My Attempt at Blogging

A confession

2012-02-10T06:46:00.000-08:00

I can't write in cursive. My writing, including my signature, is a mixture of print and my made-up cursive letters, which everyone says looks like regular print. I've been talking to Joe a lot lately how cursive is becoming a lost art, and this article pretty much says it all. However, I think it was lost a long time ago. Or maybe that's just how I justify being horrible at it. I remember learning it in third grade for about three of four weeks. We had to write one or two papers using it, but that was when computers were starting to become the big thing, and then switched to typing. So really, the one or two papers that I wrote is all the practice I ever really got!

My cursive is so bad I don't even know how to write some of the letters. I feel somewhat ashamed to admit this, but it proves if it's not taught and practiced, it won't be around much longer. I feel like the same will happen with all handwriting, just like the article says. Joe and I both WRITE letters to Liam about once a month and put them in his baby book. I wanted them to be written, not typed, so he could have something to read and look at down the road. Handwriting says a lot about a person. Although mine aren't in cursive, it's still better than a boring font on the computer!

Interesting....

2012-02-09T08:04:00.000-08:00

Someone posted a link about Mitt Romney's sons on Facebook. It was ranking them in order of hotness to creepiest. The article is here. I laughed out loud a lot reading this! Feel sorry for the "creepiest son" but mostly, the fact that they're constantly being judged now. That would not be fun! Anyway, there's a link to Mary's blog---wife of the "hottest" Romney son and Mitt's daughter in law. I can't believe her blog isn't private, but then again, people like me read it and tell their husband what a nice, fun family they seem to be. Guess that's pretty good publicity.

When bored, it's a good read. At least if you're like me and like to read about other people. And they really do seem like a great family.

That's all. Happy Thursday!

We have a first word!

2012-01-30T06:54:00.000-08:00

Besides "mama, dada" and the other baby jibberish, Joe and I have decided we officially have a first word! APPLE. Pronounced "Aaaa-ple." It's the cutest sound in the world. And sometimes the "aaa" part has a hard time coming out even though his mouth is wide open. :)

I'm about as good as updating this as I am keeping Liam's baby book current. Sorry, people. If we have another baby I hope I can remember all of the different stages. I thought Liam being a newborn was hard. Looking back, it was a walk in the park! He couldn't walk, he didn't ever get his clothes dirty (unless it was a blowout day!), he slept anywhere. Ahhh. Those were the days! He's a little crazy guy now. He never sits down when he's awake. EVER. Well, I take that back. When he wakes up in the morning he has a new routine. He hands me his binky (only trying to let him have it at naptime/bedtime---and he knows that's the ticket out of bed!), grabs his blanky and we get his milk and a snack cup of Cheerios and snuggle on the couch. This is my favorite time of the day. He loves to cuddle and take his time waking up. Milk to him is like coffee to me. Needs it to get going! After about 20 minutes of this he's ready to go though. And so our day begins. This is definitely the most fun stage as far as his development goes but I feel like we are having an independence power struggle. He absolutely despises being put in a grocery cart, doesn't want to be pushed in his stroller, kicks and fights being put in a high chair if we are out for dinner. Oh boy. The last few weeks I've found myself not wanting to even leave the house. I think he is the reason! It's easier to just not have to battle with him. Hopefully this is a stage that passes. I miss the days where he was content to walk down every aisle at Target with me!

We went to the car show this past weekend. I wish I had him on video. He was hilarious. He is the biggest flirt! Grandpa Dave carried him a lot, he only wanted Grandpa to carry him, so I got to follow behind and witness the flirtation from a different perspective. He knows how to work it! I swear he smiles, points, waves until he gets whoevers attention he wants. And once he has it he started giving them pretty eyes, looking back and pointing very sweetly after we'd passed. So funny. We didn't even try taking the stroller because I knew he'd hate it. We leashed him up and let him go. His favorite car was the Cadillac CTS-V wagon. He gave it a big kiss and clapped for it. He loved getting in the cars!

Our friends invitied us to go to Hawaii with them, they leave on Wednesday. We aren't going because of Joe's school schedule. With the rain this morning, I'm feeling pretty blue knowing we could have been leaving Wednesday. School will be worth it, right? Right? Right? Maybe next year, Hawaii....

Happy Monday!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T11:05:00.000-08:00

Last picture taken in 2011. Liam's hair is getting so long!

Happy New Year! We had another busy weekend. We've been away every weekend since December 16. We had a great holiday, I feel like we've been celebrating non-stop for a month now. We got a lot accomplished, including seeing lots of friends we've been wanting to get together with but just haven't been able to get coordinated with. So great to see everyone! One of the highlights over Christmas break was getting the opportunity to go skiing not once but TWICE. Thanks to my in-laws for babysitting for us. I needed to be reminded how much I enjoy skiing. And I must admit, having a mama break was a huge thing. I felt giddy all day, like a kid again. It proved to me how important it is to have occasional breaks and do something with Joe that we both love and have fun doing. I came back feeling so refreshed and ready to be a mom again. We went skiing on New Years Day with Joe's cousin Gil, Dylan, his cousin Katie and her husband Marino. It's so much fun to have a group to go with. I loved it, I love being with them and it makes me so excited for when Liam starts skiing. A family that skis together stays together!

Hope 2012 is off to a great start for everyone so far. I need to sit down and write a list. I love having lists and I have a lot of stuff I want to work on and get accomplished in 2012! I guess my first New Years Resolution will be to get motivated to write that list. :)

14 Months

2011-12-22T21:47:00.000-08:00

Our sweet little baby turned 14 months on Tuesday. At what point will I stop telling people his age in months? Maybe when he doesn't seem so baby'ish anymore? It would be weird if my sister were telling people Sophie is 36 months. It seems like most people start counting in years at the age of two. But don't think I won't hunt down 24-36 month stickers! I don't want this monthly picture tradition to ever end!

The calm after the storm

2011-12-20T08:22:00.000-08:00

Whew! I feel like we've been running a marathon the past few days. For the first day since Thursday, today is looking to be a relaxing one. Still in pj's and drinking coffee so it's off to a good start!

Thursday afternoon we headed to Edgewood, the main reason being so Joe, Gil and I could go skiing Friday. I was so nervous, I hadn't been skiing since December 09 right before I got pregnant, but everything came back to me and I had an awesome time. Our friend Becky was able to get the day off so she went with us, too. Blue ski, no crowds....a great day to get back into the swing of it. Liam had a great time spending the day with grandpa David and grandma Jayne. Jayne had to work int he morning so it was just g'pa at first. We left at 7, Liam woke up at 6:45. Aunt Sue and grandma Poppy came over to help--I mean visit! I know he had fun because he took over a three hour nap for David!

Saturday we visited with Matt and then met college friends at Starbucks so we could meet their sweet baby girl. I got to hold her and she totally melted my heart. She is so tiny! I feel like I can hardly remember Liam ever being that tiny. She was just so content being held and sleeping on my chest. Amazing. It was great catching up with the two of them, it's been too long. It seems like we saw them not too long ago but we realized it had a been an entire year. Crazy. We got home at 2:50 and left for Sophie's birthday party at 3:30. Sweet Sophie is almost 3! My sister did an amazing job with the food and decorations. It could easily be featured on a party blog, truly picture perfect. Sophie was so excited. She started the party by yelling, "Let's get the party started!" Adorable!

Sunday we recovered from Friday and Saturday and then headed to Portland to celebrate my parents 40th anniversary. Sophie and Liam had babysitters so we got to enjoy a nice meal without the (fun) chaos! My mom and dad have always included us in their anniversary celebrations, happy they still continue to after all of these years!

For our anniversary gift to our parents, we (Kim, George, Joe and I) surprised them with a 2 hour limo ride to look at Christmas lights. That was last night. It picked us up after dinner in Portland and took us to Peacock Lane and to the Grotto. So fun and festive. Liam LOVED the limo ride. I think he thought it was pretty cool that he didn't have to be strapped in a car seat. He stood up on the seat and looked out the windshield (privacy glass wasn't up) and played the role of co-pilot. It was pretty funny.

Good thing Joe has to go back to work today, maybe we'll all get caught up on some much needed rest. :)

Limo dancer!

The picture says it all

2011-12-14T06:15:00.000-08:00

I had one sad little baby when it came to taking the group baby picture on Sunday. It's hard to tell from this picture, but if you look closely you'll notice a band-aid on the left side of Liam's face. He got his first big boo boo at Aunt Kimmie's last Thursday. No one ever said being a new walker is an easy thing. Now I know why they call this the "toddler" stage. For Liam it should be the "faller/face plant" stage. Needless to say, he scraped his face on the stone on Kim's mantle. Ouchie, ouch, ouch. He started picking at it so we decided to put a band-aid on it. Surprisingly, he didn't even realize it was on his face. I thought it would drive him nuts, it was so close to his eye. But as soon as Shailia spotted it, it was all over. She started picking at it as soon as we tried to take the picture, hence his face. Liam doesn't get upset often, it broke my heart to see his little face in this picture. And by the way, this was an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. That's why he's wearing that hideous sweater! Other than this sad picture, the party was great! Fun getting to know all of the husbands of these little babies better. I know I say it all the time but I'm so thankful for this group!

Christmas is next Sunday? Weird. I've decided December needs to be about 55 days instead of 31. There is always way too much stuff to jam into 31 and still be able to enjoy the simple things (Christmas movies, baking without stress). I guess I better just face the reality that time isn't going to slow down for me. Apparently it will start going even faster. Rather than trying to figure out how to slow it down, I think I need to figure out how to be more productive? Yeah, that's probably my problem.

A question to all of my baking readers: does anyone have a UNIQUE and/or unsual Christmas cookie recipe you can share with me? I suggested having a cookie exchange with my mama friends next week, now I'm on the hunt. I want something new, no chocolate crinkles, sugar cookies, thumb prints, etc. I spent most of last night searching and just got totally overwhelmed. If anyone has a good one, ideally one that doesn't require decorating, email it to me at katie.vincent@gmail.com.

Happy Wednesday!

My new morning love

2011-12-05T07:14:00.000-08:00

My new morning love is The Daily News, delivered at our door step. Although todays paper is pathetically small, there's something about having a real paper in hand to read. It's just not the same online. I feel good supporting it after reading Lee Enterprises is filing bankruptcy. And I couldn't pass up the price. Twenty weeks, 7 day a week delivery for.....$15. That's a little less than 10 cents a day. Excuse me while I go enjoy my cup of coffee, paper and last few minutes of quiet for the day. Happy Monday!

My little walker

2011-12-02T06:46:00.000-08:00

We were able to capture him walking on video. Which makes me realize we really need to video more often. I feel like we take massive amounts of pictures, but I never want to forget these firsts. It's so much different when you can hear his voice, see him toddling around. These are the types of things that will be on my New Years Resolution list. I should start writing a list. Come December 31, I'll have forgotten most of what I wanted to be on it!

Ahh, TGIF. This week, as always, flew by. I'm frustrated that November is already here and gone. I feel like I didn't get to savour it as much as I had anticipated. I wanted to take pictures of Liam at the lake, roast pumpkin seeds, cook and bake lots of fall'ish foods. I know I'm not the only one who feels like time is flying, everyone seems to be saying the same exact thing. Maybe time is really speeding up!? Last night they were talking about the crazy weather and how the weather fronts are going the opposite way they should be. Maybe the world is about to end and time is speeding up so it happens faster!

