Nature

With the beautiful weather we've been having, we decided we really needed to get out and enjoy nature! We went to Rancho San Rafael a few days ago and Liam loved everything--even the dandelions!

He also really enjoyed throwing rocks into the pond.

As he was throwing rocks int the pond, we got some visitors who came very close to them. Liam greeted them with a hearty "QUACK! QUACK!"Then he discovered his new love: cwimeen(climbing). He loved running up the hills. His little face was so red because it was so warm and he was trying so hard to climb everything. As he 'cwimed' he would yell "cwimeen! cwimeen!" It was so cute! He does look like a little hiker doesn't he?You can see how much he was enjoying himself here. I love this picture.Phew! He made it to the top and enjoyed the view from the bench. He was one thirsty boy, though!

He was a bit tired after two big 'hikes,' so this is how we spent the rest of our nature walk. He REALLY enjoyed seeing the bunnies. I think that was the highlight of the whole day.

I'm so glad things are finally starting to bloom in the yard! Yay! Last year was a big flop for spring flowers because of the crazy weather, but my two favorite spring flowers are blooming: tulips and lilacs. I had to pinch off a little piece of the lilacs so I could bring it in and enjoy the scent. I'm so glad they are starting to bloom! I had fun trying out some new aperature settings on my camera trying to focus the background vs. the main image. I think they came out ok. :) We hope you're enjoying spring as much as we are!

BLUE day!

Liam and I have been searching for a new, fun activity to do on days that we are home together without too much to do. So, I decided to make Thursdays 'Color Day'. Today was BLUE day! First thing, I let Liam pick out some BLUE clothes. He chose a tie-dye shirt, sweat pants, and Dora socks. Hey, I never said he was a fashion icon. Then we searched through the house for as many BLUE things as we could find. We found quite a few!

Next, we made a BLUE sign and used paints, markers, stickers and crayons to decorate it. Liam is fairly efficient at spelling BLUE now.
Next, we played with BLUE play doh, complete with BLUE apron, cups and spoons.

Next, we had a BLUE lunch! I think mac and cheese must taste even better BLUE.











After lunch and nap time, we played outside with his BLUE bubbles from Oma. They are sooo fun! Liam adores bubbles anyway, but this is a giant stick and makes BIG bubbles which is even MORE fun. :)












For Dinner, Liam had BLUE milk. He laughed and I think that the BLUE must have made it tast better because he seemed to think it was tastier than usual. After dinner, Liam had a very fun BLUE bath. :0) No, it didn't dye his skin or the bathtub.












And here he is with his BLUE sign and new BLUE pillowcase that I made him. I'm sure he'll be dreaming in BLUE tonight. :) I think next Thursday we'll do ORANGE since that is by far Liam's favorite color lately.


PS- Sorry if the formatting of the pictures is wonky-- I can't quite figure out how to get these all lined up well. :)

Growing too Quickly

Cleaning and Scrubbing can Wait 'til Tomorrow

For Babies Grow Up We've Learned to Our Sorrow,

So Quiet Down Cobwebs and Dust Go to Sleep,

I'm Rocking my Baby and Babies Don't Keep

I was reminded of this poem that I love tonight. Liam was having a harder time going to sleep and kept coming and peeking his head in here saying "Mommy!" while I was/am working on homework. At first I was slightly annoyed. Normally he goes right to sleep around 7:15 or 7:20, but tonight he had a harder time. He just wanted me to snuggle and rock him. So I sat down and we just rocked for a while. I decided not to worry about the sink full of dishes or the homework needing to be done. I just rocked with him. It really is such a treat to have a quiet, sweet, cuddley moment with him. I need to enjoy it now, because I'm sure it won't last forever. He's just growing so quickly. I looked at this picture of him from Sunday and he looks so grown up and handsome! I'm just the luckiest mommy in the world and enjoying every minute of it.

Izzy Update!

