What's on my phone?

In June, we enjoyed a day of swimming with Izzy and Peyton. This was the best photo I could get trying to wrangle the kids, but we really had a blast. Our plan was to swim every Tuesday, but we haven't quite gotten that because, for some reason, the summer got really busy.  Again, soon, we hope!
Addy and Daddy playing Addy's favorite game "Where's the baby?"


Liam has been waiting for months for Cars 2 to come out. We went to see it with our friends, The Finlays. The movie was great and we had a lot of fun!



For our sixth anniversary we went to Harrah's steakhouse, which was seriously amazing!  At the end of our meal, they brought this out to us as a surprise. It was sooo beautiful and even more tasty!


Liam got retested for his sesame allerg, which as you can tell from this photo, is still there. :(  He did great with his appointment though.  He wanted me to take a photo so that he could see what his back looked like.


I have been struggling with Adelyn's unruly hair!  We decided to try some low piggies.  They turned out sooo cute. I also love how you can see her teeth here:




And Liam working hard at Karate!


Addy was refusing to say Mama (ignore Liam's whining in the background, lol!).  She cracks us up.

Monster Bash!

Months ago I had seen a blog that posted a monster party that the author had created and fell in love. I shared the idea with mom stating that we wouldn't be doing it because 1) Liam was afraid of monsters and 2) it seemed like too much work.  I hadn't even read all the instructions on the stuff she did, but just forgot about it until one day when my mom mentioned it to Liam. Of course, Liam thought it was a great idea and had recently fell in love with Monsters, Inc and though monsters were cool. Not to mention he rode that ride 5 times at Disneyland.

So our monster party was born and I got really into the ideas from the blog. After reading through it, it didn't seem that hard and I didn't think it would take that long.  Those are *always* my thoughts that are usually wrong when I start projects. 

But, it actually really was a lot of fun. We created felt monsters to hang above the table and to give as party favors.  It was fun using Wes and my imaginations to make these. The kids thought they were great. Then, instead of cake, we made create-your-own-monster cupcakes. The body parts were all made of candy melts and my mom made fading rainbow cupcakes. So cool!  Liam was soo happy that Grandma from Washington and Uncle Beannie from LA could come to the party.  Of course we put them to work!  And his daddy did a great job making cool frosting hair for the monsters.

Everything turned out better than I even imagined and Liam was over the moon. (do you see my Happy Birthday banner I made to hang up for every birthday??).  It was sooo cute and the kids loved everything.  We had his cousins, friends from Sammy's, a daughter of one of my work friends, and a couple of kids from church. The kids were sooo sweet and they all were so polite and had so much fun.  We played 'pin the eyeball on the monster (daddy drew the monster)', had a water balloon toss, and a monster pinata! I think the pinata was the hit  of the party.  The kiddos had so much fun creating their monster cupcakes and I think the grown ups did, too. ;)  Liam and I made he and Addy's monster shirts, which turned out so cute!
















My big five-year-old before the party he's been waiting a year for!

With his sweet sissy:

Addy thought the monsters were super cool too!



Izzy loves to hold "Miss Adelyn."









Wes was a little concerned we'd have a 'funniest home video' moment. Thankfully, we didn't.

Candy!  Brooklynn Sena couldn't believe candy came out of a monster!!

Liam had been practicing because he wanted to blow all the candles out in one breath, just like Papa did. He missed one, but he'll keep practicing!

Morgan and Avery from Sammy's house, who Liam refers to as 'his girls.'

Brooklynn Sena and Izzy. Sweet, sweet girls.

Peyton making the most out of his cupcake:

One of the masterpieces. Tentacles, fangs and eyeballs. Also showcasing Nana's fancy cupcakes that Liam exclaimed were, "Exactly what I wanted!"

Sammy's house buddies:

Peyton loves to love on Addy. Soooo sweet.

Lots of wonderful gifts ! (leapster from Grandma and Grandpa)

And an exhausted post-party boy playing with his new leapster.


What a wonderful day filled with such awesome family and friends.  Liam is *such* a lucky boy to have a life filled with so much love and joy.  Thank you to everyone who made it special.

FIVE!

I can NOT believe that I have a five-year-old.  FIVE!  Craziness. :) 

Liam has been waiting to turn five since the moment he turned four last year. ;)  He was very excited when he finally reached the big day!  Unfortunately on his actual birthday I had to work and Wes had to also work a 12 hour shift.  Thankfully his mom headed down that day and she arrived on the evening of Liam's birthday.  Because we knew we wouldn't all be together on his actual birthday, we gave him his gift on his birthday eve before I went to work.

Liam is very addicted to playing Angry Birds on my iPhone.  So when they came out with an actual board game, I knew that would be the gift for him!






And I was definitely right!  He's played with it every day since then and was sooo excited that he shouted, "WOW, Mom! How did you know I'd love this? Now I don't even have to use your phone to play Angry Birds!" :D

Liam is such a special boy.  He has a contagious enthusiasm for every situation he comes across. I just love that about him. He has such a positive attitude about everything.  He is so kind and wants to always include everyone in everything so that they feel special and have fun. :)  He's so bright and loves to learn new things.  I feel so lucky to be this boy's mama.  He makes me feel special and loved everyday.  I'm so thankful to him for making my dreams of being a mother come true 5 years ago.  They have been the best five years by far.

Nine Months!

I can't believe Adelyn is 9 months old today!  She has officially been in this world longer than she was in my belly. She really made the most of her ninth month by reaching all sorts of exciting milestones!

Here's a few tidbits about our nine month old:
-Army crawl very quickly! She's training for the army.
-Crawl on her hands and knees, although not as quickly as the army crawl. She's getting more proficient every day, though.
-She is getting FOUR more teeth, which will make her total number of teeth EIGHT. CRAZY!  Her little toothy grin is the cutest ever.
-She has learned how to crawl up our two stairs in our living room.
-Because of her new found mobility, she already has a few little bumps on her cheeks from face plants. :(
- She's a snackaholoic.  She loves baby puffs and mum mums.
-She's a seriously joyful and giggly girl.  While still cautious of strangers, she will flash us a beautiful smile with a hearty giggle just for smiling at her.
-She is becoming quite the daddy's girl and her face lights up when he walks in the room.
-She still thinks her brother is insanely hilarious and laughs hysterically at him.

She's pure joy! Happy 9 months, Adelyn!
 
Had to post this little outtake from our little session. ;) Illustrates her mobility.

What's on my phone?

Stephenson Dance Party (April 2010)


World of Color:


Eating a lemon with GG at Sushi:



Meeting Great-Aunt Linda:


Peyton thinking crawfish are cool and getting ready to chase Izzy with it:


Adelyn lounging in the tub:


Love a sleeping baby:



And a sleeping brother:


Addy gnawing on a rib bone:


Liam being scared of a horney toad that Papa caught him:


And one of my favorite photos of Liam being goofy: