Max starting to try to walk

It's only been a couple of weeks now that Max has decided that hey, this standing up thing might not be too bad. He's been pulling himself up a lot and walking along the couch and pushing around his favorite toy the empty diaper box. On one hand it's so awesome to see him learning how to walk, on the other I now realize that there are infinately more things for him to get into!

Max update!

Time for another weekly Max update....what's that? I haven't updated this blog in about 30 weeks? I'm a huge slacker and most of you have contacted me about getting this thing updated? Okay, okay you are right. I could say that we've been busy, you know Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Max's birthday......what....Max had a birthday? He's ONE?? This isn't possible, where in the heck has the time gone? Okay I'm going to post a bunch of pictures on here right now, hey, if I post a lot that'll make up for the last 4 months right...right? I know, probably not.

Max with his Great Grandpa Notz on 10-17 - Grandpa passed away on Thanksgiving, he sure did love his little Max!

Max with Great Grandma Notz

I'm Cute

Wow it's fall already! Check out my two top teeth, yeah, that makes 4!

And just like that it's Christmas, wow how time flies!

We took these for my birthday invitations, I wasn't really into it but I let my dad get a couple of good shots.

Hey ladies check out the smile...8 teeth!
Of course I have more pictures but the majority of them are still on my camera. I promise that I will get them on here sometime before say June. We should have some birthday party pictures coming up soon if Max ever gets over the flu so that we can have the party. We're also going to have a pool party back home so that should be a good time.

On a family news note Tara and I have some news! Gosh no, we aren't expecting again! We bought a new house in sunny tropical Hawa.....just kidding, Ankeny. We weren't really thinking about looking but we ended up finding one we liked and were able to get ours sold in about 2 weeks. It's going to work out a lot better as we were feeling the limitations of our current house. We're going to miss our little Beaverdale brick but can't wait to be living closer to more family and friends too! We're just getting going on the paper work and hope to be closing around the end of March.

And with that I'll leave you with this... :)

Thanks for checking it out, I'll keep the updates coming as I can. We hope that you all are doing well and we miss and love you all.

Love, Erik, Tara and Mr. 1 year old Max

A trip to the "Pumpkin Patch"

Last Friday we took Max and Brody to the local pumpkin patch, which ended up being more like a bunch of pumpkins in the front yard of the apple orchard but oh well. The boys had a great time and even though the sun was blazing at that time we were still able to get some cute pictures of them. We just had to put them into their Halloween costumes and didn't do so until the end of our trip & Max was either tired of being there or unhappy about having to be in his turkey outfit, I'm guessing the later. Actually it was just getting close to his bedtime but we were still able to get some shots of the boys together on the pumpkins. Here are a couple of shots.

Sorry again buddy! :)We hope this finds you all well, we'll try to keep it updated as much as possible though I know we haven't been doing a great job of it lately.

Love, Erik, Tara and the little turkey Max

It's official - we got a cutie

Today we took a few shots of Max for his 7 month old pictures, and since I can't seem to get him to make any kind of an expression on my own we had to do it a few days early so that his mom could make him smile and laugh. We got him a couple of new outfits, and got one from his big cousin Brody G. (Thanks homie) Anyway we were able to catch a window in between naps and headed to the studio. Hopefully with the small pictures you will still be able to see his two little teeth, and there's no doubt that you will be able to see his little tummy hanging over his belt line! He's just like his papa!

He's doing more each day and he's doing such a great job at sitting up on his own now. He's trying to move himself around when he's on his tummy, but he's having a hard time gaining traction. He liked the smooth floor in the studio and was scooting himself around backwards! He's eating real foods now and so far hasn't found anything that he really doesn't like. He still enjoys being outside more than just about anything else, though he's had to be more bundled up lately with the cool mornings and evenings that we've been having.

Here are a few pictures from today, I may have to add more later as time permits!

We hope that you all are well and we miss you all.

Love, Erik, Tara and the cutest baby ever, Max

6 months old!

Today August 11th, 2008 marks the 6 month old birthday for Max. It's so hard to believe that it has already been that long. Max is changing more and more each day, with many new things he is learning. Today while we were looking at these pictures trying to decide which ones to put onto his blog he was biting on his Mom's finger when she said "ow"....she felt in his mouth and noticed that Max's first little tooth had popped through! He's just starting to sit up on his own, and playing with his toys more and more on his own. We went to the state fair yesterday for a little bit to take Max to see the baby animals, but he was far more interested in looking at the huge crowd of people.

You'll probably notice that his hair is starting to get quite a bit lighter and check out his sweet farmer tan! He's such a good little guy and we love him so much. Here are a few six month pictures for you to enjoy.

We love you all and hope to see you soon.

Love, Erik, Tara and the six monther Max

Miscellaneous fun

So yeah, we haven't updated this in a long time, we know. We'll try to do better in the future. Here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks. We've gone to Maquoketa quite a few times lately and were able to see quite a few friends and family. Check out how little Max looks compared to his grandpa Ronnie's hand. We think Max is getting so big! Recently we have started to feed Max some real food, and he's found that he likes bananas and sweet potatoes so far. He's enjoying a spoon full of banana here, yeah he really does like them, Yum! Bouck and grandpa J went on a tractor ride and of course we had to get some with Max sitting on the old John Deere A's. We were surprised to find out that Max's papa John thought that he needed a dirt bike for the farm. Max was pretty excited about it and thought he could take it for a spin, his mom had other ideas. Maybe when he gets a little bit bigger. Finally we attended Max's cousin Brody's first birthday party on Sunday and the kids had a fun time in their pool. Here is one of Max and Olivia.
Love, Erik, Tara and the motorcycle stuntman Max

Max the swimmer

Well not quite, but we did get him one of those plastic pools for the back yard. He seems to like it well enough as long as we fill it up in the morning and let the sun warm the water up by the afternoon. Of course he has all the gear to go along with the pool (check out the sweet Australian Outback hat that his mom got him!) He even talked his mom and dad into getting in with him for a while. Here are a couple of pictures of him splashing around.

Next up, pictures of him in his new Exer-saucer. We are also working on getting a video camera, you guys have got to hear his laugh! Talk to you all soon.

Love, Erik, Tara and the Swimmer Max

Max found his thumb

In the last couple of weeks Max has gone from sucking on one or both hands to now mostly just sucking on his thumb. We think it's so cute.

He had his 4 month check up on Monday and everything looks good. He's up to 13 lbs. 10 oz. and 25.5" long. It's amazing how fast he is growing and to see all of the changes. His coordination is getting a lot better and he's grasping toys easily when they are held in front of him.

Here are a couple pictures of him enjoying his newly found thumb.

Hope you enjoyed them.

Love, Erik, Tara & Baby Max

A Max update

No pictures in this post, just an update. Max rolled over for the first time yesterday! His mom and dad were so excited but he really didn't think it was a big deal. He rolled over 4 times in total yesterday and today he's an expert. We're now working on rolling from his back to his tummy. We'll try to get a video of it with the webcam as soon as we can. Talk to you all soon.

Love, Erik, Tara and The Roller Max

Max, Mommy & Daddy

Here are a few pictures of Max with his proud parents.
Love as always, Erik, Tara and Max Ryan