Busy weekend ahead and I couldn't be more excited. Love having a calendar full. The whole month of December is pretty much booked, yippee! George's birthday dinner tonight, Christmas Festival with our friends Carly and Jeremy tomorrow, birthday party tomorrow and making Christmas at our house on Sunday. We decided to forgo getting a tree this year. It's usually a big enough battle with trying to keep Subie away, Liam will be even worse. He's in to everything and I can just see him trying to climb it, eat it, un-decorate it. I just don't feel like dealing with it. And I don't want to put an ugly-tacky baby gate around it. So, we are settling with a table top tree. Does that make me a lazy mama? Maybe so...

Happy Friday, Happy December!

We have a walker!

2011-11-30T10:01:00.000-08:00

Liam is walking! Actually, talking lots of steps. He'll walk when he wants, crawls when he needs to get somewhere fast. It is the cutest thing I've ever seen! It happened for the first time at his friend Gavin's 1st birthday. Everyone was asking me if he is walking yet and I had just got telling everyone no. Then out of nowhere, he stood up, turned away from me and took off. I couldn't believe my eyes! Luckily Carly had her video camera out so we were able to get some on video. I haven't been able to video any since. Need to have it ready at all times I guess!

Thanksgiving was so perfect this year. Everything was so delicious, company was great and my parents started a new after-dinner tradition, BINGO! Sophie absolutely loved it and it was a fun thing to do after. I was the big winner, McDonald's gift card. Vanilla cones, here I come! Liam loved all of the food, especially stuffing. Mmmm. Still sounds good to me, even after all of the leftovers I've consumed! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I think it should be celebrated more than once a year! On Friday we went to Tacoma for our annual Un-Thanksgiving weekend. We've been doing this since Joe and I started dating and we always look forward to it. We had our feast on Saturday and we spent all weekend with Joe's parents. I know Liam is going to love this tradition, he had a blast!

Monday was spent recovering from the weekend and Joe had his final marketing paper to write. YAY! Only 2 more classes and he's done for the semester. He's doing awesome, has gotten A's in every class so far. I know it will be worth it in the end and I am so proud of him!

Liam is battling a cold AGAIN. I can't figure out what the deal is. I have a feeling all of the babies keep passing it around. We took him to the doctor yesterday because he sounded so wheezy and the first thing the doctor said was, "Oh my, how long has he been breathing like this?" Mom FAIL. I felt horrible. I thought she was going to send us to the hospital by the look on her face. He has been acting so chipper, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Especially since every other time we've taken him in they don't do anything for him. She said almost all of his airways were blocked and she was surprised he was in as good of a mood as he was....he still managed to flirt with all the ladies! He's such a little trooper. He has such a good disposition. Even when he's miserable he's still a good baby. Anyway, they had to do a breathing treatment for him and we have a little inhaler for him now. He hates it, hates it, hates it. It takes both of us to get him to do it and I'm pretty sure most of the medicine isn't going where it should be. Please let this pass soon. So worried about him.
He's napping now so I better get busy. He's been taking 3 hour morning naps for the past week. Hope everyone has a good week and a great last day of November! November, you went WAY too fast. I didn't get to enjoy you as much as I had planned. The story of my life!

Search keywords

2011-11-21T21:21:00.000-08:00

Ok, totally random blog but I just happened to look at the "stats" section and saw that someone searched the phrase "blue moon peanut butter soup" and was directed to my blog. Random!

Now, on to Google those words and see if there is such a soup, it sounds like it could be a new favorite recipe!

Whew!

2011-11-18T10:17:00.001-08:00

TGIF! Happy Friday! It's been a great week. Wednesday my mamas group decided we should have an art day with the babies. It was really fun but let's just say it didn't go how I had pictured it! I imagined us all sitting around the table, babies on lap and being able to have them cooperate with the project we wanted to accomplish. Not so much! I guess I forgot that none of them like to sit. Throw paint into the equation and all ya have is babies bucking (at least Liam was) to get down but I couldn't let him down because he had paint on his feet. Haha. It was still fun though, I know I say this all of the time, but I'm so thankful for this group of girls. It's been so fun watching all of the babies grow and it's so nice to have the support and friendship. We are having an Ugly Christmas Sweater party, husbands included, in December. Can't wait!

Since the project with Liam didn't turn out how I had hoped, I had an "Auntie Date" with Sophie yesterday and attempted it with her. Turns out, it's still hard to do when they are almost 3! She thought it was fun though and we were able to get one of the Pinterest projects (picture below) I wanted to try (kind 0f) accomplished. I underestimated the size of her hands so we didn't have enough room for a star at the top. It looks more like a Charlie Brown tree. Oh well, it's still pretty cute! After our painting project we went to the Dollar Tree (her request) and then for ice cream. I love being able to do things like that with her! She's at such a fun age.

Alright, better try to make morning nap time a productive one. Happy weekend!

It's officially official...

2011-11-09T09:42:00.000-08:00

I'm failing big time at blogging! I don't know what's wrong with me. Lately it's as if the littlest tasks seem so exhausting. I mean, how hard is it to sit down and write a few words or post a picture of Liam? Seriously. Hello, lazy. I hope you don't stick around in my life long! Or is this what it feels like to have a "toddler." Which, by the way, I almost cried when my weekly emails changed from "your baby" to "your toddler." Who has a toddler? Me? Really? How can that be?! I feel like Liam is at such an awkward stage right now. He still isn't walking but he wants to so bad. He wants to feed himself but he hasn't mastered it without having to take a bath after. So many things he's trying to do but isn't able to. I feel like he's frustrated. I think I would be if I were in his shoes! It's like he's wanting to be a true toddler but he's stuck in a baby body. He wants to be able to play and run and jump like Sophie. Soon enough, little guy.

Last Friday I was able to get away from the ENTIRE day. First. Time. Ever. It was so nice. I came home feeling totally energized. I haven't really been able to leave for more than a few hours because of breastfeeding and Liam refusing bottles. Now that he's slowed down so much on breastfeeding, I took advantage of Joe being off for the day and took off with my mom and sister. We had the best day. Had a long, relaxing breakfast at Tasty N Sons (SO good), then went to a Christmas Bazaar. It was nice only having to worry about myself. No diapers to change, no little person to feed. And I think it was a great day for Joe. He doesn't get to spend much one-on-one time with Liam so it was perfect. Even came home to dinner almost ready (just leftovers heated up, but still...it was something)! I think it's really important to have days like that more often. Everyone needs a break. I feel guilty for feeling that way but considering that was really the first day I've been away from Liam that long since October 20, 2010, I think I need to get over the guilt. Ok, I'm over it. Already planning the next getaway! Haha.

Alright, gotta start working on dinner while naptime lasts. Happy Wednesday, happy November, happy birthday to JOANNA, happy everything!

Hey everyone, I'm ONE!

2011-10-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

Happy 1st Birthday, Liam!

2011-10-20T12:16:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it, my baby is ONE. I'm feeling pretty sentimental today. Reminisicing about what I was doing this time last year, trying to remember what those last moments before he was born were like. Being a mom has been the most rewarding, challenging and AMAZING thing I have ever experienced. He has brought so much joy to our lives. He is truly our little miracle. I love you, my sweet little buddy.

Hello, October!

2011-10-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how much time passes between my posts now. And I really can't believe that it's October. My favorite time of the year! Again, it's going so fast I feel like it's going to be over before I've even realized it's here. I've started getting really sentimental now that it's October, Liam's birth month! I can't believe it's been almost a year since he was born. I remember how anxious I was feeling this time last year, having no idea what to expect. So much anticipation!

It's been busy around here! Two weekends ago we went to the beach house with our friends Carly, Jeremy and their baby, Gavin. It was a great trip, the boys are starting to really play together and it's so fun to watch! Liam is currently sick, the first real cold he's ever had. He sounds like a smoker, has such a bad cough/runny nose. He's miserable. I'm miserable for him, knowing how bad he must feel. He's been like a limp noodle, just laying on me. I hate that he's not feeling well but I must admit, I love the snuggles from him. It's been a long time since he's been content to just sit and snuggle. He always wants to be moving. Problem is, now Joe is sick. When I took Liam in to see the doctor yesterday, I told him Joe was starting to get sick and he said, "Oh no, I'm sure he'll be a bigger baby about it than Liam." Hahaha. Joe's not bad but it sure does seem that the world stops when guys get sick.

Ok, my sweet little sicky is awake from his much needed nap and coughing for me...oh, he sounds so horrible. :(

Hope everyone is well, don't get sick!

2011-09-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

What Liam spends most of his days doing. Kitty torture/chasing.

Where were you?

2011-09-11T20:38:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since 9/11. I was 18, a freshman in college at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles. I'll never forget that day. I was up early exercising and had no idea it had even happened. My roommate stopped on her way to ROTC and said something bad had happened, but she wasn't sure of how bad/details yet. I finished working out but when I walked back to the West Wing of the Furama Hotel (yep, I lived in a hotel rented out by LMU), everyone was up and out in the halls. From that moment on, it was scary. Being in LA, especially only about 2 miles from the airport, was crazy. Roads were closed, blocked by huge military vehicles. A freshman who lived a few floors up in the hotel lost her family in one of the planes, they were on their way to LA to visit. I'll never forget that. I'm sitting here watching a 9/11 special...it's still unbelievable to me that this really happened.

On a much lighter note, we had a great weekend! On Friday I went to Alderbrook with my sister, Sophie and my a friend of Kim's who has two little girls. Liam had a great time splashing around in the wading pool. Got home just in time to have dinner then this mama was off to see The Help. It was so good, I loved it! My sister, mom and even my grandma went. I've never been to a movie with my grandma, it was so fun. After the movie we had to go to the Sweet Spot. Love it, love it, love it! It's so exciting Longview finally has a frozen yogurt place. And one that serves YoCream. The BEST! Saturday we got up early and headed to Edgewood for Grandpa Sanderson's 85th birthday party. It was a joint party for him and Grandma Poppy's sister, who also turned 85. It was a great party, the entire family (well, almost everyone) showed up and we got to meet so many of their friends. You would never guess that any of them are that age. It's amazing, I can only hope that I have their spunk when I'm that age!

Today we crashed my parents neighborhood BBQ. We've been going since the first one eight years ago, so I guess we can't really consider it as crashing it! It was fun as usual but SO hot. Poor Liam was sweating. He was miserable, cranky...and then the baby pool came out. It cooled him off and he was pretty happy from then on. Oh, discovered yesterday that his top right tooth has broke through. Such a painful process!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

We have a crawler!

2011-09-09T09:05:00.001-07:00

He's an official crawler now. He's been doing the army crawl for weeks, but he figured out how to do the real thing on Tuesday! He's pretty proud of himself. :) Have to post this video, I always hate hearing myself talk. Don't realize how annoying I sound until I watch them. Probably driving Liam nuts!

Whoops

2011-09-06T19:34:00.000-07:00

I didn't mean to post that video of Sophie. I was trying to post one of Liam, accidentally ended up selecting the one of Sophie instead. Thought I deleted it, was surprised when I logged in and saw it was there. That was taken over a year ago!

Hello, September! Summer has finally arrived in the PNW and I've been trying my hardest to soak it all up. Why couldn't it have been like this a couple of months ago? I feel like we're just now getting consistent nice weather and now the Halloween candy is out.

I feel like things are crazy busy around here. School started for Joe, he's taking two classes. Business law and marketing. He has so much reading for blaw. It's only an 8 week course so it's really intense. Can't wait till it's over. 2013? Seems so far away. I keep wondering if it's worth it, and it really makes me realize I don't miss school. Always having the fact that you need to read/study/write a paper hanging over your head. Ick. He'd be a fool not to take advantage of this opportunity though. 100% tuition paid for. Amazing. I don't know how anyone affords to go to school, it's so expensive! $2400 for just these two classes. His business law book was $199 USED. Unbelievable!

