Thankful

It's that time of year again, a lot of people are posting what they are thankful for EVERY SINGLE DAY on Faceobok.  It actually seems like a lot less are doing it this year, maybe because so many people ridicule it?  Someone posted something yesterday that said, "It's that time of year again---when people who've complained non-stop for the past year are suddenly thankful for 30 days."  (Or something like that).  Lol.

I decided to try it on here, maybe it will motivate me to blog every day.  I have some catching up to do.  And keep in mind, these are no where close to being in order of thankfulness.

November 1:  SO thankful for Liam not asking a single question about his Halloween candy.  I thought for sure it would be a battle all day.  Also thankful for the best Halloween yet.  It was a blast!

November 2:  Thankful that Joe has every Saturday and (kind of) Sunday off.  He has a crazy work schedule, we value our weekends so much!

November 3:  Thankful for long-time friends.  I went to Dana's baby shower tonight, we've been friends for about 18 years.  Hard to believe, and happy these people are still in my life after all that time.  Fun to see everyone having babies, too!

November 4:  Thankful for my relationships with Joe's family. His aunt and uncle stopped by on their way home from the beach today, I love them.  They're like a second set of parents to me.  They listen to my complaints, give me advice...they are both important people in my life.

November 5:  Thankful for MOPS (Mothers-of-Preschoolers).  I started going last year but got more involved this year, I needed the accountability to force myself to go.  It was out of my comfort zone to leave Liam (and he really doesn't like it) so I knew getting involved would force me to keep trying rather than just skipping it.  I've met some great moms and it helps so much to know I'm not alone---we are all in this together!  I always leave feeling refreshed.

November 6:  Thankful that my immediate family lives in town.  Although I have a feeling my sister might not be here for long, it's so fun having Sophie and Liam grow up together.  I never had any cousins that were close in age and always envied those that did.  They love each other so much, even if they do fight like siblings at times!  And it's so nice to be able to have spontaneous lunch dates, playdates, etc.  And Liam loves being able to drop by my parents house to play.

Ok, bored out of your mind yet?  I'm making fun of myself for doing this.  We'll see if I actually keep it up.
Hope everyone has a great Wednesday!

Halloween 2013

When we have another baby, I need to remember that things really start getting entertaining, exciting and super fun at around age three.  Not that previous years weren't fun, this year was just the best yet.  And I think a lot of it has to do with the age.  Liam absolutely LOVED Halloween this year.  I'm feeling sad I didn't get a video of him trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  It was so cute to see a tiny Minion sprinting (not exaggerating) from house to house.  Then after the person opened their door he had to make small talk with them.  It was hilarious.  He kept asking one lady why she didn't have "sloppers."  That's Liam for Whoppers.  He's never even had them before!  He was running so fast, sometimes he'd run right by a house without even realizing it.  Then he would put on his brakes.  He started making this new braking sound last night.  He'd get to a driveway and make a loud braking sound and stop.

Kim and I took the kids to the Street of Screams at the fairgrounds.  Liam was terrified of that because there was a guy wearing a scary mask in front of us.  Speaking of masks, there was a dad wearing one in our neighborhood last night and Liam kept telling him to take it off.  He has no shame!  Thankfully the guy did, it was pretty terrifying---and our neighborhood is full of little kids.

When we got back to our house after trick-or-treating, the kids were equally excited to be the ones opening our door and handing out candy.  And Liam was quick with the questions again.  "Why are you wearing a mask?" (to a girl who wasn't...oh, liam). Then a huge truck drove by blaring, "What does the fox say?" And Liam went wild.  The sugar definitely had kicked in (more) at that point and we had to listen to the song a few times before he went to bed.

Liam is already talking about what he wants to be next year for Halloween.  So far he says an orange M&M.  ;)

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!  Happy November!

The big THREE!

Even though he's holding up four fingers, Liam is now officially THREE.  I can't believe it!  We did his birthday differently this year, instead of a huge party at our house with all of his friends/our friends/family, we just had two small family parties.  It was perfect and he loved the fact that he got to have TWO parties.  Two cakes.  Two sets of presents.  It doesn't get much better than that.

