TEAM THEBEAU

Family pics

2011-11-08T20:33:00.000-08:00

We FINALLY got some family pictures taken!

Thank you, Amber, for your patience with my crazy family! And thank you for some great pics (at least I think so)!

Next time we'll work on a shot of all of us looking at the camera...

Yes...I know there's snot.

I just couldn't not post it because he has the cutest smile. Someday I'll have photoshop and be able to remove the snot, but until then, I kind of like it.

To the family: Yes, these will be available, as well as many others.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-08T20:14:00.000-08:00

Maya's school party.

Notice...she's the only one with a plate of food. She was quick to help herself!

Maya was excited for Mama Marty to be able to attend the party.

Maya's "boy"friend...Drew. He's handsome and very muscular!

The neighbors...so cute!

Maya and Kaia heading for the candy.

My little man was content just riding and eating suckers.

We definitely had to wash the astronaut suit!

Zoo Day

2011-11-08T19:54:00.000-08:00

Yes. We are still alive. I'm going to keep it short and sweet. The following are from a fun-filled day that Maya and I had at the zoo. We got to ride the new sky safari and see Nikita (the polar bear). Love, love, love my girl and spending one-on-one time with her!

Maya visits MU

2011-09-18T19:49:00.000-07:00

We had the best weekend with Maya!! We took her to MU for her first football game and some sightseeing, of course. I was a little skeptical, thinking that we wouldn't be able to hold her attention all day, but I was very wrong! She LOVED it!

It was pretty special for me as well. There's something about showing your child where you went to school. Who knows...she may end up there someday.

My dad and Gail met us in Columbia. They got the campus tour, as well.

This is my favorite picture from the day...she looked so cute (at least I think so)! She loved the game and was cheering louder than everyone else after just a few first downs (and there were a lot to cheer for during this game)! She loved yelling Z-O-U and would look over at us after and say, "I said it!". Too cute!!

I think we may have a little Tiger fan joining us for some more games!

12-15 Months and Baby Haylee

2011-09-12T19:29:00.000-07:00

My little man is 15 months old!

What has happened in the last three months? Well...he has FINALLY become a walker!! We weren't sure if it was ever going to happen, but about two weeks ago, he officially gave up the crawling for good.

He has quite the vocabulary....mama, dada, doggy, kitty cat, goat, out, toothbrush (yes, it's more like too-bus...he's kind of obsessed with them...maybe he'll be a dentist), and hot (everything is "hot").

He pretty much copies everything that his sister does. It's pretty cute!

This one is for Aunt Becky...apparently she's been waiting for me to update the blog. You need to move here and babysit for me so I have more time!

We took an unexpected trip home (Farmington, MO) over Labor Day weekend to meet our new niece. Of course, we had to see all the grandpas and grandmas while we were there.

And here is Miss Haylee Quynn!!! Isn't she beautiful?!

She was born on 9-1-11 and she weighed only 6 lbs, 6 oz (Alyson is lucky with all the big babies in the family).

Alyson (my sister-in-law) had the perfect pregnancy, perfect delivery and so far has a perfect baby! Look! She can even smile when she is 3 days old! Maks is the only boy out of five...I kind of feel sorry for him!

Maya Turns 4!!!

2011-07-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

My baby girl turned four on the 18th and we celebrated with a party at our house. It's so cliche to say that "time flies", but seriously....how is it possible that I have a 4-year-old?? I can remember every detail about the day before she was born; preparing for her arrival (I was induced, so I could get prepared). I remember laying in bed with Clint a few days before she was born, talking about how we were so excited and so scared at the same time (I also remember telling him that we weren't going to be able to just lay in bed in the middle of the day anymore :)). I remeber every moment of that day...getting ready, driving to the hospital, family arriving, being scared, excited and anxious all at the same time. I remember the second that I saw her face and I got to look into those eyes...I hope I always remember that...pretty much the most defining moment of a mommy's life. She was so beautiful and perfect and she was ours.

Today, she is smart, funny, beautiful, outgoing, inquisitive, caring, witty, a daddy's girl and FOUR. Things are sure changing around here...we now have to watch what we talk about in front of her because she is smarter than we like to give her credit for. She has taken on interests...dancing, gymnasics, music, swimming and baby dolls. She has VERY strong opinions and doesn't back down easily. She is starting to pick out clothes, the way her hair is fixed, and what she eats (within reason, of course). She's still my baby, though, and I think I'll call her that until she tells me I can't.

Maya wanted to have her friends come over for a "butterfly party" and play on her waterslide and new swingset...so that's what we did.

The cake.

The present.

The birthday girl.

Yes, she's wearing "the dress" over her swimsuit. I wasn't going to fight it.

Not sure what was going on here, but this is her "boyfriend" :)

Happy Birthday, Miss Maya! We love you so very much!

Summer + Kids = No Blogging

2011-07-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

Well, so much for keeping up with the blog! I have come to the conclusion that it's just not going to be a regular thing in the summer. I would much rather be spending the longer days with the family taking lots of pictures that don't get loaded on the computer for weeks :).

The end of June brought tragedy to the family with the passing of Clint's mom's finance. Scott lost his long battle with leukemia on June 30th. We, along with Clint's brother and sister and spouses, got to Farmington as quickly as we could. Needless to say, it was a long, hard few days, but it was nice, and somewhat comforting to Clint's mom, for us to all be there together.

Maks loved crawling around on MaMa Marty's big yard!

I have a picture of Maya at the same age standing by a concrete bench on my wall. I wish I would have thought to put something else on Maks (other than his oversized basketball shorts), so that I could put this up next to it.

Clint's birthday happened to be two days after the passing of Scott, so it didn't really feel like a time to celebrate. We did, however, go with all the family to one of the local wineries for lunch. If you've never been to the wineries in southeast Missouri, you should check them out....beautiful!

Michael, Marty, Krista and Clint

I took this picture from behind Clint's mom's house. It's so beautiful and relaxing there! Definitely different than being in the "burbs"!! Can you see the deer walking right in front of the lake?

We were home on the 4th, so we celebrated at home. Our street gets closed (literally) and we have a block party. People bring their grills to the front of the house and people share food. The highlight of the night (other than the fireworks) is that the fire department brings one of their trucks, hooks the hose up to the ladder and turns it on the all of the kids to play in.

Just so you know...I DO NOT like fireworks and I do not approve of this!

How cool is this? Every picture that we took had a rainbow in it.

It's like Where's Waldo...Where's Maya?

Again, not approving.

Now, this I approve of!! My little guys LOVES spaghetti (or pasta of any kind)!

A Little Retreat

2011-06-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

We snuck away this past weekend to spend some time with the family at "The Lake" (Lake of the Ozarks). My dad, Gail, Clint's dad, Michael and Alyson all met us there for a weekend of swimming, golfing, shopping and, of course, eating.

The pool was a little cold, so Maks was not a big fan. He spent his time eating snacks and crawling around the pool deck.

My girl was doing some "big jumps" off of the rocks. It was so fun to see her jumping in and swimming by herself. She has become quite the little fish!

This girl had a GOOD weekend!!!

This was Maks' only dip in the pool...and it lasted a whole 2 minutes!

Maya is about to have a birthday....the big 4! Grandpa Chris and Gail brought presents for her to open since they won't see her again before her birthday. She got pink golf clubs...and you can tell by the face that she was lovin' it!

It was pretty convenient that we were staying on a golf course and could walk out and pratice with the new clubs. This was pre-lessons...notice the poor stance.

Uncle Michael, otherwise known as "party wagon".

And here she is during the golf lesson. Clint is in heaven...two of his favorites...My-My and golf.

And post-lesson...look at that stance!

I'm not sure what you call this, but we didn't teach her this move. ha!

This is what happens when I leave Maya outside by herself for 5 minutes...the clothes come off and she's jumping in the pool naked. This is the "I just got caught" face.

My babies....love.

I love this binky! And so does Maks!

My future model. She's purposely not looking at the camera, but she's posing. Love it!

Maks got this car for his birthday and he loves it! He will let Maya push him up and down the sidewalk in front of the house forever!

Maks is having a new tube put in his ear in the morning (he got tubes at 4 months old and one of them is not working properly), so I will update on that. We have to be at the surgery center at 6:30 in the morning. This is our second attempt at this. Last week, we got up at the crack of dawn and drug both kids out of bed to get this surgery performed only to find out an hour after we arrived that they couldn't do the surgery because Maks had a fever. He has a fever almost every day because he is getting three teeth, so I'm praying that this doesn't happen again tomorrow. My baby is hurting and needs this new tube in his ear!

Happy 1st Birthday!

2011-06-12T20:24:00.000-07:00

My baby boy is 1!! It's so hard to believe!!

We traveled to Farmington, Missouri (where we are from) to have Maks' party. Nearly our entire family lives there, so it's easier for us to go there than for 30 people to travel to KC.

Two days before Maks' birthday, he decided to spike a fever of 102.5 and not eat or drink. My mom took him to the doctor (because he was already in Farmington without us) and she was told that he just had a virus. He seemed to be improving the next day, but on Saturday (his birthday), he was back to being lethargic, crabby and he had a low-grade fever. But, the party must go on...

He did pretty well, considering how he was feeling. However, he had to be held most of the time. Because of the craziness of dealing with a crabby one year old and trying to be the host and hostess, Clint and I didn't get some of the very important pictures. For instance...I have no picture of the giant cupcake that I spent a lot of time making (other than after it was smashed) and we don't have a family picture...or even a good picture of Clint or I with Maks. Oh well, we do have it on video.

Granny Thebeau and Maks

Aunt Cindy and Grandma Sharon (she adopted Maya and Maks as grandchildren, but now she's having her own!!)

Grandma Susan, Uncle Brent, Eli and Maya

Clint, Great-grandpa Danny and Great-grandpa Eddie

Popo Mike and Maks

My-My (that's what we call her)

The ONLY picture that I have of the cake!

Opening presents...he lasted about three minutes. Then, Maya took over and was happy to do so!

Uncle Brent

Great-grandma Carol

MaMa Marty and Katie

Grandpa Chris and Maks

Maks' new ride.

Also, Maya's new ride!

Great-grandma Carol and Maks

The Birthday Boy...thanks MaMa Marty for the cool hat and chair!

The newest addition to football Sundays at the Thebeau house. Now he can watch the games with Daddy in his own chair!

Thank you family and friends for coming to Maks' party and thanks for all the generous gifts! Although he won't even remember it, we do, and we really appreciate everyone being there.

Hopefully, next year he will feel a little better!

Maks,

You are 1 year old!

You wear size 18-24 month clothing.

You are 22 lbs.

As of this week, you aren't taking a bottle (and you are kind of ticked about it).

You know how to use a sippy cup, but you still prefer not to.

You are a great eater and will eat anything that is put in front of you.

You still prefer fruit and carbs, though.

Before you got sick on your birthday, you were sleeping 12 hours, from 7 pm to 7 am. Hopefully, we can get back to that soon!

You still aren't walking or even standing for long periods of time. I'm kind of okay with that, though. I know it will be here soon enough!

You can now climb up and down all the stairs in the house independently (we do stand close-by) and it's one of your most favorite activities.

Your vocabulary includes: Ma-ma, Da-da, and dog-gie.

You are the sweetest little baby I know with the cutest personality, as well. You have been such a blessing to our family and we have enjoyed watching you grow this past year.

Happy Birthday Maks-y!!!!!

Dance Party and Other Randomness

2011-05-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

Two posts in a week! I'm getting back on track. We'll see...