I've also been really busy reading "The Help." I can't put it down. Well except for all the hours of the day that Liam is awake. :) I'm trying to read it as fast as possible so I can go see the movie on Friday. I've heard the movie is amazing too, just want to make sure I get the book read before I see it.

Ok, enough with this boring post. Looks like I need some excitement in my life!

The mamas

2011-08-31T09:21:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we got together with our mama friends, babies and we even let the husbands come this time. It was so much fun meeting all of the husbands. All of these babies are so lucky to have such awesome dads...and moms! I see many more gatherings in the future with our husbands. I love these babies and mamas. So much fun to be a part of this group!

Coffee update

2011-08-28T08:32:00.001-07:00

By using 11 heaping scoops, Folgers is tasting a LITTLE bit better this morning. :)

The best part of waking up....

2011-08-27T06:47:00.001-07:00

The best part of waking up is NOT having Folgers in your cup. I heard the coffee maker beep and jumped out of bed. I had high hopes and tried to give Folgers a chance, but I am now sitting here craving good coffee. Joe and I like DARK and STRONG coffee. We have a 12 cup coffee maker and I put 9 heaping scoops to make a pot! I thought since this was the darkest of all the ones Folgers make we might be able to choke it down. I even put an extra heaping scoop for the simple fact it was Folgers. Disappointing to say the least. Not what you want to be faced with at 6am on a Saturday morning!

Anyway, this last week was interesting. I got selected for jury duty and served on a case on Monday and Tuesday. Besides having to leave Liam for 2 days, I LOVED it. I wish people could volunteer to serve.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. August, do you really have to leave us next week? :(

10 Months!

2011-08-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

Our sweet little guy is 10 months! He got to celebrate the big 10 at the Kite Festival at Long Beach. He loved watching the kites buzz around. I'm surprised we were able to get this picture, he was so busy looking in a million different directions!

2011-08-18T07:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my mom told me her friend Karen called and said when she saw the picture of Liam in the bath she thought it looked like me when I was his age. THANK YOU, Karen! I always here, "Hey little Joe" or "He looks exactly like his daddy!" :) Gotta admit, makes me a little sad when I never here he looks like me. Or maybe that's a good thing! Anyway, that made my day.

I'm waiting for my sweet little guy to wake up as I write this. He's been asleep for 12 1/2 hours so far. YAY! So glad we had a couple of nights of tough love, that's all it took for all of us to sleep completely through the night. Last night when I was giving him a bath I realized he has a really bad rash on his belly and under his arms. He's never had anything like this so of course I freaked out. He didn't act like it was bothering him but it looked awful. Joe wasn't here so thankfully my parents came to our rescue and were able to go get some medicine. Hoping it looks better when he wakes up this morning. Now I just have to try to figure out what caused it. The only new thing he had in the last couple of days is yogurt. He also ate A LOT of watermelon on Tuesday though, too. Going to stop the yogurt and see if it clears up. Poor little guy, hate seeing that smooth beautiful skin all scaly, bumpy and red.

Happy Thursday!

2011-08-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

This little guy loves bath time! This was taken about 15 minutes ago...he's now fast asleep. He goes to bed so easily. Now that he's not waking up during the night, I can truly say I am SO lucky with the sleep thing!

Project paint our house is underway. Joe just finished pressure washing, now we just have to decide on a color. Never thought this would be such a hard decision. I don't want anything with any shade of brown. So sick of brown. I've got the bug to paint the inside of our house. It's currently about 10 different shades of brown. Blah, blah. But being that we've decided on a sock monkey themed first birthday, it fits it perfectly. Guess we'll wait till after that. I'll be sure to post 'after' pictures of our house Monday (that's Joe's deadline to have it finished). Assuming we pick colors, that is!

We were supposed to spend the weekend in Tacoma, we have a wedding and birthday tomorrow, and we were supposed to go to a big BBQ on Saturday, but Joe put a kibosh on those plans. So now we'll be coming up tomorrow afternoon just for the wedding at 3:15 and birthday if we can make it before it ends at 7.

Ok, back outside to make sure Joe doesn't stop working till the sun goes down...... :)

mint.com

2011-08-09T07:47:00.000-07:00

My friend Carly told me about this website, mint.com. It's really cool, it keeps track of all of your financial accounts and tracks all of your spending and categorizes it for you. It's interesting to see where all of our money goes. Just when I think I'm doing really good at not spending, I log on and get a slap in the face. The most common message is, "You spend a lot on gas." Haha. That's very true. But our cars are paid for so I don't mind. If I still had my Jeep it would be different. Big car payment, HUGE gas bill = double bad. I'd much rather have an older pre-loved car. Don't mind spending a ton on gas! Anyway, our top two spending categories in July were 1) home (mortgage) and 2) bills and utilities. I'm going to do better at tracking this month, it's really interesting to see! Anyway, I highly recommend this site, very helpful tool. And it adds all of your accounts, all you have to do is give your login info. Even has all of our retirement accounts so we can see everything. It's motivating and makes me want to save, save, save!

This is a random post, but I have to say how proud I am of Liam. Last week at his appointment his doctor told us he's a "trained night crier." He was still waking up during the night and the only way to get him to settle down was to feed him. She informed us that he had suceeded at training us to get up and basically learned how to manipulate me. Haha, smart boy, right? She said we needed to work on breaking that habit, saying if it doesn't stop by age 1, most likely it won't happen until age 2 or 3 when he's so worn out from his daily schedule he just can't wake up. That scared me! So we had to practice a little tough love and let him cry. Torture. Pure torture! The first night he cried for about 50 minutes (she told us not to go in...it just makes him more upset). He finally fell asleep and then slept the rest of the night. The second night he woke up at 4:30 and cried for 20 minutes then slept until 7:30. Last night he went to bed at 7:05 and is just now making sounds. YES! I am one happy mama!

Happy Tuesday!

Weekend recap

2011-08-08T10:06:00.001-07:00

Liam waiting for the doctor at his 9 month appt. last week

Whew! Another busy, fun-filled and productive weekend in the books. Actually, all of last week was a busy whirlwind it seems. But then again, it feels like every week is becoming more and more like that. Anyway, last week was a perfect week. Wednesday Joe was off so we did a Costco run and met Kim, George and Sophie for dinner at Goldie's and then went to YoCream to use our gift cards that we've had since Christmas. Perfect summer night! I had my yogurt loaded with fresh raspberries, blueberries and pineapple. I knew it was going to be spendy, as you're charged based on weight, but I knew it would be worth it. We went to pay and the girl said, "Are you sharing with him (pointing at Liam)?" I said no, and kinda looked at her like she was crazy, I'm sure....my baby doesn't eat that stuff! And then she said, "If you were sharing, it would be 99 cents...are you sure you aren't?" So then I said I was and she told me to take mine off of the scale. AWESOME. I felt guilty but she wanted me to only pay $.99 for it with those kinds of hints. I was so excited...and can't wait to go back and load up with $10 worth of fresh fruit and get it for practically free. Haha, it's the simple things in life, right?!

Oh, Liam also had his 9 month check-up on Wednesday. He's over 9 months but we were in Whistler when his original appointment was, so we had to reschedule. He's right on track for everything, 20lbs 1oz at 9 months/2 weeks old. Believe it or not (I was surprised), the doctor said he's on the "petite" side.

Saturday my in-laws came down to bring us their pressure washer and some painting supplies. Operation paint our house is underway. Can't WAIT to have this project done, and furthermore, not have a purple house anymore! Joe did prep work most of Saturday, between Squirrel Fest festivities, and all day yesterday. He's off Thursday-Tuesday so he hopes to get it totally painted by then. Here's to hoping! Now we just have to decide on a color, the hardest part of it all!

Yesterday we celebrated my sisters birthday. Bruno's, carrot cake and ice cream. The perfect birthday in my opinion. :)

Happy Monday!

You know you're getting old when....

2011-08-05T07:31:00.000-07:00

You get excited when you get this magazine in the mail! Yep, that's me. And I also stayed up too late reading it and loved it. Recipes, feel-good stories...a good magazine. No trash. I'm too old for that garbage. ;)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-03T12:13:00.000-07:00

Nastiness in a bottle

2011-08-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

I gave in and decided to give coconut water a try. Uh, what's all the hype about? I thought it was absolutely disgusting. Like really disgusting. It's right up there with the barium sulfate that I had to drink. Did I just buy the wrong brand? Anyone know?

Done, done and done!

2011-07-31T11:41:00.000-07:00

The Mark Morris Class of 2001 reunion is OVER. Hard to believe we first met to talk about it this time last summer and now it's already come and gone. It went a lot better than I expected...it was good to see (most) people and Joe and I had a fun time. I think we may have been the only two sober people in attendance besides the pregnant girls but that just makes it that more entertaining! I think the biggest negative (that I can mention on my public blog) was the music. We heard a lot of people complaining about it, too. It was SO loud. Dana and I were sitting side by side and could hardly hear each other talk. We decided we're too old for that...we prefer softer music so we can carry on a conversation without having to say "what, what" repeatedly. Kind of awkward when you haven't seen someone in 10 years and you can't hear what each other are saying! It was more like a nightclub than anything. Great for some people, a little too crazy for us lame o's. Haha. I think it would've been perfect to have softer music for an hour or so while people were eating and catching up and then turned it up to more of a party atmosphere. But what do I know....

I stood at the door collecting money for a good part of the night and I'm glad I did. I feel like I got to say hi and talk to everyone. Joe found everything highly entertaining, especially as the night progressed. For the most part, most people haven't changed a bit. But I think we all kind of expected it to be that way.

I could go on and on and on but like I said, not really sure who reads this! Lol.

A huge thanks to my mom and dad for watching Liam Friday and Saturday so I could be at both of the events. I've been stressed about leaving him for months! Friday was the first time I've ever not been with him at bedtime. It made me sad, I love our bedtime routine. I was worried he'd protest my mom putting him to bed but he went right down, didn't even miss me. ;)

Happy Sunday!

Where I've been....

2011-07-27T07:31:00.000-07:00

I FINALLY got my passport last Wednesday at 4:30pm so we were able to go to Canada. A big huge thanks to Congresswomen Jaime Herrera. I contacted her and she contacted the agency that it was at in New Hampshire and got a rush on everything. I really think if I hadn't contacted her I wouldn't have been able to go. And I probably still wouldn't have my passport. So glad my mom-in-law thought of that idea!

Anyway, we left last Thursday and went to Whistler. We went with my in-laws, Joe's aunt/uncle/cousin/wife and their little boy. I'm sad the trip went so fast but I'm so excited I finally got to go experience Whistler. I've always heard so many amazing things about it and it was so much fun! I can't wait to go back in the winter so we can ski.

Liam just woke up...gotta run. Hope everyone is having a good week. Wednesday already? End of July already? I really think I'm in a time warp!

Weekend recap

2011-07-18T19:38:00.000-07:00

Fastest way to sum up the weekend? Blah. I think it was the weather. WHY can't it be sunny? Actually, even just dry weather would be fine. So many things we wanted to do outside and it seemed like it poured the majority of the weekend. Frustrating. My friend Joanna invited us to come out to her in-laws house in Abernathy so she could take some pictures of Liam. I had never been out there before. I was blown away with the beauty! Even on a rainy, gloomy day. We had a blast getting some pictures of Liam and he cooperated so well...I think he liked his outdoor shower. :) The pictures she took turned out amazing. I got teary eyed when I saw them. Especially to think the last time she took pictures of Liam he was only two weeks. How fast it has gone. Go check them out on her website, just click here! Thanks, Joanna for a fun day.

