My First Mother's Day {2015]

From the way he gazes up at me with smiling eyes as he drifts off to sleep in my arms, to the fits of giggles he bursts into whenever I make silly noises into his neck or tummy, to the fake cough he over exaggerates whenever he gets really excited, to the joy that he brings and the love that fills my heart whenever I look at him ... I can't think of anything I love more than being his mom. I live for these moments.

My first Mother's Day began like this ...

It couldn't have been a more prefect morning. After Liam woke up from his early morning feeding I brought him in to snuggle with daddy while I got ready for church. These two surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of one of my favorite flowers, tulips, and the sweetest card I've ever been given! 

My only hope/expectation on Mother's Day was spending the whole day with my two favorite boys and I got to do just that. We had a picnic lunch at the park. Of course it included chocolate covered strawberries. Chocolate covered anything is my love language. We also took Liam for his first swing ride which he absolutely loved! I see a lot more of that in our future this summer and I can't wait! 

We played with toys all afternoon together. Some of his favorites are that elephant and a rattle ball.

I ended the day with one of my favorite things to do whenever I get some "me" time, which isn't very often these days ... taking a bath. Nic also got me some bath salts that have essential oils and they were heaven! I haven't felt that relaxed in a long time.

Even though this day was special. I feel like every day is Mother's Day. Not from the pampered aspect and expectation that Mother's Day typically holds but from the celebrate the fact that I have a beautiful child who I love and who loves me right back unconditionally type of way. It is an absolute blessing. He is my blessing! I love this darling boy of mine, he is outta this world!

six months

s i x   m o n t h s   o l d
{in April}

stats

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

18 pounds, 10 ounces

25 inches long

loves

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

his bouncer.

chewing and sucking on his fingers, especially the pointer.
constantly standing, jumping, or walking.
smiling and giggling.

whale blankie.
all fruits, especially BANANAS!

dislikes

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

sitting still and not being able to move.
being put in his car seat.

green vegetables.

My little Liam,

Happy Half Birthday! I can't believe we are already here, just 6 months shy of celebrating your first year with us. We don't know what we ever did without you! Your sweet little personality is SO much fun. Who would have thought you were ever a stingy smiler and giggler because now it doesn't take much but a silly belly laugh from mom or dad to get you into fits of giggles. I think you might be working on getting your first 2 bottom teeth in. We can see the outline of them through your gums but no white showing yet. To be totally honest, I was hoping you would hold  off just a few more weeks until summer so I can be home with you while you are in pain and have to go through that. :( I still hate leaving you but that will never change. 3rd round of shots this month and they still don't get any easier but boy do you look tough sporting a band aid on each thigh. Dr. Burton got you an outfit while he was in Hawaii because he missed the opportunity to deliver you and it finally fit so you wore it to your appointment. It made me want to hop on a plane right then and there to some place tropical with you. You are at such a fun stage right now! You have started to sit up on your own but get distracted really easily and topple right over. haha One of the cutest things you've learned is that you started reaching out for our hands whenever we stretch them towards you. It is your own way of saying "momma or dada UP!" I'm not sure there is anything you adore more than walking everywhere you go! While in the same place you learn all your new tricks, your crib, you finally discovered how to roll back over from your tummy to your back. HOWEVER, that does not mean you still don't get super mad and act like you are stuck on your tummy. I am convinced that you don't love being a baby and would much rather be a mobile toddler who can move all on your own. I don't blame you but like any mom, I wish you would stay little forever. We love you!

Love, Momma

The little Hawaiin outfit from Dr. B!

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