Maya has a few new obsessions...dancing, weddings, dresses and flip-flops. Apparently, we have moved on from the swim suits to new and better things. So...dancing. If the girl hears a song as we are eating in a restaurant, she will put her food down and start raising the roof. If she hears a song when we are eating dinner at the house, she will get up from her chair and start dancing. She will then return to the table as if it didn't just happen...cracks me up. She also randomly performs what she likes to call "beautiful dances". I'm pretty sure she is trying to do ballet, but it looks nothing like ballet!

She was excited this night because we let her wear her "Jamaican dress" (the dress we brought her from Jamaica), which is another obsession of hers. She started dancing up and down the halls because she was so excited to be wearing it. She asks me pretty much every day if she can wear this dress. I am hoping for some warmer weather to get here quickly because I am tired of seeing a full-on throw-yourself-on-the-ground-and-scream-and-cry fit every time I tell her that it is not warm enough to wear it yet.

Mom, don't kill me for this one!

This is my mom and I playing Just Dance. I L-O-V-E this game and no one will play it with me. And, by no one, I mean Clint. I have begged and pleaded and he refuses. Maya will play for one song and then she sits and watches me, which is not really that fun. So, I was super excited when my mom wanted to play...and then she kept saying, "one more", "okay, let's do one more song", "we have to do this song"!!! What I didn't know is that while we were playing, we were being photgraphed.

And, here come the random pics....

Grandpa Marc and Maks waiting for breakfast. Notice the family picture in the background....Yes, we need a new one!

My babies with their cheesy grins while eating breakfast.

My Mother's Day flowers! I also got a cute sign that reads, "Home Is Where Your Mom Is". Good job Maya and Maks!!

Speaking of Mother's Day....Maya and I went to a wedding (another obsession) the day before Mother's Day. My cousin, Alex, got married in Omaha...by the way, thanks Wigger family for a wonderful time!! And congrats to Daphne and Alex!!!

For several weeks leading up to the wedding, Maya was obsessing about every detail. What I was going to wear, what she was going to wear, what the bride was going to wear, if she could dance, etc. I promise you that I did/do not bring up these subjects...it is all from her. I feel like we might be in trouble when she gets a little older!!

So, as we were getting ready for the wedding, she kept saying to me, "Mommy, you look so pretty! I love your dress and your necklace!". She was also pretty enamored with her dress and matching hot pink purse (thank you Grandpa Chris). Then we got to the wedding and during the ceremony, she would whisper to me, "Mommy, I love her dress (the bride)" and "Mommy, look how pretty she looks" and "Mommy, I need more lip gloss" and then there was the "Mommy, I'm hungry".

Then there was the reception...and she was in heaven! Loud music to dance to, other little kids who wearing dancing like crazy people, and cake...oh, and the bride. She got to dance with the bride and I'm pretty sure she thought she was dancing with Cinderella. Thank you, Daphne, for being her Cinderella! She danced and danced and danced until she was literally exhausted. She literally sat down on my dad's lap and fell asleep.

Why do I not have any pictures of this? Because I forgot my camera. But, I can assure you that it was pretty cute. I can also assure you that my girl has become a "girl" and likes to look pretty and dance and I kind of like it.

Oh, and this is really random...

I found this in my desk drawer and scanned it into the computer awhile back. I think I was two. So, what do you think? Do my kids look like me? I think Maya does, minus the dark hair and dark skin.

11 MONTHS (and 2 weeks)

2011-05-15T19:47:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind, but my little man is 11 months old!

Maks,

You are the sweetest little boy in the world.

You are wearing size 12-24 months, depending on the clothing/brand.

You are still taking 2 naps, usually 1.5 to 2 hours each.

You are eating like crazy, but prefer fruit and carbs.

You now have 6 teeth and are still waiting on 2 more that are being stubborn.

You are sleeping like a champ and are going 11.5 to 12 hours now. Yeah!!

You have yet to walk, but you can stand for a few seconds without support.

You have mastered climbing up and down the stairs and you will climb the 3 sets of stairs in the house without a break.

You are following a few commands, such as clapping, splashing and high five.

Your vocabulary now includes: mama and dada; all others are unrecognizable.

You are still the friendliest little thing. You smile and flirt with all the women and you will reach for people that you don't even know if they are talking to you.

You are definitely a momma's boy (for now) and want mom when you are hurt, hungry, sad...pretty much anytime that I am in sight.

As of the last four mornings, you have woken up in a good mood! I used to wake up to the sound of screaming and now you will lay in bed and talk to yourself. It makes for a much happier mommy, so keep it up!

Here is the front of Maks' birthday announcement. My friend, and college roommate, at http://www.orangetreepapers.blogspot.com/ designed them for me. I LOVE them and so far the rest of the family does as well! (You can see the back if you click on the above link...my scanner is not working properly...it looks much better on her site).

I can't wait to celebrate the first year of you life, Maks!! We love you so much!

Easter 2011

2011-05-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

I know, I know...I'm a little behind. And, I don't actually have a lot of time now, so I'll give you the short version of our Easter. This was the first holiday (since we've had children) that we weren't with family. It was a little bittersweet...nice because we didn't have to drag the kids all over the place and we were not on a schedule, but of course we missed the family. We just went to church, took pictures before we all got out of our nice clothes, took Maya to a friends' house for an egg hunt and I fixed dinner (fried chicken and mashed potatoes to be exact).

Maya had a little accident the day before Easter...she jumped off of a concrete bench, her foot caught and she landed right on her nose. We actually thought she had broken her nose, but she hasn't complained too much since it happened and it's almost healed now. I'm still waiting for that first ER visit!

Funny Stuff

2011-04-19T12:05:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share a conversation between Maya and her Mama Marty this past weekend:

Maya: My teacher's grandma died.
Marty: Oh, no! Is she sad?
Maya: Yes, she had to go to the funeral.
Marty: Did you tell her that you were sorry.
Maya: I didn't die her, she died herself!

Laughing, laughing and now crying because I'm laughing so hard. (not about the death, of course).

Marty: Is her grandma in heaven now?
Maya: No. She's going to stay at her house.

More laughing...

Maya: When all grandmas die, they just stay at their house.
Marty: So, when I die, I will stay at my house.
Maya: No, you can go to heaven.

Thank you, Maya. I'm glad that you decide who is going to heaven. And I'm glad that you didn't "die her"!!

You gotta love having conversations with a 3-year-old!

10 Months

2011-04-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

Maks,

You are 10 months old.

You are 20.5 lbs and 28 inches long.

You are in the 60th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height.

You are wearing mostly 18 month clothes.

You can say "MAMA" and it usually comes out as "mamamamama"!!

You can cruise around on the furniture and you can stand alone for about 2 seconds.

You no longer fall from standing and can lower yourself down.

You can climb up a flight of stairs (with someone right beside you) and have figured out how to back yourself down one step.

You have pretty much given up baby food and you are feeding yourself.

You still haven't found a food that you won't eat, but right now you really like yogurt, cheese, peas, crackers, strawberries, grapes, pineapple, chicken and all kinds of baby snacks.

You have 8 teeth (almost...2 aren't quite in yet).

You are now a great sleeper...sleeping 11-12 hours every night!

You still LOVE Maya!

You really, really don't like having your face cleaned!

You hold your breath when you cry really hard or get hurt...you have not passed out yet.
Oh, and I can't forget to mention your curls...it looks like you will be blessed (sarcasm) with your mother's curly hair.
You are starting to develop quite the little personality and it is so fun to watch!

Just thought I would get a picture of these baby feet before you start walking on them.

I couldn't leave big sister out.

I thought they looked alike...

2011-03-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

...but they look nothing alike. These were all taken at 9 months of age. Maya was definitely a little chunkier and they have such different eyes!

Warmer weather

2011-03-27T18:07:00.000-07:00

Last weekend it was actually warm here (78 degrees) and we got to get the kids outside (this weekend it's snowing again...crazy Missouri weather!). Maya had her best bud Jones over after church. They LOVE to be together, so they were both so excited to get to spend time together, other than at church, that they didn't really know what to do first. They just kept going from one activity to another. Maks was just enjoying watching the other kids run around (and to get to sit outside and eat snacks).

Just some bath pictures. Clint takes about 150 pictures of the same thing within 5 minutes when he is taking pictures of the kids. Usually, I delete a lot of them, but these turned out pretty cute. My babies love to take a bath and it's nice that they are still small enough to be in there together.

I have this same picture of Maya at exactly the same age standing in the window. Yes, my baby can now pull up and stand!! He thinks he can do this on any object...the bathtub, toys, the dishwasher when it's open. Luckily, he hasn't crashed yet, but I'm afraid it won't be long.

Jamaica - Part 2

2011-03-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

Our resort offered a sunset cruise every afternooon, so of course we had to take advantage of that! This is our boat. And, yes, we went down the slide!

This is our resort as seen from the boat. You can't see much of it because of the trees. These buildings are rooms and at each end of the resort are two large buildings with several restaurants and shops in them.

We are so bad about taking pictures of each other...I think

have maybe 15 with us in them (except for the dolphin pics) out of 400 pictures. And posting pictures in swimsuits is tricky, so there's not too many that I am willing to post. This was taking as we were waiting for the cruise to start.

I bought this hat from a Jamaican lady who was selling them at our resort. She had to have been 75 years old. She would tell me that every hat that I tried on was the perfect one and that I looked beautiful. Who wouldn't buy a hat from her? Anyway, I bought the hat because I was getting a sunburn on my nose and forehead. Apparently, the damage had already been done because my nose is currently peeling. I can't tell you how many patients at work have said, "What's wrong with your nose?". Who says that to someone that you have just met??

This is Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville...WAY over-rated!

I'm not really sure what the next couple of pictures are of, but the building are cool, so I took pictures.

These huts are actually rooms of a resort located on top of these bluffs. You can literally walk right out of your room and jump into the water below. Our boat stopped here and let us all out and we were able to swim into the caves in these bluffs. This is also where we went down the slide...several times.

Rick's Cafe...known for a place to watch the sunset and cliff-divers. We did both. Well, I didn't cliff-dive, but Clint did. See below...

Just a rainbow.

These are the cliffs that people jump off of. The local stand on the far side and do fancy dives/jumps/flips off of the rocks. They have built a stand up in a tree that is 85 feet from the water. One of the locals will walk around and collect money and when they have enough (I think it was $20), they will do one of their fancy dives off of this stand.

On the left side of the picture is the cliff that Clint jumped off of...it's 45 feet from the water.

And, there he goes...I have several pictures that were taken on his way down, but he would kill me if I posted them because he is flailing his arms and legs as if he's a little bit scared.

This is a video of the crazy local guy doing a flip off of the 85 foot cliff. I couldn't figure out how to turn it, so you'll have to turn your head. Sorry.

Jamaica - Part 1

2011-03-15T20:23:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: There are A LOT of pictures in this post, especially of the the ocean with no one in it, so sorry, but I like those pictures.

So, like I said Clint and I spent last week in Negril, Jamaica at the Couples resort. It was pretty much the most relaxing place you can imagine! The beach, water, scenery, food and amenities were amazing!! The only bad things were the flights....they weren't really bad, I just don't like to fly.

This is what we looked at every day as we sat in our beach chairs...stunning! There were hardly ever any waves and you could walk out forever and the water is only waist deep, so it was like a giant swimming pool.

This is where I/we spent a lot of time! We had a porch off of our room with a hammock and a big couch. I took a couple of naps here, actually had time to read a book and listened to the live music at night from here.

These guys would walk up and down the beach every day and play music for people. Our beach would let people like this and people that were selling things walk up and down the beach, but if you were not interested in what they had, the security from the resort was quick to ask them to keep moving. They actually weren't that persistant and would keep walking if you said "no" one time. Personally, I enjoyed them because they were all quite entertaining!

If I wasn't laying in the hammock, I was laying on the beach.

