We're WALKING!

This week Maverick conquered walking! He is so fun to watch. He loves walking the length of the hallway. He goes from our room back to the living room. Sometimes he tries to walk and dance at the same time which is hilarious.

First steps. You would not believe how hard it is to capture the event of walking! Maverick just wants to eat the camera. Then, he has no interest in the task at hand.

Maverick got a western shirt like grandpa's. We almost waited too long to put him in it. It's so darn cute. As always, the lighting in our basement is not so great for pictures. We're looking forward to spring and getting outside. This weekend is supposed to be in the 50's and 60's. Seth and Kari are visiting this weekend, so we hope to have lots of fun!

Grandpa and Maverick in their matching shirts. Dad has another one at home that is almost identical to Maverick's.

One of Maverick's favorite games is to take all of the DVDs off of the shelf. He thinks it's the best time! We figure if we let him do it a couple of times, he'll get bored. No such luck yet!

A Weekend for Us

Two weeks ago Jesse and I had a great opportunity to attend the South Dakota Academy of Family Physician's conference in Spearfish! It was an all-expense paid trip we couldn't pass up. Maverick went to Omaha and spent 5 days with my sister Jennifer and her family in Omaha. Needless to say, they did not have as good of time as we did; Maverick was sick the whole time he was there with the flu. Poor little guy. He is healthy and getting closer to walking every day.
Here we are at the Silverado Hotel & Casino in Deadwood eating our crawdads at the crab leg and prime rib buffet. They were a lot of work to eat and they were still too "alive" looking. We, or rather I, was hoping to make my millions on the Red, White & Blue 7 machine, but that didn't happen. Jesse and Maggy were content with their penny machines. We had a good time.

Here we are at the end of our day skiing. Since I am not only a hazard to myself and everyone else on the slopes, we decided I should take a lesson to figure out what I'm doing wrong. So, I signed up for a group lesson. I was expecting to spend 2 hours of my afternoon with 9-year olds, but it turns out I was the only one to sign up. I got a private lesson for group rate. I was pretty excited!

Here we are at the top of Terry Peak. Jesse was pretty proud of my new mad skills. He couldn't believe how much I had improved and my new confidence. Plus, I didn't fall down every time we got off the lift!

My ski instructor Larry and I riding the lift. One of my friends said, "A private lesson? Wow, I bet your ski instructor was hot, they're always hot." Well, I hated to burst her bubble, but Larry was in his 50's and not so cute. But, he taught me how to ski which was the most important part!

Here's Maggy and her 76-year old grandpa who went skiing with us. Maggy is Jesse's classmate. We had a great weekend together. We also stayed at her grandma and grandpa's house by Hill City which was a lot of fun!

Larry and I again.

Jesse and I also went for a drive through Spearfish Canyon. It was a beautiful drive. I really forgot how pretty the Hills are. We stopped at one of the lodges to take a short hike. We were looking for Roughlock Falls, but we never did find them. We're pretty sure they were "just around the river bend." But, we just couldn't keep going on the snowmobile trail. We were sure that we would probably get hit sooner or later by someone not paying attention. It was still fun to be out.

And, of course, Maverick. Each day he is becoming more fun. He loves looking in the dryer, playing in his tupperware cupboard, and just constantly playing. He's decided he only needs one nap a day for about 1 1/2 hours. That's been a hard adjustment for me!! He's also finding his voice. He enjoys just sitting and screaming in a happy way. His motor skills are also developing. He's stacking about 4 blocks at a time and putting lids on containers. It's really neat to watch him grow.

A Year of Change

Well, in just under 12 hours, Maverick will be 1 year old! It is so hard for Jesse and I to believe that. Since our families are so far away, and my mom will be having hip-replacement surgery soon, we decided to opt-out of a party. I know, we're terrible parents. Surely next year, we'll celebrate! Maverick's most exciting news is his transition to a big-boy car seat! He giggled the whole way to Walmart. He loved seeing what was going on.
Today at church he made his first appearance at children's time. When we got to church, we took him up to the nursery as usual. As soon as children's time started, Maverick appeared with an older kid from the church. He sat really well! Then, the church sang Happy Birthday! It was pretty cool. Maverick will soon be the "church toddler" instead of the church baby =( We have been so blessed by the members of our church! He's in the process of tearing apart a poppy seed muffin!

