MAXIMUS IS BORN!!!

Hi all, Max was born a couple of hours ago! Julie had to have a c-section and both baby and mom are doing well. I just talked with Julie and Christopher and the baby was 9 pounds 3 ounces. and 21 inches long! He is doing well, they are feeding him right now. I am flying to Boston at 9 AM to see the little guy, I can't wait. I was going to go in a week or two, but couldn't stand to wait for that long so I'll be meeting little Max tomorrow afternoon!!! I don't have pictures to share yet, but I will post some here as soon as possible. Congrats to Julie and Christopher. I can't believe that my son is a father, it seems like just yesterday that he was a little baby boy himself. We love you both and can't wait to see your beautiful little baby.

We Are Disney Bound!!!

We are headed to Disneyland for Seth's Birthday on March 7Th. We will be there for 5 days this time. Seth and Madi are on Spring Break next week, so we are able to spend a few more days in California than we usually do. The photos posted here were from our 2006 Disneyland Vacation. It was Seth and Madi's first visit to Disneyland and they had a great time. We were there for a week and didn't have enough time to see everything. This time we are staying at Disney's Paradise Pier and hope we will like it. Todd will be leaving tonight so that he can attend a business meeting tomorrow near Anaheim. The rest of us are going to surprise Seth on Friday morning when he thinks that he has school, I'm sure he will be excited to go back. He has been wanting to ride the updated Pirates of the Caribbean ride that was his favorite last time. I will try to post some pictures here in the evenings if they don't wear me out too much while we're there, we'll keep you posted!

Aiden Playing Outside!!!

Aiden loves to play outside. He spent some time yesterday afternoon in the front yard running around and riding his trike. He has a Radio Flyer Tricycle that can be controlled by an adult from the rear through a steering handle. His feet don't quite reach the pedals, but he likes to be pushed up and down the sidewalk on it while he rings his bell. He also loves to spend time working on various tasks in the garage with Todd. A video of him helping with the motorcycle will post soon in our videos section.

Todd On His Harley!!!

Todd has been spending some time cleaning and preparing his motorcycle for the upcoming warm weather. We are now close to 80 degrees here in Phoenix and are loving it. Todd has added some new chrome accessories to the bike that he shops for at various Harley dealers around the valley. He really enjoys his hobby and the motorcycle is looking great!

Melissa's Nursing Article!!!

This is Melissa's Nursing Magazine article that I discussed in a previous post. I took a photo of it today when I realized that my scanner wasn't working, so it may not be very clear. I will scan it in the near future and replace these photos but I just wanted to post it here as soon as I could. We are very proud of her and she has settled into her new life as a nurse very well. She has so many interesting stories to tell us when she finishes her days at work, I think that she is in a career that is very rewarding and that will fit her personality perfectly. We will keep you posted on her future plans.

Todd's Recent Wardrobe Selections For Aiden And Max!!!

As you can see Grandpa Todd has been at the Harley store AGAIN! He came home yesterday with some new attire for Aiden and Max. I could tell that he was very proud of his selections. Although I am not a fan of Harley clothing, I have to admit that it was pretty cute. Aiden has been subjected to this since birth and now Max will be joining him (before birth). Todd indicated that he is in the market for a black leather vest for Max already and I'm sure that I will be asked to sew a patch on it in the near future. I think that the t-shirt that he got for Max is very cute and we are all confident that he will be "destined for greatness" in the very near future. As for Aiden, he is used to Todd giving him this clothing and tonight when he tried his hat on he smiled at Grandpa Todd and loved it!!!

Our New Office!!!

Here we are in our new office. We just moved in and have a lot of work to do, but it is pretty fun since we can all participate. The sign in this photo was our first sign so we are going to keep it and hang it up on the wall in our break room. The phone number had to be changed, so we had to order a new sign.

