between the nerves, excitement, a big breakfast his stomach got a little upset! But, after a quick throw-up, he was all better and ready to go. He was a little sad to know that he would not be taking the bus, in fact, I drop him off and pick him up every day. Kindergarten is full day here so he is in school from 8 till 3 pm every day. His teacher is Mrs. Ghazai and there are only 16 kids in his class! Max is really enjoying getting to know all the kids in his class and just this weekend we had a little play date at the park with several of his new friends.

First Two-Wheeler ... with Training Wheels!

For preschool graduation Max earned himself his first bicycle! He has actually been waiting for dad to come home to help him learn how to ride. Once assembled Max had a great time riding circles in our little apartment parking lot. A couple other little kids in our neighborhood have bikes too - they have a blast together. It will not be long till those training wheels come off!

Preschool Graduation

Dad got home just in time for Maxs' preschool graduation which was on Saturday, June 18th! Although Max was going to continue going to Chester Brooke Academy for a few more weeks many of his friends would be taking the summer off. The graduation took place at the local Elk Lodge and lots of families and friends came out to see the kids and hear their performance.

Ms. Roxanna - Teacher for entire year

Miss Misty ... Maxs' morning teacher

Max laughing ... his friend next to him looking like he will puke!

Spencer, Colin & Max

Max E ... Lina ... Max B

Patio Tomatos

This year Max and I decided to grow our tomato's on the patio and we had two different plants. It was fun to plant them, water and watch the plants grow. Here is our first ripe tomato and Max had so much fun watering them and even eating them! The skin was a little tough but, they were hardy and we enjoyed many tomato's from these two little plants. We also attempted growing Rosemary from seed but, one too many over watering episodes made that a bit impossible. We may try again with Rosemary once we are settled in our new home.

Birthday Puzzles

Max received several puzzles for his birthday this year which are always fun. One night we decided to put this together and see who was bigger ... yes, the puzzle is certainly taller than Max! None-the-less he Max is growing soo big! What happened to my little baby?

Choir Concert

Chester Brooke Academy hosted their spring choir concert on May 2. Max has been learning all about music basics including lots of facts about Beethoven and Bach. I was able to go see their performance along with all the other parents in a very crowded room .... and it was worth it. After the concert, the children all received medals and certificates for their performance.

Lego Exhibit

Last Saturday we took the metro downtown to the Building Museum to see the Lego Exhibit. While we were there the "White House" was getting constructed out of legos. The man (can't remember his name) had been working on it for 3 days and had to be finished by Sunday afternoon. I noticed that he had the same trouble as the rest of us .... you bump or knock one lego and you can lose them all (or at least a good number of them)!

White House under construction.

Additional landmarks up in the official lego exhibit.

Frank Lloyd Wright Home

Maxs' favorite room ... next to the exhibit ... build away. The kids had one hour in the exhibit area to visit the constructed buildings and then create whatever they wanted. Then the next group could come in, destroy or add on as they wished.

I believe the lego exhibit is up until the end of September this year. If you have boys ... I seriously recommend this to you! Take the red line metro to Judiciary Square and when you come up out of the metro, the Building Museum is right across the street! Very easy! Exhibit is $5 per person.

Grandpa & Grandma Tippets Visit

Beides having the local fire department visit us during mom & dad's visit .... we also had the 24 hour flu bug visit our home. It was a 10 day visit of not much but sickness! Started with Max who had the stomach flu (mildly and was finishing up strep throat the week they arrived and had pink eye the week before!) on Friday, Grandma got it on Monday / Tuesday, Grandpa got a sore throat on Wednesday so we drove him to the Quick Care unit for the z-pac. Thursday we took Max to the ENT specialist, Audiologist, etc. and now have ear tube surgery scheduled for him on May 6th. After all of Maxs' dr's appointments we drove down through DC and viewed the blossoms from the car (Max now asleep) and ended up at the DC Temple. We had a nice drive through the city and did enjoy many beautiful buildings. Friday by noon I was sick with the flu bug .... which seriously is sooo miserable but, mom and Max had been through it already and had some sympathy but, until you are down to dry heaves ... your miserable as we all know! Saturday morning I had to be at work at 6 am and ate crackers and grapes! Sunday afternoon dad got the bug and started to feel human again on Monday afternoon. Tuesday, mom and dad flew back to Utah! WOW ... what a week! Not much vacationing but, we did have fun together despite being sick! On Monday night I realized I had not taken any pictures so before Max went to bed I snapped the two pictures below. I think for this picture ... no one was feeling sick!

Birthday Week & Weekend

We have had a VERY busy week. Although exhaustion has set in at this point on Sunday night I did want to write down a couple of things Max said today before I forget. Birthday pictures to follow but, most of them are on facebook.