Another view from our beach chairs...looks like a postcard!

The neighboring resort, Beaches, had a boat that had wrecked off the coast and was left there. People were frequently snorkeling or scuba diving near it. We walked over there to swim out and see it, but didn't get too close because our security guard told us not to because there were things that live in the boat that might scare us. I don't like weird things in the ocean, so I was fine to stay away!

Oh, and that's Clint picking up shells for Maya.

Negril is known for its sunsets, and now I know why. Absolutely beautiful! I think we have 50 pictures of the sunset alone.

I love the water in this picture...it looks just like a pool!!

Oh, and that's me in the background skiing. Really, it is!

The first couple of days of the trip included some serious R & R and the next few days of the trip were more action-packed. The highlight of the trip for me is seen below. This is something that I have wanted to do since I was a child and finally had the chance to do. It was even better than I expected it to be!

Yep, I got to swim with these guys...Bruno and Miguel to be exact.

I won't bore you with all of the details, but if you haven't done this...you should!!

This was the best part...being lifted out of the water by two dolphins!! So fun!!

9 MONTHS

2011-03-15T19:42:00.000-07:00

Maks, you are 9 months old!!

You weigh 20 lbs.

You wear size 12-18 month clothes, but can squeeze into some of your 9 month stuff.

You are still taking 5, 6-7 oz bottles per day.

You will eat ANYTHING that is put in front of you and you are starting to "self-feed", so I can put small pieces of food and your tray and you are entertained.

I just found out that you LOVE spaghetti!! You ate half of my bowl!

You have 6 teeth (you cut 4 while mommy and daddy were on vacation...thank you for that!).

You can pull yourself up to stand and you can climb steps. I may have looked away for a minute and looked back to find you just sitting on the third step of the stairs.

You have become a speedy crawler and it's hard to keep up with you. You love to crawl over to the ficcus trees and eat the fake grass. You usually don't get too much in your mouth before Maya starts screaming for me.

You have become a great sleeper (didn't think that would ever happen) and you sleep 11-12 hours most nights. You still take 2 naps that are at least 1.5 hours.

You have been spending time with Maya's old babysitter, Miss Brenda, because your babysitter had her baby and took some time off to spend with her new little one. I am so proud of you because you have handled the transition well and have been so good for Miss Brenda.

You will still go to anyone! Anytime someone talks to you, you reach out for them to hold you.

You are such a blessing to our family and we love watching you grow!

We Are Back

2011-03-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

Clint and I just got back from a much-needed vacation in beautiful Jamaica and a much-needed break from all of technology (except of course calling home to check on the babies!)!! We got to spend 6 days together just hanging out and enjoying each other's company and talking at dinner instead of trying to feed two munchkins. It was wonderful!!
Jamaica was gorgeous and I will show you soon when I have a chance to go through the 402 pictures that we took (no, I'm not kidding). I just haven't done it yet because I have been trying to spend every minute with my two favorite people that I missed so dearly.

I didn't take this picture...but here's a preview of our vacation...

If anyone ever has a chance to go...Couples Swept Away in Negril is AMAZING!

Is It March Yet???

2011-02-27T19:21:00.000-08:00

So, February hasn't been so good to my family. Everyone has been sick, some more than once, except for me. As I'm typing this I'm thinking that I shouldn't be typing this because I'm going to jinx myself. Maks has had RSV. It was caught in it's early stages, so it could have been a lot worse, however, we did have to do breathing treatments at home. Breathing treatments on an eight month old = lots of screaming. I finally figured out that if I could get him to watch a cartoon on tv, we could make it about halfway through the treatment without him screaming. After he got over that, Clint got a virus that lasted about 10 days, then Maya and Maks both got the same thing. Maks has it now and doesn't want to eat or take a bottle. Syringing liquid down his throat is not on my list of top ten things to do...or his, I'm sure.

This is one of the nights that I laid with Maya when she was sick. Apparently I was a little tired myself because Clint came in about an hour and a half after I had taken her to bed and took this picture:

This was last Sunday before church. It was the first day in a long time that we had all been outside of the house (because of the illnesses). That night, Maya got sick.

I swear that Maks purposely looks away from me when I start taking pictures. He will be laughing, smiling and "talking" to me, then I get out the camera and....nothing. He starts watching tv, or looking over my shoulder. Oh, well, he's still cute!

And, once again, the many faces of Maya. This one is Silly Face.

Happy Face

Scary Face

Mean Face

and, Ugly Face

And, one more of my sweet, sweet boy. I hope March brings health and warmer weather. Maybe then we will have more exciting pictures.

On of our good friends, Luke Hamann, is on a mission trip in Sierra Leone, West Africa right now. The Raining Season is an organization that runs The Covering, a home for approximately 80 orphaned children. They are provided with food, clothing, shelter, education and of course love.
Maya was saying her prayers tonight and wanted to pray for the orphans in Africa that Luke is with. She said, "Mommy, if everyone would take 2 orphans, we could bring them all home." You are so, so right Maya!

A Whole Bunch of Life

2011-02-18T19:57:00.000-08:00

I have managed to take quite a few pictures of the everyday life here lately, but haven't managed to get them on the computer. The following are a collection of the highlights of the past 3-4 weeks in the Thebeau household.

First, Maya's other obsession (other than swimming suits) is my high heels. This is every day! Every day I hear the clank, clank, clank on the bathroom floor and I know that someone has pulled all of the shoes off of the shelves in my closet just to find the perfect pair.

A couple of weeks ago Mama Marty and Scott came to visit. Kaia (our neice) spent most of the day with us and playing with Maya. Maya wore her out!!

Kala loves our kids. We couldn't have asked for a better dog than she has been with our babies. I was really worried when I was pregnant with Maya that Kala wouldn't be a part of this family for long. You see, Kala used to be an "inside" dog. She used to actually sleep in our room and lay in bed with us (I can't believe I ever let her do that). Then, when I got pregnant with Maya and we were getting her room ready, Kala decided that it would be a good place to use the bathroom. She continued this until we got the bright idea of keeping Maya's door closed...then she would use the bathroom right outside of the door. Someone was a little jealous, but I have to say that I'm impressed that she knew what was about to happen. So, it was me or the dog and we compromised...and built a fence. Kala is now happily outside and rarely will even come into the house. When she does, she is still the most gentle dog with the kids. Maks, however, it not fond of her kisses!

Michael and Alyson (Clint's brother and his wife) came to visit a couple of weeks ago. It was Michael's birthday, so we actually got a babysitter and went to dinner. We NEVER do that, as all of our family lives out of town and I am crazy and don't like to trust anyone else. It was nice to spend some time with them and to have an adult only dinner.

Michael and Alyson brought their daughter, Mesa (a chow chow), to spend the weekend as well. Kala was in heaven. Mesa, however, was not so thrilled about our psycho dog constantly wanting to play. The blur that you see if due to the dogs licking the windows. I clean it and clean it and clean it and then they lick it and lick it and lick it until I give up.

We signed up to bring cupcakes to Maya's Valentine's Day party. I love the way that she gets so excited to make something as simple as cupcakes! I would do it every day with her if it wouldn't make my hips even larger than they are. Clint took these pictures and as I was looking at them, I was cracking up at the faces she was making.

Mad face:

Cute, innocent face:

And, bored face:

And, the finished product. Maya decided to put Sweetart candy hearts on some of the cupcakes, which was cute, but tasted horrible. Don't try that at home!

Maya, Brooke and Deacon before the Valentine's party.

Maya and I passing out the cupcakes to all of her friends.

This picture cracks me up...she's eating string cheese and a chocolate covered marshmallow at the same time. Yummmm!!

Here is the favorite outfit of the month. This what she wears every morning before school and as soon as she gets home.

Love this face!!! This 3-year old has attitude!! Especially when you tell her to stop playing the music on your iphone so loud.

And I love this one...the first picture of the baby teeth. He has two more coming in on top. Hence the reason that I couldn't finish my previous post and was getting up nearly every ten minutes to go get a crying baby. I hate teething, but they do look cute!!

8 MONTHS

2011-02-14T19:32:00.000-08:00

Maks, you are 8 months old!

You weigh 19 lbs.

You wear 12 - 18 months clothes.

You eat 5 6-oz bottles and eat 3 meals a day and some snacks, of course.

You sleep through the night, most nights, for 11 hours!! And, you take 2, 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps!! Yeah!!

You will eat anything that is given to you. You have tried all the Gerber 2nd and 3rd foods. You have also had a french fry, bread, pizza crust, green beans, hamburger meat, strawberries, grapes, mashed potatoes, cheese, yogurt, crackers and possibly a little bit of icing off of a cupcake.

You are such a happy boy and will go to anyone. When you see someone new, you just put your arms out for them to pick you up. I'm so glad that you are so friendly!

You are a crawling machine and can make it from one side of the room to other faster than I would like. We will soon be in the wonderful world of baby gates again. You favorite thing right now is for Maya to crawl around and for you to "chase" her. Sometimes, she lets you win and you crack up if you get to touch her.

You still love to jump. If you are being held, you will bounce nonstop or jump on someones legs until their arms get tired.

You still LOVE your sister. She can make you laugh at the drop of a hat! She will fall down or make a silly noise and you start that wonderful laugh of yours.

As I have been typing this, I have gotten up four times to try to get you back to sleep (glad I mentioned your sleeping abilities) so I have to stop now.

We love you little buddy!

P.S. Yes, my daughter is wearing her swimming suit. She just got a new one and apparently it is the coolest thing this 3-year-old has owned in a long time. As soon as she gets home from preschool, she changes into her swimsuit, her coverup and some silver flats. She even begged me the other night to let her sleep in it. I caved in...she slept in the coverup, but not the swimsuit.

Seriously...now we've been through a blizzard

2011-02-02T13:55:00.000-08:00

A blizzard...in Missouri. I thought they only got those in Minnesota and Massachusetts. Apparently, we can have every kind of weather imaginable here in the middle of America except a hurricane. Haven't had one of those yet! It might be next.

I don't have pictures of the blizzard (because it was nearly impossible to be outside yesterday), but I did get a few seconds of video. I'll admit, the video is not very exciting, but 40 miles an hour of snow blowing is pretty exciting in person. I'll get some pictures of the 3-4 foot snow drifts if I can tolerate the -20 degree temperature long enough.

I'm ready for warm weather now.

Adoption

2011-01-28T11:14:00.000-08:00

No, not me mom...

Today, over at Kelly's Korner, she is doing SUYL adoption stories. I don't have an adoption story. However, one of my closest friends is NEXT IN LINE to receive two children from Ethiopia!!!

I just wanted to put up the link to her blog (with her permission of course) so that more people can read about their incredible story. Check it out and leave her a comment. She is on pins and needles waiting for those babies!! Please pray for their family as they will soon be traveling to Africa to meet the newest members of the Rust clan.

No News...

2011-01-26T20:00:00.000-08:00

I feel like we haven't really done much the past couple of weeks. Nothing exciting enough to post about, anyway. It's probably the 18 inches of snow we've had that's slowing us down a bit. Maya loves the snow and everytime we get more she has to go outside. When I got home from work the other night, Clint and Maya were getting dressed to go outside and play. Since I couldn't go out with them (because I didn't want Maks to be outside), I went to Maks' room and took pictures from the window.

Maya sits in the sled and Clint runs up and down the street pulling her.

I set Maks in the crib while I was taking pictures. I started playing peek-a-boo with him through the slats and he was cracking up. This is what I saw: the biggest, most beautiful blue eyes. I really hope he keeps them! Maya was 12 months old when her blue eyes changed.

My little buddy has been struggling with the two teeth that he is getting. He has been drooling so much that he gets a rash on his chin. If you look closely, you can see one of his teeth in this picture.