Oh, and for those who haven't heard, the government is holding my passport ransom. I had to send it in to have my married name added and it's been a fiasco to say the least. I'm even in contact with Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler to try to get it back. Nutso. More on that later, after dealing with it today, I just don't have the energy to talk anymore about it! So far I've spent over $250 dealing with it. Most expensive passport ever!

Hope everyone had a great weekend, Happy Monday!

I judge books by their cover

2011-07-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

I just bought these three books at the DOLLAR Tree! Yep, they were only $1 each. Retail price for them is $24.95, $17.95 and $25.00! We're going to be in the car a lot in the next few weeks so I wanted some easy reads. I've been using the library and not buying books, it saves so much money and the library is amazing! BUT, for $1, you can't beat it! And I don't have to wonder whose hands have turned the pages before me (I've become a slight germaphobe lately). Love the Dollar Tree!

Lewis River Waterfall Hike

2011-07-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

Liam has yet another hike in the books! Yesterday we did the Lewis River Waterfall Hike with our friends Carly and Jeremy and their baby, Gavin. It was a beautiful day for a hike and the scenery was gorgeous. You don't realize how much you miss out on if you aren't willing (or able) to get off the beaten path. Both of the babies did great and we had a fun time. It was a great way to spend the day. We even saw Melissa, my sisters sis-in-law, when we got to the trail head. I couldn't believe it! We also got to watch some kyaks go down some of the big waterfalls. It looked so freaky!

Babies galore

2011-07-08T07:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Liam got to see all of his little friends. It's always so much fun getting together with all of them and getting to hang out with all the mamas! Two of the babies were missing yesterday...usually even a bigger lineup! They are all so close in age. The oldest baby was born 10.10.10 (so cool!) and the youngest was born 12.11.10. It's amazing to see how much they've changed since the first time we got them together way back in February. Compared to now, they were pretty much lifeless. Now some of them are crawling, some are standing, they all like to steal each others toys, kiss (or suck faces) and just enjoy being together. I can't even imagine what it'll be like in a few months when they are all running around. Chaos. Fun, fun chaos!

FRIDAY!? Wow. Where did the week go?! It feels like Wednesday. I've been off all week. On Wednesday I went to Subway and ordered the sub of the day. I had to tell the guy he made the wrong sandwich when I looked down and saw what was in front of me---meatball. The sub of the day for Monday was ham and turkey. I said, "Oh, I ordered the sub of the day, turkey and ham." And he said, "Uhh...it's Wednesday, sub of the day is meatball." Haha! Everyone in line was laughing, I really think I've lost my mind. Oh, well. If anything, it gives me something to blog about.

Hope everyone has a great weekend, gotta get my first cup of coffee in me before sweet baby wakes up. Happy Friday!

Weekend whirlwhind!

2011-07-06T09:19:00.001-07:00

Having fun at Skamania!
At the top of Beacon Rock

Wow! We've been going nonstop since last Thursday. It was a busy and wonderful few days, a great way to celebrate Liam's first Fourth of July! On Thursday morning we took off for Skamania Lodge for the night. We got a great deal thanks to Living Social. It was a great little getaway. On our way there we stopped and hiked Beacon Rock, this was Liam's first big hike. He seemed to like it and daddy loved having his little buddy on his back. I had never been here, the views were amazing! On our way home Friday, we stopped and hiked to the very top of Multnomah Falls. Another great hike, such gorgeous views! Doing these things makes me realize what an amazing place we live in. On our drive home the views of Mt. Hood were so gorgeous. And it's really cool to think that we were driving by Mt. Hood and in 2 hours we were at the beach! We really have the best of everything here, even if it does rain. A lot. :)

We got home Friday afternoon, Liam took a nap, I went to a class reunion planning meeting and then we took off for the beach for 4 nights. We had so much fun! My sisters in-laws went with us this time, it's always fun when a big group goes. We flew kites, rode bikes, had fires, had fun with fireworks...it was the perfect way to spend the 4th. I was really bummed last night when we got home. I am my happiest when I'm surrounded by people. It was pretty lonely being in a silent house with a sleeping baby and a working husband last night!

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!

Napping baby = chance to blog

2011-06-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a busy few days! We had a neighborhood garage sale Friday-Sunday so I was busy with that Friday/all weekend. I made a whopping $134. Haha. We got rid of the most important things though, our toilets, microwave and dishwasher. You would think we would've ended up with a little more than $134, huh? Oh well, better than having to pay to take them to the dump. And I must say, I LOVE garage sales. Well, being the one having the garage sale, that is. It is the best people watching ever! And so crazy to see what things sell and what things don't. I had a about 5 king size pillows I was about ready to throw away (gross...pillows are nasty...i buy new ones a lot) and decided to put them out just to see if they'd get any action. About 5 minutes after I put them out they were sold. REALLY? I find that disturbing. Don't people know about bed bugs (not that we have them!) and the fact that pillows get heavier after time due to all the grossness of people sleeping on them night after night after night?! Ick.

Yesterday Kim and I took the babies up to the Chehalis (or are they in Centrailia?) outlets. Got lots of cute stuff at the Carter outlet!

Ok, Mr. Liam is waking up...hope everyone has a great 4th of July if I don't get a chance to blog before then!

8 Months!

2011-06-21T07:42:00.001-07:00

Our sweet baby turned 8 months yesterday! Eight months ago, I already had a full room of visitors at the hospital, I think our first showed up at 7:30am, and I was on a total (natural) high waking up and realizing our baby boy was finally here. He amazes me more and more everyday.

Big things that have happened in the Life of Liam lately: we let him try watermelon for the first time a couple of weekends ago and he loves it! I think it must feel really good on his gums. His first tooth has also popped through on the bottom right. If you look real close, you can see it in the picture. He's also becoming quite the little flirt. I was at the store with him yesterday and he was smiling and making noises at everyone!

So excited to see what month eight has in store for the three of us

Busy weekend!

2011-06-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

Yep, he went with g'ma Jayne and I to get pedicures. He did great and the ladies LOVED him!

I am exhausted! It was one busy weekend. I woke up this morning with the same dread I used to feel waking up and having to go to work on Monday after a busy weekend. My alarm clock (Liam) went off at around 5:30 and I kept hitting snooze (pretending I didn't hear him--he was just talking) and delayed getting up as long as possible. His talking got louder, like "Mooom, I'm starting to get impatient!" so I got up and fed him. He went back to bed immediately after I fed him and so did I. And it felt so good! None of us slept much this weekend, Liam has already been down for his morning nap since 9, I think I should've taken another little snooze, too!

We spent the weekend at the in-laws. It was a great weekend, non-stop the entire time! As soon as we got there on Friday, Liam, Jayne and I went swimming at the Y. Liam was so tired but still had fun. I love taking him swimming! Saturday Liam and I went to a birthday party for friends of ours that live in Puyallup. He was worn out from that and went to bed at 6:30ish Saturday night! All of us adults ended up staying up really like. Like 2 am late. We were visiting with my brother- in-law though, so it was worth feeling totally exhausted when my alarm clock (Liam, again) went off at 4:30am. :)

Sunday we had Father's Day Brunch and celebrated Grandma Poppy's 82nd birthday. I had such a great time! And so did Mr. Liam. He was in total sensory overload mode, but he did great and I think he enjoyed all the excitement and people. He's just like his mama! For brunch I made sticky buns, lemon bars, carmel apple pie and baked French toast casserole. Jayne made a traditional breakfast casserole, there was tons of fruit, mimosas, carrot and chocolate cake...so much stuff! It was my first time making the French toast casserole but it was sooo good. It's definitely a keeper! But also one of those that I should only be allowed to make once or twice a year. Isn't that the case with any of Paula Deen's recipes though!?

One of the main reasons we went up this weekend was so Joe could do some routine maintenance on our Subaru..stuff that needs to be done when it turns 105,000. His parents have the best set-up, even a hydraulic lift, it looks like you're walking into a service department! Our car was up in the air all weekend getting worked on. He replaced belts, gaskets, changed the oil...and lots of other stuff that I can't remember! It was a big project and now our car is in tip-top shape. He thinks it would've cost around $1500 to have all the work done at the dealership, we only had to buy all of the parts for about $300. Since our car was out of commission, I got to drive Jayne's 2011 Outback a few times. I'm in love! :)

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Wednesday with words. And a picture.

2011-06-15T20:18:00.001-07:00

Another new toy for our sweet baby! He absolutely LOVES this one. Thanks, DeCarlo's! When he's not shooting baskets, the hoop makes a great chew toy. Feels so good on the gums! Seriously though, he gets so excited when we sit him in front of this, it's so fun to watch him.

Joe is DONE with his summer session class. I am so proud of him, he got an A! Pretty impressive, especially with his crazy work schedule. It's nice to have him back though, when he wasn't working, he was with his books. No more classes until fall semester. Yay!

Well, I had planned on writing more but I'm all out of words. Today was a long day. Liam decided he only needed two 20 minute-ish naps. Made for a really early bedtime, 6:30, but I'm still pooped. And the ice cream is calling my name.... :)

Hiking adventure

2011-06-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took Liam on his first hike! We inherited this great pack, thanks to Joe's aunt, so it made packing him around much easier. We didn't have much time so we just headed up to Seaquest State Park. It was a beautiful day and Liam loved it. Can't wait to go on more hikes with him!

One week

2011-06-05T08:34:00.001-07:00

It's been one week since I logged on to Facebook. Actually, I take that back. I logged on for two minutes on Wednesday so I could play the Nuts for Hawaii game on Alaska Airlines FB page. I didn't win. :( But when I logged on to play, I immediately went to their page and then logged back off. I'm missing out on all the breaking news. Did so-and-so have her baby? Did so-and-so find out if they're having a boy or a girl? Are people responding to reunion Facebook posts/questions? What pictures did Aili tag me in? Got an email saying I was tagged, this could be bad! I checked my email Facebook folder and saw all the messages I have. These people don't know I've decided to quit cold turkey--and I don't have their email. And I don't talk to them enough to pick up the phone and let them know I'm not avoiding them, I just can't log on to respond!

I guess I never realized just how much Facebook is a main form of communication nowadays. I think I might have to ease myself back into it. I don't know when I will, but I'm making a pledge to myself to not use it on my phone. Leave it only for the real computer (because I'm hardly ever on the laptop). By not being on at all I'm falling behind on high school reunion stuff, moms group stuff, etc. When used in moderation, it really can be a great communication tool!

Anyway, with that said, I know I could go longer without being on, but I almost feel a sense of responsibility to get back on, if only for communicating on the moms group board and with the other reunion planners. We'll see what happens!

Yesterday was the best day! I woke up super early, was able to exercise before Liam and Joe woke up and then the in-laws called and said they needed a Liam fix. They came down in the afternoon and were with us all day. It was a great visit....Liam loved it! Even though he took a two hour afternoon nap while they were here. I felt bad he did that, of course he decides to take a long nap when he has people here specifically to see him! He woke up around 4:30 and was in bed for the night at 7:30. My little love bug! He's still sleeping as I write this. I think he's having a major growth spurt. He woke up at 2:30 last night (he's been sleeping through the night) and Joe went in to try to get him to go back to sleep. After about 30 minutes Joe came to get me and said he could hear Liam's tummy growling. He was starvin!

Ok, coffee time....happy SUNNY Sunday!