Yesterday morning we attended our stake baptism day. We had 6 children getting baptized and that included having LOTS of out-of-town family members. The services were held in the chapel and then 3 kids at a time and families would move down to the RS room for their baptisms and confirmations. We had two kids from our ward and we are very close to one of them. So we were excited to go. Max and all the children were able to sit close and see all the action. Thankfully they have installed a glass barrier between the room and the font so no one could fall in or get pushed in.

Today as we were walking in to church, Max said to me, "Mom, if dad does not get back before I turn 8, will you baptize me?" I laughed for a minute and then informed him, that dad will be back way before his 8th birthday and that mom could not baptize him. It would have to be daddy or grandpa. Of course Max then questioned why I could not baptize him, and I said, well because I don't have the priesthood. Why? Was his answer to this. Because the mommies have to carry the babies and the daddies get to have the priesthood! Perhaps not the best answer but, he dropped it after that. It seemed to satisfy him for the minute anyway.

We are then riding in the car and Max asked to listen to "Take it to the left" song. I said is that a song from school? I don't recognize it. No no ... he replied. Maybe daddy took it back to Afghanistan with him. I said, no daddy did not take any music back with him. Anyway, he insisted that daddy listened to this song with him and he just wanted to listen to "Take it to the left" ... have pondering this for some time, I finally realized Max was talking about "Take it to the Limit" from the Eagles cd. Once I found which song he was referring to .... we listened to it over and over so Max would know it was "limit" not "left"! Such a stinkin' smart kid with an incredible memory.

More Max questions and ponderings to follow.

Look Whos Five!

Our little man turned 5 this past week. He is so much fun and quite a handful! As Imentioned in a post below he is ALL BOY! Here are some of the things that Max is doing now:

Attends preschool 5 days a week from 6:45 am to 5:30 pm.

Speaks beginning Spanish (taught at school)

LOVES did I mention LOVES legos!

Is beginning to read and recognize lots of site words.

Enjoys playing hide-n-seek (but don't hide too hard mom), star wars laser tag, and anything on disney.com, nickjr.com or thomasandfriends.com;

Loves to play with trains and likes to watch Chuggington in the mornings from 6 - 6:20 am.

Is learning to be friends with lots of boys and girls from church and school.

Max has beautiful blue eyes and lots of curly brown hair that makes him super cute.

For all the moving that we have down over the past two years, I am so proud of Max. He likes to find adventure in all that we do. I'm so glad that I have him here with me while Mark is away working. Although challenging to be with him by myself, I truly do love teaching him and helping him to grow. I pray that we will always be close and that we will be able to stay close in our relationship. Every night when Max is saying his prayers he always asks Heavenly Father to watch over and protect dad and to help dad find a new job where we can all be together.

We celebrated Maxs' birthday by having Justin and 14 other kids go bowling here in Alexandria. Bowling with 16 kids is a little nuts but, I had lots of parents there who helped me. After bowling we had hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and cake! On the morning of Maxs birthday dad called at 6:15 am so he could tell him personally happy birthday and that he loved and missed him so much.

We love this little man and we are so happy that he is in our lives!

Raising A Boy ...

This sweet boy is so bright, smart, cute, has a memory that can't be stopped and is going through so many social growing pains! Max has been learning how to interact with other kids while at school and lately, we have had many "incident" reports written up. Thankfully they have not all included Max and Max has not been the cause of all the incidents but, "boy howdy" school lately has been a challenge!

The teachers will say to me "he is all boy" or "boys will just do this" or "this is natural for boys" etc. "These" boys will break out in wrestling matches at any given time especially if there is an older boy close by. My definition of wrestling is watching Max body tackle other kids (including some girls) to the ground, swing arms and legs and roll on top of one another. Swinging arms and pushing can happen uncontrollably at just about any time. I found out that another little boy at his school thinks he is a power ranger so therefore he likes to lash out, punching and kicking at any given time. Again, "all boy" and "boys will just do this". Hmmm .... I have and will continue to try and teach Max about CTR especially when it comes to our friends and teachers at school. Listening and comprehending is just an on-going project for all kids, I think in reality and for some of us adults too! Mark (along with close friends and parents) get to hear me rant about how concerned I am over all of this but, the reality most likely is that I am not alone ... Maxs' behavior is mostly likely as normal as it can be for an almost 5 year old! Mommiehood just gets better and better, but this sweet boy can melt my heart every day especially when I hear "Mom, I love you soooo much" which usually happens just as he is dozing off to sleep.

Who's Tub Is It?

Does your tub look like this? We have two bathrooms in our apartment but only one tub. Love sharing my shower / tub with all kinds of action figures including Darth Vader! Thankfully, they are all here to keep us safe!

Baby Jesus Watch Guards

This past weekend we drove out to Winchester to find our Christmas tree, decorations, lights, etc. We were able to find most of what we were looking for and once I got everything up to the apartment, Max says, "mom you are really strong!"

