Easter Weekend {2015}

I'm sure I've said this before, but holidays become even better with a little one around! Just like Christmas, I know Liam won't remember his first Easter but it sure was fun having the Easter bunny visit anyway. ;) While we skipped the Easter egg hunt this year, the basket was still a must. His Easter basket was filled with new khaki and camo shorts, matching shoes, some new favorite books (Happy Easter, Mouse! and Guess How Much I Love You), a little whale swim suit, and a bunny! 

We invited my mother-in-law over for ham, mashed potatoes, salad, and rolls. It was fun having family join us! She brought Liam a new book that has all kinds of baby animals in it and their matching furs/feathers/skin that you can feel. I was reading it to him yesterday and we looked at kitties, puppies, piggies, lambs, baby chicks but the only one he reached out for and touched was the baby bunny. He recognized it as Rue. It was so adorable!

Their relationship cracks me up. Rue won't give him the time of day, in fact she flat out hops the other direction, unless he is not watching! He on the other hand adores her.

The best part of all that day was going to church and reflecting on my Savior. My heart was so full the whole day knowing that because of him, I can live with my family forever. As I rocked Liam to sleep that night and watched his eyes drift to sleep I sang him a song that I often sing to him most nights, but that night it seemed to mean everything ... "I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me, confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me. I tremble to know that for me he was crucified, that for me a sinner he suffered, he bled and died. Oh it is wonderful, that he should care for me, enough to die for me. Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me."

I adore this little family of mine. Hope you had a Hoppy Easter and got to spend it with the ones you love most too! :) XO

Easter {2013} HERE

five months

f i v e   m o n t h s   o l d
{in March}

stats

..................

about 17 pounds

 about 24 inches long

loves

...............

his bouncer.

chewing on his hands.
constantly standing, jumping, or moving.
splashing in the bath.
talking and squealing.
smiling and giggling.
BANANAS!

dislikes

...................

sitting still.
being put in his car seat.

My little Liam,

I feel like you have changed so much this month after looking back on the last. Every day you are doing something new. Biggest of all, you started eating solid foods just shy of five months. You were showing all the signs that you were ready. We tried rice cereal for a solid week and a half  and you wanted nothing to do with it. Just about every bite was spit back out. It wasn't until later on that I learned no one actually feeds their baby rice cereal without adding something like applesauce to it or putting it into a bottle. Instead we moved along to trying sweet potatoes and you never looked back. Since then, you have tried and loved carrots, squash, apples, pears, peaches, and bananas. The only 2 foods you have tried but haven't liked are peas and green beans. Those yucky green foods anyway! ;) Your favorite by FAR is bananas! This may have something to do with the fact that I ate a banana just about every morning for breakfast when I was pregnant with you and while I have been nursing. I can have the spoon a good foot away from your mouth and you instantly know what is coming. You start waving your hands frantically in the air and arching forward with your mouth wide open ready to take a big old bite! haha It is my favorite next to the fact that it has helped you sleep most of the way through the night now! You only wake up once. A lot of the time we feed you in the bath because you are quite the messy eater which is completely fine by you because you love splashing in there.  Your bouncer is literally your favorite thing to do! You would stay in that thing almost all day if we let you just jumping away! Even when we are holding you, you are trying to jump in our arms. ha You reach and grab onto toys or blankets and they instantly go into your mouth. Although they are second best to your hands which are always found in your mouth. No teeth yet but you sure drool a lot so I think one might be in the works fairly soon. I'd be totally fine if they held off for a little while longer but that's just me. ;) They will come in their own time. You love anything that smells like me and it melts my heart. You adore your whale blankie and instantly calm down when we give it to you. You fall asleep with it against your cheek and end up covering your entire face with it before the night is through. It always terrifies me that you won't be able to breathe but as soon as I fix it you manage to move it back. We love you so much! 

Love, Momma

one month | two months | three months | four months 

four months

f o u r   m o n t h s   o l d

{in February}

stats

..................

 16 pounds, 2 ounces

 23.5 inches long

loves

...............

rolling over.

chewing on his hands.
walks in the stroller.
smiling.
eating.
weekends.

dislikes

...................

hats.
not being able to move on his own.
being stuck on his tummy.

My little Liam,

Four months is your favorite month yet because you learned how to roll over and you LOVE it! 200 times a day is an understatement. After you roll over, you let out this big sigh that says, 'I'm so proud of myself', and it is just about the cutest thing! You have the chubbiest legs now and it makes me happy that you are such a good little eater! You are still battling a little bit of cradle cap despite our every effort. I know it itches you so much and I just wish there was something more I could do to take it away. While you are all smiles all day long, you are definitely a stingy giggler. We've tried just about everything to make you laugh and the only way we have managed to get you to giggle is to make this ridiculous giggling sound ourselves. haha There is never a moment when your hands are not in your mouth and being chewed on. Whenever you get upset you scratch the back of your head like crazy so we often cover your hands to protect yourself from your own sharp nails. You have officially grown out of your swing. That thing was barely able to rock anymore. You also got your second round of shots this month, poor guy, and I felt just as bad for you the second time around as I did the first. In fact, this time you actually got a fever and it made me want to stay home with you and hold you all day long. Being away from you while I work is still the hardest thing I have to do. I secretly think you love the weekends most because you get to spend all of your time with us. Naps are nonexistent on Saturdays and Sundays because all you want to do all day is be held and play. It is our favorite time of the week too! You are becoming so curious about the world around you and witnessing everything for the first time through your eyes is one of the best parts for us as your mom and dad. We love you to the moon and back!   