One of my good friends, Julie, came by tonight and brought her little man. Julie and I have been friends since the first grade. She only lives about 30 minutes away, but we don't get to see each other very often. When we do, though, we can start right back where we left off.
This is cute little Caiden and he is almost 8 weeks old. He is the most easy going baby I have ever seen and he sleeps through the night! Have I ever mentioned that I'm jealous of people who have babies who sleep through the night right away? Well, I am. I'm jealous, but I'm happy for her because it would be great to be able to be well rested when your baby is so young and it would be great to be able to remember those times. Those early times are somewhat of a blur because of the sleep deprivation. Sorry, Maks, that your mommy doesn't remember months 2-5 of your life! That's why we have a blog.

We're still here...

2011-01-16T08:32:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've posted anything and I don't really know why. It's certainly not a lack of pictures of my children! I think when they are grown and they want to go back and look at pictures of when they were young, it might take a few months to go through them all!!

Anyway, we our first big snow of the year this past week. Clint had the day of work, so he picked up Maya early from school and they did some sledding, made snow angels and played with our snow dog. When I got home from work they were still outside...Clint was shoveling the driveway and Maya was making more snow angels...in the driveway. Here's a few pictures that Clint took:

This is our favorite pic from the day. I wish she wasn't wearing her brother's camoflauge hat, though!

We've a little bit of a problem with Maya lately and if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. She likes to get up around 5 am!!! It does not matter what time she goes to bed at night or whether or not she takes a nap...she gets up at 5 am! Well, this weeknd, we had some visitors (grandparents) and we woke up at 5:30 to see every light in the house on. She gets up and goes to the kitchen to get a snack, takes it back to her room and plays. At around 6 am, she usually wanders into our room to ask for some breakfast. So, this weekend, we had to try to keep her in our room and bathroom so that she wouldn't wake everyone else up because the grandparents don't typically get up at 5:30. In an effort to give myself some time to get myself and Maks ready for the day, I gave Maya her make-up (you may remember that this was her favorite Christmas gift, which she hasn't had access to since) to play with. This is what I found...

Notice that she has the 1980's blue eyeshadow and her legs are covered in pink, blue and purple from the body paint. She has had a few baths since and it is still there!

The kids got some Valentine's Day presents this weekend (a little early, but they won't see Grandpa and Grandma before then). Maya got a racoon hat.

And Maks got a moose hat...how cute are they?!

Oh, and check out this video of Maya and Maks in the bathtub. Maya is playing peek-a-boo with Maks and he is cracking up!

7 MONTHS

2011-01-04T18:51:00.000-08:00

Maks, you are 7 months old.

You weigh 18.5 lbs.

You wear size 9 or 12 months clothing.

You got your first tooth this week! I've been thinking that it was coming any day since you were about 4 months old.

You are eating three meals a day and taking five bottles a day.

You still haven't found a food that you don't like. You aren't really fond of peas, but if I give you a bite of fruit in between a few bites of peas, you do just fine.

You had your first stage 3 meal, chicken noodles, this week and you loved it.

You are eating snacks (puffs) and finally not choking.

You can eat some table food (green beans, rice) and I better have some ready for you if everyone else is eating!

Oh, and look...you can hold your bottle (sometimes)!

You have FINALLY become a decent sleeper! Most nights you sleep 11-12 hours.

You take two 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hour naps.

You occasionally need help finding your binky to get back to sleep, but I can handle that!

You are going to start crawling any day now. You can kind of crawl backwards and will scoot yourself into whatever is behind you.

You have grown out of the infant car seat and you are now in a "big boy" car seat. Which means that you get to sit in the cart at this grocery store!

You are such a happy, friendly little boy! You don't meet a stranger! All the old ladies at the grocery store love your smile.

You still adore your daddy and your sister! Your favorite game with them is for daddy to hold your hands and have to play "boxing" with Maya. You crack up when you are "punching" her. I hope you and Maya don't really play "boxing" when you are older because it probably won't be as funny.

I don't know why, but when both of my babies hit the seven month mark, it has made me really sad. I guess it's because you have less time before you turn one than you have already been here with us. I'm weird like that. Since you are probably our last baby, I will be overly emotional at all milestones (if 7 months is a milestone).

Christmas 2010....Oh, and Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

We went to Ma Ma Marty's on our first day in Farmington. She wouldn't let me take a picture of her because she was still in her pajamas...so this is the best I could get. We stayed most of the day and had lunch and let Maya tear up the house...ha!

Ma Ma Marty got a new bedroom set and Maks had to check out the bed.

Later that night, we played some Deal or No Deal on the Wii. Maya got to pick the cases for us. Clint won...with $1,500,000!!

The next morning, we went to see Popo Mike, Popo Eddie and Granny. We stayed all day and ate a lot! The whole Thebeau family showed up and Maks was a hit!

Maks actually enjoyed opening presents...especially taking off the bows!

Clint's cousin, Brook (there is another Brooke Thebeau!), his Uncle Steve and Granny watching Maya and Maks open presents.

Aunt Cheri playing with the kids.

Granny and Maya

Clint's cousins...Cammi, Matt, Gabrielle, Antoinio and Brook

Maks and Grandpa Marc

Maya likes to terrorize my mom's cat, Richie. He tolerates it pretty well as you can see.

Beleigh and Maya opening presents.

Christmas morning at my mom's house. Every time Maya opened a present, she just wanted to stop and play with it...next time all the grandparents should just get her one or two things!

One of Maya's favorite things that my mom got her was a set of beads (thousands of beads) to make necklaces with. She had to take it over to Grandpa and Grandma Rollens' house to play with it. Uncle Brent (who is Maya's favorite playmate) was all too happy to "play beads".

Me and my Grandma Carol (look at her pile of presents!).

Maya waiting patiently as the presents were delivered. If you have read this blog for awhile, you might remember a picture of Maya in this rocking chair during her first Christmas. Wow!...things have changed. It sure goes fast!

Maks got his first pair of Converse...black and whites...can't wait for him to wear them! Thanks Uncle Brent and Aunt Cindy!

Aunt Cindy and Ryan trying to figure out how to work a gift.

Maks, Grandma Carol, Grandpa Danny and Maya

Look! A big smile....finally got one on camera. Now I have to try to get him looking and smiling!

Maks and Uncle Brent

Great-grandma Phyllis and Maks

Great-grandpa Gene, Maya and Aunt Marsha

Aunt Marsha got Maya an Itty Bitty doll from the American Girl store and Great-grandpa Gene and grandma Phyllis got her pajamas that match her baby's pajamas. Pretty cute!

Maya and Great-grandma Phyllis

Christmas night we were at Clint's mom and by that time Maya was worn out! She had a very busy day with no nap and it showed!

Kaia, our neice.

Ma Ma Marty showing off her new Pandora necklace.

We spent the day after Christmas at my Dad's house. Ryan got the job of helping Maya open all of those presents.

This picture is blurry, but Maya's face cracked me up. She loves the Tigers!

Grandpa Chris and Maks watching football.

Gail, Maya and Ryan trying to figure out her new Leapfrog game.

Maks passed out on Grandpa Chris' lap watching football. He stayed like that for about 30 minutes. It was hilarious!

Popo Eddie and Maks

Clint, Popo Mike, Popo Eddie and Maks. Four generations of Thebeau boys...scary!

Kaia, Karsyn, Maya and Maks

Maya, Karysn and Kaia playing on the iPad.

This is what our house looked like the day that we got home. It was quite a job to put it all away. Our family does way too much for our kids! We really appreciate it, but next year we might have to impose a present limit or we may not make it home. Thank you to our family for a wonderful Christmas!

Happy New Year!!

Christmas 2010 Preview

2010-12-29T20:06:00.000-08:00

This is going to be quick because I just spent the last hour going through the 852 pictures (not really...more like 350) that we (Clint) took during Christmas. I will post more pictures...because there are some good ones!

The only picture of the four of us...and it's not in focus. We had a couple of inches of snow that started on Christmas Eve and lasted most of the day on Christmas.

This is outside, near my grandma's front door. I just thought it looked cool with the icicles and had to get a picture. Can you see me?

Tons of Christmas pics to come!

Christmas Stuff

2010-12-20T19:31:00.000-08:00

We started off our Christmas celebrations on Friday, where we exchanged gifts with our nieces, Karsyn and Kaia. We are going to see them on Christmas, but because we are all traveling and have very little room in the car, we thought it would be fun to let the kids go ahead and open their gifts. So, this is where I would insert a picture of Maks opening his first Christmas present and Maya opening the box of play make-up and fingernail polish that quite possibly could be her favorite present ever....however, I left the memory card in the computer. Yes, I brought the camera, but not the memory card. We're waiting on pictures from Aunt Krista, so I'll post those later.

Since we will be out of town for Christmas, Clint and I contacted Santa and told him that we would be gone and that he should probably bring his gifts on Friday night. He agreed, so Maya left him some cookies and left the reindeer food that she made with Mrs. Claus on the front porch. On Saturday, we woke up to find Maya playing in her room with her make-up (hence the picture above). We had to tell her to go downstairs and see if Santa had come.

Maya got a train, some games and puzzles, a scarf, an apron to help me cook with and some more fingernail polish. We immediately played three games of Candyland while Maks watched.

Saturday night, we made pizza and Maya got to put her new apron to use...isn't it cute??

My little man was enjoying watching the girls working in the kitchen.

On Saturday and Sunday night, Maya and I made cookies, cookies and more cookies. I'm not even sure why we made so many, but that's what you are supposed to do around Christmas and that's what my little girl loves to do...so, why not? I figure we can send some to Maya's school for the kids or pack them up and take them to the family this week. Anyway, here's how some of them turned out...

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!!

Christmas Program, Babysitting and Freedom Fire

2010-12-13T20:45:00.000-08:00

Maya had her Christmas program tonight for her preschool. She has been walking around the house for weeks singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and a couple of other reindeer tunes getting ready for the big show. Her practice paid off and she actually walked out on stage and sang right along without any crying (which is what happened last year).

Maya and Isabelle waiting to go on stage. Isabelle is Maya's best friend at preschool.

Here's the whole 3 year-old class right before the singing started. You can see that Maya is still searching for Clint and I and I was literally right in front yelling her name. Halfway through the show, she finally saw me!

This is her finally spotting me. She's singing Five Little Reindeer, so that's her "5".

Click here to watch a video of the program.

I woke up to Maks talking to himself around 6:30 on Sunday morning. After a few minutes, he got quiet so I thought that he had fallen back to sleep and I thought that I was actually going to get to sleep until 7:00 or later! I got up around 7:15 and didn't hear Maks and Maya wasn't in my face asking for "brepast" (that's breakfast), so I knew something was up. This is what I walked in his room to find...you should have seen the look on her face! She knew she had been caught and she should be in trouble, however, I said, "Wait, don't move...I have to take a picture". After the picture, I explained that climbing into Maks' crib is not a good idea and should never be done again.

Our church group has been serving at a community center in the inner city for several months. Wendy, one of my friends in the group, came up with the idea of having our kids put together gifts for the kids at Freedom Fire, so that they would understand the concept of giving, rather than receiving. So, last Tuesday, all the families got together and the kids filled 70 bags with toys, fruit and candy to give to all the kids that would attend on Friday night. Maya and I got to hang out with the kids and make ornaments, paint fingernails and listen to the story of Jesus' birth.

Some of the older kids who were serving there who put on a skit of the birth of Jesus for the kids to watch.The kids were all so excited to have ornaments to take home and to receive a gift. It was a wonderful experience all around!

