Beautiful Babies

Aren't these two of the most beautiful babies you've ever seen? We went out to my Uncle's house this afternoon for a BBQ and the sky clouded over. The lighting was really cool, so I played around with my camera that I am still learning to use and got some cute shots of some adorable cousins.

Here she is responding to some funny "Liamisms" with her cute smiles. Liam is so hard to catch on camera these days.

And Liam with his Titi. He was singing "Shake your booty" and we were all giggling. I've gotta get that on video.

We're so blessed, aren't we?

WILD Island!

Yesterday we went to Wild Island! Wes has been begging me since he moved to Reno to go there, but every summer there has been something going on that prevented us: wedding, pregnancy, one-year-old, etc. So this year, when our friends invited us to come along, I agreed. We had a great time. Liam was a tad apprehensive, but he yelled "weee!" all the way down the water slides. Wes coaxed Jake into going down some of the 'big boy' slides and had a great time. I went on the 'medium' ones and Erica and I enjoyed the lazy river: kid free, well at least free of our kids. Liam had a blast with Alli and Ethan and Alli 'baby-sat' (with other supervision) Liam while we sneaked away to the big slides for the small fee of "ten thousand dollars." We had a great time, even if we are a tad bit toasty today!
Here's Liam going down the small slide. I really didn't get many shots because we were too busy having fun! Just looking cute in his life jacket!
Having fun in a tube!
And, yay, that Blogger fixed the glitch and I can see the pictures now!

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
--Marianne Williamson

Girls' + One Little Boy Weekend!

I apologize ahead of time for the pictures being out of order. I have to figure out why my blogger isn't letting me see the images in the compostion screen.
Anyway, our trip started off well, considering that morning we did Liam's allergy test. The kids mostly slept to Roseville and we got out and did some shopping so they could have a break. However, the rest of the way to Murphys became a screaming competition between Liam and Izzy! In the words of Liam: "Oy Vey." It was such a relief to finally get up to my Aunt's cabin and get the kids in bed(even if it did take Liam about 2 hours to get to sleep!!)
The next day we took the kids swimming. It was relaxing and fun. Liam liked stealing other kids' and Izzy's turtle floaties(niiiice). Luckily, they were more than willing to share. We even got him to jump in and go under water! yay!
Wednesday we went to Big Trees State Park. Liam crashed in the car on the way there, so we had a picnic and waited for him to wake up before going on a short little tour. He looked like such a big boy standing there 'listening' to the Ranger with all the other kids. That is, until he turned to one of the kids with his fingers in his ears shouting "EARS!" On the little nature walk they had little podiums telling about the trees, etc, but Liam decided they were podiums like at church. Therefore he conducted his music and then folded his arms for prayer at each one. It was hilarious. (click on the picture to enlarge it and fully appreciate his cuteness!)We also had fun blowing bubbles and seeing the big bear! Izzy enjoyed the afternoon sleeping peacefully on her mommy.
That afternoon after we got back to the cabin Liam also decided to cover Isabelle with Diego stickers. She quite liked her new look.
We also got to enjoy shopping in downtown Murphys and visited a beautiful Winery. I got Liam a little monkey to hopefully become his comfort object as the binkie is getting ready to hit the road. When I asked what he wanted to call the monkey he said "Daddy monkey!" but has now affectionately changed it to "Bob."
It was a nice getaway, but it's always good to be home, too. We sure missed daddy!

Smoke City!

Between Monday and yesterday we had a TON of smoke blow in from all of the California fires. It's horrible! I don't even want to let Liam play outside today because the air quality is awful. Here is a photo from my yard. It doesn't look that bad until you realize that normally you can see the beautiful Sierras and now there is no view beyond the neighbors! And for those of you in this area, you can't even see Wal-Mart from Sparks Blvd and Disc Dr. It's awful. I hope those firefighters can get these fires taken care of soon. Scary stuff!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

We've had such a fun couple of days with Wes's family here! Today we especially had a lot of fun. We celebrated Grandma and Liam's Birthday today together since they won't be here for Liam's and today was Grandma's. It gave me the oppotunity to practice using fondant for Liam's birthday party. This isn't what Liam's cake will look like, but I wanted to just practice with the ball pan and fondant. It's pretty cute, but not perfect, nor did I expect it to be seeing as I am no professional and it was my first time. But, I must say I couldn't have done it without Erica's help! Thanks, Erica. I'm not going to give Liam's real birthday cake identity away, but it will be super cute!
We also went to the sprinkler park and had fun. Liam proved to be starting young as a 'ladies' man'. He took immediately to chasing a little 3-year-old girl around. Pretty soon he was chasing three of them. Then he got distracted by a steering wheel(typical boy). Then all of the girls gathered around him pulling on his arms saying "Chase us, baby!" He just ignored them. I guess I am still his number one girl. We then went to the regular park and he and Uncle Ben and Daddy jumped like monkeys and had wayyy too much fun.
Last but not least, Liam also got his birthday gift from Grandma and Opa today: a scooter!! He loves it. He got it complete with a Cars helmet and knee pads. It was quite possibly one of the cutest things I've ever seen. He hasn't quite got the kinks worked out with how to ride it, but he's getting it and is having lots of fun. He also got an amazing bubble machine from Auntie Beth!! Needless to say, he's in Heaven.Well, that's it for now--Murphys pics later!