Love, Momma

Some of our favorite moments with you while you were four months old...

Going for stroller walks!

I love this expression, so curious!

Double the camo for my tough little guy!

Smiles for days!!

A big milestone, rolling over!

one month | two months | three months

the great flood

Most of the time, being a home owner is WONDERFUL! Privacy, no window scraping in the dead of winter for work in the mornings because of a garage, no hand washing a sink full of dishes after they have quickly accumulated over night, etc. but sometimes... sometimes being a homeowner is the pits. 

For example, when your one year old still brand new house floods for the SECOND time since moving in. Now that, that is a far cry from wonderful. 

It was 11:30 at night and we had been asleep for at least 3 hours. With a baby around, an 8:30 bed time is not an unusual thing around here. I woke up to the sound of extremely loud running water. My momma instincts went into overdrive. Liam has a sound machine in his nursery that was turned on low to a rainfall setting. The sound that woke me literally sounded exactly like it but FULL BLAST. In my current state of mind, being totally out of it, I immediately jumped to the conclusion that someone was in Liam's room and had cranked the sound machine so I couldn't hear them. While I am beyond thankful that wasn't the case, the alternative was still not fun. I shook Nic awake and together we went sprinting out of or master bedroom to find this...

an inch of water in our kitchen! wah wah

Who knows HOW long it had been running but it turns out a hose that connected our dishwasher to a valve blew and was gushing water all over the place. Call it faulty part, installed wrong, whatever the case may be... we have endured 2 months of something I would never wish upon my worst enemy. I think I may have already said this before after our first water fiasco in this house but leave it to us as first time home owners who are incredibly naive to think that buying a brand new home would lead to no problems. Far cry! The first thing we did was shut off the water which was in the basement. I remained upstairs and what I could hear Nic yelling below did not sound good at all. There was water raining from the ceiling into our basement!!

 While assessing the damages, we discovered the water soaked the kitchen, a quarter of the living room carpet, the hallway carpet, and the guest bedroom carpet upstairs. It had also rained through the ceiling and was covering the basement floor. I guess if we are thinking about the positives here, we are lucky our basement isn't finished. We called a restoration company in the middle of the night and it took them 2 hours to get here. Those 2 hours felt like an eternity when all you can do is to stare at an inch of water and every last towel you own sopping wet. When they finally showed up they immediately began ripping the carpet back to begin the drying process. While Nic was on the phone with our insurance company, the restoration guys asked if we had a child 6 years or younger in our home. I was in the nursery with Liam at the time and he came in to tell me that they were spraying chemicals to prevent mold growth and that we had to get Liam out of the house. Neither of Nic's parents were answering their phones and because the air was turned off to the house, I began to feel light headed in Liam's room. The insurance company over the phone asked if we had running water and heat to which Nic responded honestly with yes, and because of that answer and "according to their policy" our house was deemed livable and they wouldn't pay for a hotel. Such a horrible experience. We finally got a hold of Nic's mom to tell her we were on our way over because we had no where else to go. I typed up lesson plans for a substitute and we dropped them off on the way over to her house. At this point, it was 4:30 in the morning and we had been up all night. We tried to get what very little sleep we could before having to meet with the restoration company again in the morning.

That night began what has been 2 months of a nightmare. We lived at Nic's mom's house for a little over a week before it became so inconvenient to travel to and from our house and work each day with her living clear on the opposite side of town. As soon as the 15 or so fans were removed from our home and the drying process was done, the three of us moved back in to our master bedroom, the only room left untouched and functional in our house. There we have stayed amongst those four walls for the last 6 weeks. During that time there have been so many different workers in and out of our home tearing up and gutting the entire kitchen, replacing tile, reconstructing the cabinetry, etc. I can't even count the number of meals we have had at Costa Vida. 

We were ready to be done with this whole process a long time ago. It feels so good to be almost on the other side of this mess now. The last of the workers come Monday to finish the final touches before we will officially have it behind us for good. We are hoping and praying that this is the last of the water problems we will have with this house. Here's to fingers, toes, and whatever else you can cross. ;)

where was I ...