Visit with Santa and some other stuff

2010-12-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

Santa was in Kansas City this past weekend, as well as Grandpa Marc and Grandma Susan, so we decided to go see the big guy. Last year, Maya screamed when I tried to put her on Santa's lap, so I was a little worried about her freaking out, but she and Santa are buds. Not only did she get to talk to Santa, but she got to have the "Santa Experience". The first stop was to write a letter to Santa telling him what you wanted for Christmas.

Maya wanted me to write down what she was saying because she was more worried about using the glitter pens.

Here's her letter...scarf, candy and Toy Story 3...that's easy for Santa. Food for the orphans might be more of a challenge. We have some good friends who are adopting two orphans, so Maya hears us talking about it a lot and always wants to give things to them. She told me that she wanted to give them some of her clothes, but only the striped shirts (I guess she doesn't like stripes).

Next, Maya put the letter in the special mailbox that delivers it to the North Pole. When the mailbox was opened, it sounded like a vacuum and sucked the letter out of her hand.

Then, she made a craft. She choose to make a Christmas tree ornament.

The next part was so cute! Mrs. Claus helped Maya make reindeer food. They used cheerios, chex mix, pretzels, M&M's, and sprinkles, of course!

Oh, and of course there was snow to play in.

When it was Maya's turn to see Santa, she walked right up to him and put her arms up (to be picked up). She sat there for about five minutes and talked to him about what she wanted for Christmas and then posed for pictures. I was so proud of her for not being afraid because she usually is!

This is just a random picture of our dog Kala begging for food while I'm trying to cook.

Here we are working out again...Maya is getting pretty good at the stretching part!

After seeing, Santa we made a stop in Cabela's...Maya wanted to get as close to the animals as possible.

Grandpa Chris came to visit for Thanksgiving and got Maya a new game, Let's Go Fishin'. We spent the rest of the time playing Maya's made-up versions of how to play the game.

6 MONTHS

2010-12-06T19:58:00.000-08:00

Maks,

You are 6 months old! Half of a year already!

You weigh 17.5 lbs.

You wear size 9 months clothing and some 12 months.

You are eating baby food 3 times a day and taking 5 bottles a day. You have tried every baby food that is available (in stage 2) and you love it all!

You have mastered the art of sitting and rarely lose your balance, even when reaching for toys.

You are able to get up on your hands and knees and rock back and forth, so crawling is not too far off. You can hold off on that one if you want!

You are sleeping pretty well. You go to bed around 7 pm and usually wake once around 4 am for some cuddle time and then go back to sleep until 6:30.

You love taking a bath and now that you can sit, you love it even more. Maya can keep you entertained in the bathtub for a long time!

You are starting to reach for people, especially me, which is pretty cute. You are still daddy's boy though. You light up and start smiling and laughing as soon as you see your daddy.

We love the little personality that you are developing. You are a happy, happy boy!

Did I mention that you can stop growing now?

Just a question...

2010-11-28T19:02:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had a baby in a jumperoo and leave the room for one minute only to discover that he has pooped all over himself, the jumperoo and there was enough left over for a pile on the floor? Then, when you have used 5296 wipes to clean up the baby and you leave him in the pack and play so that you can run a bath (because he needs a bath!), have you found him with something wet dripping off of his face and soaking wet hair? Just asking...because that might have happened.

O'Christmas Tree

2010-11-21T20:56:00.000-08:00

Although some believe it to be too early...I don't. I am all for putting up the tree before Thanksgiving! Especially when you are having company for Thanksgiving...it just dresses up the house. So, I convinced Clint that it needed to be done and, well, suggested it to Maya and she needed no convincing. Please do not judge us by our Saturday morning apparel...we literally rolled out of bed, had some breakfast and started decorating.

Yes, we let a 3 year old climb a ladder to put up the tree (Clint is right beside her...we're not that crazy!). She loved climbing the ladder more than putting up the tree.

Maks has progressed to the jumperoo...and it is even better than the exercauser! He has figured out how to jump and he can go to town! He did pretty well entertaining himself in here while we put up the tree.

And, this is how Maya hung up the ornaments...literally all on the same branch. We would sneak over when she wasn't looking and take them off and she would just keep putting new ones back on this branch. I think I counted 8 ornaments on there at one time!

I don't have a picture of both of my kids together looking at the camera and smiling, so I decided to try again. And, I still don't have that "perfect" picture, but I love how these turned out and I couldn't decide which one to post, so I posted several.

Oh, and here she goes again! She was right in the middle of her head-tilted, cheesy smile, senior picture pose when she broke out this...

Oh, and here's the final product.

All my babies...even the furry one

2010-11-15T21:26:00.000-08:00

Dress Up

2010-11-11T19:06:00.000-08:00

So, the last post was devoted to Maks and didn't include any pics of Maya...and mama (me) felt a little guilty. Mama Marty brought Maya a box of dress up clothes when she came to visit a couple of weeks ago and I tried to convince Maya to have a photo shoot in her outfits. She wanted no part of it and you can tell from the pictures. All she wanted to do was play with all of the toys that she had drug out in her room (it doesn't usually look this bad)!

"Mom, PLEASE don't take pictures of me!"

Don't you love the Halloween pajamas under the tinkerbell outfit?!

My little girl is growing up and I'm torn between loving the big words and phrases and thoughts that come out of that little head and hating it because she will never be a little baby anymore. She's not a baby now...but, I still refer to her as my baby. I think I said something a long time ago, before Maks was born, about not calling her that...obviously I didn't know how hard it would be not to. I think I'll just keep doing it until she tells me I can't...and then I'll do it when she's not listening.

5 Months

2010-11-07T18:59:00.000-08:00

Maks, you are 5 months old.

You weigh 16 lbs.

You wear a size 6-9 months and some 6-12 months clothing.

You have become a good sleeper (mostly) and you usually sleep 11-12 hours per night.

You have also become a good eater and in the past month you have really started to like baby food. You have had applesauce, peaches, bananas, pears, green beans, peas, sweat potatoes and corn and daddy let you suck on a french fry (and you loved it).

You have become an expert at rolling over and I often find you sleeping on your stomach (which I don't really like, but every time that I put you on your back, you flip right over).

When you are on your stomach, you try to crawl to your toys, but you are not strong enough to get up on your knees yet.

You can also sit by yourself with the boppy pillow.

You still love to stand. If you get excited when you are standing, you will start dancing.

You are still obsessed with everything that Maya does and she is still pretty obsessed with taking care of you.

We have really noticed a change in your personality over the past few weeks. You have become a happy, content little guy who is much more independent. You are so much more observant of everything around you. You will play on a blanket or in the exersaucer for several minutes and you actually enjoy it. Sometimes you even wake up happy and are talking to yourself in your bed. I can't believe we have had you for almost a half of a year! Time is flying by, so if you could slow this growing process, that would be great!!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

We spent the evening at a party at Clint's sister's house. She went all out and tons of food and desserts, a bonfire and some crazy decorations and music! Maya had a blast trick-or-treating! This is the first year that Maya has really gotten into the whole thing and it was so much fun to watch her get that candy.

Here she is stuffing her face before heading out for some candy.

The food was out of control!

Maya and Kaia (our niece)

Aunt Linda, Maks and Mama Marty

Everyone was calling Maya "sassy cat" all night. When she got back to the house with all of her candy, she said, "This sassy cat is going to eat ALL of this candy!"

This table was just dessert!! I only gained 5 lbs...

Just a couple of pictures of the two cutest people in this house...

Crazy mornings and funny stuff...

2010-10-29T13:37:00.000-07:00

So, the last two mornings have been kind of crazy at my house and I'm starting to wonder if I'm losing it. Yesterday, Maya's old babysitter kept Maks for me at our house because Maks' babysitter got to go see the "baby in her belly" as Maya would say. Well, the morning started out good...I got up before Maks did and got myself and Maya ready and then realized that I had forgotten to get everything ready for Miss Brenda because I'm not used to someone coming to my home. I meant to write out Maks's schedule, set out food, spoons, bottles, formula, bibs...you get the picture.
So, I was racing around trying to get all of that done when Maks woke up. I fed him and handed him to Clint to finish getting everything else ready before Maya and I headed out the door. My last stop was to put on some lotion...at this time of year in Missouri you need lotion! I went to use the lotion (the pump kind) and it squirted all over the front of my scrubs. So, I changed shirts and went to get Maks. Not one minute later, he spit up (a lot!) on my new shirt. I got another new shirt and what did he do? He spit up on me again. Well, I was out of clean scrubs and running late, so I scrubbed it off as best I could, grabbed Maya and we headed to preschool.
We pulled into the parking lot at her school and she says, "Mom, where are my shoes?". Oh, yes...we made it to school without shoes. So, I dropped her and her fifty bags of stuff (it was Halloween party day) off at school and ran back to the house (luckily, we live 3 blocks away) to get her shoes. I was only 15 minutes late to work!

Well, today, our morning wasn't quite as chaotic, however, my mind must have been somewhere else. You know how you can drive somewhere and be thinking and not really remember the trip when you get there? Well, I did that this morning and the bad part was that I had a baby in the back of my car when I got to work. Please don't call DFS...I'm not a bad mom! And, I'm really not trying to make light of it because it freaked me out that I might possibly have gone into work and left Maks in my car. It's not lack of sleep either, because my little man has been sleeping about 12 hours a night...YEAH! Anyway, as I was pulling into the parking lot, he started making noise and I realized what I had done. So, he is safe and sound with Miss Amber now and I am not going to let that happen again!

On a much lighter note, I have been cracking up at what comes out of my little girl's mouth lately:
1. As she is standing on the ottoman with a pillow and about to jump on top of Clint, "Daddy, here come the rain!"
2. "Mommy, I am special and tough, but Maks is just special." Maks was crying at the time, so I guess she thought he wasn't tough.
3. As we are driving home and talking about all the dogs that we have seen walking, "Mommy, where are all the donkeys?"
4. "Mommy, if you eat aaallll your dinner, you can have a piece of my candy (from the Halloween party), but you have to eat it all!"
5. "Guess who is coming to Karsyn and Kaia's (our nieces who are having the party) Halloween party? KARSYN AND KAIA!!"
6. Me: "What do you want for dinner?"
Maya: "I want pizza, quesadilla, grapes, spaghetti, strawberries, carrots, and a cereal bar."
Me: "Sure."

All Things Halloween

2010-10-28T20:06:00.000-07:00

We have spent the past few days and/or evenings doing all things Halloween. We made Halloween chex mix for Maya's party at school (it's delicious!), we carved pumpkins and we went to Maya's party today. I love being a parent around holidays because it's so much fun to see how excited Maya (and Maks, pretty soon) gets about everything!

The other night I realized that I had never tried Maks' costume on him, so I figured 5 days before Halloween might be a good time. He looks pretty cute if I do say so myself!

Well, it fits and he didn't mind it too much, so I think it's a keeper. Yes, of course he's a football. What else would a Thebeau boy be for Halloween! Oh, and no, he doesn't play with baby dolls. That's Maya's and she is in time-out (the baby). Lately, she has been playing with her dolls a lot and when I listen to what she is saying, she is punishing them. They spend a lot of time in time-out because they "talk back". Can you tell what has been going on at our house lately??

I have no idea why she has goggles on her head, but she wore them all night.

Maya was so excited to carve a pumpkin! I tried to talk her into something cute like a cat face, a funny pumpkin or even a tiger (for the MU game this weekend), but, no...she wanted a scary face. So, a scary face it is...

He's pretty scary, isn't he?

Today was the Halloween party at Maya's preschool. She was so excited for this party and has been asking me for a week, "Is today my party?". The kids made a popcorn hand, played a bean bag toss and ate a lot of sugar!

Isabelle and Maya. Isabelle is Maya's best friend at preschool.

