A few of Max's pals

Max's best friend, and up and coming swimsuit model, Rylee Romney.


Max's idols - Jacob and Drew - the big boys next door who love to throw mud and play rough. A few minutes after this picture all three boys ware covered head to toe in mud.



Max's good friends from the neighborhood - Matthew and Jonathan - who let us tag along on morning walks with them. Here they are playing in our back yard. Note the middle picture - an action shot of Max falling backwards from the slide while Jonathan looks on with his sippy cup.

oh and by the way...

for those of you who may not be aware, we are expecting another boy on September 9th. Just a small thing I neglected to mention by not updating the blog. Here's how Max felt when he first found out he was going to have to share toys and attention.

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He soon got over it and realized it will be fun to have someone else to push around in his cars



So here we are, quite excited and very scared. I hope the shooting below didn't damage the baby's ears - do they have real ears at 18 weeks?

more with Net and James

So, as though 4 months had not just passed without a single blog entry we start up where we took off with another few photos with Annette and James. They didn't come back again, I just couldn't find these ones last time. Nothing so out of place as two English girls with big old guns and a truck in the middle of the Kentucky country-side.

UK blue

Many think Max is often sporting University of Kentucky attire but we know that he is just proud to be half British.

Auntie Net and Uncle James meet Max

Annette and James came all the way from England to meet Maxwell - and to visit us too I suppose. It was so great to spend the week with them and Max took to the immediately - especially James who he always wanted to hold him and loved to hug. His dad was a little jealous of all the attention showered upon James. Here they are splitting a Chinese meal. They both have the same expression - fiercely guarding their food after a long day shopping in Cincinnati. Max didn't mind the mall too much though as he got to play on the spaceship. And the best part is that he doesn't realize yet that you can put money in and have even more fun.



James and Annette seemed to enjoy Kentucky - The highlight of Annette's trip was, of course, getting to spend time with me! and James enjoyed the Lexington Legends baseball game, ribeye steak and shooting guns on a farm with our friend Lyman. I promised not to post any pictures of Annette and James in their shooting glory for fear that they may be picked up in England under suspicion of terrorism. Here is Max at his first baseball game. Annette and I enjoyed the first little part of the game and the baseball snacks but then took Max to check out the other entertainment.

The big 1st birthday

Max turned one on April 4th. His grandpa Lassen came in from Utah to celebrate with him and on his birthday he had a space party. Max wore his NASA commander suit, and felt very proud of himself. His silly mum forgot to take photos at his party with his friends but we have a few surrounding the event.







Max had a chocolate spaceship cake with lots of frosting. We were a little concerned that he wouldn't really know what to do with a big cake as he hadn't had one before, so the day before his birthday we gave him a practice run. We didn't need to worry as a few seconds in to the experiment he was digging in to the cake with both hands and stuffing fistfuls into his mouth. Just look at those eyes in the first picture to see the fierceness with which he is digging in. After a short while we had to pry it away from his for fear that he would make himself sick and also that the novelty might wear off before his real cake at his party.





As it happened, the real cake did not go down so well. I think the fact that he was stripped down and put in his chair in front of a room of cheering and laughing people may have contributed to his displeasure. He screamed and cried and tried to get out of his chair - but even in his anger, he managed to shove several large handfuls of cake into his sobbing mouth. So, though not quite what we anticipated, it was a very entertaining event. Though the cake was not a huge hit, Max loved his party balloons and loved being spoiled by his grandpa...



and to our surprise, was a very interested and appreciative gift receiver.





All in all a good first bithday

Grandma England's visit and Easter

After a very long, cold, and uneventful January and February our lives have been brightened by a string of fun visitors. Grandma came over from England to visit us over easter. It was still very cold outside so we didn't get to go out and about much but we had a lovely time and Max loved having her here. He soon worked out how to boss her around too. Here we are freezing to death at High Bridge - on the Kentucky River just South of where we live. Don't you love the clear blue water?





Grandma bought us all English easter eggs and Max seemed to get right into the spirit of it with his Cadbury's chocolate buttons egg.









At the end of Grandma's trip, Auntie Dorothy and Uncle Nick came to visit us on their way back up from Florida. Max had a lovely time with them at their RV and had his first experience on a park slide - which he loved.