... oh yeah, Valentine's Day! While it seems was forever ago, it was definitely one to document and remember on my little space. It was, by far, our least romantic Valentine's Day to date but this is to be expected with a baby around. Truth be told, I wouldn't have it any other way. Spending the day with my two greatest loves, I couldn't ask for anything more! My big Valentine surprised me with a bouquet of pink and red roses, a beautiful print for our home, and he even made dinner while I nursed Liam! My littlest Valentine rolled over the first time which was beyond exciting! I feel lucky to call these two boys mine.

I know it may have been a couple of months ago but I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day with the ones you love most. XO

being a working mom

It is spring break for me and I have been looking forward to this week since the day I went back to work in January! One of the biggest things I have learned so far as a new mom is that you can't ever fully prepare yourself for what it will be like to have a baby. Nic and I were so ready to start a family and Liam has been nothing short of our biggest blessings so far. I tell you what though, being a work mom is HARD. Before having Liam I knew that it would likely be difficult going back to teaching for the rest of the school year but it seems I was more naive than I thought. I'd definitely be lying if I didn't say it has been incredibly hard on both Nic and I. It is amazing how your priorities quickly change when you have a little one to be thinking about all day. Being a mom has changed me.

So if you have been wondering where I've been... Truthfully I've been buried in a mountain of papers to grade, a lesson plan book that never seems to be filled, and a class that seems to have forgotten over the last few months that we have classroom rules. It makes me crazy when people say all the time how being a teacher is the best mommy job. It definitely is in the summer but during the school year is a different story. I can't just walk away at 4:00 every day and leave work behind me for the evening if I want to keep up and help my students succeed. I've been going to bed as soon as I can brush my teeth after my little guy closes his eyes (8:00) yet he has lost all the sleep training progress we worked so hard on before I went back to work leaving us both in a constant walking zombie state during the day from waking every 2 hours to a crying baby. On top of it all, our brand new year old house flooded and here we are a month later with only the drying finished and the new tile down, still with a million other things that need fixing. The shining ray of light in all of that chaos though has been soaking up every precious second in the evenings that I have with my 2 favorite boys!!  

So where was I?! Ah yes, Spring Break. I am convinced that this week was designed more for teachers than it ever was for students. This week has been complete bliss so far and we are excited to have daddy home with us for a 4 day weekend starting tomorrow! Blogging is my "me time" that I have had to let go of over the last few months and it feels so amazing to get to sit down and write today. I have so much to share over the next several days that I hope I have the time to fit it all in. But if not, 8 more weeks until summer! 

Before I go, I'll leave you with a recent picture of our silly little Liam who is 5 months old already! When did that happen?! I'm quickly learning the meaning behind a frequent phrase I hear from most parents... "They grow too darn fast!", 

three months

t h r e e   m o n t h s   o l d

stats

..................

 about 14 pounds

 about 22 inches long

loves

...............

his binkie.

story time.
cooing, smiling, snorting.
Sticking out his tongue.
his changing pad and letters of his name on the wall.
lights.
swing.
car seat.

dislikes

...................

nose clearing or face wiping.

night time.

*I wrote this the night before Liam turned 3 months old I just didn't have his pictures ready at the time...

My little Liam,

As I did the thing I have been dreading most over the last few weeks, headed back to work this morning, it was SO SO hard to leave you at only three months old. You have changed so much in the last month and are so fun to be around. Your charming little personality is beginning to show and next to your dad, you are my favorite person to spend my days with. I can't even tell you how much I will miss being with you all day every day. It makes me look that much more forward to summer! You are all smiles these days and I love it! Cooing, snorting, grinning, and sticking out that tongue of yours are your favorite things to do when you are awake. You love it when I read stories to you or your daddy tells you his favorite story (Tangled). You become totally enthralled with that concerned stare of yours. We dressed you up in a white baby tux with a tiny grey bowtie and you were given the most special blessing by your dad at church this month. We loved sharing your first Christmas with you this year even if you won't remember it. You love love love to eat and now have endless thigh rolls and the sweetest chubby cheeks to prove it. You have become quite the projectile spitter-upper. Your outfit, our outfits, the couch, anything near you really becomes completely covered in it no matter how much we try to prevent it from happening. You down a stage 2 bottle in two seconds flat when given the opportunity. As much as you and I both hated it, you transitioned to crib sleeping at night this month. After several pretty hard nights, we both began getting used to it and now you don't take long to soothe yourself and fall fast asleep for a good 5 - 6 hour stretch before you are hungry again. When I do finally hear you crying over the baby monitor and go into your nursery to check on you, I find you looking up at me in a completely different direction than where I laid you down to go to sleep. So squirmy! Half the time you even have a leg sticking out through one of the bars. Your attention is completely captured by all the lights around you, your favorite being the Christmas tree and the mobile on your swing. The bedtime routine we made for you has now become one of my favorite times of the day. You still love bath time and I love holding you in my arms until your drooping eyes begin to grow heavy and you fall fast asleep. I can't even begin to tell you what a joy you are to us. We absolutely adore you!

Love, Momma

He discovered his hands this month and always has that chubby little fist of his in his mouth. We think he might be left handed because it is always the left one.

one month | two months