Weekend Wrap-Up

2010-10-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty laid-back weekend, other than the awesome MU game!! How about those Tigers?! We were all dressed in our Mizzou gear (as was everyone else in Missouri) on Saturday and I forgot to get a picture of everyone.

I did get a picture of my little comedian, though.

Isn't she funny?? Her Dad taught her to do this move. Thanks, daddy!!

We got the highchair out for Maks and he was lovin' it. He thinks he is big stuff now! He has eaten green beans, sweet potatoes, applesauce, and bananas and so far he loves it all.

Maks is watching College Game Day. This kid loves football!! He will strain his neck to see the tv whenever it is on. Clint is pretty happy that his little buddy likes to watch football with him.

Disclaimer: I do not promote babies watching tv and I do not let this happen for more than a couple of minutes at a time, however, it's pretty cute!

Sunday was my birthday...the big 3-1!! This is the cake that Clint and Maya picked out for me...it was delicious! Clint stayed home with the kiddos and I spent the afternoon shopping, then we had my favorite...Mexican food for dinner and cake, of course. It was a good day despite getting older!

Maya had to have her picture taken with the cake as well.

Do you see a trend here? She thought it was pretty cool that the black and green icing on my cake made her tongue black and green. Don't worry...she doesn't stick out her tongue at people, she just does it to be funny in pictures.

Pretzel Recipe

2010-10-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

I'm not much of a pretzel fan, but these pretzels are awesome, so I thought I would share.

2 large bags of mini twist pretzels

1 pkg ranch dressing mix

1 T dill weed

1 T garlic powder

1 bottle Orville Redenbachers popcorn oil (near the popcorn)

Mix oil, seasonings and ranch mix in measuring cup until well blended. Pour pretzels in huge bowl with a lid and pour oil mix over them. Stir to coat. Place lid on and flip the pretzels every 20 minutes until the liquid is absorbed (at least one hour).

This makes a HUGE batch, so you could definitely half it.

I would also like to say GO TIGERS!!! We are pretty excited for the big game tonight!

Some cute hats

2010-10-20T19:45:00.000-07:00

So, I have a problem with Etsy...if you don't know what it is, you can look it up here. When I have a few minutes at work (I mean home), I tend to browse the site to see what I can find. I have been wanting to get Maya a hat and found the cutest one ever. I also may have found a pretty cute hat for Maks...

I can't seem to get a good picture of the two of them, so ignore the "I'm trying to poop" face...I think he really was trying to poop.

"What?"

Shirt reads: I still live with my parents. Ha!

These are the pumpkins/gourds that I got for the kitchen table...just thought they were pretty.

I know that I won't get too many more pictures like this because she won't want to kiss him in a few years. But, right now, I'm enjoying that Maya loves Maks.

We are sleeping!!

2010-10-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

I don't want to jinx myself, but I'm too excited and well rested not to share. Get this...Maks has slept the past two nights from 7 pm to 6 am without a peep!! Can I get an "AMEN!!" I haven't shared much about his sleeping patterns lately because well...they were horrible and there was no pattern. After he began having ear infections, we were hesitant to even let him fuss at night, so Clint and I were getting up usually 5-6 times per night. There were even a handful of nights that I saw every hour pass by on the clock!! I can't even describe the fatigue...I have never experienced anything like it. Let's just say I considered admitting myself to the mental hospital just to get a break.

After getting tubes last week, Maks has started eating better (probably because the sucking doesn't bother him anymore) and is happier all around. He is still a little cuddler and doesn't want to be put down for too long of a time, but I can handle that.

Maks had his 4 month well baby visit yesterday (a little late) and he is growing like a weed! 15.5 lbs and 26 inches long!! No wonder he is fitting into his 6-9 month clothing. He is at 6 months developmentally...he's a genius...I'm sure of it.

Pictures to come soon...they are on the camera and haven't made it here yet.

Halloween shirts

2010-10-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

Grandma Susan brought Halloween shirts for the munchkins when she came to visit last weekend. They both wore their shirts yesterday, so of course I had to get pictures of them.

Someone is teething and it is hard to get a picture of him without his hands in his mouth.

This poor guy has gotten over getting tubes and now has a fever, which I think is from teething. He just can't catch a break, but he looks pretty cute!

Surgery Day

2010-10-11T19:25:00.000-07:00

Maks has been suffering with nearly constant ear infections for the past two months, with no relief from antibiotics. So, after meeting with an ENT last week, we signed him up to get tubes today.
Maks couldn't eat anything after 1 am this morning, so I set my alarm for 12:45 to get him up and feed him. Apparently, he was aware of my plan because he was up at 12:30 and ready to eat. He also got up at 2:30, 3:30, 4:15 and 5:30, which has kind of been the routine for the past two months! We had to be at the hospital at 6:00 and he was scheduled for surgery at 7:30 am. I was so worried about sitting in a room of elderly people (because that's usually who is having surgery) and having a screaming baby who just wants to eat. Well, Maks was a good boy and he went back to sleep when we got to the hospital and didn't wake up until the nurse started messing with him to get his vitals.
We had gone through the whole "getting tubes" thing with Maya, so I knew what to expect (baby being taken away by strangers, tears falling, stomach hurting, etc). The nurses told me that it was time and they took him from me and someone ushered us to a waiting room (way better procedure because you don't watch the baby being taken into surgery). I grabbed a magazine to occupy my mind and less than 10 minutes later, they told us that he was finished.
I was told to bring a bottle and come into the recovery room. Boy was he ready to eat by then!! You could hear him screaming down the hallway. He ate about 8 oz (more than he ever has at one time) and calmed down and fell asleep in Clint's arms.
He had a rough morning and was pretty fussy, but after a couple of naps, he was back to his old self. We hope that this is the answer to our prayers and that our little man can finally stop hurting and start sleeping (we would like some sleep as well).

Football and some new skills

2010-10-10T20:25:00.000-07:00

Clint and I were able to get away this weekend and go to a Mizzou game. We called in the troops (Mom, Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Cindy and Uncle Brent) to watch the munchkins while we were gone. I was sad about leaving Maks overnight because I haven't done that yet, but it was nice to have a day to ourselves and a full night of sleep.

Our friends, Dan and Mandy, who went to the game with us.

The troops arrived on Friday night and were fed a gourmet meal of pizza and salad.

Maya's best buddy, Uncle Brent.

Maks has been eating cereal for about a week now and is starting to get the hang of the whole spoon thing.

I have been putting him in the Bumbo seat to feed him and it's working out pretty well. I guess we will break out the highchair soon...I can't believe he is that old/big!!

Since we were taking pictures of Maks eating, Maya had to have her picture taken.

4 Months!!

2010-10-06T19:45:00.001-07:00

Maks - You are 4 months old!!

You are 15 lbs, 5 oz.

You are eating 5-6 oz bottles, 6 times a day.

You have tried baby cereal and applesauce just this week and you seem to like it, but have a hard time with the spoon.

You are still not sleeping well, however, you have had nearly constant ear infections for the past two months. You are also teething, I'm pretty sure. You have slept throught the night two times and we are hoping for a few more of those nights soon!

You are a happy, alert, curious and nosy little boy. You have to be in the middle of everything or we soon know that you are not happy!

You are able to roll from back to stomach (so we've had to get rid of the swaddle) and we found you for the first time on your belly at night.

You have really started to take an interest in your toys. You can hold them and you try to put them in your mouth.

You no longer scream your head off in the car and you seem to actually enjoy going for a ride now.

You are very interested in your sister now and everything that she does. I often hear you cracking up at her when she is talking and playing with you.

You are still a huge fan of daddy and he gets the biggest smiles and the loudest laughs.

Yep, still sleeping with the hands by the ears.

Maya wanted me to take some pictures of her the other night in the bathtub, so enjoy:

Big Weekend

2010-09-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

We had a big weekend at the Thebeau house! Mama Marty came to visit because Maks had a baby dedication service at our church and Karsyn (our niece) had her 12th birthday.

Karsyn - I still can't believe you are 12!! Clint and I started dating when Karsyn was 6 months old, so I have practically seen her grow up...crazy!!

We started off the weekend with the birthday party on Friday night. Maks was a cranky pants because he didn't sleep all day, so he crashed pretty early into the party. Mama Marty kept him all day Friday and she says she has no idea why he wouldn't sleep, but I have a feeling that it was because she wouldn't stop talking and singing to him!

Maya, on the other hand, had a blast! She absolutely adores her cousins and I think they feel the same way about her. I can't wait to see Maks running around with all these girls soon!!

Saturday, Clint and I took Maya to the Libety Fall Festival and Mama Marty kept Maks. It does Maya some good to get some one-on-one time with mommy and daddy once in a while.
She watched her first parade (3 minutes of it, anyway, because she got bored), walked around and looked at the crafts and of course rode the rides. I got picked to ride the swing ride and Clint got picked to ride the cars with her.
After the rides she decided she was hungry...so we got her a fried Twinkie and a root beer...what else do you feed your 3 year old when they haven't had lunch?!

Sunday was the baby dedication at our church. They start off the ceremony with a slide show of all the babies (and everyone oooohs and aaaahs) and then Pastor Merle (who is awesome!) calls up each family individually to pray over the baby and family.
What you can't see in the pictures is that I was holding Maya during the prayer and she decides mid-prayer that she wants to pray on her knees. She wiggled out of my arms and gets into the middle of the circle on her knees in prayer position...seriously cute...but very distracting. Maks did wonderfully during the ceremony considering that it was at 4 pm and that is not a good time of day for a 3 1/2 month old!

After the ceremony, we were given this letter:
Dear Maks,
When you were just a baby, your parents proudly brought you before the church family for a time of dedication. On that day we thanked God for you and made a promise to set a good example for you and help you learn about Jesus. Your decision to accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord is answer to the prayers of your parents and Pleasant Valley Church family.
Your parents were given this letter on that day with the instructions that they were to present it to you when you accepted Jesus. Today is that day! It is the beginning of a new life for you as you follow Jesus and live for Him. Just know that you were precious to us then and you are precious to us now. I praise God for all He has done in your life and all He is going to do. I would love to hear from you the day that you open this letter!
Your pastor,
Merle Mees

I can't wait to give Maya and Maks their letters someday!

Okay...this is my most favorite picture from the weekend...LOVE IT!!!

Maya doesn't really accept the term "Halloween", as she calls it "pumpkin time". Since she has figured out that it is almost "pumpkin time", she has been obsessed with getting pumpkins. So, of course, we made a stop at the nearest pumpkin store and she had a blast!

We now have four pumpkins on our porch for the four of us for "pumpkin time"!

Bath Time

2010-09-22T19:09:00.001-07:00

My babies are quickly becoming buddies. Maks is entertained by everything that Maya does and Maya wants so badly to be Maks' mother. It's pretty cute and I am trying to catch them together as much as possible because I am well aware that in a couple of years they will likely not be so fond of each other.

Maya was my "helper" with giving Maks a bath until recently. She thinks she is an adult now and has become obsessed with taking a shower. She would play in the shower for hours if I would let her! Oh, and she got the cutest hair cut, so I'll have to get some pictures of her on here with dry hair soon.
Maks has come a long way from the days of screaming and turning bright red when he was placed in the bathtub. Now he laughs and kicks like he has been doing this forever!

Funny story -- We have had some bad storms here lately and have had a little girl in our bed on those nights. Well, last night was one of those nights. This morning when she woke up she came into our room and said, "Mom, I was FREAKIN' OUT last night with those storms!!"

Swings are for sissies anyway

2010-09-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

So, we have been trying to entertain Maks in his swing since the day he was born because every baby likes to swing, right?? And, since the day he was born, he has hated every minute of it. I just kept thinking that someday he would actually sit in the swing longer than 30 seconds without screaming. Well, now that he is a "big boy" and can hold his head up like a champ, we broke out the exersaucer. It may just be an answer to my prayers. He loved it and was totally entertained for about 15 minutes (which is an eternity for a 3 month old)!