My sweet little niece Isabelle was put into the hospital this week because she hasn't been gaining quite enough weight. They've tried a medication for GERD, but it wasn't helping and at 3 months old, she was only about 8 1/2 lbs. So, They did some calorie counting, manipulation of a few things food wise and a medication change and now she is getting much better! I just got a message from my sister that she gained 4.8 oz today alone! Hooray, Izzy!! She had us pretty worried for a while. They did a cystic fibrosis test on her and we felt very blessed to have that come up negative. They were also talking about a surgery to tighten the esophageal sphincter(I think), but right now things are looking great. She should get to go home tomorrow. I helped Nana pick out this special little sea horse for Izzy to talk to in the hospital so she wouldn't get to bored. She loves it. What a sweetie pie! I got to see her today and I was so glad to see her happy and 'talking' and not in pain. Liam has been missing her terribly and always includes her in his nightly prayers. Hopefully he'll get to go and visit her this week.

Nursing School, Biker Boy, Potty, and Sprouts!

How's the for a hodge-podge title? I though I'd just do a general update this evening with what's been going on this week and such.

First: Nursing School Update

I got registered for all of my classes for next semester. I don't think it should be *too* crazy of a schedule. I know I will be on my toes, but I have figured out where I'll have some study time on certain days. I'll be having clinicals on Thursday and Friday from 6:45-2:15. I don't know which hospital I'll be at, but I am looking forward to finding all of these things out. I have orientation on May 7th. I think I am going to join the Orvis Student Nurses Association. It will be a great way to form connections with other nursing students and get to do some community nursing projects. Hopefully, it will work out. I'm really looking forward to that. Other than that, I have just been scheduling my physical and TB tests that I have to have done. I'm really looking forward to finally be working on my actual major and not doing boring classes like O-Chem and Stats. Not that they are boring per say, but I'm just ready to get down to the nitty-gritty.

Liam Update: Kayci inspired me to get the potty out! Liam was so excited. He loves it and yells 'potty!' all the time. He has yet to actually GO on the potty, but I thought getting him used to the idea was a good way to start. I'm not going put any pressure on him, just follow his leads on it if he acts interested. He is, after all, only 1 1/2. :)

Yesterday he decided he was going to be a biker dude with Daddy. Here they are poppin' wheelies on his quad. He thought it was hysterical and now he loves to wear the bandana around. Don't be surprised if you see my child looking rugged more often now. I think I may substitute the bandana for the hat during the summer because he keeps it on much better than hats and it will protect his little blonde head!

Garden Update: We have sprouts!! My tomatoes, oregano, and parsley have all sprouted. I went a little nuts with the oregano and parsley seeds though. :) I think that the bell peppers are going to be a flop. :( We also planted Jalapenos and banana peppers. I want to make a Salsa Garden. I am having so much fun watching my sprouts grow!

I think that covers it for now. Liam's head is healing nicely and he's peacefully sleeping in his big boy bed after playing outside in the beautiful weather we had today! I hope everyone had a great Sunday and has a great week!

The ABC's of Me

I got this from a friend's blog and enjoyed reading it, so I decided to fill it out. It's interesting and puts some things into perspective. Enjoy!

A - ADVOCATE FOR: Breastfeeding.
B - BEST FEATURE: Work Ethic and ability to care for others
D - DREAMS & DESIRES: To be the best possible mother, wife and witness of Jesus Christ. For my children to grow up and happy and to know they are loved and can do anything!
E - ESSENTIAL ITEMS: Family, Faith, and Love
H - HAVE NEVER TRIED: Skydiving. I don't think I ever will either.
I - IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS: I would buy us a comfortable home with some land and put money away for college funds.
J - JUNKIE FOR: Scrapbooking, blogging, sewing(new obsession), Grey's Anatomy, General Hospital, House(catching a theme with the hospital shows?)
K - KINDRED SPIRIT: Jana. She's my twin.
L - LITTLE KNOWN FACT: I really wanted to serve a mission before I got married, but I know Wes and I will defintely do it when our family is grown.
M - MEMORABLE MOMENT: Marrying Wes and giving birth to my baby boy.
N - NEVER AGAIN WILL I: Pretend to be someone I am not.
O - OCCASIONAL INDULGENCE: Going out to eat.
P - PROFESSION: Nursing student/stay at home mom
Q - QUOTE: "Be who you are and say what you feel, those who matter won't mind and those who mind don't matter. "
R - REASON TO SMILE: I have soo many. My husband, son, loving and supportive family, the opportunity that I have to go to school, the Savior, the gospel, a temple in Reno, a safe and warm home... the list goes on and on.
T - TAG SOME FRIENDS: Kayci, Jana, Sara, Erica-- you know you want to!
U - UNINTERESTED IN: paintball, much to my hubby's dismay.
V - VERY SCARED OF: Lots of things. I am a wuss. I guess to say one thing: scary movies.
W - WORST HABIT: Self-doubt, worrying and nail biting.
X - X MARKS MY IDEAL VACATION SPOT: The whole world. haha. I want to see so many places. I really am dying to go back to Germany, but would love to go someplace tropical next time.
Z - ZODIAC SIGN: Sagittarius