2011-05-31T19:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Facebook, I don't miss you! I made a decision at the beach that I need to take a break from Facebook. I think I had become slightly addicted, especially since I have an iPhone and can check it all of the time. So if I miss your birthday, your anniversary, the news that you're having a baby, getting married/divorced or going on a really cool vacation, I apologize now. I don't know how long of a break I'll be taking but I must admit, it feels pretty good to not know what everyone I've ever known in my life is doing at this current minute. I haven't checked it since Sunday at the beach so I'm doing good so far. I did check my "Facebook" folder in my email to make sure I didn't miss any messages. Just have to figure out a way to respond to the messages without logging on!

We had the best weekend! We went to the beach for the weekend...just the kids! And our sweet little babies. It was a great trip and the weather was amazing. Especially on Saturday. I got too hot sitting on the deck and had to move inside at one point! Liam and Sophie even took a bath together, it was the cutest thing I've ever seen. :) Mom and dad have had the house less than a year but we've already created so many great memories. I love it, all I can think about is figuring out when we can go back!

Ok, the couch (and ice cream!) is calling my name. Hope everyone has a great week! Oh, and if I miss something HUGE on Facebook....can someone please let me know!? :)

Wordless Wednesday. With Words.

2011-05-25T08:01:00.001-07:00

It's so weird to think that this time last year I was 23 weeks pregnant! It's also weird to think it must've been WARM and SUNNY as I'm wearing a sleeveless shirt. I can't remember what being pregnant felt like...or the warm weather for that matter!

Zumba - Dance Dance Dance

2011-05-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Zumba. My sister and I have decided to sign up for Zumba through the Parks and Rec. My sister sent me this video and I laugh every time I watch it. We are the girl in the green sweatpants! Totally off beat, no rhythm, looking really silly. The only difference is we'll be in the very BACK of the room! This should be an interesting few weeks... :)

2011-05-22T16:19:00.000-07:00

Saturday stuff

2011-05-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

This picture cracks me up! Sophie was trying to help me blow out candles. It consisted more of spitting...haha. Made the cake that much sweeter!

Wow, my blogging is becoming less and less. I think it's because I rarely sit down with the laptop anymore. I use my phone for pretty much all of my web surfing so I don't really have the need, except when I get the urge to blog because I really don't have the patience to blog from my phone!

Last week was a whirlwind! Monday I used birthday money I got to go buy a new microwave. Ours still works, but now that we have a stainless steel dishwasher and fridge, I decided it was time for a new one. And ours is kinda complicated anyway (that's my justification). It's a Maytag and it's pretty awesome looking! They didn't have it in stock so we're still waiting to get it. Next upgrade will be a new oven. Joe and I both want the double oven style Maytag one. If I'm lucky we'll get it before the end of June and we can sell of our old stuff at our neighborhood garage sale! I forgot to mention that we also got new toilets. Well, new to us. They're actually from my sisters house. They upgraded so we got their old. Which is a huge upgrade from what we had. Yay!

Wednesday was Joe's birthday! The big 2-8 like me now. He had to work all day so we didn't really get to celebrate but I tried my best to make it a special day for him. We listen to KLOG in the morning and everyday they give away flowers. You have to nominate the person to win so I emailed and nominated him for the flower giveaway because it was his birthday and because he's such a great husband and daddy. He listens at work so I was really hoping he'd be the winner and he was! I know it's just local radio, AM at that, but it was so exciting to hear them read what I had written and wish him a happy birthday on air! Hahaha, I'm a local radio nerd! They delivered a dozen yellow roses to work. :) Lucky for me, we fresh flowers at home...although I think they're making me sick!

Thursday Liam and I went swimming with my moms group at Firstenburg in Vancouver. Such an awesome place. Why can't Longview have a cool place like this?! Such a wonderful thing for the community. Liam had a blast swimming with his friends and I had a great time, as usual, with all of the moms. So lucky to have this group of girls. All of the babies are within 9 weeks of each other so we can all relate to each other. Great support. And they're all so fun!

Joe's trying to study for his econ class right now. I thought I missed school. I was wrong. I'm not even taking the class but I already hate it. He's so stressed trying to get all of the readings done, trying to figure out when to take his test. It's cutting into our weekend/family time. :( I'll be just as happy as he is when it's done! He got 100% on his first exam though so hoping the rest are the same. I had to pay tuition last week. HOLY CRAP! How do people afford school?! This is just a 2 credit class but I had to write a check for over $1400!! It's nuts! Thankfully we'll be getting reimbursed from his company at the end of the semester but still...yikes! Think I better up the amount we're putting into Liam's college fund every payday. If it's this much now, can't even imagine how much it will cost when he goes to school!

Liam also turned SEVEN months yesterday. He's officially sitting up for long periods of time and loves food. I feel like a slacker mom for not making my own baby food but buying is so much easier. Especially for lazy people like me. ;) I feed him fruits and rice cereal in the morning and a veggie and cereal at night. I'm still breastfeeding about 3-4 times during the day and before bed. He's a chunky monkey! I love him SO much! Oh, and I just remembered something really big....Joe and I had our first DATE NIGHT on Thursday! It was the first time we'd been to dinner just the two of us without Liam. We left him with my sister and he did great. I must say it was so nice to be able to eat with no interruptions! And to be able to eat slow and savor every bite...forgot what that's like! Thanks to my sister, bro-in-law and Sophie for watching him. And to Liam for being so good for them!

Ok, better take advantage nap time before it's over...

Happy weekend!

P.S. The world didn't end today? Joe said he read the guy predicted if not today, October 21. Good to know we still have a few months. Might as well eat the carrot cake that's staring me down as I write this!!

Hello, late twenties...

2011-05-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

I guess I've been in my late twenties for a few years now, huh? I guess it's more like
late-late twenties now! Whatever, it's just a number and every year gets better and better so I'll take it! Or maybe this would be a good age to stop at?

I had the best birthday ever. I feel like we've been celebrating since Thursday! Non-stop stuff going on, I love weekends like that! I was sad when Joe left for work this morning...back to the grind. :/ On Thursday we bought a new washer and dryer. I must say, it's beautiful! Ours has been on the fritz for a long time and Joe decided he didn't want to put anymore time and/or money into fixing it. Don't blame him! We also got a new dishwasher from Joe's parents for our joint birthday present. The washer and dryer is beautiful, our new dishwasher is GORGEOUS! Hidden buttons, stainless steel...and it actually cleans dishes. It's amazing. We had to pre-wash everything with our old one. I have to train myself not to wash dishes before putting them in now! And it's so quiet! I wasn't able to run our old one if we were watching TV because it was so loud. This one is so quiet I have to listen to see if it's really running. So nice!

Ok, I was going to write more but I really need to take advantage of Liam's morning nap and get stuff done.

Happy Monday!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

2011-05-09T10:25:00.000-07:00

Joe and I watched Freakonomics on Saturday night. It was SO interesting. I love it when a show or movie can keep me entertained for more than 10 minutes..this was one of those. Highly recommend! Joe's class starts today, he's only taking one this summer session and it's micro and macro economics, which is what led us to this movie as we were searching Apple TV. Glad we picked it!

It's my birthday week! Which means it will be like all of the other weeks, just turning a year older on Friday. I'm trying to take it with stride, it's just a number, but 28? Where has the time gone? It's nuts!

Happy Monday!

2011-05-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to my amazing mom and to all of the other moms I know out there. Now that I'm a mom I fully understand this holiday. We need to be recognized! :) We're going for brunch at Root's later this am. Looking forward to it! Although, I told my sister it would be more of a Mother's Day treat if the guys were sending us girls minus the kids (and the husbands) to enjoy brunch, some pampering and just a plain old good girls day. ;)

For my Mother's Day, Joe sent me out for a pedicure yesterday and we're going to go plant shopping when he's off one day this week. We attempted yesterday but everyone was buying plants and flowers. Way to wait to the last minute, people! I'm actually not really ready for flowers yet. Maybe it's the weather? It's much more fun looking when the sun is at least shining! I had the BEST pedicure though. I went to Lovely Nails because I had a coupon. I'll definitely be going back, especially since they let me keep the coupon! I rate a pedicure based on the massage and this one was wonderful! She did my right leg for over 10 minutes! Several lotions, hot towels. It was so nice!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

I crack up everytime I look at this picture! Liam and his friend Gavin at the Woodland Tulip Festival on Saturday.

Blogging from an iPad

2011-05-03T09:07:00.001-07:00

Ugh! It's not as easy as I thought it would be....so I guess I'll end the post here. Guess I'm old fashioned, still prefer a regular keyboard. Happy Tuesday!

Hello, Friday!

2011-04-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

YIKES! It's been an entire week since I last posted? Crazy! It was a busy and fast week and now I find myself trying to remember what was so busy about it!

Monday I spent most of the day trying to figure out how to make cake pops. My sister and her friend Traci made the cutest--and yummiest ones--for Easter so I decided I wanted to try them. It's a time consuming thing! I decided to make them so I could have some for moms group at our house on Tuesday morning and also for my dads birthday party on Tuesday night. They turned out a little on the pathetic looking side but they were still yummy. That's all that matters, right?!

On Tuesday there were 8 babies at our house for moms group. It was so much fun! The babies all did so good and it's always so fun catching up with all of the mamas! Such a great group of girls, I feel so lucky to be a part of this great group. Tuesday night was my dads 60th birthday party at mailto:Pie@trio. It was fun. But I'll be the first to admit, I don't like the sound of my dad being 60. And I'm sure he feels the same way. :)

Wednesday I met my friend Carly for coffee and then since my dad, Joe and bro-in-law were all gone for dinner, us girls decided to drive to Vancouver for dinner. I love spontaneous adventures!

Joe was off yesterday but it was another busy day. He had appointments, I had appointments and Liam had his SIX MONTH check-up! Drumrolll.....he's a whopping 17lbs 12oz! Or as the doctor said, a "chunk." But only 50% for weight so he's not that chunky! Give the guy a break, doc. :) We've started introducing baby food...veggies and for the first time yesterday, pears. He loves all of them. Green beans, peas, carrots.... Feeding real food is fun but definitely a change from breastfeeding. It's so much slower, such a HUGE mess...and I have stains I'm constantly trying to get out of his clothes now. Not to mention the poop changes. Ick! I miss the old poo. Feeding him real food makes the times that I breastfeed even more special. I really realize now how much I need to savor it and enjoy it...it's going to be over so fast.

Today was an exciting day. Joe met with a counselor at WSUV this morning at 9. He's going back to school, people. His employer will pay 100% tuition if he gets above a C in his classes so he's going to take advantage and go for it. Liam and I went with him this morning. It's funny, even just walking on campus made me miss the feeling of going to school. I'm sure it would change when I actually had to go to class and try to remember how to study again though!

Well, that's the week. I guess it hasn't been that busy, just feel like I wasn't home much. I think this is the first time I've actually sat down at the computer all week. I'm too lazy to blog from my phone!

Tomorrow we're going to the Woodland Tulip Festival with friends and on Sunday the in-laws are coming to visit. Oh, and it's supposed to be 72 on Sunday. Glorious!

Happy weekend!

Sweet little Liam

2011-04-22T10:09:00.001-07:00

Jenn posted a few pictures from Liam's 6 month photo shoot on Facebook. Here is my favorite so far. Makes my heart melt!

Yesterday my sister and I went on a Vancouver run for Trader Joe's and Whole Foods necessities. We took Liam and Sophie and I now wonder, even more so than before, HOW in the world do you have more than one baby?! Oh. My. Gosh. We were both worn out out by the time we got home. I can't imagine doing that trip solo and having two kids with me! Sophie and Liam both did so good though...we are so lucky to have such laid back babies!