We just leased a new office that has more room and is very close to our home. For those of you who saw our first location, this is a much nicer space. Today Todd spent some time assembling a desk that I got yesterday at Staples. It took much more time than expected, but looked great when it was complete.Melissa spent some time there with us today and posed for some pictures. She thought that it was a big improvement and enjoyed seeing some of her furniture again since we borrowed it from our other house that is still vacant. I'm not sure if she will ever move into it again, so we thought that we might as well make use of her furniture.
As you can see Todd had to work pretty hard today on the desk and is really tired tonight.

Melissa thought that she would pose at Todd's desk and act like Todd! She mainly lounged around today, but in her defense she worked twelve hours yesterday, so we'll forgive her.
Here she is attempting to look like Todd on the phone during one of many heated business conversations. I think she did a pretty good job in this one. I'll try to get one of Todd in action next time.
We had this little space and decided to put some children's toys here so that when Aiden is with us he has something to do. I think he liked it and was able to play with some of the toys that have been stored at our other house for quite awhile. I promised Madi and Seth that I would add some activities for older children when we get settled.
And finally, this is in Todd's office on the couch. Madilyn was definitely not in a happy mood this afternoon, so she didn't want to smile. She was a little bit tired of being there and wanted to go home. I posted a video of the rest of the office that will show up in our video section soon. I will add more photos when we get all moved in and I have decorated, but these should give you an idea of what the new office is like. Check back for updated photos soon.

Aiden's New Chair!!!

Aiden recently got a new lounge chair. It has the Patriots logo, name and colors on it and he loves it. He likes to sit in it when he watches a DVD and it even reclines! I think he looks so cute and he seems to know that it is his chair because he now goes right to it when he is ready to kick back and relax for awhile.

Melissa PASSED Her Boards And Is Now Officially An RN!!!

Melissa PASSED her exam last week!!!! She only had to answer 75 of the 250+ possible questions and was finished in less than 2 hours. I couldn't believe it when she called me before 10 AM, I thought something had happened to her. It only took a day to get her results and I think she was really happy and relieved to be finished with that stressful event. Now on top of humiliating her by taking photos of her at work, I insisted that she hold up her badge so that I could take a picture and post it here!!! She loves it I'm sure and we are all very proud of her accomplishments. She was featured in the ASU nursing magazine this month as one of the two Fuld Nursing Innovations Scholars. I will scan the article and post it here as soon as I can. Overall, we think she is doing great and are all very proud of her, way to go Melissa!!!

Wissa Q's Scuba Lesson!!!

Today was Melissa's Scuba lesson and I met her in Tempe so that I could observe her progress. She had so much fun last week during her first experience and really hit it off with her instructor Bryan.

Since it was her day off she planned to go to the Tempe location so that they could dive in the outdoor pool. We are so lucky to be in a climate that enables you to swim outdoors in February! Melissa will probably finish her instruction before the rest of us since she is spending more time at each lesson.

I gave my camera to Bryan so that he could take some photos of her during the dive. They had so much fun under the water after they completed the skills needed for each unit. I could tell they were laughing because every once in awhile a large area of bubbles would come to the surface all at once.
As you can see, Melissa is feeling quite comfortable in the underwater environment already and seems to be catching on very quickly.
After Bryan took several photos of Melissa, she took the camera and took a few photos of him. He is a very nice young man and it seems like they have a great time together during the lessons.
This is Melissa striking a pose toward the end of her lesson. I think it's official, she loves it!!!
Bryan is planning a dive trip in a couple of weeks to Catalina Island in California. He wants Melissa and I to go and said that it would be a great opportunity to finish our open water dives. He was an instructor at a dive shop there for a year and is very familiar with the underwater landscape there, so we are going to try to go.
Well, that is a little synopsis of Melissa's interesting afternoon. She's doing a great job and having a lot of fun. We'll let you know when she has officially completed her PADI Open Water Diver certification. More pictures will be posted of Seth and Madi's experiences soon, I didn't put the camera near the side of the pool last night at our lesson and once your gear is on it is very difficult to get out of the pool. I'll post pics of them here after their Monday night dive so check back for those soon.