First Time for Everything

Today was an eventful and very tiring day. Wes's mom flew down to Sacramento for her brother's memorial service and decided to pop on over to Reno last night and spend today with us. We had a lot of fun last night staying up late and chatting with her and Wes's brother, Ben. This morning we watched General Conference together and thoroughly enjoyed hearing President Monson speak at his first session of conference as President of the church.
After conference, we went up to the temple and walked around and just enjoyed being together. Everytime Wes's parents come down we always want to go to the Marina, but we never get to. So today we stopped there so Liam could play with Oma on the slide, etc. Well, Wes took him over and was helping him walk up the stairs and down he went. He bumped his head on the stairs and immediately started bleeding everywhere. I think the most traumatic part of the experience was leaving the playground without actually having gotten to go on the slide!! As Wes was walking away Liam was screaming bloody murder and holding his hands out yelling "Wee-Wee!!" He was just mad we had to leave! We got him home and my mom came over with some butterfly bandaids and antiseptic. We tried numerous times to get the wound closed with a bandage, but it just kept coming off. Liam was extremely sick of us messing with it, so after a ton of tries and a few Peeps to bribe him, we finally headed over to Urgent Care where they glued the cut together and gave him some antibiotics.
Few! Liam is now peacefully watching Baby Einstein after a nice dinner and bath. I think he'll sleep pretty darn well tonight. He did really well last night which was his first night in his big boy bed.
Here's an after shot of the wound glued together. He is really sick of people messing with him, so this was the best shot I got. Wes's mom got some interesting shots of Liam eating a Peep while we're trying to clean the cut and get the butterfly bandaid on there. But, you get the idea.
I think it'll be early to bed for us all tonight!

My VERY Big Boy!

I can't believe it. *sniff* My sweet little Liam is now in a 'big boy' bed. I told myself that if he climbed out of his crib one more time(the last time was in January or so) that we would be changing his crib into a toddler bed.
So, today 'during' his morning nap, I heard a little hand knocking on his door. So, we changed the crib to a bed.

He loves it. He thinks it's truly the best thing ever. He loves to climb on and off and jump like a monkey while shrieking. And he actually did take a nap on the bed this afternoon. I did get a little rail for the side, just to help the transition and so he doesn't get any boo boos from falling out of bed while he's getting used to it.

In other news, he is truly developing into my big boy and being less and less of a baby. He knows endless words now. I think he repeats just about everything I say and while it's good for him and can be entertaining, it's like an unending game of Echo. He also fairly consistently knows the colors orange(his new favorite), blue, green, red, white, pink, purple and yellow. Sometimes he gets a little messed up, but he's getting it! He also knows the names and sounds of some letters including M, O, E, N, B, I, A. He actually has learned that from his little singing magnets on the fridge. haha. He is really into learning his shapes as well. So far he knows and can definitely identify a heart, circle and star. His biggest accomplishment happened over Easter weekend. He can now count all the way to 10 without any help!! I do have it on video and will have to have Wes help me upload it to the computer to post it.

He is also a singing machine. He loves fun songs with motions especially. His favorites are "Once there was a Snowman," "Popcorn Popping, " "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes," and "If You're Happy and You Know it!"

I'm sure I'm leaving out some of his other new stuff. I just can't believe how blessed I am with such a smart and happy boy. He is definitely a joyous blessing for me. :)

Thanks for listening to me brag!