The Allergy Test

Well, we did the big allergy test. After Liam's scary allergic reaction to hummus and then, recently, his several hive outbreaks, we went to a pediatric allergist who did some testing. I was almost positive it was pine/pine nuts. He had also had little hive reactions at his baby-sitter's. Sunday night, before the test, I figured out that dogs might be a problem because he broke out in hives when he hugged my sister's lab, Lucky. That REALLY freaked me out since we have our little Albus, who is one of Liam's best friends.
Anyway, they tested him for different grasses, trees, all the hummus ingredients, peanuts, dogs, etc. I was SHOCKED to find out how allergic he was to sesame and dogs. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Sesame isn't an allergy that has been studied as much, but it's becoming more of a problem because they are replacing peanuts in a lot of foods, due to allergies, with sesame. They haven't studied the chance that he could outgrow it, but she said that taking precautions can increase the chance, so it's worth a shot. So, we are avoiding sesame, even in trace amounts, to increase his chance of outgrowing it. This means that he can't have any food that had a chance of coming in contact with sesame. ie, Asian food(they don't clean the wok after each meal), fast food (not a big problem, but sesame seeds from buns float everywhere), candy or cookies from people who aren't trained to look for sesame, food that people 'scoop' as it may have 'scooped' other food etc. So, this should be an interesting new adventure!
As for the dog issue, there are some measures we can take at home to help get things back under control. She told us that she could definitely see in his nose that he had lots of allergy things going on. This is also the reason he got so sick this winter. His immune system was saturated with dog/pollen(he's also allergic to oak), so that when a virus was added to it, his little body couldn't handle much more. So, Albie isn't allowed in Liam's room, he has to be washed once a week with hypoallergenic soap, we have to vacuum weekly with a hepa filter vacuum(luckily we have our much-loved Dyson), install a hepa filter on our furnace, and dust weekly with Swiffer. Hopefully this will get things back under control. The doctor will reevaluate in January to see how our avoidance measures our going.
Anyway, that's the update with that! I have zillion pictures from our Murphy's trip to post, but that will have to wait as I've got a million thing I should be doing. For now, here's my little trooper with his test. He did a great job not scratching--although getting them put on what a tad traumatic.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!!
Wes is such an awesome and funny daddy for Liam. They are two peas in a pod. This past weekend while he was gone Liam was constantly asking, "Where IS daddy?" He is such an awesome example and works so hard for our little family. He is so generous, loving and caring.
My dad is a wonderful dad as well. He is such a great papa to Liam--taking him for boat rides, rides on the quad, in the truck and just playing around in general! I have so many wonderful childhood memories such as hunting, horseback riding, fishing, camping, riding the quads, and feeding the horses and cows in the dead of winter with frozen water(ok, maybe not the last part sooooooo much.) He is a loving and caring dad and helped me to learn the values that I hold today.
Liam also has a great Opa who he loves to talk to on the phone!! He is always so happy to talk to him and is looking forward to seeing him in a week. He is a great Opa and daddy to Wes. He set a great example for Wes to have the desire to serve a mission and helped him become the great man he is today!
And we can't forget how much Liam loves Grandpa-Great! He especially loves him because he gives him cookies and lets him blow bubbles in his backyard! I have so many great memories sitting on grandpa's lap and coming his hair with his pocket comb. He has been so wonderful to me and also to my sweet little boy. I feel so blessed that he and Gigi are able to be such a big part of Liam's life.
Liam is definitely one very blessed little boy with all of the wonderful guys in his life!
Liam also learned to play the Harmonica or "sing, sing" today. He also pretends he is conducting an orchestra while playing. Quite talented.

Donner Lake Fun!

We had so much fun celebrating Father's Day with Nana, Papa, Titi, Uncle Shaawn, Izzy and Larry today! Unfortunately, Wes had a scout campout Thurs, Fri, and Sat so he didn't get to go. However, he had a great time at his campout exploring caves, repelling, etc, so he didn't feel too bad about missing the fun!
Unfortunately, the blogger isn't have the pictures come up in the writing section, so I'll just write about the highlights and you can put them with the pictures.
Liam had his first boat ride and LOVED it. Papa even let him 'drive!'
He also rode in a kayak with Aunt Pam!! That was really fun, especially paddling.
Titi bought him his very first snow cone. Yum!
Of course he LOVED the slides and went down them a couple hundred times.
And the funniest, cutest thing of all? He went out on his last boat ride with Nana and Papa. We knew he was exhausted, but he passed out almost immediately. Nana knew when she heard him stop talking that he was out! He had one croc off and used his life jacket for a pillow. Then he layed under the trees with his life jacket and all. Definitely a Wipe Out!
It was such a fun, beautiful day! Now we are all about to pass out! Happy Father's Day!