His first party was with my family and we just went to a local pizza place.  Talk about easy.  No prep work, no clean up.  I could get used to that.  His second party was on Sunday, his actual birthday, and in Auburn at Joe's aunt/uncle and cousins house.  Uncle Jack made pizza dough so we had a pizza party.  There were 22 people at this party!  And except for two, it was all family.  It was a perfect day.  I'm sad it's over, I've been looking forward to it for so long.  I feel like I can't thank the Markhams enough for letting us have his party there----and to Jack for making all of the dough and baking all of the individual pizzas.  It's a lot of work.  It was a great day though, no rain so people could be outside.  He had a fire going (besides the one in the oven) so everyone stayed warm.  I married into an amazing family.  Liam is one lucky little boy to have so many great people in his life, on both sides.  Sunday was definitely one of those days where I was on cloud nine.  Life is so good.

Liam, happy birthday.  You bring so much joy and happiness to our lives.  There's never a dull moment with you around, your humor and sarcasm amazes me (and scares me a little).  You are so smart, so sweet and at the same time, a total jerk when you want to be.  I don't think you'd be normal if you didn't have a little bit of a naughty streak though, right?  I keep telling myself that....

Here's to hoping year number three in the life of Liam is the best yet!

Slow down, October!

Today is October 16?  My favorite month is slipping by way too quickly.  We've been having gorgeous weather in the PNW, I believe the high today is 66.  No end in sight with the sun either, sunshine for the (at least) the next 7 days.  It was beautiful like this three years ago, right before Liam was born.  I walked the lake almost every morning in the fog---just before the sun started peeking through the clouds.  Little did I know that in just a few short days my little sweet boy would make his arrival.  I was already past due, but felt like he'd never come.  It's really hard to believe three years ago I was pregnant.  In some ways it feels like a lot longer, in others it just doesn't seem possible that my "baby" is turning the big THREE on Sunday. Bittersweet for sure.  He continues to amaze me more and more everyday.  He is so smart, incredibly witty and has so much love for everyone.  He loves pancakes, all sweets and broccoli is still "too good for him" to eat.  :)  He is a huge car nut and can tell you where almost all of his cars came from/who gave certain cars to him, etc.  It's also safe to say he is a huge mamas boy.  He wants me around all of the time, freaks out when I leave him and refuses to be left with people he doesn't know---when other kids his age are happy to be left if there's a sufficient amount of toys to keep them occupied.  He refuses to talk about potty training and gets mad when I mention it.  He often says, "I don't want to wear big boy underwear because diapers are more comfortable."  And yes, he really talks like that.  He is a great talker and loves having conversations.

I wasn't planning on writing all about him but I guess it's no surprise I did.  Gotta go though, the little man is demanding more pancakes.  Happy Wednesday!

Another great weekend in the books

Happy Thursday!  I feel like we are still recovering from last weekend and it's already almost the weekend again.  I think it's safe to say this has been the busiest summer ever.  I thought it would start to slow down, but fall is looking just as busy.  No rest for the weary!

I worked last Friday at Broadway Elementary school.  I was in the office and I loved it.  Joe was off, so him and Liam had a "daddy & Liam day."  Good for both of them and I came home feeling refreshed and feeling good about life.  Not that I don't when I'm at home but it sure is nice to do something different every once in awhile.  Usually my "breaks" consist of running errands or grocery shopping.  It's different setting an alarm, getting up and actually wearing "work" clothes and knowing I'm making money rather than spending it.  I was supposed to work until 2 but she asked me if I'd mind working until 3.  While I was there, I secured three more jobs for the end of September and beginning of October.  Yay!  My goal is to work all of Joe's days off (unless we have something planned).  Once I have thirty days in, I get a big raise.  Yippee!  More than halfway there.

Saturday we took off for Puyallup, Uncle Jack invited Joe and I to go fishing with him on Sunday so we needed to get up there since we had to leave at 4:30am on Sunday.  We didn't do much Saturday but big breaking news: Liam slept in a big boy bed!  His pack-n-play was becoming very cramped so they went and bought him a bed.  I was apprehensive, especially since every time I mentioned it Liam would freak out, but he was excited once he saw it and loved. it.  He woke up crying at 2am, Joe went in the room and he was out of bed and really confused.  I came in and put him back in bed and he fell asleep right away.  I thought for sure we'd have a sleepless night.  Thanks for proving us wrong, buddy!  All of these big transitions are always easier than I make them out to be.  I just gotta remember that.  Now if only he would get on the potty training train.  I feel like that one will never happen.  I think he has a hard time with change and that is one that he just isn't ready to do yet.  For the sake of my sanity (and his), I think it's best to just wait a bit longer.