Maverick enjoys shaking his crib when he wakes up from his nap. Lately, his naps have been kinda short. He takes a short morning and afternoon nap-we may need to combine the two so he sleeps longer.

In the hood.

Maverick is riding his pony he got from Aunt Lisa and Uncle Jeff. He can't quite make it go yet.

When Mom's Away, the Boys Are at Play

My New Year's resolution is going to be to try and blog more. Here it goes! On Saturday I headed to Omaha to help my sister move into her new house which is beautiful by the way! When I got there, all the heavy hard work was done, so I lucked out. I did get the fun job of washing all of the dishes that went into the China cabinet! So, Maverick and Jesse spent the whole day at home by themselves. They ran a few errands and played a lot. And, as you will see... So, this picture sums it all up. Maverick is sitting on the door to the dishwasher. Hopefully, our landlords don't see this one ; ) Jesse was unloading the dishwasher, he turned around, and Maverick found his way up! He is becoming quite the climber. I can only imagine what's going to happen in the next few months.
He has found all these new ways to utilize his height chair, especially since he doesn't care to eat much! He is starting to eat solids better. He LOVES yogurt. Climbing again.

He loves getting into his cupboard with the tupperware. I don't think he can climb much higher in there. Today he also started opening all of our drawers in the kitchen. Something totally new for him. We had dish towels and chip clips everywhere. It looked like a hurricane hit.

Checking out the underneath of the table. I know one of these days he's going to whack his head and not be very happy. People said we're going to get it naming him something like Maverick!

This picture cracks me up because it totally doesn't look like Maverick. His smile is so goofy. I think his lips look a clown!

Maverick's New toy

This is a video of Maverick walking, finally, without holding on to one of us. Walking by himself will soon be right around the corner, or at least that is the next 'step' in his development.

Christmas

Well, our first Christmas as a family has come and gone. It is hard to believe it went so fast. More than that, it is hard to believe that Maverick will be celebrating his 1st birthday in 2 weeks! Over the holidays, we had a chance to see a lot of family! We were at my sister Jennifer's in Omaha for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We had to come home on Friday for Jesse to go to work. We then headed to Michigan for about 5 days to see all of Jesse's family! We had a wonderful time at both places! The only bummer is that Maverick had the flu...and managed to pass it on to at least 10 people.

Maverick was not really into opening presents. He would rip a little piece of paper off, then get distracted and move on to other things.

Maverick was the first and probably only person to ride on Grandpa Brower's new deer decoy!

Wow-he's actually looking in the box. Maverick had a great Christmas and received lots of new toys to play with!

Of course, Maverick absolutely LOVED the cat toy at Oma Carola's. He looked like a cat that just caught a bird!

This was the first day that Maverick climbed into the cupboard.
So, this is probably the picture of the trip-not for those with a weak stomach! We were all playing Catch Phrase and Maverick climbed over to Seth. Seth picked Maverick up, put him above his head, and Maverick proceeded to puke right on Seth and in Seth's mouth! It was absolutely hilarious. Needless to say, Seth had the flu within a matter of days. If only we would have had a camcorder; we could be winning the next $10,000 on America's Funniest Home Videos! Thanks for being such a good sport Seth-sorry we didn't have any plastic gloves.

Watch Out, Maverick is Crawling!

Over my birthday weekend, I got to go on a "golden" birthday trip to Chicago with my friend Molly! The trip started out rocky. First, we had problems with our rental car and ended up paying $947 for a compact car for 4 days. Luckily, work paid for it, and we didn't have to! Then, we got backed into when we were trying to park at the Shedd Aquarium. The rest of the trip was a blast. We ate Chicago-style pizza, and went to the musical "Dirty Dancing." And, of course, shopped the Magnificent Mile. The next day I met up with Ahna, Nick, and Jared. We had a fun time touring the city and going to the top of the Sears Tower. A great golden birthday!

Maverick taking advantage of Indian Summer. It was a gorgeous weekend when Carola visited, and we went to Spirit Mound for a hike.

Our family.

Maverick playing with his new toy! Naked, none the less!

Here's a clip of Maverick crawling!! He's also pulling himself up to the couch. Sorry the lighting isn't the best...that's what we get for living in a basement!