Oh, and the pictures are completely out of order, but I didn't want to take the time to fix it. Time is very limited these days!

Maya loves to entertain her brother

Cheeeeeeese!!!

Wrestling with daddy...a Maya favorite

Maks sure does love his daddy!

" This thing is hilarious...why didn't you guys get this out sooner?"

Stay tuned...next comes the jumparoo! Now that we'll have to capture on video!

Experimenting...

2010-09-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

I got my new camera (FINALLY!!)!! We decided to take a walk around the neighborhood tonight, so I was able to take a few shots. I have a lot of learning to do (obviously), but I LOVE the camera and have a feeling that I will be taking a lot more pictures! How could I not with these two cuties?!

Just some pictures...

2010-09-13T18:43:00.000-07:00

Farmington and 3 Months

2010-09-06T17:59:00.000-07:00

Maks, you are 3 months old

You weigh 13.5 lbs

You are in the 50-60% for height, weight and head circumference

You are wearing 3-6 month clothes

You are eating 4 oz bottles, 7 times a day

You are still not sleeping well (but you've had an ear infection) and you are getting up 2-3 times at night

You are finally sleeping in your crib

You are holding your head up very well and can sit in the Bumbo seat and can hold your head up while lying on your belly

You love when people talk to you, especially Daddy, and you will talk back for several minutes

You are smiling more and more and have the cutest dimple in your left cheek

You are very alert and love to watch what your sister is doing (oh, no!)

We took advantage of the long weekend and traveled to Farmington to see the family. Maya did very well on the trip this time, however, her brother did not tolerate the long ride as well. We had a good visit with everyone and Clint and I actually got a night out without the kiddos!

Maya doing some birdwatching and Grandpa and Grandma's house

Grandma Susan and Maya enjoying the wonderful weather

Clint and I at one of the local wineries, Twin Oaks. One of the attractions in Farmington are all of the wineries that are located just outside of town. We had beautiful weather and good music to entertain us!

Grandpa Marc and Maks - I finally got a smile!

Great-granny Thebeau and Maks

Papa Eddie Thebeau and Maks. Have you noticed the look on his face in both pictures?

Alyson and Michael joined us at the winery

One of the main reasons that I went home this weekend was to see a few of my friends from high school and their families. These are the girls that I grew up with and I hardly ever get to see. I had never met their children, so I was very excited to get to see them. One of my friends, Erin, volunteered her parents house and made dinner for us. I had a wonderful time catching up with them and seeing all the little babies!! Unfortunately, the few pictures that I did take did not turn out well, but I can tell you that there were some pretty cute babies in that house! Thanks, girls, for getting us together! Hopefully, we can do it more often!

Weekend Fun

2010-08-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Uncle Michael and Aunt Alyson came to visit. The boys had their fantasy football draft and the girls got to go swimming and shopping. Our neighborhood pool has a splash park and Maya had a blast running through the water and sticking her head in the fountains. Maya is doing really well in the pool and will swim on her own and jump in without being caught with her floaties, of course.

This weekend, Grandpa Chris was here. We spent Saturday evening at our new favorite restaurant, Castaways, on the lake. We had wonderful weather with no humidity (finally!!), so it was a great night to be outside. Maya got to feed the fish (top left picture) her snacks and walk around and check out the boats.

My little man is 12 weeks old!! I took a million pictures of him and couldn't catch a smile. I swear he smiles all of the time! One of these days I'll get a good one.

More pictures by Maya. I came home from work on Friday...Clint was vacuuming and Maya was playing in her room. I think she had drug out every toy in her room and you could barely see the floor. I spotted my camera laying in the middle of the floor, however. I starting looking through the pictures and this is what I found. Apparently, while Clint was cleaning, she went around the house snapping pictures. I think we know what Santa will be bringing for Christmas!

A Typical Night

2010-08-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

So, a typical night in our house these days is kind of exhausting. I used to think that I could handle living on very little sleep, but have recently decided that I was an idiot to think that! I want to have a way to look back on these days when I'm finally sleeping again so that I can appreciate a normal, full night of sleep (like I wouldn't after two kids!).
A little background: I am letting Maks "cry it out" this week and he is making great progress! However, letting a baby cry it out is exhausting! Maya also is getting over bronchitis and it seems to be the worst at 2 o'clock in the morning.

So, here it goes:
10:30 - Get to bed, hopefully
10:31- Out cold!
1:30 - Maya comes into our room and says that she hit her foot???? (she has been in bed since 8 pm)
1:32- After a short discussion and my lack of will power to make her go to bed, she climbs in our bed (still coughing and definitely not laying still)
2:00 - Maks starts crying, Maya is still awake and coughing and I have not gone back to sleep
2:10 - Maks goes back to sleep, Maya is coughing more and throws up all over herself and our bed
2:11 - Clean up Maya, change her clothes, change our sheets, give Maya a breathing treatment
2:40 - Get back into bed, with Maya, of course
3:00 - She is still tossing and turning and coughing in my face. I finally decided to get up and take her back to bed.
3:10- Not kidding, just ten minutes later - "Daddy, something is shaking my bed." Clint's response - put her back in our bed.
4:00 - She is asleep, but kicking me in the back and I have yet to fall asleep.
4:15 - Get really aggravated and take her back to her bed.
4:30 - Fall asleep, finally!
4:40 - Maks starts crying and I lay there to "wait it out".
4:50 - Maks stops crying. I look at my alarm clock and can't believe that it is going to go off in 40 minutes!!
5:30 - Alarm clock goes off. Apparently, I am now delusional and hit snooze a few times without realizing it.
6:20 - Look at alarm clock and jump out of bed like a maniac!
6:21-7:30 - Get two children ready, fed and out the door with a limited amount of profanity (just kidding, I just say it in my head)!

I'm not kidding...this has been my life for the last few weeks. Yes, I am going to take Maya back to the doctor, but apparently they think that people don't have to work at her doctor's office, but that's a whole other story.

I am hoping this "stage" doesn't last long! Wish me luck!

Nothing special...

2010-08-15T17:56:00.000-07:00

Since I've been back to work, we haven't really done anything too exciting because we're all a little worn out. It's also been about 110 degrees here every day (I'm not kidding), so it's hard to get out in that heat, especially with a baby.

Maks has really started to "talk" alot and he was chatting up a storm with me when I took this picture. He is 10 weeks old now!! I can't believe it!

Maya and I doing a P90X video. This is definitely not the most flattering picture, but I thought it was so cute when it was happening. Maya mimicks everything that we do and she so badly wanted to do the yoga part of this video with me. Clint must have thought it was cute too because he started snapping pictures.

Maya has recently started wanting to sleep in our bed. I can't remember more than a couple of times since she was born that she slept in our bed. She never wanted to and she would cry until we put her in her own bed (weird, I know). Well, over the past couple of weeks, she comes into our room almost every night once, twice, sometimes three times for no apparent reason. We have been told that this sometimes happens with the older sibling when a baby is born. We usually don't give in to her, but we did this time and it's pretty cute.

We did make it out to dinner with some friends of ours last weekend. This is Karla and her daughter Ella. Castaways is a restaurant on a boat dock at Smithville Lake. It's a different feeling when you are eating dinner and the ground is moving under you!

This is Maya watching the band at Castaways. She was singing and dancing to the music, but got a little shy when the camera was on her.

My first video on the blog! It's not great, but I did get Maks "talking". It's hard to hear because Maya insisted on having the music on for him.

Pictures by Maya

2010-08-15T17:43:00.001-07:00

Maya has become obsessed with taking pictures! She got a disposable camera for her birthday and took all of the pictures within a few minutes. Now, she uses my camera and takes pictures of things around the house. I decided to show them off rather than delete them this time.

Maya's favorite cartoon...Dora.

She often takes pictures while I'm making dinner. I give in and let her use the camera because it's a lot easier to have her entertained than to try to cook while she is right under my feet. This time she was helping me with dinner and taking pictures. This is the lettuce that she tore up for salads.

A self-portrait

Again, helping me make dinner. I just noticed that I still have on my scubs. Sometimes things are so crazy in the evening that it is 8 or 9 o'clock before I even realize that I haven't changed clothes. At least they are comfortable!!

2 Months

2010-08-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

Maks you are two months old today.

You weigh 12 1/2 pounds.

You are eating 4 oz bottles.

You are getting up once at night to eat and usually one more time for your binky and some cuddling.

You are able to roll from your back onto your right side.

You have been going to Miss Amber's for one week now and you are adjusting well to the new routine.

You have started smiling and "talking" a lot. You especially like to smile and "talk" to your daddy!

You are starting to like taking a bath and have taken several baths with Maya. She likes to help give you a bath.

You have taken your first road trip and went to Farmington. You did really well in the car and only required one stop each way. You were able to meet almost everyone in the family.

I think he's got a future...

We've been having some crazy weather here in Kansas City lately. This is a storm that came through the other night. It was a funnel cloud that didn't spin!! We stood outside like crazy people and watched it go right over our house.

HELP!

2010-08-01T19:56:00.001-07:00

Does anyone out there know how to change the heading image size? Apparently, the template I had was outdated and now I can't upload a picture that fits. I have been working on this for an hour and am about to throw this computer against the wall!

Random

2010-07-30T14:17:00.000-07:00

1. Please ignore the giant picture of Maks...I can't get it to fit right and haven't had time to mess with it.
2. Do you like the new background? It was called "Brooke", so I had to use it!
3. I need sleep...a lot of sleep!

Back to Work...

2010-07-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

So, I returned to work yesterday after being off for 3 months. After 3 months off, I had pretty much decided that I didn't ever want to return to work again, but I got over it and decided to think positively about the whole situation. Everything went as well as it could go...I was able to get Maya, Maks and myself ready in record time and without any major meltdowns. I dropped Maya off at preschool and Maks off at Miss Amber's house and still had plenty of time before my first patient. I did shed a few tears before and after dropping off Maks, but that was to be expected. During lunch, I was even able to go see Maks (he is being watched close to my workplace) and feed him.

That is when things got interesting. Maks is being breastfed, so I have to "do my thing" (that's how they refer to it at work) at work. Well, I have an office in the clinic that I use while "doing my thing". It has one of those doors that you lock and then when you open the door, it should unlock. Well, apparently it doesn't. One of my co-workers decided to shut the door when working with a patient and when I attempted to get back into my office to "do my thing", the door was locked and no one was in there. You might think that this is not a big deal because there must be a key in the building. Oh yes, there was a key in the building and it was locked in a file cabinet and the only person that had the key worked in another office an hour away. Not only could I not "do my thing", but my purse and more importantly my car keys were in this office. I'm not normally the crazy, panicky kind of person, but I started to get a little worried at this point. Then I had a brilliant idea....I can just go over and feed Maks because I don't have any more patients coming in today. Then I had another thought...No, I can't....because my freakin' keys are locked in my office. To make a long story short, my boss (who had the keys) left work early and brought them to me later that afternoon and by the time he got there, I was really ready to "do my thing"!!

So, then I leave work and race off to get Maks. I headed toward the babysitter's house and upon seeing a freakin' long line of traffic I realize that I had gone the wrong way. Now it's not normally the wrong way, but they are doing construction in this area and have taken a four lane road down to one lane and that doesn't work well at 5 pm! I had intended to go around this area and was now stuck in the middle of a long line of non-moving traffic. I finally was able to turn around and get out of the mess and what should have taken me 6 or 7 minutes took about 30 minutes. I finally got my little man and headed home.

Lesson of the day...pay attention and make sure you have key before you lock the door!!!