Sunday we got up at 3:45 and were out the door and on our way to Everett at 4:30.  I admit I am a really bad fisher-lady but it is so much fun going.  I lost several fish but I also caught a pretty good sized one.  It's an adrenaline rush for sure.  It was a gorgeous day on the water, I didn't want to go back in.  We stopped at Cupcake Royale on the way back to get Jayne and David cupcakes, it was Grandparents Day (and for always babysitting so we can have fun).  We had a salmon bake that night with the Markham's, it was delicious and Liam and Dylan played hard.

Monday we went to the Puyallup Fair.  We were excited because Liam could ride rides this year.  Last year he was too young.  We didn't know how he'd do, he can be weird about stuff like that sometimes, but he loved them.  Especially the big huge giant slide.  He didn't want to go on it at first but after he did, he had a meltdown because he wanted to keep going on it.  The fair is EXPENSIVE!  We did the sky ride at the end, it was $18 one way for all of us!  I couldn't believe it.  It was fun though, Papa David went with us, I think he enjoyed seeing Liam on all of the rides.

Hope everyone is doing well.  Happy September!

Future class clown

Whenever someone asks Liam what his name is, he gets a mischievous smile on his face.  I can totally see the wheels turning as he's trying to think of something funny to say.  His standard answers are:  Bob, Silly Willy or Poo Poo.  Where do they come up with this stuff?  The things he says always amaze me.  Yesterday we were driving to town and passed a building that used to be a produce stand we went to a lot when he was a baby--it's been at least a year or more since they've been open.  He randomly asked if that was the building we used to go get cherries at.  How do they remember this stuff?  When I told him yes it was but they went out of business he replied with, "Well goodness, that sure is odd."  Hahahaha.

BIG NEWS in our house.  A couple of weeks ago Liam threw his binky in the garbage!  Joe and I had been in Seattle on an impromptu date night, Joe's parents were babysitting.  When we got back Jayne told us what he had done.  I was devastated.  I was needing sleep badly that night and was not very happy it was gone---it had been a rough week and this was the topper!  Not to mention it was the ONLY binky he would use and we even had.  I was about to go get an emergency one at Walgreens but I knew I couldn't do that.  To our surprise, he did fine that night and hasn't asked about it since.  He'll tell people he threw it away but doesn't get upset about it.  Thank goodness.  I did make Jayne dig it out of the garbage after we left though, I couldn't stand knowing it would end up at the dump.  That binky was with my baby for a long time---I'm going to cut the nipple off and save it.  I'm just glad it was easier than we thought it would be.  He was addicted to it.  It made for some early mornings and no-nap days as he adjusted but we are pretty much back to our routine.  I cancelled his dentist appointment earlier this month, I knew I would get lectured about him still having it because at his appointment 6 months ago the dentist said it needed to be gone the next time he saw us.  We rescheduled for tomorrow and I have a little guy who is very excited to tell the dentist what he did. :)

We also took Liam to his first movie yesterday.  We want to take him to see Planes but wanted to see if he could make it through an entire movie first.  When I say this is his first movie, it's not just his first movie in a theatre.  It was his first movie ever.  We aren't big tv/movie watchers in our house.  He did great!  He was totally taken with the experience, loved every minute of it and said he wants to go see Planes next.

Happy Wednesday, I feel good that I got some of this written down.  I'll consider this his baby book since that is totally non-existent.  ;)

This past weekend Joe and I were in Naches for Aili and Ryan's wedding (I was a bridesmaid).  It was at Whistlin' Jack's lodge.  What a fun place!  I had never been there before.  Her parents have a house right on the river, it was gorgeous.  There is a trail between their house and the lodge.  Joe and I took his parents truck/camper and camped next to my aunt and uncle.  Camping in a camper is the way to do it!  You get spoiled really fast.  That was my first time ever not being in a tent.  How nice to get up and go to the bathroom...without having to brave the elements outside! ;)  Joe's parents kept Liam for the weekend, it was the first time we've ever left him anywhere for two nights.  As expected, he had a blast with them.  So lucky to have grandparents in his life.  I always envied the kids who got to stay with their grandparents and do fun things with them.  I never had that and I really missed out on a lot of good memories.  

The reception is this Saturday so we'll be doing it all again.  Looking forward to it!  

It has been one busy summer though.  I looked at the calendar and we have been gone every single weekend since the middle of June!  No wonder summer is flying by!  It's been so fun but I have to say, I'm looking forward to things slowing down a little (if that's even possible).

Happy Tuesday!