Bike!

A few months back we found some bikes at a yard sale and got them for Liam. They needed some fixing up and an addition of some training wheels (for now), so one afternoon Liam and Daddy got out the tools and went to the hardware store to fix one up.  They did a great job and Liam has a lot of fun learning to ride his big bike.  Pretty soon we'll ditch the training wheels and go for the big bang.  I wish I had some photos of him riding, but for some reason I don't. :(  I need to take some on one of our evening walks.

A Hideout

This past weekend we moved Addy from her infant carrier into a new convertible car seat.  That means that we had a nice large box from our car seat purchase. Liam immediately called dibs on the box and created a nice little house that he dubbed his 'hideout.'  He drew windows and had me cut them out and then he decorated it with lots of his awesome drawings.  He tried his hardest to get his sister to join him in the hideout but she wasn't going to be any part of it!  :)






He ended up taking it to his room and setting up his sleeping bag inside and sleeping in it all weekend.  :)  This little adventure reminded me of making big boxes into houses when I was a kid.  I think I had just as much fun as Liam with this little project.

First Homework

Liam's teacher has started sending home weekly homework packets. Liam thinks this is the greatest thing. I had to take his picture doing his first homework assignments.  He gets the new packets every Friday and is up and working on them Saturday morning. I hope his enthusiasm continues.  His desk that his daddy refinished for him is the perfect homework desk.  :)

Back-to-School Night

Liam was so excited to bring us to his school for back-to-school night.  It was about a week after school started and a much more formal even then I ever remember our open house nights being.  First, we all heard from the principal, Mrs. Mentaberry, in the lunchroom and we introduced to all the teachers. Then we went to our child's classroom and listened to a story from his teacher and learned all about classroom rules, etc.  Then Liam showed us all around his classroom and all the fun things he'd been doing.  All sorts of little girls came up to Liam and gave him hugs throughout the evening, so we did end up having a discussion about personal space, especially after one girl tried to kiss him!  Yipes! Kindergarten, girls, kindergarten.




 
Liam is really enjoying his year so far.  We're so proud of him!

ELEVEN months

Thats right, folks. This little lady is only one month away from being a year old. Craziness.

A few things about Adelyn at 11 months old:
-She is starting to learn a few words.  So far her favorites are "Yes" and "Uh-oh".  Usually kids start with "No", but Addy is a fan of the word "yes." And while it's probably coincidental, today I asked her, "Addy do you have a poopy diaper" and she responding a very hearty "yes!"  :)  And I *love* how she makes the most adorable "o" face when she says "uh-oh" Soooo cute.
-She is occasionally standing on her own. I think she is a little more careful than Liam was, in the sense that I think she wants to make sure she is very steady before she tries to take any steps.  Liam just took off wobbling all over the place (not much has changed. haha).  I think it'll still be quite a bit longer until she takes off, which is fine by me!
-She is sooo super cute when she claps. She gets a huge grin on her face and claps away.  Adorable!
-She is starting to looove books.  Some pictures at the end of the post are ones I took of her today while she was sitting looking through a book. When she noticed I was there, she looked up at me with the biggest smile and went right back to 'reading'.  Here's hoping we have another little reader on our hands.
-Her allergies seem to be improving. I now only nurse her once in the morning and once at night and then she is on alimentum formula and baby food the rest of the day. Her skin is 90% better so we'll be doing a milk trial shortly to see just how reactive she is to it.
-She finally got that eighth tooth all the way in.  Crazy that my eleven month old has 8 teeth!
-She does have a bit of a temper-- in Michael's the other day, I took my wallet away to pay and she threw a little tantrum.  Whew! Let's hope this doesn't last long.
-On the other hand, she is sooo incredibly happy and sweet. When she's sleepy she'll just lay her head on your shoulder and suck her thumb. She knows how to melt her mama's heart.

And here are some cute photos of our little angel.  Girlfriend LOOOVES cheerios (as previously seen).  I just thought this one was so cute of her with her piggies. I love giving her piggies!

A little blurry, but adorable:

Action shot of her clapping:

And reading her books this morning:

Balloon Races

Every year we want to go to the balloon races, but for some reason, we just hadn't made it yet. This year was the year! My mom was in town to hang out for the weekend, so we got up pretty early (not dawn patrol early, but early) and headed up to the "N" to watch the balloons go up. We just parked up on the hill and watched them rise. It was *so* much fun. We picked a good day to go, too, because they came right over us and some landed right near us. Liam and Wes were able to go right up to one and talk to the people and Liam could see the fire. My Uncle Larry lives up there and we went to his neighborhood and one landed right next to his house on the street. Again, we had a great time. It was relaxing and fun to watch. So glad we made it- plus we got some awesome photos!

The Stephenson Structure

For Liam and Addy's birthdays and Christmas gifts, my parents got them an awesome play structure for the backyard. We'd been wanting one and after seeing how much my sister's kids love theirs, we went for it.  Liam was *so* excited when daddy started building his 'structure' (that's how he refers to his play structure lol).  We did a LOT of research, so much so that I was tired of looking at these things. :)  We finally decided on this one because it had a little picnic table, 2 swings, a double swing, and some monkey bars.  Because it had so much cool stuff, it had a LOT of pieces. The thing took about 15 hours to put together- no joking. Luckily, Wes is awesome and got it all put together with the Liam's help. Liam would get the tools and the piece and kept checking on Wes's progress.

Liam finally figured out how to pump on his own.  He loves to go out and swing by himself now.

One of Liam's favorite features is the little 'cafe' underneath the slide. It's just a little picnic table, but he uses it as his personal cafe. He made little signs that said, "Open all day" and "Closed all night" to hang out there.  Pretty cute. :)

Thanks, Nana and Papa! We love our play structure!