Joe is off today for Good Friday. It's a paid holiday where he works, how cool is that?! Looking forward to the weekend. Rumor has it it's supposed to be almost 70 tomorrow! I'm also excited to watch Sophie hunt for eggs on Sunday. The Easter Bunny didn't bring Liam anything but he dropped something off at our house for Sophie. Poor, deprived Liam! The only year we can get away with it!

Happy Easter weekend, everyone!

Perfect Tuesday

2011-04-20T08:38:00.001-07:00

Stole this picture off of a Yelp review for Ken's!

Yesterday was the best day! The SUN was shining when I woke up, Liam and I walked the lake with Carly and Gavin (they let us walk the entire thing!) and when I got home Joe and I went to Vancouver. For dinner we met everyone at Ken's Artisan Pizza in Portland. It was sooo good! They have the best pizza! Joe and I got there first, they don't open until 5 but there was already a line of people waiting to be seated at 4:45. I've said this before, but it's a 'must try' when you're in Portland! After dinner we stopped at Ice Cream Renaissance in Vancouver. Another must try. And another 'must try' that I've mentioned before. :) Nothing like a big scoop of homemade ice cream. It was a beautiful evening and it felt so good to be out and about. It felt like the kick-off to summer and I loved it! Little Liam was a trooper, even though we were out past his bedtime.

Joe is off today and I have a big list of things I want to do. Better go get started and get #1 knocked off the list: bath time for Liam. My favorite morning activity!

Happy Wednesday!

P.S. A big HAPPY 6 MONTHS to our sweet baby boy. Since I already sound like a broken record, I'll say it again....can't believe how fast it's gone. Liam, you are the most amazing thing that has ever happened to us. Watching you grow and change so much everyday is a miracle. You have the best personality and I fall in love with you more and more everyday. I love you, I love you, I LOVE YOU! "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be..."

Our date with Sophie

2011-04-19T10:04:00.000-07:00

Joe and I got to babysit Sophie on Saturday night. We had so much fun with her! It worked out perfectly, too. Baby "Emee" (that's what she calls him) went to bed at 6:45 so Sophie had Auntie and Aunt Joe (not a typo, she calls him Aunt now) to herself all night.

First we painted....

then we made Rice Krispy treats....
then it was snuggle time with Aunt Joe to watch Barney

and after eating a ton of Rice Krispy treats she decided to have a dance party at 10pm!

Couldn't have asked for a better Saturday night. Love spending time with her!

An amazing tribute

2011-04-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Bruce's celebration of life. It was an amazing tribute, you should have seen all of the people that showed up for it. They think there were around 700 people in attendance. Every inch of the hotel had people. After the main ceremony, everyone went outside and his dad released doves. They flew around the civic center twice and then took off to their house. It was so touching and such an emotional day. The hardest part was when my cousin Brian got up to talk. It was heartbreaking, it hurts so bad knowing how hard this is on him---and everyone else that was there. I wish I would've known Bruce more. I got to know him the most when I worked for my uncle. He would stop by in the mornings after working graveyard to visit. He always had us laughing and was a great early-morning distraction! He has touched many people and this world has lost a great person. He did not deserve what happened to him! I couldn't shut my mind off last night and was up until about 1:30am. At around midnight I decided to check tdn.com and saw that Dana's house got broken in to while everyone was at Bruce's memorial. So outraging. How could someone do that? It made me sick, especially after seeing her family yesterday and seeing first hand just how much they're hurting.

Text me!

2011-04-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

Today is day 6 in our current cell phone billing cycle and I've already sent/received 387 texts! I knew I texted a lot but WOW. Good thing for unlimited texts!

Check out my shoes!

2011-04-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

These itty bitty Nike's were the first pair of shoes that Liam ever got. One of my drivers at Clary's gave them to us. We were so excited when we got them. They are so adorable! Before Liam was born they looked so tiny but after he was born they suddenly looked huge compared to his tiny little feet! I thought they wouldn't fit until he was walking but Joe checked and they fit now. And this mama doesn't like it! We had to get a picture before we took them off. Something really funny about having bulky shoes with major tread when our sweet little baby is hardly still even rolling yet! :) If only they could grow with his feet and he could wear them when his feet are actually hitting the pavement!

Tuesday dinner yumminess

2011-04-13T08:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I decided to use everything that I had on hand for dinner. I'm really good at buying things, using a little bit for a recipe, not using the rest and having to throw it away. Not last night! I ended up using 1/4 bottle of BBQ sauce that was about ready to expire, potatoes that needed to be used and 1/2 bag of cabbage/carrot mix I bought for our dinner on Monday. End result = delicious! I made this BBQ chicken in the crock pot. It was "fantastic" according to Joe. And he tells it how it is, so if you're looking for a good recipe, try! I added quite a bit of Tapatio to spice it up though. I had a half used bag of carrots and cabbage so I made coleslaw. Well, my version of coleslaw. A TINY bit of mayo, a TINY bit of sugar and a lot of fresh lime juice. Joe, who isn't a coleslaw fan, liked that too. Dinner success! The potatoes were roasted with big cloves of garlic and rosemary and we also had corn. CORN season is among us! I was so excited to see it in the store. Summer is just around the corner! Hope everyone is having a great week!

A funny story despite the news yesterday

2011-04-12T10:36:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a tough day. So much emotion, so much sadness, so much shock. I still can't believe it happened. I kept waking up last night thinking it wasn't real. If only it wasn't. I just can't stop thinking about it. How Bruce had no idea his life would end that night. The news stories and the latest TDN article really got to me. My sister and I were both hoping they didn't know it was happening, that hopefully they had been sleeping, but according to the article they were held at gunpoint. Makes me sick to even think about it. Late yesterday afternoon I made Joe go to the Grocery Outlet with me. I needed to get out of the house and we needed a few things so I figured it would be a fun place to go. Am I the only one who thinks grocery stores are fun? Especially ones like this? There are so many hidden treasures! Joe calls it the 'used food store' since so many of the things are discounted so much. Whatever, used or not used, everything I've purchased there has been good! They even have a small organic section. Anyways, as soon as we walked in a little girl spotted me and followed me around the entire time. She immediately ran up to me and barked. "Woof woof! Woof woof!" I laughed out loud and said hi to her. She said, "Hi! Woof woof!" She ran back to her mom and about every 3 minutes she'd run back to me. The second time she ran up I would ask her questions and she'd just bark answers. If only I spoke dog! I asked her where her leash was, since she was a dog, and that made her talk. "I don't need a leash, I lead my mommy around the store." Ok... She started talking more and asking me questions. What my name was, etc. Then she asked me if I'd be her friend. I said sure and she ran back to her mom and said she had made a friend. She then ran back to me and grabbed my hand. At this point, as cute as I thought it was at first, I was starting to get annoyed. I couldn't concentrate on what we needed, she was jumping up and down, talking, barking, etc. Finally I told her I had to go and we tried to lose her, not easy to do in this store. She left us alone for a little bit but we ended up checking out next to her. She ran over to me and said, "It was so nice meeting you, thank you for being my friend! I hope to see you again soon." Hahahaha. We walked out to our car and low and behold, they were parked right next to us. She popped her head out of the window and said, "Woof, woof! Hi friend! Bye friend!" She was 5 years old. Kids are so funny. I don't know if I would be able to allow Liam to run around the store clinging on to random people and barking though!

2011-04-11T12:00:00.001-07:00

I am at a loss of words today. I had a dream last night that Joe and I were in Alaska with the entire Kamp family halibut fishing (probably after seeing Aili's fishing pictures), then I wake up and have a text from my mom at 6:30 saying, "Call me when you get this" and a text from Kristin saying, "What happened to Bruce?" I knew whatever my mom needed to tell me couldn't be good. Bruce was murdered last night. You can read the breaking news story here. So, so devastating. Much love to the Kamp family during this horrible time....

Wordless Wednesday....

2011-04-06T08:57:00.001-07:00

Really?!

Did anyone else read this?

2011-04-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

Local News Why straight-A's may not get you into UW this year Seattle Times Newspaper My high school English teacher posted this article on Facebook yesterday. Pretty sad that they have to accept out-of-state students with lower grades and test scores just to get money. Glad I got my degree when I did...seems like a degree is becoming harder and harder to attain.

Weekend recap

2011-04-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

My mom, dad, aunt and uncle went to the beach for the weekend so we decided to join them. It wasn't very nice weather wise but we still had a great weekend. Joe got to fly his new crazy kite, we played crummy rummy until 12:30am (I WON!!) and Joe and I had some pretty competitive games of ping pong. He ended up winning the championship of all championship champion games though. Oh well, I'll get him next time. Liam is going to grow up loving going to grandma and grandpa's beach house and I think it's so cool. He's going to have so many fun times, we all are! The video below is of Joe flying his kite. It was SO windy, I'm not sure how he was able to hold on to it! It's such a cool kite, Joe said I was doing my roller coaster scream. It was a rush watching it. I thought for sure Joe was going to fly away with it! It sounded like it had a motor it was so loud!

It's a beautiful day

2011-03-31T09:02:00.001-07:00

As Joe was leaving for work this morning I opened up the window and said, "Another beautiful day..." under my breath. It's been rainy and dreary everyday and when I looked out the window it was pouring. After I said that Joe said, "Don't say that, it's a great day. Everyday is a great day." I didn't think much about what he said until after he left. He's right. Who cares if it's rainy? Yes, it would be nice to be able to go outside without getting soaked, but what's the point of complaining about it? It could be so much worse than just a rainy day. As I write this, I'm patiently waiting to hear what my friend Krystal found out at her appointment yesterday. I got a text last night that said, "please pray, don't really want to talk yet." I know what that means. I felt the same exact way when I got my diagnosis. I feel devastated for her and her family. I remember after I found out we went to University Village. I don't think we got out of the car, we all just sat in the Sequoia in shock. Made phone calls. I remember seeing people park, get out of their cars, headed to do some shopping, have lunch and thinking how lucky they were. I was just told I had cancer and they were just going about their normal day. In our car, our world had totally stopped. It was the worst feeling ever. I'm sure that's what her family is feeling right now and it makes me feel sick. Keep keeping Krystal, her babies and family in your thoughts......

Bad day to be a chicken

2011-03-29T16:15:00.001-07:00

Just saw this article on TDN.COM. I wonder if this was an easier way to die than getting their heads cut off at Foster Farms?

Just a picture. Or two.

2011-03-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went to visit Baby A and his mommy. Baby S and her mom came for a bit too! Here's a picture of them back in November....

And here's them on Saturday....

They have definitely come alive. We could hardly get them to keep their eyes open in November, now we can't get them to sit still. Well, Baby A and Baby S, that is. Liam just watches the two of them in amazement. It's like he's thinking, "you guys! why don't you just save some of that energy and let your mommy hold you like I do?!" Haha. Baby A was born in the middle of August so he's definitely doing different things than Liam. But Baby S, who is two days younger than Liam, is doing pretty much the same things as Baby A. It's fun to see the different development and have them all together. And of course, a good chat/gossip session with the mama is always great! By the way March, where did you go? I feel like you haven't even started but you're already so close to being over. What the heck?!

Random Wednesday

2011-03-23T07:40:00.000-07:00

It's gorgeous out this morning! BLUE sky and frost. My favorite combination! Hopefully the sun decides to stay for awhile!

