He's Here!

Max is here! Well, actually, he arrived two weeks ago on July 15th. But I am just now getting around to posting pictures. He is adorable, of course. He was 2 1/2 weeks early and already over 8 pounds....so glad he came early! Ramona loves him and loves being a big sister. The biggest problem I've had with her is that she doesn't want to stop touching and kissing him. And she doesn't understand why he sleeps so much. One of the funniest moments I've had with her recently is that she is struggling to understand breastfeeding. She has decided that Max eats boobs. The other day, I was getting ready to feed Max and asking her if she was hungry for breakfast and she gave me the weirdest look and shook her head while doing a double take at my breast. Poor thing, I should have been more clear. "Would you like some pancakes, Ramona?" Well, I am loving every minute of being Max's mom. Turns out that infants are easy, it's the terrible twos that are super-hard!

I hate that this picture is fuzzy. If you look really close, you can see his dimples!

Sweet Boy

Big Sister is checking out the new baby.

Look how much he loves me.

8 pounds!

That's my boy!

This is the first time I held him, seconds after he came out.

Happy 4th of July!

We spent July 4th at my parent's house this year. They are helping me relax so that little Max doesn't come out early. We popped fireworks and ate watermelon, hot dogs, chips and other holiday favorites. Ramona loved the fireworks (and the fact that she got to stay up late). Here are a few pictures of our day!

Mimi is helping Ramona throw poppers....

not sure of the exact name of them...

they are small and white and make a loud POP when you throw them...

you know what I'm talking about!

Some of the fireworks were too loud!

Yummy!

Wow!

Pretty!

Quick Picture Update

We visited another farm on Monday and had so much fun! So, of course, I have to share a few pictures. The farm only had a few animals (bunnies, a chicken, goats, a donkey and horses) but it was a blast! I didn't post all the pictures, it was surprisingly hard to get good pictures of her and the animals.

This photo does not capture her true feelings about riding horses.

She hysterically laughed the entire time, except when I took pictures.

Playing with Ambree.

Watching the other kids ring a bell non-stop for 30 minutes.

........

And then today she dressed herself for the first time.

Inside out...

...and backwards!

That's it for now. I told you it would be quick!

Sweet Berry Farm

We visited Sweet Berry Farms again this year. Ramona had a blast picking (and eating) strawberries, or "Dobbies" as she calls them. This farm is great! If you have never been, you pick your own berries, there is a petting zoo, homemade ice cream and lemonade...pretty much just some good clean fun! Well, except for the clean part. I recommend bringing a change of clothes for the kiddos. After Ramona ate her weight in strawberries, she was pretty filthy. Here are a few pictures of our field trip.

This is the first time I have ever seen a goat climb a tree.

Is this normal?

Ramona's favorite part was feeding the donkeys strawberries. Hopefully that is not bad for them, because they couldn't get enough!

And now, I have a million strawberries in my freezer.

Ramona's 2nd Birthday and Easter!

Ramona is TWO! She's getting so big...SO fast. We had a blast at her birthday party. It was monkey themed, of course. I made her cake again and it turned out great! With only a brief incident when his head almost broke off. But icing covered that nicely. She had so much fun surrounded by friends and family...and did I mention a bouncy house?!? She jumped on it for three days straight. Thank you to my Mary Kay lady who loaned it to us. Here are a few pictures from her party:

She loved her tutu and wore it for the rest of the party.

Then, a couple of weeks later, it was EASTER! She found all 48 eggs. Yes, we went overboard. But, it only took her 10 minutes to find them. We have video proof. She had tons of fun hunting for the eggs, but had a little trouble understanding why she couldn't eat all the candy that day. She had a valid point that the candy was her's. I had no argument for that, I just ended up hiding the candy out of reach.

Baby Makes Four!

We'll, as usual, I am not keeping up with my blogging. But hopefully most of you already know that...I'm pregnant again! I am almost 20 weeks along and we found out today at 3:00 p.m. that we are having a boy!

Our original sonogram was at 9:00 a.m. but Baby Boy Chalman decided to cross his legs the whole time. I guess he was feeling shy or maybe it was just too early for him. Because he was ready to show it off at our afternoon appointment!

We are so excited and are frantically searching for awesome boy names. I'm pretty sure I don't like ANY boy names. Nothing sounds right. I LOVED the name Jack, and then EVERYBODY started naming their kid Jack or Jackson. DANG! So, I decided that Charlie was adorable until I realized that my last name is Chalman and that sounds an awful lot like Chaplin. So, back to the drawing board. Please post any and all suggestions you may have. I like older names that are not weird but uncommon today. We have the middle name picked out. Douglas is a family name on Chris' side, so right now it's: __________ Douglas Chalman. Suggestions? Anyone?

Our Halloween Beach Vacation!

Instead of going trick or treating this year the Chalmans and the Ishams headed off to Port Aransas for a weekend getaway. We had so much fun and Ramona had a blast on her first beach trip. The weekend was, of course, too short but I took tons of pictures! Enjoy...

She fed the seagulls with Nanna

Quality Time with Daddy

I think Chris liked the vacation most of all.

She looks so old!

The bee is flying! (with a little help from Uncle Mark)

Yum!!