Some favorite pics of Max. Although, lets be honest... they're ALL our favorite:)

Relaxin' in the tub.

Our lil' monkey!

His "what the?" face

He is such a smiley little boy!

Yes, his hair almost looks red in many of his pictures!

Jeremy and I at Mercer Arboretum last week.

2 months since Hurricane Ike

I can't believe it has been 2 months since Hurricane Ike came through Houston. The whole thing was such a crazy experience! I finally got these pics on my computer so I thought I would take a minute to blog about it. Many of the homes on our street were damaged, however we were so blessed to be safe and that our house wasn't damaged. We were without power for two weeks which was very difficult when you are 9 months pregnant! But so many blessings came out of it. We were able to form friendships with neighbors, ward members and even strangers. It was such a blessing to watch all the service going on all around us. An example is one of our sweet neighbors who stood in line for 9 hours at the only open grocery stores to buy ice for all the families on our street. Her husband is in Iraq and she is by herself. Instead of feeling sorry for herself she decided to serve her neighbors. We also had the wonderful opportunity to house some of the missionaries that were evacuated from the other areas. They were a big help and they made me feel safe:) Here are some pics of the damage in our neighborhood.

   

One of many houses on our street that had fallen trees        

An empty lot across the street.

    

The house around the corner.

       

A house down the street from ours.

         

Another house on our street.

      

Driving around after the hurricane was over.

       

One of many fallen trees in the road.

        

The missionaries that stayed with us after being evacuated from their areas. We loved them!

         

One of many damaged traffic lights.

    

A local restaurant that was damaged. Says "ouch Ike hurt will open soon"

         

Many billboards were destroyed.

           

For weeks we saw rows of power trucks from many different states that were here to help

        

"Yes we are open today with TV and beer"...the essentials LOL.

      

My 9 mo. pregnant self during our 2 week stretch without power in the hot Houston weather!  I’m huge!

Happy 28th birthday Jeremy!

For Jeremy's b-day we went out to dinner and I made him a chocolate cake. Nothing fancy but we had a fun time. Happy 28th birthday babe!

A kick off to an eventful Halloween...

A wise man once said, "don't put your wedding ring on too soon after just having a baby". Ok... maybe it wasn't a wise man, but an EMT in my family room after my husband called 911. Yesterday afternoon we were about to carve our pumpkins and make Halloween cookies when I decided to put on my wedding ring for the first time since having Max. I hadn't worn it the last 3 months of my pregnancy, but thought surely the swelling had gone back down by now. My fingers looked fine and I am 3 1/2 weeks postpartum. It didn't go on as easy as it used to but I got it on ok. I got busy doing other things and about ten minutes later I looked down at my hand to see my ring finger swelling and turning purple. We tried soap, lotion, soaking it in ice water, and a couple other remedies but nothing we tried was getting it off and my finger was looking worse. After about a half hour we realized it wasn't coming off so I called a friend in the ward who works for the fire department. He told me to hang up and call 911. He said they will have an ambulance come so the EMT's could cut it off. Jeremy called them and about 2 minutes later we start to hear sirens heading our way. How embarrassing!! Thankfully they turned them off when they pulled into our neighborhood. I would have been happier if they could have discreetly parked around the corner and snuck in:) They pulled out their ring cutting tool and slowly (and painfully) sawed at my wedding ring. I was glad to have it off, but oh how sad.

On a happier note.... Here are some pictures from Max's first Halloween! He was a monkey for a party we went to on Monday.

Grandma came out to visit. It was so fun to have her here for Max's first Halloween. She brought him the cutest little tiger costume.




BOO!