Farmington

2010-07-25T19:08:00.001-07:00

We traveled to Farmington this past week to get Maya after her trip to Florida and to show off the newest addition. I can definitely say that we missed Maya a lot more than she missed us!! She was pretty excited to see us when she got there, but I think she would have turned around and went right back to Florida if she could have. I asked her what she brought me from Florida and she said, "Nothing, but I'm going back so I'll get you something next time." Ha...she's not going anywhere for awhile!!

We were in Farmington for a week and were able to take our time and visit with everyone (nearly every relative that Clint and I have are in the same town), which was nice since we are usually rushed to see everyone. Maya had a big week while we were there...she turned 3 (what?!), got to ride horses, went swimming, went to the waterpark and spent the night with both grandmas.

Just showing off his cool shirt

And another cool shirt...for those of you that don't know, Clint likes to spell his name "Tebo"

Aunt Alyson and Maya cheesing it up

Maya celebrating her birthday with Grandpa Marc and Grandma Susan

Great-grandma Phyllis holding Maks for the first time.

Maya and her Dora birthday cake. She was extremely grouchy at her party and wouldn't even eat her cake or any dinner. I was getting a little frustrated with her because she wasn't very friendly or cooperative during the party. We found out later that she had a temperature of 100 degrees and I felt guilty about being mad at her. Her fever broke that night and she was fine the next day. I think she was just exhausted!

Maks found a place to pass out during Maya's birthday party...still sleeping with his arms up and fists clenched. He is getting difficult to put to sleep because as soon as you lay him down, he puts his hands in his face and wakes himself up...ahhh!!

Maya got a Dora bike for her birthday and she was so excited to ride it. Uncle Michael tried to show her how to ride it, but if you look closely, you can see that she is crying. Again...exhausted and sick. She has since almost mastered riding the "big girl" bike.

I just thought this picture was funny...she thinks she's 2o years old.

Papa Mike took Maya to ride horses one day while we were visiting. Maya was pretty much unsure of the horses the entire time, but she did get on and ride with Clint.

Maks' first bath that he enjoyed...in grandma's sink!

We were able to go to the Cardinal game with Michael and Alyson while we were there. It was very nice to have an entire afternoon and evening to ourselves, but it sure was hard to leave Maks for that long. I don't know what I'm going to do next week!

Need I say more...he's a Thebeau!

Birth announcement

2010-07-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

We had some picture taken of Maks and ordered his birth announcements (finally!). You can view it here: PhotoProduct. I made Maya's birth announcements and it literally took me three weeks to finish them, so I decided this was the easier route to take. I'm so excited to see them...I should have the any day now.

Missing Maya

2010-07-14T10:00:00.001-07:00

Our baby girl is in Destin, FL this week with Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandma and Grandpa and her Aunt and Uncle. They had originally thought that they may not be able to go on the trip due to the oil spill, however, my mom has said that the beaches are spotless and the water is clean!

Maya is having a blast and we are so glad that she was able to go because she LOVES the beach, however, we are really starting to miss her. She calls us every day and tells us how much fun she is having swimming, making sand castles, etc. Tonight they are going on a boat ride out on the ocean to see dolphins, so I'm looking forward to hearing about that. She told me last night that she saw people getting married on the beach and she wants to see pictures of Clint and I (we got married on the beach) when she comes home.

We miss you My-My and can't wait to see you!

Picture of the beautiful beaches of Destin

And, of course, a picture of Maks. He is almost six weeks old....what?!...how has it been six weeks? He is definitely growing and looks so much older now. He is very alert and has smiled at both Clint and I just in the last couple of days. He is sleeping like a champ and is only getting up one time to eat and sometimes one time just to get his binky. I got almost five straight hours of sleep last night for the first time since March (I never slept at the end of the pregnancy)!!! I only have two more weeks off of work and I'm not sure how I'm going to leave my little guy...maybe we'll win the lottery before then!

Happy 32nd Birthday, Happy One Month Birthday and Happy 4th!

2010-07-07T07:06:00.001-07:00

We had an eventful week last week...Clint had a birthday, Maks turned one month old and we celebrated the 4th.

Maya was not happy about posing for pictures

This is the only picture that I got from Clint's birthday...he does not like to have his picture taken, so I got a picture of his ice cream cake...yum!!

Clint and Maks enjoying the 4th of July festivities. We spent the evening with some good friends of ours, Jason and Wendy Rust and their kids.

Claire, Sophie and Maya eating blueberries...or playing with blueberries

Maya and Claire lighting sparklers. Maya was the first one to want to try it and the last one to actually hold a sparkler.

Maks was watching the fireworks in the neighborhood.

I was on the phone with my mom and Maya was on her phone with my mom as well. It was a funny conversation because she would repeat everything that I said as if she was really talking to her grandma.

Maks - You are one month old.

You are 10 lbs, 21 1/2 inches long.

You are sleeping better (not great), but you did have a 4 1/2 hour stretch last night and only got up once. You are no longer sleeping with me (yeah!).

You are becoming more alert by the day and are able to follow objects in front of you. You definitely respond to mommy and daddy's voices.

You love to be outside.

In your first month, you have met all of your grandparents and most of your aunts and uncles. You have been out to eat several times and have been shopping a couple of times.

You have been to two swim meets to see your cousins.

You have been an absolute joy and we are so happy to have you join the family. We look forward to watching you grow...just don't do it too fast!

3 Weeks

2010-06-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind with these pictures, as these were taken when Maks was 3 weeks old. He is starting to stay awake for longer periods of time and he is starting to see more objects. He does continue to want to sleep with me, but we are working on that.

We had some company this weekend. Michael and Alyson came to meet Maks! Aunt Alyson enjoyed holding Maks.

This picture cracks me up...I wish I knew what he was thinking!

Almost a smile...

Room updates

2010-06-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

Not much is new here. We are struggling with Maks' new interest in only sleeping in our bed at night. He does fine during the day napping in the pack n' play or in the swing, however, at night he has decided that he will not sleep anywhere except in our bed next to me. We never had this problem with Maya and don't want to encourage this with Maks, so if anyone has any advice, let me know.

I just realized that I had never posted updated pics of Maya and Maks' rooms.

And, of course, a picture of my little man. He is 2 1/2 weeks today. Does he look older?

Rainbows, Big Sister and Bathtime

2010-06-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, Maks will be two weeks old and I can't believe it!! Time is flying by!! There's not too much going on in the Thebeau house, other than taking care of kiddos. Last night Clint walked outside after we had a storm and this is what he saw:

It's kind of hard to tell from the pictures, but there was a double rainbow and we could see both ends of it. Maya had just gone to bed, but we had to get her up to see the rainbow (because she's a little obsessed). Big mistake - she did not want to go back to bed and had to tell the rainbow "good night" several times.

Maya LOVES to hold Maks! She does have to be reminded to not get in his face, as she likes to put her face right on his and talk to him. He doesn't really like it. Maya continues to enjoy going to get diapers, wipes, blankets, etc for Maks and is a big help to mommy and daddy!! You may be wondering after seeing Maya and Maks right next to each other if I have had Maks out in the sun. Maks was born with quite a tan!! He is literally twice as dark as I am (not that I am dark at all right now)!!

Maks has had a few baths now and still is not pleased with this particular activity. This is pretty much what he looks like from start to finish.

As soon as he is wrapped in a towel and held, he looks like this.

Week One

2010-06-15T11:31:00.001-07:00

We have survived the first week with two children and are on somewhat of a schedule now. (You wouldn't know it by how much I've been able to post!) Everyone is doing great...I have almost completely recovered, Maks is eating and sleeping like a champ, Maya is not rebelling (yet) and Clint is enjoying the newest addition to the family.

Maks' favorite sleeping position - with both arms up and fists clenched.

Papa Mike came to visit this weekend.

Grandpa Chris came as well.

Maya really enjoyed Grandpa Chris' attention while he was here. They went on several "walks" where Maya got to drive her jeep and he had to chase her.

We went out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant (Los Compas on the square in Liberty...yum!!) which is located next to this fountain. After we eat, Maya always requests to go to the fountain to "put her toes in" and "throw money". So, here she is posing in front of the fountain.

We're Home

2010-06-08T09:56:00.000-07:00

We have made it home and are settled in, somewhat. My mom (who has been a huge help) is leaving today, so we'll see how we do on our own! Maks had his first visit with the pediatrician this morning and he is doing wonderfully. He certainly did pee and poop all over the table while the doctor was trying to examine him! Apparently he wanted to show off his skills.

Maya and Maks at the hospital.

Kaia (our neice) and Maks

Karsyn (our neice) and Maks

Maks' first car ride

Hanging out with Grandpa Danny in their matching polos.

Maya and I when we got home from the hospital. She said to me right before this picture, "Mommy, I am SO glad you are home!" Break my heart!

Grandma Susan and Maks

"Feed me!!!"

Maya and my mom were supposed to go to the pool yesterday, but it kept looking like it was going to rain. Eventually the sun came out and Maya decided that she would like to play in her pool, so this is what she did all day yesterday.

Four days old and still sleeping, sleeping, sleeping.

More Maks

2010-06-05T14:32:00.001-07:00

Maks is doing wonderful! He is eating very well and LOVES to sleep! Yeah, I know...that probably won't last long. He has had a big day and has been checked by the pediatrician (all is well), had a hearing test (and passed), got pictures taken and had visits from the lactation nurses.

Maks is exactly one day old!!

Enjoying a visit with Grandma Susan and Granpa Danny.

Having a hearing test.

Sleep, sleep and more sleep

Maks Asher Thebeau

2010-06-04T16:00:00.001-07:00

Our beautiful baby boy arrived today!! I was induced around 7:45 this morning and had the easiest delivery that I think you can have. Maks made his debut at 11:51 am and he was 20 inches long and 9 lbs, 1 oz! Yes, he is a chunky one!! No wonder I wasn't able to walk more than 10 steps this week! We've had lots of visitors and are enjoying some quiet time right now.

Maya giving Maks and I a hug right before he was born.

About 5 minutes after birth.

Maya was in awe! She loves her brother!

Proud mommy and daddy!

After a bath...he finally gets to sleep.

There will be lots more to come. I just want to hold him right now, so I'm going to get off of here. Thank you all for your well wishes!

One week...or less!!!!

2010-05-28T10:52:00.000-07:00

So, I had an appointment this morning and I am now scheduled for induction on June 4th at 7 am!! I am currently at 5 cm and my doctor said that she doesn't think that I will make it to next Friday...but I've heard that story before and I'm not going to get my hopes up. Another interesting thing is that my belly now measures 33 cm (down 3 cm from last week). The doctor said that Maks is as low as he can get and it causes the belly to measure smaller because he is "in my hips, not my belly". It's pretty exciting to know that I will get to meet my little man in a week...or less!

In other news, Maya has come down with a bug. I've kept her home from preschool the last two days. Hopefully, she will get over it before Maks arrives because I want her to be able to come and see him at the hospital and I would like to not have to worry about a sick kid while I'm birthing another kid!

Happy Birthday Jones!!

2010-05-18T14:27:00.001-07:00

Maya was invited to spend the morning with her best bud, Jones, and his cousin Barrett at the Fun Run for Jones' 3rd birthday. Jones and Maya grew up together at the same babysitter's house and Jones is the son of our good friends, Luke and Rachel Hamann. Jones and Maya left Miss Brenda's house last summer to start preschool (at different schools), however, they remain good friends. When they get together, they pick up where they left off, just like they are together every day.

The Fun Run (huge room with blow up slides, bounce houses, etc) was a hit and the kids played until they were so tired that they asked to go home.

Thanks Jones for inviting Maya to your party...she had a blast!!