Super Fun Day!

We had an awesome day, yesterday! First, we went to Ethan's birthday party at an awesome Jumping place. They had the whole room for his party and it was full of a fun bounce house, slide, obstacle course and ball pit. Really, Liam loved it all, but his favorite had to be the ball pit. He and some little girls had fun throwing the balls at eachother and then giggling hysterically. It was very cute!

Liam also really loved the 'wee-wee'(his word for anything like a slide or swing--anything playground related really). He was such a big boy and even went down the biggest one by himself! Definitely a daredevil in the making!
We had lots of fun going through the obstacle course. Wes says he wants to do this for HIS birthday. :)
After the party, we went home, took a nap and then headed to the circus with the Finlays! We had a lot of fun and the kids had a really good time. I think that the clowns and the elephants were the biggest hit.Liam also really loved the ponies. In the next picture you will see him trying his hardest to get to the ponies. We had to take him away screaming. Lovely.

Erica- I had to throw this one in of Ethan for you since you said he never smiles for pictures. I would say by this photo that he had a pretty good day, yesterday! I think he liked the Circus.

So, we had a wonderful day! However, we all crashed by the time we got home. Today after church was put aside for long naps. :) Back to school this week for me. I guess I better go study for my Organic Chem test. Yuck.

How does your garden grow?

My grandma gave me a big chunk of Christmas Cactus to plant, so today we made a little activity out of it. I've been really wanting to try to start some vegetables and herbs, so I thought that this would be the time to start the seeds in the house so they'll be ready to transplant in the next 2 months or so.

Liam had a lot of fun putting the soil in the little pots and then helping sprinkle the seeds. He also really liked helping moisten the soil. We did two little pots each of oregano, parsley, tomatoes and peppers. I know seeds sometimes don't work, but we thought we'd give it a shot. I'll keep you updated, if things work. I have no clue really what I'm doing, so if you notice any horrifying garden seedling errors, please let me know. :)

Another milestone today--I received the mother of the year award while we were playing outside. My sister's dog is staying with us while they are out of town and so her water bucket is outside. Well, I was busy cleaning up the backyard from our gardening adventures and went around the corner to find Liam slurping up and dipping his hair in the dog's water. I about died right then and there. I started laughing and had to take a picture before I taught Liam that that wasn't ok.

Motherhood is, um, humbling. Yes, I think that's the appropriate word to describe it.

Sew Lovely

I've been wanting to really learn to sew for quite a while now. So, I roped Judy into teaching me how to sew! She's a pro and has been sewing since she learned in 4-H. My first project was curtains for our office/guest room. I love the sliding door, but I spend a lot of time in here in the evenings crafting and on the computer, so I wanted something to cover the window at night. I think they turned out really cute and are a great first project. They just pull to the sides for during the day. Ben, Wes's brother, picked out the material at Ikea. He did a good job. I'm so happy with them!Next, I wanted to learn to do some clothes. So, we started off with some PJ pants for Liam. Here is Judy and me with my first completed pair. I did pretty much everything, but am still struggling a bit with the ribbing on the bottom of the pants.So, once I got the hang of it, we whipped out a few more pair! Do you see how perfectly those stripes match up on the animal ones?? :)

After the PJs, I got a bit more ambitious and made an apron. It was a lot of fun and good practice for clothing. I also thought an apron for Liam would be fun so he can help us 'cook' and for art projects etc, so Grandma and I made him one with fish and whales on it. He loves it!! He didn't even want to take it off and had fun with fruit loops in the pockets. Beth is also quite the seamstress. She made herself an Easter skirt with matching headband and then she made me one, too. So cute!
Well, that's all the sewing fun for now. I'll post the Easter pictures later this week after I sort through all 150 of them. :)

Kiss Me, I'm Adorable

Liam has been doing so many new and cute things, that it's hard not to show him off all the time. We have finally taken care of some of his picky eating issues. The solution was simple: give him a bowl and spoon and let him go for it. It's messy but he'll eat anything this way! This is the first time we really let him go for it. He was THRILLED with himself and gave an enthusiastic "MMMM" after every bite! Here he is just ready for mamarazzi to leave him in peace to eat his applesauce.
And here is our big boy, ready for church on Sunday. Liam is so in love with going to nursery that he begs to go every. single. day. I think that you can see his excitement when I told him it was Sunday and we could go to church! He loves to pack and wear his 'pack-pack' with snacks and books for Sacrament meeting.
And here he is in his St. Patty's Day cuteness from Oma and Opa. He is blowing a green kiss to all of you!!

Training him young...

Liam was overjoyed to begin his training as a sugar cookie decorator today. :) This is a big ordeal in our family, so it's important to start him young on this when we have four batches of Easter cookies to decorate. You can see by his smile that he was happy and ready to get to work!

Liam's first experience with sugar sprinkles: The blue came out a bit too quickly as you can see by Nana's face and by the massive amount on his egg. :) He was making this for his Oma who is coming to visit for Easter!
Liam is definitely his mother's son when it comes to cookie decorating. He would put a sprinkle on the cookie and then drag his finger through the frosting and lick it off. I remember having such a stomach ache after cookie decorating when I was little. I really liked to lick the plate full of sprinkles.
These are Liam's first two sugar cookie creations. We have some work to do, but it's a good start. They were made with love and slobber, that's for sure. :)

Here is about 3/4 of our finished product. I think they turned out beautifully! Hide and seek: see if you can find a watermelon colored egg, a green butterfly, a polka dotted egg and a pink tulip.

I GOT IN!!!!!

I got into Orvis School of Nursing at UNR! I'm so excited. I'm so glad that all my hard work has finally paid off. :) Time to celebrate! Thank you to everyone who has helped me get this far. I couldn't do it with out you. Now the real work begins...

A New Friend

Liam made a new friend at the park today: his shadow. :) It was the cutest thing. He would run up and down the hill watching his shadow and then enthusiastically clap when 'they' made it to the top or the bottom. He also enjoyed the new playground equipment. His favorite was the slide and the swings. We had such a fun afternoon enjoying the beautiful weather and getting some of 'our' energy out. Here are some of the cute snapshots I got.