King of the Wild Things

Oh Max! We love this boy! He just turned two, but if you ask him, he's three like Anna.

• His favorite books are "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight" and "Where the Wild Things Are" His favorite page in "Where the Wild Things Are" is the second one where Max is chasing the doggy.

• He is the best helper around, but not very good at being helped.
  
• A lot of the time Max is a monster, dragon, dinosaur, or doggy.

• He has five stuffed animals that must be there in order for him to fall asleep (I know, it's gotten a little out of hand) They are, from most to least important . . . doggy, froggy, bear, baby 1, and baby 2. When he wakes up in the morning they all have a great time together before he is ready to get out of bed.
  
• He has one birdie blanky that also must be there when he falls asleep.
• He is addicted (not too strong of a word) to chocolate milk. In fact, just a couple nights ago as we were pushing him and Anna around temple square to see the lights he repeated the phrase "Me want chocolate milk!" loudly and mournfully over 200 times.
• He (like another boy I love) is a very good apologizer, and when he can tell that I am frustrated will repeat "I'm sorry! Sorry mommy!" over and over until he feels that all is well again.
• He adores Anna and is a very good brother.
  
• Max has the best grin ever.

We love you Max!

It's hard to be good!

The other day Anna was setting her dishes and Max's dishes on the table for dinner and she told us all "I'm never going to do another mean thing again!" It made me remember all the times when I was little that I set a lofty goal of perfection and then failed within minutes, (I guess I still do that ) so I said "That's good Anna, but remember that we all make mistakes and when we do we can repent and the mistake will get erased." She asked me how we repent and I said we say sorry to who we hurt and we say sorry to Heavenly Father when we pray. ONE MINUTE LATER, Max came and messed up the dishes Anna had just set on the table. I watched as, in the very same moment, she bopped him on the head and said, running to her bedroom, "I think I need to go say a prayer!" Hmmmm.

Experience #2 with being good. Recently Anna's preschool teacher Miss Jeanna (who she adores, and I do too) told their class about elves. They come at Christmas time and watch to see if you've been good, then they tell Santa all the nice or naughty things you've done. Well, we had a bad going-to-bed episode the other night, during which Anna was too excited for her preschool Christmas party to stay in bed and therefore ended up with a frustrated mommy and a daddy guarding her door, reading his book, until she fell asleep. The next morning when Anna woke up she was all teary about everything and I thought she was probably just tired, but during breakfast she asked me "Do you think there were any elves at our house last night?" I tried to be serious and said "Mayber there were--you never know with elves." Anna burst into tears and yelled (and this is my favorite part). . ."I think I will get LINT for Christmas!" (That sounds even worse than coal!) Don't worry--Anna is on the nice list, but being good is sometimes hard!

Make your own fun time. . .

The last post was sort of for me to just look at during those times when things don't seem quite as sweet and harmonious--okay so there are lots of those times. Like today when I was talking on the phone and heard Anna yell "MOM!!!! Max is making his own fun time with the soap!" I hurried, but it was much, much too late. His fun time was all over the bathroom floor and he was splashing and sliding around in his Elmo jammies. Truth be told, I often, often encourage "making your own fun time", just not so sneakily and not with soap, or the Christmas tree, or Desitin.

Buddies

Swimming, Balloons, and Thanksgviing

I would like to post about our Thanksgiving, and since Anna is at preschool and Max is happily driving his matchbox cars all over me, I think I'll take this chance.

So for the holiday weekend this year we stayed home in Lehi, but still got to see lots of family. We went to my Grandma Leita and Grandpa Kent's for Thanksgiving dinner and then spent the rest of the weekend joining in all the festivities of the Shepherd Family Christmas Party.

That included swimming at the Legacy Center. I watched since there were plenty of people to help Taylor with Max and Anna. (We are so lucky to have so much help--that is one of the things I was feeling especially thankful for this Thanksgiving.)

Max and Anna both loved jumping off the side of the pool. Max would say "Arm UP! Ready, GO!" then he would take the plunge. He doesn't so much mind water in his face, but it does drive him nuts that someone has to be holding onto him at all times in the swimming pool--he's our little independent soul.

Anna revels in all the attention from her aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas. She had a wonderful time as well.

On Saturday Grandpa treated everyone to lunch at Heap's Brick Oven. There was even a balloon man there to entertain us before our food came. Anna ordered an Ariel princess balloon and Max wanted "MAN!" (spiderman). Since it was the day of the BYU vs. Utah game Grandpa was a good sport about laughing and wearing (for a few seconds) the red balloon headress that someone told the balloon man he would like.

And here is Anna Leita and her Ariel balloon. We took a picture because balloons just don't last forever and this one didn't really have a fighting chance at a few days with Max around and Anna loving it so much.

Halloween at Our House

We mostly loved Halloween at our house. I have to say though, that I hated the affects of all the candy (who knew that an overdose of tootsie rolls could so alter my funny, sweet, little kids' personalities--good thing it was temporary), but we had a lot of fun trick or treating and dressing up for various events (preschool party, work party, etc.) Max was a very scary dragon/dinosaur and Anna was a beautiful butterfly-princess-fairy. We're pretty much ready now for the next holiday. Wahoo!