As we were checking out of the hospital after having Liam, Dr. Henderson stopped in. The last thing he said to me was, "The three things you need a lot of while breastfeeding: protein, water and prenatal vitamins." I definetely listened, I wanted to do everything in my power to succeed at breastfeeding. I can't help but wonder if his statement has something to do with my constant cravings for MEAT. Joe and I aren't big meat eaters...the only meat I would ever buy at the store would be ground turkey breast for turkey meatloaf and chicken. My meat cravings have been more than that. I've been craving pork, red meat...anything! At my grandma's birthday dinner I ordered a filet mignon. And I loved every bite of it. I think that's the first one I've ever had. Some might say my tastes have changed but I really think it has to do with breastfeeding. I wake up absolutely starving in the night. Yesterday on the Today show they said cravings don't have anything to do with what your body needs. I don't know if I totally agree with that. I'm not trying to justify my meat eating, but to some extent I think your body really tells you what you need if you're listening carefully. I'm not 'craving' cookies or chocolate. Just meat. It's so weird!

Anyway, since I feel like we've been eating a lot of beef, I decided we should have chicken. I got out my Portland's Palate cookbook (second time this week!) and decided on Chicken Ole. I used to make this a lot PJ (pre-Joe). It was delicious! And another easy one.

Chicken Ole

1 cup chunky salsa, medium hot (I would use HOT next time)

1/4 cup Dijon mustard (I used leftover Hickory Farms sweet hot mustard)

3 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lime juice

6 chicken beasts (I used TWO but did the same amounts of everything else)

In a large bowl, combine salsa, mustard and lime juice. Add chicken, turning to coat. Marinate in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (I marinated all day).

In a large saute pan, melt a little butter over medium heat until foamy. Remove chicken from marinade and place in frying pan. Cook, turning frequently, until well-browned on all sides. (I actually added a tiny bit of water and cooked the chicken until it was completely cooked). After this I added the marinade to the pan, covered with a lid and let it simmer for about an hour. No knife needed after it was done, just fell apart, the way we like it!

I also made Spanish rice and whole pinto beans to go with it. It got a thumbs-up from Joe so I'll be adding this one into my rotation. :)

Happy Wednesday!

Recipes galore!

2011-03-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

Move over Facebook, I think I'm going to have to replace you with this list! I already feel overwhelmed and want to rush to the store and make everything. Stay tuned for reviews. :)

My grandma

2011-03-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

Wow! My grandma looks amazing for 80! We surprised her after church and had cake, coffee and punch for her at her church. She was SO excited and beyond proud to show off her family, especially her great grandchildren. It was a great day! I hope I look as good and have the same spunk as she does when I'm 80!

SPRING

2011-03-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

Spring is here! I really can't believe it, where did winter go? Time is seriously going so fast. I find myself stopping and having to think what month it is! It can't possibly be the end of March already.. :( Today is my grandma's 80th birthday and Mr. Liam's 5 month birthday. A big day all around!

Today I am feeling so thankful. Thankful for our sweet baby napping in his crib, thankful to be celebrating my grandma's 80th birthday, thankful for my wonderful husband, family and friends. I often get so wrapped up in life I don't take the time to stop and think how lucky and blessed we all are. I've been following a blog, Rockstar Ronan, (his mom is originally from Kelso) and I feel so sick every time I read it. I had to stop after Liam was born, it scared me too much to read it, but I've recently started reading and following this little guys battle with cancer again. Life is so unfair sometimes, so unpredictable. I should realize that after what I went through with cancer but it's amazing how fast you forget how fragile life is. I can't even begin to imagine what Ronan's mama is going through. My heart aches every time I read her entries. She ended one of her latest entries with, "I would like to say a big FUCK YOU CANCER for doing this to my beautiful baby boy. I hate you very, very, much." Very well stated. I would scream that everyday if I was going through what she is.

Keep my friend Krystal and her family in your thoughts this week as she'll be having her brain surgery on Tuesday morning. Why do such horrible things happen to such good people? It will never, ever make sense to me.

App discovery

2011-03-18T06:40:00.000-07:00

Last night we had dinner with our friends Carly and Jeremy (Baby Gavin's mom and dad). It was soooo good and Carly told me all of the recipes she used came from the Whole Foods app. Finding that out and already having a current recipe obsession meant I didn't go to sleep until after 12:30 am! I am so excited about this app! I ended up making Kahlua brownies to take, one of my trademark desserts from the Portland Palate's cookbook. I forgot how addicting those things are. Need to get the leftovers out of the house ASAP. Joe and I got home and kept taking little tiny bites. You know, the kind where you stand in front of the pan and cut a tiny piece. And then another tiny piece. And then before you know it a HUGE piece is gone. Ughh. I also woke up with a pounding headache this morning. The kind of headache where you'd think I'd been drinking green beer all night. Could it possibly be from the minuscule amount of Kahlua that was in the brownies?! We had a great time last night, it's always so much fun to get the babies together, and it's fun when the husbands can join us, too!

I made myself get up and exercise this morning before Liam wakes up. I've been having him lay on his exercise mat and watch me...he seems to enjoy it...but this morning we're having a mini class reunion planning meeting (miss you, Joanna... :( ), so I needed to get it done early. It wasn't nearly as fun...I've come to love our morning routine and having Liam in the room watching and playing and talking to me. Have I mentioned lately how in love I am with this little guy?! He is my little buddy. I am so, so thankful I'm able to stay at home with him and experience everything with him. He is discovering and learning so many things everyday. I love being able to witness it!

Happy Friday!

My favorite color day!

2011-03-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

First off, Alyssa was right. The picture yesterday was a lean pocket my husband took to work with him. And apparently this is what it looked like after following the microwave instructions on the package. I wonder what else they put in this one besides pepperoni?!

Yesterday was a busy but fun day. Liam and I had moms group at Cafe Sip N Play! Not all of the moms were there but it was still fun to see everyone and the babies. I don't see the changes in Liam because I'm with him everyday so it's always crazy to see how much the other babies have changed! Liam and I also made a Costco run and spend a quick $100. Can you get out of there without spending less?! Liam was also thrilled that I found him another pair of Pajama Jeans there! That was definitely worth the stop and dragging him out in the rain! Now that we've found these, I can hardly stand to put him in regular jeans.

Last night my sister invited us up for dinner. She made the best pot roast. YUM. Another recipe I need to steal! I've been loving all the Sophie time I've been getting lately. She is SO smart and her vocabulary is incredible! I can already tell Liam is going to learn so much from her. He stares at her and watches her every move!

Ok, coffee is done! Happy Thursday!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-03-16T07:03:00.000-07:00

Any guesses what that is? I found this in Joe's 'random' picture file....

2011-03-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I told my mom and sister that within the next few months my hair will officially be the same color as Jamie Lee Curtis. I might as well give in, eat the Activia I have in the fridge and deal with it. The GRAY is getting out of control. It has slowly been coming in and I've been trying hard to convince myself it isn't that noticeable. Well, it is now. Like really. Joanna, Alyssa...need your hair dying expertise! I think I'm partially in denial because I really don't want to start having to dye it constantly. I haven't had to do anything like that since going back to my natural color in 2004. And it's been so nice. Not using hair dryer since I shaved it + not having to color = SO much more ME time! I did the Sharpie method last week (thanks, Jo) but the smell of permanent marker was too much to handle. Which obviously means I have TOO many gray hairs or else it wouldn't be so bad.

Lots of people say, "Ohhh, but you're going to have that pretty gray color" and I say, "Maybe so...but not at the age of 27!!!" I will now start researching my options. Don't they make like a rinse or something you can use in the shower?!?!

Daylight savings = wife fail

2011-03-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

I didn't wake up until 7:16 this morning, three minutes before Joe left for work! He was happy that he was capable of being quiet, but I felt sad and guilty. He doesn't expect me to get up with him but I love our mornings together before he leaves for work. We always have coffee, talk...morning is definitely my energetic time. When he gets home at 8 I'm usually too tired. Sometimes I even find myself with a story or something we need to talk about but think to myself that I'll just wait until the morning, when I have more energy for it. :) I also like to help him get his lunch ready and make him breakfast. None of those happened today. I know he doesn't expect help with his lunch and breakfast either, but it makes me feel good and I know he appreciates it. As I sit here after drinking my first cup of coffee, I realize another reason I might subconsciously get up with him. He drinks less coffee! I don't have enough for a second cup.......... :( Here's to hoping I'm back to my regular wake-up time tomorrow!

Joe's latest (of many) obsessions

2011-03-12T09:27:00.000-08:00

Yep. One of the ugliest cars ever produced is Joe's newest obsession. I keep telling him there's a good reason they only made them for a few years. But like a minivan, he just can't get over how practical they are. Not only is it a Subaru (his favorite), it has a truck bed, AWD and gets great gas mileage. I admit it would be way easier to get Liam in this than in Joe's truck but still....c'mon. Oh, and he likes this yellow color. And he's wants to sell his motorcycle to buy it. That I'm ok with. I hate motorcycles! But I just don't know if I could ever end up liking a hideous Subaru Baja!

West African Chicken-Peanut Soup

2011-03-11T06:20:00.000-08:00

I tried a new recipe on Monday. My Aunt Susie raves about this soup so I decided to give it a try. It was very good, I thought it was pretty spicy, Joe had to add hot sauce. But then again, he adds hot sauce to everything. Apparently this soup is served at the Blue Moon Tavern and Grill in Northwest Portland. Here goes....

West African Chicken-Peanut Soup

1 cup diced cooked chicken
2/3 cup diced onion
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 cup chopped stewed tomatoes, drained
3 tablespoons chunky peanut butter (needs to be chunky!)

In a large pot, saute the chicken, onion, and garlic in the sesame oil for about 10 minutes, until the onion is tender. Add the curry powder, salt, pepper and pepper flakes and saute 1 minute more. Add the chicken broth, tomato paste, stewed tomatoes and peanut butter, stirring until well-combined. Heat until very hot but not boiling. Serve immediately.

My aunt suggested serving it over white rice so that's how we ate it. I don't know if I'd like it without the rice, so I definitely recommend doing the same!

Happy Friday!

Bills

2011-03-09T08:46:00.000-08:00

Bills are never fun to pay, but I've realized that everytime I get our cable bill and cell phone bill I want to cry. I haaaate paying these two bills! Joe and I were talking about our TV watching habits and realized we haven't even watched the evening news for the last week or so! When Liam was a new-newborn I'd watch all the morning shows but I don't even turn it on in the morning. I never grew up with the TV on a lot, especially during the morning/day, so I think it just bugs me. Kinda like if I'm up too long without taking a shower/getting dressed...I start to feel sick. Same goes with TV being on too long. We also don't have any shows we watch. Probably because Joe's work schedule is so crazy. The only thing I (kind of) consistently watch is Live at 7 after the news. Makes us both wonder why we're wasting our money paying for it. Especially with the longer days coming up. It's much easier not to have the TV when it's not dark at 4:30! I don't want to give our cell phones up, I really consider it more of a safety thing, but I think we could give up cable easily. I guess it's just more of a comfort thing knowing we have it! We'll probably talk about getting rid of it for the next few years. Hahaha.

Tuesday things

2011-03-08T07:16:00.001-08:00

LIAM IS STILL SLEEPING! And he's been asleep since 7:15 last night. After not sleeping through the night since returning from Maui, I'm a little shocked. Ok, a lot shocked! I've had coffee, eaten my breakfast and keep checking the monitor to make sure I can see him breathing. Maybe the so-called "4-month sleep regression" is over. We'll find out tonight!