Tonight for FHE, we covered the baby Jesus story. Thanks to a friend who shared a tradition with us a few years ago, I am having Max lay a piece of rafia in our version of a cradle / manger every time he does a kind deed. Then, when baby Jesus comes on Christmas morning, he will have a soft place to lay his his head, etc. After I got Max to sleep tonight, I came back in to the living room to find that the army guys were on night watch for baby Jesus! I love it. I'm so grateful for those who are on night watch in Afghanistan. May there be peace among the land tonight.

Spanish Speaking Max

Tonight I took Max with me to vote (always a privilege). Afterwards, we came home and as I was fixing dinner I heard him singing:

Buenos dias
Buenos dias
Como estas
Como estas
Muy bien
Muy bien
Gracias
Gracias

Sung to Frarijacka (sp?) ... I think the third line is muy bien ... but, he is still singing and currently in the bath tub. Love it! Soon I'll have no idea what he is saying!

Halloween & the ER

Sunday morning Max woke up with a swollen face (right side), crying in pain and a fever! So, off to the ER we went to find out what was going on. I figured there was an ear infection in there but, why was his face swollen? Sure enough, the ear infection was well on the way, his right tonsil was inflamed, and some lymph node in the cheek was inflamed and holding on the infection which was swollen and causing the majority of the pain. Just as the doctor was checking him out, Mark called so I was able to fill him in on everything that was happening. Thank heavens for antibiotics and Motrin to the rescue.

I had not planned on having Max go trick or treating since it was Sunday and really we don't need any more candy .... he was happy to put his costume on and answer the door. He must have asked me a dozen times, when are the trick or treaters coming mom? Finally between 7 and 8 pm we had about 15 kids come through. A little different from the 400 we used to get in Winchester.

Today I had to take the day off ... which I was bummed about because I am trying to save all my time for January when Mark comes home, to take Max back to his Dr's to see if there was improvement. Thank heavens the med's are helping. We'll be back to school and work tomorrow as he is not contagious! Despite pain, vomiting, fever, strep throat tests (otherwise known as the stick in the throat test) Max still managed to have some fun on Halloween.

Halloween Week 2010

We have been celebrating halloween all week long! Max has participated in two trunk or treats, a halloween party and parade at school, three trips to pumpkin patches, painted pumpkins for our front porch and ate a yummy scary pumpkin pancake for breakfast this morning! Here are some pictures of all the adventures!

Pancakes with Halloween Faces ... yummy whip cream & candy corn

Beautiful Fall Flowers & Pumpkins

Maxs' ghost face!

Pumpkin Faces!

We saw some pretty interesting looking pumpkins


VERY BIG pumpkins!

Still with the ghost face ...

Really unattractive pumpkins...

White pumpkins ...

Blue pumpkins ...

Having fun climbing all over the pumpkins

Scary tunnels to climb through

And the scariest of them all .... "The Master" otherwise known at Darth Vader!

Tonight we are watching The Nightmare Before Christmas to finish out our scary week! Happy Halloween to all and enjoy eating your kids treats!!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Tippets!

Grandpa Tippets celebrated his 73rd birthday this past week while he was here in Virginia. We celebrated with yummy Pumpkin Pie from Costco and of course his best little buddy, Max was so excited to help Grandpa open up his present! Grandpa received a digital photo frame that had TONS of pictures from Scott & Angela and our camera that were taken this past summer in New York. A fun way to see lots of pictures all the time without taking up too much space! Great idea Angela!!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!

Toy Gun Holster Production

Yesterday we went to Afton to pick up a GPS that I could use on my trip across country next week. While we were there Max found several toy guns that he wanted. Once I convinced him that we had no room in the car for the kind of gun "that the army guys use to protect dad" we settled on the $1.49 pistol. He is on high alert on guns these days since the other day a skunk got in to one of my dads traps here in our yard and Grandpa had to shoot and kill it.... another whole stinky story! When we got home, Grandpa thought long and hard on how he could design and make a holster for Maxs' new gun. After some thought, Grandpa cut out the pocket of some old jeans, had Grandma sew it together, add an extra belt loop, add a little cardboard to help make the gun slide in easy and wa-laaa ... you have a fantastic gun holster for a 4 1/2 year old! See detailed pictures below. My thought was, somehow, I have got to configure this all in to this years Halloween costume!

Production at the kitchen table.

Adding the right size of cardboard for a perfect fit!

Grandpa adjusting the holster with belt.


Ta-da! Finished product!

Gun & Holster in use .... of course only at snakes, spiders, ants, flowers & trees!

Such a happy boy ...

Oh the joy ...

PS - I did convince Max to leave the gun & holster on the table for bedtime last night vs. sleeping with it all! These are the moments we'll miss once we are back in Virginia!