Simply put, an update - December through January

I'm overwhelmed. Is that enough of an excuse for not having blogged in so long?

Since Max was born 8 weeks ago, a lot has happened. We were in the hospital when Nate should have been studying for finals, but he was able to postpone one or two of them. After coming home and finishing his semester, he starting packing up all our possessions while I fed, clothed, and nurtured our spawn. I felt bad that I couldn't help more, but not so bad that I didn't have to lift anything heavier than Max. Since then, I have recovered nicely and feel perfectly capable of lifting heavy objects without busting a gut... only I can't lift anything heavier than Max due to atrophied muscles, but I digress.

Nate and I drove up to Snowflake and spent the next six days there with family celebrating Christmas. We gave Max his first book, and we both cried while reading it to him and the rest of the family on Christmas Eve... Go figure. Baby Isaac was blessed Christmas day, and we spent the evening with family eating and watching the kids act out the Christmas story. Max was baby Jesus.






We then drove up to Vegas. Max did amazingly well, despite many blowouts that resulted in mediocre diaper changes in Wendy's parking lots all along the way.

In Vegas, Liz, the kids, and I took Max to the park - a first for him. They had us over for New Years Eve, and we counted down to midnight at 9 p.m. because we were all so tired. The kids had no clue. We blessed Max on New Year's Day at Nate's grandparents' home.




We drove from Vegas back to Phoenix for a few days while Nate finished packing up our apartment and putting it all into a U-haul. We then drove up to Snowflake to put our stuff in storage and spent a day recuperating from the late nights and driving. Because we hadn't driven enough during the holidays, we then drove from Snowflake all the way back east, stopping one night in Oklahoma City and the next at my cousin Bill's house in Indiana.

And now here we are in PA. Max and I stayed at my parents' house in Franklin for two weeks while Nate settled into his internship in DC. While in Franklin, Max started conversing with my dad in a language akin to Wookie. Mom took us to Baldingers candy store in Pittsburgh where Max had one of his famous blowouts just minutes before this shot.

Nate, Max, and I met up for the weekend in eastern PA at his parents' house. Nate went back to DC, and the following week, Kaylee, AJ, Grandma Brimhall, and Uncle Danny all came for a visit.

Nate came up again this weekend. He missed his boy.

And there you have it. We are still driving all over the place like vagabonds. Despite the changes in climate, people, time zones, and beds, Max has been a happy baby. He's our only constant, as evidenced by his appearance in EVERY photo I take.