We went to Liam's 4-month appointment yesterday. It was his 4-month but he was actually 4months 17days. He weighs 15lbs 14oz and is 24.5 inches long. Basically, he's perfect. Everyone loved him, Dr. Libby called herself his girlfriend. And he did SO good. We requested that purple hair didn't give him shots again (he had a bad experience with her, along with a few others I know), and he didn't even really mind the shots. Glad we're done with shots until May. I think it hurts me more than it hurts him! Anyway, his weight is the 54 percentile and his height this time was only in the 21 percentile. I asked for reassurance that he wont be a midget and she told me not to worry. Most likely this appointment was before a big growth spurt. She said the weight percentiles stay consistent but the height shoots all over the place. Like a staircase. At his 2-month it was way up, guess this is the way down month. She told us to keep trying rice cereal but I haven't tried again yet. I guess I should start soon. For some reason it makes me sad to see him start it! I was kinda happy when he didn't like it...he still prefers me! She said the most important part about having him take bites of it is because it has a lot of iron, something he's not getting a lot of by me breastfeeding. I'll try again today...

She told me something very interesting about breastfeeding. I'm sure I read this but forgot about it. The first milk that comes out is called the hind milk and it's really watery and quenches their thirst. Then the fore milk provides the nutrition. So it's like a 2 for 1 deal. So, so incredible! I can honestly say that I LOVE breastfeeding. I can't believe I've been doing it already for almost 5 months. I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Happy Tuesday! He's still sleeping...it's now 7:35am! :) :)

Prayers needed

2011-03-05T11:21:00.001-08:00

A college and sorority sister of mine, Krystal, found out last week she has a brain tumor. She called me this morning and I got the chance to talk to her a little about it. Ever since finding out about her situation last week, I've had a very heavy heart. Not only did she just have a beautiful baby girl, Miriam, on February 16th, she also has two little boys. I can't even imagine what she must be going through yet she is sounding so strong, confident and at peace with everything. You can follow her story here. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers as her and her family are going through this difficult and scary time.

2011-03-04T09:25:00.000-08:00

Our fridge has a lot of new artwork, save the dates! Just when I think everyone is done getting married in comes another fridge full. :) If only one of the weddings that I'm super excited for wasn't on the same night as my 10 year class reunion that I'm helping plan.....

And yes, I still have the save-the-date from our wedding on the fridge. I don't have the heart to take it down. Besides, it covers a scratch on our fridge so nicely! It'll probably be up there until there's no room because every square inch of the fridge is covered in Liam's artwork. My parents never had a fridge that I could hang stuff on, I remember trying to find anything magnetic so I could. I think the only thing in their kitchen was a tiny strip on the side of the oven. Yes, I agree a fridge covered in stuff looks somewhat tacky, mine already does, but having it covered in Liam's art someday will be priceless!

Happy Friday!

Sheenerific

2011-03-03T19:34:00.000-08:00

Ok, last quote, I promise! "I have a 10,000-year-old brain and the boogers of a 7-year-old."

Hahahaha. This is probably going to make him so much (more) money! T-shirts, etc. This is exactly what he's hoping for, I'm sure!

Ok, done with my Sheen kick. For real. Back to the only other thing I talk about, Liam. ;)

2011-03-03T08:49:00.001-08:00

Spring is on the way. Just heard the count, only 17 days. Yipee! I've never been so excited for it to come. Usually I'm sad winter is almost over but not since having Liam. I'm so ready for longer, warmer and dryer days so we can get out more. Let's just hope we have a good spring. Spring is usually a bummer season here. It's not cold, it's not warm....just dreary and wet. Usually the best thing about it is knowing that summer is just around the corner!

It cleared up for a bit yesterday evening so Joe and I took Liam on a walk around our neighborhood. Less of an ordeal than loading up and going to the lake...just walk out the door and can get back fast if it starts raining! During our walk we were talking about Charlie again. Funny because of all people, Joe is the most anti-Hollywood person I've ever met! Or so he claims. Seems he still always knows more than I do! :) Joe's favorite Sheen quote: "I'm a total frickin' rock star from Mars."

Happy Thursday!

Oh, Charlie...

2011-03-02T08:38:00.001-08:00

I admit I've been following the Charlie Sheen drama a little bit. I watched the 20/20 interview last night and was disgusted. What a freak! Some of his top 10 quotes from the interview are here. I don't know if I'll ever be able to watch Two and a Half Men again....if it ever comes back on, that is.

2011-03-01T10:55:00.000-08:00

Mom brain

2011-02-28T11:17:00.000-08:00

Mom brain, I really have it bad. And therefore, I am a believer it really exists. It seems most of my mom brain moments have involve laundry.

1. Without thinking, I decided to throw our beautiful Hotel Collection bedding in with white towels and lots of bleach. I opened to switch from wash to dryer to find a hideous purple pillowcase (luckily that was the only thing I decided needed to be washed!).

2. Saturday I was moving laundry from washer to dryer and instead of starting the dryer I started the washer. With nothing in it.

3. Putting towels in dryer and coming back to fold them only to find I never started the dryer. Done this one a few times.

4. And today, as I was getting ready to get out of the shower I realized I hadn't even washed my hair yet.

Oh, can't forget leaving a pot of soup on 'simmer' on the stove for almost 8+ hours while I was gone all day! Does it ever get better?

I want a new kitchen!

2011-02-27T10:52:00.000-08:00

Actually, I just want new appliances. Joe and I were feeling antsy last night so we loaded up Liam and braved the frigid cold weather to go browse around Lowe's. I love that place! We initially went to find new pendant lights for above our island and kitchen sink but ended up coming home empty handed (Joe needs to measure), but also with a new list of 'wants' for our kitchen. Our appliances are pretty cheap. Especially our dishwasher. We basically have to wash everything before we put it in. I'm amazed when I go to someones house and see the dirty plates they can put in. I always say, "Your dishwasher will get that off??"

Our current appliances, except for our fridge, are white. We can't wait to switch to stainless! And if we're going to replace the dishwasher, it'll look tacky to have our stove/oven and microwave the only white things. So, here is what we found....

The oven is by far the coolest! We don't have room for a double oven....never knew they made double single ovens! SO cool! Something new to start saving for!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-23T07:25:00.000-08:00

Joe enjoying the view in Maui with Liam...wish we were there now. Go away, snow.

4 months!

2011-02-22T07:27:00.001-08:00

I'm a couple of days late, but Liam is now 4 months old! I should start every monthly-milestone blog the same---"it's gone so fast, I can't believe it"---because I'm beginning to sound like a broken record! It really has though. Yet in some ways I find it hard remembering what an 8lb baby felt like. He's become quite the load to tote around!

For his 4 month celebration, Joe and I spent the day with my sister, bro-in-law and Sophie. The guys watched the babies while we had massages (SO nice), we did a Costco run, had dinner at 360 and dessert at Menchie's. It was a perfect day and we've decided we need to keep making it a monthly date!

Ever since we got back from Maui, Liam had been sleeping horribly. Like he did when he was a newborn, waking up every 2-3 hours and not going back to sleep unless I fed him. I researched and talked to other moms and supposedly it's what they call a "4 month sleep regression", basically a fancy name for a big growth spurt. It was hard to take since he had been sleeping 11-12 hours every night. I felt like a zombie for a few days and realized it probably happens so you don't forget how exhausting those first weeks are and get tricked in to having another too soon. :)
During this time, we noticed some very big changes. He is talking (we call cooing talking!) like crazy, grabbing toys on his jumper, etc. It's like all of a sudden everything is clicking and he realizes he's in control of his voice, his hands...that all takes a lot of energy and calories. Hearing him and seeing him move it's no wonder why he needed more to eat during this time. I think it might be over now though. He went to bed at 7:15 last night, I think that's the earliest yet, and is still sleeping at 7:41am. Thank you, Liam. :)

I'm still breastfeeding and feel so good about it. It's crazy to think that's the only thing he's had these past 4 months. I'm so glad I have been able to do it, I love it. It's so easy and convenient, I really dislike the whole bottle thing. My house already looks like a daycare with all the baby gear everywhere, the last thing I need is a counter full of bottle pieces to add to the mess! Hoping I'm as lucky with baby #2 someday!

Happy Tuesday!

My next ride....

2011-02-20T09:39:00.000-08:00

Just pretend that's a picture of Joe and I walking to our Routan in Maui. :) We rented a van this trip because we shared a car with the in-laws and we ended up with a Volkswagen Routan. I loved it! I miss it! I want a Routan! Yes, it's ugly but I miss all the conveniences of it so much! Whenever we'd go somewhere in Maui, all 4 of us and Liam would load up then we'd stop and pick my parents up. So it was easily--and comfortably--enough room for all of us to ride together. How awesome is that?! And there was still enough room in the back for Liam's stroller and other baby gear. Sorry, Subuaru....I think the Routan has stolen my heart!

I have a voice!

2011-02-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

Liam has really started using his voice lately, here's his latest conversation with daddy. :)

Wordless Wednesday --- Cousins on vacation together!

2011-02-16T08:47:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T09:30:00.001-08:00

Don't worry, these pictures are from LAST year. Rest assured I am NOT pregnant! I'm just sitting here reminiscing about Valentine's Day 2010. It was undoubtedly the most exciting I've ever experienced. Just a few days prior I found out I was pregnant! So far in my life I've experienced three big natural highs. The day I got married, the day I found out we were pregnant and the day Liam was born. The feeling of being on top of the world, the feeling of it being hard to keep a smile off of my face. I remember waiting for the 'pregnant' or 'not pregnant' words to pop up. I thought for sure it would say 'not pregnant' and was trying my hardest not to get my hopes up. When it popped up 'pregnant' I couldn't believe it. Since Joe was at work, all I could do was grab Subie and shriek with excitement. I wanted to open the door and run around then neighborhood shouting, "I'm PREGNANT!!!" Valentine's 2010 was special because this was the day we told our parents. I hosted a Valentine's Day brunch and invited them down. It was a wonderful, memorable day. The picture of Joe and I was at dinner Valentine's day night. We went with both sets of parents to celebrate. Now, as I sit here blogging and watching my sweet baby sleeping in his bouncy seat, it's amazing to think of what has happened since last year. He is the sweetest Valentine gift in the world!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Oh, Maui....I miss you so!

2011-02-12T19:59:00.000-08:00

We had another perfect vacation in Maui! My biggest concern, flying with Liam, wasn't even close to being an issue! The flight attendants fell in love with him and it was all good from that point on. We even had an empty seat next to us so we were able to take his car seat on board allowing him to stretch out and not have to be held the entire flight. So nice! We weren't so lucky on the way home but like the flight there, he did awesome. Hardly made a peep!

It was so sad leaving yesterday. Why is it vacations have to go so fast? All of the anticipation and then they're over in the blink of an eye! I really experience heart ache at the end of every vacation we go on. I've been this way all of my life. My mom and sister are the same way. I remember being young and all three of us being sad to go home and my dad saying, "all good things must come to an end." Joe has that same attitude. He wasn't sad! I wish I could be more like that. Yesterday as we were checking out of our condo Joe said, "the sooner we get back home the sooner we can come again." I keep holding on to that statement. :)

Anyway, it was a wonderful 8 nights and I fell in love with Maui all over again. I can't wait until our next trip with Liam. Next time he'll be even more fun. Wanting to swim, play in the sand....I can't wait!

Here's to hoping warm and dry weather gets here fast. I miss being able to let Liam just hang out in little onesies with no hats/coats/socks and being able to be outside from morning to night! I'm already feeling stir crazy with this rainy weather....

Can't wait to see you next year, Maui!

2011-02-01T20:10:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else remember this book? It's always been one of my favorites! When I saw it at Target this afternoon I had to buy it for Liam. It's so sweet, I teared up reading it tonight. I can't wait to read it to him tomorrow.

"I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always,

As long as I'm living,

my baby you'll be."